Everyone's Going Vegan by Viva Web

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Tim Shieff PARKOUR PAR EXCELLENCE

WHY YOU DON’T NEED DAIRY CAN YOU BEAT CANCER? f o s e MEET GAME OF pag rec ip es s THRONES STAR, u o i c JEROME FLYNN de

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How to go vegan Soya – the truth

Vegan celebrities Free calcium chart

Bulk up boys – go vegan Veganise your kitchen

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“Most UK animals are factory farmed and unless you’ve been in one of these places or the equally barbaric slaughterhouses, you wouldn’t believe that animals could be treated this way. They try to keep us out but Viva!’s undercover investigators secretly go inside them and film the filth and squalor they find. The headline-grabbing campaigns that result, bring about real change.” Juliet Gellatley, Founder & Director of Viva!

DUCKS

SLAUGHTER

Viva! was the first to film the factory farming of ducks – birds that are still essentially wild – locked in stinking, overcrowded sheds with often no access to water in which to clean or swim. Campaigns with massive press and TV coverage saw duck slaughter figures shrink from 19 million to 14 million – and they’re still falling.

We have looked into the panicking eyes of a beautiful cow as her throat was sliced: we have seen panicking ‘stunned’ piglets and lambs regain consciousness after being cut – and we’ve filmed it. All slaughter is obscene. It has to end – help us.

PIGS We’ve filmed in dozens of pig farms and exposed the widespread use of metal farrowing crates for breeding sows – cages so small they can’t even turn around. We’ve shown the filthy concrete cells that piglets have to call home and exposed the constant use of drugs simply to keep them alive.

DAIRY COWS It’s standard practice – all new-born calves are taken from their mothers after birth and tens of thousands are shot. We filmed it on Cadbury’s farms where the milk was for their chocolate.

KANGAROOS Millions are shot in the Australian outback every year for meat and leather, their baby joeys beaten to death. Our campaign got UK supermarkets to empty their shelves of all exotic meats and Adidas and Nike to phase out kangaroo leather. Oh, and we also wiped out the British ostrich industry.

HORSES Viva! went to Poland to save ‘meat’ horses from being transported to Italy overland – days without rest, food or water – trampled, bloodied and trembling with stress. We slashed the annual trade from 100,000 to 30,000 animals.

TURKEYS Three Christmases running, our undercover teams hit the headlines by showing how the UK’s leading turkey producers treat their animals – thousands to a shed, dim light, billowing dust, dead and dying birds everywhere. Sales plummeted by four million.

FOIE-GRAS We showed how ducks and geese are force fed until their livers almost explode, persuaded 1,000 restaurants and Amazon to stop selling it, shamed Gordon Ramsay and got Heston Blumenthal to drop it.

TO HELP SAVE MORE ANIMALS JOIN US GO TO VIVA.ORG.UK/JOIN

n o m inuses A h u nd red pluses – elcome to our new magazine, written to help anyone and everyone who wants to change their diet. Join all the others who are now going vegan to save animals, improve their health and protect the global environment. It’s the most positive step you can take – a hundred pluses and no minuses. Viva! is a very active vegan campaigning group. We go undercover into places that most people never see – dismal factory farms, slaughterhouses and markets – where we film the reality and launch nationwide campaigns that attract huge media coverage. This way, we talk to millions of people every year and show them what is really happening to farmed animals. Our aim is simple – to end the suffering that billions of animals have to endure by getting people to give up eating meat, fish, eggs and dairy. We can proudly claim that we have played an enormous part in the dramatic change that is now happening as millions of people proudly become vegan and meat consumption falls. I founded Viva! in 1994 with the intention of changing the world. Viva! hasn’t quite managed that yet but we are certainly changing Britain, helping people to understand that the power to protect the planet lies in their own hands! Viva!Health is a section of Viva! that promotes the health benefits of a vegan diet. By cutting out animal products you can also cut the risks of degenerative diseases that kill most of us. We do it through sound science and by keeping abreast of all the latest research on diet and health. Plantbased vegan diets are the key to healthier living. Humans played no part in creating this wonderful, mind-boggling, diverse and staggeringly extraordinary world of ours yet they are viciously callous at destroying it – and livestock production is at the heart of the problem but… At the time of writing, meat and dairy consumption is falling – equivalent to everyone in the land going meat and dairy free for one month a year. We are finally winning. Be a winner and join us. Yours for change

Juliet Gellatley, Viva! Founder & International Director Juliet@viva.org.uk facebook.com/juliet.gellatley

Contents 4

Jerome Flynn Of Game of Thrones and Ripper Street

Vegan The best, but why?

13 18 20

Animal Farm The undercover truth

24 26 40 42

Why You Don’t Need Dairy

52 56 59 61 63

Meet Tim Shieff Parkour par excellence

Thirteen pages of delicious recipes

I’m a Celebrity Get meat outa here! The Veganiser Your favourite dishes made vegan

New Vegans Start Here Egg Replacers

Diet of Disaster Environment under threat

Undercover Pig farming exposed

Vegan for Men Beef up you boys End of the Line Overfishing disaster What I Need To Eat Each Day Food Fights! Why meat and dairy make us ill

44 46

Soya So Good

49 51 55

How to Beat Cancer

Bright Things The emotional lives of animals

Meat – No Miracle Food Calcium Chart

Game of

life

Photo © Helen Sloan HBO

t Jerome as Bronn in Game of Thrones p Jerome in Ripper Street with Matthew Macfadyen (centre) and Adam Rothenberg (far left)

Jerome Flynn, actor and patron of Viva!, chats to Juliet Gellatley about his spectacular return to acting – years after walking out on Simon Cowell to find his inner self 4 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

unny, life’s twists and turns. When Jerome Flynn was invited to audition for Game of Thrones, his first thought was ‘American twaddle!’ but he was sent a script anyway for the part of Bronn. At the time, Jerome was considering leaving acting for good to focus on transforming his once-dilapidated Georgian farmhouse into an eco-paradise with holiday lets. But… watching his brother Daniel perform at the National Theatre in the

impassioned play The White Guard, acting seduced him once again. “The play blew me away”, he told me, “and afterwards I was reunited with people from my past, including my drama teacher and old friends and it felt like I was being welcomed back to a world that is in my blood. I suddenly remembered why I acted in the first place. “I hate auditions and wasn’t sure I’d do Game of Thrones but I read the script and found myself relating to Bronn, which is a

testament to the quality of the writing. Bizarrely, I then opened the kitchen cabinet door and bruised my eye.” He looked in the mirror and saw Bronn staring back at him. “I was aware the audition had gone well and I had done it without drying, which is rare for me. I knew that I’d tapped into Bronn, the mercenary, and was excited to play a darker character with wounds. So, from thinking I was walking out on acting, I found myself in the biggest show on the planet!” Game of Thrones is HBO’s most popular TV series of all time, being shown in 170 countries and illegally downloaded more times than any other programme. I had been reticent to start watching Game of Thrones but my sons, colleagues and friends kept talking about it. Based on a seven-volume, medieval-esque, epic fantasy novel, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin, u

“I just want animal suffering to end and I believe that everyone can make a contribution to that” viva.org.uk 5

“Yet again it has been left to Viva! to expose the brutal truth of how farmed animals are treated”

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I imagined it to be like Lord of the Rings but with more cruelty, nudity, sex and violence. And it is! But it is so much more! Game of Thrones is a triumph of bold storytelling that breaks every stereotype and I became completely engrossed by its colourful, complex characters. This isn’t hobbits and pixies, it is ruthless realpolitik in jerkins – and compulsive viewing. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Jerome’s macho Bronn is that he is still alive in the sixth season! I’ve never seen a drama kill off so many of its main characters. Jerome smiles: “Yes, you just don’t know what will happen next – that’s what Medieval Europe was like – brutal, misogynistic, constant power struggles.” Jerome plays a skilled and dangerous ‘sellsword’ who comes to prominence when he fights for one of the show’s major characters, Tyrion Lannister, played by the brilliant actor and vegetarian, Peter Dinklage. Bronn and Tyrion are a riveting duo – Bronn with his black humour, pragmatic, amoral approach to life and Tyrion with his hedonistic, sex fuelled, bright, candid wit and warmth. Together they develop a fascinating understanding and respect for each other. So what was it like working together? “Working with Peter Dinklage is a joy.

He is a wonderful actor with a sophisticated and entertaining kind of nature. He’s a really funny man and it made me very sad when the two characters parted. I’m hoping that they come back together one last time.” Jerome and Peter also connected over their views: “Yes, we talked about how much being vegetarian or vegan matters. It’s very important.” So, after his initial reticence, Jerome’s view of Game of Thrones changed dramatically. “I soon comprehended the scale of the production and what it meant to the producers, then, when the cast turned up, I realised it was epic. It is wonderful to be a part of.” Wonderful but also fortuitous, for it led to Jerome being cast as Detective Sgt. Bennet Drake in the BBC’s (now Amazon Prime’s) Victorian crime drama series, Ripper Street. He is brilliant in it. Jerome’s character is complex, outwardly thuggish but with a soft underbelly, a man desperate to love and be loved and Jerome portrays these inner conflicts wonderfully. One of the most moving scenes is when Drake is rejected by the woman he loves, a prostitute. This hard man has given his heart and now it is breaking. It is painful, actually painful to witness.

p Jerome as Bronn with Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones u Jerome and Nikolaj CosterWaldau (Jaime Lannister) in Game of Thrones

“I’ve been in love before and heart break is an area I know about – it just came out of me…” Jerome says ruefully and then deflects the praise by adding, “and it is beautifully written”. Set in London’s foetid East End in the late 1800s, Jerome plays alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Adam Rothenberg as they investigate every kind of crime against a backdrop of poverty, industrialisation and social change. Astonishingly, the BBC axed the show after series two and Amazon Prime stepped in to save it following an outcry from its loyal and large fan base. Jerome has just finished filming series four in Dublin. I talked to him in his characterful Georgian manor house, the weather turning wild as the evening drew in, with howling wind and rain lashing at the windows. In daylight, the views are of magnificent open countryside reaching to

the sea. He made us a delicious tofu and vegetable soup in the large farmhouse-style kitchen, every inch filled with spice and herb jars, books and things that made me want to be nosey. In the corner was a very relaxed cat, asleep on an armchair and it became apparent that we both love felines, me telling him of my tabby, Loki. Jerome disappeared and returned with a tiny bundle of tortoiseshell cuteness in his arms – a five week old kitten that had been abandoned by the roadside and who he was minding until a permanent home was found for her. I had met Jerome a handful of times years earlier so this was a warm reunion of kindred spirits. I could say that he is the antithesis of his macho roles but that would be oversimplifying him. Jerome is certainly spiritual, thoughtful, caring and a

gentleman but he is also powerfully masculine with a mischievous sense of humour and, like all of us, is fallible. I asked him if he relates to characters such as the murderous Bronn? “Well, I don’t go round killing people with a sword but part of me is that rogue who loves to go into a tavern and get drunk! That’s one of the wonderful things about acting, you can play out those sides of yourself!” Jerome is grounded and enjoys acting but not the gruelling schedules that take him away from home for months on end. Coming from a family of actors, he knows what it’s like to be a slave to the profession, where moods swing according to whether there is work and he wants to avoid that.

Continued on page 60 viva.org.uk 7

Go vegan and

prosper

Vegan diets are the healthiest on the planet. Think that’s an exaggeration? Think again! Science and real-life vegans agree et’s face it, we all know we could eat healthier but we also want to be able to treat ourselves every now and then. A vegan diet gives you the maximum damage limitation – you can still have cakes, chocolate and creamy sauces but they’re all much better for you than their animalbased counterparts. A healthy vegan diet is based on fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, pulses (lentils, beans, soya, chickpeas), nuts and seeds (with the obligate addition of a vitamin B12 supplement). There are endless combinations, exciting ingredients and flavours as well as your old favourites, and a world of food that will make you feel good and you won’t have to count every spoonful to watch your weight. National and international health institutions such as British and American Dietetic Associations and the World Health Organisation agree that a vegan diet is not only healthy but can help prevent and treat a number of diseases. Vegans fare better than meat-eaters in terms of nutrient intake. In one of the most recent studies, vegan, vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pescaterian and omnivore diets were studied and compared. Vegans had the healthiest weight among all groups and received the highest score on the healthy eating scale. Among all dietary patterns, vegans are the only diet group that consistently maintains healthy weight due to lower fat intake (especially saturated fat) and high fibre consumption. Vegan diets are not based simply on exclusion of animal products but lead to a higher quality diet. As a result, vegans have a considerably higher intake of foods and nutrients that are protective against cancer. Compared to omnivores living in the same communities, they have lower cancer rates and longer life expectancy. A recent study by Oxford

By Veronika Powell MSc, Viva!Health

An exhaustive review of literature published between 1950 and 2013 on chronic diet-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney and liver disorders and cancer confirmed that plantbased diets are very healthprotective. Compared to omnivore and even vegetarian diets, vegan diets offer greater health benefits regarding all the above conditions. The most common of diet-related chronic diseases – heart disease – can be not only prevented but also treated with a low-fat vegan diet. The main issue in heart disease is narrowing of the arteries due to plaques – fatty deposits in the arteries mostly formed of cholesterol – which restrict blood flow, increase blood pressure and can block the blood supply to the heart, causing heart attack, or to the brain, causing stroke; or can tear off causing thrombosis. Vegans have the lowest levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol and are by far at the lowest risk of high blood pressure compared to vegetarians and meat-eaters. People with heart disease can achieve complete reversal of the condition through diet change. Of the many studies and experts advocating dietary treatment for heart disease, Dr Caldwell Esslestyn is one of the best known. In one of his latest trials, he put patients on a diet based on wholegrains, pulses, vegetables and fruit with the addition of vitamin B12 and flaxseed – for omega-3 fats. The vast majority of patients who adhered to the diet experienced significant improvements or complete resolution of chest pains (angina) and artery blockages. Meanwhile, more than half of the non-adherent participants experienced adverse events requiring surgeries or resulting in death. Type 2 diabetes is another chronic disease that responds well to a vegan diet.

People with heart disease can achieve complete reversal of the condition through diet change

8 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

University, looking at how diet affects cancer risk, revealed that vegans have a much lower risk of getting the disease. The 15-year-long study followed 60,000 British men and women and found that overall cancer incidence (compared to meat-eaters) was 11 per cent lower in vegetarians and 19 per cent lower in vegans. Moreover, after carefully assessing more than 800 studies on meat and cancer, The International Agency for Research on Cancer announced that processed meat causes, and red meat probably causes, cancer. Based on this, the World Health Organisation classified processed meat as carcinogenic and red meat as probably carcinogenic.

Many trials have shown that a lowfat vegan diet can significantly reduce the need for medication or completely restore normal health. One study specifically focused on sugar metabolism and found that vegans have higher insulin sensitivity and their glucose metabolism is overall more efficient and sensitive than in meat-eaters. The usefulness of vegan diets in type 2 diabetes treatment was endorsed by the American Diabetes Association in their Clinical Practice Guidelines. Many people suffering from inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, asthma or irritable bowel disease (IBD) experience life-changing improvements upon changing their diet. Following a switch to a low-fat vegan diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables, rheumatoid arthritis sufferers’ levels of joint pain, swelling and stiffness plummet. And not only that but a plant-based diet can also help prevent the condition from developing. For people with asthma, a diet based on plant foods and rich in fruit and vegetables can reduce the frequency and severity of attacks. On the other hand, diets higher in fat, and saturated fat from meat and dairy products in particular, have been directly linked to asthma. One of the most obvious effects of diet on the digestive system is the composition of gut bacteria (gut microbiome). There are many different species of bacteria that can live in the intestines and diet strongly influences which species thrive and which are suppressed. Scientific research paints a clear picture – vegan gut microbiome has the highest proportions of health-beneficial and protective bacteria, which results in reduced levels of inflammation and may be the key feature linking the vegan diet to its multiple health benefits. Western diets encourage bacteria feasting on fats and bile that produce harmful substances and can cause chronic gut inflammation or IBD. Contrary to popular belief, proving how powerful (and wrong) advertising can be, we don’t need dairy products to have strong and healthy bones. Adequate calcium intake is important but it’s the overall diet that matters. It is a fact that countries with the highest calcium and animal protein intakes also have the highest fracture rates. A diet based on animal protein (due to its amino acid composition) is likely to produce considerable amounts of acid in the body. If there's too much acid and calcium from the diet isn't enough to neutralise it, the body needs to draw on its

research shows that people with diets high in animal protein have a higher rate of bone loss and risk of hip fracture than people whose diets are based on plant protein. High intake of plant foods, and fruit and vegetables in particular, is very important for bone health maintenance due to bonefriendly alkaline salts found in these foods. A project based at Human Nutrition Research, Cambridge, UK, is just one of many that found a significant association between fruit and vegetable consumption and good bone health. Mental health and cognition are affected by countless factors but diet choices can often help achieve a difference or lower the risk. A plant-based diet that’s naturally high in antioxidants, fibre and low in saturated fats seems to be able to lower the risk of cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Recently, a scientific team assessing plantbased diets reached the conclusion that they are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that can reduce body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and improve blood sugar control. The researchers say that “They [vegan diets] may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischaemic heart disease mortality rates. Physicians should consider recommending a plant-based diet to all their patients, especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.” The human body is adapted to function best and thrive on plant foods. As the vegan movement grows, so does the abundance of foods suitable for vegans and the recognition of the lifestyle by many experts. Here’s to good health!

