VSS eNewsletter 10 July 2010
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10 July 2010 |
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| VSS NEWS Veg Diet According to Your Body Type – 25 Jul Southern Ridges Trail Hike – We Made It! Kite Flying at West Coast Park to Celebrate Shakib – 1 Aug The VSS InBox The Definition of ‘Vegetarian’ GENERAL NEWS News from Europe Mistreating Non-Humans Linked to Mistreating Humans Veg Buffet at Kallang Leisure Park Is Trying To Eat Healthfully a Disease? Is It Really All in Our Genes? Introduction to Raw Foods – 20 Jul Leisure Vegetarian Trip to Titi Eco Organic Farm Computer Game Teaches About Factory Farming July Classes from NutriHub Plant Based in India? Noah’s Ark Charity Dinner Channel 8 Drama Says ‘Eat Less Meat’ Schwarzenegger Not Chicken about Helping Chickens Washington DC, Latest City with Weekly Meat Free Day |
Wahington DC joins the growing list of cities to adopt a meat-free day, while Dr. Neal Barnard reveals how to 'magnetise' a baby. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to drop us a line here. Subscribe to this newsletter here. Unsubscribe here Visit us at www.vss.sg |
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Veg Diet According to Your Body Type – 25 Jul |
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Last month, about 50 people, a full house, attended the Mandarin version of the talk by VSS Exco member and TCM physician, Douglas Teo, on ‘Vegetarian Diet According to Your Body Type’. Douglas will be repeating the talk, this time in English, on Sun, 25 Jul, 3-4.30pm. The talk is free and will be held at the Meeting Room on Level 3 of Bukit Merah Public Library. Reservations are not available. Thus, seating is on a first come, first served basis: http://golibrary.nlb.gov.sg/Event.aspx?EventID=32917 The talk will present the TCM holistic view on the relationship between humans and their environment. The audience will get to know about their body type and what to eat according to their body type, based on a meatless diet. |
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Southern Ridges Trail Hike – We Made It! |
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Yes, we made it! Despite all the rain that fell on and before Sat, 3 Jul, our Southern Ridges Trail hike proceeded as planned, with about 35 intrepid hikers. For those of you who decided not to risk it, no worries: we plan to have another hike on the same trail later this year. Any suggestions as to the date? Maybe in late Aug or Sep.  Top |
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Kite Flying at West Coast Park to Celebrate Shakib – 1 Aug |
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Last year, one of our most colourful and enthusiastic members, Shakib Gunn, passed away. Two of Shakib’s greatest loves were kites and vegetarianism. In 2009, to celebrate Shakib, we teamed with the Singapore Kite Association - http://ska.askwing.com - and Shakib’s family for a kite outing at Pasir Ris Park. This year, our SKA friends have kindly invited us to join them at West Coast Park, Sun, 1 Au, 10am-6pm, Car Park 3 It’s an informal event. Come when you like, bring some picnic eats and, if you don’t have a kite, no worries, someone will loan you one. Or, you can just watch some of Singapore’s best kite flyers and kite makers doing their thing. Singapore Children’s Society will also be having a fundraising event there on the same day: |
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The VSS InBox |
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Someone posted a very nice video to the VSS Facebook Fan Page. Here’s the FB link of our page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/ vegetariansocietysingapore?ref=ts The video is a talk by Dr Neal Barnard of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. They do research, education and advocacy related to plant based diets. The talk is about how we get hooked on bad foods and what we can do to transition to healthier foods. Also, near the end of the video is a great story about how Dr Barnard’s parents switched to plant based: |
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The Definition of ‘Vegetarian’ |
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VSS is a member of IVU (International Vegetarian Union – www.ivu.org). Here is a blog entry by IVU’s honorary historian, John Davis, which may surprise many people. The first people who called themselves 'vegetarian' were in fact vegan. This has now been established conclusively with resources not previously available. We have now shown that until 1847 *all* uses of the word 'vegetarian' came from people associated with Alcott House School, on Ham Common, south west of London. And they used it to mean a 100% plant food diet - a 'vegetarian' was simply someone who lived on vegetation. There were, of course, many other people following variations of the 'vegetable diet', most of them adding eggs/dairy products. But we can find no indication of any of them using the word 'vegetarian' before 1847. Read the entire entry at: http://www.vegsource.com/ |
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News from Europe |
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The European Parliament accepts terms 'vegetarian' and 'vegan': "The term 'vegetarian' should not be applied to foods that are, or are made from or with the aid of products derived from animals that have died, have been slaughtered, or animals that die as a result of being eaten. The term 'vegan' should not be applied to foods that are, or are made from or with the aid of, animals or animal products (including products from living animals). " Online survey: Commission seeks the public's opinion on the EU policy on animal welfare --- The European Commission would like to find out the opinion of EU citizens and stakeholders on the EU Policy on Animal Welfare and to that end it launched, on June 1, an online survey. The survey will remain open until Friday, July 31. New Commission website on animal welfare education The EU is determined to widen the impact of education about animal welfare, partly as a response to the Treaty of Lisbon that defines animals as "sentient beings." Furthermore, concerns over animal welfare reflect the EU's own values of solidarity, respect, compassion, empathy and a sense of justice and consideration for others. (Possibility of online registration for the 1st International Conference on Animal Welfare Education/1-2 October 2010 in Brussels) |
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Mistreating Non-Humans Linked to Mistreating Humans |
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You’ve probably read about this before, but here’s more evidence that abuse of our fellow animals correlates with abuse of our fellow humans: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/wellesley/ 2010/06/middlesex_da_adresses_ties_bet.html And, modern meat production can’t be called anything but abuse. |
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Veg Buffet at Kallang Leisure Park |
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Iwannagetstuffed International Vegetarian Buffett is the name of one of SG’s newest veg outlets. It’s located at Kallang Leisure Park, 5 Stadium Walk, #01-33/34/35, S. 397693. For more info, call: 6348 0600, 9724 0109 or click on http://www.vegetarian-society.org/node/1358 Top |
