PETA is offering $1 million dollars to any scientist who can grow lab-raised meat that costs the same as chicken and is indistinguishable in taste and texture.

I’ve always been confused by animal rights vegans who are willing to throw the health problems associated with meat consumption into their presentations, but when all is said and done, as soon as animal cruelty is out of the picture, then the rest will sort of just disappear as irrelevant.

My path started with learning the health benefits of eating vegan, then I learned more about the environmental impact of animal agriculture, and I’ve also become far more compassionate in regard to animal rights. I’ve never taken them out of that order, though.

So, it doesn’t sit well with me to create new forms of animal protein, when studies have directly linked consumption of animal proteins with cancer promotion (Read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, I’m not the expert here. That book documents the biggest epidemiological study ever performed studying protein and cancer promotion, so go read it).

It works well with their narrow purpose, but it just seems they should have learned more about the other benefits of being vegan by now.

I remember the first time I saw the Nintendo Wii and thinking, “Hmm, they should create a game that tricks people into getting physical activity.” Apparently, Nintendo is headed in that direction, just without the trickery.

The Nintendo Wii Fit is about to launch in America, after becoming the number one game in Japan. The Wii Fit is a balance board console that players stand on and do activities that work on strength training, aerobics, balance games and yoga. The Fit tracks their BMI and can chart their weight and any weight loss and activity level over time. The unit also asks users to input their fitness goals and tracks their progress over time.

The Wii Fit isn’t just a boring virtual gym, though. It seems like it can do a good job of keeping people entertained while they work out. The hula hoop game has users standing on the balance board, shifting their weight and catching hula hoops on their outstretched arms and having them keep those rotating as well as the hula hoop they are keeping moving around their hips.

There is something to be said about a nation of air guitarists who jog in front of their TV, of course, but that’s an entirely separate issue.

I wasn’t quite sure how to review The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. The biggest hurdle is that I don’t tend to make a lot of baked goods or desserts, because I’m following the McDougall Program (whereby baked goods aren’t really a staple), and living alone, so whatever the pace of eating is, eventually I’ll be eating the whole thing (which is bad news).

But recently I had an out-of-town relative in for Easter and there was a dinner planned, so I decided to use that opportunity to try some of the recipes. The Friday before Easter, we had dinner at Millennium in San Francisco, which is the pinnacle of high-end gourmet vegan dining. My plan all along was to bake the Meditteranean Olive Bread from the cookbook and take it to the dinner, but the plan kept building from there.

At that dinner, my cousin randomly mentioned vegan cookies, and how on several occassions he bought some at the store and they were dry and awful. I told him that’s usually how it goes, because vegan cookies don’t use all of the hydrogenated oils and such that give other cookies their shelf life (and often times stay on the shelf too long). So, I just happened to inquire what his favorite cookie is. He said Oatmeal Raisin. Mission one.

The second thing I heard incorrectly, but I was under the impression that his wife was a fan of the chocolate soy pudding they sold in the stores, but they were underwhelmed by that, too. I also knew that Goudreau’s book had chocolate pudding in there, so this dinner kept expanding as far as what I planned to bring.

I made all three at the same time, more or less, starting with the cookies, then on to the loaf, and finishing with the pudding.

I was a bit concerned that I didn’t have an electric mixer for the cookies, although the recipe didn’t explicitly require one, but I recalled from Christmas how well that folded the vegan butter and sugar together. It still worked fine without one, and the cookies came out great. Initially, I made them slightly rounder, but after the first batch started flattening them out a bit more.

The olive loaf was also my debut run using a silicone loaf pan, which turned out nicely, except it lacked that darker tinge that comes from using metal. It was so strange seeing bread that looked the same from all angles that I cut a piece off the end to make sure it was done, and it tasted fabulous.

So far, so good. The pudding is where things went a bit wrong. I’d never cooked with kudzu root before, so I can’t quite pinpoint where I went off-course. The recipe called for ground kudzu, and my local hippie co-op had kudzu chunks. But, since the recipe called for you to dissolve the kudzu in water, I didn’t really bother grinding it up. This could be the point of failure.

All I know is that the pudding never really set, but seemed to have congealed chunks floating around in it, making me think that the kudzu (having not been ground) didn’t fully dissolve as much as it disappeared into the liquid and when folded into the chocolate, was unable to affect the chemistry of the chocolate.

Again, all guesswork. That said, the quality of the chocolate was so good, that it vague state somewhere between solid and liquid didn’t prevent its consumption.

Overall, the entries were pretty stellar. The cookies redeemed my cousin’s notion of vegan cookies being dry and bland, a sadly well-earned but incorrect reputation. The Olive Bread was the hit of the dinner, and well on its way to be a staple when I want something easy to bring to dinner parties. The pudding was the weak entry of the bunch, but I’m going to blame my lack of ground kudzu for now. Certainly, the recipe made some great-tasting liquid chocolate, despite its lack of congealing.

The strange part of the vegan baking experiment was that I was not cooking for a vegan meal, or a vegetarian meal, but in fact, an annual tradition of grilled lamb. The bread featured fresh rosemary and was heralded with the phrase, I’m sad to say: “This will go perfect with the lamb!”