Vegan diets are costeffective, low-risk interventions that can reduce body weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and improve blood sugar control calcium reserves in the muscles and bones. The calcium content in dairy products doesn’t outweigh the negative effects of animal protein. The results of a study examining vegan health revealed that vegans have more than sufficient calcium intake and their diets are characterised by a virtually neutral acidalkali balance, which is very desirable. Other

the

incredible

vegan

health report What science and experience say about vegan diets and human health By Veronika Powell MSc (Biology), Senior Health Campaigner & Researcher, Viva!Health Edited by: Juliet Gellatley BSc DipDM, Founder & Director, Viva!Health

£7

The most important thing you’ll read on health! vivashop.org.uk/healthreport

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to do what I want One of the world’s best free runners, Tim Shieff, talks to Viva! founder, Juliet Gellatley, about his passion for veganism, self-awareness and breaking boundaries

10 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

y jaw dropped when I first saw Tim Shieff. This cool guy in his 20s leapt out of the seat of a moving car, did a handstand on the driver’s door, performed a backspin on the roof then flipped back in and drove off – like that’s a normal part of anyone’s drive to work. I wish! I met Tim in his East London flat that nestles in the sky, with a dizzying, spectacular view. He has striking pale blue eyes and speaks in a calm, thoughtful manner but allows passion to break through for his beliefs. He’s an extremely affable, relaxed and warm guy – bubbling with optimism for the future of veganism and its positive impact on our planet. Also known as Livewire, Tim is celebrated globally for his incredible free running, or parkour. If you don’t know what that is think Spider Man without the costume or web. He is a gymnast-runner-rock climberbreak dancer who uses the seemingly mundane in the urban world as his props. He leaps across sky scraper roofs, vaults tube station barriers, back flips down escalators and makes short shrift of metalspeared bars meant to keep you from climbing a wall 100 feet high. His agility and strength are mesmerising. He can hold himself perpendicular from whatever is available – the iron struts of Manhattan bridge, perhaps. Many of the films he has made for YouTube have notched up viewing figures

Photos © Johnny Budden

in the hundreds of thousands, some as many as five million. He won the 2009 Barclaycard World Freerun Championship and 2011 Best Art in Motion, and in 2015 entered ITV’s Ninja Warrior UK and was the only person to complete the second course in the final, viewed by four million. He was also captain of Ninja Warrior’s Team Europe in a ‘USA versus the world’ special in 2014 – and led them to victory. He was brought up as a meat eater and turned vegan three years ago after reading a book by Ekhart Tolle, A New Earth. He told me: “I learnt a lot about myself and the ego. It made me more open minded so that when I watched a film called The Best Speech you will ever Hear, by animal rights activist, Gary Yourofsky, I could not deny what he said. That meant I had to go vegan! “I had always been against animal cruelty and I felt bad if I accidentally trod on a snail but then I’d go inside and make a chicken sandwich. I was disconnected. Gary’s speech pointed out that I was supporting cruelty, exploitation and torture by eating animals – and it was unnecessary. For me to ignore that would have meant me not living my own truth. “I recently made a YouTube film when I’d just finished tidying up this flat, saying how nice it would be to have someone else do the cleaning and cooking – even better

if I didn’t have to pay them. But that would mean someone’s whole existence being to serve me. Similarly, if I ever thought about eating meat again, another being would be involved. Slavery was wrong therefore so is meat eating – we just don’t need it. But we lie to ourselves because we’re addicted. We enslave animals for meat and dairy; we kill male chicks; we kill babies – lambs are babies! What are we doing? When you go vegan

mindfulness is, but veganism is the biggest chapter in the spiritual awakening that’s going on. People want world peace and yet harm animals – it’s all interlinked. “When our society wilfully allows animals to be treated badly then it isn’t a far step to treating humans the same way. When society is civil to animals, we will also be civil to each other. To me, ending speciesism is the root to world peace and the third step in the trilogy of black rights, women’s rights and animal rights. Established religions have had their time and we now need to embrace life, not destroy it.” Does this offer Tim hope? “Change will happen quickly over the next few decades and veganism will become the norm. Justice can only be denied so long before everyone is aware of it.” Free running seems a macho world – cool young men in joggers and scruffy tees. Yet dig a little and you find them refreshingly respectful of people, animals and the environment. Its origins were influenced by a volcano blowing its top on the Caribbean island of Martinique. French naval officer, Lt. George Hebert, valiantly organised the rescue of over 700 people and watching them stumble around obstacles had a profound impact on him. He decided that to be of real value, athletic skill must be u

“Change will happen quickly… veganism will become the norm” you see the truth.” Tim is not a ‘celebrity athlete’ who happens to be vegan; it is central to his being. I admire the way he is using his status to educate people – and especially teenage boys and young men, who aren’t the easiest to engage with. This matters to him because eating animals is fundamentally immoral. Tim explains: “Choosing to take a life against the free will of that being is unethical. It’s not about survival anymore and this is a spiritual (not religious) journey for me. Veganism isn’t the sole message,

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combined with courage and altruism, Etre fort pour être utile. Be strong to be useful. Hebert created a physical training discipline he called ‘the natural method’ using climbing, running and man-made obstacle courses to recreate the natural environment. It became the basis for all French military training – parcours du combatant, the path of the warrior. Years later, Raymond Belle, a former soldier in the French Special Forces, showed his son, David, this training method and Hebert’s writings. It was David Belle who merged them with gymnastics and martial arts in the 1980s and parkour was born. Parkour is as much about mental discipline as physical, to overcome obstacles in any aspect of life, underlined by David Belle’s philosophy of altruism, useful strength, longevity, self-improvement and self-understanding. “Free running taught me a lot about myself physically, how to listen to my body and treat it with care and respect, whilst still experimenting and retaining the joy of spontaneity. It also taught me how powerful our minds are,” says Tim. “When I’m free running, there’s a part of me that is afraid and a part that knows I’m fine. That ‘faith over fear’ gives you a selfconfidence that carries into others parts of your life. When you understand and respect your body it has a massively positive affect on your mind.” As well as influencing young people to become vegan for the animals, Tim is an awesome role model for vegan health! “It is great that I can influence people watching free running on YouTube and shows like Ninja Warrior. Thousands then watch my vegan films and I talk about how changing my diet made me a lot healthier. “Parkour is about good strength to body weight ratio and going vegan way improved it. I’m leaner, more agile and explosive and even my recovery time is shorter. There’s a lot of load on my joints

12 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

and in the winter they would ache more and it took me longer to warm up whereas now I feel looser and more connected throughout my body.” Tim no longer enters free running competitions as he believes it’s an art form that cannot be objectively judged. He also clearly does it out of love. “I have no desire to win, I just enjoy every day – the feeling of being in the moment. You have to be otherwise it would be dangerous!” I ask him what he thinks about when he leaps from roof to roof: “Nothing. That’s the beauty of it. People meditate for years to get there! “I practise and overcome things and this attitude permeates my life. I train two to

six hours a day and do yoga, long distance running, rock climbing, gymnastics and parkour as I’m trying to be a well-rounded athlete, not to be the best in the world at one thing, but flexible and strong and comfortable within my body.” I wondered what Tim eats. He’d make any chimpanzee proud – eight (yes, eight) bananas in his smoothie for breakfast! “I do eat more calories but they’re in healthy foods so I’m lean and strong. I don’t have a specific nutrition plan but eat whole foods and with a range of colours, it’s as simple as that. No other animal has the level of scientific knowledge we have, they don’t follow a ‘protein plan’ yet they’re healthier than us! We have research and data yet where has it got us? Fuckin’ nowhere! We are the unhealthiest species on the planet. I feel healthier than ever so surely that says something!” I talk to Tim about Viva! and his enthusiasm shines: “Awareness is the first step to change and Viva! helps people become aware of animal cruelty. Your investigations are crucial. Without that footage we become mindless and don’t know the process involved in meat, fish, egg and dairy production. Viva! empowers people to change their diet. “The way animals are farmed is preposterous. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs and we know how playful they are, how important it is to take dogs for a walk. Yet we keep pigs in crates or filthy, barren pens. It is almost unbearable for me to acknowledge this. We are blessed to live in a world of opportunity and choice – yet we take it away from other living beings. How selfish is that?” But Tim ends on a typically positive note: “People are changing – we all make a difference when we vote with our pound. What we buy is more important than our political vote. Voting daily against animal agriculture – that’s how we make real change.”

Viva! – Campaigning for Animals

ANIMAL FARM How animals are farmed in Britain he claim that Britain has the best animal welfare standards in the world is a sham, a lie, a marketing ploy. Most of the animals reared for meat, dairy and eggs lead short and brutal lives of confinement, forced impregnation, mutilation and constant misery. Viva! knows this because we make it our business regularly to go onto farms and film the reality. Our shocking, undercover investigations are seen by millions of people every year on TV, in newspapers and online and are reported on radio. And we’re winning – meat and dairy sales are dropping and veganism is growing rapidly. Factory farming is the norm in Britain. It follows a formula very similar to industrial factories – minimum space and input, maximum output. It survives on drugs to curb disease, mutilations to curb aggression, the same monotonous, pelleted diet and a built-in death rate. Feeding, watering and dung clearing are often automated and

based on the same philosophy as mass industrial production. Over 90 per cent of pigs are factory farmed and almost all goats, dairy cows, chickens, turkeys, ducks and egg-laying hens – including most of those labelled ‘free range’. All species, in fact, face intensification and suffer because of it. Yet most people have no idea what a factory farm is like. Go into one and you are overwhelmed by the acrid stench of rot, ammonia and accumulated faeces; the constant soundtrack of imprisoned animals with nothing to do assails your ears and the air feels thick and warm – cloying like putrid soup and you simply don’t want to breathe in. The stench stays on you for days. There are always dead and dying animals, often decaying corpses and frequently swarms of flies. And there is the constant vision of desperate, grossly overcrowded animals who are suffering both physically and mentally. If you ever feel the need to conjure up a vision of hell – this is it.

Pigs What sane person would look at highlyintelligent animals such as pigs and force them into overcrowded concrete cells – for life? No bedding and the only ‘enrichment’ a single, dangling chain or a deflated old football amidst the filth and squalor that makes it impossible to fulfil any of their natural instincts. Our investigators have secretly filmed a practice which the industry tries to dismiss – the mutilations of new-born piglets. Their tails are sliced off with scissors and their four main teeth are snapped off with pliers, all without anaesthetic. It is supposed to prevent damage from aggression and stop cannibalism – things that don’t happen in the wild. Pigs are fun loving and bright, but the vast majority are kept in dirty hovels on Britain’s factory farms. Most breeding sows are forced to give birth in metal farrowing crates little bigger than their own bodies and can’t even turn around for five weeks at a time. They once spent their entire lives in cages similar to these but campaigning brought that to an end. Piglets usually grow up in overcrowded concrete cells. They are sent to slaughter at just six months old for bacon, ham, sausages, pork, ribs and so on. Drug use in pig farms is out of control. The latest superbug is a strain of MRSA caused by intensive pig farming. viva.org.uk/faceoff viva.org.uk/pigs

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Egg ch ickens Who was it that first looked at restlessly strutting chickens, still little changed from jungle fowl, and crammed them five to a wire cage so small that not even one could spread her wings? These battery cages have now been replaced by bigger, ‘enriched,’ colony cages holding anything up to 80 birds, thousands of cages to a single shed. The word ‘enriched’ was not chosen by the hens. When our investigators secretly filmed some enriched cages at two suppliers to the big supermarkets, it presented a truly pathetic sight and looked little different to the old cages – dead and dying birds and some almost entirely featherless. The rows of cages, one on top of another, disappeared away from us like a kid’s perspective drawing, accompanied by the non-stop babble of clucking hens who will never see daylight or stand on anything other than wire mesh. Most had had part of their beaks amputated without anaesthetic, supposedly to prevent feather pulling. Birds’ beaks are rich in blood vessels and nerve endings making amputation very painful and may cause life-long suffering. Many hens live their short, 18-month lives with broken bones because calcium is leached from them for the never-ending supply of egg shells. We also filmed at one of the UK’s biggest free-range egg suppliers and again it was a depressing sight, with grossly overcrowded sheds, a jumbled, noisy mass where most birds are simply too afraid to go outside because of fear of crossing other birds’ territories. Yet again, some were almost entirely featherless. The sight was very similar to the inside of sheds for so-called barn eggs where none go outside and where the stocking density is often a staggering nine birds to a square metre. The choice of the word ‘barn’ is part of the deception because of its pleasant imagery – they are, in fact, system-built industrial sheds. The hidden products of egg production are the little male chicks who are surplus to requirements and are never talked about. They obviously can’t lay eggs and are genetically unsuited to put on the weight, necessary for meat production, and so are gassed at a day or two old – and we’ve filmed that horror, too! viva.org.uk/faceoff/eggs viva.org.uk/hens

14 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Broiler ch ickens Vast, windowless sheds with 30,000 or more in each one – that accounts for over 95 per cent of modern chicken production. Birds stand on litter that is not changed throughout their 42day lifespan and as a consequence, painful ammonia burns to legs and breasts from the excreta underfoot are not uncommon. The most extraordinary thing about these birds is what we have done to them. Through selective breeding, almost constant light to encourage them to eat and high-protein feed we have made them grow – and grow and grow and grow. So fast, their bones are weak and break easily while their hearts often can’t cope. Many die even before slaughter from thirst and starvation because they can’t reach food and water and others from heart disease. To survive until slaughter, they depend on the almost daily use of antibiotics, helping to fuel the growing pandemic of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. People are already dying in their tens of thousands from this growing threat – 700,000 globally. The government warns that 80,000 people could die in a single epidemic in the UK because antibiotics are simply ceasing to work, yet they still permit them to be used in most farmed animals. Big or small producers, they’re all the same, as we proved when we recently filmed in one of the biggest, Faccenda, who supply Asda, KFC and Nando’s. viva.org.uk/chickens

Ducks The first time we sneaked inside an intensive duck shed is some years ago now but we were the first people ever to do so and publicly show the misery. It looked little different to all the overcrowded chicken and turkey farms we’ve exposed but with one big difference – ducks are essentially wild aquatic birds whose whole life is geared to water. But not these birds, not in these places – no water in which to swim or preen or dabble or feed. They were filthy and many had eye problems that can lead to blindness and the sad thing is that most ducks are farmed like this. How can this be good animal welfare? Their 10-year lifespan is reduced to just seven weeks before being slaughtered – and we filmed that too, at Gressingham Foods, who supply many UK supermarkets. It is a brutal, non-stop production line where throughput is all that matters. viva.org.uk/ducks

Turkeys Each year, around 15 million turkeys are slaughtered in the UK – 10 million at Christmas alone. It’s the same stinking overcrowded sheds yet again and every one we have filmed in, big or small, has revealed overcrowding, filth, injured and dead and dying birds. Three times we filmed inside Bernard Matthews’ and gained national coverage with turkey sales slumping as a result. There are few sadder sights than a turkey whose obscenely unnatural weight has caused her legs to collapse. To eat or drink, she has to painfully drag herself along on her wings. There is nothing natural about modern intensive farming and nothing natural about the animals we have created to provide ever-more meat at ever-reducing prices. Farmed turkeys are now such travesties of the wild birds they once were, they can no longer even mate naturally. Birds pay an extraordinarily high price in suffering so their meat can be sold at a price lower even than tomatoes. viva.org.uk/turkeys

Sh eep and lambs Behind the pastoral image lies an industry that has made life for many animals short and filled with pain, disease and fear. Sheep may be free range but they are not free from interference. Around one million lambs die of hypothermia each year – one fifth of all those born. The reason is a commercial determination to bring ‘spring lamb’ to market earlier and earlier in the year. Animals that would naturally be born after the worst of the winter has passed are now often born in December and January. The cold, gales, driving rain and lack of grazing produces a desperate struggle for both mother and baby simply to survive. Increasingly, the baby is becoming ‘babies’ because of manipulation with the ewes’ natural reproductive cycle – twins now being commonplace. Lambs are the most profitable part of sheep farming. These playful, exuberant animals are usually executed at 3-6 months old and can be even as young as 10 weeks. viva.org.uk/sheep

viva.org.uk 15

Cows (dairy) Dairy cows appear to be the polar opposites of other factory-farmed animals, munching grass in a field, happy and content. In fact, the dairy cow is probably the hardest working of all farmed animals. In a complete perversion of nature, A rotary milking parlour she is impregnated very early in life and then again shortly after giving birth and spends most of her life nurturing a growing baby inside her while simultaneously producing obscene volumes of milk due to selective bredding – up to 70 pints (40 litres) a day. The strain produces constant, painful diseases such as mastitis and laminitis. A modern dairy cow is unlikely to survive beyond three or four lactations – a fraction of her natural life – before being slaughtered for cheap meat products. As with humans, the simple truth for cows is – no pregnancy and birth, no milk and to keep the flow going, she is forcibly impregnated every year but never mothers her offspring. They are all taken away a day or two after birth – year, after year, after year. If her baby is male, he obviously can’t produce milk and is the wrong breed to put on weight as beef animals do. He is therefore the trash of the dairy industry and 100,000 or more are killed straight after birth every year while others are kept for just a few months for veal or cheap beef. One of the most stressful undercover exposés we have ever done was to film a beautiful little bull calf being shot in the head while still bleating for his mother. Not a rogue farm but one that supplied Cadbury for their milk chocolate. The latest twist to this cycle of abuse is the ‘culling’ of badgers in a cynical claim that this will end the epidemic of TB, a disease that is partly a result of a mass production process that compromises cows’ immune systems, making them susceptible to a host of diseases. whitelies.org.uk

Cattle (beef) Beef cows are bred simply to eat, get big and die. They gain weight quickly and are ready for slaughter at only 11 to 12 months old. During the first week of their lives they are usually castrated and have their horn buds chemically burnt out without anaesthetic. Viva! has filmed these beautiful animals being slaughtered and it is sickening. They are highlyevolved, sentient creatures and don’t want to be killed any more than you or I do. The resistance, the staring, rolling eyes and the sheer terror is clear to see and any suggestion that this process is humane is a very sick joke. factoryfarming.org.uk

16 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

A baby goat being castrated and dehorned without anaesthetic

Goats Many people see goats’ milk as the kind alternative to cows’ milk – and that’s what the industry wants you to believe. The sad truth is that there is little difference between the two – castrations, disbudding, separation of mother and kid and death and disease everywhere. Almost all goats are ‘zero-grazed’ and never see pasture in their short lives. We know this because we have filmed on goat farms, one of them who supplied Delamere Dairies, the UK’s biggest distributor. As with cows, males are surplus to requirement and are killed or are sold to meat dealers. whitelies.org.uk

Find out more about what happens to farmed animals and support our campaigns to save them: viva.org.uk/farmedanimals Watch our Cruel Britannia exposé: viva.org.uk/cruelbritannia Join Viva!… help us save animals: viva.org.uk/join

ARE YOU A BABY EATER? Each year, over a billion land animals are slaughtered in Britain. Regardless of how they were raised, they all live unnaturally short lives

Chickens (for meat)

Turkeys

Pigs (for meat)

Chickens (egg layers)

6 weeks

8-26 weeks

6 months

1-2 years

Natural life span:

Up to 8 years

Up to 10 years

Up to 15 years

Up to 8 years

Dairy cows

Ducks

Lambs

Chickens (male egg layers)

5 years

7 weeks

3-6 months

1-2 days

Natural life span:

Up to 20 years

Up to 15 years

Up to 12 years

Up to 8 years

‘Beef’ cattle

Dairy cows (males)

Pigs (mothering sows)

‘Veal’ calves

1-2½ years

1-2 days

3-5 years

1-32 weeks

Natural life span:

Up to 20 years

Up to 15 years

Up to 20 years

Go vegan and start saving animals today. For recipes, advice and more: viva.org.uk | 0117 944 1000

Alicia Silverstone Producer, author and actress whose films include Batgirl in Batman and Robin, Clueless, The Crush, Scooby Doo 2, Stormbreaker, Gods Behaving Badly, Angels in Stardust. “I know what it feels like to be hurt, and I don’t want to cause that pain to any other person or creature. But somehow, we numb ourselves in order to make money or to feel better about ourselves. We say, ‘I’m going to use this animal. I’m going to say it doesn’t have much worth so that I can allow myself to do these cruel things’. And that just isn’t fair.”

e s u a C

Why the famous Martin Shaw

Viva! Patron and British actor who has played the lead in many prime-time TV dramas, including The Professionals, The Chief, Rhodes, The Scarlet Pimpernel, A&E, Judge John Deed, George Gently: “I had a mixture of feelings when I first discovered what went on in factory farms. There was rage that animals could be subjected to such suffering. There was a sense of guilt that I had tacitly tolerated it for so long. Finally, there was a sense of relief that I didn’t have to be involved with it at all – all I needed to do was stop eating meat. “Going vegan is central to stopping the misery and torture that farmed animals endure and to saving the world. Viva! articulates the hopes and aims of people who want things to change – it is the voice of kindness and compassion and somebody needs to do it.”

Singer/songwriter with hits, Can’t be Tamed and Wrecking Ball. Actress, playing title role in Hannah Montana: “So many good plants, fruits, veggies to eat, you ain’t gottttta eat dead animals! Everything that goes into my body is aliiiiivvvve! To keeeep ME alive! Love this life!” Miley went vegan after making connections between the animals she shares her life with and the animals killed for her plate. “My friends were served blowfish at a sushi restaurant and I was grossed out… I know how intelligent they are; and I live with a pig who sleeps on my settee like a bad boyfriend… and so I won’t eat pigs… or any animals.”

18 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Miley Cyrus

have gone vegan

Ellie Goulding Singer/songwriter, Outside, Lights, Love Me Like You Do, Powerful: “I do intense workouts and complement my healthy lifestyle with a vegan diet… Vegan food can be scrumptious and easy… delicious and fun.”

British professional boxer (winning world titles in the Cruiserweight and Heavyweight divisions): “I watched a TV documentary about how animals are farmed and killed for us to eat. I saw all those cows and pigs and realised I couldn’t be a part of it any more. It was horrible. I made sure I could still obtain enough protein to fight and, once satisfied that I could, I stopped. I’m vegan and I’ll never go back.”

