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I just had to share with my cyber viewers my first experience at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida. Friends invited J and I to go join them this past weekend. I live about 45 minutes away and it was my first time. For the Rolex 24, cars race around a track nonstop for 24 hours. Our friends had an elaborate setup with 2 tents, each large enough for 10 people to walk around, eat, hang out and sleep. They also had an 8×8 platform up 8 feet off the ground and were located right next to the track. People actually put ear plugs in and sleep with cars zooming by all night! The Hilton in Daytona Beach worked out better for us. Before we loaded up our car, I googled a few restaurants with vegan options. Vegnews Magazine had a nice article about Daytona Beach but some of their vegan friendly suggestions could take you over 30 miles from downtown Daytona. The ones we tested are listed below.
Raku Sushi and Asian Cuisine became our choice for dinner. I emailed them earlier in the day asking if they had any vegan items on their menu. I got a positive reply back within an hour. They are located about 15 miles south of Daytona in Port Orange, FL. The location was a little creepy at first since it is located next to a dollar type store in a strip center. Being a hungry adventurous vegan I nudged “J’ into going in and trying it out. Once in the door our wories were put to ease. A picture is worth a thousand blogger words, so check out my link to their website. We had the Teriyaki with tofu and Spicy Basil Leaves with tofu. The lack of decent tofu was my only problem with the meal. I think it was the kind of silken tofu that is hermitically sealed. It’s the kind of tofu that would turn someone off if it was their first time eating it. Everything else was great including the warm sake. If you must go here ask them ahead of time to get some REAL tofu and ask them to fry it. Prices of our entre were $10 each with tofu. I’d go back but would be tempted to bring my own tofu and ask the kitchen chef to cook it up or I’d leave it off the plate. It couldn’t hurt to ask. Check it out if you are in their area. Thanks again to the attentive server.
The Dancing Avocado Kitchen has vegan options right on their menu. Our breakfast turned into a brunch because they had NO TUFU! If the place wasn’t so adorable we might have left. The waitress ( I think something like Christine) quickly turned a negative into a positive by offering us an early lunch. I had the homemade bean burger and “J” had a burrito. It was good, fresh and satisfying.
The next morning we considered going back to the Dancing Avocado for their tofu scramble but decided to call first to see if they had any tofu. Turns out they are closed on Sunday. J was craving home fries and a hot tofu scramble so we decided to stop at St. Augustine’s Manatee Caféwhich is about 35 minutes north of Daytona. They have a scrambled tofu dish which is better then mine. If you go there order an extra side of the potatoes. I’ll post some pictures this week. Cheers!
 Vegan Desserts I’m often asked “How can you cook without eggs?” or Don’t you need eggs for that sauce?”. The answer is simple. Anyone can cook without using eggs the same way people have done for a very long time. If you asked somebody’s grandmother, she could tell you some stories. During the depression, a cake called the “crazy cake” or “wacky cake” became popular because a combination of vinegar and baking soda make the cake rise. They are very lite, easy and fun to make. I never did care for the banana bread or carrot cake recipes used often today for the very reason they are so very rich (fattening). Pancakes, cupcakes, muffins, bread, pasta, alfredo, quiche are no problem! The list is actually endless. Recently I made the most moist vanilla bean cupcakes in the world thanks to a recipe from “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World“. There are 268 5 star reviews for the book. Take a look at it for yourself or you could trust me. If you google vegan desserts today (1/9/2010) you will get over 18 million returns.
