Published on Elephant Journal website: "Healthy Vegan Breakfast Ideas to Start the Day off Right"

I recently wrote an article that has been published on the Elephant Journal website. The article is titled "Healthy Vegan Breakfast Ideas to Start the Day off Right"; I hope it helps encourage people to go vegan!

Come on out for Ottawa VegFest 2015!

Hi everyone!
Ottawa VegFest 2015 will be held from 10am to 4pm on June 6th-7th at the RA Centre this year!
For those of you who don't know, Ottawa VegFest is an almost-annual event in Ottawa that celebrates the vegan lifestyle. It is a great event to attend to sample tasty food, converse with the exhibitors, get some free activism material, attend presentations as part of the speaker series, or simply meet like-minded people. Whether you are a vegan or a non-vegan, this event is fun and exciting, useful and informative.
If you live in Ottawa or surrounding areas, I hope you can make it!
Cat

Deb Gleason's Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

Hello!
Have you have ever found yourself feeling frustrated that it's so hard to make a hummus from scratch that actually tastes as good than the store-bought ones? (I know I have felt this way.)
Deb Gleason, a former Homicide Detective who is now a Certified Holistic Nutritionist and a vegan (she went vegan after seeing a film about egg-laying hens on factory farms), may just have found the answer by adding roasted sweet potatoes! :)
I got an e-mail a while ago from her (I'm on her e-mailing list). In the e-mail, she wrote that she had always preferred store-bought hummus over homemade hummus, until she realized that she could use roasted sweet potatoes in the recipe. Now, she makes her hummus at home, and she and others find it even tastier than store-bought hummus!
In fact, my local health food store has even printed out copies of the recipe and set them out for people to take home with them. I haven't tried the recipe yet, but it looks like it's definitely worth trying!
Here is the link to the recipe on her website:
http://www.debgleason.net/roasted-sweet-potato-hummus/

Animal-Rights-Friendly Presents to Give and Recieve

Hi!
Every time Christmas and my birthday approach, I make a wishlist of what presents I'd like to get, since my family asks for ideas of what to get for me. I love the idea of giving and receiving gifts that do good in the world, so I'm planning to ask for some animal-rights-related things on my own next wishlist. If you are making a wishlist for your birthday, Christmas, or another holiday, why not consider asking for a gift that helps the animals, or at least something related to animal rights?
On the other side of things, if you don't know what to get someone else for their birthday or a holiday, you could also consider giving them a gift that "keeps on giving" instead of giving them something that they may never use. (Of course, if you're the one giving the gift and you know the recipient is really never going to use a vegan cookbook or activist material, you might not want to give it to them. That being said, many non-vegans can still use, learn from, and enjoy a vegan cookbook, so whether or not each gift is suitable for a person really depends on the situation and the person.)
Here are some ideas of gifts that you could give or ask for:

• A donation to a charity, such as the Vegan Society.
• A membership to an animal rights or vegan organization, such as your local vegetarian/vegan association, The Vegan Society, or Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine. (Bonus: you may get some cool free stuff when you become a member of some of these organizations.)
• A subscription to a vegan magazine, like VegNews magazine, or one of the other vegan magazines.
• Leaflets, buttons, posters, booklets, pamphlets, brochures, stickers, and other activist material!
• Clothes, lunchbags, mugs, stationery, and bags that have animal rights slogans on them.
• Books/movies to educate yourself or others more in-depth about veganism and animal rights issues.
• A vegan cookbook!
• Other things that will help you with your animal rights activism!

 

If you have any other ideas, feel free to post them below!

Cat

P.S. Have you heard about the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in April/May? I may write more about that another time, but either way, here is the link to the website: http://www.veganbakesale.org/veganbakesale/index.html.

Clearing Some of the Confusion Surrounding Vegan Diets!

A lot of people nowadays seem to be afraid of carbohydrates. Once, when I was taking a "Philosophy and Animal Rights" weeklong mini-course, a fellow student told me that she wouldn't go vegan because "Carbs make you fat."
Other people are less focused on carbs and more focused on "getting enough protein"... They say, "Oh, if you're a vegan, you have to be extra, extra careful to get enough protein!" and "You have to combine your proteins!"
I think that these people are really just mis-educated on nutrition. Here are some facts:

• In reality, carbohydrates from unprocessed, whole-food sources are very healthy! Whole grains, beans, fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables all contain a combination of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. According to Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis, R.D., and Vesanto Melina, M.S., R.D.,
     "Populations consuming animal-centered diets, rich in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates, have high rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic diseases. By contrast, those consuming plant-based diets, rich in carbohydrates, have significantly lower rates of disease." (page 77)
  Of course, whether or not you're a vegan, junk foods such as chips and pop aren't good for you, so it's important to opt for plant-based whole foods such as veggies, fruits, whole grains, etc. instead!
• Most people eating a standard North American diet get about twice as much protein as they need per day! Consuming excess protein, especially from animal sources, can actually lead to health problems.
• As a vegan, it is quite easy to meet and even exceed your daily protein requirements. It is recommended that people get about 10 to 15% of their calories from protein, according to No Meat Athlete. Studies of vegans in the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia over the past 60 years or so have found that vegans get around 11.3-12.2% of their calories from protein. (Source: Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis, R.D., and Vesanto Melina, M.S., R.D.) If you're still worried about getting enough protein, you can consider using a plant-based protein powder, although this shouldn't be necessary for most people.
• As for the protein-combining theory, it's actually not true. As long as you eat a variety of foods throughout the day, you'll be getting a good combination of amino acids-- you don't have to worry about combining your proteins to form a "complete protein" at every meal. (Source: Becoming Vegan)

