VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER #56, MARCH 13, 2019

OMNI

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER,

WEDNESDAY (2^ND WEDNESDAYS), MARCH 13, 2019.

Edited by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

Forward this newsletter to help advance vegetarianism and veganism.  Few activities harm animals and their environments more significantly and on more levels of experience (health, ethics, climate) than the production and consumption of food, especially eating meat, or carnivorism/carnism.

To be removed from this mailing, drop me a note unsubscribe.

     OMNI’s MARCH VEGETARIAN/VEGAN POTLUCK (NEWSLETTER #56), is Wednesday, MARCH 13, 2019 (2^ND Wednesdays), at OMNI, Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology.  We start eating at 6:00.      All are welcome. 

      OMNI’s director is Gladys Tiffany.  OMNI is located at 3274 Lee Avenue parallel to N. College southeast of the Village Inn and 2^ND building south of Liquor World.  More information: 935-4422; 442-4600.     Or take College to Harold St (at Flying Burrito), turn east (right if you’re heading north). Go one block to Lee and turn left.  Go one block to Bertha.   We’re the gray brick on the corner, 2nd house south of Liquor World, solar panels on roof! 

La Huerta on College is as good in quality and price as Cici’s though not in quantity since Cici’s is buffet, but it still fills you up.  At La Huerta’s for $6 lunch I had chips and dip, a taco with a guacamole salad, and a large pepper baked with cheese and pinto beans.  La Huerta offers a wide range of vegetarian selections.).

CONTENTS #56

Health and Enjoyment
Why People Become Vegans
Best Vegan Restaurants
Vegan Drinks

No Meat Athlete
     Cookbook, Podcast
      “Protein for Vegetarians”

AETN Vegetarian Programs

Center for Science in the Public Interest, Nutrition Action Newsletter

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Good Medicine

Reducing Cruelty, Protecting Animals
Jacy Reese, Sentience Institute, The End of Animal Farming
Jackie Day, The Vegan Way
Kravitz, “Should Plant-Based Protein Be called ‘Meat.’?”

PETA GLOBAL: ADVANCING THE ANIMAL RIGHTS REVOLUTION (WINTER 2019).

Climate

 

TEXTS

Health

·         From EcoWatch: Why People Become Vegans: The History, Sex and Science of a ... ›

·         From Modern Farmer: 15 of the Best Vegan Restaurants in America - Modern Farmer ›

·         EcoWatch:  8 Festive Vegan Drinks to Keep You Cozy This Winter ›

·         From No Meat Athlete

·         ABOUT

·         COOKBOOK

·         RECIPES

·         PODCAST

“Protein for Vegetarians — A Simple Guide to Getting What You Need”

Written by Matt Frazier.  No Meat Athlete.

Every once in a while when thinking up topics for No Meat Athlete posts, I hit on one that’s so obvious, it’s a joke that I haven’t already written it.

We’ve had protein posts before, like the primer from vegan R.D. Matt Ruscigno.

And I’ve written a few articles about protein myself, but the main one wasn’t a blog post; it’s a lesson in my e-course for newsletter subscribers (join here if you haven’t yet).

But have I really not written a post about where to get your protein? The question that vegetarians get asked more than any other?

Apparently, not yet. So here it is.

First, my standard answer to the question, Where do you get your protein?:

You don’t need as much protein as most people think, and it’s easy to get what you do need from beans, nuts, seeds, grains, soy, and even greens.

So how much protein do you really need?

Not as much as people would have you believe. Somehow, everyone got the idea that we need exorbitant amounts of protein, way more than is even recommended. I know, it’s fun to blame government agencies and cry conspiracy, but if you actually look at the recommendations, they’re not that high at all.

For example, the U.S. recommended daily allowance of protein is .8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight (.36 grams per pound) for the general population.

Athletes need more than that, mostly due to greater tissue-repair needs. But how much more protein do we need as athletes?

Several sources I looked at cited a study which concluded that endurance athletes benefit most from 1.2 to 1.4 daily grams per kilogram of bodyweight, while strength athletes do best with 1.4 to 1.8 grams per kilogram. In pounds, that’s .54 to .63 grams per pound for endurance athletes, .63 to .81 grams per pound for strength athletes.  MORE   

A simple example

Let’s take a typical No Meat Athlete reader and see what this means for her, let’s a say a 140-pound runner. We’ll split the daily protein range for endurance athletes in the middle and aim for .59 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight:

140 pounds * .59 grams/pound = 83 grams of protein per day

Keep in mind that’s for a 140-pound endurance athlete, so you’ll need to plug in your own weight and, if you do a strength sport, use a different protein figure.

