Happy Easter Crafts to Do With Your Family & Friends

Every year, millions of people around the world celebrate Easter by hunting for brightly colored eggs and goody baskets filled with chocolate bunnies and other sweet treats.

But Easter is no picnic for chickens on egg farms, who suffer tremendously so that we can enjoy our eggs and sweet treats.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. This year, why not plan a compassionate, egg-free Easter celebration that gives everyone, including chickens, a reason to celebrate?

Craft Ideas for Compassionate Easter Celebration

I’ve posted some egg-free Easter recipe ideas for you to try. Here are some tips for having a hen-friendly holiday:

Hide Plastic Eggs: For Easter morning egg hunts, use colorful plastic eggs filled with vegan candy instead of hard-boiled eggs. Your kids will enjoy the ”bonus” candies in the eggs, and you can rest easy knowing that if you lose one, it won’t stink up your home. Plus, you can reuse the same plastic eggs for years to come!

Make Paper Mache Eggs: Instead of coloring chickens’ eggs, your whole family can enjoy making paper mâché eggs instead. It’s easier than you think. Here’s how:

  1. Start by preparing your paper mâché paste by simply mixing together one part flour to two parts water in a large bowl. Add more water or flour as necessary until your paste is the consistency of thick glue, and be sure to mix it well to remove any lumps.
  2. Then tear several newspaper pages into strips about 1 inch wide and about 8 inches long. Blow up balloons and tie them closed. Dip the newspaper strips into the glue and spread them completely over the balloons, leaving a small hole at the top to remove the balloon (and to fill with candy if you want to make a piñata).
  3. Let the first layer dry and then add at least two more layers of paper mache to each balloon, allowing each layer to dry completely before putting on the next layer.
  4. Once the final layers are dry, pop the balloons and remove them from the paper mâché “eggs” through the openings you left at the tops. You can now decorate your animal-friendly Easter “eggs” using paint of your choice. If you are making a piñata, this would be a good time to fill the balloons with sweets.

Create Goody Baskets: For the finishing touch, fill goody baskets with egg-free, dairy-free treats and toys.

Craft Ideas for Compassionate Easter Celebration

Here are some ideas I found online that will spark your imagination:

Grow Your Own Easter Grass

grass-basketFor Easter you can plant your own wheat grass to use as an Easter basket for your little bunnies this year. This project is super easy and looking gorgeous and I think you should all try it this month so it will grow in time for Easter. It takes at least two weeks to get looking gorgeous. http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/03/03/grow-easter-grass/

Papier-mache easter eggs

egg_open2Make papier-mâché polka dotted eggs. These are made from small water balloons and tissue paper, which are then filled with candy and toys and sealed shut. These eggs can hold a surprising amount of stuffing making for a delightfully heavy and yet fragile object, much like real egg. http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/papiermacheeastereggs/

Sequin and Glittered Eggs

easter-eggs-blue“Today I have something different to share with you. It is not a recipe but an inspiration for Easter. I’m amazed at the beauty of this season and I can’t stop thinking about flowers and decorated eggs.” http://lulussweetsecrets.blogspot.jp/2012/03/sequin-and-glittered-eggs.html

Pottery Barn inspired Easter chair backer

gingham-lamb-and-bunny-chair-backersOh so cute Easter chair decorations, but time consuming and requiring some considerable sawing skills – it’s a project to do with older kids, or simply find them at the Pottery Barn…;-) Read more: http://www.thekriegers.org/2013/02/pottery-barn-inspired-easter-chair-backer/

Colors of Springtime ~ DIY Farmers Market Baskets

Easter-basketsCheck out these cute baskets in beautiful spring colors – with glitter! In the gasket, put some birds, bunnies, mini eggs, sea shells, or other treasures. Read more: http://ponderedprimedperfected.blogspot.com/2013/02/colors-of-springtime-diy-farmers-market.html

Dyeing Wooden Eggs

wooden-eggs-DreenaThese eggs will last longer than one Easter. Can’t say that for any hard-boiled egg – don’t think you’d want that sitting around for a year or more. The only drawback is that these wooden eggs were a couple dollars a piece. What can I say? Wooden eggs are not subsidized.

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Montclaire Vegan Meetup with Veggie Girl

Two weeks ago I participated in my first vegan meetup.

