Vegans are sprouting up

With all the cruelty, environmental problems, and diet-related diseases in the world, it can be easy for vegans to get discouraged. Trying to convince people to go vegetarian can be like banging your head against a brick wall. Just the other day, I wrote a blog proposing, perish the thought, an excise tax on meat to help offset skyrocketing healthcare costs and environmental degradation. Some meat-eaters didn’t take kindly to this idea, calling me a socialist or making hostile, defensive comments. It’s frustrating, to say the least. Sometimes I wonder what it will take to get through to some people and if things will ever change. But then, I think back to when I went vegan—17 years ago—and I realize how far we’ve come. It may not always seem like it, but we’re making progress every day.

I was 19 when I stopped eating eggs and dairy products. 36 may seem ancient to some of you, so I’ll try to keep my “I remember when’s” to a minimum. But I do remember my first trip to the small vegetarian food store in my neighborhood, and how astounded I was to see vegetarian Not Dogs, Phony Baloney, Tofutti Cuties, and other foods that I never even knew existed. Even in the mid to late-90′s, vegan foods weren’t available in many mainstream places. Vegans had to go to “special” health food stores just to buy veggie burgers and soy milk, which was once brownish and grainy tasting.

Not anymore! Tasty vegan foods like Boca burgers, Gardenburger sausages, Morningstar Farms Meal Starters, and Silk soy milk are not only sold in “conventional” grocery stores, they’re advertised in well-known magazines like Shape, Fitness, Self, Family Circle, and Woman’s Day. A Mintel survey showed that U.S. sales of vegetarian and vegan food increased by 64 percent from 2000 to 2005 and that the vegetarian food market was forecast to grow to over $1.7 billion in sales by 2010.

An April 2008 survey conducted by Harris Interactive Service Bureau indicated that a whopping 11.9 million people are “definitely interested” in following a vegetarian-based diet in the future. Restaurants are scrambling to meet the ever-growing demand for meatless meals. Popular chains, including P.F. Changs, Johnny Rockets, Moe’s, and even Denny’s, home of the 55-course meal, offer vegetarian and vegan options. Burger King has a veggie burger, KFCs in Canada offer vegetarian chicken, and Silk soy milk is available at Starbucks.

Most colleges have vegetarian options, as you’ve probably discovered. A number of public school districts across the country serve vegetarian meals. All 110 Gwinnett County public schools in Atlanta, for example, offer tofu-based corn dogs, veggie burgers, soy milk, and other vegetarian options. Grady High School, also in Atlanta, even has a separate lunch line for students who want vegetarian meals. The list goes on and on. Times and minds have changed dramatically since I was a child. Mystery meats, egg salad, and cheese pizza were the only options I had when I was in school.

Now, just about anyplace that serves food serves vegetarian options. Just the other week, I enjoyed a veggie burger and a veggie dog at Harbor Park, a minor league baseball stadium in Norfolk, Va. Most major league ballparks offer an array of vegetarian foods, as do most resorts and cruise lines. One cruise line, a Taste of Health Holistic Cruises, even caters to vegetarians and vegans.

Not long ago, Mark Bittman, the author of the popular How to Cook Everything books, released How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Even the U.S. military now provides vegetarian MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for soldiers who want meat-free meals.

We’ve still got a long way to go, no doubt. Many people remain resistant to change, often for no other reason than they like the taste of meat and are unwilling to give tasty mock meats and other vegetarian foods a chance. There’s not a whole lot we can do about them, other than to keep plugging away. I prefer to focus more on the fence-sitters who are willing to give veganism a try. Our efforts to promote a healthy, humane lifestyle are paying off and will continue to do so. If we continue to convince friends and family members to go vegetarian, and to ask stores, restaurants, and college campuses to serve vegetarian foods, we will eventually have a very vegetarian-friendly society.

don't eat me for -- at least -- one day of the year. please!

