Ok, I was bored tonight so I went on the PETA website. If truth be told I was actually going on there to see if it was time to vote for the sexiest vegetarian of the year. Alas, it doesn’t seem to be. This is the only time I even do anything remotely close to this. I just like seeing the long, long list of names for veg*n actors, athletes, singers and all the other famous people.

But while I was there I started checking out the newest animal rights issues.

PETA is taking on the Canadian Fur Council right now. I wrote to the CFC a while back because I was appalled by their full page ad in the National Post about how fur is the eco-friendly choice for winter wear. What?!?

They wrote back to me (enough to fill a book by the way) about how it is eco-friendly. Cause you know, synthetic, cruelty-free fabrics are made from petroleum products. Well, maybe they are overlooking a major fact. To condition fur or leather so that it doesn’t rot (as all animal remains naturally do) they have to be conditioned with very potent, very toxic chemicals. These tanneries aren’t even allowed to exist within communities because they pollute water supplies and the environment around them. After I found out what they use to tan leather I really felt sick about the leather couch we bought before we became vegetarians. Ever since we became veg I felt guilty about owning a big leather couch (I thought about getting rid of it but I couldn’t see how that would atone for those cows anyways) and then when I found out the toxins on the leather I felt contaminated!

So the eco-friendly (socially responsible) choice for fashionable wear is dead animal skin? Just so we are clear, there has been a group of Canadians that have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau on the grounds that it’s wrong for the CFC to use the eco-friendly claim to bolster sales when that claim is far from true. That is what the campaign is really addressing.

I am so glad that PETA is taking these jerks on! You can see some of what they’re up to here: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/04/is_the_canadian.php

You can send a letter of protest here (just fill your name in): http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/fur_council_canada

PETA has also been working hard on the animal testing front. I have a blog entry from a while back where I address animal testing. You can check that out if you are unsure about the controversy of animal testing, mainly about how it is often unnecessary because it doesn’t affect outcomes or drugs, products etc. Another reinforcement of that idea would be the countless rodents who died in lab tests to prove that aspartame is indeed not safe and yet it’s in everything! Same thing with cosmetics. Anyways…just read it if you want to get the scoop.

I have one rant for today: Margarine!

Margarine has always felt wrong to me but I didn’t know why until, about two years ago, I was reading Dr. Ogi Ressel’s book entitled Kids-First: Health with No Interference.Dr. Ressel is a father of three, a chiropractor, a researcher, a lecturer and a pediatric and x-ray expert, living in Ontario. He has also been a staff writer in Alive magazine (which I highly recommend) and Canada’s Healthy Living Guide magazine.

I have never been able to find a copy of this book on Amazon but here is the link from the publisher: http://www.longlifecatalogs.com/SHOP/STORE/viewItem.asp?idProduct=211

It’s a great book and it has great information about behavioural drugs and asthma and anything pertaining to children’s health. The part I want to talk about today is what he says about margarine.

Margarine seems OK in theory but it is its processing that makes it unhealthy. Vegetable oils are heated to very high temperatures which causes the oils to become rancid. Dr. Ressel then says that a Nickle catalyst is added with hydrogen atoms to solidify this rancid oil garbage. Then deodorants and colourants are added to take the smell away and make the grey solid turn into that lovely, appetizing cream colour.

The solidification process causes harmful trans-fat acids to be formed. These are carcinogenic, mutagenic and difficult for the body to digest.

Dr. Ressel states that once finished, margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. We’re supposed to store food in Tupperware containers not spread it on our toast! He also issues a challenge. He says that if you don’t believe him you can leave a container of margarine out in your garage and even after months it won’t have changed. Flies won’t eat it and bacteria won’t grow on it. Does this sound like something you want to be ingesting?

I was looking on the Alive website today and they had an interesting statement. Trans fatty acid content does not have to be disclosed on labels in the US or Canada. Hydrogenated oils and trans fatty acids are included as polyunsaturated fats (the source material) so that manufacturers can maintain saturated fat-free claims for their products. So the whole idea of margarine being better for you is total garbage. You can read the article here: http://www.alive.com/3631a4a2.php

The article also states that margarine will increase your levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and lower your levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL).

