Holiday Tips

With Thanksgiving Day growing near, those who are following a vegetarian diet have much to be thankful for. You can be thankful for your overall good health, derived from your healthy diet choices. More specifically, you can be thankful for your healthy heart, clear arteries, and lower cholesterol that can be credited to a plant-based diet. You can be thankful that you have lowered your risk for heart disease, colon cancer, strokes, diabetes, and a number of other life threatening conditions.

You can be thankful that you have reduced the strain on Mother Earth by using less water and natural resources to produce your food. You can be thankful that you are not contributing to the meat industry’s environmental degradation through topsoil loss, deforestation, water pollution, etc.

You can also be thankful that you are not contributing to the needless pain and suffering experienced by billions of innocent creatures each year.

It is sad that on this wonderful day of giving thanks, what is on many peoples’ minds is the turkey dinner. We all know the original purpose of Thanksgiving was not to focus on eating a stuffed bird. Thanksgiving originated as a feast and celebration of the harvest and later grew into a day where people would offer thanks and appreciation to God for all that He has provided (such as fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, grains, fruits and vegetables to nourish us, and so on).

Thanksgiving is a wonderful reminder that we should count our blessings, and be thankful for all that we have. And of all days, Thanksgiving Day should remind us to be compassionate to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. That compassion should not extend only to our friends and families, but to all of God’s creatures, and yes, even to turkeys.

Millions of turkeys are slaughtered each year, just to “celebrate” Thanksgiving. It is unfortunate that our society has adopted this cruel tradition, and many feel that to have Thanksgiving without the turkey dinner, would not be the same. If that is the case, then why not try having a healthier, cruelty-free Thanksgiving and try one of the several tasty mock-turkeys that are now available. And along with that, get back to the roots of Thanksgiving by celebrating the harvest with preparations using your favorite seasonal vegetables and fruits.

Check out this month’s recipes for some specific ideas, and from all of us at Down to Earth, have a happy, and healthy Thanksgiving.

During this Christmas holiday I am reminded of the wise, time-honored lesson “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Christmas is meant to be a time of compassion, “peace on earth”, and good will towards others. Having sympathy for the suffering of others, and caring enough to want to help them is a quality we should all strive for. Not just at Christmas time. All the time.

Unfortunately, compassion is not the norm in our society. Recently there was a tragic (although thankfully uncommon) example of the bitter fruits of selfishness. On Black Friday (the first major day of Christmas shopping) Jdimytai Damour, an employee of Wal-Mart in Long Island, was trampled to death when hundreds of people barged into the store as it opened the doors for a sale. We can only imagine the sadness his family must be going through, but sometimes it takes tragedy to invoke our compassionate nature.

While it may not be as “newsworthy” as a Wal-Mart stampede, every day, countless innocent animals are subjected to horrifying living conditions, followed by an unimaginably cruel death, simply because eating meat is the norm in our society. When we become aware of the extreme pain and suffering caused to these billions of innocent creatures, hopefully we will have the insight to ask ourselves, “Why shouldn’t we extend our compassion to all living beings, not just humans?” We must then consider whether the tradition, habit, status quo, or that tingle on the taste buds is really enough to justify this utter lack of compassion for animals.

It’s not just the animals raised for food that suffer immensely, but eating meat also brings intense suffering to individuals and society in the form of greatly increased levels of disease and environmental devastation.

Be Good to Yourself

How can you experience peace if you don’t treat your body right? Not only is there no need to eat animals to live a strong and healthy life, a meat-based diet greatly increases your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a host of other diseases. Transitioning to a plant-based diet is the single most important step you can take to improve your health and well-being.

Be Good to the Environment

How will you find peace if you don’t treat the Earth (which sustains all of our needs) with the respect she deserves? Many leading environmental organizations, including the National Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about anything else that we do. Choosing a vegetarian diet is the single most important thing you can do for the environment because you will no longer be contributing to the havoc being wreaked on the Earth by raising animals for food (whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or air pollution, or soil erosion, etc.).

Be Good to the Innocent Animals

Each year in the United States, approximately ten billion animals are raised and slaughtered for human consumption. Given the suffering these animals endure, and that all our nutritional needs can easily be satisfied without eating these animals, vegetarianism requires a very serious consideration. The fact is that eating animals is unnecessary because nature has provided ample vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes and dairy products for human sustenance. Therefore, the slaughter of animals for food is a luxury rather than a necessity and is morally wrong.

I submit for your consideration that a vegetarian lifestyle awakens our spirit of compassion and guides us towards a kinder, gentler society in which we exercise a moral choice to protect animals—not exploit them.

While “peace on earth” may be a pretty tall order, we can bring peace and compassion into our own lives and the lives of those around us. This Christmas, why not be good to yourself, be good to the environment, and be good to the innocent animals? Add more compassion and peace to your life by choosing a vegetarian diet.

One of the most profound ways you can celebrate Christmas this year is by moving towards a plant-based vegetarian diet. The mass consumption of animals for food causes pain and suffering all over the world, so it is up to each individual to decide to make the effort to change.

I remember the story a man once told me. He was a slaughterhouse worker, in charge of slaughtering the cows, one at a time. He was not interested in living a compassionate life. Then one day, one of the cows that he was about to slaughter fell down on her forelegs, tears dropping from her eyes as she silently pleaded for mercy. The man I met and the other slaughterhouse workers who were there could not bear to kill her. They pooled their money together and bought the cow to spare her life.

After having personally killed thousands of cows, that experience awakened in him the natural compassion that lies within each and every one of us. He became a vegetarian and has also helped many other people become vegetarian since that experience.