A conscience vegan doesn’t just eat cake! I personally love dishes with creamy sauces. Right now I’m looking at a recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine called Fettuccine with Three-Herb Pesto, Black Kale, and Oyster Mushrooms. Yum! The other day I made a quick easy dish with ingredients I had on hand in my frig. I sauteed some red peppers, onions, mushrooms and garlic. Then I mixed in just enought tofutti cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of vegetable broth, fresh herbs (or dried) to make a creamy sauce. Just before serving I tossed in some spinach which cooks down fast and served. I don’t have a recipe for this because it is so easy. I digress…
I couldn’t come up with a better list for fat free substitues and techniques then what Susan has on her website. Here is her link. Some ingredients she mentions are applesauce, flax meal, mashed or puried tofu, corn starch, blended cooked white beans, banana, canned pumpkin, Eggreplacer (Publix even carries it), soy or bean flour, baking powder, baking soda and the list could go on and on. Check it out. It’s just under 32 degrees here in NE Florida so I’m off to make some oatmeal cookies and turn my oven on.
Here is the recipe link for the dessert crumble bars and the link for the bonbons from manifest:vegan.com. The directions for the bonbons have step by step photos. You will have fun making them.
I am a new fan of Jonathan Safran Foer after watching him on a Larry King. Link to full WSJ article.
A modest proposal for tossing Fido in the oven
Despite the fact that it’s perfectly legal in 44 states, eating “man’s best friend” is as taboo as a man eating his best friend. Even the most enthusiastic carnivores won’t eat dogs. TV guy and sometimes cooker Gordon Ramsay can get pretty macho with lambs and piglets when doing publicity for something he’s selling, but you’ll never see a puppy peeking out of one of his pots. And though he once said he’d electrocute his children if they became vegetarian, one can’t help but wonder what his response would be if they poached the family pooch.
Dogs are wonderful, and in many ways unique. But they are remarkably unremarkable in their intellectual and experiential capacities. Pigs are every bit as intelligent and feeling, by any sensible definition of the words. They can’t hop into the back of a Volvo, but they can fetch, run and play, be mischievous and reciprocate affection. So why don’t they get to curl up by the fire? Why can’t they at least be spared being tossed on the fire? Our taboo against dog eating says something about dogs and a great deal about us.
The French, who love their dogs, sometimes eat their horses.
The Spanish, who love their horses, sometimes eat their cows.
The Indians, who love their cows, sometimes eat their dogs.
While written in a much different context, George Orwell’s words (from “Animal Farm”) apply here: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
So who’s right? What might be the reasons to exclude canine from the menu? The selective carnivore suggests:
Don’t eat companion animals. But dogs aren’t kept as companions in all of the places they are eaten. And what about our petless neighbors? Would we have any right to object if they had dog for dinner?
OK, then: Don’t eat animals with significant mental capacities. If by “significant mental capacities” we mean what a dog has, then good for the dog. But such a definition would also include the pig, cow and chicken. And it would exclude severely impaired humans.
Then: It’s for good reason that the eternal taboos—don’t fiddle with your crap, kiss your sister, or eat your companions—are taboo. Evolutionarily speaking, those things are bad for us. But dog eating isn’t a taboo in many places, and it isn’t in any way bad for us. Properly cooked, dog meat poses no greater health risks than any other meat.
Dog meat has been described as “gamey” “complex,” “buttery” and “floral.” And there is a proud pedigree of eating it. Fourth-century tombs contain depictions of dogs being slaughtered along with other food animals. It was a fundamental enough habit to have informed language itself: the Sino-Korean character for “fair and proper” (yeon) literally translates into “as cooked dog meat is delicious.” Hippocrates praised dog meat as a source of strength. Dakota Indians enjoyed dog liver, and not so long ago Hawaiians ate dog brains and blood. Captain Cook ate dog. Roald Amundsen famously ate his sled dogs. (Granted, he was really hungry.) And dogs are still eaten to overcome bad luck in the Philippines; as medicine in China and Korea; to enhance libido in Nigeria and in numerous places, on every continent, because they taste good. For centuries, the Chinese have raised special breeds of dogs, like the black-tongued chow, for chow, and many European countries still have laws on the books regarding postmortem examination of dogs intended for human consumption.
Of course, something having been done just about everywhere is no kind of justification for doing it now. But unlike all farmed meat, which requires the creation and maintenance of animals, dogs are practically begging to be eaten. Three to four million dogs and cats are euthanized annually. The simple disposal of these euthanized dogs is an enormous ecological and economic problem. But eating those strays, those runaways, those not-quite-cute-enough-to-take and not-quite-well-behaved-enough-to-keep dogs would be killing a flock of birds with one stone and eating it, too.
