Coffee Gets A Boost!

Posted on 05/17/12

I love coffee. And while I was never under the delusion that it was massively bad for me, I was always skeptical of the health benefits of “morning mud” as well. New research (done without animal testing) confirms the latter, however: coffee may extend your life! CNN reports:

Overall, coffee drinkers were less likely than their peers to die during the study, and the more coffee they drank, the lower their mortality risk tended to be. Compared with people who drank no coffee at all, men and women who drank six or more cups per day were 10% and 15% less likely, respectively, to die during the study.

This pattern held when the researchers broke out the data by specific causes of death, including heart disease, lung disease, pneumonia,stroke, diabetes, infections, and even injuries and accidents. Cancer was the only major cause of death not associated with coffee consumption.

Six cups or more seems like an awful lot of coffee…but even one or two (a “modest” consumption) was associated with a 5-6% reduction in risk of chronic disease. Decaf versus caffeinated did not make a difference (yay!), but researchers are still unclear as to what the mechanisms in coffee are that provide a health benefit. A recent study at the University of Portugal summarized this position:

[S]everal biological activities, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticariogenic, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, and antiglycative activities, have been attributed to coffee melanoidins.To understand the potential of coffee melanoidin health benefits, it is essential to know their chemical structures. The studies undertaken to date dealing with the structural characterization of coffee melanoidins have shown that polysaccharides, proteins, and chlorogenic acids are involved in coffee melanoidin formation. However, exact structures of coffee melanoidins and mechanisms involved in their formation are far to be elucidated.

I’m excited by this “coffee science” as one might say – in Malaysia last year they determined that roasting coffee beans at different temperatures (and quantities) could affect antioxidant activity and other beneficial compounds, such as chlorogenic acid (which supposedly slows glucose in the blood stream). Pretty cool!

As with most products, there’s a better, and worse way to buy: coffee is no exception. Buying certified fair trade coffee ensures that the farmers who grew those beans (most likely in Asia, or South America) were payed a fair price, and are able to grow and sell in a secure environment instead of dealing with shrewd “middlemen.” See “Buy Fair Trade: It Just Makes Sense” for more info. Organic coffee is also a plus, leaving the land in good condition after the beans are grown. Global Exchange has an extensive FAQ on the difference between fair-trade, organic, “shade grown,” and other ethical terminologies.

Photo: Amanda via flickr.

Note: There’s a petition going on right now for Starbucks to start serving certified Fair Trade coffee in their US stores Sign it here.

Filed Under: health, medical • 0 Comments

Wyoming Premium Farms, Tyson Show No Regard For Animal Welfare

Posted on 05/08/12

Wyoming Premium Farms is a mid-sized CAFO located in Whetland, Wyoming. Existing since 1995, they claim to “produce healthy pigs in a clean environment.” As the Humane Society of the United States recently showed, this is simply not the case:

The images on WPF’s website (which hasn’t been updated since 2004) certainly don’t attest to this, instead showing the “cleanest” possible imagery they can muster: pigs with no sores, standing or laying in a concrete and metal prison:

There’s no grass for these “finished” pigs here – they’re merely bred, fed, and fattened until the most efficient moment, and then shipped off to a Tyson slaughterhouse. The HSUS investigator reports:

In one case, a mother pig with a broken back leg endured a very heavy worker sitting and bouncing on top of her hindquarters as the pig screamed in pain. The investigator also found pigs with untreated abscesses and severe rectal and uterine prolapses, mummified piglet corpses, and baby piglets who had fallen through floor slats to either hang to death or drown in manure pits.

Is this acceptable, in any way? Only to those treating animals as commodities, as product, and not as living, feeling creatures. WPF even claims they have a state of the art wastewater treatment system, yet in 2004 neighbors threatened to sue them over the foul air smell and quality. This is not a business that needs to exist.

The Humane Society is asking people to contact Tyson, urging them to simply “remove gestation crates,” the small metal cages that mother pigs are kept in, unable to turn around. This is a step in the right direction, but definitely not enough. The cruelty that goes on at farms like this one, and pork suppliers around the country is unnecessary, murderous, and unacceptable. Adopting a vegan diet is the one thing that you, or anyone can do, to boycott the animal agriculture industry and their maligned practices.

