David’s Organic

Dear Editor:

Your fine newspaper has brightened my day for many years, but there is something that scares me.

In promoting next Sunday’s “The Big Help,” you list eleven featured employers, nine of which are
hospitals or drug companies.

While it is true a large part of the Massachusetts economy is related to the medical field, these numbers reflect
a frightful trend locally, and nationally. We are getting sicker. With more than half of all adults on daily medications,
and teenagers suffering from obesity, diabetes, cancer and bipolar disorder in record numbers, we cannot
afford to continue on this path. Along with many people in my profession, I believe this is the culmination of a
long spiral downward in the welfare of our nation and our way of life, from which we may never recover.

It would be easy to lay blame, as beer, soda and fast food companies, the dairy and meat industries,
and our low government standards for toxicity in air, water, food and products are blazing the trail.
But many doctors, hospitals and drug companies are also selling out our health to make a buck, despite
the work of a few on the cutting edge who recommend getting back to nature, and are acting more responsibly
as corporate citizens.

Will we wake up from our slumber, in time to prevent the unraveling of life as we know it?

Only if we can learn to value clean air, water, food and ideas, and put these ahead of short term profit,
idolizing criminals, and electing ignorant and corrupt politicians to lead us.

I would love to see the Boston Globe be on the forefront of this very important shift, by bringing
on more natural diet and lifestyle columnists, as well as writing more about social and environment
change. If nothing else, can you give reduced-cost employment ads to green companies, so people
can feel good about how they are feeding their families?

Thank you, and happy 2010,

David L. Kagan, MBA, Health Educator
508-333-4153
www.KaganMedia.net
www.linkedin.com/in/nature

P.S. I would gladly write a weekly column for you, I have a great name for it, and I think it would be a HUGE hit.

Okay, it’s the new year, we had a few parties, with some laughs, rest, and plenty of fun foods. Swell.

Now we are due back at work or school in a couple of days, and the snow could only postpone it by a day or so.

It’s time to get back on track, back on the path to great health.

1. Soak some brown rice, then cook it with a pinch of sea salt or a stamp-sized piece of kombu
2. Stir-fry some root veggies (carrots, rutabega, parsnips, etc.) and some other veggies (onion, kale, corn, mushrooms)
alonside some other healthy foods (tofu, almonds, sea veg., etc.) in healthy oil (sesame or safflower) with a bit
of shoyu towards the end (a bit of ginger juice or lemon juice at the very end adds a nice touch!)
3. Serve with gomashio (sesame seed and seasalt, get it at whole foods or make it yourself) 4. Wait :30 before dessert
5. For dessert, poach some apples or pears in apple juice or soymilk, with a dash of sea salt and some cinnamon etc. 6. End the meal with some bancha twig tea (whole foods, trader joes or online)

A good meal leads to more good meals, and lower stress, and the urge to move your body!!

Happy 2010

We eat a lot of beans, mushrooms and nuts and seeds instead of meat, and most of the time it’s cheap, easy and delicious.

Beans are great for salads, soups, sauces and wraps. Our favorites:
-Azuki beans (brown and black)
-Garbanzo (and hummus)
-Black (and black soy)
-Soy beans (and soy milk and tofu/tempeh/miso/natto)
-Kidney beans (and refried)
-Peas, Lima Beans, Black-eyed Peas etc.

There are MANY types of mushrooms you can buy, and some people even pick their own.
We eat the following types, and organic when we can get it:

-White
-Portabella mushrooms (baby or large)
-Shiitake (dried or fresh)
-Porcini, chanterelle, oyster, straw, etc.

Don’t forget the food processor, beans and mushrooms are very friendly that way.

For nuts and seeds, we enjoy:

-Walnuts, Almonds (and cheese/milk/butter), Pumpkin/Squash Seeds
-Sesame Seeds (and butter and oil)
-Occasional brazil, macadamia, cashews, pecans, etc.

If you stock your kitchen with these foods (from Whole Foods, Natural Import Co., even Ocean State Job Lot!)
and get plenty of whole grain noodles, tortillas, wraps, breads and flours, you can have a lot of fun.

Mexican Quesedillas (serves two)
Two round whole wheat tortillas
Three slices almond cheese
One TS hummus (or 10 garbanzo beans)
One TS refried beans (or 10 kidney/black beans)
One TS vegenaise (optional, you can also use soy sour cream)
One TS water or veg. broth
A bit of onion or scallion, chopped
A bit of green cabbage or broccoli, chopped
Spray canola oil or for better health, sesame oil
Sea salt, pepper, cumin and dill to taste

Heat a pan, add the oil and onions, then spices after one minute, then other veggies, let cook two minutes
Add veg broth or water, shut off and cover for two minutes.

