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Oprah goes Vegan for 3 weeks
2008-05-22 18:44:00
You can read and article about her becoming vegan for 21 days here.Also, she's blogging about her experience here.Oprah writes in one of her blog entries:Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. "What's left?" I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes.Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Vegan , Weeks

Tiny Vegan Kitchen
2008-05-16 18:51:00
Here are some cooking videos from Tiny Vegan Kitchen .

Eco-Atkins from Prof. David Jenkins
2008-04-21 21:17:00
There's a new version of the high meat protein Atkins diet called Eco-Atkins.  This diet, unlike traditional Atkins provides it's protein through nuts, gluten (wheat protein), beans and soy products.  Let's hope more people do this version vs the latter.  The article says:What happened, according to his new study, is that after 28 weeks a group of overweight men and women following a vegan diet had lost 10 per cent of their starting weight. Skinnier waists weren't the only reward. Their insulin sensitivity had improved, lowering their risk of diabetes, and their cholesterol levels were healthier. This drop in both "bad" LDL cholesterol and kilos might give the Eco-Atkins diet an edge over its meaty counterparts. No one doubts that high (meat) protein diets can shift weight but some studies suggest they also increase LDL cholesterol - which raises questions about their effects on health in the long term... The amount of protein in Jenkins's diet was a ...
More About: Prof , David

Who says animals are just stupid creatures?
2008-04-08 19:30:00
Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Animals , Stupid , Creatures

Reversing Diabetes Through a Raw Vegan Diet
2008-03-26 00:05:00
Below is a nice little trailer for a documentary coming out called Raw For 30 Days.  The website says:"Raw For 30 Days" is an independent documentary film that chronicles six McDonald's-munching Americans with diabetes who switch to a diet consisting entirely of vegan, organic, live, raw foods in order to reverse diabetes naturally. The six participants are challenged to give up meat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, soda, junk food, fast food, processed food, packaged food, and even cooked food – as well as go without their loved ones and many of their creature comforts – for 30 days.Enjoy! Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Diet , Diabetes , Vegan

Veganism and Rheumatoid Arthritis
2008-03-25 23:49:00
A recent study has shown that a vegan diet high in nuts, fruits and vegetables can help slow the effects of rheumatoid arthritis and reduce the risk of a heart attack.  The article says:The study investigated the effects of a vegan diet in patients with RA on blood lipids, oxidised low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL), and natural atheroprotective antibodies against phosphorylcholine (anti-PCs). Study participants with active RA (N = 66) were randomly assigned to either a gluten-free, vegan diet (n = 38) or a well-balanced, nonvegan diet (n = 28) for 1 year. The researchers analysed blood lipids, oxLDL, and anti-PCs, while data and serum samples were obtained at baseline, 3 months, and 12 months. The vegan diet included nuts, sunflower seeds, fruits and vegetables, millet, and corn. Sesame milk was provided as a daily source of calcium. Protein accounted for 10% of daily energy intake, carbohydrates for 60%, and fat for 30%....The researchers found that participants assigned to th...
More About: Arthritis

Cruelty Free Shoes on Sale at Georgette
2008-03-06 21:49:00
I've just recently come across Georgette. They have great vegan footwear including pumps, heels, flats, ballerinas and boots. Georgette is based in Antwerp, Belgium and they deliver all over the world.  There is a season ending sale going on right now but with the conversion rate and shipping costs, it sort of ruins the whole 'I got these shoes on sale!" fun. Anyway. Still great stuff. I've got my eyes on a pair of leopard flats... posted by: chickpea
More About: Shoes , Free , Sale , Cruelty

Meat Alternatives on CBS
2008-03-06 06:04:00
CBS News did a great little piece on fake meats such as Boca Burgers, Yves Veggie Ground and Smart Life Ground.  In the video various reporters have to guess what's real versus fake and one of reporters even turns out to be a vegetarian.  What made me happy was when people talked about how healthy it is not eating meat.  The fact that a vegan consumes 0 cholesterol means your heart is generally healthier and your chances of atherosclerosis are lower. Overall, they could have mentioned the further benefits of being vegan vs vegetarian or at least something about how the animals are treated.  But I'm still happy that Oprah Magazine and CBS would breach this subject. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Meat , Alternatives

