Why Oil is NOT Healthy

We have been taught that oil – especially olive and canola oils – are heart healthy.  They are good for us, and we should swap out butter and margarine and cook with these heart healthy oils instead.   However, I believe that nothing could be further from the truth. 

The heart healthy rumor about oil came from the study that coined the “Mediterranean Diet”, The Lyon Diet Heart Study.  In this study, all 605 patients had survived one heart attack.  The patients in the treatment group were told to eat a “Mediterranean Diet,” high in fruits, vegetables, breads, beans, nuts, and seeds.  They were told to go light on dairy products, fish, poultry, meat, eggs, and wine.  They were also told to add in olive oil, for its monounsaturated fats.  The people in the control group were given no dietary advice, and ate a diet typical of most Westerners, particularly high in saturated fat.

The study had very good results:  The people on the Mediterranean diet were 50-70% less likely to experience any kind of cardiac ailments.  Since olive oil was specifically recommended in this study for it’s monounsaturated fat content, this is where the belief that olive oil is healthy originated.

But what we don’t hear about the Lyon Diet Heart Study is this little factoid:  Fully 25% of the people on the Mediterranean diet had either died or experienced a new cardiac event during the four-year study.  That’s one in four people on the Mediterranean diet!

Compare this to Caldwell Esselstyn’s diet, which is vegan with no oil or other fats included.  The patients in this study had suffered from an average of about three cardiac events before the study started.  Of all of his patients that fully adhered to his diet, there was not one further cardiac event in twelve years. 

If you want further proof, here’s another compelling study:  A group of students’ arteries were tested after eating a 900-calorie breakfast, to see the effects of fat on the blood vessels’ ability to dilate and contract.  Our blood vessels need to be able to expand and contract to regulate blood flow to the organs that need it most.  Half of the students had a fat free breakfast of 900 calories, and the other half had a fatty breakfast of 900 calories.  After breakfast, the student’s arteries were tested to see how quickly their arteries could bounce back after being restricted for five minutes.  The arteries of the group that had no fat in their breakfast bounced right back after being constricted for five minutes; but the arteries of the group that had the fatty breakfast took up to six hours to regain their ability to dilate and contract normally.  All oil, my friends, is 100% fat.  Even olive oil. 

Heart disease is not really a disease of the heart; it’s a disease of the blood vessels that occurs when blood (and the oxygen it carries) cannot get to the heart because the vessels are blocked up and compromised.  When a blood vessel to the heart gets clogged up and closes, then the heart does not receive any blood, and a heart attack occurs.  Our vessels are probably the most important part of our overall health, and fat undoubtedly has a negative effect on our vessels – even “healthy” oils, because they are still 100% fat.  Therefore, many doctors, including Caldwell Esselstyn, recommend no oil in the diet.

I’ll finish with my personal experience with Dr. Esselstyn.  After being vegan for 4 or 5 years, I stood up at a conference and asked Dr. Esselstyn this question:  If I am 100% vegan and therefore not ingesting any cholesterol, why does my cholesterol remain so high at 230 mg/dL?  He challenged me to get the oil out of my diet.  He said that “eating fat causes the body to manufacture excessive amounts of cholesterol,” even if those fats come from plants.  I honestly didn’t believe him, but agreed to his challenge anyway.  My cholesterol had never been below 200 mg/dL, even when I first had it tested at 19. 

After just one month on his oil-free vegan diet my cholesterol fell to 151 mg/dL, and my LDL was so low that it was imperceptible on the cholesterol test!  When I added oil back in to my diet, my total cholesterol jumped right back up over 200 mg/dL again, and my LDL to 120 mg/dL.  For me, this is personal proof that really hits home:  Oil is not healthy!

Tomato Eggplant Appetizer

When I first got married and started having a little fun in the kitchen I came across a recipe for an appetizer similar to this one.  Now I don’t follow any recipe and instead just wing it on my own, but it’s always a crowd pleaser and it’s simple to make.

