Articolo Positivo!
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da L'Espresso del 25 maggio 2006
http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio ... de/1296131
Terapia verde
di Daniele Fanelli
Una tavola ricca di proteine espone a malattie cardiache, diabete, cancro. La scienza scopre l'elisir di lunga vita nella dieta più vecchia del mondo: la vegetariana
Ci sono voluti anni di ricerche, ma finalmente sembra che la scienza abbia scoperto una cura quasi miracolosa, che rende le persone più magre, più belle, e più sane. Una cura che allunga la vita, proteggendo da infarto, arteriosclerosi, diabete, cancro, allergie e molte altre malattie. Non ha effetti collaterali, può essere fatta da tutti e non costa niente, anzi fa risparmiare. Perché prevede solo di rinunciare alle proteine animali.
Diversi studi pubblicati in questi giorni hanno richiamato l'attenzione sulla dieta vegetariana e i sui tanti benefici. Per la linea, innanzitutto. Una ricerca del Cancer Research UK e della Università di Oxford, pubblicata di recente su 'International Journal of Obesity', ha seguito per cinque anni le abitudini e il peso di oltre 22 mila persone di tutte le età e tipi di dieta: mangiatori di carne e di pesce, mangiatori di solo pesce, vegetariani che consumano anche uova e latticini, e vegani che mangiano solo alimenti vegetali. Nel corso dei cinque anni, in media i parecipanti alla ricerca sono ingrassati di due chili, ma i vegetariani e i vegani hanno preso appena mezzo chilo.
Quasi contemporaneamente, 'Nutrition Review' ha pubblicato una revisione sistematica delle ricerche sul rapporto fra obesità e consumo di vegetali, raggiungendo conclusioni ancor più generali. Secondo gli autori dello studio, Susan E. Berkow e Neal D. Barnard del Pcrm (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, associazione non profit di dottori in supporto della medicina preventiva), il peso dei vegetariani sarebbe inferiore, tra il 3 e il 20 per cento, a quello dei non vegetariani. Non solo: gli scienziati suggeriscono che alimentarsi unicamente con vegetali possa alterare il metabolismo, facendo bruciare più rapidamente le calorie ingerite. Infatti, diversi esperimenti avrebbero mostrato che una dieta vegetariana o vegana a basso contenuto di grassi fa perdere peso senza il bisogno di ridurre le porzioni o aumentare l'attività fisica.
Questi sono solo gli ultimi arrivati di una lunghissima serie di studi che hanno confrontato gli effetti sulla salute dei diversi tipi di dieta. E i risultati di tante ricerche concordano su almeno due punti. Primo, è possibile nutrirsi in modo completo adottando una dieta vegetariana. Secondo, sarebbe consigliabile farlo. Perché molte patologie, soprattutto le cosiddette malattie della modernità, sono spesso causate direttamente dall'eccessivo consumo di carne e latticini, tipico dei paesi industrializzati.
Ormai tutte le maggiori istituzioni mondiali dedicate alla salute, quali la World Health Organization o il World Cancer Research Fund, suggeriscono quantomeno di limitare il consumo di carne. E molte sono andate ben oltre. Nel 2003 l'American Dietetic Association e la Dietitians of Canada, cioè le maggiori organizzazioni di nutrizionisti americane, hanno stilato una posizione ufficiale sulle diete vegetariane. E dopo avere attentamente rivisto la letteratura scientifica, hanno concluso che: "Diete ben pianificate vegetariane o vegane sono adatte a tutti gli stadi della vita, inclusi gravidanza, lattazione, svezzamento, infanzia e adolescenza, e promuovono una crescita normale". Di conseguenza, le associazioni aggiungono che "i dietologi professionisti hanno la responsabilità di sostenere e incoraggiare coloro che esprimono un interesse a consumare una dieta vegetariana". Perché i benefici che porta, in effetti, sono davvero moltissimi.
Malattie cardiovascolari Chi adotta una dieta vegetariana è meno soggetto a malattie cardiovascolari. La frequenza di ipertensione nei vegetariani risulta essere circa un terzo di quella degli onnivori. Le piante, infatti, sono ricche di sostanze che abbassano la pressione, come il potassio. Inoltre, sembra che il sangue dei vegetariani sia più fluido. E assieme alla pressione, i vegetali abbassano anche i livelli di colesterolo, che nei vegetariani e vegani risultano essere più bassi rispettivamente del 14 e del 35 per cento. Carne, uova e latticini sono la fonte principale di colesterolo. Le piante, invece, non ne hanno, e sono ricche di fibre, che ne riducono la concentrazione nel sangue.