The 25th annual Great American Meatout, a nationwide event orchestrated by the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM), is Friday, March 20. Similar in premise to the Great American Smokeout, the Meatout is a day for people to kick their unhealthy addiction to meat. Various festivities are being held around the world on and around the 20th, but here are five simple ways you can commemorate the Meatout:

1. Go Vegan. The first one’s a no-brainer. If you still eat meat (that includes beef, chicken, turkey, fish, and other animal flesh), give it up for at least one day. Choose beans instead of beef, soy sausage rather than pork sausage, faux chicken over chicken flesh, and carrot sticks, not fish sticks. If you’re already a vegetarian—but not a vegan—make the 20th the day you make the switch from cow’s milk to soy milk and eggs to egg replacer. See VegCooking.com for tips on making the transition to a vegan diet.
2. Teach Your Classmates—And Your Teachers—About Veganism. Homework isn’t all bad if you’re a “vocal vegan.” If you have to write a report, make a presentation, or do any other type of school project, use the opportunity to incorporate information on factory farming, diet-related diseases, world hunger, or environmental issues in your assignment. PETA’s youth division, peta2, has a number of resources to help students spread the word.
3. Promote Veganism on Campus And In The Community. Leave leaflets about vegetarianism around campus, ask a local coffee shop to carry soy milk, set up an information table at a mall, library, or in the campus bookstore, or simply wear a shirt or button with a pro-vegetarian message.
4. Fight KFC’s Cruelty. Help convince meat-eaters to kick the KFC bucket. Organize a protest, write a letter to the editor of your school paper, display factory farm footage on your blog, or simply sign PETA’s anti-KFC petition. See KentuckyFriedCruelty.com for more information about KFC’s cruelty to chickens and what you can do to stop it.
5. Adopt A Farmed Animal. I know; money’s tight, but if you can spare a small donation to help care for a rescued farmed animal at Animal Place or another sanctuary, it would be meaningful way to honor the Meatout.

Whatever you do, please don’t let the day pass without encouraging at least one other person to go meatless. Have a happy Great American Meatout!

The “Freshman 15,” as the dreaded first-year student “spread” is known, is not an inevitable part of college life. You can beat the “Freshman 15” (or 20 or 30) simply by making healthy lifestyle choices— namely, by eating a vegan diet.

Unlike meat, eggs, and dairy products, vegan foods are low in fat and calories and high in fiber and complex carbohydrates, which help you feel full without getting fat. On average, vegans are 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) has even acknowledged that “vegetarians, especially vegans, have weights that are closer to desirable weights than do non-vegetarians.”

Of course, Oreos and Goldberg peanut chews are vegan, but that doesn’t mean they’re particularly low in calories—or nutritious. If you eat too many cookies, candies, and potato chips—vegan or otherwise—you’ll likely still pack on a few pounds. A healthy diet should consist mostly of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, soy products, and other wholesome vegan foods.

Studies show that a low-fat vegan diet can help prevent—and even reverse—obesity-related diseases like diabetes and certain cancers. As Andrea Giancoli, a spokeswoman for the ADA, says, “People who follow more plant-based diets have better health outcomes—lower rates of chronic disease and lower rates of obesity. We all need to be moving more toward a plant-based diet.”

To help students make healthier choices, many campus foodservice providers—including Sodexho Campus Services, ARAMARK, and Associated Students Food Service, have been offering students more vegan options. Check out tips on “veganizing” your school cafeteria.

Instead of reaching for fatty, cholesterol-laden foods like cheese pizza and chicken nuggets, opt for the vegan selections and stay slim and healthy for your freshman year and beyond.

Medicine is as much as an art as it is a science. Today the allopathic physicians are time strapped and do not treat the patients as a complete holistic entity –- THE MIND, BODY AND SOUL.

Physician factors:

It is time that allopathic physicians should look within and deeply introspect. Very often their own attitudes and behaviors contribute to difficult encounters with patients.

Many allopathic physicians can be:

• Angry or overtly defensive.
• Physicians can sometimes experience a burn out. They can get stressed and generally frustrated react negatively to patients.
• Fatigued or harried physicians.
• Physicians can be overworked and sleep deprived.
• Dogmatic or arrogant physicians. Some physicians are dismissive about diet and alternate therapies because of their own personal prejudices.
• Some physicians have strong personal beliefs and values, which prevent them from providing us with adequate information about their care.
• Language problems and difficulty in communicating with patients due to a lack of a proper interpreter.
• Multiple persons in the exam room can sometimes unnerve physicians.