Jack Lindquist Top pro track-racing cyclist, vegan throughout his cycling career: “I realised how horribly my eating habits affected the planet and animals and I went vegan overnight. My diet allows me to recover more quickly, have more energy and less soreness after a particularly brutal workout.”

Travel and property broadcaster and writer, presents Channel 4’s award-winning show A Place in the Sun: Home or Away? “I’ve been vegetarian for over 30 years but only recently learned of the cruelty involved in producing dairy and eggs, which inspired me to go vegan. This would not have happened without the tireless campaigning and education from Viva!. As a mother, I feel that what happens to dairy cows and their babies is obscene.”

David Haye

Jasmine Harman

Globally successful film director, producer, screen writer – Titanic, Aliens, The Terminator, Abyss, Avatar: “The single biggest thing that an individual can do to combat climate change is to stop eating animals.” His diet is devoid of: “…a single molecule of anything that came from an animal. This includes meat, eggs, dairy, cheese and fish. I feel great, like I’ve set the clock back 15 years.”

célèbre

James Cameron

Michelle Pfeiffer Award winning actress in many films such as Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Batman Returns, The Family. Her dietary change was a pretty dramatic switch: “I was terrible,” she says. “I existed on cigarettes, Coca-Cola and coffee and I got away with that for a while.” Michelle then read the vegan health book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, and found it inspiring. “There is science behind going vegan and it is irrefutable. My father died from cancer and, the older you get, you see people struggling with dying with chronic disease. Going vegan makes sense and my cholesterol dropped dramatically within two months of dropping meat and dairy.”

viva.org.uk 19

The

Veganiser

By Jane Easton, Viva! Cookery Co-ordinator

Whittle down your waist and boost your health with these delicious vegan substitutes to your favourite foods ove to eat more healthily but can’t quite find the time? The hectic modern lifestyle needn’t mean suffering on the health stakes. Did you know that cutting out meat and dairy could cut your chances of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer – and could add years to your life expectancy? Of course, if you replace meat with

Traditional breakfast l Cereal with milk and fruit served with orange juice l Scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, cup of tea l Pancakes and maple syrup

Traditional lunch l Chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayo; yogurt; crisps l Chicken soup, bread, green salad and vinaigrette l Burger and chips

l Sausage Sarnie

Traditional dinner l Grilled salmon, boiled new potatoes with butter; asparagus with parmesan cheese l Spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread l Quiche Lorraine, chips and salad l Chicken Chow Mein l Chilli Con Carne l Bangers and Mash

chocolate éclairs and chip butties you’re unlikely to reap maximum health benefits! The key is choosing healthy meat substitutes, such as tofu and other ‘mock meats’, beans, lentils, whole-grain products (brown rice, wholegrain bread), dark green and deep yellow vegetables, soya milk and nuts. But going vegan needn’t mean learning enough new recipes to fill an encyclopedia.

Many familiar dishes such as spaghetti bolognese, chilli and stir-fries can easily be ‘veganised’ – made vegan! Most people have about seven or eight dishes that they cook regularly and, surprise surprise, vegetarians and vegans are no different. You can find all the recipes below on veganrecipeclub.org.uk.

Vegan breakfast l Cereal with plant milk eg soya/almond/rice and fruit, served with orange juice l Scrambled tofu, wholemeal toast, vegan sausage (eg Linda McCartney, VBites or Fry’s), cup of tea with plant milk of your choice l Pancakes (egg and dairy-free) and maple or agave syrup with fresh fruit Vegan lunch l Smoked tofu or hummus sandwich with lettuce, tomato and vegan mayo, eg Tiger Tiger or Plamil; fruity soya yoghurt (eg Alpro, Tesco, Sojade); piece of fruit. Or Avocado & Walnut Toast with Tomato, Coriander and vegan mayo l Vegetable or minestrone soup, wholemeal bread, green salad with low-fat dressing. Lots of chilled and tinned soups are suitable, just read the labels. Amy’s Kitchen range is very good l Vegan veggieburger in a wholemeal roll, chutney and vegan mayo with extra portion of salad – beanburgers are sold everywhere and are usually vegan. Fry’s make delicious ‘meaty’ style burgers – beef and chicken-style – in Holland & Barrett and other health food shops. Many burger outlets offer a vegan version, just ask! l Veggie Sausage Sarnie on wholemeal bread, tomato/brown sauce and salad – see above for brands, but also Dee’s, available from Ocado Vegan dinner l Grilled giant field mushrooms drizzled with olive oil, garlic and quality soya sauce (tamari or regular shoyu); boiled new potatoes with basil and black pepper; grilled asparagus with a drizzle of olive oil and nutritional yeast flakes or Violife melting block cheese l Veggie Bolognese (substitute frozen vegan mince for meat, eg Linda McCartney and most supermarket own-brands). Serve with crusty bread and green salad l Deluxe Vegan Cheese & Broccoli Quiche, baked potato or low-fat potato wedges and salad. Or Mama Cucina and vegan quiches (Holland & Barrett or online) l Tasty Veg & Tofu Stir-fry with Mustard Peanut Sauce l Viva!’s Classic Chilli Non Carne (substitute frozen vegan mince for meat), guacamole, rice and salad l Bangers and Mash – vegan sausages (see above for brands), mashed potatoes creamed with vegan margarine and soya milk; steamed greens and gravy

Find products in our Everyone’s Going Dairy-free guide viva.org.uk/everyones-going-dairy-free-guide and hundreds of recipes on the Vegan Recipe Club veganrecipeclub.org.uk. Or just make a start with the 30 Day Vegan, a month’s worth of recipes, health tips and more viva.org.uk/30dayvegan. 20 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Answers to the moﬆ irritating queﬆions When you go vegan, you may be subjected to a series of irritating questions – often by people who think they are brilliant and witty experts! At Viva!, we have heard them all before, so here’s some of our ripostes But what about the countryside, it would look weird without animals? What, if it was filled with all the animals and plants that were there naturally before livestock farming came along you mean?

How can you manage without bacon? I don’t really have any problem not chewing through inches of flesh and fat really, not when there are healthy, cruelty free versions available.

Why don't you just have a little bit of meat? Go on – I won't tell anyone, you know you want to… Have a veggie burger… go on, you know you want to.

I don’t eat much red meat, but chicken is ok because it’s healthy isn’t it? No chicken isn’t healthy… one chicken has the equivalent of a half pint of fat in it! Yum…

If animals weren’t happy, they wouldn’t put on weight. So if I imprisoned you in a tiny, concrete cell with nothing to do but eat, you’d lose weight?

Don’t you think that vegetables have feelings too? When you see a cabbage or a carrot running down the high street screaming its head off, call me. You’ll have just witnessed the first ever veg with a central nervous system.

You can’t eat anything can you? Do I look like I’m starving? Didn’t think so! I eat just about any meal you can think of – just without bits of animals in it! Cooked breakfast, lasagne, cottage pie, salad, spag bol, chocolate cake…

Why do vegans only care about animals? Eating meat is unsustainable – it’s killing the planet. By being vegan, I’m not just helping animals but the world and all the people on it. I’m happy to make an exception in your case!

What would happen to all the animals if we didn’t eat them? Millions of them every year would be spared a short, restricted life and a horrific, painful death. What’s wrong with drinking milk? It’s natural. So would you go up to a cow and suckle milk from her udders? No? Not so natural now? A dairy cow’s milk is meant for her baby, not humans.

But meat’s full of protein needed to build muscles. Yeah, which is why a gorilla – who eats nothing but veg – is so weak and feeble.

Chickens wouldn’t lay eggs if they weren’t suffering. That’s like saying you’d stop going to the loo if you felt hacked off.

viva.org.uk 21

The Ultimate Health Quiz (not really!) 1 4

You’ve scanned the science, followed the features and absorbed the advice – or have you? Do you know your sat fats from your free rads and your carbs from your cholesterol? Is your body now a temple or just an ancient ruin? Let’s find out…

You know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So what do you have…? a A good ol’ full English – bacon sausages, egg, lard-fried bread, black puddin’, toast and butter, tomatoes (well, that’s one fruit at least) on a generously-greased plate. b Breakfast cereal, sugar, cow’s milk and a pot of stewed tea. c Muesli with soya milk and fresh fruit and an air of righteousness.

You tell your mates you want to go vegan. They say: “But where will you get your protein?” You reply… a “Thank goodness I consulted you first – you’ve saved my life, doctor!” b “Nonker – you can get protein from almost anything that passes your lips…” c “Wherever Jerome Flynn and Tim Shieff get theirs from – maybe we could have breakfast together”.

5 2

What should you eat at least five portions of a day?

a Juicy fruit and voluptuous vegetables – squeezed, cooked or fresh from the green grocer’s with a papal blessing. b Oily fish, low carbs, paperclips, balls of wool… whatever the newspapers tell you to eat. c Mars bars. Your constipation means you need more fibre. Which is likely to get you going? a Anything with chopsticks. b Mounds of muscular meat for when push comes to shove. c Lovely lentils.

The cupboard’s bare so you decide to eat out. Where do you go?

a Your mum’s! She’ll rustle up a bowl of hot vegetable soup, check behind your ears and question the state of your underwear. b The local fast food takeaway. It doesn’t matter much which one so long as you can get back before Game of Thrones starts. c That place where the waiters make you feel like a peasant and expect a tip the size of your wage packet.

The candles are lit, the wine is chilled and seduction is in the air. But – aargh! – nothing stirs, not even a mouse. What ‘V’ can save you now? a Viagra. b Veganism. c A photo of Vladimir Putin in Speedos.

Add up your score!

1 a: 0 b: 3 c: 5 Muesli and fresh fruit are full of nutrients whereas the fry up is a heart attack on a plate.

2 a: 5 b: 3 c: 0 Obviously fruit and veg. If the newspapers told you to jump off a cliff, would you? 3 a: 3 b: 0 c: 5 What you need is fibre and meat contains none. Lentils are packed with the stuff. 4 a: 0 b: 5 c: 3 If you can find a vegan anywhere in Europe suffering from protein deficiency, you win a big clock. 5 a: 5 b: 0 c: 3 Anywhere – except fast food joints – but choose the right dish. At least your mum won’t demand a tip! 6 a: 3 b: 5 c: 0 A major cause of ‘erectile dysfunction’ is blocked arteries – linked to eating meat and dairy. A vegan diet can help reverse it so you’re up and at it again.

So, do you know your onions?! 26-30 When it comes to healthy eating you’re definitely more Martin Shaw than Ronald McDonald. Well done – you’re munching the right stuff.

0-11 You don’t know your carrots from your coronaries. Keep going and it won’t be a six pack but slack pack, not comely curves but bouncing bulges…? A nutritious diet can help you feel good inside and out, increase your stamina and boost your libido. Get to it!

22 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

12-25 At least you’re starting to think healthily! Think a bit more and you’ll be in with the in crowd.

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Our undercover exposés are changing the face of Britain. Every year, millions of people see the true face of animal farming because of us and they are changing their diet. Meat and milk consumption are falling. We have the brave undercover investigators who are prepared to go secretly in amongst this suffering – and we want to do more of it. By joining Viva!, your donation will help to keep up this vital work.

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Why you don’t need

dairy!

Juliet Gellatley, zoologist and nutritional therapist (and founder of Viva!) looks at the calamitous impact that dairy has on our health Drinking milk is unnatural ‘Hey, what!,’ you may be thinking, ‘drinking milk is as natural to people as purring is to a cat.’ Drinking milk is the most innate thing in the world – if you’re a baby and you’re suckling from your mum, that is. Like all 5,000 or so species of mammals, we have evolved to drink the milk of our mothers until weaned. But we are the only mammal (except those we control, like cats) to drink milk after weaning, and to drink the milk of another species! How would you feel if you saw your best friend suckling from their pet dog – or even directly from a cow, for that matter?

Ideal for calves not humans The composition of milk varies widely from animal to animal, providing the perfect first food for the young of that particular species. A seal’s milk is extraordinarily fatty (50 per cent) so that seal pups can grow quickly with a thick

24 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

layer of blubber to protect them from the cold. So it follows that cows’ milk is very different from human milk – so different that we’re told not to give it to a baby. For baby formula, it has to be changed to make it more like human milk. Cows’ milk has evolved to make a calf triple in size within a year to a whopping 300-400kg. We, by contrast, are the slowest growing land mammals on the planet, taking about 18 years to reach adult weight. Cows’ milk is too low in the ‘good’ fats that our babies need for fast brain development; and it is too high in the ‘bad’ saturated fats that a calf needs for fast body growth. But there’s more – cows’ milk is also high in damaging proteins and hormones linked to our babies being overweight or obese. Lactose intolerance Here’s a fact – over 70 per cent of the world’s population don’t drink cows’ milk. Most are lactose intolerant – for example, all Vietnamese and Thai, and most Chinese and Japanese – as they lose the enzyme needed to break down the sugar (lactose) in milk after weaning. If they drink milk, the main symptoms include diarrhoea, a bloated and painful stomach and, on some occasions, lethargy, depression, nausea and vomiting. Every hour is cocktail hour! In a typical glass of milk or bite of cheese,

there are 35 hormones and 11 growth factors, including IGF-1, oestrogen and progesterone, adrenal, pituitary, hypothalamic and other hormones. And as two-thirds of milk is taken from pregnant cows, levels are sky high. IGF wot not? IGF-1 stands for insulin-like growth factor -1, a hormone that controls growth and development in both cows and people but each species has very different rates of growth. It’s believed that cows’ milk makes us produce more of our own IGF-1, where even small increases raise the risk of several common cancers, including breast, prostate, lung and colon. Increased milk and dairy intake is linked to raised levels of IGF-1 whereas high vegetable consumption is linked to lower levels. Men with higher than normal IGF-1 levels increase their risk of advanced-stage prostate cancer five-fold. Recent science shows that increased dairy consumption is a major dietary risk factor for prostate and breast cancers. Pus in milk Milk contains pus – yes, that stuff that oozes from spots! Milk containing up to 400 million pus cells per litre is legally allowed for human consumption – even higher in goats’ milk. Pus is a product of the cows’ almost constant fight against bacterial invasion and some of it finds its way into their milk. We can thank intensive dairy farming for this as, at any given time, 30 per cent of British dairy cows have mastitis, a painful udder infection.

Dairy damns ‘dem bones! Most peoples of the world don’t drink milk and yet their bones are strong. Yet we in Northern Europe and the US are encouraged to drink milk for strong bones and we do, drinking more than almost anyone else. And yet we have the highest levels of osteoporosis. The World Health Organisation explains it: “The paradox clearly calls for an explanation. To date, the accumulated data indicate that the adverse effect of protein, in particular animal (but not vegetable) protein, might outweigh the positive effect of calcium intake on calcium balance.” Cow’s milk is not the best source of calcium as our bones benefit more from plant sources (see page 55). Weight-bearing exercise such as walking, running and dancing is vital for healthy bones, as is a diet with plenty of fruit, veg, wholegrains, pulses, seeds and nuts, and then lifestyle factors such as stopping smoking. To protect your bones – use ‘em or lose ‘em! Mending a broken heart Every two minutes, someone has a heart attack or stroke in the UK. It starts gradually as arteries become furred with ‘plaques’ – a thick sludge formed from cholesterol and other substances. Heart disease occurs when arteries carrying blood to the heart become blocked. Animal protein and animal fats found mainly in dairy (hard cheeses, cream, ice cream, milk chocolate and butter), red and white meats and eggs, as well as hydrogenated fats in junk foods, raise ‘bad’ cholesterol levels. Heart disease is largely caused by our lifestyle – a bad diet based on dairy, eggs and meat, lack of exercise and smoking. Not cool for kids Acne (it’s the hormones in milk again), asthma, colic, eczema, ear infections and obesity are all linked to dairy. So is most

childhood anaemia, caused by intestinal bleeding resulting from milk allergy. Childhood diabetes (type 1) is increasing dramatically in younger children, with early exposure to cow’s milk and infant formula a recognised trigger. What was once called ‘adult onset’ diabetes (type 2) is now a disease of children. Lack of exercise and poor diets are to blame. Fourcheese pizzas do us no favours! Milk – the wrong stuff Drinking milk is cruel – it’s also unnatural. Designed for calves, many humans find milk hard to digest and the result is discomfort and pain. Hormones in milk are linked to cancers such as breast and prostate as well as the teenage scourge, acne. Its proteins are linked to type 1 diabetes and allergies. The saturated fat, cholesterol and, again, animal protein it contains are linked to heart disease, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes and many other diseases. Despite relentless claims by the dairy industry, milk is neither the only nor the best source of calcium and even increases bone fracture rates. Beans, lentils, broccoli, kale, watercress, nuts, seeds, soya and other plant foods are far better and healthier sources. Ditching dairy products has never been easier as supermarkets and health food shops now stock a wide selection of delicious and nutritious dairy-free alternatives to milk, yogurt, ice cream, margarine and cheese!

In the know WHY YOU DON'T NEED DAIRY £2.50 (INC P&P) A guide to the impact of milk on health and explains its links to ‘Western diseases’; includes the life of dairy cows, calves and goats and tells you where to get calcium. Referenced. EVERYONE'S GOING DAIRY-FREE £2.00 (INC P&P) Discover the delights of dairy-free cuisine with our new step-by-step guide. Informative and easy-to-read, it includes 20 mouth-watering dairy-free recipes as well as helpful shopping and cooking tips. WHITE LIES REPORT £5.50 (INC P&P) If you want to know the science behind the damage dairy does, look no further! This 124-page health report reviews over 400 research papers on dairy and health.

Order online at whitelies.org.uk/ materials or call 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9-6)

viva.org.uk 25

But what hat do you eat?” Ask any vegan that question and they’ll either look at you in astonishment or laugh out loud! If you’re not yet vegan, what do you eat at the moment? Pies and pasties, bangers and burgers, nuggets and nachos, rashers and roasts, fingers and fillets, chilli and chop suey, pizzas and pasta, curry and cold cuts? Well, that’s what vegans eat too but without a trace of animal products in them – plus a whole variety of other delectables. There are so many tasty, affordable, easy-toprepare vegan foods available, you’ll be speechless – not from shock but from cramming them into your mouth. Pop to a supermarket or go to a health food shop and go wild in the aisles! Look for the ‘Suitable for Vegans’ or similar on the packet. Or, really useful, shop online with Ocado and put ‘Vegan‘ in ‘Search’ – hundreds of products appear. And try a site such as goodnessdirect.co.uk, search ‘Vegan’ for pages of food products. More ideas are in Viva!’s Everyone’s Going Dairy-Free and L-Plate Vegan.

can 1

eat?

Rise and shine!

Use a plant milk you enjoy instead of cow’s or goat’s – soya, almond, coconut, rice, hazelnut, hemp, oat and other varieties. Look for ones fortified with vitamin B12 and calcium. On your cereal, add some raisins, sliced banana, berries and ground flaxseed for extra flavour and valuable nutrients. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon instead of sugar – delicious! Smoothies are a delicious way to increase your fruit intake. Blend any fruit you have with a plant milk or dairy-free yoghurt. If you’re feeling brave, add vegetables too – try kale, carrot or avocado! If you like a full-English, then it’s time to rattle those pots n pans! There’s a variety of vegan sausages (Linda McCartney, VBites, Fry’s) and bacon rashers (VBites, Tofurky). Serve with all the trimmings – fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, scrambled tofu, hash browns and toast. Hardly deprivation, is it?

