Veganism and Protein-based Bodybuilding

Vegan Bodybuilder Joel Kirkilis

Can A Vegan Diet Give You Muscles?

This is the question most people who consider going vegan or vegetarian ask before they decide to change their diets. Will I lose a major source of protein if I give up meat. The answer is ultimately yes, but there are some other things to consider before you make up your mind about veganism.

Yes, meat is a great source of protein and if you give it up you will lose that major source, but you can replace that great source of protein with another source of protein that can give you just as much protein as you had before and maybe a little more.

Indeed there is a whole movement within the bodybuilding community of vegan bodybuilders, like Joel Kirkilis above.

Now before you think it is more difficult to become a vegan bodybuilder vs an omnivore bodybuilder, remember:

Gorillas Do It

Gorillas are a close evolutionary relative to humans and they live off a strictly plant based diet. I don't think anyone would accuse a gorilla of lack an adequate source of protein as they are often very strong, powerful and muscle animals. So how do they do it? Well, gorillas spend all day eating plants as the plants do not allow them to gain enough energy to sustain them the entire day, but the plants that they do eat provide them with enough protein to help them build the muscles they need.

Humans have an advantage when it comes to a vegan diet because unlike gorillas humans eat starchy foods which will provide extra protein and a vast amount of carbohydrates. I know what you are thinking, gorillas are similar to us but they are not the same, they must have different genes and body structures that allows them to process plants differently than humans do. The answer to that is no, not really. Gorillas have the same DNA and the same digestive systems as humans and are 99% identical to humans in terms of DNA. That 1% difference is really minor.

Gorillas also do not have an extra special means of digesting food to get more protein out of it. The protein is already there in the plant based food, we humans just need to start realizing that meat is not the only source of protein out there.

Professional Athletes Do It Too

David Haye is a professional boxer and became vegan while competing professionally. At first he was concerned about what becoming vegan could negatively effect his ability to participate in professional boxing. He was concerned that without meat he would not be able to maintain his muscle mass. It was not until he did some research on the protein value of plant based foods that he realized that he could get what he needs from plants.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson also became a vegan after dealing with depression, weight gain, drug abuse and alcoholism. He became a vegan as part of a process that was intended to help him get his life back on track. After becoming a vegan Mike Tyson was able to get back into a physique that rivaled that of his heavy weight fighting days.

What If You Just Want To Try It Out First

Protein is easily accessed through plant foods such as beans, seeds and grains. If you are not yet ready to take the plunge just yet, why not try out a vegan restaurant first to see if plant based protein is right for you. A great place to try is Rawlicious, a Toronto raw vegan restaurant, which provides several different smoothie options that can be fortified with Hemp Protein and SunWarrior Brown Rice Protein.

The Best Cooking Classes in Toronto

By Charles Moffat.

Here are my picks for the best cooking lessons in Toronto.

#1. Luca
www.lucatoronto.com

Luca offers private cooking lessons in both Italian cooking lessons and also private cooking lessons in general. Why is he my number one pick? 1. He teaches privately. It is more like tutoring so you get 1-on-1 attention, which is rare when most cooking classes are in groups of 6 or more. #2. He really knows his stuff. #3. His prices are fair, so you're getting great value for a fair price. Expect to pay $25 per person plus the cost of food. So depending on the menu it can get pricier, but it is exceptional value.

#2. Arvinda's Healthy Gourmet Indian

I put this one 2nd because I LOVE Indian food. You might already have heard of Arvinda's from the line of Indian spices and curries they sell across Toronto at places like Fiesta Farms, The Big Carrot, and The Cheese Boutique. Arvinda's cooking classes came first, long before the spice belends. Her practical classes ($65-85) cover all the basics of Indian cuisine... including my favourite: Butter Chicken. She also offers a 2-day "India Discovery" workshop ($160) where you learn the basics of cooking Indian food in one day plus a walking tour of Little India where you learn how to shop for Indian food products.

#3. Lyn's Private Vegan Lessons

Okay now technically this isn't really well known as the others. I am basically just plugging a friend of mine who is a vegan cook and recipe writer. She has taught me everything I know about vegan cooking. Check out her website at www.beautiful-vegan.com. I also highly recommend her ebook "Conscious Evolution: Vegan Recipes, Life and Consciousness".

The rest of these are in no particular order.

Culinarium - Offers a series of cooking classes ($69) that highlight local and seasonal ingredients you can learn practical skills like working with different meats (poultry, lamb, beef etc), veggies and grains (fall harvest soups), and preserving (jamming, pickling, canning).

The Healthy Butcher - Great if you want to learn about meat. Learn how to break down an elk carcass, spatchcock a chicken or make your own sausages. Classes are either demonstrations or hands-on and generally range from $80-$100. The groups are capped at anywhere from 10-20 people.

The Good Egg - This Kensington Market shop has a great selection of recipe books and supplies. They also offer basic cooking/general interest classes ($75-$100).

Calphalon - Retailers of cookware and knives, their culinary centre at the corner of King & Spadina also offers cooking classes are very expensive, but with a broad selection of classes in the city. Demonstrations are ($70), Hands On ($150), or the more intensive Specialty Class ($200).

Great Cooks - Cooking classes for individuals ($110) or corporate team building (prices vary). Seasonal themes and also basic skills classes.

Nella Cucina - A knife sharpening/rental services and restaurant supply which has a location at Bathurst and Bloor. They also offer classes in Hands On ($75 - $125) and Demonstrations ($75) so you can hone those knife skills.

Toronto District School Board - A cheaper option at $20-30 per class (depending on materials) but their topics include Wine Regions of the World, Indian Vegetarian Cooking, Cake Decorating and Chef on the Run so its also great value.

