December 2006

GREETINGS

Another year’s PreThanksgiving Feast has come and gone, and a great dinner and good time was enjoyed by all who attended. Our turnout was not the most we’ve ever had, but the hall felt well-filled with both familiar faces and new ones, and we made enough money to keep us going for another year.

For those of you who are reading this for the first time as a result of making contact with us at the Feast, Welcome, and we hope to see you at our upcoming monthly potlucks. As you’ll note, we usually have a theme or topic of interest; when the theme is some kind of food, you can either bring something for the theme or whatever other vegetarian dish you wish. If you have any questions, call me (Louise) at (414) 962-2703.

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, Dec. 3, 5 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3224 N. Gordon Pl. in Riverwest (from Humboldt Blvd., go east on Auer a few short blocks to the parking lot). Theme will be pizza, pizza, pizza!

Other Veg-Friendly Potlucks

The December macrobiotic potluck will be on Sunday, Dec. 17, at the home of Allen Owen, 5310 W. Loomis Rd. Phone (414) 421-1725.

The Urban Ecology Center’s vegetarian potluck will be on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 6 PM at 1500 E. Park Pl. on the east side; phone (414) 964-8505.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“To the Editor [of the NY Times]:

“Whole Foods has taken a huge step in the right direction by insisting on humanely raising animals. Unfortunately, these animals will very likely reach an inhumane end at the… slaughterhouses…

“The best course of action to ensure the humane treatment of our nonhuman animal friends? Go vegetarian.”

NEWS

In follow-up on earlier news, it has now been declared safe again to eat bagged raw spinach from California, even though the practices that caused the recent e. coli outbreak have not changed. They may change in the future: the Western Growers Association has taken the unusual step of requesting mandatory regulations for growing lettuce and spinach in the hope of improving their safety. It would be about time, since the outbreak that just ended was the ninth linked to California vegetables in the last ten years. The WGA may be too late. Sentiment is rapidly growing to persuade people to buy their food locally rather than shipped over thousands of miles, and local food is increasingly available from growing numbers of farmers’ markets and CSAs and even the internet. Safety is not the only reason for this trend: a recent article on climate change solutions published by Co-op America included saving on fossil fuel use by growing your own, buying local food, and (yes!) eating less meat.

Meanwhile, there are still problems with eating animal foods. Japan, which has resisted importing US beef due to mad cow disease, confirmed its own 30^th case of the illness in a 5-year-old cow in Hokkaido. A South Korean opposition party has called for steps to keep that nation’s people safe from US beef now that a 3-year import ban has been lifted. And a Wisconsin legislative report has found that the DNR’s plan to slow chronic wasting disease (the deer equivalent of mad cow disease) is not working despite the nearly $27 million spent on it thus far, partly because hunters are unwilling to kill deer that they don’t mean to eat.

On a different note, a new study reports that eating red meat increases the risk of breast cancer. But there are problems with fish-eating as well, especially as regards ocean ecology. One new study found that farming salmon breeds a salmon pest called sea lice, which then get loose and threaten wild salmon, while a different study is predicting a collapse of fisheries worldwide by 2048 unless fishing practices are quickly and significantly changed.

Fish swim in water, and new reports from the American Dental Association and the U.S. Center for Disease Control now admit that adding flouride to drinking water is not in fact safe (filtering is good). A different liquid, milk, is making marketing news: so many people switched to organic milk to avoid rBGH that the big fight is now between organic milk and rBGH-free milk. In general, in fact, consumer opposition has stopped the release of at least half a dozen bioengineered crops that the U.S. government had approved, including rice, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, flax, and fish. And in other news regarding organic foods, the Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal complaint asking the USDA to investigate their findings that Wal-Mart is selling nonorganic food as organic (why are we not surprised?).

Another food controversy is New York City’s effort to ban trans fats from restaurants; the same regulations would also require listing the calories of restaurant items (prompting predictable howls from fast-food business). A different issue involves experiments with monkeys whose lives and health are greatly extended by restricting how much food they eat; the question is whether these findings might apply to people – and the news article about it featured a man who has been on a low-calorie vegan diet for 6 years, just because he feels healthier now.

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction; thus PETA has named Iowa State University as veg-friendly (on the basis of its dining hall offerings), even though the place is also known for its meat science program!

Another food issue that surfaced this month involved grains. An Italian study found an association between kidney cancer and eating a lot of bread; the researchers did indicate that their subjects were eating white bread, and that perhaps reducing consumption of refined carbohydrates might be a good idea. A UC Berkeley Wellness Letter rang a similar note, pointing out yet again that whole grains have more fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals than refined ones, and thus probably help to lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and obesity. The article went on to advise shoppers to look for the word “whole” on the ingredients list, and avoid products unless the first few grain ingredients listed are whole grains. At the same time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has reported that world grain reserves are decreasing, to the extent that there could be real shortages (although, of course, vegetarians could point out that the situation could be completely alleviated if a lot less of the world’s grain were fed to animals!).

