"Dutch Famine" vs "Three Years of Great Chinese Famine"

I was reading about the Dutch Health Diet index (DHD-index), but my mind jumped to a completely irrelevant topic: famine and its short/long-term impacts on health.

The famous Dutch Famine of 1944 (Hongerwinter) provided the scientific world with many valuable data to explore the tragic and involuntary deprivation of food. Short-term impacts including acute malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency, medical complications, and soaring mortality rate, especially among the vulnerable groups (pregnant women, infant and young children, and the elderly). Long-term impact were followed up and analyzed as well, including but not limited to, reprogramming of physiological systems, raised risks of chronic diseases, and even cross-generation impact on the offsprings of women who survived the famine. 

What upsets me, however, is the extremely lacking of information from another similar, if not more severe famine in China, the Three Years of Great Chinese Famine of 1958-1961 (三年自然灾害). My father had very vivid depiction of the horror at that time (he was only a toddler back then), about how people ate frogs alive, how bodies were randomly found on the street, died of hunger. There was a heated discussion at one of the JHSPH nutrition seminars about Dutch Famine and North Korean famine (the world 'famine' is so sensitive and politically wrong for many leaders though, e.g., the East Africa famine of 2011 was not officially recognized till situation got so much worse). I intended to build one of my future projects upon the N.Korean study, adopting similar approaches to interview survivors from the Great Leap Famine (China), and obtain their health information.  --> After all, as a second generation from that famine, I would also like to study more about longer-term impact of it. 

Back to the first point, healthy diet guidelines. The very first one that I came to know was a dietary guideline published in China, which to some extent resembles that of the Food Pyramid in the U.S but with considerable adjustment to suit local diet. I am always for the idea of putting out guidelines, yet skeptical about the acceptance and appreciation from general public - behavioral change in the field of nutrition is an intriguing topic, which hopefully I will come back to in future posts.

"I don't know. Love is like this escape for people who haven't learned to be alone or to make something of themselves. People think love is this unselfish or totally giving thing. But if you think about it, there's probably nothing more selfish." <Before Sunrise>

The song I played too much lately (Dido):

"And if my life is for rent

And I don't learn to buy

Well I deserve nothing more than I get

'Cause nothing I have is truly mine"

Pile some stuff from Artscape @ Baltimore :)

The awesome skeleton (oh, who's the lad in the background?!)

Cute style

The mesmerizing one, remind me of movies by 岩井 俊二 

The floating world

Mr.Sogs (now Saggy Naggy <3)

Car arts

Just a little bit of faith, you can fly as well

yeahhhhh

Artscape @ Baltimore, MD. These pieces put a genuine smile on your face. There was also this one set of 4-piece sunrise at the beach, which I did not obtain permission to take picture of. They all just make life so much more beautiful : )