Yet Another Meat Recall
It feels like there is something in the papers, almost weekly, to give me another reason to thank Jane for suggesting we change over to a vegan diet. On Saturday, May 3rd, Gourmet Boutique, LLC, announced a voluntary recall of 286,320 pounds of fresh and frozen beef, pork, and poultry products. That's more than a quarter MILLION pounds of meat. The reason: the recalled products may be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes which can cause listeriosis. Listeriosis is primarily of concern to newborn infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised, where it can manifest as septicemia, meningitis, encephalitis, pneumonia, or gastrointestinal ailments among other diseases/conditions.
The USDA has three levels of recall, one being the most severe. This recall is a level one recall:
This is a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.
Frightening! Please make sure to pass this information along to all your meat eating friends and relatives. For additional information see the USDA Recall Release (PDF file), or you can call the company's recall hotline at (347) 887-0083.
– We're getting ready to close down our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, if you haven't already signed, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
Can a Skinny Bitch Make a Prince Go All The Way — Vegan?
Milwaukee Brewers first baseman, Prince Fielder, is the latest celebrity to jump on the veg*n bandwagon.
"I tell people I don't eat meat, and they're like, 'Oh!' " Fielder said, raising his hands and making a sour face. "They forget there's so much other food out there. Beans, rice, tofu. You've got a lot of good food, baby!"
Although not a vegan, Fielder doesn't care for cheese, which seems to be the largest sticking point for most people thinking about a transition to a vegan way of eating. What made this 270-pound professional athlete change his diet? Skinny Bitch
"Since I started, I feel amazing. When I wake up, I'm up. I'm not lying around anymore."
Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers' home stadium, currently sells soy dogs and veggie wraps, but you have to go to the concession stand to get them. Imagine the day when the stadium vendor tosses you a dog, a soy dog!
As for Skinny Bitch, I can't personally recommend it. I find the voice of the authors' outright offensive. (Here's a quote from the book: "Yes onions and garlic make your breath smell like someone took a shit down your throat..." ) And in principal, I prefer to get my nutritional advice from a doctor or registered dietitian. However, the book does do a good job touching on animal rights issues, and makes a valid case for eating vegan.
So if you can get a celebrity, Posh Spice, to carry around a book promoting veganism, and a major league athlete, Prince Fielder, to publicly talk about not eating meat, it looks like you can change the world.
The baseball season just started this week, so Lane will be keeping an eye on Fielder's stats.
source: MLB.com
Honey Used For The Treatment of Wounds
As I mentioned in my post on Agave Nectar the other day, Jane and I allow the use of honey in our definition of what it means to be vegan.
Many vegans, however, are not opposed to using insect products, because they do not believe insects are conscious of pain. Moreover, even if insects were conscious of pain, it's not clear that the production of honey involves any more pain for insects than the production of most vegetables, since the harvesting and transportation of all vegetables involves many 'collateral' insect deaths.
-- from Vegan Action
Today I found an article on MSNBCs website, dated December 26, 2007 indicating that honey is being used in topical antibiotics, specifically in bandages and wound dressings. Using honey to treat wounds is something that goes back to ancient times. The science behind the usage of honey is rather interesting. Honey produces hydrogen peroxide when combined with the fluid which drains from a wound (isn't nature amazing!). It also draws the pus and fluid from the wound, thereby speeding the healing process.
What's got everyone buzzing (sorry) is that a particular type of honey found in New Zealand, Manuka honey, seems to be able to prevent the development of multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in open wounds. MRSA is a bacterium responsible for difficult-to-treat infections in humans (from wikipedia). This is particularly exciting since MRSA is one of those resistant superbugs we hear so much about.
Currently the bandages, produced by Derma Sciences under the label Medihoney, are available in hospitals in the US and Canada. The Derma Sciences dressings will be available in drug stores in the next six months, with adhesive strips following closely, if all goes according to plan. Similar products have been popular in Europe, Australia and New Zealand for the last decade.
As for whether these bandages/dressings meet your criteria for being vegan, that is up to you. Better to be forewarned... If you abstain from the consumption of honey, you should be aware that your bandages and wound dressings may not fit your definition of vegan.
Agave Nectar – A Vegan Sweetener Panacea?
Jane and I are trying to be good vegans. We carefully read labels at the grocery store and avoid all known animal products. We surf the net, read other vegan blogs, and often visit the sites we've chosen to link to as our Vegan Resources. Occasionally, we find something is vegan that we didn't know about previously. And, there are a few issues that are gray in the vegan community, which always merit further reading.
One of these issues is the use of sweeteners. Some eschew refined sugar as most refined sugars are processed using bone char. We choose to follow Vegan Outreach on this topic and allow refined sugar in our diet. However, refined sugar is generally considered unhealthy, and not an environmentally friendly product, so we try to consume alternative sweeteners as well. Jane hates the taste of maple syrup, so that's out. Honey is also often debated as to whether or not it is vegan. We allow honey in our diet, and use Vegan Action to define our approach on this topic. There's also brown rice syrup (which we have in the cupboard, but haven't tried yet), and agave nectar, which we enjoy, but is a little pricey.
