health – Vegans.UK

Confusion between clean eating and veganism

September 18, 2017 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

People don’t go vegan for health reasons. You may be saying ‘What? Of course they do!’ Ok, let me clarify: people may go plant based for their health originally and then go vegan (and stay vegan) because they discover the ethical angle. Veganism is a belief system, not a diet. Obviously diet forms a large part of that belief system, but vegans don’t use or support the exploitation of animals, for any purpose.

The reason I’m writing this article is that there seems to be a lot of confusion over motivation at the moment. Diet fads are forever detailed in the press (think the Atkins Diet, the Paleo diet and more recently, clean eating). Even veganism is sometimes written about as a ‘food trend.’ I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for ‘the rise of veganism’ – an upward trend in the number of people who go vegan. However, the word trend sometimes suggests that it’s temporary. The vast majority of those who go vegan and stay vegan do so for ethical reasons. As I said, those who go plant based for health reasons sometimes realise what they’re doing with diet is part of a larger movement. The vegan movement supports both non-human and human animals and helps them to live better lives. It goes without saying that we also benefit our environment hugely.

Eating cupcakes is just as vegan as eating a salad

I have been known to roll my eyes at those who think that all vegans have to be health conscious. I mean, it’s perfectly possible to be incredibly healthy on a vegan diet, as countless athletes have proven and a whole foods, plant based diet is the healthiest one there is. However, the term vegan refers to those who choose not to support the humiliation, exploitation, torture and killing of innocent animals – and you can do that perfectly well whilst eating a cupcake.

One doesn’t eat leather, or ingest duck down or consume wool. You can’t munch on a circus or chow down on a zoo. It’s also notoriously difficult to scoff a horse race. Sadly, animal abuse doesn’t end with eating them.

You don't eat vegan sporrans — You don’t eat vegan sporrans

As for those who say they won’t go vegan because they don’t want to eat processed foods, my jaw drops every time I hear that one. Do they have no idea how much processing meat, milk and egg products go through before they reach the supermarket shelves? Some seem to imagine that a burger made from plants is ‘unnatural’ where as one made from a cow’s butt couldn’t be more pure. What utter nonsense. They seem to dismiss the antibiotics that are pumped into animals reared for meat; the hormones that rage inside two thirds of dairy cows at any one time (because they’re pregnant) and therefore make it into the milk humans consume; the colouring that is added to salmon to make it look pink; the water injected into chickens to make them heavier (as they’re sold by weight); and don’t even get me started on bacon.

And because you can squish up some plants to make a burger or use coconut oil to make vegan cheese, or mix water with almonds to make milk, this is seen as worse processing than additives the used in sausages which are known carcinogens?

Health and veganism are connected, in that having a whole foods, plant based diet (along with regular exercise and mindfulness) is your best chance of leading a long and healthy life. However, veganism is an ethical choice and non-human animals must be at the centre of it.

Veganism isn't just about diet — Veganism isn’t just about diet

Suffering is important and we must do all we can to keep it to a minimum. We can certainly do ourselves a favour by keeping to a healthy weight and eating well, but to say that veganism is all about health is wrong.

Vegan donuts by the fab Considerit Chocolate

So the next time I’m challenged while eating a vegan donut by someone who thinks it’s ‘not very vegan’ of me, I’ll say ‘of course it is’, because nobody had to suffer to produce it. Go vegan and nobody gets hurt.

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell

February 3, 2017 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

People become vegan for all sorts of reasons, the main three being: for the animals (me); for the environment, and for personal health. This last one is often mocked by the omnis as they see vegetarians, never mind vegans, as being weak and ill. For some reason if a vegan falls ill it’s because of their diet. However if someone who eats seventeen bacon butties a week has a heart condition – that’s genetic.

This book studies the science of nutrition and how it relates to health. It’s not a strictly vegan book in that it does document some experiments that were carried out on mice, but it certainly advocates a plant-based diet. Now, as we know, veganism is about much more than diet. It’s a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, animal products and animal exploitation from our lives. It’s not flippant to say though that diet is central to this lifestyle. And while you can rightly argue that a vegan diet based on whole foods is the healthiest one out there, it can be an uphill battle as mainstream media, the government and the food industry all seem to be doing their best to convince us otherwise.

The China Study is not only the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted (as it says on the cover) but it’s also a look at why the information that’s been discovered isn’t more widely known. The author, T. Colin Campbell, was brought up on a dairy farm and grew up to be one of the most respected medical professionals in the world. I find this important, because all too often we are told by farmers that we simply ‘don’t understand’ farming and are their enemies. And yet here is a farm boy who ate meat, milk and eggs and when he learned of how damaging they can be, changed his diet.

The research that has gone into this book and T. Colin Campbell’s career in general is incredibly extensive. When he found that some of the top killers in the western world (including diabetes, cancer and heart disease/stroke) could not only be prevented and treated but reversed by this diet, he was askance at how governments acted. Sitting on some of the top health panels in the country, he was agressively bullied and stopped from giving out the correct nutrition information. The power that agribusiness and the food industry have over the government is, quite frankly, frightening.

