THE VEGETARIAN BLOG

I read this great article about veganism and how to turn it into a culinary art form, which I’d like to share. Here’s a taster:

What most people don’t realize is that it’s very possible, indeed even probable, for a creative chef to make vegan food just as exciting and full of variety as any other type of cuisine.

The full article is here.

The point is, living healthily and ethically is not as easy as living life mindlessly and unhealthily - the world is designed that way. However, the same principle applies to everything. If you want to be good at your job, you need some dedication. To be physically fit, you need to exercise. To be a good friend, you need to give people a slice of your time. And the list goes on. Veganism is like that: with a few adjustments, it becomes second nature. It’s as easy as that.

On a different note: UPI has a list of the worst countries for vegans and vegetarians to travel to . It confirmed what I partly knew from my own experience: Mexico, Spain, Germany, Cuba and Central Asia. Oddly, a country like Spain that depends on tourism should be better prepared to welcome us vegans, but for some reason it is stuck in time. Let’s hope it changes one day. I spent two years in that country and I found their eating habits very limited and unhealthy.

Great news for vegans everywhere: the American Dietetic Association has released an updated position paper on vegetarian diets and it says loud and clear that such diets, if well-planned, are “healthful and nutritious for adults, infants, children and adolescents and can help prevent and treat chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes.”

Of course, all diets should be well planned, so don’t interpret this detail as a difficulty. Here’s an excerpt of the paper:

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes.

The organization says the revised paper incorporates new topics and additional information on key nutrients for vegetarians, vegetarian diets in the life cycle and the use of vegetarian diets in prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. “Vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle. There are many reasons for the rising interest in vegetarian diets. The number of vegetarians in the United States is expected to increase over the next decade.

The paper highlights several health benefits of a plant-based diet: “Vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index and lower overall cancer rates. Vegetarian diets tend to be lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and have higher levels of dietary fiber, magnesium and potassium, vitamins C and E, folate, carotenoids, flavonoids and other phytochemicals. These nutritional differences may explain some of the health advantages of those following a varied, balanced vegetarian diet.”

The position paper draws on results from ADA’s evidence analysis process and information from the ADA Evidence Analysis Library to show vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate in pregnancy and result in positive maternal and infant health outcomes. Additionally, an evidence-based review showed a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease.

A section in ADA’s paper on vegetarian diets and cancer has been significantly expanded to provide details on cancer-protective factors in vegetarian diets. An expanded section on osteoporosis includes roles of fruits, vegetables, soy products, protein, calcium, vitamins D and K and potassium in bone health.

The American Dietetic Association is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. For further information visit: www.eatright.org .

One of America’s leading vegetarian events, the Vegetarian Summerfest, is taking place between July 08 and 12 and it promises a bumper array of speakers and the chance to socialize with vegetarians and vegans from all over the country. It will take place at the Conference Center at Pitt-Johnstown, on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA. The campus is a 650-acre mountaintop wildlife preserve with 40 acres of hiking trails. The event is organised by the North American Vegetarian Society.

I wish I could be there … but if you are in the area, make sure you join the throngs of vegetable-customed vegans (well, not quite everyone) marching down the Greenwich Village next Sunday, 17 May. It’s the Veggie Pride Parade and the line up starts at 11 to launch at 12noon.

This the second issue of the event that started last year, inspired by a similar initiative in Europe. It will be a day of fun, talks from luminaries from the animal rights movement, music and plant foods galore. Un-missable!

Watch the video of the 2008 Veggie Pride Parade in New York City

Today is Earth Day and all over the world people are pay homage to this fantastic vessel we live on and how a vegan diet can mitigate our impact on this planet. One of the events that called my attention was an initiative by Takoma Park City Council where Mayor Bruce Williams signed a Proclamation officially declaring April 24 through April 30, 2009 as Takoma Park Veg Week.

In addition to recognizing the many benefits of a plant-based diet, the Takoma Park Veg Week Proclamation encourages “residents to participate by choosing vegetarian foods as a way to help protect the planet, their health, and animals and to explore the wide variety of vegetarian cuisine offered” in the city.

Compassion Over Killing, a Takoma Park-based animal advocacy charity, applauded the Mayor for issuing this Proclamation, which expresses the compassionate and environmental sentiments shared by many community residents and businesses. Several local restaurants are participating in Veg Week by offering extended vegetarian menus or discounts on meatless options.

The week-long celebration will start on April 24, and includes a Veg Week Kick-Off Party with special guest Senator Jamie Raskin (D-20) who will share his plans to go vegetarian for the week: “As a lifelong carnivore, I will be kicking off a week of ‘experimental vegetarianism’ to see if I have what it takes to live on a nonviolent diet like the most ethically evolved people in the community.”

Every year in the U.S., more than 10 billion birds, pigs, and cattle are killed for food. Most of these animals are raised on massive, mechanized factory farms that are responsible for causing a tremendous amount of animal suffering as well as severe environmental degradation.

Choosing plant-based foods not only helps protect animals and the planet, but it’s also been shown to help protect our health. As stated in the Takoma Park Veg Week Proclamation, “the American Dietetic Association recognizes that a vegetarian diet decreases our risk of various ailments, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and various cancers.”

“As a growing number of people are choosing to leave animals off their plates,” says Compassion Over Killing Executive Director Erica Meier, “restaurants and grocery stores are responding by stocking up on more vegetarian items, making it easier than ever to find delicious meat-free fare in Takoma Park, and all around the D.C.-area.”

For more information about the benefits of vegetarian eating and to learn more about Veg Week, visit www.TakomaVegWeek.com

Earlier this week several media outlets announced with alarmist headlines that vegetarian diets can cause eating disorders. Of course, those who bother to read full articles, found out that the ‘study’ was not sure whether vegetarian people with alleged disorders had developed the problem before they had become vegetarians or not. But who cares in the hype-obsessed media landscape? The trouble with that sort of flash-in-the-pan approach to reporting is that the information in the headline is the one most people tend to retain while scanning the news, ignoring the details and nuances of an article. The damage is done and not repaired, given most people’s minuscule attention span these days.

The study was published by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and concerns with teen eating behavior. It included 2,500 females aged 15 to 23 and concluded that self-proclaimed vegetarians presented a higher rate of behavior associated with eating disorders. The study also found that the vegetarians also had better eating habits and healthier weight.

If we probe the report a little deeper we find that a high percentage of the girls who said they were vegetarians were not really since they also ate chicken and fish (a common misconception). Besides, previous studies have shown that girls with eating disorders sometimes adopt a ‘vegetarian’ diet in order to cover up suspicion-raising food habits.

A vegetarian diet has many benefits for women, including a lower rate of breast cancer, and of course, this is just one bonus of a plant-based diet since the animals and the environment benefit immensely from it as well. There are more effective tell-tale signs of eating disorders and these are not linked to what people eat, but how they eat.