Diversi studi hanno mostrato che adottare una dieta vegetariana appropriata può far scendere bruscamente i livelli di colesterolo. L'effetto sarebbe paragonabile a quello di un farmaco, secondo uno studio fatto nel 2003. I ricercatori dell'Università di Toronto hanno somministrato per diversi mesi a un gruppo di pazienti un medicinale, la lovastatina, e hanno sottoposto un altro gruppo a una dieta vegetariana con pochi grassi. La riduzione di colesterolo Ldl (quello dannoso) osservata è stata quasi identica: 30,9 per cento nei primi e 29 per cento nei secondi. La classica dieta anti-colesterolo con carni magre sembra essere meno efficace; addirittura della metà, secondo uno studio pubblicato su 'Annals of Internal Medicine'.
Secondo i cinque maggiori studi sull'argomento, su un campione complessivo di 76 mila persone, il rischio di ischemia cardiaca nei vegetariani è inferiore del 31 per cento negli uomini e del 20 per cento nelle donne. La loro mortalità sarebbe inferiore anche a quella di chi consuma solo pesce. L'arteriosclerosi rallenta o si ferma. E secondo alcuni studi può addirittura regredire, grazie a una combinazione di dieta vegetariana o vegana e di esercizio fisico.
Cancro Secondo uno dei maggiori studi sull'argomento, chi non è vegetariano ha un rischio di sviluppare tumori alla prostata e colorettali molto più alto, rispettivamente del 54 e dell'88 per cento. Anche l'allargamento della prostata sembra essere connesso al consumo quotidiano di carne, che ne triplica il rischio, mentre il consumo di latte lo raddoppia. Diversi altri studi mostrano che la frequenza generale di cancro nei vegetariani è fino al 50 per cento più bassa. Ma non è ancora chiaro in che misura ciò sia dovuto alla dieta, piuttosto che allo stile di vita più sano che di solito la accompagna. È comunque appurato che alcune sostanze di origine animale hanno effetto cancerogeno, e che un grande consumo di frutta e verdura ha effetto protettivo. E sembra che nel sangue dei vegetariani sia più abbondante un tipo di globuli bianchi specializzato nell'attaccare le cellule tumorali. Non è forse un caso che lo stesso Umberto Veronesi sia un convinto vegetariano.
Diabete Molte ricerche hanno mostrato una relazione diretta fra la quantità di carne consumata e la probabilità di ammalarsi di diabete. Per il tipo non-insulina dipendente (quello meno grave, che colpisce gli adulti), i vegetariani hanno un rischio quasi dimezzato. Inoltre, una dieta basata su vegetali permette di controllare o anche curare questa forma di diabete, in quanto fa lavorare con più efficienza l'insulina, e regola i livelli di glucosio. Ma anche chi è affetto dal diabete insulina-dipendente sembra trarre beneficio dal ridurre gli alimenti animali. Non solo, secondo alcuni scienziati, quest'ultima patologia potrebbe proprio essere collegata a una reazione auto-immunitaria a proteine contenute nei latticini.
Malattie dell'invecchiamento Le diete ricche di proteine inducono il corpo a espellere maggiori quantità di calcio, oxalato e acido urico, facilitando la formazione di calcoli nei tratti urinari. In un documento ufficiale del 1999, i medici della American Academy of Family Physicians raccomandavano di ridurre il consumo di proteine animali per prevenire questa malattia. E dal momento che le proteine fanno espellere più calcio, fanno anche aumentare il rischio di osteoporosi. Questo spiega l'apparente paradosso, noto da almeno vent'anni, per cui l'osteoporosi è meno frequente nei paesi dove si consumano molti vegetali e pochi latticini, nonostante questi ultimi siano ricchi di calcio e quindi teoricamente benefici.
Ci sono, poi, numerosi studi che hanno rilevato un'associazione fra una dieta basata sui vegetali e una forte riduzione del rischio di malattie, quali la demenza senile, l'artrite reumatoide, l'asma, i sintomi della menopausa, la calcolosi biliare, la diverticulite, e altre ancora.
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[Schede a lato dell'articolo]
A domanda la scienza risponde
Come arricchire una dieta vegetariana per renderla perfetta?
È dimostrato che consumando quotidianamente sufficienti porzioni di una varietà di frutti, legumi, cereali e verdure è possibile ottenere tutti gli elementi, le proteine e le vitamine che ci occorrono, tranne due: la vitamina D (foto sotto), che in parte sintetizziamo da soli esponendoci al sole, e la vitamina B12, presente in carne, uova e latticini. Se si evitano del tutto i prodotti animali, quindi, è necessario assumerle con integratori alimentari. Per pianificare la dieta in modo corretto, è opportuno consultare testi specializzati o esperti della materia. In Italia esistono diverse società dedicate, fra cui la Società scientifica di nutrizione vegetariana.