There are so many conflicting messages out there surrounding diet and health that it’s very easy to get confused. In The China Study we are given comprehensive information about the thousands of studies that show a whole foods, plant based diet is by far the best one for optimum health. The China Study itself tracked the diet and health of those living in rural China who consumed mainly vegetables and had very little in the way of meat and processed food. Even allowing for many other mitigating factors including racial difference, exercise levels and environment, they showed little to no signs of the diseases that kill most of us here in the west.

There’s lots of information in this book and it’s a bit of a tome, but I found it absorbing and endlessly interesting. If anyone asks you for scientific evidence that vegan is best, give them this! (A revised and expanded addition is now available.)

Highly Recommended

How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger with Gene Stone

July 25, 2016 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

Many of you will be familiar with NutritionFacts.org but for those who aren’t, I’ll fill you in. It’s a fantastic resource for those who want to learn about the connection between food and health. Dr. Michael Greger and his team sift through all the papers published in English about nutrition, then present the salient points in the form of short, digestible (sorry…) videos. These videos are uploaded most days and by now there’s one on just about every subject regarding health and nutrition that you can think of. Dr. Greger has consolidated all he’s learned and put it into a book which, although it won’t help you live forever, will certainly help you avoid unnecessary illness and many of the leading causes of death.

Plant fats are healthier than animal fats

How Not to Die is split into two parts. The first part deals with factual research on the top fifteen ways people die and how you can reduce your likelihood of falling victim to them. Everything from heart disease, diabetes and cancer are covered along with illnesses you may not necessarily equate with diet, such as kidney disease, depression and Parkinson’s. Everything is fully referenced and each section has either a personal story or case study along with fascinating data that’s explained intelligently but accessibly. It’s all incredibly detailed, but never boring, and there’s lots of extra information in the boxed text – everything from the top sources of anti-oxidants to how much sleep you should be getting. It’s thoroughly inspiring stuff and leaves you feeling in control of your own health. It seems the more research is done, the more we realise that developing disease has far more to do with our lifestyle choices (of which diet is of course a huge part) than our genes.

The second part is headed up ‘Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen’ outlining the foods you should be eating each day for good health. It’s the culmination of years of experience and is a regimen that the good doctor and his family follows. The author does many talks both for lay people and health professionals and is always being asked what he eats. A whole food (that means as unprocessed as possible) plant based (no animal products) diet is by far the best for humans and is the only diet to have halted and reversed diabetes and heart disease. The list of foods include beans and berries, other fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices. It also suggests daily exercise, as this is known to ward off not only osteoporosis, but also breast cancer and a host of other maladies.

Everyone knows that for good health they should cut back on meat and up their fruit and vegetable intake as well as exercise more. This book takes things a stage further. It clarifies what you should be eating, what foods to avoid and gives the hard science to back it all up. The nonsense we’ve been fed by the food industry and drug companies has gone on long enough. Here is an evidence based instruction manual on how to eat well and stay well.

Nuts and seeds should form part of a healthy diet

Highly recommended.

Buy the book here.

Crussh – Kensington Olympia, London

July 22, 2015 by Tofu Temptress Leave a Comment

Well, there I was, sweating away at the London Film and Comic Con (you weren’t expecting that were you?) when I realised I needed nourishment. I’d had Pizza Express on the previous day, which is fine and has at least one fully vegan pizza (it is so refreshing not to have to say ‘Can I have this, but without that, and maybe replaced by this other thing instead, blah, blah, blah…’) so I was resigning myself to having another filling, if not overly healthy lunch at the Kensington Olympia. Then, as I emerged from a crush between a life-sized Lego Batman and a sweaty Wonder Woman (don’t ask) an oasis of health greeted my eyes.

Before me lay a health food-style takeaway called Crussh. Their salads looked healthy from afar, but would they be filling? Their sandwiches looked tempting, but would they all have chicken and fish in them? They also had snacks, but would the crisps contain the dreaded milk? Well, I needn’t have worried, because although there was a bit of tuna around and some cheesy crisps, most of their offerings were at least vegetarian and there was a good choice for the hungry vegan.

They called their salads ‘healthpots’ as well they might. There was a red kale, quinoa and french lentil one, a butterbean, cherry tomato and parsley one and a char-grilled cauliflower, pomegranate with tahini dressing one, as well as other healthful options like the superfoods healthpot or the detox healthpot.

vegan sandwich - hurray! — vegan sandwich – hurray!

All very tempting, but I wanted a sandwich. It is so incredibly rare to encounter a vegan sandwich in one of these fast food places that I simply had to experience the novelty. I went for the Veggie 5-a-day sandwich, which had houmous, avocado, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, beansprouts and spinach. I must say it was really tasty. I added some Kettle chips, of which there was a good vegan choice and finished things off with a Nakd bar, yum. But what to drink? I try to avoid cola and such things, but wanted something more exciting than water which I’d been chugging down all day (it really was crowded and hot in there.)