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant (about the same diameter as your tomatoes)

2 Large tomatoes

4 Yellow Peppers

1 Jar Whole Roasted Red Peppers

Chives – a few long ones and many diced pieces for garnish

Vinaigrette

Preparation:

• Slice your tomatoes and eggplant, creating 8 full pieces each. 
• Slice your yellow bell peppers and roasted red peppers into similarly-shaped round pieces, about the size of your tomato slices.  I know this is a little challenging, but just do the best you can.  You may want to use a hollowed out soup can to get the right size, and “trace” your knife around the pepper, using the can as your guide.
• Spray olive oil and a little bit of salt and pepper on each side of your eggplant and yellow bell peppers.  Broil each side until soft and hot.
• Start by placing a piece of eggplant on a plate, then stack a tomato, yellow bell pepper, and roasted red pepper, another piece of eggplant, yellow bell pepper and top off with a slice of tomato. 
• Pour your favorite vinaigrette over the top and sprinkle with chives.
• Enjoy!

Animal Transportation

Ever wondered how pork gets to Hawaii?  Me either.  But if you knew, you’d probably start writing letters to the local papers, as I recently found myself doing. Laurelee Blanchard, who runs the Leilani Farm Sanctuary in Maui is a great friend of mine, so I was thrown into this topic recently as she fought hard with other animal rights activists for the plight of the pigs … and found huge success.

Hawaiians love their pork.  It’s one of their favorite cultural meals.  Next time you vacation in Hawaii, take notice how on Sundays the local parks are taken over by large families as the BBQs are fired up for a day of family fun.  Perhaps the thing I like most about Hawaii is this strong focus on family and friendships.  However, as the smell of BBQ pork starts wafting through the air over the pristine beaches, I can’t help but assume that most Hawaiians don’t know how their pork got to Hawaii either.

Until recently, most pork sold in the state of Hawaii came from live pigs.  This sounds great – get your meat as fresh as possible and all – but we don’t often think about how our dinner is transported.  According to Laurelee in an article recently published in the Maui News (October 8, 2011):

“A transported pig's journey begins with a nearly 24-hour-long truck ride from Iowa, Montana or South Dakota to a holding facility in Vacaville, Calif. Hundreds of pigs are kept at this facility for several hours before being transported, via truck, to the Port of Oakland.

The pigs are then crammed onto a vessel where they are provided neither straw nor other bedding to protect them from extreme temperatures or slippery flooring. There is only one livestock attendant onboard responsible for caring for as many as 920 pigs. For approximately five days, the animals are forced to live in their own feces, urine and vomit, and even amid the corpses of other pigs until the dead animals are thrown overboard by the livestock attendant.

Upon arriving in Honolulu, it is usually several hours before the pigs are unloaded from the ship. They are left suffering in the heat with minimal ventilation before they are transported, via truck, to the Hawaii Livestock Cooperative slaughterhouse, which has been cited numerous times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the inhumane handling and slaughter of animals, where they are slaughtered and processed.

As if the extreme animal suffering weren't enough, scientists, as well as health and food safety officials, have noted that the stress of long-distance transport of live animals increases the animals' susceptibility to disease. This, in turn, increases the risk of food-borne illness and disease transmission to humans who consume meat from these animals.”

We don’t like to know about these things, because then we have to think about them.  Yet, the plight of a pig’s journey is quite similar to most animals who end up in our meat supply.  You can literally see chickens stuffed into cages with their heads poking out the sides of a huge transportation truck as it flies down the freeway at 60 mph.  Cows also can endure very long trips that can last as long as 36 hours, forced to stand the entire way, often with no access to food, water or bedding.  They might be driven like this through the 110° heat an Arizona summer or the -10° freeze of a Minnesota winter.  These are conditions that we wouldn’t dream of putting a human through, so why would we do it to animals?

Fortunately, thousands of pigs have received a victory at the hands of Laurelee Blanchard and the other animal rights activists who spent so much time to save them from this suffering:  Three of the main supermarkets on the islands now refuse to purchase pork that has been shipped live from the mainland.  All of these supermarket chains have vowed to buy frozen pork instead.  Interestingly, this may end up shutting down the only slaughterhouse on Oahu.

Yet, while this is a major victory for animal rights activists, it is, perhaps, a somewhat minor victory for the animals:  Not only do the pigs live their entire lives in a concentration camp-like hell, they are still slaughtered at the end of it.  And as I just pointed out, there are billions (no exaggeration here) of other animals like chickens and cows that also live a life of hell, only to be transported for hours in harsh conditions to their death at the end of the road.

