Articles on Vegetarianism Continued - older articles

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Vege articles are updated to bring you the REAL picture of what's going on in the world
This page was last updated 12th January 2006

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Heifer whines could be human cries
Closer comes the screaming knife
This beautiful creature must die
This beautiful creature must die
A death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER

And the flesh you so fancifully fry
Is not succulent, tasty or kind
It's death for no reason
And death for no reason is MURDER

And the calf that you carve with a smile
Is MURDER
And the turkey you festively slice
Is MURDER
Do you know how animals die ?

Kitchen aromas aren't very homely
It's not "comforting", cheery or kind
It's sizzling blood and the unholy stench
Of MURDER

It's not "natural", "normal" or kind
The flesh you so fancifully fry
The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of MURDER

NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
NO, NO, NO, IT'S MURDER
Oh ... and who hears when animals cry ?

A banana a day keeps the doctor away... and the dermatologist...and the psychologist... and if current research can be trusted... death. It seems there's almost no ailment that the banana can't help cure. The word "banan" is Arabic for finger.

The banana is unique among fruits. Rather than growing on trees, bananas come from the world's largest herb, Musa sapientium, which is directly related to the orchid family. They are believed to be the first fruit farmed by man. Available all year round, they are currently the most popular fruit in North America.

In February 2002, the International Banana Association reported that 60% of respondents in a recent study had a banana for breakfast at least once a week. The Mr Breakfast Institute of California (MBIC) recommends that bananas be included with breakfast at least twice a week.

According to a 2003 research project conducted by MBIC, bananas may aid in alleviating a very long list of ailments.

What Bananas Cure:
Anemia -- Because of their high iron content, bananas have the ability to stimulate hemoglobin production in the bloodstream.

Bone Mass Decay In Salt Eaters - A study at the University of California at San Francisco discovered that "The potassium [found in bananas] appears to counteract the bad effects of high-salt diets by preventing bones from decaying at a fast rate."

Constipation - If you're blocked up, stick a banana in your... mouth. The banana's high fiber content helps to restore normal bowel function. It also contain pectin, a water-absorbing nutrient which aids in firming your stool.

Depression - Like turkey, bananas contain tryptophan, a protein that converts to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is instrumental in facilitating relaxation. Low levels of serotonin are believed to cause mood disorders including depression.

High Blood Pressure - The U.S. Food and Drug Association recently allowed the banana industry to make official claims that bananas reduce the risk of blood pressure problems.

Nervousness - Bananas are high in the B-complex vitamins, which are known to have a calming effect on the nervous system.

Strokes -- A study of 5,600 people revealed that those with the lowest intakes of potassium were 50% more likely to suffer a stroke. The New England Journal of Medicine reported that adding banana to your regular diet can cut the risk of death by stoke by as much as 40%.

Ugliness - The Body Shop uses some 250,000 bananas each year in the manufacture of its beauty products. In Central America, mashed bananas are used to relieve dry skin. Other homespun banana beauty treatments include exfoliating masks (blend mashed bananas with cosmetic clay), hair conditioner (combine mashed banana with a few drops of almond oil) and hand moisturizing lotion (mash a banana with 2 pats of butter).
Numerous other conditions are said to be cured by bananas by old wives, if not yet by scientists. Consider using bananas to relieve hangovers (blend with milk and honey), heartburn, morning sickness, mosquito bites and warts (apply the inside of peel to irritated skin).

The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes the term "going bananas" as a comical series of actions associated with moneys picking bananas. But the only comical monkey in these days of modern science is a fool who doesn't eat bananas.

Go here to see over 50 Banana recipes:
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/article.asp?articleid=15

Bananas
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/banana.html

http://www.martialinfo.com/Articles/article_view.asp?i=116

US airline admits oversight in information provided on website, now introduces Asian Vegetarian Meals
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=73587&headline=Served~fish~in~Hindu~Meal,~vegetarian~may~sue~US~airline

ANUBHUTI VISHNOI

Posted online: Friday, July 01, 2005 at 0000 hours IST

NEW DELHI, JUNE 30: Vegetarians travelling on Virgin Atlantic (VA) flights might have been misled into eating chicken and fish toppings served in the ‘Hindu Meal’ they ordered.

Vipul Shah, a vegetarian, was shocked when the Hindu meal he ordered on his VA Washington-Mumbai flight came topped with what he calls a ‘‘big smelly part.’’ The flight attendant informed Shah that it was probably fish or chicken. Other vegetarian passengers on that flight were stunned, too, when they heard about it, said Shah.

Shah, a Mumbai-based chartered accountant, is now considering a law suit against the airline and is in touch with US-based attorneys. ‘‘I will file a lawsuit either in Europe, where VA has its headquarters, or in the US,’’ Shah told The Indian Express.

Shah had taken the flight on April 26 this year after confirming that a ‘Hindu Meal’ offered on VA ‘‘contains no products derived from pork, beef or veal’’ and that ‘‘this meal is vegetarian’’ and ‘‘of spicy nature.’’ While this information was posted on the VA website, Shah confirmed the same with the VA desk agent on April 20 and was told that the Hindu Meal was vegetarian.

VA’s customer relations, however, argued that the information on their website was as per International Air Transport Association (IATA) norms even as they admitted their oversight in the matter.

‘‘In IATA guidelines, a Hindu Meal refers to a Hindu non-vegetarian meal. However, we have rectified the incorrectly displayed information on our website and have taken cognisance of this oversight on our part. We as an airline take extreme care of customer preferences and sensitivities and upgrade our in-flight catering services to serve them better,’’ said the VA spokesperson.

While VA has now updated its website to clarify that a Hindu Meal is non-vegetarian, they have listed another option called Asian Vegetarian Meal for vegetarians like Shah. This meal, the website mentions, is only available on Delhi/Mumbai-London flights and is vegetarian.

‘‘VA has hurt my religious sentiments. Vegetarian needs of Indians should be kept in mind by the premier airline,’’ said the angry passenger.

Divinity isn't preaching god to men with empty stomachs, but showing god by serving them food. The International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKON) puts this philosophy into practice, Shakuntala G Soratur tells us.

Think of suffering and the first word that may come to your mind is hunger. Harder though it may seem, 60 million children across the country are left hungry, depriving them of childhood pleasures. In the age when they should be attending schools, fulfiling their hunger for knowledge, these children end up doing menial jobs for a square meal. The Akshaya Patra or prasadam distribution programme by ISKON, to provide food for children in government schools, is therefore an act beyond kindness and charity. It is taking god to those aching for a feel of him.

No wonder the programme -flagged off at Bangalore's Srirampuram Higher Primary School in 2000-opened the eyes of several state governments towards the sufferings of the 'future leaders.' The programme today is popular in three states and said to have inspired S M Krishna government to introduce the mid day meal scheme: Akshara Dasoha.

'Akshaya Patra,’ the container that never gets empty, is the vessel lord Krishna gave to Draupadi, before the Pandavas started their journey into the forest. The lord wanted his cousins to eat well and never struggle for food, which finds a parallel in ISKON's scheme.
 

Swami Madhu Pandit Das, chairman, Akshaya Patra programme, sees this as one way of putting the lord's teachings into practice. "Feeding hungry children is a service we render to the lord himself. Here, we offer food to all children, irrespective of their cast and creed."

Apart from the government's subsidy of Rs 1.30 and 100 grams of grain for each child in primary school, the temple provides a further Rs 6 to 7 per child all by itself. In total, it spends Rs 1,200 per child each year. For high school children however, there's no government contribution and the trust foots the bill fully. "We manage this from donations by individuals and corporates," points out Swami Madhu Pandit Das.

Fund raising

While schools are encouraged to raise funds in their neighbourhood, temple officials also do their bit through door to door collections. Support has also come from an IT company and a philanthropist, who have agreed to sponsor the Hubli branch where 55,000 children are fed every day.

Mechanised marvel

Food offered through the scheme is unlimited, contains plenty of curd and dal (grains), which, as coordinator of the programme, Swami Patitapavana Das acknowledges, "Is the only meal for many children and so, has to be nutritious."

Some sources reveal the temple's kitchen is upgraded with an expense of Rs 1 crore, leaving the task of cooking the meal to machines. Indeed, the kitchen is a mechanised wonder, where even thing as lifeless as they, join the noble service to god. Huge containers are literally the Akshaya Patras here, producing large quantities of rice and dal. Even vegetables are chopped by the tiny contraptions.

More than reducing manpower, the mechanised kitchen ensures hygiene. Swami Patitapavana Das points out the food are not touched from the preparation till it's served to the children. In Bangalore alone, 25 vehicles are at ISKON's disposal to distribute the food. Swami Madhu Pandit Das doesn't like calling this a mere charity work. "The programme is one way of balancing wealth and creating a hunger-free and healthy world."

ISKON has supplemented this effort with schemes to provide textbooks, uniforms and health check-ups for the children. Besides this, they are trained for a fortnight in arts, craft and singing, preparing them for competitions during the heritage festival. So, children at least in some government schools have something to cheer for, an event to look forward and a healthy mind that can focus only towards fulfiling their hunger for knowledge.

Programme

Akshaya Patra programme feeds 2,12,400 children in total: Bangalore- 1,02,000; Mysore- 2,600; Mangalore- 5,295; Hassan- 2,000; Hubli-Dharwad, Haveri & Bellary districts: 64,100.

In Rajasthan state - Jaipur: 17,910 and Saharia Tribe in Barah district 2,500 and Uttar Pradesh state - Vrindavan and Mathura - 16,000 children.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a doubling of the risk of colon cancer for people who are heavy consumers of red
meat. More specifically, it shows that the risk doubles compared to those who consume smaller quantities of red meat. But how does this compare to people who
consume no red meat at all?

This is conjecture, but I'm willing to bet that heavy consumers of red meat probably have quadruple the risk (or more) of colon cancer compared to vegetarians or
people who consume no red meat. By the way, you don't have to be a vegetarian to boycott red meat. You can still be a consumer of other sources of animal
protein (fish, seafood, etc.) while avoiding red meat.

There are plenty of health reasons to avoid eating red meat, and a higher risk of colon cancer is just one of them. The saturated animal fat found in red meat products
contributes to heart disease and atherosclerosis. In addition, red meat can contain contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides and undesirable environmental
pollutants that tend to collect in the fat tissues of cows, which are absorbed into your body when you eat cow fat. And you can't eat red meat without getting some
animal fat.

Then, of course, there's what I call the vibration of red meat, which concerns the homeopathy of the meat, or the environment in which the cow was raised. Was it a
natural environment? Did the cow have access to open fields, sunlight and clean water? Or was this a cow raised as part of a slaughterhouse operation, produced for
the sole purpose of generating profits? If you eat cows' meat that has undergone that kind of experience, you are consuming a product that is tainted with the
negative experience of the animal from which it came.

There are a lot of negative effects associated with the consumption of red meat, and this is why more and more people are now giving up red meat and moving to
healthier foods like fish, free-range chicken, or better yet, plant-based proteins like spirulina or soy products like soy milk and tofu. This is where you'll get your best
protective effect and disease prevention, and you will be helping protect the environment at the same time. After all, it's far less stressful on the environment to
produce food as plants than as animals.

