Born into the Garden of Eating

It’s Meatless Monday again! Today we have blog posse member, Jolia Sidona Allen, sharing her life-long journey as a vegetarian with us. PETA states in their Vegetarianism and the Environment Factsheet that “According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, seven football fields’ worth of land is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals and the crops that feed them.” By going meatless on Mondays you are helping to lessen jaw-dropping statistics like this!

Hello! I’m Jolia, life-long vegetarian, long-time vegan, and Associate Editor and Web Editor of Vegetarian Times magazine, a.k.a. “Vegetarian Times Foodie Fatale.”

When I tell people about my job—a dream job come true for someone who loves legumes as much as she loves language—I usually get the same question: “Are you a vegetarian?” I often respond with a simple “Yes,” but the next question is usually “How long have you been a vegetarian?” And so, time and time again, I find myself divulging the longer, more engaging explanation, a story that goes all the way back to the womb.

Here it goes: I was born and raised as a vegetarian. In other words, I have never eaten a single morsel of any sentient being. From my tiny, pinky toenail to the tip of my nose, from my wisdom teeth to my belly button, every cell in my body has been replicated a billion, billion times over from solely vegetarian sources. My parents become vegetarians before I was born and are healthy, happy vegans today. While I could have strayed from my vegetarian path at any point, I have never been so inclined. My life-long vegetarianism is a gift for which I have always been grateful, a gift that has, in recent years, grown to define not only my diet, but also my career path.

Are you surprised to meet a first-generation vegetarian? People usually are. I can’t see your faces, but when people learn this about me their eyes light up and become kaleidoscopes of curiosity. I’m not sure why it’s so shocking—in India, vegetarianism dates back thousands of years. But in America, even in the veg-friendly city of Los Angeles where I live, meeting a first-generation vegetarian is as about as rare as witnessing a lunar eclipse or the arrival of locusts.

“You’ve never even had a hamburger?” I often hear. Nope. I’ve never had a hamburger, or a hot dog, or a Philly cheese steak, and nor have I ever really wanted to. In my mind, animals are not food. It’s as plain and simple as not wanting to eat your stapler or your cat.

Once, when I was an English professor, I casually divulged my veganism as a side note during a class discussion about literature. To my surprise, my students’ hands went up like a wave at a homecoming game, and they bombarded me with questions. Their thirst for this topic far surpassed their interest in the correct way to use a semi-colon or for the details of Thoreau’s life at Walden Pond. One student even stayed after class to confess his addiction to Coco-Cola; he was hungry, starving even, for knowledge that would help him transform his relationship with food.

Why do I harp on this element of curiosity? Because no matter how successful I am vegifying my own world and spreading the word on vegetarianism, I am constantly reminded that vegetarianism is not yet the norm in America. Raising veg children in a non-veg world, like anything else worth doing, isn’t easy. It’s a brave journey like that of the salmons’ struggle to swim upstream against the current. Most school cafeterias still don’t serve veggie burgers, most overnight camps don’t provide vegan marshmallows around the campfire, and most parents still serve hot dogs at birthday parties.

But the world is changing. It is getting easier and easier to maintain a plant-based diet. In fact, it’s hipper than ever to go veg! As for first-generation vegetarians, there are more and more of us born everyday. Vegetarian resources are plentiful. I highly recommend Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. And, right now on Vegetarian Times Editors’ Blog, VT’s Market Editor, Gabrielle Harradine, a.k.a. “The Preg Veg” is blogging about her healthy, green, and vegetarian pregnancy.

So no matter where you are on your personal food journey, whether you are an omnivore, a flexitarian, a pescatarian, a vegetarian, a vegan, a raw or even a nude foodist, whether you are a parent or not—I hope you will be inspired to give yourself and a child in your life a taste of vegetarianism, whether it’s for every meal or even just one meal. I am living proof that’s it’s okay to live an entire life without eating a single hamburger. In fact, it’s downright delicious. To repeat Mahatma Gandhi’s mantra, an adage you must have heard as many times as I have, but one that never loses its profound meaning: You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

If you could give a child a gift—the best gift in the universe—what would it be? A bicycle? An i-pod? A violin? There is only one gift that I can think of that is priceless: health. While there are no certainties in this world, I believe that our forks are the best weapon we have to protect our own health and the health of our planet.

Meatless Mondays: Cutting Back Means Cutting Animal Consumption

It’s week two of Crazy Sexy Life’s Meatless Monday campaign and we hope you’ll join us again for the ride! In today’s blog, Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society of the US sheds more light on the profound effect we can all have on the planet and the wellness of our fellow beings just by modifying our choices as a consumer.

