General

Do you own a pet? Do you visit aquariums or safari parks occasionally? Do you have a feather pillow? Do you sometimes use cosmetics or skin creams from your local supermarket?

Well then my friend, you’re just not a vegan.

…or so some people might tell you.

Contrary too what you might think, the question of whether you are a vegan is not as straight forward as it first appears. So, just what or who is a vegan?

Well first let’s explain what veganism is. The UK Vegan Society (who coined the term ‘vegan’) define veganism as “a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose”. So veganism, under this definition, is a lifestyle choice, and one can deduce by extension that a vegan is someone that practices this lifestyle. I term this the philosophical approach to veganism.

So what or how then, must a person conduct their life in order to be a vegan?

In order to avoid animal exploitation, a vegan should not consume, use or support any of the following products or practices:
* Foods that contain products of animal origin: meat, fish, dairy, eggs, cheese, honey, gelatine, etc.
• Clothes or personal wear made from origin products leather, wool, silk, down, fur, animal skins
* Cosmetics/personal care items/toiletries/home care products that contain animal ingredients and/or are tested on animals
* Keeping pets, pet shops, puppy mills, breeding, buying or selling animals, confining animals in cages or fish in bowls
• Fishing, hunting, rodeos, cockfights, and other forms of animal ‘sports’
* Circuses, zoos, aqua parks; safari parks, oceanariums and aquariums
* Dog racing, horse racing, dog shows, horse-drawn carriages, horse riding
• Using animals as beasts of burden

This non-exhaustive list is already quite substantial and many would say onerous. The likelihood probably is that we are all (nearly all) guilty of breaching one or more of these edicts. But how many breaches does it take before someone will say “you’re not a vegan” anymore? When does one change from being a vegan to not being a vegan? Or is being vegan just a meaningless article of faith, a badge or label that anyone can carry around … just like, for example, a ‘Christian’ that has affairs outside his marriage, doesn’t keep in touch with his parents, works on Sundays, doesn’t believe in the Old Testament, is an overt racist, cheats on his tax returns and swears like a trouper?

In reality, the truth is that no such scorecard exists. Anyone can claim to be a vegan, saying that they live their lives in order to avoid animal exploitation, but this approach leaves a big black hole … The hole of FAILURE. Often people’s lives are markedly different in reality from their lofty ideals. And so this definition of being a vegan fails due to its non-verifiable and unquantifiable nature. In this sense it is just a rather unsatisfactory and vague term that may or may not mean something specific about the way a person conducts their life.

Note importantly, people who have a vegan diet for health reasons, religious purposes, or as a means of combating global warming, are excluded from this idealistic version of being a vegan. This is because they do it for the “wrong reasons” as they aren’t eating vegan in order to avoid animal exploitation. This reasoning smacks of bigotry and echoes faith-based illogic that says, for example, under Catholicism that most of the world’s leading humanists such as Ghandi would be banished to hell for believing in the wrong god. This rationale has strong negative consequences for the vegan movement as I believe it leads us down a cul-de-sac.

I believe that a different approach to finding a meaningful definition of being a vegan is required. The most obvious tenet to being a vegan is the consumer element, and it is also readily verifiable. So this is how I define a vegan:
“A person that does not consume animal products” … (‘consumption’ here meaning use, wear, buy, eat …)

That’s it, the practical definition of a vegan – short, simple, and modest. And easily tested.

I’m not suggesting that the other forms of animal exploitation are insignificant; far from it. They are equally as important and therefore deserve their own movements to halt these horrors. So animal-testing and pet breeding can be tackled by anti-vivisection and animal rights activism, and so forth. This simple approach allows us to pitch resources and expertise at each issue individually, instead of trying to fruitlessly tackle all the issues as if they are one. This is not watering down the ideals of veganism. It is merely reclassifying issues under more appropriate labels – animal welfare and rights issues are handled under those identifiable banners.

Note also that the Vegan Society implicitly accept this in their definition of vegan food. They make no attempt to verify if foods were brought to market by oxen or ploughed in fields by buffaloes. This is because they realise it’s impractical and self-defeating to ask these questions.

