June 2001

Our May potluck featured some fine new friends as well as a crowd of regulars, and tackled a serious discussion about holding potlucks at a more regular and public place, the idea being to make it easier for people to connect with us. Since I last wrote this column, several of us toured the refurbished Friends' Meeting House and found it to be a very potluck-friendly place where the people are interested in working with us but their usual fee would be more than we can afford. Concerns included whether a more public spot would really be helpful in making our meetings easier for newcomers to attend for a first time, whether we want to hold public-area potlucks regularly or just occasionally, and how it could be paid for if we do. Consensus was reached that: a certain fraction of would-be newcomers probably would be more comfortable at a meeting house rather than a private home; that having potlucks at the same place all the time would make it easier for new contacts to remember and find but that many of us enjoy going to our friends' homes (and hosting potlucks), which could be solved by having a regular public one every month plus a second private-home one whenever anyone wants to host it; and that we seem to have the option of counter-proposing to the Friends that we pay them something but not nearly what they'd ask, while raising the needed funds through inviting extremely voluntary contributions. We also decided to try this for a 6-month trial period and then re-evaluate.

Meanwhile, the practice of having little presentations at the potlucks and better advertising of them continues.

Sunday, June 3, 6 PM, regular potluck at Jean Groshek's, 2531 N. Dousman in Riverwest; call 265-2366 for directions. Topic is non-dairy milks.

Sunday, July 8, 4 PM, regular potluck/ summer picnic at Jody and David's in South Milwaukee (note the earlier time); topic is baking-ingredient substitutions

Sunday, Aug. 5, 6 PM, regular potluck at the Quigleys in Shorewood; topic is calcium-rich foods

The next macrobiotic potluck is at 5 PM at Chuck and Mary Eigen's house, 2958 N. Mabbit in Bayview. 481-9574

"On Apr. 15 letter writers expressed outrage at the lack of proper meat inspection and the brutality of the slaughterhouse.... How could meat inspection ever be 'good enough'....For consumers, the solution is simple. Just say no. If people can overcome true addictions, then surely those with merely a taste for an item [meat] that causes this much suffering and sickness could choose to enjoy grains, vegetables, beans, fruits, seeds and nuts."

-- our own Alessa Foster, in a 4/21 letter to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

During late April and early May, the hoof-and-mouth disease furor in Europe subsided to the point where it ceased being news.

Mad cow disease showed up, however, in a French parliamentary committee report denouncing both the French government's handling of the problem and the British government's decision to export meal for feed that was known to be unsafe. Here at home, the NY Times Health section featured an extensive report on May 8 about flaws in U.S. regulations supposed to safeguard us from that disease, citing concerns of experts from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The scientists quoted mentioned problems including lack of testing of U.S. cattle, use of machines for stripping meat scraps from carcasses that can and sometimes do leave meat contaminated with nervous system tissue, uneven enforcement of rules meant to prevent prion contamination of animal feed, and poor regulation of dietary supplements that can include nervous system tissue. Supplements called glandulars can include freeze-dried brain and spinal cord from cows, which is precisely the tissue likeliest to harbor the prions that are thought to be the means of transmission of mad cow disease and its human form, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease; this was also noted by the Committee for Responsible Nutrition as reported in Delicious! magazine.

Meanwhile, there was another hamburger recall, this one involving over 254,000 pounds of frozen patties from Emmpak Foods of Milwaukee. In India, accusations that McDonald's laces its french fries with beef fat caused protests in Bombay, Pune, and New Delhi; the burger chain denied the accusations but failed to do so convincingly. And back in the U.S., the Washington Post reported quite excitingly on the search for the next surgeon general. It seems that one MD who is believed to be in the running is Kenneth H. Cooper, a Texas physician and friend of George W. and the man who introduced the idea of aerobic exercise to us all back in 1968. And Cooper apparently has some extremely interesting ideas, including offering a federal tax break to people who control weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels within healthy limits; the Post quipped, "Call it an aerobics-and-veggies deduction." Another suggestion Cooper discussed at a Washington meeting with the Bush administration was tougher mandates on school lunches to require more vegetables and fruits and less fatty foods. Stay tuned.

There was quite a bit of Vegetarian Food Is Good For You news.

A couple of different tidbits noted the values of the plant substances called phytochemicals that make up part of whole plant foods. One involved research by scientists at a Halifax university, who found that six out of 38 flavonoids tested proved to inhibit the growth of a dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacterium. As antioxidents, flavonoids were already known to have antiallergenic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer activity. Find them in strongly-colored vegetables and fruits. Another article, which I found in HealthWise magazine reprinted from Environmental Nutrition, discussed the nutritional goodies other than fiber that are to be found in whole grains. Not just soluble fiber but vitamin E, plant sterols, and the indigestible carbohydrate oligosaccharide are believed to help whole grains perform their known function of reducing heart attack risk substantially. The magnesium and vitamin E found in whole grains as well as the fiber are thought to all help keep insulin levels steady, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes for whole grain eaters. And whole grains help protect against cancer, apparently through the action of their fermentable carbohydrates, fiber, selenium, vitamin E, and phytochemicals like lignans, phytic acid, phenols, and saponins. And from Delicious! magazine comes the information that avocadoes, which are indeed very fatty, feature the good monounsaturated fats and also fiber, potassium, folate, vitamins B6, C, and E, and two phytochemicals believed to help prevent certain cancers and heart disease.