At The HSUS, we are engaging in a range of cost-cutting management actions to cope with the downturn in the economy, but we are doing our best not to cut any essential animal protection programs. Especially in tough economic times, the determined actions of The HSUS and other animal protection groups are needed more than ever for animals in crisis.

Consumers are having to make tough cost-saving decisions, too. And as they strike some non-essential items from their shopping lists, they are shrinking demand for certain products that cause harm to animals. For example, the fur industry, which produces a luxury product, is experiencing waning sales. The Federal Trade Commission reported in 2005 that an estimated 3.5 million animal fur garments and accessories were for sale annually in the United States, and in 2009, that number has dropped to just more than 1 million—an astonishing decline of more than 70 percent. In fact, prices for seal pelts from Canada have declined by a record amount, though part of that steep decline is due to our closing markets for the pelts through policy changes in Europe and elsewhere.

Gourmet magazine is reporting that people are reducing to some degree their consumption of meat products. Given the inordinately high per capita consumption of animal products in America, this is good news for animals, the environment, and public health. The HSUS is a big tent organization, and we support people who want to switch to more humanely raised animal products, reduce the amount of meat in their diets, or try a vegetarian lifestyle—but the reduction of meat consumption is one of the best things we can do for the planet given how unsustainable the current levels of factory farming are.

Reductions in meat consumption means less support for factory farms—many of which confine animals in small cages or crates, and subject them to other procedures and handling practices that compromise their welfare. In fact, Smithfield Foods, which has pledged but not yet completed the shift toward eliminating gestation crates for sows, reported major financial losses during the last quarter, and it says it needs to shrink its pig population to account for decreasing demand. The dairy industry is also in the throes of reducing its size because of oversupply.

Gourmet notes “the USDA estimates that the production of meat from every major category of farm animal will drop for the first time since 1973.” This is also good news for the environment, since the massive numbers of animals on Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, produce enormous volumes of waste, and pollute watersheds and streams. It also means less in the way of greenhouse gas emissions, since the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that the animal agriculture sector worldwide accounts for 18 percent of all emissions—more than the entire transportation sector.

Unfortunately, some members of Congress don’t want the farm animal industries to do their fair share to combat the problem. Lawmakers aligned with the Farm Bureau and other ambassadors of agribusiness are actively working to exclude agriculture from the impact of any remedial actions to reduce climate change. As a result, you may hear from The HSUS soon to contact your lawmaker to turn this situation around.

As Gourmet’s editor Ruth Reichl noted in a powerful editorial about the detriment of raising so many animals for food on factory farms, “Now it is becoming increasingly clear that we ought to change our ways.”

Meatless Mondays: Kathy Freston Joins the Campaign

Crazy Sexy Life has jumped on the Meatless Monday bandwagon and we hope you’ll join us! In case you needed some extra inspiration to go meat free today, check out this cool fact: “If every American (300 million) gave up meat for 1 day a week, this would have the same positive effect on reducing greenhouse gases as saving 90 million plane tickets from New York to Los Angeles!” (source: “Meat the Truth” documentary, video clip). And now we’ll turn things over to Kathy Freston for even more Meatless Monday motivation…

I love a practical solution, especially when it’s good all around – for personal health, the environment, and for living consciously. So when I received an email from Chris Elam, the director of the Meatless Monday campaign – a project of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Columbia University School of Public Health, in association with twenty-seven other public health schools – I was thrilled.

The campaign is focused on convincing the world not to eat chickens, pigs, and other animals–just one day per week (on Mondays, as you may have guessed).

Since it’s sponsored by a slew of public health schools, the campaign was set up to promote health, and since I’ve already written extensively about the fact that eating meat leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and lethargy (for example here), I’ll skip extended analysis of these facts, other than to say: When Johns Hopkins, Columbia, the American Dietetic Association, and dozens of other health organizations argue that the less meat you eat, the better off you’ll be, it’s worth listening to them.

Chris wrote to share the fact that Michael Pollan had just argued in favor of the campaign on Oprah, saying, “[w]e don’t realize it when we sit down to eat, but that is our most profound engagement in the rest of nature… To the extent that we push meat a little bit to the side and move vegetables to the center of our diet, we’re also going to be a lot healthier…” I wasn’t surprised, since Pollan’s most recent book calls on all of us to eat “mostly plants,” and his new movie (Food, Inc.) offers a stomach-turning look at factory farming and slaughterhouses (I highly recommend it).

