February 2009

GREETINGS

We did discuss the Great American Meat-Out at the January potluck. We’re still considering a tabling at Alverno College again, but have definitely decided to use the March potluck to all write letters to newspaper editors recommending that people consider vegetarianism, or at least take the Meat-Out pledge to try it for a day. Another idea that came up was for people to do guerilla lit drops at medical places; this is still a bit vague but has not been excluded. After all, there’s no rule that says we can only do one thing. If we want to implement this, we would have to decide soon what handouts we want to drop, and then acquire them. As for the letter-writing, which is something we definitely determined on, any MARV Times reader who would like to do it but can’t make the March potluck will find addresses and how-tos in next month’s newsletter.

I also talked to the Urban Ecology Center to find out if they had anything going in March that we could piggyback on for an additional Meat-Out activity. It turns out that they do not, but we did discuss Earth Day. The UEC will be doing something for Earth Day on April 18; they have not yet decided if there will be tables, but if there are, MARV will be participating.

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, Feb. 1, 5 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3224 N. Gordon Pl. in Riverwest (from Humboldt Blvd., go east on Auer a few short blocks to the parking lot). Food theme will be no-added-fat dishes.

?April 18, tabling at UEC Earth Day event??

Subsequent regular potlucks will be on March 1 (eating of the greens, and letter-writing), April 5, and May 3.

Other veg-friendly meetings

There will not be a macrobiotic potluck in February.

The Urban Ecology Center’s February vegetarian potluck will be at 6:30 PM on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 1500 E. Park Place – bring plate and fork as well as your meatless dish. Phone is 414-964-8505.

To find out about Vegan Meetup’s possible February events, check their website at

http://vegan.meetup/401/

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“So, why have scientists, dieticians, medical doctors, diet-book authors, and the lay public become fixated on a non-existent problem [of where vegetarians get their protein from]? Protein is synonymous with eating meat, poultry, fish, dairy, and eggs – the foods traditionally consumed by the wealthier persons in a society – thus protein-eating means higher social status. High-protein foods are also high-profit foods. Therefore, propagating the protein myth is motivated by egos and money – and the usual consequences of pain and suffering follow closely behind these two human frailties.”

Dr. John McDougall, in a 2007 article available at this link.

NEWS

There is still bad food news from the use of animal foods.

There was yet another manure spill from an Iowa dairy.

The Chinese tainted milk scandal continued to unravel, with a trial of some of the people responsible culminating in two death sentences. This has not stopped a rare (in China) class-action lawsuit from being filed by the victims’ parents, even though a group of dairy companies blamed for the disaster have agreed to pay $160 million in compensation to affected families.

Coincidentally, Wisconsin dairy farmers are hurting, as prices paid to them drop along with the rest of the struggling economy. It probably does not help them that yet another study has found no link between dairy consumption and weight loss, despite what Dairy Council ads would like you to believe.

Then there is the whole peanut-butter-paste salmonella mess. Although it’s been going on for some months, it only really hit the news in the past few weeks, as the FDA finally began to close in on the source of a salmonella poisoning outbreak that has covered most of the United States, sickening hundreds of people, hospitalizing over 100, and killing six (so far). It was finally traced to a peanut processing plant in Georgia that manufactured peanut butter paste for use by the food industry, which then used it for prepared peanut-butter-flavored items from cookies to candy, chicken satay, energy bars, crackers, dog treats, peanut butter cups, stuffed celery – you get the idea. Dozens of brand names and hundreds of individual products are involved. Authorities have emphasized that jars of peanut butter you buy in stores are safe ; it’s only what Michael Pollan calls “edible food-like substances” (that is, processed food products) that are subject to the problem and are now being recalled.

In a separate story, sprouts from Sunrise Farms in Neenah, WI are also being recalled due to salmonella found in them.

These incidents would appear to suggest that plant foods can be dangerous. But the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine points out yet again that most foodborne disease is caused by infection of meat and poultry, which either poisons people who eat the meat or gets into the water used in processing plant foods. Only 3 percent of cases can be traced to environmental contamination or wild animals.

On a happier note, plant foods are still good for you.

PCRM reported on a study in The Lancet Oncology, which found that prostate cancer patients who switched to a vegan diet and added exercise and relaxation techniques to their daily routines increased their levels of telomerase, an enzyme that protects and repairs DNA. Berries seem to be especially beneficial:

several studies show that people who eat black and red raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and elderberries have lower cancer rates (which would suggest that their DNA is being better protected). Also, a new study by the Agricultural Research Service found that aged lab animals fed a diet rich in the antioxidents found in berries and grapes improved their memory.

Another item in Good Medicine, the PCRM publication, was a report on a study which found that eating enough fiber protects against small intestine cancer as well as colon cancer. The Whole Food publication also addressed fiber, reminding us that both soluble and insoluble fiber are good for the digestive system, and also help keep dietary fat from being absorbed, while some soluble fibers seem to help avoid cardiovascular disease. All the dietary sources for fiber are plant foods: whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables.