So, this is one of the many reasons that I am vegan:  To save other sentient beings from as much suffering as I possibly can.  I’d like to live my life as a poem of compassion for others – humans and non-humans alike.

I think the biggest success about Laurelee’s efforts may be in how far she is spreading the word about compassion, and urging us all to reach deep inside to our sense of humanity … and decide not only to quit eating pork transferred alive for long distances, but to quit eating animals and their products altogether.  My hat is off to you, Laurelee!

Vegan Spanikopita

Vegan Spanikopita

From the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine Cookbook

As I bit into the vegan spanikopita at the Blossoming Lotus, I fell head over heels in love.  “If this is vegan, I could easily convert everyone I know!” I thought to myself.  Fortunately, although the Blossoming Lotus is no longer in Hawaii (only in Portland), they did create a beautiful cookbook, and I splurged and bought a copy several years ago.

I was eager to make the spanikopita for my dear husband, but I put it off for ages simply because it looked really time consuming … and I am decidedly lazy in the kitchen.

But much to my and my husband’s delight, I not only set about making the spanikopita last week … I found it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be!  And it’s delicious, just like the restaurant, with all wholesome ingredients, so you feel great about eating it.  For an alternative, you can skip the phyllo dough and put the filling into lettuce wraps or straight into pretty serving dishes. 

Here is a photo.  I don’t want to violate copyright laws by printing a recipe that is in a copyrighted book, but you can find the recipe in the Blossoming Lotus’ cookbook, Vegan World Fusion Cuisine.  I highly recommend the entire cookbook – the food is truly gourmet vegan and much of it is raw.  On a final note, a friend of the owner of Blossoming Lotus told me that he created that epic restaurant during a two-year vow of silence!  Amazing!

"Vegan-ish"

It was a great moment for vegans when we turned on the television and saw Kathy Freston on the Oprah Show touting the vegan diet.  With her beauty and poise, she made a great spokesperson for the vegan diet.

However, as the show went on, she assuaged nervous Oprah staffers by telling them that they didn’t have to go 100% vegan … they could be “vegan-ish.” That’s when many of us vegans started to get a little uncomfortable…

It’s not that I’m opposed to people eating only a partially vegan diet.  If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know that I am a big proponent of doing the absolute best you can, and being really proud of that.  Even if you only feel that you’re able to eat a vegan diet 50% of the time right now, you’ll still be reducing the suffering and needless death of animals by 50%, you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint by 50%, and you’ll make some great strides toward bettering your health.

However, there is a difference between a bonafide vegan and someone who eats a vegan diet:  The word “vegan” connotes a basic philosophy that other living beings are not ours to exploit.  Therefore, vegans do not eat other animals or their products, we do not wear other animals (like leather, suede, fur or wool) and we do not use products that contain animal ingredients (such as many shampoos and other household products.)  It may be next to impossible to do all this perfectly, but as long as a person is doing his or her best to abide by these principles, they are officially vegan.

There are many people who are not particularly concerned about the animals or environment, yet choose to eat a vegan diet for health reasons.  These people are eating a vegan diet, but are not vegans, because true veganism is an entire philosophy – not just a diet.  In fact, many people are now using the term “plant-based diet” instead of “vegan diet” to differentiate between those who adopt this diet for health reasons versus philosophical reasons.

However, while you can be a bonafide vegan or a person who eats a vegan diet, you cannot be “vegan-ish.”  For example, just like you cannot be Christian-ish (you either believe that Jesus is the son of God or you do not) you cannot be vegan-ish either (you either believe it is acceptable to kill or exploit other beings for human purposes or you do not.) 

I’m not here to tell you what you should believe.  If you eat a vegan diet full time or part time, I’m simply requesting that you either call yourself a vegan, or say that you eat a vegan diet, based on whether you espouse a vegan philosophy.  Just please don’t call yourself “vegan-ish!”  

The Vegan Craze

Well, it’s taken 9 years since I went vegan, but I’m officially no longer a freak:  The vegan diet has decidedly gone mainstream, and I couldn’t be more excited!

