Julia Driggers, R.D., shares a recipe for vegan party mix:

Vegan Party Mix

(Makes 18 Servings)

Ingredients:

3 cups Air-Popped Popcorn
3 cups Vegan Wheat Cereal
3 cups Mini Pretzels
1 cup Peanuts
1¼ cup Vegan Chocolate Chips (or Carob)
½ cup Smooth Peanut Butter
¼ cup Earth Balance Margarine
1½ tsp Vanilla
2 cups Vegan Powdered Sugar

Directions:

In large bowl mix popcorn, cereal, pretzels, and nuts. Set aside. In microwaveable bowl microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine for 1 minute. Take out and stir. Replace in microwave for 30 more seconds or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over popcorn mix and stir until evenly coated. Pour popcorn mixture into large storage sealable bag. To bag add vegan powdered sugar and shake until popcorn mix is well coated. Pour out on cookie sheet to cool. Enjoy! Make sure to store in the refrigerator.

Nutrition Analysis per Serving

VRG received this question:

“In the 2007 first issue of the Vegetarian Journal you state that alpha linolenic acid in whole flaxseed can not be absorbed well. Can you please explain why.”

Thanks for your note. This is what the Canadian Flax Council has to say: See http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/english/index.jsp?p=faq

Which is better for me, whole or ground flax seed?

Ground flax seed provides more nutritional benefits than does whole seed. That’s because flax seeds are very hard, making them difficult to crack, even with careful chewing. Grinding flax seeds breaks them up, making them easier to digest when eaten. Then the body can profit from all that flax goodness.

If whole flax seeds remain unbroken, they may pass undigested through the body, reducing the nutritional advantage of eating flax seed in the first place.

So, based on this, I suggested using ground flaxseeds or flaxseed oil.

Hope this helps.

Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
Nutrition Advisor
The Vegetarian Resource Group

The first wave of International Food for Life Global volunteers are in the Dominican Republic and have joined the local FFL staff to finalize set up of their vegan food relief base camp. More volunteers from the UK, USA, Brazil, Mexico and Canada are set to arrive soon after.

Click here to donate to their efforts.

The Global Youth Village, a residential, international leadership camp in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia, is seeking seasonal food service staff in their vegetarian kitchen. Sixty youths and thirty staff enjoy their meat-free meals family style. 2010 highlights include youth delegations from Indonesia and Iraq. The camp season is June 16 – Aug 6, 2010. Housing, meals and salary are provided. Seeking both experienced cooks and those who want to learn!

For more information, please visit Legacy International’s web site at http://globalyouthvillage.org. Or contact Leila Baz, Global Youth Village, 1020 Legacy Dr., Bedford, VA 24523. Phone 540-297-5982, email: staff@legacyintl.org

Each year, VRG awards $10,000 in college scholarship money to two high school seniors who have promoted vegetarianism in their schools/communities ($5,000 to each). The deadline – February 20 – is right around the corner, so if you want to apply, or know someone who should apply, click here for more information.

VRG also offers The Eleanor Wolff Scholarship which is a paid summer internship ($2,500 plus $1,000 toward housing) at VRG’s Baltimore office. Here’s what our interns Kristen and Rachel had to say about their internships at VRG last summer: http://www.vrg.org/blog/2009/08/21/notes-from-two-vrg-summer-interns/

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Would you like to sponsor a scholarship or internship? This provides a tremendous opportunity for students who are doing some great work promoting vegetarianism.
Click here to read about past scholarship winners (right-hand side).
Click here to read about past Eleanor Wolff Scholarship winners.

By Ben Shaberman

Organic farmers, specialty growers, and agricultural professionals from throughout the Midwest braved arctic-like conditions to attend the 2010 Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism, and Organic Conference in Springfield, Illinois, from January 6-8, 2010.

Making its first appearance at the annual event, the Vegetarian Resource Group was warmly and respectfully received by attendees. At VRG’s exhibit booth, visitors collected and perused a variety of books, brochures, and handouts to learn more about vegetarian cooking, nutrition, and health benefits. While most conference attendees were not completely vegetarian, most also acknowledged the benefits of being meat-free, and expressed an interest in moving more toward a vegetarian diet.