There was a staggering array of fresh made juices, so I decided to splash out on a ‘love juice’ which, despite the dodgy name, was pretty lovely. It was basically just blended fruit although I think their menu on this occasion was an ‘events’ menu and not their run of the mill one. Beware smoothies as it seems milk is in all of them. Beware also their add-ons such as boosters and wheatgrass, as strangely some appear not to be vegan, but there is a fine selection of vegan-friendly juices.

I was very happy with my choice of lunch and even went back later on for a snack as they had plenty of muesli bars, crisps, popcorn and so on to keep me going when I was flagging. It wasn’t cheap, but what sandwich bar is? It was simply nice to encounter somewhere that knows what a vegan is. Everything of their own production was clearly labelled with a ‘Ve’ symbol for ease of choosing and their processed offerings were labelled as you would expect in a shop. All in all a tasty, hassle-free experience. Who could ask for more?

looks healthy, doesn't it? — looks healthy, doesn’t it?

Crussh stores are all over London, so if you’re a local check them out.

For anyone visiting the capital, they will provide an oasis of veganness (is that a word?) and a welcome break from whatever boring meeting, crowded visitor attraction or um, massive space full of Boba Fett impersonators that you might be attending.

Animal Testing

February 6, 2015 by Tofu Temptress 1 Comment

When I was a kid in the eighties, the anti-vivisection lobby was quite trendy. Everyone I knew bought their cosmetics and toiletries from The Body Shop as they were against animal testing (unfortunately these days they’re owned by L’Oreal) and those who broke into laboratories to liberate bunnies were heroes. Off colour jokes were made about smoking Beagles as Jason and Kylie blasted out of the radio. Then after that I think everyone, in Britain anyway, thought that animal testing had been given up to make way for kinder, more modern methods of safety testing. I hate to say it, but it was as recently as 2013 when Europe decided to make the testing of cosmetics on animals illegal, but only for new products. That means there’s still plenty of shampoos, eye shadows and hairsprays on the market that have been tested on the aforementioned bunnies. The BUAV have a campaign going on at the moment to ban the testing of household products on animals. Even though the current government pledged to dramatically reduce the number of animal experiments, they seem to have forgotten all about it.

A happy bunny – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

So what’s happening? Well, good question. There are many companies, including the Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, who have had cruelty free cosmetics for a number of years and cruelty free household products are available from many supermarkets as well as online. Fine. So it’ll just be a matter of time in Europe before all the old, cruel products become obsolete and the companies that produce them will have to think of other methods of testing when they want to wow us with new products. Well, yes and no. There are loopholes in the legislation and also cosmetics companies who want to sell to China have to, under Chinese law, test everything on animals. So, it’s complicated.

Ok, you say, so if I’m a conscientious shopper I can obtain all my beauty products guilt free in the UK. True, but what about medicine? This has always been a sore point, as it is the law in the UK that you have to test any new drug on a non-human animal i.e. someone who has a working respiratory and cardiovascular system who won’t sue you if things go awry. Again, during my youth, as I was known to be an ‘animal rights sympathiser’ against the cruelty of animal research, and even teachers used to challenge me ‘What if the only way to find out if a drug was safe was to test it on an animal? What if that drug were to cure a disease you’re Mum or Dad had?’ Yes, my teachers were delightful.( It’s almost on a par with any question a vegan is asked that begins with ‘If you were on a desert island…’) The truth is that if the horrid business of animal testing were reliable, we’d have a real debate on our hands, but the fact is that it’s not.

Beagles are still used in experiments – Jo-Anne McArthur/We animals

Let’s take penicillin for example. Alexander Fleming originally tested the drug on rabbits and found it to be ineffective. (He may have thrown away the idea if he’d tested it on guinea pigs or hamsters, as it’s fatal to them.) However he was forced to try it on a very sick human patient as there were no alternatives. Here’s a direct quote from the co-discoverer and manufacturer of penicillin, who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts, “How fortunate we didn’t have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, and possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized.” Now think about that for a while.

There are countless examples of animal experiments either delaying the release of an important drug (eg. muscle relaxants for general anaesthesia, organ rejection inhibitors, beta-blockers, pace-makers and heart valves amongst others) or of a drug testing as hunky-dory in animal toxicity tests and then going on to blind, injure or kill humans (eg. a first polio vaccine, thalidomide, ADHD medication, asbestos, smoking and countless others). So where does that leave us?

Well, happily, there are several charities lobbying against animal experimentation and some that even conduct human relevant research using modern techniques that mean no suffering to any animal, human or non-human. This research includes everything from skin sensitivities to leukaemia and diabetes, and is widely endorsed by patients, even those with very serious illnesses. New discoveries are being made all the time, without the use of rats, mice, rabbits, monkeys or dogs (yes, it is still legal in Britain to subject Beagles to all sorts of horrors). And as for the question as to whether I’d endorse animal experiments to save a relative or indeed myself, well, there are far more effective methods these days and I’d rather they were used. After all, we cured cancer in mice years ago…