Webinar Forum: Q & A with Jeff Corwin

Natural Standard is offering a series of upcoming complimentary webinars on integrative medicine. Natural Standard offers these impartial webinars as an informational public service. All webinars are recorded and archived at www.naturalstandard.com/webinars.

Catherine Ulbricht, PharmD, co-founder of Natural Standard, and Karina Gordin, PharmD recently interviewed Jeff Corwin.

Corwin is a wildlife biologist who has worked for the conservation of endangered species, natural resources and ecosystems around the globe. He is the host of several television shows, including Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin Experience and Food Network's Extreme Cuisine and is the author of several books, including 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth's Most Endangered Species.

To listen to the webinar, please click here. Complimentary access to the webinar is available November 1-30, 2010.

Comments

[Christina]

I agree with the above posts. We are all so consumed with our day-to-day activities and maintaining certain lifestyles that we forget about the basics. We should all take a step back and evaluate what we are really eating. It is time to choose health over convenience.

[Interested]

I agree with KAV. I also found it interesting to listen to this webinar with Jeff Corwin. It made me step back and think about my eating patterns and where my food comes from.

While flying this weekend, I read a magazine excerpt from a new book. It was a true story about a woman who left her cosmopolitan life in New York City to start a farm with her new husband. It made me think back to this blog, and how Jeff Corwin talked about how he grows his own food for his family and how it really helps him maintain a healthy lifestyle. I think what he's doing is really important and definitely something to think about.

[MG]

In a country like China where sons are preferred, the after-effects of the one child policy are just starting to emerge. The imbalanced sex ratio of females to males is just one of the examples why the restriction of reproductive rights do not work.

[MG]

I agree with Jeff Corwin that it is important for us to reconnect with our food. I've lived in big cities all my life, and I have rarely ever seen produce outside of supermarkets.

[Jane]

I recently read a NY Times article on the increase of only children. It seems like limited resources have already exerted its effect on some families.

[Ellen]

I too agree with Jeff, Erin and RPO! Having a sister or brother is one of the greatest gifts ever, and I could not imagine living without my sister! While this may help the population problem, to me, the negatives of this definitely outweigh the benefits. If I did not have my sister, I would have certainly had a lonelier, less fulfilling life; me and my sister do everything together!

[Leigh]

It is time for us to look to the future for the sake of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Yes, the global effects of humans roaming the Earth only affect us a little today, but with the increasing needs for electricity, travel and other conveniences and luxuries, one can only imagine the disparity of our natural resources in the future.

[Diana]

Jeff Corwin says that pure camel’s milk contains a high level of insulin and diabetic patients can medicate themselves with the consumption of the milk. I have never heard of that, but it is very interesting.

[KAV]

I don’t watch the Food Network channel often because it always makes me hungry, but I am definitely going to watch this show (Extreme Cuisine). I like the mission of the show; "to reconnect us with food." I have never thought about food that way before, but it is intriguing that Jeff Corwin tries to pass us a message in the show that knowing where our food comes from and having a relationship with people who grow the food is important.

[JIN]

This is my favorite webinar by far. Like Dr.Corwin said, the Earth is facing severe problems such as climate change and the extinction of species, but we easily forget about them because those problems do not directly affect our lives yet. The fact that the problems are correlated to the overpopulation of humans and the trends will continue makes me worry about our future.

[RPO]

Ah, the ever-controversial one-child policy. I agree with Jeff and Erin that I would not want to live in a society that enacts this policy. Having lived in China for a short time, it is very interesting to see what kind of effect this policy has on people. While some are proud to be doing their duty to their country by limiting the population, others feel like their personal choices are being taken away. While this may be some sort of solution to the problem of overpopulation, free will does suffer.

[MJ]

I've always known that eating small meals throughout the day is better than three big meals. However, it definitely requires a lot of discipline to break away from the norm and introduce the correct principles into your daily life.

[HG]

I'm looking forward to watching Extreme Cuisine again. As Americans, we too often opt for frozen foods. It is refreshing to see how people all over the world work hard for their food by growing and raising what they eat.

[HG]

I've always seen palm oil in Asian grocery stores, but I never thought about where they come from or whether they were harmful. It's a good thing that palm oil is not used as much in the US, except for in some processed foods.

[VC]

Developing a good quality of life without exhausting our resources is definitely going to be the challenge for the next generation. Mr. Corwin definitely highlighted some very important issues that we need to consider the next time we buy bottled water.

[Erin]

Spoiler alert! The interview with Jeff Corwin was thought-provoking to say the least. One topic included a discussion on the idea of a “one child per family rule” to keep the world’s population within the range that could be supported by our ecosystem. When this has been studied in species other than humans, we have seen that balance is naturally restored when a population overshoots its "carrying capacity." In other words, when the number of animals is greater than the available nutrients, animals starve and the population decreases.

A mandatory limit on reproduction seems to circumvent this problem, but I agree with Jeff Corwin that I would not want to live in that world. I also would encourage others to think about adoption as an ecosystem-considerate route to starting a family.

[Heidi]

I find it amazing that the global population has increased 400% over the last 100 years! Also, the population is currently about 6 billion, and in only three decades, the population will increase by a third (to 9-9.5 billion)! With that amount of population growth, I think it is really important for the message of conservation out there! We need to find more sustainable ways to use our natural resources.

I really appreciate all that Jeff Corwin does to get that message out there! Also, it is great how he gets children excited about our environment through his books and television programs.

[AC]

I was excited to see Jeff Corwin's name on the new webinar of the month. I've seen his show on Animal Planet, but had never realized he was actually local from Massachusetts. I think it's great that someone who is in the national spotlight uses that status to really help the environment and promote its care. I found his interview to be both enlightening and motivating. I look forward to having more webinars like this in the future!