The Great Stevia Deception...

Stevia is a low-glycemic, zero calorie sweetener that gets a lot of praise in the health community. Diabetics love it, and so to people trying to keep their sugar consumption low for general health reasons or weight control. Since stevia is a natural product, made from the leaves of the stevia plant it’s been the saving grace of many people who are trying to keep their diet as natural as possible. Unfortunately it seems that most, if not all commercial Stevia is anything but natural. Many commercial brands - including Organic brands - of stevia contain maltodextrin which is just a fancy name for sugar derived from corn. Stevia also contains Silica - also known as Silicon Dioxide - this is a naturally occurring mineral found mostly in quartz and sand. A trace amount is needed by our bodies for certain functions particularly that of bone strength and the strength of connective tissue. However, silica is easy to get from plant foods and is not something you need to be concerned about supplementing, as many if not all plants foods have trace amounts of it for the simple reason that they get it from the soil they’re grown in. Getting silica in this way is one thing, ingesting silica in the form of a food additive is another. Some studies have suggested that silica as a food additive can be toxic. If not processed in the right way, and if a food product contains more then 2% silica it can have ill-health effects. Studies have also suggested that people taking silica supplements over a long period of time can suffer from kidney deterioration.

Unfortunately Silica is used in many food products. Particularly pre-packaged foods, powdered foods, and drinks. Mostly as a caking or absorbing agent. Interestingly enough it’s also used to make glass, and cement. Crystalized Silica Dioxide is considered toxic if inhaled,. Little packets of silica gel are also used to prolong the shelf life of dry goods, and those packets as you’re probably well aware are considered toxic if ingested.

I find all this a bit concerning. Silica when ingested in trace amounts in your produce and grains is fine, but ingested as a food additive? I’m not convinced it’s safe, and I definitely don’t think it should be mixed directly into stevia.

Unfortunately Silica additives are not the only thing to be concerned about with commercial brands of Stevia. Most, if not all of them also contain maltodextrin which as I already said is just a fancy name for sugar derived from corn. Maltodextrin is not safe for diabetics and should not be ingested by them because it spikes your blood sugar just the same as regular table sugar. Commercial Stevia should not be aloud to be marketed as safe for diabetics, it’s not.

After discovering this on Friday I went to my local Whole Foods, and my local independent health food shop and at both places I found every single brand of Stevia to contain maltodextrin, and/or silica, plus a host of other filler ingredients. This was very upsetting, because I like stevia. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now, ever since I found out how toxic Splenda is. When I buy stevia I expect to be buying the pure thing, not a bunch of fillers. Not to mention potentially hazardous and toxic agents, and GMO’s. Since maltodextrin comes from corn it is most certainly GMO unless derived from non-GMO corn.

Commercial Stevia is expensive, about $8 a box depending on the brand and where you live, and they’re totally ripping us off. Since the Stevia is cut with so many fillers you’re really not getting that much pure product. Commercial Stevia may only actually contain 10-15% actual stevia! So we’re being cheated.

After doing a bit of online research I discovered that true pure stevia powder is actually green. It’s a tad grainy and doesn’t dissolve as well in liquid. Though it supposedly settles at the bottom of a glass - like tea leaves I suppose. It’s also super sweet, from what I’ve read a ½ tsp will sweeten a 58 ounce pitcher of tea! Pure stevia is more expensive of course - anywhere from $12-21 a pound but it goes a long way. You can by the pure leaf powder on Amazon.com and there are a few other independent websites that sell it as well. Just make sure that you double check to make sure that what you’re getting is the pure leaf powder, it should be green and contain no other ingredients.

I purchased some pure green stevia powder yesterday morning and eagerly wait it’s arrival. If you're diabetic, concerned about your health, or don't want to ingest GMO's, Toxins, and fillers i suggest you do the same!

"Organic Health Food” Giant Whole Foods Caught In Deceptive GMO Marketing Scandal...

Now to take a moment out of Vegan Mofo to bring to your attention a serious and pressing issue.

I’ve been meaning to write a post on GMO’s - Genetically Modified Organisms - for ages, it’s something that I feel very strongly about. It’s something I think all people should be fully informed on, yet it’s something I keep having to put off because honestly I don’t even know where to begin. However the latest news story concerning Whole Foods, GMO’s and Monsanto got my attention last week, and sort of blew my mind. It comes at a particularly timely moment as on November 6th an initiative will be on the ballet in California - PROP 37 - that if passed will legally require all Foods containing GMO’s in the state to be labeled as such. This is huge, it is a huge step. Labeling of GMO foods is already required across the entire European Union, China, Mexico and some other countries as well, the United States is one of the only industrialized countries that does not require the labeling of GMO foods. Probably because the vast majority of the U.S. food supply is genetically modified, and probably because biotech corporations like Monsanto who are responsible for GMOs have plants in the FDA, the USDA, and various other agencies and organizations nationwide. Monsanto who I’ve mentioned before and who you should be well familiar with anyway has spent billions of dollars fighting against Prop 37. Dupont has also spent an exorbitant sum of money to fight against Prop 37 in California. Monsanto claims that GMO foods are safe, and healthy, but if they’re so safe then why is Monsanto fighting so hard against labeling. If they are so safe then labeling the GMO’s shouldn’t make a difference to them. But are we really suppose to take the word of the Corporation who invented DDT and Agent Orange, who after virtually zero testing declared those chemicals ‘safe’? Perhaps this is why they’re fighting so hard.

The truth about GMO’s is that we truly do not know if they are safe or not. They’ve only been in our food system since the 1990's, and no extensive testing or trials have been conducted. No human trials nor human testing. We have no idea what the long term effect of consuming high quantities of GMO’s may be, we have no idea what the consequence will be to our environment. Studies conducted on animals fed GMO diets have shown that GMO’s can cause anything from allergies, infections, discomfort to cancer. A recent study on mice fed a diet of Monsanto’s GMO corn showed that they developed large stomach tumors. GMO’s were approved for use in the human food supply by the USDA and the FDA not because of throughly vetted testing but simply because Monsanto gave them their word. Can we trust that?

Whether you believe GMO’s are safe, or detrimental to human health and the environment. I think the one thing we can agree on is that all of us have a right to know what we are eating, and what we are choosing to put into our bodies. Monsanto doesn’t want us to have that right.

This is where Whole Foods comes in. For thirty years this corporate health food giant has positioned itself as the pioneer in industry organics. It prides itself on its standards and its dedication to selling only the highest quality natural foods. Natural is a big word at Whole Foods and is used as often as Organic, they often make the claim that their products and stores are free of artificial ingredients - meaning colors, flavors, etc. They have publically spoken out against GMO foods, and while I can’t pinpoint an instance in which they actually came out and said they never sell GMO foods in their stores, all of their marketing campaigns imply it. They are all about organic, natural and nothing artificial ever. Yet in a quiet press release issued recently the company disclosed that it does in fact knowingly sell GMO products in it’s stores. While this press release may have gone unnoticed by many it did not go unnoticed by all. An independent news organization picked up the story and actually had the balls to confront Whole Foods Employees and Customers with it. InfoWars and a group known as Organic Spies have made several captivating videos on the topic. One of the Organic Spies videos was even banned from YouTube, but is still viewable on their site, and several articles by similarly independent news organizations have been published over the following weeks. The backlash against Whole Foods has begun. They have been accused of indoctrinating their employees and encouraging them to lie on the subject of Organic’s and GMO’s. They have been called everything from corporate thugs, to “The Green Monsanto.” and now after various protests that occurred Tuesday, October 16th at Whole Foods stores nations wide - the day was labeled “Bring your GMO’s back to Whole Foods Day” Whole Foods has now released a 5 Point GMO Fact Sheet for it’s customers and employees.

In the fact sheet it claims that the only way for a Whole Foods customer to avoid buying GMO products is to by Strictly Organic products or products certified Non-GMO by the Non-GMO Project. It even admits that it’s own 365 brand - something it previously claimed was natural, free of artificial ingredients and GMO free - could not be considered 100% GMO free unless organic. They say “Our 365 Products come from plant sources that are sourced to avoid GMO’s” Note the word Avoid, and register that no where on the ‘fact sheet’ does it say that their non-organic 365 products do not contain any GMO’s.

When confronted by InfoWars reporters Whole Foods executive Libby Letton - who handles investor relations and food safety - if that’s not a conflict of interest I don’t know what is - said “Unless a store is all organic, every store in the country sells unlabeled Genetically Modified Foods.” While this may be true it’s hardly an excuse or a defense. The “Well Everyone Does it” excuse doesn’t fly, particularly when a company has built it’s reputation on being better then ‘the other guy’ People shop at Whole Foods because they think the company has integrity, because they trust them, and because they think Whole Foods is better then everyone else. Well their recent admission about GMO’s and Letton’s ‘defense’ prove otherwise. On the subject of conventional food items Whole Foods is no better then your friendly neighborhood Safeway, Dominick’s, Kroger, or even Wal-Mart etc.  Letton then said on camera “I don’t think Whole Foods does anything to try and make people believe that we don’t have food with GMO’s in them.” Which is a statement she likely now regrets because the reporters at InfoWars were able to find several instances of where this was not the case. From signs posted outside of Whole Foods Stores to statements posted on their website, blog, and even their own Mission Statement, InfoWars with a bit of research and a few hard-hitting questions  has been able to uncover the great Whole Foods Marketing Deception.

