The trendy way to consume your vegetables in recent decades has been to simply eat them plain and raw to reap the most benefits. New studies show that a large number of vegetables, including antioxidant superstars like carrots and tomatoes, are better absorbed when cooked or prepared with fat.¹ Cooking vegetables enough to soften them adds to the body's ability to absorb nutrients by breaking down food before it is eaten. Adding oils or cooking vegetables with meat in turn further increases the body's ability to absorb those nutrients. That means eating a salad dressed with fat-free dressing provides less nutritional value to your body than a steak fajita, a chicken Caesar salad, your favorite pasta smothered in a marinara meat sauce or — dare I say it — a Big Mac.^® Even eating eggs as part of a different meal can improve the absorption of lutein and zeaxanthin consumed later in the day² (you need these carotenoids to keep your eyesight from deteriorating, among a host of other forms of cell damage caused by free radicals).¹

Scientists have known that fat is an important part of nutrient absorption for quite a while. A study was conducted at Iowa State University by Wendy White, associate professor of food science and nutrition at the university, and ISU graduate student Melody Brown back in 2004. It showed that participants eating salads with fat-free or no salad dressing didn't absorb the carotenoids at all.³ Those who ate salads with oil-based dressings did get the nutrients.¹ "We're certainly not advocating a high-fat diet, or one filled with full-fat salad dressing," White noted. "If you'd like to stick with fat-free dressing, the addition of small amounts of avocado or cheese in a salad may help along the absorption."³

Sorry vegans. I think I'll add a pot roast to my carrots from now on.



No, PETA. I never make anything up:

¹ "Get The Most Nutrition From Your Veggies;" Allison Aubrey, Reporter, Consumer Health, Science Desk; NPR, July 27, 2009

² "Eating for Your Eye Health;" Sherri Nordstrom Stastny, Ph.D., LRD; Julie Garden-Robinson, Ph.D. LRD; North Dakota State University, FN-709, July 2008

³ "Carotenoid bioavailability is higher from salads ingested with full-fat than with fat-reduced salad dressings as measured with electrochemical detection;" Melody J Brown, Mario G Ferruzzi, Minhthy L Nguyen, Dale A Cooper, Alison L Eldridge, Steven J Schwartz and Wendy S White; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 2, 396-403, August 2004

⁴ "Got Fat? You Need It to Reap Cancer-prevention Benefits of Vegetables," July 23, 2004, Newswise


"Big Mac" registered trademark of McDonald's.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri is urging the meat eaters of the world to curb their consumption.(1)

Pachauri, chief of the Nobel prize winning United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has made numerous statements about how NOT eating meat will save the planet from global warming. In fact, he travels all over with fellow IPCC member Al Gore campaigning for the vegetarian lifestyle and how it will save the world.

Here's what makes this all so difficult to swallow:

Dr. Pachauri is Indian. India has the largest cattle population in the world, weighing in at an estimated 282,000,000 head.(2) To put that number in perspective, there are currently about 104,300,000 cattle in the United States (as of July 2008).(3) So... according to Pachauri, it's okay to have 2.8 times the U.S. cattle population just sitting around, grazing and spewing methane into the atmosphere, but the people that EAT cows had better knock it off.

Did I mention that Dr. Pachauri is also a vegetarian?




Why no - I STILL don't make this crap up:

1. The Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment ... /sep/07/food.foodanddrink

2. Cattle Network: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=63256

3. U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Cattle/jul_inv.asp

In a recent post on on their goveg.com website, PETA claims that eating 1 lb. of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving an SUV 40 miles."¹ That's great. Except they don't say what kind of meat. Or where the meat is raised. Free-range cattle actually contribute to sequestering carbon since they are raised on grasslands.² But things are always black and white with PETA. Meat bad. Vegetables good. This kind of thinking drives me crazy.

Let's look at the root of the "meat eating destroys the environment" thought process. It's really quite simple if you're a militant-vegan:

1. Meat eaters raise cattle.
2. Cattle emit massive amounts of greenhouse gas while in captivity.
3. Greenhouse gas destroys ozone.
4. Everyone bursts into flame.

Now let's look at the "Sven sees in color" scenario:

1. Vegans and vegetarians eat foods that cause cows and humans alike to produce excess gas.
2. Vegans and vegetarians convince the entire human population to do the same.
3. 6.6 billion people start flatulating at an unprecedented level, which destroys ozone.
4. Everyone bursts into flame.

At this point, I'm sure you're having a good laugh over this, but there is an element of truth to my prophecy of global flatus.

Click below to read more...

Yes, it's true. Vegetarians don't approve of your eating habits. Vegan's might actually bomb your house in order to get you to pay attention to them. And PETA? Don't even get me started.

The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of myths about what meat-eaters do to the environment and their bodies. Most of those myths are published and perpetuated by the anti-meat machine, PETA. Below is a list of the top 15 myths about you and your fellow meat-eaters compiled by Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP (from "The Myths of Vegetarianism," Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, July 2000, revised January 2002).

Myth #1: Meat consumption contributes to famine and depletes the Earth's natural resources.

This argument ignores the fact that about 2/3 of our Earth's dry land is unsuitable for farming. It is primarily the open range, desert and mountainous areas that provide food to grazing animals and that land is currently being put to good use.

Myth #2: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from plant sources.

There is not real B12 in plant sources but B12 analogues--they are similar to true B12, but not exactly the same and because of this they are not bioavailable.

Myth #3: Our needs for vitamin D can be met by sunlight.

Although vitamin D can be created by our bodies by the action of sunlight on our skin, it is very difficult to obtain an optimal amount of vitamin D by a brief foray into the sun.

Click below to read more.