Seeing Through The Fence
2008-02-29 05:08:00
Eleni Vlachos has produced what appears to be a wonderful documentary about veganism.  In the film Eleni interviews numerous people on varying topics from what we eat to animal abuse.  An article from RelishNow says:Seeing Through the Fence , a documentary that is part personal history and part commentary on the state of factory farms and slaughterhouses. Vlachos, a vegan, does not eat anything that comes from an animal, including dairy, eggs and honey. It’s the contradiction between our compassion for animals and our tendency to eat them, too, that Vlachos explores through interviews with vegan activists, with family in Seattle and in Greece, with strangers on South Street in Philadelphia and at a dog park in Durham.If it comes to San Francisco I'm seeing it!  Also, a preview for the movie is below. Posted by: The String Bean

Veganomicon Mustard Sauce
2008-02-22 19:52:00
We tried the Veganomicon Mustard Sauce the other night. It was pretty mustard-y... I might try this again  with a different kind of mustard. Overall, pretty good. Also, there's a missing step in the directions about when to add the vegetable broth. I kind of freaked out about it after reading the recipe the first time. I kept reading it over and over thinking my brain was fried and I was just not seeing the missing sentence. I eventually realized the best time to add the broth was probably around the same time as everything else and it turned out just fine. (panko breaded tofu cutlets over a bed of fresh spinach, steamed broccoli and orzo with mushroom and olive oil on the side) posted by: chickpea

Vegan Apple Galettes
2008-02-21 18:03:00
These weren't as pretty as others I've seen and were kind of messy to eat but who cares - they were delicious. Good for dessert. Good for breakfast. Good if you have extra puff pastry in the freezer and you don't know what to do with it... 1 sheet puff pastry (pepperidge farms brand is vegan)1 large green apple1 lemongranulated sugarbrown sugarcinnamonnutmeg Cut the apple into small bite size pieces. Mix with lemon juice, sugars and spices. (I eyeballed these measurements - a teaspoon or more of each sugar and a couple dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg.) Cut the puff pastry in 6 rectangles and fold the edges in a bit to create a rim. Pile each rectangle with a couple spoonfuls of the apple mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until the puff pastry is light brown. posted by: chickpea
More About: Apple , Vegan

Winter Dishes: Pomegranate, Grapefruit & Berries
2008-02-20 22:49:00
These were all from a while ago... like December. I still wanted to share some photos. Grapefruit and pomegranates always make me think of a fresh, tart winter and they're especially nice to pair along with holiday heavy foods and desserts. And fresh berries go great pretty much any time with any thing! Grapefruit, pomegranate, avocado and mixed green salad. TASTY. wild rice pilaf with barley and pomegranate seeds, lemon zest, fresh parsley berry scones (recipe from Vegan with A Vengeance) posted by: chickpea
More About: Winter , Pomegranate , Berries , Dishes

Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna!
2008-02-19 20:15:00
This is hands down my FAVORITE lasagna recipe. It is so easy to make and doesn't require a lot of extra weird ingredients you might not have in your cupboard. This is the kind of lasagna I think I'd make for my parents or people who are skeptical that you can make great Italian food without all the cheese and meat. posted by chickpea
More About: Mushroom , Spinach , Lasagna

Robots to Potentially Phase Out Animal Testing
2008-02-18 20:38:00
New technology will allow robots to conduct hundreds of thousands of toxicity tests daily.  The result of this will be more extensive knowledge of certain chemicals and products.  The National Human Genome Research Institute says:Chemical compounds — from everyday household cleaners to strong pesticides — must be tested for the toxic hazards they might pose to human health. Now, three collaborating federal research groups have launched an effort to both rapidly evaluate large numbers of chemicals for human risk and reduce the role of laboratory animals in regulatory testing. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Robots , Animal , Testing , Phase

