1. VIM's Special Events & Announcements

VIM's Thanksgiving Day Vegan Potluck 

Thursday, November 24, 2005
Noon, Annual Thanksgiving Day VEGAN Potluck and Celebration. Lots of RAW goodies also. Bring a friend, your favorite game, favorite instrument, or your favorite talent and be ready to join the celebration. Bring your favorite holiday VEGAN dish sized for 8 servings or a $7.50 donation. Call Flo or Jerry at (313) 541-0162.

VIM's Holiday Party & White Elephant Gift Exchange Potluck

Friday, December 16,2005
7:00 pm ~ VIM Vegan Potluck Holiday Party & White Elephant Gift Exchange. Bring a used item that you loved but no longer want and recycle it by giving it to someone else. Please do not purchase new items for this gift exchange. Unity of Livonia, 28660 5 Mile Road, Livonia, MI. between Middlebelt and Inkster Road. Bring your favorite VEGAN dish sized for 8 servings or a $7.50 donation. Call Flo or Jerry at (313) 541-0162.

Are You a VIM Member?

You receive this newsletter, so you're already aware of the many ways Veggies in Motion promotes the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. Membership dollars help make this happen, and there's never been a better time to join. VIM members receive: a free Vegetarian Starter Kit; discounts at veg-friendly restaurants; free admission to the annual Great American Meatout; discounted admission to VIM's annual weekend retreat; discounts on veg-related books and merchandise; advance notice of restaurant outings, classes, cooking demos and other offerings; free classified ads on VIM's Web site... and more. Most importantly, as a member, you're helping to further public understanding of the health, environmental and ethical consequences of our food choices. Annual VIM membership is just $20 (students and seniors), $25 (individual) and $35 (family). To join, click on this link http://www.veggiesinmotion.org/membership or call (248) 616-9676 today.

VIM Advisory Board

Veggies In Motion is proud to introduce our recently assembled Advisory Board. These prominent doctors, nurses, authors, environmentalists, educators and other experts have embraced a plant-based lifestyle and are willing to serve as resources for VIM.

This list is a work in progress, so if you are, or know of others, willing to serve in this capacity, please let us know.

We wish to thank the people below for helping us to spread the veg message to wider audiences.

Joel Kahn, M.D. 
Medical Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation
Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak
4600 Investment Dr., #200
Troy, MI 48098
Phone: 248-267-5049, ext 2033

Mary Sue Sylwestrzak, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Infant, Child, and Adolescent Healthcare
Robert R. Roman, M.D., P. C.
30335 13 Mile Rd., Ste. 103
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
Work Phone: 248-855-4144

Gary Shapira, M.D.
Pathologist

Dr. Kerrie Saunders, Ph.D., MS, LLP, CPC, CAC1 
Author of the book The Vegan Diet: As Chronic Disease Prevention
Food & Fitness Consultant 
Functional Fitness & Inspired Wellness
1185 S. Adams
Birmingham, MI & 
The McIntyre Health Center for Integrated Medicine
203 Huron
Port Huron, MI 48060
Phone: 810-622-8687 for both

Caroline B. Trapp, MSN, APRN, BC-ADM, CDE
Nurse Practitioner/Director of Diabetes Care
Premier Internists and Northwest Internal Medicine
A Division of Millennium Medical Group
29201 Telegraph Road, Suite 404
Southfield, MI 48334
Phone: 248-355-0880, Ext. 384

Kathryn Nicolai, RYT (Registered yoga teacher)
Prana Yoga
11522 S Saginaw St.
Grand Blanc, MI 48473
Phone: 810-287-0467
Columnist of Give Peas a Chance for alternative paper The Uncommon Sense 
http://www.theuncommonsense.com 

Ed McArdle, Conservation Committee Chair
Southeast Michigan Group (SEMG) of the Sierra Club. 
Formally Executive Committee Chair for SEMG. 
Has worked on, and is familiar with, many pollution- and food-related issues such as mercury and dioxin
contamination of food, organic farming, Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's),
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's), etc. 
Phone: 313-388-6645
http://michigan.sierraclub.org/semg/ 

Kim Korona 
Community Humane Initiatives Coordinator 
Michigan Humane Society 
Phone: 248-799-7400, Ext. 127
www.michiganhumane.org

Lesley Demos
Author of Factory Farming...The Gateway To Hell,
lecturer on the exploitation of factory farm animals, 
advocate for the Federal Animal Welfare Act for factory farmed animals.
Help Little Bing, Inc. (a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization)
P.O. Box 1072
Fenton, MI 48430
Phone: 248-328-0828

Sheri Hearn Lazar, Personal Chef
Owner, The Blissful Palate Vegan/Vegetarian Personal Chef Service
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105 
Phone: (734) 904-2895 Website: www.blissfulpalate.com 
Part-Time Baker for Whole Foods Market 
Graduate of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York, NY and the Culinary Business Academy of the US Personal Chef Association in Atlanta, GA.

