My lovely and hilarious friend Missi Pyle continues her vegan adventure! As she shared in her two previous guest blogs, she’s recently adopted a vegan diet. Here is her third blog about her kind journey…she wrote it while she was staying at my house during my Gods Behaving Badly shoot in New York.
 
Enjoy!
 

Day 2 or 3 or 4. Possibly 5. Aka. Cheater cheater pumpkin eater... Costarring TV’s Megan Park!
 

Listen. Blogging is hard to keep up with. Especially when you have to drink red wine while watching back to back episodes of Dexter or are laying in bed playing Angry Birds and  have to wait a full hour for the falcon to come back and get you out of a tricky level on your iPhone.
 
Or if, only on day 3 or 4 of being a vegan, you wake up in the middle of the night and, while standing in front of Alicia's open refrigerator, in your underwear, you find yourself with a fork digging into the non-vegan chocolate pie your sister evilly brought home last night, and put on the middle shelf, which is eye level, with no cover and homemade non-vegan whipped creme dolloped lovingly on the top.
 
Oh the shame.
 
I caved. I didn't mean to. It all happened so fast. I almost thought it was a dream until I woke up the next day with crusty chocolate on the pillow where my mouth had gently pressed during the night. I felt guilty. The wallowy kind. I mean what kind of an example am I to you? My devoted fans?
 
But listen, I am an actor and the one thing I have learned as an actor is you can't wallow. I am constantly being rejected for the "greatest job of my life" and sit moping around all day in my underwear*. But, the thing I learned about the "greatest job in your life", is, there will always be another one that comes along with shiny opportunity to make you believe again and go put your clothes back on and go out and audition. With the hope that this time, you can stay out of your underwear for good... I mean in pants over your underwear...

It was in this hope, that I woke yesterday morning anddecided to make the greatest, funnest, most delicious recipe in Alicia's vegan book, The Kind Diet. One that would be so yummy, I would never cheat again. I found it on page 207: Cheesy Oozy Guacamole bean Dip.
 
As Frank would say, Yum. Or I'm a beagle or both.**
 
The recipe starts with you mashing up 3 ripe avocados while wearing a long flowy dress in Alicia Silverstone's kitchen.
 

Then you have Meredith, who was non-apologetic about her pie because she had gotten it from the people at the Leno Show***, squeeze the juice of one whole lime on the top.

Then you spread a layer of refried beans on the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish. You spread the avocado lime concoction over the top of the beans. Then you stir together two 8oz containers of non-dairy sour cream with a packet of cruelty free taco seasoning and spread over the avocado.
 
We only had one container of sour cream because I don't believe in writing down actual quantities while making a grocery list. Oh well, in the end it wasn't a problem.
 
Then we sprinkled a can of diced green mild chiles (drained) over the sour cream and layered on top of that 1/2 cup of sliced black olives.  Then we added 3 chopped tomatoes. (1 big ass yellow one from Alicia'sgarden and 2 normal sized red ones from a pack we got at trader joe's.)
 
Finally you sprinkle 2 cups of shredded vegan cheddar cheese on top. Then you preheat the oven to 350. Actually you should have done that sooner. Oh well.
 
While we waited for the oven to heat, my friend Megan Park came over to sample our hopefully extremely tasty vegan dish. Megan is a ridiculously talented actress who played my daughter in A Cinderella Story, Once Upon A Song, my opus, and who plays a virginal 16 year old on ABC family's “Secret Life of the American Teenager”. She also happens to be my writing partner. (We are writing the world’s greatest, funniest, raunchiest most heart felt female comedy of all time)****

She got here just in time to put the dish in the oven and open up some wine. She's not really 16. I hope. I wasn't sure what flavor of wine goes well with vegan bean dip so, just to be safe, I opened both a red and a white.
 
After 30 minutes, we took out our bean dip and sat down to eat with a bag of organic corn chips. We were just about to dig in when Megan, who is severely lactose intolerant asked if there was milk protein in the soy cheese. I said slightly condescendingly, "Uh no way Megan its SOY cheese." But she told me in a very non-condescending tone because she is really the adult in our relationship, apparently just because it says it’s soy cheese doesn't mean they don't get all sneaky and put in casein.
 