It takes 10 acres to produce the same amount of red meat protein as it does to produce one acre of soy beans. And producing spirulina yields a tenfold increase
over the production of soybeans. So think about it: one acre of farmland used to produce spirulina can produce 100 times as much protein as beef and red meat.
That will be very important to realize as our world population grows and it becomes increasingly difficult to produce the protein required by the population.

How to make the transition away from red meat
These are all reasons to avoid an animal-based diet and pursue a plant-based diet. Many people reading this are already following a plant-based diet, but some of
you who might be considering making the change probably aren't sure exactly how to do it.

Perhaps you want to merely reduce your consumption of red meat but not give it up completely yet, which is fine, since that's the way all of us ex-meat-eaters got
into plant-based diets to begin with. Few people ate more meat than I did because I grew up in an environment where we had all the red meat we wanted at no
charge (my grandfather was a cattle rancher). We had a freezer full of red meat at all times, and we could have as much hamburger, steak or other cuts of meat as
we wanted. I consumed large quantities of red meat for nearly 30 years.

I found the transition away from red meat to be difficult at first. I started consuming less of it and eating other meat alternatives, and pretty soon I began to view red
meat in a different way, because if you eat less of it, you eventually start to lose your appetite for it. And within less than a year, any time I would see red meat at the
grocery store, it would gross me out. I look at it and I realize what it is: a chunk of flesh sliced off the carcass of a living creature that has been ground up and stuffed
into a box. Usually there's some blood running around in the container as well. Every time I would look at that I would get grossed out and think to myself, "Gee, is
this really what I want to eat for the rest of my life? This sliced up chunk of a dead cow?" And the answer was, "No." So it didn't take very long before I didn't want
any red meat, and now I can't imagine eating it.

That's one way to get rid of red meat in your diet, but there are many other ways and I encourage you to experiment and see how you'd like to approach it. But the
bottom line on red meat is that there is an increasing body of evidence supporting the notion that you can prevent cancer by pursuing a plant-based diet. If you want
to be healthy, it's time to join the vegetarians. Maybe even join the vegans, if you have the courage.

Endometriosis caused by eating red meat and avoiding fresh vegetables, says research; infertility may result

Think about limiting or eliminating your consumption of red meat and instead nourish your body with the phytonutrients, phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals and even
the living energy of plants. That's how you'll be the healthiest you can be.

By Sabrina Rogers
AskMen.com's Nutrition Correspondent

By now, it's probably not news to you that most fast food choices are bad for your health. Packed with artery-clogging, heart-attack-causing amounts of calories, fat and sodium, many fast food items are essentially death traps in little cardboard boxes.

While most fast food chains have added "healthy" or "light" items to their menus over the past couple of years, an opposite trend can also be observed: many of them are also producing new menu choices with a record high amount of calories, fat and sodium. These companies defend the availability of these unhealthy items by saying they "meet an important demand."

Don't get sucked in. You'll be putting yourself at risk for obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and many more unsightly diseases, many of which can kill you. In an effort to help you make decent fast food choices, I have picked some of the worst fast foods on the market and provided all the essential nutritional information.

Read rest of article HERE
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/homerealestate/feature.jsp?story=worstfastfoods

Jesus was a vegetarian video for sale:
http://store.naturalnirvana.com/yhst-6661698760614/jewasvemfora.html

Healthy Wealthy and Wise video for sale:
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Award-winning video on the science of vegetarianism, featuring important nutritionists, economists and celebrities. This film, produced by ITV, is used by the Vegetarian Society and other organizations to demonstrate the common sense of vegetarianism and non-violence. "Sacred Cow: Pagan Ritual or Cultural Wisdom?" explores the economical, social and ethical aspects of cow protection in Vedic society and today. In "It Is Written," TV celebrity and Seventh Day Adventist Pastor George Vandemann presents a touching explanation of Biblical injunctions on vegetarianism. "In Vegetarina Cuisine for the Athlete," tennis pro Peter Burwash and Nancy Rossi make vegetarian scrambled "eggs", lasagna, soups & more. Delicious! Color, 115 minutes. Also available in VHS and VHS-PAL. PAL version is for most VHS players outside the US and Canada.

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As a crowd of parents and children gathered at McDonald's in Lincoln, Mo., awaiting the arrival of the man of the hour- actually, the clown of the hour, Ronald McDonald- a "cow" named Petunia slipped quitely through the throngs of people. She carried a special delivery for the orange haired mascot of the merchants of death- a tofu "cream" pie.

Petunia stepped forward, told Ronald "Stop killing animals," and promptly squished the pie into his face. Although the children squealed with delight, Ronald wasn't so happy. He grabbed Petunia by the jugular and threw her to the ground, illustrating the violent way McDonald's treats the billions of cows it grinds up into hamburgers.

(Fact: The very first man to play Ronald McDonald, Jeff Juliano, ditched his ditties about hamburger patches and became a vegetarian!)

HBO produced "To Love or Kill (man vs. animal)" which takes a close look at human relationships with animals. In this one hour undercover investigation it covers the use of animals in ritual traditions of religion, animal experimentation, hunting, and for food. The most disturbing scenes include the use of cats and dogs for food in south China, as well as animal sacrifice in the name of religion. In one scene you see a cat get skinned alive then tossed into a pool of water where it drowns. In another scene they show animals being thrown out of a high building in Spain for the sake of a religious tradition.

Here is an excerpt from "To Love or Kill" about the slaughterhouse:

The difficulty for the meat industry is that these techniques of intensive farming and mass slaughter are being refined to new levels of efficiency, which so often means cruelty, at the very moment when the public is becoming increasingly sensitized towards animals. The solution for the producers is secrecy. The modern factory farm, the modern slaughterhouse are fortresses, screened from public view and surrounded by high security fences. The disguise continues all the way to the point of sale, where we, the customers are happy to cooperate. In place of the old fashion butcher displays of hanging carcasses, we now demand cellophane packages of something called meat which bares resemblance to any animal of origin.

Meat Eating Society (What's the connection?) - THERE WILL BE NO PEACE ON EARTH UNTIL WE STOP SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS!
http://www.meat.org/meatsoc.htm

How much longer can we allow this madness to go on? Can we remain silent while corporations run these legalized murder factories? Torture, sacrifice, abuse, mistreatment - the evil act of killing innocent sentient beings for profit and greed. It's also costing the lives of millions of humans to cancer, stroke and heart disease.

There's a sick and evil travesty that's takin' over the planet Earth. It's these abominable animal exploitation and killing realities. Mankind's ritualistic and hideous animal concentration camps of filth, disease, death and brutality. Yes, It's just another gruesome and horrifying major holocaust of unimaginable cruelty.

Money, money and more money is all the industries of death care about. Cut em up, slice em up, feed em to the masses of hungry carnivores. Hang em upside down by their hind legs, 'till it's for mercy they beg. Blood thirsty professional killers, high tech machinery butcherin' billions of cows, chickens, lambs and pigs behind the blood splattered slaughterhouse steel doors.

Is there any wonder why there has to be so much anarchy? It's all because the government and fast food companies are druggin' and brainwashing you into this corrupt and violent meat eating society.

Just close your eyes to the horror that's hidden behind there. Your neighborhood supermarket brings your choice of flesh right to you. You don't have to kill it, and you don't have to watch it die. Just pay the robotic cashier up front, that's all you have to do. Then you can drive on home, and cook your E-Coli contaminated poisoned stew.

Have you ever wondered why there's so much violence in America and all over the world? Well, I'll tell you, The same disrespect man has for animals, he has for himself. No wonder there are serial killers, world wars, women being raped, capital punishment, and gangs killin' one another, is that {enuffa clue}? Our prison systems most violent criminals are being fed on a steady diet of murdered animal beings.

So much of this madness and killing stems from man's inhumanity to animals. {What a shame} PepsiCo, I.B.P., McDonalds, Conagra, Tyson foods, and all the other criminal meat merchants of death are all cold and heartless, murderous capitalistic beasts, who fuel the violence flame.

Is there any wonder why there has to be so much anarchy? It's all because the government and fast food companies are druggin' and brainwashing you into this corrupt and violent meat eating society.

I'm sick and tired of all this shit, poor defenseless animals gettin' their throats slit - All for steak, ribs and chops.

I'm sure damn proud, and I'll say it clear and loud. I don't eat cows, pigs, fish or fowl. I'm a vegetarian - In defense of all the animals incarcerated on death row. We've got to liberate them, set them free, let them go! We've got to educate the masses, or face total destruction! For everything we do, we reap what we sow!

You are what you eat, and what you eat can kill you. More people on this Earth, they die with their knife and fork. Blood dripping out of their mouths, swallowing chemicalized pieces of rotted flesh. Chewing on their greasy fat burgers, and their disgusting bacterial ridden, cancerous Farmer John pork.

Is there any wonder why there has to be so much anarchy? It's all because the government and fast food companies are druggin' and brainwashing you into this corrupt and violent meat eating society.

So what's this shit about, burnt dead chicken so finger lickin' good? Just more deceptive advertising, and more government cover-up and lies. The legal system, and the deceitful media (keeps us from the truth.) Ten thousand butcher shops, slaughter plants and Ronald McDonalds are hypnotizing and mind-controlling our youth.

Haven't we had enough of this world-wide animal murdering insanity that's causing so much human violence and suffering?

It's time to WAKE UP!

Meat is cold blooded murder my friend and that's no lie. Welcome to the meat eating society. -Written by Jingles

How good is a banana?

Anaemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of haemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anaemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect food for helping to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at an English school were helped through their exams by eating bananas at breakfast, break and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fibre, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin ­ known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body so if you suffer from heart-burn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work: Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods ­ such as bananas ­ every two hours to keep levels steady.

PMS: Forget the pills ­ eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, trypotophan.

Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking, as the high levels of Vitamin C, A1, B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalise the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body’s water-balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be re-balanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in ‘The New England Journal of Medicine’ eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%!

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a ‘cooling’ fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronic ulcer cases. It also neutralises over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that, if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

(Based on Net resources)

from Atmananda dasa ACBSP

Arvind Kala

EDITORIAL
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1273309,curpg-1.cms
25/10/05

Though largely unnoticed, a historic dietary shift is taking hold in India. Non-vegetarian Indians are eating eggs, chicken, and meat more often and in greater amounts. And a vast number of vegetarians — 20% of India's population, according to the authoritative Peoples of India — have begun to try out flesh foods outside home.

Hard data and anecdotal evidence bear out this dietary shift. India's per capita consumption of poultry meat has doubled in the last five years. Though urban areas eat three-quarters of India's poultry meat, the consumption of egg, fish, and meat has also gone up in rural homes, reports the National Sample Survey.

This dietary change isn't surprising because global trends show that increa-sed meat-eating accompanies rising incomes. For India, however, it's an irreversible moment in its history. Home to over 90% of the world's Hindus, Hinduism is the world's only major religion with a streak of vegetarianism. But globalisation is changing that, as Indian food habits move in tune with a meat-eating world.

India's per capita consumption of meat is still tiny at 5.2 kg per annum. The average Pakistani, Chinese and American eats two times, 10 times and 23 times more meat, respectively, than an Indian. The Hindu unease over flesh food has fallen for three reasons.

First, the falling price of eggs and poultry meat thanks to spiralling production; second, the seductiveness of inexpensive tandoori chicken available at every street corner; and third, the overseas travel of some four million Indians every year. When they go abroad and find everybody eating meat and vegetarian food hard to find, they can't help but be influenced.