Butter on the other hand is a much more suitable spread/cooking medium as it is stable at high temperatures. Alive magazine as well as many other resources state that butter and coconut oil are the most stable frying oils. Olive oil ranks really well as well but canola oil and most other inexpensive oils will begin to develop carginogens due to the heat way before they fry much of anything. So in low temperatures they are OK (as in vinaigrettes) but I don’t bother stocking them at all. The processing makes a difference in the quality and health factor of the oil and since they don’t usually specify the methods of extraction on these oils, I don’t buy them. When cooking you’ll want to use a virgin or extra-virgin olive oil that has been cold pressed (or unrefined) or you can use butter.

Butter also has stores of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and cholesterol. Although a diet high in cholesterol is bad for you, a little butter won’t be harmful in a properly balanced diet. In fact, children need fats in their diets and as a vegetarian family, fats are never a concern.

I do try to use butter as little as possible and substitute all I can for oils. This is only because dairy farms are big contributors to animal suffering. After all, your veal comes from the males calves of dairy cows. Dairy farms have no use for male calves and since they can’t be milked they are either chopped up into dog food in their infancy or raised in tiny crates for veal.

One more thing to add about aspartame from Dr. Ressel’s book, he writes: Methanol, from aspartame, is released in the small intestine when the methyl groups of aspartame encounters the enzyme clymotrypsin.

Free methanol begins to form in liquid aspartame-containing products (ie. pop, juices etc.) at temperatures above 86 degrees F also within the human body which is at 98.6 degrees F.

The methanol is then converted to formaldehyde. The formaldehyde converts to formic acid, an ant sting poison. He goes on to say that toxic formic acid is used to strip epoxy and eurothane coatings and that it can’t be good to be ingesting it. That only accounts for 10% of aspartame’s toxicity! There are other parts of aspartame mentioned in his book that are even worse than what is mentioned in the excerpt above.

On to some positive stuff. One of these days I will talk about all the good things hidden in our fruits and veggies but that is much too much work for today.

I will talk about seaweed though. Seaweed is a power house of many amazing minerals. It is chlorophyll-rich and one of the best sources of electrolytes! Brendan Brazier states in his bookThe Thrive Diet that they have 10 times the calcium of cow’s milk and several times more iron than red meat.

My favorite way to eat seaweed in is sushi! I love avocado sushi but you can add anything from veganaise, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, sprouts, lettuce, peppers, anything you can think of. I have even tried tofu slices wrapped in arrowroot powder and fried in olive oil (see your health food grocer for arrowroot powder). They make a decent substitue for fried shrimp.

I found a website with good instructions for rolling sushi. See it here: http://sushiday.com/archives/2006/10/26/how-to-roll-maki-sushi/ 

The only thing I want to add to these instructions is that I always use water to seal the flap that end the sushi roll. It helps to keep your sushi roll from falling apart. Then make sure to use a really low sodium soy sauce (the regular stuff tastes too salty and detracts from the sushi) and some wasabi (you’ll find it on the shelf beside the nori sheets but it must be refrigerated after opening). Yumm…wasabi! I know what I am making for lunch!

I am including two rice recipes.

Traditional white sushi rice:

This is much easier than it looks. You basically just do a 1:2 ratio of sushi rice and water. I use one and a half to two cups of rice and that makes about six rolls. You are supposed to rinse the rice until all the water runs clear. I often forget this step. Oops. The sushi rice is important because other types of rice will stay dry and won’t stick together very well. Aged rice is even better.

Cook until the rice is tender, sticky and the water is all gone. While the rice is cooking you want to combine 5tbsp of rice vinegar, 3 tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of salt. You heat that until the sugar is all dissolved and then let cool.

