EarthSave Baltimore

"There are two kinds of pain: the pain of Discipline and the pain of Regret. The pain of Discipline weighs ounces and the pain of Regret weighs tons." ~Joel Osteen~

Happy New Year, Earthsaver,

Here’s all the latest news from Earthsave Baltimore, an all-volunteer nonprofit that helps people make healthier, compassionate, earth friendly food choices. Our Veg Dinner Educational Series meets on the last Saturday of each month, and gives people a chance to sample a wonderful variety of tasty vegan cuisine and meet like-minded people. Getting to know others who are making important diet and lifestyle changes may be the single most effective way we can insure lasting success.

Hope that you were able to make it to our special dinner event in November, when we had a surprise visit and talk by Dr. Will Tuttle, who wrote the best selling book “The World Peace Diet”, which we consider one of the very best sources of info and inspiration with regard to the spiritual and ethical aspects of vegetarianism. Attendees also were treated to live music about peace & love from Norm Hogeland, Marianna Mujica, and Don Robertson.

Our next vegan potluck dinner event in Owings Mills is set for Saturday, January 28th from 6-9 pm, when we will enjoy a raw food dessert demo by certified raw Chef Jahari Adjiri, who will speak on “Be Your Own Doctor”. See more info below and please join us if you can.

On February 25th our dinner series will feature a video screening of the entertaining and award-winning documentary "Got the Facts On Milk?”, a film that examines many of the questionable health claims made by the dairy industry. Dietitian Mark Rifkin will be on hand afterward to help answer questions. We’re really looking forward to this important event and hope that you can join us.

The Baltimore Veg and Vegan Meetup groups are more popular than ever, with both groups enjoying record-setting attendance. The Baltimore Vegan and Baltimore Vegetarian Meetup groups meet, respectively, at restaurants in Pikesville and Towson. It’s a great chance to meet others for mutual support on healthier diet and lifestyle. Please join us soon!

There’s a new Earthsave Baltimore Facebook page which is purely for the purpose of supporting people in shifting toward a healthier diet and lifestyle. We hope you will join the group page and join in the discussions, ask your question, or share a recipe or success story. See more info below.

As you may know, our Earthsave Baltimore chapter advertises in each issue of On Purpose Woman magazine. It’s a attractive free bi-monthly publication with well written articles and interesting ads about personal and spiritual growth, holistic health and fitness, local humanitarian and volunteer efforts, and entrepreneurship. OPW is available for free in most Baltimore area public libraries and in many stores, restaurants, and other businesses. We hope you will read the magazine and support the advertisers. And please let us know of any new locations where it might be displayed.

Hope to see you soon! Be well!

Peace, Don Robertson

DINNER ON SATURDAY, January 28th potluck dinner in Owings Mills will feature a Raw Dessert Food Demo and talk by vegan raw foods Chef Jahari Adjiri, speaking on “Be Your Own Doctor”. In 1976 Jahari attended Dr. Ann Wigmore’s Hippocrates Health Institute and became a certified chef, advocating raw food vegan consciousness. Jahari has been vegetarian for more than 40 years and has been a health talk radio hostess and producer on Baltimore’s WEAA since 1989. Join us!

FEBRUARY 25TH DINNER will feature a video screening of the entertaining, award-winning documentary "Got the Facts On Milk?”, a film that questions conventional wisdom regarding the health benefits of dairy products. It’s a humorous yet shocking exposition that raises serious questions about dairy's role in cancer, osteoporosis, weight gain, asthma, acne, early menstruation and more. Please RSVP and join us!

Dinner Guests are asked to bring a dish made without animal products to serve 6-8, along with a donation of $5 (members $2). Or guests may attend without bringing a dish for a $12 fee (members $10). Please give 1 day notice if paying for dinner. Suggested donation for those attending only the presentation is $5. You may RSVP by calling 410-252-3043, or by emailing Baltimore@Earthsave.org. These monthly dinner events are usually held on the last Saturday at the Learning Center of Your Prescription for Health, 10210 S. Dolfield Rd. in Owings Mills. Please RSVP, and join us if you can!

