SoulVeggie

"I Dropped Dead..." A Surprising Book Review on Amazon

I just read this review of my book while getting info from Amazon for a website wanting to sell it.  The first few words stunned me and I thought it was a gag or slam review.  It's legit, and I'm very gratified.  One of my key goals in writing "Heart Healthy Pizza" was to help people be/eat healthier.  How cool that it's been so useful to him! 

"I dropped dead on a tennis court (and was lucky enough to be playing against a team with a cardiologist who did world class cpr for 12 minutes until a rescue squad arrived to shock me back to life). It took me about 30 seconds post-op from my bypass to adopt Caldwell Esselstyn's vegan cardiac disease reversal program. Though I ate a "good" diet most of the time, I was addicted to cheese pizzas for my whole (almost foreshortened) life. This book is a treasure. The visuals of the pizza are appetizing and valid relative to the finished product. The taste of the recipes I have undertaken is great. The nutrition is miraculous for a so-called comfort food. Thank you, Mark Sutton, for your tour de force collection of no oil vegan gourmet pizza. Incidentally, I run 10 k's, complete duathlons, and play USTA team tennis at the age of 64 on the Esselstyn diet." --- R.S.

 

Mad Cowboy Newsletter, Official Pizza, & Free Cookbook Giveaway

The latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter was posted shortly before Memorial Day weekend.  You can read the entire issue at this address:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/96

Note:  I've posted the Official Mad Cowboy Pizza recipes (& photos) and there's a free giveway of my cookbook, "Heart Healthy Pizza" detailed in this edition of the newsletter.

Here's the Intro & Table of Contents:

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Howdy! Welcome to the 73rd issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter!

In this special issue, we have two contests! The periodic Vegan Mind-Bender Contest (for a year's subscription of VegNews), and today, a free giveaway of the very 1st vegan pizza cookbook: "Heart Healthy Pizza." There's also a link to where you can view the Official Mad Cowboy Pizza recipe, obtain more information about this book, and order an autographed copy of same.

Reading further, learn about some new and very large studies indicating that consumption of red meat not only increases mortality from degenerative diseases, but from strokes as well. There's information on a unique court case where the judge is assessing liability for potential damage to the Earth's atmosphere for future generations, the environmental impact of eating shrimp vs. beef, the brewing eco-storm, continued warnings about too much salt, and take action against the collective evils of Monsanto.

Moving onward, among other matters, you can contact the FDA about animal testing, see the difference between PR spending between the Meat Industry and Veg-related Organizations, know about the controversial "Vegan is Love" book, how to be vegan inexpensively, FARM's mobile activism, and how to be a hero by what you eat.

And don't miss our "Vegan Digital Media Theater" featuring video of Dr. Esselstyn, President Clinton, vegan ultra-marathoner Scott Jurek, and others of note.

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers: y'all can browse/search through past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives at:

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

Best regards, Mark   MC editor/webmaster

***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
02: Mad Cowboy Pizza Recipe & Heart Healthy Pizza Book Giveaway Contest
03: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
04: Red Meat=Mortality=Strokes, Hold the Salt
05: Judging the Atmosphere, Shrimp vs. Beef, Eco-Storm, Evil Monsanto
06: Vegan Digital Media Theater
07: Tell FDA No Testing, Meat vs Veg Ad$$, Mobile Activist Video
08: "Vegan is Love," Cheaply Vegan, Be a Hero by What You Eat
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts

Est Arrive! Heart Healthy Pizza Available to Order Online

I'm proud to announce that Heart Healthy Pizza, probably the first-ever vegan pizza cookbook, is now available for ordering online.  Over 100 no-added oil/fat plant-based recipes for making the most nutritious pizza in the world:

http://www.hearthealthypizza.com

At the website you see the full front/back covers (and endorsements), the Forward by Howard Lyman, the Table of Contents, the Introduction, and the Recipes Index.

