So you thought it was Vegan? Vegan sneak-rets!

To learn more about sneaky non-vegan ingredients that lurk in some of your favorite products and food items click here!

My first article published on iEatGrass.com! High hopes for many more :)

Oh, and Ethos Vegan Kitchen update: IT HAS FINALLY OPENED! Excited to check out the new location. Photos and review to be posted soon!

Kathy Freston

Love this woman! She is so positive and has such a wonderful way of enlightening her audience. I can listen to her forever! @kathyfreston.

I hope to be as successful as Kathy one day. She uses her passion for a healthy lifestyle to help others through writing and interviews and so on. She is so in tune with life and really takes everybody's lifestyle situations in consideration. Such an inspiration! http://www.kathyfreston.com/

Oh, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter! @GetVeg

Hamburgers & Hot Dogs

At work on Wednesday, I overheard a mother asking her son what he would like for lunch (I work at a gym, mind you.) She suggested a hamburger. The conversation went a little like this:


Mom: Do you want a hamburger?
Son: A hamburger and a hot dog.
Mom: How about a hamburger now and a hot dog for dinner?
Son: Hamburger AND hot dog!!

Alright little boy... calm down. You'll most likely get your happy meal on the way home. If you decide you're still hungry by the time you get to the house... you might get your hot dog too. If not, hot dog for dinner -- guaranteed.

Okay, here goes the break down (assuming a stop at McDonald's took place on the way home):

According to McDonald's: A Happy Meal is a juicy hamburger with kids sized world famous fries, apple slices and your choice of fat free chocolate milk, low fat white milk or apple juice.

According to real life: Happy meals and the like are HUGE contributors to child obesity. Any combination of a Happy Meal whether it's fries and nuggets, burger and apple dippers -- whatever -- the caloric intake will almost always be over 50% of a child's daily caloric needs.

According to Skinny Bitch: about 99 percent of the meat in our country comes from factory farms. We already know that the animals in these farms are raised in confined, cramped quarters. In order to prevent disease and promote growth, the animals are given hormones, steroids, pesticides, and antibiotics. After this process, we feed the animals to our children in the form of Happy Meals. Our children, in turn, ingest this junk. In addition, the saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium and all that other gross stuff just speaks for itself.

I don't even really want to get into what hot dogs are made of. I mean, who does?

Obesity is a huge deal. It is a disease that leads to other diseases and can be fatal.

I guess I was just disgusted to hear this conversation. Think, people! Is this what we want our children to grow up eating? Do we want them to think it's OK to eat this garbage?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! You are what you eat. Remember that.

Attention! Ethos Vegan Kitchen is relocating!

Although the charming downtown location will be terribly missed by many, Ethos' move is definitely a positive one.

The new Winter Park location is super close to where I work: PLUS! Also, it will actually have more than four parking spaces; another plus! From what I hear, service will be A LOT better since the restaurant now offers full on table side service.

If a more casual setting is preferred, it will have a lunch bar and a counter area dedicated solely for pick-up and to-go orders to cut down time waiting in line.

So, overall, I am excited about this. I cannot wait until the grand opening this summer to drag all my friends to Ethos and make them taste the best vegan food Orlando has to offer! (Well, that I've tried at least.)

For more information check out my article in the Central Florida Future:
Veg out at Ethos' new location - News - Central Florida Future - University of Central Florida

New TDIV article: Meatless Monday vs. Friday Fiasco's Meat Report

Check out how a local vegan feels about a Central Florida radio station's weekly "Meat Report."

Meatless Monday vs. Friday Fiasco's Meat Report: Local Central Florida radio station goes ham | This Dish Is Veg - Vegan, Animal Rights, Eco-friendly News

Don't forget to also check out: Dyeing animals leads to dying animals. Take action and encourage Gov. Rick Scott to veto the bill by sending a polite email to: rick.scott@eog.myflorida.com

free the chimps!

First article published in This Dish is Vegetarian :)

Check out why people support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Saving Act.

