Did you know that October is Vegetarian Awareness Month?
How about that Sunday, October 1 is World Vegetarian Day? Or that
Monday, October 2 is World Farm Animals Day, celebrated this year on the
125th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi? How do YOU plan on
celebrating these events?
I know what I am going to be doing.
Of late, THE hot topic for discussion at my place of
employment has been osteoporosis. Women gather around my desk and share
stories. One woman even retired early because of the excruciating pain
in her back caused by brittle bones and a fractured and compacted spine.
"Oh yes," she began, "It's awful! I take so-and-so medicine, and one of
its side effects is it draws calcium from my bones." And so her doctor
prescribed yet another medicine to replace the lost calcium. Pills,
tablets, and liquids. They all want a quick fix to their problem!
They all think that along with popping pills that
guzzling more milk, eating more cheese, consuming more yogurt and
cottage cheese is the answer. I shake my head and sigh heavily. If only
they knew. I try to tell them, but they look at me as if I were from
another planet.
Today I hit on a plan! I am going to use World
Vegetarian Day as an opportunity to educate them about plant sources of
calcium. Calcium that does not come along with the added baggage of fat,
cholesterol, antibiotics and hormones. Calcium that is not delivered via
the milk of another species. I want to empower these women with an
arsenal of calcium-rich plant choices to combat their osteoporosis.
If you need reasons why humans shouldn't drink cow's
milk, read the following article by Robert Cohen. Be sure to visit his
website too. Also, there is a link to a part of the Vegetarian Resource
Group webpage that is all about CALCIUM. Follow it and read it. You can
even check out other areas of the VRG! Make a couple of the calcium-rich
recipes. Print out the table of the calcium content of selected foods --
make copies and take them to work. Hand them out with the food samples.
Get the word out that cow's milk is meant for baby cows, who grow to
weigh 300 pounds in just one year. Let people know that there are a lot
of plant sources of calcium. Make your goal be to just make them aware.
Give the women -- the people -- you care about in your life this gift
for World Vegetarian Day at work on Monday (World Farm Animals Day)
during Vegetarian Awareness Month.
Calcium in the Diet - The Vegetarian Resource Group
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.htm#table1
FARM - Farm Animal Reform Movement
http://www.farmusa.org/
Go on to Milk
Consumption Nosedives
Return to 27 September 2000 Issue
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