All recipes inspired by Dr. Esselstyn's research on preventing and reversing heart disease. After close to six years of research and 3 years of writing, I'm so excited to get it out. I hope it helps a lot of people eat better and also enjoy their pizza guilt-free.

MC Newsletter: Msg. from Howard, Heart Healthy Pizza, Pink Slime

The Intro and TOC:

"Howdy!  Welcome to the 72nd issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

Today we've got a special end-of-the-year letter from Howard, and an announcement about the new "Heart Healthy Pizza" cookbook (with a Foreward by Howard).

In this edition of the newsletter, you'll learn about the prolific and knowledgeable Dr. Greger's new website, "NutritionFacts" with superb short videos on scores of topics.  There's also information in this issue about which food companies are spending the most on lobbying Congress, a new report on the state of America's Heart Health, and how a very large study indicates that vegetables and fruits significantly lower your risk of strokes.

Reading further, find out about the world's "toughest woman" (hint: she's vegan), see a video of former President Clinton discussing his vegan diet, find out what vegan Ellen Degeneres is up to, and  the stats in a recent survey by the Vegetarian Resource Group on the number of vegans in the United States.  Monsanto has some serious problems, cows contribute much more to Global Climate Change than previously thought, the movie "Farmageddon" is screened on Capitol Hill, crows have a "danger" tool, and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is being legally challenged.

As usual, there's an abundance of new items in the Mad Cow Info Round-Up ("Pink Slime?") and lots to see and hear in the Vegan Digital Media Theater.

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers:  y'all can browse/search through past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives at:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/
Wishing all readers a bountiful, exciting, and rewarding New Year!

Best regards, Mark    MC editor/webmaster
[Note: have posted draft Table of Contents and Recipe Index for "Heart Healthy Pizza" at:

http://www.hearthealthypizza.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• 00: A Special Holiday Message from Howard
• 01: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
• 02: Announcing the "Heart Healthy Pizza" Cookbook
• 03: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
• 04: NutritionFacts, Food Lobbying, US Heart Health, Lower Strokes
• 05: Toughest Woman, Vegan Clinton, Ellen's Site, No. of US Vegans
• 06: Vegan Digital Media Theater
• 07: Monsanto Bugged, New Cow Gas Stats, Food/2011, Farmageddon
• 08: Corp./Animal Rights, Swine Case, Crow Tools, AETA Challenged
• 09: Quick Bytes
• 10: Closing Thoughts

Direct Link to the New Issue:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/95

Video: Dr. Novick Contrasts Sugar, Oil, & Junk Food

Here's a neat short video of Dr. Novick contrasting Sugar, Oil, & Junk Food.  Interesting and thoughtful approach that I find most useful.  Sorry to have not blogged much recently, but I'm on the final laps of getting my own no-added oil plant-based cookbook out.  Working on 1st major edit, and when the 2nd major edit is done, I should be able to announce it (although it won't be available until late September or early October).  Dying to announce the title.  Best to all, Mark

Excerpted Quotes from Dr. Esselstyn on Taste Addiction, Added Oil, & Heart Disease

Been pulling together material to cull through for appendices in my "soon to be announced" cookbook.  The following are selected from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's landmark "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease."  Most notable are what he says about taste addiction, oil & free radicals, describing how even a little oil is damaging, and Dr. T. Colin Campbell's observation about oil in one's diet.

Enjoy!  Mark    Twitter: @solveggie

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Pg. 114:  "Collectively, the media; the meat, oil, and dairy industries; most prominent chefs and cookbook authors; and our own government are not presenting accurate advice about the healthiest way to eat."

Pg. 114:  "And it's not just a matter of bad information.  The truth is that we are addicted to fat --- literally.  Receptors in our brains account for our addicition to nicotine, heroin, and cocaine, and similar cravings have been identified for fat and sugars as well."

