"Health Care Reform Starts in Your Mouth"

Garrett Mize really hit the nail on the head in his piece "Health Care Reform Starts in Your Mouth."

As a progressive political activist, I attend a lot of political get-togethers and events. But if you take a look at the food offered at any one of these events, you’d think I was at a Republican fund-raising dinner for Sarah Palin. At fancy dinners steak, pork tenderloin, and lobster is on the menu. At activist events and phone-banks cheese pizza with pepperoni and extra sausage is the preferred choice. At morning grassroots planning meetings breakfast tacos filled with egg, cheese and sausage and bagels with flavored cream cheese are the expected progressive staples...It doesn’t make a lot of sense to chow down on pizza while phone-banking for health care reform, or to have a BBQ party to celebrate a successful legislative session that included the expansion of health care...

Obviously it's extreme to say one must eat 100% healthy food 100% of the time. I read this in terms of general lifestyle trends, and not as a call to police every bite of food.

The article continues with a great clip of BC. Really hoping the plant-based message can at least resonate with people vulnerable to or struggling with heart disease.

GF/V Review: Rice Divine's Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Ice Cream

Despite the rumors that us vegans only eat vegetables, many of us (me included) love to get down with some ice cream. Celiac Disease impacts my love of ice cream, particularly when it comes to coconut, rice, almond, or soy milk ice creams that have cookie chunks in them (sad panda).

Now that I'm living at home in LA for the summer (woot woot), Mama Bear brings home lots of goodies for me from Whole Foods. Today's goodie: Good Karma Organic Rice Divine Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge.

I totally dig this flavor. While the chocolate-flavored ice cream isn't anything out of the ordinary, the magic lies in the fact that it's filled with chunks of GF/V cookies and random spots of organic, creamy peanut butter.

But, don't take my word for it. After all, I have the warped taste buds of 3.5 years of vegan living and don't even remember what ice cream made from cow lactation is even like any more. For a more objective assessment, I put this flavor to The Dylan Test. In case you don't remember, Dylan is a grubby 7th-grader who lives off of hamburgers, french fries, pizza, and Coke.

Turns out, this flavor passes. As Dylan salivated and back-washed melted ice cream all over my spoon, he described the flavor as "awesome."

(Although, I will admit that I didn't want to give Dylan a bite with cookie or PB chunks, so his reaction is based solely on the plain chocolate ice cream. Whoops.)

If you're leaving veganism, be honest about it.

Perusing Ecorazzi, I was quite peeved to read about Ginnifer Goodwin's cowardly bow out of veganism.

If you no longer desire to be a vegan, just be honest that you wanted to stuff your face with animal flesh, lactation, or embryos. No one can knock you for sharing your sincere feelings.

But if, instead, you take the Goodwin route--scapegoating on "health" issues--you only reaffirm the damaging myth that vegans are necessarily weak or somehow nutritionally lacking. And let's be real, her feeble attempt at saving face didn't work. This interview is obnoxious.

Candy Tree's Gluten-Free/Vegan Licorice

Dear readers,

I have been keeping something from you--my new fav treat!

After my diagnosis with Celiac Disease, I was devastated to learn that my fav candy, licorice, is conventionally made with gluten products.

Hearing my sorrow, my very gluten-free/vegan friendly partner--let's call him my GFVFBF--sent me a box of Candy Tree licorice, which are both gluten-free and vegan.

I love them. I will admit, they do taste "healthy" and therefore, not just anyone will appreciate them (not sure that they would pass the Dylan Test). I, on the the other hand, am happy to turn in Red Vines for these organic, naturally-sweetened, naturally-colored delights. Also, they are a bit chewy, but well worth the extra jaw work.

In fact, they are so delish that, upon hearing I finished a boxful, GFVFBF sent in re-enforcements just in time for finals.

Ingredients: organic corn syrup, organic rice flour, organic rice starch, organic concentrated fruit juice (raspberry and apple), organic raspberry flavor.

"meat reducers"--so hot right now

Cheers to a new wave of meat eaters: meat reducers!