Today, as I was surfing, I stumbled across this article in the Chicago Tribune which suggests that agave nectar may not be all that healthy after all. One doctor likes it and says that it doesn't impact blood sugar as much as other sugars, which makes it an ideal sweetener for diabetics. This doctor also says agave nectar contains a bacteria which helps fight colon cancer. Another doctor states that agave nectar is almost all fructose which impacts blood fructose, and that is worse than impacting blood sugar. This doctor claims that fructose interferes with healthy metabolism.
The most alarming information I gleaned from this article, is that the Food and Drug Administration notes that "in the past, agave products may have been 'economically adulterated or misbranded by adding corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS].' Chronic shortages of the plant make this a real concern."
The article ends with this warning:
If you use agave:
• Botulism spores can be found in bottled sweeteners originally derived from natural products. Treat it like honey; don't give it to children under age 1.
• Avoid it if you're pregnant; some believe it can cause miscarriages.
• Seek out an agave product that is organic and carries the official USDA seal.
• The FDA says there is no current need for regulatory action but would like to know if there is any literature or other information that shows agave causes adverse effects.
Oi! It seems like in the world of sweeteners, there is no ideal product.
Rheumatoid Arthritis May Be Improved With A Vegan Diet
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:
Pain and Suffering — The Lobster Revisted
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.
Meatout 2008 – A Meatfree Day for All
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)?
Skim Milk / Lo-Fat Milk Linked to Prostate Cancer
Another reason to go vegan: Non-fat/lo-fat milk consumption has been linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer. Two separate studies showed a correlation between non-fat or low-fat milk consumption and the risk of prostate malignancies.
The most recent study, conducted by Dr. Yikyung Park, of the National Cancer Institute, found no link between dietary calcium and the number of early-stage prostate cancer. However, non-fat milk consumption of two or more glasses per day was positively linked with an increased risk of advanced prostate cancer. This study population was made up of over 290,000 adult males.
An earlier study, conducted by Dr. Song-Yi Park of the University of Hawaii, indicated no link between calcium or vitamin D from any source and an increased risk of prostate cancer across all ethnic groups. However, the study did suggest an increased risk of localized, non-aggressive tumors. (Whole milk was linked to a decreased risk, but there are a whole host of other negative health effects associated with full fat dairy products.) The study population was made up of over 82,000 adult male residents of California and Hawaii.
For further reading:
- Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
- American Journal of Epidemiology - NCI Study
- American Journal of Epidemiology - U. Hawaii Study
- Reuters
Intelligence in Childhood Leads to Vegetarian Diet Later in Life
A study published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) indicates that children with higher Intelligence Quotients are more likely to become vegetarian later in life. The study, run by Dr Catharine Gale of the University of Southampton MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, followed 8,179 thirty-year old men and women, whose IQ had been tested at the age of ten. When they were polled about their eating habits, 366 (4.5 per cent) of participants said they were vegetarian. Of these, 9 (2.5 per cent) were vegan and 123 (33.6 per cent) stated they were vegetarian but reported eating some fish or chicken. Exclusion of those who said they were vegetarian but ate fish or chicken had little effect on the strength of this association.
'Those who were vegetarian by the age of 30 had scored five IQ points above average at the age of ten. This can be partly accounted for by better education and higher occupational social class, but it remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors.'
Recent evidence suggests that vegetarianism may be linked to lower cholesterol levels and a reduced risk of obesity and heart disease. This might help to explain why children who score higher on intelligence tests tend to have a lower risk of coronary heart disease in later life.
Professor Ian Deary from the University of Edinburgh, one of the study's co-authors, adds: "As the only member of the research team who has never been a vegetarian I feel bound to emphasise that the link we have found might not be causal. Becoming vegetarian might be one of a number of more or less arbitrary cultural choices that clever people make, some of which might be beneficial to health, and some not."
excerpted from the University of Southampton News Release.
Food for thought.
Vegan Products at 7-Eleven
Wow, another national chain is offering vegan fare! 7-Eleven has been selling prepared vegan sandwiches in the Philadelphia region. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the corporation is considering vegan convenience-food products for the entire chain. (Note: I could find no mention of this on the 7-Eleven website.) As Foodeater commented the other day, we vegans are taking over the world. OK, she said we'd be taking over Los Angeles, but you can extrapolate from there...
But this brings me back to my point that going meatless is becoming mainstream. Today you can go into a convenience store and pick up a prepared meatless sandwich, or pop into your local coffee shop and buy a vegan brownie. How exciting is that?! I'm not saying that we should rush out and start eating prepared foods at every meal. We all know eating prepared foods may mean that we're probably consuming preservatives and additives that might not be good for us. Food manufacturers are ultimately out to make money after all. But it certainly makes life a little easier knowing these options are out there.
I hope these products do well in their test markets. I know I'm not the target demographic here. Personally, I don't see myself frequenting 7-Eleven for sandwiches, but I have been on one too many road trips in the recent past where my (questionable) vegan option was potato chips. It would be nice to know I could hop in the car without any forethought -- that if I got hungry along the way, I could pull off at some highway rest stop and actually have a choice of things to eat.