Once the rice is cooked you transfer it to a large wooden bowl or a large ceramic bowl will do and use a spatula constantly dipped in the rice vinegar mix to separate the grains of rice. Let cool until at room temperature. I have often let sit in the fridge a bit when I am in a hurry. The recipe is derived from the book SUSHI made easy and my own experiences making sushi.

Then follow the instructions for rolling your sushi in the link above!

Brown rice:

The instructions are pretty much the same as the recipe for white rice but the recipe urges you not to refrigerate. I imagine this would make the rice quite dry.

This recipe is derived from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch and I haven’t tried it yet.

You can also add other forms of seaweed (such as arame) into miso soups and rice dishes.

Here’s to slimmer waist lines, good food and great health!

I haven’t posted recipes in a month or so. Here are some of my faves.

Breakfast:

I have altered my smoothie recipe these days. It’s nice to shake things up. I use a banana, a bit of water, some psyllium husks, hemp protein, Udo’s Oil (Omega 3*6*9 oil) and then I add peaches and strawberries or pineapple and an orange depending on the mood. I love the berry shake but I hate picking raspberry seeds out of my teeth for the next hour.

I have also been enjoying the PC Organic cereals these days. I like the raisin bran one. And another great breakfast is peach and brown sugar oatmeal. Yummm.

Snack:

Nuts, cheese etc.

Lunch:

Bean soup. -Navy beans or lentils or whatever with mixed veggies in a tomato base. I like to add a side salad to that. My pregnancy has changed my appetite a lot and that I am just not craving beans at all. That is making me more and more dependant on cheese which I am not really craving either. This protein thing is becoming a real hassle.

Supper:

To be honest these days all I want for supper is poutine. I can’t have that everyday of course so I have been making veggie pizzas, mushroom raviolis (I buy these) and butternut squash lasagnas. I love pasta.

I will throw in a recipe though. Homemade veggie burgers and homemade buns.

The buns are made in the bread machine. I let them rise there then I take the dough out, reshape in a pan and let rise another 30-60 mins. Then I bake in the oven at 325* for about 40 mins.

The ingredients go in the machine in this order: 1 1/2 cups of water, 2 tbsp of oil, 2 tsp of salt, 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour, 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of whole grains (I buy these bulk at Planet Organic), 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 2 tsp of fast rise yeast.

The ingredients for the patties are: 1 cup of mushrooms (chopped), 1/4 cup peanuts, 1 carrot chopped, 1/2 onion chopped, 1/2 zucchini chopped.

I cook that in a pan with some oil to get a soft flavour then you throw it all in a food processor, add 2 cups of bread crumbs, 1 tbsp of parsley and a tsp of yeast extract (I used nutritional yeast) and 1 tbsp flour. I added half a can of kidney beans for protein to the processor. Shape into patties and then cook in a pan until browned. You can BBQ too. I love these! They are much more flavourful than black bean burgers. They stay real soft too.

Then top with whatever you like!

I wanted to talk more about artificial sweeteners. I mentioned it briefly in the last post but because it’s an issue that I find particularly enraging I thought I would expand on it.

People will use artificial sweeteners for two main reasons. One: to maintain good blood sugar levels if you are diabetic etc. Two: to consume less calories. Study after study has shown that artificial sweeteners actually make you pack on the pounds despite being low calorie. These phony sugars do not give the body the energy needed to sustain itself and so the body begins to crave more food and you over eat.

Not only will artificial sweeteners not help you lose weight, there are also many unsavory side effects. The history of artificial sweeteners is one tainted with lies, cover-ups and political manipulation.

Aspartame marketed at Nutrasweet and Equal was the sweetener of choice until Splenda came along. Aspartame is still commonly used in products such as soft drink, gums, desserts, wine coolers and prescriptions.