But really, only 83 grams?

All of this protein fuss — the incessant inquisition about where we get protein — is about 83 grams per day, even after adjusting for being an athlete? (And if our 140-pound woman weren’t an athlete, she’d need only 50 grams to hit the RDA number!)

What the pros say

Before we move onto good vegan and vegetarian protein sources for getting this amount, let’s take a look at what some well-known and credentialed vegans say about protein.

§  In the documentary Forks Over Knives, China Study author Dr. T. Colin Campbell says that you need 8 to 10 percent of your calories to come from protein. (Keep in mind he’s not necessarily talking about athletes.)

§  Vegan Ironman Brendan Brazier, in his appearance on No Meat Athlete radio (which is coming back soon, by the way!), says he eats about 15 percent protein when training for short events, and close to 20 percent protein during periods of heavy training (several hours per day) for long endurance events.

§  Tim Ferriss writes in The 4-Hour Body that ultrarunner Scott Jurek gets 15 to 20 percent of his calories from protein.

§  Matt Ruscigno, in the post he wrote for No Meat Athlete about vegetarian protein, says he recommends that his athlete clients get 10 to 15 percent of their calories from protein.

Notice that everybody expresses things in percentages rather than grams. How does our 83 grams of protein, for a 140-pound female endurance athlete stack up in terms of percentage of total calories?

Well, the first thing to note is that a gram of protein contains four calories. (Yay for paying attention in health class!) So:

83 grams * 4 calories/gram = 332 calories of protein

We’ll need to divide this figure by total daily calories to get the percentage we’re after. I plugged my imaginary friend’s stats (5’3″, 140 lbs, female, very active) into this basal metabolic rate calculator to approximate her total daily calories at 2375. Drumroll, please …

322 calories of protein / 2375 total calories = 13.6% of calories from protein

You Don't Need Meat
To Get Your Protein!

Download this printable grocery list and learn everything you need to know about becoming a No Meat Athlete!

Not far off from the 15 percent that most of our experts mentioned! Based on all of this, aiming to get 15 percent of your calories from protein seems like a pretty good rule of thumb.

(And by the way, I find using percentages to be a much easier way to evaluate a food’s protein content than grams. See a post I wrote about using protein percentages.)

Where do vegetarians get their protein?

There’s no shortage of lists of high-protein vegan foods floating around. As you might expect, they’re topped by soy products (tempeh is much higher in protein than tofu), seitan, and legumes.

My personal favorite vegan foods for protein, in rough, descending order of how often I eat them, are:

§  Lentils (red are my favorites), 18 grams of protein per cup

§  Chickpeas, 12 grams/cup

§  Tempeh (locally made in Asheville!), 41 grams per cup

§  Black beans, 15 grams per cup

§  Nuts and nut butters (I eat a good mix, usually without peanuts), varied

§  Tofu, 11 grams per 4 ounces

§  Quinoa, 9 grams per cup

§  Other legumes, varied

§  Grains, varied

These protein content numbers come from the Vegetarian Resource Group’s excellent article on vegetarian protein.
MORE    https://www.nomeatathlete.com/where-vegetarians-get-protein/

AETN VEGETARIAN PROGRAMS ON Jan. 5 & 6. 
Laura Theodore, also known as the Jazzy Vegetarian, offered easy, flavorful plant-based meals—pizza, quesadillas, cookies, cupcakes, more and more.  Jan. 5 Jazzy Vegetarian Marathon: Craving for Chocolate, Pasta Love, All American Meal: Burger and Fries, Cookie Monster, Tex-Mex with a Twist, New York, New York, Pizza Party, Bollywood Kitchen, Mexican Style Menu, Delightful Dairy-Free Desserts

Center for Science in the Public Interest publishes Nutrition Action Healthletter.
https://donation.cspinet.org/DA18C

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine promotes good nutrition, preventive medicine, ethical research, and compassionate medical policy.    It publishes Good Medicine.

The Winter number includes:  “Whole Grains Help Protect Against Type 2 Diabetes”; “Carbs and Plant Protein Lead to Weight Loss”; “Doctors Launch ‘Break Up with Bacon’ Campaign” to prevent colon cancer (#BreakUpWith Bacon).    It publishes many books, including The Cheese Trap: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy [and protect cows].

