November 2010

GREETINGS

Here we are on the homestretch of preparation for our PreThanksgiving Feast. As usual, we got a few sign-ups right away, and the rest of you are waiting to send in your preregistrations. What are you waiting for??!!!

We need to receive your preregistration in the mail (or my mail slot) by Nov. 18 –barely more than 2 weeks away. Let’s get going – as I mentioned in this column last month, last year also nearly everyone waited until the last moment, and then we actually filled up and had to turn away a couple of people. You don’t want that to happen to you, do you? Act now.

Also as usual, we have some people signed up to help but not nearly enough to pull this off. We still need 1 more set-up person, 1 greeting/ announcements/ line attendant person, 3 people for early kitchen crew (4:30 to 6:30), 3 late kitchen crew (5:30 to 7:30), and 2 more clean-up crew (6:30 to 8). Do keep in mind that all volunteers get special tickets entitling you to go through the line whenever you like, so you do not have to worry about missing the meal! You always come through for us at the last moment – and here we are again at the last moment. Call Jody and David at 414-764-7262 or let me (Louise) know your choice with your registration form (as one person already did) or come to the potluck this Sunday and sign up there. But now is when we need you!

The PreThanksgiving Feast is not just a great good time, but also our one annual fundraiser; it’s not just our one fundraiser but a great good time. Pre-register now, volunteer to help, and we’ll see you there!

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, Nov. 7, 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 is pasta, foccaccia, and antipasto.

Sun., Nov. 21, PreThanksgiving Feast at South Shore Park Pavilion; be there by 5 PM for the Feast or earlier if you’re volunteering for an early shift.

Subsequent regular potlucks should be Dec. 5, Jan. 2, Feb. 6, Mar. 6, Apr. 3, and May 1.

Other veg-friendly potlucks

It looks like there will not be a macrobiotic potluck for November.

The Urban Ecology Center’s veg potluck will be on Thurs., Nov. 18, at 6:30 PM at 1500 E. Park Pl. – bring plate and fork as well as your meatless dish. Phone is 414-964-8505.
Vegan Meetup: to find out about possible events, check the Vegan Meetup website.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

 

“Some doctors wonder whether they should recommend that their patients stop eating meat. Many laypeople wonder if it’s better to set meat aside. The fact is, the jury rendered its verdict long ago. Whether we are thinking of our coronary arteries, our children, or the Earth, it is time to rethink our food choices and act accordingly.” Neal Barnard, editorial in Good Medicine, the publication of Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine

NEWS

Animal foods are still bad for you. Eating red and processed meats increases the risk of bladder cancer, according to a new study. In another, the more meat people ate, the more weight they gained each year. And in a third recent study, higher meat intake was related to earlier puberty for girls (which is an increased risk for cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis later in life). Also, according to the Center for Disease Control, chickens, turkeys, and other poultry are still the leading cause of food poisoning outbreaks.

In the “that’s just icky” department, it was spoiled meat in a piece of carry-on luggage that had been placed in the overhead that started raining maggots down on passengers of a US Airways flight out of Atlanta not long ago. You can’t make this stuff up. Also, when cattle are engendered by cloning so as to produce only the most superior meat, they use cells from slaughtered cows because only after the carcasses are examined can it be determined whether that animal’s meat was really exceptional…

In another news story, a study has now found that taking fish oil during pregnancy does not in fact make babies smarter. It is generally agreed that a fish oil ingredient, DHA, is important for mental functioning, but it turns out that taking fish oil in itself makes no significant difference.

On another front, there is still news being made about organic standards and egg farming, with the Cornucopia Institute publishing a paper pointing out abuses in which intensively confined hens are called organic because they have “access” to a tiny outdoor run that is essentially useless and unused; CI is continuing to push the National Organic Standards Board to correct this loophole while the industry, of course, wants to continue it – and managed to get an article into the Business section of the NY Times about how an Indiana egg producer keeps the facility clean and sweet-smelling and salmonella-free (but still has the hens crowded into battery cages).

Other news focused on milk. A Delicious Living item explained that if you drink milk, there is more heart-healthy CLA (an omega-3 fatty acid) in organic milk from grass-grazed cows than from grain-fed ones. But Florida’s Broward County had to remove bad-tasting milk that gave some students stomachaches from its cafeteria food, while in China seven people were arrested in the latest tainted milk scandal (26 tons of milk powder tainted with a toxic chemical). And the Illinois EPA accused a state dairy of polluting water with a silage discharge spill.

On the other hand, Iowa is not planning to charge the driver of a hog manure tanker who lost control and overturned into a wetland, since his company acted quickly to contain the mess. Yet water issues continue to make news: continuing drought in the west has dropped Lake Mead to record low levels and may force reconsideration of water allocation from the Colorado River, while a new financial study warned that bonds which finance much of the nation’s water supply may be riskier than investors realize due to looming water shortages. (Should we be raising fewer water-guzzling cattle, do you think?)