In 1981 an FDA statistician said that the data for brain tumors was too “worrisome” to approve aspartame for use in food. Research funded by the manufacturer, G.D. Searle, proved that aspartame can in fact cause cancer. Doctors testified to this fact and stated that it is illegal (via the Delanay Amendment) for the FDA to approve carcinogenic materials for human consumption. It was later discovered that the manufacturers of aspartame falsified records by surgically removing tumors from test rats and then putting the rats back into the study. They also marked as living, some of the rats that had died due to exposure to aspartame.

The FDA commissioner who approved its use (after over-ruling the recommendations of his own scientific board of inquiry) later took a ranking position with Burson-Marstellar (the firm in charge of public relations for G.D. Searle).

Diabetic associations have records of receiving grants up to $75,000 from Nutrasweet and have confessed that their fact sheets (posted on their websites and given to diabetics) are actually written by the manufacturers of Nutrasweet.

In 1995, the FDA stated that more than 75% of the total adverse effects reported to them were due to aspartame.

Aspartame has been known to cause birth defects. This is, of course, in cases where large amounts are consumed. It can also cause brain damage anywhere from mild to severe. It increases the likelihood of developing tumors and there have been five reported deaths associated with aspartame use. Aspartame has also been reported to cause diabetes to escalate to the point of clinical diabetes. In double blind studies they also reported that mood swing were more prevalent in those who consumed aspartame. An organization called the Community Nutrition Institute commented on a survey done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 80 seizure sufferers and determined that aspartame was hazardous to the public’s health and that in accordance to the FDA’s own guidelines, the product should be removed from the market.

Splenda, otherwise called sucralose, has been rapidly increasing in popularity. This is mostly due to their slogan “made with sugar so it tastes like sugar.” Their claim has mislead many into thinking that Splenda is in fact natural. Splenda is made by taking sugar, removing three hydrogen oxygen groups and adding three chlorine molecules. This disrupts the entire genetics structure and it is now an entirely different structure. This is why it has no calories. It’s not technically food.

The FDA’s final report stated that between 11 to 27 per cent of the sweetener remains in the body (the makers of Splenda claim that it’s zero). Studies have shown that Splenda can cause shrinkage to the thymus gland in animals. Alive.com states that this gland is associated with the body’s ability for maintaining immunity. Splenda is too new to have had much bad press. I would be very hesitant to use it and would definitely keep it away from children. There have been bad reactions to the product recorded and it’s too soon to tell what long-term impact this could have on a developing body like those of children.

Sugar alcohol is a synthetic substance whose chemical formula resembles that of sugar and alcohol. It can be a naturally existing product but when it is manufactured it is made from carbohydrates such as glucose, sucrose and starches. Of all the sweeteners I believe this one to be the least harmful. However, these products are not completely absorbed which means that they build up in your digestive organs and can cause symptoms such as abdominal pains and diarrhea. This also explains is why it is such a low-calorie sweetener. Keep an eye out for them in products labeled as “sugar-free.”

It is a better (yet not great) alternative for diabetics as it shows a lesser insulin response than that of eating sugar. Despite what marketers try to tell you, there are no safe artificial sweeteners. There are plenty of appropriate sweeteners that are naturally occurring. Honey is a wonderful sweetener for use in cooking and baking as well as to sweeten teas etc. Remember that honey is not to be given to children under the age of one because it can cause botulism in immature digestive systems. There are also syrups such as barley malt, brown rice and pure maple syrup. Learning to use them in baking will take some trial an error but will surely be worth it. There is also Stevia. Stevia is a herb that is very low-calorie and is very sweet. You need only half a teaspoon to sweeten a batch of cookies. Stevia may only be available at your health food store.

It is also important to note that there is not much of a place for sugar in our diets. Our bodies only need to consume about a tablespoon of sugar a day for optimum health. Sadly for chocolate lovers, that amount of sugar is easily obtained simply by eating fruits and other foods. Indulging is not a bad thing. But if you are going to eat sugar try to make better food choices and leave the diet pop on the shelf.