For some it comes as no surprise that Whole Foods sells GMO foods. With 90% of the nations Canola, 86% of the nations corn, and 93% of the nations soybean crops being GMO some people seem to think that buying GMO is unavoidable. To others however it came as a big shock, it’s an even bigger shock for people to find out that Whole Foods is selling the very GMO Monsanto Corn they’re supposedly against. The unavoidable defense is certainly the party-line the company is now taking up to excuse itself. They say that “GMO’s in the food supply are unavoidable, particularly when considering high risk crops such as corn, canola, and soy.” However that isn’t exactly true is it? If it were unavoidable or impossible then how could there be so many organic companies? How could their be such a thing as non-organic non-GMO certification? The truth is that it’s simply easier, and cheaper for Whole Foods to sell cheap GMO products at a ridiculous markup to unsuspecting consumers. Letton almost confirms this herself. When asked by an InfoWars reporter if Whole Foods had any plans to take the initiative and test all the non-organic products in their stores for GMO’s themselves she replied “Wouldn’t it just be simpler to pass a law that requires labeling of GMO’s on products?” Um, no. I think that Monsanto pumping billions of dollars into fighting that very law - Prop 37 - in California is proof enough that, that route isn’t easier. My question to Letton and to Whole Foods is “Wouldn’t it be a show of trust to test the products yourself to ensure your customers are provided with the best quality products?” “If you’re genuinely against GMO’s wouldn’t you make a greater effort to ensure they’re not in your stores.” “Could you not contact the non-organic companies whose products you sell and ask them if they would be willing to voluntarily label their products as GMO free even though there is no legal law requiring it?”

If you don’t think Whole Foods has pockets deep enough to pay for the testing of all the non-organic products sold within their stores you’re sorely mistaken. They have more then 300 stores in three countries, and some of those stores make a million dollars or more a week. The co-presidents of Whole Foods John Mackey, and Walter Robb are worth more money then you and I will ever see in our lifetime. If they were serious, if they were genuine, and if they truly cared about their integrity they would label their products voluntarily, or ask their supplies to do this. It is my personal opinion that any company not willing to label their products as GMO free has something to hide.

For me one of the most upsetting and disturbing things about this news is not the fact that Whole Foods is knowingly selling GMO products, it’s their deception about it. They may be admitting to the GMO’s now because they have to but their ‘quality standards’ as seen on their own website remains the same.

1) We carefully evaluate each and every product we sell
2) We feature foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.
3) We are passionate about great tasting food and sharing it with others
4) We are committed to foods that are fresh, wholesome and safe to eat
5) We seek out and promote organically grown foods
6) We provide food and nutritional products that support health and well-being

If all of those statements are true then Whole foods carefully evaluates products containing GMO’s and then decides to sell them anyway. Thinks that GMO’s are natural. Thinks that GMO foods are wholesome and safe, and thinks that GMO products support health and well-being. They either truly believe that, or their quality standards are a lie. I don’t know how you can list these as your quality standards while you’re simultaneously selling GMO foods. According to information offered by some of Whole Foods own employees - information spoken on camera during one of the undercover videos - Even Whole Foods Vitamin line may contain GMO’s.

This deception leads me to one more point I have to make on the topic of the hypocrisy of Whole Foods. Whole Foods dose not carry Pepsi, Coke, General Mills, Kellogg, Hershey’s, Cadbury, Kraft or Con Agra products because they are not healthy and do not meet their ‘quality standards.’ They demonize these companies and corporations and yet, if you look closely you will see that the shelves of Whole Foods Market are stocked full of products from these very companies. How could this be you ask? Simple.

Pepsi owns Naked Juice, and Izze. Both sold in Whole Foods.
Coke owns Odwalla sold in Whole Foods.
General Mills owns Larabar, Cascadian Farms, and Muir Glen all sold in Whole Foods
Kellogg owns Bare Naked, Kashi, Gardenburger, and Morningstar Farms all sold in Whole Foods
Hershey’s - Which has been accused of sourcing it’s chocolate through slave labor - owns Dagoba which is sold in Whole Foods.
Cadbury owns Black and Green Chocolate sold in Whole Foods
Kraft owns Boca and Back to Nature both sold at Whole Foods
Con Agra owns Lightlife sold in Whole Foods.

It should also be noted that while Whole Foods Market claims to be against factory farming it supports it indirectly as Hain Celestial - who have many products in Whole Foods stores from Imagine - almond, soy and rice dream - to Westsoy, to Garden of Eaten, to Arrowhead Mills and Spectrum Organics -  in particular is affiliated with Cargill, and directly as Whole Foods own grain-fed beef comes courtesy of IBP who is owned by Tyson Foods the biggest beef producer in the Country. IBP is located in South Dakota.

How can a company that demonizes these big corporations turn around and sell products from that very company? Perhaps this is why Whole Foods won’t stand behind Prop 37 and take a definitive and inarguable stand on the topic of GMO’s. Pepsi Corp, Cocoa Cola Corp, General Mills, and Kellogg are all actively fighting against prop 37 and donating to that fight right along with Monsanto.

Through their research InfoWars and Organic Spies have also uncovered some startling information. They say that Co-President Walter Robb has personally donated money to the campaign of Christie Vilsack who is running for congress this year. She is the wife of Tom Vilsack, who some of you may know is the United States Secretary of Agriculture at the USDA, who has been in bed with Monsanto for years, and who publicly advocates large industrialized farms and genetically modified crops. When confronted with this Letton stated that “What a person wants to do with their personal money from their personal bank account is their business.” which is true but you have to ask yourself why a man who is the co-president of the largest Organic and Natural Grocery Chain in the Country would donate money to the campaigns of the very people working against what he and his company - supposedly - are trying to achieve. InfoWars also stated that Robb donated a significant amount of money to the Obama campaign, and Obama appointed Mike Taylor - A Monsanto Cronie going back to the 80's - as the FDA Senior Advisor to the FDA Commission, and the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods. It could very well be a coincidence, and it could not be, that at least is the conclusion that's being drawn. I can’t speak to that, but it is interesting. It has also been reported that Whole Foods Executives have had meetings with Tom Vilsack, Monsanto, Stonyfeild Farms and Organic Valley. About what? Who can say, but why would Whole Foods Executives be meeting with a company they rally against?

And why does a corporation as adamantly opposed to GMO’s as Whole Foods claims to be, refuse to donate money to the Prop 37 initiative in California? They’ve publicly stated that they support prop 37, and the consumers ‘right to know’ but refuse to throw any money behind it. Is that because their top executives are donating money from personal bank accounts that is inevitably ending up in the pockets of Monsanto? To date no corporation has donated money to Prop 37, all donations are coming from small independent and Organic companies or personal donations from concerned doctors and the public. Leading by example is something that Whole Foods could easily do here, and yet they sit back silently watching to see what happens while their higher-ups donate to the opposition.

I think it’s safe to say that Whole Foods Market is no longer your friendly neighborhood hippy-dippy health food store. They’ve failed their customers and sold out to corporate America for the all-mighty dollar.

If this bothers you, if this upsets you, if this infuriates you my advice would be to get into contact with John Mackey, Walter Robb and other Whole Foods Executives via email and tell them in a polite but firm manner what you think of all of this. I would urge you to go to your local Whole Foods Market and talk to the store managers there, tell them how you feel, tell them how disappointed you are in them as a company. I would also urge you to contact your congressman or woman, or your state senator and tell them how you feel about GMO’s and ask them to stand behind a similar prop 37 for whatever your home state might be. If you live in California I urge you to vote yes on Prop 37 this November 6th and show the world that we are not willing to let ourselves become Monsanto’s Science Experiment.

And on the matter of where to buy your groceries. There’s not much sense in boycotting Whole Foods I think, so I would suggest that you only buy their organic products. Purchase from them only what is organic or what you need to suit any special diet you may have whether it’s vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free etc... then do the rest of your shopping at farmers markets or local markets and health food stores that you trust. Independent ones will be sure to have more integrity then chains. When it comes to buying conventional products I’d recommend you get them wherever you can get them cheapest. No sense in buying conventional apples at Whole Foods when you can buy the same apples at Safeway for $2 less right?

Dollars speak louder then words, if you stop buying GMO products from Whole Foods maybe they’ll get the message.

As November 6 grows nearer and these stories continue to circulate I will try to keep you updated. For more information check out the articles and videos linked below. Or simply Google it for yourself.

http://www.naturalnews.com/037467_Whole_Foods_marketing_fraud_GMO.html
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=A6D9F56EC3D67EB38801CCAACE10D645
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=484FC93C887B206A895A116C0A3469E3
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23905.cfm
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=E95DBAD3F3CE57D8190A9D39202FBD6B
http://digitaljournal.com/article/334129
http://www.infowars.com/whole-foods-market-and-gmos-the-whole-truth/
http://www.care2.com/news/member/101960828/3383705
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22449.cfm
http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name&oldest=1&lname=Robb&fname=Walter&search=Search+Names
http://truthquake.com/2012/10/02/whole-foods-censors-expose-genetically-modified-food-poisoning-video/
http://www.gcnlive.com/wp/tag/food/
http://www.cornucopia.org/who-owns-organic/

Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death...

Normally I don’t post videos, but I came across this one tonight and I felt compelled to share it. Dr. Gregor talks about the top 15 leading cause of death, what causes them and how they can be prevented, and treated. It’s all stuff vegans have known for years backed up by the latest scientific studies and the longest running study on vegetarianism/veganism ever conducted.

It's one thing to read this information in a magazine, book or blog, or to see it on the news or to just ‘know it’ but to see it laid out so blatantly and unobtrusively with facts, figures, charts, and diagrams is quite another. It’s more mind-blowing in my opinion. Harder to ignore.

Though this video is just shy of an hour, I think it’s extremely important that it be watched and shared. Especially if you have a history of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, liver disease, kidney disease, COPD, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s etc... particularly if you’re not a vegan or a vegetarian. If you can’t commit to watching the entire video I implore you to at least watch the first ten minutes. They discuss heart disease and cancer.

