PLA Daily 2003-06-02

　 　The medical experts from a PLA hospital are serving up a new menu for troops undertaking field survival training, as a result of the scientific research on SARS.

　　About 40 kinds of wild fruits and edible wild herbs have been listed on the new menu, which was developed by the No.175 Hospital of the Nanjing Military Area Command. Drawing on lessons from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, experts are recommending more wild plants as substitutes for wild animal meat in field training.

　　SARS is now generally suspected to have occurred by eating wild animals carrying the highly infectious virus.

　　According to the experts, a wild snake can carry more than 20 kinds of parasites, which cannot be eliminated 100 percent by cooking. Worse still, in the wild, raw meat is often ingested, which may provoke allergies and food poisoning in humans, including general nausea, vomiting and diarrhea -- and sometimes even shock or death for people with liver and kidney problems.

　　Meanwhile, some experts on Chinese medicine from the hospital suggested that fruits and vegetables contain more beneficial constituents, such as water, vitamin and microelement which are healthier and more effective in maintaining human body's inner balance.

　　 By Wen Lianying and Tan Jie

　　(June 2, PLA Daily)