You can read more about protein in the vegan diet in the book Becoming Vegan or on websites such as VeganHealth.org and Vegetarian Resource Group.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine points out some of the risks of low-carb diets on their website here:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/ffl/newsletter/no-carbs-no-way
And, if you're interested in reading "Five Protein Myths" on PCRM's website, you can read this here: http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/five-protein-myths

If you haven't gone vegan yet, please do so today! Veganism is a compassionate, non-violent choice. It promotes non-violence towards animals, the environment, and your health. You can find information on going vegan at https://www.vegansociety.com/try-vegan/how-go-vegan. You can also read Mercy for Animals' trendy and colourful Vegetarian Starter Guide (if you live in the US, you can order one at http://www.mercyforanimals.org/vegan-starter-kit.aspx, or, if you live outside the US, you can see the PDF online for free at http://www.mercyforanimals.org/VSG.pdf).
And, if you're already a vegan, I hope you can use this information to help others become vegan, too!
Have a nice day, and thanks for reading!

Picture from http://veganfoodpyramid.com/

Vegan Healthy Recipes for the Christmas Season!

The Christmas season is coming up! If you're looking for ideas on cruelty-free, vegan, healthy recipes to prepare for the holidays, here are some ideas!:

• Vegan Christmas recipes (her Christmas recipes are mostly dessert recipes) from Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon: http://ohsheglows.com/categories/recipes-2/holiday/food-christmas/

• Vegan Christmas and Thanksgiving recipes from Dreena Burton's Plant-Powered Kitchen: http://plantpoweredkitchen.com/vegan-thanksgiving-christmas-recipes/

Festive Chickpea Tart from Dreena Burton's Plant-Powered Kitchen
http://plantpoweredkitchen.com/vegan-thanksgiving-christmas-recipes/

• "Top 10 Plant-Based Recipes for Christmas" from Almost Raw Vegan by Catherine Droessler: http://almostrawvegan.com/2013/11/30/plant-based-recipes-for-christmas/

ARV's Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
http://almostrawvegan.com/2011/12/30/gingerbread-cookie-balls-raw-vegan/

• Vegan Christmas recipes from Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine's website: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/recipes/have-yourself-a-healthy-little-christmas

Of course, there are many vegan cookbooks as well as other vegan recipes online that you could look at, too.

Here are some of my previous blog posts on having an animal-friendly, Earth-friendly, vegan Christmas. I hope you find them helpful!:

"Animal- and Eco-Friendly Christmas Ideas!":
http://theanimalrightsactionsite.blogspot.ca/2013/12/animal-and-eco-friendly-christmas-ideas.html

"Healthy Vegan Desserts Just in Time for the Holidays!": http://theanimalrightsactionsite.blogspot.ca/2013/12/healthy-vegan-desserts-just-in-time-for.html

"Vegan on Christmas": http://theanimalrightsactionsite.blogspot.ca/2012/11/vegan-on-christmas.html

"Action VI: The Animal-Friendly Christmas": http://theanimalrightsactionsite.blogspot.ca/2011/12/action-vi-animal-friendly-christmas.html

"Surviving Non-Vegan Meals with Family and Friends": http://theanimalrightsactionsite.blogspot.ca/2012/07/surviving-non-vegan-meals-with-family.html

Happy Holidays!

What is the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine?

Hello everyone,
Today I'm going to talk about the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine, also known as PCRM.
PCRM is an organization of doctors, dieticians, and other health care professionals. The organization promotes a healthy diet as a way to prevent diseases; it advocates for ending the use of animals used in medical research; and it does its own studies on nutrition. It is a big proponent of vegan diets and abolishing animal testing!
I learned about PCRM quite a while ago, but I have renewed interest in it now, since Dr. Neal Barnard, the president of PCRM, was one of the speakers at the Food Revolution Summit. The interview with him was particularly interesting.
Whether or not you are a health care professional, PCRM is a valuable resource for information on nutrition as well as animal experimentation and alternatives. Among MANY other things, they even provide their own Vegetarian Starter Kit which gives tips on following a plant-based diet. (It does NOT advocate for the consumption of eggs and dairy, by the way.) There are lots of posters and brochures that they have up on their website, too.
Their online store has a great selection of books, other literature, DVDs, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and posters. (The Cancer Survivor's Guide can even be downloaded for free!) Here are pictures of some of the book covers you can find (but there are more than just these ones!):

If you sign up for their e-newsletter, you can also opt to receive other news from them as well, such as Breaking News Alerts, Food for Life Recipe of the Week, Information on PCRM's Campaigns and Programs, and more! I've already signed up, and I've been getting informative and useful e-mails in my inbox ever since.

