Easter is coming. It's one of the larger holidays here in the US, and it's right around the corner. Easter is associated with rabbits and eggs... not a very vegan-friendly holiday, but one I grew up with. Here comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping Down the Bunny Trail... Hopefully, he'll be a vegan chocolate bunny, and not a casually acquired live rabbit. Make Mine Chocolate is a campaign created by the Columbus House Rabbit Society, designed to educate the public on the realities of living with a rabbit, and to discourage giving live rabbits as Easter gifts.

Rabbits make wonderful pets for the right household. The House Rabbit Society has a wonderful compilation of information about owning a rabbit. If you are considering getting a rabbit as a pet, please read through some of this literature first.

As for me... I'm off to find a vegan chocolate bunny. Wish me luck! Or maybe I can convince Jane to make the chocolate covered oreo truffles she made for Valentine's Day.

It looks like a gluten-free vegan diet can help sufferers of Rheumatoid Arthritis. A study was conducted by Johan Frostegard of the Rheumatology Unit at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, in which it was found that

...a gluten-free vegan diet was shown to lower cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and oxidizedLDL (OxLDL), as well as raising the levels of natural antibodies against the damaging compounds in the body that cause symptoms of the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis -- from Science Daily

Heart attack and stroke are the leading cause of death for sufferers of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and high levels of LDL an OxLDL are risk factors for heart attack and stroke.

The study was comprised of 66 volunteers, all of whom were given a diet of:

• 10% protein
• 60% carbohydrate
• 30% fat, saturated fats were not to exceed 10%
• and wholegrain products were to be chosen as often as possible.

38 people were put on a gluten-free vegan diet which excluded animal products and gluten (found in wheat, oats, rye, and barley), and included nuts, sunflower seeds, fruit and vegetables, millet, and corn. Sesame milk provided a daily source of calcium.

The remaining 28 volunteers followed a healthy diet with approximately the same proportions of protein, carbohydrate, and fat.

The volunteers on the vegan diet exhibited a decrease in the total level of cholesterol and LDL. Those on the non-vegan diet showed no significant variations in these levels. Another very positive outcome was that there were quantifiable changes to the immune system. A larger study group will be needed to discern which particular aspects of the diet are most beneficial.

The Arthritis Research Campaign, said the study was of interest but suggested the role of diet could be exaggerated. They also claimed it is difficult to get enough of some important nutrients on a vegan diet.

Personally, Jane and I don't agree with that last statement. We make sure to have a large green salad with lunch and dinner every day and focus on having a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Also, we take a daily calcium supplement, B-12 supplement, and general multivitamin just to cover all our bases.

For more information on Vegan Nutrition, see our post entitled Vegan Nutrition and our Vegan Resources page.

Sources:

• Science Daily
• BBC News

We had a comment by one of our readers, Amy, in regard to our post Lobsters Feel Pain Too. Amy points out that she believes the article we referenced at the beginning of our post, "Crustaceans Feel Pain" published in the Guardian (a United Kingdom newspaper) uses "bad science" to support a good cause. Amy also suggests that we didn't read the entire article before writing our post.

Actually, Jane and I did read the entire article, and many others as well. The research supporting that lobsters feel pain was done by Professor Robert Elwood, an expert in animal behavior at Queen's University, Belfast. In the article referenced above, the rebuttal (which was not mentioned in our previous post) came from Richard Chapman, of the University of Utah's Pain Research Center in Salt Lake City. He claims the lobsters are merely retreating from a noxious stimulant and that "even a single-cell organism can detect a threatening chemical gradient and retreat from it, but this is not sensing pain." This ideology is supported by Lynne Sneddon, a Liverpool University researcher who stated that "shrimps do not have a recognisable brain" and therefore cannot sense pain since their nervous systems are not advanced enough.

Elwood contradicts these arguments by saying "Using the same analogy, one could argue crabs do not have vision because they lack the visual centres of humans" and concluded that there should be further work looking at whether crustaceans have the neurological architecture to feel pain. In his interview on NPR he is quite conclusive that they do feel pain. In his study, Elwood put chemicals on two groups of prawns (prawns and lobsters presumably share the same pain sensitivity), one had been pre-treated with water and the other with an anesthetic. The group pre-treated with the anesthetic did not react to the chemical, whereas the group pre-treated with only water did react. According to Professor Elwood, this proves that crustaceans do experience pain, however, he states, "what is not conclusive is that these animals do not experience pain in the way that we do."

According to Wikipedia, the issue is unresolved, however, the most current research (Professor Elwood's) indicates that lobsters feel pain. Also lobsters produce opioids which are neurochemicals that help mitigate pain. The presence of opioids suggests lobsters can feel pain.

In an article by Jane Smith, PhD, entitled "A Question of Pain in Invertebrates" - published by ILAR (the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research), Ms. Smith states that registering of a noxious stimulus may simply be a reflex in invertebrates, but goes on to say that pain is a subjective experience and suggests that we may not be able to "understand what other individuals (of our own or other species) might experience." She concludes that "A principle of respect should lead those who use invertebrates in research (or display them in zoos, rear them for food, and so on) to try to maintain the highest possible standards of husbandry and care, so as to promote the animals' general 'well-being' and, whenever practicable, to give the animals the benefit of the doubt where questions of pain and suffering are concerned."

And finally, from the abstract of Can Invertebrates Suffer? Or, How Robust is Argument-by-Analogy?

