Stefano and I spent our August 2008 holiday in Bourgogne, France. We had a wonderful time there, visiting quaint Medieval villages, picking and eating blackberries on country lanes, drinking lovely pinot noirs and chardonnays and enjoying the region’s rich selection of cheeses and foie gras…now wait a sec…FOIE GRAS? Impossible, no, not Margaret the animal lover. She wouldn’t!

Well, uhm, in fact, er…she did.

I confess: I ate some foie gras last August for the first time in my life. We bought a terrine from a small local producer at a colorful street fair in one of those quaint villages. Yes, I know how foie gras is made…I know. I know! I don’t think I could have felt guiltier if I had tasted some roast puffin…gee wiz. Guilt, guilt, guilt.

Why am I writing about this today? Why in the world am I fessing up to eating a bit of foie gras…several months ago? Well, because I just finished reading this Science Daily article and am still in shock: http://tinyurl.com/af9wnr Eeeek!

This excerpt is particularly horrifying: “Stressed poultry birds are known to undergo spontaneous amyloidosis due to a chronic inflammatory response that causes amyloid fibrils to form non-functioning deposits of this protein-like material in their organs.”  Spontaneous amyloidosis???  

Pâté de foie gras is apparently the only type of “food” that contains “high levels of amyloid fibrils and no demonstration of it affecting people has been seen.” Still…no more foie gras for us. Never ever again. For many MANY reasons…