Many breakfast cereals are vegan. For a list see veganrecipeclub.org.uk/ breakfastcereals

See our epic breakfast video veganrecipeclub.org.uk/veganbreakfastfilm for lots more tasty ideas

Snack attack! THE HEALTHY OPTIONS Get fruity! Fruit is full of antioxidant nutrients and makes the perfect nibble. Go nuts! Beautiful nuts, seeds, single or mixed up. They are bursting with goodness, high in protein, fibre and vitamins and minerals. They are one of the best energy boosters around! Cereal bars. Some are rich sources of nutrients – just avoid those with added dairy (yoghurt or butter) and sugar or honey. SAVOURY OPTIONS Vegetable samosas, falafels, onion bhajis, vegetable spring rolls. Then there are crackers smeared with vegan cream cheese (Tesco, Sheese or Tofutti) or patés in a tube (Tartex and Granose). Or

try vegan pesto, artichoke hearts in jars/tins, sundried tomatoes, olives. Dips like hummus and tomato salsa are great for dunking – try carrot sticks for starters. Many crisps are vegan (read the packets) – and value tortilla chips are usually vegan as well as tasty and – erm – good value! Or make an instant vegan tzatziki by mixing plain vegan yoghurt (Alpro, Tesco, Sojade) with garlic purée. SNEAKY TREATS Yes, there is also vegan junk food out there… don’t panic! Try the many vegan biscuits, chocolate and cakes around (just avoid those with egg, animal fat, gelatine, milk

powder etc). Free From shelves in supermarkets are a good place to start – though not all FF products are vegan so read the labels. Value biscuits are often vegan and Lazy Day on the FF shelves aren’t cheap but they are lush. WHERE CAN I BUY THEM? Just about everywhere: supermarket health food and free from shelves; health food shops and pound shops. Surf Viva!’s L-Plate Vegan viva.org.uk/L-plate-vegan or 30 Day Vegan viva.org.uk/30dayvegan for lots of snack ideas, healthy and junky! And Veganoo has a regularly updated list of all vegan edibles. Online stores such as vivashop.org.uk are a great source of vegan confectionary.

Bake-out? It’s so easy to make nice vegan cakes! Try veganrecipeclub.org.uk or the Viva! Cookbook for a host of delicious muffins, cakes, tray bakes and such 26 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Sunday roast. Making it yourself? Go to veganrecipeclub.org.uk or the Viva!Cookbook for tons of nice roast dinner ideas

Dinner-time

Let’s do lunch

Vegan cooking can be easy and fun. Try pasta with lots of lush vegetables – broccoli, mushrooms, olives, grilled red peppers, garlic, chopped vegan sausages or hot dogs, tofu… Stir-fry them in a wok, add some herbs, mix in a jar or tub of pasta sauce – many basic tomato/tomato and basil sauces are already vegan – and sprinkle with grated vegan cheese or nutritional yeast flakes. Delish! Noodles, rice and other grains also make great bases for meals. Some are precooked and microwavable or boil in the bag, too. Make a stir-fry from freshlychopped veg or a ready-made bag of stir-fry veg from the supermarket. Add tofu, peas, seitan or whatever you fancy plus a jar of ready-made stirfry sauce. You could also whip up a curry from many ready-to-go sauces – korma, balti, rogan josh etc. Just check these have no added dairy. If you fancy a meat alternative, Quorn vegan chicken pieces, Fry’s chicken or beef-style strips, VBites Chicken-style pieces are all good. Try soya mince or chunks (in almost all

supermarket freezers). The mince works well in shepherd’s pie, chilli, spaghetti Bolognese, the chunks are better in stews and such. If you prefer a more wholefood option, use pulses – kidney beans, aduki beans, lentils – there are lots of different types and they are full of protein, iron and other goodies.

Sandwiches: home-made are delicious. Try falafels, hummus, mock-meat slices (VBites ham, chicken, turkey, beef from Holland & Barrett and Ocado), thinly sliced smoked tofu or vegetable pâté… just add salad for more crunch! Or… l Smashed avocado on toast with tomato, black pepper and a sprinkling of salt and lime. l Sliced beetroot and red onion with a smear of Marmite. l Vegan cheese with pickle, onion and tomato. There are too many combinations to list here – let your imagination run riot! Or just go to veganrecipeclub.org.uk and search for ‘sandwich’! Buddha Bowls – are a big hit and easy to make too. Pile in cooked, cold wholegrains like rice or quinoa (you can buy these pre-cooked in pouches if you’re in a hurry), a protein source like It just gets easier and easier and more fresh soya beans or chickpeas or lentils delicious. Pret a Manger, Wagamama, Toby or vegan sausages, then add in salad Carvery, Wetherspoons, Pizza Express, veggies, avocado slices, artichoke Zizzi’s, Yo Sushi, Nando’s, Giraffe, Las hearts, sundried tomatoes, cooked Iguanas, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Jamie’s asparagus, grated carrot, chopped Italian etc – most major chains offer vegan peppers… anything you like for a food now and it’s growing all the time. sumptuous, three-minute feast! Drizzle Then there are independents. And pubs. with a tasty vinaigrette and go for it. Oh, and Indian (try a selection of vegetable Baked potatoes with fillings: curry, side dishes with rice and a bread), Thai (do dahl, baked beans, grated vegan not use dairy, but coconut milk instead cheese, vegan sausages, tomato so almost always vegan options), Most salsa… or Amy’s tinned chilli. Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, of all enjoy There are ready-made vegan Middle Eastern, North African – pots (some Pot Noodles and being vegan. It we just can’t keep up! Visit a Aldi’s own brand noodle pots), is a celebration pub or restaurant’s website or ring them up for advice. Or as well as delicious snacks of food and search My Vegan Town such as Easy Bean Thai life! myvegantown.org.uk, Yelp, Happy Edamame Curry (Ocado). Cow and other websites.

More on eating out

Know how eryone’s ev

going

Dairy-free!

The handy guide for dairy-free living, including delicious recipes and shopping tips

the pocket guide to animal-free shopping

L-Plate Vegan

£2

l Viva! Cookbook, £9.99 Definitive, wonderful, vegan crème de la crème of recipe books! vivashop.org.uk/ vivacookbook

l L-PLate Vegan, £1.90 Pocket sized shopping guide viva.org.uk/L-plate-vegan l Everyone’s Going Dairy-Free, £2 Recipes, shopping tips and eating out made easy viva.org.uk/everyonesgoing-dairy-free-guide

l veganrecipeclub.org.uk – hundreds of online recipes and ideas l viva.org.uk/30dayvegan – inspiration, recipes, tips on going vegan for a month

£1.90

viva.org.uk 27

Deliciously Vegan 16 mouth-watering Viva! dishes

e have some scrumptious recipes for you on the following pages – delicious dishes, some with meat substitutes, some where we’ve given dairy the push, and they’re all the better for it, and some desserts that will make your toes curl with delight – and not one has a single animal product in it. We start with some delicious main courses that are fast and fresh, would grace any table and make the most discerning foodies smack their hungry lips in delight.

Recipes by Jane Easton, Viva!’s Cookery Co-ordinator Photography by the talented Chava Eichner

Viva! Cookbook Straight from the heart – Viva!’s best selling cookbook is jammed with crowd-pleasing and easy-to-make plant-based recipes. From globallyinspired soups; fresh salads with a twist; hearty ‘meaty’ and beany mains; tasty sauces from scratch; veganised versions of your favourite cheese recipes and 45 delicious sweet recipes. A colour picture for every recipe. Here’s just a taste: Grilled Aubergine & Coriander Chutney, Spicy Seitan Sausage, Luscious Two Pear Salad with Balsamic Dressing, Ricottastyle Soft Cheese, Quesadillas with Guacamole & Lime Sour Cream Dip, Cashew Butter Shortbread, Strawberry Tarts and Medjool Dates with Cream Cheese and Sherry Sauce. By Jane Easton. PB, 308pp. £9.99 plus £1.90 p&p From vivashop.org.uk/vivacookbook

28 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Mediterranean Wild Mushroom Pie SERVES 6 | 50 MINUTES INCLUDING BAKING TIME This year I’ve spotted selection trays of amazing wild mushrooms in my greengrocers. Discovering the names is almost as much fun as cooking them: Shiro Shimeji, Golden Enoki, Eryngii and Pink Oyster. Aim for an exotic mix as the different flavours and textures make this tart a very special centrepiece. l 1 (500g) block of vegan shortcrust pastry (eg JusRol) l 1 large onion l 2 tbsp vegetable oil l 1 fat clove garlic, crushed l 200g/7oz squash or pumpkin, in small pieces l 2 small courgettes, cut in thin slices

l 250g/9oz wild mushrooms, halved or sliced l Large handful fresh parsley, chopped l Salt and pepper l 100ml/3½fl oz dairy-free cream (eg Oatly or Alpro) l 2 tbsp sundried tomato paste

1 Roll out pastry and grease and line a 10in loose-bottomed baking tray. Trim excess pastry and blind bake (see below) for 15 mins at 200˚C/400˚F/Gas mark 6. Remove baking paper before filling tart. 2 Cut onion in half and slice finely. Sauté in vegetable oil for 3-4 mins. Add crushed garlic and squash and cook until squash begins to soften. Add splash of water if necessary. Add courgettes, mushrooms and chopped parsley. Stir and season with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. 3 Mix cream with sundried tomato paste and stir into pan. 4 Adjust seasoning and transfer filling into pastry shell. Bake for a further 20 mins until pastry is golden brown. * To blind bake, line baking tray with pastry, covering base and sides. Place baking paper over it and weigh down with ceramic baking beans or dried pulses.

Tony’s Leek & Almond Pie SERVES 4-6 | 30-40 MINUTES INCLUDING BAKING TIME This goes well with just about anything – a simple and very tasty comfort dish. It’s especially nice with broccoli or spring greens and roast potatoes. l 3 medium large leeks, cut lengthways then sliced into 2cm/1 inch pieces l 2 tbsp olive oil l 2 medium onions, cut in half lengthways then sliced thinly l 2 cloves garlic, crushed l A little oil l 1 sheet ready-rolled shortcrust pastry (JusRol, Aldi or Sainsbury’s and most brands unless it says ‘butter pastry’!)

l 4 heaped tbsp nutritional yeast flakes l 25g/1oz ground almonds l Good pinch of ground nutmeg l Soya, oat or other vegan single cream, ½ a carton l ½ tsp salt l Lots of black pepper l 2-4 tbsp flaked almonds

1 Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 – 15° less if fan-assisted. 2 Soak leeks in cold water then place in a colander and run under cold tap. Shake, drain and set aside. 3 Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Sweat onions and garlic for 2-3 mins, until softening. Add leeks and cook gently until soft enough to eat – about 5-10 mins. Add splash of water if they stick and stir occasionally. 4 Meanwhile, grease a 22cm/9in oven dish about 3cm/1½in deep. Gently place sheet of pastry into dish and trim the edges. 5 Pierce pastry base with a fork, cover with baking parchment or greaseproof paper and weigh it down with baking beans. 6 Cook for 10 mins (called ‘baking blind’) – prevents base from going soggy. Remove from oven, remove baking beans and paper. 7 Reduce the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 (15° less if fan assisted). 8 Add yeast flakes, ground almonds, nutmeg, salt and pepper to the onion/leek mixture. Stir in vegan cream and mix well. Adjust seasoning. 9 Spoon filling into pastry dish and distribute evenly. Scatter flaked almonds over top and bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Check almonds don’t burn. 10 Serve hot.

viva.org.uk 29

Dauphinoise Potatoes SERVES 6-8 | 70 MINUTES It’s always amazing when a recipe with so few ingredients turns into such a delicious dish. The aroma of baking garlic cream is mouth-watering. Perfect as a side dish or with your roast. l 1.2kg/2½lbs potatoes l 350ml/12fl oz dairy-free cream (eg Oatly or Alpro) l 350ml/12fl oz soya milk l 3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed l Pepper, salt, nutmeg 1 Peel potatoes and slice finely, preferably with a mandoline cutter, or cut with a sharp knife. 2 Blend vegan cream, soya milk and crushed garlic in a large pot. Season and add a generous grating of nutmeg. 3 Add potatoes and stir gently until slices are evenly coated with sauce. 4 Transfer into large oven-proof dish and flatten the surface. Pour remaining cream over and bake at 180˚C/350˚F/Gas Mark 4 for 60 minutes. If not golden brown, bake a little longer. With a sharp knife, check if potatoes are soft before serving. TIP Potatoes absorb a lot of the seasoning so you may need to add a little more salt.

White Nut Timbales

TO BUY THE VIVA! COOKBOOK SEE PAGE 28

MAKES 6 | 45-50 MINUTES These timbales make an unusual and very attractive Christmas centrepiece. They’re lovely with a full-flavoured tomato sauce or rich red onion gravy… and of course all your festive trimmings. Vegan smoked cheese is widely available now, as Bute Island Sheese make the dairy-free range for Tesco. l 45g/1½oz vegan margarine l 1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped l 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed l 100g/3½oz pine nuts, finely chopped l 125g/4oz white breadcrumbs l 1 lemon l 60g/2oz smoked vegan cheese, grated l 280g jar (170g drained weight) sliced artichokes in olive oil, drained and chopped

l 200g/7oz ready-cooked and peeled chestnuts, all but 3 chopped l Salt and freshly ground black pepper l 1 quantity of egg replacer (e.g. Orgran’s No Egg) l 2 tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley, sage and thyme l 6 sage leaves

You will need a baking tray lined with non-stick sheet, and 6 cutting rings (7.5cm/3in) lined with baking parchment. 1 Heat the margarine in a pan, add onion and garlic and sauté for 5 mins. 2 Add pine nuts, breadcrumbs, rind and juice of half the lemon, cheese, artichokes and chestnuts. Season and stir in the egg replacer and herbs. 3 Divide the mixture between the rings. Firmly press down and smooth the tops with a palette knife or the back of a spoon. Cut the remaining lemon into slices. Arrange half a lemon slice, half a chestnut and 1 sage leaf on top of each. Cover and chill until needed. 4 Set the oven to 200°C/400˚F/Gas Mark 6. Bake timbales for 15-20 mins. TIP Using a food processor will save a lot of time when you make fresh breadcrumbs as well as for chopping the pine nuts, chestnuts and artichokes. Use quick bursts to retain some bite and texture.

30 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Sausages with Apple Mustard Mash & Red Onion Gravy

FROM THE

SERVES 4 | 30 MINUTES Red Onion Gravy: l 2 tbsp vegetable oil l 2 red onions l 1 large sprig of fresh rosemary l 350ml/12fl oz vegetable stock l 2 tbsp soya sauce l 1 level tsp brown sugar l Salt l Optional for a fuller flavour – ½ tsp marmite or glug of port Apple Mustard Mash: l 750g/1lb 10oz peeled potatoes l 2 tsp stock powder l 2 large eating apples l 1-2 tbsp dairy-free margarine l 1 heaped tbsp wholegrain mustard l Dairy-free milk l Vegan sausages for 4 (VBites, Linda McCartney, Fry’s) 1 For the gravy, peel onions and cut into thin wedges. Sauté slowly in vegetable oil over gentle heat. Stir occasionally for about 10 mins until soft and starting to caramelise. 2 Add rosemary, vegetable stock, soya sauce and brown sugar. Simmer for a further 5-7 mins and season to taste. 3 While gravy is cooking, chop potatoes into 1in/2cm pieces. Peel apples, remove cores and cut into quarters. Boil potatoes and apple in enough water to just cover. 4 Stir in stock powder and cook until soft. 5 Mash thoroughly and add margarine, mustard and enough dairy-free milk to give a smooth consistency. 6 Heat sausages according to instructions. Serve on a bed of mashed potato and ladle gravy over.

One of the fastest growing areas of food manufacturing is meat-like products suitable for vegans. They’re both home grown and imported from Europe and the US and are capable of imitating the taste and texture of a whole range of traditional dishes, if that’s what you want. Pies and pasties, roasts and rashers, schnitzels and slices – the range is growing almost daily. Try these recipes for size – you’ll love ‘em.

viva.org.uk 31

Almost Instant Chilli SERVES 3-4 | 20 MINUTES Try our cheat’s version here – or if you have a bit more time, try our fantastic recipe veganrecipeclub.org.uk/recipes/chilli-non-carne-2 (veggie mince and a jar of Bolognese sauce make a quick and tasty Spag Bol, too!) l Rice for 3-4 plus lots of hot water, a little salt and stock. For speed, use pre-cooked rice in pouches, 2 for 4 people l One pack of stir-fried veg – onion, mushroom and peppers plus anything else you like l 2 tbsp plain oil l 1-2 tsp garlic paste l ½ pack veggie mince (Linda McCartney, Tesco, Sainsbury’s or Asda own-brand) l 1 large jar of Chilli sauce (Santa Maria brand’s Fajita sauce) l ½-1 tin black beans or kidney beans

l 100g or small tin of sweetcorn l Fresh chopped coriander – handful or two l Salt and lots of black pepper Optional extras l 1 tsp each of cumin and paprika or smoked paprika cooked with the veggie mince l 1 tbsp nut or seed butter (peanut, tahini or cashew) cooked with veggie mince for a subtle, creamy taste l Vegan plain yoghurt or vegan sour cream to serve

1 Put rice on to cook or have pre-cooked rice ready to go in microwave. 2 Heat oil in a medium saucepan or wok and stir-fry vegetables. Add garlic paste a minute or so before end of cooking and stir. 3 Add veggie mince to veg mixture and stir. Add spices and nut butter if using, stirring well to combine. Pour in sauce, beans, sweetcorn and allow to heat through. 4 Microwave rice while finishing the chilli. Taste chilli and adjust seasoning. 5 Spoon rice on to plates with chilli on top. Sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve hot. Add vegan yoghurt or vegan sour cream if using (eg Tofutti Sour Supreme). Vegan yoghurt is widely available (Alpro, Sojade or Tesco brands). Vegan sour cream is available from some health food shops or online from Goodness Direct. Or it’s quick to make yourself – search ‘sour cream’ on veganrecipeclub.org.uk for two quick recipes – silken tofu or cashew-based.

Cheesy Polenta Slices with Stir-fried Brussels Sprouts, Wild Mushrooms & Sage SERVES 4 | 30 MINUTES This simple but sophisticated dinner uses Brussels sprouts in a creative way, a far cry from the soggy Christmas nightmare! l 450g/1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and shredded finely l 250g/9oz mushrooms, sliced chunkily (mix of oyster and chestnut or regular mushrooms l 2 tbsp olive oil l 2 slabs ready-cooked Polenta

(Italfresco brand in a packet from Sainsbury’s, Tesco) l ¾ cup grated vegan melting cheese (Violife) l A handful of chopped fresh sage l Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Pre-heat grill or oven to very hot – 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7. 2 Slice polenta in half lengthways then cut four squares per half – 8 in total. 3 In a wok or large pan, heat half the olive oil. Stir-fry shredded Brussels sprouts and mushrooms until browned. Add shredded sage and cook briefly. 4 Meanwhile, place polenta slices on an oiled baking tray and drizzle with remaining oil. Add grated cheese on top, place in oven and bake briefly until cheese starts to melt. 5 Remove from oven, place on plates and top with mushroom and Brussels sprout mixture. Sprinkle with snipped sage, salt and lots of black pepper. Serve hot.

