SoulVeggie

Latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter - Rip Essy Interview/Recipes

Here's the Intro, Table of Contents, and a Direct Link to the latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter:

LINK:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/88

"10_19_09:  Engine 2 Interview, Mutant Milk, & SpiderVeg"

Howdy! Welcome to the 67th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

In this issue we're proud to present a Mad Cowboy Interview with the amazing vegan firefighter/author, Rip Esselstyn. Rip's the son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and has built upon his father's remarkable research via some very practical and easy-to-do ways in his diet/exercise/lifestyle book, "The Engine 2 Diet."  There's also three of his recipes for you to try!

Moving on further, there's articles about Mutant Milk, how saturated fat enables Altzheimer's, some surprising statistics on what we eat, Brainfood at the White House, a great new position paper by the ADA on the Vegetarian Diet, and more about that same diet reducing cancer risk.

Continuing in this edition, there's the intriguing proposal for a 50 year Farm Bill, 70 pages of solutions to our agricultural woes, the real cost of food, the new composting mandate in San Francisco, how animal abusers are losing, AETA is winning, new math contrasting a vegan diet with a carnivore's, and the Amazing SpiderVeg!

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers: y'all can browse past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

Here's hoping everyone is warm, and to quote Rip: "plant strong" this Winter!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: A Mad Cowboy Interview with Rip Esselstyn
02: Three Recipes from "The Engine 2 Diet"
03: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
04: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
05: Mutant Milk, Fat & Altzheimer's, US Fatter, What We're Eating
06: Brainfood, Veg Diet Reduces Cancer & Chronic Disease Risks
07: The Digital Vegan
08: 50 yr Farm Bill, Ag Solutions, Real Food Cost, Composting SF
09: Animal Abusers Lose, AETA Wins, Veg Math, Spider Veg!
10: Howard's Schedule
11: Quick Bytes
12: Closing Thoughts

"Newman's Own Organics Dark Secret"

It's really ironic when a superb vegan chef, who's created some marvelous no- and low-fat vegan recipes, actively promotes (and does a giveaway to drive more traffic to her site) a product that, on the surface, seems to be reasonably healthy and good, but is, in fact, far from both.  However, since they sent her a free box of stuff to review, guess that's okay.

The blogger is giving away 3 "Newman's Own Premium Dark Chocolate Bars" at random to people who leave a comment on her post.  They get an extra "entry" for Tweeting or Blogging about her post.

But the blogger hasn't bothered to either seek or note the nutritional breakdown of these junk bars (hey!  they're ORGANIC... that MUST be good).  So let's take a peek at the Nutritional Analysis of one of these puppies (Newman's own doesn't bother to provide the RDA percentages at their website):

1) FAT:  28 grams of fat (that's double to over the total recommended per day by the guys who've reversed heart disease, Ornish and Esselstyn), and about half recommended per day by the Feds.  It's also 16 grams of saturated fat, and that's 100% of the total daily saturated fat (a heart disease promoter) recommended for women by the Feds.

2) SUGAR:  16 grams.  That's 2/3 of the TOTAL sugar recommended per day by the American Heart Association for women (25 grams), and about 1/2 of the TOTAL recommended per day for men.

Newman's Own Dark Secret:  that chocolate bar is a very effective fat/saturated fat/sugar delivery vehicle for inviting heart disease, let alone, obesity and diabetes...  Even ONE high fat meal is tough on your arteries.  Such a gracious giveaway... giving people a chance to win a free chocolate bar, and ultimately, giving three people a greater chance for heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

However, to keep getting vegan freebies, one must not worry about all that fat/sugar stuff.  It's someone else's decision to eat the stuff... all that matters is promoting more blog traffic to get more freebies, which will, in turn, promote more blog traffic!  An endless cycle...

But then hey, a free organic heart attack is better than one that's not, right?

New Film Trailer: "What's "Organic" About Organic?"

"[This film]... rings the alarm for the need to develop an ecological consciousness.  The film illustrates that the organic food debate extends well beyond personal choice and into the realm of social responsibility.

