[PLUG-TALK] Visiting from Tacoma

[andrew at becherer.org]

I want to thank everybody who sent suggestions and well wishes. My
fiancée and I have had a great time in Portland and we plan on
returning. We had a night out on the town last night starting with
dinner and drinks at the Urban Farmer followed by drinks and pub games
at Mcmenamins Ringlers pub. Our train is delayed a two hours so it looks
like we get to enjoy one more meal in Portland.

Several people on the list expressed concern about Michael Robinson's
comments. His comments did not concern me and I most certainly did not
consider them to be representative of plug-talk, much less Portland. I
had not actually seen Michael's email until other members of the list
had sent apologies and well wishes. After Michael's "spamish" onslaught
of December 27th through January 2nd I started sending his emails to the
bit bucket.

On Sat, 2009-01-03 at 17:30 -0800, Jason Dagit wrote:

> There are other reasons to avoid eating animals.  Have you read the
> book "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan?  The short version is, we
> should be careful where the food comes from before we partake.  

If you enjoyed Omnivore's Dilemma you should check out In Defense of
Food, Pollan's latest book. Whereas Omnivore's Dilemma focuses on the
problem In Defense of Food concentrates on what the individual can do to
protect themselves, their neighbors and the planet (as much as one can
through diet choices). 

I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, although I consume far less dairy and
meat than the average American. My fiancée and I keep a kitchen that is,
for the most part, vegan. I am significantly healthier, and lighter,
than I was before I changed my diet from the standard American diet. I
don't have time to dig up the references but research (easily located on
the Internet or cited in Pollan's books) has shown a practitioners of
vegetarian and vegan diets (such as 7th Day Adventists) have a lower
incidence of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity and a host
of other illnesses.

My favorite two points that Pollan makes are:

1) There is no perfect diet (although there may be optimal diets for
select populations).

2) Good advice for most Americans appears to be "Eat Food, Not Too Much,
Mostly Plants" where "Food" is defined with some rigor in Pollan's
books.

> Did you know there are vegan endurance athletes?  

Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier and Ultramarathon Runner Scott Jurek
spring to mind. There are a number of endurance athletes who either are
currently are vegan or have been vegan at some point in their career.

--
Andrew