DIRECTIONS From Beltway 695: take exit 19 onto I-795 (Northwest Expressway). Get off at Exit 4 (Owings Mills Blvd). Bear right when exit splits. Take right at first traffic light (South Dolfield Road). Travel approximately l/2 mile. Flying Avocado Café and "Your Prescription for Health" pharmacy is on the right after Gold’s Gym (which is on left). The Learning Center/Yoga Studio entrance is at the opposite end of the building.

DIRECTIONS From Reisterstown Road: Travel West on Painters Mill Road. Turn right at 2nd traffic light onto S. Dolfield Road. Go left at the second driveway into the parking lot of Your Prescription for Health.

MONTHLY VEG DISCUSSION GROUP MEETUPS are casual and are held in restaurants over great vegetarian food. Attendance is usually around 10-20 people, and discussions include a wide variety of topics that support people in making healthier choices in diet and lifestyle. There are two different groups, one vegan and one vegetarian. The vegetarian group currently meets on the first Sunday at 12:30 pm at the Kathmandu Kitchen in Towson, and the vegan group meets on the third Wednesday, at 7 pm, at Mr. Chan Szechuan in Pikesville. Both groups welcome all who are interested in learning about healthier eating. For details, or to register and let others know you plan to attend, go to http://vegetarian.meetup.com/9/, or to http://vegan.meetup.com/29/.

MEAT CONSUMPTION IN U.S. WAY DOWN Americans’ meat consumption is down 12.2% since 2007, a is expected to soon dip to the lowest levels of consumption in the last 40 years. See full story at http://tinyurl.com/yu7dqb

NOTES FROM YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD DIETITIAN – MARK RIFKIN: Yogurt----for many of us, it automatically conjures pictures of granola, all-natural foods, Euell Gibbons and overall healthy approach to food. If only it were true for the majority of yogurt on the market. Leaving aside the question of whether dairy-based or soy-based yogurt is better for you, most flavored yogurt products have 4-1/2 to 10 teaspoons of sugar per cup. This is true whether it's dairy or soy. How can you tell? Look on the label: every 4 g sugar = 1 tsp. So a Yoplait "Berry" yogurt contains 27 g of sugar, almost 7 teaspoons of sugar! And how many berries do you think are actually in that 6 oz cup? One? Two? How can you make it better? Start with a plain unflavored yogurt (usually around 12-14 g sugar per cup) and ADD YOUR OWN FRUIT. Add 1/2 c or more of blueberries, 1 tsp of your own sugar or maple syrup, and some crushed pecans or chia, hemp or ground flax seeds. Now THAT'S nutrition! That other stuff is dessert!

MARK RIFKIN, MS, RD, LDN, founder of Preventive Nutrition Services, has been vegan for over twenty years and earned an MS in Health Education. Through his private practice in Baltimore Mark provides group and individual sessions to help vegetarians and vegans improve the quality of their diet. He also focuses on plant-based nutrition for various chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, weight management, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, gout, women's health concerns, cancer, and early stage kidney failure. See Mark's webpage at http://preventivenutritionservices.com/. Contact Mark at preventive_nutrition@verizon.net, or call 410-764-8343.

DID YOU KNOW…

Did you know that fat-free salad dressings are often poor nutritional choices... Manufacturers typically create fat-free versions of their dressings by removing oils and increasing sugar and salt content for flavor. The nutrients of leafy green vegetables are much better absorbed in the presence of fats, so our salads are considerably more nutritious when they include fats, either in the dressing, or by adding seeds, nuts, or beans to our salads.

Did you know that osteoporosis rates are highest in the countries with the highest dairy and calcium consumption: Scandinavian countries, Holland, Great Britain, U.S.A., and Canada… Countries with historically low dairy consumption, like China and Japan, have had very low hip fracture rates, but they're beginning to eat like Americans now, and osteoporosis rates are climbing.

Did you know that a cow's normal lifespan is 20-30 years, but the health of a modern dairy cow deteriorates rapidly at around the age of four, when barely into adulthood, due to the stress of being constantly pregnant, drugged, and forced to produce ten times her normal amount of milk... Most are slaughtered and processed into hamburger meat before the age of five.