Spread other ingredients on a tortilla, then add vegetables, add another tortilla, and clean and dry pan
before you turn it on medium high, spray it again, and place in quesadilla for frying. Before turning over (about two minutes),
spray top of quesadilla, then turn, cover and reduce heat to medium low). Done in about three minutes.

Cut with knife or pizza cutter, and serve with salsa/soy sour cream and a nice salad. WOW!! (the kids will love it too!!)

Home for the holidays?

Enjoy the children laughing…

Savor the sweet (and salty) foods, but respect them.

Take advantage of the great outdoors (it’s a white Christmas after all!)

See the best in everyone, and give yourself a rest…

YOU DESERVE IT!

Seems to me people that eat a lot of animal foods get sick, have an accident, or are the victim or perpetrator of domestic violence.

Think about it–pro athletes from Chris Henry to Steve McNair to Pat Tillman to Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith in the NFL.

In Major League Baseball, it’s Josh Hancock, Nick Adenhart, Tim Crews and Steve Olin and Corey Lidle. The NBA and NHL have their stories as well.

Then there’s Golf Tiger Woods is in deep doo-doo, and remember what happened to Payne Stewart?

You might say, “these guys are living large, they make so much money, and travel so much, and have so much pressure on them. All that is true.

But there’s a lot of pressure on me to provide for my family, and I can only make $50-$80K despite having a master’s degree, and have to work through the year,
compared to these guys who earn in the millions, and work part time.

I don’t want to unfairly single out pro athletes, but they do come to the top of my mind when I think of…tailgating, sponsors of pro sports teams such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza and the like, and stories about athletes that have 10 eggs and a 24oz. steak for breakfast. And of course there are the fatties at Sports Radio WEEI who are all one meal away from death by heart attack.

Interestingly, many actors, dancers and musicians are vegan, and while they are not without their problems, I would love to see a “karma comparison” between them and pro athletes.

If there is a connection between eating meat and tragedy, two thoughts come to mind:

1-Why does this happen to meat eaters?

2-If it does happens, should we educate people about it, so we can prevent these tragedies?

As for the connection, I believe the book by Dr. Will Tuttle, entitled The World Peace Diet, explains it best.

In Chapter 13, entitled Evolve or Dissolve, he explains:

“There is much talk today about stopping the cycle of violence, which is typically understood as the “hurt people hurt people” syndrome.
Children who are violated and abused will, when they become adults, tend to violate and abuse their children in a self-perpetrating cycle of violence
that rolls through generations. We address it by trying to stop the child abuse, and fail to see the deeper dynamic. This human cycle of violence will
not stop until we stop the underlying violence, the remorseless violence we commit against animals for food.”

“We teach this behavior and this insensitivity to all our children in a subtle, unintentional, but powerful form of culturally approved child abuse. Our actions
condition our consciousness; therefore forcing our children to eat animals wounds them deeply. It requires them to disconnect from the food on their plates,
from their feelings, from animals and nature, and sets up conditions of disease and psychological armoring. The wounds persist and are passed on to the
next generation.”

Dr. Tuttle is a very well educated philosopher, gifted author, lecturer, musician and composer. This is but two paragraphs from his 300 page seminal work.
But you may see here that we are in over our heads, because of not only the amount and the quality of the animal foods we eat, but because we are
almost totally unconscious as we do it. This is certainly contributing to many of the problems of our time…drug abuse, violence, war, poverty, and illness
are at unacceptable levels for a civilized country, don’t you think? And of course, then we can add in the notion that professional athletes tend to be less
mature, and our given outrageous sums of money and have a lot of pressure put on them to perform, and be public figures. They almost always disappoint
in the end, not because they are human, but because our world has made them less human.

I will leave number 2 for another day. But please meditate on this. When animals are abused for our food, we all suffer terribly. It can not go on forever. Something must be done.
It may sell newspapers today. But I fear it also signals us selling our souls, and dooming us to the same violence that comes to billions of animals every year.

One final, practical note, which may not ingratiate me to Dr. Tuttle, but may have a good end result…

If you are not ready to give up eating animals, please do not take a breath, and simply bury these ideas. They will fester, and come out eventually anyway, possibly with life-altering implications. Instead, when you choose meat or eggs or dairy foods, make sure you choose organic, and take a moment to consider that an animal gave up its life so you can eat it.

Yes, we are at the top of the food chain, but let’s give thanks for that, and honor the animals that allow us to be there. Then we can behave more like the evolved creatures we claim
to be, and perhaps over time we will work more at reducing the suffering of our animal friends.

David Kagan is a natural healthy educator in the Boston area, currently seeking funding for a startup to provide organic vegan healing foods.

9 Spring Lane, Framingham MA 01701
508.333.4153
www.kaganmedia.net
www.linkedin.com/in/nature