1. Brazil Nuts. After watching this Superfood Evolution video about nuts and seeds I learned that Brazil nuts are actually harvested from wild giant primary rainforest trees in South America. So not only are they full of important minerals like magnesium and selenium, they're pro-rainforest conservation as cultivating mono cultures of them isn't practical.
I googled whether eating Brazil nuts helps to protect the rainforest and found this interesting treehugger.com article based on the writer's travels to where nuts are harvested: "Eating Brazil Nuts Protects the Amazon Rainforest - Literally".
I think unless you can buy direct from a small grower all almonds are now steam pasteurized so not technically raw, while I believe at this point in time imported Brazil nuts don't have this requirement, though I'm not sure about this.
Brazil nuts are fatty like cashews, so therefore good for nut milk and ice cream.
2. Nut milk. It's super easy to make your own nut milk. This is a good way to prevent buying boxed milks that might have too much sugar or additives like the thickener carrageenan which is found in all sorts of dairy and non dairy products, and could be bad for health, not to mention whatever chemicals maybe be in the lining of the box.
To make nut milk just soak some nuts eg. almonds overnight. Soaking deactivates the enzyme inhibitors. Rinse, and blend in water on highspeed. Store in glass jars in the fridge and just shake it before use, we found it's fine not to bother straining it if blended on high enough speed. Apparently if you start with a small amount of liquid and gradually add more, it'll make for a creamier milk. Then you can pick your own sweetener if even desired, like some local raw honey, or a few pitted medjool dates.
It can also be way cheaper to make your own nut milks.
3. Brazil nut ice cream. In experimenting with vegan ice creams I tried this: soaked over a cup of Brazil nuts over night, blended at high speed into 2 cans of coconut milk, starting with just enough liquid to get it going and gradually adding more. I added 2 ripe bananas (which may or may not have been necessary), vanilla, some raw honey, maybe 8 or more pitted medjool dates, blended, chilled, put in ice cream maker, the result was a really rich, filling, creamy ice cream that went really good with pumpkin pie/apple crisp for Canadian Thanksgiving which was this past week. This vegan pumpkin cheesecake recipe that uses cashews looks really good too.
4. Peganism. The statement in Cowspiracy that you have to be a vegan to be an environmentalist is what got me looking into the veganism over the past few weeks. Hats off to those who can pull it off being vegan and thrive - I can see where that would be the best diet for the planet. But for me, for now, though I can eat like a vegan for 10 days or more at a time, I still feel best and brightest with the odd bit of local humanely/sustainably produced animal product, like the delicious local free range turkey we just had for Thanksgiving.
I found these interesting posts from different authors: "Why I Eat Meat and Why I Talk About It On My Blog" and "How Raw Veganism Almost Killed Me" - the latter is a page on a blog espousing the Paleo Diet. These posts point out that not all animal products have to be cruelly raised, and that as people that evolved eating meat we're also part of nature. I think it's the combination of factory farming and GMO feed that has disrupted this balance.
The issue I have in Cowspiracy is in the bit where they map out how much land would be required if everyone started eating local grass fed beef, and how this wouldn't be possible. But, they make the assumption that everyone would need 9 ounces of animal product, every day, all from beef, so they left out the ocean when making a map of what North America could really sustain in terms of animal protein. It is possible that people on average could just cut way back, and this suggestion could be more do-able, empowering and appealing than requesting we all go vegan. In fact since I decided not to technically be a vegan it has made me even more interested in vegan cuisine if that makes any sense.
In terms of human health, in this interesting documentary on the 'world's best diet', most, but not all, of the world's healthiest people have a diet that includes animal products - though these animals aren't being force fed GMOs in factory farms.
This article by Dr. Mark Hyman on a "Pegan" diet (Vegan + Paleo = Pegan) "Why I'm a Pegan And Why You Should Be Too". Makes sense to me, plus he's pretty smart and healthy. In a nutshell it calls for eating a balanced diverse diet full of nutritious whole foods, but mostly plants. Nice. He points out that people take to diets almost as though they are religions, something I've noticed in my online research. He also points out that it's very possible to be a 'vegan' and still eat a lot of processed foods, sugars and simple carbs; while someone technically following a Paleo diet could be eating unhealthy feedlot animal products.
5. This vegan filling I came up with to stuff phyllo pastry triangles: chopped garlic soaked in olive oil, plus chopped onions, chopped soaked walnuts, chopped olives, dried shiitake mushrooms that were soaked for a couple hours in warm water then chopped, fresh chopped herbs from the garden: dill, sage, parsley, a lot of steamed chopped kale folded in, ground flaxseeds to bind, sea salt, pepper. Prepared following the 'triangle' directions inside the phyllo pastry box. I used organic butter but olive oil would have been fine for brushing the pastry. They were so good! I made lots, so with the leftover filling I added chopped apple, chopped celery, a few cranberries and heated through for a vegan stuffing/side dish.
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