SoulVeggie

Latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter Available

Here's the intro, table of contents, and a direct link to the 64th issue:

Howdy!  Welcome to the 64th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

Direct Link:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/85

We've a special treat in this edition:  a personal letter from the Big Guy himself:  Enjoy!

Reading further, there's the usual Mad Cow Info Round-Up, new studies tying the consumption of eggs to diabetes and meat to pancreatic cancer, a new analysis of the prevalence of corn in our food, and a fine essay by Dr. McDougall about answering the question:  "Why do you avoid adding additional oil/fat in your diet?

There's also a disturbing breakdown of what's really in Downey Fabric Softner (hint: it ain't vegan), the debate over elephant's health in zoos, and an range of interesting facts about animals.  Moving forward, you'll have access to links to some very interesting (and funny) video and audio, as well as read about a body spray with a rather unique odor.

We also have a very cool article about issues of "soil not oil," cutting greenhouse gases through less meat consumption globally, how Coca-Cola is stoking the 'water wars' with propaganda, and some thoughts about the new USDA Secretary Nomineee, Vilsack.  Plus:  don't miss the Vegan Recipe from a new fat-free vegan cookbook (Pudgy-Free Holidays) that's available as a PDF via the Internet.

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/

...and best wishes for a Happy Vegan Holidaze, keeping warm with family and friends, and a Great New Year!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
02: Vegan Recipe from Online Cookbook:  "Pudgy-Free Holidays"
03: Mad Cow Info Round-up
04: Eggs/Diabetes, Meat/Cancer, Corn in Fast Food, Avoid Fats?
05: Fabric Softener Fat, Elephant Debate, AR Spies, Animal Facts
06: Vegan Digital Theater Showcase
07: Soil Not Oil, Cut Meat/Emissions, Cola Scam, USDA Nominee Vilsack
08: Howard's Schedule
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts

When Asked: Why Do You Avoid Adding Vegetable Oils?

[Dr. McDougall's article is a bit long (both in length and scientific terms), but there are some "nuggets" therein.  Here's a couple of 'em.  Also, I've provided the full text below, but it's easier to read at the website URL provided.  The article is also profusely footnoted with studies/references, and for those who are skeptical, worth investigating further.]

"Begin by telling them, “The fat you eat is the fat you wear,” and remind them that there is nothing attractive about wearing olive, flaxseed, or corn fat.*  For this reason alone, most of your friends and family should steer clear of so-called “healthy oils” derived from plant-foods.  Gaining weight can be expected from consuming high-fat whole foods, such as nuts, seeds, avocados and olives, as well as “free oils,” which are usually purchased in bottles. However, the shared propensity for weight gain is where the similarity between unprocessed plant foods and free oils ends..."

"... Chemically speaking, free oils are chains of carbon found in a purified state.  Extraction processes have removed all of the other ingredients of the whole food.  Thus, free oils are no longer intermixed with the naturally-designed and balanced environment of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and ten thousand other chemicals found originally in the plants.  Free-oils are not food..."

"... Do Vegetable Oils Really Prevent Heart Disease?

Common knowledge is vegetable oils are protective against heart disease, but there is evidence that questions the real life benefits:

- Serial angiograms of people’s heart arteries show that all three types of fat—saturated (animal) fat, monounsaturated (olive oil), and polyunsaturated (omega-3 and -6 oils)—were associated with significant increases in new atherosclerotic lesions over one year of study.9  Only by decreasing the entire fat intake, including poly- and monounsaturated-oils, did the lesions stop growing.

- Dietary polyunsaturated oils, both the omega-3 and omega-6 types, are incorporated into human atherosclerotic plaques; thereby promoting damage to the arteries and the progression of atherosclerosis.10

- A study in African green monkeys found when saturated fat was replaced with monounsaturated fat (olive oil), the olive oil provided no protection from atherosclerosis.11

- One of the most important clotting factors predicting the risk of a heart attack is an elevated factor VII.  All five fats tested—rapeseed oil (canola), olive oil, sunflower oil, palm oil, and butter—showed similar increases in triglycerides and clotting factor VII.12...."

"... Practical Ways to Eliminate Oils in Cooking

- Don’t add vegetable oils when cooking
- Use non-stick pots and pans
- Brown or soften vegetables in water
- Sauté with non-fat liquids
- Replace oil in baking with fruit or tofu
- Use commercial fat-replacers
- Lighten texture with carbonated water
- Detailed information on cooking without oil..."

[Full Article here and below.  ADMIN NOTE:  I'll be posting some comments sent that I want to reply to without rushing from my last blog post ("I Scream, etc.") in a couple of days when up for air.  Thanks for your patience!]

