February 2010

Veganizing children's songs

February 23, 2010

This week on SpawnBetter we thought we’d lighten things up a bit and maybe sing a song or two. But what songs? If you’re singing with kids, it just takes one stray reference to Old MacDonald and you could be hit with a ton of questions about what those farm animals are doing there, exactly.

I posed this one to the Council of Vegan Parents:

“What do you do to veganize childrens songs? Or do you at all? For some reason “on top of spaghetti” was in my head this weekend, and I couldn’t think of a good substitute for that poor meatball. Have you revised any popular children’s songs? Does Old MacDonald run a sanctuary? Or have you selected a repertoire of songs that don’t mention farming and animal products? And hey, if this is the first time this idea’s come up, feel free to improvise!”

And answer they did.

Avoiding the issue altogether

As Kristie points out, “with so many songs out there, it’s not too hard to avoid the not so animal-friendly ones,” and Elaine will just make up words on the spot, even if they don’t make sense, should the need arise. Elaine also dips into the wide repertoire of non-children’s songs that are out there.

Depending on the vocabulary you use in your home, it might not be a problem anyway. I have many friends who refer to Earth Balance as “butter,” soy milk as “milk,” etc. Julie’s family is in that camp too, although she’s pretty sure her son has decided that it’s a soy meatball on top of the spaghetti.

This little piggy got noticed

OK, I don’t know how it happened, but I forgot all about “This Little Piggy” when I sent the question out. This proves a genetic abnormality, because it was pretty much the first song that everyone mentioned, what with the roast beef reference and all.

While tofu was the clear winner for substitutions, other alternatives included “this little piggy had popcorn” and “field roast” from Pippi, while Monica and Julie will just use whatever food their children have eaten recently.

Saying bah to wool

Al submitted his variant on a non-food related yet still vegan sensitive classic:

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
No sir, No sir,
None for you.

None for the master,
None for the dame,
None for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
No sir, no sir,
None for you.

I lost my poor wheat ball…

I now have it on good authority that wheat balls and neat balls can roll off of a plate of spaghetti like nobody’s business, and soy cheese is a perfect cover.

Old MacDonald gets a pass

Most of our parents left poor Old MacDonald alone, figuring that he either runs a sanctuary or just has a lot of animal friends, but Al took it one step further, and I can’t think of a more fun way to close out a fun topic like this:

A huge thank you to Pippi, Monica, Al, Doh, Julie, Kristie, and Elaine for their help with this one!

What about you? Have you veganized any classics on the fly? What’s the funniest one? Let us know in the comments!

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Vegan omega-3 sources for children

February 16, 2010

Flax is more awesome than I ever suspected

Flax is more awesome than I ever suspected

For this week’s question, we’ve got an email from SB reader Jessica: “I’m curious whether you have advice on omega-3 sources for a 4-year-old? It’s been hard to find the vegan chewables that we had been buying, and my child is resistant to drinking smoothies daily, so flax oil does not appear to be an option.”

In the old days when I volunteered at a vegetarian resource centre, we’d skim a few books and Google around to find things that might fit, but one of the things I love most about Spawn Better is that the answers come from real vegan parents who’ve actually dealt with these issues in real life. Here’s how the Council of Vegan Parents are adding omega 3 fatty acids into your children’s diets:

Flax takes the gold

While some alternatives were suggested, and we’ll get into those in a bit, flax was still the top recommendation even if it wasn’t working as a smoothie, what with it containing 7 grams of omega-3 fatty acids per quarter cup. It turns out the stuff is amazingly versatile:

Soups and stews. Sarah’s family grinds flax seeds into soups and stews, and this is an area where the nutty flavour of flax can really add to a dish instead of being something that other flavours need to hide.

Cookies. As Meredith says, “oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with whole flax seeds are definitely appetizing to a little kid” and somehow I don’t think I need to find scientific literature to back that one up.

Just about any baked goods, actually. Flax is often used in vegan baking as an egg replacer, but you can add the stuff at will: Lisa’s trying to throw a little ground flax into almost all of her baking, which covers the cookies we mentioned earlier, as well as breads, muffins, brownies, cakes, and hopefully pies, because pie is awesome.

Kim will swap out some of the oil in a recipe for flax seed: “I reduce the oil in a recipe by half, replace it with 2x flaxseed meal. For example if a recipe calls for 1/2 cup of canola oil, I use 1/4 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup flaxseed meal.”

