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In this edition...
Health |
 Avoid these five New Year's resolution mistakes |
| Vegetarian diet helps kidney patients |
| UN urges protection of children against marketing of unhealthy food |
| Eat less, feel full? It's food for thought |
| Red meat increases stroke risk in women |
| Eating fruits and veggies will make your skin glow |
Environment |
| Q&A: 'This time there will be no Noah's ark' |
| How much rainforest do you eat? |
| Atlantic leatherbacks at risk from fisheries |
| All dead cows are not created equal |
| Bird, fish kills quite common - and that's the problem |
| Now for 'Millennium Consumption Goals' |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| Reducing meat consumption will be a top food trend in 2011 |
| Vegan goes mainstream |
| From Skinny Bitch to Bill Clinton: The rise of veganism |
| Veggie celebs: Why Lea Michele and Natalie Portman went vegan |
| Veggie experiences: This is what a Muslim vegetarian looks like |
| Europe's first vegetarian butcher opens for business in the Netherlands |
| Arthur Frommer - The lessons travel has taught me |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| Humane Society films abuse at huge U.S. pig farm |
| U.S. Congress bans shark finning |
| Japan after anti-whaling group's funding, WikiLeaks cables show |
| Financial problems could wipe out commercial whaling |
| South Korea buries one million pigs alive |
| Bush meat gives Ghana more revenue than mining |
Books and Perspectives |
| Celebrating Japan's culinary traditions |
| Nutrition advice from the China Study |
Of Note - Recipes, Videos, Blogs, Calls to Action, More |
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Don't forget to visit:
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Health 
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Avoid these five New Year's resolution mistakes
Full story: Huffington Post
As the calendar turns to January, many of us resolve to lose weight. But before many more calendar pages have turned, that resolution has fallen by the wayside for a lot of us, and we haven't lost an ounce. The problem is not a lack of will; we honestly did want to trim away those pounds. More often than not, the problem is in the execution. The plans we tried to set in motion were headed in the wrong direction. This year, let's get on a better path. Here are common missteps and how to avoid them. [By Dr. Neal Barnard, President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.]
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Huffington Post - December 31
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Vegetarian diet helps kidney patients
Full story: US News
Eating a vegetarian diet lowers kidney disease
patients' levels of potentially toxic phosphorus in the blood and urine, says a small new study. Kidney disease patients have to limit their intake of phosphorous - which is found in dietary proteins and is a common food additive - because their bodies have difficulty ridding themselves of the mineral. In these patients, high levels of phosphorus can lead to heart disease and death. This study examined the effects of vegetarian and meat-based diets on phosphorous levels in nine patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Each patient ate a vegetarian or meat-based diet for one week and then waited two to four weeks before eating the other diet for a week. The researchers conducted blood and urine tests at the end of each week on both diets. Even though the two diets had equivalent protein and phosphorus concentrations, patients had lower blood and urine phosphorus levels after they ate the vegetarian diet. The findings show that the source of protein in a diet has a major effect on phosphorous levels.
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UN urges protection of children against marketing of unhealthy food
Full story: UN News Centre
The United Nations health agency [on January 21] called for action to reduce the exposure of children to the marketing of food with high contents of fat, sugar or salt, which exposed them to the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCD) caused by poor diet during their lives. According to the World Health Organization, 43 million pre-school children worldwide are either obese or overweight. Scientific reviews have also shown that a significant portion of television advertising that children are exposed to promotes "non-core" food products which are low in nutritional value. Poor diet is one of the four common factors associated with the four main noncommunicable diseases - cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and chronic lung diseases - which are responsible for about 60 per cent of deaths worldwide, or over 35 million people annually.
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UN News Centre - January 21
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Eat less, feel full? It's food for thought
Full story: New Zealand Herald
Our gut really does send signals to the brain telling us when to stop eating. Scientists at Plant & Food Research, the University of Auckland and Massey University are chewing through nearly $20 million in taxpayer funding over six years to identify foods that can prevent us overeating by manipulating these natural signalling processes. Scientists call it satiety - the feeling of being full. "We're trying to fool the body into thinking it's Christmas Day with smaller amounts of food," says Dr John Ingram, food innovation scientist at Plant & Food's Mt Albert research centre. For years nutritionists have encouraged us to eat more low glycemic index (GI) foods including fruits, vegetables, pulses and wholegrains, which slow down the release of glucose (energy) into the body and can keep us from feeling hungry for longer. The Foods for Appetite Control project is looking beyond these simple nutritional effects on appetite by investigating how compounds in fruits, vegetables and wholegrains interact with sensory mechanisms in our gut to curb our appetite.