Apple Crumb I Scream "Killer"

As much as I enjoy seeing all the fine vegan recipe-based blogs, it's equally frustrating to see so clearly how we are killing ourselves with our diets.  Most vegans think that because we don't eat meat, dairy, or eggs, that we are protecting ourselves from heart disease and other dietary-related death dealers.

Not so.  Although it's somewhat obvious that a vegan diet composed of significant amounts of processed food, salt, and fried stuff, is not healthy, it's really more subtle than that.

I've written many times in this blog about the research of Drs. Ornish and Esselstyn, who have proven that a no-added fat vegan diet can effectively prevent and/or reverse heart disease. Essy in particular, has clearly identified the mechanism that causes the strokes or blood vessel blockage:  added fat facilitates the product of plaque in your circulatory system, which in turn, can break off and do the damage.  High cholesterol is but a symptom; not a cause.

I've taken a lot of flack from some people when I occasionally blog about the high-added fat content in posted recipes, as though it's impolite to note that what they are doing increases their chances of getting heart disease.  This is not a myth, it's a fact.  So, imagine my surprise when a blog posts a vegan "Apple Crumb Ice Cream" recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of Earth Balance (or vegan margarine).  That's adding, unnecessarily, a little under 900 calories of PURE FAT --- near 90 grams worth, to ONE recipe.  Also sad is that this is just for the TOPPING.  Putting this into perspective:  the total amount of calories and fat grams that the Feds recommend (admittedly, most experts believe the're way too high) are:  2000 calories and 65 grams of fat.  The Apple Crumb Ice Cream Killer provides almost HALF the total calories recommended daily and a third MORE the total fat recommended by the government.  Even one serving is abusive.

Let's assume the recipe makes 4 cups of ice cream (judging from the amount of added non-dairy creamer and non-dairy milk).  4 cups of Breyer's French Vanilla Ice Cream is 1000 calories and 64 grams of fat.  The vegan "Apple Crumb Ice Cream" recipe has about the same number (maybe more depending upon the creamer and milk) of calories as the DAIRY ice cream and over 25% MORE fat.  Is this healthy?

Now, Ornish recommends around 15 to 25 fat grams per day.  This recipe, just the topping, has six to almost 4 times that range.  Let's see:  a very low fat vegan diet can prevent and/or reverse heart disease, reverse Type II Diabetes, and reduce premature aging.  Is that topping really a good idea with the 900 added pure fat calories?

I doubt it...  a creative recipe, but a hidden killer nontheless.

-----
Related LInks:

• Ornish Recommendations
• Esselstyn Interview
• Esselstyn MadCowboy Interview
• Esselstyn Video
• Esselstyn's Website
• Fat Free Vegan Recipes

Mad Cowboy Newsletter 63 Posted

Here's the title, table of contents, and direct link to the latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter:

[11_28_08]: Vegan: The Ultra, How Many, Express, & 10 Reasons

Howdy!  Welcome to the 63rd issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

In this issue you'll be treated to some recipes from the new cookbook by the esteemed Nava Atlas, "Vegan Express."  There's also mention of a great blog post on "missing oil" that does a fine job of summarizing issues/research on a no-added fat plant-base diet, a study about Western Diet and Heart Disease, how eating less may help prevent Altzheimer's disease, and why eating is a political act.

Reading further, you can find out how to calculate your "water footprint," learn about Cuba's agricultural Mmiracle, 10 reasons to eat local food, 10 reasons to go veg, how many veg'ns there are in the US (a new survey), how diet affects aging, and a fascinating interview with the ultra-marathoner legend who just happens to be vegan.

...and don't miss the interviews of Drs. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish in "Vegan Digital Theater Showcase," as well as the touching audio interview of the human companion to the amazing parrot:  Alex.

... 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/

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful Vegan Thanksgiving!  Stay warm...

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

Direct Link to this issue:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/84

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
02: Recipes from a New Cookbook:  "Vegan Express," by Nava Atlas
03: Mad Cow Info Round-up
04: Missing Oil/Esselstyn/Western Diet & HD/Prevent Alz.>Eat Less
05: Your H2O Footprint/Cuba Ag./Eat Politics/10 Reasons Local Food
06: Vegan Digital Theater Showcase
07: 10 Veg Reasons/? Many Veg'ns/Aging & Diet/The Ultra Veg
08: Howard's Schedule
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts"

Heart Attack Grill Diet Center

The Video
The Home Page
FAQ

Investment Opportunities

"...The Heart Attack Grill is a hospital themed restaurant in Chandler Arizona, which has become internationally famous for embracing and promoting an unhealthy diet of incredibly large hamburgers. Customers are referred to as "patients," orders as "prescriptions," and the waitresses as "nurses.  The menu includes the Single Bypass Burger, Double Bypass Burger, Triple Bypass Burger, and the Quadruple Bypass Burger, ranging from half a pound to two pounds of beef. Also on the menu are "Flatliner Fries" (cooked in pure lard), no filter cigarettes, hard liquor, beer, and full sugar coke..."