The cheapest meats will sell the most in a poor country. This is entirely true of India. Despite BJP propaganda, hard data suggests that Indians have little aversion to eating beef (available only in West Bengal and Kerala) and buffalo meat. These two meats sell nearly twice as much as chicken because their cost is half.

And chicken sells four times as much as goat meat because it's much cheaper by Rs 40 a kg in Delhi. It's all a question of money. Pig meat, for instance, is widely regarded by traditional Hindus as unclean. But it sells much more than goat meat, thanks to its lower cost. A person's wallet decides his meat preferences.

A non-vegetarian Muslim Bangladeshi eats less meat per capita than a partly vegetarian Indian because Bangladeshis are poorer. Despite a trend towards increased meat-eating, India has more vegetarians than the whole world put together. A few decades can't wipe out centuries of tradition. Meat-eating (and even egg-eating) in India is full of idiosyncrasies.

Strict vegetarians will eat a cake with egg in it but will recoil from a fried egg. Experimenting vegetarians will eat a meat kebab or mutton curry but not a meat piece. Lakhs of north Indians will eat mutton but not fish or buffalo meat. More men than women eat meat. People don't eat meat on religious days and when they grow old.

Meat sales fall on Tuesdays, a Hindu holy day. Many Hindu pilgrim towns don't permit the sale of meat and even eggs. Widespread vegetarian eccentricities make it impossible to estimate the number of vegetarian households in India. The National Sample Survey puts the percentage at a questionable 42. But it's the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation which best describes India's dietary shift to meat.

"Strict vegetarians are becoming less strict", it says. Globalisation, however, irons out crinkles in human behaviour. Globalisation plus the need of the stomach has even eroded India's taboo against eating beef and buffalo meat. Twenty years ago, beef and buffalo meat accounted for 3% of India's meat production. Today, they account for 50%.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that it's only the upper castes esti-mated at 16% of India's population in the 1931 census which avoid buffalo meat. Other castes have no such reservations. They have the numbers.

The writer is a journalist

To change your mood, just change your eating habits - tuck into foods that will make your life easier.

NEXT time you're feeling wound-up, worried or just plain miserable, the solution could lie in your fridge.

And no, we're not talking about that chocolate eclair or nicely chilled bottle of Chardonnay!

Appealing as they may seem when life isn't going your way, the sugar rush will only make you feel worse once it has worn off.

But some foods do contain specific nutrients your brain needs to keep you feeling sharp and emotionally balanced. They may not instantly put you on top form, but eating them will help to improve your mood.

Here are the best foods to choose when you can't shake the blues...

You're feeling...stressed

Top mood food: spinach

WE'RE not promising that a bowl of Popeye's favourite will make that mound of paperwork disappear. "But it's rich in magnesium, a mineral that helps your mind and body relax," says nutritionist Patrick Holford. "Spinach and dark green, leafy veg, such as kale, are good sources."

It's also high in vitamin C, another anti-stress nutrient.

USE IT: Make a vegetable-packed stir-fry and add big handfuls of fresh or frozen spinach. Sprinkle it in at the last minute, so the vitamin C doesn't get destroyed by the heat.

...slow and lethargic

Top mood food: eggs

IF your mind's sluggish and you can't focus - get cracking. Eggs are rich in choline, a B-vitamin that helps enhance memory and improve concentration.

They're also a source of protein, which will help keep you going through the day.

USE IT: Whip up scrambled eggs on toast, with two eggs and a handful of parsley - and make sure your bread's wholegrain, as that's also rich in B-vitamins for a sharper mind.

...at boiling point

Top mood food: sunflower seeds

YOU'RE in a traffic jam and you're running late.

Rather than losing your rag, snack on sunflower seeds - they're rich in anger-busting B-vitamins and magnesium, and will also get your blood sugar steady, helping to calm you down.

USE IT: For a soothing snack, top a bowl of plain yogurt with sunflower seeds and some chopped pear.

...tearful and low

Top mood food: banana

HAVING one of those days when your hair isn't right, and you're giving yourself a hard time for piling on a few pounds?

Low self-esteem and depression can be linked to low levels of serotonin, which your brain makes from the chemical tryptophan. Bananas are crammed with tryptophan, so nibbling on one could help improve your outlook.

USE IT: Whiz up a delicious smoothie in your blender - mix half a banana and 80g of strawberries with some semi-skimmed milk.Pic

...anxious and jittery

Top mood food: oats

BUTTERFLIES in your stomach, can't sleep, chewing your nails?

You need to start the day with a bowl of porridge - oats are crammed with B-vitamins, which help balance the central nervous system and keep you calm.

They also release their energy slowly, so you don't get the blood sugar rushes that can sometimes leave you feeling hyperactive.

USE IT: Make porridge for breakfast with 50g oats and 150ml water, bringing it to the boil and simmering for 10 minutes. Top with 2 tbsp plain yogurt, some chopped apple and flaked almonds....

WHAT NOT TO REACH FOR

Sugary foods - you may be dying for a bar of chocolate at the end of a bad day, but it's the last thing you need. "Sugar's linked with depression, fatigue, anxiety and PMS," says Patrick Holford.

Alcohol - if you've ever wept into your G&T for no reason at the end of a heavy night, you'll know alcohol is a major depressant. The odd relaxing glass is fine, but overdo it and you'll feel a lot worse.

Caffeine - step away from that latte! Caffeine over-stimulates the central nervous system, leaving you jittery and anxious. Swap tea and coffee for a soothing cup of camomile.

Some Musicians Are Using Bananas to Combat Stage Fright (Leigh Weimers, 8/09/04, The San Jose Mercury News)

With all the music festivals going on in our part of the world this weekend, don't be surprised to find a number of musicians going bananas backstage. Going for bananas, that is.

Saskia Lane, a spokeswoman for the Music@Menlo chamber music fest, reports that on the catering tables set up to keep musicians well-fed while running from one concert or rehearsal to the next, "one can always find a few bushels of bananas." Why? Many musicians believe that eating the yellow fruit helps calm stage fright, Berry says. There's even some scientific research behind it.

"Musicians are constantly in search of natural alternatives to drugs known as beta-blockers, which help combat stage fright," explains Berry, who laughingly denies lobbying for the banana industry. "Inderal, a heart medication beta-blocker, is commonly prescribed to musicians on the sly. So it's not surprising that bananas, which contain tryptophan (a protein the body converts to serotonin, a relaxant), are the most popular snacks among musicians and performers."
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 16, 2004 09:54 AM

Comments

When I had high-blood pressure one of the nice side effects of the Tenormin (Atenolol) that my doctor prescribed was that it supressed the adrenalin-induced "willies". It really helped me stay calm when I had to do public speaking.

I miss it now (HBP is normal). I'll have to go investigate that banana thing.
Posted by: Gideon at August 16, 2004 11:44 AM

Well, there is also 5-HTP available in your health food store, which converts quickly to L-tryptophan, and thence to serotonin.

L-tryptophan itself is unavailable in the US due to nanny-state namby-pamby regulations.
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at August 16, 2004 12:30 PM

Hmmmm.... electric bananas.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at August 16, 2004 12:53 PM

Whoops, misspoke - 5-HTP is an intermediate between L-tryptophan and serotonin.

/nerd mode off
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at August 16, 2004 01:11 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan

Dietary sources: tryptophan is particularly plentiful in chocolate, oats, bananas, dried dates, milk, cottage cheese, meat, fish, turkey, and peanuts.

Posted by: PapayaSF at August 16, 2004 02:20 PM

I'll have to remember to eat a chocolate banana split sundae w/peanuts before my next talk.
Posted by: Gideon at August 16, 2004 04:01 PM

Dates, eh?

Then why aren't the Iraqis less turbulent?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 16, 2004 06:52 PM

Harry:

Because all those dates make you less nervous about doing something stupid?
Posted by: mike earl at August 17, 2004 12:57 PM

 by Jordan Green

As the sole practitioner of Hare Krishna cuisine in Greensboro, Andrew Leese (left) serves homemade meals at the St. Mary’s House every Tuesday. Kelly Doss and Sam Tyler get their plates loaded with vegetarian chili, rice and salad. (photo by Jordan Green)
Where it's served:
Andrew Leese serves Hare Krishna food every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s House, located at 930 Walker Ave. in Greensboro.
Andrew Leese, whose shaved head seems to project a fetal glow, hovers dotingly over the long, gangly carrots, peeler clenched in hand to strip them down to their naked essence.

Along with the carrots, giant heads of lettuce and cans of tomatoes and peaches clutter the counter space in Leese’s upscale home in Greensboro’s far northeastern exurbs off of Horse Pen Creek Road. Some of the cooking ingredients and utensils are also shoved in with bills and newsletters on the narrow divider between kitchen and living room. Relaxing new age vocal music plays from a portable CD player.

The carrots will be processed through a mechanical shredder and mixed with chopped lettuce to be served as a salad in two aluminum trays. A thick, tangy vegetarian chili is burbling in a pot on the stovetop. The pungent smell of whole wheat bread wafts from the oven as the yeast works its alchemy.

Leese, a 40-year-old Englishman, will throw together a quick peach cobbler before the afternoon is over. He’ll also whip up two homemade salad dressings — creamy almond and avocado — in his blender. To top it off, the meal will be served with cold wildberry zinger tea.

Once a cook at the now-closed Govinda’s restaurant on Tate Street, Leese is now the sole practitioner of Hare Krishna cuisine in Greensboro. Once a week, every Tuesday evening, he lays out a feast for anyone who wants to partake at St. Mary’s House, an Episcopal church on Walker Avenue that serves the UNCG college community and its surrounding neighborhoods.

Food plays a vital role in Hare Krishna, a religious movement founded in the United States by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966.

“All the food that is prepared is going to be offered to the deity Krishna,” Leese says. “Just as you would cook very special food for a loved one, this food is prepared with love and devotion. That’s what’s behind the whole philosophy of why we do food distribution: by eating this food, unknowingly their heart changes.”

Hare Krishnas never taste food before it’s offered to Krishna, he says. He will literally make up a plate of food and set it out for the deity before he carts the feast down to Walker Avenue.

“It’s not like we’re trying to convert people to be Hare Krishnas,” Leese adds. “We would like people to become more spiritually minded. Becoming a vegetarian would be a good first step.”

The fact that Hare Krishnas seek to distribute their food beyond the traditional social outreach target of street people and wayward youth has led some recipients to suspect a sinister hidden agenda advanced perhaps by the injection of a secret mind-control agent in the food.

Leese tackles the issue head-on without prompting.

“There was this lady one time who asked: ‘Do you put something special in your food? Because I feel so peaceful afterwards,’” he says. “She thought it was saltpeter.”

Saltpeter, a substance used to make gunpowder, is known to suppress the male sex drive if ingested. Soldiers, convicts and other inmates of all-male institutional settings have long alleged that the stuff was put in their food to keep them under control.

There are a few cooking practices particular to Hare Krishna, but it’s really the cook and not the cooking that matters in the equation.

The food is all vegetarian because Hare Krishnas don’t believe in killing animals. Hare Krishna cooking is often Indian, by virtue of the founder of the religion being born there and the fact that the Indian diet has a strong vegetarian base. But Leese’s standard fare of chili, salad and whole wheat bread also qualifies as Hare Krishna cooking.