Pg. 114:  "The way to break the fat habit is to abstain entirely from eating it --- just as those who use heroin, cocaine, and nicotine must give them up once and for all.  We have all seen what happens with many people who go on reduced-fat diets in order to lose weight.  A diet that permits even a modest amount of animal, dairy, and oil fat still feeds the habit.  The craving remains.  And the moment diet is completed --- or, more often, fails --- the dieter too frequently returns to his or her old habits of eating and regains the lost weight."

Pg. 04:  "Here are the facts.  Coronary artery disease is the leading killer of men and women in Western civilization.  In the United States alone, more than half a million people die of it every single year.  Three times that number suffer known heart attacks.  And approximately three million more have "silent" heart attacks, experiencing minimal symptoms and having no idea, until well after the damage is done, that they are in mortal danger.  In the course of a lifetime, one out of every two American men and one out of every three American women will have some form of the disease.

Pg. 38:  "Every mouthful of oils and animal products, including dairy foods, initiates an assault on these [cell] membranes and, therefore, on the cells they protect.  These foods produce a cascade of free radicals in our bodies --- especially harmful chemical substances that induce metabolic injuries from which there is only a partial recovery.  Year after year, the effects accumulate.  And eventually, the cumulative cell injury is great enough to become obvious, to express itself as what physicians define as disease.  Plants and grains do not induce the deadly cascade of free radicals.  Even better, in fact, they carry an antidote.  Unlike oils and animal products, they contain antioxidants, which help to neutralize the free radicals and also, recent research suggests, may provide considerable protection against cancers."

Pg. 84:  "...[oils] are not heart healthy.  Between 14 and 17 percent of olive oil is saturated, artery-clogging fat --- every bit as aggressive in promoting heart disease as the saturated fat in roast beef.  And even though a Mediterranean-style diet that allows such oils may slow the rate of progression of coronary heart disease, when compared with diets even higher in saturated fat, it does not arrest the disease and reverse its effects."

Pg, 84 - 85:  "...Colin Campbell, author of the best-selling China Study, was asked his thought on the results of the Lyon Diet Heart Study [Med Diet], and to compare those results with those he found in studying health and nutrition in rural China, where coronary disease is practically nonexistent.  Colin didn't hesitate for a moment.  The Mediterranean and rural Chinese diets are practically the same, he replied.  "I would say the absence of oil in the rural Chinese diet is the reason for their superior success."

Pg. 04:  "The cost of this epidemic is enormous --- greater, by far, than that of any other disease.  The United States spends more than $250 billion a year on heart disease.  That's about the same amount the nation spent on the first two and half years of its military venture in Iraq, and fully twice as much as the federal government allocates for all research and development --- including R&D for defense and national security."

Pg. 04:  "But here is the truly shocking statistic:  nearly all that money is devoted to treating symptoms.  It pays for cardiac drugs, for clot-dissolving medications, and for costly mechanical techniques that bypass clogged arteries or widen them with balloons, tiny rotating knives, lasers, and stents.  All of these approaches carry significant risk of serious complications, including death.

Pg. 04 - 05:  I believe that coronary artery disease is preventable, and that even after it is underway, its progress can be stopped, its insidious effects reversed.  I believe, and my work over the past twenty years has demonstrated, that all this can be accomplished without expensive mechanical intervention and with minimal use of drugs.  The key lies in nutrition --- specifically, in abandoning the toxic American diet and maintaining cholesterol levels well below those historically recommended by health policy experts.

Pg. 05:  "The bottom line of the nutritional program I recommend is that it contains not a single item of any food known to cause or promote the development of vascular disease.  I often ask patients to compare their coronary artery disease to a house fire.  Your house is on fire because eating the wrong foods has given you heart disease.  You are spraying gasoline on the fire by continuing to eat the very same foods that caused the disease in the first place."

Pg. 05:  "I don't want my patients to pour a single thimbleful of gasoline [oil, meat, dairy] on the fire.  Stopping the gasoline puts out [and prevents] the fire.  Reforming the way you eat will end [and prevent] the heart disease."