WHAT???? Who would do something like that?????
 
I guess you have to read the labels.


This soy cheese has Casein in it! IE NOT VEGAN!!

This vegan Daiya cheese does not! IE TOTALLY VEGAN!!
 
So we just pulled back the not so fake fake mozzerella for Megan and she ate the yummy goodness below.

 

It was a truly awesome dish. We were going to make an entrée, but we got too full on the chips we ate with the bean dip and the  ass load of chips we ate before while the bean dip was in the oven.
 
In conclusion I say this is a great recipe for anyone who is a cheater like me and wants to make something delicious to redeem  themselves.
 
I give it two "yums" up.
 
And will try to hold steadfast and not let you, my best friends down ever again.
 
*i am not ALWAYS in my underwear. just USUALLY.
** watch the video from blog 2. The beagle comment will make more sense
*** Meredith is assisting a very fancy actress named Octavia Spencer who was in The Help and was on “Late Night with Jay Leno” the other night. She made a pie made of poop in the Help so they gave her a pie not made of poop for being on the show. Meredith took one home because it was from Jay Leno. He doesn't like it when you turn him down. Or so I've heard....
****other than Bridesmaids. sigh.

***

Thank you Missi! Stay tuned for Missi’s next installment soon! What’s your favorite dish to make when you want to indulge, kind-style?

Related Stories:

Guest Blog: Missi Pyle's Vegan Quest - Day 1
Guest Blog: Missi Pyle's Vegan Adventure
Lea Michele's Guilty Pleasure...
Facts About Flouride

Personally, I try to avoid fluoride altogether - I got it out of my water, and I don’t buy toothpaste with it. I’ve heard all kinds of stories about why it’s bad, from studies linking it with cancer to the rumor that “fluoride makes you dumb.” I’m sure that’s a gross oversimplification of the health issues surrounding fluoride, but it got me curious – exactly why is fluoride bad for us? I asked healthy home expert Mary Cordaro to shed some light on the subject.
 
Fluoride: A Quick Overview By Mary Cordaro

First, fluoride is a huge topic worthy of a whole dissertation! I’ll try to provide an overview of the broad issues for you here, but if you’d like to get into the nitty gritty, this summary of some of the research by Dr. Ted Spence, D.D.S on Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website is a good place to start. I include highlights from some of the research for you.

A Highly Controversial Substance

While industry paid scientists make claims about the benefits of fluoride, independent research points to its potentially unhealthful effects. These effects are documented in scientific studies, and they include increased cancer and tumor growth (Waldbott/Yiamouyiannis), increased arthritis, disruption of the immune system and DNA repair (Waldbott), genetic damage (Tsutsui, et al), and aging (Yiamouyiannis).

Healthy Until Proven Unhealthy

Like all contaminants in our environment, the burden of proof on whether or not fluoride is truly safe in our drinking water or dentistry products and materials, should be placed on industry. This “Precautionary Approach” means that until it can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that fluoride is safe for everyone, from the developing fetus to the elderly, it should not be present in water or dental products and materials. The burden of proof, in other words, should be shifted from the public to industry and those who benefit financially from the pervasiveness of fluoride.

Unfortunately, industry currently uses “risk analysis”, based on the average adult male, to determine if a substance is safe or not. This does not account for sensitive populations, long term low-dose chronic exposure, or the combination of fluoride with other substances. As a result, fluoride, like many other potentially harmful substances, is considered safe until independent studies prove it to be harmful.

How To Avoid Fluoride

Until the burden of proof is switched to industry rather than the public, it is important to avoid fluoride exposure in tap water and dental products. For tap water, the most effective and safest method of removal is reverse osmosis. As for the idea that fluoride prevents tooth decay, Dr. Mercola’s associate Dr. Ted Spence suggests that good nutrition is a better strategy for maintaining the health of your pearly whites.     

The takeaway here is, it has not been proven that fluoride is NOT harmful, and given all the data suggesting that it could be, as well as experiences by doctors working with patients, it’s best to err on the side of caution.

