February 2006—Issue #28
Vegetarian News, Food & More!
Brought to you by VegNews Magazine
In this issue
**Inside the March/April Sex & Romance Issue
**V in the News
**Recipe: Flaky Potato and Peanut Soup
**More Veg Tidbits
**Spring Style Watch: The Peep Toe
**The Vegan Passport
**Peter Singer Interview
**DVD Review + Giveaway
**Calling all Singles: Bachelor(ette) of the Month
We thank you for your interest in VegNews, America's premier vegetarian lifestyle magazine. The popular VegNewsletter arrives in your e-mailbox just once a month and is filled with vegetarian news, tidbits, recipes, products, activist alerts, reviews, and more. It's the perfect accompaniment to a VegNews subscription.
Inside the March/April Issue
Spring Fever is upon us, and we're about to release the spiciest issue of VegNews yet. It's packed with stories like the challenges of veg dating and romance, nine gorgeous vegan weddings, the truth about diamonds, cruelty-free goodies for the bedroom, plus all the articles you can't live without, including:
**Dennis Kucinich Wedding Exclusive
**Japanese Temple Cuisine
**VegReport: The Battle for Cage-free Eggs
**VegLit: New Reads by Jane Goodall and Will Tuttle
**VegChic: Metrosexualize Your Man
**Our First Ever Reader Spotlight
**Your Say: Sex to Sell a Movement
**Plus... All the usual goods—the latest vegetarian news, reviews, the hottest new products, celebrity buzz... because you know what they say: you are what you read.
The magazine has been shipped to subscribers and will be on newsstands everywhere in early March.
Pick up a copy of this scintillating issue from our website on March 1!
V in the News
McDonald's Corporation admitted on Monday, February 13 that its fries contain flavoring from wheat and dairy ingredients. Strike that one from the roster of guilty pleasures if you don't partake in animal foods.
In other news, NewScientist.com reported earlier this month that three new studies indicate women consuming a low-fat, high-fiber diet will not necessarily lessen their risk of heart disease and cancer. In response, health expert Joel Fuhrman, MD responded, “Did anybody else notice that 85% of the calories consumed in the study were from processed foods and animal products?" As Fuhrman and his team report, "there are no cancer-fighting phytochemicals and antioxidants in egg whites, chicken, and pasta—as 'low-fat' as they may be."
Recipe: Flaky Potato and Peanut Soup
VegNews' columnist Robin Robertson just released her new book (co-authored with husband Jon), Apocalypse Chow!, which delivers practical advice for eating off the cuff when a natural disaster knocks your power out. To our delight, all recipes in this charming and informative book are vegan. We loved this delicious soup recipe, which Robin recommends altering to fit your taste and mood. For a Thai flair, add lime juice, soy sauce, and chili paste. If you're in the mood for Indian, add curry powder and ginger. Catch a full review of Apocalypse Chow! in our May/June issue.
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup instant potato flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts
1. Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in the potato flakes until well blended. Reduce heat to low.
2. Place the peanut butter in a bowl and whisk in 1 cup of the hot broth mixture, blending until smooth. Stir the peanut butter mixture into the saucepan and add the celery salt, onion powder, and pepper to taste. Simmer 5 minutes to heat through and blend flavors.
3. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and serve.
With all the guides and online stores out there, it's easier than ever to live a conscious lifestyle.
Amazon.com has expanded its Gourmet section to include a Vegan & Vegetarian Cuisines category. It still needs a lot of work—Alaskan Salmon from Harry and David isn't veg by a wild stretch—but we still think it's cool that the diet has so pervasively penetrated the mainstream.
Did you know that crayons and gum usually contain animal products, or that baths aid circulation and walks decrease pressure on the eyes? Living Earth Friendly by Earth Friendly Guides answers 1001 questions about holistic lifestyle choices that most benefit ourselves and the planet. Quotations add philosophical substance, such as the famous D.H. Lawrence saying: “Beauty is an experience, nothing else. It is not a fixed pattern or an arrangement of features. It is something felt, a glow or a communicated sense of fineness. What ails us is that our sense of beauty is so bruised and blunted, we miss all the rest.”
