Vegan Baking
There is an article in the Wall St. Journal about vegan baking.
The article discusses how a number of vegan bakeries have avoided pointing out that their products are made without the usual baking product - eggs, butter, milk, etc. For fear of alienating the non-vegan public. There are vegan bakeries all over the United States. If you are interested in reading more about the vegan bakeries, here's a link to the article.
If you would like more information about creating your own baked goods without the use of any dairy products, you have a lot of options. A few years ago, Jane participated in the Daring Bakers - a group of bakers who all make the same thing and compare their results. The group is predominately comprised of bakers who use butter and eggs, but there is a splinter group that tries to emulate the baked-good-of-the-month without any dairy products. If you are interested, you can read about Jane's experiences here: vegan daring bakers.
There are also lots of great vegan websites that offer recipes for baked goods that are vegan. I always like it when Jane makes vegan brownies. YUM!
Of course, there are also many vegan baking books, like the Joy of Vegan Baking. Isa Chandra Moskowitz also has a few vegan baking books that are quite popular. If you are interested, here's a link to see the top selling vegan baking cookbooks
It's nice to see vegan baking being mentioned in such a mainstream publication as the Wall St. Journal.
Vegan Menu At Hilton
Wow, a major hotel chain is offering both a vegan and vegetarian tasting - 7 days a week. Where can you find this gourmet vegan fare? -- At the Hilton Anatole's Nana Restaurant in Dallas, Texas. While the Carrot Marmalade served with passion fruit granita and peanuts, and the Cucumber Spaghetti with pistachio gravel, scallions, and sesame seeds, don't sound all that appealing to me, it's really exciting to hear that Hilton is offering vegan fare!
Over the two years that Jane and I have been vegan, we've noticed a "mainstreaming" of veganism. More and more products seem to be available, vegan cookbooks abound, and even Oprah's talked about it... We've still got a long way to go until we have the same options as omnivores. However, we are no longer the "weird, bark-eating" people. And, although the message that we don't need to eat animals to survive still hasn't gotten through to most people, the fact that you don't have to eat animals at every meal seems to be making some headway.
Vegans in Jail
So tonight I learned that Ira Black, guitarist for Lizzie Borden, was in the Los Angeles County jail system this month for a misdemeanor charge. Since I don't know anything about Ira Black that news didn't make much of an impression. However, Mr. Black was on a hunger strike... why you ask? Because the prison system does not offer vegan/vegetarian fare to the prisoners. Now I can see the institution's point of view. If they had to cater to every individuals diet they'd have their hands full, and it's a prison after all, not a country club! But they do make exceptions for religious beliefs and medical diets.
Personally, I'm not a huge proponent of prisoners rights. If you commit a crime and wind up in jail, you're there to be punished, you're not on vacation. Having said that, I do understand the need to ensure the basic needs of prisoners are met. But I don't think that means catering to everyones varied diets. I don't know how prisoners are fed. I envision a cafeteria line with a few basic selections.
The county might do well to consider feeding all inmates a vegan diet. It would cost the taxpayers a lot less to feed the prisoners, and it would be beneficial for the inmates health, also resulting in a cost savings to the county/taxpayers, especially for those long term prisoners. You've probably all heard about California's fiscal woes ($40 billion deficit), so cost savings should be reason enough to consider transitioning the prison system to a vegan based diet. I'm off to draft a letter to the prison system.
If you'd like to contact the Los Angeles County jail, you can write to them at: webemail@lasd.org.
(It appears Black was released from jail on the 14th. Source: The LA County Sheriff's Department Inmate Information Center.)
Watch Out For Bugs In Your Food
Effective January 5, 2011, the FDA will require all cochineal extract and carmine color additives to be included in the ingredient statement on food and cosmetic labels. Currently these are usually listed as "artificial color."
In case you're not aware, cochineal extract and carmine are used to dye food, drinks and cosmetics various shades of red, orange, pink and purple, and are extracted from the dried bodies of the female cochineal bug.