See more fascinating facts and quotes at http://earthsavebaltimore.org/node/78

QUOTES OF NOTE

"Imagine sitting down to an eight-ounce steak, and then, imagine the room filled with 45 to 50 people with empty bowls...For the feed cost of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a cup of cooked cereal grains."

~Frances Moore Lappé; author of Diet for a Small Planet~

"Less than 70 years ago, more than 40 percent of the protein in the American diet came from grains, bread, and cereal. Currently, only 17 percent comes from these sources, along with another 15 percent from legumes, fruits, and vegetables, while two-thirds is from animal products. This trend, also noted in other industrialized Western countries, has been accompanied by a steady increase in heart-disease and cancer deaths."

~Charles Attwood MD~

WOMEN’S EXPO AT CCBC CATONSVILLE, always one of our favorite events, will feature more than 200 exhibitors and speakers. The Expo will happen this year on March 10th and 11th. As usual, Earthsave will have an information and book sales table that you will see on your right as soon as you enter. For more info on the Expo, please go to http://womensexpomd.com/ Exhibitor and vendor spaces usually sell out several weeks before the event. So if you’re interested, call Patsy Anderson at 410-744-4042.

ONLINE ANIMAL VIDEOS

We’ve learned a lot more about the intelligence and emotions of crows in the last few years. Here’s a cool video of a crow having a wonderful time snowboarding from a Russian rooftop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUBMSnHH7hc

This video shows a group of curious cows eagerly greeting a visiting 6-month-old boxer puppy. http://tinyurl.com/7ls9ks3

Here’s a video of a young elephant seal falling in love with a human visitor. http://vimeo.com/18479035

PEACEABLE KINGDOM PHOTO ALBUM has many wonderful and unusual photos of our animal friends of various species living together peacefully and learning to trust and to share. http://tinyurl.com/836ejs6

PEACEFUL PLANET PHOTO ALBUM contains many touching animal photos and messages of Peace, Compassion, and Justice.
http://tinyurl.com/6rwkmer

EARTHSAVE FACEBOOK GROUP provides activity & event notices for the Baltimore chapter of Earthave, and will allow members to exchange recipes and health and nutrition tips. It will also serve as forum for veg/vegan, farmed animal, and environmental advocates to share information, ideas, and opinions. This site should be helpful to those who wish to get a quick answer to most any question with regard to plant-based nutrition or the veg/vegan lifestyle. And it’s also a great place to share success stories. http://www.facebook.com/groups/EarthsaveBaltimore

HEALTHY BEGINNINGS is Earthsave’s attractive new 28 page guide, which includes recipes and shopping tips, to transitioning to a whole food, plant-based diet. This very helpful book also details Earthsave’s vision for a healthier, sustainable, peaceful planet. It’s available at Earthsave dinner series events and at the Meetup discussion groups. Or send $3 to Earthsave Baltimore, 517 Talbott Ave., Lutherville, MD, 21093.

PLEASE BRING EMPTY INKJET & TONER CARTRIDGES to Earthsave and Meetup events for recycling. Our nonprofit group is compensated for every cartridge we turn in. Thanks so much!

EARTHSAVE MEMBERSHIP is a great way for you to contribute to our important educational mission. All members may receive a free 12-issue subscription to Vegetarian Times magazine. Folks who attend meetings may check out books from our well stocked EarthSave Library, they may place literature on our networking tables, may make a brief announcement to the group, and receive discounted attendance fees to most Earthsave events. You may join our group online at http://tinyurl.com/7e88ndb, or you can send a tax-deductible check for $35, or $50 for family membership, or $25 for student or senior, to EarthSave at 517 Talbott Ave. Lutherville MD, 21093. Thanks for your kind support!

PLEASE REMEMBER to be the peace that you wish to manifest. Be well!

EarthSave … May all be fed, may all be healed, and may all be loved.

Baltimore Chapter events http://earthsavebaltimore.org/ Call us at 410-252-3043, or email us at Baltimore@earthsave.org