Slaughterhouse Workers May Go to Jail for Animal Abuse
2008-02-17 22:20:00
Two employees from Hallmark Meat Co may go to jail for abusing downed cows.  You can read the news article here.  Apparently public outcry can make a difference and hopefully Navarro and Sanchez will go to jail.  If only people knew this is fairly common practice.  The meat industry centers around killing and processing as many animals as quickly as possible.  So if one becomes unable to walk it slows down the killing line.  In response to this, workers will make the animal get up however they can - often causing pain.  If you want to know more about slaughterhouse practices you can read Gail Eisnitz's book Slaughterhouse. Please be aware the footage below is very graphic and shows the abuse caught at Hallmark Meat. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Abuse , Workers , Animal , Jail

Liz Lovely: Chocolate Vegan Deliciousness
2008-02-14 06:29:00
We received some vegan treats from Liz Lovely in the mail recently. Very exciting! Check out their About Us section - I don't think there's a better mission statement out there. I love their story. I think everyone dreams about quitting their jobs and moving to Vermont and starting a cookie business. Well. I do. We got three kinds of cookie: Dark Chocolate Pretzels, Ginger Snapdragons and Lovely Oh's. My favorite out of the bunch were the Lovely Oh's: these are a chocolate dipped mint Newmans O's style cookie. They were delicious! The dark chocolate covered pretzels were also tasty. The pretzels were pretty thin though so it was mostly chocolate with a hint of pretzel.The Ginger Snapdragons were probably my least favorite. I love ginger but the flavor was pretty intense in these cookies. String Bean loved em though so it really just depends on how gingery you like your cookie. They did have a really nice consistency though and even had candied ginger on top!T...
More About: Vegan

When Life Gives You Lemons...
2008-02-13 23:13:00
I am lucky enough to have access to a huge meyer lemon tree. I frequent this tree as often as possible! They are so sweet and delicious - I like to cut them up and eat them plain.I wanted to make a lemon caper sauce to go over some tofu, I already had the idea for the sauce in my head when I found this! I love the idea of dipping the tofu in tahini and water first before coating it with panko crumbs. I created a lemon caper sauce fairly similar to the one from Quick Fix Vegetarian but I added a flour/earth balance/vegetable broth mixture to the sauce at the end. This created a heavier sauce - almost gravy like. (tofu cutlets breaded with panko crumbs, lemon caper sauce, lemony roasted potatoes from Veganomicon, orzo pasta, sauteed baby artichokes) posted by: chickpea
More About: Life , Lemons

Blogging the Bloggers - VegBlogs
2008-02-08 22:23:00
I recently found out about VegBlogs and want to share it with you!  VegBlogs is basically a blended RSS feed of many vegan blogs.  Meaning, you can use this one site to follow many blogs and podcasts at once.  The site says:VegBlogs fetches the latest vegan blog posts from around the web to help you find stories and podcasts that interest you.Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Blogging , Bloggers

Vegan Chocolate on Valentine's Day
2008-02-08 18:55:00
I'm not big on hallmark holidays, but I love chocolate..and good chocolate even more.  So, I was happy to find this article from Go Dairy Free.  The article lists off ten companies that sell vegan sweets.  Enjoy! Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Chocolate , Vegan

Sarah Kramer in The Guardian
2008-02-06 20:57:00
The Guardian of Great Britain published a nice article about Sarah Kramer.  In the article they cover how she became vegan, why and what she's currently cooking up.  :) You can read the article here. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: The Guardian

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler
2008-02-01 00:39:00
I have been so busy with work and being sick (eeh) - wait it's 2008? when the hell did that happen? Anyway. I am posting for the first time this year. man I suck. Rethinking the Meat -Guzzler - NY Times Read this article! I'm just happy stuff like this is getting in the Times more and more frequently these days. Now if only this article can be syndicated into every small paper in the country - especially in places where the word vegetarian/vegan is considered foreign. So the author, Mark Bittman recently wrote "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" yet he is not even a vegetarian. ?!?! let's not touch that one. "If price spikes don’t change eating habits, perhaps the combination of deforestation, pollution, climate change, starvation, heart disease and animal cruelty will gradually encourage the simple daily act of eating more plants and fewer animals." Animal cruelty is last - people will reduce their meat intake for climate control or pollution waaay before animal...