I highly recommend that you check out their website, which can be found at www.pcrm.org.

Here are links to some specific pages on their website:

• vegetarian and vegan diets: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/ 
• animals in medical research: http://www.pcrm.org/research/.

Have a nice week!
Soon, I'll put up another philosophical post... so stay tuned!
Cat

The Oh She Glows Cookbook

Hello everyone!
A while ago, I did a brief post recommending that you all check out OhSheGlows.com, a vegan recipe blog by Angela Liddon. Recently, Angela has prepared a cookbook-- called The Oh She Glows Cookbook-- featuring some of her best recipes, and it'll come out on March 4, 2014!


Canadian version of the cover of the book. Image from www.ohsheglows.com

American version of the book cover! Image from www.bookdepository.com

According to her website,

"The Oh She Glows Cookbook features a treasure trove of more than 100 mouth-watering, wholesome recipes—from revamped classics that even meat-eaters will love, to fresh and inventive dishes –all packed with flavor. From rich and hearty entrées like the Crowd Pleasing Tex Mex Casserole and 15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta to decadent desserts like the Chilled Chocolate Espresso Torte with Hazelnut Crust and Angela’s famous Glo Bakery Glo Bars, there is something for everyone. Featuring over 100 full-colour photographs shot by Angela herself, there is mouth-watering inspiration throughout!
This cookbook also includes many allergy-friendly recipes–with over 90 gluten-free recipes–and many recipes free of soy, nuts, sugar, and grains too!
Whether you are a vegan, “vegan-curious”, or you simply want to eat delicious food that just happens to be healthy too, this cookbook is a must-have for anyone who longs to eat well, feel great, and simply glow!"

OhSheGlows.com is a great website (despite the blog name, you don't have to be a "she" to love the recipes, of course).
If you'd like to pre-order or buy her book, please head on over to http://ohsheglows.com/the-book/. Or, to simply see many of her recipes for free, you can go to www.OhSheGlows.com.

Veganism and Calcium

Dear Cat,
I am SO confused about the whole Calcium absorption "thing"!
I always thought that one got a lot of calcium from dairy products, and not so much from vegetables, fruit, beans etc.  However, I've read more recently that you do absorb calcium from veg etc., and I've even read that you don't actually absorb a lot of calcium from dairy products.  I am quite confused, and I'm wondering if you have knowledge in this area!  Do vegans have a main source of calcium?  I seem to remember that kale has calcium, but do we actually absorb much of it?  (I do love kale!)
Thanks,
Sincerely, but confusedly,
A.M.

Dear A.M.,
Thank you for your e-mail!
According to Brenda Davis, R.D., and Vesanto Melina, M.S., R.D., in their book Becoming Vegan, dairy is acidifying to the body. When you ingest dairy products, your body will try to compensate for this increased acidity by drawing calcium from your bones (because calcium is alkaline) in order to protect your blood pH from changing (the pH of your blood has to stay about the same at all times). Therefore, even though dairy products do contain a lot of calcium, it is essentially useless for your body, because the dairy products themselves require a large amount of calcium just for you to digest them. The same goes for meat-- actually, meat has an even more acidifying effect than dairy does. Protein powders also have been shown to draw calcium from the bones. As a matter of fact, protein in general is supposedly acidifying-- and when you consider that most Americans and Western Europeans consume one-and-a-half to two times the daily recommended amount of protein (according to WebMD.com), it becomes clear why osteoporosis is a major concern in these countries.
Some vegan health experts claim that excess protein does not contribute to osteoporosis. Regardless of whose theory is correct, however, there is still compelling evidence that people who consume dairy products have higher rates of osteoporosis:

Dr. T. Colin Cambell says: "Americans consume more cow's milk and its products per person than most populations in the world. So Americans should have wonderfully strong bones, right? Unfortunately not. A recent study showed that American women aged fifty and older have one of the highest rates of hip fractures in the world. The only countries with higher rates are in Europe and in the South Pacific (Australia and New Zealand) where they consume even more milk than the United States."
Source: The China Study, 204 (quote sourced from http://www.vegparadise.com/calcium.html)

Rich sources of calcium for vegans include calcium-fortified soy milk and juice, calcium-set tofu, soybeans and soynuts, black beans, bok choy, broccoli, collards, Chinese cabbage, kale, mustard greens, okra, and blackstrap molasses. Note that spinach, beet greens, and Swiss Chard did not make it onto this list, since they are high in compounds called oxalates, which inhibit calcium absorption. These are still healthy foods, of course, but they can't be relied on to provide a significant source of calcium throughout the day.
According to a website called Ellen's Kitchen,  "A recent study compared the absorption of calcium from kale with the absorption from milk revealing absorption of calcium from kale was 40.9%, compared with 32.1% from milk." It appears that kale does have a good absorption level, after all.
Jack Norris, R.D., writes on his website VeganHealth.org that:

Studies have shown that calcium in fortified soymilk, bok choy, kale, and mustard greens is absorbed well.