Also, we don’t judge here, but I’ll keep this one anonymous just in case there’s any lingering embarassment: Pilsbury crescent rolls with flax added before baking did come up in one email. I cannot confirm or deny reports of extensive testing of this idea here at Thrust Labs :)

Fruit toppings. You can sprinkle ground flax on just about anything, but adding it to fresh or cooked fruit can add a really nice texture and flavour.

Ground flax seeds are generally preferable to whole seeds since they’re more likely to be digested instead of passed straight through. We grind up large batches at a time in our Vita-Mix (other blenders, a coffee grinder, or possibly a food processor can also do the job) and store a jar in our freezer to keep the oils fresh.

Also, flax oil can be used for more than just smoothies. According to Doh, “while flax oil cannot be used for cooking, it can handle being warm. If it’s cool enough to eat, it’s cool enough for flax oil. After the food was taken off the stove, I added flax oil to mashed potatoes, spaghetti sauce, and salad dressings and dips. I used it with, or instead of, margarine on vegetables. I spread it on toast before adding whatever spread my son wanted. You can also mix it into hummus, or baba ganoush. When I buy the natural peanut (or other nut) butter that has separated, I pour off the peanut oil (saving it for stir-fries), and replace it with flax oil. Be sure to get lignan-free flax oil, and to store the nut butter in the fridge after you add flax oil.”

Other omega-3 sources

Beyond flax, several other choices came up in our discussions:

Soy and hemp milk. Silk makes an Enhanced Omega-3 and Calcium soymilk blend that contains 32 mg of DHA Omega-3 per serving, but other brands are worth a look as well, depending on what’s in your supermarket.

Shelled hempseed. These sprinkle well on salads, and we’ve also tried using them instead of pine nuts in some recipes – it’s not exactly the same taste, but it’s enjoyable just the same.

Walnuts. A quarter cup of walnuts contains 2.3g of omega-3s. Monica’s kids love pesto, so she’s been making good use of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s recipe from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook (affiliate link, but check out page 65, yo!)

Granola. If you pick a brand with hemp or flax, you’ll get some omega-3 sources there. You can eat it by itself, or you can do like Sarah does and sprinkle it on top of her daughter’s soy yogourt or cereal. A quick scan on the interwebs found the Hemp Plus Granola, which contains 600mg of omega-3 fatty acids per serving, or you can make your own – here’s a recipe for cinnamon-maple granola that looks pretty simple.

Cereals. Many of the cereals that lack cartoon mascots make up for it with rich sources of Omega-3s. The Mesa Sunrise brand was mentioned by one parent, bu I can’t find the fat breakdown for this one from here.

Rapeseed oil. Also called canola oil, this fat works well when cooking and contains a 2:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (discussed below.) Be aware though, that this product is commonly genetically modified and there appear to be other controversies with the product.

Chia seeds. A relative newcomer to the “superfood” roster (how did we go so many years singing the Chia Pet theme song without realizing the stuff was edible?), chia seeds are getting a lot of attention lately, with 64% omega-3 concentration in its oil.

Drink supplements. If all else fails, supplement! Celeste found the Omega To Go kid friendly powders, which contain 100mg of omega-3 DHA.

Some facts on fats

The main thing to understand about omega 3 fatty acids is that while the quantity is important, the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids is also something to watch out for. I’m not a nutritionist, and nothing on this site constitutes solid medical advice, but I rely heavily on Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet (affiliate link) whenever I need to know about this topic (and pretty much any other nutrition question – Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina have done an amazing job!)

The challenge is that omega-6 fatty acids are way more prevalent in most people’s diets, but as Steph points out, fresh whole foods will be much more likely to adhere to a healthier ratio than processed items.

A big thanks to Meredith, Sarah, Steph, Monica, Lisa, Celeste, Kim, and Doh for helping out with this one!

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How to start (or find) vegan parenting groups

February 9, 2010

Storytime is better with friends. Photo by futurestreet

Storytime is better with friends. Photo by futurestreet

OK, Spawn Better is an awesome vegan parenting resource, and we’ve heard some good things about the internet in general (it got a lot better once they put it on computers, I think,) but what about good old fashioned, face to face meetings with other vegan parents?

Do vegan parenting groups exist? How do you find them? How do you start them? And are they worth the effort?

