Sayonara DC, Hello Austin July 15th, 2010

First things first…

Congratulations to Molly and Caitlin for winning the two copies of Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows! I hope you both enjoy the book and “pay it forward” by not only lending the book to others, but also encouraging others to question their carnistic beliefs.

PS – To be fair, I used Random.org to select the winners.

random

Now on to other things…

I’ll be taking a little break from posting for the next 2 weeks as I move from Washington, DC to Austin, TX.

This coming week I’ll be enjoying a between-jobs vacation in one of my favorite places on Earth: Palm Beach, FL where the ocean is crystal clear blue and a comfortable 84 degrees!  The following week Ed and I will be road-tripping it from DC to Austin. We have a tentative itinerary, but  it is subject to change. I’ll post about our travels when we arrive in Austin! (Finding veg food on a road trip through the south… this is going to be interesting.)

This move is extremely bittersweet.  While I’m VERY EXCITED to be closer to my family and friends (I’m from San Antonio, went to undergrad in Austin), I’m at the same time VERY SAD to be leaving such an amazing group of friends here in DC. Ed and I will miss you all tremendously and hope you’ll come crash on our couch as much as we plan to come back up here and crash on yours!  We love you guys!!

Things I’ll miss in DC (besides the friends):

1. All the free museums!
2. Playing sports right on The Mall (pretty awesome to see the Capitol in the outfield when up at bat)
3. Running around Hains Point and the Tidal basin
4. Cherry Blossoms
5. Ethiopian food and all of the other wonderfully diverse cuisines that help keep DC at the top of the vegetarian-friendly cities list
6. Being able to walk and take metro everywhere
7.  All of the arts & crafts and farmers markets
8. Taking the bus to Baltimore, Philly, and New York
9. The U Street Corridor (my favorite neighborhood in DC)
10. The “we can make a difference” mentality and “important things are happening here” energy of the city

If you’ve never been to Austin to experience it for yourself, you’ve probably at least heard talk of how great it is! Although I lived in Austin during college, I definitely didn’t take advantage of all it has to offer (apparently I was too absorbed with campus activities, frat parties, and eating gobs of Freebirds) so I can’t wait to get back and fully enjoy it!

Why I’m excited about Austin:

1. Swimming at Barton Springs
2. Watching the bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge
3. South By Southwest, Austin City Limits, Austin Reggae Festival and the many more music & movie festivals in Austin
4. Authentic Mexican food and the Austin food trailers (Ed and i have already come to the conclusion that we’re going to get fat in Austin!)
5. South Congress (shopping & eating, two of my favorite things)
6. Town Lake running trail
7. The ultimate Whole Foods
8. Veggie Dog eating contest and Austin’s general veg-conscious state of mind, as they continue to make the list as one of the top vegetarian-friendly cities
9. Cheap beer (hello, I haven’t paid under $4 a beer since moving to DC)
10. The “Keep Austin Weird” mentality and general eccentric energy that radiates from the city!

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Breakfast: Two peaches
Lunch: A pulled BBQ sandwich with Gardein’s pulled BBQ shreds – not too shabby!
Dinner: Bar appetizers at my work going away party – nachos, soft pretzels, mozzarella sticks, potato skins (we asked for no bacon)

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Be Careful What You Fish For July 14th, 2010

Anyone who made it through Biology 101 knows that fish have nerves and brains that sense pain, just like all other animals. Scientists tell us that fish nervous systems closely resemble our own, even including neurotransmitters like endorphins that relieve suffering – of course, the only reason for a nervous system to produce pain killers is to relieve pain.

Studies show that fish can learn to avoid pain as well. From one researcher, “Pain avoidance in fish doesn’t seem to be a reflex response, rather one that is learned, remembered and is changed according to different circumstances.” Scientists have even shown that fish feel emotional stress and “engage in a rocking motion strikingly similar to the kind of motion seen in stressed mammals.”

Whether they are farmed or fished from the ocean, what happens to fish before they end up on your plate is nothing short of animal cruelty.

Wild Fish

Overfishing

There is no doubt about it, we are overfishing our oceans and are dangerously close to eliminating many fish species.

Remember the cod, seemingly infinite in number and fished for centuries in North America? Well, the fishery collapsed in 1992 due to rapacious factory fishing and short-sightedness. The number of cod today is around one percent of what it was in the 1960s and in 2000, cod were placed on the endangered species list. Even with the North American cod fishing ban, the cod numbers are still struggling and it is unknown if the population will ever recover.

Similarly, the west-coast salmon fishery failed in 2008. The Atlantic bluefin tuna has been reduced to about 15% of pre-industrial numbers. In 2006, it was reported that 30% of the world’s fisheries had collapsed, with catches falling below 10% of the original yield. It is predicted that the remaining commercial fish species will be exhausted by mid-century, meaning no more wild fish, at all.

