Gizzard's are dangerous

Today on my short walk from the parking lot to the lab I noticed a few birds picking at pebbles. Most of us know that these pebbles go into the birds gizzard and help grind up seeds. It makes sense since beaks don't seem to be made for chewing so the gizzard plays an essential role in the digestion process.

This is me taking a moment to say 1. Gizzards are weird/cool and 2. I'm glad I don't need one.

1. I took human anatomy but I never got around to taking a fowl anatomy... So, after looking at wikipedia, I discovered that gizzards are very popular in the animal kingdom. Birds, some reptiles, earthworms, some fish, some insects, some mollusks, and even some dinosaurs had gizzards. In a lot of dinosaur museums they have displays with fossilized gizzard stones.



swEEEEEEEt! I guess the animal swallows the food whole, it swishes around in gastric juices in the true stomach and then the whole mixture gets pulverized in the gizzard. The stones look all polished because of the acid and grinding they do. This is why birds have to swallow lots of pebbles too, since all the acid/grinding seems to wear down on the rocks in addition to those seeds and berries.

2. On a different note, I'm really glad we don't have gizzards. Well, don't get me wrong, it would be convenient. In the morning you could just swallow some pebbles (they've got fruity and cocoa so selling gravel pebbles wouldn't be that much of a stretch) and a whole apple and then race out the door without worrying about having to take the time to chew. Eating time would be cut down significantly. I also feel there is also something very manly about a man who eats rocks. At some other point I'll have to post about the man's man who is the epitome of manliness.... but I'll save that for another day.

You may think it would be cool to save all that time but I think eating would lose its appeal. It seems very... uncomfortable. I hate that feeling when you feel something too big go down your throat into your stomach. Imagine that sensation with jagged rocks...

I also like to savor the flavors and truly revel in my food. Its hard to do that if you're eating it all whole. I guess you could still savor ice cream and we'd all take a different approach to cooking, but that in itself seems like a lot more work preparing the food that should take less time to eat.

Finally, it would be dangerous. Someone could poison you with ease by sticking poison on the inside of your baked potato and you'd guzzle the whole thing down oblivious to the fact that you've sealed your fate. Maybe that's another reason mothers tell their children to chew more slowly. She knows if she trains them well, when they're finally secret agents their taste buds will detect cyanide and they'll have time to spit out the food and/or hunt down the antidote.

Here is a tribute to us not having gizzards. This guy is also famous for doing the periodic table elements song.