One rule is no onions and garlic.

“Onions and garlic increase the passions,” Leese says. “If you notice, in countries where people eat a lot of onions and garlic, like the Latin countries, people are very passionate.”

Passion and desire are to be avoided because they lead to suffering, he explains in a somewhat dour but friendly voice. Hare Krishna emphasizes detachment from material reality to allow one to become closer to God.

As a substitute to onions and garlic, Leese sprinkles a little asoefetida powder in the chili. Asoefetida, or hing, comes from a the sap of a tropical tree in India, according to my friend Vimala, an excellent cook of Keralan cuisine in Chapel Hill.

Leese also uses textured vegetable protein, which gives the chili a little heft.

“This is karma-free food,” he says. “Karma is what’s keeping us in the world. Even if it’s good karma. There are people who do a lot of charity work so in the next life they come back very beautiful or very wealthy. If you have no karma you go to the spiritual realm. The only real suffering is to be separated from God.”

At 6 p.m. he’s beaming behind a table of food at St. Mary’s House as he loads up plates for a motley collection of street people, college students and punk rockers who accept the food with gratitude.

Merritt Basey, 51, a friend of Leese’s, expresses effusive praise.

“With Andrew’s food, because it’s been blessed and it’s been made with love and devotion, it’s had a profound effect on my health,” she says. “He would like to see a resurgence in cooking at home. Your emotional take on life while you’re cooking goes into the food.”

Around the tables of this chow hall there’s no squabbling or tension, no grumbling about the quality of the fare, just contented eating and light conversation.

The meal gives one a satisfied feeling of moderation. The food is pleasing, but not heavy. The chili is savory, but not spicy. The peach cobbler — a mixture of margarine, flour, oats, sugar and date syrup poured over canned peaches — has a dry kind of granola taste that is sweet without being extravagant. The food settles evenly in the stomach.

After the meal, Eugene Teague, a 39-year-old dishwasher by trade, nods off sitting upright on a couch. College students and thrift-store fashionistas flirt on the church’s porch or lay on the grassy slope of its front yard. Leese, his wife and two friends chat quietly at a table in the back of the sanctuary.

A pacific scene prevails, but the spiritual effects of the meal are difficult to ascertain.

“I like it. I always donate money,” says John Sanford, a UNCG student. “I feel bad because I suppose they want people to become more spiritual. It’s missionary work, but they don’t push it on you.”

His friend Samantha Murphy, also a student at UNCG, adds: “Which is appreciated.”

To comment on this story, e-mail Jordan Green at jordan@yesweekly.com

http://autofeed.msn.co.in
http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandorav3/output/News/16dd96f8-9223-44d5-b7c6-39661281efd0.aspx

LONDON, ENGLAND, July 10, 2005: Global warming could be controlled if we all became vegetarians and stopped eating meat. That's the view of British physicist Alan Calverd, who thinks that giving up pork chops, lamb cutlets and chicken burgers would do more for the environment than burning less oil and gas. Writing in this month's Physics World, Calvert calculates that the animals we eat emit 21% of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity. We could therefore slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide simply by abolishing all livestock. Moreover, there would be no adverse effects to health and it would be an experiment that we could abandon at any stage. "Worldwide reduction of meat production in the pursuit of the targets set in the Kyoto treaty seems to carry fewer political unknowns than cutting our consumption of fossil fuels," he says.

hinduism today

Hindustan Times

MUMBAI, INDIA, October 5, 2005: Vegetarians only want to be informed about the ingredients in foods so that they can make a choice about what they eat. Sounds simple but as the news release explains it can be rather daunting at times, "Unless you carefully read the fine print, you could be eating eggs, animal fat and insect dye with your foreign chocolates, jelly, instant noodles, bread, ice cream and even vitamins. Most foreign chocolates like Toblerone and Mars contain egg white. Britannia cakes and some Casatta cakes have eggs, so do Oreo cookies.

Kraft and other international cheeses contain rennet -- made from the inner lining of the stomach of a young cow. And most jelly powders have gelatin -- which in many cases is made from the boiled skin, bone and tendons of pig, cow and fish. Even sweets, especially those lined with silver foil, contain ox gut obtained from slaughterhouses."

Nutritionist Naini Setalvad adds, "My vegetarian clients are increasingly wary of what they eat because it could contain something non-vegetarian. Even vitamin supplements, Vitamin D3 for example, has cholecalciferol,
which is generated in the skin of animals. Several pharmaceutical products contain Vitamin D3."

In India, food companies are required by law to label their items as vegetarian or non-vegetarian, that includes even chocolates and chewing gum. As demand increases for vegetarian products, the article point out that some companies like Amul in India and Baskin Robbins internationally are advocating their 100% vegetarian products. Pankaj Chaturvedi, CEO of Baskin Robbins, says, "When we entered the Indian market 13 years ago, some of our imported ice creams contained bone marrow. But five years ago, we turned completely vegetarian and are now positioning this as our USP."

hinduism today

People are being urged to be more thoughtful about animal cruelty when choosing what to eat, writes Jill Stark.

Twenty-five years after Anna Mumford got a job in a slaughterhouse, it's not the smell or the blood that she remembers. It's the fear. She's haunted by the look in the eyes of petrified cows being herded into sheds to be shot in the head.

It's an image that changed her life. Overnight she stopped eating meat, and soon after became a strict vegan, masticating nothing derived from animals and using no animal-based products.

Mumford's story is typical of many who choose to adopt a vegan or vegetarian life-style. It could be described as a "lightbulb" moment - a defining event from which there is no turning back.

Mumford grew up in a typical English farming community and was an unquestioning meat-eater when she made the change. For her it was a simple choice to live cruelty-free, but it didn't seem enough. She wanted to arm the public with information on animal cruelty in the hope that light-bulbs might go on all over the world.

As the organiser of Australia's only Cruelty Free Lifestyle Expo, she's achieved much in the way of raising awareness. Thousands have attended the event since its inception three years ago, and each year more businesses with a vegan or vegetarian ethos have jumped on board with workshops and sponsorship.

Mumford, who is a member of the expo's two main sponsors, Choose Cruelty Free and Animal Liberation Victoria, believes the event is an invaluable tool for those who already follow a plant-based diet, as well as those looking to change to a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. It's also, she says, a chance to "gently" show people why a vegan diet is the only way to live a truly cruelty-free life.

"This is an expo about how to help yourself, the animals and the environment. If we eat better and live better, we're going to feel better," Mumford says. "We're saying, help yourself by looking at the alternatives, then you can help the animals by being aware about all the products that are tested on them, and all the foods that contain animal products.

"Something like gelatine, for example - people don't realise that it's ground-up bones and tendons. It's in so much. It's in biscuits, it's in confectionery.

When people want to go vegan, it's overwhelming if you think there's not only the food to think about, but the clothes and household products, cosmetics, toiletries. "People don't know where to start and they become paralysed. We want people to be informed, because the majority of people are compassionate. They have a conscience, and that will take them where they want to go."

Mumford, a mother of four from Wantirna South (her children and husband are vegans) is fiercely passionate about the issue and maintains that the "logical conclusion" to a cruelty-free lifestyle is becoming a vegan. She reserves her harshest criticism for animal husbandry, but she believes even vegetarian food can reach our table through cruel practices.

"You might think, ‘Oh, eggs are fine', but what about battery cages where the poor bird can't even stretch, and there's three to a cage and they peck each other and have no means of getting out so they're stressed. With free-range you still have to kill the male chicks, because they're no good for the egg producing.

"On a larger scale you've got a company like KFC who now want to get their chickens ready much quicker, so they're giving them special growth - promoting hormones, and they're building them up with certain foods so that when they're six weeks old they're the size and weight of a three-month-old, but they can't stand up because their bones are too weak. So their bones are broken, they're deformed, and these are the chickens that are being sold for people to eat.

Like born-again Christians who want to spread the word after they've been "saved", there's a risk that Mumford and her peers could alienate the public they're trying to reach. It's a pitfall she's all too aware of, but insists that no holier-than-thou preaching or shock tactics are being employed in conveying the cruelty-free message.

"I'm not telling people what to do. We believe that the more information someone has, the better their ability to make a decision. They might think they'd like to stop eating meat, but they don't know what to eat, so they just go and buy the meat again.

"It seems we're really on the cusp of something at the moment. The news is appalling with bird flu and everything that's happening with global warming, and people are slowly starting to see the cost of the massive destruction we're causing to the earth."

"There are so many shops full of vegan products. If you want to have a mock schnitzel or mock nuggets or you've got meat-eating friends coming around, serve them that; they'll barely know the difference. It's got that fibrous texture, but it's all made from soy. If you arm people with the knowledge, they can think, ‘Hey, I don't have to have that'.

In Melbourne, a city that's embraced the soy latte, there's no shortage of vegan and vegetarian outlets. Few suburbs are without options for those following a plant-based diet, but Smith Street in Collingwood is perhaps one of the most vegan-friendly shopping strips. Pronto Brontos serves a vegetarian fast-food feast of burgers, schnitzels and nuggets, the Las Vegan Bakery offers six kinds of vegan cakes and 10 vegan muffins, and Feast On Vegan is a fish-and-chip shop with a difference.

Mumford recently organised a Vegan "shopping" tour of Melbourne that took day-trippers to 30 vegan and vegetarian outlets in the city.

The proliferation of veggie businesses in Melbourne is a result of simple economics: the market supplying what the consumer wants. Sienna Blake, the editor of national magazine Vegan Voice, says world events and growing levels of sickness are prompting a trend towards veganism.

"It seems we're really on the cusp of something at the moment," Blake says. "The news is appalling with bird flu and everything that's happening with global warming, and people are slowly starting to see the cost of the massive destruction we're causing to the earth.

"We don't have time to sit back and wonder what we're going to do about it. Heart disease, cancer and the obesity epidemic are all linked to a meat-based diet. As people get sicker and fatter, the information about a plant-based diet will gradually get out there."

The popular belief that humans require meat in their diets to remain healthy is, Blake maintains, a misconception fuelled by those with vested interests. "Our diets are not lacking from anything animal-based - we're suffering from excess. We've been led to believe that as soon as someone says the word ‘protein' we think meat, and it's simply not true.

"But we're up against groups like the meat and dairy industry with massive amounts of money and huge subsidies," Blake says.

Visitors to the expo will receive advice and information not only on changing to a cruelty-free diet, but on how to apply the principle to other aspects of their lives. Consumers may be unaware that many household products, cosmetics, clothing or medicines have involved some degree of animal cruelty before arriving on shelves.

Bringing ethical and scientific arguments against the use of animals in research to the public's attention is the aim of the Australian Association for Humane Research. Its CEO Helen Rosser says there's now greater awareness about animal testing, but that hasn't put an end to the practice.

"The public are generally of the view that animal research is a necessary evil, because pro-vivisectionists use the emotive argument of choosing between your child and the dog, but this is a totally invalid argument," Rosser says.

In a world with ever-increasing demands on our time, it could be argued that it's just too difficult to read every label and seek out cruelty-free products. But Sandy Anderson, who started her own business, Veganpet, creating vegan-friendly food for cats and dogs, believes that the more the public's conscience is pricked, the more products like hers will flood the mainstream market.

"We could all consume a lot less meat and we could all take a damn good look at how we are killing and what we're doing," Anderson says. "People are really looking around and looking at their own food and what's in it. They're opting for organic or natural food, and I can see a big future for vegan products.