Gli esseri umani sono onnivori?
È idea diffusa che l'uomo si sia evoluto come cacciatore, e che sia dunque fisiologicamente un onnivoro per il quale la carne è un alimento indispensabile. In effetti, gli scienziati tuttora discutono su quale tipo di dieta abbia caratterizzato le diverse fasi del nostro passato evolutivo. Ma nessuno sembra dubitare che i vegetali abbiano rappresentato una componente predominante della dieta umana, in quasi tutti gli ambienti e le epoche. E la miglior prova di questo sarebbero proprio i danni che l'attuale consumo di carne provoca alla nostra salute. Come ha fatto notare William C. Roberts, direttore dell''American Journal of Cardiology', a differenza nostra, "gli animali carnivori non si ammalano di arteriosclerosi, indipendentemente da quanto grasso animale mangino".
Ma il pesce non fa bene?
I dietologi da tempo consigliano di mangiare regolarmente del pesce, soprattutto perché ricco degli acidi grassi Omega-3, ritenuti benefici contro colesterolo e malattie cardiovascolari. Senza voler contraddire tali consigli, è doveroso far presente due fatti. Innanzitutto, il pesce è la principale causa di accumulo nel nostro corpo di inquinanti, quali le diossine e il metil-mercurio, che è un forte neurotossico. L'Agenzia europea per la sicurezza alimentare, così come le statunitensi Food and Drug Administration e Environmental Protection Agency, ha studiato a fondo il problema. E un anno fa ha diffuso un comunicato (disponibile anche in italiano) che consiglia di limitare il consumo di pesce nelle donne in gravidanza a un massimo di due porzioni settimanali. Secondariamente, la più recente revisione sistematica pubblicata sul 'British Medical Journal', ha messo in discussione la bontà degli Omega 3, i cui effetti benefici non sarebbero dimostrati in modo conclusivo. In ogni caso, è possibile ottenere gli Omega 3 (a destra, in confetto) anche da alimenti vegetali.
La dieta vegetariana è appropriata anche per i bambini?
Diete estreme, come quella frugivora o quella crudista (esclusivo consumo di vegetali crudi), sembrano associate a problemi di sviluppo. Sono quindi assolutamente da sconsigliare. Diete ben bilanciate latto-ovo vegetariane o anche vegane sono, invece, persino raccomandate. Ad esempio, la posizione ufficiale dell'American Dietetic Association e Dietitians of Canada afferma che: "Diete vegetariane durante l'infanzia e l'adolescenza possono aiutare a stabilire abitudini sane di nutrizione per tutta la vita e offrono alcuni vantaggi nutritivi importanti".
E per le donne in gravidanza?
Anche in gravidanza una dieta vegetariana (se completa e ricca di vitamine B12 e D necessarie allo sviluppo scheletrico e cerebrale) non presenta problemi. Anzi, potrebbe avere dei vantaggi. Secondo alcuni studi, infatti, le allergie alimentari sarebbero trasmesse dalla madre durante lo sviluppo embrionale. Potrebbe essere vantaggioso, quindi, astenersi dai cibi allergenici quali latte carne e pesce. Inoltre, sembra che il latte delle donne vegetariane risulti più libero da inquinanti di origine ambientale.
Carne sotto accusa
Secondo le più recenti stime della Fao, nel 2005 sulla Terra vivevano oltre 6,453 miliardi di persone, più di 1,355 miliardi di bovini, 960 milioni di suini, 16,740 miliardi di polli, ed erano stati catturati o allevati pesci per circa 130 milioni di tonnellate. Oltre un terzo dei prodotti agricoli, e fino al 50 per cento dei cereali, è destinata agli allevamenti. Ma per produrre un chilo di carne o pesce occorrono dai 2 ai 15 chili di vegetali, e fino cinque volte l'acqua necessaria a un chilo di cereali. Alimentarsi con animali è un sistema molto inefficiente, causa un forte inquinamento e non sembra sostenibile nel lungo periodo. Se tutti gli abitanti della Terra volessero consumare la stessa quantità di carne di un occidentale, lo spazio destinato all'agricoltura dovrebbe aumentare di due terzi. E anche il consumo di pesce sta giungendo al limite: nel 2003, il 52 per cento delle risorse ittiche era sfruttato al massimo delle possibilità, il 16 per cento era in declino per l'eccessivo sfruttamento, e il 9 esaurito.