In the mean time, why not give Wyoming Premium Farms a call and ask them about their animal husbandry practices? Their office number is 307-322-2266.

Filed Under: activism, animal rights, vegan • 0 Comments

Green B.E.A.N. Delivery: Local, Healthy Produce and More

Posted on 05/08/12

Online grocery-shopping is nothing new: companies like Netgrocer have been fulfilling customers’ laziness since 1999. And now one can hop on Meijer’s website, or Amazon.com, to get just about anything shipped directly to their door. But for those with a more ethical lean, or who want fresh produce, is there a solution? Turns out, there is.

Enter Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, a company dedicated to “home delivery of organic produce & natural groceries to the Louisville community.” Green B.E.A.N. is actually a multi-state operation, started in Indianapolis, and now spreading to Ft. Wayne (IN), Cincinnati (OH), Dayton (OH), Columbus (OH), and of course Louisville. The service here has been around for a little over a year, and has garnered some great reviews. Cincinatti.com recently featured the founders, a couple from Indy, who started the business in 2009 as a way to “take the excuses away from people who want to eat healthy but aren’t doing it.” Hear hear!

I was recently contacted by Green B.E.A.N. to receive a trial run of their small produce bin (normally $35) for review on the blog. Not one to turn down fresh, local produce, I accepted, and within two weeks I found myself with a big green tote on my front porch:

Kudos to Green B.E.A.N. for their excellent branding, and having a good, re-usable way to deliver the produce. The bins are picked up the following week (usually at the same time you get your next bin, if you choose auto-delivery). Inside was a styrofoam cool pack (which, while I’m not a fan of styrofoam, at least they are re-using), with a great selection of organic produce: beets, onions, garlic, oranges (conventional), lemons, apples, asparagus, mushrooms, lettuce, strawberries, and tomatoes. Yeah!

Now, forgive me for assuming that some of it would be local, as this word is used quite a bit on the website, but this was not the case with my bin. The asparagus was the only item listed as local, with other items containing various stickers with their origin. Obviously, oranges and lemons are coming from a much warmer region than the Midwest (at least, seasonally warm…our present weather excluded). I asked Megan, my rep with Green B.E.A.N., about this, and she responded:

It is possible to choose only local produce during the growing season (May-October) by customizing the order. At this time, we do not offer an option that would automatically deliver only local produce.

Not to nitpick too much, but this bin came in April. Is there local produce being produced in Kentucky and Ohio in April? Absolutely: green onions, greenhouse tomatoes, lettuce, kale, mustard greens, cabbage, and more. I see it at the Root Cellar and farmer’s markets each week. On the website, choosing a Louisville produce bin neglects  to have these options, so while I was stoked to have organic strawberries and mushrooms (two super healthy foods), I would still like more local options, year-round. Currently, the “add produce” selection on the website is empty, meaning if you choose a produce bin it will likely be organic, but not local. While this is a point of contention for me, it is certainly not a deal-breaker for Green B.E.A.N’s service.

One thing I do like is the vast array of grocery-style products you can order. They have a separate section for “Vegan Cuisine” (Morels would be stoked that “vegan” is getting its own cuisine listings now!), with everything from local Blue Dog bread, to Amy’s soups, to Luna Burgers, a vegan burger company out of Ohio. That’s pretty rad: being able to order local and national vegan items, delivered to your door with weekly with organic (and hopefully more local) produce.

Kentucky is definitely represented on Green B.E.A.N’s site as well:  Fox Hollow Farms, Rooibee Red Tea, and Najla’s (they make some pretty dope vegan protein bars) are there, in addition some other KY vendors, and we can only assume the list will grow as time goes on.

Overall, I was happy with my bin, and my fiancee and I enjoyed the food immensely: our stir-fries, salads, and snacking was greatly improved (and healthier) in the week following the delivery! While I would have liked to seen more local produce, I understand there are season and logistic reasons behind the weekly orders of organic-sans- local fruit and vegetables. Green B.E.A.N’s mission is to “make healthy and sustainably grown local food affordable, accessible, and convenient to the Midwest communities we serve. We serve our mission by building food systems and businesses that address our communities’ greatest food challenges.” That is definitely something we can all get behind.

