COFFEY BREAK
for
HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES
a different kind of coffee break with Gerry and Ray Coffey
Disease-Free Living Through Fitness and Nutrition

ADVICE
We began this Advice section as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health.  We believe that the information contained herein is true, but are not presenting it as the only solution to a problem.  We, personally, have found that a vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found.   Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body.  If you have a health problem, see your own physician.

A New Vegetarian

To Whom It May Concern:

Hello. I'm a new vegetarian. I just became one after much thought and research Thanksgiving 2002. (Most people don't believe me when I tell them the Thanksgiving part but it's true).

I've researched most of the important things about being a vegetarian: what I need that I get from meat, what I should eat, e.t.c. I also learned some things from the show "Braceface" on ABC Family.

I found out today that gelatin is from animal bones. I heard on the show that Sharon (the main character) wouldn't eat marshmallows because it has gelatin in it. Then I researched gelatin and found out that it is found in jellies and jams, marshmallows, and ice cream. I think it is also in Jell-O because in 4th grade I learned that animal bones are in this food.

I'm e-mailing you mainly because I was concerned of the other foods I won't be eating that contain foods from animals. I am a lacto-ovo-vegetarian, so I'm welcoming eggs and milk, but I would be so depressed if I bit into a certain food and found out that I'm helping to torture an animal. Please e-mail me back. Thank you!

A new vegetarian,

M

*************************

Hi, M:

CONGRATULATIONS! on becoming a vegetarian.

There are many reasons for becoming vegetarian, all of them good. But to my way of thinking, only when one becomes a vegetarian for ALL reasons: ethical, environmental, economical, physical and spiritual, will ALL "bases" be covered.

You have taken one step by becoming ovo/lacto. May I ask why you decided to stop there? I gather you became "vegetarian" because of your concern for animals. If that is the case, you will also probably want to wean yourself from the ovo/lacto, as well, and in so doing improve your own health as well as the animal from which it came.

Ovo, of course, means the eggs of chickens which are unborn baby chicks or the nutritional components meant to nurture that chick. Nuff said on that part?

Lacto, usually means the milk from a dairy cow which was meant to provide sustenance for a baby calf. Calves usually weight about 60 lbs. at birth and grow to 800 to 1,000 lbs. in about a year or year-and-a-half. How can giving that kind of milk to the average born human infant of 8 to 10 lbs. be health promoting?

Additionally, humans are the only species that continue to drink milk after "weaning," and also the only species that consume the body fluids of a species other than their own. When a human child develops teeth it is time to put him/her on solid food and there is no longer any need for the mother's milk that was meant to sustain it before it got teeth.

Also, now that cows are injected with BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) to make them give more milk, the stress put on the animals causes much disease for which they are fed many antibiotics.

These antibiotics and hormones are concentrated in the cow's milk which is then consumed by humans in the form of milk and dairy products. That is why little boys and girls are going into puberty long before they are mentally and emotionally capable of dealing with their physical maturity, plus diseases such as asthma, arthritis, osteoporosis, etc., is running rampant.

If you are interested, you can learn more about these subjects by clicking on "Articles" and then choosing a subject you find of interest on the following website:

www.all-creatures.org/cb/

You can also find many Vegan (meaning abstinence from any animal or dairy products) recipes at the following website to help get you started, and there are many more resources, as well.

http://ivu.org/recipes/northam /

Hope this information is helpful.

Gerry Coffey, Health Educator/Councilor/Public Relations Officer

THE VEGETARIAN UNION OF NORTH AMERICA: http://ivu.org/vuna/english.html
THE INTERNATIONAL VEGETARIAN UNION: http://ivu.org/
HEALTH IS (the ONLY true) WEALTH!
www.all-creatures.org/cb/  

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