Keeping Up With The Lingo
Last week my husband I were traveling and spent a lot of time in hotels which naturally led to watching television, which we rarely do. While viewing a golf tournament, a commercial for Trojan condoms aired featuring Lil Dicky (a rapper, according to Wikipedia) who closed the ad by saying “Trojan Bareskin Condoms are so sick” which left me perplexed. In my generation, the word “sick” meant ill, unwell, or about to vomit so why would anyone describe a condom as less than perfect or up for the job? Because to the younger generation, “sick” apparently means cool, awesome, or really good so who better than a guy named Lil Dicky to endorse Trojans? Read more 
The Hardest Part of Living Vegan – Imperfection
For most people becoming vegan or plant-based is a journey and not a switch that was turned on one day. In fact, I don’t know anyone who was a carnivore one day and a vegan the next. The change is really an evolution which occurs over time. Very often, as was with me, a person becomes vegetarian because of a nutritional concern and then learns about the animal livestock and dairy industries and gradually cuts out dairy products out of a moral, ethical, or religious belief. And, then there is the third part of the vegan triangle which is the environment because there is no doubt the animal livestock and dairy industries are destroying the environment with the CO2 emissions, contaminated water systems, and forest destruction. Read more
PlantPure Summit 2016
PlantPure Summit 2016 is a 10-day on-line series (September 7 – 16, 2016) that brings together healthcare industry experts from around the world to promote the benefits of plant-based nutrition and lifestyle changes to fight against heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and obesity. The summit is free and is a public service to learn more about nutrition and health so take some time, scroll through the schedule (the link is below), and listen to a few life-changing experts tell you how to lead a healthier life. 10 days. 60 speakers. 59 talks. Invaluable Information. Read more
Through the Door of Life
When Sam Harel Price, 21 and a junior at Oberlin College died on March 24th following a suicide attempt on her 21st birthday, I struggled to help my daughter cope with the death of a friend she loved. Loss leads to grief but asking why a smart, compassionate, and beautiful person would take her life when she had so much to look forward to, help us understand the importance of compassion and acceptance in this world. Read more
Why GMO’s Don’t Matter but What You Eat Does
The recent defeat of the Senate bill that would have created voluntary national standards for food labeling with genetically modified ingredients would have prevented states (including Vermont, the leader whose food labeling laws go into effect July 1, 2016) from mandating labels on food that contain genetically modified ingredients. Read more
Facebook Friends
This past week, I decided to take a different approach to Facebook because I just wasn’t feeling authentic about the whole social media world. With sincerity guiding me, I went through my “friend” list and started unfriending people because (a) I don’t really know them; (b) I’ve known them for decades but have not kept in contact with them (grade school or high school acquaintances); (c) I do business with them; or (d) because they are in another group of acquaintances (i.e. kids of friends). It’s not that I don’t like these people. In fact, there are several “friends” that seem very nice but whom I hardly know which makes sharing personal moments awkward. Read more
Carnism and Melanie Joy
We don’t see meat eating as we do vegetarianism – as a choice, based on a set of assumptions about animals, our world, and ourselves. Rather, we see it as a given, the “natural” thing to do, the way things have always been and the way things will always be. We eat animals without thinking about what we are doing and why, because the belief system that underlies this behavior is invisible. This invisible belief system is what I call carnism. ~Melanie Joy
Pining for a Volvo with Cadillac Service
My husband says that car service departments see me coming and that I may as well have a sign on my back that says “TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME” The thing is I am – like most people – at the mercy of a car service department. If a mechanic or service manager tells me I need to spend $386 to have my shocks replaced, I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not. For that reason, my husband, who owned automotive service centers for two decades, usually handles the car repairs. He is not, as I say “snowable.” Read more
Turkey Time
The Thanksgiving meal is about as American and traditional as it gets with nearly every family in the United States celebrating this national holiday – most with a roasted turkey on the table. Although many dishes have changed little in the past hundred years – bread stuffing, cornbread, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans – the turkey has changed dramatically. Before I tell you how the turkey has changed, I want to say this is not about shaming those who choose to eat turkey. The purpose is to inform the reader of what many turkey farmers, cooperatives, processors, and food companies don’t want consumers to know about the turkey on your table. Read more
Thoughts on Living Vegan
Veganism often leaves people perplexed (as in “How do you get your protein?”) or thinking how strange that animal products (i.e. milk, eggs, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts, pork chops, and the like) are not a part of my diet. To these people, I want to say “I understand” because I, too used to think vegans (and I used to pronounce the word “veg-ans” with a soft “g”) were extremists, outliers, and generally don’t fit in with the rest of the world. The truth is they don’t but it’s not because vegans are weird but because vegans have chosen to acknowledge, confront, and reject the horrific cruelty involved in putting animal products on a breakfast, lunch, and dinner plate, or in a bowl or glass. Read more
Paddock Post 