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If the pharmaceutical industry produced a pill that provided the healing power of a plant-based diet, it would be a blockbuster. – Dr. Rob Ostfeld, Cardiologist
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In this edition...
Videos of the Month |
 Why vegan doctors are suing the U.S. government |
| Dairy detox |
Top Stories |
| World's happiest man is vegan |
| How eating plants may help prevent Alzheimer's disease |
| Suffering by the numbers - Thinking of giving up red meat? Half measures could increase animal suffering |
| Showing mercy to suffering animals is not 'criminal mischief' |
Health and Environment |
| Tick bites that trigger severe meat allergy on rise - most prevalent in Australia and U.S. |
| A high-fat diet could be harmful to young maturating brains: Study |
| EU wants to ban bass fishing in the Atlantic for a year |
| Food, energy drives 58 per cent decline in global wildlife populations |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| Berlin: Vegan capital of the world? |
| Vegans' bullheaded beef with Tyson Foods |
| Plant-based milk consumption growing in Australia |
| Why do American men eat far more meat than women do? |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| I visited a small, organic dairy rarm to see if animals treated better |
| Capuchin monkeys may have made those ancient stone tools - not humans |
| The lives of modern chickens |
| The trouble with eggs exposed again - this time in Mexico |
| In search of a way to prevent the gruesome deaths of male chicks |
Books and Perspectives |
| Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the world one heart at a time |
| The happy vegan |
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Videos of the Month 
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Why vegan doctors are suing the U.S. government
Video source: Plant Based News
Dr. Neal Barnard speaks at the VegSource healthy lifestyle expo on the scientific evidence for a plant-based diet, industry influence and why his organization is suing the U.S. federal government in a thoughtful and fascinating interview [27 minutes]...
Watch video... |
Plant Based News - October 23
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Dairy detox
Video source: Dairy Detox Diet
Michelle Cehn, Vegan Outreach's Social Media Manager and founder of World of Vegan, has teamed up with Allison Rivers Samson, an award-winning vegan chef, cookbook author, and wellness coach, and they've designed an awesome program to help cheese lovers ditch it for good!
Watch video... |
Dairy Detox Diet - October 13
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| Top Stories
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World's happiest man is vegan
Full story: VegNews
French-born Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, dubbed the world's happiest man, chose to go vegan five years ago. Matthieu Ricard's brain was determined to be neurologically "happier" after a 12-year medical study at the University of Wisconsin.
Read more... |
How eating plants may help prevent Alzheimer's disease
Full story: NutritionFacts.org
Intake of saturated fats and added sugars, two of the primary components of a modern Western diet, is linked with the development of Alzheimer's disease. There has been a global shift in dietary composition, from traditional diets high in starches and fiber, to what has been termed the Western diet, high in fat and sugar, low in whole, plant foods. What's so great about fruits and vegetables? Accumulated evidence suggests that naturally occurring plant compounds may potentially hinder neurodegeneration, and even improve memory and cognitive function
Read more... |
NutritionFacts.org - October 27
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Suffering by the numbers - Thinking of giving up red meat? Half measures could increase animal suffering
Full story: Los Angeles Times
[By Karen Dawn and Peter Singer.] If you give up red meat but continue eating fish and chicken you may end up increasing animal cruelty. To animal protection advocates, a pledge to eat less meat is good news. Even a small step like Meatless Mondays is generally better than nothing. Replacing pigs and cows with birds and fish, though, usually leads to the slaughter of many more animals, because, with a few exceptions, birds and fish are smaller. If you were to eat a pound of beef a day - say a huge steak or four beef patties - you might take a year to consume a single animal. If you were instead to eat a daily pound of chicken or salmon, you might eat hundreds of animals per year. Birds and fish are not demonstrably less sentient than mammals.