An additional and ultimately overriding benefit of the practical definition of vegan is that it is an inclusive approach. People that choose a vegan diet for health, environmental reasons, or religion, will be warmly greeted inside the vegan movement, instead of being rejected as they are under the philosophical and elitist alternative approach. This can only be a good thing for advocacy and growing veganism into a more powerful association for social change.

Written by Sheldon Hey

By Marie Louise Swart

I was thinking of the days in Eden when we were eating fruit from the trees and veggies from the earth and it came to me that we never had to wonder about our food. Since it was raw the food was natural and all the nutrients went into their bodies and didn’t get lost in the cooking process.

But most people don’t always want to eat food raw. Cooking food brings out the flavour and with added spices and herbs it also makes it tastier. Studies in recent years also show that iron and aluminium from cooking pots can leach into food and toxic polymers from non-stick pans are released in to the air, causing several serious health risks.

Cooking with clay pots is becoming very popular and is a healthier option because clay is a natural product. Minerals that are in the clay dissolve into your food, making it tastier and healthier.

Using glazed earthenware has several advantages over metal pans:

• Food cooks with a minimum of liquid and no additional fat.
• Food browns in clay pots, even with the lid on.
• More of the essential nutrients and vitamins are retained in foods cooked in clay pots because food cooks in a closed environment with limited liquids.
• As long as you don’t overfill the cooker, your oven will remain clean.
• Argilla clay pots may be used in the microwave very successfully. It is best to use lower power settings.
• Food can be kept warm by leaving the lid on the pot, after removing it from the oven, without overcooking.
• You only use one pot for the whole meal.
• Argilla pots have a glaze which makes for easier cleaning.
• Clay pots are very durable.

Argilla clay pots come in mocha and sandstone and are oval and round bakers, pie plates and casseroles. Try cooking dishes like lasagna and other pastas, casseroles and baked goods.

A disadvantage of clay pot cooking is the longer cooking time (1 hour), but the exquisitely tastier food will soon have you forget about this.

For some great vegan dishes that you can cook with Argilla, visit: www.argillasa.net.

Veg 1, is a 100% vegan multivitamin created and endorsed by the UK Vegan Society, is now available in South Africa.

It is a blackcurrant flavoured multivitamin formulated by the Vegan Society, in conjunction with HealthPlus, with vegan diet essentials like Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D2. It is designed specifically for vegans, but suitable for everyone. The supplement provides EU recommended daily allowances (RDAs) of:

- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin D
- Folic Acid
- Iodine
- Selenium

The supplement comes in 3 month supply bottles of 90 tablets.

Ingredients :
Sugar, Dextrose, Acacia, Selenomethionine (Selenium), Stearic Acid, Flavour (Blackcurrant), Ergocalciferol Preparation (D2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (B6), Magnesium Stearate, Riboflavin (B2), PVP, Folacin (Folic Acid), Potassium Iodide (Iodine), Cyanocobalamin (B12).

You can buy Veg-1 at Freash Earth in Johannesburg or by mail order through the SA Vegan Society.

An article by Adam Kochanowicz for the Vegan Examiner

“Vegans face a serious criticism regarding their diet when it comes to research on neurological problems. It’s not hard to find articles that study groups of non-vegans and vegans, and that show the latter group demonstrates a higher rate of neurological damage. This data looks very frightening and seems to give credence to those who reject many of the health benefits of veganism as myth. So why do we still suggest you should go vegan and should not worry about your brain falling apart?

Much of the research under question is not flawed.  A B-12 deficiency is a serious matter and can lead to faster rates of brain decay later in life.  However, the statements on this undisputed fact become misleading when we make inferences about vegans. The argument is essentially that because vegans tend to have higher rates of B-12 deficiency, veganism itself is an unhealthy way of living and that at least some animal products are necessary.

If practiced correctly, a vegan diet is extremely healthy, animal products are in no way necessary for optimal human health.”

Fallacy: Veganism causes brain decay

Adam goes on to argue that it’s not veganism itself that causes a deficiency in vitammin B-12, it’s individual vegans themselves that cause the deficiency and they need to take special care to make sure they incorporate the vitamin into the diets.