Pg. 10:  "Cholesterol is a white, waxy substance that is not found in plants --- only in animals.  It is an essential component of the membrane that coats all our cells, and it is the basic ingredient of sex hormones.  Our bodies need cholesterol, and they manufacture it on their own.  We do not need to eat it.  But we do, when we consume meat, poultry, fish, and other animal-based foods, such as dairy products and eggs.  In doing so, we take on excess amounts of the substance.  What's more, eating fat [even as added oil] causes the body itself to manufacture excessive amounts of cholesterol, which explains why vegetetarians who eat oil, butter, cheese, milk, ice cream, glazed doughnuts, and French pastry develop coronary disease despite their avoidance of meat."

Pg. 11:  "The cornonary arteries are the blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the muscle of the heart.  They get their name from the Latin word for "crown" because they encircle the heart almost like a royal headpiece.  They are relatively small, but exceedingly important: without the nourishment they bring to the incredibly efficient pump they serve, the heart becomes injured, begins to fail, and may die."

Pg. 11:  "The innermost lining of all blood and lymph vessels and the heart is called the endothelium.  Far more thana simple membrane, the endothelium is actually the body's single largest endocrine organ.  If all the endothelial cells in your body were laid out flat, one cell thick, they would cover an area equal to two tennis courts."

Pg. 11:  "Healthy arteries are strong and elastic, their linings smooth and unobstructed, allowing a free flow of blood.  But when the levels of fats in the bloodstream become elevated, everything begins to change.  Gradually, the endothelium, the white blood cells, and the platelets, the blood cells that cause clotting, all become sticky.  Eventually, a white blood cell adheres to and eventually penetrates the endothelium, where it attempts to ingest the rising numbers of LDL cholesterol molecules that are being oxidized from the fatty diet.  The white blood cell sends out a call for help to other white blood cells.  More and more of them converge on the site, becoming engorged with bad cholesterol and eventually forming a bubble of fatty pus--- an atheroma, or "plaque," the chief characterisitic of atherosclerosis."

Pg. 11:  "Old plaques contain scar tissue and calcium.  As they enlarge, they severely narrow and sometimes block the arteries...  A significantly narrowed artery cannot give the heart muscle a normal blood supply, and the heart muscle, thus deprived, causes chest pain, or angina.  In some cases, the coronary arteries actually perform their own bypasses, growing extra branches --- called "collaterals" --- that go around the narrowed vessels."

Pg. 11 - 12:  "However, it is not the old, larger plaques that put you most at risk for heart attacks.  The most recent scientific evidence indicates that most heart attacks occur when younger and smaller fatty plaques rupture their outer lining, or cap, and bleed into the coronary artery."

Pg. 12:  "As the plaque is formed, a fibrous cap develops at its roof, which is covered by a single layer of endothelium about as thick as a cobweb.  For a while, thus protected, plaques lie quiety in place, doing less perceptible harm to the artery's owner.  But an insidious process is nonetheless under way.  The white blood cells that raced to the rescue, now engorged with oxidized LDL cholesterol, are called "foam cells," and begin to manufacture chemical substances that erode the cap of the plaque.  The cap weakens to thethickness of a cobweb.  And eventually, the shearing force of blood flowing over the weakened cap may cause it to rupture."

Pg. 12:  "This is catastrophic.  Plaque content or pus now oozes into the flowing bloodstream, and that constitutes a thrombogenic event: nature wants to heal the rupture, and so platelets are activated.  They try mightily to stop the invading garbage by clotting the rupture. Thus begins a lethal cascade.  The clot is self-propagating, and within minutes, theentire artery may become blocked."

Pg. 37:  "We  should be aiming much higher: at arresting coronary artery disease altogether, even reversing its course.  And the key to doing this, as my research demonstrates, is not simply reducing the amount of fat and cholesterol you ingest, but eliminating cholesterol and any fat beyond the natural, healthy amounts found in plants, from your diet.  The key is plant-based nutrition."