George Brown Continuing Education - For the more dedicated this college offers evening courses (roughly $200-$400 each) and certificate programs (prices vary). This is really for people intending to become professional chefs. 6 different classes to pick up a certificate in Asian Cuisine, Vegetarian Cuisine, Baking Arts, Cake Decorating, or general Culinary Arts.

St. Lawrence Market Kitchen - On the mezzanine level, south building, you will find a full line of cooking classes. Everything from soups and stews, Thai cookery, working with chocolate, etc. Classes run between 2-3 hours and cost $50.

The Bonnie Stern Cooking School - You could just read her column in the National Post, or you can take her classes for $150 which has a mix of practical cooking, informational, and celebrity chef interview/dinner formats.

Dish Cooking Studio - Ignoring the weird name this catering company, boutique and cafe also offers classes (about $125-$175), and showcase recipes from well-known celebrity chefs.

Viva Tastings - At the St. Lawrence Farmers' Market on Saturdays, or their 6 Degrees Underground Supper Club, you will find a variety of cooking classes and corporate team building events, covering everything from basic culinary skills, to entertaining for vegetarians and vegans, to holiday party planning. Each class is $90 and includes a sit-down meal & glass of wine.

How to Destroy your Company's Reputation and its Profits

There are many ways to destroy a company from the inside.

1. One way is to overspend on advertising.
2. Another way is to package the product improperly so it ruins the product.
3. A third way is to take on debts that you can't possibly repay.
eg. Disgraced brewer 'Steelback Brewery' did all three of these thanks to its incompetent and shamelessly self-promoting CEO and drove the company into the ground in 2007.
4. Another way is to not evolve with the times and changing technology and then fall into debt and eventually bankruptcy. eg. Nortel Telecom.
5. Another way is to make faulty investments in real estate and other things (and in some cases running a Ponzi scheme) and then try to get a bailout from the federal government.

For fun check out the list of the biggest failed banks on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_U.S._bank_failures

Note that they're losses were in the billions. $307 billion for the Washington Mutual in 2008.

Lastly another way to destroy a company is to slowly, piece by piece, destroy a company's quality and reputation. This is what now known as the "the Schlitz mistake" and you can read all about it in the article we've attached below:

The Fall of Schlitz: How Milwaukee's Famous Beer Became Infamous

By Martyn Cornell

You might think it would be good to have your company held up in business schools as a famous example. But that wouldn't be the way the people behind the Schlitz brand feel about it. Because Schlitz is held up as a dreadful warning of how not to do it.

Indeed, the company that now owns Schlitz, once "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," is currently telling drinkers that "our classic 1960's formula is back," the sub-text being that it "now tastes the way it did before we started disastrously mucking about with it 40 years ago, ruining the beer and wrecking the company along the way."

Schlitz's roots were in a Milwaukee restaurant started by 34-year-old August Krug, an immigrant from Bavaria, in 1848. Two years later Krug hired Joseph Schlitz, another German immigrant, from Mainz, to be his bookkeeper. When Krug died in 1856, Schlitz took over the management of the brewery, marrying Krug's widow Anna two years later and changing the name of the business to his own. That same year Krug's 16-year-old nephew, August Uihlein, began working for the brewery. Over the next two decades the brewery grew to be one of the two or three biggest in Milwaukee. Then in 1875 Schlitz was drowned after the ship in which he was travelling on a voyage back to Germany struck rocks off the Scilly Isles. Control of the brewery was inherited by August Uihlein and his three brothers, who had joined him in the business.

The brewery prospered considerably under the Uihleins, springing back after Prohibition, and late in the 1940’s Schlitz became the best-selling brew in the United States – the Wisconsin brewer wrestling the title from Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser, the self-styled "King of Beers." The 1950’s saw a continuous assault from Anheuser-Busch to win back the crown of America's favorite. The two brewers swapped the lead between them until 1957, when Budweiser went ahead permanently. The decisions taken by Schlitz's owners, the Uihlein family, to cope with their rival's dominance would eventually "salami slice" their company to death.

By 1967 the company's president and chairman was August Uihlein's grandson, the polo-playing, 6-foot-4–inch-tall Harvard graduate Robert Uihlein Jr., then 51. Robert decided that if he could not sell more been than Anheuser-Busch, he would at least make his company more profitable than his St Louis rival. The first step in Uihlein's plan to save money was a new brewing method Schlitz called "accelerated batch fermentation," or ABF. This cut the brewing time for Schlitz beers from 25 to 21 days, and then from 20 to 15 days, compared to the 32 to 40 days of storage – or "lagering" – used for Budweiser.

The result was that Schlitz was now getting much more beer out of the same amount of plant, with all the boost in margins that meant. At the same time Uihlein instructed his brewers to begin cutting costs by using corn syrup to replace some of the malted barley used to make the beer, and by substituting cheaper hop pellets for fresh hops. The ingredient alterations were meant to be made incrementally, Uihlein's belief apparently being that drinkers would not notice each slight change to the product. Unfortunately, as commentators later pointed out, the steps from A to B and from B to C might have been tiny and unnoticeable, but the steps from A to M added up to a big leap.

At first all seemed to be working. In 1973 Schlitz was able to boast that it had the most efficient breweries in the world, and it was carrying out a rapid expansion of its production capacity. Its profits-to-sales ratio and its utilisation of its plant – in terms of capacity against actual production – were both substantially above the industry average. Market share was growing faster than at either of the other big two American brewers, Anheuser-Busch and Miller. Rivals tried to trip Schlitz up by claiming that its ABF brewing method meant it was selling "green," or too-young beer. Schlitz responded by changing the meaning of ABF from "accelerated batch fermentation" to "accurate balanced fermentation."

