IVU Online News

2013-05 IVU News

on 18 April 2013

Venue Chosen for 2013 IVU World Vegfest
Feeding Vegetarian Infants
Don’t Despair
Don’t Exaggerate
Powerful New 1min VideoAlzheimer’s
Interview on Vegan Health
Vegetarian Blogs
This Month’s HCYKTASEM
Book News
Upcoming Events
Other Online Sources of Veg News
Please Send News to IVU Online News

Venue Chosen for 2013 IVU World Vegfest

Take an online look around the venue for the 41st IVU World Vegfest. This event is scheduled to open on Thursday, 3 October, in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, at the Putra World Trade Centre in the heart of Kuala Lumpur: www.pwtc.com.my

A range of accommodation will be available close by. Details of registration and booking soon. Malaysia’s Minister of Health, a vegetarian, has kindly agreed to be Patron for the event.

- and don't forget the call for speakers:
worldvegfest.org/.../malaysia-2013-call-for-speakers

41st IVU World Vegfest overview:
worldvegfest.org/.../malaysia-2013/overview

- and tell us you're going on the Facebook event page:
www.facebook.com/events/438459709549857

Feeding Vegetarian Infants

Here’s a recent 2-page publication of the Vegetarian Nutrition practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: vegetariannutrition.net/...Infants.pdf

And, here, from the publication, is a Sample Menu for an 11-month old Vegan Infant

Breakfast: 1/4 cup iron- and zinc-fortified infant cereal, 6 oz breast milk

Snack: 1/4 slice whole wheat bread

Lunch: 1/4 cup tofu cubes, 2 tbsp steamed chopped kale, 2 tbsp applesauce, 2 tbsp brown rice, 2 tbsp mashed avocado, 6 oz breast milk

Dinner: 1/4 cup iron- and zinc-fortified infant cereal, 6 oz breast milk, 2 tbsp mashed lentils, 2 tbsp mashed carrots, 2 tbsp mashed banana

Snack: 6 oz breast milk

Don’t Despair

Here is some advice from Zoe Weil, the president of the Institute for Humane Education, found at care2.com/.../4-ways-to-overcome-despair

Maybe the advice will come in handy one blue day.

I don’t know many activists or changemakers who don’t sometimes feel sad. The more we expose ourselves to exploitation and cruelty toward people and animals; the more we learn about climate change and the rapid extinction of species; the more we see corruption in politics and greed in business, the greater the likelihood that despair will creep in.

Some turn their despair outward into rage, which can too often damage relationships, turn off potential allies, promote polarization, and thereby prevent solutions. Some find that despair leads to depression, undermining action, which can turn into a positive feedback loop: more despair leading to more depression leading to less action leading to more despair.

To face and overcome the periodic despair I feel, I have found four things that work well for me. I hope they’re helpful for you:

1. Act. As Joan Baez once said, “Action is the antidote to despair.” If you despair about a problem or crisis in the world, do something. Choose actions that will lead to positive, sustainable, lasting solutions; that use your best skills; and that you enjoy doing. You’ll find friends and support in the process; see the positive effects of your efforts, and feel buoyed by the capacity of action to create change.

2. Rejuvenate: Get outside and feed your soul with the beauty of this extraordinary planet. Sleep under the stars. Walk in the woods. Grab a pair of binoculars and a magnifying glass and look closely at the amazing world into which we are so blessed to have been born. Play with friends and family. Make joyful, awe-inspiring, and belly-laughing experiences part of every week, if not every day.

3. Remember: Keep the long view in mind. Humans do not have the capacity to destroy this planet. We may make a mess of things; we may take down half of all species on Earth; we may cause tremendous suffering; we may make ourselves extinct; but we cannot put an end to the grand unfolding of Earth. It will eventually recover from whatever we do, as it has from every massive die off in its 4 billion year history. When I remember this, I’m more able to act with serenity.