Gli scienziati del progetto Profetas (PROtein Foods, Environment, Technology and Society), finanziato dal governo olandese, in questi giorni hanno pubblicato un libro in cui sostengono la necessità di operare una transizione proteica. Secondo i loro risultati, sostituire almeno in parte le proteine animali con quelle vegetali sarebbe conveniente, tecnologicamente fattibile e socialmente accettabile. Fra l'altro, lascerebbe libero molto terreno agricolo. E questo secondo gli autori consentirebbe di coltivare biomasse sufficienti a coprire un quarto del fabbisogno energetico mondiale. Cambiando dieta non solo produrremmo più energia, ma inquineremmo anche meno. Per esempio riducendo l'effetto serra, che è in parte causato dall'industria alimentare animale. Uno studio dell'Università della California, pubblicato poche settimane fa su 'Earth Interactions', ha dimostrato che negli Usa, la differenza fra l'inquinamento prodotto dalla dieta media degli americani e quello della dieta vegetariana è paragonabile alla differenza fra l'utilizzo di un fuoristrada e di una utilitaria. Analogamente, nel 2005 su 'Physics World' il fisico britannico Alan Calverd ha calcolato che la produzione e il consumo di animali causa fino al 21 per cento di tutta l'anidride carbonica emessa dall'uomo. E ha concluso: "Una riduzione mondiale nella produzione animale per raggiungere gli obiettivi del protocollo di Kyoto sembra offrire meno incognite politiche del taglio dei consumi di combustibili fossili. Non avrebbe effetti negativi sulla salute, e potrebbe essere interrotta in qualsiasi momento".
Osservatorio Stampa
Articolo positivo! E' tradotto anche su Internazionale del 26 maggio/1giugno 2006 con il titolo Domani vegani
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An ethical diet: The joy of being vegan
Its followers claim they look and feel healthier than ever - and have a clear conscience too. Martin Hickman examines the arguments for taking up a meat-free diet
Published: 15 March 2006
Wendy Higgins is pleased that her beliefs, her most passionate beliefs, are ridiculed by comedians. At least the gibes about vegans are evidence that vegetarians are now so numerous that they represent a substantial part of the audience.
Making jokes about veganism is hardly likely to result in a mass walkout. But Ms Higgins has taken comfort from knowing that at least people know what it is.
When the 33-year-old animal rights campaigner adopted the more extreme version of vegetarianism in 1988, her new-found beliefs met with perplexed looks. She said: "When I said I was a vegan people would look at me as if I had just said, 'I'm from the planet Mars'."
The transformation of veganism from oddball movement to the fringe of the mainstream has taken 60 years. Its progress to the mainstream is likely to be much quicker.
There are estimated to be at least 600,000 vegans in the UK, although there may be up to one million. The number is certainly growing sharply. Food surveys suggest that there were just 100,000 in 1993.
The shelves of supermarkets are increasingly being stocked with products designed for vegans and the market for vegan food is thought to be growing by up to 15 per cent a year. Although there are no specific figures for veganism, the market research group Mintel estimated the meat-free market to be worth £626m in 2004 - a rise of 38 per cent in five years.
Despite the rise in its popularity, vegans encounter countless questions about why they eschew the consumption of all animal products - unlike vegetarians who just avoid eating animals - and decline to eat, among other things, milk, cheese and eggs.
Their reasons for adopting this lifestyle - from animal welfare to nutrition to environmentalism - increased by one yesterday. It seems that a vegan diet is better than a veggie or carnivorous diet for staying slim.
Researchers who studied the eating habits of 22,000 people over five years, including meat eaters and vegetarians, found they all put on a few kilos but meat eaters who changed to a vegetarian or vegan diet gained the least. " The weight gain was less in the vegans than in the meat-eaters and somewhere in between in the other groups," said Cancer Research UK, which carried out the study with Oxford University.
For vegans, the findings reinforced something which they have long held to be true: that a vegan diet is healthy.
They would have been more pleased if the scientists had proved something the public finds even harder to believe: that vegan food is tasty.
The vegan movement was started by a woodwork teacher, Donald Watson, in 1944 because of a desire to improve animal welfare.
Watson grew up on a farm in South Yorkshire in the 1920s and became concerned for animal welfare when his Uncle George slaughtered one of the farm's pigs. He recalled in an interview aged 92 (three years before his death): "I decided that farms - and uncles - had to be reassessed: the idyllic scene was nothing more than death row, where every creature's days were numbered by the point at which it was no longer of service to human beings."
Watson became a vegetarian and later a vegan, a word he invented.
The central tenet of the lifestyle and philosophy is that human exploitation of animals, as fellow sentient beings, is wrong. Vegans do not eat meat or fish and they also dislike the cruelty of dairy farming, which produces milk from cows with swollen udders who are separated from their new-born calves, of which the males are killed or shipped for veal.
They dislike the conditions of poultry farming and the fact that the eggs eaten could have become chickens themselves.
