Sunday, August 28, 2011

On CNN Tonight



I have just heard word that Dr. Esselstyn is scheduled to be on CNN tonight in a segment entitled "The Last Heart Attack". The show is supposed to air at 9pm and 12pm ET, 6 and 9pm PT. I won't be able to watch as I have tickets to a concert with friends, but I hope some out there will be able to see it.

For those that have to miss it, here is a CNN Dr. Esselstyn preview. In the preview, Dr. Esselstyn actually goes as far as saying eating a plant-based diet (no eggs, dairy, or meat, as well as no added oils) will make you "heart attack proof"!

A great quote from the article accompanying the preview video: "We've eaten ourselves into a problem, and we can eat ourselves out of it." -Dr. Terry Mason.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Egg Replacers



I am about to head out to my in-laws' cabin for the next week. I have been terrible about doing much vegan cooking or baking as of late because of life just being on some wild ride that I am hoping will slow down eventually. I wanted something to be able to bake there to snack on, since there obviously will not be a Planet Organic anywhere nearby, and in fact the drive to the nearest any-kind-of grocery store is about an hour long.

I tried to google a vegan banana bread recipe and came up with lots of hits. However, I KNOW that banana bread can be made without an egg replacer, and it was a little harder to find that. In my search, I did come across a page on Isa Chandra Moskowitz's website ( Post Punk Kitchen) that gives quite a few options for replacing eggs in recipes without having to resort to an egg replacer (although that is listed too).

Now to finish looking for that perfect recipe...

Monday, June 20, 2011

Agave...not so Angelic?



Alicia Silverstone just posted a great guest blog all about agave nectar by Christina Pirello on her blog. A great piece including all the science information behind what she is talking about. I am trying to cut down on sugars and agave has been my sweetener of choice when I actually use a sweetener for something, but my bigger problem is still avoiding the regular old white sugar sweetened candies! I think maybe I will switch to brown rice syrup when my agave runs out, and send some good wishes my way to help me stay away from all the refined baddies that are a thousand times worse.

Check out the guest blog at The Kind Life here.

Friday, June 17, 2011

NYTimes Article- The High Cost of Cheap Meat



Before I started eating a plant-based diet, and even before I stopped considering chips and ice cream to be a good meal (in my teens), it always bothered me to take medication. I always wanted to try riding out a headache, or drinking a glass of water and taking a nap before taking a Tylenol. I always wonder whether I really need it before accepting a prescription from my doctor.

You know what else bothers me? Things out of my control bother me. What if you had a meddlesome mother, who thought it necessary to mix some kind of protein powder into your meals because she thought you needed more protein, or one that was slipping you the newest diet pill and telling you it was a vitamin because she thought you needed to lose weight. For a vegetarian or a vegan parent, the person, whether family or friend, that gives your kid a bite of meat when you aren't looking because they think your child is missing something. People "slipping something past me" bothers me, even if they think it is insignificant.

Below is this article from the NYTimes this month. When reading this kind of thing, I can't believe how little I knew about the food that I was putting in my mouth, and how deceived I feel about all of the "extras" that I was getting that someone thought didn't make a difference. I can't believe that anyone who reads an article like this and sits a while to think about how sickly and diseased it makes the animals seem and takes some time to pull up some images in your head of what is being described, could ever eat meat again. Why would we put something like that in our mouths, let alone be nourished and expect to be healthy when that is what we are betting on?

EDITORIAL
The High Cost of Cheap Meat

The point of factory farming is cheap meat, made possible by confining large numbers of animals in small spaces. Perhaps the greatest hidden cost is its potential effect on human health.

Small doses of antibiotics — too small to kill bacteria — are fed to factory farm animals as part of their regular diet to promote growth and offset the risks of overcrowding. What factory farms are really raising is antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which means that several classes of antibiotics no longer work the way they should in humans. We pay for cheap meat by sacrificing some of the most important drugs ever developed.

Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by other advocacy groups, sued the Food and Drug Administration to compel it to end the nontherapeutic use of penicillin and tetracycline in farm animals. Veterinarians would still be able to treat sick animals with these drugs but could not routinely add the drugs to their diets.

For years, the F.D.A. has had the scientific studies and the authority to ban these drugs. But it has always bowed to pressure from the pharmaceutical and farm lobbies, despite the well-founded objections of groups like the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization, which support an antibiotic ban.

It is time for the F.D.A. to stop corporate factory farms from squandering valuable drugs just to promote growth among animals confined in conditions that inherently create the risk of disease. According to recent estimates, 70 percent of the antibiotics sold in this country end up in farm animals. The F.D.A. can change that by honoring its own scientific conclusions and its statutory obligation to end its approval of unsafe drug uses.