Read more... |
Los Angeles Times - October
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Showing mercy to suffering animals is not 'criminal mischief'
Full story: National Post
Canadian [Anita Krajnc of Toronto Pig Save] finds herself in court for giving water to thirsty pigs bound for a slaughterhouse... Social norms basically say that dogs are awesome and pigs are worthless. Provably, however, pigs are every bit the equals of dogs in their intelligence, emotional depth, and capacities for suffering and happiness alike. In countries where dogs are mostly appreciated, admired, and loved, while unseen pigs are killed by the hundreds of thousands every day, people need to pretend there's some subtle yet all-important moral difference between abusing one and abusing the other, or eating one and eating the other. And it falls to guileless souls like Anita Krajnc to remind them it's all just made up.
[A beautiful piece by Matthew Scully former George W. Bush speechwriter and author of 'Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.']
Read more... |
National Post - November 5
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Note:
The trial will likely not be decided until March and we wish all the best to Anita. More on the trial:
Pigs know their fate when they enter a slaughterhouse, expert says - CBC Canada (November 1)
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| Health and Environment
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Tick bites that trigger severe meat allergy on rise - most prevalent in Australia and U.S.
Full story: Guardian
People living in tick-endemic areas around the world are being warned of an increasingly prevalent, potentially life-threatening side effect to being bitten: developing a severe allergy to meat. Some immune systems are sensitive to proteins in the parasite's saliva and become intolerant of red meat and, in some cases, derivatives such as dairy and gelatine. Poultry and seafood can be tolerated, but many sufferers choose to avoid meat entirely. Cases of the emergent allergy have been reported in Europe, Asia, Central America and Africa, but it is most prevalent - and on the rise - in parts of Australia and the United States.
Read more... |
A high-fat diet could be harmful to young maturating brains: Study
Full story: CTV
New research suggests that an excess of fatty foods could affect the brain development of the young, potentially leading to cognitive defects later in life. The [Swiss] study looked at the difference in brains of young and adult mice who consumed either normal food or an extremely high-fat diet, which contained excessively high levels of saturated fats commonly found in fast foods, charcuterie products, butter and coconut oil. After a period of just four weeks, the team observed the first signs of cognitive impairment in the young mice fed the high-fat diet, which could be seen even before the mice had started to gain weight. [Editor's note: We do not condone research on animals.]
Read more... |
EU wants to ban bass fishing in the Atlantic for a year
Full story: Care2
Following strong recommendations from scientists who believe that the sea bass population is close to collapse, the EU Commission is proposing a near total ban on fishing bass in the Atlantic during the 2017 catch season... What will be crucial in moving forward is individual governments acknowledging the need to protect fish stocks for the future of fish populations, as well as the fishing industry.
Read more... |
Food, energy drives 58 per cent decline in global wildlife populations
Full story: ENN
Global populations of vertebrates - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish - have declined by 58 perc ent between 1970 and 2012, states a new report from World Wildlife Fund. "This research delivers a wake-up call that for decades we've treated our planet as if it's disposable," said Carter Roberts, WWF president and CEO. "We created this problem. The good news is that we can fix it. It requires updating our approach to food, energy, transportation, and how we live our lives."
Read more... |
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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Berlin: Vegan capital of the world?
Full story: Deutsche Welle
Berlin has become a haven for vegans, with specialized restaurants, butchers and even sex shops. And although veganism is about protecting animals and the environment, being vegan in Berlin is so much more. "It's certainly fashionable. If you really want to be cool in Berlin, you've got to be vegan," Sebastian Joy of Vebu, Germany's largest vegetarian and vegan organization, told DW.
Read more... |
Deutsche Welle - October 19
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Vegans' bullheaded beef with Tyson Foods
Full story: Wall Street Journal
Tyson Foods, the largest meat company in the U.S., recently purchased a 5% stake in the vegan startup Beyond Meat. Many fans of the smaller company's offerings were less than pleased... Yet I [as a former PETA exec] want to publicly thank Tyson for being the first major meat company in the U.S. to invest in plant-based proteins. This is an immense investment opportunity. Bill Gates has called plant-based meat 'the future of food.' In May, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, told the Milken Global Summit that alternative proteins may well save the planet from climate change. But it was anybody's guess whether the meat industry would see this as opportunity or a threat. To Tyson's great credit it has chosen the former. I hope with all my heart that others will follow, creating a seamless shift away from animal meat toward healthier and more humane options.