Uihlein had already been given a warning about what could happen if drinkers felt a brewer was messing about with beer quality, however. In 1964 Schlitz had acquired the Primo brewery in Hawaii. By 1971 Primo accounted for 70 per cent of all beer sold in Hawaii. Then Schlitz stopped full brewing at the Primo plant, instead shipping dehydrated wort from its brewery in Los Angeles for fermentation in Hawaii. Islanders said the taste of their favorite beer had been altered for the worse with the change, and Primo's market share dropped like a brick to just 20 percent in 1975. Schlitz started full brewing in Hawaii again that year, but sales of Primo never recovered to their previous high.

Back on the mainland, Schlitz had attempted to respond to the growing success of Miller Lite, the first successful low-calorie beer, with the launch late in 1976 of Schlitz Light. But perhaps because drinkers were already suspicious about what went into ordinary Schlitz, Schlitz Light was a failure in an otherwise expanding sector.

Meanwhile Schlitz was running into trouble with its mainstream brand, after an attempt to disguise to consumers what it was putting into its beer. Because it aged its beer less than other brewers, Schlitz had to add silica gel to the product to prevent a haze forming when it was chilled. In 1976 the company began to worry that the United States Food and Drug Administration would compel brewers to list all their ingredients on bottles and cans. Its use of silica gel would show up in harsh contrast to its rivals such as Anheuser-Busch, who aged their beers longer, allowing the protein to settle out naturally, and therefore did not need to use artificial anti-haze products. Anheuser-Busch was sure to point up Schlitz's use of an "unnatural" product in its beers and contrast this with the "all-natural" Budweiser.

Schlitz decided to use another beer stabilizer instead, one that would be filtered out of the final product and thus would not have to be listed as among the ingredients. Unfortunately, what Schlitz's brewing technicians did not know was that the new anti-haze agent, called Chill-garde, would react in the bottles and cans with the foam stabilizer they also used, to cause protein to settle out. At its best this protein looked liked tiny white flakes floating in the beer and at its worst it looked like mucus, or "snot," as one observer bluntly called it.

For months Schlitz kept quiet about the problem, with Uihlein arguing that the haze was not actually physically harmful to drinkers, and in any case not much of the beer would be kept at temperatures at which the haze would form. However, drinkers did complain, sales began to drop and Schlitz had to make a secret recall of 10 million bottles of beer, costing it $1.4 million.

Around the same time Robert Uihlein was diagnosed with leukaemia, dying just a few weeks later. An accountant, Eugene Peters, became the company's CEO, and a geologist, Daniel McKeithan, who was the divorced husband of a big Schlitz shareholder, was appointed chairman.

All Schlitz's problems with its image, caused by Robert Uihlein's tampering with the quality of the beer, were causing the company to start losing its second place in the American beer market to its Milwaukee rival, Miller. Even though Schlitz had increased its share of the U.S. beer market from 7 percent in 1950 to 14 percent in 1977, Budweiser and Miller had grown faster. Peters and McKeithan pushed Schlitz's marketing department to go for a new "high impact" advertising campaign featuring an aggressive-looking boxer who demanded, when asked to swap his Schlitz for another brand: "You want to take away my gusto?" Instead of amusing viewers, the ad put them off: Consumers found it "menacing," and it became known as the "drink Schlitz or I'll kill you" campaign.

By the end of 1977 Schlitz was on the slide, with profits, market share and capacity utilization dropping. Peters resigned after only 11 months and was replaced by Frank Sellinger, the former brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch. Sellinger returned to traditional brewing methods and improved the product. But Schlitz was now operating in the red, and by 1980 its sales had been passed by another Milwaukee rival, Pabst, with a third Wisconsin brewer, Heileman, not far behind.

The end came quickly. In June 1981 Schlitz closed its Milwaukee plant to try to solve what was now an overcapacity problem. In October of that year Heileman made a takeover offer for the still-struggling Schlitz, only for Pabst to put in a rival bid. Both bids were vetoed by the Justice Department on competition grounds, but in June 1982 the Justice Department allowed a $500 million bid by the Detroit brewer Stroh to go through. One analysis has estimated that the Schlitz brand lost more than 90 percent of its value between 1974 and that final year of independence.

However, the debt Stroh took on to pay for acquiring Schlitz was ultimately too much for the Detroit company to carry, and it collapsed in 1999. Ironically, in the fire sale that followed the Schlitz brand was acquired after all by Pabst.

The disastrous effect of deciding to reduce product quality salami slice by salami slice is now known in business circles as "the Schlitz mistake." It has been argued that Robert Uihlein's response to the increased competition from Anheuser-Busch and Miller – cutting costs to increase short-term profits – was a rational decision, and if there had been anything of a strategy of "management of decline" about it, then the complete collapse in shareholder value of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s might have been avoided.

It would have been realistic for Uihlein to conclude in 1970 that the medium to long-term future of the American brewing industry would be one where only two or three big brands would command the vast majority of sales. This is, after all, exactly what did happen, with Anheuser-Busch InBev, SAB Miller and MolsonCoors dominating the picture today. It would also have been realistic for Uihlein to conclude that, whatever Schlitz's position was in 1970, there was no guarantee it would end up as one of those surviving two or three beer giants, and it was better to go for maximum profits while allowing the company to run down gently.

However, what Uihlein tried to do was have his brewery cake and eat it too: cut costs, boost short-term profits and still maintain a long-term future for the company. The result was what the airline business calls a "controlled flight into terrain." Cost-cutting cost the company its reputation, something almost impossible to repair for a consumer goods maker, and it destroyed a concern that had once been the biggest in its field.

Why is bread so fattening? + Delicious Cornbread Recipe

HEALTH - Did you know bread is one of the most fattening things you can eat? Its high in carbohydrates, it has sugar in it and corn syrup...