In a sense it’s what we’re doing already. Rendering—the conversion of animal protein unfit for human consumption into food for livestock and pets—allows processing plants to transform useless dead dogs into productive members of the food chain. In America, millions of dogs and cats euthanized in animal shelters every year become the food for our food. So let’s just eliminate this inefficient and bizarre middle step.
This need not challenge our civility. We won’t make them suffer any more than necessary. While it’s widely believed that adrenaline makes dog meat taste better—hence the traditional methods of slaughter: hanging, boiling alive, beating to death—we can all agree that if we’re going to eat them, we should kill them quickly and painlessly, right? For example, the traditional Hawaiian means of holding the dog’s nose shut—in order to conserve blood—must be regarded (socially if not legally) as a no-no. Perhaps we could include dogs under the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. That doesn’t say anything about how they’re treated during their lives, and isn’t subject to any meaningful oversight or enforcement, but surely we can rely on the industry to “self-regulate,” as we do with other eaten animals.
Few people sufficiently appreciate the colossal task of feeding a world of billions of omnivores who demand meat with their potatoes. The inefficient use of dogs—conveniently already in areas of high human population (take note, local-food advocates)—should make any good ecologist blush. One could argue that various “humane” groups are the worst hypocrites, spending enormous amounts of money and energy in a futile attempt to reduce the number of unwanted dogs while at the very same time propagating the irresponsible no-dog-for-dinner taboo. If we let dogs be dogs, and breed without interference, we would create a sustainable, local meat supply with low energy inputs that would put even the most efficient grass-based farming to shame. For the ecologically-minded it’s time to admit that dog is realistic food for realistic environmentalists.
For those already convinced, here’s a classic Filipino recipe I recently came across. I haven’t tried it myself, but sometimes you can read a recipe and just know.
Stewed Dog, Wedding Style
First, kill a medium-sized dog, then burn off the fur over a hot fire. Carefully remove the skin while still warm and set aside for later (may be used in other recipes). Cut meat into 1″ cubes. Marinate meat in mixture of vinegar, peppercorn, salt, and garlic for 2 hours. Fry meat in oil using a large wok over an open fire, then add onions and chopped pineapple and sauté until tender. Pour in tomato sauce and boiling water, add green pepper, bay leaf, and Tabasco. Cover and simmer over warm coals until meat is tender. Blend in purée of dog’s liver and cook for additional 5–7 minutes.
There is an overabundance of rational reasons to say no to factory-farmed meat: It is the No. 1 cause of global warming, it systematically forces tens of billions of animals to suffer in ways that would be illegal if they were dogs, it is a decisive factor in the development of swine and avian flus, and so on. And yet even most people who know these things still aren’t inspired to order something else on the menu. Why?
Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving and identity. Responding to factory farming calls for a capacity to care that dwells beyond information. We know what we see on undercover videos of factory farms and slaughterhouses is wrong. (There are those who will defend a system that allows for occasional animal cruelty, but no one defends the cruelty, itself.) And despite it being entirely reasonable, the case for eating dogs is likely repulsive to just about every reader of this paper. The instinct comes before our reason, and is more important.
Link to full article
“How do you get your protein?”
This is one of the most common questions I get. We need to stop obsessing about protein and start looking at our consumption of complex carbohydrates. What people should be worried about is cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. These diseases of affluence and poverty are prevalent but starving from lack of protein doesn’t happen much in the united states. Humans need about 10 % of the calories we consume to be from protein. Beans, nuts, seeds, lentils, and whole grains are packed with protein. So are all vegetables as a caloric percentage, though they don’t have enough calories to sustain most people as a principal source of sustenance. These protein sources contain plenty of fiber and complex carbohydrates, where meat contains none.