A related misconception to this issue is that vitamin B-12 only comes from animals. This is not true. B-12 is found in many animal food products, but it is microorganisms present in animals that synthesize B-12, not the animals themselves. There are many vegan B-12 supplements and B-12 fortified foods available that eliminate the need to consume animal products. This is one of the so-called disadvantages of veganism that can easily be overcome.

Fallacy: Vegan, among diets, is unhealthy

Adam also suggests that the research data is being used incorrectly to arrive at misleading and innaccurate conclusions.

If we analyse any group or category of people (meat-eaters, vegans, vegetarians), there will be both people with good and less-than-good diets that we could infer some sort of correlation or trend to. This is no surprise. Not all vegans are health experts, just as other people are not too. But this health data remains important to vegans.  Vitamin B-12, calcium and iron are the 3 nutrients that vegans should pay most attention to.  But they can all easily be found from vegan sources.

Adam also questions “why veganism gets singled out as some strange, unhealthy, or unnatural diet.  Much of our bodies are highly suitable for plant-based nutrition … and surely succeed over the diets of many critics… vegans hear a lot of criticism about their diet (much of it is incorrect) while diseases related to high blood pressure top the list of natural killers of human beings.”

Vegans may have a few small and specific nutritional issues, buit this is insignificant when compared to meat and dairy diets high in fats, cholesterol, sugar and preservatives.

Fallacy: Supplements are for vegans only

Some think that, despite all the obesity, disease, cancer and general poor health, people live perfectly well on non-vegan diets, and supplements are for vegans. This perceived disadvantage of veganism is incorrect. Adam points to the similarity between goiter and vitamin B-12 deficiency as a case in point. Goiter is caused by iodine deficiency and was a major public health issue in the early 20th century. This symptom quickly disappeared once manufacturuers learnt to iodize salt. “Now, whenever you see a packet or box of salt, you’re likely to see “iodized” in the name. Most of us don’t have to worry about Goiter because we take supplements [iodine, to counter goiter] and don’t even realize it.”

So we can deduce that vitamin B-12 deficiency would likely no longer be an issue if vegans received a similar response from food manufacturers to this health issue. Some foods are now appearing fortified in vitamin B12, so perhaps we have alreadt turned the corner with this issue.

Adam concludes: “Most of us don’t have perfect levels of every single nutrient we need as human beings. What these nutrients are vary from person to person, diet to diet, and culture to culture. You don’t have to worry about your brain decaying as a vegan. Simply be informed when making your transition and surround yourself with positive, like-minded people.”

…..

For more on healthy rather than unhealthy vegan diets read our the vegan nutrition article.

Happy New Year to all of you out there. At Vegan SA, we’d like to wish you all a prosperous upcoming year and one in which we can contribute in whatever small way possible, to making your lives more fulfilling.

“I’m pregnant and follow a vegan diet. will it harm my unborn baby?”

This is a question that many vegan mothers-to-be will ask. And since it is summertime and the hot season, now is as good a time as any to answer it.

Lesleigh Harnwell has produced an excellent document for us: Vegan Pregnancies. It’s full of nutritional information for any mother-to-be, addresses specific concerns for vegans and suggests some easy and readily available solutions.

This page also dovetails quite nicely with her previous article on Raising Children with a Vegan Diet.

If you are planning for future offspring soon, now you have all the dietary information you need. So go on then, … off you go and do your stuff!

Soya: the bean health issues

… by Sheldon Hey

Soy beans, with their many uses and culinary forms, have become an important nutritional staple for many vegans and vegetarians. It is used in non-dairy milks, yoghurts and cheeses, baby formulas, soy drinks, protein bars, frozen desserts, as textured protein, soy sauce, veggie burgers and sausages, as well as tofu and bean curd.

However, after quite an easy early ride in the media during which soya made huge market gains as a healthy and natural food, several recent press articles have begun to question the virtues of soy beans.

With strong financial interest weighing in on both sides of the argument, it can be confusing for the consumer to get to the truth behind the media hype. The well funded United Soybean and the Soyfoods Association of North America leads the soya bean public relations crusade, whilst allegations fly that several critical institutional research studies were funded by the competitor meat industry with its not-so hidden agenda.

Here, we take a look at the soy health battleground, laying out both sides of the arguments, and review where current legislation lies in relation to soy food and health.

