vegetarian

Lard, it's like, so backwards and stuff
01/11/2012 - 15:46

 Maybe because I just moved from NYC to Chicago, I was a little insulted by this little rant the New York Times published on the horrible life of a vegetarian in the Midwest. Of course, she lumps the entire Midwest into her rant, even though it seems the author has only lived in one Midwestern city, which is Kansas City. 

So, yes, I’ve “eaten” at some of these famous restaurants. There was the meal at the Golden Ox steakhouse (baked potato), Stroud’s fried chicken (rolls) and Arthur Bryant’s barbecue, where, searching for vegetarian options on the menu, skipping over the lard-bathed French fries, pausing to consider the coleslaw, I ordered the safest option (a mug of Budweiser).

I'm sorry, but that just made me laugh, because this whole lard revival thing is going on right now in New York City. Maybe lard never left the menu on Kansas City, but in NYC right now, a lot of fancy restaurants are BRAGGING about the animal fat they are using to make their fries. In fact, I created a Dinevore list of various restaurants that use duck fat for their fries in NYC. It has 12 restaurants and I'm sure I'm missing a few. In fact, one of the most famous restaurant empires in NYC, David Chang's various Momofuku ventures, are explicitly vegetarian-unfriendly. 

So I'm not sure what the point of harping on about lard was, except to write an article to make New Yorkers feel smug about themselves. I would say that New Yorkers can feel quite smug that they do have better vegetarian and vegan food though. I like to eat an occasional vegan meal myself, but so far the vegan food in Chicago seems to be stuck in an era of vegetable oil and wheat (would you like some breaded soy nuggets fried in vegetable oil??) that most vegan food in NYC has escaped.

But at least I'm not lobbying to have bread baskets burned. Back in the 1980s, vegan activist front Center for Science in the Public Interest lobbied for fast food restaurants to trade their animal fat for hydrogenated vegetable oil. Unfortunately for them, it became clear that synthetic trans-fats are probably the worst thing you could possibly eat.

But they are still in use in some fryers and the oils that have replaced trans-fats, industrial soy and canola oils, really aren't that much better for you. Nothing seems more backwards these days than trading lard for vegetable oils. Lots of New Yorkers know that. In fact, it's super easy to get very high quality lard in NYC, which I haven't found to be the case in Chicago. Oh the irony. However, Chicago has redeemed itself by having tallow fries at Longman & Eagle.*

 

* not that fried carbs should ever be a dietary staple, but it's nice to know when you are having an occasional treat that you are not downing a cup of vegetable oil crap for no reason

 

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Iron myths (b12 too!)
08/24/2010 - 13:01

When Pubmed and Google Scholar are available to everyone with a computer, it kind of surprises me when journalists write things that are easily proved wrong on a simple search. A good example is this article from the Atlantic food section "The Foods That Hurt Your Iron Levels," which perpetuates the myth that omnivores and veg*ans are equally at risk for iron deficiency.

Yes, some omnivores get iron deficiency and b12 deficiency. Who are these omnivores? Often they are people eating nutritionally inadequate diets of processed foods, but mostly they are elderly people. When an omnivore has such a deficiency, a responsible doctor should test for conditions that prevent people from utilizing vitamins and minerals such as increased gut permeability and celiac disease. For one of my friends, a low b12 level led to her diagnosis with celiac. The idea that healthy omnivores eating a good diet get iron deficiency is probably false.

The Atlantic article points out that some foods can also leach iron like tannins in tea or coffee. Of course then things go very wrong as the author pegs the blame on dairy and forgets to mention that grains are probably a more likely source of leaching. She doesn't cite any studies for the dairy factoid, but a quick Google turns up several studies showing dairy does not leach iron. Contrast that with phytates in grains, which as AnimalPharm points out, are well accepted as iron leachers. But if you are against people eating dairy and for a "healthy" whole grain vegan diet, then that's just inconvenient isn't it?

As far as excess iron in meat causing heart disease, most of the the studies lump in processed meats with steak and are population based, contrasting with the studies cited above that involve direct observation.

Having to take iron pills sucks. When I was a vegetarian in college I was diagnosed with anemia and given pills. I found that bacteria love free iron and I had some of the worst IBS symptoms I've ever had.