Mis-labeling (intentionally)

Given the dwindling supplies, consumers are now being fed a ‘bait & switch.’ Many packaged, frozen, and fast food fish are mis-labeled, substituting fish that were once considered garbage fish (like hoki), which are more abundant in numbers (for now),  for the species you think you’re getting. The FDA recently determined that 37% of fish and 13% of other seafood was mislabeled! As much as 77% of so-called red snapper is anything but.

The FDA has established guidelines for fish labeling, but thanks to industry lobbying, there are plenty of exemptions. This has led to some surreal mislabeling: Importers started selling Vietnamese catfish under the brand name Cajun Delight. The rock crab, once a garbage catch, was reborn as the peekytoe crab. The channel catfish has become the southern trout, dolphinfish is now mahi mahi, the Patagonian toothfish is now the Chilean sea bass, the Malabar blood snapper is now the scarlet snapper, and the fish known now as orange roughy used to be called the slimehead.

These less desirable fish now even finding their way into fancy restaurants because increasingly, that’s all that’s left.  So, why not switch to farmed fish, where the population is bred and sustained?  Unfortunately, farmed fish is even worse!

Farmed Fish

Health Effects

Just as with land animals, disease and parasites run rampant in densely packed fish feedlots. To combat these ailments, fish are vaccinated when young, then are continuously given antibiotics or pesticides to ward off infections. Sea lice, in particular, are a major problem. At the first sign of a sea-lice outbreak, pesticide is added to the feed.

Studies have found that farm-raised salmon contain more cancer-causing PCBs and dioxins than wild ones, typically originating in their feed. In some cases, the levels of contaminants are so high that by EPA guidelines, you shouldn’t even have one serving a month! (It’s more like one serving every 5 months in the case of some farmed salmon.) Researchers estimate that the risk of cancer from contaminants is about 3 times higher for farmed salmon compared to wild.

The Salmofan

The Salmofan

In the wild, salmon absorb carotenoids from eating pink krill. On an aquafarm, their rich pink hue is supplied by canthaxanthin, a synthetic, manufactured pigment. Fish farmers can even choose what shade of pink their fish will display from the manufacturer’s trademarked SalmoFan, a color swatch similar to those you’d find at a paint store. Without this synthetic coloring, the flesh of farmed salmon would be a pale halibut gray. Canthaxanthin is linked to retinal damage in people who use it as a sunless tanning pill, leading Britain to ban its use, but of course it’s still available in the US.

Even the good stuff in farmed salmon comes with problems. Yes, farmed salmon contain more oil, including heart-friendly omega-3, but that also includes a much higher percentage of the not-so-healthy omega-6 (up to twice as much in some farmed fish).  Farm raised fish are also fattier, not surprisingly since they circle lazily in crowded pens and fatten up on fish chow. Cultivated catfish contain nearly 5 times the amount of fat as their wild counterparts.

Environmental Effects

Fish farming is extremely rough on the environment, too. Fish farmed in open pen nets are now about 50% of the world’s source of fish (hatchery fish are about 30% and wild fish are the remaining 20%).

Open-net fish farm

Open-net fish farm

Fish hatchery

Fish hatchery

Aquafarms (often called “floating pig farms”) put a terrific strain on their surrounding environments. Uneaten feed and and waste blankets the sea floor beneath these farms, creating a breeding ground for bacteria that consume oxygen vital to shellfish and other bottom-dwelling creatures. A good sized fish farm produces the same amount of excrement as a city of 10,000 people.

The additives to the food pellets (pesticides, antibiotics, artificial coloring) drift into the ocean and pollute the natural food chain. Toxic copper sulfate, used to keep the nets algae free also drifts into the surrounding water. This pesticide and antibiotic buildup in the water has resulted in the development of resistant strains of bacteria and infections that can effect not only the farm-raised fish, but now the wild fish as well. Research shows that sea lice from fish farms kills up to 95% of juvenile wild salmon that migrate past an aquafarm.

And perhaps the most serious concern is the problem fish farms were meant to alleviate: the depletion of marine life from over-fishing. Salmon farming actually increases the depletion of marine life because, unlike vegetarian catfish which thrive on grains, captive salmon are carnivores and must be fed fish during the 2-3 year period when they are raised. To produce 1 lb of farmed salmon, 2.4 – 5 lbs of wild sardines, anchovies, mackerel, herring, and other fish must be ground up and rendered into pellets of salmon chow.  Farming fish creates a problematic redistribution of protein in the food system. Removing such immense amounts of small prey fish from an ecosystem can significantly upset its balance. This simply can not be sustained.

