Lychee Nuts, Litchi Nuts: Either Way, They're Edible

"Lychee Nuts"
Produce Oasis

"(Scientific Binomial Name: Litchi chinensis)...

"...Usage: Eaten raw, out of hand or with other fruits like pineapples, bananas & mangoes. Peeled and pitted lychees make a great addition to fruit cups and fruit salads.

"Selection: Also called litchi nuts or leechee, good-quality lychee nuts will be firm, rough-skinned and have deep-red to brown colored skin. Peel the skin to reveal a fruit that resembles a peeled grape. The fruit covers a smooth brown seed.

"Storage: Once picked lychee nuts retain their color and quality only 3 to 5 days when stored at room temperature...."

What, one might ask, is so special about lychee nuts?

For one thing, it's also spelled litchee. And :

"litchi"
Answers.com

"also li·chee or ly·chee (lē'chē)...."

For another, the Lemming hasn't discussed lychee/litchi/lichee nuts before, apart form a passing mention: "Apathy is Rampant, But Who Cares?" (October 15, 2009).

In that post, the Lemming linked to a page in "The new dietetics: a guide to scientific feeding in health and disease, Volume 1," John Harvey Kellogg (1921, 1923), via Google Books.

If you live in America, and the name "Kellogg" sounds familiar: it should.

John Harvey Kellogg, MD, is the fellow who brought us Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger. Indirectly, that is.

Corn Flakes and a Strange Doctor

"John Harvey Kellogg"
Museum of Hoaxes

"Type: Questionable Medicine.
"Summary: John Harvey Kellogg was a brilliant surgeon, the creator of corn flakes cereal, and health faddist who bordered on quackery.
"Posted by: Elliot Feldman

"Brothers John Harvey and Will Keith Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan invented the breakfast cereal industry. Will Keith Kellogg was the business genius, and John Harvey was the creative genius. In 1906, John Harvey Kellogg left the company after a bitter dispute with his brother about adding sugar to their cereal products. The two brothers never spoke again.

"An acclaimed surgeon, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg went on to devote his life to the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the promotion of healthy living. While many of his ideas and methods were sound and have remained popular to this day, other ideas approached the lunatic fringe...."

"...Despite all the Doctor's legitimate achievements, accusations of quackery soon surfaced.

"Kellogg claimed that 90% of all illnesses originated in the stomach and bowels. Yogurt, both ingested and given as a daily enema, was a central part of his Battle Creek wellness program...."

A yogurt - enema?

You can't make up that sort of thing.

Eugenics and a Ranting Lemming

Dr. Kellogg also didn't seem to approve of the way folks make babies: and had opinions about the results of many of our efforts:

"...From 1914 to 1916, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg sponsored 'Race Betterment Conferences' that supported eugenics and race segregation for 'the preservation of the human race.'..."

The Lemming isn't all that keen on the notion of 'improving the race' by eliminating 'inferior' people. Partly it's having read about what happened at places like Dachau: partly because the Lemming is one of those 'inferior' people.

Between living with a birth defect, and having been used in a medical experiment - the Lemming has something of an attitude on the subject of medical ethics.

And that's another topic, mostly for another blog:

• "Autism, Childhood Vaccines, Bogus Research, and the Lemming"
  (January 6, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Medical Ethics Shouldn't be an Oxymoron
• "Inconvenient Classes of Persons and Health Care"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (July 26, 2009)
• " 'Hand of Hope' Spinal Bifida Case - Eugenics, Ersatz Compassion, and Life"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (May 6, 2009)
• "Medical Ethics and Human Experimentation: Why I Take it Personally"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (February 3, 2009)
• "Human Clones Possible: Don't Worry, They're Just for Parts and Research"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (February 2, 2009)