Category Archives: Editorial

Want More Protein from Milk? Rat’s Milk is Your Answer. by J Morris Hicks

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Today is my birthday—a good day for a post about mother’s milk.

Over the weekend, I posted a video by Dr. Walter J. Veith entitled “Sitting on a Time Bomb.” Since then, I have discovered another one of his educational videos. It is entitled “Udderly Amazing” and features 80 minutes worth of non-stop scientific information about why humans should NEVER drink any cow’s milk and shouldn’t drink any milk at all after weaning.

Dr. Veith was educated in South Africa and received his PhD in Zoology in 1978.  You can view his complete bio by clicking here, but here is just a snippet to give you the idea of his educational background.

Since meeting this man via video (thanks to Leo Schwaiger) over the weekend, I have been quite impressed with his extensive documentation of facts, his relaxed style, his presentation skills and his sense of humor. In the video featured here today, he made some key points early in his presentation.

The dairy farm of the future for those who want more PROTEIN

The mother’s milk of humans contains the lowest percentage of protein of all 5500 mammals on the planet. He presented a chart showing the protein content in mg./liter for humans, horses, cows, goats, dogs, cats and rats. Alongside that data, he showed the number of days required for each of those mammals to double their weight after consuming only their mother’s milk.

Beginning with humans, and continuing through all of the seven other animals—to rats, the number of days went from 120—60—47—19—8—7—4.5 for the rats. The human milk contains 1.2 mg/liter of protein while the rat’s milk contains ten times as much—11.8 mg./liter—enough to double the infant’s birth-weight in less than five days.

Hence, Dr. Veith’s comments on the video, “If it’s protein maximization that we’re seeking, we should be drinking rats milk—not cow’s milk.” Don’t have time to watch this video right now? You might want to save it for the weekend:

You can find the rest of J Morris Hicks post at Healthy Eating Healthy Word.  I was reading this post this morning and thought it was interesting information on milk protein, it would be worth checking out the full post on the link above.

My All-Time Conversion by Elijah Bechtel

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      This is a post from my dear middle child Elijah, he is by far my healthiest child.  He never complains about my meals and really tries to make this diet a part of his lifestyle.  I asked him to write a blog about what he  thought about our change of diet and this is what he had to say.
      Before Sunday the 18th I had only eaten vegan at home.  At friends’ and relatives’ houses I would eat chicken and other wretched meats.  After watching the greater half of the film “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” I’ve decided to be thoroughly vegan.  I made  this choice because I felt I wanted to live a long and healthy life. 
      My mom makes the best vegan meals ever.  Tonight she made falafels that tasted like cooked pea balls from heaven.  She makes all kinds of foreign meals. I’ve loved most of the great meals she’s made.  One thing I really missed was chicken potpie but that problem was easily solved, she made a pie with crispy phyllo crust.
     Sometimes it’s hard whenever I go to my grandma’s house.  She has all kinds of meats and dairies in the endless refrigerator that I try to restrain myself from, but always fall into its clutches.  Even though it’s hard sometimes I hope you can hold out.

Vegan Night

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When I started this post thier was quite a few people interested in making and trying plant based dishes, not everyone wanted to go vegan but wanted to add healthy options to there daily meals but didn’t know how to start. So Saturday night we had around 15 people come over and bring a dish to share.  We had some amazing food and I think everyone enjoyed trying new things they wouldn’t have tried at home.

This idea was so much fun, and being able to hang out with such awesome people was worth having it alone, we will definitely be doing it again.

Engine 2 lasagna was a hit.

A couple of the dishes people brought.

Being a guy… without cheese.

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So, for those that don’t know, I’m Tanner, Jody’s husband and a strong supporter to what she’s doing, both here online and in her daily eating practices.  To give you a little background on who I am: I’m 32 (soon) and I travel, prolifically.  I’m on a plane, in an airport, coast-to-coast, typically, a couple days a week.  I am surrounded by a world of all things preserved, wrapped in plastic, processed, etc.  I’ve worked very hard for many years to ensure that what I ate was at least as close to its original form as possible.  Travel is tough, though.  Finding quality food in general is tough enough–much less while toting a backpack and a rolling bag through Airport, America.

This last week, I (unfortunately for business–fortunate for diet) had two meetings in Atlanta and Houston cancel at the last minute.  That freed up an entire week for me to be home.  I decided to get fully onboard with what Jody is doing–full on dreadlock vegan, man.  I was a little apprehensive.  I can do without steak 7 days a week, but I sure liked cheese.  Little did I know how good this food is.  Plain and simple.  The food is amazing.

I’m off an entire week, 100% vegan, whole-plant diet and I totally dig it.  I’ve made Pad Thai, Soy Curry, burgers, paninis, Kale/Avocado salads, sesame rice, etc.  I’ve lost weight, I feel phenomenal and I’m in.  However uncomfortable it may be to call yourself, whatever this is, it’s worth the risk.  To be honest, for those I’ve told, I’ve gotten zero negative feedback.  It’s not because I’m an animal rights activist.  I, in fact, love to fish and hunt and will continue to do so.  This is 100% about the food and it’s great.  The funny thing is I choose to eat like this.  If I feel like eating a steak someday, I’m going to do it.  I’ll eat a slice of cheese with grandma’s pie at Christmas, but for the majority of my eating life–I think I’m sticking to this.