References Waldbott, George, MD, Fluoride: The Great Dilemma, 1978, Coronado Press, Lawrence, KS   Yaimouyiannis, John, Fluoride: The Aging Factor, 1993, Health Action Press, Delaware   Sodium Fluoride-induced Morphological and Neoplastic Transformation Chromosome Aberrations, Sister Chromatid Exchanges, and Unscheduled DNA Synthesis in Cultured Syrian Hamster Embryo Cells, Takeki Tsutsui, Nobuko Suzuki and Manabu Ohmori, Can Res, 44:938-941, 1984 (March).

***

I’ll be posting the rest of Mary’s water filtration advice soon, so stay tuned for more information on that topic! If you’re looking for a good fluoride-free toothpaste, check out my previous blog about superhero toothpastes.

What do you Kind Lifers think about fluoride? Do you try to avoid it in your water and dental products?

Related Stories:

Water Quality and Your Health
Easy Ways to Conserve Water
The Battle Against Plastic Bags Continues
Simple Ways to Reduce Waste

The health section is proudly sponsored by Kaeng Raeng natural detox. Make sure to check out their 3 or 6 day vegan detox programs here:

Water conservation is a huge topic concerning both personal health and the environment. Healthy home guru Mary Cordaro has kindly offered to break down some of the big issues for us. Here is her first guest blog about water – I hope you enjoy it!

The Water Problem
By Mary Cordaro

If your water is provided by a local water utility, it goes through quite a rigorous course of treatment before it makes its long journey to your home. That’s because water utilities have a huge task. They are highly regulated to provide us with sanitary water that meets strict EPA guidelines for safety. This is becoming increasingly challenging, for many reasons, but to sum up it up: our water sources, prior to treatment, are highly compromised by many growing environmental conditions and contaminants which are polluting and toxic.  The list of toxic contaminants is quite long, but the broad categories include:

• Microorganisms, meaning bacteria, virus and parasites
• Disinfection chemicals, including chlorine and ammonia
• Disinfection chemical byproducts, including trihalomethanes
• Inorganic and organic chemicals, which includes everything from petrochemical solvents, to fluoride and heavy metals.

If you’d like to take look at this long list of toxic substances that our water utilities must address, including health effects, you will be astounded.

So why is it still important to filter our water if the EPA regulates all those toxic substances? Here are just a few reasons: After treatment, your water travels for miles through city pipes, many of which are very old, and some of which still contain lead. It’s possible they may also harbor certain pathogens that are resistant to disinfection chemicals. And although it’s not as common, lead may even be present in some older home plumbing. Home pipes may also develop a build-up of hard water “scale”, where sediment can also attach and build up.  So the quality of the water may be different when it arrives at your kitchen faucet, than when it started out at the treatment plant.

But in my opinion, there is a more important, larger and overriding concern. If you look at the allowable limits on the EPA link above, you’ll notice that many of those substances may be present in low, allowable amounts in our water.  In other words, scientists have determined that many toxic substances, including industrial chemicals that have not yet been tested for health, are safe to drink in very low amounts.  Even worse, the EPA is only beginning to address other substances, like pharmaceutical drugs in our water supplies that currently, water treatment plants are not equipped to remove. And scientists continue to uncover new contaminants, never before considered.  Sometimes the only known treatment is another regulated chemical or additive, which may itself produce byproducts.

Environmental hazards have compromised water for so long now that scientists have yet to uncover all the unhealthful substances in our city water, and what to do about them.
 
Our water utilities can only do so much to make our water safe.  I am grateful that we live in a country with sanitary water supplies, and low levels of contaminants. But if you feel as I do, that even low levels of contaminants, known or unknown are undesirable, then you may not be comfortable drinking  “allowable amounts” of chlorine, ammonia, fluoride, pathogens, heavy metals, petrochemical solvents like xylene, and any number of other toxic substances, or yet unregulated amounts of pharmaceutical, street drugs or other unhealthful chemicals that end up in our water.
 
Unfortunately, there are very few sources of natural water left that are contaminant free, so even if we have access to wells and springs, many of those natural sources are no longer as safe and natural as they were 100-200 years ago. And the enormous number of plastic bottles is now polluting oceans and killing sea life at a horrific rate.
 
So what’s the solution?  In my next guest blog, I’ll review why purification is the only way to remove as many contaminants as possible from drinking water, and how to get purified water on a variety of budgets.
 