Resources:

Sizing Up Sugar Substitutes and Splenda by Sandra Tonn, RHN (published on www.alive.com)

Kids First-Health Without Intervention by Dr. Ogi Ressel

Various articles available on www.mercola.com (Dr. Joseph Mercola)

www.medicalnewstoday.com

Other articles from www.alive.com

http://www.stevia.net/

www.wikipedia.org

 

As I have said in previous posts the best you can do for your body is to eat whole foods and avoid processed food. But eating a diet based exclusively from the produce isle can be difficult. I find myself buying lots from the canned good isles and even some cereals.

For soy milk there are some options. Silk uses primarily organic, non-GMO soybeans. However, Silk is also attached to a major cow’s milk distributor. This may be a conflict of interest for vegans. There are also other brands of Organic soy milk. President’s Choice, for example, has an organic soy milk. This would also be a conflict of interest because PC also makes products that include meat and cheese and all sorts of animal derived ingredients. I suppose you have to sort out your priorities. My family’s health is number one and the welfare of animals and the environment rank a very close second.

In the canned good isle there can be some healthful options but that is where label reading is important. I try to buy beans that contain beans, water, salt and just about nothing else. Some have calcium chloride, Disodium EDTA and other like ingredients. These aren’t particularly healthy for you, especially the EDTA. There are certain cheap cans of beans that will have the natural ingredients but there are differnt varieties of beans that I have to buy organically to escape chemical additives. I find that when I can’t get away from the additives, even in organic beans, that I can go to the Eden Organic brand and they are always safe.

Cereal is an iffy one. I prefer not to buy it but my hubby and kids love it. I let the hubby pick out whatever crappy cereal he wants but I choose the children’s cereal. I have been buying organic cereal because of the GM issue. Not only are they packaged more safely and with healthier ingredients they also have less sugar. I can still buy “corn pops” without all the garbage.

 When buying produce I want to you to refer to my “clean/dirty” list in the previous post. All grocery stores carry a decent supply of organic food and that makes your consumer choices easier.

As for bread I have no idea! I make my own bread with grains I buy from Planet Organic. It is pretty easy to do this with a bread machine but some people still don’t have the time to make bread. I would advise to buy something with whole grains and probably bakery fresh. The stuff that is travelling from Colorado and still smells fresh will undoubtedly have additives.

I want to talk about common additives/ingredients in processed food that non-vegan (as in coming from animal sources). Here is the list (this was obtained from The Vegan Sourcebook):

 Albumin, calcium stearate, carmine/chocineal, capric acid, casein, clarifying agent, diglycerides, disodium inosinate, emulsifiers, flavour enhancers (see MSG), some folic acid, gelatin, glycerides (mono, di, tri), glycerol, isinglass, lactose, lactic acid, lanolin, lard, lecithin, magnesium stearate, myristic acid, some natural flavourings, oleic acid, plamitic acid, pancreatin, pepsin, propolis, Royal Jelly, sodium stearoyl lactylate, stearic acid, suet, tallow, Vit A1/Retinol, Vit A2, Vit D1, D2, D3 and Whey.

Alive magazine printed a great article this month taliking about MSG (unami). MSG is very bad for you. It is associated with obesity, lethargy, headaches etc. Unfortunately, it’s very common in a variety of food such as chips, Chinese food, cookies, salad dressings and canned soups etc.

Labels have all sorts of sneaky names for MSG. If you see any of the following I would put the food back on the shelf. I ate a bunch of Pringles and ended up with MSG wheezies for the rest of the night.

Other names for MSG: Ancoma, autolyzed yeast extract, L-glutamic acid, monosodium salt, D02280, disodium guanylate or inosinate, DL-monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed soy protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed yeast, monoammonium glutamate, monohydrate, monopotassium glutamate, monosodium glutamate (NF), monosodium glutamate monohydrate, MSG monohydrate, protein isolates, sodium glutamate, sodium glutamate monohydrate, sodium hydrogen glutamate, soy extracts and whey protein.

Obviously making educated food choices is not only confusing but it will also take time and perseverance. There are ingredients that sound healthy but really aren’t.