Wine is a vegetarian substance, and red wine continues to make news as a health-enhancer. Resveratrol, a substance in red wine and purple grape juice, has been found (in unnaturally high doses) to offset the effects of a high-calorie diet in mice, extend their lifespan, and enhance their athletic endurance. Huge amounts are needed, though, and it is not known whether these effects will translate to humans. It is known that alcohol in large amounts is not good for you, as witnessed by the fact that alcohol is now Finland’s number one cause of death.

Another vegetarian liquid, cooking oil, was the subject of an Outpost Exchange “Simply Health” column, where the message was (yet again) to eat more of the good omega-3 fatty acids, which help eyesight, brain function, immune system function, and cardiovascular health, while limiting omega-6s (of which we need some but not as many as most Americans get). Needless to say, the article touted eating fatty fish and fish oil; vegetarians can use flax seed, flax seed oil, hemp seed oil, walnuts, and dark green leafy vegetables instead. Prevention magazine, however, featured olive oil for its heart-healthy monounsaturated fats and its polyphenol antioxidents.

Other good news about plant food involves organics: a recent Swedish study found that organically grown strawberries inhibited cancer cells significantly better than those grown using chemicals. The Organic Consumer Association mentions cabbage, beet juice, citrus fruit juices, spinach, broccoli, and wheat grass juice as specially helpful for fighting cancer. The Outpost Exchange featured sweet potatoes this month: a high-fiber complex carbohydrate (unlike white potatoes), they have huge amounts of beta carotene/vitamin A, as well as high amounts of vitamin C, folate, iron, copper, calcium, and vitamin E. Store them cool but not in the fridge. Prevention, meanwhile, reminded readers that fruit in season helps maintain strong bones, that vegetables (including sweet potatoes) help the heart, and that seasonal greens and other veggies help avoid cancer. Prevention’s list of seasonal superhealthy side dishes were all vegetables: Brussels sprouts for vitamin C and folate, carrots for beta-carotene and other eye-protective antioxidents, kale for vitamin K (and all the other dark green leafy nutrients), and parsnips for folate and fiber.

Metroparent Magazine featured six foods for heart health, of which five are vegetarian: nuts, whole grains, soy, berries, and tomatoes. The sixth was fish again (see above). Regarding nuts, a reader asked Prevention whether roasted nuts are unhealthy; the answer was that the nuts are very good for you, so long as they were not roasted in hydrogenated oil or covered with salt and/or sugar.

DIALOG

The November Healthwise magazine’s cover story promised to examine and debunk myths about diet. Yet when it got to vegetarianism, a strange thing happened.

Labeled as a “Myth” was the statement that “’Going vegetarian’ means you are sure to lose weight and be healthier.” The response regarding actual facts, however, seemed odd to me.

The “Fact” section started by acknowledging that vegetarians generally tend to eat fewer calories and less fat than nonvegetarians, and thus also tend to have lower body weight compared to height than meat-eaters. But it went on to say that bad vegetarian choices would lose any advantage (as is certainly possible, since healthy nuts and avocados and unhealthy donuts are all vegetarian yet fatty, while candy and Soy Dream are full of empty calories).

The article went on to point out that vegetarian diets should “be as carefully planned” as non-vegetarian diets to be sure of being balanced and supplying all nutrients, noting special issues for vegetarians in making sure they're getting enough iron, calcium, vitamins D and B12, zinc, and protein.

Sources of these nutrients were helpfully listed. Iron can be found in cashews, spinach (and other dark green leafies), lentils, and garbanzo (and other dried) beans. For calcium, sources mentioned were dark green leafies, milk if you drink it, fortified soy milk, and tofu made with calcium sulfate (I would add calcium-fortified orange juice). Vitamin D is available from supplements when you can’t get out in the sun; various foods are fortified with it. Vitamin B12 is found in eggs, dairy products, supplements, and possibly maybe in some fermented foods. Zinc is found in whole grains, nuts, tofu, and dark green leafies. And protein is nearly everywhere: beans, peas, nuts, seeds, and soy products (and also whole grains and white potatoes and other veggies).

All this is true and helpful. I would agree that vegetarian diets, like all diets, need to be balanced and include healthy foods and minimize junk food, fat, and dessert. It’s always useful to have lists of which foods to get which nutrients from, so one can plan on eating a good mix of the right ones.

But in what way do these standards make it a myth that a vegetarian diet is healthier than a Standard American Diet? Eliminating meat does in fact lower one’s risks of heart disease; decreasing or eliminating high-fat dairy lowers it even more. The same can be said of many cancers, especially when preserved meat is eliminated. Cancer is further decreased if going vegetarian means actually eating more vegetables and fruits than before. Type 2 diabetes risk is lowered when one eats a high-fiber vegetarian diet. And these facts were not mentioned at all in this article.