Animal Abuse at a slaughterhouse - Are you surprised?
2008-01-31 19:39:00
A video taken a year ago by the Human Society has been released showing slaughterhouse workers torturing downed diary cows so they'll walk into the slaughterhouse and get killed.  The article says:Undercover video shows sickened cows, too weak to walk, being jabbed with forklift blades, kicked, shocked and even sprayed in the face with powerful jets of water by workers at the Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California. "The attempt was to make them so distressed, to cause them so much suffering that these animals would get up and walk into the slaughterhouse,"The thing is - abuse like this and acts much worse take place daily in slaughterhouses, farms and other animal exploitation industries.  The saddest part is these dairy cows, after living shortened lives of giving birth over and over and losing their babies are given the ultimate disrespect by being tortured and killed so we can eat them. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Abuse , Animal

Vegan Films Section Created
2008-01-28 19:02:00
I've decided to incorporate a vegan films and documentaries category into Vegan Bean.  We've gathered a variety of films on our site and want to make them easily accessible.  The films range from Earthlings to Meet Your Meat to a whole variety of documentaries on animal testing, mad cow disease and more.  We hope you watch the movies! Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Films , Section

USA Today Article on Veganism
2008-01-28 07:25:00
An article was posted by USA Today regarding Veganism taking root in society.  Of course the whole article focuses on being healthy. You can read the article here. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Article

Vegan Professional Athletes
2008-01-25 21:26:00
A great article was published today by the Wall Street Journal about NFL start Tony Gonzalez becoming vegan.  I definitely liked this article!  It's nice to see actual positive news regarding being vegan and healthy.  In the article you can also read about other vegan athletes such as Salim Stoudamire from the Atlanta Hawks and Mac Danzig, the recent winner of the Ultimate Fighter Championship.  You can read the article here.  There's also a video showing Tony making a vegan shake which I'm embedding below. I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did! Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Vegan , Athletes , Professional , Fess

Truth or Dairy - By Benjamin Zephaniah
2008-01-25 18:51:00
Here's a nerdy video from the 1990's about Veganism.  It covers the why, how, what, etc surrounding a meatless and animal product free life.  It's got a few clips of difficult images so be aware.  But it's worth the 23 minutes. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Truth , Dairy , Benjamin , Ruth

A Cow At My Table - A Documentary
2008-01-24 20:47:00
I recently found this 80 minute documentary from 1998 called 'A Cow At My Table .'  The film covers factory farming, animal rights, the history of factory farming and the various ways we view animals and their place in human society.  The creator, Jennifer Abbott includes old footage ranging from educational movies about farming to silent film comedies about food.The documentary has difficult images of factory farming practices and the animal slaughter process. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Documentary

2007 in Review - by Compassion Over Killing
2008-01-23 00:20:00
I just found these two videos by COK reviewing what took place in 2007 and 2006.  They're really nice to watch and show that hopefully there is a shifting consciousness towards eating and living without causing harm to animals. I hope you enjoy them!  But please note that there are some difficult parts which show factory farming. Posted by: The String Bean
More About: Review , Compassion , Killing

Veganism in 2007 & 2008
2008-01-21 19:46:00
PrLeap has published a great article about the emerging market of vegans and the increased consciousness surrounding our food.  This was a very interesting article and really points out the movement in society towards at least realizing what we're eating.  Some choice bits:As a number of programmes on British TV such as BBC Newsnight and ‘The Truth About Food’ examined vegan claims during 2007, organisers of The Vegan Festival in Bristol and Vegan Campaigns in London, predicted the numbers of vegans would double during 2007. They claimed vegans had reached critical mass in terms of percentage of the population. Even a Government website, www.direct.gov.uk  recognised the vegan diet as an ethical sustainable solution....Further evidence of the acceptance of vegan lifestyles and proof that vegan issues have climbed out of a niche market side street is also apparent in the fashion industry say MiV. Vegan handbags and Vegan shoes have become top Google search terms w...
More About: 2008

Isa Gets Interviewed
2008-01-21 19:41:00
SmallPlanet.com has interviewed Isa and you can read it here. Posted by: The String Bean