Gorillas: The Muscular Vegans. How do they do it?

How can gorillas and chimpanzees  be so closely related to humans but are so strong and muscular on a vegan diet?

When people try to survive on the same diet as their close genetic relatives the gorilla they tend to wind up weak and scrawny. The diet these people consume is called the fruititarian diet. Even vegetarians and vegans must use a carefully planned mix of food and often must also add supplements to their food to avoid becoming deficient in certain vitamins and minerals. Gorillas eat a diet primarily consisting of leaves and fruit and yet a gorilla is stronger than practically any human. Where did our diets diverge and why? I asked this question on a great site called Quora and got a very well written explanation. Link to it here

http://www.quora.com/Questions-That-Contain-Assumptions/What-evolutionary-factors-resulted-in-gorillas-having-the-ability-to-process-protein-from-vegetation-when-humans-do-not/answer/Trevor-Best-2?share=1

Picking the Right Pet Food

My Opinion on a Biased Article About By Products in Pet Foods 

Just read this article and found it very frustrating that this information is being spread on the internet when so much has been done in the past decade to improve the quality of pet foods that are available.

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/dog-food-label-ingredients/#comment-205592

 As a person with many past and present beloved family pets I do quite a bit of reading on pet foods and want the best for them. One of our family pets did die a painful death from cancer before I started learning about pet foods, and I think it is possible that cheap pet food was a factor in the development of that cancer. Pets live short lives but we all want them to be healthy and spend as much time as possible with us. Playing the odds and giving them the best diet possible is a step in the right direction. I want to share what I have learned in the hopes your pet can live a healthier life.

The important thing to remember is that the main source of material for this opinionated article is Pedigree dog foods. This company manufactures a food with  By-Products in the ingredient list. Hardly unbiased.


Now lets take a closer look at Pedigree Dog Food. They do a lot of advertising {unlike the really good super premium brands interestingly) and their commercials show leaping happy dogs. But how good are their ingredients?

Here are the ingredients for their original formula food.

 http://www.mypedigree.ca/en/our-food/foodproductlist/dryvitalityib/

There are a number of things wrong with this food. First of all the first ingredient which is the largest by weight is corn. Think about it. We make syrup out of corn so that's not going to be good for their blood sugar, and probably bad for their teeth as well. It's a simple carb with little nutritional value. The next ingredients are meat and bone meal, and animal fat. Meat and animal fat? From what animal? I don't know where this company gets their meat meal. When you buy a food with meat and animal ingredients what  assurances in general are there  there that it isn't from a very bad source. Are those sources  euthanized or diseased  animals, expired grocery store meat,  road kill, or even restaurant grease? These questions need to be more clearly answered by the government and pet food makers. http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/dogs-meat-meal/

Try finding a pet food containing By Products with OVERALL ingredients as good as a food with HUMAN GRADE chicken. You will have a hard time doing that. Really good quality brands that I would feed to family pets like Orijen, Fromm, and Go Natural have meat that is specially inspected to be fit for human consumption. That of course means that the ingredients are not from euthanized animals etc. Secondly the really good quality foods do not have filler like simple carb wheat and corn. Instead they contain antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables that support the overall health with natural sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. These fruits and vegetables may also have valuable cancer and disease preventing properties for your pet just as they will for you. In the long run spending money on better pet food may save you money on vet bills. Any trip to the vet will likely cost you enough money to  buy  a lot of dog food. At an average cost of about $70/bag good quality dog food winds up costing you about $2.50 a day. Not so bad when you look at it that way right?

They also will not have any artificial colors or preservatives like many cheaper byproduct pet foods. Those chemicals will build up in your pet and be a risk factor for cancers. On top of all this really good quality foods contain probiotics that can help with digestion. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria in your pet's stomach that can help break down food and promote good health.

These days people consider their pet a member of the family and want them to eat as good quality food as the humans. Would you eat a diet of byproducts, corn/wheat, and synthetic vitamins? How healthy do you think you would be? Still think a food with byproducts is better? Look up that brand on dogfoodavisor.com and see what they say….

