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Savvy Vegetarian NewsVol. 1, Issue 1, January, 2003 |
Article: What is Organic Food and Why Should We Eat It?
Ask The Savvy Vegetarian: Mom has a hard time coping with a brand new, 14-year-old vegan
Quick and Easy Recipe: Tofu burgers
This is the first issue of what is intended to be a monthly publication. For now it looks like every two months, until we get more time.
Savvy Vegetarian News is for vegetarians, would-be vegetarians, and those who just want a healthier diet. Please tell us what you think, and send contributions. We're looking for articles, news, recipes, book reviews, questions for our advice column, letters to the editor, etc.
Sarah Kingsbury,Organic Farming: An ecological system of agricultural management that produces nutritionally superior plants, resistant to pests & disease. Organic farming builds & maintains healthy soil through traditional methods of crop rotation, planting cover crops, releasing beneficial insects, and composting. However, organic doesn't just mean a return to traditional agricultural methods. Biology has contributed precise methods of non-toxic pest & disease control. Farm machinery allows organic farming on a large scale to meet demand.
This shouldn't surprise anyone: Organic farming is the fastest growing segment of American agriculture. People who care about their health & the environment are worried about pesticide & antibiotic drug residues in their food. They're concerned about food poisoning from filthy slaughterhouses, contaminated feed, and diseased animals - all common in industrial agriculture. They're alarmed by the wide-spread practice of food irradiation and the use of toxic sewage sludge as fertilizer. They're just plain terrified by genetically engineered food. They see the environment & water supply threatened by the industrialization of agriculture, and wonder what kind of future their children will have.
Anti-organic Publicity: Recently, studies have been produced showing little or no nutritional difference between organic and non-organically grown produce. This is highly misleading. Soils all over the N. American continent have been severely depleted through more than a century of unsound methods of cultivation.
Soil Quality Declines: Through wind and water erosion, most of the original topsoil has been lost. Over grazing, mono-cropping, the use of chemical fertilizers and insecticdes have seriously depleted the nutrients in what s left. It will take hundreds of years to restore even a small part of what s been lost.
A Meaningful Study: Nonetheless, other studies have shown more key nutrients in organic produce, on the whole. I'd like to see soil quality studies comparing soil samples from twenty year organic farms, with those from non-organic farms in the same geographic area. That kind of study would be much more meaningful than those comparing apples to apples.
Organic Food Better: Chances are very good that organic food, on the whole, is more nutritious than chemically grown food. It's certainly not true that adding chemical fertilizer to soil produces a product equal to organically grown, any more than it s true that living on vitamin pills makes you healthier than someone who doesn't take them. Whether or not your organic apple has more potassium than it's non-organic brother, it doesn't have the same load of poisons./p>
Our Firm Opinion: It's best to eat organically grown food, whether or not you're a vegetarian, and it's worth going to some trouble to get it. Organic food tastes better, is generally more nutritious, & protects the environment.
Realistically: It is sometimes difficult to obtain organic food, and a well-balanced non-organic vegetarian diet is certainly better than the typical North American diet. But why should we settle for half measures? The more people who loudly demand organic, the more plentiful and affordable it will become.
This has been a short introduction to the topic of organic food. Look for more detailed articles and news about organics in future issues.
Here's a sure way to get your kids or anyone else to eat tofu. This quick, easy & tasty recipe is a favorite with all our family & friends. It makes 8 good sized patties. You can improvise freely with the seasonings & the grains. But if you want onions, use them on the outside, not the inside - too wet. Use all your favorite burger fixings.
Dear Savvy Vegetarian:"My 14 year old daughter came home about a month ago, and announced that she is now a vegan. She won't eat any animal products at all. Actually, she hardly eats anything, she has lost weight, and doesn't look very healthy. I don't know what to cook for her, I don't know what to do with her. My husband is ready to throw her out, and her brothers tease her all the time. Our house is a war zone. Do you have any suggestions?"
Answer:
I'd say the first thing to do is to start communicating. If you can't all sit and discuss the issue without losing it, then try just you & your daughter to start. Get a professional counselor to help if necessary. There's a lot at stake here.
The rest of you need to understand what's behind your daughters sudden decision to be vegetarian, and do your best to accept her choice, and respect her feelings. She needs to know how her new regime affects the rest of the family. For instance, you are being forced to feed her different food than what the rest of you eat, and which you don't know how to prepare. And I'm pretty sure you all feel upset about being cast in the role of evil meat eaters. To be fair, your daughter should take some practical responsibility for her decision, and learn to (gasp!) cook for herself. Be prepared to spend some time with her on this. You & she could pick out one or two beginner level vegetarian cookbooks, and try out recipes together. The whole family should agree to try them, keeping an open mind to new tastes. I recommend Laurel's Kitchen as a good place to start, because the recipes ar simple, and it has a lot of information on vegetarian nutrition. The Savvy Vegetarian also offers a 12 lesson course for beginning vegetarians which you could take together, and also personal coaching. If you're interested, click on these links for more information: School For Savvy Vegetarians, or Life Coaching
The nutrition issue definitely needs to be dealt with. By going overnight from a meat-centered diet to a vegan diet, she is endangering her health, because her body can't make such a drastic change without consequences. She has been accustomed to getting nourishment from certain sources, and it takes time to adapt to eating different foods. The change should be gradual - two years is ideal. She is still growing, and the risk of malnutrition is very high. If she won't start with just cutting out red meat, then she should start with an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, based on a variety of whole grains, and including a wide variety of fresh fruit & vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts, & seeds, to meet her nutritional needs. Easy on the junk food & soft drinks.
What you should work toward is a compromise, where she agrees to make the change gradually, while learning about being a healthy vegetarian, living harmoniously with non-vegetarians, and you all agree to support her choice. Live & let live, in other words.
Please let me know how it goes,
Judy Kingsbury,
The Savvy Vegetarian