Other reported environmental impacts include seabirds ensnared in netting, sea lions shot for preying on penned fish, and escaped farmed fish (about 1 million salmon have escaped through holes in nets from storm-wrecked farms) competing with wild ones for food, mating, and spawning grounds. The interbreeding of wild and farm stocks poses the threat of diluting the wild gene pool. Biologists fear that Atlantic salmon invaders will out-compete Pacific salmon and trout for food and territory. An Atlantic salmon takeover could knock nature’s balance out of whack and turn a healthy, diverse marine habitat into one dominated by a single invasive species. (Not to mention the repercussions of the genetically modified “frankenfish” escaping into the wild!)

What To Do

Obviously, the best option for everyone involved is to refrain from consuming fish. This will not only help to preserve our precious aquatic ecosystem, but will also keep you free from the carcinogens found in farmed fish.

However, if you simply must eat fish (and I do not in any way advocate this, but I feel it is better to provide the information than to allow you to continue blindly consuming unhealthy and environmentally detrimental fish), then choose line-caught Alaskan fish. The healthiest populations and habitats exist in Alaska. In fact, due to the successful efforts of conserving and protecting wild salmon habitats, the Alaskan Salmon Fishery recently received the Marine Stewardship Council’s label for sustainability. The Marine Stewardship Council’s labels are intended to guide customers to species that are not being over-harvested. (But remember, those fish did, without a doubt, feel pain.)

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Breakfast: Smoothie with banana and pear
Lunch: Indonesian peanut noodles from Noodles & Co.
Dinner: Taco salad

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Meatless Monday #37: Mini Burritos July 12th, 2010

art 001

Oh wow, these turned out FANTASTIC!

Ingredients:
Tortillas
Rice and taco seasoning OR some sort of Mexican/Spanish rice
Refried beans
Soy chorizo (Trader Joe’s is my absolute favorite) OR meatless crumbles and taco seasoning
Vegan cheese, like Daiya
Red salsa
Jalapenos (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cook rice according to directions. If not using a flavored rice, add some taco seasoning to cooked rice & mix.
3. In each tortilla, add a spoonful of each ingredient (rice, refried beans, chorizo, cheese, and salsa). Optionally, add 1-2 slices of jalapeno.
4. Roll the tortilla around the fillings, tucking in the ends so filling does not fall out.
5. Place all rolled tortillas on a baking dish. Top rolled burritos with a spoonful of salsa and cheese.
6. Bake at 350 until warmed all the way through (10-15 mins?)

art 002

art 007

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Join the the Meatless Monday movement! One day a week, cut out meat to reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel.

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The Great Eight: 8 Foods Every Vegetarian Should Eat July 8th, 2010

**Don’t forget about the book giveaway! Enter to win by Tues, July 13th**

This list of 8 foods every vegetarian should eat was compiled by Vegetarian Times.

It is easy to maintain a balanced, nutritious vegetarian diet if you eat the right foods. All of the foods on this list are loaded with one or more of the hardest nutrients for vegetarians to get: protein, iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. Work in daily servings of The Great Eight and worry no more about getting your vital nutrients!

(Keep in mind that if you don’t eat eggs or dairy, you’ll want to take a B12 supplement, or a multi-vitamin containing B12, to make sure you’re getting enough.)

PS – I donated blood yesterday. When I was a meat-eater I sometimes couldn’t pass the iron test to qualify to donate. Yesterday was my first donation as a vegetarian and I passed with flying colors!  The nurse asked me, “Do you eat a healthy diet?” I told her, “I think so… I’m a vegetarian.”  Then she said, “Well, you’re eating the right vegetables because you’ve got plenty of iron.”  Sweet.

1. Tofu

tofu-in-bowlWhy it’s great: Plain tofu has a lot going for it. It’s a terrific source of protein, zinc, iron, and it even contains some cholesterol-lowering omega-3 fatty acids. It also gives you more than 100 milligrams (mg) of calcium in a half cup. But the same amount of calcium-enriched tofu gives you up to 350 mg (about one-third of your daily needs) plus roughly 30 percent of your daily vitamin D, which helps your body absorb the calcium—an extra bone-building punch that many people need. Look for enriched soymilk, too, which is also fortified with calcium and vitamin D.

Tip: “Tofu can be substituted for the same amount of meat, poultry or fish in almost any recipe,” says Sass. Firm tofu works best because it holds its shape when you sauté it or grill it.

2. Lentils

lentilsWhy they’re great: Lentils, like beans, are part of the legume family, and like beans, they’re an excellent source of protein and soluble fiber. But lentils have an edge over most beans: They contain about twice as much iron. They’re also higher in most B vitamins and folate, which is especially important for women of childbearing age as folate reduces the risk for some birth defects. For new vegetarians, lentils are also the perfect way to start eating more legumes because they tend to be less gassy.