Since I became vegan about a year ago, I feel very isolated sometimes in among all the meat-eating family members and friends. So meeting vegans and going to vegan potluck was great – no need to wonder about the ingredients.

Plus it’s a fee therapy session to soothe my nerves after all the accusations of being “a freak” or just plain “weird”.

For the potluck brunch, I decided to make my version of Polish-style mixed vegetable salad. It’s my take on the classic that is sure to appear in one of my upcoming recipe books :-).

I have to say all the dishes were delicious. I especially enjoyed the roasted vegetable dish, the green salads and muffins. And vegan donuts were just to die for (even though or maybe BECAUSE I don’t eat donuts very often – I really enjoyed the donuts that were brought from a vegan bakery in Brooklyn (not sure which one).

Here are a few photos of the food at this Vegan Brunch Meetup:

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African Ground Nut Stew

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Vegetable and Rice Stir-Fry

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Kale Salad (it was delicious!)

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Spinach Salad

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Tofu Frittata

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Breakfast Potato Hash

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roasted vegetables

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Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

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Donuts fresh from Dunwell Donuts in Brooklyn

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My plate

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Thank you, VeggieGirl for a organizing this event!


Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!

I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!


Making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy & Reflecting on Global Climate Change

What do oatmeal chocolate chip cookies have in common with the Hurricane Sandy and global climate change? Let me explain.

I live in Northern New Jersey, in an area that has been affected by the recent hurricane Sandy.

I’m grateful that my family has not been greatly affected by this disaster, even though our area got a lot of flooding and trees had been broken.

Our storage compartment and our parking area got completely flooded, but we had moved our cars to safe locations prior to the storm, so the only things we lost is our AC unit that is located in the storage is not functioning, and our Christmas tree decorations getting completely soaked – so we had to discard them.

These are not devastating losses, I know, many people were not as lucky, losing their homes to water and fire.

As we recover from the disaster, I hear that now over 60% of people in the New York City area now believe in human-caused climate change, so the number of climate-change deniers is going down.

But does it mean we are taking the actions that are needed to reverse the damage that has been done and prevent any further damage?

Hardly.

As the Eastern coast recovers from Sandy, I listen to the Democracy Now! broadcasting from the annual U.N. Climate Change Summit, as it convenes in Doha, Qatar.

A shocking new report commissioned by the World Bank is warning temperatures could rise by 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, causing devastating food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought — even if countries meet their current pledges to reduce emissions.

If these promises are not met, the increase could happen even sooner. Meanwhile, scientists say it is still not too late to minimize the devastating impact of climate change. A separate report by the Climate Action Tracker says global warming could be kept below 2 degrees.

“This is an imminent risk that will affect every living person on the planet if we push the ecosystems of the world into a major extinction crisis, says Bill Hare, a leading physicist and environmental scientist who helped produce both of these latest reports.

I believe we should all get educated about what is happening in the world today. We all seem to be living in a bubble, not realizing what is going on around us, or – as Mary Robinson said in her interview for Democracy Now! “We’re all in a kind of sinking ship together, going into a 4-degree-or-plus world. ”

Well, climate change is very real and it is an imminent risk that will affect all of us – every living being on the planet. It will push the ecosystems of the world into a major extinction crisis. It will cause massive problems for us humans.

Listen to the full interview here. You can also download it to your iPod or mp3 player and listen whenever you can. I also listen to it at Pacifica WBAI.

So we need to get educated, but education is just the first step. The second is start taking action.  We all need to become activists in the modern world.

And, even though, there is no easy way out of this horrific situation, and it’s easy to feel powerless and overwhelmed, there are certain easy-to-implement things that each and everyone of us can do – beginning today – but more about this later.

Post Hurricane Sandy

As I took a walk around my neighborhood with my son Adam assessing the damage (I live in a condominium complex) – he was happy and running around excited (no school for the whole week!) – I couldn’t help but wonder what will the world be like for him in 20, 40, or 60 years.

What will the future bring?

What kind of world will it be when we have far more weather shocks, far more drought, far more food insecurity and water stress?

After Sandy - Taking a walk in my neighborhood

After Sandy – Taking a walk with my son around our neighborhood

After Sandy - Taking a walk in my neighborhood

After Sandy – despite the disasters – the moods are high

After Sandy - Taking a walk in my neighborhood

After Sandy – Fallen trees and broken branches

After Sandy - Taking a walk in my neighborhood

My son hiding under a fallen tree

After Sandy - Taking a walk in my neighborhood

After Sandy – Taking a walk in my neighborhood – flooded deck

After Sandy - Taking a walk in my neighborhood

After Sandy – flooded parking lots and destroyed marina (in the back)

In the Wake Of Hurricane Sandy

It easy to feel frightened and powerless in the face of such disaster.

