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Let’s take a trip back….back to a much simpler time… back when I thought alternative meant a sideways haircut. Things were simple for me then. I never imagined the world outside my own sheltered life. When I was a young boy, my world consisted of music, hairstyles, looking cool, (or in the case of the photo below, me dressing up all girly like, my sister made me wear HER dress! NOT looking cool) having fun, socializing, and learning about the things in life which would become important to me. At the time I didn’t think much about the suffering of others. I believed what I had always been told; that the world was made up of what you saw, and that there was no bogeyman. I never imagined that my entire world was built on something so fundamentally wrong, that I would dedicate a large part of my life in future to it; the education of the plight of other animals, as they are the backbone that keeps our society working, and the education about healthy eating and the mind/body connection without the use of other animals.

It was right around the very year this photo was taken that my eyes were opened up to the cruelty that was done in the world. Pure happenstance had me at a friend of a friend’s house where he put in a beta tape of what i would now call some strange type of snuff film. This film had deaths; all types of deaths; human, non human, criminals, accidents, and what affected me most were the sheep at slaughter, and, the rich Caucasian couple in some faraway land snacking on a monkey’s brain while he/she was still alive, strapped into the middle of a table. (i recently found this very video after 27 years and re-watched. Still as horrifying today, glad to report.) These memories will haunt me forever, and were the reason that I began to question the relation between things; between my food and the death associated with it. It took YEARS before I became aware of just how pervasive the use of other animals was in our entire system; everything from cosmetics to flavourings, to tires to glue, to useless painful research which is done over and over in the name of science but only for earning people more grant money and not for good use at all, to the pet overpopulation which even has a price. This one shocked me beyond belief, as I had no idea what rendering was, and I had no idea until someone on Facebook posted a link on you tube about the uses of unwanted pets. All of these things led me to where I sit today; in the uncomfortable seat of someone who can no longer deny reality. That reality is hidden from plain sight, but billions of animals every single year are slaves for the human race; for consumption, entertainment, supposed “necessary” nutrtition, pleasure, necessary items, needless items, and the suffering continues.


Nowadays, things aren’t quite as rosy colored as they were for me when I was an adolescent. With the bombardment of advertisements telling us we need milk, it’s very difficult to get the real facts on dairy.  We might imagine some lovely cow named Elsie in the green pastures, living a lovely life, getting milked by a human daily, and being healthy and happy. As you will see in the videos below, that is entirely a myth.  Some of the information below is about the happy cow myth, and some is about the lies the dairy industry has used in their marketing ploys to get our money. It’s so ingrained in our culture that we “need” this elixir to grow strong bones, and it sure takes a hero to realize that what you see is NOT always what you get, and advertisements have no real information whatsoever.

Videos

  • Got The Facts On MILK? It was high time someone made a film documenting the health issues about dairy, and how the industry worth billions and billions will do ANYTHING to keep us supporting it, including saying we NEED it, when only baby cows need milk.

Texts

Only calves need their mother’s milk. Humans need human mother’s milk until around age 1, and at that point they can get their calcium and all the other vitamins and minerals in the plethora of foods available. Neither COW nor GOAT milk is designed biologically for HUMANS

There is one way you can still be alternative, or, think outside the box, and question the status quo. When people learn the truth about the dairy industry, especially vegetarians; or anyone for that matter, it’s always a good idea to give them information about ways of substituting things they love. Here are a few ideas for milk, butter and a couple types of cheese.

Almond Milk. Contains LOADS of calcium; more than cow’s milk without all the slaughtering and blood, and pus and infection and antibiotics. RECIPE:

Soak the almonds either overnight or during the day while you are at work.

Drain water from almonds. Put them into a blender. Add two medjool dates. Add 3.5 to 4 C filtered water. Blend for two minutes. Take a bag with a string on top and wrap around a bowl or pot or any similar utensil. Pour the almond milk into the bowl, on top of the nylon or cotton bag. Nylon is preferable, as it’s easier to clean. One can easily be found at a store. Mine was bought at a food cooperative, where it was sold to reuse when buying vegetables. Here is the nylon bag with string top drying after use and cleaning.