Some of my favorite quotes from the video

 “Eating just a quarter of a chicken breast can triple your risk of cancer.” 

“Vegans fight cancer 8 times better then non-vegans.” 

“Prescription drugs kill over 100,000 Americans a year from side effects, not abuse or overdose.”

Wow....

2 California Dairy Farms Quarantined In Mad Cow Disease Investigation...

In case you’ve missed the latest information on the Mad Cow Disease (BSE) situation in California, it was announced on May 3rd that the USDA has quarantined two California Dairy Farms. The locations of which have not yet been disclosed. The USDA is also investigating the rendering plant where the cow was discovered and a cattle ranch where the original infected cow was apparently raised. The USDA is also investigating 10 different cow-feed producers, presumably looking for possible contaminants. The USDA has also confirmed that the original infected cow gave birth twice. Once to a stillborn calf, and the second calf was located out of state where it was promptly euthanized. Officials say it did not have BSE.

Over the past couple of weeks the USDA has been working very hard to reassure the public of the safety of U.S. beef. They continue to insist that the most recent case of BSE was a spontaneous isolated case. They point to the fact that the cow developed a very rare form of BSE called Atypical BSE or ‘L-type’ - not contracted from eating infected feed -, as proof that U.S. beef is safe. They say that L-type BSE has never led to human vCJD, but are they just covering their ass?

Peer reviewed findings by a French neuroscientist named Thierry Baron, published in the January issue of ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’ suggests it’s too soon to say whether or not incidents like the California dairy cow are spontaneous. The studies he conducted on mouse lemurs suggested that they may contract L-type BSE easier then the classical type.

A consumers union scientist named Dr. Michael Hansen, who has long studied BSE also thinks it’s possible that L-type BSE is “not necessarily a spontaneous case.”

Up until recently many prion researchers also thought that L-type BSE posed little threat to humans because it’s so rare that people aren’t typically exposed to it. However a molecular biologist at The University of Edinburgh recently found the L-type prion simply has a harder time infecting normal human brain tissue than the classical type. Not that it can’t.

Even if L-type prions arise spontaneously by some genetic mutation in a cow that doesn’t mean other cows can not become infected. For instance if L-type BSE goes undetected and parts of that infected cow are fed to chickens - as is legal and standard practice in the industry - and then the feces and litter from those chickens are fed back to cows - which again is standard practice - those cows can become infected with L-type BSE.

The USDA has also stated that the Quarantine, and subsequent investigations are entirely routine, and standard procedure. They say there is nothing to suggest either dairy or cattle ranch will yield the discovery of any more infected cattle. I choose to remain skeptical on this point. After all government agencies are not exactly in the habit of informing the public of anything, unless someone within that agency thinks a public health threat is significant. It also seems unlikely that the USDA would spend so much time on a ‘routine’ procedure that nobody within the agency apparently thinks is cause for concern.

I also question the information provided about the original cows age, and offspring. Originally the cow in question was reported to be around five years of age. The cow is now being reported as being eleven. The USDA says the cow In question had only two offspring. Yet this is a dairy cow we are talking about. To produce milk a cow must be pregnant or nursing. Cows do not produce milk spontaneously, like every other human and non-human animal cows must be pregnant or nursing young in order to produce milk. It doesn’t matter what angle you look at it, that’s a fact. Yet if the cow is eleven how has it only had 2 offspring? A cow’s gestation period is roughly the same as a human female, an eleven year old dairy cow should have had many more calves then that. Six to ten I’d think depending on how old it was when it was first impregnated, and how long a time lapses between birthing one calve and becoming pregnant again. I could buy a five year old cow having only two calves, but an eleven year old cow? One that’s presumably in the dairy industry? Unless the cow wasn’t being used to produce milk it seems a little fishy. It makes me wonder if the cow in question did have more offspring that we either weren’t told about, or weren’t found at all. Considering the U.S. doesn’t track it’s cattle it’s conceivable that there could potentially be unaccounted for offspring.

With situations like this I can’t help wondering what information is not being released, and what we’re not being told. As always my advice is to do your own research, think for yourselves, and when the people who have the most to gain from your allegiance give you their assurances take their words with a grain of salt.

For more information on Mad Cow Disease and concerns about vCJD refer to my earlier post on the matter - Here. You can also check out the articles below. If any more information is forthcoming I’ll keep you posted.

Food Safety News

CNN

Huffington Post

Mad Cow Disease - Back or Never Gone? New Case Discovered In California...

I had really been hoping to post this last week, when the story was fresh but I’ve been a bit busy of late. I know this article is a tad long, but it is really, really important information, so I hope you do read it. At the very least please go to the links I’ve provided. Staying informed is always vitally important.

Mad Cow Disease - These three words inspire fear in the hearts of many, and indifference in the minds of others. Mad Cow Disease - or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) - however  is no recent phenomenon, nor is it - as many would like to believe - simply an epidemic of the past. Nor Is it an epidemic limited to the boundaries of only one country or even one continent despite what the ‘powers that be’ would have us believe. No, Mad Cow Disease is alive and well, and possibly living in a burger near you. It is there lurking amongst the shadows, ever omnipresent throughout the cattle industry and wherever ruminants are sold. The question, in my opinion, should not be “Is mad cow a threat?” but rather “Will they tells us when it is?”

If you grew up in the 80's or early 90's as I did then the imposing threat of mad cow should be all to familiar to you. Perhaps you recall the massive outbreak of BSE that started in Britain in the 1980's and completely decimated their cattle herds. Perhaps you recall the hundreds of human deaths from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) that occurred as a result of the consumption of BSE infected meat. You may even recall the famous  20 million dollar lawsuit filed by the Cattleman’s Beef Association against Oprah Winfrey. After a former cattle rancher named Howard Lyman appeared on her show in the mid-90's explaining that the same livestock-feeding practices responsible for the BSE outbreak in Britain were also being practiced in the United States. Upon hearing this she declared, “It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger.” You may remember the bans on importing British beef and that your mother suddenly started serving up a lot more chicken for dinner.

But why, you may be asking yourself, am I talking about this today? Because as I said in the opening paragraph BSE is alive and well not only in some distant place you may never have been to and may never go, but right here, today, on U.S. soil. In case you haven’t been following the news of late the USDA confirmed last week that a case of Mad Cow (BSE) was found in a California dairy cow. Considering that virtually all ‘spent’ dairy cows in the U.S.  are eventually ground up and made into hamburger meat, this news has naturally caused some alarm. Of course meat industry officials have been quick to point to the rarity of BSE in the U.S., and while it’s true that there have only been 4 official cases confirmed and reported in the U.S. since 2003, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there hasn’t been more. You see 34 million cattle are slaughtered for human consumption in the U.S. each year, and out of those only 40 thousand animals are tested for BSE. That equals out to be only 1 in every 1000. John Robbins makes a good point when he asks “If we tested 80 thousand would we find 2 cases? If we tested them all would we find 1000?”  You have to ask yourself if you think testing 1 in every 1000 animals is effective or adequate. If you were playing the lottery would you take 1 in 1000 odds? I wouldn’t. Add to that the startling fact that 1 cow can ultimately end up in numerous burgers. How many burgers exactly? No one knows. If even one BSE infected cow makes it past this inadequate testing system and enters the food chain it has the potential to cause a disaster of untold magnitude.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the dairy cow in question was discovered at a transfer facility near Hanford. The cow had died on one of the regions hundreds of dairies, and had arrived at the facility on a truck full of other dead cows. Though the cow in question had shown none of the symptoms of BSE - unsteadiness, un-coordination, drastic changes in behavior, or low milk production - it was nevertheless selected for the testing process due to it’s 30 month age. Industry officials claim this is an isolated incident, and point to the fact that the cow never entered the food chain as evidence of the public’s safety, but bigger questions continue to loom. Where did the cow come from? And how did the cow become infected? Until those questions can be answered with absolute certainty we can not really be sure if this is indeed an isolated case. BSE doesn’t just spring up inside of a cow out of nowhere, it isn’t a natural process that occurs as a cow ages, the infection has to come from somewhere or something, so I am of the opinion that where there is one case, there are more. The fact that other cases have not yet been found, only strengthens my opinion that the testing system in place is inadequate. Of course these questions could be answered if the U.S. had a mandatary identification system that tracked animals from birth to the slaughterhouse. Such a system would be able to identify without a doubt where the cow was born, and then the other cows on that farm could be tested for possible BSE contamination. Unfortunately the U.S. is one of the only beef-producing countries in the world that does not have a mandatary identification system put in place to track it’s food animals. Even third world countries such as Botswana have such a system in place. Though there have been attempts in the past to instill such a system nationwide, they have all been obstructed by various segments within the cattle industry. Which leads me to wonder what they have to hide?

Howard Lyman wrote in his book “Mad Cowboy” that cattle ranchers across the nation are all too familiar with occurrences of mysterious cow deaths. He writes that you may go to bed one night with all your cows looking normal and healthy and wake up the next morning to find that one has died from unknown causes during the night. He writes that while these cows show no outward signs of BSE infection, and no one ever says aloud that these deaths are in fact BSE related, ranchers can’t help the suspicion from entering their minds. With the numbers of ‘downed cows’ on the rise and only 1 in every 1000 animals being tested, this is a somewhat unsettling revelation.