Animals

The End of Animal Farming, Effective Altruism, and the Quest to Expand Our Moral Circle with Jacy Reese

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/episode-forty-two-jacy-reese/

In this episode, I speak with Jacy Reese, co-founder of the Sentience Institute. 
Listen Now

·        

·        

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About Jacy Reese

Jacy Reese is the Research Director of Sentience Institute, a nonprofit think tank researching how social movements succeed in expanding humanity’s moral circle using the perspective of effective altruism. He is currently writing a book, The End of Animal Farming (November 2018), that illuminates humanity’s transition to an animal-free food system.

Why You Should Listen

In this episode, we go deep into some really important issues that I haven’t previously discussed on this podcast, but are all tied to our food system and the future of food

Here’s what we covered:

·         Whether there are technologies being developed, especially genetic engineering tech in animal farming that may prove to be a hindrance to the adoption of clean meat and plant-based proteins

·         What is the role of farm animal advocates when large-scale farming of animals goes away?

·         How to select the best animal charities to donate to. How can people who want to donate their money to charities evaluate the best organizations to support that will most effectively use their money

·         We also get into some amazing research his non-profit has done which found 50 percent of Americans want to ban slaughterhouses.

·         As well as the work he’s doing to expand societies moral circle and what’s the best way to message it to bring about social change. Lastly, we get into how to prepare society for a future with artificial intelligence

Through his work with the Sentience Institute, Jacy has come to the conclusion that we are already on a path towards ending animal farming, and as hard as that may be to believe, once you listen to this episode, you’ll understand why he is probably right.

 

JACKIE DAY AUTHOR OF THE VEGAN WAY

Hello, Kind Ones! I'm so excited! Tonight I'll be on NPR chatting about my book, The Vegan Way: 21 Days to a Happier, Healthier, Plant-Based Lifestyle That Will Transform Your Home, Your Diet and You! If you're in the southwest, please tune in to KTEP 88.5 FM Or, you can just tune in online at KTEP.org at 6:30 PM PST and 9:30 PM EST I was interviewed by an Animal Law Attorney, a Biology Professor and a National Parks Service Ranger. They were ALL so nice! I had a blast! __

Beyond Burgers at Carl's Jr

And did you hear? Carl's Jr. now has Vegan Burgers and Vegan Buns!

I try to avoid fast food

Beyond Burgers at

I’m super happy for those who need something vegan when they are short on time calling for meat.  But
should we be calling these mock meat dishes the same names? A new Missouri law doesn't think so. The state's law, which forbids "misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry," has led to a contentious ethical, legal and linguistic debate. Four organizations—Tofurky, the Good Food Institute, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Animal Legal Defense Fund—are now suing the state on the basis that not only is the law against the U.S. Constitution, but it favors meat producers for unfair market competition.   MORE 
Truthout 

This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by Truthout.
Melissa Kravitz is a writer based in New York. She is a writing fellow at Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She's written for many magazines. She holds a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Columbia University and is also at work on a forthcoming novel. Follow her on Twitter: @melissabethk.

PETA GLOBAL: ADVANCING THE ANIMAL RIGHTS REVOLUTION (WINTER 2019).

“PETA’S Mission: Removing the Hand of Human Tyranny.”  P. 1.
PETA “agrees with philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s words.  It is only “the hand of human tyranny” that prevents animals from being recognized for the unique beings they are.”  (For you admirers of Percy Shelley, British Romantic poet, he was Bentham’s son in law.)
“’Happy’ Turkeys?  Wake Up, Shoppers!” P. 5. 
See eyewitness video at: PETA.org/HeritageTurkeys of cruel treatment at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Kansas.
“PETA Honors Isaac Bashevis Singer: Social Justice and Animal Rights Icon.”  P. 15.
“His life work [was] to write about injustice to all living beings.”  “I did not become a vegetarian for my health.  I did it for the health of the chickens.”
PETA’s Talking Cow Woos Kids with Kindness (and Vegan Ice Cream) P. 16.
“Take Action Now: Help real-life cows escape dairy farm misery by choosing nondairy milks….”

“Kat Claws at Hen Abusers.” P. 23.
“Face it—you can’t claim to be a feminist and still eat eggs.  Animal agriculture is built on the exploitation of females.”

Nathan Owens.  “Tyson Plans Own Plant-Based Foods.”  NADG (2-9-19).
Tyson entering the growing “alternative protein” industry, now $3.7 billion.

Climate

“Climate change: is veganism the answer?”
7 November 2018   https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/news-archive/2018/climate-change-is-veganism-the-answer

One of the main benefits of a vegan diet is the positive impact it can have on the environment. According to researchers at Oxford Martin School, widespread adoption of a meat-free diet could see greenhouse gas emissions drop by 63%, or 70% for a vegan diet. So is veganism really stop climate change?