This info. is posted on the VIM website at www.veggiesinmotion.org/vim 

Research presented at the American Dietetic Association's (ADA) annual meeting revealed that tea provides more flavonoid antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the U.S. diet. Other studies presented at the conference indicated that tea flavonoid antioxidants might provide a myriad of health benefits, including reduced risk for heart disease, control of metabolic syndrome and blood glucose regulation, as well as emerging neuroprotective effects.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051024/clm038.html?.v=25

...research conducted at the Pennsylvania State University determined that phytochemicals in almonds inhibited tumor cell growth in culture. Specifically, two flavonoid phytochemicals, known as quercetin and kaempferol, were strong suppressers of lung and prostrate tumor cell growth. Research shows almonds, as part of a low-saturated fat diet, may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by significantly reducing blood cholesterol levels.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?ItemID=11887&cat=12 

Major scientific studies have consistently shown that high plant-food eaters are about half as likely to have cancer as those who eat few plant foods. This is also true for other lifestyle diseases, like heart disease and diabetes. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with compounds called Phytochemicals and Antioxidants. These are not vitamins or minerals, or even nutrients, in the strictest sense of the word, but natural chemicals found only in plants and have many cancer-protective benefits.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200510310202.html 

The results, detailed in a new report titled "The Five Worst Foods to Grill," are eye-opening. Grilled chicken, wrongly considered a healthful food by some consumers, actually contains the highest concentrations of carcinogenic HCAs. Other meat products, including beef, pork, salmon, and hamburger, also contain alarmingly high HCA levels... Health authorities are increasingly concerned about the role HCAs play in America's high cancer rates.

http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/gm05autumn/chicken.html 

Americans rarely hear anything negative about soy. Thanks to the shrewd public relations campaigns waged by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Protein Technologies International (PTI), the American Soybean Association, and other soy interests, as well as the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) 1999 approval of the health claim that soy protein lowers cholesterol, soy maintains a "healthy" image. 

This article is written for parents who need to know the risks of feeding soy formula to infants, or soy milk and other soy foods to growing children. It's designed for prospective mothers and fathers who need to know the links between soy foods, infertility, and birth defects. Finally, it will serve anyone considering soy as a preventive for menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease, or other ills. 

http://sf.indymedia.org/print.php?id=1699492 

...nutrition experts are touting fiber as a near wonder-nutrient. It's good for lowering cholesterol, for preventing diabetes and perhaps cancer, and for maintaining a healthy weight, as well as keeping the digestive system in excellent working order.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/living/13045150.htm 

The single most important thing you can do to control cancer and diabetes is to control what you eat. Add it up and you've got a great argument for vegetarianism. We've got a 40 percent lower cancer rate and the lowest rate of coronary disease of any group in the nation.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/miamiherald/living/food/13058347
.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_food 

Stop Folic Acid Pills Now
Limit Your Intake of Fortified Flour Products (in the USA)
Don’t Lower Your Homocysteine Levels with Supplements 

Taking supplements with as little as 0.8 mg/day of folic acid has been shown to increase your risk of death by heart disease... All supplement packages should also tell people that vitamins and other nutrients are best obtained from healthy vegetable foods. 

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/oct/051000folic.htm 

A new report from the Center for Food Safety highlights the health hazards of aquaculture fish. The aquaculture industry, which produces about a third of the fish sold worldwide, uses antibiotics, fungicides, dyes, and hormones to compensate for crowded conditions, encourage rapid growth, and improve the appearance of the final product. Farmed fish also accumulate higher levels of environmental contaminants than wild fish. Imported farmed fish are particularly dangerous because they can contain drugs that have been banned in the United States, like chloramphenicol, an antibiotic linked to cancer and aplastic anemia 

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/feed/feed-november-2005.html#2 

Doctors have long recommended meatless diets for the sake of our hearts, but a collective shift to a vegetarian diet would not only eliminate animal fat and cholesterol, it would also eliminate the farms that breed infectious disease. More than 60 people have died from the flu in Asia. How many more will perish before we realize these outbreaks are preventable?

http://www.thereporter.com/letters/ci_3138851 
Link no longer available.

