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In an interview, Woelk told a London Daily Mail reporter, "It was all vegetarian, the most delicious fresh things, from asparagus to peppers and peas, served with rice and salads. It was arranged on one plate, just as it was served to him." Read More
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Once again, let me say it up front---when it comes to our food system, Mark Bittman is the most knowledgeable journalist on the planet. He totally "gets it" about the health, environmental and sustainability issues. But like all other journalists, he doesn't take a stand; he provides no leadership, he is not a role model himself and he is inconsistent.
In his New Years Day article, Fixing Our Food Problem (see link below), he does a magnificent job of describing the problem but comes up way short when describing a viable solution. Here's what he had to say about the problem:
Nothing affects public health in the United States more than food. Gun violence kills tens of thousands of Americans a year. Heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes kill more than a million people a year — nearly half of all deaths — and diet is a root cause of many of those diseases.
And the root of that dangerous diet is our system of hyper-industrial agriculture, the kind that uses 10 times as much energy as it produces.
- Mark covers ALL of the food issues---including the needless suffering of billions of animals.
We must figure out a way to un-invent this food system. It’s been a major contributor to climate change, spawned the obesity crisis, poisoned countless volumes of land and water, wasted energy, tortured billions of animals… I could go on. The point is that “sustainability” is not only possible but essential: only by saving the earth can we save ourselves, and vice versa.
Blogging daily at hpjmh.com...from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.
—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation
The Doctors Who Say Everything You Know About Cholesterol Is Wrong
That was the title of the lead segment of the Dr. Oz show on 12-11-12. While he occasionally presents some very helpful information (See my "home run" blog below), his typical audience has no idea what to believe. That's because the information presented on Tuesday is likely to be contradicted a few days later.
But let's not blame Dr. Oz. We must understand that he is in the entertainment business---not the health-promotion business. If he just talked about healthy stuff, his show would be cancelled in less than a month.
But the sad part of this story is that millions of Americans take everything they hear on his show as fact---and that could sometimes be hazardous to their health. Confusion over clarity is not good for promoting health. But it is good for making money.
So what about this new book, The Great Cholesterol Myth? Dr. Oz interviewed the two authors, a cardiologist and a doctor of nutrition and simply asked them questions. From their book's description on Amazon, here are a few examples of things that Jonny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra covered in the interview. Click here to continue reading this article, which includes a comment by Dr. T. Colin Campbell.
Blogging daily at hpjmh.com...from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.
—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation
Any dietitian examining the nutritional data available on your website would be quite alarmed. The hot dog and Polish sausage measure in at 540 to 570 calories. There are approximately 240 calories in a 20-ounce soda. Get a refill and the meal will add up to over 1000 calories. Add some French fries that clock in at 870 calories and you've eaten a day's worth of calories in one meal. And people wonder why they're gaining weight.
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"You have some lovely dandelions," said my mother. "Yes," I thought, "the yard is full of them." "So, do you mind if I pick some for lunch?"But Mom would be proud of me now. I've discovered the joys of harvesting wild greens in my own backyard.
Chewing it over
Since I got braces, I can't indulge in my usual crunchy carrots, apples, or even a basic lettuce salad. I believe that food is best eaten in its natural state, but I've had to compromise on this one.
I got apple back on the menu in the mornings by processing a couple with a soft banana and eating the result like a lumpy pudding. That way, I still get the fiber as well as the juice. And then I remembered green smoothies.
I can eat so much bitter raw nutritious green stuff, with pleasure, combined with sweet fruit like apples, bananas, and oranges. I used storebought cabbage and garden kale and parsley. And when those started to run out, I looked outside the garden box and saw those lovely dandelions. Thanks Mom!
I can harvest a couple of cups full of dandelion greens any morning I choose - easily equal to a package of greens from the store. And I finally remembered I have mint growing wild in the backyard. It's not just good for free tea, it's a nutritious yummy green leaf.
As our local vegan nutrition expert said in our last Vegan 101 class, the biggest problem with greens in your diet...is eating them.
More wild greens
Resources for learning about gathering wild greens are as common as weeds - there's even one for New Zealand. Hey, we've even got puwha growing in the shady spots!
Would you ever gather your backyard bounty?
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Expectations are high for holiday meals. From Thanksgiving through Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Years - and all the parties and house guests in between - vegans may wonder how to satisfy friends, family, and co-workers while staying animal-free at the table. Health conscious eaters may be resigned to fatty, salty foods that lead to weight gain, heartburn, and a rush of guilt on New Year's Day.
Enter Zel Allen with her original, satisfying, healthy recipes in Vegan For the Holidays. Zel, a cofounder of the popular site Vegetarians in Paradise, includes whole food, plant-based holiday recipes that will satisfy everyone who tastes them.