"Food Synergy: 5 Dynamic Duos for Healing"

"If you knew that cherries and alfalfa sprouts together could lower your cholesterol, would you try to make up a dish that worked with them both? ...Here are a number of diseases that can be helped by combining dynamic duos, from Food Synergy: Unleash Hundreds of Powerful Healing Food Combinations to Fight Disease and Live Well.

Broccoli with tomatoes fights prostate cancer...

Alfalfa sprouts with Cherries Lowers Cholesterol...

Flaxseed with soybeans fights breast cancer... the combination of soy and flaxseed may be more beneficial than soy alone in controlling breast cancer growth. In this case, the two are better than one!

Tofu with tea tames tumors... Is there some anticancer synergy going on between those two Asian staples? Fascinating research with green tea and black suggesting there is a link.

Garlic with onions improves heart health...Organosulfur compounds are the primary active phytochemicals in garlic and onions, and several of them may protect the heart by helping to keep arteries flexible and clear of plaque damage...

Adapted from Food Synergy, by Elaine Magee, MPH, RD (Rodale, 2007)."

[Original full blog post by Ms. Bond here and below.]

Esselstyn: New Audio Interview

Here's a superb audio interview/discussion (around 50 minutes) with Dr. Esselstyn.  I love the way it covers "moderation," the olive oil issue, Omegas, genetics, the cause of 90% of heart attacks (plaque), how they can occur unexpectedly, dairy, phytonutrients, and more.  Some of the callers report their results from following Essy's recommendations.  Remember, hundreds of thousands of people, men and women, suffer (and die from) from heart disease every year in America alone.  It's great to hear Essy deal with this all verbally.  Remember, he and Ornish are the only people to successfully REVERSE heart disease.  Enjoy.

Esselstyn Interview Link

"...genes load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger..."

...listening to him is most inspiring, useful, and encouraging.  Being just a vegan or vegetarian will NOT protect you from heart disease.  Go vegan... go no added fat vegan and live longer, healthier. 

Heart Attack Rata-tat-tat...

The Urban Vegan has been a fun blog to read.  Upbeat, diverse, friendly... even so, the latest post promulgates a major urban myth that is literally killing us by the hundred's of thousands every year, be thee carnivore, vegetarian, or vegan.  From Guerrilla Ratatouille suggestions:

"Use best quality olive oil and lots of it. I use at about 3/4 cup. [Please don't be so afraid of healthy fats. When something tastes good and rich, you are likely to eat less of it anyway.]"

Astonishing.  In the first place, 3/4 cup of olive oil is 1431 calories of pure 162 grams of fat.  100 percent fat.  To put this in perspective:  the federal government recommends around 65 grams of fat PER DAY on a 2,000 calorie diet.  That olive oil suggestion is, by itself, around two and half times the total day's worth of fat the government recommends.  That one entree has 3/4 the TOTAL recommended calories per day with just that one ingredient.

Be afraid... be vewy afwaid...

Then there's the idea that "when something tastes good and rich, you are likely to eat less of it anyway."  Yeah, that's the solution to the obesity problem... we need more fatty food!  It's awful to read this assurance made so gleefully, and yet oblivious to the scientifically documented nutritional and health consequences.  But to the blog's defense, a lot of cooks make similiar culinary suggestions, from the barbaric Emeril to many of our favorite vegan chefs.  People just don't get it.  Fat kills.  That's not a theory, not a myth, no joke:  it's scientific fact.

I've written many times about how Drs. Ornish and Esselstyn have successfully reversed heart disease through a very low fat vegan diet.  Dr. Barnard has done the same for diabetes.  Esselstyn makes a compelling scientific and peer reviewed argument (20+ years of research) that you can heart attack proof yourself by depriving your body of the means to develop the plaque that leads to a stroke.  What do the guys who've done what Modern Medicine can't do, reverse heart disease, recommend?

Around 25 grams of fat a day... Urban Vegan's olive oil addition is over SIX times the recommended fat for an ENTIRE DAY... and that's just one entree for one meal.  THIS is what's killing us people.  These delusions that cups of olive oil are healthy, that if it tastes good and rich, you won't eat as much.  Research has shown that even ONE fatty meal affects the integrity of your endothelium.  Going veg'n isn't immunity.  A no added fat diet is.