Are you interested in trying Green B.E.A.N. Delivery yourself? Sign up today and use this code: “15NailSticks” to get $15 off your first order! There’s a $35 minimum, and this discount applies to new customers and reactivations only. It will expire on May 15, 2012, so act quick! Sign up here.

Note: Green B.E.A.N. logo from their website. Thanks to Megan Lawler for her assistance and info.

Filed Under: food, green, health, louisville • 2 Comments

LUSH Fights Animal Testing, Launches Worldwide Campaign

Posted on 05/03/12

UK-based cosmetics company LUSH has gone on the offensive against animal testing. The self-proclaimed “cruelty-free” company (which does not imply vegan, by the way) is currently using the front page of their website to advocate for an end to cosmetic animal testing in the UK, showcasing the website fightanimaltesting.com, which claims:

Through the 80s and 90s there was a massive campaign by the public, demanding an end to the use of animals in cosmetics testing. In response to this, the EU Parliament finally passed legislation in 1993 banning the testing of cosmetics on animals. It is called The Cosmetics Directive. It gave industry 5 years to prepare, with a start date of 1st January 1998. The public were overjoyed that their campaign had achieved its goal. But, largely unknown to the public, this legislation has never been fully implemented. Some of the biggest players in the cosmetics industry have lobbied to have implementation of the legislation delayed again and again. Each time the implementation date came close, another delay was applied for and granted. So instead of the full protection of the law, animals have had to have only partial implementation of the Cosmetics Directive for the last 20 years. The last time the cosmetics companies requested a delay, they were granted an extension until 2013. Now that this date is approaching, another delay of 10 years has been requested and the European Parliament is currently considering this.

While the company may not be totally vegan (a few of their products contain honeybee by-products such as honey or beeswax), they do take strides to source ethical ingredients, and clearly label products which are vegan (most are). They even released “None Of Your Beeswax” – a lip balm for vegans frustrated that they can’t find one without beeswax (which, as a vegan, I can sympathize with). LUSH’s section on animal testing is fairly comprehensive, explaining why they don’t test on animals, and how they find alternatives. But I was really impressed with their latest campaign, where a social sculpture student (and vegan!) Jacquline Traide subjected her self to real live “animal testing” in front of LUSH’s London store front:

 A graphic depiction, but sorely needed. What impresses me about this is that LUSH seemingly feels like they won’t lose many customers over this, and that ethically, this is an important issue. Far beyond Coke saying “hey, recycle your cans,” this would be akin to Hershey’s bringing to light the slavery required for chocolate production, and not just claiming to source better stuff, but actively campaigning. We expect this from groups like PETA or Greenpeace, but from a cosmetic company? It shows that somebody at LUSH seems to care, and that it’s about more than just pure profit. In addition, LUSH attempts to use minimal packaging, which I appreciate from a green perspective.

You can sign the petition against European Union animal testing here (which should send reverberation world wide), or for action on this side of the pond, please visit the National Anti-Vivisection Society’s website.

For more pictures and coverage, see this Daily Mail article. LUSH published a rebuttal to those who thought the stunt was outlandish or sexist, entitled “Power, oppression, and abuse: performing animal tests” – it’s an excellent read.

Photo: fightanimaltesting.com 

Filed Under: activism, animal rights, medical, vegan • 0 Comments

A Week Off The Internet: How I Did It, Observations, and More

Posted on 04/30/12

I’m returning to the blogopshere, twitosphere, Facebook, e-mail, and so forth after a much-needed seven day break. It was, and still is, a glorious experience, for the books I read, the time I spent away from a screen, and the countless observations I had during the time. How, in our tech-obsessed world (where I am quite “connected,” in a digital sense) did I survive? And why would I do something like this voluntarily, for an entire week? Read on…

The quest was sponsored by a few factors, one of them being pure timing and convenience – it was my school’s spring break (I teach math at a local college) and there was little need for me to get online to e-mail students or receive notifications from the administration (or so I thought). We primarily communicate through e-mail, both students and faculty, as the course is largely online with a once-per-week in-class component, so they e-mail me with questions, post in discussion forums, and thus, internet access is paramount. A week without classes was the perfect time to stay away from e-mail and the anxiety it can often bring. But moreover, I needed a break: a break from the stress of being online all the time, of constantly checking Twitter and Facebook, of having my phone beep, whether text message, Instagram notification, or e-mail. I hear the naysayers already: “just turn the notifications off! put your phone on vibrate; turn your computer off…” and so on and so on. Sure, those are good ideas in theory, but as most of us know, much more difficult in practice. It is very difficult to completely disconnect, because the world doesn’t stop. Our friends don’t stop updating Facebook just because we’re not there, nor does e-mail stop coming, nor text messages continuing to arrive. For me, moderation is the not the course, because I’m not very good at it (at least, not yet – this break may have changed that). I need to go cold Tofurky to really have an impact on my life, and that’s exactly what I did (with a few minor errors) for seven days.