Frustratingly enough, most wines use animal products in one way or another, usually during the refining process. Check out this wine guide courtesy of vegans.frommars.org, which lists no less than 435 different wines and even advice about buying from supermarkets and making your own. Cheers to that. Spring Style Watch: The Peep Toe
It's almost March, and you are officially allowed to begin fantasizing about open-toed shoes. One such shoe, the peep toe, is making the fashion magazine rounds right now. These shoes show off just enough to let your pedicure show through—or to hide the fact that you haven't gotten one.
If you're vegan or just don't like the idea of wearing cow skin, shoe shopping can be frustrating. That's why we've scouted some really cute, compassionate takes on this trend.
The Alicia Black Espadrilles from MooShoes cash in on this Spanish craze that's still rocking the shoe world. We love how the laces twist seductively up your calf.
British online boutique Bourgeois Boheme peddles fashion-forward kicks, purses, wallets, belts and even Ipod "muffs." We're digging their Strappy Stud Wedge, which channels 80's New Wave style with aqua pleather and gold studs. So rock star.
Most of us can't fathom the idea of dropping $500 on a pair of shoes, but it you're going to do it, you might as well go with this Stella McCartney Peep Toe Pump. These are classic, versatile, and could easily last a decade if you treat them right. Kudos to Stella, who has said, "The really great thing about my shop is that there's not one dead animal in it. We use plastic, fabric, rubber—anything but leather. I almost feel like I've been put here to show everyone that it's unnecessary."
The Vegan Passport
Planning your next cross-cultural vacation? Check out this list of different ways to utter those three magic words, “I am vegan,” courtesy of the Vegan Passport published by the UK Vegan Society. This guidebook conveys in 38 languages the special circumstances of our global but often misunderstood diet.
Ja sam vegan (Croatian)
Jeg er veganer (Danish)
Ik ben veganist (Dutch)
Olen vegaani (Finnish)
Io sono vegano (Italian)
Jeg er veganer (Norwegian)
Soy vegano (Spanish)
Mimi ni mvegana (Swahili)
Ako ay vegan (Tagalog)
Ben bir veganim (Turkish)
The current issue of The Believer, a magazine of essays published by McSweeney's, features an interview with Peter Singer by Sahar Akhtar. It whimsically offers the following as an abstract to the article.
BAD PRIORITIES:
1. Supporting the theater while people don’t have drinking water
2. Eating meat when we can nourish ourselves without it
3. Driving large cars when they may prevent foreigners from growing food in a stable climate
4. Protecting embryos but starting wars
While Singer's ethical concerns encapsulate far more than diet alone, his academic eminence has widely ushered the question of eating meat into classrooms and other forums for discussion and debate.
Rarely does someone seem so comfortable onscreen as Vegangal.com maven Jill Ovnik in her DVD, Change Your Food, Change Your Life. Ovnik argues that a plant-based diet will help you shed pounds and feel healthier, and claims that if an on-the-go mom like herself can do it, anyone can. She starts out in a presentation room, where she educates the audience on the health and weight benefits of a plant-based regime. She then moves to restaurants and food markets, where she demonstrates how easy it is to shop and eat well.
VEGNEWS SPECIAL GIVEAWAY!
The first fifty people to email Jill will win a free copy of this fabulous DVD, valued at $22.95. Remember to include your mailing address and that you heard about it in the VegNewsletter.
We know how hard it can be to land a vegetarian mate, and we want to help. That's why we'll be featuring a hot single in each issue of VegNews Magazine. To nominate yourself or someone you know, email romance@vegnews.com. Who knows... you may end up in our annual wedding pages!
Preview of the March VegNewsletter
Don't miss the March edition of the VegNewsletter. News bits, product reviews, giveaways, recipes and more make this newsletter the most comprehensive of its kind, and we're offering it free every month.
Please help us get the word out. Why not share this edition of the VegNewsletter with your friends, family, colleagues and any related lists you're on? If this issue was forwarded to you, please visit our home page at vegnews.com to begin receiving your own copy each month. Past editions are available for your enjoyment by clicking on "See our past VegNewsletters" on the home page.
**Japanese Temple Cuisine 
McDonald's Corporation admitted on Monday, February 13 that its fries contain flavoring from wheat and dairy ingredients. Strike that one from the roster of guilty pleasures if you don't partake in animal foods. 