Suffering is a negative mental state – a private experience – and, as such, it cannot be measured directly. When assessing the capacity of an animal to experience suffering, we often compare the similarity of its responses with those of 'higher' animals, conceptualized in the principle of argument-by-analogy. By closely examining the responses of invertebrates, it can be seen that they often behave in a strikingly analogous manner to vertebrates.

Some of the research I've read claims that "lower" animals cannot feel pain as pain has an emotional component to it, and they lack the physical capacity to feel pain/suffer. Pain, suffering... As a vegan, I try not to inflict these states on beings so that I may eat. (Okay, so this brings up the migrant worker issue, which I am not prepared to discuss on this blog.)

Clearly, the lobster is experiencing a negative state, both when being boiled alive, and when it is put into a crowded tank in a well lit area (lobsters are solitary creatures who dwell in a dark environment).

So Amy, while I might agree with you that bad writing on my part (for not citing these other references in my earlier post) could be criticized, I don't think this is bad science. If you look hard enough, you can find conflicting research on almost anything. I am basing my post on the conclusions I am drawing from the materials I've read. You are free to come to a different conclusion as there really doesn't seem to be any definitive evidence at this point.

Thursday, March 20th is Meatout 2008, an event that takes place in the United States and a dozen other countries around the globe. This year's focus is "Kick the Meat Habit -- It's Good for Your Heart."

The Great American Meatout is sponsored and was founded by FARM, the Farm Animal Reform Movement. The intent is to educate the population at large about the benefits of a meatfree diet. Apparently they've been doing this annually for twenty-four years. This is the first I'm hearing of it, so I don't know how obvious this is to the non-veg*n community. But I think it's a great idea. It's a great way to introduce omnivores to meatless eating.

Mostly, Meatout aims to spread the word about meatless eating. Here's a link to their list of events. According to their site, "Meatout supporters educate their communities and ask their friends, families, and neighbors to pledge to "kick the meat habit (at least for a day) and explore a wholesome, nonviolent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains."

If you don't have any activities in your area, you can participate virtually. Join Meatout Mondays and get a weekly newsletter containing meatfree recipes (the site is undergoing renovation and some of the links are broken). Also VegDining.com is supporting Meatout 2008 by hosting a contest. Just write a review on a veg*n meal you've had recently at a veg*n eating establishment. You might just win a vegetarian prize!

Happy Meatout to all our Veg*n friends, and any omnivores who want to try a new way of eating! And just in case you need a reason to go meatless, you can read our response to the question "Why" (did you go vegan)?

This is the inaugural issue of: Blogs About Vegan Eating. If enough of you like this, I will turn it into a regular (weekly?) series. I will present updates about some wonderful recipes and eating ideas that Jane and I have found on other blogs. So without further ado, here's issue 1 of Blogs About Vegan Eating:

Faux chicken caesar salad from Comfort Food Vegan looks delicious. I can't get enough of the Vegan Curry Chicken Salad from Whole Foods. This dish from Comfort Food looks like it may give Whole Foods' Vegan Curry Chicken Salad a run for its money.

Being a native New Yorker, I LOVE pizza. Since becoming a vegan, pizza's been the most difficult food for me to live without. (Yes, I know, I slipped a while back and ate pizza, once....) Vegetarians often say that they can't become vegans because they would miss cheese too much, and every vegan will tell you that vegan cheese isn't "real" cheese. It doesn't melt well or has a plastic texture (appetizing, eh?)... So is there no acceptable vegan cheese? Welcome Teese Vegan Cheese! Tesse claims to have created a vegan cheese that really melts! From their site, they indicate that the cheese:

• Melts Twice as Fast as the brand leader
• Has a Stronger Mozzarella Flavor
• Has Better Texture
• Has Better Shelf Life

Better texture? Melts well? I'm intrigued. So far they've only created a mozzarella version, but they indicated that a cheddar-type flavor is currently in development. We haven't tried Teese vegan cheese yet, and haven't found it in our local stores, so we don't have first hand experience with it. But, if it lives up to its hype, I imagine it'll become a staple in our household.

The women at Post Punk Kitchen have tried Teese's cheese on pizza and to quote them, "Teese forking melts!" They recently had a pizza party and most everyone there enjoyed it -- even a couple of (real) cheese eaters. They are vegan and New Yorkers, so if they liked this pizza, I have renewed hopes!

One of my favorite blogs for recipes and food photography is Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. Susan always has wonderful recipes a great vegan food "porn." This week, she offers up a Korean Noodle Stirfry. This dish looks sensational. It's made with buckwheat soba noodles, tofu, squash, and bok choy. The bok choy at the farmer's market this week looked great, so we may be trying this dish real soon.

WaffleParty.com is a website dedicated to waffles -- vegan waffles! I've been having a difficult time finding a vegan waffle recipe that I am happy with. This morning, I tried the Healthful Vegan Waffles Recipe from this website (which says the recipe is actually from fatfree.com.) These vegan waffles were delicious. (I opted to use two tablespoons of canola oil in place of two tablespoons of water, and added a splash of vanilla extract.) They tasted just like "real" waffles. I will definitely add this recipe to the rotation and try some of the other waffle recipes on this site.

What The Hell Does a Vegan Eat? is offering up an incredible sounding dish this week. Tofu Marsala over Fettucini, Hickory Smoked Eggplant sounds and looks incredible. I used to love marsala sauce. I haven't had any in ages. They also talk about hickory smoked eggplant? Now there's a recipe I'd like to see.

There are several wonderful recipes here. If you like would like to see more of these types of posts, or would like to be considered for possible inclusion in future issues of Blogs About Vegan Eating, please leave a comment at the end of this post.