Based on oxalate levels, the calcium in turnip greens, watercress, and broccoli should also be absorbed well.

Based on oxalate levels, the calcium in collards should be absorbed moderately well.

Studies have shown that the calcium in spinach and rhubarb is not absorbed well.

Based on oxalate levels, the calcium in beet greens and swiss chard should not be absorbed well. (Source: http://veganhealth.org/articles/bones#caabsor)

Infographic derived from MindBodyGreen.com

Kale is yummy! Oh She Glow's famous Green Monster Smoothie is delicious when made with kale or spinach. You can find the recipe for the Classic Green Monster here: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/13/classic-green-monster/. In my opinion, however, the most delicious way to eat kale is in the form of raw vegan kale chips-- in particular, Raw Mountain's Fresh Bruschetta kale chips, which can be purchased online or bought from health food stores in Ottawa (I'm not sure how many stores stock them, although I know that Rainbow Foods on Richmond Road does).
Books such as Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina or Becoming Raw by the same authors can provide more detailed information on how much calcium is contained in each food. In general, however, consuming either fortified non-dairy beverages OR lots of dark green leafy vegetables (such as kale) can help make sure that you're getting sufficient calcium (but it might be useful to count up how much calcium you're getting over the course of a few days, just to make sure!).
Thanks again for your question! I'm happy to answer people's questions about veganism or animal rights. I have done a lot of research on these topics over the years, and, of course, I have personal experience with veganism, too. Any of my blog readers can simply send me an e-mail at rabbit-cat[at]vegemail[dot]com and ask away!

Cat

Healthy Vegan Desserts Just in Time for the Holidays!

Hi everyone,
Now that Christmas is approaching, lots of people are getting ready to cook, bake, and prepare food items for Christmas parties and potlucks. Vegans can use this opportunity to explore new vegan recipes and share them with others as well. (Doesn't it feel great to give meat-eaters some healthy vegan food and watch their faces light up as they eat it? They might not pledge to stop eating animal flesh on the spot, but at least it helps them realize that vegan food isn't disgusting, or weird, or boring. And it also hopefully means that they'll eat less animal products, because they're filling themselves up on your vegan treats instead.)
There's a great healthy-dessert blog out there called Chocolate Covered Katie. All the recipes on Katie's site are vegan (Katie is a vegan because she cares about animals and her health), and the recipes are generally healthier than most dessert recipes. Healthy doesn't mean boring, though-- they look really tasty, too!
Here's an example of one of her healthier-looking recipes:



They're called "Mexican Chocolate No-Bake Cookies". You can find the recipe at http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2013/12/19/mexican-chocolate-bake-cookies/

And here's another one:


Fairytale Fruit and Yoghurt Smoothies (using vegan yoghurt, of course!): http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2013/05/17/fairytale-fruit-yogurt-smoothie-flavors/ 

And since this is supposed to be about vegan recipes in time for the holidays, here's a recipe for Healthy Eggnog (without the eggs): http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/12/06/healthy-eggnog/




http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/12/06/healthy-eggnog/

 

And Gingerbread Breakfast Cereal:



http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/12/19/gingerbread-breakfast-cereal/

 

Wow, that's a lot of recipes already. If you want to see even more (note: many of her recipes are actually much richer than the ones I've posted above-- she's got recipes for chocolate frosting in a glass, brownies and cakes, as well!), you can go to www.ChocolateCoveredKatie.com, or, for more holiday recipes, you can look here: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/?s=christmas.

 

Happy holidays, everyone!

"Free-Range" Farming: NOT Compassionate

Many people claim that "free-range" or "organic" milk and eggs are okay to consume, becuase the animals were treated "fairly" on "small-scale" farms. If you have been duped by these labels, please think again. "Free-range farming" is simply a deceptive label meant to reduce the guilt of people who don't want to give up the milk and eggs that they grew up consuming.
What business do we humans have in restraining, killing, raping (also known as "artificially inseminating"), and exploiting animals just so that we can eat chicken's periods (eggs) and cow's breast milk? It's not only gross; it's also totally inhumane and cruel.
Please watch this video explaining some of the horrors that a group of "free-range" hens had to endure (don't worry, it's not a violent video, so even sensitive people will probably be able to watch it):


If you haven't gone vegan yet, please do so. There are plenty of good resources out there to help you get started, such as these ones:

• www.VeganKit.com (a good online starter guide to veganism)
• www.VeganSociety.com/become-vegan (another online veganism starter guide)
• www.OhSheGlows.com (a blog filled with healthy vegan recipes)
• www.HappyHerbivore.com/recipes/ (another blog filled with healthy vegan recipes)
• www.KissMyVegan.blogspot.ca (another vegan blog!)
• and much much more! Don't feel stuck; just do a Google search for more information on nutrition, health, books, blogs, organizations, and more. Veganism isn't hard, and it opens up your life to so many interesting and fun foods and recipes.

Nobody who has a choice of what they can eat has any excuse to eat animal products. Remember to watch the video above and share it with anyone who needs to see it.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!