An outward display of symptoms is one of the things Industry officials point to in order to reassure the public. They say cows displaying odd behavior would be immediately removed from the human food chain and tested, but what of the cows that do not display symptoms? As this dairy cow did not. BSE is not a suddenly striking disease. It comes on gradually, and has a long incubation period relative to the natural life span of the species in question. A small animal like a mouse ora  rat may display symptoms in a matter of months, a cat or dog maybe a year. A cow doesn’t typically display symptoms until the age of 5, and the incubation period in humans can be anything from 10-40 years. However no cow slaughtered for human consumption is ever aloud to live out it’s natural life span, animals in the beef industry barely make it to 3, and are routinely slaughtered between 18-24 months of age. Dairy cows typically live longer, making detection of BSE in them easier, but if a cow can be infected with BSE at the age of two, and not show any symptoms at the time of slaughter how would we ever know of the infection when only 1 in 1000 animals is tested? If the animal is not considered high-risk why would it ever need be tested? This is what worries me. More worrying still is that an infected cow can transmit BSE to her baby . If these animals aren’t tracked, which they are not in the U.S. how would we ever find the offspring of a cow who was later discovered to have BSE? How would we ever find out whether or not the offspring from that infected cow ever contracted BSE from it’s mother? We couldn’t. In fact we still haven’t been able to locate all of the British cows that were imported into the U.S. for breeding purposes before the 1987 ban. There was a massive effort to track down and destroy all of those cows and their offspring but without an identification system finding each and every one proved impossible.

I’m sorry, but the margin for error is just too large, and I have a very hard time swallowing the assurances made by those who have the most to gain from our continued beef consumption.

And I am not alone in my concern. Last week two major South Korean grocery retailers pulled all U.S. beef from their shelves. South Korea is the 4th largest importer of U.S. beef, but the Korean public aren’t buying the meat industry assurances either. Indonesia also placed an immediate ban on all U.S. beef imports.

Despite the meat industry’s assurances that this particular dairy cow didn’t make it into the food chain there is still a lot to be concerned about when it comes to BSE. According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine “The conditions that led to the emergence of BSE in Britain have also been present in the United States. Although some changes have been made, many U.S. livestock rendering and feeding practices are similar to those that were present in Britain at the onset of the BSE epidemic.” Meaning it’s definitely possible that more cases of BSE are going undetected in the United States.  For example though the FDA placed a ban on feeding most mammalian remnants to ruminants in 1997, a 2001 FDA report showed that of 180 renderers, 16% lacked warning labels on feeds designed to differentiate those intended for rudiments from those intended for nonruminants. Also 28% of renderers had no system set in place to prevent the mixing of these feeds. There is also no restriction on the use of blood, and blood products, gelatin, milk and milk products in feeds, through which BSE prions may be transmitted. (Though there is not yet any evidence to suggest that BSE prions can be transmitted to humans through drinking the milk of cows infected with BSE, there is some suggestion that BSE prions can be transmitted to other animals through the milk of BSE infected animals) There are also no limits on nonruminant use in feeds. Meaning animals such as pigs and horses can and are routinely fed to cows as part of their feed. Unfortunately since BSE prions are very difficult to destroy if the remnants of a BSE infected cow are fed to a pig, and that pig is then in turn fed to another cow, that cow may become infected with BSE. Similarly ruminant remnants can be fed to poultry and poultry feces are routinely used in cattle feed. Not very reassuring huh?

More data from the National Veterinary Science Laboratories BSE Surveillance program from 1990-2000 show that out of 900 million cattle slaughtered only 11,954 brains were examined for BSE. That amounts to only 1 in every 75 thousand. Does 1 in 75 thousand seem like an appropriate number to you? How would you like those odds?

Scarier still is the fact that BSE is not limited to just Britain nor the United States. According the the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine BSE has been found in native cattle in France, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland, The Channel Isles, the Isle of Man, Spain, Germany, Japan, Russia, Denmark, Oman, The Falkland Islands and Canada.  Also according to the PCRM at least 100, 000 cattle who’s BSE status is unknown have been shipped from the UK to other countries. Most of those animals remain unaccounted for.

Mad Cow disease is no joke, and neither is it’s human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. (vCJD) Like BSE in cows, vCJD in humans robs an individual of their mental faculties, and muscle coordination. There is no treatment for the disease and It eventually leads to coma and death. It is always fatal. The disease essentially eats away at the brain until the infected individual can no longer function. It’s a gruesome disease resulting from contact with the prions in tissues of cattle infected with BSE. Sadly only a minuscule amount of infected tissue is required in order to transmit the disease. These prions concentrate mostly in the brain and spinal tissue, but have also been found in blood and muscle tissue according to the PCRM.  These prions are also very difficult to destroy even by disinfectant, chemical or heating methods. In fact a temperature of 134'C or 273'F does not reduce their ability to infect an animal or individual.

Worse still is that the symptoms of vCJD infection are very similar to that of dementia, or Alzheimer’s, so many people with vCJD are mis-diagnosed as such, making the disease in humans very hard to track. Since it is very hard to determine the difference between vCJD and Alzheimer’s in a living patient, and since most people who die from neurological illness are never autopsied their brains are never examined. Meaning we may never know exactly how many people have or have had vCJD. According to the PCRM death certificates from 1979-1988 show that 4,751 people died of vCJD in the United States.

Interestingly a 1989 study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh found that when 54 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia were autopsied after death 3 of them (5%) were actually found to have vCJD.  Another study from 1989 conducted at Yale University discovered that out of 46 people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 6 (13%) were actually found to have vCJD upon being autopsied. Since there are over 2 million cases of Alzheimer’s in the United States, if even a small percentage of them turned out to be vCJD, we could be faced a vCJD epidemic. Now that’s a scary thought.

So while the meat industry and the USDA continue to assure us that we are safe from this latest incidence of Mad Cow, one can’t help but feel a little unsafe when it comes to the disease on a greater scale. With inadequate testing, shady feeding practices, and an apparent unwillingness by the industry to put in place a national animal identification system, one can’t help but feel a lack of confidence not only in the integrity of the industry itself but also in the products they’re pushing. It’s just one more reason I’m glad to be a vegan. Of course with such a long incubation period there’s no telling whom among us might develop BSE related vCJD. Every time I think about the beef I ate growing up in Canada, and living in the United States, as well as the burger I ate here and there over in Ireland I feel a little sick. However I can at least feel confident in the fact that I am no longer potentially exposing myself to undetected BSE. My made from scratch veggie burgers are safe, as is the rest of the food I prepare on a daily basis. For that I am grateful.

For more information on Mad Cow disease I highly recommend Howard Lyman’s “Mad Cowboy” as well as John Robbins “Food Revolution” the latter is not exclusively about BSE but it is a wonderful book with a section devoted to the disease.

The Huffington Post
The L.A. Times
John Robbins Article for The Huffington Post
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

'Healthy At 100: How you can - at any age - Dramatically Increase Your Life Span and Your Health Span' by John Robbins

"The myths and stereotypes we have about old age are so deeply entrenched in American society that they can insinuate themselves into our psyches without our ever knowing what they are. It is difficult to escape the messages that our culture sends about the aging process. From birthday cards that decry the advance of age to the widespread use of demeaning language about the elderly - ("geezer" "old fogey" "Old Maid" "Dirty old man" "old Goat" etc.) to the lack of positive images of the elderly in ads and on television programs, each of us is continually imbued with feelings of aversion to those who are old." - John Robbins - 'Healthy at 100'

"I do take heart though from the fact that modern western culture is not the only way people can live, and it’s prevailing assumptions are not the only way people can think" - John Robbins - 'Healthy at 100'

I am a big fan of John Robbins. Both "Diet For a New America" and "Food Revolution" are brilliant pieces of literature that are extremely well researched. Robbins is definitely one of the leading voices in both the health and vegan community. So when I discovered his book "Healthy at 100: How you can - at any age - Dramatically Increase Your Life Span and Your Health Span" I was very eager to read it. The name alone caught my attention, Healthy at 100 is a concept that for most of us I think seems unrealistic. However I don’t think it’s all that crazy to imagine myself as a healthy centenarian, in full control of all of my faculties and fully capable of enjoying the life I’ve always had.

For most people in the western world however the words ‘old age’ are synonymous with decline. We live in a society that treasures youth and beauty, and feels disgusted by age. We live in a culture that perpetuates ageist stereotypes, such as old people unable to do anything for themselves. We consider it normal to continue to rapidly decline as we get older, when in fact this doesn’t have to be the case. Many of us - young people in particular - view aging as a fate worse then death, and we shouldn’t.

In his book John Robbins lays to rest many of the ageist stereotypes that we’ve always grown up with. He points out the ridiculousness of how we perceive age and aging and debunks many common myths surrounding old age. However he also points out that the tragedy of our culture here in the west is our complete lack of respect for the aged, and our total compliance in allowing ourselves to decline as we age simply because it’s ‘what’s always been.’ It was these parts of the book that I found particularly interesting because here he explores the psychology behind how the average westerner sees aging compared to how aging is viewed in other cultures around the world. In many cultures spanning the glob from South America all the way to Asia it’s true that the older you are the more respect you receive. Age is seen as a triumph and a virtue, and the elderly in these cultures are revered, they would never consider themselves somehow incapable simply because they are ‘old.’

"The consequences of ageism are similar to those associated with discrimination against other groups. People who are subjected to prejudice and intolerance often internalize the dominant groups negative image and then behave in ways that conform to their negative image. Thus older people often hold ageist views about their contemporaries, about those who are slightly older then they are, and even about their own worth" - John Robbins 'Healthy at 100'

In addition to debunking the myths of age, Robbins focus’s the book on four very different cultures credited with producing the worlds healthiest oldest people, deeply exploring just how exactly these cultures have been able to remain in perfect health even at an advanced age, often exceeding 100. Those he focuses on are the Abkhasians in the Caucasus south of Russia, the Vilcabambans in the South American Andes, the Hunzans of Pakistan, and the Japanese of Okinawa. Through his extensive research of these varying cultures Robbins discovers that they all have something in common. Diet, Lifestyle and Attitude.