But what can an individual do?

Do individual actions even matter?

Will individual actions be enough?

Of course, an individual cannot reverse the damage that has already happened. Individually, we can only do so much.

But, does it mean we should just give up?

There is still a lot each of us can do – without impacting our lives too dramatically or causing too much hardship.

“Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something. Anything.” says Colleen Patrick Goudreau on one of my favorite podcasts  “Food For Thought” at CompassionateCooks.com

One thing we can do easily do is to change our diet.

So my action for the day following Sandy – after taking a stroll around my neighborhood – was to make vegan oatmeal chocolate cookies.

Why make vegan cookies? I wrote about the benefits of switching to vegan diet here.  People do it for health or ethical reasons.

But you can also do it for the environment.

Did you know that our entire food production system – from growing crops and raising livestock, through distribution, and waste removal – is responsible for approximately one-third of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions?

While most people are well aware that meat and dairy consumption are associated with heart disease, cancer and diabetes; few of us realize that raising animals for food is one of the top contributors to the worst environmental problems around the planet at every level – from local to global.

Here are a few more facts for you it’s worth to know about:

– Livestock production alone is responsible for as much as 18 percent of the global climate change.

– Animal agriculture is a greater contributor to global warming than transportation, according to the United Nations. And due to their high methane output, cattle are one of the worst offenders of all farmed animals.

– The livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, about 40 percent more than the entire transport sector – cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships – combined (according to the UN).

– Nearly 10.2 billion land animals were raised and killed for food in the US in 2010. Globally, the number of land animals killed each year for food has exceeded 65 billion. Approximately 53 billion aquatic animals were killed for food in the U.S. in 2010.

– Animal agriculture uses enormous quantities of water, monopolizes land that could be more productive for crops, and contributes to deforestation of critical rainforest and other habitats.

– It takes over 5,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat.

– 55% of our fresh water is being given to livestock.

– Over 70 percent of the grain in the US is fed to livestock.

– 70% of rainforests have been slashed and burned in order to raise livestock.

– One acre of land, if used for vegetables, grain, and/or legumes, yields 10-20 times the amount of food in pounds than if devoted to meat production.

– Omnivores contribute seven times the volume of greenhouse gases that vegans do.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe For the Changing World

So here is a vegan oatmeal chocolate cookies recipe for you.

I’m making the cookies dairy and egg-free. Making egg free and dairy-free cookies is actually very easy and fast once you learn about some good egg substitutes for baking and cooking (check out this easy pancake recipe too!).

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 cups quick-cooking oats
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup nondairy milk
  • 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
  • 1 cup chopped pecan pieces
  • ½ cup vegan chocolate chips (or more 🙂
  • ½ cup shredded coconut
  • Additional nuts and chocolate chips for decorating tops of cookies (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line tow baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium size bowl mix oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together oil, nondairy milk, sugar, flax seeds, and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture, and add chocolate chunks, and pecans. Don't overmix. The dough will be thick and sticky.
  4. For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto cookie sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes, until edges begin to brown. Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes. Enjoy!
  5. Yield: 2 to 3 dozen.
https://greenreset.com/making-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I’m making cookies with my son, I find it hard not to think about what will future bring for him in the next 20, 40, 60 years…

Making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Making faces – mostly happy, smiling, but some sad and angry, too.

Making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tasting Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (my son, Adam)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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chocolate chip cookies

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this blog for others to enjoy too!

I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!

The Rotten Truth About Eggs: What Everyone Needs to Know About Eggs, Including Organic, Free-Range & Cage-Free

People usually discuss eating eggs solely from the health perspective. There are those who have arguments pro and those who are against. Health is a complicated subject, and I’m not going to discuss it here.

What I want to talk about is the subject most people don’t know about or prefer not to know.

Please, don’t take it as judgment or criticism. I’ve been one of these people who prefer not to think about what’s going on behind the doors of factory farms for most of my life. I’ve only been vegetarian since May 2012, and vegan since July 2012, so I’m in no way judging anyone.