Photo Courtesy of KissMyVegan.blogspot.ca

Vegan Thanksgiving and Halloween!

Thanksgiving

Here in Canada, Thanksgiving is tomorrow! For Thanksgiving dinner, many people go to family parties that unfortunately often involve a killed and cooked turkey and other non-vegan foods, such as gravy, mashed potatoes with milk, etc. If the other attendees/hosts are not vegans or even vegetarians, you might be worried about what you'll eat and how you'll cope!
I had my Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, and I can assure you that your fears are probably unfounded. I brought my own main dish-- Eden rice and beans-- and I brought vegetables for the potluck, so I could have those, too.
Although every family is different, many of you probably won't have to worry about being criticized for your vegan lifestyle. More and more people are following "special" diets nowadays, so it has become pretty commonplace for people to eat different things at parties.
In fact, if you are going to a Thanksgiving potluck party, you could even try promoting veganism-- bring a delicious vegan dish to the party, for instance, for everyone to try. Or, if you're hosting a party, make all the dishes yourself so that it'll all be vegan. This will help people understand just how easy and tasty it is to be a vegan!
If you're seriously worried about how you'll cope with your family and friends at parties involving food, see my post, "Surviving Non-Vegan Meals with Family and Friends".

Halloween

Granted, most of you probably don't go trick-or-treating anymore. But there are still lots of occasions when food might become an issue on Halloween-- for example, if you want to hand out candy at the door of your house or if you're going to/hosting a Halloween party.
Although some sites claim that many conventional candies are vegan, these "foods" often contain truly unhealthy ingredients that no kid should be eating. They also may contain sugar that's been processed with animal bone char.
There are some specialty vegan Halloween candies (made with much healthier ingredients!) that you can hand out instead. Here is a list of some of them:

• Sweet and Sara Marshmallows
• Go Max Go Candy Bars
• Panda Licorice
• Surf Sweets Gummy Candies

If you're going to or hosting a Halloween party, never fear! Just make one of these vegan Halloween-themed recipes (http://www.care2.com/causes/11-vegan-treats-for-kids-and-parties-this-halloween.html) for a frightfully good treat!

Happy celebrating!

Healthy Quick Vegan Food Combos

Hi there,
I've been experimenting with simple vegan food combinations recently. They can be quite handy when you're looking for a quick snack. Here are some of my favourites (you can adapt them as you wish, of course!):

• Chickpeas + Tomato Paste or Tomato Sauce (not ketchup!) + Cooked Broccoli Pieces= Tasty Protein-Rich Pasta Sauce!
• Mix them together at whatever ratios to suit your fancy.
• Steamed Eggplant Slices + Dried Ground Ginger + Peanut Butter = Delicious Appetizers!
• Sprinkle the ginger on and spread the peanut butter on (in whatever order you want).
• Eat with a fork and knife, or with your fingers if you're so inclined.
• 1 c. Kale + 1 c. Almond Milk + 1 Banana = Green Smoothie!
• Put them all together in a blender.
• For more green smoothies, see Angela Liddon's Oh She Glows.
• Rice Cakes + Flaxseed Oil = Rice Cakes with Flaxseed Oil on Top! (I know, uncreative name, but oh well.)
• Garden Salad + Dried Goji Berries = Healthy Fruit and Vegetable Salad!

What vegan food combos do you find delicious?

Vegan Athletics!

Hey everyone,
Since we already know that a vegan diet can allow people to be very healthy and active, it doesn't come as a surprise that there are many vegan professional and hobby athletes out there. Today I'm going to talk about how to be the best vegan athlete you can be! :)

Brendan Brazier
Almost every vegan athlete has heard of Brendan Brazier, "a former professional Ironman triathlete and two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion. He is now a successful performance nutrition consultant, the bestselling author of the Thrive book series and formulator of the award-winning line of plant-based Vega nutritional products." (Source). He lives in North Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada.
His resources are fantastic place to start if you're looking to learn more about maximizing your athletic performance, or just feeling healthier.
He has a free online "course" called Thrive Forward. It's quite good if your looking for quick info on vegan health that relates to your specific issues. He has also written books on vegan athletic health:

• The Thrive Diet: The Whole Foods Way to Losing Weight, Reducing Stress, and Staying Healthy for Life (Penguin, 2007)
• Thrive Fitness: Mental and Physical Strength for Life (Penguin, 2009)
• Whole Foods to Thrive: Nutrient-Dense, Plant-Based Recipes for Peak Health (Penguin, 2011)

The titles are slightly different in the U.S. You can get more info on his website: http://myvega.com/team/brendan-brazier/
As mentioned above, he has a line of products called Vega (only in the United States and Canada), which are nutritional supplements/shakes/protein powders/etc. I've been using the Vega One nutritional shake every day for the past few weeks, and it has totally improved my health in so many ways. It contains 50% of your RDA of many vitamins and minerals, though, so you probably shouldn't use it if you have an overdose of a specific mineral or vitamin. (And it's expensive.) You can figure out whether it is the right choice for you. Here is the website: http://myvega.com/
(UPDATE: A lot of people have found this product to cause them sometimes severe digestive problems. I stopped taking it recently because of this; I recommend using other products that you can take for vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, instead. However, reading his books or using the course may still provide valuable information, since it does not demand that you use his product. In fact, I recently took out The Thrive Diet from the library, and it looks like a really good book-- not just for losing weight or for athletes, but for everyone looking to be healthy!)