Patients can also be at fault

Often, the time strapped allopathic physician encounter several difficult varieties of patients like:

• Angry, defensive, frightened or resistant patients.
• Manipulative patients who love to play on the guilt of others, threatening rage, legal action or suicide.
• Somatizing patients who present with a chronic course of multiple vague or exaggerated symptoms and often suffer from co-morbid anxiety, depression and personality disorders. They often have a history of multiple diagnostic tests.
• Grieving patients.
• Embarrassed patients who may be lonely, dependent or too afraid or embarrassed to ask the questions they really want answered. They may also be patients with a large number of perfectly sane questions.

More and more patients are seeking the help of a Holistic physician because a Holistic MD will at first function like any other orthodox specialist. He will take a detailed history and do a clinical examination, such as pulse, BP and a complete physical examination. Then he will perform the diagnostic blood tests that any MD normally does. The initial work up may last more than an hour and this helps both the physician and the patient to understand each other and develop trust for one another.

When a patient chooses a Holistic physician, he or she has the option of trying natural complementary therapies in tandem with the allopathic treatment and this helps in elimination of the toxins in the patient and leads him to a complete and comprehensive holistic cure.

Patients with intractable health issues often search for a physician because they believe in the power of the body to heal itself, but they also recognize the need a physician who can prescribe drugs if needed.

Other patients seek holistic cures because they have exhausted all the options of conventional medicine. A holistic physician will be able to factor past therapies and then initiate a new health regimen to help patients improve their health through orthodox and alternative means.

Did you know that several celebrities are vegetarians or vegans? Some of the famous vegans are Alicia Silverstone, Brian Adams, Eric Roberts the actor, Fiona Apple the singer, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran and Natalie Portman the famous actor.

Some of most famous vegetarians include:

• Albert Einstein
• Aristotle the famous Greek philosopher
• Billie Jean King and Chris Evert the famous tennis stars of the yesteryears
• Dr. Dean Ornish and many others

One the most articulate advocates of vegetarianism is Tobey Maguire and he said that, “I don’t like eating dead carcasses pumped full of chemicals and hormones. It’s not a moral thing. It’s logical to me not to eat that shit, since I would get nauseated.” Tobey Maguire doesn’t mince words when it comes to his food and lifestyle choices.

With more and more studies coming out in recent times supporting a vegetarian way of life, the eternal debate rages on whether vegetarianism is indeed superior to a non-vegetarian diet.

Types of Vegetarians

There are three types of vegetarian:

1. The Vegans are the strictest type of vegetarians and they will not eat animal food or produce. They live entirely on plant foods. They take pulses, nuts, grains, fruits and vegetables.
2. Vegetarian who drink milk and eggs. These are called, as Lacto-Vegetarians will not eat animal flesh. They will, however, eat animal produce such as milk, cheese, eggs and four main groups.
3. Vegetarians who take eggs only. These are called as Lacto-ovo-vegetarians will not eat animal flesh but will eat eggs in their diet.

Advantages of a vegetarian diet:

• Vegetarian diets are high in: vitamin C, fiber and folate.
• It is possible to obtain all essential nutrients by eating a completely plant-based diet; however proper dietary planning is critical to the health.
• Vegetarian diets are typically higher in fiber, lower in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol.
• Vegetarians typically have less risk of CHD, cancer, obesity, high cholesterol and hypertension.
• Vegetarian lifestyles are usually healthier because of lesser smoking, more exercise and less alcohol ingestion.

Disadvantages of a vegetarian diet:

Some nutritional authorities feel that Vegetarians (vegans) find it difficult to get certain nutrients like:

• Vitamin B-12. (These are found more in fortified cereals and soy products)
• Vitamin D ( Soymilk and cereals are rich sources)
• Iron & zinc (These are found in whole grain, soy foods, beans, dried foods, nuts and seeds)
• Calcium (Good sources are cereals, juices, beans, tofu, soy foods, figs and other dried fruits)

Slowly the wheel is turning in favor of vegetarianism. According to a statistics from the recent — Consumer Attitudes to Food Standards Survey, 4% of households reportedly contained at least one vegetarian member. 5% contained at least one person who ate no meat, but did eat fish.

Some authorities on nutrition do not recommend a vegan diet for very young children because it is very difficult for them consume pulses, cereals nuts etc and achieve optimal growth without consuming animal products.