"You need the bigger companies to come on board, and at the moment it's not financially viable for them. The bottom line for them is always going to be the dollar. As public attitudes change, it will push the big companies into looking at themselves."

The Cruelty Free Lifestyle Expo is at Prahran Town Hall in Melbourne on Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Details: http://www.livecrueltyfree.org

USA, August 25, 2005: Being an airline passenger has never been more challenging than it is now. This is even truer for vegetarians as many airlines have eliminated some or all meal options to cut costs in this extremely budget-focused environment. Thus, we called major airlines to determine which offer vegetarian meals.

The results were highly variable. In some cases, airlines only offer meals on long-distance flights or, in the case of Delta, on those flights to which the airline has applied some set of criteria. Passengers have to call the airline or log onto their website to determine if meals are offered on a particular flight. Some airlines charge meal fees while others don't. Some limit meals to their first-class cabins. One carrier, American Airlines, does not offer vegetarian meals but does serve slightly substantial snacks that may include vegetarian foods kept separate from pre-packaged animal products in the same box. To view the res t of this article click "source" above.

Also, here is some good news about vegetarian meals on airlines. Jyoti Indian Cuisine, including chickpea salads, couscous, bean and vegetable entrees, basmati rice, traditional breads, and breakfast items, is now available for vegetarian meal requests on several major airlines. Ask about them on all Continental Airlines and U.S. Airways flights offering hot meals, British Airways service originating in the U.S., and United Emirates Airlines flights from JFK to Dubai. Contact the individual airlines for more details. (HPI note: Our staff had one of these Jyoti meals on our return flight to Hawaii from the Dharma Summit 2005 in New Jersey and give it good marks.)

Hinduism today

Could bananas have anything to do with it? Seems so, their three energy boosting natural sugars, sucrose, fructose and glucose and when combined with fiber gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research studies have proven that eating two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. Not the only great thing about bananas though! They do not lose nutritional content after being picked as do other fruits and vegetables with thinner skin!

My grandmother's saying, "If it tastes good it can't be good for you," doesn't hold water with the banana case. They help overcome and/or prevent a number of illnesses and conditions, making it a great idea to include them in your daily diet.

Here are some tasty ideas to help some common problems by starting your day and ending your day eating a banana.

Problems are:

Anemia: Bananas are high in iron and can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so help in iron deficiency anemia. No constipation as with iron supplements!

Blood Pressure: The doctors' I worked with would tell the patient to eat a banana every day! Why? Because they are high in potassium yet low in salt. That advices was usually to people taking blood pressure medications, since those medications help deplete the system of that most important mineral potassium. People with low Potassium in the body creates the climate for heart attack and/or other diseases...

Doctors in India have discovered just two bananas a day can reduce blood pressure by 10% in just one week. This backs up a previous American study showing that eating five bananas a day was 50% as effective as taking prescription medication to reduce hypertension. The US Food and Drug Administration now allows the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

Student Brain Power: A study done with the help of 200 students at a Twickenham England, (Middlesex) school showed; by eating bananas at breakfast, break and lunch boosted their brain power making for better exam results. Research has shown that, again the mineral potassium-packed fruit can further learning by making students more alert.

Constipation: Bananas are high in fiber thereby including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, assisting in overcoming constipation without resorting to harsh laxatives.

Depression: Bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin known to help you relax, thereby improving mood and helping to create a happier feeling. This has been proven in a study done with depressed patients.

Hangovers: Alcohol depletes the body of several minerals and also dehydrates the body and one of the quickest hangover cures could be eating a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana shake calms the stomach replaces the potassium lost and the milk helps to rehydrate the body while calming the nerves with tryptophan...

Heart-burn: Bananas has a natural antacid calming effect in the body. You might try eating a banana next time you suffer from heart-burn, and calm the gas!

Morning Sickness: Prevent that morning sickness by snacking on bananas between meals helping to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness. Even if you forget to eat them before and you wake up with morning sickness, eat a banana to calm the stomach!

Bone builder: Bananas are high in phosphorus, needed for bone development, calcium, and potassium. They are particularly rich in vitamin C and contain significant amounts of several other vitamins such as vitamin A. Bananas do not contain fat and have zero cholesterol.

Contrary to popular belief, bananas are not fattening.

PMS: Eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels and tryptophan the calming soothing chemical, which can affect your mood.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronic ulcer cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Fevers: Many cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.

Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking, as the high levels of Vitamin C, A1, B6 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Eating tip! The more yellow the fruit the easier to digest and the more nutrients! Green is more starchy and harder to digest with less nutrients.

Eat and enjoy life,
Lena
http://www.nutricounter.com/articles/sanchez.htm

Hindu Press International

KAUAI, HAWAII, July 4, 2005: They deceived the public about beef flavorings in their "vegetarian fries." They got caught. They were sued. They settled in court. This week the food giant McDonald's mailed a check for US$254,773.19 to Hinduism Today magazine's endowment fund (Hindu Heritage Endowment), one of a handful of elite vegetarian-friendly institutions in America chosen as recipients of the court-ordered $10 million settlement.

It was all started by a Seattle lawyer, Harish Bharti, a vegetarian Hindu who makes a habit out of identifying the ingredients in purportedly vegetarian foods. He examined McDonald's french fries. Back in 1990, news reports appeared that stated, for example, "McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King are switching to all-vegetable oil to cook their fries." The reason was to reduce the saturated fat content (bad for the heart), which, in McDonald's case, went from 42 grams to 23 grams for a two-ounce serving of fries. Prev iously, the fries were cooked with beef tallow. Our on-line dictionary appetizingly defines tallow as, "Hard fat obtained from parts of the bodies of cattle, sheep or horses, and used in foodstuffs or to make candles, leather dressing, soap and lubricants." Yum.

The problem for McDonald's was that the veggie-oil cooked fries didn't taste like their popular tallow-cooked fries, which they solved by including a beef flavoring at the time of preprocessing for distribution (not while being cooked in the restaurant). Under the US government's food guidelines, they were allowed to label this beef flavoring as "natural flavor," which it is. But because of the hype over the switch to vegetable oil for frying, vegetarians assumed--and McDonald's did not try to dissuade--that the fries were now vegetarian.

Bharti sued McDonald's in 2001, and that grew into a law suit involving a number of lawyers and organizations. Ultimately, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, vegeta rians and vegans joined the fray--the Jews because the beef flavoring was not kosher and the Muslims because it wasn't halal.

In March, 2002, the lawsuit was close to being settled. McDonald's agreed to issue a formal apology, better disclosure of ingredients, creation of an advisory board and payment of us$10,000,000 to organizations which promote vegetarianism and issues related to the fries.

The apology reads, in part, "McDonald's sincerely apologizes to Hindus, vegetarians and others for failing to provide the kind of information they needed to make informed dietary decisions at our U.S. restaurants. We acknowledge that, upon our switch to vegetable oil in the early 1990s for the purpose of reducing cholesterol, mistakes were made in communicating to the public and customers about the ingredients in our french fries and hash browns. Those mistakes included instances in which french fries and hash browns sold at U.S. restaurants were improperly ident ified as "vegetarian.'" It is part of the settlement that the full apology be printed in Veggie Life, India Tribune and Hinduism Today.

Bharti wrote at the time, "I am proud of obtaining the apology (with admission of wrongdoing), the enhanced disclosure from McDonald's and the advisory board. This means a lot to my clients and me, because this is very valuable for the consumer interest in the long run. In the last 100 years this is the first giant corporation to apologize, admit wrongdoing and also pay millions of dollars."

McDonald's is indeed giant, and serves as a kind of magnet for all criticism of big business (see http://www.mcspotlight.org). For the year 2002, McDonald's worldwide income was $15.4 billion, which yielded a net profit of $893 million. More than 30,000 local McDonald's restaurants serve 46 million customers each day in more than 100 countries.

Organizations were invited to submit specific proposals to Bharti and the othe r lawyers for a share in the settlement. The money was to go, according to McDonald's, "to Hindu, vegetarian and other groups whose charitable and educational activities are closely linked to the concerns of these consumers [having dietary restrictions]." The Hindu Heritage Endowment, founded by Hinduism Today's creator, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, was invited to submit a request. HHE proposed to put any settlement share in its Hinduism Today Distribution Fund to increase the magazine's free distribution in the US, on the basis that the magazine has consistently promoted vegetarianism among Hindus.

In May, 2003, the Illinois court where the suit was litigated, announced the 24 organizations awarded money under the settlement, one of which was the Hinduism Today endowment. The groups and the amount of settlement is:

Hindu: International/American Gita Society, $50,000; Hinduism Today Endowment, $250,000; Supporting Excellence in Education, $900,000; Council of Hindu Temples of North America $200,000; SSV Temple, $50,000; Hindu Students Council, $500,000

Muslim: Muslim Consumer Group for Food Products, $100,000; Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, $450,000

Jewish: Jewish Community Centers Association, $200,000; Orthodox Union, $150,000; Star-K/Torah.Org, $300,000; CLAL, $50,000; The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life (Hillel), $300,000.

Sikh: Guru Harkrishan Institute of Sikh Studies, $50,000

Vegetarian: Vegetarian Resource Group, $1,400,000; ADAF Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group, $600,000; Preventive Medicine Research Institute, $550,000; North American Vegetarian Society, $1,000,000; Vegetarian Vision, Inc., $250,000; American Vegan Society, $500,000; Loma Linda University, $300,000

Academic/Other: Tufts University, $850,000; Produce for Better Health Foundation, $500,000; Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Centers for Diseas e Control and Prevention ("CDC"), $500,000.

An appeal was dismissed just last month, and the final disbursement made at the beginning of July, 2005.

So, what will Kauai's Hindu Monastery do with these funds? The monks plan to place the entire amount, just over $250,000, in the magazine's permanent endowment. None of the principle will be touched, so this will be a perpetual source for funding outright 1,000 or more subscriptions a year forever, or subsidize a larger number. In short, their supersized endowment will educate Americans, especially youth, about the merits of a veggie lifestyle, which has been a Hindu ideal for 6,000 years or more. A spokesmonk from the monastery noted they were "humbled" to be counted among some of America's most respected educational institutions.

Hindu vegetarians around the world may wish to take note of the little-publicized fact that McDonald's made no changes in their fries, which are still beef-flavoring saturated. Sure, the oil is vegetable. But make no mistake about it. There is meat in those luscious Golden Arches french fries.

hinduism today

Gerry Thomas, the US salesman who brought the concept of the TV dinner to the world, has died of cancer aged 83.

Fifty years ago, his idea of packaging frozen dinners in a compartmentalised foil tray was to change forever the way meal times were viewed.

Instead of families sitting down together around a table to eat a home-cooked dinner, they could combine dining with the new 1950s hobby - watching television.

Gerry Thomas' initial brainwave in 1953 was a clever solution to his company's post-Thanksgiving surplus of turkey.

Buttered peas

Mr Thomas, then a marketing executive for CA Swanson and Sons, of Nebraska, had been handed the challenge of finding a home for 270 tons of unused poultry.

While travelling on business, he spotted a metal tray being tested out for in-flight hot dinners, and the idea of pre-packaged frozen dinners was born.

