vegansaurus!

That is why I’m here to gently, kindly, and very lovingly tell you why Mark Hyman, M.D. is different, and why his new book, The Blood Sugar Solution, is truly fantastic. Dr. Hyman’s new book elegantly lays out a plan for anyone looking to adopt a plant-strong diet for health to do so effectively and as easily as possible. But perhaps most remarkably, he does this without shaming those he aims to help. In fact, he takes great care to explain how obesity related to animal product consumption and other processed foods is NOT anyone’s fault, and exposes how big business and factory farming are working against people’s own biology to create disease in the body. Regardless of body size, he suggests that there are ways to improve your health through a plant-strong diet rich in diverse greens, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

Dr. Hyman states that weight loss need not be the primary goal of any nutrition regimen—any plan should foremost focus on incorporating wholesome, plant-strong foods, and that weight loss will naturally result. He sheds light on hormonal issues that can arise from eating different foods, and how moderation is near to impossible with addictive foods like cheese. He does not include any pictures of anyone’s legs with captions that say cheese made the legs the size that they are. He just spits straight biochemistry like the rad guy he is, and compassionately suggests that there are ways to boost energy and metabolism without extreme deprivation diets or dangerous surgery.

The Blood Sugar Solution touches some territory that may not apply to all vegans—if you’re already healthy, you may want to skip some of the individualized nutrition quizzes and chapters. What I do think is essential for all vegans are the latest scientific studies included that outline which nutrients are most essential for a healthful, long life as a plant-strong eater. There are also some beautiful recipes in the back, including a split pea and rosemary soup that is as easy to make as it is economical. Dr. Hyman wants people of all budgets to eat healthful soup, shame-free! What a great person!

One last note: Dr. Hyman is not a vegan (I checked with him on Twitter, just to make sure), but he heavily promotes plant-strong diets, and offers some really valuable advice for balancing your plant-strong diet. He advocates eating SLOW carbs, not LOW carbs, and sets the record straight on which essential vitamins and minerals we should all ensure we get in our diet to make sure we’re eating in a balanced way for longevity. I highly recommend you check out The Blood Sugar Solution if you’re interested in getting more info on how to eat a balanced vegan diet, or if you know someone who may want to transition into a vegan diet primarily for health reasons and wants to feel supported and informed, not ashamed and discouraged.

Here’s to our health, the health of the animals and the planet!

This is Vegansaurus raw correspondent Sarah E. Brown’s latest post! Read more by Sarah on Vegansaurus, and visit her personal blog, Queer Vegan Food.

Great idea, right? Well I guess Somerhalder agrees! He’s buying a farm in Louisiana to create just such a shelter. His plan however is to specifically target bullies. From E! Online:

It’s all about collaboration and compassion… If you can empower someone who’s really young, who’s had a really tough go at it, to find compassion by using animals—because it’s so much easier than with people—then you have something. Now you’ve started to engage these kids and they’ll learn not to fight… They really realize what a full life you can have if you just get rid of those demons that we all have.

OMG I love him. But he stole my idea! JK, I’m just glad somebody is doing it. My plan was for the distant, distant future. 

If you’ve never read about the benefits of animal-assisted therapy for kids, you need to because it’s some really amazing stuff. Programs where kids can read to dogs have been shown to improve literacy and kids’ confidence in reading. Dogs are also helping young people testify in abuse cases and tell their story. Adult survivors of sexual abuse listed childhood pets as trusted confidants. Animals have been shown to help kids with terminal illness, mental problems, autism, and physical challenges. And I’ve seen amazing features on Animal Planet about the benefits of dog training rescue dogs for kids in juvenile detention centers. It’s great for instilling self-discipline. They were also saying one of the hardest things for the kids to do was show affection—some of them had never been shown affection themselves—but they had to learn to in order to train the dogs with positive reinforcement. It’s just really amazing stuff. 

Keeping all that in mind, I have high hopes for Somerhalder’s shelter. Bonus: it’s also going to be eco-friendly. Damn, son, he thought of everything!

After the horrors of earlier today, this little slice of heaven brought to you by the Facebook stream of one Diana Stout. By the time these li’l’ guys grow up, the #beararmy will be in the process of conquering the world. Right, guys?! Don’t worry, bear buddies, we’re always recruiting, at all ages.