4. Read Steven Pinker’s book, The Better Angels of Our Nature. This exhaustively researched book provides ample evidence that we are living in less violent and less discriminatory times than ever before in recorded human history. It’s a fascinating, thought-provoking, and soothing tome that proves Martin Luther King, Jr.’s belief that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

Don’t Exaggerate

It is tempting to exaggerate both about the ills of meat consumption and the benefits of plant based diets. Below is an excerpt from a discussion of the matter in a Vegan Outreach publication. You can read more here:
whyveganoutreach/.../jon-on-honesty-and-trust.html

This whole issue of trust reminded me of an interaction I had last week. I did an online Q and A, and a fellow vegan criticized me for admitting that before being a healthy vegan, I was a healthy meat-eater. I guess I was supposed to say that I was in the hospital, on my last breath, and then I found veganism. I'll now live to be 150 years old (minimum). But I think that when we just speak honestly, more people will hear us out. We've got a compelling enough case that we don't need to exaggerate the truth. We're trying to have a long and extended dialogue with society, and the thoughtful individuals we're trying to convince aren't dupes. When we concede to one point, the other will often concede to another point, and will then give us more attention.

Powerful New 1min Video

The organisation, Mercy for Animals, has produced a number of powerful short videos that bring to life the horrors of animal based foods. Here’s another. In this one, the processed meat tries to persuade a restaurant customer not to eat it. The customer listens but then starts to eat the sausage anyway. Watch what happens when the customer takes a bite.
charity-pay.com/mfa/madsausage.asp

Alzheimer’s

We have all heard evidence linking animal based food with lethal health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and some cancers. What is somewhat new is that evidence is mounting on the ways that plant based diets may also protect us against Alzheimer’s.

This video shows a tv interview in which Dr Neil Barnard of Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine explains these connections:
vegsource.com/.../dr-barnard-on-dr-oz-preventing-alzheimers-is-easy#

Free to IVU Member Orgs: Dr Greger’s Latest Video

Dr Michael Greger, Director, Public Health and Animal Agriculture, Humane Society of the United States, has released another volume of his Latest in Nutrition series: nutritionfacts.org/.../new-dvd-to-help-spring-clean-your-diet

As always, all the proceeds receive from the sale of the DVDs go to charity. As before, Dr Greger is happy to send a copy of his new DVD free of charge to IVU member organizations--just email him your mailing address at . Hundreds of his nutrition videos are freely available at NutritionFacts.org, with new videos uploaded every week. Subscribe to his videos for free at bit.ly/nutritionfactsupdates

Interview on Vegan Health

The entire interview can be read at veganviews.org.uk/.. jacknorris-ginnymessina

Below is an excerpt.

What do you consider to be the chief ‘take home’ message of Vegan for Life?

Jack Norris: For years, the mantra in the vegan community was that plants contain all the necessary nutrients for good health with the implication being that all you had to do was eat a variety of plant foods and you'd be just dandy. The message of Vegan for Life is: "Not so fast - there's more to it than that."

Ginny Messina: Yes, I think this sums up the message pretty well. There is a little bit of a learning curve when it comes to healthy eating. That’s true for any kind of diet, of course.

IVU Editor’s note: By the way, Jack Norris also helped to start PeaCounter.com: Meal Planning & Nutrition Analysis, No registration needed to look up the nutrient amounts as listed by the USDA Nutrient Database for specific foods, l the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for a given nutrient, calculate caloric requirements, physical activity level, and body mass index (BMI), convert measurements for height, weight, vitamin D, cholesterol, vitamin B12, energy, ideal body weight, BMI and more.

Vegetarian Blogs

Here is one organisation’s 2012 list of the Top 50 Vegetarian Blogs: psychologyofeating.com/50-top-vegan-blogs

If your favourite blog is not on this list, and you think it might be of interest beyond where you live, please send the url and a brief description of the blog and why you like it to us here at IVU Online News, and we’ll be happy to help publicise it.

This Month’s HCYKTASEM

Sometimes, the simple story of how one individual came to move away from meat can be more powerful than pages of statistics and a 1.5 hour video of images. Father Frank Mann is a Catholic priest in New York City.

In this 6 minute video, he tells his story: youtube.com/watch?v=4ekOPyXGs3Q

Book News

Oranges: A Global History
by Clarissa Hyman.