Last but not least, I wanted to relax: I wanted to lay around the house, read books, take excessive naps, eat excessive food, play with the dogs whenever, and not feel the obligation of my inbox, waiting there for me to read, act, and worry about whatever its contents may be.

That’s exactly what I did, and it was awesome. Seriously. I was a little bit skeptical I would get bored and crave the web, but that really didn’t happen. I craved human contact, social interaction, and activity, but not status updates or @ replies. I found that really, all I needed was cool stuff to do, whether that be reading a good book (getting information!), mountain biking (camaraderie, fitness, and skill improvement), or simply eating vegan pizza with friends (food, activism, inner growth). The internet can definitely facilitate that, but is hardly necessary. And while most of us would agree with that statement in principle, it’s a lot harder to put into practice.

Here were my self-imposed rules for the last seven days, along with some of my minor transgressions (most brought about through unforeseen obligations):

  1. No computers: no laptop, no desktop, no internet cafes (do these even exist in the US anymore?) With this came:
    1. No Facebook
    2. No Twitter
    3. No Google (Try not looking anything  up online, just for a day – it’s hard!)
    4. No Wikipedia (see above)
    5. No Google Maps (how do I get anywhere?! just kidding)
    6. No e-mail
    7. No internet TV, downloaded movies, etc.
  2. No cell phone, meaning:
    1. No texting (or reading of texts)
    2. No access to my contacts, or phone calls (though I subverted this a bit with the help of my fiancee)
    3. No Instagram, tweeting on the go, looking up things while out, calling my fiancee, etc.

In addition I sort-of imposed a “no TV” rule, though I broke this over the weekend catching up on Game of Thrones and Shark Tank. The justification was my partner was going to watch these shows anyway, and I just happened to be there anyway. Cheating, maybe? But rather than focus on how I failed at the week of “no-tech” I focused on all the awesome things I learned.

The two major rules, were, of course, broken, but not due some addiction to Facebook or calling up friends: work intervened, as (un)expected, and in order to confirm which classes I was teaching this week, I needed to contact them directly. While I did make a stop at the school on Wednesday to address this planned consequence (and just to check-in), the information I sought was not there, so I had to e-mail, and call, on Thursday and Friday. Frustrating, but such is life. In addition I had to “fix” our server in order to facilitate some Game of Thrones watching (seriously, have you seen this show? Exceptions can be made…) and update a eBay buyer who I had made a commitment to prior to the tech-break. Commitments, even about eBay auctions, are very important to me, so I wasn’t going to let that dwindle for seven days.

For my friends, family, etc. I did my best to inform them of the break, and used a Tim Ferriss-style auto-response to assist with that. I had no idea what transpired throughout the week, trusting my e-mail would be dealt with by the following announcement:

Hi, and thanks for your e-mail. I’ll be unavailable by e-mail until Monday, April 30 at which time I will respond to all queries in a timely fashion.

If this is an urgent matter, please leave a message with my fiancee at 502-XXX-XXXX.

Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely,

Samuel Hartman

As it so happened, no messages made it across to my fiance, meaning that either 1) there was nothing urgent to discuss with me that couldn’t wait until April 30, or 2) no one wanted to take the time to make an extra phone call (which probably means it wasn’t that urgent). Now, I’m under no guise that my advice and assistance is so integral to the productivity and well-being of my cohorts and their tasks. I’m not the CEO of some company that needs to sign 10 different strategic plans every day, but I do have my responsibilities, and obligations, namely to places like the Veg Club and to my band. In addition, I have reasonable expectations about my friends when it comes to responding to e-mail, voice-mail, or text messages, like we all do. Consequently, being absent for a week might agitate a select few, no? But in all reality, and given the fact that my partner was still in touch with the world, things proceeded as usual, with little upset. I visited a friend at his house to confirm some plans (to which he responded “didn’t you get the text?”), confirmed many of my week’s plans on the Sunday before, and when something didn’t go according to plan, I let it go. This is both uncharacteristic and difficult for me to do, but I forced myself to let go and let things unfold as they may, not rush for the nearest communication device to try and fix the problem. This was a healthy and much-needed change.

