What’s Hiding In Your Produce?
Many consumers are aware that conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides to thwart critters, but do you know how many of those harmful chemicals remain after your food leaves the field? The Environmental Working Group has released its Dirty Dozen list, and their findings are shocking. Pesticides pop up on everything from celery to blueberries.
Want to know more? Read on to find out exactly how many pesticides researchers found in foods that likely have a place in your refrigerator. And remember: If you want to steer clear of these worrisome chemicals, the answer is simple. Buy organic.
Steve O became a vegan in a bid to get saved
By WENN.com
The prankster and stuntman gave up drugs and meat after a stint in rehab and he admits the decision to become a vegan was more spiritual than health-related.
The star tells RollingStone.com, “I was doing so many drugs that I literally started hearing voices. I considered the voices my spirit friends, and they were telling me to kill myself. Some of them were nasty characters, but other ones told me they were worried about me… One of them told me I was going to have to answer for s**t.
“One time I did something particularly nasty - I tried to really hurt someone’s feelings with a text message. I heard a voice in my right ear say, ‘You’re going to have to answer for that’. Later I came across a YouTube video where this Krishna consciousness guy in India was talking about how it’s difficult for Westerners to be saved because there’s such little respect for life on the planet.
“This guy said, ‘How can you expect to be saved if you eat meat?’ I put that together with the voices I was hearing and I became afraid of having some kind of spiritual punishment.”
BUSTED: Top Vegan Nutrition Myths
Gloria Steinem summed up one of the challenges of life very well when she said, “The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.”
This quote rings especially true when it comes to what we choose to eat. Our food choices are influenced by a range of factors that make it almost impossible to entertain change. Growing up, I was told that I needed to consume dairy for calcium, eat meat to get strong and fish to get smart. Imagining food without animal products on my plate seemed almost unimaginable.
However, I always felt a sense of nagging unease about my food choices — what if everything I knew about food and nutrition was wrong? What if I truly had no valid justifications for choosing to consume animal products? What began as a path of unlearning — about taste, tradition and nutrition — ultimately culminated in me choosing a vegan lifestyle.
But unlearning in the age of information means having to sift through an avalanche of Internet articles discussing conflicting scientific reports and marketing propaganda (often indistinguishable from each other) that are largely fueled by billion dollar industries whose bottom lines depend on our uninformed food choices. Some anti-vegan rhetoric is delivered with so much conviction that, at times, I still have difficulty separating fact from fiction.
The problem, however, is that the longer you let myths go unchallenged, the greater is their ability to masquerade as truths. So, I decided to put my mind (and hopefully the minds of many others) at ease by reaching out to One Green Planet’s expert community and getting their input on the top vegan nutrition myths.
This is what I uncovered in my discussions with some prominent voices in the plant-based nutrition space:
1. Is it true that plant protein is inherently inferior to animal protein?
Brenda Davis, RD and co-author of “Becoming Raw”: In reality, people have no greater need for animal protein than do gorillas or elephants, both of whom have far bigger muscles than we do, yet are plant eaters. It comes as a surprise for people to learn that essential amino acids are made by plants, not by animals. We can get them from animals, but somewhere along the food chain they originally came from plants. Generally, if vegans eat a variety of plant foods (legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits and grains) and consume sufficient calories, protein needs will be met. However, if protein intakes are marginal, legumes become especially important.
2. Do I need calcium from dairy products to maintain strong bones?
Joseph Keon, nutritionist and author of “Whitewash: The Disturbing Truth about Cow’s Milk and Your Health”: Milk offers no guarantee of protection from bone fracture while at the same time burdens the body with additional saturated fat and cholesterol, hormones and growth factors and, frequently, antibiotic residues. Millions of people the world over maintain fracture-resistant bones into their seventh and even eighth decade of life by consuming calcium largely from plant sources. The calcium we need may be easily obtained from leafy greens, vegetables, fruits, legumes and some nuts and seeds.
3. Should I be worried about B12 deficiency?
Vesanto Melina, RD and co-author of “Becoming Raw”: B12 originates from bacteria, not animal products. The reason this nutrient cannot be obtained from plant-foods is because of our sanitary methods of food production. In contrast, meat eaters obtain vitamin B12 that is produced by bacteria present in the flesh of the animals. This lack in sanitary plant foods does not mean that all vegans are deficient in this nutrient, because they can easily obtain the recommended levels of B12 via foods that are fortified with B12 (non-dairy milks, soyfoods, veggie “meats” and breakfast cereals) or via B12 supplements. In fact, all people over the age of 50, on any diet, are advised to use fortified foods or supplements as their B12 sources, as these forms are better absorbed by many seniors than the B12 from animal products. Many seniors develop deficiency of vitamin B12 due to diminished intestinal absorption. Like people on any diet, vegans simply need to make sure they have a reliable source of this essential nutrient.