Then here is the kicker: "few realize that red meat, although it builds muscle, is not actually any better a source of iron than greens." Sorry but you only have to eat a little steak to get a lot of iron (and even less liver). By iron per calorie they might compared, but who is eating 500 calories of mustard greens? You'd have to spend a lot of time eating them and I think your stomach might be a bit upset. Besides that, the iron in vegetables is less bioavailable. The author acts like that's a good thing because iron=heart disease and you can get "too much" iron from meat. Hmmm...for women I think too much iron is the least of our problems. 

BTW did you know that the spinach=good source of iron is an urban myth? It was spread by Popeye, but it's not true.

I haven't had iron issues since going paleo and I don't have too much iron either. It's possible for some people to have too much iron on the paleo diet due to genetic variation, but the paleo diet can be done quite easily with less dietary iron.

So journalists out there...get some better sources than Dr. Linda Page's Healthy Healing. It's all at your fingertips.

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Where NOT to eat in Midtown
04/28/2010 - 10:02

Surprisingly enough, there are many vegan and vegetarian restaurants I enjoy. When I am out with vegetarian friends, I don't mind getting a bowl of various vegetables and some of these restaurants are actually fairly good. Overall, when confronted with a choice between meat from a questionable source and a vegan entree, I'll often chose the latter.

But one restaurant I will not be eating at is Otarian. Besides insulting resource economists everywhere by using questionable calculations to make their food look "low carbon," it appears the owners are a bunch of dietary fascists:

 Indian Australian billionaires Pankaj and Radhika Oswal have banned workers building their Peppermint Grove mansion from eating meat, attracting the ire of the Western Australian construction union.

The building workers have been told that they cannot eat ham sandwiches or meat pies at the building site of the 70 million dollar mega-mansion.

Workers at the site said yesterday there was one small shed at the bottom of the site which they were allowed to eat meat in.

A source close to the Oswals, who did not want to be named, said some workers had continued to eat meat on the site "just to spite them".

Oswal, who is in New York this week helping his wife prepare for the launch of her vegetarian fast-food chain, Otarian, defended the meat ban, saying "This is our home".

Radhika Oswal has previously accused the meat industry of "raping the earth".

"Meat eating is creating bad karma and you are also creating a vicious cycle. It's destroying us environmentally, economically and socially. I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I've always been a vegetarian so I have always felt strongly about it," she said.

The house, expected to be finished at the end of 2011, will have a gymnasium the size of a regular Perth house, a beauty salon, an observatory, parking for 17 cars and a swimming pool 10 times bigger than the average backyard

Hmm...in the words of Midtown Lunch " I wonder how many Tex Mex Burgers you’d need to eat to off set their 17 car garage?" Meanwhile, vegans are rightfully angry that the restaurant serves dairy. I'm sorry to break it to the owners, but Bessie the cow doesn't go to Florida for retirement when her milk production slows.

That's the difference between the paleo diet and ideological diets. The paleo diet is about you feeling your best. While many people who eat this way enjoy telling others about the benefits, we have no reason to try to force it on others through coercive language or policy.

I'll admit their "Sweet potato chiplets" looked kind of good...until I read the ingredients "Sweet Potatoes, Breadcrumbs, Corn Starch, Lemon Juice, Vegetable Oil, Wheat Flour, Garlic, Salt, Water." Yeah, there is nothing more sustainable than corn starch grown 500 miles away. I wonder where the dairy in the salads is from? They say they are working with a top supplier, but that's all the information they'll provide. They also say they are working to not have the cows slaughtered after their production ends, but that's not exactly compatible with environmental friendliness as that means the cows will be eating and producing methane for many more years. That's a laughably low feed conversion ratio.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of restaurants that offer food that supports our local community both animal and vegetable. The great thing about local food is that you are intimately connected with the effects of your purchase. When people tell me about the rainforest being cut down to feed beef I tell them I'm glad I don't eat beef that's a. lived in Brazil b. eaten anything grown in Brazil.

Probably the most efficient system would be a mixed local one based on growing things appropriate for each ecosystem. Framing the argument as vegetarian or bust obscures the complexity of environmental economics and ignores the fact that meat is an inevitable by product of dairy and egg production and that sustainable agriculture involves animal-based fertilizer. I know an egg farmer is a good one if he or she is selling spent hens and rooster meat. Not only is a young rooster flavorful and cheap, but it means that they didn't just waste the male chicks that were born. I also highly respect goat dairies that sell wonderful goat meat. MMM- there is nothing like a nice goat curry.

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