Thanks Mary! If you Kind Lifers have questions for Mary, please write them in the comments below, and Mary will try to address them in a future blog.

The health section is proudly sponsored by Kaeng Raeng natural detox. Make sure to check out their 3 or 6 day vegan detox programs here:

Earlier, I introduced you to my friend Missi Pyle and her new vegan blog. She stayed at my house while I was away, and tried out a vegan diet.

Here is her blog about Day 1 of cooking veg:

Day 1

By Missi Pyle

My father, who thinks tofu is a Japanese couch that turns into a hard bed that no one should ever sleep on, had his first ever vegan meal the other night at Real Food Daily. He had the Tofu Salisbury Steak. He is going deaf and missing half a toe. So it’s hard to say how he really felt about it. He ate most of it and shrugged his shoulders. He then tasted my tahini dressing. He swished it around in his mouth a few times, gross, then simply said "yum."

Promising!

The next day, Meredith and I decided to venture into Alicia’s cookbook. Knowing we had Frank as our only real taste tester. We decided on something that could invoke yet another of his signature yum's - Waffle Sausage and Cheese Paninis. Because we knew at least the waffles would be actual waffles.

We had a side salad of collard greens and pine nuts and raisins.

Frank sat and sweated while we got our vegan cooking on.

First we fried the soy sausages, put them on a cutting board, cut them up, and gave some to Lacey, the 14 year old vegan dog. Then we stirred together some vegenaise, yummy apricot jam, thyme and pepper. We toasted the waffles, put the jaminaise sauce on them, and added the fake sausage, sundried tomatoes, arugula, and fake mozzarella. The flavor was actually insanely good, even with the fake mozzarella. Which I am not sure I have fallen in love with just yet.

We finished the collard greens and sat down with a still very sweaty Frank.

And the meal was pretty darn delicious. We made it 2 whole days. Only 28 left to go.

More guest Blogs:

Ari Solomon: On Kindness
Lea Michele: Horses
Desi Bartlett: Mommy & Me Yoga

I met Missi while shooting a kids film called Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker in England, just after I was married, about six years ago. She was so good as Mickey Rourke’s sidekick! We spent a nice bit of time together in the Isle of Man, and tons since. I have so much love for her - she is one of the funniest people I know – sincere, warm, and lovely too.

Anywho, Missi stayed at my house while I shot Gods Behaving Badly in NYC. She’s not a vegan, but she tried it while she stayed at my house, and she started a blog about her new, vegan adventure.

Here is the first entry:

Vegan Adventures in Wonderland

By Missi Pyle

I sold my Beachwood Canyon bungalow in LA and moved to Montana last year to make a family with a bear man in a geodome on 20 beautiful acres. I had high hopes. But my ovaries have not cooperated, and now I am close to broke. After eleven months of failing at trying to get acting jobs by putting myself on digital video with my flip camera, propped up on 2 end tables and a foot stool in the living room of said geodome, wearing nothing but my blue "business" suit jacket and underwear, and sending said video to my agent in LA via the satellite internet which, I think, is run by a team of oxen, i.e. it’s slow, I have decided I might need to move back to LA to get a job.

So, when my friend Alicia Silverstone, who is beyond lovely, one of the greatest famous people I know, really listens and is genuine, and a good friend, asked me if I wanted to move into her place while I look for a place and while she shoots a movie in NYC, I said, YES! She lives in a beautiful 2-story house with hard wood floors, a heated pool and at least a half acre of woodsy madness. It’s like Alicia in Wonderland.

Anyway. My little sister Meredith, who is 25, and a recent graduate of OCU in the masters musical theatre department, decided she wanted to move to LA to follow her dreams. So I, a recent graduate of getting the hell out of Los Angeles, have moved back to Los Angeles with my younger, skinnier, less bitter half sister, into Alicia's vegan home.

I am not a vegan.

I have always wanted to be a vegan. When I dine with Alicia, I eat vegan and choose not to wear my favorite calf length brown leather boots I've had resoled 3 times, and secretly hope we drive her Prius with the cloth seats, and not my vintage ‘06 Lexus with the grey again, leather, seats.

