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(NaturalNews) According The Guardian, a UK newspaper comparable to the USA’s New York Times, lower income families have cut their fruit and vegetable consumption by 30% over the last few years. This figure was obtained from 2010, which was the last year those statistics were available.

In England, people are advised to eat five servings of fruit and veggies a day. Many are eating four, while lower income Brits are getting only 2.7 servings daily. The comments on that article were varied. Some readers mentioned fruit is not as healthy or filling as beans and potatoes, for example.

Others commented that EU and UK fruits and vegetables in season are actually cheaper than processed foods. Of course we’re talking non-organic veggies and fruit here. The problem, many commented, is that people don’t cook. They recommend more Brits learn how to cook from scratch.

Here in the States, this problem may be a little more complex. But the result is the same. Many families have both husband and wife working. Add a couple of kids or more, and there’s more travel time added to whatever commuting is required for work. So often it’s easier to make a quick fast food stop to pick up the family dinner, or order a pizza.

An acceptable excuse for most is the time crunch and stress from hectic daily activities. But how come they manage to watch all that TV? Television has lots of commercials that make processed and fast foods look even more appealing. This is a vicious cycle that leads to an unhealthy bind.

When times are rough, it’s time to get tough

Yes, wages and jobs have suffered and stress levels have risen. But priorities need to shift away from taste over health and leisure time in front of the tube, or large plasma screen. Leisurely cooking is a healthier more productive way to relieve a hectic day’s stress than leisurely TV watching or playing video games.

A family willing to pitch in with food preparation is healthier on many levels, including shifting from dysfunctional to functional.

Workers in industrialized or first world nations, whether poor or well off, is addicted to taste delivered quickly and easily, and lots of TV. This is a quagmire many are unwilling to resolve. All you have to do is go to a supermarket and look at what most shoppers have in their carts.

Then on the way home, check out a McDonald’s parking lot or drive-through line. It’ll be busy. McDonald’s sales revenue is up according to several mainstream sources, including the Wall Street Journal. Total revenue from 2011 increased 10% from the previous year, while profits rose from $1.24 billion to $1.38 billion.

Some attribute this to their international reach and monopolistic promotion. Both are unfortunate successes that have lead to greatly increased obesity, diabetes, and other diseases.

McDonalds is also responsible for increasing farm animal suffering, deforestation and other ecological damage from excessive cattle, to satisfy an insatiable lust for burgers. But in the USA, McDonalds is not the only fast food player. Others, while perhaps not doing as well, carry a large part of the toxic convenience food load.

Yes, there are economic issues, lifestyle pressures, and a preponderance of “tasty” toxic foods. But the only way we can change what ultimately threatens our food chain is with more individuals, regardless of incomes, shifting from poor food habits to healthier choices with a willingness to prepare food from scratch.

Unfortunately, many are still not willing to even hear about making that change.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/22/fruit-vegetable-consumption-poorer-families

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120124-706960.html

http://ethicalfootprint.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/unethical-companies-mcdonald%E2%80%99s/

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By Sebastian Moll
Theological Faculty of the University of Mainz
Germany
January 2012

Modern vegetarians often refer to theological terminology such as “reverence for life” or “respecting creation” when defending their position. Ironically, in the Early Church the situation is exactly the other way around. Abstaining from meat is considered a sign of heresy. In the Canons of the Council of Ancyra (314), it is stated: “It is decreed that among the clergy, presbyters and deacons who abstain from meat shall taste of it, and afterwards, if they shall so please, may abstain. But if they disdain it, and will not even eat herbs served with meat, but disobey the canon, let them be removed from their order.” While never included into Church Law, this anathema is confirmed by several later councils, such as the Council of Braga (Portugal, 561), at which the anathema is expanded to include clergy and lay people alike.