Now, watch as my lovely girlfriend unwraps the bag from top of bowl/pot, and pull string tight. Here she is going to “milk” the almond/water/medjool date pureé. I must admit, this was an amazingly fun activity watching her!


VOILA! She pours into a mason jar. ENJOY delicious “milk” without supporting an industry that mistreats other animals, and lies about the health benefits of the product they want people to buy to line their pockets.



For Whipped Cream? Try full fat canned coconut milk.  Simply put a can of organic coconut milk in your fridge. Wait a day. Open tin, and dump the very small amount of residual water at top into sink, spoon out cream and put on top of your favorite vegan pie, or pudding or whatever. It literally takes less than one minute. You could also dump the refrigerated coconut milk into a bowl, add some vegan powdered sugar, whip/mix/stir, and it makes the very whipped creamy goodness sweet!

(please hold the cow suffering, thank you very much!!)


Who Needs Butter, When You Can Make Futter? Futter; for all your faux butter needs

No need to use unhealthy margarine to replace butter that comes from abused cows. This absolutely quick and easy recipe takes 2 minutes. Be a cow’s hero. Click on the photo for the 2 minute Recipe.

Just in case you thought it was safe to eat margarines like Earth Balance, study up on palm oil. It is the latest fad these days with mega corporations. It is in practically anything and everything, and sometimes it isn’t even labelled as palm oil, but vegetable oil. It’s the cheapest, greatest thing for a company who doesn’t care about the environment or your health, but only cares about profit. These articles are now available for your perusal:

  • HERE is the ALTERNATIVE!!!: Vegan Butter, or Futter,  and here is my photo and recipe. ENJOY your futter without supporting the dairy industry.

If you absolutely feel the necessity to have pizza, why not make it yourself? You can always skip the cheese, and just do a red sauce with fresh garlic, basil and other vegetables, but if you are really craving melted goodness, try Daiya. It melts fantastically, and comes in three shredded flavours. We use the white Daiya for pizza and pasta very infrequently, and use the mexi Daiya infrequently when we crave beans and brown rice with a bit of spice!


If you are craving popcorn, why not pop a big soup pot full in coconut oil? MMMM MMMM good. We buy our raw, extra virgin first cold pressed coconut oil from a food cooperative.

Here is the delicious popcorn I made using the coconut oil

Baked goods come out fantastic with coconut oil; after all, it is an oil which naturally semi hardens at room temperature, so it has a similar consistency to your old butter you no longer want to use. Below is vegangsterARNP, myself, holding up my hand picked blackberry pie with coconut oil crust. The bomb yo; and the pie wasn’t bad either. Heh Heh.. Sometimes modesty isn’t the strong point of vegangsterARNP, but that’s ok. Being DYN-O-MITE ain’t easy!






If you miss cream cheese, I highly recommend making your own.

INGREDIENTS

    • 1 cup extra firm (morinu 1% fat) silken tofu
    • 1 1/2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
    • 1/2 T brown rice syrup, or 1 t pure maple syrup
    • 1 1/2 t low-sodium tamari
    • 1/4 t ground nutmeg
    • 1/2 t nutritional yeast flakes

Or, you could buy Galaxy Nutritional Food’s. cream cheeze,  I found it in Portland, at Food Fight, and at Sidecar for Pigs Peace in Seattle. It was the ONLY one without PALM oil, and it blew tofutti, (which contains palm oil) out of the water as far as taste is concerned.

As you can see, there is no reason in today’s world, with all the alternatives, to support ANY dairy industry. BE A COW, GOAT, BUFFALO, YAK, AND CAMEL HERO.

Lastly, here is a link to Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Nutrition Network. You can click on this and see the daily recommended amounts for vitamins and minerals, get suggestions, and any help needed to teach your clients about nutrition if you are a health care professional yourself.