 It's a terrible invention as far as family life is concerned
Dr Pat Spungin
UK campaigner on family meals

"It was just a single compartment tray with foil," he recalled in a 1999 interview with news agency AP. "I asked if I could borrow it and stuck it in the pocket of my overcoat."

The first Swanson TV Dinner - made up of three sections containing turkey with cornbread dressing and gravy, sweet potatoes and buttered peas - went on sale in 1953 priced at 98 cents.

Ten million of the cartons, innovatively packaged to look like a TV screen complete with knobs, disappeared from US shop shelves in 10 months, as viewers settled down to munch as they watched number one show I Love Lucy.

The TV dinner's runaway success led to a pay rise for Mr Thomas, booming business for Swanson and a culinary trend of convenience which shows little sign of falling from favour.

'Eating in a line'

However, Mr Thomas' invention is not remembered fondly by all.

"He has a lot to answer for," UK child psychologist and parenting expert Doctor Pat Spungin told the BBC News website. "It's a terrible invention as far as family life is concerned."

Dr Spungin - who has set up the Back to the Table campaign in the UK to encourage families to eat home-cooked meals together - says the problem is that the TV dinner destroys conversation.

"Even if you have seven people together eating TV dinners, they are eating in a line and that's not conducive to communication," Dr Spungin said.

"Eating together has always been a mark of family life. You also eat together as a sign of hospitality and welcome.

"[The TV dinner] is a big problem in the UK and America but I think in countries with a stronger food/family tradition, like Italy and Spain, the concept of the TV dinner is probably regarded with horror."

'Hate mail'

In the UK, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has launched a high-profile campaign to improve children's diets by cutting down on processed food.

Even in its early days, the TV dinner was not universally well received.

Mr Thomas received "hate mail from men who wanted their wives to cook from scratch like their mothers did", he said.

But Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, believes it is unfair to blame Mr Thomas for the decline of home-cooked food.

 He was a gourmet cook. He never ate the TV Dinners Widow Susan Thomas

The advent of the TV dinner coincided with a changing society where women were increasingly going to work and had less time to cook, he told AP.

"Some people claim the TV dinner was the first step toward breaking up the American family because it made it possible for everybody to eat in a 'modular' way," he said.

"That was going to happen anyway. The redefinition of the American family was going on anyway."

It was not until the 1990s that Mr Thomas' role in inventing what became a national icon was fully recognised. The original aluminium tray can now be seen in the Smithsonian Institution.

Mr Thomas said of his invention: "It's a pleasure being identified as the person who did this because it changed the way people live. It's part of the fabric of our society."

But wife Susan has admitted her late husband's pride did not extend to consuming the fruit of his labours.

"He was a gourmet cook. He never ate the TV dinners," she said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4703523.stm

Published: 2005/07/21 15:03:46 GMT

© BBC MMV

Sent in by Shyamasundara prabhu ACBSP

LUCKNOW, INDIA, February 4, 2005: Did you know that development of newer rice varieties was to meet the needs of Orissa's famous Jagannath temple that uses a different variety for its rituals every day? Or that a sandalwood-turmeric tika originates in the belief that it will soothe the mind? Giving various instances to stress that most rituals have a scientific background were delegates at a workshop at the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) here. Referring to the Jagannath temple in Orissa's Puri town using different rice each of the 365 days a year, Sri Lankan botanist Balkrishna Pashupati said: "I have sufficient reason to believe that many varieties of rice were developed essentially to fulfil the daily ritual at the famous temple." "And that was the reason a large number of villages in Orissa and around specialized in producing at least one of these varieties of rice," he told a workshop on biodiversity research.

hinduism todaty

REUTERS

BANGKOK: The gruesome task of retrieving the bodies of tsunami victims has turned many Thai rescue workers vegetarian, the “Matichon” newspaper said on Friday.

''Our operations in the first days weren't going smoothly,'' Chatchawan Suthiarun, who led a team of 70 in Khao Lak where about 4,000 people, more than half of them foreign tourists, were killed on December 26, told the Thai-language newspaper.

''After we turned to vegetarian food and lighting jossticks to the spirits asking for help, the job has become much easier, he said.

Matichon said vegetarian food was all the rage in one nearby village, where a makeshift relief kitchen produced about 1,000 boxes of meatless food a day.

The newspaper quoted a survivor as saying that the smell of death had put her off meat.

London, July 10: People must stop eating meat and turn vegetarian to reduce global warming, says a British scientist.

Giving up pork chops, lamb cutlets and chicken burgers would do more for the environment than burning less oil and gas, believes Allan Calverd.

In a research paper, Calverd says the animals we eat emit 21 percent of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity.

We could, therefore, slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide simply by abolishing all livestock, reported science portal EurekAlert.

"Worldwide reduction of meat production in the pursuit of the targets set in the Kyoto treaty seems to carry fewer political unknowns than cutting our consumption of fossil fuels," he said.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April, 2005: For the past twenty years, Dr. Neal Barnard has been passionately pursuing his work as founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). The news release explains, "The PCRM has successfully waged and won campaigns to eliminate the use of live animal labs in the majority of the nation's medical schools, challenged federal dietary guidelines, developed the first cruelty-free insulin assay and established the humane seal of approval for charities. In addition to showing that alternatives to the use of animals in medical research and training can be as or more effective than traditional methods, Dr. Barnard also believes it's important for scientists and doctors to change their perceptions about animals."

When interviewed by Sagamithra Iyer, Dr. Barnard had the following comments: "It seemed to me that the medical practice did a pretty good job of diagnosing illnesses, sometimes a good job of treat ing illness, but an abysmal job of preventing them. We did nothing about heart attacks until they came into the emergency room. We didn't do anything about cancer until you saw it on a mammogram. I thought that was wrong. We needed to bring nutrition into medicine. In 1991 a group of scientists and I held a press conference in Washington, DC, and we announced that a healthy diet consisted of four new food groups: whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes. We completed a randomized clinical trial several years ago as a pilot study. Just a small group of individuals, half of whom went on a typical American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet -- a standard 'healthy' diet used in most hospitals today that includes chicken and fish -- and half on a low-fat vegan diet. We found that the vegan diet was hands down better. It caused blood sugars and weight to drop. These individuals lost an average of 16 pounds in 12 weeks.

"We started the Cancer Project to help people un derstand about how foods affect cancer progression. We also need to get the word out about prevention. So we have a series of television advertisements to promote a healthier diet and that means a vegetarian one.

"One of the biggest problems is that animal tests sometimes work for manufacturers in inappropriate ways. Because animals behave differently from humans in testing and their results can easily be manipulated by researchers, animal tests have worked well for industry and very badly for consumers. We also need to help the scientific community think of animals in a different way -- not just as test tubes with whiskers, throw-away lives.

"I hope that anyone who wants to give to charities will look for the humane charity seal of approval (humane charities that don't fund animal research) and give only to those charities that have it. Regardless of what cause you are interested in, whether it be cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or Alzheimer's, ther e are good charities out there."

For the full text of the interview conducted by Sagamithra Iyer on Dr. Neal Barnard, including his slightly gruesome account of how he himself became a vegetarian, click source above.
 

Hinduism today

RUSSIA, November 11, 2004: (HPI note: This article is translated from the Russian newspaper Pravda.) Vegetarians of the planet have recently celebrated the day of Vegans - the most radical group of the movement. Vegetarianism is gathering pace in the world again, although the peak of the movement occurred in Europe in the beginning of the last century. The idea of the meat-free nourishment has changed a lot since that time, though.

The international statistics does not have any information about the number of people who do not eat meat because of their moral beliefs, not poverty. The percentage of vegetarians in Great Britain is rather low: only seven percent, or 4.2 million people. The number of Russian vegetarians is not known at all. The center of the vegetarian association told the Izvestia newspaper that about ten thousand Muscovites do not have meat dishes on their daily menus. However, only 264 vegetarians are registered on the website of the association.

The roots of the Russian vegetarianism of the XX century are clear. Peasants used to constitute the vast majority of the Russian population. They ate meat only on Sundays or on holidays. Russian fighters for people's happiness used to associate meat with easy life, satiety and over-indulgence. Leo Tolstoy propagandized the idea of self-restraint, which implied vegetarianism too. Vegetarian restaurants and hospitals used to be very popular in Russia in those years. Nowadays Russians become vegetarians for two reasons: they either believe that eating meat is bad for health or they wish to express their outlook.

"Young people become more attracted to ideas of vegetarianism and veganism in particular," Elena Marueva, the director of the center for protection of animals' rights, said in an interview with the Izvestia. "We are moved with the idea of life without violence, without slaughtering animals and treating them brutally," said she.

Courtesy of  http://www.HinduismToday.com/

To mark World Vegetarian Day this year the Sanitarium Nutrition Education Service researched* New Zealanders' attitudes to vegetarian meals and our non-meat eating habits. Some of the results are highlighted below:
Compared to 5 years ago about a quarter of New Zealanders (25%) eat more meals without meat (red meat, poultry and fish), and just over half (55%) are eating the same amount.
Around a quarter (25%) of New Zealanders eat meals both with and without meat on an equal basis.
It appears that singles like their meatless meals, as a quarter of this group often or only ever eat meals without meat (compared to the 17% population average)
The myth that vegetarian food is boring was refuted by New Zealand consumers, 46% said they totally disagree with this statement.
Around 1/5th of New Zealanders expressed a preference for eating meals without meat (21%); with females more likely to express a preference for meatless meals (this includes those who currently include meat in their diet)
Nearly 50% of meat-eating New Zealanders had between one and three meals which excluded red meat, poultry or fish in the last seven days (before the survey)
Amongst those who eat meat, 15% actually prefer meals without red meat, poultry or fish. A further 7% of meat eaters also prefer meatless meals, but do include poultry and/or fish in their diet.

Top New Zealand chefs agree that the demand for vegetarian dishes has quadrupled over the last five years.
This trend is confirmed by research undertaken by ACNielsen* which indicates that, compared to five years ago, over a quarter of New Zealanders (26%) aged 15 years and over eat more meals without meat.
Head Chef at MJs in Auckland, Michael James, has seen a marked increase in the number of vegetarian meal requests.
"Over the last five years vegetarian requests have tripled and to match that we have increased the vegetarian options available on our menu", he says. "I think people are choosing vegetables over meat as they see the vegetarian option as a health conscious move."
Chefs throughout the country were questioned regarding their changing menus, including Michael James of MJs in Auckland, Adrian Woodhouse of Braisserie Flip in Wellington, Jason Robinson of Annies Wine Bar in Christchurch and Michael Coughlin of Bell Pepper Blue Restaurant in Dunedin.
The research also indicated that 17% of the 15 years plus population often eats, or only ever eats meals without meat. Of those surveyed, 46% stated that meals without meat are not boring.
Kim Stirling, Sanitarium's Nutrition Education Service Manager, says that this research suggests New Zealanders are becoming more conscious of their health and well being. "There is plenty of evidence that eating more plant food can offer significant health benefits," she says.
A balanced, healthy diet based on a variety of plant foods such as whole grains, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables and legumes is important for everyone following a vegetarian diet.

*Research was conducted by ACNeilsen between September 5 and 11, 2001

Any agriculturalist will tell the earth can produce enough food to feed ten times the present human population. Yet political intrigues and wars, unfair distribution of land, the production of cash crops like tobacco, tea, and coffee instead of food, and erosion due to misuse ensure that millions go hungry, even in wealthy countries like the United States.