It probably started when Skinny Bitch became a best-seller, convincing all those Cosmo-reading 20-somethings that you could slip into a size 2 and be kind to animals at the same time, all without ingesting any of those *$#@(*&! chemicals.  Around the same time, Colin Campbell published The China Study, which convinced some big-named football player to go vegan, and that caused a stir in the sports world.  Then Kathy Freston appeared on Oprah, explaining that you could be “vegan-ish” and still make a difference in your health and weight (read about my thoughts on that in next week’s blog.)  Oprah challenged her whole staff to go vegan for a week, and the world followed.  That’s when we vegans were finally vindicated:  If Oprah endorses it, everyone knows it must be okay.

More recently, Bill Clinton came out of the vegan closet when he told Larry King and, later, Sanjay Gupta, that his newfound health and physique were due to a vegan diet.  Sanjay Gupta ran a 1-hour program on the diet, highlighting Caldwell Esselstyn and friends, and we vegans were jumping up and down in our living rooms saying, “I’VE BEEN FOLLOWING THEIR WORK FOR YEARS!!!”  We vegans have been following, promoting, touting, recommending and worshipping people like Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, Colin Campbell, PhD, John Robbins, Jeff Novick, RD, Joel Fuhrman, MD and John McDougall, MD for years.  So it’s a happy day for us to see our heroes finally making it on CNN and Oprah.  It just doesn’t get any bigger.

However, what makes me so excited about it is that, unlike Atkins, Weight Watchers, gluten-free diets, etc, I truly believe the vegan diet will have a very high retention rate.  The reason is simple:  We Americans say we want to be thin, and we continually diet in the pursuit of being thin, yet research shows that somewhere around 96% of people are not successful at getting the weight off and keeping it off.  This tells me that our motive (getting thin) is simply not compelling enough.  If it was compelling enough, we would have lost the weight and kept it off the first time. 

So what does motivate people to lose the weight and keep it off?  Well, for most of us, it’s not our vanity, much to our surprise.  It usually ends up being something like a serious health problem due to being overweight or, for those who come across the information, the knowledge of the atrocities in factory farms.

While many people will become introduced to the vegan diet after seeing Oprah or President Clinton on TV, they will likely start googling “vegan diet” and checking Amazon for related books.  Eventually, they will come across Diet for a New America, The Food Revolution, or one of the many ground-breaking books that goes beyond the health benefits of a vegan diet and covers the extreme cruelty and environmental destruction of our mass-farming system.  That’s the information that will convince people to go vegan for life. You see, the motivations of life, compassion and stewardship are compelling enough for people to stick with this diet.

So, cheers to Oprah, Caldwell, Sanjay, Colin, Bill and all the others that are helping to make vegan mainstream!  With every new vegetarian or vegan, 100 land animals are saved every year!

Be Kind to Yourself

I read in a recent blog where the author said she was “feeling like a fraud for struggling to take advice she’d offered in an article.” I can totally relate.  People assume that as a vegan author and speaker I must eat perfectly every day – never slipping up on vegan sweets or (gasp!) snarfing down an order of fried onion rings.

But I do.  I have a penchant for the vegan coconut chocolate chip cookies at Mana Foods, and the vegan Caesar Salad at Watercourse.  I used to buy into the opinion that if I am a vegan author I must eat perfectly.   Of course, I didn’t (and still don’t) eat perfectly, so when I did splurge on some vegan carrot cake or a vegan Oklahoma Ba-cun “Cheese”burger at Native Foods, I would feel bad about myself for days.  “If I’m going to be a vegan author, I need to set an example!” I’d tell myself.  “If I’m going to tell my audiences to avoid salt, sugar and fat so they can really reap the full benefits of a vegan diet, then I have to do the same thing too … at all times, perfectly!”

But do you know what?  As I’ve been growing up, I’ve been slowly learning to be kind to myself … and alas, I find that I want to splurge on those things less and less.  It used to be that if I was in LA, I had to go to Native Foods at every opportunity and inhale one of those burgers for every possible meal.  Who knows when I might get back to LA?  But I don’t do that anymore.  In fact, I may go once, or not at all.  Not because my willpower has changed, but because I want to be kind to myself and my body, and I know that I often feel worse when I eat heavier foods.  But sometimes I do eat one, and when I do, I enjoy it, and savor it, and am happy that I ate it when I am done.  After all, nobody does a Bac-un “Cheese”burger like Tanya at Native Foods!