As an aside on Food, Inc.: The scene that I found most interesting is the one where Joel Salatin, proprietor of Polyface Farm, was slaughtering chickens and talking a mile-a-minute through the process. He was talking about treating the animals with respect, but in the theater where I saw the film, this scene elicited perhaps the most audible shock of the entire movie because you can actually see the animals being slaughtered (contrast this with the secrecy of factory farms and slaughterhouses–no one is allowed because, as Paul McCartney likes to say, the process would turn everyone vegetarian). Anyway, this scene seemed to shock a lot of people, even though this is poultry slaughter at its most humane. Actually, the scene reminded me of that Sarah Palin interview that she conducted in front of the turkey slaughter; it’s worth remembering that most chickens and turkeys have a far more horrific experience in the factory farms that process more than 98% of the birds we eat.

Chris also wanted to share their new video, in which their scientists tell us that if all Americans switched from eating chickens and pigs to eating beans and grains for just one day per week, that would stop as much global warming as if everyone in the U.S. shifted to ultra-efficient Toyota hybrids (which is the weekly equivalent of using 12 billion fewer gallons of gasoline). Of course I have to point out the obvious: If we all stopped eating animals completely and shifted to vegetarian foods, that would save 84 billion gallons of gas per week (and all the troubles that go with that kind of consumption).

I know that some readers will argue that the issue is not the meat industry, but factory farmed meat. But in fact, environmentally, all meat requires exponentially more resources to produce than eating grains and beans, as eloquently discussed in the Audubon Society’s magazine a few months back. And all meat contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and so on. Some meat may be “less bad,” but according to the science, no meat is good.

And I know that some vegetarians pooh pooh Meatless Monday as not enough. I’m sympathetic to that view, but I think it’s unnecessarily strident. For people who think that going totally vegetarian is too challenging, the Meatless Monday campaign offers a gentle entrée into the idea of eating without eating animals. My hope is that people will use the campaign as a stepping stone–first one meatless day per week, then three, then five, then seven. As we lean into meatless eating–switching out more and more meat meals for meatless meals–we end up feeling better, both physically and ethically.

And another point for those who might think that Meatless Monday is not enough: The first family of vegetarianism–Sir Paul McCartney and his daughters–recently launched the campaign in the UK. Stella and Mary have been vegetarian since birth, and Paul has been a vegetarian for more than two decades.

For recipes and cooking information, check out the Meatless Monday site. And for tips on making the transition to vegetarian eating, please click here.

Happy eating!

Starting next Monday, July 6th, check out HuffPost Green‘s weekly Meatless Monday feature for great recipes.

Article originally posted at Huffingtonpost.com

Nutritional Microscopy

Since my childhood, life-altering circumstances would lead me to health and a healing vegan diet. I experienced the death of my little sister to leukemia, followed by the loss of my mother of the same disease. During this time, I stopped eating chicken and other meats and slowly gravitated towards a vegetarian lifestyle. By my twenties, I sought out the vegan raw food diet as a conduit to health and sustainability.

When a Soul has been charged with saving human and animal lives from unnecessary and painful death, no obstacle becomes too great. As I researched deeper, I studied Nutritional Microscopy to analyze live blood cells for the root cause of all disease in the body. This knowledge confirmed the science of a healing diet — by creating an alkaline pH balance in the blood with alkaline meals and various alkalizing drinks.

When there is hyperacidity in the liquid surrounding the cells in the body there is likelihood of disease and distress in the emotional being as well as the physical body. It is a humbling journey to RISK ALL so that others (human and animal alike) can have their day living in the utopia so yearned for. Through the tearful and joyful sacrifices of others we ALL get closer to the truth.

There are many individuals that stand with courage to save lives by their personal search for truth. Kris Carr being one of them! Another outstanding individual that I am highly encouraged by is Dr. Robert O. Young. Through his willingness to stand up to the “system” and RISK ALL, Dr. Young is revolutionizing the way we think about life in both spiritual and physical realms. What if his theories are correct? After all, this researcher has based his conclusions on over 40,000 live and dried blood observations, and patient interviews that he has conducted himself (as well as interpreting other peoples research with the perspective of The New Biology), and he honorably notes the researchers that he “stands on the shoulders of” and who have come before him (Enderlein, Bechamp, Livingston-Wheeler) plus hundreds of others.

Dr. Young, Nutritional Microscopist and author of the pH Miracle series of books, and Sick and Tired, has a healing and educational ranch in Valley Center California, where he teaches the art & science of nutritional microscopy. This incredible educational tool allows individuals like myself to learn how to share with others exactly how their diet and lifestyle are affecting their very own inner terrain and blood quality. This is important because according to Dr. Young, it is from healthy or unhealthy red blood cells that all other body cells, can be produced, healthfully or “dis-eased”!!