All four of these cultures consume diets of whole foods, no processed fair and their diets are for the most part plant-based. Containing little to no meat, and little to no dairy products. Their traditional diets are also relatively low in sugar, salt, fat, and oil, and consist almost entirely of vegetation that is both local and seasonal. Their lifestyles are also very active. While they may not engage in rigorous exercise regimes like we do here in the west, they are active in many other ways. People in these cultures walk a lot, they participate in communal work, organization, and farming. They work in their own personal gardens, play with their children and regularly engage in outdoor activity. Many people from these cultures would think nothing of walking 2 miles just to visit a friend. As far as their attitude goes they perceive aging as a happy process. They look forward to their golden years rather then dread them as people in western cultures do. They also have strong familial bonds and have lifelong connections with friends. They suffer less stress, and it’s not because they’re lives are less difficult, it’s because they take a positive attitude towards life, and tend not to fret about things that are out of their control. Stress and loneliness in Robbins opinion - and I’m inclined to agree - can kill a person just as quickly as smoking or an unhealthy diet.

"From our culture we learn what is expected of us, and to a considerable extent we then often conform to those expectations. When the prevailing image of aging expects older people to be asexual, intellectually rigid, forgetful, and invisible many elderly people will take on these characteristics even though doing so may run counter to the way they had previously lived their lives." - John Robbins ' 'Healthy at 100'

I not only found the chapters concerning these cultures completely captivating but also inspiring and uplifting. Here in the west we have so few positive association with age that it was great to be able to read about people in their 90's, or early 100's walking, running, and/or hiking miles per day. To read about 90 and 100 year olds still happily working either in their community or at actual jobs is inspiring. This is not something we see in North America. If people in our society even make it to 90 they are very often immobile and in nursing homes, hell it’s more and more common in our culture these days to see people in their 70's in that state. We consider the 90 year old grandma that lives on her own, and walks everyday to the grocery store an exception to the rule in our society when in fact - as is proven by these cultures - it should be the rule!

Through this book John Robbins has shown that getting older doesn’t have to be scary or something to dread, but rather it should be viewed upon as an opportunity. An opportunity to educate others and to show people that age doesn’t have to mean decline if you don’t want it to. Through this book Robbins imparts on us the tools we need to live healthy, joyous lives of meaning and longevity. With an emphasis on a simple whole foods diet, a manageable daily exercise routine, the cultivation of strong loving personal relationships and a positive attitude and outlook. With this book as our guide we can easily make our later years a period of wisdom, vitality, and happiness. We can at any age be productive members of society and our community, and we do not have to fall into the death trap of ageist stereotypes simply because that’s how it’s always been for us.

"Ageism represents a prejudice against a group that all people will inevitably join if they live long enough. As a result an ideology that equates aging with deterioration steals hope from everyone and from every stage of our lives" - John Robbins - 'Healthy at 100'

I highly recommend this book, as much for it’s well researched information as for it’s efforts to shift the cultural norms and common perceptions of aging.

"It remains an indisputable fact that in Hunzans as in Abkhasians and Vilcabambans, a large proportion of elder citizens have retained their faculties, remained vigorous and enjoyed life right up until only weeks or months before their deaths. It is an established fact that the elderly in each of these regions have had extremely low rates of heart disease, cancer, obesity, arthritis, asthma, dementia and the other degenerative infirmities that plague so many older people in the west. It is a fact that they have remained for the most part remarkably fit and active as they age" - John Robbins - 'Healthy at 100'

*** Note - Image found using Google Image search***

Iron - The Truth About Iron and Iron Deficiency....

If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan chances are you’ve been asked about Iron. Next to protein and calcium, iron is one of the biggest nutrients that non-vegetarians always seem concerned about. Not for themselves mind you, but for you. How do you get your iron? Where do you get your iron? Aren’t you worried about becoming anemic? These questions get asked over and over again and sometimes they’re coupled with comments such as, "I tried vegetarian for a while but had to stop because I became anemic." or "I had a friend who was vegetarian who had to go back to meat because she was anemic." Statements like these continue to perpetuate the myths that the diet of vegetarians is in some way lacking, difficult to manage, or that vegetarians are simply incapable of receiving proper nutrition through a healthful plant-based diet. All of which are entirely untrue.

I don’t know what it is about our culture but so often it seems that we end up hearing one ‘fact’ from one person, who may or may not have any actual authority on the matter and then stick to it like it’s gospel. Somewhere along the line it seems like we dropped the ball on asking questions and doing research for ourselves. It’s this lack of education that keeps these myths alive. So since I’ve already dispelled the common myths surrounding protein, and calcium I thought it pertinent to do the same for Iron. The information you’ll find in this post I think will be helpful for a wide range of people regardless of your dietary orientation, and you’ll see why in a moment.

Iron of course is one of the essential minerals needed to sustain most of earth’s life forms (both human and non human) and is required for normal human physiology. The majority of iron in the body is found in the hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to your tissues. It’s also essential for regulation of cell growth.

There are two different types of iron problems that effect humans. Iron deficiency - which is described as low iron stores typically measured by a serum ferritin level of less then 18ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter) and Iron Deficiency Anemia. IDA symptoms include pale skin, brittle fingernails, hair loss, fatigue, weakness, difficulty breathing upon exertion, inadequate temperature regulation, and loss of appetite. Many of these are symptoms of other nutritional deficiencies and diseases and therefor only a medical doctor can properly and accurately diagnose IDA.

Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency Worldwide and in the United States. Iron deficiency effects people of all backgrounds, races, economic status, and dietary choices. Meaning iron deficiency effects vegetarians, vegans and non-vegetarians almost equally. Though people often show ‘concern’ for the iron levels of vegetarians the truth is iron deficiency is not about vegetarians not getting the proper nutrition while non-vegetarians are getting the proper nutrition, it’s a case of everyone needing to make sure they are receiving the proper nutrition from their diet, regardless of their dietary choices. In fact studies have shown that healthful vegetarian - and particularly vegan - diets contain higher or equal amounts of dietary iron then that of non-vegetarians. Why is it that vegetarians/vegans have more iron in their diets then non-vegetarians? The answer is simple, not only does virtually everything a vegetarian eats contain some level of iron but also vegetarians simply consume more fruits and vegetables. Why is this important? Because of vitamin C. Studies show that vegetarians consume up to 50% more vitamin C then non-vegetarians and consuming vitamin C at the same time you are consuming iron rich foods makes the iron more bioavailable to the body.

When it comes to iron there are two types available through our diet. Heme iron which comes from animal products, and nonheme iron which comes both from plants and animal products. While heme iron is considered more easily absorbable, it is not superior. Once the iron has been absorbed into the body and has reached our cells to be used in building hemoglobin and other purposes the body doesn’t care where the iron originated from and whether or not it was heme or nonheme. It’s also important to note that some studies suggest that heme iron from red meat has effects which may increase the likelihood of colorectal cancer. Which brings us to the next point.

While there is such a thing as iron deficiency, there is also such a thing as iron overabundance. Iron you see is tightly regulated by the human body which has no regulated physiological means of excreting excess iron. Excluding incidences of blood loss due to injury or menstruation, the amount of iron lost daily due to mucosal and skin epithelial cells sloughing is very, very small. Large amounts of ingested iron can cause excessive levels of iron in the blood. High blood levels of free ferrous iron react with peroxides to produce free radicals which are highly reactive and can damage DNA, proteins, lipids and other cellular compounds; thus iron toxicity occurs when there is free iron in the cells, which occurs when iron levels exceed the capacity of trasferrin to bind the iron. Damage to the cells of the gastrointestinal tract can also prevent regulation of iron absorption leading to further increases in blood levels.

Iron overload is serious and is particularly damaging to the cells in the heart and liver, as well as the pancreas, and spleen. It can cause significant adverse effects such as various types of cancer, coma, metabolic acidosis, shock, liver failure, coagulopathy, adult repertory disease syndrom, long term organ damage, osteoporosis, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and death. Excess iron has also been linked to diseases like Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s, as it was found that an excess of iron had accumulated in the hippocampus section of the brains of those with Alzheimer’s, and the substantia nigra of patients with Parkinson’s. Iron overload can also accelerate the effects and symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, and Epilepsy. Not very fun stuff, and while you certainly don’t want to mess around with anemia either, recent studies have shown that low iron stores may not necessarily be a bad thing.

While healthy vegetarians are no more susceptible to iron deficiency then non-vegetarians, it is documented that most adult vegetarians have iron stores that are on the lower end of normal. In addition to not being put at a higher risk for the above mentioned diseases caused by or linked to iron overload, low iron stores are also associated with a higher glucose tolerance which may help prevent diabetes.

Those at the highest risk for iron deficiency (vegetarian or non-vegetarian) are woman of childbearing age (menstruating woman) pregnant or breast feeding woman, children and the elderly. You do not need to worry about iron if you are otherwise healthy and eat a varied vegan or vegetarian diet. Of course if you are worried about iron absorption there are steps you can take to increase the bioavailability of iron in your body. Increase the amount of beans and legumes in your diet, and just as vitamin C helps with iron absorption there are many things that can also inhibit iron absorption. Coffee and tea are two of the biggest culprits as the tannins within them work to block the absorption of iron into the body. It is not recommenced that you drink either of these beverages while eating iron rich meals, particularly if your goal is to increase absorption. Taking calcium supplements with meals can also decrease the amount of iron absorption as well as eating dairy products including eggs, chocolate, and taking Aspirin, and antacids. Drinking alcohol with meals or over abuse of alcohol, narcotics, or prescription medications can all impair iron absorption. It is wise to remove these things from meals, and make sure to eat your iron rich foods with foods rich in vitamin C such as lemon, lime, tomato, oranges etc... Of course if your concerns persist you should have a doctor measure your iron stores, which is a quick and easy thing to do. In fact I recommend having a full blood test done at least once a year just to ensure that you are getting adequate nutrition. That’s what I do, and it gives me peace of mine and the confidence to defend my diet when others may criticize it.