Rant: "Dietary Myths, Incompetenceish, & Self-Proclaimed Experts"

[In contemplative retrospect, I wasn't really happy with the tone of this post, and possibly some of the reasons for posting it.  I've decided to remove the post, move on.  I still believe and stand by the essence of what I wanted to communicate (that so-called experts often are not, and that we need to be vigilant), but think I should have found a better way of presenting my opinion.

Lotta stress the past several months, lotta deep discomfort over things going on involving caged farm animals, myself, and various people's actions/inactions/immaturities..  I now realize that the clues to understanding I'd ignored.  Transition continues.  I hope to announce the cookbook's concept/title in a few weeks.  Best to all, Mark]

Twitter:  @solveggie

"Heart Harmful Meatless Monday Recipes"

Although it's great to see "Meatless Monday" get a lot of attention, it is most distressing to me to see how fat-ladden and unhealthy so many of the recipes proclaimed "Heart Healthy" are.  Here's a bunch collected (I guess) using "Healthy Recipe Finder" and collected on Women's Health as "Meatless Monday: Valentine's Day the Vegetarian Way."  Let's take a look at the amount of fat per serving (as listed):

"French Toast with Vanilla Bourbon and Carmelized Bananas:"  17.9 grams of fat, 478 calories

"Baby Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese and Toasted Pistachios:"  52 grams of fat per serving, 572 calories, (16.5 grams of saturated fat per serving, more than the American Heart Association recommends for a woman PER DAY)

"Portobello Caps Stuffed with Chili Polenta and Cheese:" 9.1 grams of fat per serving

"Ravioli and Lemon Chive Sauce:" 15.7 grams of fat per serving, 8.7 grams of saturated fat (oh, and two-thirds a day's worth of sodium, according to the AHA)

"Expresso Granita:" 7 grams of fat

This "cozy" dinner for two amounts to a whopping 101.7 grams of fat per serving.  Putting this into a heart-healthy perspective, Ornish and Esselstyn (who reversed heart disease) recommend around 14 to 24 grams of fat per day.  The total for this meal, per serving, is FOUR times the high end.  Or, go conservative with the American Heart Association, recommending a range of 50 to 70 grams of fat per day, and you're around 1 1/2 times to double that amount.

Excessive sodium, extremely high fat, over a day's worth of saturated fat (hell, I didn't even bother to look at sugar per serving), and we've got an example of what's killing both women and men in this country.  Heart Disease, Obesity, Hypertension, Diabetes... all are invited by meals such as this one and it's truly sad.

Just because it's meatless, doesn't mean it's healthy.  IMHO, it's a lousy way to show your love for someone by promoting an onslaught on their entire cardiovascular system.  This isn't moderation, this is suicide.  These recipes do not belong on Women's Health any more than does a bottle of Jack Daniels advertisement in an AA pamplet, and I gotta admit, rarely have I been so surprised by doing the numbers.  But, the math doesn't lie (or exaggerate).

10 Additional Heath Benefits of Daiya Cheese

I'd been exploring Twitter & responding w/ some Tweets about the high fat content of Daiya Cheese, when the company tweeted back and said they wanted to talk to me about the health benefits of their products.  I responded, essentially, that the products were high fat, basically added oil, and nutritionally useless. What's to talk about?  Thought about this some more and decided to visit their website after a 2 yr hiatus (had blogged about them awhile back).

Keep in mind that the only two guys to reverse heart disease, Drs. Esselstyn and Ornish, with 20+ years of peer reviewed research to support their claims, recommend between 12 (or so) and 24 grams of fat per day (depending upon your caloric intake:  they prefer 10% of your calories from fat, NO added oil), I decided to be magnanimous and help provide Daiya with some additional health claims they can truthfully use.

First, what are the ingredients in Daiya Mozarella Cheese:

"Filtered water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, vegan natural flavours, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor)."