So, yeah, that was a bit strange.

On the whole, I have a great vibe for the rest of this book. Having listened to every episode of Goudreau’s podcast, I know her passion and knowledge first-hand. It was good to put her recipes to the test, and I would totally fly blind and bring any of her dishes, untasted, to any event without worry.

The book, which won last year’s “Cookbook of the Year” from VegNews magazine, is divided into sections for every sort of baking you can imagine, as well as a few that sort of stray from the ‘baking’ moniker (sorbets, smoothies, beverages, etc.)

The book has an exhaustive introduction about vegan baking not being an oxymoron, although I’m not sure why this notion exists (maybe it’s all those hard, dry baked goods in stores?). If there’s anything on which I can fault the book, it is Goudreau’s notion of experimentation, such as challenging people to try different non-dairy milks to see how it will change the taste of the dish. I think she could have recommended which she found to work best for each dish, but suggest we try others, as well.

Of course, that’s a minor ding in what is bound to be a vegan staple. Of course, just writing that is limiting. As Goudreau writes toward the front of the book, many people can’t believe that delicious baked goods are possible without butter, eggs and dairy, when it is more accurate to say baked goods rely on fat, moisture, and leavening, all of which are available without animal products.

So, whether your guided by compassion, lowering your cholesterol, or don’t care about any of that stuff and just want some kick-ass recipes, this is a great book to add to your collection.

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(At some point in the future, I will be doing podcast reviews and other stuff that will feature Goudreau on the site, but by all means check out her podcast. Unlike a lot of vegan podcasts that are too scattered, too preachy, or just boring, Goudreau really puts a lot of effort into hers, and it is always worth your time to listen.)

Dr. McDougall recently released some Breaking News to his e-mail list, under the headline “Bill Clinton’s Madness: A Consequence of Heart-Bypass Surgery Brain Damage.” I was sort of surprised the headline didn’t end with a question mark but, in his article, McDougall compares the Clinton that stood against impeachment and being known for his wit, charm, and ability to stay calm under his pressure to the one out stumping for his wife’s campaign:

“Now, he is easily angered by hecklers, and makes factual mistakes and racial slurs while aggressively defending his wife’s campaign for presidency. Everyone sees his mental and emotional decline, yet to date, no medical professionals have spoken out about the cause or offered help.

Not a single one—not one bypass surgeon, cardiologist or psychiatrist—has stepped forward in his defense; even though all of them are trained to recognize “post bypass surgery cognitive dysfunction.” One of the best-kept secrets in medicine is the brain damage caused during bypass surgery.

McDougall gives a lot of facts and figures about the procedure, and finishes up by saying:

“I am saddened to see our former president suffer from public humiliation, but I am disgraced that my profession has thus far failed to come forward with a long over-due explanation and an apology to the Clintons and our nation for the harm they have done and the secrets they have kept.”

Wow, interesting stuff from Dr. McDougall… Definitely worth a read.

Sorry everyone, just started a new job, so my inbox has been piling up while I get use to having regular commitments (as well as incoming money) again. So, all my extra-curricular stuff like website postings have suffered. I’m trying to get a new schedule running here, so things should pick up again soon.

But here’s what’s been building up in my absence:

In a recent newsletter, Dr. McDougall has been helping people realize that a vegan diet helps them save money at the grocery store, and that’s above and beyond the cost of quadruple bypass surgery: “Winning during an economic crunch involves behaviors not much different than those you should already be doing during good times.” Makes sense, as per usual.

After my recent tirade, 24 Hour Fitness has released two more newsletters. The topics? Gardening and yoga. Coincidence? I think not.

Teresa Rodriguez is the latest Star McDougaller: “I was told I have a permanent disabling mental illness by my doctors and that I would never work. I now know that is not true. My journey to regain my life has provided me with purpose and drive, two things that I have been lacking for many years.” Congratulations, Teresa!

Organic Athlete pointed to some good studies that came out recently. One links meat consumption and cancer risk, which is old news, but the more research, the better.

They also found a study showing healthy, middle-aged Chinese women who consumed more legumes had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Again, nothing surprising.

The PCRM noted that increased egg consumption is linked to a higher mortality rate. The group also tipped us off that once your bad diet gives you diabetes, your inhaled insulin might give you lung cancer. Exubera, an inhaled insulin delivery system, has been linked to an increased risk of lung cancer. Pfizer released this statement: “Over the course of the clinical trial program, 6 of the 4,740 Exubera-treated patients versus 1 of the 4,292 patients not treated with Exubera developed lung cancer. In addition there was a post-marketing report of lung cancer in one Exubera-treated patient.” All affected patients had a prior smoking history. It is not yet clear whether Exubera aggravates cancer risk in smokers and former smokers or the link is simply coincidental. The company is updating product labeling to reflect the findings. On October 18, 2007, Pfizer announced its plan to discontinue the product after disappointing sales.

vegan.com had a major relaunch, and is a good source of information. I just find it to be too animal-centric for daily reading. I’m not the kind of vegan who wants to hear about animal slaughter every day.