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Is Trying To Eat Healthfully a Disease? |
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Here’s something that’s funny, in a way, from our friends at VegSource. In its never-ending attempt to fabricate "mental disorders" out of every human activity, the psychiatric industry is now pushing the most ridiculous disease they've invented yet: "Healthy eating disorder." This is no joke: If you focus on eating healthy foods, you're "mentally diseased" and probably need some sort of chemical treatment involving powerful psychotropic drugs. The Guardian newspaper reports, "Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder" and goes on to claim this "disease" is called orthorexia nervosa -- which is basically just Latin for "nervous about correct eating." But they can't just called it "nervous healthy eating disorder" because that doesn't sound like they know what they're talking about. So they translate it into Latin where it sounds smart (even though it isn't). That's where most disease names come from: Doctors just describe the symptoms they see with a name like osteoporosis (which means "bones with holes in them"). Getting back to this fabricated "orthorexia" disease, the Guardian goes on to report: "Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out." Wait a second. So attempting to avoid chemicals, dairy, soy and sugar now makes you a mental health patient? Yep. According to these experts. If you actually take special care to avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified ingredients like soy and sugar, there's something wrong with you. Read full article: |
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Is It Really All in Our Genes? |
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If people argue it's in their genes whether or not they will die of cancer or other potentially food related diseases, and, thus, they can ignore the science of eating a sensible, healthy plant-based diet, this is a good video to point them to: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3411/02.html Top |
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Introduction to Raw Foods – 20 Jul |
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Linda Loo, one of SG’s raw food gurus, is offering another of her unique classes on Tue, 20 Jul, 7-9.30pm. Details on her website. http://rawfoodlifestyles.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2010/07/intro_to_live_jul_20101.pdf Top |
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Leisure Vegetarian Trip to Titi Eco Organic Farm |
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Violet Lee - violet_lyh@hotmail.com or 9006.5525 - has organized many organic trips, both within Singapore and to other countries. People enjoy her friendly, well-organised style. Violet’s next trip is tentatively scheduled for 31 Jul - 2 Aug, leaving from Singapore and stopping at Tanjong Sutera - http://www.tanjungsutera.com - before proceeding on to Titi Eco Organic Farm - http://www.titieco.com.my. As with all Violet’s trips, expect lots of tasty, healthy food. Top |
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Computer Game Teaches About Factory Farming |
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We received this email about a new computer game and asked a couple upper primary school students to try it out. Both gave the game an enthusiastic thumbs up. Here’s the email. I've just posted a new project to Animalvisuals.org: Farm Rescue. Some of you know that the most popular social games right now happen to be farming games on Facebook. Farm Rescue is somewhat of a parody of these games that is meant to educate people about how intensive confinement on factory farms causes animal suffering. In the game, you get to rescue hens from battery cages, and they start out looking terrible. You can help them practice their natural behaviors like perching, dustbathing, nesting, exploring, and exercising, and the more behaviors they practice, the faster their feathers will grow back and they will return to health. You can read more about the game at: Or, you can check out the game website at: Or, you can go straight to the game on Facebook using this link: I'd love to hear any feedback you may have. Mark Middleton |
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July Classes from NutriHub |
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From Sep 2008 till now, Vinitha Ang of NutriHub at Cuppage Plaza, #B2-25 (behind OG Orchard, near Centrepoint), www.nutrihub.blogspot.com - has conducted more than 60 Dine & Learn workshops with discounts for VSS members. Congrats and Thanks! Here are four more sessions from Vanitha who, in addition to her culinary expertise, also has trained and worked as a medical professional. Sat, 10 Jul, 10.30am-12.30pm – Harmonising Your Body Energy 1 10% discount for VSS members or more multiple people or multiple workshops. For registration / enquiry, contact Ms Vinitha Ang at 9236.8402. |
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Plant Based in India? |
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Earlier this year, VSS had a trip to Noah’s Ark Cares sanctuary in JB. Now, they need our support to continue the good work they do. Here are the details: Sun, 25 Jul, The Grand Ballroom, Hilton Hotel, 581 Orchard Road, |
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Noah’s Ark Charity Dinner |
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Earlier this year, VSS had a trip to Noah’s Ark Cares sanctuary in JB. Now, they need our support to continue the good work they do. Here are the details: Sun, 25 Jul, The Grand Ballroom, Hilton Hotel, 581 Orchard Road, http://noahsarkcares.blogspot.com |
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Channel 8 Drama Says ‘Eat Less Meat’ |
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In the Channel 8 Chinese drama ‘Your Hand in Mine”, there is always a conversation segment among the drama family members on green issues before the telecast of the drama episode of that day. On 5 July 2010 (Episode 171), during dinner at home, some characters explain to others that they are only having one meat dish because of meat’s role in global warming. http://video.xin.msn.com/watch/video/your-hand- |
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Schwarzenegger Not Chicken about Helping Chickens |
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Arnold Schwarzenegger, now governor of the US state of California but most famous for his role in the Terminator movies, has signed legislation requiring that starting in 2015 all shell (whole) eggs sold in California must come from hens who were able to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their limbs without touching one another or the sides of an enclosure. In other words: California will become a cage-free state. http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2010/07/ california-egg-bill.html Top |
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Washington DC, Latest City with Weekly Meat Free Day |
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Late last month, the City Council of Washington, DC passed a ceremonial resolution calling for residents to “abstain from animal products on Mondays”: http://www.cok.net/photos/events/10/0629-res.pdf Top |
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