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New Zealand Herald - January 1
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Red meat increases stroke risk in women
Full story: AOL Health
If you are a woman who loves steak and you eat a lot of it, you may be risking your health. A ten-year study of almost 35,000 women from Dr. Susanna Larsson and colleagues, of the National Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, finds that eating lots of red and processed meat may increase the risk of stroke. The team also found that the women who ranked in the top 10 percentile for red meat consumption - eating at least 3.6 ounces daily - were 42 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke because of blocked blood flow in the brain compared to women who ate less than an ounce of red meat daily. [Editor's note: If you're thinking fish might be better check out Fried fish linked to high stroke risk, AOL (December 23). ]
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Eating fruits and veggies will make your skin glow
Full story: Toronto Star
You don't need an expensive Caribbean holiday this winter to look attractive and healthy. Just chow down on more carrots, sweet potatoes and mangoes. You look like what you eat, according to a study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. Participants manipulated the colours of 51 faces on a computer screen to make them look healthier. Consistently, they picked skin tones calibrated to reflect the intake of carotenoids, compounds found in fruits and vegetables, rather than tones simulating suntans.
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Toronto Star - January 14
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| Environment
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Q&A: 'This time there will be no Noah's ark'
Full story: IPS
"The market is not going to resolve the environmental crisis," says theologian and environmentalist Leonardo Boff, professor at Brazil's State University of Rio de Janeiro. The solution, he says, lies in ethics and in changing our relationship with nature. Boff, who teaches ethics, philosophy of religion and ecology, is one of the leading figures of Liberation Theology, a progressive current in the Latin American Catholic Church. He has written more than 60 books and has dedicated the last 20 years to promoting the green movement. "If we don't change, we are headed for the worst... Either we save ourselves or we all perish," said Boff in an interview with Tierramérica, after he participated as an observer in the recent 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Cancún.
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How much rainforest do you eat?
Full story: Disease Proof - Dr. Fuhrman Blog
Amazingly, two-thirds of all known plant and animal species are found in the rainforest while rainforests themselves cover just 2 per cent of the Earth's surface. Not only are rainforests home to countless plants and animals, but they are literally the "lungs of the Earth." Rainforests are the single greatest terrestrial source of the oxygen in the air that we breathe. Keep this information in mind while reading the following statistics about how quickly we are destroying it to meet global demands for meat. [By Talia Fuhrman, Dr. Fuhrman's daughter.]
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Disease Proof - Dr. Fuhrman Blog - December 14
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Atlantic leatherbacks at risk from fisheries
Full story: PlanetEarth
Scientists have used satellites to track the world's largest nesting population of leatherback turtles across the South Atlantic for the first time. Their results reveal the routes the critically endangered creatures take make them more vulnerable to commercial fishing in the South Atlantic than previously thought.
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All dead cows are not created equal
Full story: Washington Post/Slate
No matter how you slice it, eating beef will never be the greenest thing you do in a day. Scientists at Japan's National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science estimate that producing a kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of beef emits more greenhouse gas than driving 155 miles. Wouldn't it be nice if carnivores could minimize their environmental impact just by switching from one dead-cow product to another? Unfortunately, both grass-fed and corn-fed beef are bad for the Earth - but each in its own way.
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Washington Post/Slate - December 20
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Bird, fish kills quite common - and that's the problem
Full story: IPS
The New Year brought a spate of incidents across the United States and around the world in which large numbers of birds appeared to have fallen out of the sky, and thousands of fish were found floating dead in rivers. As media reports multiplied of mysterious mass wildlife deaths, and blogs and social media picked up on the story, the inevitable theories began circulating, ranging from the outlandish (a sign of the apocalypse) to the more plausible (a consequence of environmental damage, such as the U.S. Gulf Coast oil spill of 2010). In the end, while the reasons appear to have varied, scientists say such deaths are a normally occurring phenomenon - and that is precisely why people should be concerned.
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Now for 'Millennium Consumption Goals'
Full story: IPS
A Sri Lankan scientist is calling for the drafting of "Millennium Consumption Goals" to force rich countries to curb their climate-damaging consumption habits, in the same way the poor have Millennium Development Goals to get them out of poverty. Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, expert on sustainable development and climate change, says, "We now have Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for the poor. We should extend that to the rich and make sure they consume more sustainably." He said this is needed because 85 per cent of all consumption in world is done by the top 20 per cent of the world's rich.