Geneen Roth, in her book Women, Food and God, talks about this concept of being kind to yourself in depth, and makes a point that I have found to be very true:  IF you can successfully beat your body into skinny jeans through painful workouts and near-starvation diets, you’ll probably live a miserable existence; and if you can’t, you’ll probably beat yourself up about what a loser you are with no willpower.  Either way, you lose. 

Yet many of us fear that if we don’t continually beat ourselves up about our food and diet choices, we will blow up into balloons – we’ll eat with abandon and become morbidly obese.  Yet, the opposite is ironically true.  If you come from a place of loving yourself, and allow yourself to feel your feelings instead of numbing them with food, then your body naturally eats when it’s hungry and doesn’t want to eat when it’s not.  You slide into this place of bliss where you can trust your instincts to guide you to eat what you want, in the proper amounts, when you’re truly hungry for it.  Curiously, you may find that your skinny jeans fit with no battle! 

If you’re one of the many people who battle with your diet, where food becomes a source of pain rather than pleasure, it can turn around … and quickly.  But it takes one big step … learning to be kind to yourself.  So quit criticizing your thighs every time you pass a mirror and focus instead on how grateful you are that those thighs can carry you around.  Many do not have thighs that work, and cannot go for a walk through the park or play a game of tennis.  Quit noticing every wrinkle that appears, and instead be happy that you’ve had so much to smile about over the years.  Take time for yourself, and stop to smell flowers or talk to the neighbor’s doggie.  Notice the warmth of the sun on your arms in the summer and the beauty of the snow in winter.  Pour a cup of tea and just sit by the window and look out for a while.  Be grateful.  Most people around the world have such big worries that they cannot afford the luxury of worrying about their thighs.

For more information, look for books and products by Geneen Roth and Louise Hay, among others.

The Spirituality of Veganism

I love hearing people’s success stories about switching to a vegan diet … how they lost the weight that had chained them down for years, or overcame their battle with diabetes or cancer by turning to a whole-foods, plant-based diet.

But more than those stories, I love to hear how people feel – perhaps for the first time in their lives – that they have found spirituality through their diet.  I am one of those people. 

While it may sound far-fetched that spirituality can come from your diet, it actually makes perfect sense.  When you start learning about the vegan diet, you’ll eventually learn about how the animals we call “food” essentially live their lives in concentration camps called “factory farms.”  The cruel and inhumane conditions that only end for these animals upon their slaughter touch in many of us a deep-rooted sense of humanity that we may not have known existed.  A sense of what’s right and what’s wrong springs forward, and we know beyond a shadow of doubt that we will never again contribute to the senseless cruelty and death that befalls millions of "food" animals every year.

And as we go forward into this new vegan life, many of us realize over time what has really happened … that we have come to recognize the preciousness of life – all life in its many forms – and we become a steward of life.  We realize that some greatness, call it God or whatever you want, runs through all life equally, and a human is not “better than” or “worthier than” or “more important than” a dog, a cow or a chicken.  We may have more cognitive abilities, but it doesn’t make us any more worthy of life. 

Interestingly, reverence for life is at the heart of Buddhism, which tells us that no sentient being should have to suffer, and that our mission on earth is to reduce the suffering of others.  Christianity, Judaism and Islam have love and peace at the heart of their doctrines – how better can one show love and peace to another creature than to choose not to let it live an entire life of hell, just for your lunchtime pleasure? 

So, whether we go vegan for health reasons, animal cruelty reasons or environmental reasons, many of us discover perhaps the best benefit of all – one that we never expected in a million years – that we have found God through our choice of diet.  We see it in the eyes of a cow, feel it when we pet a sheep, hear it in the peep of a baby chick.  And we know we have come home, to a place where love is at our core.

“Wings cannot carry you to God.

Only love can carry you there.”

~ Rumi

The Carbon Footprint Game: Local Foods vs Beef and Dairy

Although Al Gore surprisingly “forgot” to mention the incredibly detrimental environmental effects of raising animals for meat and dairy products in his epic film, Inconvenient Truth, the word is starting to get out anyway. 