Corn syrup is not part of traditional bread recipes, but you will find it in many brand name bread makers like Wonder Bread. Below is the list of main ingredients found in Wonder Bread:

Whole Wheat Flour
Water
Wheat Gluten
High Fructose Corn Syrup (basically high concentrated sugar)
Honey
Molasses
Yeast

There is also a list of minor additives that make up less than 2% of Wonder Bread.

Now with corn syrup, honey and molasses in it is it any wonder that Wonder Bread is so fattening? Its basically just flour, water and sugar.

Now for those of you who want to lose weight and still want to eat bread regularly here is a recipe for you below. The benefit of cornbread is it tastes great and the recipe provided here is significantly more healthy than store bought bread.

Low Sugar Cornbread

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 cup sugar (or omit sugar entirely)
1 tsp salt
1 egg (omit egg if you're vegan)
1 cup milk or soy
3 tablespoons melted vegetable shortening
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt until well mixed.

Beat egg well, add milk. Pour milk and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring until mixed. Add melted shortening.

Bake in a well-greased shallow pan in oven or in heated muffin tins. Well seasoned cast iron muffin tins or frying pans work well.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Expect roughly 20-25 minutes for muffins, depending upon size, and about 45 minutes for a frying pan. Baking time varies so use your own good judgment.

The Facts about Budget Travel

By Ai Lung Nguyen - May 2011.

ENTERTAINMENT - Planning on going somewhere this Summer but don't want to spend a lot? Think BUDGET. And you will be surprised at how fun, easy and cheap it is.

As a "professional traveler" myself I have been to so many countries now I've lost track, and likewise I've lost track of how much money I've managed to save and stretch farther by staying with friends, "thinking cheap", and learning to find transportation on the fly.

Fact! Hostels are not "dirty or sketchy"

For $5 to $12 / night you get a clean / safe hostel room (some of them are shared dorms), clean sheets, crisp white blankets. You have to wait your turn to share the bathroom but otherwise they're pretty good. They even have lockers to store valuables. Check hostelworld.com to search for where to stay and compare user feedback. You probably won't even see a bed bug.

Fact! Street Food = Reasonably Healthy

If it was making the locals sick, the locals wouldn't be eating it. True, it will often be deep fried or greasy, but its super cheap and good for when you want to get food in a hurry and don't want to break your budget. The added benefit is you don't need to worry about tipping, and the added grease will give you extra energy for walking so you won't feel as tired. (Remember to bring a toothbrush however.)

Some of the foods may be oddities you've never seen before, ie. deep fried squid on a stick, but they're well worth the try if you like seafood.

If you have any food allergies and are travelling in a non-English country it might be best to learn phrases like "I am allergic to peanuts." and "Is there any peanut oil in it?" You get the idea.

Fact! Learn to think Poor and you will save oodles!

Its not just students or unemployed people who travel on a budget. You will meet lawyers, doctors, businessmen, computer programmers, whatever... I myself am a dental hygienist. Often these people have been traveling for awhile so you can get lots of useful tips on how to save money and "think poor".

Fact! You can barter your services to save money!

If you have an useful skill or trade you can barter them to save money. ie. If you were a plumber that would be very useful. As a dental hygienist I sometimes give people cleanings and carry the necessary tools and cleaning alcohol in a small kit. It weighs very little, but I've discovered its very useful, especially in 3rd world countries where dentists are rare.

Fact! You can still do everything you want to

Some attractions in North America are expensive to get into (ie. DisneyLand). but globally they are pretty inexpensive.

Taj Mahal, India - $18 or 750 rupees
Angkor Wat, Cambodia - $20 USD for a one day pass
Halong Bay, Vietnam - $43 USD for a 3-day trip

And the kewlest places to visit are often free, like Buddhist temples, night markets, waterfront concerts, meditation courses, mountain hiking, hot springs, etc.

If you get a Lonely Planet guidebook to the region you are exploring you will find lots of cheap/free venues to explore.

Fact! Making friends saves money

Sharing taxis, getting a free place to spend the night, some hot food for free, a hot shower or a soak in the tub... these don't just save you money but keep you sane when your travel schedule becomes too hectic. Sometimes its nice to just relax at a friend's place and kick off your shoes.

Fact! You don't have to plan much!

Sometimes when I plan trips I start weeks (or even months) in advance and start checking how much it will cost to get there, where to stay, etc.

However if you don't plan every little detail it doesn't seem to make much difference. You still end up finding nice places to stay and sometimes you find unexpected deals not advertised in any guidebook.

For example it’s cheaper in Asia to book tours and accommodations locally. Many low-cost guesthouses and tour companies aren’t listed online or in any travel book, despite super low rates of $5 / night.

Conclusions

What you quickly discover is that budget travel is both cheap and easy. You might even decide to bring camping gear, another excellent option. But my recommendation is that you travel as LIGHT as possible, so any sleeping bags or tents you carry should be as small as you can get.

Electricity rates in Ontario slashed 10%

CANADA - Ontario's Liberal government has decided Ontarians are paying too much for electricity (or as we call it locally "hydro"). Thus they've decided to slash hydro bills by a whopping 10% starting January 1st 2011.

It will cost the province $1 billion per year and it will only effect homes and small businesses (corporations, factories, etc. will still pay the full rate).

The problem you see is that electricity in Ontario costs about 13.5 cents per kWH to produce, but its sold for approx. 6.5 cents each. The province ends up paying almost 50% of the cost.

So in reality this reduction is nothing new. Ontario has been subsidizing electricity rates since the beginning.

The average hydro bill in Ontario about $125 a month, so this $12.50 / month reduction will save ratepayers about $150 each / year... you will know this because the price discount will be mentioned on your bill as the new “Ontario Clean Energy Benefit” reduction, just above taxes.

This in essence decreases the amount people in Ontario pay, despite the 8% increase due to HST's introduction back in Summer 2010. By roughly 2% overall.

Expect more tax breaks and other things coming in the near future too. Its an election year and the next provincial election is set for October 6th 2011.