Brendan Brazier. Photo Courtesy of Thrive Forward

Vegan Athlete Inspiration!
If you want to see examples of successful vegan athletes, just head on over to http://www.greatveganathletes.com/ and bask in the awesome vegan-ness of it all!

No Meat Athlete
The No Meat Athlete website is about vegetarian running. It isn't solely vegan (which I'm not too happy about), but a lot of the recipes and tips are perfect for vegans and vegetarians alike, so it's a great resource for you to use (just don't be tempted by the non-vegan recipes, please!). Matt Frazier, the author of the website, is a vegetarian ultramarathoner. He's written a book called No Meat Athlete, and his website provides a lot of other resources for vegans and vegetarians. Surf his spiffy-looking website to learn more!


Bye for now!

New Topic Ideas + Oh She Glows + Almost Raw Vegan

Hi, all my blog readers!
I'm looking for new topic ideas. What sort of things do YOU want me to discuss on my blog? Do you want more vegan recipes and lifestyle, more philosophy, more action tips, or something else? Please fill out the poll to your right (it will be up until July 30, 2013), or, even better, give your ideas in the comments section below.
Two websites that I've found recently that I wanted to share with you:

Oh She Glows

I've recently discovered a website/blog called Oh She Glows, documenting Angela Liddon's journey into good health. (And, in case you weren't sure, Angela is a vegan.) There are LOADS of good recipes on her blog, including the Green Monster smoothies, and many gluten-free/raw recipes that I plan to try. She also has a page titled, "My Vegan Pantry", in which she shows you all the different foods she keeps in her pantry. I highly recommend that you check it out.
Angela also provides a great deal of other information regarding veganism, and she also includes her own personal experiences and stories about diet, fitness, and overall happiness throughout her website. Having risen above an eating disorder that she struggled with for much of her life, her blog truly is a celebration of health, happiness, and vegan food! See her website at www.ohsheglows.com.

Almost Raw Vegan

Almost Raw Vegan is Catherine Droessler's website/blog in which she discusses vegan food (all her food is vegan, but not all of it is raw, hence the title "Almost Raw Vegan"). She provides lots of recipes and information on veganism and the raw foods diet. It's a pretty cool website to explore. Raw diets don't work for everyone, but going "almost raw" certainly helped her recover her health, and raw foods are definitely healthy! Her website is http://almostrawvegan.com/.

See you next week, and remember to do the poll on the right hand side of my blog soon!

Delicious Vegan Baking for All Levels

Vegan baking is easy. You don't have to get a special cookbook or buy any weird ingredients to make delicious vegan cookies, muffins, brownies, breads, or cakes (although you can if you want, of course). You can just take any old non-vegan recipe and use the following substitutions:
If the recipe calls for...

• 1 egg: replace with 1-4 tbsp applesauce (depending on sweetness of recipe), or 1 tbsp ground flax seeds mixed with 1/4 cup water, or 1/2 large banana, or 2 tbsp cornstarch, or (if the baked good is supposed to be light and fluffy) 1/4 cup soy milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice. If the recipe calls for more eggs, just use more of the replacing ingredient. Sometimes, you can even get away with just omitting the eggs with no replacement, depending on the recipe.
• milk: replace with soy milk, almond milk, or another kind of non-dairy milk. (If the recipe calls for 2% milk, you should probably make sure your non-dairy milk contains fat, which will make it more creamy.)
• honey: replace with agave nectar, maple syrup, date syrup, brown rice syrup, or golden syrup. Keep in mind that some maple syrups made by small producers may have been processed using bacon strips hanging over the pot, which prevents frothing while the syrup is being boiled.
• butter or margarine: replace with vegan margarine (not all margarines are vegan!) (Earth Balance is one company that provides 100% vegan products, including margarines. Becel also provides a vegan margarine option at many stores, including my local grocery stores.)

For more comprehensive information, you can visit The Vegan Wolf website, http://www.veganwolf.com/vegan_cooking_substitutions.htm, or Savvy Vegetarian, http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-cooking/vegan-baking-substitutions.php. The latter contains a lot of info on the best ways to replace eggs in recipes.
If you'd like special vegan cookbooks, never fear! There are loads of awesome vegan cookbooks out there. For example, you could get the vegan cookbook Veganomicon, which contains recipes for yourself on a casual day and for special days when company comes over. There are many more cookbooks, too. Look around!
Online, you can head over to the following websites:

• VegWeb: www.vegweb.com
• The Vegan Chef: http://veganchef.com/
• Fatfree Vegan: http://fatfreevegan.com/
• Gone Raw: http://www.goneraw.com/
• The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur: http://thevegancookieconnoisseur.com/

Photo Courtesy of The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur (see link above)

Until next week!

