November 27th

November North Bay Vegan Potluck - THANKSGIVING THEME!

When: Friday, November 27th
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma, CA,(United Church of Christ)(No affiliation)




Are you a vegan, vegetarian or just curious about all of it? Come to our monthly Vegan Potluck and have a delicious meal, share your favorite vegan recipes and make new friends! We request that potluck items be free from all animal products including dairy and eggs (check your ingredient list for hidden animal products like casein, whey, gelatin, meat or fish broths, honey, etc.) Please bring your own serving and eating utensils, plate, cup, bowl, and napkin. Please also include the recipe or an ingredient list with your potluck dish.

October North Bay Vegan Potluck

Come and spend a beautiful autumn evening with friends, both old and new, and enjoy the amazing bounty from our earth. The creativity of our chefs (that's you!) is always astounding!

When: Friday, October 23rd
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma, CA,(United Church of Christ)(No affiliation)

October Wellness Fair

We will be hosting a table at the October Wellness Fair in Sebastopol, this Saturday, October 17th, from 11:00am to 5:00pm. It will be held at the Masonic Lodge located at 373 N. Main Street across from the Safeway.

September North Bay Vegan Potluck!

It's time again for our monthly potluck! September is a wonderful month for fresh vegetables from the garden. The tomatoes are warm and sweet in the sun. Fresh basil, crispy apples, zucchini, cuccumbers, corn and bell peppers...can't wait to see what shows up this month at the dinner!


When: Friday, September 25th
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma (United Church of Christ) (No affiliation)

August North Bay Vegan Potluck

Come join us for a beautiful summer evening with great food and wonderful company!
When: Friday, August 28th
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma (United Church of Christ) (No affiliation)

Bizarro

Quinoa - The Super Food!

Quinoa(Keen-Wah) is coming to be known as a Super Food. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations compares the nutritional quality to dried whole milk. It’s not really a grain like we think of, that grows on grassy plants, but a broadleaf non-legume somewhat like buckwheat and amaranth. Quinoa is native to the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, Chile and Peru and is somewhat temperamental outside of those areas. Growers have worked with it in Canada and Colorado with some success, but there is not enough market demand yet for them to devote large areas to this crop. There is work being done on developing varieties that are more tolerant of conditions outside of its native growing location in South America.

Quinoa, as a whole grain, can be substituted for rice or pilaf in recipes. Ground into a flour, it can be combined with other flours and used in baked goods. My favorite form of Quinoa is as a ‘rolled’ grain. It looks like miniature rolled oats and I add it to my morning oatmeal every morning. In this form, it can also be used as an addition where oatmeal is used. Because of its tiny size, I wouldn’t eliminate the oatmeal in recipes, but substitute some of the oatmeal with rolled Quinoa. This will keep the texture of the product similar to the original intention of the recipe. Locally, the only place that I’ve been able to find rolled Quinoa is at Oliver’s Market in Cotati, and it is organic. Our local Whole Foods Market does not carry it at this time.

Here is an excerpt from the Quinoa Corporation on the nutritional aspects of Quinoa:

Quinoa contains more protein than any other grain; an average of 16.2 percent, compared with 7.5 percent for rice, 9.9 percent for millet, and 14 percent for wheat. Some varieties of quinoa are more than 20 percent protein.

Quinoa's protein is of an unusually high quality. It is a complete protein, with an essential amino acid balance close to the ideal ... similar to milk!

Quinoa's protein is high in lysine, methionine and cystine. This makes it an excellent food to combine with, and boost the protein value of, other grains (which are low in lysine), or soy (which is low in methionine and cystine).
Quinoa Corporation

Here’s another link to the nutrition facts on Quinoa:
Quinoa Nutrition Facts

July North Bay Vegan Potluck

Come join us for a lovely summer potluck with good food and great company!
When: Friday, July24th
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma (United Church of Christ) (No affiliation)

June North Bay Vegan Potluck

It's almost potluck time again. Join us for friends, food and fun. Be sure to check out the new link to our potluck recipes, and potluckers, don't forget to send in your recipes for posting!
When: Friday, June 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma (United Church of Christ)

The Circus Is Coming To Town! – Excited? Think again.

