BIBLIOGRAPHY VEGETARIAN COOKBOOKS Rachel Albert, Cooking With Rachel, Creative Vegetarian and Macrobiotic Cuisine, Oroville, CA: George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1989, ISBN 0-918860-49-0 (strictly vegetarian). American Vegan Society, The Vegan Kitchen, 501 Old Harding Hwy., Malaga, NJ 08328 (strictly vegetarian). Rynn Berry, Famous Vegetarians and their Favorite Recipes, New York; Pythagorean Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0-9626169-1-5, (strictly [...]

23 Vegetablearian Songs WE JUST NEVER UNDERSTOOD Sung in the style of a negro spiritual Chorus in minor: Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord Lord, Lord, Lord Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, We just never understood. Minor: Someday the Lord will come. That’s what the good book have said. He be punishin’ the wicked, And rewardin’ the good. [...]

22 FINAL SPECULATIONS SPECULATION ABOUT AN UNCONSCIOUS CONNECTION In this chapter I will pick up the thread I left behind at the end of Chapter 14, The Ethics of Diet. Some of you will already think I have gone off the deep end. Now I am going to venture even further. If you rate low [...]

21 GODDESS RECIPES BREAKFAST FOOD LIQUIDS, JUICE AND TEA Drink a lot of liquids when you first wake up. See the section in the previous chapter entitled Liquids, Juice and Tea, p. 349. FRUIT, JUICE, SMOOTHIES, NUTS These can make a quick, healthy, and tasty breakfast. See the section in the previous chapter entitled Fruit, [...]

20 HEALTHY COOKING TECHNIQUES Let’s say you’re convinced. You’d like to make a change. Where do you start? How do you cook this healthy food I’m talking about? Keep reading, and I’ll tell you step-by-step. LIQUIDS, JUICE AND TEA When we wake up, we are thirsty. Drink a glass of water. Exercise and drink more [...]

19 MAKING THE TRANSITION THE INITIAL HURDLES Some people who become vegetarians claim they never felt better and would never go back. Others try to become vegetarian but give up, complaining that they don’t feel good in some way or that they feel the need for meat. However, … the neophyte’s nausea does not come [...]

18 ORGANIC GARDENING GROW YOUR OWN ORGANIC VEGETABLES Organic gardening is nothing new. It is the way people grew crops for thousands of years—until the 1940s when organochlorine pesticides and artificial N-P-K fertilizers were introduced. Don’t believe the propaganda of the petrochemical companies. No pesticides are necessary. Since World War II, we have been adding [...]

17 THE VOCABULARY OF DIET VEGETARIANS OF OLD The term “vegetarian” is one that arose in the 1800s, and its exact definition is still not settled. The ancient vegetarians obviously did not refer to themselves as “vegetarians.” They described themselves as “not eating flesh food” and as “Pythagoreans.” The Roman historian Ovid (43 B.C.-17 A.D.) [...]

16 TWO VERSIONS OF REALITY I read a lot of newspapers and news magazines. However, I always read them critically. I consider myself something of a media analyst. I was a member of the respected Seattle Central America Media Project back during the Sandinista-Contra War in the 1980s. I made five trips to Central America [...]

15 COULD I SOMEHOW BE WRONG ABOUT ALL OF THIS? THE VEGETARIAN DEBUNKERS The debunkers come in two classes. First, there are the public relations people for the beef, chicken, egg, and milk industries. They are thoroughly unconvincing. (www.whymilk.com, www.meatingplace.com, www.beefnutrition.com, www.beefboard.org, www.porkboard.org, www.aeb.org.) Then there are the academic debunkers, who merit more serious consideration. [...]

14 THE ETHICS OF DIET THE MYTH OF THE WHOLESOME BARNYARD Seattle resident David Coats points out in his book (Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm) that our image of animals living a happy existence in the barnyard is a myth of the past. The barnyard was phased out after World War II, and the factory farming [...]

12 POPULATION EXPLOSION AND A PLANT-BASED DIET WHY DO WE HAVE A POPULATION EXPLOSION? Our species has been on the verge of extinction many times. The latest low point came with the explosion of the volcano known as Toba in Sumatra around 74,000 years ago. Ash was dumped on much of the world, and huge [...]

11 THE ECONOMY AND A PLANT-BASED DIET Meat, eggs, and dairy products make for bad macroeconomics and bad microeconomics. They are bad for the world economy, the national economy, and the family budget. Animal foods are more expensive than plant-based foods. A family can easily cut its food bill by eating a plant-based diet. The [...]

10 THE ENVIRONMENT AND A PLANT-BASED DIET   Our impact on the physical environment is enormous. Of course, much of the problem results from burning fossil fuels, contamination of the environment with pesticides and other chemicals, our exploding population and the concomitant usurping of land from wild animals and plants. However, a significant part of [...]

9 COWBOY CULTURE CONQUERS THE ENTIRE WORLD CROSSING OCEANS Tribes descended from the patriarchal invaders declared holy Crusades in which they tortured and killed heretics, Jews, Moslems, and supposed witches—some of them surviving priestesses of the old goddess religion, some of them just unfortunate women falsely accused. Viking descendants of the patriarchal invaders conquered Normandy, [...]

6 JUDAISM AND THE HISTORY OF FOOD MINING THE LEGENDS OF GENESIS The stories of Genesis are symbolic and allegorical. For one who is not afraid to interpret them in a non-literal way, there is much history to be found there. Scholars such as J.J. Bachofen and A.M. Hocart believed in the “historicity of myth.” [...]

4 DIET: THE RELEVANCE OF THE PAST TO THE PRESENT WHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF FOOD? When it comes to eating the contemporary, animal-based, high-fat diet, many people tell me: “That was the way our human and prehuman ancestors ate.” “That was the way people of our tradition or religion ate.” “Our religion explicitly endorses [...]

5 LOSS OF EDEN: THIS ERA OF CONTINUOUS WARFARE OLD EUROPE, BEFORE 4300 B.C.E., A PARADIGM OF PARTNERSHIP In Old Europe there were towns of up to 10,000 people. There were paved streets, small, two-story temples, and five-room homes with plaster floors and walls. There were beautiful frescos on the walls, vases and sculpture, shops [...]

3 DEDICATION DEDICATION 1 This book is dedicated to the wife whose husband has always been a good date, and who is probably going to break his date with her by dying too soon. To the husband, who is going to break her heart, by breaking his heart. DEAR WIFE WITH SOON-TO-BE BROKEN HEART, He’s [...]

2 OVERVIEW: WHY THE GODDESS THEME? WHY A THEOLOGY OF FOOD? What is theology and how does theology relate to food? Generally theology includes the search for answers to such difficult questions as: What will happen to us when we die? Will there will be rewards and punishments? Does god exist? What is the nature [...]