Tip: Lentil soup is just the beginning. Add lentils to vegetable stews, chilis or casseroles. Toss them with red onions and vinaigrette. Stir them into curries; cook them with carrots. Experiment with different varieties—red lentils cook up very fast and can be turned into bright purées.

3. Beans

beansjpg-700668Why they’re great: A cup a day gives you about one-third of your iron and protein and roughly half your fiber. Even better, most of that is soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol. One cup also provides a good amount of potassium, zinc and many B vitamins, and some calcium too. Just one alert: Rinse canned beans well—they can be soaked in salt.

Tip: It was once thought that to get a complete protein, you needed to combine beans with grains (rice, pasta, bread) at the same meal. “Now we know you just have to eat them during the same day,” Sass says. Toss beans and vegetables with whole wheat pasta; make soups and chilis with several varieties; add a sprinkling to grain salads. And for a different taste treat, look for canned heirloom varieties.

4. Nuts

nuts1240705690Why they’re great: They’re a nifty source of quick, totally palatable protein. In addition, walnuts, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, macadamias and Brazil nuts are rich in zinc, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Some, like almonds, even provide a decent amount of calcium (about 175 mg in a half cup).

There’s also some great nut news: “Recent studies show that even though nuts are high in calories, eating them does not lead to weight gain,” says Sass. In fact, people who eat nut-rich diets tend to weigh less than those who don’t, say researchers at Loma Linda University and Purdue University. Peanuts may even help weight loss. Why nuts don’t make you fat—and may even help you lose weight—isn’t clear. “It’s possible that nuts make you feel so full that you’re less likely to overeat other foods,” says Sass. Other experts suspect that the labor-intense job of digesting nuts burns off calories. There are also hints that nuts increase the amount of fat that passes through the digestive tract, which might explain nut-linked weight loss. More research is obviously needed!

Tip:  Different nuts give you different nutrients. For example, a half cup of almonds provides about four times as much fiber as the same amount of cashews. Cashews, however, contain about twice as much iron and zinc as almost any other nut. Pecans and walnuts tend to land right in the middle for most nut nutrients—potassium, magnesium, zinc and calcium. Sprinkle them in salads, or keep a bag of mixed nuts in your desk or backpack. Garnish smooth soups with crunchy whole nuts, stir chopped nuts into muffins and add crushed nuts to pie crust.

5. Grains

whole-grainsWhy they’re great: Some enriched whole-grain cereals are fortified with hard-to-get vitamin B12—some even offer 100 percent of a day’s requirement in one serving—as well as iron, calcium and many other nutrients. Keep in mind that if you don’t eat eggs or dairy, you’ll have to take a B12 supplement to make sure you’re getting enough. As a group, cereals and other whole-grain foods (whole wheat breads and pastas, brown rice,  etc.) are also high in other B vitamins, zinc and, of course, insoluble fiber, which not only helps whisk cholesterol out of your system but may reduce your risk of colon cancer and
other digestive disorders.

Tip: Because different grains provide different nutrients, vary the types you eat. “It’s easy to get into a rut of, say, just making brown rice all the time. It’s better to mix up the grains you eat, including oatmeal, bulgur, wild rice, whole rye and pumpernickel breads,” says Sass. Also try some of the ancient grains—spelt, farro, kamut—which are now sold at most whole foods markets.

6. Leafy GreensGreens

Why they’re great: Unlike most vegetables, dark leafy greens such as spinach, broccoli, kale, Swiss chard and collards contain healthful amounts of iron—especially spinach, which has about 6 grams or about one-third of a day’s supply. They’re also a great source of cancer-fighting antioxidants; are high in folic acid and vitamin A; and they even contain calcium, but in a form that’s not easily absorbed. Cooking greens and/or sprinkling them with a little lemon juice or vinegar makes the calcium more available to your body, says Sass.

Tip: Always try to eat iron-rich foods with foods that are high in vitamin C because the C helps your body absorb the iron. With dark leafy greens, this comes naturally—just toss them into salads with yellow and red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mandarin oranges or any citrus. Or if you prefer your veggies cooked, sauté a couple of cups of greens in some seasoned olive oil with sweet peppers, garlic and onion.

7. Seaweeds

seaweedWhy they’re great: Besides being a terrific source of iron and phytochemicals, many seaweeds—such as alaria, dulse, kelp, nori, spirulina and agar—are good sources of minerals, including magnesium, calcium, iodine, iron and chromium, as well as vitamins A, C, E and many of the Bs. Talk about superfoods!

Tip: Add chopped dulse to salads or sandwiches, sauté it with other vegetables or use it in soups. Use nori sheets as the wrappers for vegetarian sushi. Toast kelp, and crumble it on pasta or rice, or add it to noodle soups. Browse through Japanese or Korean markets to find seaweeds to sample.

