December 2007

GREETINGS

Yes, we’ve done it again: pulled off a great PreThanksgiving Feast. We had about 153 attendees, who ate a wonderful spread of all-vegan food, in a new site which many people mentioned liking, helped by enough volunteers to get everything done, and (since this is our annual fundraising event) we did make enough money to be active for another year. And by all the signs, a good time was had by all. What more could we ask?

Thanks go to all of our volunteers: Mary Brennan, Dan and Robin DeLeau, Barb Eisenberg, Wanda Embar, Jean Groshek, Josephine, Cindy Juds, Mary Beth Koenigs, Barb Mikula, Kathleen Mohr, Mary Montgomery, David Paluch, Dustin Paluch and Adam K, Bill and Janice Seybold, Ron and Judy Strampe, and extra most especially Jody Johnson. We couldn’t have done it without all of you.

Two items were left behind at the feast: an amber Pyrex 9 inch pie plate, and a sky blue plastic bowl. If you own one of them, and want to get it back, call Jody at 414-764-7262.

Since we got a lot of positive feedback about the site at Wil-O-Way Underwood, it is not too early to begin asking whether people think we should have next year’s PreThanksgiving Feast there too. After all, the earlier we reserve, the greater our choice of which day we want. What do you think? Give us feedback, either by coming to the next potluck or two, and/or by phoning Chuck and me at 414-962-2703 or Jody and David at 414-764-7262.

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, Dec. 2, 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 red and green foods.

Other veg-friendly potlucks

The next macrobiotic potluck will be on Sunday, Dec. 16, at 5 PM, at Allen Owen’s home at 5310 W. Loomis Rd. Phone 421-1725.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Give up meat, eggs, and milk and you can do your part to prevent erosion, factory farm runoff, global warming, and the overuse of antibiotics. Not to mention salmonella and e. coli outbreaks. Eating lower on the food chain also makes more room to feed hungry people in developing countries. And there’s an equally convincing reason to go vegan: better health. Studies show vegans have a lower rate of heart disease and diabetes because they eat less fat and more fruits, veggies, and fiber.”

NEWS

This month, there was only one item about bird flu: there was an outbreak in eastern England, causing worries about poultry availability for the holiday season there. I did, on the other hand, catch a blip on the radio news on Thanksgiving day to the effect that Tofurky sales were way up compared to previous years: there is an alternative to eating real birds, and people are starting to notice!

And there was only one food recall: about 5 million Totino’s and Jeno’s frozen pizzas were recalled due to possible e. coli contamination of the pepperoni. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced many new rules and plans for trying to control e. coli, but none of them seem to involve keeping animal feces out of waterways and plant-food fields.

Milk remains controversial in various ways. The ongoing concerns about whether certain dairies’ milk is really organic manifested when a request by Cornucopia Institute for an investigation of an 8,000-head operation in Idaho, owned by Dean Foods’ Horizon, was turned down by the USDA – the second such refusal to act in two months. Aurora, meanwhile, the target of the previous request, has additional troubles now, since its huge Colorado operation has such a nasty fly problem that the county it’s in may revoke its organic license next year. A third milk issue is that Monsanto is still/ again trying to prevent consumers from being able to choose milk from cows not treated with rBGH. This time, they’re trying to get states to stop dairies from advertising on their cartons that their milk is rBGH-free. So far, only Pennsylvania has complied, but stay tuned. And finally, the biotech industry is fighting hard to rid the Farm Bill of an amendment that would require labeling of milk produced by cloned animals. Stay tuned to this one too.

In the controversy over whether food crops (i.e., corn) should be used for food or biofuels, a UN independent expert, Jean Ziegler, called corn biofuel a crime against humanity, prompting predictable outrage from the National Corn Growers Association. Meanwhile, wheat breeders and scientists are scrambling to prevent a new strain of fungal wheat stem rust from devastating next year’s wheat crop.

There were some good tidbits about food in the news too. Frito-Lay has embarked on a project to make its Lays and Ruffles potato chips in an environmentally benign way, running a plant with renewable energy and recycled water (now, they just need to use organic potatoes). France has banned genetically engineered crops, while the European Union is banning products tested on animals. And a Healthwise article repeated the wisdom that eating breakfast is healthy, among other things helping people to prevent unwanted weight gain and take off unwanted pounds, as well as helping have cleaner arteries and lower insulin levels. Only you need to think of whole grains, fresh fruits or vegetables, and protein foods – glazed donuts wouldn’t do the trick!

And then, as always, plant foods are good for you in many ways.

Cayenne peppers’ capsaicin can be helpful in reducing headaches – and especially when applied topically (in one study inside the nose). A low-fat diet, far easier to achieve when eating lots of vegetables and fruits and little or no fatty animal foods, may help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. A Prevention item on psoriasis suggested that eating less meat, eggs, and dairy could reduce the body’s production of an acid linked to the disorder. A different item cited an Australian study that linked the eating of vegetables, especially dark green leafy ones, with protection from skin cancer. Since two new studies reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology link exposure to sunlight with protection against many other kinds of cancer, would it make sense for people to go out in the sun a lot while eating plenty of salads?