According to Dr. Ornish, “high-protein foods, particularly excessive animal protein, dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses. In the short run, they may also cause kidney problems, loss of calcium in the bones, and an unhealthy metabolic state called ketosis in many people.”
According the the Physician’s Committee Of Responsible Medicine, there are many health problems associated with too much protein intake.
Osteoporosis. High protein intake is known to encourage urinary calcium losses and has been shown to increase risk of fracture in research studies.6,7 Plant-based diets, which provide adequate protein, can help protect against osteoporosis. Calcium-rich plant foods include leafy green vegetables, beans, and some nuts and seeds as well as fortified fruit juices, cereals, and non-dairy milks.
Cancer.Although fat is the dietary substance most often singled out for increasing one’s risk for cancer, animal protein also plays a role. Specifically, certain proteins present in meat, fish, and poultry, cooked at high temperatures, especially grilling and frying, have been found to produce compounds called heterocyclic amines. These substances have been linked to various cancers including those of the colon and breast.8-10
Long-term high intake of meat, particularly red meat, is associated with significantly increased risk of colorectal cancer. The 1997 report of the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer, reported that, based on available evidence, diets high in red meat were considered probable contributors to colorectal cancer risk. In addition, high-protein diets are typically low in dietary fiber. Fiber appears to be protective against cancer.3 A diet rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables is important in decreasing cancer risk,3 not to mention adding more healthful sources of protein in the diet.
Impaired Kidney Function. When people eat too much protein, it releases nitrogen into the blood or is digested and metabolized. This places a strain on the kidneys, which must expel the waste through the urine. High-protein diets are associated with reduced kidney function. Over time, individuals who consume very large amounts of protein, particularly animal protein, risk permanent loss of kidney function. Harvard researchers reported recently that high-protein diets were associated with a significant decline in kidney function, based on observations in 1,624 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study. The good news is that the damage was found only in those who already had reduced kidney function at the study’s outset. The bad news is that as many as one in four adults in the United States may already have reduced kidney function, suggesting that most people who have renal problems are unaware of that fact and do not realize that high-protein diets may put them at risk for further deterioration. The kidney-damaging effect was seen only with animal protein. Plant protein had no harmful effect.11
The American Academy of Family Physicians notes that high animal protein intake is largely responsible for the high prevalence of kidney stones in the United States and other developed countries and recommends protein restriction for the prevention of recurrent kidney stones.12
Heart Disease. Typical high-protein diets are extremely high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. The effect of such diets on blood cholesterol levels is a matter of ongoing research. However, such diets pose additional risks to the heart, including increased risk for heart problems immediately following a meal. Evidence indicates that meals high in saturated fat adversely affect the compliance of arteries, increasing the risk of heart attacks.13 Adequate protein can be consumed through a variety of plant products that are cholesterol-free and contain only small amounts of fat.
Weight Loss Sabotage. Many individuals see almost immediate weight loss as a result of following a high-protein diet. In fact, the weight loss is not a result of consuming more protein, but by simply consuming fewer calories. Over the long run, consumption of this type of diet is not practical as it can result in the aforementioned health problems. As with any temporary diet, weight gain is often seen when previous eating habits are resumed. To achieve permanent weight loss while promoting optimal health, the best strategy involves lifestyle changes including a low-fat diet of grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables combined with regular physical activity.
The cancer connection is spelled out at length in a fantastic book by Cornell scientist T. Colin Campbell, called The China Study. Basically, there is overwhelming scientific evidence to implicate that animal protein consumption causes cancer.
Here are just some examples of healthy protein sources.
Healthy Protein Sources (in grams)
|
| Black beans, boiled (1 cup) |
15.2 |
| Broccoli (1 cup) |
4.6 |
| Bulgur, cooked (1 cup) |
5.6 |
| Chickpeas, boiled (1 cup) |
14.5 |
| Lentils, boiled (1 cup) |
17.9 |
| Peanut butter (2 tbsp) |
8.0 |
| Quinoa, cooked (1 cup) |
11.0 |
| Seitan* (4 oz) |
24.0 |
| Spinach, boiled (1 cup) |
5.4 |
| Tempeh (1/2 cup) |
15.7 |
| Tofu, firm (1/2 cup) |
19.9 |
| Whole wheat bread (1 slice) |
2.7 |
“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Gandhi
”I eat free range eggs. Isn’t that better for the animals, my health and the environment?”
