I'm not a vegetarian and, therefore, don't have very much experience with meat substitutes like tofurkey or soyrizo, but I would love to learn more about these products. What is your experience with them? Do you enjoy eating and cooking with meat substitutes?
Source: Flickr User JP Puerta
The owner of Casa Diablo in Portland, OR, was having a hard time selling locals on his Mexican vegan food. So he turned his restaurant into the world's first vegan strip club. Apparently, Portland has more strip clubs than any other city, not to mention a large vegan population. This video is brilliant in so many ways, not the least of which is this quote: "Even the meat-eating girls get to eat here free, so when they eat our food, they get turned on to vegan food."
I certainly don't know many kitties that would turn down some fresh fish as a treat . . . and I can't be the only one with the iconic cartoon image of a cat lapping milk in my head. However, a recent post on Dolittler (my go-to site for a behind-the-scenes vet perspective) got me thinking: Are there really vegan pets out there?
Seems that converting pets – especially cats – to a vegetarian or even the veggies only diet (with no milk or egg proteins for vegans) is a risky choice but one that some still consider. Dr. Patty Khuly writes:
Cats' bodies (specifically, their gastrointestinal tracts) are not ideally suited to digesting non-meat foods. Though they may seem to do well on these diets once they’ve acclimated to them, the long-term effects of feeding feline diets that lack animal proteins have not been established.
Now it's one thing if you have a pet that would choose the vegetarian option in the wild (goats, rabbits, chickens, etc.) but it doesn't seem fair to impose personal beliefs that could endanger your animals' health in the process? What's your take?
I heard a standup comedian the other night who said that vegans were the last group of people it was socially acceptable to make fun of. "Hell," he continued, "even vegetarians laugh at them: 'Have an egg or some dairy, man, live a little!'" So this news clip should come as no surprise. A reporter discusses the rise of a vegan movement whose adherents claim they won't have sex with anyone who eats animal-based products. As she's saying this with a perplexed look on her face, her co-anchor busts out laughing. (Clearly, these people do not live in California, "the land of fruits and nuts.")