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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Reducing meat consumption will be a top food trend in 2011
Full story: Ecorazzi
Move over factory farms and hello green gardens! Allrecipes.com, in collaboration with consumer strategist Robin Avni, has pinpointed the top eleven trends for 2011 and reducing meat consumption comes in at number 6. The website writes: "What's been bad for the economy has been good for the greenhouse and the self-effacing vegetable is an emerging star. As general interesting in home-grown, organic and heirloom vegetables continues to soar, this root-bound revelation is not just about growing your own. It seems consumers have taken a shine to veggie delights, and as a result are consciously cutting back on eating meat, too. Even restaurants are getting into the act with popular Meatless Monday offerings. The main consumer motivation is health, but the reality is: it's good for the body, the bank account and the environment."
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Vegan goes mainstream
Full story: VegNews
Veganism has made giant leaps into mainstream culture this past year. Embraced by celebrities, the media, and even the business world, the vegan lifestyle has skyrocketed in popularity over the past year. Veg menus abound in upscale restaurants, magazines cover veganism like never before, and meat-free cookbooks fly off bookstore shelves. With our finger on the pulse of the vegan movement, VegNews' editors scoured the most compelling news stories of the year to determine the most significant indicators of veganism going mainstream. Here are our top 10...
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From Skinny Bitch to Bill Clinton: The rise of veganism
Full story: Psychology Today Blog
Have you noticed the word "vegan" lately? If you live in America and you read a newspaper or popular magazines, the chances are you have. If you watch television, you probably even know how to pronounce it properly. Originally coined in 1944 by a Briton named Donald Watson (1910-2005), the word "vegan" was only gradually seeping into popular use until recently. Veganism is rapidly shedding its ascetic mantle. It is becoming chic, thanks to celebrities like Alicia Silverstone, Joaquin Phoenix and Ellen Degeneres. And a symbol of power, witness vegan business icons like Ford Motors Executive Chairman Bill Ford, Twitter founder Biz Stone, and Las Vegas entrepreneur Steve Wynn. Even former President Bill Clinton is now a disciple following the medical science of Drs. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish, who are reversing heart disease.
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Psychology Today Blog - December 14
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Veggie celebs: Why Lea Michele and Natalie Portman went vegan
Full story: Us Weekly
Looks like scoring a table at a Hollywood steakhouse might be a little easier these days. The newest diet trend to take on Hollywood bans red meat. And chicken. And every other food with an animal origin - all in the name of clean eating and promises of a healthier body. Celebrity followers [include] Lea Michele, Natalie Portman and Kellie Pickler. Eating vegan basically means consuming only plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains. Since these foods are so low in calories, "counting calories is simply not necessary!" says celebrity nutritionist Cynthia Pasquella. In fact, studies have shown that followers of a plant-based diet are significantly thinner, says Pasquella, whose clients include Debra Messing, 42, and Sandra Bullock, 46. Other health benefits include lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Plus the increase of nutrients like vitamins A, B, and E is great for clearing skin, promoting healthier hair and nails and boosting energy.
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Veggie experiences: This is what a Muslim vegetarian looks like
Full story: Green Prophet
When I was 16, I discovered the horror of factory farming and decided to become a vegetarian. That was 8 years ago and I have been a vegetarian ever since. Thankfully, I no longer have to explain why I - as a Muslim - have chosen to become a vegetarian amongst my family and friends or face a barrage of questions before I tuck into my veggie dinner. However, for many people the concept of a Muslim vegetarian is still confusing. So I wanted to introduce you to a few - I have asked three Muslim to answer set questions about their vegetarianism - an eco-warrior, one of faith, and one vegetarian for animal rights.
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Green Prophet - December 29
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Europe's first vegetarian butcher opens for business in the Netherlands
Full story: Meat Free Mondays, UK
Europe's first vegetarian butcher's shop opened in The Hague in October, serving various meat-replacement products made from lupin seeds. De Vegetarische Slager - the Vegetarian Butcher - is the brainchild of eighth-generation lupin farmer Jaap Korteweg, who hopes to restore the protein-rich food to dinner plates in Europe, offering a sustainable alternative to meat while also reducing the environmental impact of rampant soy farming in South America. Opened in partnership with chef Marco Westmaas and Niko Koffeman, a Dutch politician for Party for the Animals, De Vegetarische Slager will sell its own-brand lupin products alongside existing meat substitutes.
[Editor's note: Lupin beans are delicious, but require special preparation as they are very bitter when first cooked. Check our "of note" secion for a recipe and cooking directions. See also this video on a restaurant serving lupin "meat" from Radio Netherlands.]
