Thursday, May 22, 2008

Oprah & veganism

Our list of upcoming events is here. Scroll down this page for more information.

I'm not sure if it is this black and white, but wow, it looks like Oprah Winfrey is giving veganism a good try. Check her official blog for Sunday, where she kind of hints at being vegan for ethical reasons:
Conscious eater. That struck a nerve. I had recently come to the conclusion that after spending weeks reading and rereading A New Earth and being on line with Eckhart Tolle that bringing a higher level of awareness to my eating was the solution I'd been avoiding. My idea of a conscious eater, however, was not quite the same as Kathy's.

I thought it meant not allowing yourself to eat emotionally and filling the void of anxiety with food, as I've struggled with for years. I thought it meant taking your time, making healthy choices and chewing slowly—being conscious of every bite and not scarfing down a meal and then thinking about the next one.

That is one level of consciousness. But what she talks about in her book is a higher level. She speaks of "spiritual integrity." How can you say you're trying to spiritually evolve, without even a thought about what happens to the animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony?

So this 21-day cleanse gives me a chance to think about it differently and see what my attachments are to certain kinds of foods—and what I'm willing to do to change.


And... check her blog entry for Monday, when she actually uses the word Vegan.

Whether or not you're an Oprah fan - if she officially adopted a "pro vegan" stance, it would advance the veggie cause dramatically.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

top ten reasons to go veggie!

In celebration of World Vegetarian Week (May 19-25), you can find PETA's Top Ten reasons not to eat meat here.

Enjoy!

Monday, May 12, 2008

photos from the May 4th meeting!

Thirteen people, big and small (and one on the way), attended our May 4th meeting of the Orillia Vegetarian Club. We had some great conversations and some great food! Here are some of the photos.

Also, our next meeting will be dinner at Brewery Bay - a local Orillia hotspot. We're meeting at 4:30pm on June 1, 2008.

Please RSVP to orilliaveg@gmail.com by Sunday May 25th.


A delicious salad with chickpeas, red onions, mandarin oranges, spinach and more.










Ben's Black Bean Salsa from How it All Vegan cookbook










Veggie Shepherd's Pie











Chana Masala and Aloo Gobi











Natalie, Jocelyn, and Emmy - chowing down :)

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Veggies & protein

The list of upcoming events for the Orillia Veggie group is here.


I don't personally get asked the where do you get your protein from? question very often, but it is something that omnivores tend to ask. It's actually pretty ironic, because when you read the literature, you know that most North Americans actually get far too much protein.

As Mark Bittman (who isn't a vegetarian) wrote in the New York Times recently...

Americans are downing close to 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (dairy and eggs are separate, and hardly insignificant), an increase of 50 pounds per person from 50 years ago. We each consume something like 110 grams of protein a day, about twice the federal government’s recommended allowance; of that, about 75 grams come from animal protein. (The recommended level is itself considered by many dietary experts to be higher than it needs to be.) It’s likely that most of us would do just fine on around 30 grams of protein a day, virtually all of it from plant sources.

Anyway, even high level athletes can get the protein they need from a vegetarian or vegan diet, and if you want to make a power-packed soup of lentils and chick peas, try this Moroccan Lentil and Chick Pea Soup recipe.