Who would have guessed that “sucralose” would not actually be sugar (sucrose) but rather a pharmacy lab-made chemical sweetener. Splenda states that sucralose is made from sugar and that’s why is tastes like sugar. This is ridiculous. By the time that Splenda hits the shelves it has little resemblance to nature made sugar. If you are diabetic and eating Splenda you should seriously consider switching to Stevia. Stevia is plant derived and natural. It is insanely sweet and doesn’t alter blood sugar levels. Not only that but artificial sweeteners have been accused of being improperly digested meaning that there are concentrations of aspartame or sucralose or whatever floating around in your body doing who knows what! Also, artificial sweeteners have also been linked to weight gain. When you factor in the fact that most diabetic diagnoses are a result of obesity is seems stupid for fat people to drink diet pop because they don’t alter blood sugar levels! Why not put down the pop and have a cup of tea instead? I am very passionate about artificial sweeteners. Splenda is still new but studies on aspartame have revealed extensive lists of side effects and have even caused tumours in rodents. Happy drinking/eating!

What you need to know as a consumer.

What is Genetically Modified foods? It’s a foods that have their genes altered or spliced to give them different qualities. Like splicing fish genes in tomatoes to make them resistant to cold. The most common is probably the pesticide resistant plants. Their genes are altered to make them resistant to Round Up so you can easily kill weeds without hurting your crop. In essence these crops are designed to be sprayed with pesticides.

I first developed my interest in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) while watching a documentary called The Story of Food. They talked about how it obtained its patent and how it had been tested. Monsanto (the creator of GMO foods) convinced the patent office that these new plants were different enough from natural plants to obtain patent (the first in history) and convinced the Food and Drug Agency that it was similar enough to avoid safety testing. These foods are becoming more and more prevalent in our food chain and their effects on health have not been researched. Wikipedia states that “In the US, by 2006 89% of the planted area of soybeans, 83 percent of cotton, and 61 percent maize (corn) was genetically modified varieties.”  This link offers more information on this topic: http://sunflowerstrewn.wordpress.com/

The real outrage is that these foods can pop up in a plethora of foods without being labeled. There is no legislation protecting consumers through labeling. It should be noted that there are many countries that are much more cautious when handling this issue that have either forbidden GM food or have forced companies to label the ingredients that have been GM. This doesn’t occur in the U.S. or in Canada.

There have been limited tests on animals and their results haven’t necessarily been encouraging to their safety. I read of one test where they used GM potatoes in rodents and that the immune system and growth of these rodents was retarded. There are all those who claim that Morgellons Disease is linked to eating GM foods. Morgellons is a weird disease that results in a rash on the body with textile-like fibers growing in the skin. It cannot be treated by our medicines. I can’t substantiate the claims of those people who say it’s related to GM foods but you can look into it yourself if you would like to.

There is no way to make a blanket claim that GMO are unsafe for consumption because there is no information in either camp to approve or disprove this claim. Therefore we all need to make this decision for ourselves.

Animal cloning is also potentially a big deal. I am morally opposed to this as I feel it interferes with God’s creation but because I don’t eat meat I haven’t been too concerned about how this could affect on the foods chain. Meat, like anything else does not have to be labeled.

If you want to avoid exposure to GM foods here is my advice. All the major Certified Organic labels exclude the use of GMO in their ingredients list. So buy organic! Do we have to buy everything organic? Not necessarily.

Eat a whole foods diet and when buying soy products (tofu, soy milk etc.) or corn products (anything processed) buy organic. That includes cereals and cookies etc. Canola is another big GM food so I would avoid buying canola oil altogether. It’s not nearly as healthy as the manufacturers pretend it is. Breads are mostly safe because wheat is not a major GMO crop. But baking your own is even healthier.

Vegetables are not very common GMO and therefore I don’t worry about buying organic unless they fall into the “dirty” category. The foods in this list are foods that have a higher incidence of pesticide use. There is also a “clean list.”