According to information compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture, over ninety percent of all the grain produced in America is used for feeding live stock -- cows. pigs, lambs and chickens -- that wind up on dinner tables.

The process of using grain to produce meat is incredibly wasteful. Information from the USDA's Economic Research Service shows that only one pound of beef is produced for every sixteen pounds of grain consumed.

In his book "Proteins:Their Chemistry and Politics," Dr. Aaron Altshul notes that, "In terms of calorie units per acre, a diet of grains, vegetables and beans will support twenty times more people than a diet of meat.

If the earth's arable land were used primarily for the production of vegetarian foods, the planet could easily support a population of twenty billion and more.

In a report submitted to the United Nations World Food Conference (Rome, 1974), Rene Durmont, an agricultural economist at France's National Agricultural Institute, made this judgement , "The over consumption of meat by the rich means hunger for the poor."

sent in by Hemant Agrawal

Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless,
Christmas dinner's dark and blue,
When you stop and try to see it
From the turkey's point of view.

Sunday dinner isn't funny
Easter feasts are just bad luck,
When you see it from the viewpoint
Of the chicken or the duck.

Oh, how I once loved tuna salad,
Pork and lobsters, lamb chops, too,
Till I stopped and looked at dinner
From the dinner's point of view.

...by Shel Silverstein - song writer (wrote all Dr Hook and medicine show's lyrics)
I don't know if Shel was actually a vegetarian or not, but he did do some pro-veg works like the following:

http://www.worldveganday.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=649

Challenge a friend to - Spot The Vegan

http://www.worldveganday.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=friend&op=FriendSend&sid=649

http://www.spotthevegan.co.uk

How did you do?
 

By Judith Blake
Seattle Times staff reporter

"I've always felt really pleased to be alive, and food is an avenue for sharing that pleasure and giving back.”
— David Lee, Field Roast Grain Meat Co. owner

For some people, life is a meal of many courses, and David Lee is such a man.

In the course he's savoring now, on a side street in Georgetown, he owns a small company making vegetarian "meat" that offers new taste twists for such products and is finding a market across the country.

Earlier in his career, he played a key role in feeding Seattle's homeless — a role whose impact is still felt today. The link joining these and several other turns in Lee's life has been food and his philosophy surrounding it.

"I've always felt really pleased to be alive," he says, and he finds food an avenue for sharing that pleasure and "giving back."

His current setting is a trio of drab, wood-frame houses that have a distinctly downscale look — yet represent a move up in style and taste for meat substitutes.

Here, his Field Roast Grain Meat Co., employing eight, turns out a growing line of flavorful, meat-like loafs, roasts, slices, patties and links made primarily from high-protein wheat-gluten flour, vegetables and seasonings.

The enterprise reflects Lee's own vegetarianism, his rejection of animal farming as "cruel and unethical" and his belief that all life has value. But that doesn't mean he thinks just any kind of meat alternative will do.

"What I want to do is make a (vegetarian) meat for meat eaters," he says — that is, a meat-like product that meat lovers love. "I want to make the best food possible."

Boutique vegetarian fare

Not aimed at the hair-shirt crowd, Field Roast projects an upscale image, using such ingredients as smoked tomatoes, wild mushrooms, hazelnuts and assorted herbs. The holidayish Celebration Roast has a sausage-style meatless stuffing of butternut squash, apples, red wine, grain meat and seasonings.

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Nhung Nguyen puts links of barbecue vegeterian sausage into a smoke rack at Field Roast Grain Meat, which turns out a line of flavorful, meat-like products made primarily from high-protein wheat-gluten flour, vegetables and seasonings.

"We like to think we're the boutique of the vegetarian world," says Lee, 46.

Field Roast is sold in the deli sections of Whole Foods Markets and Wild Oats stores across the country (though only the former are in Seattle), and locally in Larry's Markets, PCC Natural Markets, Madison Market and certain restaurants.

Though company sales grew by 40 percent in 2003, Lee says, they remain below $1 million. But he has higher ambitions.

"The prize of our industry," he says, "is distribution in the mass-market stores" — Safeway, Kroger, Albertson's and the like — and that's where he hopes to see his products someday.

Targeting "flexitarians"

Vegetarian purists probably are not the chief Field Roast consumers, Lee says.

"I think it's the emerging 'flexitarian.' They eat tofu one night, meat the next."

That word, flexitarian, is one you could be seeing more of. Meaning a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat, it was declared the most useful new word of 2003 by the American Dialect Society and reflects what is thought to be a fast-growing segment of Americans. The reasons are many, but one appears to be periodic meat scares, such as "mad-cow" disease.

Last winter's detection of "mad-cow" disease in a single Washington cow brought a spike, though not a dramatic one, in Field Roast sales, Lee said.

As for all those flexitarians, Lee says he is one.

"I really am a vegetarian, but I need to be honest and say I'm not hardcore. I don't buy meat myself, but if I go to your house and you serve meat, I'll eat it," to avoid wasting food or embarrassing his host.

Lee explains all this as he leads a visitor through his tiny, USDA-inspected production area with its big steel vats, shiny new sausage-making machine, a slicing table and other equipment.

Using wheat-gluten flour instead of soy has helped achieve Field Roast's strikingly meat-like texture, Lee says. Among the growing array of meat substitutes in stores, soy, with its high-protein content, is by far the most common main ingredient. A few products, such as the Portland-launched Gardenburger, which also uses soy, are widely available and increasingly popular.

Despite the word "meat" — or "roast," "sausage" or "meatloaf" — in the names of Field Roast products, Lee insists he is not making a fake version of animal meat. "The discriminating, upper-end consumer doesn't want fake anything," he says.

Instead, he maintains, he makes genuine meat in another sense of the word — as in solid food, such as nut meats, coconut meat or in this case, grain meat.

"Look it up in the dictionary," he says — something he certainly has done as a confessed word lover who reads dictionaries for fun.

Nutritional content

Nutritional content varies among Field Roast products. In the deli slices, the calories, fat and carbohydrates are relatively low. A 2-ounce serving (about 3.5 to 4 slices) of the wild-mushroom variety contains: 104 calories; 11 grams carbohydrate; 13 grams protein; 3 grams fat (0 saturated).

Celebration Roast lists a larger serving size, 4 ounces, with these per-serving counts: 252 calories; 17 grams carbohydrate; 21 grams protein; 14 grams fat (1 saturated).

With their fancy ingredients, Field Roast products tend to cost more than other meat substitutes. The brand's prices vary significantly by region and store, but they're generally in this range: $2.99 to $3.99 for a 5.5-ounce package of the slices; $2.99 to $4.59 for a ¼-lb. unit of the meatloaf; and $5.99 to $7.99 for a 1-lb. Celebration Roast.

Early love for food

The appetizer course in Lee's life was a comfortable childhood in an upscale Connecticut suburb. Then, when his parents divorced, his English mother returned to England, taking David and his brother. Soon, he found himself in a rigid British boarding school. Mid-high-school, Lee returned to the U.S., lived with his two sisters in Arizona and finished high school in Massachusetts.

Influenced by his mother's love of cooking, Lee knew early on that he wanted to cook for a living. Discouraged from that by his father, he entered art school, dropped out, lived in San Diego, made his way to Seattle in 1984 and finally took up his first love, cooking. Untrained but talented, he first cooked in a restaurant.

Then, in 1987, he made a move whose impact is still felt in Seattle: founding Common Meals, a business that prepared food for the homeless. At one point, Lee recalls, Common Meals churned out 1,500 meals a day for agencies that served homeless people. He also taught the disadvantaged about food and cooking.

"He had this absolute passion for teaching and being involved in programs that taught and provided food," recalls Kay Ach, a retired dietitian who once oversaw Head Start nutrition programs in Seattle. He also had a "really magic" appreciation of ethnic diversity and ethnic foods, she said.

In the early 1990s, burned-out and ready to move on, Lee converted Common Meals to a nonprofit agency and turned it over to others. Common Meals became FareStart, which today both trains the homeless for restaurant jobs and cooks meals for the homeless.

Lee taught cooking for a time at North Seattle Community College and at Whole Foods Market, and did some motivational speaking to food-service providers. He launched Field Roast in 1997.

His interest in ethnic difference shows up in his company's all-Vietnamese staff. A small Buddhist shrine hangs on the lunchroom wall, with incense that employees light daily.

Lee, who lives on Beacon Hill, is Buddhist himself and meditates every day. Hiking is another passion.

One passion he's never had, he says, is the pursuit of wealth.

"I can't believe our focus on luxury right now — the big-screen TV, eating out a lot. It's so wonderful to have a meal at home with family and friends."

He cooks vegetarian meals, loves to read cookbooks and sees lots of movies. Divorced, he has two sons — Ian, 14, and Malcolm, 20, who works at Field Roast as administrative assistant.

What's cooking in the future

Ahead for Field Roast are two new vegetarian sausage products due out in the fall. And, possibly, something more. Once again feeling the urge to move on, Lee would like one day to sell his business to a mainstream animal-meat-products company.

Wouldn't that compromise his vegetarian philosophy? He says not. His products would get wider distribution. "And every time someone buys some Field Roast slices, it means some (animal) meat is not being purchased."

Meanwhile, he's writing a book on how to make vegetarian meats such as his. Not worried about revealing his secrets, he says he'd like everybody — especially some top chefs — to know the techniques and then expand upon them.

It's just the latest course in a many flavored life.

The Hare Krishna people live on food that's natural, healthy, nonviolent, purified and cheap. And for taste alone, it's great!

On the menu: wholesome foods like fruits, grains, vegetables, milk products, made into meals of countless varieties. No meat, fish, or eggs. And you don't miss them. (You're too satisfied.)

This is a diet that respects the earth and its creatures. And you.

No fads here, no experimental diets. This is a way of eating that people have thrived on—physically and spiritually—for tens of centuries. It has stood the test of time.

When Krishna devotees cook, they cook with devotion, because they're cooking for Krishna. The food is first for Krishna's enjoyment. Then you enjoy it, and the spiritual taste comes through.

An award-winning cookbook—Lord Krishna's Cuisine—offers 799 pages of recipes. You can taste some of them every week at the Sunday feast held at every Hare Krishna center. Or visit one of the justly famous Hare Krishna restaurants.

If everyone ate like the Hare Krishna people, the world would be happier, healthier, more peaceful, and more pure. The Krishna diet. Try it!

"Temple worship, you go in India, there are some temples still. Daily, they are spending thousands of dollars for temple worship. Daily. The process... In Jagannatha temple, fifty-six times offered prasada, and any time you go they will supply you prasada for one thousand persons. It is all ready. Still. Although India is being advertised there is no food, but if you go to Jagannatha temple, any time, and ask the manager that "We have come, one thousand devotees. Please supply us prasada." "Yes, ready." (laughter) So that is being done. The arrangement is there since last two thousand years. The Jagannatha has property, there is production, there is good management. That is going on. Similarly, there is another temple, Nathadwar. They're also spending thousands of... In Madras also, there are many temples. There is a big estate. They are also collecting money daily, $4,000, $5,000. Yes. Still. The temple arrangement is there."
Bhagavad-gita 3.1-5

HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Los Angeles, December 20, 1968, Lectures & Classes 681220BG.LA

A change in diets may be necessary to enable developing countries to feed their people, say scientists

John Vidal
Monday August 23, 2004

The Guardian

Governments may have to persuade people to eat less meat because of increasing demands on water supplies, according to agricultural scientists investigating how the world can best feed itself.