Other interesting issues making the news these days include: a plan by the pork industry to assess the greenhouse gas footprint of live hog production as compared to pork distribution; efforts by New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg to stop the city’s food stamp recipients from using food stamps for soda and other sugared drinks; and a collaboration of entomologists and military scientists which identified a combination of a virus with a fungus as cause of bee colony collapse.

On the other hand, eating plants is making news in various ways. Former President Bill Clinton has publicly gone vegan, at least most of the time. A NY Times Dining section headliner explained that some of the whole wheat pastas these days are actually quite good. And various articles in that paper have asked why Americans are so bad at eating vegetables, and examined what can be done about that.

For of course, plant foods are good for you. One seasonal choice is broccoli, mentioned by Prevention magazine as full of vitamins A, C, and K as well as cancer-fighting sulforophanes (eat the stalks too). Another is sweet potatoes, which the AARP magazine pointed out are also rich in vitamin C and immune-boosting caroteneoids, as well as being a great source of potassium and fiber. Vegetarian Times asked its readers how they fight colds; responses included: roasted garlic, a glass of hot water with honey and fresh-squeezed lemon and orange juices, miso soup, horseradish added to sandwiches, and fermented vegetables.

An item in Good Medicine reported that a new study in Nutrition Journal found vegetarians to suffer less depression than meat-eaters; another item was a report on an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study which found that postmenopausal women who eat plenty of lignans ( a fiber found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and flax and sesame seeds) may have a lower risk of breast cancer.

Delicious Living published a whole article on “superfoods” for women. Five of the six they featured were: flaxseeds (need to be ground) for their fiber and omega-3 fatty acids; blueberries for their antioxidents that protect the brain, heart, and immune system; dark leafy greens for nearly everything; green tea for alertness, metabolism boost, and cancer protection; and pomegranates for the heart and for their anti-inflammatory effect. (The sixth was sardines as a source of omega-3 fatty acids, which you can get instead from hemp seed oil and walnuts as well as those self-same flax-seeds and dark green leafies).

Meanwhile, a Prevention article on diabetes, in discussing using the combination of calcium, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids to burn off fat, actually mentioned vegan sources of calcium such as tofu, cooked collards and spinach (other dark green leafies, too), oatmeal and canned white beans; and mentioned the walnuts and ground flaxseeds for omega-3s (you can add the leafies to that list also).

Delicious Living ran an item about the health benefits of fermented foods. Kefir is a fermented milk product full of probiotics that help digestion as well as calcium, protein, and potassium; kimchi, the Korean national dish, is made of pickled cabbage and other vegetables and full of beneficial bacteria for intestinal health; kombucha is a beverage blending bacteria and yeast with tea and is full of enzymes, probiotics, and antioxidents; and tempeh is a fermented soybean product full of fiber and protein and possibly vitamin B-12.

A Prevention item suggested beating premenstrual food cravings by pairing a protein food with a good whole-food carbohydrate at each meal.

And finally, Vegetarian Times asked Dr. Neal Barnard whether alcoholic drinks can be part of a healthy diet. His response was that some studies do show benefits for the heart and for preventing Alzheimer’s, but that the risks are also documented – so you do not need to drink, and if you do, should keep it very moderate.

CONNECTIONS

 

Among the many worthy-cause groups that send me mailings asking for money, I get missives from the Government Accountability Project, whose mission is to protect whistle-blowers, especially those in government agencies. A recent come-on from this group asked for help (i.e., money) for their Food Integrity Campaign, in which they are trying to protect federal employees who tried to get attention for such problems as inhumane practices in slaughterhouses, a company selling tainted meat, contamination in a Peanut Corporation plant, and mercury contamination of high-fructose corn syrup. If you want to help protect the jobs and work of people who speak up about such things, you can contact GAP at 1612 K Street NW, Suite 100, Washington, DC 20006, 202-457-0034, or go to their website at www.whistleblower.org or email them at info@whistleblower.org

DIALOG

Sometimes I feel so justified. I reported not long ago on promoters of the so-called Paleolithic Diet, who claim that people should eat only meat, supplemented with a bit of fruits and vegetables, on the theory that cavemen didn’t have grains and therefore our bodies are not adapted to eating them. I made the point that the development of agriculture was all about domesticating grains, and that there would have been no reason to do that if grains were not particularly desired due to already being on the paleolithic menu.

So lo and behold, a NY Times Science and Health section item this past month reported on the finding of grindstones from 30,000 years ago – way back in the ice age and way before agriculture – which had remains of starch grains still on them. Grinding stones with grain remnants have now been found in Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic. The anthropologists think that our distant ancestors may have been mixing flour with water and baking the dough on hot stones to make flatbread. The article did mention that this finding might make promoters of the Paleolithic diet unhappy. Too bad.