Thursday, June 9, 2011

You Can Stuff Your Face on Oreos



...but I don't recommend it! (smile)


I am just excited because I found out that Oreos are vegan!


Maybe you already knew it, but I was oblivious.


I have never really been an Oreo eater (as an adult anyway), but it is certainly nice to know that if I am at my kid's piano recital and someone brings Oreos, I can actually have one!


...and maybe every once in a while, I might crush up some Oreos and put them in my So Delicious ice cream.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Vegan Nutritionista Website



Yesterday, I was doing a few google searches to try and find an interesting vegan blog to spend my time with for a few minutes to wind down at the end of the day. After about ten minutes, I was a little disappointed that I just kept coming across blogs that looked promising at first glance, but then had the reoccurring theme of "being a vegan means making my plate look just like a meat-eater's, by using fake meat substitutes and lots of processed food". I saw lots of pictures of "beef" stroganoff, and "bacon" sandwiches, and basically a lot of dishes with a lot of quotation marks. Sigh. Besides not being a healthy way to live, I don't understand how people who get sick at the thought of eating an animal can look at food that *looks* like it came from an animal and not get the same feeling.


I had a brainwave (very difficult after a long day, I tell you) and realized that I should search something like "healthy vegan" instead (not all vegans are created equal), and came up with more of what I was looking for. The first site I went to was called Vegan Nutritionista. I had already wasted my time elsewhere, so I didn't spend a lot of time looking at it last night, but signed up for their monthly newsletter and went to bed. This morning I sat down at my computer to find a nice email asking me to confirm my membership and giving me the chance to download a free e-book. It was a very nice start to my day. Of course, that led me to stray off the path of things I should be doing, and explore the sometimes rather mucky path of things that I might regret later when my work is not done. No worries this time. I found a very thorough and well thought out FAQ page, maybe the best I have ever seen.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Some Vegan Superheroes!



I was so excited yesterday to read about the diets of the two trainers on the popular TV show The Biggest Loser. Bob Harper is a vegan and was the 2010 spokesperson for Farm Sanctuary. It looks like he has been vegan for about 3 years according to my rough calculations. Check out an interview with him below. I love the part where he says that every product you buy in a grocery store is a vote - a vote for the kind of food you want to see, and a vote *against* the food you are choosing not to buy.





Jillian Michaels is the other trainer on the show. She does not eat a complete plant-based diet, but beef, chicken, and dairy are all excluded from her diet. A tidbit: Jillian will be leaving the show at the end of this season (to focus on motherhood). I think it is a real testament to a plant-based diet to have these two role-models, who are seen as two of the healthiest people in America, eliminating all or most animal products from their diet.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Ready for a Challenge? Vegetarian Times



Vegetarian Times is hosting a 28-Day Boot Camp for those who want to try out being a vegetarian and need some help and guidance, for those "sometimes vegetarians" who want some motivation to go all the way, or for all the time vegetarians who just want to refresh their plan. They are already on day 11, but you can get the full meal plan here. You can also sign up for daily emailshere.

It doesn't really work that well if you are vegan however. Many of the recipes have dairy or eggs in them. Guess we are on our own. Maybe at some point I will have to make a Vegan Boot Camp for the rest of us.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

An Old Interview with Alicia Silverstone



This interview with Alicia Silverstone is obviously done before her book came out, and that was quite a while ago now, but it still said some interesting things and kept me reading until the end. I also think it was accompanied by a great picture of her, don't you think?

Did you know she is pregnant right now? She gave the news to all her TheKindLife.com followers a while back. Congratulations to Alicia!

Bloggin' Good Times



Okay, busy season is over. I'm back.

I just finished putting through an order for a Vitamix Blender! I am very excited. I have been waiting to get one for a long time. Most of my friends have them and are so happy with them. I watched some demos on-line and saw them make hot soup. When I told my mom that a blender could make hot soup she was skeptical and thought that they did it by warming it up first. Then of course I started to doubt. We happened upon a demo in our local Costco recently and one of the things they showed was making hot soup! Apparently the blender works with friction and if you leave the blender on for about 5 minutes, whatever is inside will get hot. The lady doing the demo also made a smoothie and a fruit ice cream.

My new blender should be here in about 2 weeks and then I am ready to start blending, processing, heating, mixing, grinding, and whatever else I can think of.

Yay!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Forks Over Knives Movie Trailer



Check out this link for the movie trailer and more information about the exciting documentary entitled Forks Over Knives. It says it is to be released in theatres in May.