I am a Missionary living in Honduras. I was diagnosed with clinical depression 6 years ago, even though I had been struggling with it most of my life. For the last 6 years I have been on either 150mg or 300mg of Welbutrin daily. In the last year it had been very difficult. I struggled with daily fatigue and found it difficult to concentrate for an entire work day. I had headaches each morning, 6 out of 7 days per week. These were headaches in the lower back of the head. I also would have migraine
headaches mixed in during the week. About 4 months ago, a friend sent me a link to a book on nutrition...

http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/china_study_brown_print.htm 

VIM Note: Dr. Campbell will be at our annual Meatout
(http://www.veggiesinmotion.org/meatout) on Sunday, March 19th in Ferndale. Hear his powerful message yourself!

Vegan bodybuilding is about fueling your body with a vast array of natural, healthy foods, combined with resistance weight training and exercise, providing your body with the appropriate tools to build your physique and achieve your fitness goals. Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness will support your vegan lifestyle and guide you on your road to athletic success and healthy living.

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com 

After four seasons with the Quakes, that combined flashes of brilliance... he has blossomed into a candidate for Major League Soccer's most valuable player.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/13009201.htm?source=
rss&channel=mercurynews_sports 

Sir Paul McCartney's wife, Heather Mills McCartney, is enjoying a fresh change to her diet - she's become a vegan. The animal rights activist ditched meat from her diet more than a decade ago, but she recently decided she also wanted to throw out all other animal by-products.

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/mills%20mccartney%20goes%20vegan 

This smoothie looks very green, but it tastes like fruit... Green smoothies are very nutritious. I believe that the ratio in them is optimal for human consumption: about 60% ripe organic fruit mixed with about 40% organic green vegetables... Green smoothies, as opposed to juices, are a complete food because they still have fiber... By consuming two or three cups of green smoothies daily, you will consume enough greens for the day to nourish your body, and they will be well assimilated. Many people do not consume enough of greens, even those who stay on a raw food diet... Here are more ideas for your green creations...

http://www.rawfamily.com/articles.html 

Raw Food Cuisine is regarded as one of the most chic and desirable dietary trends among movie stars, super-human athletes, enlightened gurus and evangelistic vegetarians. Supposed benefits include rapid weight-loss, increased physical vitality, greater mental capacity, balanced emotional disposition, vibrant and beautiful skin, stronger immune system and spiritual peace of mind.

http://www.notthecookingshow.com 

The Veg Advantage is a national consulting group that helps foodservice professionals add healthy dining options to their menus. We work with a range of new products, including a new line of vegetarian foods distributed by Sysco, and help restaurants reach out to customers they may be missing. For more information, please call 800-760-8570 or e-mail Info@vegadvantage.com.

http://www.vegadvantage.com 

"If we are going to allow grazing on our public lands, the very least we should be doing is recovering the costs," said Greta Anderson, a Tucson, Arizona botanist and Range Restoration Campaign coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity... Grazing fees cover only about a sixth of the cost of managing the program. 

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9152 

Nearly half of the world's coral reefs may be lost in the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them against the threat of climate change... Twenty percent of the earth's coral reefs, arguably the richest of all marine ecosystems, have been effectively destroyed today... with climate change being a major factor for their loss.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2005-10-25-reef-destruction_x.htm 

VIM Note: Animal Farm Factories are a major player in global warming! See article below.

Global warming could be controlled if we all became vegetarians and stopped eating meat. That's the view of British physicist Alan Calverd, who thinks that giving up pork chops, lamb cutlets and chicken burgers would do more for the environment than burning less oil and gas... Calvert calculates that the animals we eat emit 21% of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity. 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/iop-cgw070505.php 

http://www.earthsave.org/news/earthsave_global_warming_report.pdf#search=
'a%20new%20global%20warming%20strategy 

It may surprise you to know that chickens make fine pets. They come when called. They follow their humans around. They like to be held and petted. They jump on shoulders. Chicken owners say their chickens are as intelligent as their other, more traditional pets and that they're even friendlier than their cats. 

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/09.28.05/dining-0539.html 

Animal tests don't predict results in humans.... according to the Food and Drug Administration, Vioxx may have contributed to 27,785 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths between 1999 and 2003... Had the company paid attention to human studies showing the drug's risks, it could have saved itself from judgments that will total well into the billions of dollars. More importantly, it would have saved tens of thousands of lives. 

http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/gm05autumn/editorial.html 

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”  Mohandas Gandhi

In an analysis of the health histories of 300 dogs that had been switched to a vegetarian diet, it was found that the longer the dog had been meat-free, the fewer health problems the animal experienced... pet foods often come from diseased ordead animals that have been graded as unsuitable for human consumption. Animal by-products are a common ingredient in many brands of pet food and include organs, blood and bone. Even chicken feathers, once hydrolyzed to form an edible jelly, can
be included in pet food and listed as “poultry by-products."

http://umanitoba.ca/manitoban/2005-2006/1019/917.raising.vegetarian.pets.php 

Our understanding of the importance of being vegan is just the first step in our spiritual journey. With veganism firmly planted in our souls, we learn to spiritually walk, then run, and then fly. Our understanding of being vegan heightens and expands as we do.

http://www.veganpeace.com/personal__expression/_Expression.htm 
(Under Essays on the Left). 'You Are Not Alone' which had a broken link last month is also available here!