Vegan Smoothies for the Summer

I know, I know. I was going to post the next part in my philosophy and animal rights series, but I was at an exciting and exhausting forum in Toronto yesterday, so I don't really feel like philosophizing. Instead, I'll write about vegan smoothies. :)
Smoothies are incredibly easy to make. You don't always need a food processor to make a smoothie-- a simple hand blender or egg beater can work, or even a fork if you are using mushy ingredients (like bananas).
I like simple foods and easy preparation, so I typically have something like this:

Simple Vanilla-Banana Soy Shake\
Ingredients:

• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 banana
• any flavouring you'd like (optional)

Put in a medium-sized cup or glass, blend with a hand blender and enjoy! (Sometimes I substitute the vanilla soy milk for chocolate soy milk. It is also very good.)

However, there are plenty of other great recipes that you can use for a bit of variety. I look forward to making one or both of these when I have the time and ingredients:

"Green Goddess Smoothie" from alive magazine
Ingredients:

• 1/2 Granny Smith apple, diced
• 1 cup packed chopped kale
• 1/4 cup packed parsley
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup coconut water

"Place all ingredients in blender and blend until very smooth." -alive

And:

Mango Banana Smoothie, edited version of recipe from VegWeb.com

Ingredients: 

• 1 to 1-1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
• 15 oz. mango pulp (organic) or 1 to 1-1/2 fresh mangos
• 3 bananas (organic)
• 8-10 ice cubes

"Chop bananas and, if using fresh mangos, chop mangos.
Mix all ingredients in blender and blend till smooth. Will be ready from blender because of ice.
(optional: add about 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon for extra kick)." -VegWeb.com
Serves 3-6.
(Note: the original recipe called for a bit of sugar, but I took that out. Why would anyone want to ruin a good smoothie with refined sugar???)

You can always make your own vegan smoothie recipes, as well. It's simple. According to alive magazine, there are five categories of foods you should consider putting in your smoothie:
1) Fruits and/or vegetables (I recommend bananas, mango, blueberries, and pineapple. Kale, Swiss chard, and spinach seem to be good choices for vegetables)
2) Liquid (you could use water, juice, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, etc.)
3) Thickener (including bananas, coconut meat, oats, vegan yoghurt, ice, or even nut butters!)
4) Flavour (sweeteners like maple syrup, agave nectar, dates, stevia, and coconut nectar; spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg; vanilla/peppermint/almond extract; fresh herbs like mint, parsley, and cilantro.)
5) Nutrition booster (such as vegan protein powder (Vega is a good one), chia seeds, flax seeds, goji berries, etc.)
You don't have to add all these elements into your smoothie. You could just pick one or two and experiment with it, if you'd like.

If you want to veganize your friends and relatives, try blending them a nice, cool smoothie on a hot summer day. Even if they don't go vegan because of it, they'll still enjoy a cruelty-free snack that opens their mind to the idea of veganism. It all does add up, since the vegan smoothie that they enjoyed replaced the non-vegan snack that they might have eaten.
And besides, who doesn't love to drink smoothies?

Exposing the Truths Behind Foie Gras

Foie gras, is, literally translated from French, "fat liver". It is a "delicacy" from France which comes from the fattened liver of ducks and geese. In fact, the birds must be fattened to such an unnatural degree that many of them actually die of ruptured internal organs.
According to Natural News (click here for the link) "farmers have to gorge ducks and geese with ghastly amounts of corn feed administered through a force-feeding tube, which causes the birds' livers to artificially expand in size, and may cause them severe pain and distress."
The birds' livers swell up to 10 times their normal size, making it difficult for them to stand, walk, or breathe.
This barbaric process first began when Romans and Egyptians noticed that the liver of geese tasted better right before the birds migrated (which was the time when the birds gorged themselves with food to store up enough fat for the long flight ahead). However, people started feeding birds much more food than was natural even at their migratory times, trying to exaggerate the taste. Over time, the modern foie gras industry took hold, probably much to the delight of gourmet foodies, yet to the horror of animal welfare advocates, (I don't think animal rights existed much back then).

Logo for www.nofoiegras.org

But there is hope. A quick Yahoo! search for "duck meat and foie gras" revealed that four of the ten results on the first page were indeed from animal rights and welfare organizations. No longer is foie gras simply a delicacy enjoyed in gourmet kitchens-- it is a hot topic that will hopefully open the doors to better animal treatment everywhere.
Here are some things you can do to help end this cruelty:
1) Don't serve or eat foie gras! Recommend that people, restaurants, etc. eat vegan "faux gras" instead of foie gras. "Faux gras" (which, oddly enough, translates into "fake fat" from French) can be made of mushrooms, vegetables, spices, and other ingredients. You can find recipes here: http://www.nofoiegras.org/fauxGras.html. However, you don't really need to have something that tastes like duck/goose liver anyway, do you?
2) Spread the word-- foie gras is the product of evil! (Oh, don't look at me like that. Force-feeding animals food, making them grotesquely uncomfortable, and hardly caring when their organs explode is evil.)
3) Get people to go vegan, and, if you haven't already, go vegan yourself. Vegans won't even consider eating foie gras, because it simply isn't vegan. So, the more vegans you convert, the less animal suffering in general! Yay!
Any ideas about what I ought to talk about next week? If not, it'll be a surprise! I have a few ideas swimming around in the back of my head...