I asked members of our Council of Vegan Parents who’d had some experience in the area, and this is what we know so far:

First and foremost, if there’s a lack of vegan parenting groups in your area, that might not be a bad thing. Al says “There are times when I look at the relative lack of large vegan family support groups out there and smile. While I thoroughly enjoy meeting with other vegan parents (and having their kids play with my kids), I think the lack of large parenting groups can be seen as a testament to how easily vegans can belong to society at large. I don’t know, maybe I’m just making myself feel better about the situation, but I think there’s something to it. The lack of vegan support groups supports the fact that it’s easy to be vegan.”

Of course, if you do want to trade tips (and maybe clothes and toys) or even just socialize, it can be a lot more comfortable for members if they don’t feel like they’re a “special case” due to their diet that needs defending on some level, and if the advice you can give and receive doesn’t need a translation layer added in, so if you’re looking for support, a vegan-specific parents group can be just the thing.

VegKins

Celeste and Al were both looking for resources for their families in the Minneapolis area. Through the vegfamily.com forums and meetup.com, people started to connect online, leading to a first “in person” meeting at a park. This turned into monthly potlucks and other events.

At roughly the same time that this was happening, Dallas Rising was (and still is) working as the Program Coordinator for the Animal Rights Coalition, also based in Minneapolis. Their mission is to help promote and encourage a cruelty free lifestyle at all phases of life, and Dallas recognized that the best way to reach really young people was to get a parents group together, so she started VegKins, which Al and Celeste’s group folded into.

Having an affiliation with a local vegan-oriented organization can have several advantages. Dallas sees her role as being the hub for the group, attracting potential members through ARC’s outreach events and maintaining continuity in case parents in the group acting as organizers move on for various reasons.

VegKins meets monthly and the location varies, and a typical event will see three to six families with children ranging in age from newborn to around five years old. When the weather’s nice, public parks have been popular meeting spots, and activities have included a group music class, storytime, and a trip to the apple orchard.

Seattle Veggie Families

In Seattle, Doh is a member of Seattle Veggie Families. This group actually started as a LunaMoms group, which was an effort by the Clif and Luna Bars people, but that group dissolved after a year or two and Seattle Veggie Families spun off of that (despite the name, Doh assures me it’s an all-vegan group.)

This group organizes through a Yahoo mailing list, which is organized by one person, but the events are suggested and managed by anyone who’s interested in making the effort.

Events aren’t on a set schedule, but they range from potlucks attended by 15-40 people to “Mama’s Nights Out” which are just for the moms to get together and talk.

Tips and Advice

Dallas and our Council members gave this advice to anyone trying to start or join a group:

Be patient. As Al says, “Growing something like this takes time. People are hesitant to join groups (especially people who are known for their independent thinking).” Your first few events will probably be small, and not everyone will show up for everything, so don’t get discouraged!

Remember that parents groups aren’t just for the parents! One of the reasons Celeste stays involved with VegKins is that she feels it’s important for her kids to have vegan friends for peer support. Of course, sometimes it’s good to get “just the grown ups” together, which is why the group is planning to have parent only meetings a few times a year where people can give their full attention to the conversation.

Keep the events short. VegKins events usually last an hour or less, which helps with short attention spans and also makes it easier to find a free space in everyone’s schedule.

Connect online. This almost seems too obvious to mention, but keep people connected through a Facebook page, or a Yahoo or Meetup group. This will help keep families in the loop and provide a voice for future event planning, but it also helps new families find you.

Partner with your local vegan group, if one exists. This can provide a central point of contact and also a source of new members. For the organization, a parents group can be a real help with outreach: Dallas finds that it’s a great conversation starter when she sees families at outreach events.

Keep the agenda to parenting. While the leadership is vegan, VegKins is open to people raising their children vegan or vegetarian, and there’s no strong agenda at the events for activsm, politics, or other subjects; the focus is simply on social interaction.

Suggest an event. One of the challenges with a parenting group is that they tend to focus on families with younger children, so parents may drift away as their children grow up. If the organizer can’t find someone to take the reins, a group can often fizzle out, so while your city may advertise a vegan parents group, it’s possible that they haven’t met in over a year. Often, the group is dormant but not dead, so simply posting to the relevant group asking about a get together might be enough to spark it back to life.

