Vegan Bytes #001: Summer Lovin'

In this issue...

*Oprah's 21-day vegan cleanse
*Salmonella and tomatoes
*Vegan July 4th options!

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A new car for everyone... and now a vegan diet

She has been on a 21-day vegan cleanse for almost three weeks now!

I couldn't have been more excited to hear about this. Oprah, with her free cars and dynamic stories of people's lives, has so much influence on Americans. People truly listen to and admire her, and for her to bring so much attention to the vegan world is outstanding!

Even if she doesn't stay on the diet forever, I think it's unearthed a whole new topic for people to consider... eating consciously.

If more people even considered a vegan diet because of her, I am so happy about it. Most people never stop to think about what they are putting in their bodies because it is just not part of our social dialogue.

I have been following her blogs to see how she likes it. The first week, she mostly seemed surprised. Surprised that the food was delicious, and that she was getting full without eating meat. Surprised that even by cutting out a large part of her diet, there was still so much food left over! And, she seemed surprised that she didn't even crave meat and dairy.

It's great stuff!

By the second week she says that she felt more in harmony with the world, and didn't have any headaches or withdrawal symptoms. She did talk a bit about how beans do their work on our bodies. But, as we know, "beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat..." Ah well.

As the week neared the end, Oprah's busy schedule seemed to catch up with her, and the idea of making her own meals intimidated her. She's lucky! Most of us always have to make our own meals.

But, I think she touched on something that many of us have felt... what will you make when you can't use old standby recipes? And, what a pain to have to cook rather than pop something in the microwave.

At first it is exciting to make new recipes and you feel proud of what you created. But eventually, for most of us, it gets old. Some days you just don't want to cook, and you just want to pop something in the microwave and sit down for a minute.

The problem is, that's how America's obesity epidemic became so bad... overly processed food and little time to eat what makes you feel healthy.

Oprah's 30 days actually end sometime this week, and she's most recently said that although she's not necessarily committed to a vegan diet yet, she is committed to being more aware of what she is eating. Her cleanse was a bit harder than more vegan diets as she eliminated gluten, refined sugar, AND alcohol! So tough!

If Oprah can do it, with her crazy travel and work schedule, I can't see any reason why the rest of us can't.

Here's to Oprah!

Tainted tomatoes... and spinach... and the factory farming industry

And, tomatoes aren't the first scapegoat for salmonella infections. Remember the spinach recalls a few years ago? It took months for spinach to come back on the grocery shelves. I personally can't imagine a summer without tomatoes.

There have been 200+ reported cases of salmonella within the past month, but that drastically underestimates the number of cases as many people do not go to the doctor.

Salmonella is a nasty infection-- it gives you stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, fever, chills, and vomiting. With most strains of salmonella, your symptoms will disappear within a week. Other strains are deadly.

It's the most commonly reported food-borne illness, and it affects 1.4 million people each year, and kills 500 a year. Remember, this is probably a low estimate of its victims since only those at the doctor are included in the statistics.

We commonly associate salmonella with raw chicken, and with cross-contaminating its "juice" with raw foods in the kitchen. We are right to associate the two because salmonella bacteria actually lives in the intestines of animals, especially birds.

Humans are usually infected with the bacteria when they eat food that is contaminated with animal feces. (I am not making this up... I'm looking at the USDA's webpage to get this information right now.)

So, the reason chicken has so much salmonella bacteria is because they are slaughtered quickly and often their bowels are accidentally cut and their feces leaks throughout their body. That gives new meaning to "chicken juice," doesn't it?

So how did the tomatoes come into contact with animal feces? And not just a little, but enough to contaminate all those tomatoes in so many states?

Here's how...

Vegetable plants are sprayed with animal feces. And lots of it. Factory farms process so many animals that there is no place to store all their feces. There is also no law forcing a sanitation system for animal farms like there is for human feces, so the animal feces can be put anywhere there is space. Farmers have run out of space, now they make huge cesspools of poop, they bury poop, and they spray poop on our crops.

Yes, it is true.