It seems to me that more and more people are truly becoming environmentally conscious – not just because it’s trendy to be green, but because people are just really starting to care. 

One topic that has gained a lot of momentum in the green circles is the idea of eating local food.  Most of our food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches our plate, creating a significant amount to our carbon footprint.  Eating locally grown food (usually defined around ~150 miles or less) decreases the amount of gas and emissions used to get your food to your plate, and is a relatively easy way of lessening your carbon footprint on our planet.

However, what many people don’t realize is that transportation only accounts for 11% of our food’s carbon footprint – 83% comes from the food production process itself. Cows have an extremely high carbon footprint, not only because they emit a lot more methane but also because caring for them uses more emission-producing processes than other meats, like chicken.  Therefore, beef and dairy products are the worst things you can eat if you care about the environment.

A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology¹, which discusses this topic in detail, concludes: “Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more greenhouse gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food."

Imagine switching not just one day a week away from beef and dairy products, but 3 days, 5 days, or 7 days!  Imagine if you also switched away from chicken, fish and eggs (which, while better for the environment than beef or dairy, are still much worse than an all-veggie diet.)  Imagine if you convinced many friends and family members to do the same.  We could really have a significant impact on global warming.

If you truly care about the environment but haven’t switched to a vegan diet yet – even if only part time – then you are contributing a lot more than you probably realize to our environment’s demise.  But once you know better, you’ll do better, so read more in John Robbin’s book, The Food Revolution.  For a serious dissertation (and huge eye-opener!) on the topic, read Livestock’s Long Shadow, a 400 page report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 

¹ Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008, 42 (10), pp 3508–3513

Veg*n Activism

There are a few topics in our culture that get people mightily defensive about – religion, politics, and food.  Tell someone that we should/shouldn’t scrap the welfare system, and tempers will fly!  Suggest that there is/isn’t a god, and veins will start popping!  Tell people how that chicken got to their plate … unh unh.  Don’t go there.

If you are like most people, you bristle and defend yourself when someone states diabolically opposite viewpoints as if they were fact. For example, I am outraged when someone states that I can’t be healthy if I’m not eating meat. (This really kills me if they are overweight, which is usually the case.)  Similarly, when someone says that they don’t believe things can be all that bad in the factory farms because, after all, the government is overseeing the system, I just want to pull my hair out! AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

However, is it possible that you are causing the same reactions in your friends and family?  If you ask with disgust, “Do you have any idea what that poor chicken went through to get to your plate???”  Or, “I never eat fish anymore.  Let me tell you about how the fishing industry is ruining our oceans…”  Chances are that they are ready to pull their hair out too.  If you commonly find yourself in arguments or full-scale wars about your veg*nism, chances are, my friend, that you are starting it.  It’s not always the case – there are definitely people who will attack, simply upon hearing that you are veg*n – but my experience is that that’s very rare.  If you are commonly getting into arguments, you are probably being seen as either proselytizing or coming across as better-than-thou.

Instead, try compassionate activism.  Compassionate activism has three steps:

1.    Never assume that your way is the right way for everyone. 

2.    Set a good example that exemplifies your beliefs

3.    Spread your beliefs using peaceful methods and means.

Here is a fantastic example:  There was an article earlier this week about some Buddhists that set 600 pounds of lobsters free that were destined to become dinners¹.  Did the Buddhists steal the lobsters and set them lose?  Hijack a boat and throw the lobsters overboard?  Scream about the injustices of lobster farming to passersby?  No!  They saved their money, bought the lobsters, and then set them loose in a beautiful ceremony … smartly letting the press know about it beforehand.  Pictures of the lobsters belly-flopping their way to freedom made it all over the press, with an explanation of how Buddhists believe all life is sacred, all creatures should be free from suffering, and that they were celebrating a particular holiday that focuses on doing good deeds.  Kind of makes you want to look into Buddhism, doesn’t it?

This is the type of compassionate activism that I believe we vegetarians and vegans should strive for.  Positive, uplifting and inspiring activism.  Setting an example that people really want to follow is one of the best things we can do. 

