Stop Global Warming: Eat Peanut Butter and Jelly

The Atlantic:

Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm recently declared March 20, 2010, "Michigan Meatout Day." In an aggressive "proclamation," she recited the myriad health benefits of a plant-based diet. It protects us from salmonella and E. coli O. 157. It reduces the risk of heart disease. It decreases our chances of getting diabetes. And so on.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[Sapientia]

12:41 AM on 04/05/2010

Here it goes again. Why is it that every time someone mentions anything about vegetarianism or veganism, or even speak about reducing meat intake, they're bombarded with opposition from meat eaters? It seems like it is a very sensitive topic to a lot of people but why should it be? No one says anything about environmental advice such as 'recycle as much as possible' or health advice such as 'exercise more.'

More people need to face the reality, look at the sound scientific evidence with as unbiased eyes as possible, and not associate 'reduce meat intake' stance with things like "crazy extremist PETA."

[impatient]

11:42 AM on 04/04/2010

peanut butter gives me heart burn. too oily.

[JimBozo]

02:11 PM on 04/02/2010

I have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch almost every day, usually without the jelly. I have a PB&J for the occasional sweet snack later in the day, if I get peckish..

I usually have the lunch sandwich with fruit or vegetable juice, soup, or chocolate milk, for variety.

This is not a green or vegan thing with me, I just love peanut butter. Peanut butter got me through many thin times when I was an impoverished college student. My Mom would send me off in the fall with the largest jar of PB she could find. It was always gone by the next time I came home. PB is like a faithful old friend to me.

Lately, I've been crazy about Bolthouse Farms' fruit and vegetable juices. They're fantastically delicious and rich. Their "Veggie" juice is similar in concept to V8, but twice as rich and tasty. Their Mango juice is so intense that I usually mix it half and half with OJ; and it's still intensely delicious.

[Vickster]

11:53 PM on 04/01/2010

We can raise livestock in Michigan. The same can't be said for peanuts.

[flossophy]

11:29 PM on 04/01/2010

No wonder Michigan is so messed up. The governor is more interested in PBJ's than in addressing the state's fiscal crisis.

[Roguer]

10:01 PM on 04/01/2010

It is April 1st... all fools day...

[Ozark Homesteader]

09:13 PM on 04/01/2010

I like Granholm and peanuts, but did she forget the massive salmonella contamination associated with peanuts and peanut butter in 2008-2009?

http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/

[TQQ]

09:07 PM on 04/01/2010

but global warming is a myth.

[The Meek]

06:11 PM on 04/01/2010

Wow, I've been helping save the planet almost all of my life. In fact I helped save the planet 30 minutes ago.

Peanut butter and grlic sandwiches are also good if you don't want the sugar. It's gourmet

[amaycatbaker]

02:26 PM on 04/01/2010

She right. I just can't figure out how to stay on an all plant diet. Fell off again. I can't have peanut butter in the home, one child is allergic. And meat does taste good.

Getting back on the horse again.

How many times do you fall off before the veggie diet sticks?

I guess it is kind like quitting smoking, and I promise since I have had a hard time staying a vegetarian, I will be easier on smokers.

[entopticon]

02:39 PM on 04/01/2010

amaycatbaker, as a matter of fact she isn't right. Factory farmed meat certainly has environmental and health issues, but sustainably raised, pastured meat is actually quite the opposite.

Eating local, sustainably raised meat is actually one of the most powerful things that you can do for your health and the environment.

Eating processed soy products shipped from halfway across the country, or conventional peanut butter for that matter, are among the worst things that you can do for your health and the environment.

The reason that you fall off a veggie diet is the same reason that researchers have so much trouble studying Dean Ornish's vegetarian diet: because very few people can stay on it since it is so unnatural and therefore unsatisfying.

If you want to be good to your body and the planet, eat real food, as local and sustainable as possible, and that includes both plants and animal products.

You would be very wise to read Lierre Keith's excellent, insightful, and remarkably informative book, The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability.

[amaycatbaker]

03:38 PM on 04/01/2010

I'll read it.

[flowereater]

03:47 PM on 04/01/2010

What is unnatural is the way many, if not most, Americans consume meat or animal products from factory farms at just about every meal. That is unnatural and disgusting. It is also the main reason folks "fall off." It is what is programmed into us from the time we are babies. We are programmed to like the taste of cheese and we feed our children pepperoni pizza instead of vegetables. I see it all the time.

Meat and animal product eating is the status quo. Anyone who rocks that is in for it.

Dean Ornish did his research, as did Esselstyn, Campbell, Dawber in the Framingham Study. The research has been done. It's been out there for decades and keeps getting stronger. The status quo doesn't like it. It has been stigmatized and ridiculed even to the point of saying that not eating meat will effeminate men, which is completely false. Esselstyn and his son are both Olympians. There is no denying the health benefits of a plant based diet. But it takes educating oneself on the best way to do it. Just like anything else.

[flowereater]

03:06 PM on 04/01/2010

For one, don't listen to the naysayers, like entopicon. It's one day at a time. My partner and I have been vegetarians for four years. We went vegan in September but are inclined to give ourselves some breathing room without guilt when we are out of town, like this last weekend.

The best thing I can say is keep trying. Keep finding new recipes. Keep reading everything you can about the health benefits of it. This helps keep me inspired and confident that I am doing the right thing for myself and the planet.

