January 2003

As promised in our last issue, we did discuss next year’s Pre-Thanksgiving Feast at the December potluck. We concluded that the South Shore Pavilion should remain a possibility but not the only one we should look at; we also dis-cussed raising the charge by a dollar apiece, especially if we do use the same site again, since it was so expensive that we made only about $200. after paying our expenses. We also generally agreed that the music we had was way too loud, so for next year we should either have something not amplified or else make a tape or CD and bring our own player for it, which would give us control of the vol-ume. Also, we will start working on arrangements earlier this year.

Another exciting bit of group news is that we received a phone call in mid-December from a member of the environmental committee at a local Unitarian Church. It seems that his committee is declaring January to be vegetarian month at the church, with a cooking demo and discussion pointing out the environmental goodness of vegetarianism, and inviting church members to try it. He had heard of us through the Riverside Ecology Center, and was hoping we could help. I undertook on MARV’s behalf to supply some of our informational handouts, as well as to come to their January 16 cooking-demo-and-meeting and make a brief presentation and answer questions. He made clear that any of us who would like to come to that meet-ing are welcome, and I have therefore included the information as part of our MARV Activities listing.

Speaking of activities, it is already time to start thinking about our Great American Meat-Out event. The first day of Spring is a Thursday this year, so we’ll probably do our event two days later on Saturday. Should we do our usual leafletting at the Outposts? Something different? Something in addition? Feedback is needed on this, either by calling or emailing me or by coming to the January potluck.

One other thing that we can announce now is that on Saturday, March 29, probably a week after our Meat-Out event, we will host a vegetarian physician as a speaker. Dr. Michael Gregor can speak on any of several topics, and we must decide which will be best to draw in a good audience. We can use the Meat-Out itself to help publicize this, and I will be doing press releases as well.

Finally, although I am not much of a lover of modern technology (I hate working with computers), it finally occurred to me that since more and more of you seem to be reading this newsletter online, I really ought to give you Chuck’s and my email address, so that if people want to contact me with questions or comments arising from what I write, you will be able to do so. Our address – chuckgyver@aol.com – now appears on the masthead and will do so from now on.

"Despite our many differences, though, we rebel eaters have always had one thing in common: Like it or not, we are making a statement. Exactly what statement is being made, and how the rest of society reacts, are what make vegetarianism an interesting prism through which to look at human nature."

-- Sarah D. Scalet, reviewing a book on the history of vegetarianism

Sunday, Jan. 5, 5:30 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3224 N. Gordon Pl. (from Humboldt Blvd. in Riverwest, go east on Auer a few blocks to the parking lot). Focus is Asian/Chinese food.

Subsequent potlucks will be the same time and place on Feb. 2 and March 2. February’s focus is fat-free food.

Thursday, Jan. 16, 6:30 PM and following, vegetarian cooking demo and MARV presentation at the Unitarian Church near downtown Milwaukee, at Astor and Ogden streets.

??Saturday, March 22??, Great American Meat-Out event

Saturday, March 29, talk by vegetarian Doctor Michael Gregor, at the Friends’ Meeting House, time to be determined.

The January potluck will be at 5 PM at Frank and Mary Naeger’s house, 7760 S. 51^st St. in Franklin, 423-8176.

Food supply problems continue to make news. The European Union, for example, is considering a plan to drastically reduce or even ban fishing for cod and haddock due to severe depletion of the fish stocks, which might suggest again that animals should not be people’s main source of protein. Yet a plant-based diet does not necessarily help without political and economic reforms, as witnessed by headlines from India which tell of poor people starving while wheat and rice rot in warehouses because the poor cannot afford to buy it. And the director of the World Food Program reported to the UN that an unprecedented number of Africans – 38 million – are at risk of starving due to a combination of drought (= climate change), AIDS, and failures of economic policies.

A different kind of food-and-economics news is that McDonald’s had a horrible year, actually posting corporate losses in the last quarter of 2002, and therefore closing some stores and laying off some workers. And in at least one place, Oaxaca, Mexico, McDo’s was denied permission to even open a store in the historic downtown area.

Meanwhile, two British teenagers who have Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (the human form of mad cow disease) are being given an experimental treatment that injects a drug into their brains in the desperate hope of stemming their illness. The British government has also bought a New York company in an effort to ensure a source of uncontaminated blood plasma . Here at home, hunters appear to be relying on a test which is supposed to accurately determine whether a deer they shot is healthy or suffering from the deer-and-elk form of mad cow disease. I myself, however, lack trust in my gov-ernment’s ability to protect me from food-borne illness, perhaps because of such items as the recent NY Times report on the complaints of a federal meat inspector that he reported seeing problems at one of the two Pennsylvania plants believed responsible for 8 listeria deaths and a 27 million pound meat recall, but that no one acted on his reports for many weeks.