The Carson and Barnes Circus is coming to Sonoma County next month. What I’m learning about this circus, and others that employ animal acts, is nothing short of shocking. These circuses attempt to entertain us with dogs, apes, birds, ponies and horses, hippos, tigers, and of course, elephants.

Elephants are highly social, intelligent animals with a complex system of communication. In their natural environment, they roam over large areas and cover considerable distances of up to 50 miles every day. The elephant family is led by the oldest female, the matriarch, and is bonded by kinship, affiliation, experience, great loyalty and affection.

The elephants that you see in circuses are bought and sold like commodities. They are transported long distances in small compartments on trucks or trains. They are separated from their friends and family, confined and chained. To control the elephant’s behavior in this restricted environment, the ‘handlers’ need to establish and maintain dominance. This is done through the use of violence and cruelty, using electric prods, whips and large bull-hooks. When attacked with these weapons, the elephants scream in pain. Understandably, these creatures eventually go mad, and end up endangering human lives in the process.



This treatment is appalling and unethical. I would rather watch a nature show on PBS about these amazing creatures than see a live elephant being forced to stand in line with her feet on the back of another.

What can you do?
1. Don’t go to circuses that use wild animal acts. Non-animal circuses include Cirque du Soleil and the local Pickle Family Circus.
2. Tell your friends, write to your local newspaper, contact your local schools, and ask your City Council to ban circuses with animal acts. Literature is available to download from various sites. Click here for a good brochure.
3. Ask business to drop their sponsorships of circuses with wild animal acts.
4. Report animal abuse to local authorities and the USDA.
5. Suggest and animal-free circus for your community.
6. Participate in or start your own anti-circus demonstration. There may be a local animal rights group in your area that holds these events.

Bay Area demonstration dates and times:
DALY CITY (Cow Palace Parking Lot, 2600 Geneva Ave, Daly City):
May 29 (Fri) @ 3:30p and 6:30p
May 30 (Sat) @ 6p
May 31 (Sun) @ 3p
June 1 (Mon) @ 6p
June 2 (Tue) @ 6p

DUBLIN (Martinelli Way and Hacienda, Dublin):
June 5 (Fri) @ 6:30p
June 6 (Sat) @ 3p and 6:30p
June 7 (Sun) @ 3p

SANTA ROSA (Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa):
June 8 (Mon) @ 3:30p and 6:30p
June 9 (Tue) @ 3:30p and 6:30p

PETALUMA (Sonoma-Marin Fair, 175 Fairgrounds Drive, Petaluma):
June 10 (Wed) @ 3:30p and 6:30p
June 11 (Thu) @ 3:30p and 6:30p

More links:
Circus Issues

Peta Literature

Compassionate Consumer Literature

Information for Educators

May North Bay Vegan Potluck

Here it is again! Already another month has gone by! Looking forward to another evening of wonderful company and luscious food. I am now posting the potluck recipes on the blog. Either email or give me a copy of your recipe and I'll post it for all to share. There are two links - one in the welcome message to the right, and another in the 'links' section further down on the right. See you Friday the 22nd and feel free to bring a friend!

I’m thinking that many of us involved in any kind of activism wonder at times if all of our efforts have any effect on those we are trying to reach. Promoting what you believe in can be a thankless and daunting task, but my experience this weekend helped to encourage, rather than discourage me. I worked a table at the Wellness Expo in the town of Sonoma, in the heart of the wine country. Many of the visitors were there because they had an interest in their health. Many of them ate only some animal products, maybe just fish, or just turkey, or just dairy. Some just wanted to know what we were ‘selling’, and who was funding us. We told them that we were just volunteering on our own, representing the animals, the earth and our health. The reactions ranged from bafflement to amazement to gratitude. We had spirited and intelligent conversations and handed out literature. We showed them cookbooks, animal rights books, articles, charts and graphs, and collected signatures on PCRM’s Healthy School Lunch Program petition. At the weekend’s end, I was the grateful one. I am thankful that people take the time to listen. I am thankful for those who just glance our way. That one glance may be the seed for a future vegan – one less person involved in the cycle of violence and death of innocent non-human animals.