The Liberals have also trimmed Ontario's budget.

And there is also plans to scrap the “debt-retirement fees” of around $10 a month from the old Ontario Hydro corp. It is due to come off bills in 2016 anyway, but they might scrap it early to make voters happy if they can cobble together $5 billion towards the project.

In September, an Angus Reid poll found 86% of Ontarians feel “it is harder now than it was two years ago to make ends meet.” Thus helping voters pay for their bills (of which electricity is a chief complaint) is the right direction if they want to get more votes.

While they are a it they need to start pressuring Ottawa on a list of things that should be exempt from HST:

#1. Healthy Food. (This might require grocery stores to include the tax with the price of unhealthy "junk food", but would result in most vegetables, meats, milk, cheese, etc. coming in at a lower price. Ontario has been debating for years of putting a tax on junk food. This would be the opposite, a tax exemption on healthy food.

#2. Children's Educational Materials.

#3. Fitness Equipment, Gym Memberships and Bicycle Equipment.

#4. Green Cars: Hybrids, Electrics, Hydrogen-powered.

#5. University Books.

Some of these used to be exempt from PST or GST, but when the HST came into effect they lost all the exemptions. You can probably come up with a list of things you'd like to see exempt from HST.

The only snag is that Ontario needs Ottawa's permission to get exemptions in...

So what if Ontario created something which is the OPPOSITE of a tax? For example an "Healthy Food Reduction" which appears on bills right before the taxes are applied. Say 10%.

In one pocket and out the other.

Stem Rust threatens Global Wheat Production

HEALTH/TECHNOLOGY - A virulent form of fungus / stem rust known as Ug99 (it was first discovered in Uganda) is now threatening the world's wheat production. Wheat in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Iran and South Africa are already infected.

Scientists fear the fungus will show up in India and Pakistan soon and eventually travel to North America, effecting wheat production in Canada and the United States.

The good news is that wheat farmers in North America at least have the option of buying stem rust resistant breeds of wheat, and scientists are working to genetically create new breeds of wheat which are even more resistant to stem rust. We also have access to fungicides to combat the stem rust.

But overseas such stem rust resistant wheat doesn't exist yet and the seeds are expensive, and the fungicide and the machinery needed to spray fungicide isn't really available. As it currently stands 80% of the world's wheat production is vulnerable to Ug99.

Ug99 is a strain of stem rust fungi that eats its way into the tissues of wheat and barley, eventually killing the plant by sucking nutrients and water from the plant. The plant shrivels, shrinks and then dies. The fungus spores germinate quickly and it only takes 10 to 14 days for a single spore to reproduce and make thousands of more spores.

Since its discovery and spreading chaos scientists are in “a race against time” to develop new strains that are resistant to the fungus because the spores easily spread due to wind patterns.

Scientists working at the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project at Cornell University say it will likely take between 8 to 10 years to create a new line of genetically modified wheat and have it ready for farmers.

The real worry say scientists is the possibility of a wheat shortage, skyrocketing wheat prices and “geopolitical repercussions”.

The last time there was a stem rust outbreak it was 1916, during which wheat prices skyrocketed to $3 USD / bushel (approx. $60 USD today).

Grain prices are already pretty high due to the biodiesel industry, which has sparked food riots in North Africa and the Middle East.

Canadians becoming Fatter

CANADA/HEALTH - The obesity rate in Canada is expected to rise 5% by 2020 according a report released today which shows Canadians are becoming fatter and fatter.

The report by OECD shows Canadians are fatter than most of the other 32 industrialized countries which track the global rise in obesity in rich nations. The report points out that comprehensive obesity prevention programs could save 40,000 Canadians from obesity-related deaths per year. The report blames lack of health education, government subsidies for cheap food, transportation policies, and taxation.

The statistics speak for themselves:

Obese people die 8 to 10 years sooner than non-obese people.

Obese people earn less money, take more days off work, have lower productivity and a greater need for disability benefits.

The health costs of obese people is 25% more than normal people due to increased rates of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

In 1979 the adult obesity rate in Canada was 9%. By 2009 the adult obesity rate has reached 28%. 62% of Canadians are overweight.

Canada's obesity rate is the 6th worst in the world. Iceland and Chile are close behind us. See Obesity in Canada.

The only countries with a greater percentage of obese people are the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, England and Australia. See American Obesity Rates.

Two out of three Canadian men are overweight and over one in four are obese.

Canadian women with poor education are 2 times more likely to be overweight. (For men education isn’t a factor.)

Canada's obesity rate is highest in poor regions.

The OECD report suggests that obesity prevention and education programs could save 40,000 Canadian lives per year and would save Canada billions of dollars in health costs. The programs suggested include food labelling, counseling for eating addictions, food advertising regulations. The OECD notes that the cost of prevention programs would be "a tiny fraction" of the cost of taking care of obese patients.

In related news...

KFC is offering young college women on Facebook $500 to wear pants which say “Double Down” scrawled on the butt.

Fatty Foods Vs Tracking Calories

HEALTH - According to recent studies conducted in the USA and Australia men and wmen who keep track of how much they eat are twice as likely to double their weight loss during their diet routine.

The statistics speak for themselves. Its well worth it to buy a notebook and a pen and record every calorie you consume. Tape measure? Pfff! Bathroom scales? Don't make me laugh.

Australian women and men who had started a new exercise program were 3 times more likely to work out 5 days a week if they logged each session.

Out of nearly 1,700 overweight people on a six-month weight-loss program, the ones who kept a daily notebook of what they ate lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t.

Already companies have jumped on this trend and have been selling electronic food journals, apps for SmartPhones, high-tech armbands and wrist watches... one company even has a "smart shirt" which automatically measures and records your heart rate... its a tad ridiculous, but the concept is simple. If you watch and track what you eat you will realize quickly why your calorie intake is a lot more than you're burning.