So, when I moved into her house last month with my little sister who practically grew up on a cattle farm, I asked her if she wanted to be vegan with me while we stay here and cook recipes from Alicia’s vegan cook book. She thought it sounded like a fun adventure. We are Pyles. We love adventure. So, here we go. On our vegan adventures in wonderland!

Stay tuned!

***

Thank you Missi! This is part one – I’ll be posting part two soon!

More Guest Blogs:

Dr. Joel Fuhrman: Cruciferous Veggies
Christina Pirello: Agave, Oy Vey
Lea Michele: My Guilty Pleasure

I’m honored to have Dr. Joel Fuhrman guest blog for us here on The Kind Life. Dr. Fuhrman is a member of PCRM and author of numerous books about nutritional medicine. Today he tells us all about the wonders of cruciferous veggies. Enjoy!

Cruciferous Vegetables are Anti-Cancer Foods
By Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Nutrition scientists have shown over and over that people who eat more natural plant foods – vegetables, fruits, legumes, etc. – are less likely to be diagnosed with cancer. But are all vegetables equally protective? If we wanted to design an anti-cancer diet, we would want to know which foods have the most powerful anti-cancer effects – then we could eat plenty of these foods each day, flooding our bodies with the protective substances contained within them.

So, which foods have the most powerful anti-cancer effects? Cruciferous vegetables. 

This family of vegetables is named for their flowers, having four equally spaced petals in the shape of a cross, from the Latin word ‘crucifer’ meaning ‘cross-bearer.’ These are the cruciferous vegetables:

• Arugula
• Bok choy  
• Broccoli
• Broccoli rabe
• Broccolini
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Collards
• Horseradish
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Mache
• Mustard greens
• Radish
• Red cabbage
• Rutabaga
• Turnips
• Turnip greens
• Watercress

All vegetables contain protective micronutrients and phytochemicals, but cruciferous vegetables are unique – they contain compounds called glucosinolates which are responsible for their pungent or bitter flavors. When cell walls are broken by blending or chopping, a chemical reaction occurs that converts glucosinolates to isothiocyanates (ITCs) – compounds with proven anti-cancer activities. The many ITCs work synergistically to remove carcinogens, kill cancer cells, and prevent tumors from growing. Some ITCs can even help the body excrete estrogen and other hormones, reducing the risk for hormonal cancers.
 
Cruciferous vegetables are twice as powerful as other plant foods. In population studies, a 20% increase in plant food intake generally corresponds to a 20% decrease in cancer rates, but a 20% increase in cruciferous vegetable intake corresponds to a 40% decrease in cancer rates.

Cruciferous vegetables are not only the most powerful anti-cancer foods in existence, they are also the most nutrient-dense of all the vegetables. Although the National Cancer Institute recommends 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day for cancer prevention, they have not yet established specific recommendations for cruciferous vegetables. I recommend six fresh fruits and eight total servings of vegetables per day, including two servings of cruciferous vegetables – one raw and one cooked. Remember: chopping, chewing, blending, or juicing cruciferous vegetables allows for production of ITCs. Consuming a large variety of these ITC-rich cruciferous vegetables within an overall nutrient-dense diet can provide us with a profound level of protection against cancer.  
 
For your next cruciferous vegetable dish, try one of these great recipes! 

Dr. Fuhrman is a best-selling author, nutritional researcher and board certified family physician specializing in nutritional medicine. Learn more by visiting his informative website at DrFuhrman.com and his blog at Diseaseproof.com, and following Dr. Fuhrman on Facebook and Twitter.
 
Thank you Dr. Fuhrman!

For all you superheroes, remember to go easy on the fruit, and choose those that are in season and grown locally. In macrobiotics, excessive fruit consumption is believed to weaken the blood, so superheroes should try not to eat more than one piece per day. For more on this, reread the superhero section of The Kind Diet (p. 97).

What do you Kind Lifers think? What are your favorite cruciferous veggies, and how do you like to prepare them?

All About Agave
Guest Blog by Christina Pirello

To agave or not to agave; that is the question. It seems that everything today creates scandal and confusion…our food, our politics, our neighborhoods, how we exercise and now even our sweeteners, natural and otherwise.