Part of the reason the myths surrounding vegetarianism and iron deficiency continue to persist despite evidence to the contrary is that an overwhelming amount of people self-diagnose themselves as being anemic. All too often when people first transition to a vegetarian diet they automatically assume they’ve become anemic if they begin to feel tired or fatigued. However their feeling tired could be the result of a number of things such as not eating enough calories or protein, eating too many high-sugar foods, or even not getting enough sleep. However rather then dig into the real reasons for why they may be feeling the way they are people tend to jump to what they consider to be the most logical conclusion. Since these myths about iron continue to persist that ‘logical conclusion’ is usually ‘anemia’. Some people may also base this judgment on the suggestion of family or friends who automatically jump to that conclusion as well, without having any of the actual facts. As stated before the only way to know for sure if you have iron deficiency anemia is to be diagnosed by a doctor.

There is some evidence that iron absorption may be more of a problem when a person first becomes vegetarian, because long-term studies of vegetarian woman have not shown high drop off iron rates. Physiologically it makes some sense that the problem would show up right away or not at all for the following reason: The body secretes transferrin into the digestive tract when iron stores are low in order to increase absorption into the blood. If someone has been a meat eater all their life, their body has not had a need to manufacture as much transferrin as they may now need as a vegetarian. This might cause a quick initial drop in iron absorption after first becoming vegetarian. As the person’s body adjusts to the new diet and lifestyle it may become more efficient at producing the appropriate amount of transferrin over time. However if a person becomes anemic or iron deficient right away they will likely quit the diet without giving their body a chance to acclimate to the new lifestyle. More evidence to support this theory is that children who were vegan from birth, and otherwise well-nourished and living in developed countries, are not known to have developed Iron deficiency Anemia. Since vegan infants have no prior history of depending on heme iron, they begin their lives efficiently absorbing nonheme iron and retain this ability throughout life.

If you do become anemic after switching to a vegan or vegetarian diet, this is easy to fix with iron supplements. Of course make sure to get diagnosed by your doctor first, and then talk about supplementation with him/her before self dosing. Your doctor may tell you to start eating meat again if he/she finds you to be anemic, this is a common response when doctors encounter anemic vegetarians yet it is a ridiculous one that doesn’t make any sense. After all iron deficiency and anemia in non-vegetarians is not simply treated by having the meat-eater, ‘eat more meat’ they are treated through iron supplements, and vegetarians or vegans can also be easily treated this way. However it is important to note that unless a deficiency or enhanced need exists, iron should not be supplemented, particularly in males, and postmenopausal woman who are no longer menstruating regularly, as iron is an oxidant and over abundance of it can lead to increased risk for many diseases as well as toxicity as described in the paragraphs above.

As you can see iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia is not the disastrous and un-treatable boogeyman most people make it out to be. A lot of the fear and hype is overblown, and there is some very good evidence for why a lower (within reason) iron store may be more beneficial then a higher one. To say vegetarians or vegans are more susceptible to iron deficiency or anemia simply because thy don’t eat meat isn’t only ludicrous it’s simply not true. Statements such as those have absolutely no basis in fact, and are built off of propaganda, and myth designed to discredit a vegetarian diet, or to simply justify and excuse a non-vegetarian one. The perpetuation of these inaccuracies not only due us all a disservice but they are particularly harmful to those of us who want to continue on the vegan or vegetarian path for moral, ethical, environmental or health reasons, and are told we should not. All too often otherwise dedicated vegetarians are swayed back to eating meat by these myths, particularly when informed of them by an authority figure, not knowing any better they may feel forced to switch back despite their resistence to do so. This is something I know from personal experience, as it was the reason I shifted back to eating meat after just over a year of vegetarianism when I was in my teens. I also know non-vegetarians are equally plagued by iron deficiency anemia from personal experience as I’ve had two non-vegetarian friends diagnosed as anemic despite their constantly gorging themselves on red meat.

So now that you have all the information you may be wondering what some iron rich foods are. That’s the easy and delicious part! Beans particularly white beans, pinto, soybeans and chickpeas are an excellent source of iron, as are all lentils. Nuts and seeds, particularly pumpkin seeds are a great source of iron, as are whole grains. Especially barley, quinoa, and oatmeal. Blackstrap Molasses also contains a good deal of iron, as do Sea Vegetables (Seaweeds) and tofu. Dried fruits such as apricots, figs and raisons are all excellent sources as well, and of course last but not least greens. Lots and lots of greens such as spinach, Swiss Chard, Kale, Collards, Broccoli, asparagus, green beans, peas, bok choy and Brussels Sprouts. Potatoes and mushrooms are also a decent source of iron. As you can see, given you’re eating a variety of whole plant foods not processed junk your diet should be rich in iron, and of course it’s also an option to buy iron fortified cereals, and non-dairy milks as well. For extra insurance. Don’t ever let anyone tell you, your diet is nutritionally inferior!

'Crazy Sexy Diet' - by Kris Carr...

"I am capable, confident, intelligent, resilient and in charge. Health and happiness are my birthrights and I accept with gratitude." - Kris Carr, "Crazy Sexy Diet"

Forget the silly title of this book, and ignore the word diet. What Kris Carr proposes within the pages of this ‘how to’ isn’t a diet, but a complete lifestyle overhaul. Lifestyle changes - not diets - are what we as a society should be focused on, not only to make us look and feel better but to improve our overall health and help us fight in the struggles against pre-mature aging, pre-mature death and disease.

For those who know me well, know that I do not believe in diets. I never have and I never will, I have in fact never gone on ‘a diet’ in my life. Why? Simple, diets do not work! Or rather they work only in the short term, gaining you superficial results that you almost immediately loose the minute you stray from the diet plan. Many new fad diets have come and gone over the years, and I have had too many girlfriends fall victim to the dangerous insanity most of these con men and woman perpetuate. Atkins, South Beach, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, you name it and I have a friend who’s tried it, and in virtually every case they’ve failed. Either the diet didn’t work for them, or they lost an exorbitant amount of weight in a very short time only to gain it all back in the weeks or months that followed them ending the diet. Very often I’ve known people to gain back not only what they lost but more, and sometimes as much as double. One thing all diets have in common is restriction and control. The reason why any of these diets work in the first place is because they have the dieter eating an unreasonably low amount of calories. Portions are tiny, and while certain things are restricted or allowed only in moderation within the scope of the diet, none of these programs ever truly seek to remove the unhealthy foods entirely. In fact many of these diets tell you that yes you can continue to eat your bacon and eggs and potato chips and pop and still loose weight, which is insane. It does however speak to the vast majority of people who want to reap all the benefits of diet without actually putting forth and real effort or work.

The word diet in my opinion - when used in it’s current mutated manifestation meaning ‘a restricted eating regiment’ rather then it’s actual original meaning ‘the foods a human or animal habitually eats - is one of the most heinous words in the human lexicon, offering nothing but negative connotations. ‘Diet’ books by contrast are nothing more then highly publicized mass-marketed money making schemes that pray on the weakness and insecurity of easily led people. They promise solutions that are neither realistic or sustainable for the long term. They are complete and utter shams peddled by charlatans. Diets are not the answer, lifestyle changes are.

So what does my disdain for diets and diet books have to do with the Crazy Sexy Diet you may ask? Well it’s my utter abhorrence for the subject that had me automatically reject this book based on it’s title. When I saw the word diet I didn’t even deem the book worthy of a glace at the back cover. However as time went on I began to pick up fragments of "Crazy Sexy Diet" in the media or from friends who’d read it, for a while the book seemed to be everywhere, but still I turned my nose up at it. Then a few months ago I happened upon an interview with Kris Carr that I was immediately drawn into.

I discovered that Carr was not, after all, peddling another fad diet book but rather a lifestyle shift. One inspired by the fact that she is a cancer survivor. I learned that in 2003 at the age of 31 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer that was completely inoperable. A dozen tumors in her liver, ten more in her lungs and absolutely nothing anyone could do for her. No radiation, no surgery, no chemotherapy. Though she sought out second and third opinions the prognosis was always the same. Not willing or ready to give up she took matters into her own hands. She found an oncologist willing to work with her, and she completely transformed her life. Nearly ten years later she still has cancer but it’s dormant, not growing, not spreading, not expanding, she is healthy. I was in awe, and I wanted to know more.

So about a month and a half or so ago when I saw Crazy Sexy Diet collecting dust in my local library I decided it was time to finally give the book a fair shake. I took it home, cracked the cover and devoured the entire book in one night, almost in one sitting mind you. I was that captivated, that intrigued, and that enthralled. Since then I’ve read bits and pieces over again, and I have to say this book is really kind of life-altering.