Reaktion Books, 2013, 152pp, 56 illustrations, 36 in colour; hardback, £9-99. ISBN 978 1 78023 099 3.

In Oranges: A Global History, award-winning food writer Clarissa Hyman traces the history, cultivation, uses and cultural significance of the orange, the world’s second most commonly cultivated fruit, eclipsed only by the banana.

Oranges are, in fact, a hybrid of two citrus species, the pomelo and the mandarin, and can be divided into sour or bitter oranges (Citrus aurantium) and sweet oranges (C. sinensis), the latter including ‘common’ oranges, bland sugar/acidless oranges, navel oranges with their embryonic fruit-within-a-fruit, and blood oranges which have the highest vitamin C content of all. Although sour oranges are used as rootstock and for marmalade production (Seville oranges being the principal variety), sweet oranges are the most widely grown and used.

From their origins in South-East Asia, oranges are now mostly grown in Brazil (which accounts for around 85 per cent of global exports and is the world’s largest producer of orange juice), the USA (mainly in Florida and California) and in the Mediterranean region. Indeed, they can be grown anywhere where the trees can be protected from frost, which explains the former popularity of orangeries in the stately homes of northern Europe, the most famous being the 1,200 orange trees grown in silver tubs at Versailles for French King Louis XIV. Nearly 200 years earlier in 1483, Louis XI of France (1423-83) magnanimously presented sweet oranges from Provence to St Francis of Paola (1416-1507) as a gift ‘for the holy man who eats neither fish nor meat’. Other, less saintly aficionados included the French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre (1758-94) whose appetite for oranges was “practically insatiable”, and the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin who ostensibly lived his final years as a fruitarian (well, he was certainly as nutty as a fruit cake!) and was nicknamed ‘Dr Jaffa’ because of his love of oranges.

Most of the world’s orange harvest is consumed as juice, but as Clarissa Hyman warns, orange juice, including ‘not-from-concentrate’ juice, can be highly processed. As she rightly points out, “fruit is meant to be eaten whole, and oranges provide more nutrition, including fibre, than (orange) juice”. Organic oranges “have been shown to contain up to 30 per cent more vitamin C than those grown conventionally”, and Fairtrade oranges offer the best deal for producers in an industry noted for its exploitation of migrant workers. A ridiculously short chapter on marmalade (surely worth more than three pages) and a selection of recipes, about half of which are vegetarian-friendly, close the book. In summary, Oranges is like its subject matter, tasty and refreshing, but leaving the reader wanting rather more.

Paul Appleby, April 2013

1st International Veggie Pride - 18 May, 2013, Geneva, Switzerland - www.veggiepride.org

World Weeks for the Abolition of Meat - 18-26 May and 21-29 September, 2013 - various locations - www.meat-abolition.org/en/wwam

11th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics - ‘The ethics of consumption’ - 11-14 September, 2013, Uppsala, Sweden - www.slu.se/eursafe2013

India Vegan Festival - 27-29 September, 2013 -.Details of the venue and programs will be soon available at www.indianvegansociety.com

41st IVU World Vegfest and 6th Asian Vegetarian Congress – 3-7 & 8-9 October 2013, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia - www.vegetariansocietymalaysia.org

5th China Xiamen International Vegetarian Food Fair, Oct 10-13, 2013 - www.whatsonxiamen.com/event3235.html

Other Online Sources of Veg News

In addition to IVU Online News, there are many other places to go online for general veg-related news, rather than news mostly about one country or one organisation. Here are some.

1. European Vegetarian Union www.evana.org
2. Meatout Mondays www.meatoutmondays.org
3. Vegan Outreach www.veganoutreach.org/enewsletter
4. VegE-News www.vege-news.com
5. VegNews www.vegnews.com
6. VegSource www.vegsource.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi
7. AnimalConcerns.org doesn't have a newsletter, but they post stories daily at www.animalconcerns.org/categories.html
8. Vegan.com www.vegan.com
9. IVU-Veg-News E-Mail List www.ivu.org/news/veg-news
10. Vegetarianism in the News www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=928

IVU Online News – May 2013