32 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Vegan Pizza SERVES 2-4 | 20 MINUTES l 1-2 pizza bases, Napolina or other vegan brands l Pizza topping from a jar – or tomato-based pasta sauce l 3 medium mushrooms, sliced l ½ small red pepper, cut into thin slices l Other veg of choice: sweetcorn, olives, tinned artichoke hearts (halved), thinly-sliced onions l Olive oil l 3 tbsp grated melting vegan cheese (Violife, VBites Melting Mozzarella/Melting Cheddar, from supermarkets, Holland & Barrett or health food shops) l Freshly ground black pepper 1 Preheat oven to temperature on pizza base packet, around 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. 2 Slice vegetables thinly. 3 Spread pizza base with topping, add vegetables and cheese on top. 4 Bake for 10-15 mins or until vegetables are cooked and cheese melted.

viva.org.uk 33

Thai Sweet Potato Cakes MAKES 10-12 | 60 MINUTES Aromatic spices transform the humble sweet potato into an attractive and mouth-watering meal. Easy for a midweek dinner and stunning as part of a special celebration meal or buffet. l 750g/1lb 10oz sweet potatoes l 1 tbsp finely grated ginger l 2 cloves garlic l 1 tbsp finely chopped lemongrass l ½ medium red chilli, finely chopped l 1 level tsp salt l 1 large onion, chopped l ½ pepper, finely chopped

l 100g/3½oz gram flour (chickpea flour) l 1 tsp ground cumin l 10g fresh coriander, chopped l 3 tbsp sunflower seeds For the coriander mayonnaise: l 3 tbsp roughly chopped coriander l 3 tbsp dairy-free mayonnaise (eg Plamil)

1 Peel and cut sweet potatoes into chunks. Boil for 20 mins or until tender. Drain and mash roughly with a fork. 2 In a pestle and mortar, crush chopped lemongrass, garlic, grated ginger, chilli and salt until smooth. 3 Sauté onion and pepper pieces until softened. Add spice mixture and stir for a couple of mins. 4 Add mashed sweet potato, coriander, sunflower seeds and chickpea flour and combine well. Allow mixture to cool. 5 Shape 10-12 round cakes with wet hands, as mixture is sticky. 6 Line baking tray and brush it with vegetable oil. Place cakes on tray, brush with more oil and bake in a preheated oven at 190˚C/375˚F/Gas Mark 5 for 25 mins. Alternatively, shallow fry in a non-stick pan. 7 For the coriander mayo, crush chopped coriander in pestle and stir in mayonnaise. 8 Serve Sweet Potato Cakes with coriander mayo, new potatoes and a green salad. TIP These cakes will become firmer when they’re cold and are perfect party finger food.

Cauliflower Tabbouleh SERVES 8 AS A SIDE SALAD | 10 MINUTES Tabbouleh (or Tabouli) has a wonderfully fresh flavour. It’s usually made with couscous or bulgur but this wheat-free version is a lovely alternative. You could use more herbs but I really enjoy the subtle flavour of the cauli couscous. Feel free to vary and experiment with the quantities. l 500g/1lb 2oz cauliflower l 1 tbsp water l 1 tbsp olive oil l 75g/3oz fresh parsley l 20g/¾oz fresh mint l 1 red onion, finely chopped l 15 cherry tomatoes, quartered

l ¼ cucumber, in small pieces l 10-12 kalamata olives (optional) l 3 tbsp olive oil l Juice of 1½ lemons l Sea salt l Pinch of sugar

1 Wash and roughly cut cauliflower into chunks. Place them into a food processor and use pulse function until you have coarse grains, about the size of couscous. 2 Place chopped cauliflower into large saucepan with oil and water. Keep stirring well and gently sauté until tender. Set aside to cool. 3 Chop herbs finely and place in a serving bowl, together with chopped onion, cherry tomatoes, cucumber pieces and olives. 4 Stir in cauliflower, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste and serve chilled.

34 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Shallot & Chestnut Pie SERVES 4 | 60 MINUTES This lovely recipe can also be made with butter beans or vegan chicken style pieces – improvise! l 50g/1½oz margarine l 1 heaped tbsp plain or wholemeal flour l 200ml/7fl oz ale or bitter type beer (search barnivore.com/beer for vegan beers) l 100ml/3½fl oz strong vegetable stock l 1 tbsp tomato puree l 250g/9oz shallots l 2 tbsp vegetable oil l 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced l 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

l 250g/9oz chestnut mushrooms, sliced l 100g/3½oz small button mushrooms l 100g/3½oz vacuum-packed chestnuts (e.g. Merchant Gourmet) l 5 prunes, finely chopped l 1 tsp dried thyme l 1 tsp dried rosemary l 1 sheet of ready-rolled vegan shortcrust pastry (Jus-Rol, Sainsbury’s, Aldi) l A little unsweetened soya or almond milk

1 Melt margarine and stir in flour for 2-3 mins. Add stock and ale, a little at a time to start with and whisk for a smooth, thickened sauce. Stir in tomato purée and set aside. 2 Peel and quarter shallots and sauté in the vegetable oil slowly over low heat until soft. 3 After 5 mins, add sliced carrots, garlic and 3-4 tbsp water. Cover and simmer for a further 5 mins, adding more water if needed. 4 Add both types of mushrooms, chestnuts, prunes and herbs. Increase heat and cook a further 5 mins. Pour prepared sauce over and combine. 5 Spoon pie filling into a large ovenproof dish (or smaller, individual ones). Cover with pastry, trim off excess and crimp edges. 6 Cut a cross in middle to let steam escape and decorate with pastry shapes. Brush with plant milk. 7 Bake in a preheated oven at 200˚C/400˚F/Gas Mark 6 for 30 mins or until golden.

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Teriyaki Tofu SERVES 4 | 2 HOURS 45 MINUTES This salad is brimming with delicious, zingy flavours as well as lots of vitamins and minerals. A fabulous way to boost your calcium and iron intake. Marinade l 5 tbsp dark soya sauce l 3 tbsp maple syrup l 1 tbsp mirin or cider vinegar l 1 medium hot chilli l 1 large garlic clove l 1 tbsp grated ginger l 1 tsp cornflour l 5 tbsp water l 3 tbsp oil

36 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Main ingredients l 400g/14oz firm tofu (eg Cauldron) l 3 blood oranges l 100g/3½oz watercress l 1 red onion, thinly sliced l 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds l ½ tsp ground cumin l ½ tsp ground coriander 1 Wrap tofu in several layers of kitchen paper. Place on a plate with a chopping board and heavy weight on top (I use cookbooks!). Press tofu for an hour. 2 In the meantime, make the marinade by blending all ingredients together and heating slowly in a saucepan until thickened. Add a splash more water if too thick. 3 Cut drained tofu into four triangles. Slice each triangle into halves lengthwise. Place pieces in a dish and coat with marinade. Cover and set aside for an hour.

4 Transfer tofu to a tray lined with baking parchment (retaining leftover marinade). Bake in preheated oven at 180˚C/350˚F/Gas Mark 4 for 25 mins or until browned. 5 Drizzle ½ tsp of vegetable oil over pumpkin seeds, stir in cumin and coriander. Spread seeds on a tray and roast for 15-20 mins, turning occasionally. 6 While tofu and seeds are roasting, cut off orange peel. Slice oranges into thin slices and arrange on a plate with watercress and sliced red onion. 7 Place hot tofu on top, sprinkle with the seeds and drizzle with remaining marinade. TIP The texture of pressed tofu is so lovely it is worth the extra effort. Prepare extra marinated tofu – it will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days and makes a wonderful sandwich filling.

Brunch Omelette with Smoky Garlic Mushrooms SERVES 2 | 20 MINUTES The basic omelette recipe is ideal for a variety of different fillings. This mushroom and pepper option is super quick and full of punchy flavours from the smoked paprika and garlic. A tasty, nutritious brunch or midweek dinner. For the filling l 2 spring onions l 1 tbsp olive oil l 125g/4oz mushrooms l ½ green pepper l ½ red pepper l 1 fat clove garlic, crushed l ½ tsp smoked paprika l Salt and pepper l Chives or parsley

For the omelette l 175g/6oz firm silken tofu l 2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes l ¼ cup/5 tbsp chickpea flour (also known as gram or besan flour) l 1½ tsp cornflour or arrowroot l ¼ tsp turmeric

l Large pinch smoked paprika l ½ tsp Himalayan ‘black’ salt (adds an ‘eggy’ flavour) or regular salt l 1 tbsp olive oil plus a little for frying l 3 tbsp aquafaba (see page 39)

Fo ll ow your h ea rt A vegan egg replacer that you can whip to make scrambled eggs. Enough for about 12 batches and can also be used in baking as a binder. £6.99 plus £3.95 p&p from the Viva! shop: vivashop.org.uk/ veganegg

1 For the filling, cut mushrooms and peppers into bite-sized pieces and slice spring onions finely. 2 In a large pan, heat oil and quickly fry the onion, mushroom and peppers. Season with crushed garlic, smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Stir in chopped parsley or chives and set aside. Keep warm while you make the omelette. 3 Place all the omelette ingredients in a blender or food processor and whizz until everything is smooth and lump free. 4 Heat a medium, non-stick saucepan and add 1 tsp olive oil. When the oil is hot, pour in just under half a cup of the mixture and swirl around (like a pancake) to distribute. 5 Cook for a minute or so until firm then turn and cook the other side. TO SERVE Place the omelette on a plate, spoon over half the garlic mushroom filling and fold over. Sprinkle with chopped, fresh herbs.

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Viva!bocker Glory SERVES 1 | 3 MINUTES – ADJUST QUANTITIES ACCORDINGLY l Fruit sauce OR 4 tbsp jam thinned with a little water (strawberry or raspberry are good) l 2 scoops vegan ice cream per person, eg Swedish Glace l Fresh fruit – banana, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple chunks, mango l Vegan whipping cream (Whiptop or Soyatoo) l 2 tsp grated vegan chocolate l Optional: 1 tsp toasted slivered almonds or hazelnut pieces NB Lyle’s Squeezy Butterscotch Sauce; Askeys Goes Crackin' Chocolate Sauce; Sainsbury’s Squeezy Strawberry Sauce; Sainsbury’s Raspberry Coulis are all vegan. 1 Drizzle one third of fruity sauce in bottom of sundae glass. 2 Place one scoop of ice cream, followed by layer of fruit. 3 Repeat until you reach the top, leaving some fruity sauce for the topping. 4 Squirt or pipe cream on top, add grated chocolate, another squirt of fruity sauce and sprinkle with nuts. Eat immediately.

All the gorgeous recipes on these pages are taken either from Viva!’s Vegan Recipe Club or the Viva! Cookbook. The Vegan Recipe Club has hundreds of great recipes for every course and every kind of cookery – and it’s growing all the time. Simply go to veganrecipeclub.org.uk. The Viva! Cookbook contains 145 delicious recipes all with a host of information about each one – whether freezable, the time needed, who it’s suitable for and so on. There is a full colour picture for every recipe. To find out more, go to vivashop.org.uk/vivacookbook.

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Aquafaba Chocolate Mousse SERVES 6-8 | 30 MINUTES PLUS CHILLING TIME OF 4-6 HOURS (OR OVERNIGHT) – QUANTITIES CAN BE HALVED A most unlikely substance, that you would normally pour down the sink, makes a perfect substitute for whisked egg whites and can be used anywhere they would. Its grand name is Aquafaba; its mundane name is tinned chickpea water. We kid you not, it is the water that chickpeas come in. l 200g/7oz dark vegan chocolate l 100ml/3½fl oz coconut cream – Waitrose or Blue Dragon (not creamed coconut in a block nor tinned coconut milk) l 200ml/7fl oz aquafaba – the liquid drained from tinned chickpeas. Depending on the brand you may need 1-2 tins. Save the chickpeas for another day l 110g/4oz caster sugar l 1 tsp vanilla extract l Pinch of salt l Vegan cream (Alpro or Oatly) to serve TOP TIP Most dark chocolate is vegan but check. Cocoa butter is vegan. Aldi and Lidl sell good value, quality dark chocolate.

1 Melt chocolate and coconut cream together in a glass bowl over pan of boiling water (bowl must clear base of pan). 2 Remove bowl from heat and allow to cool. Stir in salt and vanilla extract. If chocolate splits into lumps and oil, add a few teaspoons of water and stir – it will go creamy again. 3 Whisk the aquafaba in a glass bowl with electric mixer until frothy. 4 Slowly add caster sugar one tbsp at a time, whisking each time until it forms stiff peaks. This will take about 20 mins. 5 When chocolate is cool, whisk to remove any lumps. With a large metal spoon, gently fold in the aquafaba. Stir gently, avoiding a whisking motion, to prevent meringue from collapsing. 6 Transfer into glasses or coffee cups and chill for 4-6 hours. 7 Serve with vegan cream and boozy soaked fruit or fresh berries.

FROM THE

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Vegan egg replacers What

How much

Best for

Available from

Egg replacer eg Ener-G Egg, Follow Your Heart VeganEgg or Orgran

1½ tsp + 2 tbsp water – use as directed on the packet

Biscuits/cookies – items that are crispy. VeganEgg for scrambled egg

Health shops, supermarket free from/speciality food shelves. VeganEgg from vivashop.org.uk/veganegg

Soya flour

4 tsp mixed with 2 tsp water to form a paste

Cakes, muffins, cookies and other squidgy things. Nut loaves, savoury burgers

Health food shops

Gram flour (also called chickpea or besan flour) with regular flour

2 tbsp gram flour for every 350g regular flour. Sieve well as it is prone to lumps

Pancakes, nut loaves and savoury bean or lentil burgers

Large supermarkets, ethnic grocers and health food shops

Ground flaxseed (also known as linseed)

1 tbsp ground to a powder and mixed with 3 tbsp warm water. Let it sit for a few minutes until it turns glutinous – often called a flax egg!

Pancakes, bran muffins, cakes, breads, oatmeal cookies, burgers or nut loaves. Best to use only 1 egg’s worth in any recipe, otherwise the taste can be too strong

Ready-ground flaxseed eg Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett etc. Can also be sprinkled on cereal and smoothies for a nice omega boost! Store in the fridge

Silken tofu

55g/scant 4 tbsp/¼ cup mixed with ½ tsp baking powder

Cakes or other moist recipes – not biscuits or pancakes (makes them too heavy)

Large supermarkets, ethnic grocers and health food shops

Apple purée

60g/4 tbsp/¼ cup mixed with ½ tsp baking powder as a raising agent

Cakes, quick breads and brownies – moist items, not crispy

Health food shops or supermarkets

Banana

½ a medium-large banana, mashed thoroughly

Good in loaf or banana bread as well as quick breads, muffins, brownies, most cakes and pancakes

Everywhere!

Sweet potato

1 small sweet potato, peeled, cubed, steamed until soft then mashed to a purée

Use like apple purée or banana

Greengrocers and supermarkets etc

Soya yoghurt

4 tbsp – or 500ml if making our fantastic big sponge cake!

Makes things moist, so good in quick breads, cakes, muffins, ie not biscuits or anything crispy

Alpro or Provamel plain yoghurt from supermarkets and health food shops; Sojade or Sojasun from health food shops

Baking powder and vinegar

1 tsp baking powder & 1 tbsp cider vinegar – mix together and add to the cake mix immediately

Cakes, cupcakes, fruit cake and quick breads

Supermarkets and health food shops

Aquafaba (canned chickpea water, whisked)

Liquid from one can (salt-free works best)

Meringues, marshmallows, macarons, mayonnaise, mousse

Everywhere!

Eggs are used to do two jobs: bind a mixture together and make it rise. These replacers do the binding job (except the Aquafaba). To make cakes rise a bit more, use a little extra baking powder and/or bicarbonate of soda – anything from 1-4 tsp, depending on the type and size of cake and whether plain or self-raising flour is used. See our cake recipes at Viva!’s veganrecipeclub.org.uk for more specific guidance.

Oreo, Marshmallow & Peanut Butter Sarnies SERVES: 10 | 5 MINUTES Ingredients l 20 Oreos (most are vegan, even Poundland’s), 10 regular-sized vegan marshmallows or 20-30 mini ones – Freedom or Ananda brands from health food shops or online from Viva!, Goodness Direct, Realfoods l 5 tbsp salted natural creamy peanut butter, warmed until spreadable 1 Place an oven rack on second-highest position and heat grill to high. 2 Place 10 Oreos on baking sheet and top with marshmallow. 3 Grill for 1-3 mins until toasted golden brown. 4 Remove from grill. Top each Oreo with ½ tbsp peanut butter then make a sandwich with second Oreo. 5 Scoff immediately.

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Tony Wardle takes a look at the global environment and finds that animals are...

Eating us out of house and home ick an environmental problem – any one, anywhere. The chopping down of forests is an obvious start. Perhaps the relentless spreading of deserts or maybe the disappearance of plant and animal species – called loss of biodiversity. Then of course there’s global warming. What do all these and many other environmental problems have in common? Animals, that’s what; the animals bred for meat and dairy – livestock. How can animals chomping away have such an enormous impact? There’s over 70 billion of them slaughtered each year and they eat a lot – a heck of a lot and this is the key to the problem. For every kg of meat protein an animal produces it eats on average 10kg of good quality vegetable protein and most is used solely to run its bodily functions. That’s why livestock demands 70 per cent of all the world’s agricultural land, either for grazing or to grow fodder to feed on. The one problem that has been endlessly talked about – but has had little effect – is deforestation, which is happening all over the world. An area more than twice the size of Belgium is still disappearing every year and for what – for meat and dairy livestock and the Amazon typifies it. Of all the cleared Amazonian land, 70 per cent is used for grazing cattle and the other 30 per cent is used for growing soya beans to feed to cattle, pigs and chickens.

Europe imports 16 million tons of soya from this region alone every year and much more from elsewhere and it is all fed to animals. Every burger, pork chop, rasher of bacon and chicken wing eaten directly contributes to the destruction of the world’s precious forests. The very nature of the great forests is amazing, with different plants and animals occupying the three different levels – the

sloth hanging beneath a branch with a baby holding on to her fur. Or you might hear a terrifying roar but discover it is only a troupe of little howler monkeys and if you go too close they will poo into their hands and throw it at you – and they never miss. It’s not surprising when you discover that most of the planet’s plant and wild animal species are concentrated in these forests and as the trees disappear so do they – at a rate 100 to 1,000 times faster than could naturally be expected, according to fossil records. This ancient world is a mystery to most of us and yet the rasping buzz of chain saws has already destroyed huge swathes of it across the globe.

of all cleared Amazonian land, 70 per cent is used for grazing cattle

42 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

forest floor, the lower, shaded parts of the trees and the canopy, up in the sunlight. Here is nature in perfect balance as every leaf, twig, branch and tree that falls to the forest floor; every dribble of urine and dollop of poo; every dead animal is composted and absorbed into the soil which then feeds the trees in a neverending cycle. I am lucky enough to have spent some time in different types of forest – cloud, temperate and rain forests. They are remarkable places. You might kick over a stone to see a little worm-like snake appear – a banded coral snake, deadly poisonous but too small to bite you. Look Livestock demands 70 per cent of all the world’s agricultural land, carefully and you might see a either for grazing or to grow fodder to feed on

If that were not tragedy enough, the soil on cleared rain forest land is shallow as tree roots remain near the surface where all the nutrients reside. When turned over to farming, this land quickly degenerates and requires huge inputs of fertilisers before gradually but remorselessly turning to desert. We have entered another of the world’s periods of great extinctions but this one is entirely man made. Impoverished nations of the world, such as Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, are all struggling with environmental problems due to over grazing of animals for affluent markets. In these arid and semi-arid regions of the world, agricultural land has degraded by 73 per cent. Across the rest of the world, even in wealthy nations such as ours, it has degraded by 49 per cent and animal agriculture carries most of the blame. We are farming destructively and unsustainably. Reports keep pouring out about the drying up of the United States as reservoirs such as Lake Mead reach their lowest levels in history and the huge underground Ogallala aquifer, that has taken thousands of years to naturally fill, is running on empty. Again, it is animal farmers who are mostly responsible, using around 440 gallons of water to provide a pound of beef. And vegetables? They take just 20 to 30 gallons. It is a problem repeated across the globe and it is predicted that by 2025, 64 per cent of the world’s population will be water stressed – one third of them in absolute water scarcity. Reports of the advance of deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs keep pouring out and doctors are heralding the end of the

most important antibiotics – in effect returning us to pre-war days when infections killed large numbers of people. When this finally happens, almost all surgery will carry huge risks of infectious diseases. Fingers of blame are pointed almost everywhere but at the real culprits – animal producers. All the recent strains of antibiotic-resistant superbugs have come from farmed animals – not surprising really when you realise that 50 per cent of all antibiotics in the UK are given to farmed animals. In the US, it is 80 per cent and bacteria, of course, know no national boundaries. The situation is made much worse by many countries siting intensive pig farms alongside chicken farms, allowing bugs from birds, such as bird flu that would not normally infect humans, to pass to pigs and then to us because genetically, we are much closer to them. And then, of course, there is global warming. Our government went into overdrive about air travel and imposed an environmental tax on it. You would think on have the potential to make life on earth extremely difficult but global warming is potentially the most deadly – and perhaps the most immediate. It will eventually lead to yet more mass extinctions and could make life extremely difficult for humans – impossible for many. Humankind has not acted as a guardian of this planet but as a vandal, destroying it in an orgy of consumption in which meat and dairy are major culprits. You can distance yourself from this devastation immediately simply by changing your diet. Millions have already done it so go on, join us!

animal farming accounts for 18 per cent of all greenhouse gases aircraft were the primary source of greenhouse gasses (GHG) when in fact they contribute only 3.5 per cent of the total. Did they impose a tax on meat and dairy? Of course not, even though it produces five times more than air travel. In fact animal farming accounts for 18 per cent of all GHG, more than all transport combined – trains and boats and planes, cars and lorries, which come in at 13.5 per cent. All the environmental issues I’ve touched

viva.org.uk 43

Soya

you r d n e bes t f r i

Q Is soya healthy? A Yes. Soya – is an excellent source of protein, essential fats, health-

protective antioxidants, B vitamins and iron. Many soya products, such as milk, are fortified with calcium and vitamin B12. There are other important nutrients, too.