Rate of Slaughter of Chickens, Pigs, and Cows in the United States, 2008

April North Bay Vegan Potluck!

Post Meatout

Our Meatout events on March 20th and 21st were a success! We tabled two days in two different locations and couldn't have asked for better weather. We found that having a 'give away' item really attracted folks and was a segue to handing them our plant-based diet information. We chose Newman's 'Oreo' type cookies for our treat this year. Next time, we would like to hand out one of the meat substitutes that are available if we can find some in sample-sized portions. Not only did I enjoy my own interactions with people but also I enjoyed observing my fellow tabler's conversations. Even if our visitors don't choose to make a change in their food choices now, we may have planted a seed for a later time. I am so proud to work along side of Anna, Lisa (not pictured) and Susan - a group of dedicated, strong women!

More on Fats and Oils

The comment on the Coconut Oil post inspired me to do a little research into oils and fats. The University of Illinois, McKinley Health Center has a short summary of why some fat is essential for our diets, and in what foods they are found. Recognizing that some fat is necessary for health, I went to Dr. John McDougall’s website and read what he has to say on the subject. I was impressed by his description of what he calls “free oils”, which are the oils that we buy in the store for cooking, salad dressing, etc. These are oils taken out of their natural environment, or “whole food” source. Rather than a “food”, he refers to them as “medications”, as they are extracted and concentrated unnaturally. The difference between fat and oil is whether they are a solid or a liquid at room temperature.

The amount of fat that our bodies need to function at its best is very small. When we use fats in such a concentrated form, such as oils and other solid-type fats, we risk weight gain and the complications that arise from obesity. Research is also showing that too much fat can be toxic to our bodies, promote some cancers and suppress our immune systems.

We can easily get the necessary fats from a whole food diet that includes modest amounts of oil-rich foods such as nuts, avocados, seeds and olives. Fat is also found in the foods that our common oils are derived from – corn, soy, olive, etc. Ideas for cooking without oil can be found in the August 2007 McDougall Newsletter. Also see the link to Fat Free Vegan in the 'Links' section to the right.

McKinley Health Center

Dr. McDougall on Oil

Cooking Without Oils

The Animal Odd Couple

This amazing video of Bella the dog and Tara the elephant touched my heart and made my day!

Coconut Oil

For several years now, I have been hearing a buzz about a new ‘health food’ product, Coconut Oil. My brother, who had been diagnosed with cancer, was advised by his nutritionist to use only this particular oil for its health benefits. For those of you who don’t know, Coconut Oil is a solid, white, ‘Crisco-looking’ substance. When I first saw a jar of Coconut Oil, I couldn’t help but wonder how a human body could benefit from something that was that solid at room temperature. It turns out, my hunch was right. This is not a ‘health’ food!

Back in February, I took a nutrition seminar put on by The McDougall Program, called the McDougall Advanced Study Weekend. Dr. John McDougall promotes a plant-based diet primarily for health reasons. There, I was introduced to a highly educated and very entertaining speaker, Jeff Novick. Jeff has lots of degrees and titles next to his name: MS, RD, LD, and LN, and he’s a stand up comedian too!

One of the topics that Jeff discussed was the nutritional advantages and disadvantages of oils in the diet. Here are the conclusions he presented in regards to Coconut Oil. This excerpt is taken from his newsletter dated April 10, 2008:

1) Coconut oil has virtually NO nutritional value. It has not protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, or fiber.
2) Like all oils, coconut oil is pure fat. Of the fat in coconut oil, over 90% is saturated fat.
3) All oils, including coconut oil, are the most calorie dense food on the planet.
4) While there may be a rare example of some healthy and fit native population that managed to be healthy in spite of their consumption of coconut, this does not make coconut oil into a health food, or a food that Americans should consume with complete abandon as part of their already unhealthy American lifestyles. The coconuts may have been the only risk factor in the otherwise healthy lifestyle of these native populations. However, recent studies have shown the harmful effects of even one high fat meal when the fat comes from coconut oil.
5) While it is true that coconut oil may have some antimicrobial properties, this is not why we consume food, especially one that has so many other negative aspects to it. Remember, our main nutritional and health problems are not bacteria, microbes and infections, but being overfed and undernourished with too many calories and too few nutrients and the resulting weight and lifestyle related diseases. Coconut oil, which is extremely high in calories and void of any nutrients, only makes this already unhealthy situation worse.
6) You are welcome to add all the coconut and/or coconut oil you would like to you diet, on one condition; you keep the total amount of saturated fat in your diet below 7% of your total calories (with below 5% being optimal). :)
Bottom line?
Don't Go Cuckoo Over Coconut Oil!

Check out Jeff Novick’s article for the complete story:
Coconut Oil

First Vegan Potluck

Here's the press release for the new North Bay Vegan Potluck! It is being launched through Meetup at http://www.meetup.com/North-Bay-Vegan-Potluck/. You can go there to see more information and you don't need to be a Meetup member to attend.

Press Release:
Are you a vegan, vegetarian or just curious about all of it? Come join us for good conversation and good food at Petaluma's first monthly Vegan Potluck. Discuss living a healthy vegan lifestyle, free from animal cruelty. We request that potluck items be free from all animal products including dairy and eggs (check your ingredient list for hidden animal products like casein, whey, gelatin, meat or fish broths, honey, etc.) Please bring your own serving and eating utensils, plate, cup, bowl, and napkin. Please also include an ingredient list with your potluck dish. Paper and pen will be provided if you forget to do this beforehand.
When: March 27th @ 6:30 pm
Where: 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma, CA, 94952 (United Church of Christ)(No affiliation)

Activist Inspiration

While listening to NPR tonight on the car radio, I heard an interview with a most amazing woman. She is Nobel Peace Laureate, Jody Williams, who is a Human Rights activist and the leader of the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines. Even though she works for human rights and I've chosen animal rights, her message of how even one person can make a difference in this world applies to both.

She, along with most of us, share the same dream for a peaceful world without violence and war. If we could end these atrocities between humans, could we really have a peaceful world when violence and terror still exist on our farms and in our slaughterhouses? I believe that non-violence does not just apply to people, but to the animals whose bodies we unnecessarily use for food, fur, and testing.

As an activist, it can sometimes feel hopeless when you work alone towards what you believe in. Jody Williams believes that the only way to bring about change in this world is to take action. In Ms. Williams words, "I believe that if enough ordinary people back up our desire for a better world with action, I believe we can, in fact, accomplish absolutely extraordinary things."

Read an interview with Jody Williams:
When Ordinary People Achieve Extraordinary Things

Processed People Trailer

Meatout is coming up!

The international event, Meatout, is coming up on or around March 20th! Here's the description from their website:

The occasion is Meatout, the world's largest and oldest annual grassroots diet education campaign. This year is the 25th annual observance! Every spring, thousands of caring Meatout supporters educate their communities and ask their friends, families, and neighbors to pledge to "kick the meat habit (at least for a day) and explore a wholesome, compassionate diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains."

Please check out the website and consider hosting an event in your area. They supply all of the literature and banners, but order soon as the date is nearing. You can also order sample 'meat substitutes' from participating vendors to distribute at your event. This is an exciting addition to leafleting as it adds some reality of what a non-meat diet could look like. (I know, not all of you agree with the 'meat substitutes', but sometimes it's a good bridge to healthier eating and going vegan.) Also note the ongoing 'Meatout Mondays' where non-vegan folks are being encouraged to try at least one meatless day per week.

http://www.meatout.org/index.htm

Welcome

Welcome to Caring for Creatures. This is a site for the animals, for our physical and spiritual health, and for the health of our planet. I'm hoping to use this forum as a means of inspiration and education on issues related to a vegan lifestyle including animal rights, health and environment. I look forward to your ideas, opinions, questions and expertise. Some recipe ideas would be great too!