That couldn’t be further from the truth and most people are still confused by package labels. Here are what the terms mean.
Conventional - No label on the carton. Hens are crammed into cages not giving them even enough room to spread their wings. Imagine a chicken on a piece of 81/2 x 11 piece of paper.
Cage Free- As it says, the hens are able to move about inside a barn without being confined to cages. It usually has very little light and the stench is unbearable. A better life, but not optimal as parts of beaks are often burned to prevent pecking at themselves and others (a sign of distress, by the way).
Free Range – Implies chickens on lush green pastures. Actually is not a regulated term for eggs so this can be used by absolutely anyone. Really all that’s needed is a door to the outside that gives the chickens “access” to an outdoor area, whether they actually use it or not. This is a meaningless term.
Organic – This means the hens were fed organic feed, whatever that feed consists of. It may also mean no animal by-products in the feed but I haven’t read any legislation on this.
Vegetarian – The hen is fed a vegetarian feed. I only mention this to point out that chickens are omnivores, not vegetarians, and will naturally eat bugs, grubs, etc. This term is used to imply “healthier” in our anti-meat culture
Here is a link to a short video showing the life of a broiler chicken. We are what we eat and I think we should know where our food comes from and how it gets onto our plate.
http://www.chickenindustry.com/cfi/videogallery/
This post is still under construction.
 Mark Twain When I think of the great American author Mark Twain (1835-1910), I think of stories “ The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. I had no idea he was an animal rights activist who cared deeply for all sentient beings! Below are some links to some of his less known publications on anti-vivesection and the treatment of dogs and horses. The links will take you to the full stories. The truth about vivisection is that it is still being practiced today.
According to IDA*, tens of millions of animals are dissected every year, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded in hidden laboratories on college campuses and research facilities throughout the U.S. Still more animals are used to test the safety of cosmetics, household cleansers and other consumer products. These innocent primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, rodents and other animals are used against their will as research subjects in experiments and procedures that would be considered sadistically cruel were they not conducted in the name of science.
1900 | Mark Twain, “Mark Twain on Scientific Research,”Animals’ Friend (London:1894-?) 6 (1900 Apr): 99-100 [Online Edition: Animal Rights History, 2003]. [Letter to Sidney G. Trist (Editor of the Animals' Friend Magazine), in his capacity as Secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society; Also published in pamplet form as Pains of Lowly Life (London: Anti-Vivisection Society, 1900). "DEAR SIR,—I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further."
1903 | Mark Twain, A Dog's Tale [First published in Harper's Monthly Magazine (New York, 1900-1913) (1903 Christmas); First Separate Edition: London: Anti-Vivisection Society, 1903] (New York & London, 1904; Digitized by Google, 2006).
“The laboratory was not a book, or a picture, or a place to wash your hands in, as the college president’s dog said—no, that is the lavatory; the laboratory is quite different, and is filled with jars, and bottles, and electrics, and wires, and strange machines; and every week other scientists came there and sat in the place, and used the machines, and discussed, and made what they called experiments and discoveries.…”
1906 | Mark Twain, A Horse’s Tale [First published in two parts in Harper's Monthly Magazine (New York: 1900-1913) 845/846 (1906 Aug-Sep) [First separate edition privately printed in 1906] (New York & London, 1906; Digitized by Google, 2006).
“…How many times have I changed hands? I think it is twelve times—I cannot remember; and each time it was down a step lower, and each time I got a harder master.”
*IDA In Defense of Animals
 No Queso or Cheese Quesadilla Chipotle Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadilla
Feel free to double this recipe for extras.