The reason for the ruling is that cochineal/carmine food colorings can cause severe allergic reaction in people.
For further information, see:
- FDA 21 CFR Parts 73 and 101
- Center for Science in the Public Interest Press Release 1/5/09
- FDA Law Blog
- Wikipedia - Cochineal
We’re Growing By Leaps And Bounds
I missed it... earlier this year, CNN ran a story about vegans. On June 11, 2008 CNN proclaimed that an estimated 10 million Americans have gone vegan. Wow. That would mean we make up a little over 3% of the total population. Woo hoo! We're growing by leaps and bounds. Jane's been saying that for a while. It certainly feels that veganism is becoming somewhat more mainstream. (But we still have a long way to go!)
CNN illustrates the environmental effects of a vegan diet by showing that a 6 ounce steak has 24 times the greenhouse gas emissions than a plate of veggie stir fry.
They also touch on the health benefits of going vegan.
Anyway, below is the YouTube video of the CNN segment, you can watch it yourselves. It's a little over six minutes.
Heather Mills Brings Vegan To The Bronx
Part of my daily commute runs through South Central Los Angeles. Those of you who don't know L.A. well, may know South Central because of the Rodney King Riots in the 90s. The prevailing opinion is that it is a dangerous neighborhood, but in truth, its reputation is far worse than the reality. It is not an affluent neighborhood, however. As I travel on the main roads, I don't really know what the rest of the neighborhood is like. But I don't see many healthy food options in my travels. I pass three McDonalds every day. They're all in South Central. The other food options are a Popeye's Chicken, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and several "you buy, we fry" fish places (they might actually offer the healthiest options). When I lived in New York, my experiences were similar in the less affluent neighborhoods I frequented. I don't know if it's a universal truth, but I equate poorer neighborhoods with poorer food options.
It seems I'm not the only one to make that leap of logic. Heather Mills, one of the ex-Mrs. McCarthy's, is donating $1 million to provide vegan food to the poor of Hunt's Point, (Bronx) NY. On September 20, Ms. Mills provided meatless barbeque for 1,000 families living below the poverty level. The barbeque was hosted by the Hunts Point Alliance for Children, which has named Ms. Mills their honorary chairperson.
Mills hopes to bring vegetarian food to the masses, starting with underprivileged communities like this one, where nutritious food is hard to come by. She is working on a faux-meat line with Gardein, the veggie protein provider for Morning Star Farms, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods, to create everything from veggie chicken breasts (which were also on offer at the barbecue) to vegan-friendly shrimp. “I want to create the largest plant-based food chain in the world,” she explains. (Mills herself is vegan, for health and animal-rights reasons. “Veggie isn’t enough,” she says.)
-- Source: Gourmet
It will be interesting to see what happens in the Bronx over the next three years. In any event, I think this is a much better way to get the message across than PETA's request for Ben & Jerry's to use breast milk instead of cows milk!
Sources:
The B12 Issue
When you transition to a vegan diet, non-vegans will always question where you're going to get your protein and calcium. Those who are slightly more informed about nutrition will often caution you that you will become vitamin B-12 deficient, since the best sources of vitamin B-12 are liver, milk, and fish.
Well, there may be a real reason to be concerned, at least with regard to B-12. Data from a small study at Oxford shows that people with lower levels of B-12 in their blood suffered from brain shrinkage six times more often than those with high levels of B-12. (Note: none of the 107 people in the study were actually B-12 deficient.) Okay, so your brain is a little smaller, since we only use around 10% of our brains anyway, this shouldn't be a big deal, right? Apparently not. Shrinkage is usually associated with the development of dementia. That's scary! Since vegetarians, and vegans especially, don't consume liver, milk, or fish, we're at an increased risk of suffering from brain shrinkage. See BBC News Health, and the University of Oxford's press release on B-12.
Why else is vitamin B-12 important?