8. Dried Fruits

dried_fruit1240705656Why they’re great: They’re good, super-convenient sources of iron—and if you combine them with some mixed nuts, you’ve got a packet of iron and protein you can take anywhere easily. In addition, dried fruits—think apricots, raisins, prunes, mangoes, pineapple, figs, dates, cherries and cranberries—provide a wide array of minerals and vitamins as well as some fiber. And even kids love to snack on them.

Tip: Sprinkle them on salads, use in chutneys, stir into puréed squash and sweet potatoes, or blend with nuts and seeds to make your own favorite snack mix. Chopped up, dried fruits make healthful additions to puddings, fruit-based pie fillings, oat bars, cookies, hot and cold cereals—you name it.

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Breakfast: Bagel with jelly
Lunch: Amy’s black bean burrito and an orange
Dinner: Veggie tacos filled with mushrooms, zucchini, and squash at Rosa Mexicano

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY! July 6th, 2010

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows

In Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows author Melanie Joy, PhD, introduces us to her doctoral research on a belief system that enables us to eat some animals, but not others – a belief system she calls “carnism.”

The book begins with a hypothetical situation: You are at a friend’s house for dinner. Your friend serves you a delicious stew – the most delicious stew you’ve ever tasted! After scarfing down half your bowl of scrumptious stew, you ask your friend for the recipe. Your friend replies with, “You start with some well marinated Golden Retriever meat…”

What is your reaction? Do you continue to eat the stew that you just a moment ago thought was so delightful? Or are you so completely disgusted that you’ve just eaten dog, you can no longer consume the stew?

Now assume that you’re friend tells you it was just a joke – the meat is actually beef. Is your appetite fully restored? Do you resume eating the stew with the same enthusiasm as before? Or are you left with some type of residual emotional discomfort?

What is going on here? How can food, given one label, be considered highly palatable and that same food, given another, become virtually inedible? The main ingredient – meat – didn’t change at all. It is animal flesh either way – it just became, or seemed to become, meat from a different animal. Why is it that we have such radically different reactions to meat from cows and meat from dogs?

This book aims to answer that question by exploring Americans’ perception of animals. A portion of the book is dedicated to describing what happens on factory farms – the abuse of animals and how it is hidden from the public (meat, diary, eggs, and seafood are each given sections), the horror of slaughterhouses, the mistreatment of factory workers, and the lack of safety standards that lead to disease and illness in the public. There is also an examination of meat’s impact on the environment and on our health.

But the most interesting parts of the book, to me, are the philosophical discussions.

“It is an odd phenomenon, the way we react to the idea of eating dogs and other inedible animals. Even stranger, though, is the way we don’t react to the idea of eating cows and other edible animals. There is an unexplained gap, a missing link, in our perceptual process when it comes to edible species; we fail to make the connection between meat and its animal source. Have you ever wondered why, out of tens of thousands of animal species, you probably feel disgusted at the idea of eating all but a tiny handful of them? What is most striking about our selection of edible and inedible animals is not the presence of disgust, but the absence of it. Why are we not averse to eating the very small selection of animals we have deemed edible?”

This book gives a fantastic psychological and sociological examination of carnistic beliefs – the beliefs that allow an entire society to continue inhumanely raising and slaughtering certain animals, while loving and nurturing others, and not realizing the illogical nature of this behavior. Our attitudes and behaviors toward animals are so inconsistent, and that inconsistency is so unexamined. It is absurd that we love dogs, yet eat pigs, and don’t even know why.

“Many of us spend long minutes in the aisle of the drugstore mulling over what toothpaste to buy. Yet most of us don’t spend any time at all thinking about what species of animal we eat and why. [...] What could cause an entire society of people to check their thinking caps at the door – and not even realize they’re doing so?“

For the answer, you’ll definitely want to read this book! In addition to being informative about the meat industry, it also presents thought-provoking ideas about herd mentality and will likely trigger some self-examination.

The GIVEAWAY!

The publisher of this book, Conari Press, has graciously given me TWO copies of this book to give to readers! [This has not influenced my opinion of this book in any way.] To win a copy, leave a comment on this post by midnight on Tuesday, July 13th! I will select two commenters at random to receive this book.  Let me know your thoughts on carnism (or maybe your reactions to eating dog), or just let me know that you want to read the book.

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Brunch: Tofu scramble breakfast tacos with Gimmie Lean sausage, spinach, and Veggie Shreds cheese
food 012
Dinner: The BEST veggie burger I’ve EVER had from BGR!!!

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Washington, DC Joins The Meatless Monday Movement! July 2nd, 2010

The City Council of the District of Columbia passed a ceremonial resolution encouraging city residents to “abstain from animal products on Mondays.” Not just meat, but all animal products. Nice. This victory for farmed animals was helped along by the fine people at Compassion Over Killing.