Read more... |
Wall Street Journal - October 23
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Plant-based milk consumption growing in Australia
Full story: ABC, Australia
[In Australia] "alternative milks" are rising in popularity, and new research shows consumers are increasingly lapping them up. Supermarkets now stock a range of plant-based milks, including soy, almond, coconut, hazelnut, rice, oat and more recently, macadamia milk. "While the incidences of lactose intolerance have been increasing there have also been food trends that recommend avoiding cow's milk," IBISWorld analyst Lauren Magner said. In the United States consumers are turning away from traditional dairy in droves, leading the push towards plant-based milks.
Read more... |
ABC, Australia - October 24
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Why do American men eat far more meat than women do?
Full story: Treehugger
Many men have a complicated relationship with meat, from misconceptions about healthy quantities to fraught perceptions of masculinity, which makes them leery of a vegetarian diet... Is there a way to package vegetarianism in a more masculine light? Absolutely, and researchers are working hard on this is the context of other eco-friendly products.
Read more... |
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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I visited a small, organic dairy rarm to see if animals treated better
Full story: Free From Harm
While passing a small dairy farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore [U.S.] in early October, I decided to pull over and have a closer look... This calf licked my hand and wanted to suckle. They should be as playful as puppies, but instead their spirits are already broken and there is a look of hopelessness in their eyes.
Read more... |
Free From Harm - October 26
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Capuchin monkeys may have made those ancient stone tools - not humans
Full story/Video: Care2
 Until recently, stone flakes - ancient sharp-edged tools that have been unearthed at archeological sites - were believed to have been made by early humans. But now researchers have discovered these tools may really have been made by capuchin monkeys.
Read more/Watch video... |
The lives of modern chickens
Full story: Farm Sanctuary
In the 1920s, chickens raised and killed for meat lived 112 days, growing to 2.2 pounds on optimal feed before being slaughtered. Now, after decades of genetic manipulations, they are butchered after only about 45-55 days, at 5.5 pounds or more.
Read more... |
The trouble with eggs exposed again - this time in Mexico
Full story: Care2
Another undercover investigation has exposed the mistreatment of egg-laying hens who are some of the most abused animals on earth, but this time around it's at a factory farm in Mexico. Sadly, like other investigations, this one brings to light some of worst practices used in the egg industry, including over-crowding in battery cages, debeaking, along with sick and injured hens left to suffer and die slowly without help. It also brings to light the cruel practice of forced molting.
Read more... |
In search of a way to prevent the gruesome deaths of male chicks
Full story: Washington Post
Amid the recent, growing opposition to tightly caged hens, another practice in the poultry industry has drawn less notice: All male chicks born at egg farm hatcheries are slaughtered the day they hatch. This is typically done by shredding them alive, in what amounts to a blender. Now a Texas-based company that sells eggs from pasture-raised hens has entered the race to make an industrial-scale sexing technology, saying it has developed a method that can be used the day eggs are laid.
Read more... |
Washington Post - October 27
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| Books and Perspectives
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Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the world one heart at a time
Full story: Vegan Outreach
When did you succumb to the Esther the Wonder Pig effect? I'm just assuming that you have, because who hasn't? I read the book-Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the World One Heart at a Time-in a few hours, and the only disappointment I had was that it ended too soon. You may or may not already know all the details of Esther's story, but reading through [her 'dads] Steve's and Derek's perspective, you'll find little gems and tidbits that weren't always in the published articles. How difficult was it to potty train Esther? What struggles did they go through with the decision to keep Esther?
Read more... |
Vegan Outreach - October 13
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The happy vegan
Full story: Vegan Outreach
Who would have thought that the long-time hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons would become a hardcore yogi, let alone a super-passionate vegan? I definitely didn't, so reading his engaging book, The Happy Vegan: A Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life, not only helped me learn more about him, but it also reminded me of the main reasons why I chose to live vegan. Simmons dropped so much knowledge in an entertaining yet laid-back way, which I'm sure, converted many pre-vegans.
Read more... |
Vegan Outreach - October 20
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