Vegetarian Star and Ecorazzi recently covered Chipotle founder Steve Ell's identification as a meat reducer:

“I used to think of meat in the center of the plate. Today, I am a meat reducer. This means I eat less meat and make sure that the limited meat I do eat is of the highest quality. My plate is comprised of seasonal and local vegetables with meat as an accompaniment. While this is a healthier diet, the main reason I now eat this way is because it tastes better and I feel better.” Read more

Love it.

Perhaps in time, Steve Ell's will join Steve Wynn and Bill Clinton in the "rise of the power vegans."

PETA gets under my skin. again.

Dear PETA,

I thought we were getting along a little better. After all, I haven't been enraged with you since your bout with transphobia in 2009 (although this probably just means I just haven't paying any attention to the media).

But we're back to square one. I saw this ad featuring NBA scout Bonnie-Jil Lafflin on Ecorazzi and nearly hit the roof. I simply cannot stand when veganism or vegetarianism are pitched as weight loss plans.

Being veg is not a magic weight loss pill. And frankly, this ad is just riding the

wave of hate your body/fat phobia/loathe yourself/diet diet diet insanity that creates more insecurity than confidence.

Furthermore, being veg doesn't make a person healthy; there are plenty of unhealthy vegans/vegetarians that do not eat well-balanced meals, do not exercise, or go to town on highly-processed, high-sodium mock meats.

Health is not about weight. If you are healthy, an appropriate weight will follow. This ad is just about weight, and frankly, it undermines the ethical, environmental, and food safety implications underpinning a healthy veg lifestyle.

Hey PETA, stick with throwing paint, hosting demonstrations, and releasing undercover footage. Your posters and commercials are an embarrassment to vegans who support you--myself included.

"Journalism" or Transphobia?

"A jury found a transgender individual guilty of killing her roommate with a pickax Thursday...French, a transgender individual who identifies herself as a woman, was found guilty of killing Frank Johnson in 2007." Source.

If a person's gender identification does not bear a relationship to the crime that person committed, why is gender orientation relevant to the media coverage?

It isn't.

Imagine reading an article that said, "Bob Smith, a biological male with a heterosexual orientation, robbed a store." It's absurd.

Where gender identification is unrelated to the crime alleged, the only purpose in repeatedly mentioning that identity is for shock value--manifesting the writer's transphobia and/or playing on the transphobia of readers.

Perhaps the transphobia exhibited in this piece isn't blatant--perhaps it's simply implied. By calling out the "non-conforming" gender identities of trans people where their identities are unrelated to the issue at hand, the speaker reinforces an us-versus-them binary that, while more "courteous" than explicit hate speech, is equally as damaging. Frankly, the ease with which such back-handed transphobia slips into everyday "civil" discourse is much more alarming to me (think Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex).

conservation just got a little easier

In my humble opinion, "going green" doesn't happen in the flip of a solar-powered light switch; it's a process. But sometimes, one's "greening" seems to plateau. If you need some inspiration, here are some goodies I just pulled from Ecorazzi.

The Staple-Free Stapler.

I try and use paper clips as often as possible since they are re-usable--but this is so much cooler! You can get it on Amazon.

Biodegradable Shoes.

When I read about biodegradable shoes, I assumed said wonder shoe would be fugly. But I was wrong. Oat rocks the eco-shoe rather well, and I am eagerly awaiting a release in the United States.

"Born This Way" and LGBTQ Discourse

I'd like to start off this post by saying that I am a huge Gaga fan, and that this blog post only applies to Born This Way in terms of the song's application to LGBTQ identity. The aim of Born This Way in affirming and empowering queer identity is not implied; lyrics include:

"No matter gay, straight or bi

lesbian, transgendered life..."

While I love Gaga's passion for equality, the assertion one is "born" queer has negative implications for LGBTQ equality. The narrative "it's not your fault, you didn't choose this, and therefore we will accept you" is the same as saying "queerness is [insert pejorative here], but because you didn't choose it--and what sane person would?--we will tolerate you."

To me, that is not equality. To me, that is not acceptance. There is nothing wrong with being queer--whether you were born "that way" or whether you chose "that way."

I am not trying to argue that a person cannot be "born" LGBTQ--I am not trying to take any one's experience or re-cast their own sexual/gendered history. Reasonable minds, however, do vary as to the nature of sexual desires and orientations, particularly more fluid orientations.