Many heretical groups in early Christianity indeed practiced vegetarianism, for example the Marcionites and the Manicheans. Traditional scholarship attributes this behavior to just another form of asceticism. But if the councils wanted to condemn radical asceticism, why is there no anathema for people who abstain from alcohol, for example? What is the reason for the special concern with the question of eating meat? Are vegetarians really a threat to Christian orthodoxy?

As a matter of fact, the issue is already raised within the New Testament. In 1. Timotheus 4:1-5, we read:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

The irony is conspicuous: whereas today respecting creation implies above all leaving it “untouched,” for the early Christians, it was a sign of disrespect towards God not to make use of his creation and thus a definite sign of heresy. Remember the careful distinction: according to the above mentioned council decree, it is perfectly all right to abstain from meat if you simply don’t like it. After all, de gustibus non est disputandum. However, if you abstain from it because you consider it somehow impure, you sin against the Creator.

How did this shift of perception happen? Perhaps the answer lies within a little nuance: the Bible speaks of thankfulness towards the Creator; today one tends to speak of respecting creation. Towards an abstract entity the most one can offer is respect; thankfulness, however, is a feeling one can only have towards a person – and the presentee will always consider refusing the gift as insulting.

Christianity often has been reproached for the fixation on man and his exalted position within creation. It was above all Charles Darwin who caused this worldview to alter. Christian belief always assumed that animals were created for man’s sake and thus allowed for the above mentioned perception of treating them as gifts. By pointing out that many of these animals existed long before man, this form of thankfulness was shattered to the core.

Far be it from me to question the theory of evolution at this point! However, there is something true and beautiful in the Christian concept of thankfulness. For thankfulness has a fascinating double effect: it promotes self-confidence and humility at the same time – self-confidence, because I feel valued by the gift; humility, because I feel the dependence on somebody else. Thus, thankfulness is by far not the worst basis for modern food ethics.

It is the tragedy of life that our food consists of annihilated life, no matter if you are a meat eater, vegetarian, or vegan. This very tragedy, this brokenness of human existence, the condition between paradise and damnation – this is the great topic of the book of books. Man lives in this tragedy like any other creature on this planet, but he is the only one aware of it. That is the burden which he once took from the tree of knowledge and which he has been carrying until this very day.

source: http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/mol368019.shtml

Vegetarian Journal Issue 1, 2001 is now online! More back issues can be viewed here.

To subscribe to the Vegetarian Journal and receive the complete print version, you can join online with $25, call (410) 366-8343 and order by phone with your Mastercard® or Visa®, or complete this form

Vegetarian Journal Issue 1, 2011

Features

A Primer for No-Hassle Dinners at Home
Debra Daniels-Zeller converts pantry staples into easy suppers.

A Soy-Free, Nut-Free Vegan Meal Plan
Corey Bivins develops a three-day, allergen-free menu.

Vegan in a Mexican Household
VRG Intern Veronica Lizaola revamps some family recipes.

Wrapping It All Up!
Chef Nancy Berkoff, RD, EdD, introduces creative ideas
for sandwich wraps in this issue’s Foodservice Update.

2010 VJ Essay Contest Winner – Second Installment

Departments

Nutrition Hotline
Should we avoid feeding soy to our young daughter? How can a vegan gain weight?
And what’s the difference between the sugar in fruit and the sugar in cookies?

Note from the Coordinators

Letters to the Editors

Vegan Cooking Tips
All About Soyrizo, by Chef Nancy Berkoff, RD, EdD, CCE

Scientific Update

All Pizza Hut Cheeses Made with Chymax™

Notes from the VRG Scientific Department

Veggie Bits

Order Vegan Passover Recipes

P.F. Chang’s ‘Vegetarian’ Entrées Contain No Animal Ingredients

Book Reviews

Catalog

Vegetarian Action
Heather Mills, by Heather Gorn

Back Cover
New Book From VRG – Vegans Know How to Party!

Thanks to VRG volunteer Celina Chung for her help in converting these articles into HTML! To volunteer to help with these kinds of projects, please email heatherg@vrg.org.

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