Each of the film’s characters is intimately connected to the organic world; they’re farmers, activists, and scientists.  While many folks can easily endorse “organic,” the characters in the film take the discussion beyond just shopping for another eco-label. As we glimpse into each of their lives, we see how organic agriculture has the potential to solve many of our environmental and health problems.  The film will explore how organic farming can be used as a soil and air protection system, a healthy solution to toxic pollution, and an innovative means to combat global warming.

WHAT’S ORGANIC ABOUT “ORGANIC?” delves into the debates that arise when a grassroots agricultural movement evolves into a booming international market.  As the film moves from farm fields to government meetings to industry trade shows, we see the hidden costs of conventional agriculture.  We also see how our health, the health of our planet, and the agricultural needs of our society are all intimately connected.  The film compels us to look forward, towards a new vision for our culture and encourages us to ask, “What should our future food system look like?”

[Love the phrase: "conscientious consumption" from the trailer.  The "about" excerpt above is from the really kewl and resource-full website here.  Check it out and pass the URL around. Oh, and go low-fat vegan... been too busy harvesting, preserving, planting, watering to do much else than this quickie post... still slow in typing with finger recovering...]

Independence from the US Food Supply

 

(All images ©2009 by Mark Sutton - Respectively:  currants, gooseberries, raspberries, lettuces from the garden - Click on image to get larger version in new window)

"True freedom requires food independence... I am now celebrating my food independence from the greedy, poisonous food corporations of North America. No more Dean Foods [Silk Products] or PepsiCo in my life. No more being enslaved by Monsanto or ADM. No genetically-modified foods, pesticides, herbicides or terminator seeds are found around here. No long-distance food imports, no waiting in line at the grocery store with a stupid discount card and no more packing my groceries home in toxic plastic bags made from petrochemicals.

My food acquisition process has become ridiculously simple:

Step 1: Walk to the garden (60 seconds).
Step 2: Pick what I want to eat (5-10 enjoyable minutes).
Step 3: Prepare it (juice it, boil it or whatever).
Step 4: Eat it.

This process requires no financial transactions, no taxes, no transportation, no plastic wrappers and no coupons. It does not involve finding a parking spot, going into a building, carrying cash or inhaling the toxic vapors of detergent products that permeate all the aisles of modern grocery stores. There is no need to check a price, enter a UPC bar code or banter with grocery store clerks. Instead, I simply walk to the garden, harvest the food and eat it.

That this simple act is so astonishingly rare is, all by itself, a disturbing commentary about the state of the food supply in America today."

[Full article here and below.  I could not identify with it more... this morning's breakfast was a big handful (each) of homegrown raspberries (black and red), currants, and gooseberries.  Lunch was mixed salad greens salad (from the garden, 'natch).  Dinner will be roasted mixed vegetables from the garden, sauteed garlic with mixed chard (all homegrown), balsamic vinegar, minced dried hot peppers (from last year), some cheap white wine (for cooking), and local steamed corn (local is from the farm a mile up the road).  Well worth all the effort... (better daily workout than in a gym), but... I still haven't sourced an olive oil plant yet... maybe it's not real whole food?]

NADD - Nutritional Attention Deficit Disorder

Here's a post from a vegan blogger criticizing a SoyJoy Bar (http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/06/soy-joy-bars-butter-eggs-cheese-joy.html)  --- she's so proud of her posts that she prevents me from linking to them here) has having too much saturated fat (3.5 grams, 6 grams of total fat) for one serving.  Normally, I'd praise this insightful conclusion.  Here's an excerpt:

"Soy is Joy. I applaud SoyJoy's plight to bring high quality whole ground soy bean to the mass markets of people. But there is a lot of confusion and propaganda from their marketing. I will bet a lot of people eat these bars thinking, wow I'm being so healthy right now. But 3.5 grams of saturated fat from one tiny bar is not so healthy. "

However, a few weeks later, she's promoting Newman's Organic chocolate bars (http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/07/newmans-signature-series-chocolate.html) , and the vegan version that "tastes so good" weighs in at, yup, 16 grams of saturated fat (28 grams of fat total, almost FIVE times that of the SoyJoy Bar) a single serving:

"For the most health benefits, go with the 70% Super Dark Chocolate flavor. Super Dark ingredients: Organic Dark Chocolate (organic chocolate liquor*, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter*, soy lecithin [an emulsifier], organic vanilla). Bars are around 300 calories. When it comes to chocolate, this is some of the good stuff."