It doesn't have to be super detailed or fancy either. You could track it on twitter page, sticky notes, text messages, emails to yourself, whatever you want to do.

Do's and Don'ts of Tracking your Calories!

#1. Be honest. Record every cookie you binged on.

#2. Keep it simple stupid: You don't need a huge Excel document and super detailed flow charts showing the ups and downs of what you eat every day. Just record the caloric amount (and maybe the fats and trans fats).

#3. Paper? Computer? iPad? Choose your fave format and stick with it. According to researchers those who pick their own system were 50% more likely to record their food intake and twice as likely to record their exercise routine too.

#4. Snap a picture: Using your cellphone to photograph a meal before you dig in may work even better than writing down what you ate, a Wisconsin study suggests.

#5. Track your Blood Sugar and Asthma too if that is a concern: If you're suffering from asthma and diabetes journals are also extremely beneficial.

You should only be eating approx.

1,800 to 2,200 calories per day.
A MAXIMUM of 2,400 mg of sodium (salt)
A MAXIMUM of 65 grams of fat
A MAXIMUM of 20 grams of saturated fat

Next... lets list some foods you should avoid.

#1. KFC's "Double Down" sandwich: Two pieces of bacon, two slices of cheese and “Colonel’s Sauce,” with two thick filets of fried chicken functioning as the bun. At 540 calories its not recommended you eat this regularly.

#2. Quiznos large tuna melt sub sandwich: 1,520 calories, 101 grams of fat, 21 grams of saturated fat, 2,020 milligrams sodium. Most of the calories and fat comes from the mayonnaise and cheese.

#3. Chipotle’s chicken burrito, filled with toppings, accompanied by a side of chips. 1,750 calories, 79.5 grams of fat, 23 grams of saturated fat, 2,750 milligrams of sodium.

#4. Applebee’s New England fish and chips: 1,910 calories, 137 grams fat, 24 grams saturated fat, 3,150 milligrams of sodium.

#5. Chili’s Big Mouth Bites, four mini burgers topped with jalapeño ranch dressing: 1,930 calories, 31 grams of saturated fat, 4,400 milligrams sodium.

#6. Outback Steakhouse’s full rack of baby back ribs served with Aussie fries: 1,936 calories, 133 grams of fat, 56 grams of saturated fat, 2,741 milligrams of sodium.

#7. Domino’s bread bowl pasta: Contains 1,340 to 1,470 calories, 48 to 56 grams of fat, 21 to 27 grams of saturated fat, 65 to 115 grams of fiber, 1,830 to 2,860 milligrams of sodium.

#8. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro’s double pan-fried noodles with a combination of meats: 1,820 calories, 84 grams of fat, 8 grams saturated fat, 7,692 milligrams of sodium.

#9. The Greene Turtle’s boneless wings, which includes 16 wings in “We Mean Hot” sauce, served with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks: 1,963 calories, 153 grams of fat, 30 grams of saturated fat, 10,877 milligrams of sodium.

#10. Uno Chicago Grill’s Chicago Classic deep-dish individual pizza, which is topped with sausage, tomato sauce and cheese: 2,310 calories, 165 grams of fat, 54 grams saturated fat, 4,920 milligrams of sodium.

#11. The Cheesecake Factory’s pasta carbonara: 2,500 calories, 85 grams of saturated fat.

What this makes you realize is that if you're eating out, you're probably eating a lot more fat, sugar and sodium than you realize. That makes it super important to actually track what you eat because people tend to forget.

For some reason I am suddenly hungry...

Harvesting Chicken Carcasses in China

HEALTH - The following series of 10 photographs may make you think twice about buying chicken at a restaurant when visiting China.

You see full grown chickens are actually pretty violent creatures. They will routinely attack and kill each other if they feel crowded, threatened or intimidated. (If you thought chickens were peaceful creatures you are dead wrong.) In a stuffy, crowded chicken pen this chicken-vs-chicken violence happens nightly and by morning there's often several dead chicken carcasses which need to be removed.

In North America chicken farmers usually throw out the carcasses because keeping them to be used for food would violate the health code (because the chicken could have been diseased or have something else wrong with it). But in China this throwing out of chicken carcasses isn't done... instead the chickens (regardless of how or why they died) are sold to men who collect the chickens, pluck them, soak them in a red dye and then sell them to restaurants or grocery stores.



















That red dye really makes the chickens look tasty, doesn't it? Its all very deceptive.



In November 2009 two Chinese men were sentenced to death for selling tainted milk. The milk was contaminated with melamine, which causes kidney failure and kidney stones. When added to watered-down milk it gives a false protein level which fools safety inspectors testing for protein levels.

China has a long history of food poisoning scandals and has been trying unsuccessfully to crack down on tainted food. The death penalty doesn't seem to be much of a discouragement and the Chinese government's corruption levels is such that local safety officials often turn a blind eye to unsafe food production.

Vanilla Coke is back! But only in the USA...

By Charles Moffat - September 2010.

ENTERTAINMENT - Vanilla Coke was first introduced in 2002 and despite widespread popularity and being hailed as "the greatest innovation since Diet Coke in 1983" it was pulled off the market in 2005.

At the time Coca-Cola claimed they pulled the product due to slumping sales. Bullsh*t. It was selling out constantly. You'd go to the grocery and to the soft drink / pop aisle and Vanilla Coke would be SOLD OUT!

And it was so frequently sold out that the regular Coca-Cola Classic was just sitting there like someone's ex-boyfriend who can't get over the rejection.

Truth be told I can't even drink the old Coca-Cola Classic any more. Boycotting the damn stuff and will only drink it on rare cases (ie. I am dying of thirst). Once I had Vanilla Coke I couldn't go back to the ol' crappy coke.