In the body, B-12 helps the bone marrow regenerate red blood cells and has been credited with protection against heart disease and mental deterioration. Adequate B-12 in the diet is necessary to keep down levels of homocysteine in the blood. Homocysteine is a toxic amino acid produced in the breakdown of animal protein and has been identified as a risk factor for arterial disease and heart attack.
In children, B-12 deficiency can cause severe abnormalities of growth and mental retardation. In adults it causes pernicious anemia, a dangerous condition marked by weakness, apathy, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, fatigue, numbness in the arms and legs, loss of balance, and mental changes, all reversible if B-12 is supplied. Untreated, the symptoms can become permanent.
So how do we, as vegans, ensure that we get adequate vitamin B-12? There's B-12 in nutritional yeast (make sure to read the label), fortified soy milk, fortified cereals, and vitamins.
Fermented soya products, seaweeds and algae have all been proposed as possible sources of B12. However, analysis of fermented soya products, including tempeh, miso, shoyu and tamari, found no significant B12.
Spirulina, an algae available as a dietary supplement in tablet form, and nori, a seaweed, have both appeared to contain significant amounts of B12 after analysis. However, it is thought that this is due to the presence of compounds structurally similar to B12, known as B12 analogues. These cannot be utilised to satisfy dietary needs. Assay methods used to detect B12 are unable to differentiate between B12 and it's analogues, Analysis of possible B12 sources may give false positive results due to the presence of these analogues.
Researchers have suggested that supposed B12 supplements such as spirulina may in fact increase the risk of B12 deficiency disease, as the B12 analogues can compete with B12 and inhibit metabolism.
The current nutritional consensus is that no plant foods can be relied on as a safe source of vitamin B12.
Source: The Vegetarian Society
So it looks like we have to ensure that we supplement our diets with B-12. Here are two slightly different recommendations on supplementation:
Vitamin B12: Although this is found naturally only in foods from animal sources, you can get sufficient amounts from fortified breakfast cereals, fortified soy beverages and some types of brewer's yeast. Still, I recommend taking a supplement of 50-100 micrograms of B12 in the form of a good multivitamin, sublingual tablet, nasal spray or gel.
Source: Dr. Weil.com on Becoming Vegan
Vegans who choose to use a vitamin B12 supplement, either as a single supplement or in a multivitamin should use supplements regularly. Even though a supplement may contain many times the recommended level of vitamin B12, when vitamin B12 intake is high, not as much appears to be absorbed. This means in order to meet your needs, you should take a daily vitamin B12 supplement of 5-10 micrograms or a weekly vitamin B12 supplement of 2000 micrograms (4).
Source: Vegetarian Resource Group
Note: there is no tolerable upper intake level for vitamin B-12 because of its low toxicity. There have been no toxic or adverse effects associated with large intakes of vitamin B-12 from food or supplements in healthy people.
Anyway, this is definitely something to take seriously. We'll be keeping our eyes open for additional research on vegan/vegetarian B-12 issues. In the meantime here are some links to help keep you informed on sources of B-12 in the vegan diet.
- Vegan Health -- Sources of B-12 in the Vegan Diet
- Vegetarian Resource Group -- Vitamin B-12 in the Vegan Diet
- Wikipedia - Vitamin B-12
- Vegetarian Society - B-12 Information Sheet
- Linus Pauling Institute - Micronutrient Information Center - B-12
Just Wrong
Back in September, an art teacher was fired in Illinois for teaching veganism to his classroom.
They said he began teaching veganism and animal rights instead of art without telling school officials or parents, told students to keep it a secret, and then refused to answer school officials’ questions about what he was teaching.
Source: Northwest Herald
Now, while I believe in freedom of speech, I don't believe that teachers have the right to proselytize to their students. Dave Warwak, the fired teacher, took it upon himself to use his classroom to promote his agenda, rather than teach art, the subject he was hired to teach. Wrong forum, wrong audience, wrong behavior!
