October 2008

GREETINGS

This is the time when preparation for the PreThanksgiving Feast moves into high gear. And we have a big problem: several crucial volunteer spots have not yet been filled, and we are not going to be able to pull this thing off unless they are.

Most urgently, we do not yet have anyone signed up for kitchen crew. These are the people who help set up the buffet and serve the food to people coming through the line – obviously an indispensable job. It is particularly suitable for people who don’t have time to help before the feast or need to go home right after, but are going to be there anyway between 4:30 or 5 PM and 7:30. We need 3 people for the 4:30 to 6:30 shift and 3 more for the 5:30 to 7:30 shift. Note that all kitchen crew people will have time to eat and enjoy themselves, especially since all volunteers get special colored passes that allow them to go through the line at any time they choose.

We also need 3 people for dining room cleanup, possibly one more for setup, a person to do greetings/ announcements and a line attendant, and if someone can make stuffing ahead of time it would save Jody having to add that to her already excessively busy schedule.

Thank you to everyone who has already volunteered to do something. We know there are others of you out there who are willing to help but have not yet got around to coming forward. Now is the time!!!

On a different matter, our November potluck will feature a vegetarian food drive, and we need ideas for where to donate what we collect.

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, Oct. 5, 5 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3324 N. Gordon Pl. in Riverwest (from Humboldt Blvd., go east on Auer a few short blocks to the parking lot).

We’ll have a games night.

Subsequent regular potlucks will be on Nov. 2 and Dec. 7. November potluck will be a vegetarian food drive.

The date for the Pre-Thanksgiving Feast is Saturday, Nov. 22.

Other veg-friendly meetings

There will not be a macrobiotic potluck in October.

The Urban Ecology Center’s vegetarian potluck will be on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 6:30 PM at 1500 E. Park Pl. – bring plate and fork as well as your meatless dish. Phone is 414-964-8505.

To find out about Vegan Meetup’s possible October events, check the Vegan Meetup website.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“I’ve learned that the anticancer diet is the exact opposite of the typical American diet: mostly colorful vegetables and legumes, plus unsaturated fats (olive, canola, or flaxseed oils), garlic, herbs, and spices. Meat and eggs are optional.”

-- Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, M.D. and cancer survivor after doing his own dietary research, in October’s Prevention magazine

NEWS

A major news story this month about bad animal foods was the China milk scandal. It started with Chinese babies becoming sick and even dying from tainted milk formula, but has now expanded to other milk powder products, and has spread to China-sourced milk powder/ confectionary products in Europe and Asia. The culprit is a substance, melamine, that was involved in last year’s pet food scandal.

Meanwhile, the U.S. advertisers responsible for the (scandalous) “Got Milk?” campaign are now involving high school students in California in coming up with new ads. Chuck hopes this means that they’re getting desperate.

Fish news remains bad as well. Lobster fishers are suffering from lowered demand for lobster as people try to decrease their spending on high-priced items, which thereby drives down the price of lobsters. And Chile is trying to improve the sanitary conditions in its salmon farm operations, which are being devastated by a deadly fish virus (so far to no avail). In the U.S., researchers in California and Hawaii are suggesting allowing individual fishers to privately own segments of fisheries in a ploy to decrease the predatory practices caused by the current method of controlling fishing. And in a partly related note, there are plans to use sardines as a source of non-fish-smelling fish oil which will be used as an ingredient in Tropicana Healthy Heart orange juice and Wonder Headstart bread. The idea is that this would enable people who don’t eat actual fish to get the benefits of fish oil. The idea sounds pretty fishy to me (sorry, couldn’t help it). And it definitely means that people who assume that orange juice and bread are vegetarian foods better start reading ingredient labels.

Other water news involves a California dairy operator fined for polluting water with manure on several occasions, and a fish kill in Iowa caused by silage leachate from a cattle farm.

Meanwhile, a huge factory farm for hogs is nearing completion in South Dakota, despite a Sioux objection (a judge ruled that the “farm” is not on reservation land). And in Iowa, environmentalists’ pleas for better regulation of factory livestock “farms” were not met with enthusiasm from state lawmakers. Eating meat is also still bad for you: Prevention magazine reminded readers that red meats, and especially processed meats, increase one’s risk of colon cancer. A final icky note about the meat industry came from the legal woes of a kosher meat-packing plant, which was in trouble for child labor and immigration violations – and may even lose its kosher certification as a result!

In follow-ups to previous stories, it is good news that country-of-origin-labeling is finally going into effect on Sept. 30, after many years of delay; this will definitely help people interested in eating more locally. And almond growers and handlers have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the USDA-mandated fumigation of raw almonds (stay tuned).

In vegetarian news, a NY Times Business section column discussed the quandary of vegetarians and vegans faced with nonvegetarian airplane food; the letters published in response empathized, and pointed out that more nutritious/ vegetarian airplane food would be an improvement for all travelers.

And of course there was much good news about plant foods.

New research has revealed that eating nuts, which people with diverticulitis have previously been told to avoid, may actually help prevent that disease, and in any case do not in fact worsen it. And Prevention spotlighted macadamia nuts: many people avoid them because they are so high in calories, but a recent study found that adding 1.5 ounces of them per day to a typical diet actually helped lower total and bad LDL cholesterol levels.