"Wellness is not just about nutrition. It’s also about ecology, spirit, passion and culture. The Crazy Sexy Diet takes in all these interconnected issues" - Kris Carr, "Crazy Sexy Diet"

Now, being that I’m already vegan, and a health nut ta boot, not to mention pretty familiar with the raw lifestyle though I’m not a raw foodist myself most of the information in this book was not news to me. A lot of it I’ve read in other books, or articles, or heard in lectures, but it had been a while since I’d read anything nutrition related, or more accurately anything raw or detox related. It also just so happens that at the time I picked this book up I had been experiencing some unpleasant ups and downs - which I still am - which I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago. Two weeks of vacation really through me off my routine, and it’s been difficult getting back on it since coming home. I had been having a lot of stomach upset, bloating, gas, indigestion and hadn’t really thought too much about it since I’d been so busy, but once I started reading this book it clicked. Finally the reasons why I was feeling so off balance were starting to make sense to me. Sometimes you just really need a refresher course you know?

Though a lot of this book was a refresher for me, there were thing of which I was vaguely familiar that the book explained more fully. The book also goes way beyond changing your diet which I appreciate. Carr covers topics of personal care, meditation, relaxation and other holistic health and wellness treatments. This book is loaded with tons of useful information whether you’re a newbie or a veteran I think there’s a little something for everyone here.

I especially enjoyed chapter 2 which is all about PH Balance in your body, enzymes and eating more alkaline. Chapter 5 which is all about digestion and explores the process in a lot of depth. Chapter 6 Which is all about juicing. Something I’ve never done, and never been that interested in although Carr (as well as others) make it sound so sexy and fun! That I’m actually very interested now in investing in a juicer. Chapter 7 Which is all about taking care of your body through meditation, exercise, dry brushing, essential oils, massage, breath work and so on, and finally the sections in Chapter 9 that deal with probiotics and digestive enzymes were of particular interest. It’s amazing what you don’t know about your intestinal flora, and how backed up your bodies waste management system can become. Never in my life have I ever even entertain the notion of going in for a colonic but honestly it doesn’t sound like a half bad idea, especially considering how off kilter I’ve been feeling as of late.

I also really liked the upbeat nature of the writing. The book didn’t feel pushy or make you feel bad, it laid out simple truths that you can either accept or not. She fills the book with positive affirmations and does a really good job of making you feel like you have support and comradery. I think this is important particularly for people who may not have a good support system in their life. You can get to feeling like you’re all alone in the world but Carr makes you feel like part of a group. I also like the way she speaks positively about the body, and her encouraging words to help the reader feel more comfortable with theirs. In a society where so many woman - and men too - have severe body image issues these reassurances are very comforting.

Another great thing about the book is she offers a 21 day cleanse. Each day is laid out with her suggestions, advice, menu ideas and comfort and support. It’s a really great section of the book that she obviously put a lot of heart into. In the back of the book are a bunch of recipes to use during the cleanse or anytime and they’re also pretty wonderful. A lot are raw, but there are many cooked recipes as well, and several recipes for green juice and green smoothies. In the very back of the book Carr offers a great resource guide. Which is perfect for those who’d like more information on PH Balance, Fighting Cancer, Gi Index, and so on. As well as cook book ideas, and support for people transitioning to a gluten-free or vegan - or both - diet.

Now, having said all of that, I’ve read a lot of reviews that criticize the book for it’s use of bad language. Yes there is swearing, not an overly dramatic amount mind you, but it’s there. Think of this book as a kinder gentler "Skinny Bitch" but with a different goal. She never calls the reader an idiot or a bitch or anything like that but she does curse. Some people don’t like that, personally I could care less. I grew up in a family full of construction workers and I’ve been cursing like a sailor since I was 9. However if you’re sensitive to that kind of thing you may want to keep that in mind. Other people have criticized the book for it’s not being realistic or workable for the average everyday person. Personally I think this is an excuse, and it’s the same thing I hear from omnivores all the time as to why they’re not vegan. Honestly anything worth doing takes a little bit of work, and If you haven’t got the time to be sick, or don’t want to get sick then you need to find the time or make the time to be healthy. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t want to buy a juicer then don’t, make green smoothies. If you don’t want to buy a dehydrator then don’t you can use your oven on it’s lowest temperature setting but honestly it’s not even necessary for simple raw food preparation. What you need is to find balance, and do what works best for you. It certainly isn’t Kris Carr’s fault if you don’t know how to manage your time, so keep that in mind too.

The information in this book is solid, it’s well researched and well informed. I think she does a really good job of making a connection with the reader, and helping you realize the things that might not be so great in your life without being pushy. She’s great at offering support, and she makes you feel comfortable. Whether you agree 100% with her, or her plan, or not doesn’t matter, I really believe that there’s a lot of good here, there’s a little something for everyone and I think we could all benefit a little from the advice within these pages. So go order yourself a copy on Amazon or pick it up at your local library, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed as long as you read it with an open mind and an open heart. Remember that your health is everything, so stop putting it on the back burner.

"I am calm and light, I am peaceful and easygoing, I find beauty in simplicity." - Kris Carr - "Crazy Sexy Diet"

*** Photo found through Google Images ***

Thanksgiving - Reexamining Traditions....

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, but because modern Thanksgiving traditions focus so heavily on the consumption of turkey flesh, it can be the most difficult holiday to sanely maneuver as a vegan. Today Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, yet what few people realize is that Turkeys had virtually nothing to do with the first Thanksgiving in either Canada or the United States, and were not a common meal item during Thanksgiving until the Mid 20^th century. In fact many of the things we consider Thanksgiving traditions today, from the spirit of the holiday to the food involved have little or no connection to the original celebration, and are complete myths. The Thanksgiving traditions that we are all familiar with today, have only been developed over the last two centuries.

In America there is actually very little known about the first Thanksgiving, and what we do know about it comes from only two sources. One a letter by Edward Winslow dated December 1621, the second a book by William Bradford written twenty years after the event took place. Though interestingly enough Bradford’s book was stolen during the revolutionary war, and didn’t resurface until 1854 so it had very little influence on shaping American Thanksgiving traditions. No where in either document do they write that turkeys were slaughtered for the actual Thanksgiving feast. In fact the only mention of turkey is from Bradford, who writes in his book only that the colonists hunted wild turkey’s during the autumn season. Though his book gives clues as to what may have appeared at the feast.

The animals killed for the first Thanksgiving were likely ducks, geese, various kinds of fish, and possibly deer. Though there is some speculation that because of the bounty of abundance brought in by the fall harvest, there would have been less meat, and more fruits and vegetables adorning the table. Interestingly many of the dishes we consider so familiar were entirely absent at the first Thanksgiving. Cranberry’s if they were used at all would have been used almost solely for their color because their tartness wasn’t desirable to the European settlers. It wasn’t for another fifty or so years that people began boiling fruit with sugar to make sauces and pies. Though had the settlers been privy to this trick it is unlikely that sugar would have been available anyway. Potatoes either regular or sweet were also not available at this time as cultivation of the popular root vegetable had not yet spread to North America. Pumpkins were also likely absent, but even if they had been available there was no flour so pumpkin pie would have been impossible, subsequently there were no ovens in which to bake a pie so it’s doubtful any pie at all was served for dessert. Another interesting fact is that there were no forks at the Thanksgiving feast.

There is also some controversy not only about whether or not the pilgrims actually first landed at Plymouth Rock, but also just how friendly their relationship with the Wampanoag Indians was. There are many stories and accounts of the European colonists stealing from and raiding the homes and ‘pantry’s’ of the Wampanoag. Taking their corn, beans and other harvest foods. It is also said that the Wampanoag weren’t originally invited to join in the festivities. That it was only after hearing gunfire from the settlers hunting rifles that the Wampanoag - thinking the settlers were preparing for war - appeared on the scene. Once they realized that they were mistaken and that it was a feast being prepared they returned to their homes to gather their people and the bounty of their harvest to share with the settlers.

Contrary to popular belief this first Thanksgiving really shouldn’t be labeled as such, but rather be called "The first Thanksgiving of the New World" Thanksgiving historically and traditionally has always been a celebration of the fall harvest. This tradition of celebrating the abundance that comes with autumn goes back as far as civilization and appears in some form or another in every culture in every country across the globe. The European settles likely celebrated fall harvest in some form in the years before their journey to the new world, making this ‘first Thanksgiving’ just a continuing tradition of something that was already familiar to them. Thanksgiving has little to no religious significance, in fact the European settlers while religious, never would have celebrated fall harvest in a religious manner, doing so would have been considered inappropriate. They actually had two separate fall traditions, the fall harvest which we know today as Thanksgiving, the celebration of food and feasting, and then an actual Thanksgiving which was spent in quiet reflection and fasting in the name of God. This second tradition was a solemn and serious affair as were most religious rituals and practices of that day. A very different kind of thanks giving then we are accustom today. For centuries afterwards Thanksgiving remained a religion-free celebration, and it wasn’t until the twentieth century that Thanksgiving began to take on a more religious significance at least in the United States.

So, how, you might wonder did our current traditions and notions of Thanksgiving come to be? Well the credit can almost solely be placed upon the persistence of one woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, who lived from 1788 to 1879. Hale was the editor of a very popular magazine. She is also the author of the novel Northwood: Life North and South, one of the first American books written by either gender about slavery. She is also famous for authoring the children’s nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Believing there were too few annual holidays celebrated in America, Hale embarked on a 40 year quest beginning in 1827 to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Before becoming a national holiday Thanksgiving was only regularly celebrated in New England. While other states had harvest festivals, their traditions were sporadic and took place anywhere between the beginning of October to the end of January, and was relatively unknown in the South. She used her status as an author and the vehicle of her editors position to write romantic and idealistic tales of the First Thanksgiving, taking many liberties to better appeal to her readership, she also went so far as to include her own personal recipes for some of her favorite fall dishes in the magazine. Recipes including those for roasted turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, things that - as already mentioned - would not have been present at the first Thanksgiving, but subsequently are all things that we eat today as part of our ‘tradition.’