And because I like this resolution so much, here it is in all its glory (bold text was added by me):

DC Meat Free Monday

Councilmember Yvette M. Alexander

A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

To acknowledge the obesity epidemic in the District of Columbia, to highlight the benefits of diets high in fruits and vegetables, to encourage residents to abstain from animal products on Mondays, and to celebrate the abundance of produce grown in community gardens and in neighboring regions.

WHEREAS, the rate of adolescent obesity in the District of Columbia is the highest in the nation and nearly half of the children in some wards are overweight. Obese children and adolescents are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems, such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem, and Type-2 diabetes.

WHEREAS, childhood obesity disproportionately affects low-income and minority children, and half of all minority children will develop diabetes by their eighteenth birthday.

WHEREAS, 81% of the District of Columbia’s high school students do not eat the recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables.

WHEREAS, the meat served to school children via the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s School Lunch Program is tested less frequently for food-borne pathogens than the meat in fast food restaurants and subject to lower safety standards.

WHEREAS, the rate of adult obesity in the District of Columbia exceeds 50 percent. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of numerous health problems, including heart disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.

WHEREAS, overweight college applicants are significantly less likely to be accepted to college despite comparable academic records, and overweight employees are more likely to experience workplace bias, including hiring and salary discrimination.

WHEREAS, more than 20% of District residents ages 65 and older are obese. Overweight and obese elderly are more likely to have hypertension, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

WHEREAS, the environmental impacts of abstaining from meat are significant. Each time an individual goes meat free, s/he saves 890 gallons of water and nearly a gallon of gasoline.The UN has found that current meat production methods cause nearly half of all stream and river pollution. Indeed, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Nobel Peace Prize winner and chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that the easiest way to reduce one’s carbon footprint is to make one day a week meat-free.

WHEREAS, a growing number of people are reducing their consumption of animal products in order to prevent animal cruelty. Approximately one billion animals would be spared if animal consumption was reduced by only 10%, a figure that would be achieved by a national Meat Free Monday.

WHEREAS, foregoing meat has the potential to impact world hunger. Each year, 756 million tons of grain is fed to farmed animals. If that grain was provided to the 1.4 billion people who are living in abject poverty, each of them would be provided twice the grain they would need to survive.

WHEREAS, the American Dietetic Association has stated that vegetarians have “lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease…lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer” and that vegetarians are less likely than meat-eaters to be obese. Accordingly, experts recommend going vegetarian, or at least increasing plant foods and eating fewer animal products, to help weight control. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, advised that Americans eat more dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, legumes and fruits.

WHEREAS, today, the average person consumes nearly 200 pounds more meat per annum than the average person consumed in the 1950s.

WHEREAS, America’s per capita fruit consumption is “woefully low” and limited to a small range of fruit options, and vegetable consumption “tells the same story,” according to a 2003 USDA report.

WHEREAS, community experts have said that enough fresh, local, produce exists to feed every District student. Such farm fresh products taste better, are healthy, and research has shown that children prefer them to non-local produce.

WHEREAS, a weekly reminder to restart healthy habits encourages success, and we are more likely to maintain behaviors begun on Monday throughout the week.

WHEREAS, Meat Free Mondays have been advocated by more than 20 schools of public health, numerous organizations including the American Association of Retired Persons, and experts in various fields including Michael Pollan and former Vice President Al Gore.

WHEREAS, in response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s call to combat childhood obesity and to set an example for the rest of the country, people, schools, businesses and other organizations within the District have adopted this healthy tradition which has existed since World War I.

BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, that Mondays are hereby designated as “Meat Free Mondays”. This resolution may be cited as the “Meat Free Mondays Recognition Resolution of 2010”.

Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in the District of Columbia Register.

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Breakfast: Smoothie with mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry), pineapple, and spinach
Lunch: Black bean & guacamole burrito (that’s a bean and cheese, minus the cheese, plus guac) from Baja Fresh
Dinner: Chinese takeout – Sesame TVP (textured vegetable protein), a meat subsitute that most Chinese takeout places here have now!

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Frankenfish June 30th, 2010

The FDA is eerily close to approving genetically modified salmon for human consumption.  These “AquAdvantage” fish, as the company that created them calls them, are Atlantic salmon that are genetically altered to contain a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon as well as a genetic “on-switch” from the ocean pout, a distant relative of the salmon. Normally, salmon do not make growth hormone in cold weather, but the pout’s “on-switch” keeps production of the hormone going year round. The result is salmon that can grow to market size in 16 to 18 months instead of three years. 

Two salmon of the same age, fed the same diet, one genetically modified, one not.

Two salmon of the same age, fed the same diet, one genetically modified, one not.

The company that created these mutants assures the FDA that they are the “identical in every measurable way” (no pun intended, one assumes) to traditional farmed Atlantic salmon, but this is one giant (pun intended)science experiment I’m NOT willing to be a participant in.

