Category: Veganism

Vegan Gas

Tofu is a part of Asian cuisine that has nothing to do with vegetarianism. It is eaten by everyone, like the potato in Oceania. Still, for American vegans there is always a bit of irony when they are looking for something to eat only to find an Asian tofu dish, but with meat. The sentiment is “What is the point?”. Not fair, but maybe it is as far as Asian restaurants in the U.S. are concerned. Out of the Americans likely to be interested in tofu dishes many of them will be vegans and vegetarians. I think the owners of the restaurants simply aren’t informed.

Anyway…..

The sentiment is similar with “Beano” an American product that prevents the gas some people get from eating beans or cruciferous vegetables. Here the “what is the point?” sentiment is not mistaken as with tofu. Most Americans don’t eat either of these foods regularly enough to bother to buy “Beano”. The Americans who do eat these foods regularly are likely to be vegans or vegetarians. The people who will not use “Beano” because it contains fish gelatin (reported as of 2003, Beano goes in and out of being vegan, use at your own risk).

However, there is “Bean-Zyme” a vegan product which does the same thing as “Beano”:

There is also the vegan “Peaceful Digestion” by VegLife. It is a general digestive aide, but it is supposed to help with beans:

I find that I get used to cruciferous vegetables if I eat them on a regular basis and cook them longer. I also get used to legumes if I have them on a regular basis.

However, the world isn’t perfect and sometimes I find myself having to get used to legumes again, after not having eaten them for a while. There is a great free method for de-gassing beans that I learned years ago from the PCRM:

1. Soak the legumes over night
2. Dispose of the water the legumes were soaked in.
3. Boil the legumes in a fresh change of water for 1 minute.
4. Change the water again, and continue cooking regularly.

I’ve written away to several vegan nutritionists about this method. No significant nutrition is lost by tossing the stock, even if you change the water several times. What goes down the drain is mostly the tough to digest gas producing sugars in the legumes. You can also repeat step multiple times to get more of the gas producing sugars out. I have found that using a pressure cooker also helps.

Cooking beans with baking soda or the seaweed called kombu helps too, but I like the method above as I do not have to buy anything and it does not add anything to my food.

Singer turns down ham company

Scottish singer KT Tunstall has refused to allow one of her songs to be used in a meat commercial because she is vegetarian.

The ‘Suddenly I See’ hitmaker was approached by a Norwegian ham company for permission to use one of her tracks, but despite its money-making potential, the star declined to endorsement.

She says: “I’m a vegetarian.

“My manager takes care of these things, but he does tell me everything, because he knows I’ll have a good laugh with most of it.”

From
breakingnews.com

An Omnivore’s Take-down

Michael Pollan, author of an Omnivore’s Dilemma has annoyed many vegans.

In that well written book, Pollan, an omnivore, does his research, learns, and admits what vegans have been saying all along about the ethics of food choices.

Vegans are annoyed, because after finally being heard by someone out of the mainstream we are still, irrationally, shunned.

In this article in the The Atlantic Monthly B.R. Myers writes a review of Pollan’s book

Hard to Swallow
The gourmet’s ongoing failure to think in moral terms
by B. R. Myers
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200709/omnivore

The essential quote of B.R. Myers’ criticism of Michael Pollan:

“One debates the other side in a rational manner until pushed into a corner. Then one simply drops the argument and slips away, pretending that one has not fallen short of reason but instead transcended it. The irreconcilability of one’s belief with reason is then held up as a great mystery, the humble readiness to live with which puts one above lesser minds and their cheap certainties. As Pollan writes:

 

“‘I have to say there is a part of me that envies the moral clarity of the vegetarian, the blamelessness of the tofu eater. Yet part of me pities him, too. Dreams of innocence are just that; they usually depend on a denial of reality that can be its own form of hubris.'”

 

“How arrogant, in other words, how pitifully close to mental illness, to want to be a better person!”

In other words, Pollan is very rational, does a lot of research, follows logic all the way to the conclusion that morally he should become vegan. Then he decides that he simply doesn’t want to, he shuts his reasoning faculties off and calls vegans unrealistic.

This is one of those situations where someone is caught up in their feelings, they know it, they know it is not rational, but they don’t want to let go and instead of admitting that they pretend like there is some issue which you are too dense to get that mitigates their irrationality. The old “if I need to tell you, then you can’t understand it” BS.

Some people want to call Pollan an “excuse-atarian”.

I think there is a word that better fits someone who does a lot of research and a lot of thinking to arrive at an ethical conclusion who then chooses not take the ethical action: hypocrite.

I don’t mean that as insult to Pollan.

I’m still gratified that an omnivore has learned…..and told other omnivores….what we vegans have been saying all along. I am just taking the same spirit of logic that Pollan took with his book, that is, adding everything up logically and seeing where it comes out.

Reason is reason. Emotion is not reason. Emotion is a physiological response to our perceptions. Not feeling right about an action does not negate very impressive reasoning. Impressive reasoning negates impressive reasoning.

Michael Pollan, get honest with yourself and then GO VEGAN!