I’m going to keep posting some information (at the incessant beckoning of Jody) about how I travel and how I eat at restaurants with customers, etc.  Hopefully, if you’re a guy wondering how this works–maybe this will help.  Drop a comment, send a message.  I’d be glad to help.

–tanner

What are Antioxidants and why should you care?

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Ever noticed how attractive and beautiful a big bowl of multi-colored fruits and vegetables are?  The colors of fruits and vegetables are derived from a variety of chemicals called antioxidants. The individual differences in the antioxidants create the individual colors of the vegetables and fruits. Almost God’s way of saying, “Eat a beautiful meal–have a beautiful life.” By blending these diverse antioxidants (by literally varying the colors of your food) you can ensure you’re protecting your body, to the best of its ability, against free radical damage.  Free radical damage is often quoted in cosmetic ads or on beauty products, but you don’t need L’oreal’s latest skin cream to protect you… an apple may work just fine.  Read on.

Alright, it’s Science time!  In a plants complex process of photosynthesis (oxidizing) they can produce particles called “free radicals” which are incomplete particles.  These “incomplete” particles find a “whole” particle to attach to and deplete, in order to “complete” itself. This is also the way “free radicals” work in our bodies.  Our bodies create low levels of free radicals throughout our lifetime being subjected to sun rays, smoking, pollution and many other carcinogenic elements.  The damage that occurs causes our tissues to become rigid and limited in function and can lead to things like cancer, heart disease and other common ailments.

This is where antioxidants come in, they work as a shields to counteract free radicals and their negative effects. In plants and humans alike.  So by consuming colorful antioxidant  rich foods we create a shield to block the free radicals we are subjected to on a daily basis.  The human body can only get these antioxidants by introducing them in the body.  The only place they exist are in plants and vegetables.  Animal protein can contain small amounts, but only as its introduced into animal’s tissue through consumption.  Daily, diverse consumption of fruits and vegetables introduce high levels of antioxidants which, in turn, create a shield to protect against free radical damage.  Better skin, decreased chances of cancer heart disease, etc.  Sounds like a pretty good reason to opt for the veggie wrap at the company meeting, eh?

By making simple choices to cut up an orange for our kids instead of handing them a bag of chips or having a spinach salad with dinner I feel we can really make a change in our families lives.

Trying something new…

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Writing a blog has not come easy or natural to me, but in my small rural area Missouri being vegan is not a common thing.  There are some that have embraced this idea whole heartedly and others have made me feel like I may be jeopardizing my family’s health. The thing I know  is that this lifestyle change is worth the criticism.

Have you ever gone on a date, eaten a steak and felt, immediately, ready to go to bed?  Have you eaten roast at grandma’s house only to nap on the floor all afternoon?  These are comforting memories, but they’re not good things to put your body through.  This is something I never understood, nor could I have ever imagined there was another option.  Let’s start at the beginning…

My husband and I lived in St. Louis, MO for nearly 12 years.  Then a close family member of ours was stricken with breast cancer.  Soon thereafter, another member of our family was also stricken with cancer.  Tanner and I reviewed what we found important and realized that we were going to move home, close to both of our families–regardless of what it took to get here.  Once we arrived, we were very mindful of the genetic traits we both possessed–on both sides of our family–that predestined us for cancer.  We started to think about how we ate, what we ate out of (our plastic, flatware and our cups), we also started to research our water, our surroundings and all the things that we could be taking for granted.

My husband works in advertising and technology and, serendipitously, had the chance to work with a couple organizations focused on whole-plant based diets.  In his work research, he came across a book called “Food Rules”, written by Michael Pollan.  We soon thereafter watched “Food Matters” and summarily had our wakeup call.  Western food was being mass-produced with little regard to human health.  Scientists and guys in white lab coats were mixing up chemical concoctions and calling it food.  This was a serious problem and many conversations were held in our household about what we were actually eating.  We started to dig deeper.

Right about this time, I, myself, was diagnosed with skin cancer.  A reparable condition but cancer nonetheless.  This opened my eyes to the idea realization that our human bodies are fragile and something needed to change.  From that point forward, I reviewed and studied the things that I put into my body.  I want to live a rich and healthy life and the previous and following posts to this blog chronicle that journey.  I want food to be good, healthy and nourishing to my body and the body of my family.

On a lighter note, does anyone want to guess what this is?

Tastes like chicken....?

Sensible Vegan

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I created this blog so I could share this change I’ve made in my life.  A week before Thanksgiving 2011 I made the choice to give up all animal based foods, not because I’m an animal rights activist but because of the repercussions that animal proteins can have on a body.  I started this by watching Food Matters on Netflix and it got me thinking, then I watched Forks Over Knives.  These two documentaries are amazing at easily explaining how food effects every working part of our bodies.  My kids watched it with us and made the choice to join in.

My goal is to post information that helps me sensibly be vegan from the cheapest places to get the best quality produce to how milk protein effects cancer.  It is hard to fully make the change at first but hopefully the things I get out there will help new vegans and the seasoned ones as well.