2 small-medium size sweet potato
1/2 c black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 chipotle pepper*, roughly chopped and add a tsp of sauce to taste
1/4 tsp cumin ( I personally think cumin can overpower dishes so taste as you go, add more or leave it out.)
Chopped cilantro (optional)
Salt to taste
2-3 tortillas
Peel, cut up and cook the sweet potato. I prefer steaming mine so they don’t get too soggy. Mash the potato, and add the cumin, chopped chipotle and adobe sauce, then mix well. Stir in the black beans. Less is more when you go to fill these.
Cook in a pan with a little Earth Balance. Fold one side over the filling and flip it after it starts to get golden colored. I use kitchen scissors to cut mine into 3 sections. Then top with salsa, sour cream (Tofutti brand) and serve.
Variations: I’ve added cooked chopped onion, garlic cloves, 1 tsp of cardamom, pesto as a layer to give the quesadilla color and a whole new flavor.
* Adobe Sauce in a can is sold in the ethnic section at most grocery stores. Depending on the number of ingredients you use they can get soft. I don’t recommend these for a buffet suggest you serve them soon after making. Utensils are better then fingers with this appetizer or meal. Enjoy! If you don’t have any you can substitute a little cayenne pepper. Tip- I put the whole can in a food processor and freeze extras in small sandwich baggies.
The Farm Sanctuary located in NY and California works to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy. They envision a world where the violence that animal agriculture inflicts upon people, animals and the environment has ended, and where instead we exercise values of compassion. Please click here to learn more about the sanctuary. If you can’t get to the Farm Sanctuary to visit all these wonderful animals, check out the Virtual Experience.
For more than two decades, Farm Sanctuary’s annual Walk for Farm Animals has helped spread the word about the treatment of animals on factory farms and raised vital funds for our rescue, education and advocacy work. The Walks are an important part of Farm Sanctuary’s history and our outreach and fundraising efforts. They are also a great way for supporters to help send a positive message of compassion and hope for farm animals. Please feel free to join me, donate or support the sanctuary any way you can.
A Compassionate World Begins With You!
“All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life.” -Buddha
“Animals are my friends. I don’t eat my friends. ” -George Bernard Shaw
“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is — whether its victim is human or animal — we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature.” -Rachael Carson
“If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.” -Leo Tolstoy
“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.” -Henry David Thoreau
“Things do not change; we change.” -Henry David Thoreau
“The greatness of a nations and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” -Mohandas Gandi
“Think occassionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” -Albert Schweitzer
Bryan Walsh from Time Magazine brings out some interesting facts about the hidden price of feeding Americans cheap food. Have you heard about the obesity epidemic costing our health care system $147 billion a year? What about the antibiotic resistant bacteria among farm animals? Some people think eating organic is the solution but it is a long way off since less than 1% of American cropland is farmed organically.
 - Sow On Concrete for 4-5 yrs unable to nedge her offspring, stand up or turn around.
Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics. The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He’s fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer. When the pig is slaughtered, at about 5 months of age, he’ll become sausage or bacon that will sell cheap, feeding an American addiction to meat that has contributed to an obesity epidemic currently afflicting more than two-thirds of the population. And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around. That’s the state of your bacon — circa 2009. Click here for full story
…….. The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can’t even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.
And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous. A series of recalls involving contaminated foods this year — including an outbreak of salmonella from tainted peanuts that killed at least eight people and sickened 600 — has consumers rightly worried about the safety of their meals. A food system — from seed to 7‑Eleven — that generates cheap, filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America’s obesity epidemic. At a time when the nation is close to a civil war over health-care reform, obesity adds $147 billion a year to our doctor bills. “The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us,” says Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). (See pictures of what the world eats.)
Full Story
Very interesting short video on chickens
1 – Human, 2 – Cow, 3 – Cat, 4 – Dog, 5 – Horse
I have a degree in Anthropology but you don’t need one to see the differences in the photo posted above. In my opinion it speaks for itself and the shape of our teeth and the way our jaw moves are just a few reasons why I think we are not physically designed to eat meat. Just because we can consume meat doesn’t mean we should be eating it.