That being said, this post is purely political. In a world of equality, it would not matter whether you were forced by some sort of innate inclination or freely chose to love someone of your own sex. But, in a world rampant with homophobia, the argument "accept me because I can't help that I'm queer" continues to posit queerness as less than heterosexuality.

I will say, I don't hear many members of the LGBTQ community pitching that argument--but that is the rationale I have heard time and time again from numerous "allies." I think it's about time we set the record straight: it's okay to choose.

after pressure from Greenpeace, Costco improves seafood policy

Some people say that in a romance, passion eventually dies. To all those people, I would just like to say that Greenpeace still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside--especially this huge Costco victory.

Thanks to pressure from Greenpeace and over 100,000 Greenpeace grassroots activists, Costco has publicly announced that it will:

- Eliminate 12 red list species, unless the company can find an MSC-certified option, including:

- Atlantic cod
- Atlantic halibut
- Chilean sea bass
- Greenland halibut
- Grouper
- Monkfish
- Orange roughy
- Redfish
- Shark
- Skates and rays
- Swordfish
- Bluefin tuna

-- Pledge to play more of a leadership role within aquaculture;

-- Partner with World Wildlife Fund to examine its remaining wild-caught species and determine how to best transition to the most sustainable alternative; and

-- Acknowledge the role that the canned tuna industry plays within the global sustainable seafood movement and is in the process of shifting to more sustainable tuna sources in all sectors (fresh, frozen, and canned).

Gotta love the power of consumer pressure.

PITA WHO? the gf/v chip that's too legit to quit

Somewhere in my top ten list of life priorities is dessert. Because I know I have Sticky Fingers (which rocks the gf/v) in DC, and Babycakes in LA (thankfully I'll be moving back there soon...), I did not quiver in fear of losing cupcakes, cakes, cupcakes, or cupcakes.

I was, however, dreadfully mourning the loss of life priority number eleven: pita chips. What in the world could be equally as scrum-diddly-umptious in the chip department?

Well, ladies, gents, gender-benders, and the gender-transcending, the verdict is in: Lundberg Rice Chips trump pita chips any day of the week. Even if we were to call the flavor and crunchiness a tie--what could be more delicious to the gluten-intolerant than not being in pain?

Please note that Rice Chips come in several flavors: Sesame & Seaweed, Fiesta Lime, Santa Fe BBQ, and Original Sea Salt. For better or for worse, I am a monogamist and cannot bring myself to cheat on Original Sea Salt and try other flavors. But I will keep you posted.

raw, vegan, GF protein bars

I've been meaning to get off Cliff bars for a while, mainly because all that yumminess comes with a lot of extra sodium and processing. Now that I'm transitioning to GF, I'm re-vamping my dietary regimen altogether (I am also on a super miserable 10 day asthma detox that excludes caffeine, gum, and sweets other than fruits/agave...I'm too cranky to talk about it right now).

I like protein bars because I can only eat nuts/trail mix for so long--gotta keep it spicy. One of these days I'll get down the more eco-friendly route of homemade protein bars. That day is not today, or any time in the next couple weeks.

So here's what I'm working with: Raw Revolution and Pure bars.

If I had to pick a winner off the bat, it would be Raw Revolution. Other flavors include chocolate coconut and chocolate raspberry--an essential for the choco craving, GF loathing vegan. The Raw Revolution chocolate flavors are def better than the Pure chocolate flavor.

BUT, having said that, the apple flavor of Pure rocks the house. I intend on eating mainly Raw Revolution with a few apple Pure bars here and there to mix it up.

Note that there are non-choco flavors of Raw Revolution available--but why would I pick those out before all of the variations of chocolate? In terms of convenience, however, Pure bars are available at Trader Joes (whereas I've only seen Raw Revolution at Whole Foods).

What's so amazing about these bars? Take a look!

These bars are like an ideal partner--so NOT full of crap.

As a side not, a few years ago I had to take a breather from raw bars when I overdosed on them abroad (needed to pack easy sustenance). Happy to be back on raw protein bars, I am wary that I may need to occasionally switch in a non-raw, GF/V protein bar. Will keep you posted on how that one goes.