July 2010

GREETINGS

After our very busy Spring, we are having a much mellower early summer (i.e., no tablings this past month). We still ought to start thinking of doing something for World Vegetarian Day on Oct. 1 – no, it is not too soon to think about the Fall! One thought that I had was to find out whether MARV might sponsor a day on NPR and use it to give a pithy message about vegetarianism. I thought of this because we do listen to that station all the time, I found out during their recent interminable fund drive that being a day sponsor costs $240 (which might be within reach), and because I have noticed that being a day sponsor usually involves a brief message. Usually these messages are congratulations to some family member on a graduation or special birthday; whether a more or less political message would be allowed is what I do not know. What do people think? Come to a potluck with an opinion, or phone me at 414-962-2703, or email me at chuckgyver@aceweb.com.

Do note that we have two July potlucks: a 4^th of July one on the first Sunday of the month (our usual time) at David and Jody’s home in South Milwaukee, and another potluck one week later on July 11 at the Friends’ Meeting House (the usual place) for those who can’t make the 4^th or just can’t get enough of us.

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, July 4, 3 PM, potluck picnic and veggie dogs at David and Jody’s, 1000 Lake Dr. in South Milwaukee (1/2 mile S. of College Ave.) Stay through evening fireworks across the street in Grant Park if you can. 414-764-7262.

Sunday, July 11, 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).

Theme is Summer Salads.

Other veg-friendly potlucks

The July macrobiotic potluck will be hosted by Ron and Judy Strampe on July 11 starting at 3 PM at 536 W15025 College Ave. in Muskego. Phone 414-422-1370.

The Urban Ecology Center’s veg potluck will be on Thursday, July 15, at 6:30 PM at 1500 E. Park Pl. – bring plate and fork as well as your meatless dish. Phone is 414-964-8505.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“A meat-based diet requires 10-20 times as much land as a plant-based diet… Animal agriculture produces more water pollutants than all other human activities combined… The grains and soybeans fed to animals in the US alone could provide enough food to feed the world’s hungry…”

NEWS

There are still problems with animal foods. The EPA took action against three beef feedlots in Iowa for violating the Clean Water Act by discharging harmful bacteria such as e. coli into a nearby stream. And at least five people have been sickened by drinking raw milk from a dairy farm near Gibbon, Minnesota.

The raw milk controversy in general is ongoing. A law that would have allowed its sale at farms in Wisconsin was vetoed by Gov. Doyle last month, but at least one dairy farmer who sells it believes that he has gotten around the ban by selling people shares of his cows (and what they produce); this looks like it’s on the way to being tested in court. The problem remains that raw milk can make you sick if a cow carries germs, while pasteurized and homogenized milk is far removed from an unadulterated whole food. Personally, I find soy milk a fine solution.

In fact, several food issues and controversies manifested themselves in the past month’s news. A Chicago group called Mercy for Animals got and broadcast on the internet an undercover video of a worker on an Ohio farm abusing cows and calves; the farming community responded with anger and insistence that this was a rare aberration.

On a different note, several agriculture sectors in the U.S., such as soybeans, oilseed crops, and the palm oil and beef industries, are crying about competition from tropical countries due to cutting down rainforests there in order to raise those items. “Saving rainforests isn’t just for tree-huggers anymore,” said Fred Yoder, president of the Ohio Corn Growers Association. Politics does make strange bed-fellows.

Different again was the discussion of cholesterol in the June Delicious Living. An article there reported that cutting out the animal foods rich in dietary cholesterol does not necessarily lower blood cholesterol levels (which makes some sense, since cholesterol is necessary for life, so your body will make it as needed – or more than needed – from any fat). Now some researchers think that triglycerides, which are energy reserves formed when calories are not used immediately, are the real culprit in heart disease. So the best advice may be to minimize all fatty and calorie-dense foods (of course animal foods – which are almost all fatty – do tend to be in that category).

The American diet generally is under scrutiny. A study being published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association analyzed foods advertised on TV, and determined that a diet based on them would have too much cholesterol, saturated fat, and salt, and too little of such nutrients as iron, calcium, and vitamins A, D, and E. And the latest set of national dietary guidelines acknowledges that Americans in general need to lower sodium, saturated fats, and trans fats – yet makes few changes in its actual recommendations. The researchers who put the report together hope that telling people to add fiber will increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, yet this intent is not quite made explicit. And fish are still being recommended. The new set of guidelines is open for public comment until July 15.