Climate change and global warming

The temperature of the earth is rising at nearly twice the rate it was 50 years ago, with scientists concluding that this rate and pattern of warming can’t be explained by natural cycles alone. We’re increasingly aware of the impact that fossil fuel emissions have on the planet, but animal agriculture is responsible for at least 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

There are many impacts of farming animals for food – not just greenhouse gases, but land use, water use and global acidification. As Joseph Poore who led the research of a new study by Oxford University said, “Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental problems. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.”

You can find out more about the impacts of global warming in our six scary facts about climate change.

So could going vegan save the planet?

According to the WWF's Livewell report, switching to a vegan diet is one of the biggest ways you can cut your personal carbon emissions - with vegans having the lowest carbon emissions of all dietary types.

If everyone in the world went vegetarian, we could cut our emissions by 60% - this rises to 70% if everyone went vegan.

Are there any other benefits to going vegan?

There are a multitude of reasons to consider changing what we eat, both for the good of the planet and for our own health. Aside from climate change, ditching meat and dairy is a health issue too.

Lead author of the research, Dr Marco Springmann explains, “Imbalanced diets, such as diets low in fruits and vegetables and high in red and processed meat, are responsible for the greatest health burden globally and in most regions.” And the World Cancer Research Fund recommends we “eat no more than moderate amounts of red meat, such as beef, pork and lamb and eat little, if any, processed meat”.

How to go vegan

It can seem a daunting task, as switching to a plant-based diet is a big shift in our well-established routines. The Vegan Society is a great resource for tips on veganism, and their first piece of advice is to take it slow.

You’ll make a difference simply by having at least one meat free day each week, so why not try Meat Free Monday? This simple idea was launched by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney in 2009, and has been gaining in popularity ever since. It’s an easy way to increase the amount of plant-based foods in your diet and can be a stepping stone to a bigger change.

There’s a whole world of vegan recipes to experience, and taking the leap into veganism isn't nearly as scary as the prospect of irreversible damage to our planet.

Find out more about how to go vegan and cut your carbon footprint in half. 

Updated: 8 February 2019

Google Search 3-11-19

Fight Climate Change by Going Vegan | PETA

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/global-warming/

Your source for great-tasting vegan and vegetarian recipes, information on all ... Climate change has been called humankind's greatest challenge and the ...

Climate change: The ideal diet to save the planet in 2019 - CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/plant-based-diet-climate-change.../index.html

Jan 2, 2019 - By filling your plate with plant foods instead of animal foods this year, you can help save the planet.

If we all became vegan tomorrow | New Internationalist

https://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2018/06/06/vegan-climate-carbon

Jun 6, 2018 - If everyone became vegan tomorrow, between 14.5 to 15.6 per cent of ... Climate changedoes not exist outside of our current social, economic, ...

Can vegetarians save the planet? Why campaigns to ban meat send ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/.../can-vegetarians-save-planet-why-campaigns-ban-meat-s...

Aug 6, 2018 - For one thing, it perpetuates a ubiquitous myth in climate change messaging that individual decisions are more important than the actions of ...

Is veganism the answer to climate change? - Irish Times

https://www.irishtimes.com/.../is-veganism-the-answer-to-climate-change-1.3760467

Jan 17, 2019 - The Impossible Burger 2.0, a plant-based vegan burger that tastes like real ... Combining action on climate change with the move to a healthier ...

Why Become A Climate Vegan? - Climate Vegan

https://climatevegan.org/why-become-a-climate-vegan/

The Earth is heading for catastrophic climate change without radical shifts in human behavior. Already, some tipping points are being crossed.

 

CONTENTS VV ACTION, #55, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 12, 2018

https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2018/11/omni-vegetarianvegan-action-newsletter.html

Health
Animals
Climate

CONTENTS: OMNI’s Vegetarian/Vegan Action Newsletter #54,

November 14, 2018

Health, Nutrition

Vegetarian/Vegan Organizations

Vegan Society

Videos

NAVS

Protection of Animals, Empathy, Compassion

Sentience Institute

Jacy Reese, The End of Animal Farming (2018).  “Makes an airtight case that the future is plant-based.” 

Carin Schoppmeyer.  “Society Provides Emergency Aid for Animals: Shelley Steele.”  NADG (11-11-18). 

Climate Chaos: Mitigation and Adaptation

Clint Schnekloth, “Faith Matters: Denial Serves No One.”  NADG (11-10-18).

Cook, We Must Completely Rethink Food Agriculture; the Market System has Failed.

END VEGETARIAN/VEGAN ACTION NEWSLETTER MARCH 13, 2019, #56