"There is an awful lot of processes involved in the dairy industry and egg industry that are toe-curlingly awful," says Catriona Toms, the head of information at the Vegan Society. "Fifty per cent of chickens that are hatched are killed [males don't lay eggs]. They mince them alive or gas them."
For a movement grounded in such grim facts, veganism has a surprisingly large number of celebrity followers - some of them with public images far removed from the sandal-wearing stereotype.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, has a veritable roll-call of celebrity vegans. Woody Harrelson, the actor, is a vegan, as are his fellow Hollywood stars Joaquin Phoenix and Alicia Silverstone.
The singer Bryan Adams refuses to eat milk or cheese or any other animal product, as do k d lang and Moby.
Heather Small, the lead singer of M People, and Benjamin Zephaniah, the poet, follow the vegan philosophy.
The athlete, Carl Lewis, who won nine Olympic gold medals, is a vegan.
The insertion of Uri Geller's name in the vegan list is believed to be a joke by a mischievous contributor.
Heather Mills-McCartney, the wife of Paul McCartney, himself a vegan, is the latest celebrity convert to the cause. The former model announced her conversion last August, saying that vegetarianism not only benefited health but also made a huge difference to the planet.
She added: "I could never go back to eating meat or fish and I'm moving towards being vegan. When I crack an egg now, I think: 'Could that have been a baby?'"
Vegans eat all the foods meat-eaters eat - except meat, poultry, fish, cow's milk, yoghurt, cheese and honey. They also avoid wearing leather, bone, ivory, feathers, and mother of pearl.
All manner of combinations of vegetables and pulses to replace animal-based ingredients in food.
A commercial market has also emerged in free-from foods suitable for vegans and for people who cannot eat dairy products for health reasons. This sub-sector of the food industry is booming.
Holland & Barrett, the health food shop, stocks more than 1,000 ranges of vegetarian foods. Many of them are vegan, such as the Sos Roll and the Porkless Pie.
"They are selling incredibly well," said Lorna Pridmore, the chain's food buyer, who credits part of the success of meat-less whole foods to the TV nutritionist, Gillian McKeith.
"We saw a huge lift in sales last year and generally the food side of the business is growing rapidly. We have so many products that we want to put in but we are running out of space."
One of the biggest producers of vegan fare, Plamil Foods, has seen revenues rise by between 10 and 15 per cent a year. Its 30 products are made at its meat and dairy-free factory in Folkestone, Kent. One of the company's best-selling products is egg-free mayonnaise, made from water, oil and pea protein instead of eggs.
The managing director, Adrian Ling, has noticed a considerable change in perceptions of veganism in his 23 years at the company, which began making soya milk.
"There has been a vast change", he said.
"As veganism has grown, understanding of it has grown. The word vegan is commonplace and the food has become widely available in supermarkets.
"Whereas a long time ago it was perceived as food for sandal-wearers, it's now become more mainstream."
The rising number of vegans has also reached a critical mass.
"Not having dairy when you are eating out is much more easy," explains Catriona Toms, of the Vegan Society, which has 5,000 members.
"People are becoming much more aware of lactose intolerance and places like Starbucks have soya milk, as do all the main coffee chains."
She believes the vegan movement taps into many of the trends which are influencing modern cooking, from the growing interest in animal welfare to awareness of the environment.
Moreover, almost all restaurants have dishes that are, or can easily be made, vegan.
"Indian restaurants don't need to be a problem; Chinese restaurants are the same. In pizza restaurants you have to be a bit vigilant about what they put in the dough. But anywhere that can cater for vegetarians can cater for vegans if they want to."
There are also vegan-friendly restaurants, such as Dandelion & Burdock in Halifax, West Yorkshire and Veggie Vegan and Eat and Two Veg in London.
Vegan diets are healthy, according to followers of the philosophy. The only vitamin from animals that cannot be replicated elsewhere is B12 - important for the nervous system and preventing iron deficiency and anaemia.
Vegans take supplements, but can also find B12 in food fortified with vitamins such as breakfast cereals.
Such is the rise in veganism that people are no longer bemused by its existence, according to Wendy Higgins, a former campaign director for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
She turned vegetarian aged 10, and vegan aged 16. She explained: "When I was a child we kept lots of animals, including a cat, guinea pigs and hamsters, and it made no sense to me that there were lots of animals that you cared for, and often cared for very deeply, and other animals that are killed and consumed."
When she became a vegan, life was harder but once the adjustment was made, things became surprisingly easy and have become easier all the while.
"I do 99 per cent of my shopping in a supermarket like everyone else, but instead of buying dairy milk I buy soya milk. Even my local corner shops does soya milk.
"If you are shopping for a low-fat diet or a nut-free diet you just get used to what you can buy and it's not a big deal."