In general, both government actions and scientific studies can produce very mixed-up results. One example is a recent announcement that two studies reached mutually contradictary conclusions as to whether mercury in fish presents a danger of heart disease; apparently the question arose because of the benefits of omega-3-rich fish oil for hearts – yet it quite bypasses the well-established fact that the main problem of mercury ingestion is not cardiac at all but brain damage, while you can get omega-3s from flax seed, hemp seed oil, walnuts, and dark green leafy vegetables. Then there was a study published in a peer-reviewed National Institutes of Health journal showing that children who eat mostly organic foods have lower levels of dangerous organophosphate pesticides in their bodies than children who ate food that was grown with chemicals – while at the same time, the USDA continues to claim that there is no safety difference between organic and commercially-grown food. It should be no surprise then that when the EPA and USDA announced new rules for regulating farm animal pollution, the government hailed them while environmentalists derided them as toothless.

PETA is at it again, this time with a TV ad that depicts a "terrorist" takeover of a grocery store; the unseen terrorist who warns that innocent creatures will be beaten, scalded, and dismembered if demands are not met turns out to be a turkey puppet demanding that people stop eating meat.

On the other hand, vegetarian food is still Good for You.

Nuts are still being touted as beneficial, despite their high fat content: the fats in nuts are mostly good polyunsaturated ones (unless you eat the kind of peanut butter with hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated oil in it), and since these nut oils, as well as nuts’ fiber and magnesium, help keep blood sugar stable, women in a large study who ate nuts several times a week were found to have a significantly lower risk of dev-eloping type 2 diabetes than those who ate them rarely or not at all.

The January Prevention had several interesting vegetable-foods-are-good-for-you items. One looked at inflammation, and how this bodily defense against infection can backfire when it goes chronic, and can play a role in the development of some nasty disease states. Among the ways to fight inflammation were various herbs, including garlic to help and support the cardiovascular system, cranberry juice to protect the urinary tract, and chamomile tea to help the digestive system. Prevention also reviewed various vanilla soy milks because research suggests that soy may help older women maintain healthy arteries while helping men avoid pros-tate cancer. There was also a report that getting enough potassium can cut the risk of stroke in half, according to a new study, but that most of us do not get enough. Good potassium sources were named: watermelon, yogurt, avocado, tomato juice, acorn squash, spinach, orange juice, dried tomatoes, honeydew melon, bananas, milk, lima beans, kidney beans, raisins, and sweet potato – no meat on the list.

Eating omega-3 fatty acids while avoiding omega-6’s was discussed as a way to prevent heart attack and stroke; organic canola oil and pumpkin seeds were suggested as omega-3 sources in addition to those mentioned above, while corn, safflower, sunflower, and sesame oils are omega-6 sources to shun. For cancer prevention, filling half one’s plate with fruits and vegetables was suggested, especially berries which contain flavonoids, and broccoli, zucchini, and green peppers which contain salicylates. Strategies for avoiding diabetes include eating whole grains rather than refined ones, drinking such flavonoid-containing beverages as green and black tea, orange and cran-berry juice, and red wine, and eating soyfoods. Similarly, it was reported that eating most of one’s carbohydrates as refined (sugar, white flour, and so on) instead of whole also increase the risk of breast and pancreatic cancers.

DIALOG

Every five years, the USDA is supposed to refine and reissue its dietary advice, which now means periodic tweakings of the Food Guide Pyramid. As a result, almost as soon as a version comes out, they go back to work for the next version – and already there are starting to be leaks about what changes might be made.

I find what I’ve learned on this score to be quite encouraging. I’ve been saying (and writing, and teaching) for quite a few years now that whole grains and other whole-food carbo-hydrates are very different nutritionally from refined flour products and sugars – and it seems that the USDA is finally catching up with what I understood years ago. It’s just possible that the next Pyramid will actually make a distinc-tion between whole grains and refined ones, recommending whole ones and cautioning about refined carbs’ problems. Similarly, as nutritional research confirms the usefulness of small amounts of some kinds of fats and oils while reconfirming the dangers of others, it is starting to seem likely that a distinction will be made in the next Pyramid between the good and bad ones. Here’s hoping!

Meanwhile, EarthSave is not waiting for the USDA, and has come up with its own "Plant-Based Food Pyramid." The bottom tiers are similar: the base is the same 6-11 servings of grains, cereals, and pastas, but whole grain ones are here already specified. The second tier is the same 3-5 vegetable servings and 2-4 fruits as the USDA Pyramid. But where the USDA recommends 2-3 dairy servings, Earth-Save suggests 4-6 calcium-rich servings (i.e., dark green leafies, calcium-fortified soy-milk and orange juice, almonds, brazil nuts, figs, etc.). And instead of 2-3 servings of meats, beans, fish, and eggs, EarthSave recommends 2-3 of beans and meat-analogs. Finally, instead of a tip of sweets and fats to be limited, the Plant-Based Food Pyramid suggests small amounts of omega-3 fatty acid foods, vitamin D, and vitamin B-12 at its tip.

Chuck has a question. He noticed that when he lived in a meat-eating house, the toilet often blocked up and needed to be plunged, but that now in our vegetarian household it never does. Do others of you have any similar experiences?