Hello Marin VEG readers,

Here is a mid month update:

Conscious Eating Conference Videos
If you didn't make it to this year's Conscious Eating Conference in Berkeley, you can now watch the presentations on line. http://upc-online.org/forums/2016/videos.html
If you do watch any of these, please consider making a contribution to United Poultry Concerns - http://www.upc-online.org / - to support their good work and conferences like this one.  United Poultry Concerns is the only organization that speaks up exclusively, and effectively,  for chickens, turkeys, and other birds raised for food.  If you deplore the egg industry, you really ought to support United Poultry Concerns.



Aquafaba
The New York Times ran an interesting piece this week about how chefs are using the water from cooking chickpeas, called aquafaba, as a substitute for egg whites.    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/dining/aquafaba-vegan-egg-substitute.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share


Made Me Laugh
 I apologize in advance if this offends you. But I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share it. It's a spoof of a "spiritual guru" showing us how to become gluten intolerant. 

While I have deep appreciation for how hard it must be to have celiac disease or to be gluten intolerant, I do wonder at the huge numbers of people who are swearing off wheat and other gluten containing foods. And I see a growing number of people who presume, because I'm a vegan, that I am also gluten intolerant.   Dr. Michael Greger in his book How Not to Die, writes that about one in one hundred people has celiac disease and about one in a thousand has an allergy to wheat. He also writes, "For the 98 percent of people who don't have wheat issues, there is no evidence to suggest that following a gluten-free diet has any benefits."  I recommend his entire section on gluten in that book (pages 370-373), especially if you do avoid gluten. He explains why avoiding gluten can, ironically, make it harder to diagnose celiac disease.
That said, here's the video, and I hope you can appreciate the humor:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oht9AEq1798 


As always, be sure to look at  www.bayareaveg.org/events.htm  and  www.meetup.com/marin-vegan/  to find out what's happening in the coming weeks. Also, check out Compassionate Living in Sonoma County. Their web site is  www.socoveg.org/.   And The San Francisco Veg Society at www. SFVS.org also has events that might lure you over the bridge.