Say-it-with-pictures Sunday

[caption id="attachment_620" align="aligncenter" width="523"] Cody and his first big dog friend, Sunshine, circa October 2009[/caption]

Say-it-with-pictures Sunday

Follow Friday

Happy Herbivore has to be one of my favorite spots on the Internet for plant-based, no salt, sugar, oil recipes.

I love the website so much I bought both Happy Herbivore and Everyday Happy Herbivore for Kindle.

Lindsey's recipes are very approachable, quick and yummy. Check her out if you're new to plant-based eating.

Say-it-with-pictures Sunday

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="523"] These two make me happy every.single.day![/caption]

Follow Friday

Stumbled across this guy on Twitter. I can't remember who followed whom first, but the Healthy Fellow has some great information over at his website.

It's not necessarily all ETL friendly but he is a natural health consultant, so, there is info over that that we "nutes" can find useful.

Does a plant-based diet reverse diabetes?

"It may seem like a vegan diet is just too difficult to start and sustain. 'Diabetes is difficult,' says Barnard. 'Yes, people may think eating a vegan diet sounds hard–but ending up on dialysis and going blind is what is hard.' " -- Care2 story

[caption id="attachment_580" align="alignleft" width="198"] Photo courtesy of Ambro at freedigitalphotos.net[/caption]

Many many of the doctors and researchers into nutrition as healthcare believe so. And they have documented cases of patients who have reversed their diabetes by shunning the Standard American Diet (SAD) and meat.

Care2 recently had a story of a woman who reversed her diabetes and Dr. Fuhrman has a book coming out in December that addresses the use of a plant-based diet to reverse diabetes.

I don't have diabetes, thankfully. I have had relatives who had it. One relative in particular was incredibly aggravating about how she chose to take the advice of her doctors and diabetes educators. Other diabetics I've known have been frustrated by the advice of their doctors and diabetes educators, especially after they've gone plant-based and gotten off their medications.

[caption id="attachment_581" align="alignright" width="199"] Photo courtesy of artemisphoto at freedigitalphotos.net[/caption]

I know many many many people reiterate over and over again that you can't get enough protein on a plant-based diet and that's just not true. You get all the protein you need on a plant-based diet, and you don't have to count or measure.

I know it's not for everyone, but since it's vegetarian awareness month, I'm just trying to provide resource options for those who are interested in plant-based eating.

Say no to pinkwashing, Part II

I know, I know, back-to-back posts about why I hate the pink ribbon campaign.

But after writing this post, which included a story by an acquaintance whose mother died of cancer, I decided to hit the grocery stores and see if I could visually demonstrate my point (as well as hers). BINGO, I found it, so this is a show-and-tell of sorts.

See, one of the things Sharon talks about in her post is the fact that the companies raising money for various cancer charities are producing many of the products that cause or accelerate cancer.

And she's correct. Here's what I found on the shelves of just one store.

[caption id="attachment_646" align="aligncenter" width="300"] One of three products I found on the shelf that's helping in the fight against breast cancer[/caption]

So, I decided to take a look at the ingredients list on the side panel and here's what it shows.

[caption id="attachment_650" align="alignright" width="1024"] Ingredient list[/caption]

Sugar appears a few times there. Let's look at what Dr. Fuhrman has to say about sugar and cancer, shall we?

"Although different transport mechanisms are used to get fructose and glucose into cells, their metabolism is thought to be similar once they enter cells.  However, these scientists found that in human pancreatic tumor cells, metabolism of fructose and glucose occurs via different pathways, both leading to cell proliferation.  Keep in mind that both sugars led to increased cell proliferation at similar rates - that is, this study did not show that fructose is "worse" than glucose, just that they stimulate proliferation by different mechanisms.  Glucose was used by the cancer cells for energy production, whereas fructose was used to generate nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).  This study was the first to show that cancer cells could differentiate between fructose and glucose, and that they could use fructose as efficiently as glucose to fuel cell growth." -- from a piece he wrote for VegSource.

You don't have to take his word for it, he lists the studies at the end of the article.

Here's another product that's fighting the good fight

And, its ingredients



And, finally, off the store shelf, let's not leave out the BPA-lined canned goods



And, there's THIS information from the Breast Cancer Fund, which actually seems interested in PREVENTION.

Finally, what I was looking for was delivered straight to my mailbox, in the form of a grocery store ad with a pullout section promoting the products that are in it to win it in the fight against breast cancer

What do we see in the ad? Well, fake food. Products with sugar (or high fructose corn syrup, which the corn lobby would like you to call corn sugar thank you very much), as well as dairy, which has been linked to cancer.

So, there you have it. My little experiment has taught me that if I want to contribute to any cancer charity, the Breast Cancer Fund may just be that charity because they are focusing on environmental causes and as their little tagline says "Prevention Starts Here." OH, and to stay out of the center aisles of the grocery store.