Q What does it do for you? A Soya lowers cholesterol and protects heart health. It can also help to reduce menopausal symptoms (hot flushes) and may lower the risk of osteoporosis. Latest research shows it may reduce the risk of hormone-related cancers – breast, endometrial and prostate.

Q But does it give you man boobs? A No – it’s a myth based on a few animal experiments with massive doses of plant hormones (phytoestrogens). The oestrogen in dairy and meat are thousands of times stronger than those in soya. There is no evidence that soya affects sexual development or reproduction. Millions of people have been safely consuming soya for thousands of years.

Q Is soya safe for babies?

A Yes – soya-based infant formula can be used safely in place of breast milk, meeting all a baby’s nutritional needs. For 40 years, tens of millions of US babies have been reared on soya formula with no ill effects.

Q Does is affect thyroid function? A If you’re healthy, your thyroid Q Are soya mock meats healthy? A Tofu, miso, tempeh and soya milk contain more

functions properly and you get enough iodine in your diet, soya is extremely unlikely to affect thyroid function.

fibre, vitamins and minerals than the extracted soya protein used in mock meats. But soya burgers, sausages and ‘cold cuts’ are still a healthier option than actual meat.

Q But it destroys the rain forest! A Some 75 per cent of the world’s soya is fed to meat and dairy livestock. Most of the rest is used in dozens of mainstream products such as meat pies and pasties. Vegans and veggies account for a tiny proportion of soya consumption, most of which in the UK is usually responsibly sourced and GM free.

More at vivahealth.org.uk/soya and viva.org.uk/soya-destroying-planet 44 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Viva! reviews a handful of the best vegetarian and vegan eateries. For hundreds more, go to My Vegan Town, our directory of where to eat, shop and stay. myvegantown.org.uk Acorn Vegetarian Kitchen, Bath

1847, Bristol, Birmingham, Brighton and Manchester

acornvegetariankitchen.co.uk In a league of its own, Acorn deservedly won Viva!’s 20th anniversary award for Best Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurant. Small, relaxed and friendly and the vegan food… exceptional! Our beautifully-plated starters included a light carrot and cashew pâté with spelt crisps and delicious white onion soup. Mains were bursting with flavours: smoked field mushrooms on a salted celeriac pureé and golden baked baby potatoes, all doused in a zingy chervil and mustard sauce. Desserts were out of this world! Salted chocolate tart with peanut butter sorbet – deliciously rich. Paper thin slices of pineapple carpaccio and spoonfuls of creamy, aniseedy fennel and coconut sorbet. Modern vegan cookery at its best.

By1847.com A small chain of vegetarian/vegan restaurants with an elegant feel. 1847 has four menus; á la carte, taster, Sunday lunch and express lunch. The mushroom and walnut pâté was deliciously delicate. Fish ‘n’ chips went down well – fried tofu, with chunky chips and mushy peas. Dessert – port poached pear with gingerbread and mulled wine gel. Three courses £25.

q Delicious food from restaurant, 1847

Mildreds, London mildreds.co.uk In Soho and Camden, we visited Soho. A mix of café chic and top class food at incredibly reasonable prices. You can’t book but at 2.30pm I was seated immediately. The cocktail menu was tasteful, imaginative and good! Food is first rate, with plenty of vegan options. I began with trulytasty chargrilled artichoke hearts, followed by Sri Lankan sweet potato and cashew nut curry with yellow basmati rice with peas and coconut tomato sambal. Delicate, delicious, delightful. For dessert, passion fruit and coconut mousse cake with passion fruit syrup – five stars for presentation alone!

Encourage restaurants to provide vegan choices, leave this card when you eat. Order cards from: vivashop.org.uk/ i-ate-here-business-cards

Mono, Glasgow monocafebar.com Glasgow is often cited as the new vegan capital of Britain and Mono is just one of the many all-vegan eateries in the city. Set in an airy, open room – you’ll find a trendy, yet friendly, welcome. The menu is an eclectic mix, from the likes of To-fish ‘n’ chips, mushy peas with mint and tartare sauce to a wide array of pizzas (all with vegan cheese, of course!). And who could resist cheesecake with oreo and chocolate fudge sauce? A chilled vegan treat.

Wildebeest, Falmouth wildebeestcafe.com Wildebeest Café & Bar, in the heart of Falmouth’s bustling harbour, is a vegan heaven amidst the glut of ‘catch of the day’ eateries. This cosy spot features lovely seasonal dishes, most sporting a Mexican and Japanese culinary flare – from aromatic Hoisin Seitan Cucumber Rolls to a Mex Mix plate with artfully arranged dollops of salsa, guacamole, refried beans, cashew cheese and cornon-the-cob, served with handmade tortillas. Like its namesake, Wildebeest serves up innovative vegan food that’s a little on the wild side – sink your spoon into BBQ pineapple and black pepper sorbet and free your taste buds!

Maitreya Social, Bristol cafemaitreya.co.uk Maitreya, like a fine wine, gets better and better. Five star food at very reasonable prices. It is a cosy, friendly café, with outstanding vegan options beautifully presented. Charred chicory, pickled pear, butternut squash and pistachio dressing (delicious), followed by burnt leek, pressed bean curd, black garlic, kimchi and lime vinaigrette (super delicious). I ended with sticky toffee cornbread, stem ginger ice cream and salted caramel popcorn. Visit it – regularly!

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THE emotional LIVES OF ANIMALS Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson ll animals, with the exception of the human animal, are as intelligent as they need to be to survive and thrive – as almost all animal scientists acknowledge. Gone are the bad old days when people wanted to know what animals are the most and least intelligent. There is now also a general recognition that all animals are far more intelligent than most humans were prepared to admit – with a few honorable exceptions, Darwin amongst them. The number of scientists who accept that animals have emotions very much like our own is increasing by the day. When I published When Elephants Weep some 20 years ago, almost all people who lived with animals were prepared to believe that they could feel sadness, disappointment, happiness, joy; could mourn, could feel compassion and behave in an altruistic fashion. Many scientists were sceptical but that has changed dramatically because the evidence is everywhere.

I now intuitively accept that th ere are many animals wh o ha ve deep feelings greater or beyond our own Floyd was a pig living at the wonderful Farm Sanctuary in California along with all his siblings. For complicated reasons he was sent to another beautiful sanctuary called Animal Place. Floyd went straight into the barn and would not emerge and would not eat. He was introduced to Penelope, a young sweet pig, but he would not play and went into a deep depression. Eventually, his original care giver came to see what was wrong and the moment he saw her, his whole demeanour changed. He smelled her, looked relieved and was alive with emotion, squealing with delight. He then raced to her hire van, jumped in the back and waited to be taken home, all depression gone. His heart was sick away from his own home. Now that we accept animals have complicated emotional lives, it’s time for the next step. I now intuitively accept that there are many animals who have deep feelings greater or beyond our own. This is much harder for people to take in. Hatred is a common human emotion yet there is no parallel in the community of whales. In the 20th century alone, humans have killed more than 200 million of their own kind. During this same period, no one knows of a single case where that other great predator, the orca, has ever killed another orca in the wild.

46 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Is it possible that elephants mourn their dead as much, or more, as we mourn our dead? I believe it is. See the works of Cynthia Moss and recent studies by Gay Bradshaw (Elephants on the Edge). Can any human claim to be as friendly as a dog? The emotions associated with friendship are hyper-developed in dogs and they want to stop and socialise with every other dog they meet. This is far rarer in humans. Loyalty, faithfulness and universal kindness are common in dogs; rare in humans. There has been an explosion of academic interest in dogs, where their intelligence and emotions are explored in ways that nobody thought possible even just a few years ago. The ancestors of our modern cows are almost extinct in the wild but they are not that different to domesticated cattle today. Evolution has prepared a mother cow to behave in certain ways towards her young – everything designed to protect the vulnerable calf. She will naturally hide her young, who has little scent for the first few days of his or her life to reduce the risk of attracting predators. When a mother cow cannot lick her calf to enhance this lack of scent, cannot feed it and cannot be in its presence night and day, it produces mental and psychological stress, perhaps only understood by women who lose their children at birth. And yet the babies of all dairy cows are taken away from them shortly after birth! Science also recognises that there is hardly any difference in the behavioral needs of the ancient, free-living

jungle fowl and our own domestic hen. Producers have attempted to crush their spirit, denying them the instinct to roost in a tree – how can she roost when she is in a cage with 80 other birds, unable even to spread her wings? But we have not managed to crush her spirit and we see this if she is ever able to escape from her prison. She will roost and dust bathe and scratch the ground as her wild cousins do, in their case hoping to find delicious bamboo seeds. No one expected to see this behaviour in domesticated chickens, not because it doesn’t exist but because we have a distorted view of them. Their actions on release are no more artificial than those of humans released from prison camps. To end, let me put out a tantalising possibility: is there a chance that some animals feel some emotions that we do not even know about? For if we don’t know the emotion, how can we know that animals may have what we do not recognise? Jaak Panksepp, one of America’s leading neuroscientists, strongly believes in the existence of emotions in animals. He has no doubt that human and animal brains are wired for dreaming, anticipation, the pleasure of eating, anger, fear, love and lust, maternal acceptance, grief, play and joy. When I look at my dog Benjy (about whom I have written a book called The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving) when he appears to be lost in contemplation, I cannot help wondering: is he feeling something beyond my ability to recognise or even imagine? Perhaps a specific type of satisfaction connected to living with a best friend, as if he were saying: “I am doing exactly what I want to do now, and being exactly where I want to be, with my special family, the one that is half dog and half human. Aah, life can be good!” I would not be surprised. Maybe one day we will find a new way to communicate with dogs and other animals, who can then tell us what we do not know. I imagine it is quite a bit.

Maybe one day we will find a new way to commu nicate with animals

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is the author of some 29 books, 12 of them about animals, including Dogs Never Lie About Love and When Elephants Weep, both of which sold more than one million copies internationally, as well as The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats; Raising the Peaceable Kingdom; The Face on Your Plate, and most recently: Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us about the Origins of Good and Evil. Viva! stocks several of these titles – go to vivashop.org.uk

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… t u b n a eg v o g a n n a w I We put some common questions posed by vegans-to-be to those in the know! Q I want to go vegan but I’m addicted to milk chocolate… Justine: You’re not alone! Chocolate is the most craved food in Western societies, particularly among women, hence the term ‘chocoholic’. The high levels of fat and sugar in milk chocolate, along with ingredients such as caffeine and theobromine, can trigger reward pathways in the brain, in a similar way that alcohol, cigarettes and drugs do. However, you don’t have to go cold turkey with chocolate! There’s lots of delicious vegan chocolate and we have reviewed the best here viva.org.uk/chocolate (someone had to do it!). These include ‘milk’ and ‘white’ chocolates but if you want a treat and to be healthy – stick with the occasional dark, high-cocoa choccie – it contains polyphenols which improve cardiovascular health.

Q I worry about hostile meat eaters – what do you say? Jane: ‘Oh, I’ve got some reaaaaallly interesting undercover footage of factory farms and slaughterhouses, would you like to see it?’ (with a sweet innocent smile). ‘Do I look like I eat boring food?’ ‘Oh, I eat everything you do, only nobody dies!’ Or if they order meat or fish then apologise, I say ‘apologise to the cow/chicken… not me’.

can do. Viva! has a Catering Guide viva.org.uk/vivacatering-guide and recipe club veganrecipeclub.org.uk so I’ll mention those if they need inspiration. A tip: most Thai restaurants use coconut milk, not dairy and so have vegan dishes, as do Chinese; Indian veg side dishes with rice and breads is nice; Pizza Express have a delicious vegan pizza and places like Yo Sushi have vegan options.

Q My boyfriend is worried – will going vegan affect his sex drive?! Juliet: Maybe it’s you who should be worried – it could make him very hot! Meat is not macho! Neither are eggs and dairy as they all clog arteries and are a major cause of slowing blood flow to all the body’s organs – including those that are vital in bed. A good vegan diet, on the other hand, promotes energy and is associated with healthy, virile sperm! It also contains none of the animal fats, cholesterol or hormones that are in meat, eggs and dairy. Vegans are, on average, fitter and slimmer than meat-eaters and get much less heart disease, strokes, certain cancers, diabetes and obesity.

Q I don’t like having to ask about menus – how do

Q I’ve got high blood pressure, will going vegan help? Veronika: Yes! Going vegan can bring high blood

you deal with the embarrassment? Jane: I don’t get embarrassed any more. I’m a customer who deserves equal treatment to everyone else! The more you talk to restaurant staff about veganism, the more confident you get. People are usually interested and if they’re not, there are plenty of other restaurants. I often check the menu out first – by phone, email or via their website or a site like myvegantown.org.uk, Happy Cow or Trip Advisor. Or I chat to the waiting staff and ask them to ask the kitchen team what they

pressure back to normal. Saturated and trans fats are the main dietary culprits involved in damaging and narrowing blood vessels so cut out the main sources – meat, eggs and dairy. Make sure you eat plenty of fibre-rich foods (fruit and vegetables, wholegrains and pulses), small amounts of healthy fats (flaxseed, almonds, walnuts, olive oil) and soya (soya milk, tofu, edamame) which helps to lower cholesterol. Don’t forget a daily vitamin B12 supplement and make regular exercise a part of your lifestyle. Limiting salt, sugar and alcohol is also a good idea!

48 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Panel

Juliet Gellatley, founder & director of Viva!

Dr Justine Butler, Viva! senior health researcher

Veronika Powell MSc, Viva!Health campaigner

Jane Easton, Viva! Cookbook author

Cancer… cut your risk

One in two of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. Why is it rampaging out of control and how can we fight it? To find the answer to these seemingly intractable questions, Juliet Gellatley (Viva! founder) talked to Professor Mustafa Djamgoz, Professor of Cancer Biology at Imperial College, London, and co-author of the book Beat Cancer (with Viva! Patron and geochemist, Professor Jane Plant).

“W

elcome Juliet, please have a seat”. Professor Djamgoz proffers a chair in what appears to be a storage room packed floor to ceiling with boxes, papers and books. I jokingly ask if it is his office – it is! “But I can find anything within two minutes!” he smiles. We’re in Imperial College, arguably the

world’s best university for science. Mustafa was a neurobiologist for over 20 years before turning his sharp and brilliant mind to fighting cancer. He has published more than 200 scientific papers, won several awards, including the Huxley Memorial Medal, and been awarded the Freedom of the City of London.

This eminent cancer biologist calls for all cancer patients, particularly those at high risk, to go vegan. In his foreword to Beat Cancer, Professor Sir Graeme Catto, president of the College of Medicine and former president of the General Medical Council, wrote: “I recommend the book highly, not only to cancer patients but u

viva.org.uk 49

also health professionals… I hope they read it and take on board its key messages to help us all beat cancer.” In fact, UK academics are publicly acknowledging that a vegan diet helps to protect us from cancer and that high levels of meat and dairy are linked to colorectal, oesophageal, bladder, breast, prostate, gastric, ovarian, kidney and pancreatic cancer – amongst others. This is truly a eureka moment. Although many of us develop cancer, our chances of survival have improved, particularly with early diagnosis. Beat Cancer shows that prevention is becoming a reality and explains what you can do to boost your odds of beating cancer. Divided into 10 self-contained steps, it helps us to understand what cancer is, how to prevent it and how to manage it when diagnosed. I found the book empowering and fascinating.

cancer so dangerous and most cancer deaths are from the metastatic disease, not the original tumour. This is why early detection and vigilance are so important,” says Mustafa. Solid cancers develop in three stages: initiation, promotion and progression. Initiation – when the genes that control cell reproduction are damaged, for example by tobacco smoke or red meat. Promotion – when the damaged cells multiply to form a primary tumour. Progression – when the primary tumour develops further and starts to spread. Crucially, promotion is not inevitable. Imagine the initiated cells as seeds, needing the right conditions to grow – water, nutrients, sunlight – otherwise they lie dormant. Cancer-prone cells also need certain conditions to grow and multiply and this cancer promotion is linked to high levels of growth factors in the bloodstream. In the case of hormone-dependent cancers, it is oestrogen and testosterone. In fact, oestrogen levels directly participate in the cancer process. They are contained in meat and eggs but 60 to 80 per cent of all oestrogens consumed are from cow’s milk and dairy products. Mustafa tells me: “Oestrogen is very hard to break down naturally, it passes from cows’ milk to us and is not destroyed by pasteurisation, nor are some growth factors.”

VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), strongly implicated in the spread of cancer and hence a target for cancer drugs. VEGF also has a vital role in fighting infection by making tissue more permeable, enabling the movement of white blood cells to areas of infection. In the UK, one-third of dairy cows at any given time have the udder disease, mastitis. Their natural VEGF is vital in fighting this so, unsurprisingly, it is found in their milk. Milk is not the only culprit as colon cancer development, for example, is linked to a high intake of red and processed meat, the latter now classed as a carcinogen by the World Health Organisation.

