Archives for the 'vegetarians' tag
Quick Bites
After an unannounced, unintended, and unacceptable two-week absence, Crispy is back.
British taxpayers buy jihadi cleric’s kebab and Coke. In return, he rants against the West in short news documentary titled Jihadi Milkshake. [The Sun]
Think one-million people dead of starvation during its government-induced famine in the 1990s was bad? It was. But get ready for worse, as North Korea is cracking down on free-market commerce. “[H]alf the calories consumed in North Korea now come from food bought in private markets” that soon won’t exist. [MSNBC]
Government restrictions on fishing freeze out new entrants, resulting in a graying and shrinking population of fishermen in New England. (Though not mentioned in the article, it also results in a bunch of people complaining about how the great majority of the fish consumed in this country come from abroad. Gee. Wonder why.) [MNSBC]
Former vegetarians lash out at the practice after realizing they can “hav[e] their burgers without sacrificing the moral high ground.” [Newsweek]
Liverpudlian tike busted for selling chips at school is growing “sign of pupil disgruntlement over school meal reforms spearheaded by TV chef Jamie Oliver.” [DM]
It’s World Vegetarian Day & National Vegetarian Month! Let’s Have a Contest
In honor of October 1 being World Vegetarian Day, which kicks off National Vegetarian Month, we here at Crispy are holding a contest. But first, HSUS on the celebrations:
National Vegetarian Month is kicked off on October 1st by World Vegetarian Day. In response, The Humane Society of the United States—the nation’s largest animal welfare organization—is encouraging consumers to try delicious meat alternatives that are not derived from the routine abuses billions of farm animals endure. The HSUS is also providing recipes for healthy, mouth-watering vegetarian meal ideas.
We here at Crispy would also like to raise awareness about vegetarianism and vegetarian cuisine. To kick off our efforts, we’re urging Crispy readers to try a delicious assortment of meat-alternative alternatives. (Namely, meat.)
We also want to get on the recipe kick. But instead of sharing, we’ve devised a contest in which we ask you, loyal readers, to share your least vegetarian-friendly recipes. Entrants must be in one of two categories. The first consists of some food you have personally consumed. For the second category, we’re looking for (meaty) pie-in-the-sky ideas on what hypothetical dish would be most reviled by vegetarians. Be creative. While cheeseburger = boring, CAFO-aged crate veal in a horsemeat & baby seal reduction = more like it.
We’ll announce our favorites at the end of October. Winners will get some prize of indeterminate (but undoubtedly little) value.
Submit your recipe here in comments or here.
One final note… If the photo above looks mysteriously like a very crispy Santa’s Little Helper to you, I’m with you on that.
Two Stories
Baylen’s post brought to mind a pair of stories:
During her illness, my mom was drawn to alternative cures. Polystyrene, chemicals, poisons in the environment — these were the responsible forces. Not age nor race nor luck of the draw. Some malicious third party had brought sickness upon her.
She visited once and picked cautiously at the meal I served. I learned she only ate organic. The additives, the pesticides! These had infected our civilization, laid waste to our populace. Someone on TV had said so.
The next time I was more selective in my preparation. Her visits to Connecticut were a rare thing; maybe a year had passed but she had lost ground. I served spaghetti with homemade sauce.
Look Mom, I said as I set the plate before her. Eat up! The pasta, the sauce — the entire meal is organic.
“Pfft,” she said. “Fat lot of good that did me.”
Next she took a vegetarian cooking class. Meat was the culprit! The additives, the hormones! These had provoked her cells to rebel, gave a reason to the mindless wave chewing through her body, reducing her organs and bones to Swiss cheese.
They made split-pea soup in class. “This is good,” she said to the instructor, “But you know what would make this even better?”
No. What?
“Ham,” she said.
Vegetarianism Bad for Teens
A new study carried out by a Minnesota college professor of nutrition
…found that while adolescent and young adult vegetarians were less likely than meat eaters to be overweight and more likely to eat a relatively healthful diet, they were also more likely to binge eat. Although most teens in Robinson-O’Brien’s study claimed to embark on vegetarianism to be healthier or to save the environment and the world’s animals, the research suggests they may be more interested in losing weight than protecting cattle or swine.
For one thing, many young “vegetarians” continue to eat the white meat of defenseless chickens (25% in the current study), as well as the flesh of those adorable animals known as fish (46%), even when butchered and served up raw as sushi. And in a 2001 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers found that the most common reason teens gave for vegetarianism was to lose weight or keep from gaining it. Adolescent vegetarians are far more likely than other teens to diet or to use other extreme and unhealthy measures to control their weight, studies suggest. The reverse is also true: teens with eating disorders are more likely to practice vegetarianism than any other age group.
Whole thing at Time.com.
But parents shouldn’t freak too much. Like the PETA staffer who changed her name from Karin Robertson to GoVeg.com and then back to Karin Robertson, a teenage vegetarian–like surly teenagehood itself–is probably going through a passing fad. (Just ask Padma!)