Several attendees representing farmer’s markets, herb growers, and community-based nonprofits were grateful to receive free VRG brochures and literature to hand out at their events. They noted that they either had customers or constituents who were vegetarian, or they were interested in promoting a vegetarian lifestyle at their events.

Here are some examples of the people and vendors who took an interest in VRG’s materials:

• An organic community agricultural project will use VRG materials
  to enlighten people about our nation’s food supply and a more
  healthy and sustainable approach to eating.
• A veterinary professor picked up the Vegetarian Journal to learn
  more about the dietary and cultural habits of his students, many
  of whom are vegetarian.
• A vegan and owner of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company in
  Mansfield, Missouri, took VRG literature to distribute to his
  customers.
• A representative from the USDA’s National Resources Conservation
  Service came by the VRG booth to learn about new vegetarian food
  alternatives for him and his family.
• A representative from Eden Place Nature Center, located in the
  South Side of Chicago, picked up VRG materials to hand out to
  visitors, many of whom live in urban neighborhoods.
• Several people took VRG materials to give to their vegetarian
  friends and family members.

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VRG extends special thanks to Patricia Wieland for introducing us to the conference and supporting our presence there, as well as Ben Shaberman for staffing the VRG booth.

Check out Ben’s book, The Vegan Monologues.

VRG’s new brochure, Save Our Water: The Vegetarian Way, is now online!

The beginning portion is excerpted below:

We all need clean water. No doubt about it. HOW to get it and keep it running clean and plentiful is becoming a problem almost everywhere. In fact, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) predicts in a report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow, that by 2050, two-thirds of people worldwide will lack clean water to meet even their basic needs.

The good news is that one part of the solution is easy and close at hand! It all starts with your fork.

“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

H. Steinfeld, senior author, Livestock’s Long Shadow, A report from the United Nations

Saving Earth’s Water By Eating A Vegetarian Diet

Did you know that the largest user of fresh water is the livestock industry? Water is directly needed for drinking and cleaning of animals. And that’s a lot of water when we’re talking about over 10 billion animals raised for food in the United States alone every year.

But the biggest way animal agriculture consumes water is indirectly. A large amount of fresh water is used to grow the feed that livestock animals eat.

Click here to read the rest of this brochure.

As a parallel segment to Vegetarian Journal’s Nutrition Hotline feature, The VRG Blog runs a Nutrition Blog-line feature. In this installment, Julia Driggers, R.D., answers a question about leafy greens. This question comes to us by way of a number of people recently asking about the nutritional benefits of dark greens at VRG’s tables at events such as DC VegFest and the Baltimore Book Festival. If you would like to submit a nutrition question, you can email it to heatherg@vrg.org.

Many of us know that we should eat our leafy greens, but how many of us know why? Dark greens are important because they are a good source of essential nutrients such as iron and calcium. common dark green leafy vegetables in the United States include spinach, collards, bok choy, kale, and turnip greens. In addition to iron and calcium, these green veggies are packed with other vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, fiber, and folate. However, each dark green leafy vegetable is unique and varies in nutrition content. It is important to vary your intake of all leafy greens, but if you are focused on increasing a specific nutrient in your diet, the table below can help.

**Although the calcium content in spinach appears high, it is not a good source of calcium. Spinach also contains oxalates which block the absorption of calcium in the spinach thus making spinach a poor source of calcium.

If you are focused on increasing your calcium, collards, turnip greens, and bok choy are excellent choices. In addition, good sources of folate (a nutrient particularly important for women of child bearing age and those who are pregnant) include spinach, collards, and turnip greens.

Won’t it feel better eating your greens now that you know how good they are for you? Enjoy your leafys and keep ‘em coming!

Here are a few other articles that you might also find helpful:

How to Cook Mouthwatering Greens: http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2001may/2001maygreens.htm
Calcium in the Vegan Diet: Calcium in the Vegan Diet: http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.htm
Nutrition Hotline (Question #2, about calcium content in raw/cooked vs. frozen/cooked greens): http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2009issue3/2009_issue3_nutrition_hotline.php

Your body loves you,

Julia