This pup is going to eat the best food possible.

Benefits of Blackstrap Molasses For Your Hair and Skin

 The Many Beneficial Compounds in Molasses

I find hair an interesting subject. How much can it be protected by nutrients in food? Sometimes I see someone in the grocery store and wonder if they had picked different foods or a more organic shampoo their hair quality might be improved. What if they gave up smoking or had less stress? Does it make a difference? There are quite a few things that seem to be beneficial including zinc, copper, vitamin B12, Omega 3s, antioxidant Superoxide Dimutase and Catalase. Pretty hard to fit so many supplements in your diet. I have tried a few things like the Chinese Herb He Shou Wu (The Man With Black Hair), and copper tablets. Certain things do contain a combination of these substances and one such is Blackstrap Molasses. Blackstrap molasses is what is left over when sugar is refined from sugar cane. While it may be the leftover, in this case the leftover contains most of the nutrients including zinc and copper. The little paint factories that make the colours in your hair need many nutrients to function effectively. One theory about damage to hair as you age is that mounting levels of free radical hydrogen peroxide eventually bleaches your hair and damages the follicles, while you produce declining amounts of antioxidants. Pretty interesting stuff. I buy my molasses in bulk containers at a local supermarket. I tried it out for a while and while it does not seem to sweeten tea much, the main problem is that it's so messy! Check this link for more detailed information.

 http://www.naturalnews.com/046100_blackstrap_molasses_hair_growth_nutrition.html

10,000 Dogs Tortured as Part of Annual Yulin Dog-Eating Festival | The Dogington Post

10,000 Dogs Tortured as Part of Annual Yulin Dog-Eating Festival | The Dogington Post



I think this is just awful. How can these people not see how intelligent dogs are and that they are our natural friends? One thing that makes dogs different from many other animals is that they have actually evolved and been bred to be our friends. Not our meals. But it's good to see that there actually is an outcry in China over this now.

Tariq Hossenbux Opinion on Bill Gates Researching Meat Replacements

Bill Gates is Funding Research on Meat Replacements

Great article here about how Bill Gates  is funding meat and egg replacements. Things are moving fast so this could become mainstream in our lifetimes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/bill-gates/10792629/Bill-Gates-turns-attention-to-latest-project-fake-chicken.html

The poultry industry is a huge one to challenge. Only someone with Bill Gates type of money could stand a chance. The way I see it if we as the human race can survive and enjoy life without the need to kill other animals it must be a good thing. Already it is no longer scientifically necessary for us to kill other animals because supplements have advanced to the point where we can easily balance our diets with the addition of inexpensive products. It's just a matter of convincing those who will not give up their meat or admit that they are part of an industry to can be very cruel and destructive. The factory farming industry has a great interest in preserving people's notions of eggs coming from traditional looking farms, but the modern factory farm is a monster far removed from that now. Most consumers would not know that millions upon millions of baby male chicks are killed as soon as they born because they are not useful as egg layers. The egg layers do not live much longer either and some will never see the light of day. Truly it would be an advancement for human civilization to no longer have to treat other sentient beings this way.

Meat replacements have really come a long way lately. Years ago I would not have been able to stomach vegan burgers and hot dogs but I think I am ready to try things again. I have bought Earth Island vegan mayo and buttery spread that might even be superior to the real thing. And just the other day I bought these vegan chicken nuggets that were just as good as real meat.Wherever possible I try to reduce consumption of animal products. So far the hardest one to replace has been cheese but surely a good replacement is around the corner.

I am not a vegetarian but I do look forward to the day when animals are no longer slaughtered for our needs.

Sunset near Highway 17 Sault St. Marie

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Long distance driving I got a reward at the end of the 14 hour driving day  day when I saw this beautiful sunset off Highway 17 near Sault St. Marie Ontario. My little GoPro camera has been really handy. I don't have a larger expensive camera with zoom but this one happens to catch things with a little bit of an interesting perspective. I always wanted one , and when I was at the Oshkosh Air Show last year with money in my pocket I had to cash in on the $400 show special with accessories like an LCD backpack. 