We do not grudgingly practice a creed of self-denial. We select from an embarrassment of riches... But that is still just a flat, two-dimensional picture instead of the solid, three-dimensional reality. At the heart of being vegan is a kind of compassionate awareness.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=2855 

Looking for Volunteers to Contact Local TV Stations

Want to help educate others about the cancer-fighting properties of a healthy vegetarian diet? Please consider asking your local public access cable channel to air The Cancer Project's Eating Right for Cancer Survival video. Many stations are looking for quality programming and are delighted to find out about this free resource... simply contact The Cancer Project and we'll send you a free tape... Eating Right for Cancer Survival may be viewed at www.CancerProject.org.

http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/gm05autumn/armstrong.html 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  Margaret Mead

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0819-hippo_tortoise.html 

2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 cup vegan sugar 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
2 TB vegetable oil 
hot water 
1/2 cup unsweetened orange juice 
1/2 TB orange peel, grated 
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 1 egg 
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen) 
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven at 375 F. 

Grease and flour loaf pan. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour, vegan sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda).
In a small bowl, add walnuts, cranberries and 1/2 cup of dry mixture to coat the nuts and berries.
In a measuring cup, add oil and top-up with hot water to make 3/4 cup. 
In a medium bowl, mix oil/water mixture, orange juice, orange peel and Ener-G Egg Replacer. 
Combine liquid mixture to dry mixture (don't overmix!). 
Fold in nuts and berries. 

Bake for 1 hour. 

p.s. I gave this bread away as Christmas presents last year and it got rave reviews! 

Serves: 1 loaf
http://vegweb.com/recipes/sweets/1202.shtml

31. VIM'S PUBLIC OUTREACH
For all other regional evens go to: http://www.veggiesinmotion.org/calendar

Thursday ~ December 1, 2005 
7:30 pm ~ VIM Raw Food Potluck and Food Preparation Demo. Unity of Livonia, 28660 5 Mile Road, Livonia, MI. between Middlebelt and Inkster Road. Bring your favorite RAW VEGAN dish sized for 8 servings or a $7.50 donation. Call Flo or Jerry at (313) 541-0162.

Friday ~ December 9, 2005 
7:00 pm ~ VIM Mugs & Jugs. Shoot pool or just shoot the breeze. Vegan burger available! Plush Pockets, 28202 Dequindre Road, Warren, MI. Located on the east side of Dequindre between 11 Mile and 12 Mile Roads, just south of Krogers. RSVP Peter at (248) 515-3367.

Saturday ~ December 10, 2005 
7:00 pm ~ VIM Dinner Club at Amici's Pizza, 3249 West 12 Mile Rd (between Coolidge and Greenfield, south side of 12 Mile) in Berkley. They offer 3 delicious vegan pizzas on whole wheat crust, in a smoke-free environment. We will order enough pizza for everyone and split the food bill (bar bills will be kept separate). Also, please bring 15 copies of a favorite family-style vegan recipe, as we will do a recipe swap and discuss the challenges of being a vegetarian/vegan at family holiday dinners. To attend, you MUST give an RSVP by December 8th. Contact Karen at(248)544-4030.
Also, we will once again go dancing after dinner! We will meet at Luna's, located at 1815 Main St. at 12 Mile in Royal Oak. They offer the "best in alternative dance." Follow this link to print a free pass: http://www.lunaroyaloak.com/Freepass.htm Doors open at 9 PM, and there is no cover before 10 PM.

Tuesday ~ December 13, 2005 
7:00 pm ~ VIM Board Meeting.  Call or email for direction if you plan to attend. VIM at (248) 616-9676. 

Friday ~ December 16, 2005 
7:00 pm ~ VIM Vegan Potluck Holiday Party & White Elephant Gift Exchange. Bring a used item that you loved but no longer want and recycle it by giving it to someone else. Please do not purchase new items for this gift exchange. Unity of Livonia, 28660 5 Mile Road, Livonia, MI. between Middlebelt and Inkster Road. Bring your favorite VEGAN dish sized for 8 servings or a $7.50 donation. Call Flo or Jerry at (313) 541-0162.