An item in the NY Times Health and Science section confirmed that grape juice from dark-colored grapes does contain the same heart benefits as red wine.

A Prevention article on wraps gave tips for getting one’s best nutrition from them. It pointed out that corn tortillas do count as a whole grain, and that the best ones list only stoneground corn, water, and lime as ingredients. Whole wheat wraps, as well as multigrain ones, were mentioned as good food – though white flour wraps would not be. Spinach or other vegetable wraps do not count as a vegetable serving, however. And do be aware that the really large ones really count as two grains servings rather than one each.

Kale was featured as a seasonal food in Prevention, being rich in beta carotene/ vitamin A, vitamins C and K, and calcium, among other nutritional goodies. Smaller leaves are more tender, and kale picked after the first frost will be sweeter. The Outpost Exchange, however, focused on apples as a featured seasonal food.

Their high pectin content (good soluble fiber) and their antioxidents help prevent cardiovascular disease and many types of cancer; and people who eat the most apples are least prone to metabolic syndrome, which predisposes to type two diabetes. Two apples a day may help prevent colorectal cancer, and only one a day can help strengthen lung function; when eaten during pregnancy they can reduce the risk of wheezing and asthma in the babies. It’s best to eat whole apples including the peels, or at least cloudy apple cider, rather than clear apple juice, in order to maximize the benefits.

A Prevention article on dieting pointed out that eating nuts (despite their oils) works better for weight loss than pretzels and popcorn; it also suggested filling up on fiber from vegetables, fruits, beans, brown rice, and other whole grains.

And then there was the article that our quote of the month came from. It was written by a physician who had two bouts of brain cancer, asked his oncologist if changing his diet could help prevent another recurrence, was told it would make no difference, did his own research, and found that his doctor was wrong.

He discovered that some foods block inflammation that fuels cancer growth, others kill cancer cells, and others detoxify the body of substances that can cause cancer. His general recommendation is a plant-based diet, with many specifics. He advocates strong Japanese green tea for its polyphenols which block the growth of cancer-feeding blood vessels, and pomegranate juice for its anti-inflammatory properties. Ginger and turmeric are spices named as especially high in anti-inflammatory properties. Cabbages and their relatives (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, kale, and so on) are full of the cancer-stopping molecules called sulforophanes and indole-3-carbinols, while garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, and chives are also high in sulfur compounds that promote the death of cancer cells. Soy and fatty fish are the two forms of protein that he recommends; the fish are there for their long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, which vegetarians get by eating green leaves, flax seed oil, and hemp seed oil. His best-fruit suggestions are citrus fruits and berries, and for dessert he recommends dark chocolate. Following a plant-based diet founded on such foods, Dr. Servan-Schreiber has been cancer-free for eight years now. It’s worth thinking about.

THE VEGGIE TABLE

Chuck and I found a new Indian cuisine restaurant on N. Farwell Ave. just south of North Ave., and gave it a try with quite satisfactory results.

Mayura restaurant offers a full range of Indian food. Four of the appetizers are vegan and another five are lacto-vegetarian. One of the two salads is vegan; one of the grill/ tandoori dishes is cheese balls, and there are 11 items in the vegetable entrée section of the menus, 6 vegan and 5 lacto-vegetarian. The restaurant offers a full range of beverages: water, soft drinks, mango juice, lassi (yogurt/ fruit drinks), and beer and wine.

Chuck asked if one of the items usually cooked with butter, a bean dish, could be made with oil instead, and this was done for him. I tried a chickpea and vegetable dish. Both were excellent, and mine was spiced mildly while his was spiced very hot, just as we asked. Further-more, for the first time in either of our lives, we dined at an Indian-cuisine restaurant and got food that was not only tasty, but also was not swimming in more oil than we wanted!!

The prices at Mayura were fairly moderate. The décor is spacious and clean. The staff was friendly and helpful.

Mayura Indian Restaurant is located south of North Ave. at1958-62 N. Farwell Ave.; the phone number is 414-271-8200, fax 414-271-8202. It is open with a lunch buffet seven days a week from 11:30 AM to 3 PM, and open for dinner from 5 to 10 PM on Sunday through Thursday and from 5 to 10:30 PM on Friday and Saturday.

DIALOG

As mentioned above, country-of-origin-labeling, a measure passed by Congress several years ago and which the government and food industries have been dragging their feet on, is finally going into effect. From now on, when you buy an unprocessed item at the grocery, there should be label stating at least what country it came from – though it still won’t tell you whether the blueberries came from Maine or Michigan, since both are part of the U.S.

This development coincides interestingly with recent increased interest in eating more locally than we have become accustomed to doing. And this all raises the issues of how strict people should get about eating locally, and what this has to do with vegetarianism.

If your reasons for vegetarianism are solely animal rights issues and personal health, then your only interest in eating locally is that local food is likely to be fresher and thus tastier and more nutritious. If you’re also concerned about the environment and human hunger issues, then eating locally also helps decrease greenhouse gasses involved in long-distance shipping, and helps move the world towards local food sustainability and therefore better local food security. So there are reasons for vegetarians to at least look at eating locally when they can.

The other issue is, how strictly local does it make sense to be? My own feeling is that foods that cannot be grown in our area, like coffee and chocolate and rice, are reasonable to buy from California or South America, while anything that can be grown locally and eaten seasonally should be, to whatever extent they can be. What do you think?