My theory is as follows... Vanilla Coke was so wildly popular that the company worried about slumping sales of Coca-Cola Classic. That is the real reason the product was pulled. And its a pretty stupid reason to pull a product off the shelves.

But here is the good news, Vanilla Coke is back under a new name: Coca-Cola Vanilla. It was reintroduced to the USA market in 2007 but they've been keeping it pretty quiet, possibly because they don't want it to diminish their sales of Coca-Cola Classic.

As far as Canada goes however only a few stores are carrying it. You have to go to a convenience store in Ontario and pay a premium ($2.25 for a 591 mL Vanilla Coke, tax included) because they're being bought in grocery stores in the USA and shipped north to Canada for the die-hard fans to enjoy.

I bought two bottles yesterday. I am saving them for a special occasion.

In the meantime I have a message for Coca-Cola executives: Stop being a bunch of morons! Bring Vanilla Coke back to Canada!

Seriously, it should be called Vanilla Crack. Its that addictive.

beautiful vegan

HEALTH - Even if you're not into vegan or vegetarian food, you might enjoy a look at the website "beautiful vegan".

The site has 139 posts (and growing) concerning vegan cooking, recipes, documentaries about animal slaughter, fast food, vegan myths, vegan lifestyle and even commentary on other topics. ie. Vegan Chocolate Pudding.

Even non-vegans like ourselves can enjoy the foods and recipes offered there.

And they're not even getting sued by the meat industry for dissing it. :)

Blood Potion & Zombie drinks banned

ENTERTAINMENT/GOTHIC - The After Dark Film Festival is on right now in Toronto, plus organizers are planning Toronto's 8th Zombie Walk... but Canadian Customs has decided to ban the Blood Potion and Zombie energy shots.

The two energy drinks come in resealable transfusion bags and come from from a geeky "Twilight obsessed" culture of vampire, zombie and werewolf fanatics who devour everything they can find that is remotely horror or gothic. The Zombie drink is a vile green colour and tastes like Lime Crush whereas Blood Potion is a dark red, thick like blood and tastes like fruit punch.

But Canadian Customs is quite strict when it comes to caffeine products. They've rejected the Harcos 100 ml bags of Blood Potion and Zombie energy drinks several times now because they pack 80 milligrams of caffeine each, twice the amount found in a Red Bull energy drink.

Ignatieff supports Farmers

CANADA - Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff is promoting a plan which would help farmers and help Canadians eat healthier, home-grown food. The program includes:

$80 million for a “buy-local” fund to promote farmers’ markets and home-grown foods.

$40 million to help 250,000 low-income children get better access to healthy food.

New health-labelling criteria for food and tougher standards on trans-fats.

$50 million to ensure foreign imports meet local standards and to improve food inspections.

Canadian farms generate $42 billion annually and provide one out of every eight jobs. Helping farmers therefore helps everyone who works in the food industry, which in turns helps Canadians since everyone needs to eat.

"We need more home-grown food on Canadian tables because our health and our economy depend on it," says Ignatieff. "Our farmers produce the healthiest, safest, highest-quality foods in the world and we’ll help them get more of their products on our tables with Canada’s first comprehensive National Food Policy."

This National Food Policy is the second part of the Liberal’s Rural Canada Matters plan, which also aims to attract doctors and nurses to rural communities.

Do you have enough Ice Water in your diet?

HEALTH - Sounds funny right? What would be the point of drinking ice water in a diet?

Let me explain and try to keep up.

A Calorie (large C) is a measurement of the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a litre of water (1 kg's worth) by 1 degree Celsius.

The normal human body has a core temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. This temperature is clocked by heart pressure and blood circulation, giving off excess heat through the skin. 37 degrees sounds hot doesn't it? Our skin has a much lower temperature in comparison.

So what happens when you drink 1 litre of ice water which has a temperature of approx. 1 degree Celsius? The answer is the human body compensates its core temperature by expending energy to warm up the water in your belly (and you later urinate and get rid of it). The amount of energy used is approx. 36 Calories.

Now lets contrast... a pop can of Pepsi has 150 Calories in it and takes up 355 mL. That is approx. 422.5 Calories per litre of Pepsi. By drinking a litre of ice water instead of Pepsi you've just rid yourself of 458.5 Calories you didn't need.

Keeping in mind a lb of fat contains 3,500 Calories. You've just saved yourself 1/8th of a lb. You would have to jog for approx. 50 minutes to lose that many Calories.

Thus instead of whatever you're normally drinking (soda pop, coffee, energy drinks, beer, anything containing sugar) you could substitute an ice cold glass of water... and since people are recommended they drink at least 2 litres of water per day the Calorie savings really add up over the period of a month if you normally are addicted to a sugar heavy drink.

The average human is only supposed to consume approx. 2,000 Calories per day so cutting out anywhere between 72 to 900 Calories per day is a big deal over the long term.

Some people will point to the health benefits of drinking tea (and there are benefits), but that tea is best served ice cold. Mmm... calorie-free ice tea.

You can apply this principle for burning Calories to other things. Shed layers, freeze your butt off a bit and your body burns extra Calories. I'm not saying you should turn on the AC and walk around naked... but you get the idea.

Seal Hunt pie in your Face

CANADA - Today in Brampton a female protester opposed to Canada's annual seal hunt shoved a pie in the face of the federal Minister (Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea, grandmother of 8, a Conservative MP from Prince Edward Island) responsible for the seal hunt.

The woman was taken in to custody and Shea finished her speech after wiping the pie from her face.

The Canadian Seal Hunt is an annual event in which approx. 300,000 seals off Atlantic Canada are killed in an effort to save the cod fishing (because seals eat cod and are basically the wolves of the sea). The hunt takes place around Prince Edward Island, the gulf between the Gaspe Peninsula and Newfoundland, and the waters north of Newfoundland.