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Meat Free Mondays, UK - January 3
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Arthur Frommer - The lessons travel has taught me
Full story: Toronto Star
To a hundred countries and millions of miles, I've travelled for some 50 years, and I am a changed person because of it. Simply being in unfamiliar surroundings, among new and different people, alters one's consciousness and creates new beliefs - like these... Travel, for many, is merely a form of recreation. But travel is now becoming recognized as education. It has changed my life, and I believe that you, too, may want to reflect on how it has altered your own consciousness. Ours is the first generation in human history to travel to other continents as easily as we once took a trolley to the next town. Dare we hope that access to a larger world will result in more understanding, in human beings more tolerant and peaceful?
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Toronto Star - January 17
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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Humane Society films abuse at huge U.S. pig farm
Full story: Pilot Online, VA, U.S.
The Humane Society of the United States on December 15 released a video showing pregnant pigs cramped in stalls and workers prodding or tossing pigs at a farm owned by a Smithfield Foods Inc. subsidiary. "If we ever did this to dogs in any state in the country, we'd be arrested for cruelty to animals," said Josh Balk, the Humane Society's director of corporate outreach. The video, Balk said, was taken by a Humane Society employee who spent a month, working at the farm. Among the scenes: A worker shot a lame pig in the head and threw it into a trash bin, still alive. Premature pigs that had fallen between the slats of a stall lay dead in a manure pit. The bars and floor of one stall were stained with blood from the mouth of a pregnant pig that was biting the bars. Another sow repeatedly rammed its head into a side of the stall. Others had cuts and sores, most the result of being confined in the stalls, Balk said.
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Pilot Online, VA, U.S. - December 15
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U.S. Congress bans shark finning
Full story: Huffington Post
Christmas came early for sharks, as Congress took the last step [December 21] to pass a ban on shark finning in the U.S. Shark finning is the brutal practice of slicing off a shark's fins, often for use in shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. The shark - sometimes still alive - may be thrown back into the sea to bleed to death. Each year, commercial fishing gear kills more than 100 million sharks worldwide, including tens of millions for just their fins. The Shark Conservation Act, which now goes to President Obama's desk, improves the existing law originally intended to prevent shark finning, and it also allows the U.S. to take action against countries whose shark finning restrictions are not as strenuous. I've said it before and I'll say it again - we shouldn't be scared of sharks, we should be scared for them.
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Huffington Post - December 22
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Japan after anti-whaling group's funding, WikiLeaks cables show
Full story: Globe and Mail, Canada
According to classified diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website, high-level Japanese officials have lobbied United States diplomats several times in the past year or so, urging them to revoke the tax-exempt status of Mr. Watson's Sea Shepherd Conservation Society... The organization's current Antarctic campaign, which includes 88 crew members and a 17-person film crew, is called "Operation No Compromise." "We found them on New Year's Eve and they've been running ever since," Mr. Watson said. "We've chased them 800 miles south. We don't mind. As long as they're running, they're not killing whales."
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Globe and Mail, Canada - January 3
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Financial problems could wipe out commercial whaling
Full story: The Ecologist
Commercial whaling by many nations continues despite an international ban and widescale condemnation. What may end the practice is that the financial incentives are starting to dry up... Almost all major whaling nations deny evidence pointing to near-human levels of intelligence in cetaceans. Many choose to hide behind claims of tradition or economics but commercial whaling on an industrial scale is relatively unique only to the 20th century. Pro-whaling governments appear to be pouring more and more money into their industries while profit margins are falling. As international condemnation increases and worldwide awareness of rising mercury levels in all sea creatures, especially sea mammals, grows, the monetary motivation that keeps whaling alive is drying up.
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The Ecologist - January 5
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South Korea buries one million pigs alive
Full story: Sky News
South Korea has been heavily criticised for burying up to one million pigs alive as it grapples with a foot and mouth disease outbreak. Since the first case of the disease was confirmed in November the country has embarked on a mass cull. Foot and mouth disease affects all cloven hoofed animals such as pigs, cattle and goats, and any country that has cases of it is unable to export the animals' meat. The South Korean government has so far refused to vaccinate pigs against the disease and is now slaughtering them in record numbers despite appeals to stop.
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Bush meat gives Ghana more revenue than mining
Full story: AllAfrica
It is almost common knowledge that wild animal meat sold in Ghana's major markets every year amounts to anything between 200 and 350 million dollars in revenue. Perhaps, what is unknown to many Ghanaians is that these revenues from the sale of grasscutter (akrantie), antelopes, rats, snails, birds, etc., rub shoulders with, and even outstrip annual revenues from timber and minerals.
