September 2003

We had another well-attended potluck in August, and it was a busy one. We had a very interesting speaker on the subject of "super-foods" (by which he meant especially nutrient-dense ones) as well as his partner who talked about a project in Riverwest to make instant salad gardens for needy people; and we got through a bunch of MARV business as well.

One of the things we discussed was where to hold this year’s Pre-Thanksgiving Feast. In the end we applied to two places: South Shore Park Pavilion where we were last year and which was available for the Sunday before Thanks-giving, and a much cheaper church basement with a great kitchen that was available on the Saturday. However, we have been rejected by the church and accepted at South Shore Park Pavilion, so our date and place are now set. Since the Pavilion is both beautiful and a bit expensive, we will definitely be charging an extra dollar per attendee more than last year. (We did make a profit last year, but not much of one.) Another point that came up was that Jody really needs more volunteers to help with the bulk cooking; please take this as your alert to set aside a few hours on your calendar for that week to lend a hand. It’s fun and very do-able, even if you’re not a great cook, since much of it is stuff like salads and sweet potatoes that do not require gourmet chef abilities!

Many people enjoy the potluck aspect of the Pre-Thanksgiving Feast, but it has also been suggested that a catered event might be a way to attract attention and participation from some new and different folks (and greatly decrease the organizational burden). Also, we need something new and different to do for the Great American Meat-Out, since Outpost basically threw us out last year. Discussion at the pot-luck put these two thoughts together, and came up with the idea of keeping the Pre-Thanks-giving Feast as a potluck but trying a catered meal for the Meat-Out. We would have to hire a hall and caterer – but many more, larger, and fancier places than church basements are avail-able if one is willing to hire their kitchen; one example is Mount Mary College’s hall, and Shorewood’s Hubbard Park Lodge has come to my mind. We’d have to charge enough to better than cover expenses, which means finding out what places would be available and what the costs would be. It’s something to ponder and work on in coming months. Still, as a Meat-Out event, something flashy enough might even attract the press: I can see the headline now – "Vegetarianism Goes Ritzy"…

Meanwhile, we also had a very nice potluck picnic at Jody and David’s later in August, and we are renewing for another six months of regular potlucks at the Friends’ Meeting House.

Sunday, Sept. 7, 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 short blocks to the parking lot).

Subsequent regular potlucks will be at the same time and place on Oct. 5, Nov. 2, Dec. 7, Jan. 4, Feb. 1, and March 7.

Sunday, Nov. 23, Pre-Thanksgiving Feast, South Shore Park Pavilion – details will follow.

I was not able to find out about the September macrobiotic potluck – sorry about that! I can only assume that Pat O’Neill would be able to tell you – her number is (414) 964-9759.

"When possible, it’s best to get protein and other vitamins and minerals from food [as opposed to nutrient bars and shakes]," says Allison Yates, director of the National Academy of Science’s Food and Nutrition Board."

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 7/27/03

As usual, there are various problems with eating animal foods.

At the end of July, the NY Times reported on a tour of a cleanliness-conscious meat plant by three Congresscritters as part of their push to build public support for federal regulations that would require all meat-packers to do as well as this one towards "stemming the rise" of tainted meat sold in this country. In a completely different case, there was a report of the first Italian to die of variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease. And another quite different item was the report that farmed salmon purchased on both the east and west coasts were found by the Environmental Working Group to be contaminated with PCBs at far higher rates than any other protein food. On the other hand, the World Health Organization has asked national governments to make their agricultural indus-tries phase out the use of antibiotics in animal feed, a move which would, if heeded, force animals to be raised far more humanely (and safely) than most are now.

A much more neutral issue is the report that Americans eat too much salt, mostly in prepared foods and restaurants, and that public health officials are asking the food industry to do something about that. This is an issue that applies as much to prepared vegetable bouillon or soup as to ham – we all need to read labels and choose with awareness (and start retraining ourselves to enjoy food with less salt in it).

An odd little item in the September Prevention magazine reported on new research which found that feeding a substance in soy to pregnant and breastfeeding animals produced male offspring with lower testosterone levels and smaller sex organs than normal – but no clue as to whether or how well this translates to real-life humans.

A truly universally ingested substance, water, seems to be increasingly a news item. I hear more and more reports on squabbles over who gets to use water resources where demand is increasing but supply isn’t, and the Sept./Oct. E Magazine did a long article on how bottled water is being hyped as safer than tap water, whereas in fact tap water actually is subjected to considerably higher regulations of purity and purification.

Another beverage of note is soymilk, which the same E Magazine sampled and surveyed. And then there was the flap in India over a New Delhi research group’s finding of high pesticide levels in Coca-Cola, resulting in entirely predictable grandstanding by various parties; and the brouhaha over charges of influence peddling in the matter of what comes to the attention of a celebrated wine-taster’s million-dollar nose.

Fortunately, there is also much happy news of vegetable foods that are good for you.