WFT? If you ask me, possible signs of "nutritional attention deficit disorder".  Contrast 28 grams of fat (and 330 calories) in a single serving chocolate bar with the 14 to 20 grams of fat per day TOTAL recommended by Drs. Esselstyn and Ornish (the only people to successfully reverse heart disease, and Dr. Neals Barnard (has reversed diabetes through low-fat vegan diet).  Here's 15 Reasons to Avoid Added Fat (and all referenced).

Guess a bigger more unhealthy high chocolate bar with really minimal nutritional value at all & a helluva lot of saturated fat (but it tastes good!!) from a company that's donated a lot of money to charities (but not enough to cover the health care costs of eating their products), is better than any tiny more nutritious one.

Personally, I find this kind of dietary casuistry upsetting, and further evidence that one should take anything this blogger writes about with a pillar of salt.  She appears to play a bit fast'n'free with the term "health."

ADDENDUM:  after posting the above, a friend pointed out that I cited a study awhile back about chocolate and its impact on cardiovascular health.  There have been other studies about chocolate and blood vessel inflammation, I haven't spent much time on that issue.  However, the dangers to the heart from saturated fat and the ability of a low-fat vegan diet to reverse (and in theory) prevent heart disease have involved a considerable amount more people (and age ranges) and twenty years of peer-reviewed research from two independent researchers. 

Furthermore, as I noted in the other post, the impact of added fat to the elasticity of your arteries has been measured many times, and I seriously doubt that the chocolate in the bar mentioned above would cancel out both the total fat and saturated fat issues.  I consider a chocolate bar, as the ingredients described above, still essentially devoid of useful nutrition.  A lot of sugar, cocoa, cocoa butter, and taste stuff.  Hardly a whole food, just a sweet food-like product that feeds an addiction to sweets.

"Edible Estates" & Growing Your Own

"......By the end of World War II, over 80 percent of American households were growing some of their own food. Within months after Victory Day this activity quickly subsided. With its demise went the widespread knowledge among most Americans of how to grow their own food... the introduction of the leisure weekend, the abundance of fresh water, the production of industrial pesticides, the availability of the lawn mower and cheap gas, and the rise of home ownership with the explosion of new suburban housing developments in the 1940s and '50s all set the stage for the unfurling of the great American lawn as we know it today. Its puritanical aspects seem suited to the Eisenhower years of good manners. Is there a connection between landscape and hairstyles?... [yikes!]

...In the United States we plant more grass than any other crop: currently lawns cover more than thirty million acres. Given the way we lavish precious resources on it and put it everywhere that humans go, aliens landing in any American city today would assume that grass must be the most precious earthly substance of all.  Yet the lawn devours resources while it pollutes. It is maniacally groomed with mowers and trimmers powered by the two-stroke motors that are responsible for much of our greenhouse gas emissions... To eradicate invading plants the lawn is drugged with pesticides and herbicides, which are then washed into our water supply with sprinklers and hoses, dumping our increasingly rare fresh drinking resource down the gutter. [more water and pesticides on our lawns than used by the entire US agricultural industry.]

Meanwhile, at the grocery store we confront our food. Engineered fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam are cultivated not for taste but for appearance, uniformity, and ease of transport, then sprayed with chemicals to inhibit the diseases and pests that thrive in an unbalanced ecosystem. The produce in the average American dinner is trucked 1,500 miles to reach our plates. We don't know where our fruits and vegetables came from or who grew them. Perhaps we have even forgotten that plants were responsible for the mass-produced meal we are consuming. This detachment from the source of our food breeds a careless attitude toward our role as custodians of the land that feeds us. Perhaps we would reconsider what we put down the drain, on the ground, and in the air if there was more direct evidence that we will ultimately ingest it...

The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. Food grown in our front yards will connect us to the seasons, the organic cycles of the earth, and our neighbors. The banal lifeless space of uniform grass in front of the house will be replaced with the chaotic abundance of biodiversity. In becoming gardeners we will reconsider our connection to the land, what we take from it, and what we put in it. Each yard will be a unique expression of its location and of the inhabitant and his or her desires..."

