Nutritionfacts.org- Great resource from Dr. Greger!

Posted on August 17, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Just after I posted the links to my talk at JCNC yesterday, I listened again to the lecture. I noticed a few areas that were less than crystal clear. And then today someone posted information about a new website with searchable posts on nutritional topics by Dr. Michael Greger. He is knowledgable and entertaining in person, and the website is a great resource for all kinds of topics, especially related to vegan nutrition, based on scientific evidence. Search on vegan vs. omnivore nutritional deficiencies and you’ll see how omnivores have 7 deficiencies, while vegans tend to have 3. Which 3– B12, iodine and calcium. And then you can look up each of these topics.  You’ll see info on good, bad and killer fats, which sweeteners have nutritional value, and many other topics. Continue reading →

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Posted in Health and Nutrition, Musings

Ahimsak Diet

Posted on August 6, 2011 by | 1 comment

Dr Jina gave a talk at the 11th anniversary of the Jain Center of Northern California on the Ahimsak Diet. The slides are available here:Ahimsak Diet and Nutrition and you can see the talk at the following YouTube links:

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHcnDkswFpQ
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMFK-ZcGDfo
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTzTK6ua0b8

For those who are interested in preventing diabetes by choosing healthy Indian foods, Asha Jain has provided some recommendations :

carbohydrate & Caloric Content of common Indian foods-JAIN 2011

Role_of_Food_in_Diabetes_Management (1)

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Posted in Health and Nutrition, Jain Philosophy, JCNC, Talks

The Birth of the Spiritual Leader Who Gave us Ahimsa

Posted on April 18, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Gary L. Francione,
Distinguished Professor of Law
 & Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law & Philosophy
Rutgers University School of Law

Although many are aware of the Buddha or the deities of Hinduism, few know anything about Mahavir (599-527 BCE), whose birth the Jain community around the world celebrates on [and around] April 16. This celebration is known as Mahavir Jayanti.
Jainism, along with Hinduism and Buddhism, are the three primary spiritual traditions of India, and archeological evidence indicates that although Mahavir was a contemporary of the Buddha, Jainism predated Mahavir by hundreds of years and, therefore, is the oldest religion in India.  Mahavir is considered to be the last in a line of what the Jains call “Tirthankaras,” which literally means “maker of a ford” and refers to a human being who achieves omniscience and then teaches the path to liberation to others, thereby establishing a ford across the river of rebirth.
A Tirthankara is also referred to as a “Jina,” which means “spiritual victor,” or as an “Arihant,” which means “destroyer of enemies.”  A Jina or Arihant is a victor or destroyer in that he or she has conquered inner emotions and passions, and has complete equanimity that is characterized by an absence of attachment and aversion.  
Mahavir was a social revolutionary.  He rejected the caste system and the sexism that pervaded the society of his time (and that unfortunately persists), and promoted a radical social justice movement based on complete equality and equal inherent value.  He did not limit this revolution to humans and was the first historical figure to regard all nonhuman animals as full members of the moral community. 

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Posted in Jain Philosophy

Green juice

Posted on April 5, 2011 by | 1 comment

Passed down from a nutritionally minded MD to patient, to friend, to cousin is the following healthy drink recipe

Green  Juice!

– 2 cups of Kale
– ¼ cup of Spinach
– ¼ cup of Coriander (Cilantro)
– ½ Beet
– 1 stalk Celery – optional
– ½ Carrot – optional
– 5 or 6 seeded Grapes – optional
– ½ Apple – optional

The juice below is  red, because of the beets. She uses a Blendtech, but Christian is loyal to his Vitamix and I think you can use a lower-tech blender too.Veggie juice Continue reading →

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Posted in Healthy drinks!, Recipes, Uncategorized

Uncolonize our drinks: Beyond milk-based chai

Posted on April 5, 2011 by | Leave a comment

One of the hardest things for our uncles and antis give up as they consider veganism is masala chai. They consider it quintessentially Indian, typically Gujarati, and essential for their daily energy and joy.  Amman, a vegan Jain studying at UC Berkeley, reminds us, however, that it was the British that served and encouraged Indians to drink milk based chai.  Check out this wikipedia description: while the masala part came from a traditional Ayurvedic origin, in keeping with the drinking of tea as an herbal medicine rather than a recreational beverage, the British encouraged the wide scale cultivation of tea in India and promoted it ” in the English mode” with small amounts of added milk and sugar. Vendors added spices and milk, and established it as a popular beverage.
During Jain events, if we need to stick to chai to avoid challenging traditional tastes, let’s use almond milk, soy milk, rice milk or anything but dairy.