She adds: "People ask, 'What do you eat?' and they seem to think I must eat carpet or twigs. But I probably eat 80 per cent of what they eat."
Five famous vegans
Alicia Silverstone
The actress, 29, who had an organic wedding with Christopher Jarecki, was voted the world's sexiest female vegetarian in 2004. She says it is the best thing she has done in her life: "My body just got so healthy and skinny, and my skin became so radiant, that I started looking fabulous anyway." Last year, the actress, who starred in Clueless and Love's Labour's Lost, suggested that she would like to take her vegan lifestyle one step further: "I'd love to raise a family on a farm and grow my own food, and grow my hair down to my ankles and be a kind of punk-rock hippy."
Woody Harrelson
Harrelson, 44, the bartender on Cheers!,has not eaten meat for 15 years. Not only is he vegan, but he also eats a 90 per cent raw diet. At opening night parties, he grazes on vegan canapes and regularly fasts, taking up to a week off from solid food. During one fast he lost 15lb. He has declared dairy to be one of the great evils of the world. "Yeah, milk does a body good - if you are a calf," he says. "It is evil to your body to put something in there that's designed to make an animal go from very small to very big in a short time."
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Oscar-winning actress, 33, lives on a macrobiotic diet of wholegrains, vegetables, beans, seaweed and soya. A lover of new-age treatments, she is married to the Coldplay singer, Chris Martin. Her daughter, Apple, had a vegan first birthday party last year with food and chocolate cheesecake from Moby's café, Teany. "I would rather die than let my kid eat instant soup," she says. She has admitted that people do not see her and her husband as the epitome of rock'n'roll. "There is this perception of us in this country like, 'Oh, they're quite boring, they do yoga and stay home,'" she said.
Benjamin Zephaniah
The poet, whose favourite restaurant is Chawalla's in East Ham, is a " militant vegan" who would not sit on a chair made of leather. When asked what he would eat if he was in a desert with no food in sight except a cow, he said: "I'd find out what the cow was eating and join it." He became vegetarian at the age of 11 and vegan at 13: "I was disgusted by the taste and texture, and the thought of having flesh and blood against my teeth," he said. "Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay."
Moby
The singer, 40, a "vegan fascist" for nearly two decades, owns Teany, a café in New York, which has spawned a vegan soft drinks company. Moby, born Richard Melville Hall, feasts on vegan focaccia with roasted onions. "When I think of the fact that literally tens of billions of animals are killed nearly every year for human purposes, part of me wants to go out and join the Animal Liberation Front," he has said. He admits that some people are filled with "ridicule" at the idea of veganism. But he says that it is "second nature" to him.
Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
INGREDIENTS
680g plain flour
450g sugar
100g cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 fl oz vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
16 fl oz cold water
DIRECTIONS
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Stir until smooth. Bake at 175C (350F) for 30 minutes. Makes two layers of a two-layer 9-inch or 8-inch diameter cake. When cool, cover with frosting. You can adapt any conventional buttercream recipe by substituting vegan margarine for butter and soya milk for cow's milk.
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food ... 351374.ece
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An ethical diet: The joy of being vegan
Its followers claim they look and feel healthier than ever - and have a clear conscience too. Martin Hickman examines the arguments for taking up a meat-free diet
Published: 15 March 2006
Wendy Higgins is pleased that her beliefs, her most passionate beliefs, are ridiculed by comedians. At least the gibes about vegans are evidence that vegetarians are now so numerous that they represent a substantial part of the audience.
Making jokes about veganism is hardly likely to result in a mass walkout. But Ms Higgins has taken comfort from knowing that at least people know what it is.
When the 33-year-old animal rights campaigner adopted the more extreme version of vegetarianism in 1988, her new-found beliefs met with perplexed looks. She said: "When I said I was a vegan people would look at me as if I had just said, 'I'm from the planet Mars'."
The transformation of veganism from oddball movement to the fringe of the mainstream has taken 60 years. Its progress to the mainstream is likely to be much quicker.
There are estimated to be at least 600,000 vegans in the UK, although there may be up to one million. The number is certainly growing sharply. Food surveys suggest that there were just 100,000 in 1993.
The shelves of supermarkets are increasingly being stocked with products designed for vegans and the market for vegan food is thought to be growing by up to 15 per cent a year. Although there are no specific figures for veganism, the market research group Mintel estimated the meat-free market to be worth £626m in 2004 - a rise of 38 per cent in five years.
Despite the rise in its popularity, vegans encounter countless questions about why they eschew the consumption of all animal products - unlike vegetarians who just avoid eating animals - and decline to eat, among other things, milk, cheese and eggs.