Have you looked at the average waistline in our society? Most children eat the same foods their parents ate which are loaded with saturated fat, salt and sugar. My own town of Jacksonville, FL, just ranked #8 in Men’s Health as one of the fattest cities in the US and I’m not surprised! “Eighty percent of schools still serve too much greasy, fattening food to meet the government’s own nutrition guidelines,” says PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D. If you don’t care about saturated fat in your diet you should be concerned about your health care premiums.
Back to my anatomy lesson. Just because I can eat a double whopper with cheese, large order of french fries and a milk shake doesn’t mean my body is designed to digest it efficiently. My belly aches thinking about it. I’m going to summarize below an article from Milton R. Mills, M.D. and include some facts about the anatomical and physical differences between herbivores and true carnivores. I encourage you to read his full article and then go take a good look at your cat.
Taken from “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating”
 Comparative anatomy of eating
The human gastrointestinal tract features the anatomical modifications consistent with an herbivorous diet. Humans have muscular lips and a small opening into the oral cavity. Many of the so-called “muscles of expression” are actually the muscles used in chewing. The muscular and agile tongue essential for eating, has adapted to use in speech and other things. The mandibular joint is flattened by a cartilaginous plate and is located well above the plane of the teeth. The temporalis muscle is reduced. The characteristic “square jaw” of adult males reflects the expanded angular process of the mandible and the enlarged masseter/pterygoid muscle group. The human mandible can move forward to engage the incisors, and side-to-side to crush and grind.
Human teeth are also similar to those found in other herbivores with the exception of the canines (the canines of some of the apes are elongated and are thought to be used for display and/or defense). Our teeth are rather large and usually abut against one another. The incisors are flat and spade-like, useful for peeling, snipping and biting relatively soft materials. The canines are neither serrated nor conical, but are flattened, blunt and small and function like incisors. The premolars and molars are squarish, flattened and nodular, and used for crushing, grinding and pulping non-coarse foods.
Human saliva contains the carbohydrate-digesting enzyme, salivary amylase. This enzyme is responsible for the majority of starch digestion. The esophagus is narrow and suited to small, soft balls of thoroughly chewed food. Eating quickly, attempting to swallow a large amount of food or swallowing fibrous and/or poorly chewed food (meat is the most frequent culprit) often results in choking in humans. Man’s stomach is single-chambered, but only moderately acidic. (Clinically, a person presenting with a gastric pH less than 4-5 when there is food in the stomach is cause for concern.) The stomach volume represents about 21-27% of the total volume of the human GI tract. The stomach serves as a mixing and storage chamber, mixing and liquefying ingested foodstuffs and regulating their entry into the small intestine. The human small intestine is long, averaging from 10 to 11 times the body length. (Our small intestine averages 22 to 30 feet in length. Human body size is measured from the top of the head to end of the spine and averages between two to three feet in length in normal-sized individuals.)
The human colon demonstrates the pouched structure peculiar to herbivores. The distensible large intestine is larger in cross-section than the small intestine, and is relatively long. Man’s colon is responsible for water and electrolyte absorption and vitamin production and absorption. There is also extensive bacterial fermentation of fibrous plant materials, with the production and absorption of significant amounts of food energy (volatile short-chain fatty acids) depending upon the fiber content of the diet. The extent to which the fermentation and absorption of metabolites takes place in the human colon has only recently begun to be investigated.
In conclusion, we see that human beings have the gastrointestinal tract structure of a “committed” herbivore. Humankind does not show the mixed structural features one expects and finds in anatomical omnivores such as bears and raccoons. Thus, from comparing the gastrointestinal tract of humans to that of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores we must conclude that humankind’s GI tract is designed for a purely plant-food diet.
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![[ DOG ]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AM870_DOG_D_20091030141218.jpg "Eating Animals Jonathan Safran Foer")
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