This growth-enhancing genetic modification is already approved in chickens and there are scientists working to develop other genetically engineered animals, like cattle resistant to mad cow disease, or pigs that could supply healthier bacon. Next in line behind the salmon for possible approval would probably be the “enviropig,” developed at a Canadian university, which has less phosphorus pollution in its manure.

 

Layer hen (front) and broiler [meat] hen (back), same age, one genetically modified, one not.

Layer hen (front) and broiler {meat} hen (back), same age, one genetically modified, one not.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that has issues with this! Why do we insist on trying to “fix” things (the environment, our health, billions and billions of years of evolution, giant corporations’ pocketbooks) by creating these difficult, dangerous, and quite frankly, creepy “solutions” instead of just reversing the thing we did in the first place to cause the problem?!

 We pump out millions of pigs per second; their massive amounts of crap are ruining our planet; so doesn’t the logical solution seem to be to stop pumping out so damn many pigs? No, apparently we think it’s better to genetically modify something that nature spent billions of years perfecting so that we can continue our gluttonous habits and possibly kill ourselves with the side effects in the future. (Or maybe we’ll just genetically modify ourselves to be resistant to the effects of digesting genetically modified pig. Because that’s the American way.)

There has not yet been a generation that’s eaten genetically modified (GM) foods for their entire life, so we have no research to show the long-term effects of this on our health (which is why 30 countries have already banned GM foods). American children are the guinea pigs.

It is likely that the GM salmon will not be labeled (no other GM foods are currently labeled), so you will have absolutely no way of avoiding the GM salmon, should you choose to eat salmon. One would assume that organic salmon guarantees no genetically modified organisms (as I’ve previously explained the strict regulations on organic labeling); however, the organic program does not currently have standards that pertain to seafood. “We may someday address aquatic species. It just hasn’t happened,” says Joan Shaffer, National Organics Program spokeswoman. Then why is there salmon with “organic” labels in our stores? The USDA regulates only the use of the organic seal, not the use of the word “organic,” so companies are free to place the word “organic” on their products whether or not they have been certified. Just another deceptive marketing tactic used by the food industry to mislead the public.

Plus, what happens when these unnatural fish get into the oceans? (And, yes, they inevitably will.) It is already speculated that they would out-compete wild fish for food and mates, spread their modified genes (which we do not know the effects of) throughout the population, and I imagine this could seriously alter some food chains.  (And surely we all know the dangers of altering seemingly unimportant food chains, right?)

How far will we take this? At what point does “playing God” become a bad idea?

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Breakfast: Smoothie with banana, mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry) and cauliflower (strange choice, I know, but I had some in the fridge & gave it a shot – it worked out well!)
Lunch: Tomato soup and crackers
Dinner: Spaghetti with meatless meatballs

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I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself: Ellen DeGeneres June 29th, 2010

Here’s a transcript for those that are at work without headphones (or whatever reason you can’t play the video):

Katie Couric: I know that you’re a vegan now and so you eat no meat, right? No eggs, no dairy products. You had a vegan wedding when you and Portia got married. Why did you decide to become a vegan and when did you decide? I know you care deeply about animal rights, and what changed in  you?

Ellen: Animal rights sounds like they’re about to get the right to vote (laughs).

Katie Couric: How should I say it? Animal welfare?

Ellen: Yes, animal welfare. The welfare of animals. I always hear ‘animal rights’ and I just think it’s a crazy thing ’cause it’s really just the right to be left alone.

Years ago, I read Diet for a New Americawhich is a book about, uh, his last name is Robbins, his father owned Baskin Robbins. He wrote this book about factory farming and I read it and was horrified and was a vegetarian, I still ate cheese and stuff, but I was a vegetarian for about 8 months or so. And then I just went back to eating meat. I used to love cheeseburgers and steak and I just did what most people do, I just had a disconnect. I just decided it’s more important for me to taste a cheeseburger and have a steak or have a turkey sandwich, and it’s easier and I just put it out of my mind.

And recently I read, not recently, it’s been about a year and 8 months or so that we’ve been vegan, but I read Skinny Bitch, first. And then, I forced myself to watch a documentary called Earthlings and it’s inside footage of factory farms and dairy farms. You just see that and you go, ‘I can’t participate in that. I can’t be a part of something that is suffering.’

It’s 50 billion animals a year that are killed. And I think we all fool ourselves that there is some kind of happy cow and that it’s a quick death and they just hit ‘em in the head and they’re out and they go through the whole… And it’s a very disturbing reality. And it happens every minute of the day and every commercial on the air has some kind of food product in it. Every mini-mall, every store. And you think about the consumption, and how fast they have to mass produce, and you can’t possibly put together in your head one healthy, happy animal. They’re all in pain. They’re all treated badly. They’re all diseased. And they’re all pumped with antibiotics.

