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IVU Online
News – August 2008 Table of Contents
Dresden 2008 – Jakarta 2010 The website and this e-newsletter are also the places to learn details, available later this year, about the next IVU World Vegetarian Congress, 2010 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Learn about the situation and how you can help at www.austriasolidarity.com Interview with the Chilean Veg Leader If you would like to suggest someone (including yourself) to be interviewed, please send the person’s name and email address to george@vegetarian-society.org What made you decide to become a vegetarian? When did that happen? How old were you at the time?
You are a leader of a member society of IVU. How long have you been a leader of this organisation?
What made you decide to become active in promoting vegetarianism?
What is it that sustains your desire to be active?
What is an obstacle that you face in remaining active in promoting vegetarianism? How do you overcome this obstacle?
What is one of your organisation’s accomplishments that make you especially proud?
How do you try to maintain good relations and enthusiasm amongst your organisation’s members?
What is one way that your organisation cooperates with other veg organisations?
Do you have any fundraising tips for other organisations?
What is one thing that other veg organisations might be able to learn from your organisation?
How does your organisation reach out to people who are trying to become veg or who are newly veg?
Are Meat Eaters Fooling Themselves That Meat Tastes Better Here’s an article that confirms what many of us thought about why meat eaters claim that their taste buds demand they eat the flesh of our fellow animals: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080716205208.htmScienceDaily (July 18, 2008) — Many heavy meat eaters believe they eat a lot of meat because of the taste. But according to groundbreaking new research the reason that a beef burger tastes better than a veggie burger to some people has more to do with values than actual taste.
The authors note that meat has an association with social power, and people who scored high in the authors’ Social Power Value Endorsement measure believed that a meat-containing item tasted better than a vegetarian alternative, even when both products were actually identical (one was mis-represented). Similarly, participants who supported the values symbolized by Pepsi (Exciting Life, Social Power, and Recognition) gave a more favorable rating to the product they thought was Pepsi—even though they were drinking the low-price Woolworth cola. Participants were told that they would taste either a beef sausage roll or a vegetarian alternative roll, and that they would drink either a Pepsi or a Woolworth Homebrand cola. Some received the item they were told they would receive and some were given the similar-tasting item. Then they filled out a questionnaire about values and taste, along with their current food and soft drink consumption. “Our present findings may have implications for efforts to promote better eating habits,” write the authors. “Heavy meat eaters claim that they eat meat because it tastes better than other foods, such as meat substitutes. Our results challenge that claim. Participants who ate the vegetarian alternative did not rate the taste and aroma less favorably than those who ate the beef product. Instead, what influenced taste evaluation was what they thought they had eaten and whether that food symbolized values that they personally supported … strategies that might persuade heavy meat eaters to change their diet include changing the cultural associations of fruits and vegetables to encompass values that meat eaters endorse (e.g., power and strength), or challenging heavy meat eaters’ assumptions about what tastes good by using in-store (blind) taste tests or showing them results of studies such as this one."
Here’s a report of a study worth noting. Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals and fiber that are key to good health. Now, a newly released study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists suggests plant foods also may help preserve muscle mass in older men and women. The study was led by physician and nutrition specialist Bess Dawson-Hughes at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, Mass. The typical American diet is rich in protein, cereal grains and other acid-producing foods. In general, such diets generate tiny amounts of acid each day. With aging, a mild but slowly increasing metabolic "acidosis" develops, according to the researchers. Acidosis appears to trigger a muscle-wasting response. So the researchers looked at links between measures of lean body mass and diets relatively high in potassium-rich, alkaline-residue producing fruits and vegetables. Such diets could help neutralize acidosis. Foods can be considered alkaline or acidic based on the residues they produce in the body, rather than whether they are alkaline or acidic themselves. For example, acidic grapefruits are metabolized to alkaline residues. www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2008/080523.htm
Contact: Andrea Humphreys; Tel: +33 (0)5 55 66 52 29 www.3placedesarbres.com
For more info: indianvegansociety@rediffmail.com In an effort to reduce garbage, please bring your own eating utensils and bags for the items you buy: www.vegetarianfestival.jp To volunteer: vegetarianfestival@hotmail.co.jp
(4) Minding Animals Conference – 2009 A transdisciplinary conference exploring the interrelationships between animals and society
(5) 12th International Vegan Festival - 2009 Further information from Marly Winckler -- (English, Español, Português) A 50/50 – An Activist Idea Please send your tried and true suggestions for promoting veg to the editor of this e-newsletter at george@vegetarian-society.org One way that EVS (Erie Vegetarian Society) raises money is to do a 50/50. Putting it simply, what a 50/50 means is that whenever we have a dinner, we also have a lucky draw with half the ticket price of the lucky draw tickets going to EVS and the other half goes to the winner of a lucky draw held near the end of the dinner or other event. It's a way to raise a little bit of money for EVS. Before we started having the 50/50's, we depended on people donating (no asking), just a donation bowl on the outreach table, usually taking in only a few dollars. I do have to say many people have told me they want us to continue with the 50/50! I highly recommend other groups try it!