Bad diet, bad genes Astonishingly, humans have only 22,000 genes, whilst a banana has 36,000! How? Why? Because 98 per cent of our DNA is made of regulatory proteins that determine which genes are expressed (turned on) and About cancer to what extent. Just because you have a It is not a single disease! There are more than gene, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be 200 types, some driven by hormones, others turned on. We are influenced by our not and they vary in how fast they grow and environment in this. Mustafa explains: spread – and there is no single treatment that “Think of genes as a string of lights. We works for all of them. used to think that cancer happened when Cancer rates vary wildly across the one or more lights in a string was world and can be divided into cancers of damaged but we now know that some affluence or of poverty. In the West, lights can be turned up (up-regulated hormone-related cancers, such as breast genes) or turned down (down-regulated and prostate, are amongst the most genes), switched on or off or somewhere common. In poorer nations, cancers caused in between”. by stomach, liver and cervical infections So, we now know that cancer are more prevalent. There are depends not just on individual also differences between East and In a typical glass of milk there are 35 genes but on the interaction West as Mustafa explains: hormones and 11 growth factors, including between genes, determined by our “Prostate cancer rates in IGF-1, oestrogen and progesterone, lifestyle and environment. Mustafa Japanese men are one of the lowest in the world yet when they gonadal, adrenal, pituitary, hypothalamic mentioned a stunning trial that demonstrated the power of food move to the West and eat a and other hormones in turning on and off genes. Western diet, their risk rapidly Dean Ornish MD, Clinical rises to the same level as the Professor of Medicine at the University of locals. It cannot be wholly genetic but is Milk – it’s got the lot! California, showed that early stage related to lifestyle.” A cow is milked for seven months of her prostate cancer could be reversed by diet In fact, the World Health Organisation nine-month pregnancy and then again and lifestyle changes. Conducted with say 30-40 per cent of cancers are shortly after giving birth, ensuring her milk world-leading microbiologist, Craig Venter, preventable by a change in diet. contains many biologically active molecules. the trial discovered that after only three In a typical glass of milk or bite of cheese, months on a vegan diet, over 450 cancer Cells behaving badly there are 35 hormones and 11 growth genes had been down-regulated and 48 Cancer is our own cells behaving badly. factors, including IGF-1, oestrogen and protective genes had been up-regulated. Beat Cancer explains how we are made of progesterone, gonadal, adrenal, pituitary, Patients with otherwise untreated, early more than 100 trillion tiny cells, most of hypothalamic and other hormones. prostate cancer were put into remission. which are constantly reproducing Beat Cancer gives helpful tables showing Grow, grow, grow themselves. “Cancer happens,” says what foods to eat, advocating a healthy, IGF-1 stands for insulin-like growth factor Mustafa, “when the systems go wrong and varied vegan diet filled with organic fresh 1 – a hormone that controls growth in both cells multiply in an uncontrolled way.” fruit and veg, nuts and seeds, pulses and cows and people, although each species has Healthy cells divide up to 70 times wholegrains. We should vastly limit very different rates of growth. IGF-1 in before dying but cancerous cells can divide alcohol, coffee, refined sugar, refined oils cows’ milk can cross our intestinal wall and indefinitely. Their molecular brakes don’t prepared at high temperatures, foods enter our blood where, it is thought, it work and they lack the mechanism that containing preservatives, colourings and encourages our body to produce more of triggers cell suicide. They invade artificial flavourings. And most definitely our own IGF-1. Even small increases raise surrounding healthy tissue and can spread get rid of salt! the risk of several common cancers, to other areas of the body (metastasise) via including breast, prostate, lung and colon. the bloodstream or lymph vessels: Another dangerous growth factor is “It is the ability to spread that makes continued on page 62

50 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

MEAT IS NO MIRACLE FOOD Poor diet has now overtaken smoking as the world’s biggest killer and red meat is in the frame as a culprit. But still it is pushed as being good for you. Is this just clever marketing or are vegans really missing out? By Dr Justine Butler, Viva! senior health researcher et’s be clear – meat does not contain any magical or unique properties. Yes, red meat does contain protein, iron, zinc, phosphorus and B vitamins – but it also contains unhealthy saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones and haem iron, which is implicated in some cancers. Red and processed meat also contains chemical compounds linked to cancer and almost entirely missing are carbohydrate, fibre, antioxidant vitamins and calcium. Red meat isn’t just beef but includes meat from sheep, pigs and horses while processed meat includes sausages, bacon, ham, salami and pâté. Chicken is considered white meat. The World Health Organisation says processed meats cause cancer and red meat probably does, too. The World Cancer Research Fund say: “Eat mostly foods of plant origin, limit intake of red meat and avoid processed meat.” That means no sausages or bacon – ever! Their advice is based on sound research showing how meat increases the risk of bowel cancer but it can also up your risk

of pancreatic and stomach cancer as well as type 2 diabetes. Research from Oxford University found that cancer incidence was 11 per cent lower in vegetarians and 19 per cent lower in vegans and a huge US study (Adventist Health Study II) came to similar conclusions. Research in the British Journal of Nutrition found that people who ate the most processed and red meat were more

two days’ worth at 144g! Of course, you could reduce your risk even more as well as your cholesterol and blood pressure simply by dropping meat altogether. We have no need for meat in our diet as what nutrients it does contain are all available from plant foods that don’t contain harmful levels of fat, hormones or carcinogens (for details on protein, iron and vitamin B12 – see page 54). Compared to meat-eaters, vegetarians weigh less, have lower cholesterol and blood pressure, less type 2 diabetes and a 32 per cent lower risk of heart disease. The University of Cambridge’s Institute of Public Health say if the number of vegetarians doubled, there would be less heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bowel cancer and other cancers. The government does recommend eating less saturated fat and more ‘good’ fats from avocados, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils and spreads but, despite overwhelming evidence, it is not Government policy to drop or even reduce meat consumption. Science or vested interests I wonder.

meat contains chemical compounds linked to cancer and almost entirely missing are carbohydrate, fibre and calcium likely to die earlier from heart disease or stroke than those eating the least. Chicken is no healthier, with selective breeding and intensive factory farming having doubled the amount of fat in chicken meat. Government advice is still to encourage meat eating but says eat no more than 70g of red meat a day – a quarter-pounder is 78g, one sausage and two rashers of bacon are 90g and a medium steak is more than

viva.org.uk 51

In the dead of night Viva! goes undercover to expose the British pig industry. Director, Juliet, gives a harrowing, personal view of her investigation of a farm in Norfolk I don’t find investigating factory farms easy. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve clambered over fences in the dead of night, I always feel a sickness in my belly. It’s not just that I know what I’m going to see, it’s because I’m frightened for the safety of me and my colleagues – I’m not that brave! My work has allowed me to look into the eyes of the animals who are incarcerated; who have known nothing but a life of relentless, gnawing pain and utter frustration. My hope has always been that by exposing the reality of these hellholes, people will change – and they are! After a tip-off about a pig farm, Necton Hall, Norfolk, we visited in the black early hours. The doors of the first shed were wide open and the lights on. I walked inside followed by a cameraman who was to interview me about the desperate life of pigs. It was one of the most difficult experiences of my life because I could feel the emotions of the animals all around me. The shed was filthy and drab, festooned in cobwebs. A corridor ran through it, with mother pigs locked in crates on both sides. I stopped by one and looked at her abused body lying on a hard and unforgiving floor. The number 503 was crudely painted on her back. She looked at me, then at her dead piglet, who she tried to nuzzle through the metal bars that imprisoned her. In her eyes was a story of emotional and physical pain – an animal completely neglected by society, exploited over and over again. How many times had she been raped, made pregnant, given birth and had her babies stolen from her in this hell hole? Birth is supposedly magical but not when it takes place in a cage just inches bigger than the mother’s body. What should be beautiful becomes horribly obscene. To me, this cruelty is unbearable. In another shed, pig faeces littered the gangways between pens of growing pigs, moved into groups after forcible, early weaning. Seemingly without any sense of irony, a sign on the front of the farm told visitors they were entering a ‘sterile environment’. It would be difficult to imagine a less sanitary place. Pigs are highly intelligent animals and

52 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

ASSAULT AND

BATTE Watch Viva!’s shocking undercover footage at viva.org.uk/faceoff and see what the industry doesn’t want you to. Please think about joining us so we can continue to fight for the animals viva.org.uk/join farmers are required to provide some kind of ‘environmental enrichment’ in these dirty, wooden-slatted pens, devoid of bedding. And there it was – a ball! In the wild, pigs spend their days exploring their woodland homes, snuffling for food, playing with family and roaming up to 15km a night. In this place, the little piglets already had despair stamped into their expressions. In these desperate, intensive conditions animals can resort to cannibalism. One terrified animal lay at the back of a pen, immobile as another chewed on his leg. His pain and terror were unimaginable. The image of this one pig’s face still haunts me. Elsewhere, a pig had died and, driven by boredom and the madness of

confinement, his cell mates had started to rip him apart. Farm workers had not even bothered to remove the dying and dead. One of the worst scenes was the sows waiting in the ‘rape rack’ cages, so small they were almost totally immobile. They are meant to be held like this for a short period only but this was 3am so who knows how long they had been here? One female deeply upset me. She still had fight in her and was trying to escape so I tried to soothe her. Her eyes were a beautiful pale blue and so I named her Blue. Her look will stay with me forever. In the last shed was another reminder of the horrors that the meat industry inflicts on baby animals. On the floor lay the severed tails of piglets, cut off without anaesthetic. This farm was not a rotten apple – everything I saw is standard in the pig industry. The answer, of course, is in each and every one of us. We can change ourselves and those around us. Veganism is a positive force for compassion and any step in that direction is one worth taking – for the sake of animals like Blue.

p Juliet talks to an imprisoned pig called Blue t A sow in a farrowing crate where she will spend five weeks at a time q Battery piglets in cages three tiers deep

Battery piglets

Campaigns director, Justin Kerswell, describes a farm near Hull where we found piglets in ‘battery’ cages – a farm that supplied Morrison’s. When our investigators quietly opened a door of a farm near Hull – a Red Tractor accredited farm – they were literally dumb struck by what they saw. In narrow wire boxes, three tiers deep, were crammed little piglets. No one had ever seen such a thing. In these battery cages, the inquisitive, highly-intelligent little creatures were devoid of everything, even bedding – and so they watched our investigators with sad, curious eyes.

You must have seen it stamped on food packaging, the Red Tractor symbol claiming high animal welfare. This farm had that stamp of approval and it tells you all you need to know about the Red Tractor scheme. We visited the farm twice and on both occasions there were little animals on the hard concrete floor beneath the cages. Presumably they had forced their way out. One piglet was shivering uncontrollably and was close to death. These battery piglets would eventually be moved to barren, faeces-strewn hovels – and so the desperation continued. On most farms, mothering sows are locked in metal crates called farrowing crates for five weeks at a time, so small they can’t even turn around. The excuse is that it stops them crushing their piglets yet dead and dying piglets were littered around the crates.

All meaningful contact with her piglets was denied and we watched one sow desperately fighting to be free so she could get to her dying baby. Imagine the mental torment. This is conveyor belt farming to keep the shelves stocked with sausages, bacon and ham. Without even a blush, the farm boasts of ‘high animal welfare’ and its ‘24-hour maternity care’ and was runner up in the National Pig Awards. Much of what we found on these two farms is common practice across the country and assurance schemes count for almost nothing. Truth is, there is no such thing as kind meat. Since we first started exposing the conditions on UK farms, consumption has been falling. Britain ate 114,000 tonnes less pig meat last year than it did in 2007. Change your diet and keep it falling – for the sake of the animals.

viva.org.uk 53

Where do you get your protein?

Every vegan has heard them – cautions about your health when you go vegan, usually delivered with great concern and a sad shake of the head. Well, here are your answers to the most common myths

From the same place as cows, elephants and gorillas get theirs – plant foods. Of course we need protein – for normal tissue growth and repair and protection against infection – and a well-balanced vegan diet provides plenty. Good sources include soya foods, either as whole beans or tofu, tempeh, soya milk and veggie mince. A comparatively new kid on the block is quinoa. Pulses are packed with protein – good old peas, beans and lentils, nuts and seeds and so are wholegrain foods such as wholemeal pasta, bread and brown rice. There are no known health risks from vegetable protein while meat and dairy protein has been linked to some cancers, heart and other diseases. And there’s very little carbohydrate and no fibre or calcium in meat.

Won’t you miss out on iron? One of the largest studies of vegetarians ever undertaken (EPIC Oxford study) found that vegans had a higher intake of iron than either vegetarians or meat-eaters. But make no mistake, iron deficiency anaemia is a big problem but it is no more common amongst vegetarians and vegans than it is meat-eaters. But the myth prevails... Pulses, soya milk, tofu, green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli and watercress, fortified breakfast cereals, wholemeal bread and pasta, dried fruits, molasses and dark chocolate are all good sources. This iron from plant sources is called non-haem iron and is safe as your body absorbs as little or as much as it needs. The iron in meat is called haem iron and it can build up in your body and cause constipation, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain. Very high levels can lead to liver damage, heart failure and diabetes.

viva.org.uk 54 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

But you need cow’s milk for calcium! This is the most successful myth in the universe and it is wrong, despite all the hype from the dairy industry. You do not need dairy for strong bones – exercise and a healthy vegan diet are much more effective. Good sources include dark green leafy vegetables (but not spinach), dried fruits, nuts, seeds and pulses. Calciumset tofu and calcium-fortified plant milks are also great. Vitamin D helps you to absorb calcium and it comes mostly from sunlight. Over 70 per cent of the world’s population get their calcium from plant foods because they are lactose intolerant and can’t digest the sugar in cow’s milk. Just think about it, nature created milk as a baby food! Despite the hype, dairy products can increase the risk of osteoporosis and other illnesses. Yes, they contain calcium but the damaging effects of animal (but not vegetable) protein which they also contain may cancel out any of its positive effects. You’re better off going dairy-free.

What about vitamin B12? It’s a myth that B12 comes only from animal foods – we can’t make it and neither can they. They get it from bacteria on the plants they eat. Commercially produced B12 is used to fortify vegan foods such as veggie burger mix, yeast extract, margarine, breakfast cereals and plant milks. It is also used to make supplements – and this form of B12 is the most easily absorbed. As B12 deficiency increases with age, the US Institute of Medicine recommends that all adults over 50 should take supplements or fortified foods, vegans or meat eaters. We recommend everyone takes a B12 supplement whatever their age. By Dr Justine Butler, Viva! senior health researcher

Calcium-rich foods Almonds

Amaranth grain

Apricots (dried)

Artichokes

Asparagus

Baked beans (haricot)

Blackberries

Blackcurrants

Bok choy

Brazil nuts

Bread (wholemeal)

Broccoli

Chickpeas

Cinnamon

Edamame (soya beans)

Fennel

Figs

Kale

Kidney beans

Olives

Oranges

Sesame seeds (and other seeds)

Soya milk (fortified)

Spring greens

Tofu

Swede

Walnuts

Watercress

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Make no mistake, a vegan diet is the healthiest possible for infants, children, women, the elderly and men – yes, men! There is no magic ingredient in meat or dairy that benefits men’s health. In fact, the saturated fat, growth hormones and harmful chemicals in meat and dairy are linked to a wide range of men’s health problems so here are 10 good reasons for men to go vegan.

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among UK men. Those who eat a lot of red meat or high-fat dairy products have a greater chance of getting the disease. A low-fat vegan diet rich in fruit and vegetables, combined with exercise, can help slow the progression of prostate cancer in men who already have it.

Impotence

The idea that men need to eat red meat to perform in the bedroom couldn’t be more wrong. Meat and dairy foods are high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which clog up the arteries leading to and from the heart and can also block blood flow to other vital organs! Vegan fire-fighter Rip Esselstyn, son of esteemed heart surgeon, Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, says: “The canary in the coal mine when it comes to heart disease is an underperforming penis”. A diet rich in fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, pulses, nuts and seeds protects against blocked arteries, heart disease, stroke and lowers the risk of impotence, which can be an early warning of heart disease.

Fertility

Men who eat the most meat and full-fat dairy products have been found to have fewer and slower sperm, while those who ate the most fruit and vegetables (more vitamins, folic acid and fibre and fewer proteins and fats) have higher quality sperm that swim faster.

Heart disease

Nearly 1.4 million men in the UK have heart disease and every year, around 50,000 in England have a heart attack. Things you can do to help prevent and even reverse heart disease include stopping smoking, taking regular exercise and going vegan. Avoiding meat, eggs and dairy can help you lose weight, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, avoid or manage type 2 diabetes and ultimately reduce the risk of heart disease.

Obesity

The UK has become the fat man of Europe and one in four British adults is obese. Obese men are five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, three times more likely to develop bowel cancer and more than two-and-a-half times more likely to develop high blood pressure – a major risk factor for heart disease. A low-fat vegan diet can help you lose and maintain a healthy weight. It also helps improve fat levels in the blood and, in people with diabetes, can help control blood sugar levels.

56 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

fit and the veg BY DR JUSTINE BUTLER, VIVA! SENIOR HEALTH RESEARCHER

Depression

Depression may be more common in women than men but men are more likely to commit suicide if they have it, maybe because they are more reluctant to seek help. Research shows that vegans report less stress and anxiety than meat, fish and dairy-eaters and that reducing animal products may offer significant mood benefits.

healthy gan way!

Acne

Bodybuilders who use steroid hormones or whey-based supplements to promote muscle growth are more prone to acne. The hormones increase oil secretion in the skin which can block hair follicles which become infected and inflamed, giving rise to large, pus-filled spots. As two-thirds of cow’s milk is taken from pregnant cows, when hormone levels are sky-high, avoiding dairy can reduce or eliminate acne.

Male breast cancer

Breast cancer is relatively rare in men, affecting about 400 men each year in the UK, compared with around 50,000 in women. However, the outcome is not as good in men as in women, perhaps because reduced awareness may delay diagnosis. A large body of evidence links the consumption of meat, milk and cheese with breast cancer.

Bowel cancer

The BBQ is a popular male domain, where sausages, burgers and hot dogs are frequently burnt to a crisp! The World Health Organisation says that processed meat (sausages, ham and bacon) causes bowel cancer and red meat probably does too. Bowel cancer is the second most common cancer in England and the third most common cause of cancer death after lung and prostate cancer in men. The solution is easy – stick a vegan sausage or a Portobello mushroom on the grill!

Men’s fitness

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t build muscle by eating muscle (meat). Muscles develop by being used and the best diet to fuel this is a well-balanced wholegrain vegan diet. It provides all the good stuff such as complex carbohydrates, antioxidants and fibre, while avoiding the baddies – saturated animal fats, animal protein and cholesterol, which are all linked to a heart disease, diabetes, obesity and some cancers. Complex carbohydrates in wholemeal bread, brown pasta and brown rice, provide slow-release energy and fibre to help protect heart and bowel health. They are rich in disease-busting antioxidants, vitamins A, C and E, especially important for sportspeople. Nuts, seeds, beans, avocados and vegetable oils provide a good supply of unsaturated, essential fats, including omega-3s from flaxseed (linseed) oil and walnuts. They can satisfy the heartiest appetite while also supplying all the nutrients your body requires to maintain a sporty lifestyle and build up extra muscle.