But really, let’s not kid ourselves. This is neither a healthy habit, nor a quintessential part of our Indian identity. It’s an addiction that we learned from the British Raj.

Still if Chai is your comfort drink, and if you want to keep drinking it, the cows won’t be hurt if you buy or make a plant milk. You can try Richa’s recipe for vegan chai here.

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Vegan Wedding Menu fit for Royalty: No fooling

Posted on April 5, 2011 by | 3 comments

The Jain Vegans list serv had a chain of email in the last few days about a purported vegan menu at the Royal British wedding. Though some members were disappointed that it turned out to be an April Fool(d)’s joke,  we have an example of a truly royal wedding menu, with yummy south Indian, Gujarati,  and international savories, and an impressive variety of sweets. Darshana anti, who is vegan along with her recently wed son and daughter-in-law, (pictured here) provided this description of the items in their recent wedding menu , served in Chicago last year.

The Savory:

Idli sambhar, with chutney made with silken tofu and coconut
Kathi roll with tofu and vegetables   
Mexican bean dip
Khaman made with lemon juice
Khandavi made with lemon juice

The sweet:
Nut sweets catered by BAPS (the spiritually inspired volunteer caterers that have provided much previous JAINA convention food)
Moong dal sheero- A sweet treet with protein rich moong dal
Puranpoori – A  stuffed sweet rotli (my Dad’s favorite)
Motichoor ladu
Mango pulp with tofutti sour cream, fruits, cardamom, vanilla, saffron, sugar
Middle eastern pastries catered from Detroit

Continue reading →

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Posted in Recipes

Jeffrey Masson talking about pets and veganism

Posted on March 14, 2011 by | Leave a comment

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Posted in Uncategorized

Reflections on our actions

Posted on February 27, 2011 by | 1 comment

Here is a thoughtful prayer that Monali had written for Paryushan, but which can be appropriate for every day, too:

In the fast pace of our lives, may we all take time out today
to recognize how our actions and lifestyles
directly or indirectly cause harm.

From the relative peace we experience and the wealth we possess
From the clothes we wear
to the cars we drive
to the foods we eat
the daily sustenance of our lives undoubtedly causes suffering to other lives around us-whether it be human, non-human animal, plant or other.

As much as is in our power, may we be conscious of this suffering,
and may our actions relflect our desire to prevent or minimize it.
And as for the suffering that occurs of which we are not aware
or that we cannot prevent,may we, at least, recognize it and be humbled.
Micchami Dukkadam.

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Posted in Jain Philosophy, prayers

Vegan Jain Professional and Mom on the radio

Posted on February 27, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Monali and her husband are both busy professionals raising 3 young children near Chicago. She grew up Jain and met him while they were studying environmental engineering . Like me, she became vegan  in college, seeing the connections between the violence in the egg and dairy industry  with that in the meat industry.  She saw that consumption of these animal products was  incompatible with her values of peace and non-violence, which were deeply held Jain values. Her husband went vegan too, the way they are raising their young children vegan is joyful and inspiring.

She was recently interviewed by James Bean of Spiritual Awakenings Radio, who is clearly well informed about Jainism and in tune with the spiritual basis of veganism from the perspective of many faiths . You’ll hear their thoughtful discussion about how people identify with their diets, what might help people to make positive changes and more! You can download an mp3 file of the interview  here.

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Posted in General, Jain Philosophy

Request for all vegan menu for the 16th Biennial JAINA convention

Posted on February 11, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Yesterday, i sent a letter to the Convention Board members and the JAINA Executive Committee on behalf of a group of vegan Jain organizers, ranging in age from the 20s to the 70s, and an even larger and more diverse group of supporters consisting of leaders in the Jain community and community members from all across the US with a couple of participants from UK and Mumbai.  We continue to update the list of supporters and have gotten 9 more since yesterday!

Read the text of the petition and register your support here:

Our request: An all vegan menu at the convention.

The precedent: Catering for the London Young Jains Convention  has always been vegan and a recent JAINS UK convention has had all but 2 items catered completely vegan.

 The North American Jain convention history: Vegan lines (an option to eat vegan) an JAINA, YJP and YJP conventions for many years> the exact start is murky but maybe 1997. A good start but we can do better. Continue reading →

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Posted in General, Jain Philosophy