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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Cut out the middle-animalVery often I hear or read that we should eat salmon for its
Omega 3 fats, eat eggs for their lutein content, or consume milk for its calcium. Sounds like good advice, until you
learn a few things...
Most of the health benefits that animal products contain are there because those animals
consumed plants. It's the plants that contain antioxidants, fiber and other health benefits - not the animal products.
So why not just eat the plants and get your fiber, nutrients and antioxidants directly from the source? At the same
time you eliminate the components of animal-based foods that negate the health benefits of the plant-derived
ingredients they contain.
Here are a few things to know:
1. The Omega 3 fats in salmon
and other fatty fish is only there because the fish eat micro-algae. It's the micro-algae that contain the healthy
fats we should all be consuming. The lovely pink color of salmon, trout and some other animals comes from astaxanthin
- a carotenoid found in micro-algae. However, most salmon sold today is not wild-salmon - it's farm-raised.
And since these farm-raised fish aren't eating micro-algae, they won't appear pink. So fish farmers supplement
their feed with a petro-chemically derived source of astaxanthin. Yuck! What can you do? You can cut out
the middle-fish and just eat the micro-algae. Taking a vegan DHA supplement is a simple solution. You can
also eat sea vegetables (macro-algae) for their Omega-3 content.
2. Chickens' eggs contain the antioxidant
lutein. Chickens that have been allowed to forage for their food in the wild consume the lutein from eating plant foods.
The eggs you may buy in the supermarket have yolks that are bright yellow because the chicken feed is supplemented with lutein.
If you were to search for good food sources of lutein, you will often find eggs at the top of the list. But factory
farmed chicken eggs contain lutein because it's put there. It's put in the feed the chickens eat. Along
with the artificially supplied lutein, eggs also contain saturated fat and cholesterol. If you get your lutein
from leafy greens - spinach, kale, broccoli, etc., you get all the benefits of the lutein (along with lots of other antioxidants
and phytochemicals) without the bad stuff. What can you do? Eat your greens.
3. Milk - It's
NOT what's good for you. There are plenty of reasons not to drink milk derived from animals. For now I just
want to address the calcium content of milk that the dairy industry and many nutritionists tout to get us to drink it.
In nature cows that are allowed to graze on grass do produce milk that contains calcium. But most milk produced
today comes from cows that are fed grains. The milk from these cows contains calcium because....guess
why??? Because it's put there. The cows' feed is supplemented with calcium. That's why it's there.
Even if you are drinking milk from cows that have been able to eat grass, the calcium in their milk is there because of the
PLANTS that they consumed. What can you do? Eat your greens and/or take a calcium supplement.
What
I want you to get out of this post is that if you just eat the plants and cut out the animal in the middle, you get all
the benefits of the plant food, none of the health risks associated with eating animal-based foods, you benefit the environment
and, of course, reduce animal suffering. And that makes us all feel better.
Inspiration for this blog from
a podcast by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau of Compassionate Cooks.
4:55 pm est
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Christmas CookiesWith two feet of snow on the ground this past Sunday, there wasn't
much to do except either clean or bake cookies for Christmas. Guess which one won out? You guessed it!
It was a no-brainer. No silly...not the cleaning...the cookies!!!
I rarely bake, but when I do I bake
without eggs, dairy or refined sugar. Eggs and dairy are used in recipes to either bind ingredients together, to moisten or
to leaven - all of which don't require animal products. You can easily provide these qualities using other
ingredients - such as soy or rice milk, egg replacer, baking powder and vinegar, banana, silken tofu, apple sauce, and
a few others. Not only will you not miss the eggs and dairy, you won't miss the saturated fat and cholesterol.
You'll be healthier for it, and the environment and the animals will thank you.
But what about sugar?
Well of course, I don't recommend eating sweets on a regular basis no matter what sugar substitute you use. But
IF you're going to make a dessert for a special occasion, then this is the time to use more natural sweeteners.
My favorite all around natural sweetener is brown rice syrup. But you can also try date sugar, barley
malt, stevia, maple syrup and several other natural sweeteners.
I made four different cookie recipes on Sunday.
All the recipes I used were by my favorite chef - Christina Perillo. Here's my favorite cookie recipe from her cookbook
"Christina Cooks - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Whole Foods but Were Afraid to Ask".
Sheila's Lacy Wafers
Ingredients
1/4 cup avocado or light olive oil
1/4 cup brown
rice syrup
1/4 cup barley malt
1/3
cup Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup uncooked quick rolled
oats
1/4 cup very finely chopped almonds or walnut pieces
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla or almond extract chocolate filling
1 cup non-dairy, grain-sweetened chocolate chips
2 teaspoons Suzanne’s Specialties Chocolate Rice Nectar
1/4 cup Pearl Creamy Vanilla Soymilk
Directions
Preheat
oven to 350º and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Place oil, rice
syrup and barley malt in a small saucepan over low heat and cook,
stirring,
until loose. Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl. Stir in flour until smooth. Fold in oats, nuts and extract, mixing
well.
Drop batter, by 1/4-teaspoonfuls onto lined sheet, allowing 2 inches
in between to allow for spreading. Bake until golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Remove from
oven and cool on sheet for 1 minute. Carefully peel cookies from parchment and set
aside to cool.
Prepare the filling by placing chocolate chips in a heat-resistant
bowl. Bring rice syrup and soymilk to a rolling boil over high heat. Pour over chocolate
and whisk until shiny and smooth.
Pair similar sized cookies to make wafers.
Spread the flat side of one cookie with chocolate and press its partner, flat side
to chocolate, making a sandwich. Place on parchment to allow chocolate to set. Repeat
with remaining cookies and chocolate. Makes 30-40 filled cookies.
5:00 pm est
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