Background

The soybean was first used as a food upon the discovery of fermentation techniques, some time during the Chinese Chou Dynasty (1100-600 BC). The first soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, miso and soy sauce. Quite some time later, possibly around 200-100 BC, the Chinese discovered tofu or bean curd and the use of fermented and precipitated soya products soon spread to other parts of Asia, most notably Japan, Korea and Indonesia.

Soy proteins contain all the essential amino acids in appropriate ratios needed for human growth and body maintenance, and are readily digestible. The FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Protein Quality determined that soy protein and egg white have the maximum score of 1, followed by milk and meat proteins. Soy protein is “complete”, which means it has all of the amino acids needed in the human diet and is the only plant source of complete protein.

The health claim battleground

Here’s a review of the main health issues regarding soya:

Hormonal balance

Soya beans contain phytochemicals, the most controversial of which are isoflavones. Isoflavones are described as phyto-estrogens (plant oestrogens) because their structure and metabolism resembles that of human estrogens. Oestrogen is a natural hormone important in the sexual development of both male and female humans.

Concern: In studies conducted on hamsters and rats, it was observed that the consumption of isoflavones caused hormonal imbalance and significantly accelerated the onset of puberty in the rodents. These findings might be relevant to humans, and are especially concerning for babies who are fed soy-based formulae which contain high dosages of phyto-estrogens.

Oestrogen is linked with breast cancer and it is posited that soy consumption might increase the risk of breast cancer in women. The French Centre for Cancer Research, now advises against soy for women who are at risk for breast cancer and for those who already have it.

Answer: A critical review of breast cancer studies suggests that adult consumption of soyfoods is not likely to result in adverse outcomes. Plant oestrogens are much weaker than naturally circulating human estrogens and they have approximately 1/1000 of the biological activity of synthetic oestrogens. Soy foods containing isoflavones may provide a variety of health benefits since isoflavones provide relief from certain menopausal symptoms and lowers the risk of certain cancers, osteoporosis and heart disease. Comparisons of adults fed soy formula and adults breast-fed as infants indicate no significant differences in growth, maturation, fertility or other reproductive outcomes.

Studies using rat models often add purified isoflavones at levels much higher than those found in human diets. Research indicates that isolated isoflavones do not always have the same action as isoflavones found in their natural state as part of soy beans. Furthermore, human beings and rodents are entirely different animals and any noted affects on tested rodents often do not lead to the same results in humans.

Mineral absorption

Concern: Soybeans contain higher levels of phytic acid than any other bean. Phytic acid is known as an anti-nutrient since it can block the absorption of certain minerals, including magnesium, copper, calcium, iron and especially zinc. It has been noted that people in 3rd World countries who have a high consumption of soy also frequently have deficiencies in these minerals. This may also be a health concern with regard to babies who are using soy-based infant food formulae. Adding to the high phytic acid problem, soy beans are highly resistant to phytate-reducing techniques such as long and slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soy beans.

Answer: Mineral deficiency in the 3rd World could be attributed to a whole range of other factors and nothing related to soy consumption. Other studies show that when people’s diets are adequate in zinc, iron, and calcium, phytates do not present a problem with mineral bioavailability.

Protein and oxygen absorption

Concern: Soya beans also contain enzyme-inhibitors that block the uptake of trypsin enzymes which the body needs for protein digestion. These anti-nutrients can cause serious gastric distress, reduce protein digestion and can lead to chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In addition, soy beans also contain hemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance which causes red blood cells to cluster together, reducing proper oxygen absorption for distribution to the body’s tissues.

Although the act of fermenting soybeans does de-activate both hemagglutinin and trypsin inhibitors, cooking and precipitation (the process used to produce tofu) do not completely eliminate them.

Answer: Trypsin inhibitors are present in many other plant products including raw legumes, cereals, potatoes, and tomatoes. They can reduce the efficiency of digestion of proteins but are mostly destroyed when beans are heated during cooking to make soy foods. The soy industry believes that small quantities of trypsin inhibitors are not detrimental to health but rather they may have beneficial effects in reducing tumour growth and preventing the spread of some cancers.