A relative newcomer to the culinary world (but not the world) is agave nectar, processed from the agave cactus. It became quite popular with the raw foods community because it is processed at low heat, but in reality, about 30 degrees higher than most raw foodists would deem acceptable, but let’s let that go for the moment.

It seemed that this low glycemic sweetener was destined to be the next big thing in healthy cooking. Deliciously sweet, naturally processed, gluten-free, delicate enough for most recipes, it had it all. Or did it?

Some facts about agave: agave plants are crushed and the sap is collected in tanks. It’s heated to about 140º F for about 36 hours to concentrate the sap into syrup and develop the sweetness. See, the main carbohydrate in agave is a complex form of fructose, one of which is insulin. I know; I know, too science-y. Anyhow, the sap is not very sweet, so when the agave sap is heated, the complex form of fructose is hydrolyzed and then filtered to obtain the desired sweet flavor, from the dark to the lighter, milder amber. In short, the complex fructosans are being broken down into fructose.

Based on my own research, I am not as in love with agave as I was in the beginning. I believe that it’s more processed than I originally thought and in that processing some of the vital nutrients that made it healthy for us are lost.

It is marketed as being low-glycemic and therefore safe for diabetics. Well, I say “Not so fast” on that one. Not only is the whole glycemic index misinterpreted and mis-used, but agave is considered low-glycemic because of its high concentration of fructose as compared to glucose (only about 10%). My concern is that this ratio of 90%/10% is not natural. Even high fructose corn syrup only contains about 55% fructose and we consider that to be the Darth Vader of food because of its high concentration of fructose.

And the big deal about fructose? Ay, ay, ay! While fructose naturally occurs in fruits and veggies, it is in small concentrations, so the liver can handle its metabolism. But when concentrated like it is in agave and high fructose corn syrup, an added burden is placed on the liver. Glucose, our body’s desired fuel is metabolized by every cell, while fructose is not. It has to be metabolized by the liver, which can lead to fatty deposits showing up in this most overworked gland. And since it’s metabolized by the liver, it is more likely to contribute to weight gain than other natural sweeteners.

Some studies also show that fructose can be indirectly linked to the inhibition of collagen and elastin production in the body, resulting in skin that is not so firm.

And finally, this form of hydrolyzed fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, so like sugar; it can rob the body of these nutrients in order to assimilate itself for use.

Now that I front-loaded the bad news, there is good news about agave. First and most important, its high fructose concentration is where its similarity to high fructose corn syrup ends. Agave is natural, while HFCS was invented, making agave superior in quality.

Agave’s low glycemic index does make it an okay sweetener to use in small quantities. Its molecular structure allows it to provide sweetness without a ‘sugar rush’ and resulting crash…and no blood sugar spike. And it does make great tequila, so it can’t be all bad. (Kidding…)

Look, I have always found agave to be too sweet in taste, so I did not use it much in my cooking. But I have found it to be a nice alternative for people looking for a more intense sweet without sugar and a gluten-free option for natural sweetening.

Do I think you should throw out your agave and cower in fear? Nope. But I do think that I will stick with my old reliable brown rice syrup, which I have used with great success in both cooking and health for more than 25 years. After processing, brown rice syrup remains 50% complex carbohydrate, 45% maltose and 5% glucose. This strong polysaccharide structure allows brown rice syrup to be used by the body more efficiently and is less likely to store as fat. And it digests more slowly so you are less likely to crave more and more sweet taste and binge. You will be satisfied with less. And in most cases, it also is gluten-free, so read the labels before you buy if that is a concern.

Now that’s not to say you can use it without reservation. With about 70-75 calories in a tablespoon, brown rice syrup, like all sweeteners is calorically dense (about 60 in a tablespoon of white sugar) and can pack on the pounds if not used wisely. So while a better choice than white sugar, because it’s a polysaccharide, like all sweeteners, brown rice syrup is a treat, not a staple of life, as much as we would like that to be our truth. If it becomes a staple of life, you will have the waistline to prove it!

But…back to the topic at hand. Is agave healthy as a natural sweetener? In small amounts, I would say it’s okay, not the best, but okay. Is it healthier than HFCS? Yes, because it’s natural, not invented. Is it healthier than artificial sweeteners? Heck, yes, for so many reasons. Are there other options? Yup, from xlyitol to stevia, healthy, natural, low in calories. If you like them, go for it. And it’s vegan, as is rice syrup, so it ain’t all bad news. And as our modern food supply goes, you could do a lot worse than agave nectar.