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| Books and Perspectives
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Celebrating Japan's culinary traditions
Full story: Japan Times
It seems implausible these days but, until 150 years ago or so, Japan was essentially a vegetarian country. Certainly, river fish were caught, seafood was eaten by people on the coast and hunting was part of life for those living in the inhospitable interior. But the Buddhist tenets against taking life were officially embraced in Japan for over 1,000 years. It is this deeply ingrained approach to eating and living that Elizabeth Andoh introduces so beautifully in her latest cookbook, Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions. As she writes in the introduction, "Kansha is about abundance - of grains, legumes, roots, shoots, leafy plants, shrubs, herbs, berries, seeds, tree fruits and nuts - not abstinence (doing without meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy). It is about nourishing ourselves with what nature provides, cleverly and respectfully applying human technique and technology."
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Japan Times - December 31
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Nutrition advice from the China Study
Full story: New York Times Blogs
Six years ago a small Texas publisher released an obscure book written by a father-son research team. The work, based on a series of studies conducted in rural China and Taiwan, challenged the conventional wisdom about health and nutrition by espousing the benefits of a plant-based diet. To everyone's surprise, the book, called The China Study, has since sold 500,000 copies, making it one of the country's best-selling nutrition titles. The book focuses on the knowledge gained from the China Study, a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine that showed high consumption of animal-based foods is associated with more chronic disease, while those who ate primarily a plant-based diet were the healthiest. Recently, I spoke with T. Colin Campbell, a co-author of the book and professor emeritus at Cornell University, about the success of the book, the research behind it, and why he thinks the nation's health woes can be solved by plant-based eating. Here's our conversation. [Editor's note: Having just finished reading it, I can attest that this is a must-read book!]
Read more... |
New York Times Blogs - January 7
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Visit our VegE-Store for books and more
Thanks for your support!
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| Of Note - Recipes, Videos, Blogs, Calls to Action, More
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Healthy resolutions
January is a great time for healthy recipes: check our VegE-News recipe pages for this broccoli salad with peppers, blueberries topped by a truffle oil and white balsamic vinegar dressing. For a heartier dish, add chick peas or lupin beans (see note in recipe about how to cook them). While you're there browse our vegan healthy eating tips. We've also included below links for a tasty broccoli soup from the Cancer Project; a Mediterranean barley veggie stew loaded with delicious goodness; a quinoa stuffed portebello mushrooms - "the vegan meat of vegans" - from episode 8 of Vegucating Robin.
VegE-News recipes and tips
Video: Creamy broccoli soup
Mediterranean barley vegetable stew
Video:Stuffed portabello mushrooms
Please tell your friends
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Video (and audio) shorts
This month: Two reports of firefighters adopting the "Engine 2 Diet" with amazing results; a disturbing undercover video from Mercy for Animals showing cruel fish slaughter in the U.S.; interesting On-Point radio program on how veganism has (suddently!) gone mainstream - it's the current "big conversation" topic.
Firefighters go veggie - two videos
Cruel fish slaughter
Audio: Vegans take America
Valentine gifts with compassion
Give a truly heart-felt gift....
Farm Sanctuary
PETA
lots of gift ideas - or be an 'angel' and give a doghouse for a cold, lonely dog
Podcasts/Blogs/Websites
The International Fund for Animal Welfare does wonderful work of animals and their blog is always interesting and informative. You can also read about the rescue efforts for animals in the Australia floods - and offer support at the link below.
IFAW blog
Australia flood response
Lindsay Wolf's Kiss Me, I'm Vegan blog began as a guide to cooking a plant-based diet but soon developed into much more. Recently, Lindsay conducted a series of interviews with animal activists, from vegan chefs to sanctuary owners, including an interview with FARM's founder, Dr. Alex Hershaft.
Kiss Me, I'm Vegan interview with Dr. Alex Hershaft
For French readers, we'd like to pass on the excellent PMAF - Protection mondiale des animaux de ferme (World Protection for Farm Animals) site - they're doing some wonderful advocacy work in France.
PMAF
We've also recently discovered Beauty Without Cruelty - India, also doing extraordinary work on behalf of animals - and an interesting story on how the organization got its name.
Beauty Without Cruelty - India
Calls to action
Former National Hockey League superstar George Laraque has offered $100K to move Lucy the Elephant from her lonely existence at the Edmonton zoo. He is asking for help to convince the powers that be before she dies from old age and loneliness.
Toronto Star article on Lucy
Edmonton Journal article on Lucy
CTV coverage on Lucy
www.savelucy.ca/
Canada will start the sale of seal fur and meat products to China soon. It means that the seal hunt that we have all fought against will resume and more seals will be killed. IFAW has a campaign to fight against this atrocity.
End the seal hunt
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