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IVU
News � Feb 2007 Table of Contents The 2006 IVU Annual Report was already sent in 2006 by post to IVU members and supporters. It is now on the IVU website at www.ivu.org/news/2006 To receive your own hard copy of the 2007 Annual Report, when it appears next year, please consider becoming a member or supporter at www.ivu.org/members Third Spanish Vegetarian Congress � April, 2007
Lectures will be mainly in Spanish, but additional workshops in English can be scheduled if enough foreign participants sign up. More details will be published in the near future, so please keep checking: www.unionvegetariana.org/congreso/congre3.html International
Vegan Festival in
Welcome to New IVU Member and Supporters Member
Society: Vegetarian Union of Associate
Member: Nandagokula Charitable Trust,
Sridhar Avabhrath, Business
Supporters: Anniversary of a Remarkable IVU World Congress - 1957-2007
To commemorate this extraordinary Congress, the Indians produced an equally extraordinary 'Souvenir' - a 400-page hard-back book containing more than 100 articles on every aspect of vegetarianism, from writers around the world. IVU obtained a copy of this book a few years back but it seemed too daunting a task to put it all on the website . . . until an email arrived from Bill Harris, MD from the U.S. Bill had picked up a copy at the 1965 Congress in England, and in 2006 decided to scan it - all of it. This was sent in the biggest PDF file ever to reach IVU; it had to be posted on a CD as it ran to about 150mb even with just low-res graphics - file-named, appropriately enough, 'Gigantic'. After several
months of conversion, and re-scanning the graphics to a higher quality,
the entire book, even the 1957 adverts, are now on the IVU website.
There are articles welcoming visitors to the Congress from the President
of India, the Prime Minister of Burma, and dozens more, even the 'Buddhist
Archbishop of You can find everything from a late 19th century article by the composer Richard Wagner, to 'Vegetarianism in Tamil Literature'; from 'Sunlight Food' by the Bircher-Benner clinic of Zurich, to a very graphic 'Slaughter in India'; and from 'A Vegetarian in Central Africa' to �How to Make a Nut Roast�. The entire book is now at: www.ivu.org/congress/wvc57/souvenir Interview on Research Related to Vegetarianism
IVU News: The news media is full of reports of research related to health. What are some common errors that the media make in interpreting this research? Paul Appleby: The media sometimes fail to see the bigger picture, forgetting that a single study is rarely definitive.� They may also extrapolate results from a particular study and apply them to the population as a whole, rather than to the population from which the study subjects were drawn.� As good example of this was the misinterpretation of a study of undernourished Kenyan children in which the children whose diet was supplemented with meat performed better on one measure of mental development than the children whose diet was supplemented with either milk or vegetable oil.� In some sections of the media this study was presented as proof that �it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans�, although the research was of no relevance to well fed children reared on a varied vegan diet. IVU News: What are some common errors that the public make in attempting to apply this research to their own health? Paul Appleby: Like the media they may fail to see the bigger picture, preferring to �cherry pick� the findings that support their particular beliefs whilst ignoring those that do not.� They may also forget that we are all unique individuals, and that results that apply to a particular group of people may not apply to them.� It is often said, especially by representatives of the food industry, that there is no such thing as an unhealthy food, only unhealthy diets.� This may be true, but it ignores the fact that unhealthy diets contain too many foods of low nutritional quality.� For example, dark chocolate has some desirable nutritional properties that may confer some beneficial effects, but that does not make it a �health food� and like everything else it should be eaten in moderation. IVU News: Researchers themselves often disagree on how to conduct research and on how to interpret the results. How can this be? Aren�t they all trained in the same scientific tradition? Paul Appleby: Yes, but remember that researchers are human too.� They all have prejudices that can cloud their judgment, and they naturally tend to value their own research above that of others.� This does not mean that what researchers say is wrong, rather that theirs is one voice among many, and that until a consensus is reached it is best not to place too great a reliance on the results from a particular study. IVU News: Are there certain words to watch out for? For example, if someone writes, �This study �proves� that ____�, should we be wary? Conversely, what words should be used instead? Paul Appleby: Epidemiology [the study of the patterns and causes of disease in human populations] is not an exact science because it is based on probabilities.� Thus, epidemiological studies can, at best, provide �strong evidence� or �good evidence� for a particular hypothesis. IVU News: In looking at the research on health, sometimes one might feel overwhelmed with how complicated it is to get all the nutrition the experts say we need. For example, recently I was reading something from Vegan Outreach about iodine. It said that even if you eat the right foods, it depends if the plants were grown in soil that was rich in iodine. The matter is further complicated because you could end up getting too much iodine. Paul Appleby: It all too easy to give up in despair at what appear to be conflicting findings and to think that what you eat makes little or no difference to your health.� However, there is a broad consensus as to what constitutes a healthy diet*, and following such a diet should ensure that most nutrients are obtained in adequate but not excessive quantities.� The good news for vegetarians is that a healthy diet is one based of plant foods, although vegans in particular may need to supplement their diet with some vitamins and minerals that are difficult to obtain from plant foods. (* According to the WCRF/AICR (World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research)� report �Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a global perspective�, individuals should �choose predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, pulses (legumes) and minimally processed starchy staple foods�.)
Paul Appleby: Absolutely.� An individual�s state of mind is undoubtedly an important factor in determining their state of health but it is very difficult to measure.� Epidemiologists must assume that non-measurable factors even themselves out in their studies � a reasonable assumption if their study is large enough and randomized where appropriate to avoid selection bias. IVU News: In addition to research on health, other types of research are relevant to vegetarians, such as research on the intelligence, emotions and personalities of our fellow animals. What is your advice on understanding such research? Paul Appleby: My advice would be to apply the same criteria as when judging the validity of health-related research.� For example, you should ask yourself whether the research is generally applicable and, if not, what are the constraints, whether the researchers had a potential conflict of interest that might have influenced their interpretation of the results, and whether their findings corroborate or contradict previous studies.� A dose of healthy skepticism never did anyone any harm!
Note: Qualified people are welcome to join the IVU Science group which Paul helped to found. Professional scientists, nutritionists, doctors, etc., plus editors of publications of IVU member societies are the intended participants. For more info, please visit www.ivu.org/science/ivu-sci.html The latest
Hollywood version of the classic children�s book � And another
book for those who like � Get Ready for a New Excuse for Eating Meat Vegetarians have many different reasons for not eating meat, and meat eaters have a wide and sometimes wild excretion of excuses for their eating habits. It looks like meat eaters are about to add a new excuse: animal fat a bio fuel. Major meat producers are working on ways to create fuel from the huge amounts of animal fat derived from their manufacturing processes: www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1681086.htm The
Metaphysics of Meat-Eating � A Poem
Organizations That Have Recently Registered With IVU
For over 2,000 Registered Organizations worldwide search the database at www.ivu.org Dear Veg Activist Please use this newsletter as a way to share your knowledge, ideas and experiences with fellow veg activists. Thx. -� IVU Online News is non-copyright.
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The
11th International Vegan Festival will be held from 30 Sep to 6
Oct, 2007 at Murdeshwar, 
Paul
Appleby is a a founder member of the IVU Science group and Secretary
of 
IVU
News: 
�
Julius Babarinsa,