Educate yourself!  Don't buy into these urban myths.  People following Esselstyn's recommendations lose their taste for fat in around 14 weeks or so.  You literally start protecting yourself from a heart attack in several days, following a NO added fat vegan diet.  I've been on it for over a year and a half... not desire for added fat.

"Guerrilla Ratatouille?"  From Wikipedia:  "Guerrilla warfare is the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes, raids, etc.) to combat a larger and less mobile formal army."  I've made Ratatouille many times without oil and people liked it. Change your tactics and win the real war. Go low-fat vegan and live longer, healthier, and save your heart.

Some useful links to learn technics and strategy:

Ornish reccomendations
Esselstyn's website
My interview with Dr. Esselstyn
Fatfree Vegan Blog
Esselstyn Video on Plaque and what causes Heart Attacks

UPDATE:  08/30/08: a reader commented on the issue of Omega 3 and in double-checking my understanding of what Essy recommends, found this great link on olive oil, Ornstein, Esselstyn, Omega, etc:  Medical Librarian's Blog Post.  Check it out.  Vogel discovered that olive oil constricts blood vessels when consumed 31%!  Canola oil: 10%.  Like it or not, them's the fats, er, facts...

UPDATE: 09/03/08:  Kudos to the Chocolate Covered Vegan for posting an excellent NO-FAT Ratatouille recipe.  See!  It can be done...

80 Ways to Increase Heart Attack Risk

A popular vegan blogger recently posted "101 Vegan Picnic Recipes."  The list is clever, but it's also disappointing in that so many of the recipes contain added oil. Around 80 or so (from a quick skim, and not always counting Vegan Mayo depending upon how it was made).  The author does some amazing work on her blog, but I'm surprised at how often added fat is an element in posted recipes.  Most of them can easily be made fat-free without loss of taste integrity.

It's so important to realize that independent peer-reviewed research by Dr. Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn has  shown that a "no added fat" vegan diet can reverse and effectively prevent heart disease.  You can exercise all you want, keep the cholesterol low, but it's the added fat that enables plaque to form and cause that fatal heart attack.  It's not stress or genetics.

Going vegetarian or vegan isn't sufficient to ensure long-term health.  Sure, ya gets a small reduction in heart attack risk, but it's not enough.  Plaque most likely will still form over time, threatening your life with the biggest (and most silent) killer in this country.  To stop plaque formation: no added fat.  To quote McDougall:  "Moderation kills."  Every time you eat an "added fat" recipe, you are literally increasing your risks for heart disease and a heart attack.  Like it or not, it's been scientifically validated that even one fatty meal affects your endothelium.

Yeah, a fun list/post for vegan picnics, and not as disagreeable as a popular vegan lunch blog praising "Pringles" a few days ago, but, imho, it's indicative as to where the vegan community needs to get its collective act together.  It is encouraging, though, that apparently at this year's "Vegetarian SummerFest," according to a friend who attended, there was a special 'food line' labeled "fat-free."  Kudos!  Let's hope more Veg conferences and related activities do the same.  It's not tough: if you can lose your taste for meat, you can lose your taste for fat.

Vegan Diet & Yoga Fight Cancer

"A vegan low fat diet combined with yoga and exercise can help fight prostate cancer, new findings show.  Researchers found that combining a diet low in fat and rich in fruit and vegetables with regular moderate exercise seems to switch on genes that fight disease, while effectively turning off others that can promote cancer. The evidence that genes are not your fate, undermining what the authors call "genetic nihilism," comes from a study of men with early stage prostate cancer but could be of relevance to a wide range of cancers, such as breast cancer.

...Inspired by studies that show prostate cancer is rarer in parts of the world where people eat a predominantly low-fat plant-based diet, [Ornish] devised a vegan diet for patients, along with exercise, and a resulting "striking" effect on the way genes are used in the body is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Prof Ornish, working with Dr Christopher Haqq and Prof Peter Carroll.

...A vegan diet consisting primarily of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes supplemented with soy, vitamins and minerals. [A] low fat regime... [is] only 10 per cent of calories from fat, and low refined flour and sugar..."

[Let's see:  a no-added fat vegan diet can (a) help stop/prevent prostate cancer, (b) reverse/prevent heart disease, and (c) reverse/prevent diabetes.  Pretty much a no brainer, eh?  Go low-fat vegan and reduce your risks, drastically, for many cancers, diabetes, and heart disease... the biggest killers of men and women in the United States.  Add that all to the immense mis-use of petroleum, destruction of our air, water, and soil, and contribution to global warming, and one can wonder why factory farming of animals and the promotion of high-fat foods isn't considered genocide on a planetary scale. Full article about Ornish's research here and below.]