I have accepted that people are so addicted to meat that some become very abusive towards those of us that choose not to partake. I've come to call those types meat-baggers.

[amaycatbaker]

03:26 PM on 04/01/2010

This was the third time falling off. I have been trying for a year and 8 months, started trying august 2008 when I was pregnant. I started nursing and fell off in may 2009, went back on August 2009, fell at Christmas, went back in February, then fell in march. That was the shortest back on. My son is still nursing.

It is tough. Sometimes I liken it to, knowing what is right, and being weak. On this, I was raised meat, potato or starch, and veggie. I don't like the soy substitute meats. So I use tofu and legumes. But the cravings are really bad. I don't understand why, when eating more vegetarian is a better way to live.

[entopticon]

07:00 PM on 04/01/2010

As far as listening to the naysayers, I would say the same thing about your positions. I find your claims about "meat-baggers" becoming abusive to be particularly ironic, because the rabid vegans here are vastly more abusive and fanatical than anything that I have seen from the other side.

A sad example was a couple weeks ago, when Lierre Keith, who is an amazingly kind and soft spoken, physically disabled person, was giving a talk at a book conference a couple weeks ago. In the middle of her talk, while she was speaking of the evils of factory farming, three masked young vegan activists came up behind her and smashed pies filled with cayenne pepper into her face. She said despite the pain, the most horrifying part was the vegans in the audience laughing and cheering them on while they attacked her.

Your own rhetoric, calling those who disagree with you disgusting, unnatural, meat-baggers, with no efforts to consider a point of view besides your own, is not exactly loving, so you might consider that old adage about people in glass houses not throwing stones.

For what it's worth, I was a vegetarian for years, and live on a small organic vegetable farm.

[jozzie]

01:46 PM on 04/01/2010

Yeah, jelly really helps with diabetes.

[Gretel1or2]

01:54 PM on 04/01/2010

It does. It reduces the overall sweet tooth, thereby creating healthier eating patterns. It takes just one teaspoon of jelly to keep the weekly cravings at bay.

[jozzie]

07:42 PM on 04/01/2010

Piffle.

[flowereater]

03:10 PM on 04/01/2010

There is plenty of research that indicates that a plant based diet can even reverse diabetes.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

11:18 PM on 04/04/2010

That is utter hogwash, take a look at an approved Diabetic diet.

[AyeChart]

01:45 PM on 04/01/2010

FLASH: Arctic sea ice grows back to 'normal' for first time since 2001...
--Drudge Headline

[entopticon]

01:54 PM on 04/01/2010

Gee thanks. We all come to the Huffington Post because we are just so interested Drudge's right wing extremist climate denier drivel. (Not)

[InfidelSix]

01:43 PM on 04/01/2010

PB&J will save the planet? Doubtful.

MJ's & BJ's now, ... probably.

[Cambridge9]

01:16 PM on 04/01/2010

During the 1939-45 conflict there was very little meat to be had. We had about a half acre which was put to growing what we ate (potatoes, carrots, beets, leafy veggies and fruits became our staple diet) so I've never been a big meat eater. My friends all know that when they have a roast (of any kind - chicken, pork, lamb or ham - they always give me the left-over bones which I turn into nutritious soup bases .

I'm widowed and live alone so I don't have to cater to anyone, and although I eat what my friends eat when I visit or eat out, they know that I pretty much live on fruits, vegetables and nuts in season, and in the winter I always have plenty of home made (canned) soups. A peanut butter and banana sandwich is a treat a couple of times a week and vegetable or tuna casseroles, mac & cheese (home made) and veggie omelets give me plenty of healthy, tasty meals - home made crepes filed with home made jam or applesauce make excellent deserts. My big vice is coffee and I have a pot going all day.

I'm much closer to 80 than 70 but I still consider myself a cross between a mountain goat and/or a work horse when I work in my garden in summer. And except for failing eyesight, asthma in summer and the occasional bronchitis in winter, my health is better than most folks of half my

[jozzie]

01:46 PM on 04/01/2010

A Magnesium supplement, of say 400 - 500 mg per day, would help with your asthma.

[Cambridge9]

01:58 PM on 04/01/2010

Thanks for the suggestion, jozzie.. Already done. magnesium is one of my daily supplements and, of course, my "Jersey crock'' (one of my favorite traditional bean dishes from my childhood), whole grain breads, nuts and lots of broccoli and spinach. But my doctor has me on an inhalant too. I'm still very lucky at my age.

[redyns]

12:55 PM on 04/01/2010

Or you could just reduce your footprint by becoming vegan. I hate articles like this.

[entopticon]

01:49 PM on 04/01/2010

Or you could just reduce your footprint by eating local, grassfed meat, which as opposed to the grains that make up the vegan diet, actually makes the soil vastly healthier, instead of slowly turning it into a desert. And as opposed to those grains, which have significant net loss in carbon, releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gasses, pasturing cows actually sequester carbon.

[redyns]

06:10 PM on 04/01/2010

Omnivores need to eat just as many grains as vegans do. Actually it's an equal amount. We have different sources of protein, but your source doesn't reduce your footprint as significantly as mine does.

http://images.medicinenet.com/images/illustrations/vegan_food_pyramid.jpg

http://www.oakhills.k12.oh.us/ohlsd08_09/District/departments/Food%20Service/Food%20Pyramid.JPG