Their reasons for adopting this lifestyle - from animal welfare to nutrition to environmentalism - increased by one yesterday. It seems that a vegan diet is better than a veggie or carnivorous diet for staying slim.
Researchers who studied the eating habits of 22,000 people over five years, including meat eaters and vegetarians, found they all put on a few kilos but meat eaters who changed to a vegetarian or vegan diet gained the least. " The weight gain was less in the vegans than in the meat-eaters and somewhere in between in the other groups," said Cancer Research UK, which carried out the study with Oxford University.
For vegans, the findings reinforced something which they have long held to be true: that a vegan diet is healthy.
They would have been more pleased if the scientists had proved something the public finds even harder to believe: that vegan food is tasty.
The vegan movement was started by a woodwork teacher, Donald Watson, in 1944 because of a desire to improve animal welfare.
Watson grew up on a farm in South Yorkshire in the 1920s and became concerned for animal welfare when his Uncle George slaughtered one of the farm's pigs. He recalled in an interview aged 92 (three years before his death): "I decided that farms - and uncles - had to be reassessed: the idyllic scene was nothing more than death row, where every creature's days were numbered by the point at which it was no longer of service to human beings."
Watson became a vegetarian and later a vegan, a word he invented.
The central tenet of the lifestyle and philosophy is that human exploitation of animals, as fellow sentient beings, is wrong. Vegans do not eat meat or fish and they also dislike the cruelty of dairy farming, which produces milk from cows with swollen udders who are separated from their new-born calves, of which the males are killed or shipped for veal.
They dislike the conditions of poultry farming and the fact that the eggs eaten could have become chickens themselves.
"There is an awful lot of processes involved in the dairy industry and egg industry that are toe-curlingly awful," says Catriona Toms, the head of information at the Vegan Society. "Fifty per cent of chickens that are hatched are killed [males don't lay eggs]. They mince them alive or gas them."
For a movement grounded in such grim facts, veganism has a surprisingly large number of celebrity followers - some of them with public images far removed from the sandal-wearing stereotype.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, has a veritable roll-call of celebrity vegans. Woody Harrelson, the actor, is a vegan, as are his fellow Hollywood stars Joaquin Phoenix and Alicia Silverstone.
The singer Bryan Adams refuses to eat milk or cheese or any other animal product, as do k d lang and Moby.
Heather Small, the lead singer of M People, and Benjamin Zephaniah, the poet, follow the vegan philosophy.
The athlete, Carl Lewis, who won nine Olympic gold medals, is a vegan.
The insertion of Uri Geller's name in the vegan list is believed to be a joke by a mischievous contributor.
Heather Mills-McCartney, the wife of Paul McCartney, himself a vegan, is the latest celebrity convert to the cause. The former model announced her conversion last August, saying that vegetarianism not only benefited health but also made a huge difference to the planet.
She added: "I could never go back to eating meat or fish and I'm moving towards being vegan. When I crack an egg now, I think: 'Could that have been a baby?'"
Vegans eat all the foods meat-eaters eat - except meat, poultry, fish, cow's milk, yoghurt, cheese and honey. They also avoid wearing leather, bone, ivory, feathers, and mother of pearl.
All manner of combinations of vegetables and pulses to replace animal-based ingredients in food.
A commercial market has also emerged in free-from foods suitable for vegans and for people who cannot eat dairy products for health reasons. This sub-sector of the food industry is booming.
Holland & Barrett, the health food shop, stocks more than 1,000 ranges of vegetarian foods. Many of them are vegan, such as the Sos Roll and the Porkless Pie.
"They are selling incredibly well," said Lorna Pridmore, the chain's food buyer, who credits part of the success of meat-less whole foods to the TV nutritionist, Gillian McKeith.
"We saw a huge lift in sales last year and generally the food side of the business is growing rapidly. We have so many products that we want to put in but we are running out of space."
One of the biggest producers of vegan fare, Plamil Foods, has seen revenues rise by between 10 and 15 per cent a year. Its 30 products are made at its meat and dairy-free factory in Folkestone, Kent. One of the company's best-selling products is egg-free mayonnaise, made from water, oil and pea protein instead of eggs.
The managing director, Adrian Ling, has noticed a considerable change in perceptions of veganism in his 23 years at the company, which began making soya milk.
"There has been a vast change", he said.
"As veganism has grown, understanding of it has grown. The word vegan is commonplace and the food has become widely available in supermarkets.
"Whereas a long time ago it was perceived as food for sandal-wearers, it's now become more mainstream."
The rising number of vegans has also reached a critical mass.
"Not having dairy when you are eating out is much more easy," explains Catriona Toms, of the Vegan Society, which has 5,000 members.
"People are becoming much more aware of lactose intolerance and places like Starbucks have soya milk, as do all the main coffee chains."
