Check em’ out!

Here are this week’s stories:

Today I’m going to be listing a few interesting food stories I found in the past week. Enjoy!

You might see headlines over the next couple days like this:

“Heart risk of diet soda found equal”

The title is misleading, because at most, the study cited in the article found a correlation, not a causation between diet soda and heart disease. What also is misleading, is that the study only looked at soda consumption and didn’t correct for other lifestyle choices. All you can draw from this conclusion, in my opinion, is that diets soda alone is not enough of a lifestyle change to have an effect.

Hell Food, while preferring that people drink water when thirsty, still considers diet soda to be a viable alternative to regular soda as part of an overall healthy lifestyle.

In this op-ed by Amy Lanou, Ph.D, she lays out the case that a vegan diet for a child is just as healthy and probably safer than the typical American diet:

Health by Veganism

In a side note, Clark Hoyt of the New York Times mentions the problem with an op-ed by Nina Planck called “Death by Veganism”. Ms. Planck claimed that a vegan lifestyle for a baby was irresponsible. She was wrong, of course. There is plenty of evidence to counter her claims. Hoyt’s point, concerning Planck, was that the Times didn’t present the other side of the debate, and has not presented the other side in sixteen years.

Just a couple links to stories about the benefits to eating vegan. Less animal fats lead to less cancer, not to mention it’s better for the environment.

Soul Times

Huffington Post

Post Chronicle

Taipei Times

For the record, I am of the opinion that human activity can effect our climate, but I don’t believe we really know what will happen in the future. Irrespective of the science of “global warming”, I see no reason that we human should pollute and use more resources than we need. I think using our resources as efficiently as possible is sound policy. On that basis, I’m promoting the vegan lifestyle as an environmentally friendly and healthy way to live. Once you’re on a low calorie vegan diet, you can’t believe the amount of energy you have!

I found an interesting article in the New York Times discussing “farm” subsidies that greatly effect the price of healthy fresh produce versus unhealthy soft drinks, milk, and meat. While soy is mentioned as a subsidized crop, the article suggests that it’s mainly for fat, not the protein. While I do benefit from the subsidy of soy bean crops, I would gladly pay more for soy products, if it meant the country would pay less for fresh fruit and produce.

Check out the article here: http://www.nytimes.com

My apologies if the New York Times link causes problems.

From the Daily Californian:

http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=24535

“Emily Thurston is a category one cyclist. She is also a vegan.

Thurston, a Berkeley resident, rides with Team Vegan, a Bay Area cycling team working to change a perception that athletes need animal products to perform at their peak. The team, part of the nonprofit organization OrganicAthlete, is the first elite cycling team in the United States whose members exclusively follow a vegan lifestyle…”

One thing I noticed when I became a vegan was an increase in energy and a feeling of “quickness.” This doesn’t surprise me at all.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Jan 28, 2007 5:21 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: New York Times Magazine cover story on nutrition 1/28/07

The cover story of this week’s (January 28) Sunday New York Times Magazine is “The Age of Nutritionism: How Scientists Have Ruined the Way We Eat.” It is by Michael Pollan, the well-known author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and of various other New York Magazine stories on food. Inside, page 39, the article is headed, “Unhappy Meals: Thirty years of nutritional science has made Americans sicker, fatter and less well nourished. A plea for a return to plain old food.”

Pollan opens with:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

“That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.”

Pollan discusses the science of “nutritionism,” writing, “it really wasn’t until late in the 20th century that nutrients managed to push food aside in the popular imagination of what it means to eat.”

(more…)

While I personally go one step further and eat vegan, I thought these stories were interesting. I believe vegetarianism as a “gateway lifestyle” to veganism.

Vegetarian choices offer healthy lesson

Vegetarian diet offers health benefits: Dropping meat from diet not difficult

You can ease into vegetarianism

SMART KIDS GO VEGETARIAN LATER IN LIFE