Prevention magazine has been singing again of the virtues of the soy compounds called iso-flavones: eating soy products with high levels of them is becoming established as helping prevent heart disease, osteoporosis, and hot flashes in at least some women (like me), while studies are being started to look at whether the estrogen-like compounds in soy affect breast and prostate cancers. Yet it seems that benefits have not been demonstrated from the use of isoflavone supplements: eating whole soy foods seems the best way to go.

Prevention also had a lengthy feature on eating to beat arthritis, which actually ended up promoting vegetarianism. To control arthritis, the article recommended limiting fat intake, eating lots of complex carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, and whole grains), limiting protein, maintaining a healthy weight, drinking plenty of water, and going vegetarian as a way to accomplish many of these ends. It also discussed getting the right fats: saturated fats are bad, and omega-6 linoleic fatty acids (found in snack foods, corn, safflower and sunflower oils, and meat from corn-fed animals) may also be a problem, so monounsaturated fats from canola, olive, avocado and peanut as well as omega-3 fatty acids from flaxseed, flaxseed oil, and certain fish are the recommended ones. That's the first time I've seen vegetarian flaxseed oil acknowledged by Prevention in addition to fish as an omega-3 source. Ground flaxseed is more digestible than whole flaxseed.

Finally, the government has raised the RDA for iron for vegetarians, on the grounds that vegetable-sourced iron is less absorbable than meat-sourced iron. If you don't care for supplements, eat iron-rich foods like tofu, dark green leafy vegetables, many beans, pumpkin seeds, and dried apricots and cherries, while getting a vitamin C source at each meal and avoiding coffee and tea during your meals.

Pat O'Neill is doing another macrobiotic cooking series. The third meeting is June 3 and focusses on picnics and travel food, the fourth is June 10 and focusses on vegetables, and the last will be on June 24 and will look at medicinal foods. You can attend one, two, or all three of the remaining sessions. Call Pat at 964-9759 for details.

The American Natural Hygiene Society has apparently changed its name to the National Health Association; it's canceled its big annual conference this year and will instead be running several smaller regional conferences.

NAVS' annual Vegetarian Summerfest is still on, though, scheduled for July 11-15 in a Conference Center in Pitt-Johnstown, PA.

ERRATUM (not mine): for anyone who took a recipe for Jody's garbanzo oatburgers at our last potluck, the correct amount should be 1/2 cup of onions, NOT 1 1/2 cups.

There was quite a bit of news about heart disease this month, and what we can do to protect ourselves – which includes diet but which is not in fact only about that.

Prevention's small piece on eating for your heart did focus on diet, suggesting eating at least seven servings of vegetable and fruits each day, plus omega-3 sources and good but not bad oils and fats (see page 3 for details), as well as eating less saturated fat and cholesterol (i.e., animal foods). Delicious! magazine had a quite different brief piece on the differences between male and female heart attack symptoms, since women's symptoms can sometimes include typical male symptoms but are likelier to include heartburn-like discomfort, discomfort in the neck, jaw, or between the shoulder blades, or dizziness, shortness of breath, or unexplained fatigue. Yet a third area of news on this subject was the proposal of a government-sponsored panel that there should be much more aggressive treatment of high cholesterol levels, mostly by cholesterol-lowering drugs (!) but also by pushing diet-and-exercise regimens for people considered at moderate risk only.

But the most extensive treatment of the subject was triggered by the death of a man named Jay Dinshah, who founded both the North American Vegetarian Society and the American Vegan Society, and who had been a lifelong vegetarian and long-time vegan, from an apparent heart attack at the age of 66. The Spring edition of the NAVS magazine naturally paid tribute to him, partly by way of an article by cardiologist Michael Klaper on how to protect one's heart over and above not eating animal-sourced saturated fat.

One point Klaper makes is something just lately recognized: maintaining enough vitamin B12 to eliminate artery-damaging homocysteine (which is a byproduct of the metabolism of the essential amino acid methionine). Since most vegans eat neither dirt-encrusted vege-tables nor accidental bugs these days, taking a B12 supplement or B12-enriched foods is now essential. Also, it seems that frequent pigging out on sugar in substantial quantity can raise blood sugar levels long enough to get some sticking of sugar molecules to the artery-wall proteins in such ways as to stiffen and damage them, if repeated over time. A third factor is, again, what kind of oil and fat one eats; Klaper also recommends making sure that you balance omega-6 fatty acid sources with omega-3 sources (flax seed oil and hemp seed oil). Get-ting adequate exercise and making sure to eat lots of antioxident-supplying vegetables, fruits, and whole grains are also mentioned as vital, since oxidizing agents are what actually cause cholesterol in the bloodstream to start sticking to artery walls.

Finally, Klaper makes a real point of avoiding sustained high levels of stress, especially (a trap he sees many vegans as especially prone to fall into) from letting oneself dwell too much on the suffering of other people or animals. Do what you can as an activist, he recommends, and then give yourself permission to let it go and relax and be happy.