[The full, spot-on, literate, history-referencing and thought-provoking "excerpt" from the book is here and below. Here's a sub-3min. "TreeHugger Video on 'Edible Estates.'" For me, this all helped conceptually soothe the tight muscles from digging in the veggie garden yesterday. If you're vegan or vegetarian and not growing some of your own food, even on an apartment balcony, you're missing out on something important.  Go grow your own & Go Vegan.]

Which Giant Corporation Owns Your Fav Organic Food Brand?

I saw today at a local grocery store that the previously vegan "Hain's Chicken Gravy Mix" now contains milk.  What a colossal step backwards.  But then, the quality of the ingredients to say, of Boca and Morningstar products have notably declined in the past few years (no doubt from corporate acquisition by Tobacco-related Corporations) and I wondered how pervasive this trend for large corporations to gobble up organic interests might be.  Over at the superb Organic Consumers Association website, a post that contains links to much information about whom now owns what.  Some of the highlights:

- the "All About Organics" webpage with tons of great links

- fascinating PDF chart (smaller copy below, click for larger version) of The Organic Industry in 2007

- which of "the country's largest food producer's are behind your favorite organic snacks" chart

I used to think it was great to be able to buy a meat analog, or faux cheese, despite the generally high sodium and/or fat content.  I used to think it was wonderful to buy a box of organic packets of oatmeal (when I could easily have bought the oatmeal bulk at 1/5th the cost, added some spices, and saved the money).  In general, I've learned over the past two decades, that minimizing that which you consume that comes in cans, boxes, bottles, and plastic, is not only probably healthier in the long run, but cheaper. 

People enthralled by "non-sugar" sweetners and candies, entranced by refined non-whole grains, and emotionally enslaved by the crispness of "fried" foods may not realize you can be an unhealthy veg'n. These attachments WILL catch up with you physically.  Maybe not when you're in your twenties or thirties, but eventually.  I was astounded that one blogger thought he could "agree to disagree" with Esselstyn's and Ornish's research on low-fat vegan diets and heart disease (that's like disagreeing with evolution... "I don't care about the science, my belief-structure won't let me agree with them").  Neanderthal view.  "Sorry Copernicus, I just can't see it.  The sun obviously goes around the Earth.  Now go away... let me guzzle my olive oil dressing, masticate these pretzels, and suck on xylitol mints."

Too many vegans, imho, are "too" dazzled by "Follow Your Heart Cheese" without considering the consequences (wow, it melts!  who cares about the fat and high price?), and say, Boca Burgers (costs as much as 2 lbs. of tofu or 3 lbs. of uncooked legumes).  Too many vegans "buy" into the  satisfaction of spending so much money to buy processed foods that may help them transition to being vegan, but ultimately, might be problematic from a health standpoint.  I noticed on a veg blog today that someone actually wrote "a little processed food occasionally never hurt anyone" as though that broad generalization was (a) a profound statement and (b) a substantiated fact. It's neither.

Maybe it's my age... it took awhile to get through that fake cheese and meat stuff love affair... which left me feeling lethargic and listless... a transitional phase that's like methadone to the heroin addict... more and more, I find that making it from scratch, incorporating a wider variety of grains, legumes, and fresh vegetables in my diet, is not only cheaper, but healthier and, given time, much more satisfactory to the palette.  You can rid yourself of the addiction or desire for that fat and/or sodium, just as you might have from meat, eggs, and dairy.  But, as with any addiction, you have to want to.

Besides... with all the corporate acquisitions of processed organic products, who has the time to keep up with whom owns said company and the quality of what's in their wares?

Megacorporglomerates like ConAgra aren't going to spend effort and money dominating bulk basic product purchases... no profit margin... no yearly increase in sales.  The more processed it is, the greater their profit, and the lesser the nutritive quality.   Ergo, to save money and eat healthier, we should purchase as little processed food products as possible.  "I consumo ergo sum" (I eat therefore I am?)

Whatever... my best advice is:  if you're making the big jump to a plant-based diet, why not go all the way and make it truly healthy?  Costs less, tastes better, live longer.

Mad Cowboy Newsletter #60 Done!

Here's the intro to the latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter:

-----
Howdy!  Welcome to the 60th edition of the Mac Cowboy Newsletter.