Double Serving from Maneka Gandhi Here are two samples of her writing on veg topics: 1. Ms Gandhi’s views on her interactions with non-vegetarians. I will not sit at a table with dead bodies or people eating them. By now this is so well known that internal airlines never even ask what meal preference I have and no stranger sitting next to me orders meat. I cannot bear the smell or the look of the meat. I cannot bear the smell of the person who eats it. I am not the only one who believes that vegetarians and non vegetarians have a different smell. The smell of meat oozes through the pores and becomes a rich rancid sweat which fouls the air around it as soon as the temperature rises. I suppose people who do not eat garlic and onions feel the same way about the odour of people who do. Do vegetarians really smell better? News from the world of science. Anthropologists in the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Czech Republic. Czech Republic decided in 2006 to study the effects of diet on body odour "attractiveness". More specifically, they wanted to find out if women prefer the body odour of men fed a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian diet. The result? The researchers J Havlicek and P Lenochova found that women judged the body odour of men fed a vegetarian diet to be "significantly more attractive, more pleasant, and less intense". After all – if you eat something that you cannot eat raw because it stinks, what do you expect the outcome to be? While an apple of peas or grain can be directly taken off the plant and eaten, can you wring a chicken's neck and then bite into it? If you could, then why does meat take so long to cook and so many spices and herbs to hide the taste? Even the thickest skinned vegetables can be eaten after simply steaming with no seasoning – can you do the same with meat? Moving on to a simple vegetarian vs. non-vegetarian example, heat up your oven to 98.6 degrees and place a tomato and piece of meat on it. Check back in a few hours to compare the rate of decay and the resulting smells. If it smells horrible in the open, do you think it will smell less horrible inside your body. After all, meat and blood decays very fast wherever it is. If you're one of those that is still thinking about whether to go vegetarian ... Do it because you will smell better. Do it because knowing that will boost your confidence and self-esteem. Do it for someone you love. 2. People’s thinking about why or why not to be veg differs from country to country, and it’s instructive to see some of these differences. Here is Maneka Gandhi on excuses she hears in India from people who were born into veg families but then decided to stop being veg. Her introduction is especially nice. Everyone's life is strewn with incidents wherein they have a chance to become bigger than themselves, to be nobler and kinder and happier. Some people don't recognize these opportunities but they return again and again – so you still have time to open your eyes. However some people go in the opposite direction – they take the chance that life gives them and they abuse it and strangle it till the little luck they have squeezes itself out the window and runs for its life. They then intellectualise their decisions and blame the loss on someone else. Take for example someone who has the good fortune to be born finally into a vegetarian household. Why they would lapse into a carnivorous diet and pick up disease, obesity, bad odour, and bad karma is beyond me. But people do. Every now and then, I see people from proud vegetarian families eating meat. When confronted, they do look terribly sheepish and come up with such weird excuses that I thought I would list them for you. These are a selection of the reasons spouted by ex-vegetarians for breaking the faith. "We don't want to look old fashioned. We need to keep up with the times. It's far more sophisticated to eat shrimp and steak than vegetables and dal. (Even if the rest of the world is going the other way?) "Eating meat makes me seem more normal and fit in" (The same argument is given by smokers and drinkers. Being like everybody else is just so boring.) "I can't get protein any other way and I need to put on weight" (Soyabean and dal are the highest sources of protein. All the world's biggest and most powerful animals, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, bulls and horses are vegetarian) "Poor people grow goats and if we stop eating them they will be deprived of their livelihood" (So you're actually eating meat as a social service? Give up your car and ride in a tanga to support the poor tangawallahs, and wear handspun material to support the poor weavers and eat in earthenware to support the poor potters). To enjoy more of Maneka’s wit and wisdom, read the full article at:
Big Meat Eaters with Iron Deficiency Welcome to Organisations That Have Recently Registered with IVU
Please Write for IVU Online News Dear Veg Activist Please use this newsletter as a way to share your knowledge, ideas, jokes, and experiences with fellow veg activists. Thx. -–george jacobs – george@vegetarian-society.org IVU Online News is non-copyright. Readers are encouraged to share the contents elsewhere. If you do so, please consider including a link to www.ivu.org/news as others may wish to subscribe to this free publication. |
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Austrian Animal Protectionists Still Jailed 
Watch a New Video: ‘A Life Connected’
Authors Michael W. Allen (University of Sydney), Richa Gupta (University of Nashville), and Arnaud Monnier (National Engineer School for Food Industries and Management, France) conducted a series of studies that examined the symbolic meaning of foods and beverages. They found that when it came to tasting meat or soft drinks, what influenced participants was what they thought they had eaten rather than what they actually ate.
Plant Foods for Preserving Muscle Mass 
Welcome to New IVU Business Supporter 
(1) Vegan Music Festival Byndoor, India
(2) Kyoto Vegetarian Festival 2008 
Possible Future 
More Astounding Feats by Veg Athletes 