I do it because I love animals and I saw the reality and I just couldn’t ignore it anymore. But a lot of people do it for other reasons and there’s many reasons to do it. I’m healthier for it, I’m happier for it. I really truly believe that we take in energy and our thoughts are important, and all that stuff. I believe in that kind of positive thinking and I can’t imagine that if you’re putting something in your body that’s filled with fear or anxiety or pain, that that isn’t going to somehow be inside of you. And I used to be a more anxious person and more edgy and everything was a little more jumpy and sad. And I think not putting that stuff in my body is…

And it’s hard to kinda live your life and know that that exists and watch people do it all around you and just go [shrug]. You gotta hope that one day that shift will happen.

Katie Couric: Did you see the documentary Food, Inc.? [Ellen nods.] So that probably just reinforced everything that you were feeling.

Ellen: Ya. Food, Inc. is a Disney movie compared to Earthlings. Food Inc. is nothing. I would like people to look at that, but it’s hard. It takes a lot. It takes a major shift in your life ’cause it’s easy to grab for something and it’s just there. But every time you think about what’s on your plate and what it was, you know, you just can’t do it.

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Breakfast: English muffin with margarine
Lunch: Amy’s black bean burrito and grapes
Dinner: Subway Veggie Max sandwich (by the way, I kind of love the Veggie Max sandwich. Mmm.)

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Meatless Monday #36: Penne With Squash, Chickpeas, and Olives June 28th, 2010

Ziti

Ingredients:
8 oz ziti or penne pasta (whole wheat is best)
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained
1 small squash or zucchini (or 1/2 of each)
4 tbsp kalamata (or your favorite type) olives, chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with basil, garlic & oregano (or similar seasonings)
1 cup tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. In a large pan, combine chickpeas, squash, olives, tomatoes & their juices, tomato puree, tomato paste, garlic, and olive oil. Simmer until warm (5 minutes-ish)
ziti1

3. Add cooked ziti and toss.
ziti3

4. Top with breadcrumbs (and, optionally, nutritional yeast flakes for a bit of a cheesy flavor) and serve.
ziti6

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What The Heck Is… Saturated Fat? June 25th, 2010

Continuing the discussion on fats…

Unlike trans fats, saturated fats are naturally occurring fats. They are only found in animal products (meat, dairy, and eggs)*. Even though saturated fats are natural, the problem with them is that when they enter your body, they tend to do the same thing they did when they were in a pig’s or cow’s body: Rather than be burned for energy, they’re more likely to be stored as fat in your flanks, ribs, and loins. In fact, they have more of a “storage effect” than other fats.

Saturated fat is the main dietary cause of high blood cholesterol. Cholesterol is onlyfound in animal products (meat, dairy, and eggs). Cholesterol is essential for metabolism but is not needed in the diet because our bodies can produce all that is needed. Raised blood cholesterol causes an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.

A study from Johns Hopkins University suggest that the amount of saturated fat in your diet may be directly proportional to the amount of fat surrounding your abdominal muscles. Researchers analyzed the diets of 84 people and performed an MRI on each of them to measure fats. Those whose diets included the highest rates of saturated fat also had the most abdominal fat.

Here’s the fancy chemistry part

Fats can be classified as either saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated. This depends on the type of chemical bonds present in the fatty acid. If a fatty acid has all the hydrogen atoms it can hold, it is saturated. However, if some of the hydrogen atoms are absent and the usual single bond between carbon atoms has been replaced by a double bond, then it is unsaturated. If there is just one double bond then it is monounsaturated, and if there is more than one then it is polyunsaturated. Most fats actually contain a proportion of each of these three basic types of fatty acid, but are generally described according to which type predominates.

Recommended amounts

The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of saturated fats you eat to less than 7% of total daily calories. That means, for example, that if you eat about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 140 of them should come from saturated fats. That’s about 15 grams of saturated fats a day.

A single hamburger could easily put you over this limit: 8 g in the meat patty, 3 g in the cheese slice, 2 g in the mayonnaise, and 0.5 g in the bun = 13.5 g saturated fat. And if there’s any extras, like bacon, or a side of fries, you’re well over the limit! Now add in the ham sandwich you had a lunch (with cheese and mayo?) and you’ve blown the lid off the recommended 15 grams. We can just pretend that you didn’t have eggs or milk with your breakfast.

Avoid:
- Meat, especially red meat and fatty cuts
- Dairy, especially whole-milk dairy products
- Eggs, especially the yolk

*There are actually 3 vegan sources of saturated fat: coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter. But none of these contain cholesterol.

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Breakfast: Bagel with vegan cream cheese
Lunch: Chickenless nuggets and tortilla chips
Dinner: Soy chorizo tacos

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