After a brief hiatus, we're back with lotsa information, several videos, some new digital Howard, and some recipes from a great vegan cookbook as well as a unique vegan "e-cookbook."

In this issue you'll get the mandatory round-up of Mad Cow Disease and Avian Flu-related articles, information about new studies about cancer and consumption of flaxseed, meat, general diet recommendations, and soft drinks relationship to heart disease.  You'll be able to enjoy the interview with the self-proclaimed "Joyous Vegan," learn about 10 steps for Vegan Culinary Activism, a new book by Andrew Kimbrell (he's also in the "Mad Cowboy Documentary") and a comprehensive article about Capt. Paul Watson and "Neptune's Navy."

Further down, you'll be able to see "earthrise" from the moon, a trailer for "King Corn," view the must-see video by PCRM about the upcoming Farm Bill, marvel at a Vegetable Alien, ponder the future evolution of the Big Mac, learn who won a contest for the most artistic "Salt Lick," and know about new hardcore evidence that organic produce IS more nutritious, heart healthy, and has higher yields.

... and, as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers.  Y'all can read past issues of the newsletter at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

Best wishes to all for the holidaze season (and watch those calories!)

Mark, MC Editor/Webmaster

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: Some Digital Howard
02: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
03: Two New Vegan Cookbooks of Note & Recipes
04: Mad Cow Info Round-up
05: Bird Flu News
06: Cancer: Flaxseed, Meat, & Diet, Soft Drinks=Heart Disease
07: Joyous Vegan, 10 Steps, What's In Food, Neptune's Navy
08: Veg Video Theater
09: Veg Alien, Future Big Mac, 25lbs Fat, Salt Lick Contest
10: Organic:  Better, Heart Healthy, High Yields
11: Howard's Schedule
12: Quick Bytes
13: Closing Thoughts

Direct link to this edition of the newsletter is here!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/81

Lookee... Carrots!!

I worked on an organic farm part-time for a year during a sabbatical from NASA, and will never forget, while buying OSHA-certified steel-tipped boots (mandatory for the farm), talking to the sales gal and discovering she didn't know where "wheat flour" came from.  The look of confusion on her face has stayed with me these many years and I've often wondered how many people have no sense of connection to or awareness of the process of growing food.  The junk so many willfully consume is so artificial and processed as to be alien to me, and I can't fathom why they'd want to put it into their bodies.  Personally, I eat little that comes out of cans or boxes.

Flash forward:  my nieces came up to the property last weekend, and had a chance to see a full-blown vegetable garden (tomatoes, okra, winter/summer squash, beets, gourds, beans, horseradish, snowpeas, carrots, peppers, rainbow chard, kale, broccoli rabe, lettuces, corn, basils, parsley, dill, sage, rosemary, oregano, and more).

One of the little darlings screamed with delight when she saw, for the first time in the ground, carrots!  I forked out a bunch, handed them to her, and took a picture.  It's not great technically, but the look on Eden's face, and this life-changing experience for her, will live with me forever.  (click on the photo for larger version)

Organic food 'better' for heart

"Organic fruit and vegetables may be better for you than conventionally grown crops, US research suggests.  A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found almost double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant.  Flavonoids have been shown to reduce high blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease and stroke.  Writing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the team said nitrogen in the soil may be the key.  Dr Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist at the University of California, and colleagues measured the amount of two flavonoids - quercetin and kaempferol - in dried tomato samples that had been collected as part of a long-term study on agricultural methods.

These findings also confirm recent European research, which showed that organic tomatoes, peaches and processed apples all have higher nutritional quality than non-organic... They found that on average they were 79% and 97% higher respectively in the organic tomatoes than in the conventionally grown fruit... Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director said: "We welcome the now rapidly growing body of evidence which shows significant differences between the nutritional composition of organic and non-organic food.  "This is the second recent American study to find significant differences between organic and non-organic fruit.  These findings also confirm recent European research, which showed that organic tomatoes, peaches and processed apples all have higher nutritional quality than non-organic."

[Gee, think we'll ever see a similar study with meat?  Go vegan.  Go local organic vegan.  If nothing else, eat more organic fruits and veggies! The above edited from here and available below.]