I also modified my voice-mail to alert callers that I would not be responding to messages until today, and while I haven’t heard the ensuing messages (this post needed to come first!), I doubt there is much frustration. The fears and worries of, “but what will happen if my friends can’t call me?!” fade quickly as you realize that life goes on even if you aren’t in the front seat, tweeting your way through it. This need not be depressing (“well then why even try!”), but liberating: we can take a break. We can put our phones down at bed time, and not even check them again until 10am the next morning! Ferriss advocates, in his quest to one e-mail check per week, to whittle down the times to noon and 4:00pm, as no one responds to e-mail first thing in the morning anyway. Even using an auto-response – such as “I’ll be checking my e-mail at…” to alert those trying to reach you that, hey, I’m a busy dude, but I want to get back to you and will do so at this time – can help make the transition easier for your friends and co-workers. Trust is a beautiful thing here, and we should trust the people we associate with to do the right thing even in our absence. This applies more so to job situations than friendships, but the thing to remember is that we can take a break. We need not be connected 24/7, or hyperconnected as CIO guest columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger puts it. In the article, he writes, quoting MIT professor Sherry Turkle:

She believes that our smartphones offer us three gratifying fantasies: that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; that we will always be heard; and that we will never have to be alone. “And that third idea, that we will never have to be alone, is central to changing our psyches. Because the moment that people are alone, even for a few seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device.”

So, will we be able to adjust to this hyperconnected phase of the Internet, just like we seem to have adjusted to the initial connected phase by finding a reasonable balance between the physical and digital worlds? We now have to find a reasonable balance between paying quality attention to the people around us and being able to respond to the little devices constantly vying for our attention.

That’s exactly why I took a break. To put the attention back on myself, my friends, my partner, and the quest to find knowledge in some “old fashioned” ways…like reading! A few books that helped me “get through” the week are the following, and I highly recommend you check them out:

  1. The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris. An absolutely incredible read about defining morality through science. Harris doesn’t have all the answers, but he makes a powerful philosophical case for why, in a world where there are clearly lives that are better and worse than others, we can use science to determine the proper course. There’s an illustrious critique of religion, and a lot of discussion on free will and brain states, as well.
  2. The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. I was turned on to Achor through a TED Talk where he outlines his premise that happiness inspires productivity, work, and success, not the other way around. His book is about the burgeoning field of positive psychology, and while it contains data from animal testing (boo) and success stories of greedy capitalists (banks, insurance companies, etc.), Achor is an inspiring writer and motivator. Just reading the book made me happy!
  3. Evasion “by” CrimethInc. It’s hard to describe this book, but many of the stories of it are enthralling. The author sprinkles his train-hopping, dumpster-diving life with various politics and occasional vegan straight-edge anecdotes which add variety to the book. While it doesn’t flow as well as some of the other CrimethInc works, it represents a very powerful ideology in the anarchist world; that of contributing nothing to capitalist society, and taking whatever one wants.

All in all, I was very excited, but a little anxious, about returning to technology this week. While I look forward to getting caught up on some news, the latest Groupons, and  countless e-mails (some of which are quite positive, I bet!), at the same time, the freedom to do “whatever” without an obligation of technological interference, is desirable. My goal now is to find some sort of balance, perhaps less cell phone usage at night, a ban on Sunday, or simply a reality check: when free time comes and the decision is to be made, go the opposite way of Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk. After all, they are nothing but digital interpretations of our lives. Shouldn’t we strive to live our real lives first?

There were quite a bit of revelations and smaller aspects of the tech break I left out, as this post is quite long already! If you’re curious about a specific aspect of it, please leave a question in the comments. For another look at the problems of hyperconnectivity and smartphones, see this article: “Do iPhones Make Us Narcissists?“

Photo: Hugh MacLeod

Filed Under: administrivia, big picture, happiness, health, social, technology • 1 Comment