The benefits of dark green leafy vegetables showed up again this month. The Whole Foods publication showcases swiss chard: it has few calories but plenty of vitamins A, C, K, and folate, plus iron, magnesium, and phytonutrients called anthocyanins which help protect against digestivetract cancers; it can be used in salads, stews, and side dishes. Organic Gardening magazine also showcased swiss chard, along with three other leafies, as worthy of growing in your garden. One of these others was kale, full of vitamins A, C, K and folate, plus magnesium, calcium, sulforaphane which destroys cancer cells, and other plant nutrients that preserve eye health. Turnip greens were named as full of folate, vitamins B6, A, and C, fiber, and copper which helps form connective tissue. And of course spinach is a source of iron, magnesium, folate, vitamins A, C, and E, and phytonutrients that help fight cancers and preserve eye health. I’ll be trying turnip greens in my garden this year.

Prevention magazine reported that chamomile tea seems to help stabilize blood sugar, while pistachios (go for in-shell, dye-free ones) seem to lower bad LDL cholesterol and so help heart health. And one of its columns, “Ask Dr. Weil,” gave advice for improving the immune system that included “Eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.”

Various publications offered advice for winter eating. Prevention ran an article on “winter white” foods that are especially healthful – and all were vegan. Turnips are rich in cancer-fighting compounds; cauliflower, a cabbage-family food, also helps fight cancer as well as providing bone-building vitamin K; onions are rich in quercetin, another cancer-fighter; jicama provides fiber and vitamin C; radishes and parsnips also provide vitamin C; garlic may lower blood pressure and cholesterol as well as being cancer-protective; cannellini beans are full of fiber; and pine nuts provide manganese.

An Outpost Exchange article celebrated winter root vegetables such as turnips, potatoes, and carrots; another discussed the culinary joys (and cheap price!) of dried beans, whether eaten in soups, or rice and bean dishes, or chilis, or mixed and sauted with greens.

A women’s magazine called First that I found in a waiting room had a couple of interesting articles. One recommended lemons, cranberries, leafy greens, and red grapes as foods that can help detoxify the liver and thus improve one’s general metabolism; juicing fruits and vegetables was also recommended. A different article asked several medical doctors to share tactics that helped them stay healthy during the winter. One of them named cinnamon as a way to control blood sugar; another uses medicinal mushrooms to improve immunity; a third eats dark honey at the first sign of a cold to help fight it off (honey has been used for its antimicrobial properties since Homer’s time).

Another Prevention article looked at various foods one can add to other dishes to enhance healthfulness. Parsley, for example, contributes vitamin K to foods it is added to. Sunflower seeds add immune-strengthening vitamin E. Spinach in a sandwich and kale added to stir-fries help the eyes. Adding lemon to green tea boosts the tea’s anti-cancer properties. Adding (organic) ketchup to foods adds immune-boosting lycopene. And adding beans to a soup or stew can help lower cholesterol while boosting protein without adding many calories.

And don’t forget the seasonal fruits: oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit, as well as apples and pears.

DIALOG

The problem is that, even as we come to understand the terrible toll on Earth’s environment and personal health that comes from eating meat in particular and large amounts of animal foods in general, global meat-eating is continuing to increase. If this trend is to be reversed, it is important that we understand what drives it.

One part of the answer is certainly the one named by Dr. McDougall in our Quote of the Month above: during historic times, meat-eating was something done mostly by those with greater wealth and status; it is very much the peasant foods that provide vegetarian ethnic cuisine choices. It is therefore natural that whenever people raise their economic condition (which is good), they promptly seek out the foods that they associate with being economically comfortable (i.e., meat, which is bad).

But I think there is something even deeper and more primal going on – and therefore more difficult to address. Chuck and I have been watching a series of DVD lectures on human prehistory – the million or more years of human evolution, and the forty or fifty thousand years that human beings like us have been on the planet. And every archeological site in which the remains of prehistoric humans is found shows extensive evidence of hunting and meat-eating: stone hunting weapons, cave art depicting hunts, and broken and gnawed animal bones. In other words, for tens of thousands of years of hunter-gatherer prehistory, humans ate meat, big-time.

This seems to fly in the face of considerable evidence that our anatomies are better adapted to eating plants than meat, and that many modern hunter-gatherer peoples eat mostly plants. However, when our species first evolved, forty-five thousand years ago or so, it was in depths of the last ice age. Even in Africa where we came from, the climate was much drier, gravely decreasing the amount of plant foods then available. And as we spread throughout Asia and Europe, our ancestors were living where there were nine-month winters during which plant foods were unavailable (nor had they yet learned how to store summer-gathered foods). It seems likely that modern humans are descended solely from those who adapted to eating meat, and could survive on it long enough to reproduce and raise children. This does not mean that it is good for us – only that it is possible to survive on for the forty years or so which was probably our stone-age ancestors’ average life-span. And this history suggests that the idea of eating meat as the food which means survival may go very deep in our psyches indeed.

Where does this leave modern vegetarians, who understand the need for people to move now to plant-based diets? I think we have to recognize that eating meat is very deeply ingrained in our species, and that we therefore must address this issue if we are to convince anyone of anything. We need to honor the attachment to meat-eating as something that made sense for humans throughout most of our past, and which first began to diminish only with the triumph of agriculture barely ten thousand years ago. Perhaps “We no longer need meat” should be our cry, rather than trying to tell people we never did.