Oh god, this is horrifying: Bears are being buried alive in Appalachia. I guess what’s happening is as companies further clear-cut, bulldoze, and blast the earth in search of coal, the debris is piling up on top of the entrances to black bears’ dens. Mountaintop removal coal mining is FUCKED UP. It doesn’t just hurt bears, though — flying squirrels, salamanders, mussels, and more are all facing habitat destruction. Here’s what you can do: Save your “bear-ied” puns for another day, and give your hard-earned dollars (if you can spare them) to the National Wildlife Federation. The organization is working with local leaders to stop this insanity. Do it to it, my rich(er) friends.

[Photo credit: NWF]

EDIT: I have been alerted to NWF’s support of “sustainable” hunting. Sorry, guys! Still looking for another organization working on this particular problem. Thanks for your comments!

This is our friend Lucia’s dog, Felon. He is THE BEST. He loves flowers and eating all your Easter snacks and he doesn’t give a shit! Let’s all now stare at him for an hour. 

There’s a new bowling place in the Mission that has half an alley and is always too crowded but seriously, here’s the only thing that matters:

YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT DAMN THING. Hint: It’s positively. I’ll put up with any amount of awful people who look just like me but skinnier and in uglier outfits* to eat one. Let’s do this.

*I’ve got style. Also, pretty!

We’ve been in love with them in the past. And annoyed with them in the past. But now, they’re back with new owners and the old menu? Kind-of? I guess? And anyway, seitan is back and front and center WHERE IT RIGHTFULLY BELONGS on the regular menu and now it’s called Dante’s Weird Fish and um, I guess that’s it. Anyone been?? Thoughts? Here’s a delicious picture of Buffalo Girls from Yelp. That’s all, let’s eat!

Harvest Home wants to note that they have a “no same-day adoptions” rule, so you won’t be going home with a bunny on Saturday, though you will most likely want to take them all and feed them strawberries and carrot greens, but that would put your heart at serious risk of exploding from cuteness, so, no dice. Instead, you can meet some cool rabbits, learn about what bunnies need from a human, and maybe start the adoption process so that someday soon you will be romping with your bun. Like Bugsy up here!

This event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 7, at the Tri-Valley SPCA at 4651 Gleason Dr. in Dublin. As always, there’ll be bunny speed-dating and nail-trimming for you lucky people who already have rabbits.

Preview some of the adoptable rabbits here, and contact Harvest Home for more information.

As energy bars go, Clif is totally my favorite. Chocolate-dipped coconut Luna bars are essentially dessert, Clif shots and blocks power my running, and those Mojo bars are addictive. Part of the reason I’m such a Clif groupie is that almost everything they make is vegan, holla.

But it turns out Clif may have something to hide [pdf] about where it gets its chocolate. At the very least, the company is being disappointingly closed-lipped about its sourcing. Wanna bug them with me?

Since last May, the Food Empowerment Project has been asking Clif to disclose the country it gets its chocolate from. That’s because some countries, especially in West Africa, have high prevalence of child slave labor on cacao plantations, and no one wants to support child slavery. (Unless it involves getting me a beer, but that’s probably not the kind of stuff we mean here.) Clif ain’t talking. That doesn’t necessarily mean your Clif Crunch bar supports child cruelty, buy wouldn’t it be nice to know for sure? That’s FEP’s stance:

We all know why companies like Nike and Apple took so long to disclose information on their supply chains: because they had something to hide. But does Clif?

How could a company that prides itself on social responsibility choose to not be transparent about an issue as important as child slavery? What does Clif have to hide?

Join us in asking them.

You can email them, call them at (800) 254-3227, and write them at:
Clif Bar & Company
1451 66th St.
Emeryville, CA 94608

Let us know if you have questions and we would appreciate you sharing with us their response.

In the meantime, I’m cutting back to my Clif bar intake, which, as you know if you even read a third of this post, makes me very sad. Which brings me to my PS: what’s your favorite bar for hiking or running or snack or whatever?

Extra! Extra! Field Roast Frankfurters have passed the taste test and will now be served at AT&T Park for this season’s Giants games! Huzzah!