See Viva!Health’s muscle-building 7-day meal on page 58. For more information see Viva!Health’s Men’s Health pages vivahealth.org.uk/menshealth viva.org.uk 57

Beef up without meat This 7-day menu plan will help you gain muscle mass in the healthiest way possible

Tuesday

Monday

Breakfast Power porridge made with organic oats and calciumfortified soya milk. Add cashew nuts, raisins plus 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds for omega-3s

Snack

Lunch

Mixed nuts and seeds; almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Wholemeal ‘Sub’ sandwich made with ‘chicken style’ soya pieces or vegan sausage, vegan mayonnaise, cucumber, tomato and lettuce

Fresh fruit

Fruit juice

Snack Seaweed peanut crackers (seaweed is a good source of iodine) Fresh fruit

Flapjack (look for one with walnuts or apricots – or make your own)

Apricot and cashew smoothie – packed with calcium and protein

Fresh fruit

Homemade pizza (readymade base topped with tomato paste and thinly sliced onion, courgette, mushroom and herbs, sprinkled with nutritional yeast flakes or vegan cheese)

Shepherd’s Pie made with soya mince, mushrooms and red lentils topped with a mix of mashed potato, sweet potato and swede Serve with rich onion gravy and broccoli or curly kale

Fruit soya yoghurt

Smoked tofu and mushrooms on wholemeal toast with grilled tomatoes

Dinner

Mixed nuts, seeds and dried fruit (cashew nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, raisins and apricots)

Chunky Portabella Mushroom Stroganoff made with onions, garlic, pepper, soya ‘cream’ and a splash of white wine Serve with a heap of brown rice

Wednesday

Fresh fruit Whole wheat breakfast cereal made with soya milk – add apple, blueberries and raspberries. Toast with nut butter and yeast extract

Oat cakes with mushroom or yeast pâté and cherry tomatoes Fresh fruit

Fruit juice

Chunky vegetable and lentil soup with two wholemeal rolls filled with salad leaves and omega-3 vinaigrette (mix olive oil, flax oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic and maple syrup – keeps in fridge for 2 weeks)

Cereal bar

Wholemeal pasta bake (broccoli, leek, green beans, onion and mushroom, borlotti or other beans, steamed and baked with pasta in a rich tomato sauce and topped with nutritional yeast flakes for vitamin B12)

Fresh fruit

Thursday

Fruit soya yoghurt Scrambled tofu (crumble plain tofu into a pan with finely chopped onion, turmeric and herbs. Season to taste) with baked beans on wholemeal toast

Hummus and raw vegetable sticks (carrot, celery and cucumber) Fresh fruit

Fruit juice

Giant spicy bean burger with salad in a wholemeal bap served with a heap of crunchy coleslaw (shredded carrot and cabbage with raisin, cashews, pine nuts and vegan mayonnaise)

Flapjack

Thai green curry (stir fried onion, broccoli, green beans/mange tout and baby corn with readymade sauce e.g. World Foods Thai Green Curry Sauce and coconut milk) serve with brown rice

Fresh fruit

Friday

Fresh fruit Muesli made with soya milk. Add nuts (Brazil nuts, hazelnuts) and fruit (banana, apple, pear), plus 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds

Wholemeal crispbread with yeast extract and/or cashew nut butter Fresh fruit

Fruit smoothie

Wholemeal pitta bread stuffed with falafel, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, olives and tahini (sesame seed paste – a good source of calcium)

Mixed nuts, seeds and dried fruit

Hearty Vegetable Hot Pot made with soya mince, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic with Quick ‘n’ Easy Dumplings

Trail mix

Chick Pea Balti with brown rice and lime pickle

Sunday

Saturday

Fruit soya yoghurt

Vegan sausage sandwich made with a toasted multigrain bagel

Flapjack and a banana Fruit smoothie plus 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds

Fruit juice

Baked sweet potato with spicy chilli beans and a spoon of plain soya yoghurt served with salad leaves dressed with an omega-3 vinaigrette

Fresh fruit

Serve with Raita dip (soya yoghurt, diced cucumber and mint) and a wholemeal chapatti

Fresh fruit salad

The Full Monty! Vegan sausages, grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, baked beans and hash browns

Exotic fresh fruit salad (mango, pineapple, grapes, kiwi and papaya)

Fruit juice

Nut Roast with roast potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips and steamed shredded cabbage or curly kale, carrot and/or peas and gravy Baked apple stuffed with raisins and cinnamon

A few squares of dark chocolate (good source of iron)

Bubble and squeak (use the leftovers from the roast) with vegan sausages, beans and/or pickle

Find these and many more recipes at veganrecipeclub.org.uk

CALORIES Daily total of 2,600 calories (1430-1950 from carbohydrates; 260-390 from protein; 390-780 from fat) Figures based on The Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Health Organisation’s joint recommendation that 55-75 per cent of total energy comes from carbohydrates, 15-30 per cent from fat and 10-15 per cent from protein.

58 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

Joint WHO/FAO expert consultation (2003). Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (PDF). Geneva: World Health Organisation. Pages 5556. ISBN 92-4-120916-X

Our meal plans are intended for guidance only. The information presented here is not intended as medical advice nor does it replace medical advice. If you have any concerns, please speak to your doctor.

Tony Wardle looks at the global disaster of overfishing and finds that for fish it’s a case of…

OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND J

other animals which are shovelled back into the ocean dead or dying. On the sea bed, huge trawl boards that keep the net’s mouth open, crush and grind sea life as they are dragged backwards and forwards across the fishing grounds. Drift nets capture and kill sharks and whales, dolphins, turtles and seabirds; long lines capture small sharks, a whole host of non-target fish as well as a huge number of seabirds. The killing in almost all fishing methods is indiscriminate. It’s estimated that 27 million metric tons of living ‘trash’ is thrown back every year. Shrimp is without doubt the most destructive of all fisheries. It accounts for just two per cent of the global catch and yet is responsible for 30 per cent of the world’s by-catch. The whole approach to fishing assumes that these animals don’t suffer, we’re told

they have a three-second memory and can’t feel pain. What utter tosh – no animal would survive for millions of years unless it could learn where to find food, identify its enemies and be aware that being attacked hurts. Research from Britain and Australia shows that fish have all the same pain receptors as mammals and live complex social lives but none of this has diminished the onslaught they’re subjected to. Once, huge shoals of herring swam down almost the entire length of the east coast of Britain. They’ve gone – fished out. Off Newfoundland, 850,000 tons of cod were once hauled from the waters every year but in 1982, almost overnight, they disappeared and have never returned – fished out. This, of course, affects all the other animals who depend on these fish to survive. Not satisfied with scooping the ocean clear of big fish, the industry is now fishing down the food chain, hauling out thousands of tons of sand eels to make catering oils and even the tiny shrimp-like krill to sell as health-giving oil. Politicians ignore the scientists and conservationists and introduce futile measures such as quotas – anything but stopping the onslaught. You, however, can remove yourself from this disgraceful trashing of our planet simply by not eating fish or seafood and at the same time avoid all the heavy metals, industrial chemicals and other toxins they contain. Simple! Photo © Naomi Blinick-Marine Photobank

ust about every method the human mind can devise is used to catch fish – huge trawls the size of a football pitch, nets that encircle entire shoals, long lines with thousands of hooks, drift nets 25 kilometres long that dangle from the surface, poison, explosives, spears and gaffs. If land animals were subject to this onslaught there would be an outcry. But for fish…? It really is, out of sight, out of mind. The year 2000 was the high water mark for centuries of fishing when 94.8 million tons were caught. Since then vessels have been fitted with ever-more technical equipment such as sat navs and fish finders but the global catch is falling remorselessly. A couple of years later, the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) declared that 75 per cent of the world’s oceans were either fully or over exploited or significantly depleted. Even the fishing industry’s own body, the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), rolled out a dire warning just a year later in 2003, saying that just 18 per cent of fish stocks were within safe biological limits. It would have been just as accurate to say that 82 per cent of all the world’s fish stocks are on the road to extinction. What isn’t included in these figures are the myriad of small sea creatures that are killed in the process of fishing. Trawls drag up every kind of living thing – starfish, small crabs, unsaleable fish and a hundred

viva.org.uk 59

Continued from page 7 In the early 1990s, he shot to fame for his role as Paddy Garvey in Soldier, Soldier. It was in one of the episodes that he and fellow actor, Robson Green, sang Unchained Melody. Their performance sparked an overwhelming response from appreciative women and so Simon Cowell persuaded them to record the song, which went straight to number one and became the best-selling song of 1995. They became the first act in UK chart history to have their first three singles go straight in at number one while their two albums sold seven million copies. Jerome then quit while at their peak, walking out on Simon Cowell. (“But he’s done OK hasn’t he?” Jerome quips). He explains: “For me, one by-product of being famous was to show me that it wasn’t where true happiness lay even though a part of me had been reaching for fame. The way people treat you starts to become less real and subsequently leads to less happiness. My spiritual search was for truth and understanding and the more famous I became, the more it drove me on that search. “We became a merchantable product with everyone wanting a piece of us. We weren’t even creating our own music, just doing covers. The frenzied fame of the music world is madness compared to the relatively sane world of acting and so everything came to a head. “I don’t regret going on that Disney ride and we did have lots of fun but two years was enough and I needed to look for true happiness – the two big questions being who am I and how shall I live?” Jerome left the pop world behind and joined what he describes as a cult called EnlightenmentNext, led by the controversial Andrew Cohen. “I put him on a pedestal,” says Jerome, “as part of me was looking for a Christ-like figure and I put that on Andrew. But a good guru or teacher will not allow you to do that. “I was in and out of acting during those years but in a sense, I left one cult – because show business draws you in and can be addictive – and joined another! “With fame, thank god, I never wanted anyone to open a door for me but it works on subtle levels as you get used to being recognised. I was the youngest and least clever in the family and was always striving to be noticed and when I started acting, I got affirmation from peers and my elders. Acting is like saying ‘I’m here’ and people respond, saying ‘we see you’ and that helps you to form a mask, to be a golden boy, without even knowing you’re doing it. “An important part of finding truth is to recognise the masks you are holding between you and reality. I still have masks but I’ve now got more idea of how they

60 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

“It was your educational leaflets that woke me up to the horrors of factory farming – for the animals and the planet” work. In the cult I was able to seek aspiration – I was on fire with it – so leaving was huge. And they did what cults do when you leave, try to make you think you’re turning your back on your heart.” It was shortly after Jerome left the Cohen cult in 2002 that I first met him. It was a sad time: “My dad (actor Eric Flynn) died and so I left and came to Wales, to this place that I’d bought for him to start a new life with his young family – a place I love, where I have been coming since I was a boy. And now we have a little community and are developing a small business. I just love it here.” Jerome Flynn’s background, from near Sevenoaks in Kent, was pretty idyllic it seems – a sister (Kerry), a brother (Daniel) and endless woodland and open countryside. His memories are of exploring together, swinging from trees, making camps, growing vegetables, splitting logs and, of course, animals – mum, Fern, taking in a variety of sick and injured wild creatures, nursing them to health before releasing them back into the wild. In his teens, Jerome began acting in school plays before stumbling into the role of John Procter in The Crucible at Sevenoaks Youth Theatre. It was great! “Girls showed more interest in me than they had before!” Three years at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London followed – “one of the most exciting periods of my life.” It was here that a friend turned him vegetarian. “I just want animal suffering to end and I believe that everyone can make a contribution to that.” I showed Jerome Viva!’s investigation of a farm near Hull where piglets were incarcerated in cages three tiers deep – a Red Tractor farm supplying Morrisons! At first

he found it hard to speak but then said: “It is shocking, horrific. Yet again it has been left to Viva! to expose the brutal truth of how farmed animals are treated. The campaigns Viva! undertakes are responsible for many thousands – millions – of us becoming vegan or veggie and you have to remember that. It was your educational leaflets that woke me up to the horrors of factory farming – for the animals and the planet. “In a desperate world where land is under huge pressure, it is madness that almost three quarters of all farmed land on the planet is dedicated to rearing animals in an orgy of cruelty and inefficiency that truly boggles the mind. “I try to live sustainably. I grow a lot of veg organically, I stopped eating meat, fish and dairy from cows about 30 years ago! And your exposé of large-scale goat milk farming rocked my world again.” With that, he got up and left the room but returned holding a packet of Violife vegan cheese! “Actually, I like this one – not bad!” And the little kitty? Well, what do you think? I’ve named her Sarla because she is brave, beautiful and bold – and right now, is tearing around my house, Loki in hot pursuit!

What I need to eat each day No. of servings

8-10

Foods FRUIT & VEGETABLES to include: Dark Green Leafy Vegetables, Orange Vegetables, Fresh Fruit, Dried Fruit

Healthy portion size Fresh fruit: 1 medium piece (the size of a tennis ball) Dried fruit: 1-1 ½ tablespoons or 1 golf ball Green or root vegetables: 2-3 tablespoons or ½ tennis ball Salad vegetables: 1 large cereal bowl or 80g

3-4

CEREALS & GRAINS (eg Wholemeal Pasta, Brown Rice, Oats, Wholemeal Bread, Rye, Buckwheat etc)

Cooked grains: 2-3 heaped tablespoons or ½ cup Breakfast cereal: 30g or 1 regular sized cereal bowl Muesli: 45g or a small sized bowl

2-3

Small amounts

At least

1 1-2

PULSES (eg all types of Peas, Beans and Lentils), Nuts and Nut Butters or Seeds

VEGETABLE OIL (eg Flaxseed, Hemp Seed or Rapeseed Oil, used cold; Virgin Olive Oil for cooking, Margarine

B12 FORTIFIED FOODS (essential if vegan), eg Fortified Soya Milk, Fortified Breakfast Cereal, Yeast Extract (eg Marmite). Or a B12 Supplement

To provide Vitamins such as Beta Carotene (makes vitamin A), Vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, B9 (Folate), Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K Minerals/trace elements such as Calcium, Iodine, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium Fibre Vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 Minerals/trace elements such as Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc

Cooked wholemeal pasta: 1 cup as side dish or 2 cups as main dish

Fibre

Wholemeal or rye bread: 2 slices

Protein

Peas, Beans and Lentils: ½ cup (cooked)

Vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9. Minerals/trace elements such as Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Zinc Protein. Energy. Fibre

Nuts: 2 tablespoons or a small handful

1 teaspoon per portion of oil 1½ tablespoons of ground flaxseed

Energy

Vitamins such as Vitamin E (Vegetable oils), Vitamins A & D (Fortified Margarine). Energy Essential Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fats (Flaxseed, Soya, Walnut and Hemp Oils) Vitamin B12

litres of water per day (at least eight glasses) should also be consumed as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Hot beverages and juices can be counted as water. Note: fruit juice counts only as one portion per day of fruit no matter how much you drink! By Juliet Gellatley BSc, DipCNM

continued from page 50

was the size of a tennis ball, the other cancerous and the size of a football, looking like it was going to explode. They Mustafa and the salt connection operated and he’s still very much alive and I was intrigued to know Mustafa’s kicking! One bit of blood in his urine motivation – why an eminent saved his life.” neurobiologist should switch to cancer If you have cancer, it is imperative to biology. “From an early age I was seek specialist care from an oncologist – fascinated by the body’s electrical and ideally one in a teaching hospital that characteristics having got several shocks is doing active research. Never try to treat when building a radio transmitter! I studied cancer through lifestyle changes, physics and it taught me to understand the complementary therapies or diet alone: physical universe. I then moved into “Cancer is like a juggernaut biophysics and studied electrical rampaging through the body signals in the brain, which taught “Even the pharmaceutical industry, with uncontrolled. Diet is only one me how to understand the biological universe. And now I’m its power to manipulate evidence to their element in helping to stop it but, dealing with a pathological advantage, will not stop the truth – it will on its own, is not enough.” It is vital that cancer patients seek universe – cancer.” just take longer” conventional therapies which Mustafa continued: “It is very often do work, alongside accepted that electrical signals are suitable complementary therapies and important in the brain, heart and muscles affected by cancer. He believes the best psychological support. so I wanted to know if cancer cells cure is prevention and we should all adopt Finally, I asked Mustafa if he believed generate electrical signals and whether healthier lifestyles – not only a better diet health and cancer charities do enough to aggressive cancer cells differ from those but also increase our exercise, which prevent cancer through dietary advice. He that are benign?” Research by Mustafa modifies the action of hormones and declared: “The government and health and others has shown that aggressive growth factors. We should also reduce our charities say ‘eat a healthy diet’ and it’s cancer cells – those capable of spreading – alcohol intake and exposure to pesticides, meaningless – it is not good enough. It’s an are electrically excitable and it is this that perfumes and plastics. And, of course – easy option but what does it mean?” makes them hyperactive, invasive and able stop smoking! So I ask whether GPs and oncologists to spread. He also believes passionately in vigilance would ever explain to patients the links “Aggressive cancer cells act like nerve and tells the story of a relative who was between animal products and cancer? cells in a state of seizure in an epileptic concerned he had a little blood in his He replied: brain,” he tells me. This happens because urine. Mustafa told him that it was not “At the end of the day, what will count is those cancer cell genes that control the normal so it was better to take action. Two scientific evidence. Even the pharmaceutical sodium channel are turned on and sodium weeks later, Mustafa sat with his relative in industry, with its power to manipulate floods inside, making them excitable. So, a London hospital evidence to their advantage, will not stop now we’re developing drugs to block the looking at his X rays. the truth, it will just take longer.” sodium channel and control the metastatic He says: “One kidney spread. The effect of the drugs is not so severe as chemotherapy.” Mustafa believes we need to change our Beat Cancer by Prof. Mustafa Djamgoz & Prof. Jane Plant is published by Vermilion and is available from Viva! (£14.99 plus £3.95 attitude to cancer and accept that we can p&p). Call 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri) or send a cheque with your order live with a primary tumour, so long as it is and address to Viva!, 8 York Court, Wilder St, Bristol BS2 8QH or buy under control and cannot spread. He also online vivashop.org.uk/books/beat-cancer points out:

62 EVERYONE’S GOING VEGAN

“Our main dietary source of sodium is salt so it’s a good idea to eat a low salt diet!” Also, guess what increases the expression of the sodium channel gene? Hormones and growth factors, most of which we consume from dairy products. Foods which naturally block the sodium channels include chilli peppers, red grape skins and green tea. In 2002, Mustafa established a charity which runs the Amber Care Centre in North London, a drop-in centre for anyone

How meat and dairy

cause disease

Research linking meat and dairy with specific diseases has been mounting for decades but has largely been ignored. This at-a-glance chart shows what causes disease and how…

DISEASE

Breast and prostate cancer

Heart disease and stroke

Alzheimer’s and dementia

LINKED TO

Milk and dairy (which contain oestrogen and growth hormones, such as IGF-1)

Meat, sausages, bacon, pies, cakes, biscuits, cheese and cream

Meat, dairy and fatty processed foods

WHY?

Saturated fat causes fatty deposits in arteries which can block blood flow to the heart and brain

High cholesterol in mid-life increases the risk of amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients

People with these hormone-related cancers have raised levels of oestrogen and/or IGF-1. Vegans have lower IGF-1 levels

DISEASE

Diabetes type 1

Diabetes type 2

Bowel cancer

LINKED TO

Cow’s milk and cow’s milk-based infant formula

Meat (including poultry) and dairy foods as well as processed and sugary foods WHY?

Red meat (beef, veal, pork and lamb) and processed meat (smoked meat, ham, bacon, sausages, pâté and tinned meat)

Obesity increases the risk because fat around your abdomen releases chemicals that can upset cardiovascular and metabolic systems. Increased fibre (fruit, veg and wholegrains) can help control diabetes. Low-fat vegan diets have been shown to reverse it

Iron from meat (haem iron) may cause cell changes that lead to cancer. N-nitroso compounds, heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from meat (especially BBQ meat) may also be involved. Fruit and veg (fibre) lower the risk

WHY?

Early exposure to proteins in cow’s milk (beta-lactoglobulin, casein, bovine serum albumin and/or bovine insulin) can trigger an immune response leading to type 1 diabetes

WHY?

DISEASE

Osteoporosis LINKED TO

Animal protein (meat, fish, eggs and dairy) can all increase the acid load in the blood

DISEASE

Arthritis

Acne

LINKED TO

Meats, fried and processed foods, refined carbs and sugars

Cow’s milk (two-thirds of cow’s milk is taken from pregnant cows when milk hormone levels are high) and steroid hormones as used by body builders

WHY?

Thinning of bones occurs when bone loss exceeds the growth of new bone. Calcium may be lost from bones in response to high acid levels in the blood. Physical, weight-bearing exercise helps maintain healthy bones along with calcium intake from green leafy veg, dried fruit, nuts and seeds. Vitamin D also helps

Certain proteins may cause or increase inflammation while others may irritate tissue around the joints. Replacing foods containing omega-6 fatty acids with antiinflammatory omega-3s from flaxseed oil and walnuts may help

viva.org.uk

WHY?

Hormones can increase oil secretion in the skin which can lead to blocked hair follicles. These may become infected, giving rise to pus-filled spots characteristic of acne

By Dr Justine Butler, Viva! Senior Health Researcher

Our fight to save animals from suffering is funded entirely by our supportersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; generosity. Without them we could do nothing. Please think about giving us your support so we can continue to work for the animals. ISBN 978-0-9571874-4-3

Call 0117 944 1000 | viva.org.uk/join Viva!, 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH

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