She believes the vegan movement taps into many of the trends which are influencing modern cooking, from the growing interest in animal welfare to awareness of the environment.
Moreover, almost all restaurants have dishes that are, or can easily be made, vegan.
"Indian restaurants don't need to be a problem; Chinese restaurants are the same. In pizza restaurants you have to be a bit vigilant about what they put in the dough. But anywhere that can cater for vegetarians can cater for vegans if they want to."
There are also vegan-friendly restaurants, such as Dandelion & Burdock in Halifax, West Yorkshire and Veggie Vegan and Eat and Two Veg in London.
Vegan diets are healthy, according to followers of the philosophy. The only vitamin from animals that cannot be replicated elsewhere is B12 - important for the nervous system and preventing iron deficiency and anaemia.
Vegans take supplements, but can also find B12 in food fortified with vitamins such as breakfast cereals.
Such is the rise in veganism that people are no longer bemused by its existence, according to Wendy Higgins, a former campaign director for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
She turned vegetarian aged 10, and vegan aged 16. She explained: "When I was a child we kept lots of animals, including a cat, guinea pigs and hamsters, and it made no sense to me that there were lots of animals that you cared for, and often cared for very deeply, and other animals that are killed and consumed."
When she became a vegan, life was harder but once the adjustment was made, things became surprisingly easy and have become easier all the while.
"I do 99 per cent of my shopping in a supermarket like everyone else, but instead of buying dairy milk I buy soya milk. Even my local corner shops does soya milk.
"If you are shopping for a low-fat diet or a nut-free diet you just get used to what you can buy and it's not a big deal."
She adds: "People ask, 'What do you eat?' and they seem to think I must eat carpet or twigs. But I probably eat 80 per cent of what they eat."
Five famous vegans
Alicia Silverstone
The actress, 29, who had an organic wedding with Christopher Jarecki, was voted the world's sexiest female vegetarian in 2004. She says it is the best thing she has done in her life: "My body just got so healthy and skinny, and my skin became so radiant, that I started looking fabulous anyway." Last year, the actress, who starred in Clueless and Love's Labour's Lost, suggested that she would like to take her vegan lifestyle one step further: "I'd love to raise a family on a farm and grow my own food, and grow my hair down to my ankles and be a kind of punk-rock hippy."
Woody Harrelson
Harrelson, 44, the bartender on Cheers!,has not eaten meat for 15 years. Not only is he vegan, but he also eats a 90 per cent raw diet. At opening night parties, he grazes on vegan canapes and regularly fasts, taking up to a week off from solid food. During one fast he lost 15lb. He has declared dairy to be one of the great evils of the world. "Yeah, milk does a body good - if you are a calf," he says. "It is evil to your body to put something in there that's designed to make an animal go from very small to very big in a short time."
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Oscar-winning actress, 33, lives on a macrobiotic diet of wholegrains, vegetables, beans, seaweed and soya. A lover of new-age treatments, she is married to the Coldplay singer, Chris Martin. Her daughter, Apple, had a vegan first birthday party last year with food and chocolate cheesecake from Moby's café, Teany. "I would rather die than let my kid eat instant soup," she says. She has admitted that people do not see her and her husband as the epitome of rock'n'roll. "There is this perception of us in this country like, 'Oh, they're quite boring, they do yoga and stay home,'" she said.
Benjamin Zephaniah
The poet, whose favourite restaurant is Chawalla's in East Ham, is a " militant vegan" who would not sit on a chair made of leather. When asked what he would eat if he was in a desert with no food in sight except a cow, he said: "I'd find out what the cow was eating and join it." He became vegetarian at the age of 11 and vegan at 13: "I was disgusted by the taste and texture, and the thought of having flesh and blood against my teeth," he said. "Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay."
Moby
The singer, 40, a "vegan fascist" for nearly two decades, owns Teany, a café in New York, which has spawned a vegan soft drinks company. Moby, born Richard Melville Hall, feasts on vegan focaccia with roasted onions. "When I think of the fact that literally tens of billions of animals are killed nearly every year for human purposes, part of me wants to go out and join the Animal Liberation Front," he has said. He admits that some people are filled with "ridicule" at the idea of veganism. But he says that it is "second nature" to him.
Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
INGREDIENTS
680g plain flour
450g sugar
100g cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 fl oz vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
16 fl oz cold water
DIRECTIONS
Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients. Stir until smooth. Bake at 175C (350F) for 30 minutes. Makes two layers of a two-layer 9-inch or 8-inch diameter cake. When cool, cover with frosting. You can adapt any conventional buttercream recipe by substituting vegan margarine for butter and soya milk for cow's milk.
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food ... 351374.ece