Second, here's the "health" claims on their website:

- cholesterol free

- trans fat free

- free of all animal products (vegan)

- free of common allergens including:  dairy (casein and lactose), soy, gluten, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts (excluding coconut)

- free of artificial ingredients

- free of hormones & antibiotics

A fine and thoughtful analysis by the Daiya team, even though a pile of rocks or leaves would easily be determined as "healthy" by the exacting criteria used above.  In the case of the leaves, maybe healthier.

It seems that the healthy benefits of Daiya Cheese are measured by what it DOES NOT CONTAIN instead of WHAT IT DOES CONTAIN, or as "compared to dairy cheese" (unless you take into account the fat, which isn't much of a difference).  One-fourth cup is 6 grams of just fat (and a slice of pizza would normally have around 1/3 cup, probably 8 grams of fat).  Have two slices of a Daiya dosed pizza and you've killed a day's worth of fat (according to Esselstyn/Ornish/Barnard/McDougall/Campbell).

Anyway, I decided to help them out.  Here's an additional 10 health claims they can add to their website for Daiya Cheese (as could many vegan cheese products) and be truly honest:

1) REDUCES HEART DISEASE POTENTIAL:  less plaque forming (which causes 90% of heart attacks) than from dairy or meat sources.  Of course, eliminating added oil totally would reduce that potential to near zero, but that's not the point.  It's LESS.

2) VERY SAFE TO EAT:  contains no glass shards which would irritate or cut-up your esophagus.

3) HUMANE:  not tested on mice, rabbits, cats, dogs, or platypus ducks.

4) EASIER DIGESTION;  contains no significant amounts of any nutrient (phytochemicals, antioxidants, micronutrients, any vitamins or minerals)... nutritionally useless means less demand on your digestive system.

5) "VEG" FRIENDLY:  suitable for pesco-vegetarians, bovo-vegetarians, swino-vegetarians, avian-vegetarians, and chitinous-vegetarians.  Flexi-vegetarian issues still being studied.

6) IMMUNITY BUILDING:  contains coconut oil, the #1 source of plant-based saturated fat, to help you build a tolerance to a substance the American Heart Association says should be limited in your diet.

7) ANALGESIC:  eliminates the emotional pain of re-calibrating your taste receptors to not crave fat and actively promotes your taste addiction to fat, thereby decreasing your stress.

8) FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS FREE:  contains no E.Coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Avian Flu, Mad Cow Disease, or Ergot Fungus (bummer).

9) CONTAINS NO REAL FOODS; which would be another demand on your digestive system.  The Pea Flour is borderline.  Glycerin (not a real food) and oils "slide through" your system, although, what is a vegan natural flavor?  However, the Xantham Gum is essentially slime, which is a real food, kinda sorta, although icky in concept. I also prefer my yeast "active."  Let the little buggers earn their keep.

10) WEIGHT-REDUCER:  does a fantastic job of making your wallet lighter & therefore less of a physical burden.

Of course, admittedly, shredded cardboard laced with coconut and olive oil would probably have a superior nutritional profile to that of Daiya Cheese, and many other vegan cheeses.  Cheaper, higher in fiber, but probably doesn't melt as well.

Article: "6,000 New Salad Bars"

This is wonderful. Even though there's bound to be some meat, dairy, & fatty foods involved, it is, imho, a huge step forward. The following article (severely edited below) was a tip-off from PCRM.  Thanks, y'all!

"USDA removes major barrier to Michelle Obama’s salad-bar initiative:  First Lady Michelle Obama announced last week that a new public-private partnership, Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools, would make it possible for as many as 6,000 salad bars to be installed in U.S. school cafeterias at an estimated cost of $15 million. Contrary to what hundreds of irate commenters directed to Grist from a link by the Drudge Report feared, the salad bars will not be mandatory lunchtime eating for the nation's youngsters, not taxpayer-funded. If parents like Sarah Palin want their kids to eat cookies for lunch, no one is going to stop them..." [SOURCE]