Can Enough B12 be Found in a Natural Vegan Diet?

Can Enough B12 be Found in a Vegan Diet ?

http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/plant

Vegetarianism is a big topic these days. People are more concerned about animal rights and the environment than ever before. The factory farming industry has become a monster that resembles little of the traditional farms many people still imagine their eggs come from. Recently I posted on a Google+ board in a discussion about whether milk and eggs were necessary. It's my opinion that,while I am not a complete vegetarian, people have access to the supplements and nutrition that eliminate the requirement for animals to be killed or used otherwise for our diet. Some people do not want to change and have a typical repertoire of knee jerk responses like "I'm the top of the food chain so it's natural", "Why would I have pointy canine teeth", or "we have to eat animals to get Vitamin B12."  This last one is an  interesting issue  and will be the primary focus of this post.

So lets start with the basics. Vitamin B12 is essential for healthy human life and is produced by neither plant nor animal. It is produced by bacteria that live in all animals including humans. For us however the bacteria reside a little further down in the colon than the vitamin can be absorbed in large amounts. Vitamin B12 is only required by humans in very small amounts, and is stored by the body for long periods of time. Thus it takes quite a while for the symptoms of B12 deficiency to show.

B12 is required for a multitude of roles in the body. These include converting carbohydrates into energy, maintaining a healthy nervous system including regulation of mood, good energy levels, cardiac health, protection against some types of cancers, digestion, and is essential for healthy hair, skin and nails. People who have vitamin B12 deficiency may develop anemia.

It is possible that some humans have been able to survive on a true vegan diet without the addition of B12 supplements. Many animal herbivores consume their own feces which is a source of B12 and it was found that extracting B12 from human feces and giving it to humans with B12 deficiency could ward off the symptoms of the condition. In India many vegetarians consume amounts of dairy sources of B12. Some Indian Vegans (who do not consume dairy or eggs of course) also do not have B12 deficiency. Scientists have theorized that insect larva and residues of insect fecal matter and dirt may contain enough B12. Not much is required as the Liver stores somewhere in the vicinity of a 2 year supply of B12.  In another case Iranian villagers who ate very how amounts of animal products were found to have normal levels of B12. It was theorized that it was due to the fact they were using human fecal matter as fertilizer and possibly because low protein levels allowed their own B12 producing bacteria to ascend high enough in the digestive tract for the vitamin to be absorbed.  It is interesting when some Indians mentioned here moved to the West they were found to be afflicted by B12 deficiency when eating the western diet of food that is cleaned of impurities like dirt and insect residues.  One last possibility in these cases is that the water supply in that part of India contained B12 producing bacteria.

The studies mentioned in the seems to have found that by and large the foods that were tested did not have enough B12 to counteract deficiencies. However they did find some interesting evidence that certain types of food may provide the required B12. A good example of this would be the Korean Centenarians who consumed little animal product but did eat Kimchi at every meal and had the proper B12 levels. Certain types of algae like Coccolithophorid algae did seem to produce results of higher B12 level in those who consumed them. In other cases Japanese vegan school children who consumed Seaweed in large amounts seem to have normal B12 levels. In addition some vegans who ate produce which may have had contamination from soil and manure were able to maintain normal B12 levels. These examples warrant further study. For the most part though it has been found that vegans who do not consume B12 fortified foods or supplements are at a much higher risk of B12 deficiency.  With all the inexpensive supplements, and B12 fortified products out there it is one of the easiest health problems to avoid though.  In fact research has shown that raw  fortified foods may be a better source than animal products as cooking may damage the vitamin levels.  Finally in the future studies have shown that plants injected with B12 retained the vitamin in significant amounts so this will be an option as well. There is no reason for anyone to be afflicted by B12 deficiencies but the end  results of these studies will still be interesting to see in the future.