In her quest to make Thanksgiving a national holiday she wrote letters to five different American Presidents - Zachary Taylor, Millard Filmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln - as well as other officials. Virtually all of her letters went ignored, until her letter to Lincoln which was persuasive enough to convince him to support legislation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. The new national holiday was considered at the time a unifying day after the stress of the Civil War. Interestingly prior to the addition of Thanksgiving the only national holidays celebrated in the United States were Independence Day and Washington’s Birthday.

However even as many of the myths Hale started began to seep into the culture’s collective consciousness, turkeys were not widely accepted as the picture perfect Thanksgiving meal until the mid twentieth century. You see wild turkeys - the kind of turkey the pilgrims would have eaten had they eaten any turkey at all - are adorned with dark plumage, and are thus dark skinned, meaning they have dark meat. Dark meat was unappealing and unappetizing to a great majority of consumers so to make turkey meat more desirable the Beltsville white was bred in 1947 at the behest of the National Turkey Federation. Since the white meat was more appealing to consumers, this is when turkey consumption went on the rise, increasing exponentially over the years. Turkey consumption continues to rise, and according to the USDA slaughter numbers an average of 240 million turkeys are killed each year, and anywhere from 22 to 40 million of those deaths occur at Thanksgiving, with another 22 million occurring at Christmas.

Canadian Thanksgiving traditions aren’t based in reality any more then the American ones. Various First Nations in Canada had long standing traditions celebrating in the bounty of the fall harvest dating back centuries before the European settlers arrived. Though the history of Thanksgiving as we sort of know it today can be traced back to the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage. It was his intention to start a small settlement in the pressent Canadian territory of Nunavut and his fleet of fifteen ships was fitted with men and materials for exactly this purpose. However his expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms which at times had scattered his fleet, but upon rejoining at their anchorage Robert Wolfall an appointed preacher gave a sermon of thanks to God for their miraculous deliverance from danger, after which they celebrated.

Years later French Settlers having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1604 and onwards, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed "The Order of Good Cheer" and happily shared their food with their First Nations neighbors.

After the Seven Years War ended in the 1763 handing over of New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Beginning in 1799 Thanksgiving days were observed though not held every year. After the American Revolution American refugees who were still loyal to Great Brittan moved from the newly independent United States into Canada bringing with them many of the traditions and customs of American Thanksgiving. Still celebrations varied across the country. Lower Canada and Upper Canada for example celebrated Thanksgiving in different ways and on different dates, usually coinciding with the ends of wars and rebellions. Following the rebellions when the two Canada’s had merged into a united Provinces of Canada Thanksgiving was only observed six times between the years of 1850-1865.

It wasn’t until 1879 that Thanksgiving Day began to be celebrated every year, though the date was initially a Thursday in November. The theme for Thanksgiving also changed each year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest, however after World War 1 Thanksgiving Day was combined with Armistice Day and celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11^th occurred. In 1931 the two days once again became separate holidays, and in 1957 Thanksgiving was permanently set on the second Monday in October.

Interesting no? Another interesting little fact is that while Hale was no friend or savior to the Turkey she did have some other very noble ideas about what a Thanksgiving tradition should include. She originally envisioned that Thanksgiving would be about charity and generosity writing, "Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action, by sending good gifts to the poor and doing those deeds of charity that will, for one day, make every American home the place fo plenty and of rejoicing." I guess some traditions stick better then others which is kind of my point in this writing.

We as people pick and choose our traditions and our beliefs. Our emotional attachments to ‘traditional Thanksgiving’ - as well as other cultural traditions - are incredibly powerful, and very often we try to justify them by citing historical accuracy. However historical accuracy plays no role in the Thanksgiving traditions of today, the idea is completely absurd. We continue to view turkeys as the quintessential Thanksgiving meal because that’s what we’ve been taught. We continue to eat turkeys because that’s what we grew up with, it’s what we’ve always enjoyed. At a very young age we are conditioned into a set of traditions, rituals and values, but often as we grow up we choose to ‘cherry pick’ those traditions, and values that best suits us, while leaving the rest behind. We choose to make Turkey our tradition but we can just as easily not choose it. It’s our ideals that shape our traditions, they’re not - or at least shouldn’t be - dictated by what people may or may not have eaten 400 years ago. That’s crazy if you think about it.

Our celebrations should reflect our values, and my values don’t jive with the mindless slaughtering of millions of beautiful animals whose flesh I have no nutritional requirement for. It’s important to remember that we can live our values and honor tradition at the same time. Remember that above all else Thanksgiving was a celebration of the fall harvest. We can easily, happily, healthfully and without murder celebrate in the countless bounty of fall. 22-40 million innocent and beautiful turkeys are slaughtered every year for this day of Thanks, but they don’t have to be. You can choose to celebrate kindness, you can choose to celebrate mercy, you can choose a gentler tradition.

This year live the values of compassion and celebrate a turkey free Thanksgiving.

Vegan Cupcakes - Spreading Awareness, Compassion and Breaking Myths One Bite At a Time...

Banana Split Cupcakes from VCTOTW - Made for graduation party in June

Who doesn’t like dessert? I know I do. I’ve always had a bit of a sweet tooth, though I’ve always been partial to things like pies, cobblers, brownies, muffins, scones and other small pastries, I’ve never been a cake person, or a cupcake person for that matter, and I’m not a fan of sugary icing either. Having said that, I am quite taken with Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" they do use a lot more icing then I think is necessary - and so I just scrape away the excess or leave it off altogether - but their delectable cupcake recipes have definitely won me over. Though this is the type of book I only break out on special occasions, like parties, holiday’s, big family get-togethers etc, it hasn’t failed me yet.

Cookies ‘n Creme Cupcakes from VCTOTW Made for Easter

The first time I made vegan cupcakes to bring to a family gathering was at Easter this year, and I wasn’t sure how they’d do. I was confident in my ability as a baker of course, and actually the previous year (Before I went vegan) I’d brought a batch of vegan, sugar-free, chocolate brownies made with tofu that everyone loved, but you can never tell. I know that Vegan is a scary word for a lot of people. They don’t understand it, and they don’t want to understand it. It’s the sort of ‘other’ they don’t want to be confronted with because they’re afraid it’s going to make them think about themselves, their own habits and their own values, and they might not like the conclusions they come too. Sometimes they feel that by simply being around a vegan or by being faced with vegan food they’re being judged, which is rarely if ever the case when you’re in the presence of a ‘Joyful Vegan.’ and a lot of times people simply want to be stubborn for stubborn’s sake, but I find if you hand someone a vegan dessert and don’t mention the fact that it’s vegan, they’ll take it happily and gobble it down. Usually such events are immediately followed by praise and outrageous decelerations about how that cupcake, or brownie or what-have-you was the best they’d ever had.

Chocolate Cherry Creme Cupcakes from VCTOTW Made for graduation party in June

Isn’t it funny? It’s exactly the sort of thing that proves my point that when it comes to this ‘fear’ of veganism, it has nothing at all to do with taste and everything to do with stubborn preconceived notions. In fact on several occasions a friend of mine and I have preformed an experiment on unknowing people. We will each bring vegan baked goods to a party, she will tell anyone and everyone that her baked goods are vegan, while I neglect to mention the fact letting people draw their own conclusions. The result is that her baked goods remain virtually untouched, while mine get eaten so fast you’d think there was a national dessert shortage. We have done this on three separate occasions and the result is always the same.

Sexy Low-Fat Vanilla Cupcakes from VCTOTW Made for graduation party in June and Easter

It’s a bit ridiculous when you think about it really. This notion that a vegan baked good is somehow inferior to a conventionally baked one. After all fat is fat, and sugar is sugar and when you eat a sweet treat that’s generally all you’re tasting. I mean, have you ever had someone come to you and say "Hey, these cupcakes are fantastic! Must have been a good batch of eggs!" Have you ever heard anyone say "Hey this brownie is delicious, it must be the milk!" No, of course not, it would be silly. Milk imparts no flavor on your finished product, and is absolutely not necessary for baking especially when you have delicious alternatives like Soy, Almond, Rice, Hemp,. Oat, Hazelnut etc.. Eggs too have no discernable taste in a cake, and are absolutely not needed for either binding or leavening your pastries. Still people trudge along doing the same old same old, using eggs and milk for no other reason then it’s the only thing they know, which is why I love to bring vegan baked goods to parties. I consider doling out sweet decadent vegan treats to be part of my ‘vegan outreach’ so to speak As it almost always generates interest, questions, compliments, and more often then not it becomes the springboard for conversations about things deeper and more important then just the baking itself.

Coconut Cupcakes from VCTOTW Made for graduation party in June

It’s my belief that people can’t grow if they don’t know, and they’ll never know if you don’t open that door. To educate ourselves and one another is the most important thing we can do in this world, and I happily do it with goodies. I think it’s really important to remind people that different doesn’t mean bad, and it’s equally important to show people that vegan food is just food. Plain and simple. A ‘vegan’ cupcake is just sugar, oil, flour, baking powder and or soda, vinegar (sometimes) salt, non-dairy milk, non-dairy butter (sometimes) and whatever else you decide to flavor it with. Nothing strange about it, and the best part is not only are they delicious but no creature had to die, be tortured or exploited to bake them.

Pineapple Right-Side Up Cupcakes from VCTOTW Made for Easter

So next time you’re in the mood for a cupcake I highly recommend you check out the book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" Next time you have a party or are going to one and you need something to bring, make any one of these cupcakes and you’ll have a huge hit on your hands. You’ll be the talk of the party, and you’ll blow all those boring old tired dairy based desserts out of the water. Happy Baking Everyone!.

S’More Cupcakes from VCTOTW Made for graduation party in June