But, as I’m learning more and more about the subject, I’m increasingly appalled and horrified by what is going on meat and dairy farms around the world.

Most people have no idea when they have an egg how it’s connected to cruelty.

And if anybody has an idea about factory farming, they rarely make the connection between dairy and eggs, because they think the animals aren’t being killed. That is why I believe it’s really important to get this information out, because egg farms are some of the most abusive enterprises in terms of animal cruelty.

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People think that eggs are an innocent byproduct of chickens. They have this imaginary picture in their minds that hens are just running around on the open pastures, and come back to a big red barn at night to lay eggs, but that’s just not the case.

In fact, 95 percent of the eggs in the supermarket stores come from birds that are kept in cages, which are lined up in rows, stack up on each other, inside huge windowless warehouses. Female chicks have their beaks ground off with a hot blade at 1 or 2 days old. Birds kept in these cages cannot walk, spread their wings, roost, or engage in any natural behaviors during their lifetime.

They are egg laying machines who are routinely abused, often sick and starved. And when their egg production declines, which is usually at about two years of age, they are simply killed. These birds end up so spent that the meat can only be used to make soup, chicken pies, and pet food. They are ripped out of their cages by their fragile wings and many of them are thrown in the kill carts and gassed with CO2, which is extremely painful. The rest of the hens are in such a bad shape by the end that they are beaten to death, or thrown live into wood chippers.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the male chicks on the egg farms?

People often they think they are used for meat – at least that’s what I thought.

But that’s not at all what happens.

What happens with all the male chicks at these facilities is truly horrific. Males are not useful to the egg factories, since males don’t lay eggs and the egg laying breed will not grow large fast enough to be profitable for meat so they are deemed a byproduct by the egg industry, so they are disposed of within the first two days of hatching.

Baby male chicks are routinely disposed of in one of two ways: Either they are thrown into dumpsters full of other baby chicks, left to suffocate, or they are put, live, through meat grinders to be fed to other livestock.

The “Mercy for Animals” investigation in the largest hatchery for egg laying chickens discovered that these male chicks are thrown into grinding machines while they are still alive. This is the fate of over 200 million male chicks every single year.

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http://www.farmsanctuary.org/photos/factory-farming/eggs/

What About “Cage-Free” or “Free-Range” Eggs?

Some of us who are aware of this still want to eat eggs so they buy eggs that they think cruelty free. I used to buy those eggs, hoping I’m doing a good thing.

In a lot of cases we are being fooled. There are a lot of labels that are thrown around regarding eggs. The most common is “United Egg Producers Certified,” which is on about 90% of eggs. This is a trade organization that represents 95 percent of factory farmers. They are PR organization to a large extent. If you see that label on an egg carton, it’s essentially a mark of cruelty. This means that these eggs come from an egg factory farm, where chickens are kept in cages where they cannot even spread their wings.

The other labels that you will see are “Cage Free” and “Free Range.” These mean that these birds are not kept in cages, but usually in tens of thousands of birds are kept in windowless warehouses where these birds are very intensively confined and cannot engage in many of their natural behaviors, they are not given access to the outdoors, and the male chicks are still killed because they are not profitable, and the birds have their beaks cut with a hot blade to prevent them from pecking with other birds in these overcrowded conditions.

When applied to eggs, the term “free-range” has no legal definition in this country. The term “cage-free” doesn’t mean cruelty-free. It does not ensure any humane treatment nor does it imply access to the outdoors. These labels indicate that these birds are not kept in cages, but in windowless warehouses where tens of thousands of birds are very intensively confined and cannot engage in many of their natural behaviors. Wings, beaks, and feet are still routinely clipped. Even hormone- and antibiotic-free labels mean nothing in terms of how the chickens are treated. The only certifications that pertain to animal treatment are “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” (beware of imposters; those exact words must be printed on the label) and “Certified Organic,” which also upholds relatively humane standards.

This is an extremely cruel industry and most people are completely in the dark about what’s taking place. Because of the marketing on the egg cartons by the egg industry. This imagery of free roaming chickens with big red barn in the background on egg cartons from hens that never even touched the ground or saw sunlight.

So let’s just eliminate eggs from our diet – it’s really easy. Cooking and baking is easy.

Over 95 percent of eggs sold in the United states come from birds confined in wire battery cages so small they can hardly move. They are egg laying machines who are routinely abused, often sick and starved. These birds end up so spent that the meat can only be used to make soup, chicken pies, and pet food. The rest of the hens are in such a bad shape by the end that they are beaten to death, gassed, or thrown live into wood chippers.