I prefer (and will likely always prefer) brown rice syrup as my primary sweetener for baking, sauces, puddings and all things sweet.

So relax and enjoy the sweetness of life…

Note from Alicia:

Thanks Christina! You can check out more articles and recipes from Christina here!

As much as I love the taste and the vegan-ness of agave, it doesn't sit well with me. Since I eat superhero most of the time, I actually do feel spiked by it the same way I do by maple syrup and cane juice. You don't have to avoid it like the plague - agave is great for an occasional treat. I just don't get excited about it in terms of how it makes me feel. Brown rice syrup never did me dirty though...love that!

How often do you use agave? What are your favorite sweeteners?

Our insanely talented, super sweet vegan goddess Lea Michele sent me this for your pleasure. Check it out:

  Lea's “Guilty Pleasure” Meal

By Lea Michele

This is my guilty pleasure right now...it's cheap and easy to make!

• 2 slices of Ezekiel bread
• 1 avocado (1 half mashed on bread, other half on a dish with a little salt on top)
• 1 Amy’s Vegan veggie burger
• 2 slices pepperjack rice cheese
• A few tomato slices

*For extra flavor, add hot sauce or salsa!
 
Also, my favorite organic wine is called Our Daily Red (available at Whole Foods)…soooo good!
 
Thank you Lea!! I want to hear from all you Kind Lifers too! What are your simple pleasures?

Ari Solomon is a wonderful person and vegan! He's the founder and owner of A Scent of Scandal , a great vegan candle company. I'm honored to have him guest blog for The Kind Life!
 
Enjoy his thoughtful piece about kindness:

Our Innate Kindness
By Ari Solomon

When Alicia asked me to blog for The Kind Life, I was thrilled because there's been something I've been meaning to explore for some time now, and I think this is just the place. It goes something like this:
 
Are human beings innately kind? Is kindness our default, or, if we don't consciously practice kindness (as we would any other skill) do we revert back to being some sort of monstrous Conan the Barbarian?
 
I realize that to fully investigate a question like this, it would probably take a dissertation versus a blog, but there's a specific, common human response that gives us strong clues.
 
A few weeks ago, I was watching a talk show that shed light on how animal-based foods are produced. But, before footage from inside the slaughterhouse was shown, the host of the show warned the audience that the images were going to be graphic and upsetting. In fact, she cautioned that if viewers had children present, it might be best to escort them out of the room. Of course, such warnings are not unique to this talk show; you always hear them before footage like this is aired.
 
But this got me thinking. If we're supposed to be eating things like meat, dairy, and eggs, why do we find slaughterhouse footage so disturbing? Certainly no one would ask us to emotionally prepare ourselves before showing a video of people harvesting broccoli, or picking apples. If eating animals and their "by-products" is so natural, what's with our revulsion to blood and gore?

Here's something else to ponder: About a year ago, during a routine trip to the vet's office, I was sitting in the waiting room while Animal Planet played on the TV. It was one of the shows documenting big cats in Africa. When a lion hunted and brought down a gazelle, I noticed the faces of the other people in the room around me. People were groaning and averting their eyes. One woman actually spoke out loud, "Ugh, isn't it awful?"
 
Now, I'm not an anthropologist, but I'd venture to say that these instinctual responses tell us all we need to know about how we should treat animals, and consequently, what we should be eating. If we can't bear to watch animals being slaughtered or hunted, and if we have to lie to our children about where our food comes from, perhaps we should meditate on that, instead of doing what most people do: numb themselves to the truth.

Sure, a butcher might tell you that he/she has no problem slicing and dicing animals, and a hunter may wax poetic about the thrill of killing. But, I'm pretty certain this is what comes only after some process of desensitization takes place. When you ask kids what they want to do when they grow up, very few respond, "Kill animals."
 
Harvey Diamond famously said, "You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car." Indeed, I think that when it comes to animals, kindness is undeniably our default.
 
Thank you Ari! What do you all think? Why have so many people decided to numb their innate kindness?