Delicious Living’s special issue on lifestyle tactics for beating various diseases kept coming back to: maintaining a healthy weight; eating lots of vegetables and fruits; eating plenty of whole grains/ fiber; eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids; severely limiting dietary cholesterol and saturated fats (i.e., animal foods); and keeping one’s alcohol intake moderate. Vita-min-E-rich foods were suggested to prevent Alzheimer’s, and of course diabetics were advised to avoid sweets. In other words, a vegetarian or semi-vegetarian whole foods diet is good for whatever worries you. My only quarrel with the article was the usual recommendation to look to fish for one’s omega-3 fatty acids; my readers all know this drill by now – flax seed oil, hemp seed oil, and dark green leafies instead. In a similar vein, the AARP Magazine’s current issue had an article on their top ten power foods: peanut butter and other nuts (to combat diabetes and heart disease), avocado (for the good fat and homocysteine-controlling folate, both of which help the heart), chili peppers (to burn fat and supply antioxidents), watermelon (more prostate-protecting lycopene than fresh tomatoes), whole grain cereal (the fiber protects the heart and keeps you "regular"), blueberries (high in immunity-boosting antioxidents), apples (protect the lungs and bones), and turmeric (eases arthritis and postoperative pain, and may help fight cancer), as well as eggs (lutein in the yolk may help prevent blindness from age-related macular degeneration, but so will dark green leafies), and salmon (for the omega-3s; see above).

Prevention reported on a special diet that was used by University of Toronto researchers to cut cholesterol as much as many drugs can. The good news is that it was vegan, including soy milk, soygurt, almonds, lots of fruits and non-starchy vegetables, barley, oat bran bread and cereal, cooked beans, and various vegetarian main dishes as well as special margarine and Metamucil. The bad news is that it required more food than most people could eat each day, let alone on a regular basis without getting fat!

Another Prevention article reminded readers again that studies have found that eating breakfast every morning helps fight obesity both by getting the metabolism fired up early and by preventing bingeing later in the day, and helps prevent diabetes by saving people from gorging on sugary foods as the day wears along.

An article on the possibilities of being able to throw a nice dish of food together quickly focused on keeping on hand nifty condiments to dress up basic staples – and the staples were almost all vegetarian things like canned beans, broths and soups, dried fruits and vegetables (I would add frozen ones that can be quickly steamed), quick-cooking whole grains such as couscous, barley, quinoa, and quick brown rice (and I would add emphatically some of the nicer whole grain pastas), and various seasonings including balsamic vinegar.

Finally, there was another item about how apples really are good for one’s dental health, helping both to clean and brighten the teeth. Other crunchy foods with a similar effect include celery and carrots.

As Chuck and I settle into our fifties, we find that our health is not absolutely flawless.

Say WHAT?!

Everyone knows that our excellent lifestyle – whole-foods organic vegetarian/vegan diet, plenty of exercise, loving partner and family, a community of caring friends – makes one in-vulnerable to sorrow, stress, and disease, right? So where did Chuck’s blood clots come from last November, and how come I just learned that I need a hysterectomy?

It seems likely, given Chuck’s family history, that he has a genetic tendency to high homo-cysteine which diet does not control and which would cause the clots. At least the protocols for using blood thinner now are safe and easy and protect against strokes. For myself, the physical and emotional stress of unsuccessfully protesting the Iraq war last winter in the cold when Chuck’s job had just disappeared seems to have temporarily overwhelmed my immune system. The good news is that a modified macrobiotic diet, good care, and joining a hopeful new political campaign has brought my immune system back up, though leaving a lump in my uterus which needs removal. I look at it as a sort of adventure, and a chance to test how much some presurgical nutrient loading with good food will help the recovery.

There’s long been a sense (held more or less desperately and hopefully by many of us) that a good lifestyle will make us next closest thing to immortal. It was never so. A good lifestyle makes a huge difference towards making our lives as good and healthy and delicious as they can be in whatever circumstances come up for us. I believe that Chuck’s perfect blood lipids made his clots small instead of large, and that, along with being in good aerobic condition, enabled him to keep breathing until the clots were dissolved. I’m certain that without ever-thing I do to take care of myself, my situation would be a whole lot worse. But it doesn’t hurt to connect personally with what we knew theoretically: we are not immortal. Taking care of ourselves and each other cannot make us other than human; what it does is make the journey possibly longer and certainly a whole lot nicer while it lasts!

THE VEGGIE TABLE

We found a new restaurant to tell you about, and it is not on the East Side! We were helping with last week’s rally for Howard Dean down by Mitchell Airport and had a couple of hours between set-up and people arriving and needed some dinner, so we went into a Thai restaurant Chuck had spotted near there, and had a great meal.

Bangkok House’s décor is a degree fancier than we usually patronize, but the prices were only in the $10. range for entrees. The extensive menu lists each dish’s ingredients, and includes three vegetarian appetizers and eight "Special Dishes for Vegetarians" entrees, some with tofu and others without it. Some are labeled hot, but we found that any of them can be made to your personal specifications for heat or mildness: Chuck’s dish was as hot as he wanted it, while mine was completely mild.

When our food arrived, it was well presented and extremely tasty, as well as copious – I had to take half of mine home for the next day’s lunch. Bangkok House also has quite a wine list (and beer and so on), and we ended up enjoying the very nicest plum wine I have ever tasted. All in all, we stumbled into the place by chance – but we definitely intend to go back there.