Fowl Play Movie Trailer: Why using egg substitutes is a moral imperative of our time

Fowl Play Movie

Fowl Play Movie: Male chicks end up in garbage bags.

Fowl Play Movie: see the trailer, watch the movie

Egg industry is probably the most abusive industry on the face of the planet. An egg is – calorie per calorie – probably the cruelest food that we can consume.

Also, watch this Mercy for Animals footage.

What can be used as a substitute for eggs in a recipe?

Read this post for tips on how to substitute eggs in baking and pancake recipes.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this blog for others to enjoy too!

I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!


Where Do You Get Your Calcium? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Dairy Products

As a woman 47+ year old woman approaching menopause, I’m obviously concerned with strength of my bones and preventing osteoporosis.

Getting enough calcium and vitamin D is important for everybody, but especially critical growing children and for women in the first few years after menopause, when bone mass is lost more rapidly.

The recommended daily intake of calcium for an adult between the ages of 19 and 50 is 1,000 mg a day. (Adolescents, the elderly and pregnant women need varying amounts).

And what is the most often recommended source of calcium that we hear about in the media and from various health practitioners?

Dairy products. Cow’s milk, yogurt, cheese.

Well. I’m here to tell you today that dairy is nasty food.

You may be thinking “Huh, dairy… nasty? What is she talking about?! It’s so good for you. Without milk, where am I going to get my calcium?”

I hear you. I grew up on lots of dairy, too.

But think of the fact that the Chinese and Japanese, as well as many other peoples in the history of mankind, have never included milk or cheese in their diets. It’s only in the very recent past that dairy has been introduced as a daily food, and with it has come a fast increase in various health problems, such as obesity, breast cancer and also osteoporosis.

And that’s not surprising, because dairy products have been linked to a long list of health problems, including osteoporosis, heart disease, some types of cancer, and many childhood illnesses! If you are shocked to hear this, keep reading. This information can transform your health (and life).

The Bad: How Does Eating Dairy Jeopardize Human Health?

Calcium is used in balancing pH in the body. Our North American diet is full of acid-forming foods. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is loaded with meat, dairy, processed foods, coffee, table salt, sodas, white bread, and junk food – all of which force the body to secrete big amounts of digestive acid. Strong stomach acids are needed to break down animal foods like beef, chicken and pork. Calcium is required to neutralize strong stomach acids. Our blood can function only at a specific pH level and if the blood acid level moves up or down, calcium is secreted to alkalize strong digestive acids when they enter the bloodstream.

The body is designed for survival, so it sacrifices bone density to protect the kidneys and urinary tract because the latter are essential to survival. And the most readily available source of acid neutralizer is in the bones. So even though milk contains calcium, it ends up sapping your bones of that crucial mineral.

Many studies have demonstrated that over-consumption of animal protein has been identified to have the greatest impact on calcium depletion of the bones, even greater than the level of calcium intake through diet. Drinking more milk is not the answer, but increasing whole foods like green vegetables and reducing animal foods will plug the holes in the bucket, something our children are not being taught.

Our bodies are not meant to drink any milk except our own mother’s milk, and only when we are babies. The fact is that many people cannot drink milk from other animals. In the U.S. as many as 80% of African Americans, 90 percent of Asian Americans, and 60 percent of Hispanics are lactose-intolerant to some degree. And yet the message children hear all through school is to drink their milk for strong bones and teeth,  and we want all school children to drink their milk – how crazy is that!

Some diseases associated with high dairy consumption include heart disease, osteoporosis, various cancer (including breast, ovarian and prostate cancer), as well as diabetes and asthma.

We look at nations where they drink milk, we find these diseases are common. We look at nations nations where the consumption of dairy is low, and they are rare.

The Ugly: How Are Cows on Dairy Farms Abused?

The dairy industry is, in a word, cruel.

The ugly fact that most people don’t want to know about is that cows on dairy farms are treated like milk-producing machines, which of course they aren’t – they are living, breeding and FEELING beings.

Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do: to nourish their offspring. In order to force the animals to continue providing milk, factory farm operators impregnate every year them using artificial insemination. Their babies are torn away from them right after birth, when they are still very weak, while mothers cry for days and weeks because they miss their babies. Cows have been known to escape their farms and go searching for their offspring. These cows are genetically manipulated to produce about 10 times as much milk as they would naturally, spending their lives constantly bloated and in pain. They spend their entire lives being pregnant and producing huge amounts of milk.

Male calves are destined to be killed at very young age to become veal or beef and female calves destined to suffer the same fate as their mothers.

And cows on organic farms can suffer even more because when the animals’ udders become infected, farmers do not administer medicine, since that would not allow them to label the cows’ milk as organic.

An average cow on dairy farm lives for about 4-5 years, whereas under less stressful conditions, they would live for approximately 25 years! Stress and fear plague these cows on a daily basis, and it’s no wonder that at the end of their short lives, they are completely spent and often lame.

Even if you drink milk from cows that spend their day in pastures, you still contribute to unnecessary suffering of animals. Even small dairy farms repeatedly impregnate their cows using artificial insemination. Their babies are still torn away from them at birth, with male calves destined to become veal or beef and female calves destined to suffer the same fate as their mothers. 🙁

But, if I stop consuming dairy products, won’t that put me at greater risk for osteoporosis?

Animal-protein foods, such as meat, eggs, and dairy products, are highly acidic and produce poisonous byproducts when they are broken down so the body buffers the toxins with calcium before they are eliminated. This depletes calcium reserves in the body, including the bones, so the benefit of dietary intake of calcium from animal products is cancelled.

In countries where dairy products are not generally consumed, osteoporosis is much less common than in countries with high dairy consumption.

The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study followed 78,000 women for 12 years and found that milk did not protect them against bone fractures. In fact, those who drank three glasses of milk per day had more fractures than those who rarely drank milk. Visit PCRM.org for more information.

The Good: How Many Alternatives to Milk Are There?

If this is the first time you are hearing this information, it can come as a shock to you.  By no means, you don’t have to believe me. Do your own research.

But be sure to check the source of the information, to check if there are no vested interests.

The good news is we don’t need dairy to be healthy, have strong teeth and bones and prevent osteoporosis!

When you first decide to cut milk from your diet, making the transition may seem daunting. I loved dairy products – especially yogurts and ice-creams – just as much as the next person. How could I live without milk? I thought that it would be impossible.

But once I opened my mind to the idea of change, I realized that many tasty and convenient alternatives are available. If you’re thinking about making a change, just go to your local grocery store and check it out! You can drink soy, almond, coconut, rice, oat, or hemp milk, to just name a few. Many of these alternatives even come in different flavors, such as sweetened, unsweetened, vanilla, or chocolate! There are so many options, and it’s fun to taste-test a few in order to determine which one you like best.

Plus, there are many more non-dairy, cruelty-free sources of calcium – check them out here.

Vegan milk

Please use only non dairy milk in your smoothies! Even this doctor and doctors at PCRM.org will tell you so!

Resources:

Health Concerns about Dairy Products:  http://www.pcrm.org/search/?cid=252

Meet Your Meat: http://www.meat.org/

Mercy For Animals: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/

The Dairy Industry: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/dairy-industry.aspx

Environmental Impact: http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/environment.html

Got Osteoporosis? Maybe all that milk you’ve been drinking is to blame.

Milk Myths

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!

I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!


Benefits of Plant Based Diet: CNN Interview Where Doctors Explain Healthy Way for Bill Clinton’s Dramatic Weight Loss

Plant based diet has been gaining popularity recently. There is no surprise there. In fact, it’s a type of eating that millions of people around the world have been following for centuries, and the science is finally catching up. Today, and there are many physicians in the U.S. that recommend this way of eating for optimal health, weight and well-being.

If you want more information from a licensed physician, I highly recommend that you read books by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Books by T.C. Campbell, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Neal Barnard, and many others also promote this lifestyle.

In an interview on CNN where two prominent doctors, Dr. Ornish and Dr. Esselstyn, explained healthy way for Bill Clinton’s dramatic weight loss and improved health.

http://youtu.be/UoHt9cSWJVI

Unfortunately the video is not available right now. Also read an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Esselstyn, one of the world’s leaders in heart attack prevention that I published here. Think about what he had to say about how disease develops and how it can be prevented.


Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

If you have a favorite recipe, why not submit it here in the comment section of this smoothie recipes blog for others to enjoy too!

I also welcome any comments, questions and suggestions. Thanks!