If you are interested in making a difference, try this idea that came across my inbox this morning from FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement) – they are setting up booths in busy places that offer people $1 to watch a 4 minute video about the horrible treatment of animals on farms².  What a fantastic idea!  As a volunteer, you can be there to compassionately talk to the people after they are done watching the video.  No doubt, many will be in shock, and ready to make some changes.

PETA, FARM and many other organizations can use your help.  Or, you can always come up with your own creative ideas for reaching out and making a difference.  Whatever it is, go for it, using the tenets of compassionate activism. 

Just think … for each person you turn vegetarian, you are saving over 100 lives a year for the rest of that person’s life!

¹http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20110809-293593.html

² http://www.farmusa.org/PPV.html

Food Attachments and Addictions

The most common type of e-mail I receive is from people who seek advice about what clearly seems to be a food addiction (although they often don’t know it.)  The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines “Addiction” this way:

“Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry … This is reflected in the individual pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. The addiction is characterized by impairment in behavioral control, craving, inability to consistently abstain, and diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships … addiction can involve cycles of relapse and remission...”

Hmmm.  Sounds like many of our relationships with food, doesn’t it?  Re-read the definition, keeping your eating habits in mind. 

Why am I bringing up addiction in a vegan blog?  Because in a 1995 Vegetarian Times article, David Herzog, Director of the Harvard Eating Disorder Center said that the percentage of his patients that called themselves vegetarian was about 33%.  This number is way higher than the national average of vegetarians, which is under 5%.  And what many people don’t realize is that eating disorders are a form of addiction.

Please do not think I am claiming that vegetarianism or veganism can cause eating disorders –that couldn’t be further from the truth.  What I am suggesting – as are the experts – is that people with eating disorders sometimes hide their restrictive diets under the guise of vegetarianism.

But I digress – even if you do not have a bona fide eating disorder, you could be one of the millions of people around the world that suffer from food addictions.  If you crave certain foods, at certain times or in certain situations, this is probably you.  For example, I recently decided to give up alcohol for a while and see how I feel.  I am not an alcoholic, but was very surprised at how difficult it was to forego that one glass of cabernet at dinner that I liked to enjoy with my book at my favorite vegan restaurant.  I may not be addicted to wine, but I sure am attached to having that glass at that restaurant as I read a book!

The first step to overcoming any hurdle is to acknowledge it.  If you can see that you have an attachment or addiction to food, then you can do something about it.  For example, you can seek a professional therapist that specializes in addictions or eating disorders, or for a less expensive route, simply read books or go to professional Internet sites to learn about the subject.  These small steps can be your first step to freedom from food.

The goal is to be able to get back to life.  This is, perhaps, the most liberating experience:  To break away from food addictions, and live life without thinking about the next meal, or what you shouldn’t have eaten yesterday that you did, or what you’re definitely not going to eat today; to go to your son’s soccer game without obsessing about what’s being sold at the concession stand, or to go to a movie without missing the plot because you’re trying to hold yourself back from the popcorn seller.  … To go out and live, free from attachments and addictions. For those of you whom this description fits, ask yourself if it’s time you finally got the burden off your back?  Is it time to get help?

If You're Going to be a Vet, You Can't Eat Your Patients!

There are many things I love about my husband.  Besides being a loving, supportive, and funny man, he’s also smart, handsome and incredibly humble about it all.  With this humility, he isn’t likely to express his opinion very loudly, unless he’s among his closest friends – he just assumes that everyone has their own path, and it’s not his place to barge in and tell them how to live.

So I was more than a little surprised when he told me recently that he challenged a patient of his who said she was going to be a vet.  “So you must be a vegetarian?” he asked the young college girl.  “Ummm … no…” she said hesitantly.  “Hmm.”  He paused.  “Well, I’m a doctor and I’m not a cannibal – how can you be a vet and eat your patients?”

At this point of the story, I was on the floor rolling – mainly due to his comment, and also due to his bravado in standing up for the veg*n diet.  Like I said, he’s generally pretty quiet about his opinions when he’s with strangers.  I can imagine this poor girl who came in for a routine eye exam, only to have her doctor nail her to the wall about eating her future patients!  But I’m sure he made a point that stuck with her.  YAY, husband!!