4. Can I get adequate amounts of Omega-3 fats without consuming fish oil?
Ginny Messina, MPH, RD and co-author of “Vegan for Life”: Vegans aren’t at higher risk for heart disease than people who eat fish, but many experts suggest erring on the side of a little insurance by supplementing, especially for those who suffer from depression. Vegans who want to include DHA and EPA in their diets can get it the same way fish do, which is from algae. In fact, from an environmental perspective, it makes sense for everyone to choose algae-derived supplements over fish oil.
5. As a vegan, don’t I have to consume too much soy to meet my nutritional needs?
Lauri Boone, RD and raw food nutritionist: You don’t need to fill your plate with tofu or other soyfoods for your diet to be nutritionally complete. Soyfoods — which include tofu, tempeh, edamame, and soymilk, among others — certainly provide a simple way for vegans to meet their protein needs. But you can easily obtain all of the essential amino acids — along with fiber, antioxidants, minerals and phytochemicals — your body needs by eating a variety of grains and legumes each day. Add to that a few servings of nuts and seeds and plenty of fresh vegetables, and you will begin to see how easy it is to get all of the nutrients your body needs — with or without soy. However, if you are going to consume soy, choose organic soyfoods to ensure that the soy you consume is not genetically modified and is not grown using pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals.
6. While vegan diets may be okay for adults, aren’t they unsafe for infants and children?
Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, LDN and co-author of “Simply Vegan”: Babies and children grow and develop normally on vegan diets and can have significant health advantages — vegan children often eat more fruits and vegetables, are typically leaner and don’t develop a taste for meat, dairy products and eggs — foods that are linked to health problems later in life. As all parents should know, it is important to give children the nutrients they need. For parents of young vegans, this means making sure that infants’ and children’s diets have good sources of vitamin B12, iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin D, protein and enough calories to support growth.
To round up my discussion on vegan nutrition, I chatted with Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, co-author of the best-selling book, “The China Study” and most recently featured in the documentary “Forks over Knives” about his No. 1 tip for maintaining good health and preventing disease. According to him, “The consumption of whole plant-based foods is the best strategy for health maintenance and disease prevention. Wholeness means foods having the natural proportions of nutrients and nutrient-like chemicals. As a consequence, the whole effect is greater than the sum of its parts — thus allowing for the countless natural biological interactions to take place.”
So there you have it: not only is a plant-based (vegan) diet not restrictive in terms of providing us with adequate nutrition, but if we also focus on a diet rich in whole plant-based foods, getting the right nutrients and maintaining good health should be the least of our concerns!
Thanks to the great work of these experts, it turns out the unlearning curve for vegan nutrition is no longer as steep and treacherous as it was in the past.
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” — Galileo Galilei
Healthy Gourmet: Way of the vegan
Andrea Oschetti
Although we know some things are bad for us - like hydrogenated fat or too much sugar - there is no scientific agreement that one kind of diet is better than another.
Whatever you like to eat, knowing how to cook it properly makes a big difference to your health. For the next three weeks this column will look at the worlds of vegans, carnivores and piscivores, and provide some tips on how to cook in the healthiest way.
My cousin Simona Ferrante has been a vegan since she discovered a few years ago that she has diabetes. On top of this our family has a history of kidney failure. She did not want to become dependent on medicines, so she started looking for solutions on how to eat healthier.
She was drawn to veganism after reading studies that found that cholesterol from animal-derived products can stay in the body, affecting the liver, intestines and kidneys. As a result Simona has managed to keep her diabetes under control. Her two children, Gabriele, six, and Federico, three, have been on vegan diets since they were born. They have never been vaccinated, nor have they ever had antibiotics. They have never fallen ill.
Simona says you can eat with satisfaction, even with the restrictions of a vegan diet - and you can convince your children to do so too. This is how she does it.
1. Take time to explain to your children why one diet is healthier than another
“They do respond and also get used to what they are given: it becomes a habit to eat legumes and dried fruits every day. Federico’s favourite food is zucchini, says Simona. “They don’t even reach the table because he eats them before they are served.”
2. Look for variety and try new things
“At the start, I knew what I wanted to eat but not how to cook it. So I bought books, searched the net and experimented. Little by little, I learned how to make better choices. Last week I made a chocolate cake with boiled beetroot. The beetroot made the cake moist and soft and provided additional nutrients.”
3. Make your dishes interesting
“My children love olives, so I make them focaccia with olives and onions. I use olives instead of cheese when making pizza.”
4. Everything can be done at home
“Make stock cubes by processing vegetables with oil and spices. Cook over low heat until it has reduced. Freeze them in an ice-cube tray.”
5. Use only fresh ingredients
“Don’t even walk down the supermarket aisle where processed and ready-made products are kept. Make mayonnaise at home without eggs by using soya milk, oil, lemon and salt. The biscuits I make contain hazelnuts, flour, oil and fructose, rather than refined sugar.”
Create flavours and depth in vegetarian dishes by roasting seeds and nuts, adding the acidity of lemon or vinegar and using fresh chopped herbs and spices. Keep the nutrients by using a pressure cooker and avoid overcooking them. Always beware of dressings.