Nutritional Microscopy allows the subjective “I don’t feel so good” to have an actual picture to go along with that feeling. Live & Dry Blood Cell Analysis allows you to see your own blood on the computer screen and get the encouragement deserve as you see the changes you have made in your diet & lifestyle producing a happy, healthy inner terrain. When you see for yourself what YOUR inner world looks like on a physical level you can begin to ask new questions. From a new vantage point, you are bound to get a certain sense of self-empowerment, responsibility and motivation. Be willing to RISK ALL in the quest for truth and vibrant health that is our birthright…and realize that the One guiding ALL for a juicier and fuller life will accompany you along on the journey. You are not alone!

Conscious Eating, Okay, But Where (On Earth) Do You Get Your Protein?

When I tell people that I’m a vegan, the most popular question, by far, inevitably follows: “But, how do you get enough protein?”

There it is again, I think, the meat industry’s most potent weapon against vegetarianism–the protein myth.

And it is just that–a myth. In fact, humans need only 10 percent of the calories we consume to be from protein. Athletes and pregnant women need a little more, but if you’re eating enough calories from a varied plant based diet, it’s close to impossible to not to get enough.

The way Americans obsess about protein, you’d think protein deficiency was the number one health problem in America. Of course it’s not–it’s not even on the list of the ailments that doctors are worried about in America or any other countries where basic caloric needs are being met.

What is on the list? Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity–diseases of affluence. Diseases linked to eating animal products. According to the American Dietetic Association, which looked at all of the science on vegetarian diets and found not just that they’re healthy, but that they “provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”

They continue: “Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence… Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.”

Dr. Dean Ornish writes of his Eat More, Weigh Less vegetarian diet–the one diet that has passed peer-review for taking weight off and keeping it off for more than 5 years–that in addition to being the one scientifically proven weight loss plan that works long-term, it “may help to prevent a wide variety of other illnesses including breast cancer in women, prostate cancer in men, colon cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension, and so on….”

So when people ask me about protein, I explain that protein is not a problem on a vegan diet, that the real problems that are plaguing us in the West can be addressed in part with a vegetarian diet, and that I get my protein the same way everyone else does–I eat!

Beans, nuts, seeds, lentils, and whole grains are packed with protein. So are all vegetables as a caloric percentage, though they don’t have enough calories to sustain most people as a principal source of sustenance. And these protein sources have some excellent benefits that animal protein does not–they contain plenty of fiber and complex carbohydrates, where meat has none. That’s right: Meat has no complex carbs at all, and no fiber. Plant proteins are packed with these essential nutrients.

Plus, since plant-based protein sources don’t contain cholesterol or high amounts of saturated fat, they are much better for you than meat, eggs, and dairy products.

It is also worth noting the very strong link between animal protein and a few key diseases, including cancer and osteoporosis.

According to Dr. Ornish, “high-protein foods, particularly excessive animal protein, dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses. In the short run, they may also cause kidney problems, loss of calcium in the bones, and an unhealthy metabolic state called ketosis in many people.”

The cancer connection is spelled out at length in a fantastic book by Cornell scientist T. Colin Campbell, called The China Study. Basically, there is overwhelming scientific evidence to implicate that animal protein consumption causes cancer.

And just a few quick anecdotal points:
• Olympian Carl Lewis has said that his best year of track competition was the first year that he ate a vegan diet (he is still a strong proponent of vegan diets for athletes).
• Strength trainer Mike Mahler says, “Becoming a vegan had a profound effect on my training. … [M]y bench press excelled past 315 pounds, and I noticed that I recovered much faster. My body fat also went down, and I put on 10 pounds of lean muscle in a few months.”
• Bodybuilder Robert Cheeke advises, “The basics for nutrition are consuming large amounts of fresh green vegetables and a variety of fruits, to load yourself up with vibrant vitamins and minerals.”

A few other vegans, all of whom sing the praises of the diet for their athletic performance: Ultimate fighter Mac Danzig, ultramarathoner Scott Jurek, Minnesota Twins pitcher Pat Neshek, Atlanta Hawks Guard Salim Stoudamire, and Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Tony Gonzalez.

And let’s not forget about tennis star Martina Navratilova, six-time Ironman winner Dave Scott, four-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl, or Stan Price, the world-record holder in bench press. They are just a few of the successful vegetarian athletes.

Basically, vegans and vegetarians needn’t fret about protein, but many Americans do need to worry about their weight, heart disease, cancer, and other ailments–many of which can be addressed by healthier eating, including a vegan or vegetarian diet.

Vegetarians and vegans get all the nutrients our bodies need from plants, and will thus, according to the science, be more likely to maintain a healthy weight and stave off a variety of ailments, from heart disease to cancer.

Happy eating!