And actually, feces makes good fertilizer, when it comes from healthy animals. The salmonella that is infecting millions of Americans every year comes from animals that are cramped together on factory farms, fed antibiotics and growth hormones, and never treated by veterinarians.

After eating all these antibiotics, animals have weaker immune and more problems with bacterial infections. Not to mention that when we eat those animals, our bodies become more resistant to antibiotics, which creates superbugs that medicine cannot combat.

Reports say that the vast majority of these infected tomatoes came from Florida. Did you realize that most of the produce you buy at the store comes from a few enormous farms and enormous distance away?

What can you do?

The FDA recommends thoroughly washing tomatoes before eating them. Unfortunately, when salmonella has passed to vegetables, it is in the soil the plant grows in. The bacteria travels up the stem and into the actual vegetable.

The USDA says to clean, separate, cook, and chill to avoid food-borne illnesses. Unfortunately, by the time you have these vegetables at home, they are already contaminated. There is very little you can do to prevent infection at this point. Washing it will not remove the bacteria because the salmonella is inside the vegetable.

Really the best thing you can do is to get your produce from a local farm where they don't have the sanitation problems of the giant farms. Find your food at farmers markets and join Community Supported Agriculture groups or coops. You can even plant your own gardens if you have a bit of earth.

Also, you can encourage people to stop supporting factory farms by cutting back on their animal consumption. If we didn't have such a high demand for animals, we would have a lower supply. That means less poop to spray all over our beautiful planet!

It might feel like your choices can't possibly make a difference for the rest of the world, but you never know what a difference you can make.

Have you ever heard the starfish story?

Here goes...

A man was walking down the beach and saw a boy in the distance picking things up off the beach and tossing them back into the water. He kept walking, and as he caught up to him he realized the boy was picking up starfish.

The old man approached and said to the boy, "You know, there are so many of those out here, you can't possibly make a difference for all of them."

The boy looked at him, nodded, threw the starfish in his hand back into the ocean and said, "Well, I made a difference for that one."

BBQ with the best of them!

Sometimes good companies change their policies on vegan/vegetarian options, so it's a good idea to check the label just in case. You want to look out for egg whites, milk, casein (milk protein), whey (from milk), lactose, rennet, albumin, isinglass, lanolin, collagen, etc.

You can be positive that something is vegan only if it says, "vegan" or "pareve" on the package. Otherwise search for hidden ingredients.

This is a list from Peta.org, and not necessarily exhaustive, but it will get you started.

Beef Substitutes:

Gardenburger Flame Grilled Burgers
Boca Original Vegan Burgers
Morningstar Farms—Better ’n Burgers Veggie Burgers
Morningstar Farms—Grillers Burger Style Recipe Crumbles
Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Steak Strips
Nate’s Meatless Meatballs
Now & Zen—Unsteak

Pork Substitutes:

Yves Original Jumbo Dog
Lightlife—Smart Bacon
Lightlife—Gimme Lean Sausage Style
Yves Veggie Cuisine—Veggie Breakfast Links
Yves Veggie—Canadian Veggie Bacon
Lightlife—Smart Deli Country Ham Style
Gardenburger Meatless Riblets
Yves Veggie Cuisine—Hot ’n’ Spicy Veggie Chili Dogs
Tofurky brand hot dogs
Soysauge

Chicken Substitutes:

Gardenburger Flame Grilled Chik’n
Gardenburger Buffalo Chik’n Wings
Worthington Chic-Ketts
Nate’s Chicken Style Nuggets
Yves Veggie Cuisine—Veggie Chick’n Burgers
Tofurky Deli Slices
Yves Veggie Cuisine—Veggie Turkey Slices
Boca Chik’n Patties
Boca Chik’n Nuggets
Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chik’n Strips

Comments? Feedback? Ideas? I'd love to hear from you. I would love to add an "ask the editor" section to this newsletter with great questions and answers for all. Just reply to this newsletter and let me know what you think.

See you next month!

Cathleen

Here's a link to the Vegan Nutritionista blog, which has up-to-date info about the latest additions to the site. Click here on the blog page to see what's new.

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