After a short discussion of each seasonal holiday, Zel offers a variety of ideas for a complete meal, from appetizers and soup through main dishes, side dishes, and dessert. Her use of spices is masterful. She includes suggestions for pretty garnishes to make the dishes visually appealing. Pages of beautiful color photos of many of the recipes show better than any words how stunning this food is.
Take a Culinary Holiday Journey
Some recipes are quick and simple, while others require the concentration and time you'd expect for the most special dinner of the year. In every case, Zel uses ingredients that are easy to shop for. Her instructions are clear and complete.
You can use Vegan For the Holidays as your guide for a culinary journey through November and December. Not familiar with Kwanzaa traditions? Plunge into the Kwanzaa recipes, such as Curried Pumpkin-Peanut Soup or Okra Creole. Want to celebrate a couple of the eight nights of Hanukkah? Try Mushroom-Barley Cholent, Carrot and Sweet Potato Tzimmes, or Beet Latkes. With such tempting recipes, you might end up cooking every night and beyond.
In fact, many of the Vegan For the Holidays recipe ingredients are available all winter. So don't put the book aside right after your New Year's celebration with New Year Logs in Spicy Pecan Gremolata. Keep on enjoying through the spring.
Married to the Same Man More Than a Half Century
I spoke with Zel, who has lived in California since the age of ten, about her background and how she came to write Vegan For the Holidays.
Here is the rest of Zel's story and links to three of her delicious holiday recipes
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It's cool to get braces when you're old, because:
I expected teeth too sore to chew hard or sticky foods, and to look strange.
I didn't expect cheeks so scraped by the braces that it hurts to suck down soft food. Or smile. Or talk. Apparently, it should get better...any day now.
Anyway, I can't chew. So I here's my chance to experiment with vegan astronaut food! The old-fashioned kind sucked out of a foil baggie, not the new gourmet style going to Mars.
So What Can I Eat?
Here's what braces-wearers can't eat. As a vegan, I won't be chewing meat off the bone any time soon. And while I enjoy chewy candies, it doesn't cramp my style much to avoid them.
But I can't eat a crunchy juicy apple or carrot! Right now I can't even bite a soft banana, because that knocks off the wax that stops the braces from shredding my cheeks into streaming ulcers.
My vegan astronaut diet so far 
So far, pretty OK?
Well, last night we had Chinese food to celebrate my son's cross-country run. Rather, they had Chinese food. I had pumpkin and potato soup (thanks Mom!), kumara, and mashed potatoes blended with cooked broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, and cabbage.
(The olive is food styling - but I did manage to gum it down)
I have a whole lot of this. I think I'll thin it as soup next time, for an exciting taste sensation.
And one night I blended tomato, lettuce, and carrot into mashed potatoes and refried beans for a complete nutritious astronaut meal.
The top reason braces are cool when you're old
Alcohol is liquid - and legal!
Presenting... the braces!
I can't even bite my back teeth together yet, so I'm in this for the long haul.
I wonder what blended Chinese food tastes like?
Please post your favourite vegan astronaut recipes.
]]>Real world studies of what people eat show, over and over again, that if you consume whole grains you will be healthier and thinner. Yet outlandish statements in the popular media, and even “nutrition” books, may keep you from 
enjoying and benefitting from these most basic of all foods. When you know the facts, you won’t deprive yourself.
Whole grains are seeds. You might hear silly statements such as “Whole grains are not healthy, but quinoa is because it’s a seed.” If you hear anything like this, you know whoever is telling you knows zero about plants or nutrition, and you can boost your health by tuning out.
Another mundane myth is that people did not start to eat whole grains until these plants were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Why would people have gone to all the trouble of deliberately cultivating a plant that they never ate before? Were our ancestors that misguided? The truth is that people ate wild grain seeds long before they started to plant them. In some parts of the world, wild grains still mingle with the domesticated in the fields.
In contrast to refined grains that dominate profitable refined products, whole grain foods contain all parts of the seed. These include the outer protective skin (bran), tiny baby plant ready to sprout (the germ), and food to nourish the baby plant until it can produce its own (endosperm). Refined grain foods are generally made only from the endosperm. Choosing a refined grain product over its whole grain equivalent is like turning away a $100 bill in favor of a $1. Why would you do this?
The health benefits of whole grains are undeniable, which does not stop competing interests, which would rather see you eat meat and dairy, from denying them.
Click here to learn about the health benefits of whole grains, see wheat and rice growing, and link to recipes with whole grains
]]>Not only don't you need oil to make a delicious salad dressing, you don't need nuts or seeds either! :) This dressing takes minutes to make and you can easily change the flavor by using different mustards or substituting lime or even orange juice for the lemon juice. We love it on our salads but it is also great as a dip on steamed artichokes. You can subsitute whole pitted dates for the date syrup but then you would have to use a blender. You can buy organic date syrup at Amazon and at www.ilovedatelady.com.
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