Pick locations wisely. While the groups I’ve spoken with have had good luck with parks and members’ homes, restaurants can be tricky situations with lots of small children around. If you’re planning a dineout, be sure to scout the location in advance and/or call ahead, and recognize that you might not get much chance to talk.

If you’d like more information about VegKins, you can check out their Facebook page or contact the Animal Rights Coalition, and Seattle Veggie Families has a Yahoo group. For other parts of the world, try the VegFamily forums or searching on Meetup for a vegan parents group (or a vegan group in general) and see where things go.

And of course, if you’ve got a vegan group that’s active right now, please get in touch so we can share your contact info, along with any other tips you might have!

Thanks so much to Dallas, Celeste, Al, Doh, and Trin for their input on this one!

(Photo by futurestreet)

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How to handle Anti-Population people

February 2, 2010

Wow, there certainly are a lot of us out there - but cmon, whos as amazing as your child? Photo by Arenamontanus

Wow, there certainly are a lot of us out there - but c'mon, who's as amazing as your child? Photo by Arenamontanus

This week’s question came from a member of the Council: what do you do when you’re confronted by people who feel that the mere act of having children is wrong? That might sound a little weird, but there is a subset out there who believes there are more than enough people on the planet, and adding to that population only adds to the strain on Earth’s resources (one such group has their philosophy laid out on their Voluntary Human Extinction Movement web site.)

This kind of thing can come more often when you’re a vegan parent, as the vegan community sometimes overlaps other groups like this one – at least, that’s been the experience of at least one member of the Council.

So what’s to be done? Obviously, you’ve got a difference of opinion on the matter, but it can be super easy to feel uncomfortable in a group gathering. Here’s some of what our Council of Vegan Parents had to say on the matter.

First, make sure this is what you’re dealing with. As Elaine points out, some people are simply nervous and uncomfortable around children, and babies in particular. That really could be all that’s going on.

Next, who exactly are you dealing with? Are you being confronted by a vegan anti-populationist or an omnivore one? While it’s not exactly the same thing, Al’s been in discussions with people who try to justify their meat eating with their decision not to have children. His response might help you with omnivores, and it was along these lines:

“While I’m not a fan of using numbers to argue, if you were to calculate the amount of land used to feed my vegan family of four it would be LESS than what is used to feed your omnivorous family of two (assuming you eat roughly the same amount of animal ‘products’ as the average American family does). Same goes for carbon footprint. So if you two went vegan and had a couple kids, you’d be responsible for less environmental degradation than you are right now.”

(Of course, as Al notes, this assumes that his children will choose veganism once they’re old enough to do so, but we’ll go with that as a pretty decent assumption :)

If you’re talking with other vegans, try focusing on what we have in common. Celeste (and many others, including myself) can’t figure out “why people within our movement feel the need to judge and alienate other vegans.” As she puts it, this goes directly against veganism’s compassionate foundations.

Just like the decision to adopt a plant-based diet, the choice to have children (or not to) is a personal decision for most people, but it’s important for everyone to realize that your family choices don’t fall inside any “Official Definition” of veganism held by any major group I’m aware of. In that context, resenting other vegans for their population choices makes about as much sense as resenting vegans because they listen to Lionel Ritchie. As Celeste says, “Instead of attacking fellow vegans, I hope for unity in a common cause of promoting compassion.”

It’s also important that big life choices like children don’t get reduced to a simple equation. Steph hasn’t experienced this particular situation, but she feels that framing things in a way that frustrates our basic human needs (and the need to reproduce and raise children would definitely apply!) is an incomplete perspective. Celeste’s spouse also brought up some of the absurdities that can present themselves if the discussion gets drawn out: it can easily turn itself to talk of mass suicides, which doesn’t make sense for anyone involved.

Finally, live like you love the planet, regardless of how many people you feel it can handle. Al suggests that you buy locally (and fair trade) when possible, favour hand-me-down clothes and toys, recycle, compost, buy used things, etc.

Ultimately, the choice not to have children is a choice, much like the choice to have them. By respecting each side and trying to focus on things we have in common, we can be more effective as vegans, as activists, and overall as human beings. (Then we can unite against Lionel Ritchie. I kid, I kid. No idea why I picked that name, honest!)

What about you? Have you been in situations with people who judged you unfairly simply because of your family? How did you deal with it? Let us know in the comments!

A huge thank you to Council members Elaine, Al, Celeste, Doh and Steph for their input on this one!

(Photo by Arenamontanus)

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