The government sets quotas for how many of each kind of seal (including babies) are allowed to be killed each year.

Baby whitecoat and blueback (aka hooded) seals are illegal to hunt other times of the year. Once they reach the age of 14 days however they become fair game for hunters. The reason its illegal to hunt babies is because of photos from 1987 showing baby seals being clubbed to death, which was bad press for then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare seals are routinely (about 45% of the time) skinned alive because sealers don't check for a blinking reflex to confirm death.

The Canadian government makes approx. $16 million / year off the sale of seal meat and fur, and also use the seal oil for various food products because its rich in Omega-3. The seal hunt is a substantial boost to the economies of Newfoundland and Labrador where unemployment is a shocking 15%.

The price of quality seal pelts has dropped in the last 4 years from $105 to $15 CDN, suggesting the public no longer wants to wear products made from seal. To compensate this Stephen Harper's government is trying to promote seal meat and is now serving seal in the Canadian Parliament Hill restaurant.

Native Canadians maintain the right to hunt seals for food and for traditional ceremonies.

Clean Water is Haiti's new currency

ENVIRONMENT/HEALTH - The gourde is the currency of Haiti, but the paper notes are basically worth nothing in the aftermath of last Tuesday's earthquake. Water is the new currency in Haiti, specifically clean water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

Its now estimated that over a quarter of a million people died in the earthquake and more bodies keep piling up. Initial estimates are now considered wildly premature as its evident this has been a catastrophe on the scale of the 2004 Tsunami and one of the largest natural disasters in human history. Already 70,000 people have been buried, but vast numbers of bodies remain to be found and buried. The scale of the disaster is such that all the bodies will never be found.

For the survivors now the real challenge is finding food and water. The water pipes all across the city have been ruptured, the buildings that distributed the water destroyed. Finding clean water is thus a real challenge for the approx. 750,000 people still living in Port-au-Prince.

“Money is worth nothing right now, water is the currency,” one foreign aid worker said.

The irony that the gourde is named after a plant typically used for carrying water is not lost on Haitians, but its a very sad and bitter irony.

Turkeys infected with H1N1

CANADA/HEALTH - A Turkey farm in Kitchener Ontario has been infected with the H1N1 virus (formerly known as swine flu). Its unknown how they got exposed to H1N1 but it believes an infected worker must have unknowingly coughed whilst amongst them or touched some with his hands.

The turkeys are still safe to eat if its been cooked so there will be no cull and the turkeys will still be used for food, but they have been quarantined to prevent the virus from spreading to other animals or humans. These particular turkeys are actually bred for their eggs, not their meat.

Canada is only the 2nd country to have such an outbreak. Chile had a turkey outbreak in August.

The real concern is what if the virus combines with a deadlier flu strain and creates an even deadlier / more uncontrollable virus, warns the World Health Organization.

The Fat Tax is Coming

HEALTH/POLITICS - What was once a joke in political circles is now becoming a reality: The Fat Tax.

First, lets look at one example of a Fat Tax already on the books.

West Virginia and Arkansas already have a tax on soft drinks. New York City is about to do the same thing, which may indeed spread to the rest of the United States and Canada.

FACT: Coke and other soft drinks account for a staggering 15% of the average American adolescent's daily caloric intake.

But other taxes are being proposed, such as taxes on 'unnatural' processed foods, fast food or anything containing an unhealthy ratio of fat/sugar/calories.

Its all part of America's ever widening battle with obesity. The idea is simple... tax unhealthy fattening foods and promote healthy alternatives / exercise.

For example last month Barack Obama openly mused about having a farmers' market across the street from the White House. It didn't happen, but this week Michelle Obama was cutting the ribbons to open a new farmers' market down the street a block away.

Michelle Obama also started her own vegetable garden on the White House lawn, again promoting the idea that Americans can save money and eat healthier (and get exercise) by growing their own vegetables.

Since 1999 the health costs of obesity in America have doubled. Its now over $147 billion per year.

Another closely related price is the $116 billion spent on type 2 diabetes, which is caused by overeating/lack of exercise.

Hundreds of billions more is spent on cardiovascular diseases and obesity-related cancers. The more we consume, the more toxic materials enter our bodies and cause serious health problems.

According to the current rates in the rise of obesity 75% of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2015.

Creating a Fat Tax is only one part of the solution. The money raised from that tax needs to be used to help make more Farmers' Markets, promote healthy eating, boost support for children's sports and recreational activities, and boost public exercise programs / public gyms.

Between TV and the internet obesity is a growing problem that will eventually endanger America's ability to be competitive in the global marketplace. To say nothing of America's dropping birth rate, skyrocketing national debt, dependency on oil and all the other problems the United States is facing.

See Also
Anorexia Vs Obesity in North America
Obesity in Canada
American Obesity Rates
Obesity in China Skyrocketing
i'm fat and lovin' it - McDonalds and Obesity
Obese Shoppers are Discriminated in Stores
Lose Weight Canada, Get Lower Taxes
Healthy Eating Out

McDonalds opens inside the Louvre

ART HISTORY - Shocked art lovers are going to be munching on more junk food in future trips to the Louvre in Paris.

Why?

Because McDonald's is opening a franchise right in the middle of the place. Visitors will now be able to much on double cheeseburgers while staring slack-jawed at old masters.

Actually that is not completely true.

The Louvre has been a tourist trap for generations and has an underground mall beneath the museum itself, so it technically won't be IN the museum. The mall connects to Rue de Rivoli, the busiest street in all of France.

8.5 million paying visitors come to the Louvre every year, and presumably quite a few of them will leave the Louvre's underground mall / tourist area a bit fatter.

This is nothing new to France, home to 1,100 McDonalds franchises, the 2nd largest market outside of the United States.