They say countries with little water may choose not to grow crops but trade in "virtual water", importing food from countries which have large amounts of water to save their supplies for domestic or high-value uses.

With about 840 million people in the world undernourished, and a further 2 billion expected to be born within 20 years, finding water to grow food will be one of the greatest challenges facing governments.

Currently up to 90% of all managed water is used to grow food.

"There will be enough food for everyone on average in 20 years' time, but unless we change the way that we grow it, there will be a lot more malnourished people," said Dr David Molden, principal scientist with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), which is part-funded by the British government and is investigating global options for feeding growing populations.

"The bottom line is that groundwater levels are plummeting and our rivers are already overstressed, yet there is a lot of complacency about the future," the IWMI report says.

"Western diets, which depend largely on meat, are already putting great pressures on the environment. Meat-eaters consume the equivalent of about 5,000 litres [1,100 gallons] of water a day compared to the 1,000-2,000 litres used by people on vegetarian diets in developing countries. All that water has to come from somewhere."

The consensus emerging among scientists is that it will be almost impossible to feed future generations the typical diet eaten in western Europe and North America without destroying the environment.

A meat and vegetable diet, which most people move to when economically possible, requires more water than crops such as wheat and maize. On average, it takes 1,790 litres of water to grow 1kg of wheat compared with 9,680 litres of water for 1kg of beef.

In its report, the IWMI says it it unlikely people will change their eating habits because of concerns about water supplies. "And in many sub-Saharan countries, where the pressure on water will increase most rapidly in the next 20 years, people actually need to be eating more, not less," the report says.

Anders Berntell, the director of the International Water Institute, based in Stockholm, said: "The world's future water supply is a problem that's ... greater than we've begun to realise.

"We've got to reduce the amount of water we devote to growing food. The world is simply running out of water."

Research suggests that up to 24% more water will be needed to grow the world's food in 20 years, but many of the fastest-growing countries are unable to devote more water to agriculture without sacrificing ecosystems which may be important for providing water or fish.

The option of increased world trade in virtual water seems logical, the scientists say, but they recognise that it depends on countries having the money to import their food. "The question remains whether the countries that will be hardest hit by water scarcity will be able to afford virtual water," the report says.

The best options for feeding the world, it says, are a combination of hi-tech and traditional water conservation methods. Improved crop varieties, better tillage methods and more precise irrigation could reduce water consumption and improve yields.

Drought-resistant seeds, water harvesting schemes and small-plot technologies such as treadle pumps [simple foot pumps] all have the potential to boost yields by 100%, the report says.

The scientists did not examine the use of GM foods which have been hailed by some companies as the way to avoid big food shortages.

"Even without GM foods, in many parts of the world there is the potential to increase water productivity. Even without them there is hope," one of the report's authors said.

Another option considered is that of farmers using more urban waste water for irrigation. It is estimated that up to 10% of the world's population now eat food produced using waste water from towns and cities.

Cities are predicted to use 150% more water within 20 years, which will be both a problem and an opportunity.

"This means more waste water but also less fresh water available for agriculture. In the future, using waste water may not be a choice but a necessity", the report says.

The authors say western governments need to change their policies: "Agricultural subsidies keep world commodity prices low in poor countries and discourage farmers from investing [in water-saving technologies] because they will not get a return on their investments.

"Land and water rights are also needed so people will invest in long-term improvements."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

"Vegetarianism is THE diet of the future. Your future! Every week 5,000 people turn their backs on the traditional meat-based diet with all its cruelty and waste and choose a diet which is nutritious as it is delicious - Vegetarianism!"

Vegetarianism is a concept which is fast catching on in India and around the world. With many famous people such as Maneka Gandhi striving to spread the good news of vegetarianism, It is a matter of time till the whole world turns vegetarian.

"I launched out in search of a vegetarian restaurant [in London 1887], I would trot ten or twelve miles each day, go into a cheap restaurant and eat my fill of bread, but would never be satisfied. During these wanderings I once hit a vegetarian restaurant in Farringdon Street. The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart."
This is an extract from a speech delivered by Gandhi at a Social Meeting organised by the London Vegetarian Society on 20 November 1931.

We've come a long way since then. Being a vegetarian especially in London, but also in Britain in general, has now become very common, and life for vegetarians is easy, with restaurants, hotels, products catering exclusively for them or also for them.

Here are some statistics. There are about 3 million vegetarians in the UK: 5 % of the adult population. In the latest National Diet & Nutrition Survey, conducted on 2251 adults aged 19 to 64, 5% claimed to be vegetarian (7% women, 2% men). The reason for going vegetarian/vegan was: 51% moral or ethical, 29% health, 25% didn’t like the taste of meat. 11% of women aged 19 to 34 claimed to be vegetarian.
7 million people in the UK no longer eat meat.
In the last 10 years, the number of vegetarians in the UK has practically doubled.
2,000 people a week in the UK are joining the "veggie revolution" and dropping meat completely from their diets.
Food scares such as BSE and Foot and Mouth have led large numbers of people to rethink their diets, with 27 % of the population saying that they would consider giving up meat, and 12 % saying that they were vegetarian or meat-reducing.
In a poll of 1,051 university and college students in 2002, 8% of students claimed to be vegetarian. 11% women, 4% men. 20% of the vegetarians would not eat eggs.

The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is the oldest vegetarian organisation in the world. Many celebrities are vegetarian, including Stella McCartney who is the patron of the Vegetarian Society. She says: "Every week in the UK, many thousands of people are rejecting traditional meat-based meals in favour of something that's fresh, delicious, satisfying, healthy, kinder and good for the environment. Vegetarian food offers this and so much more … Welcome to the most delicious, most talked about, fastest growing food trend of the new millennium - vegetarianism."

Interestingly, Gandhi himself became a vegetarian by choice, as opposed to cultural tradition and upbringing, after having read Plea for Vegetarianism, a book by the British author Henry Salt, a true pioneer who also wrote Animals' Rights, one of the first books ever appeared on the subject. Here is the continuation of Gandhi's speech at the London Vegetarian Society meeting, quoted above:
"I saw among them Salt's Plea for Vegetarianism. This I purchased for a shilling and went straight to the dining room. This was my first hearty meal since my arrival in England. . . . From the date of reading this book, I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice. I blessed the day on which I had taken the vow before my mother. I had all along abstained from meat in the interests of truth and of the vow I had taken, but had wished at the same time that every Indian should be a meat-eater, and had looked forward to being one myself freely and openly some day, and to enlisting others in the cause. The choice was now made in favour of vegetarianism, the spread of which henceforward became my mission."

A quart of whiskey, a pack of cigarettes and a cube of LSD is better for you than eating one piece of meat, a doctor once told Peter Burwash, former Hawai'i resident and Davis Cup champion turned tennis coach, author and motivational speaker.
"The trauma of the extra (meat-derived) chemicals in the body is horrendous," Burwash said, clarifying the analogy. "An athlete should have no meat, fish, poultry or eggs."

A professional tennis player for seven years, motivational speaker for 30 years and vegetarian for 34 years, Burwash spoke about nutrition and exercise to nearly 150 attendees last Wednesday in the Kuykendall Auditorium.

Burwash spends 150 days a year touring the world as a motivational speaker and has written 10 books on topics ranging from nutrition to leadership to teen suicide. The lecture was sponsored by the Vegetarian Society of Hawai'i.

America's weight-loss industry reaped a profit of $40 billion last year, said the 59-year-old. America's bookstores report the top-selling category of books to be cookbooks, while diet books are second. Out of 27,961 diet books registered in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., none work, Burwash said.
The Atkins diet deprives the body of carbohydrates, forcing the body to go into starvation mode. Fat is burned for fuel, along with lean muscle and organs, Burwash said. Side effects include body odor and halitosis, he added.

"A carbohydrate-starved body thinks you're sick and zaps your appetite," he said.
Ron Estrada, a tennis specialist for Peter Burwash International, the world's largest tennis management company founded by Burwash, said he gave a tennis lesson to Dr. Atkins at a resort in the Caribbean three or four years ago. Estrada found himself picking up tennis balls for Atkins because he was not able to bend down to do it himself.

Burwash said Atkins was the "epitome of poor health."
The Atkins diet also requires a significant protein intake. But too much protein can be detrimental, Burwash said, because it makes the blood acidic, drains bones of calcium and causes tendons and ligaments to tear easily.

Better food choices, not the diet of the week, are the answer. Exercise, not meat, makes you strong, according to Burwash.
"You can't change a bad habit by just scratching the surface," Burwash said.

Although lower in fat, chicken and fish contain higher levels of cholesterol than red meat. Cholesterol can build up in arteries, causing restricted blood flow through the body and oxygen to the muscles.

"One hundred fifty is the magic cholesterol number," Burwash said. "The key is to keep those arteries wide open."
Karl Seff, a chemistry professor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, disagreed with Burwash's emphasis on monitoring cholesterol intake.
"Cholesterol is a very minor health issue; it's the animal fat and saturated fat [that we should be concerned with]," Seff said. "All animal products have saturated fat, especially flesh. The animal fat is bad, but dietary cholesterol is hardly worth fussing about."

In addition to cholesterol, chicken contains 15 times more carcinogens, a cancer-causing agent, than cooked beef, Burwash said.
Fish is faced with similar statistics. According to Consumers Union USA, 49 percent of fish sampled in the U.S. was contaminated with bacteria from human or animal feces, Burwash said. Fish from the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans have tested positive for dioxin, a primary toxic element of Agent Orange and DDT, an insecticide, he added.

In addition, eggs, "the refuse of the chicken's menstrual cycle," are especially vulnerable to bacterial infection once prepared due to the sterile environment they are created in, said Burwash. They slow the bloodstream by 14-15 percent for 24 hours after consumption, and increase chances of wrinkles and varicose veins.
The typical Western animal-based diet is largely responsible for poor health in the U.S., Burwash said. Fast food restaurants are popping up everywhere, including hospitals. 38 percent of hospitals have a McDonald's, he said. Hormones from animal products have caused girls to begin menstruating earlier, from 17.5 years of age in 1900 to 10.5 years of age today. The number of women reported to have had facial hair removed last year is 2.5 million, he said.

"Today there is no excuse" to not have a healthy diet, Burwash said, referring to the wide availability of natural food in our communities.
Burwash became a vegetarian during his pro tennis tour at age 25, he said, after making a bad frisbee throw on Waikiki Beach. He accidentally hit a doctor in the head and, after apologizing, their conversation turned to athlete nutrition and vegetarianism. The doctor invited Burwash to the nutrition seminar that changed his life. Burwash said his family and fellow athletes could not believe his decision to turn vegetarian.

"I took a lot of abuse during that time," Burwash said.

After only one year on a vegetarian diet, Burwash boasted the highest fitness index of any athlete in Canada. He won 19 singles and doubles titles during his pro tennis tour. He once told ESPN's Roy Firestone during an interview, "becoming a vegetarian was the greatest moment in my life."

According to William Castelli, former director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, vegetarians live longer by about 7 years, Burwash said.

(c) 2004 Ka Leo O Hawaii
http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/05/03/4095924b36626

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