Dirty: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, raspberries, strawberries and spinach. Also note that Mexico’s pesticide standards are far below par and that avoiding food from there as a rule can’t hurt! China has also been known to use restricted pesticides etc. in the food that is shipped here. You would think that our FDA would test these foods (as they claim to do) but there have been multiple incidents (the most recent being the malachite green in fish in our super markets) where they have failed to test. A representative from the FDA told CTV News that they really only test for these things if a problem is reported. How reassuring! See it here: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071025/WFIVE_chinafood_071027/20071027?hub=WFive 

So in short try to avoid foods grown in other countries. Their regulations are usually weaker that Canada’s and their food quality is too.

Clean: asparagus, avocado, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, kiwi, mangoes, onion, papaya, pineapple and sweet peas. The list includes sweet corn but that is a common GM food so I would place them under “dirty.”

 Happy eating!

Hmmm…milk. I have been rethinking this one. As you know, I have replaced my soy milk with cows milk thinking that on a hormonal level it will be better for baby. I am starting to rethink that decision. Here’s why:

I was reading in my cookbooks yesterday and I have one called Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. It’s a vegan coobook written from a very biased perspective. I find that I don’t carry things like soy cheese, soy bacon etc. (ew and very processed) so there are many recipes that I can’t make but there are a few gooders too. They have an amazing spaghetti squash recipe that the whole family loves.

Anyways, in the intro they (the two female authors) say that “Researchers at Harvard, Yale, Penn State and the National Institutes of Health have studied the effects of of dairy intake on bones. Not one of these studies found dairy to be a deterrent to osteoporosis. On the contrary, a study funded by the National Dairy Council itself revealed that the high protein content of milk actually leaches calcium from the body.” They go on to say that milk has been associated with other things like obesity, anemia, allergies etc.

This has been echoed in other publications all over the place. Despite their billions of dollars in advertising the real truth about meat and dairy is coming through!

I have also read that when children drink more than two cups of milk a day they are at an increased risk for childhood stroke! This came from the Healthy Kids book (by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada).

And the last bit comes from a book called On Food and Cooking. It states that the human enzyme Lactase (which digests the Lactose in milk) starts to decline as we age beyond two to five. That is why there is such an incidence of Lactose Intolerance among adults. It states that Lactose Intolerance is “the rule rather than the exception” and that 98% of Scandanavians, 90% of French and Germans, 40% of Southern Europeans and South Africans, and 30% of African Americans are Lactose Intolerant.

It also makes an effort to mention that humans are the only species that drink milk after infancy and the only species to drink the milk of another species.

It’s becoming quite clear that milk is not that beneficial and not that natural for us to be drinking. For example, knowing that honey is made from bee spit and that without this important source of food the bees cannot make it through the winter takes the appeal of eating honey away.

You know those dumb Kraft Cheese Slices or Mac ‘n’ Cheese commercials talking about how their processed cheese slices are good for bones and teeth. Well apparently they are good for neither so if you factor that out you are left with processed cheese garbage! Yumm!

So here is my dilemma. Do I go back to soy milk (which doesn’t give me tummy aches)? Or do I stick to the cows milk despite the fact that it is not necessarily all that beneficial to me or maybe even the baby?

I haven’t decided yet but I am pretty sure I will be doing half and half for a while. I don’t really eat other soy products (since we avoid processed food) and so the amount of phytoestrogens I would be taking in are very low. Maybe I can drink soy milk and still have a slice of regular cheese for my afternoon snack (for the extra protein).

Another weird thing, I have been craving animal products pretty bad. I crave chicken occasionally and I was really craving a hard boiled egg yesterday.

I won’t buy these things but I can’t stop the craving. I assume these are associated with nausea and that I just need a high protein snack. I have been having a lot of bean burritoes this last couple of weeks but I can’t live off of burritoes for the next eight months.

Blah! I hope with more sleep my cravings/nausea will regulate itself and that I can go back to feeling normal: grossed out about eating animal carcass and feeling guilty about the suffering that comes from eggs and dairy.