Steve-O, Woody Harrelson and Alec Baldwin pen letters in support of Great Ape Protection

And don't forget to take action by clicking here!

Veganism not just for hippies — athletes join club

The semester has finally come to an end as finals week is getting the best of us.

I want to reiterate that vegans are not hippies. Not consuming animal products does not equal hippie. People eat this way to improve their health and life for the future. Of course, a vegan diet ultimately helps the planet and was definitely a huge factor in my decision, but to some that is not the case.

I'm obviously not the only person who thinks this way of life is perfectly normal, so I listed a few well-known professional athletes and celebrities just to prove it.

Baseball writer Jonah Keri wrote, "Who says you have to eat meat to be a successful athlete?" Keri explains how many athletes say that choosing a vegan diet enhances their performance. These smarty-pants athletes also know that they are not going to be ball players and stick handlers forever. They know that staying away from meat and dairy will start improving their health for when they get older.

Others are faced with health conditions, such as Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez, that may force them to make the switch.

There have been several world-class athletes who adapted to a vegan or vegetarian diet, including former NFLers Desmond Howard and Ricky Williams, NBA guard Salim Stoudamire, track and field star Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses along with many others.

In May 2007, 247-pound, Gonzalez was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. His doctors prescribed a diet made up of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds as a way to improve digestion and combat the condition. Now, he loads up on berries, bananas, mangos, fresh vegetables, rice milk and hemp milk and blends them into power smoothies.

Gonzalez was shocked that he felt so good when the season started. In the fourth quarters of games, he was sprinting past tired defenders. He also found himself more alert during team meetings. After game day while his teammates were sore and worn out, he'd check into the gym for a post-game workout.

Like Mixed Martial Arts? Five-foot-9-inch, 155-pound Mac Danzig became a vegan in 2004. Ever since, he says, he seems to have quicker recoveries from the beatings he takes during fights. Although MMA fighters are typically linked to meaty diets with shockingly high protein contents, Danzig is still able to fight under the direction of the Xtreme Couture MMA Gym in Las Vegas and keeps up with some of the biggest names in the sport.

The New York Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire hasn't completely ditched the meat, but he is definitely down for boycotting fur and posing for PETA's "Ink, Not Mink" campaign. While promoting the campaign, Stoudemire admitted he tends to a four-day vegan diet as a type of body-cleansing. He stated the diet will "purify my body, and get my body in top shape."

Even local athletes recognize the plant-based diet. Allen Altfield, a senior computer science major, as well as a vegan athlete, gets enough protein without the animal fat. Altfield is more than impressive, traveling 3,800 miles — on a bicycle. He departed from Tybee Island, Ga., and ended up in San Francisco to raise green awareness. He traveled through 13 states in around 70 days with minimal training. Tell me, can any ol' meat eater can do that?

Remember the movie Clueless? Do Cher, Dionne and Amber ring a bell? If it not, at least try to remember that popular blonde Alicia Silverstone. Since becoming a vegan, Silverstone said she feels physically and spiritually better than she could ever have imagined. She even wrote a book, The Kind Diet, and appeared at UCF a few months back to talk to students about why to consume a vegan diet and the benefits.

PETA's sexiest vegan and vegetarians list include Olivia Wilde, who claimed that she felt "beyond [her] desire to boycott the torture factories, I am also way happier when I eat a plant based diet, and I feel about a thousand times more energetic." Carrie Underwood, Anne Hathaway and Josh Harnett said their good-byes to meat too.

"One day I was cutting up a chicken for my mom, and I hit a tumor with the knife," Hartnett said. "There was [pus] and blood all over the place. That was enough for me."

Andre 3000 admitted he prefers a good meal with broccoli "because I'm a vegetarian," after being asked during a post-award show interview.

Oh, and don't be so hard on yourself. You are the only person who can control what goes in your mouth.

As Altfield said: "I guess I've mentally blocked out negative feedback. Haters will be haters, but as long as you speak the neutral truth, they won't be able to provide any logically negative criticisms."

Check out this column post in the Central Florida Future!