I’ve had many of these vegan frankfurters and they are hella good. They smell so much like oldschool ballpark hotdogs, those omnis will just need to catch a whiff and the line will form! What a happy springtime announcement! 

Next, I want to see this at Phillies games! Come on, Phils!

This is Forest Service employee Josh Bransford happily posing with a wolf he trapped in Idaho. The wolf wasn’t just trapped; when some passing motorists saw the limping animal, they thought it’d be super fun to non-fatally shoot the trapped wolf a few times. Bransford posted some pics online and people were positively giddy. Awesome.

People make me so sick sometimes. This is exactly what people opposed to the de-listing were worried about. This isn’t just an animal who’s threatened by habitat loss or something, hunters and farmers hate wolves. They are in competition with them. It’s not like a few will be killed now, these dudes are out for blood. 

According to Environment News Service, people are calling for Bransford to be fired. Though you’re allowed to kill wolves now, there are actually rules about it:

Idaho state law makes it a crime for a person who “causes or procures any animal to be cruelly treated, or who, having the charge or custody of any animal either as owner or otherwise, subjects any animal to cruelty.” The law also requires that “destruction of animals for population control,” the stated reason for wolf trapping, be carried out humanely.

Stopping to pose while an animal hobbles in pain is certainly not carrying out the murder humanely. Though I don’t know that Idaho actually cares about enforcing laws. They certainly don’t care about upholding promises. From Earth Island Journal:

Removal of Endangered Species Act protection for the wolf was based on the assurances of state game agencies that they would manage wolves to ensure survival of the species and approval of state wolf management plans by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Idaho has since abandoned the targets of its state plan and instead said it will seek to reduce the population from roughly 1,000 wolves to as low as 150 wolves. Since the delisting, 375 wolves have been reported killed in Idaho. Idaho’s wolf hunt remains open in portions of the state.

As you know, wolves were removed from the federal protection list last year in Idaho and Montana. Since then:

By late March some 117 Idaho wolves had been killed in traps and snares, and another 251 shot. Montana saw 166 killed, for a total of 534 wolves out of an estimated 1150 in the two states. Although Montana’s season ended in February, Idaho is not quite done. Both states have announced plans for increased hunting in the 2012-2013, and discussions are underway among hunting groups and state officials to allow private donations to establish wolf bounties.

Wolf bounties? They aren’t criminals—they’re animals just trying to live! This is so absurd. As you can see, it’s not like there a gagillion wolves walking around. This animal that was nearly wiped off the earth has rebounded to a little more than a thousand in those areas. How does an animal go from federal protection to being legally culled by half? There needs to be national intervention. States shouldn’t be able to just do whatever they want with regard to their environment and wildlife. This is bullshit. I’m angry!

Back in February, Jenny told us about how much she swooned over the raw, pressed juice at Pressed Juicery in Los Angeles. But who says only California should get all the good new-age cleansing stuff? Behold: To Colorado’s up-and-coming vegan scene, two Denver vegans are trying to add the magic of fancy, orgasmic juice. I say, Rejoice and drink juice! Also fund their Kickstarter campaign; this stuff doesn’t fall from trees!

Source Juice is the brainchild of Jaclyn and Chris Webb, a vegan couple who basically got obsessed with juicing, wanting to take it to the next level, and realized they couldn’t buy cold-pressed juice anywhere in the state. So they bought a fancy juicer and plan to bottle and sell the stuff at Denver’s monthly pop-up vegan market, yoga studios, farmer’s markets, etc.—all the places people willing to pay for uber-delicious organic juice might flock. Plus home delivery for the lazy bums. 

Jaclyn gave me a little bottle of this stuff, and it’s GOOD. To quote my husband Danny: “I want to drink this juice until it comes out my eyeballs.” My other favorite thing about the project is how boot-strappy it is. The vegan scene out here in Denver is so gosh-darn scrappy and full of initiative! People don’t wait for venture capital funding or whatever, they just make things happen in a small way. And so even though we don’t have the vast selection of restaurants available in SF, LA, or NY, it makes me feel like I’m part of a movement or something. 

So even if you don’t live in Colorado, consider pitching in a few bucks (the campaign ends on Friday, April 13). And if you know anyone in the area, pass this along to make it happen. JUICE!!!