So, for today’s blog, I simply ask you:  “Do you stand up for your veg*n diet?”  You don’t need to throw blood on fur-wearing opera fans if that’s not your style, but can you at least stand up for what you believe?  Can you proudly tell people that you eat this way, and briefly explain why?  If not, then practice your elevator speech.  You never know when you might say something that sticks.a

Why You Can't Seem to Quit Eating Cheese

If you’re having a hard time going vegan because you just can’t seem to give up cheese, you’re not alone!  Many of us have felt the pull to cheese like a crack addict to crack.  In fact, you may even feel like you’re … addicted. 

Believe it or not, it could very well be that you are addicted to cheese!  Cheese contains casein, which breaks apart in digestion to release naturally occurring opiates called casomorphins.  Astonishingly, casomorphins mimic the reaction of morphine on our brain!  These opiates in dairy products may be responsible for the calming effect of nursing in infants, and also for the addictive qualities in cheese.

Before I was vegan, my four personal food groups were Swiss, Havarti, Cheddar and Chocolate.  In college, I was always a cheap date because I’d choose fettuccine alfredo over steak or lobster any day.  Interestingly, when I wanted to lose weight, I fantasized about someone putting padlocks on my refrigerator so I simply couldn’t get to the food.  (Sounds like the fantasy of an addict to me.)  I remember when I first read the advice in a Susan Powter book to give up dairy, it seemed like it would be easier to give up everything else except for dairy, and specifically cheese. I think I might have been one of those cheese addicts.

So what do you do if you suspect you are a cheese addict?  Don’t despair!  You won’t have to put yourself in lockdown if you really want to give up cheese.  You simply have to clean out your taste buds for about 30 days before whole, natural foods start tasting amazing once again, and foods like cheese, ice cream and chocolate start to sound unappealing.  I know this sounds impossible, but trust me, I’ve seen it happen to many people, including myself.  In fact, in Tina’s Blog (see my last blog post,) she surprisingly announced that this started happening to her around Day 15 or so of the 30 Day Challenge in Vegan in 30 Days.  Food just wasn’t tasting very good anymore – things she used to love were becoming too salty now.  All she wants to eat now are fruit smoothies made with ripe, juicy, natural fruits.  Now that’s an improvement!

To learn more about the 30 Day Vegan Challenge and how to clean out your taste buds for a lifetime of good health, you can read more in Vegan in 30 Days.  To learn more about the chemical effects of how casein turns into casomorphins, you may want to google Neal Barnard or Bill Harris, both of whom are medical doctors that I have heard speak to this topic.  Neal Barnard’s book Breaking the Food Seduction, specifically speaks to this topic.  To read Tina’s humorous blog, click here.

Tina Goes "Vegan in 30 Days!"

Raspberry lemonade does NOT count as two servings of fruit and caramel corn does NOT count as a serving of vegetables!!  If you love a good laugh, read Tina's Blog as she goes “Vegan in 30 Days.” 

Modeled after my book, Vegan in 30 Days, Tina takes the vegan challenge and decides to follow the 30 day plan to slowly give up all meat, dairy and eggs, and go 100% vegan.  However, with her incredible humor, she’ll have you rolling!  Here are some excerpts:

Day 3 – The Fruit & Veg Cleanse

“So, I'm not what you would call a "go-getter" first thing in the morning.  I wake up gradually.  Consciousness sneaks up on me with little cat feet; it doesn't drop on me like Queen Latifah ...  Keeping all this in mind, my morning started with me actually getting out of bed (as all mornings do), taking a shower, going on Facebook to harvest my Cityville crops, and then grabbing 3 leftover Bottle Caps from last night's Blockbuster snack pack.  I ate them before I even realized what day it was.  So, within 15 minutes of getting out of bed, I'd already violated the Fruit and Veg Cleanse with Willy Wonka candy.  Oops.”

Day 5 – Find Substitutes

“I do frequent the health food store in Chelan, probably 5 times a year or so, even though it's 60 miles one way and gas is like $85 a gallon.  I do this because it makes me feel trendy and green, and because I figure there's going to be some single men there.”

Read more from Tina’s Blog here!