If we truly want to live a compassionate life – not just in words but in real life action – then we should try our best to never unnecessarily harm other living beings. Great spiritual teachers Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha have taught this virtue. One of Jesus’ primary teachings was, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” He taught compassion - the ability to feel others’ pain in a sympathetic way. Lord Buddha also underlined the importance of living a compassionate life. He said, “In compassion lies the world’s great strength.” He also said, “All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?”

Not only are animals not necessary for food, eating animals brings intense suffering to individuals and society in the form of greatly increased levels of disease, environmental devastation, etc.

Consider some of the following enlightening facts:

• More than half the water used in the United States is used for meat production.
• It takes less water to produce a year’s worth of food for a pure vegetarian than to produce one month’s food for a meat-eater.
• Raising animals for food is the largest polluter of water in the United States, topping all other industries that produce toxic wastes.
• 85 percent (more than 5 billion tons) of annual American topsoil loss is directly associated with raising livestock.

As the holiday season arrives and people start gearing up for all of the festivities, a familiar and unwelcome friend comes along to test our immune systems. So, before you pick up that champagne and coffee for some late night partying, there are some things to remember about your health to avoid any unseen attacks.

Influenza, more commonly referred to as the flu, comes onto the scene this time each year, slipping in just before the holiday hustle and bustle takes off. With there being no cure for the flu, and no guarantees from a yearly flu shot, we should fall back onto the best defense that we have, equipping our own bodies for the fight.

The single best way to prepare our health is to take care of our diet. Valerie Green, from the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy, has said that some of the best tools for our immune systems are right in the grocery store. A few good choices are in the bright colored fruits and vegetables category. Green said that cranberries, blueberries, tomatoes, carrots, and spinach, to name a few, are all high in antioxidants, which protect immune cells from environmental assaults and speed up the production of white blood cells. Zinc is also very important, and can be found in cheese and legumes. For your necessary beta carotene, eat dark leafy greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. And then of course there is the always important vitamin C, which we can find in peppers, tomatoes, leafy greens, citrus fruits, bananas, and berries.

Another dietary recommendation came out of a study conducted by researchers from the University of California at Davis, in which yogurt was shown to have a positive association with preventing colds and the flu. In a group of people who ate a cup of yogurt everyday for a year compared with a group that ate no yogurt, those that consumed it experienced fewer incidences of coughing, colds and wheezing. In another study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the benefits of tomatoes were highlighted when a group of subjects consuming a tomato-rich diet had 38 percent less free radical damage to their white blood cells than when they were consuming no tomatoes.

There are several reasons why we are more prone to getting the flu in the wintertime, and understanding these reasons can help us work through them. Inevitably, as the colder air comes in, we spend more and more time indoors with the heater on. Ellen Potthoff, spokesperson for the California Association of Naturopathic Physicians, said that indoor heaters produce a dry heat that dries out the mucous membranes which line the respiratory tract, nose, mouth, and lungs, thus leaving the body more open to infections. On the flip side, over consumption of dairy foods promote the overproduction of mucous in the respiratory tract, which can support the growth of bacteria and viruses as well. Most of all, it is during the holiday time that diets tend to be worse, leaving people prime targets for sickness.

Potthoff offers the following suggestions for staying healthy: at the first sign of illness, slow down immediately and rest to prevent the illness from taking hold. Be sure to get a full night sleep every night and decrease consumption of alcohol, coffee, and sugar because these weaken the immune defenses, leaving your body less able to fend off invaders. Viruses are passed by touch, so be sure to wash your hands frequently and keep your fat intake low because this will help keep your heart and immune system healthy.

As we fast approach Christmas and the New Year, we are reminded that this is a time of compassion and good will and yet another opportunity for the resolve to improve our lives. Every January many customers come in to our stores looking for products that support New Year’s resolutions to achieve better health. As always, and in the spirit of compassion, we encourage them to adopt a healthier diet and lifestyle and consider the idea of going vegetarian or eating less meat. Why? At Down to Earth, we passionately believe and promote the vital truth that the single most important thing an individual can do for their health, for the environment, and for the sake of the innocent animals is to adopt a vegetarian diet. There are a number of reasons why adopting or moving towards a vegetarian diet is important:

Better Health

Virtually all the major scientific and medical institutions in the world agree that the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a host of other diseases is linked to a meat-based diet consisting of highly processed foods laden with fats and artificial ingredients. These institutions further agree that the risk is greatly reduced by adopting a healthy low-fat, high-fiber diet. We believe this result is best achieved by adopting a healthy vegetarian diet consisting of fresh organic produce and organic and natural foods.

Better for the Environment

America’s meat addiction is poisoning and depleting our clean air, potable water, and arable land. More than half the water used in the United States goes to animal agriculture. Farmed animals produce 130 times more excrement than the entire human US population, and factory farms don't have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do. As a result, this concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil, and contaminating our air. In its 2006 report, the United Nations stated that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Most of it comes from manure and billions of belching animals. Many leading environmental organizations, including the National Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals for food damages the environment more than just about anything else we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water pollution, global warming greenhouse gases, the widespread use of pesticides to treat crop grown for feed, or related soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on Mother Earth. Therefore, the most important step you can take to reduce global warming and save the planet is to go vegetarian.

Better For the Innocent Animals

Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats. This includes neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling and—at the end—the infliction of gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions. If we truly want to live a compassionate life, it follows that we do our best to never unnecessarily harm other living beings. While we may not be able to change the world by ourselves, each individual can do what they can in their own lives to improve their health, help the environment, and cause less pain and suffering to other living beings. Therefore, we encourage everyone to adopt or move towards a plant-based vegetarian diet. On behalf of all the team members at Down to Earth, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year! And as always, thanks for shopping with us!