Thyroid function

Concern: The consumption of a soy-rich diet can lead to problems associated with the thyroid, especially goitre and hypothyroidism in infants and thyroid cancer. The Israeli Health Ministry issued a public warning against the consumption of soy in children and infants, and the French Centre for Cancer Research now recommends no children under the age of 3 should eat soy.

Answer: In healthy adults, consuming soya foods appears to have no negative effect on thyroid function and may in fact reduce the risk of thyroid cancer. It is accepted that soy could be a risk factor for goitre in people with low iodine intake, however, screening for thyroid dysfunction will identify these individuals. Reports of goitre and hypothyroidism in babies fed soy based formulae in the 1960s predate soy based formulas supplemented with iodine. Since the 1960s, approximately 18 million US children have grown up on soy formula with only 12 cases of abnormalities in infants possibly traceable to soy formula. Today, the American Academy of Paediatrics recognises iodine enriched soy-based baby formula as a safe and effective alternative for babies to provide appropriate nutrition for normal development and growth.

Soy processing

Concern: The production of soy protein isolate requires several intensive industrial processes, including hexane, acid and alkaline washes, precipitation, and exposure to high temperatures and pressures in order to produce the textured vegetable protein finished product. Nitrite carcinogens and a toxin called lysinoalanine are formed during the processing.

Answer: Modern processing removes undesirable constituents by fractionation or extraction. All of these treatments can increase the digestibility of soy proteins, remove indigestible sugars, inactivate enzymes that affect flavour, and prevent undesirable changes that may occur during storage.

Additives

Concern: Numerous artificial flavourings, particularly monosodium glutamate, are added to soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein products to mask their strong natural taste and to impart the flavour of meat.

Answer: The addition of flavourings, preservatives and other additives in soy based products is no different to their use in other foods. If customers prefer soy products that are additive-free then they can seek out those producers that use organic soy beans and do not use additives.

Reduced heart disease

Claim: In 1999, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a health claim that links the consumption of soy protein that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. The FDA reviewed hundreds of scientific research studies and public comments before granting the soy and heart disease health claim. The FDA found no credible evidence that soy causes harm when consumed by humans. The FDA approved health claim recommends 25 grams or 4 servings of foods with 6.25 grams of soy protein daily to lower cholesterol significantly.

Counter-claim: Much of the scientific evidence of soy’s cholesterol-lowering properties is drawn largely from meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a review and summary of the results of many clinical studies on the same subject. Use of meta-analyses to draw general conclusions has come under sharp criticism by members of the scientific community because researchers that substitute meta-analysis for more rigorous trials risk making faulty assumptions and drawing wrong conclusions.

It was also noted from the results that significant lowering of cholesterol only took place in individuals with high cholesterol levels. No significant change was noted for people with normal levels of cholesterol.

The verdict

So with all the claims and counter-claims, accusations and explanations who should we be listening to and whose view do we trust?

If you think like I do then you’ll know that any government health approval is quite meaningless and available to the highest bidder. The best advice is to keep abreast of the latest developments and health news, trusting those whose views have already established credibility in your life.

No one food is perfect. What seems certain is that soya is a good source of protein and can reduce cholesterol levels when they are high. Other claims, both positive and negative, remain unproven. We all know that diet and lifestyle impact our health and any one food will never be the panacea of all health and disease.

Enjoy all things in moderation, don’t think that you must consume soy morning, noon and night. Consume a broad range of fruit and vegetables, knowing that the raw and natural food state is usually best. As for soy-based products, choose organic whole and fermented soy products like edamame, miso, tofu and tempeh (my personal favourite). If you enjoy processed veggie-burgers and sausages etc, then choose brands such as Fry’s that use a blend of vegetable and wheat proteins and only a low percentage of soy in their mixes (5-8% in Fry’s case according to Tammy Fry).

The British Nutrition Foundation produced a comprehensive briefing paper in 2002 which looked at the various health scares and claims surrounding soya foods. It concluded that “soy beans are a useful source of a range of nutrients, and the beans themselves and foods derived from them can be useful components of a healthy diet.”

To conclude, one might like to remind themselves of our hospitals and note how many people are dying from diseases directly linked to eating meat and dairy products. I have yet to hear of anyone officially diagnosed as being hospitalised from eating soya!