Other Prevention items addressed good versus bad kinds of nutrients. In one, a distinction was made between foods that are sweet because the whole food is naturally a sweet one (fruits, sweet potatoes, etc.) versus foods that contain added sugar: unsurprisingly, naturally sweet foods are good for you, while sugar-added ones tend to be bad. The other kind of nutrient thus addressed is oils, and here too, it was pointed out that while saturated fats (animal foods) and transfats are bad, a healthy diet should contain the oils that supply vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Olive and canola oils were specified as good for sauteing, sunflower and safflower oils (hemp oil too) are good for salad dressings, sesame and peanut oils were named as good for stir-fries, and flaxseed and walnut oils for smoothies.

Other Prevention articles discussed what to look for in foods for various nutritional/ health concerns. For example, someone wanting to improve energy (and bowel regularity) should look for whole grains; to preserve memory, look for omega-3s (in dark green leafies, flax seeds, and walnut and hemp oils); for fighting cancer, eat the peels of vegetables and fruits. To keep vision sharp, eat foods with the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin; these are highly present in green leafy veggies as well as in eggs if you eat them. Avocados, dried figs, and fruit in general are good sources of antioxidents that fight infection and cancer. And green tea can help you stay mentally sharp.

Cranberries are in season, and were named in a DeliciousLiving article on beating urinary tract infections. Pure unsweetened cranberry juice or unsweetened dried cranberries were recommended, while eating cabbage-family vegetables (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi) can help prevent bladder cancer. And Prevention pointed out that whole cranberries have more fiber and antioxidents than juices and canned jellies. Other in-season produce includes potatoes, onions, apples, citrus, brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbages, beets, kale, turnips, and winter squash. And this is the time of year when I start buying dried fruit rather than “fresh” fruit imported from the other side of the world because it does not grow in Wisconsin in the winter.

An Outpost Exchange article on prostate cancer had dietary tips for preventing and fighting it. These include eating lots of fruits and vegetables, especially cabbage-family vegetables and the lycopene-containing ones such as tomatoes (especially cooked) and watermelon, pink grapefruit, guava, and papayas; also, men should eat selenium-containing foods such as Brazil nuts and whole wheat, and good fats but not bad fats (see above). The possible link between dairy foods and prostate cancer was labeled controversial.

DIALOG

An item in this month’s Prevention magazine celebrated efforts by researchers to add healthful ingredients to foods that do not ordinarily contain them. Greek scientists, they report, are working to add immune-boosting pro-biotics to foods like apple slices; this is touted as a way for people who avoid dairy to get pro-biotics in their food (as if soy yogurt, in which probiotics occur naturally, weren’t already available). Another effort the article reported was one by University of Newcastle scientists who hope to add a seaweed extract to white bread to increase its fiber content.

My first reaction was frustrated disgust. On the whole, as my frequent readers might have noticed, I believe that the best nutrition comes from eating a good variety of whole foods, as close to their original state as is reasonable and tasty. Healthy wild primates (genetically our very close cousins), as well as healthy humans throughout history, simply ate as many different whole foods as they could get, and did not rely on isolated extracts of food components, nor on vitamins and minerals in pill form. Theoretically, we ought to be able to be healthy and well-nourished simply by eating right.

So why do I myself drink calcium-enriched orange juice, and calcium- and vitamin D-laced soymilk? I use them to treat a specific condition: I have every uncontrollable risk factor for osteoporosis, so in addition to regular exercise, I seek extra amounts of these nutrients. If I farmed without machinery in a tropical zone, even I might not need such supplements, but my over-civilized life style indicates using them. I also use a special immune-system boosting tea and several immune-boosting supplements, but only after two major surgeries in two years for three different kinds of tumors brought to my attention that I may personally need to do something extra in that department. In other words, I try to use supplements and supplemented food judiciously, and only when a particular problem requires it.

So why do I wince at the idea of “enhancing” foods with additives intended to make them healthier? I think it’s because I feel that a line should be drawn between what’s needed because it can’t be obtained any other way versus gimmicks to sell products of uncertain value. Extra vitamin D, which those in northern latitudes can’t get from the sun for many months at a time, is reasonable to supply in foods. Nutrients like fiber, which is readily available from naturally-occurring whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, or probiotics which are necessarily present in soy yogurt just as in milk yogurt, are a very different case. And it feels to me that adding seaweed fiber to white bread just gives people an excuse to eat unhealthy white bread (which is devoid of many vitamins and minerals as well as fiber). Furthermore, isolated extracts are increasingly found to not be as beneficial as eating simple whole foods. And efforts to add such factors to food items increases the industrialization of food, and so is a step away from eating whole foods close to their source.