On the other hand, there are still many ways in which plant foods are simply good.

Items in Vegetarian Voice reported on one study which found that eating plenty of fruits and vegetables reduces risk of heart disease and cognitive impairment throughout our lives, and another found that Swedish mothers who ate vegetables every day lowered the chance of their children developing type one diabetes.

A Vegetarian Times item reported that vitamin K, found in dark green leafy vegetables, may substantially lower the risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. One dark green leafy, which Delicious Living pointed out is also full of vitamins A and C and calcium and iron, is collard greens.

An insert in a new tub of miso claims that regular consumption of miso soup reduced breast cancer risk by 50% according to an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A Delicious Living item reported on a study which found that eating magnesium-containing foods may be a key to preventing colon cancer; sources were listed as green vegetables, nuts, peas and beans, soy foods, and whole grains.

Prevention magazine featured cantaloupe as an in-season superfood, with its low calorie count but high content of potassium, beta-carotene, and other vitamins. Vegetarian Times, on the other hand, featured corn on or off the cob, with its fiber, vitamins B1 and C, and folate , while a different Prevention article mentioned that corn is also full of beneficial fiber and phenolic compounds that may help prevent colon cancer.

Speaking of fiber, another Prevention item warns that foods which are claimed on the package to be high in fiber may simply include processed fiber added in forms that do not benefit you in the least; in order to get the benefits, your best bet is to eat whole foods that are natural fiber sources: whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.

Coffee and tea are still being touted as good for you. A Delicious Living item mentioned an Archives of Internal Medicine study which found that several cups per day can lower risk

of diabetes; magnesium, antioxidant lignans, and chlorogenic acids were suggested as the possible beneficial nutrients in both. Prevention also recommended coffee, partly for the same reason and partly because its antioxidents are thought to also help prevent skin cancer.

Another Delicious Living item mentioned a recently released study indicating that omega-3 fatty acids are not only good for brain, heart, and joints, but also help prevent age-related macular degeneration. Omega-3s were also the first thing listed in a Prevention article on eating to keep your body younger; besides fish (arghhh!), food sources were listed as leafy greens, walnuts, flaxseed, olive oil, enriched eggs (also hemp seed oil). Another suggestion for using food to defy age was to fill your plate with colorful produce: besides being full of antioxidents they fill you up for fewer calories than other foods. The article also suggested choosing whole grains, fruits and vegetables rather than simple carbohydrates like those in white flour, sugar, and processed baked goods.

An interesting Delicious Living article compared the protein in different meat substitutes. Seitan, although not a balanced protein, has the most with about 10 grams per ounce, while tempeh has 5 grams per ounce, TVP has about 4, and firm tofu has about 3 – but the latter three are soy products and so contain appropriate amounts of all the amino acids.

CONNECTIONS
 

DIALOG

In a world in which meat eating is on the rise, it would be more than enough of a job to merely try to reverse that trend. Convincing a majority of Earth’s people to start eating less meat rather than more is a vast and difficult task all by itself.

Yet as some of the news reported this month and other months suggests, there are many other concerns about food and food safety which involve the whole interrelated agricultural system.

Whether vegetables are grown conventionally or organically (or nearly organically in Integrated Pest Management) is a nutritional concern. Produce carrying dangerous bacteria through exposure to water that was contaminated by livestock feces is a food safety concern. Normal vegetables like corn and soybeans being contaminated with bioengineered genes (and

now salmon through farming genetically engineered fish that are likely to escape and breed) threatens both food safety and ecological stability. In this context, the impact on health and hunger of a rising tide of meat-raising looks like only one aspect of a far wider crisis in food quality and availability for everyone.

The common factor in all these problems is an industrialized food system gone awry. For the original and laudable thought, that food could be made affordable and available to all through efficiencies of scale, has devolved in practice into control of food production by huge heartless corporate interests concerned only with making money, and this has resulted in a non-nutritious, contaminated food supply, a billion people sick from malnutrition while another billion are sick from overeating – and an increase of animal agriculture simply because corporations can make money selling meat and dairy. And so, to be effective in promoting vegetarianism, we need to involve ourselves in changing the whole food system.