While I'm all for broadening the minds of our youth, I don't believe a teacher has the right to take it upon himself to try to sway their opinions in such a furtive manner. Clearly Warwak knew he was doing something "wrong" or he would not have demanded secrecy from his students.
Today, the Illinois State Board of Education, upheld the decision to fire Warwak.
Oprah’s Vegan Venture
Although we can't take credit for getting Oprah to try a vegan diet, Jane and I are pretty excited about the whole thing. I feel a little funny blogging about her so much, this is a vegan blog after all, not an Oprah blog (and I'm a guy -- next thing you know I'll be going to see "Sex in The City" and drinking Cosmos). But if Oprah espouses a cause, it takes off. And not just here. I believe I read that she's syndicated in 135 countries. And then there's the magazine and the radio shows, and she's got videos on YouTube... She's a veritable media mogul!
So, we've been following Oprah's blog. Aside from missing alcohol, she seems to be doing okay. She's exhibited surprise at how tasty some of the vegan alternatives are. Yay. I would expect that she'll do a follow-up show and our hopes are that she'll talk about how good the food was and how easy it was to eat this way. And if she's talking about these things, many other people will consider trying it for themselves.
One of the biggest criticisms I'm hearing is that Oprah is approaching this as a "cleanse" and not a change in lifestyle. She apparently wears mink eyelashes (huh?) and has a shoe fetish (presumably leather shoes). But I'm not sure that's something to condemn. She's on a path, who knows where it will lead. Jane and I started out on our vegan journey purely for health reasons. We were dietary vegans. I think Earthlings was the turning point for us, although I can't really put my finger on the actual time when animal welfare became the paramount reason we no longer eat animal products.
As for our petition, we submitted it to the Oprah site on May 22nd and got an auto-response confirming receipt of our email. We also received a second response on May 25th saying our mail was being forwarded to the producers of the Oprah Show. Since then, nothing. I don't expect Oprah to be influenced by us, nor do I expect her to be the next vegan star, but ut she's on the path, and that is more than we could have hoped for. Our wishes now, are that she'll continue to eat vegan and promote that to her viewers.
Score One For The Home Team – Oprah Tries A Vegan Diet
Though we'd love to say we had some influence in Oprah's decision to go vegetarian for three weeks, we really can't. We sent email to the Oprah show alerting them to our petition requesting that she do a program segment on factory farming. We received the auto response alerting us to the fact that they (at the Oprah show) are very busy and may not be able to get back to us personally... Of course, we'll keep you posted if we do hear from them. But in the meantime much of America, indeed the globe, will now be exposed to the benefits of a vegan diet.
Apparently, Oprah was inspired by the book Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness
Freston says "If you want to look and feel your best, you have to make the complete mind, body, and soul connection. That means you have to work from the inside out." From this she has devised her premise of the 8 Pillars of Wellness, which she says is the way to live an engaged life. Meditation may be the first pillar, but it is the second pillar, conscious eating, which is the pillar Kathy says should be observed above all others.
It doesn't only make a difference to our own personal health and well-being, but conscious eating means you stay aware of where your food comes from, how the animals are treated, and how the environment is affected by the foods that you eat. You take in the energy of whatever went into creating that food.
We are absolutely thrilled! This means Americans, and the rest of the world, will now be exposed to vegan eating and maybe even the issue of animal rights in a medium that a huge number of people are willing to pay attention to!
For further reading, you can click on this link to read more about the 8 Pillars of Wellness as previewed on Oprah.
If you'd like to follow her progress, Oprah has a blog. Here's Oprah's blog post from this week:
Well, I feel like I got baptized in Vegan Land today. Kathy Freston sent her chef, Tal Ronnen, to help me and three friends at Harpo who are doing the 21-day cleanse.
Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. "What's left?" I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes. — Oprah
I predict this action by Oprah will do more for the cause than anything else to date!