Vegan Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Muffins

A few days ago my aunt Jen sent me a Sweet Potato Muffins recipe that she got from a book called Finally... Food I Can Eat! by Shirley Plant. I want to post it here on my blog. Here is the recipe as she sent it to me. Enjoy!



Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

"page 186
Sweet Potato Muffins:

(I doubled this recipe)

3/4 cup chickpea flour (I didn't have any, so used quinoa flour)
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup potato starch (I didn't have any, so used green pea flour)
2 tblsp. ground hemp seed (I didn't have any, so used ground flax seeds)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all dry ingredients together.

1 and 1/2 cups mashed cooked sweet potato (I didn't have enough already cooked, so used some canned plain pumpkin, too)
1 tsp. pure vanilla
1/3 cup canola oil or safflower oil (I didn't have any, so used grapeseed oil)
1/3 cup organic coconut milk
1/4 cup maple syrup (I didn't have any, so used agave syrup)
1/2 cup pecans (I am off nuts,so didn't use any)

Mix wet ingredients, and add to dry ingredients. Mix well.

Fill muffin tins, and bake 350F for twenty five minutes (Or until done).

With all my changes. these muffins are heavy and dense, so are probably best done in smallish muffin cups. But the flavour is divine. Oh yes, I also added about 1/4 cup of candied orange peel that I had leftover from my Christmas baking. Yum!!"
Next week, I'm going to be talking about something extra special, but that super-special topic has currently slipped my mind, so it will be a surprise for all of us!

Vegan and Non-Vegan Microingredients

So I've finally taken that picture of Christofer Drew off the sidebar. It's about time, admittedly!
This week I'm finally getting around to writing my post about microingredients and hidden ingredients, which are both a concern for vegans. Here's a quick description of the two terms. When I say...

1. microingredients, I mean those obscure-sounding ingredients listed at the bottom of the ingredients label of a food product (such as calcium chloride, sulfites, etc.)
2. hidden ingredients, I mean the ingredients used in processing a product (which may or may not be in the final product) that (gasp) aren't listed on the label at all (yes, it does happen!).

Which of these should you care about, and how can you figure out whether or not your food really is vegan, then? This is the question that I hope to answer in this post.

Microingredients
When it comes to microingredients, I recommend being as diligently vegan as possible. If you don't know where an ingredient comes from, for example, look it up! I am by no means an Internet worshipper, but I have got to admit that the Internet is a great tool for this. You can use Vegan Peace's Ingredients List as a resource, which is a great website that lists a great deal of ingredients and states where they come from, as well as whether they are suitable for vegans. I have found this an incredibly helpful website over the years.

Hidden Ingredients
Hidden ingredients can be found in flour and sugar among other things.
Flour may be sometimes treated with a "treatment agent" called L-Cysteine, which can come from animal feathers and human hair. This may or may not be true; it's hard to tell. You can learn more about L-Cysteine in a forum at http://www.veganforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3402.html. (Read the fourth post down to find the part on L-Cysteine-- apparently it isn't listed in the ingredients list because it isn't actually present in the finished product.) Now, you might decide that this is not a big deal, and eat flour anyway. After all, it is hard to avoid flour in your foods, and I don't know whether or not "flour" includes all the kinds of flour, including gluten-free ones. However, I find it repulsive that people might be putting derivatives from feathers in my food. Because of this, I don't eat flour. (This is the reason why The Great International Vegan Soup Competition is a soup contest, as opposed to a sandwich contest.) If you feel uncomfortable with eating possible animal products but you don't want to stop eating flour and bread, contact the bread and/or flour company to ask them. Also keep in mind that enriched flour may contain nutrients that are animal-derived.
Sugar sometimes is refined using animal bone char. In Canada, the sugar companies Redpath and Lantic do not do this, however. (My mom contacted the company and asked them.) I suggest avoiding other brands of sugar until you get a chance to contact the company. Again, though, when it comes to this sort of thing, there is more of an ambiguous grey area where you can decide what's important and what isn't. For interest's sake, I do avoid sugar that may be processed with animal products.
Don't become too obsessive over hidden ingredients. True, some company may use a bunch of weird chemicals and ingredients behind the scenes and then not tell you. This could, indeed, be happening with more products than just flour and sugar, but you can't stop eating for the sake of complete personal purity. Veganism is a lifestyle, not a death-style.

My best advice is to read the ingredients label, look up ingredients if you don't know what they are, and contact the company for flour and sugar. This isn't supposed to be extremely hard. If you go out to a vegan restaurant and they tell you it's vegan, you should just beleive them, and the same goes for when you buy a food that says that its vegan on the label.

Speaking of food, The Great International Vegan Soup Competition soups are being made in my kitchen over the week! I've already made one, and it was delicious, but I won't tell you which one it was... yet. I've got to make them all first, and then rate them.

Come back soon for the winners of the contest!