“All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.”

~Kahlil Gibran

Born to be a vegan

 It’s hard not to become vegetarian once you’ve met vegan expert Susianto. First, the 43-year-old coordinator for the International Vegetarian Union in Asia Pacific will take you through mountains of scientific data from reputable institutions that shows vegetarianism is good for your health. Second, having spent half his life as a vegetarian, Susianto is the living proof that eating plants and not meat does wonders to your body and appearance. Indeed, when The Jakarta Post met Susianto recently, his skin was healthy and bright, and he looked younger than his age. The man, who just received a doctorate from the University of Indonesia for his research on Tempeh, has been a vegetarian for 23 years. He stopped eating meat while he was studying for a bachelor degree in Yogyakarta, majoring in Chemistry at the University of Gadjah Mada. “I became vegetarian in my second year of college. At that time, I had carried out some analysis on food and discovered many toxic substances in meat,” Susianto said. Being a vegetarian can prolong your life, he went on. “Look at what happens to the vegans of Hunza in Pakistan, who live on average more than 100 years, compared to Eskimos whose life expectancy is much shorter because they eat meat every day,” Susianto explained. Thanks to his background in food chemistry and public health, Susianto knows why these things happen. “Meat produces acids that are harmful to the body, while plants produce the opposite,” he said, quoting a number of trusted sources such as international scientists and vegan experts. Realizing how harmful meat products and their derivatives could be, Susianto then decided to go full throttle on his diet and became a vegan, which means he stopped eating eggs and dairy products too. “People who eat meat and smoke have a 70 percent chance of having a heart attack, and a 50 percent chance if they don’t smoke. Then, it will reduce insignificantly to 39 percent, should they be vegetarian but it will continue to drop to 14 percent if they are vegan,” the man, who has been a vegan since 2006, explained. Susianto is an ardent advocate of veganism. The author of The Miracle of Vegan has made it his life’s mission to convince people to give up their unhealthy diets and start a new life as vegetarians or maybe vegans. He first started spreading the word in his family. “My mom became vegetarian after I did. My first child has been vegan since she turned 10. At first everyone in the family was vegetarian, but after I became vegan, they all followed suit, including my wife. She even gave birth to our second child as a vegan,” shared Susianto, who believes his 11-month baby Vegania Paramita is his highest achievement so far in being a vegan. “I can now prove it’s ok for pregnant women to be vegan. Look how healthy she is,” he said, pointing to a picture of a little baby with plump cheeks on his mobile phone screen. The chief operation officer of Indonesia Vegetarian Society then went on to spread the word among his work colleagues and lecturers at university. “They already knew that meat wasn’t good for one’s health, but they didn’t change their eating habits until they met me and saw the results I had come up with,” he said, referring to his professors at the University of Indonesia. His devotion to spread the word about the benefits of veganism was more than apparent during his interview. He took the Post for lunch to a veggie restaurant. For almost an hour he explained everything that was good about being a vegan, while showing all the supporting data on his laptop. He also debunked a few myths related to plant-based diets, referring to recent research and analysis. “The best source of calcium is sesame seeds, not milk, and you can get your best protein in tempeh not meat,” he said, while cracking a few jokes during the discussion. “If husbands don’t want their wives to slap them around anymore, they should feed them tempeh,” he said, as tempeh has been proved to neutralize women’s mood swings during menopause. Even though he seems to know everything about vegetarianism, having memorized all the data and analysis, he doesn’t sound preachy, and makes the conversation about his favorite topic enjoyable and light. But behind all this fun persona, Susianto is also a hard-working man who wants to keep thing organized and planned. “I finished my doctoral after only two and a half years. That’s because I made sure everything was planned.” And what’s his next plan? Susianto wants to release his third book The Miracle of Tempe, which draws upon results from his doctoral dissertation. During the interview, Susianto said he had reached a point where everything in his life was about vegetarianism. “I was destined to be a vegan,” said Susianto, who was born on Oct. 1, which is also the world’s vegetarian day. His next challenge is to spread the word about healthy eating habits to other people. “It will be a challenge for people who don’t have will power. “It will be a challenge for people who don’t have will power. As long as you are strong willed, then it [becoming a vegetarian] will not be a problem.”

Mon, Mar 21, 2011
The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

in Just-
spring        when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles        far       and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far       and       wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it’s
spring
and
      the

           goat-footed                                          

balloonMan      whistles
far
and
wee                                                          

Japan, Radiation, and its Health and Spiritual Implications by Gabriel Cousens, M.D.

Dear Ones,

            As prophesized and actualized, we are in a period of earth changes as demonstrated by the major 8.9 quake that shook Japan, with all its potential radioactive consequences that may effect the whole world.  These radioactive dangers include not only radioactive I-131, cesium 137, and potassium 40-42, but also the potential of one of the reactors being a plutonium run.  This would be far more dangerous than I-131 and cesium 137.  A full plutonium reactor meltdown could kill a significant amount of the Japanese population.  Unfortunately it is not clear if plutonium is being used in one of the reactors, and what is happening in general with the nuclear reactors there.

            The following disturbing facts about the health dangers posed by higher radiation levels have been gleaned from the international news:

            “Chief cabinet minister Yukio Edano said radiation levels near the stricken plant on the northeast coast reached as high as 400 millisieverts (mSv) an hour, thousands of times higher than readings before the blast. That would be 20 times the current yearly level for some nuclear-industry employees and uranium miners. Exposure to 350 mSv was the criterion for relocating people after the Chernobyl accident, according to the World Nuclear Association. People are exposed to natural radiation of about 2 mSv a year. Exposure to 100 mSv a year is the lowest level at which any increase in cancer is clearly evident. A cumulative 1,000 mSv would probably cause a fatal cancer many years later in five out of every 100 persons exposed to it.”

            To help you understand the severity of the situation, in the struggle to stop plutonium satellites from being launched from Cape Canaveral, evidence was released to show that an accidental satellite explosion could kill the entire population of Florida.  These are, of course, serious consequences that leave us with the question of what to do. 

            On the physical plane, we know that significant protection against these deadly radiation energies occurs through competitive inhibition.  In other words, if the body is taking in natural wholesome elements from certain foods, it will not have space to take in the radioactive elements.  The various elements compete at the receptor cites, and healthy food wins every time. 

            To protect yourself from I-131 poisoning, take 5 kelp tablets daily.  The body will absorb the kelp instead of the I-131.  Taking 50-100 mg of Idoral daily is more expensive and also more effective.

To protect yourself from cesium poisoning, consume plenty of high potassium foods, as potassium competitively inhibits cesium uptake.  Foods high in potassium include avocados, sea vegetables, and leafy green vegetables.  I don’t necessarily recommend taking a potassium supplement.  These foods should provide all you need to block cesium 137 uptake.

To protect yourself from plutonium poisoning, eat lots of dulse and consume iron from plant sources, namely sea algaes such as spirulina, E3Live, and chlorella, which provide more iron than red meat.  Miso soup has also been shown to have a protective effect.  NCD, at 10 drops 4 times daily, is excellent for taking almost all radioactive materials out of the body. 

            Additionally, foods and supplements high in antioxidants, will also help the body cope with these higher toxic levels as radioactive materials cause anti-oxidant depletion and ill health.  I recommend taking the products Mega Hydrate and Anti-Oxidant Extreme for maximum antioxidant support. Eating alkalizing food is also good.

            Eating low on the food chain is a basic essential principle as well.  What we learned from the Chernobyl incident in 1986 was that there was a 900% increase in peri-natal mortality in the Boston area.  It was found that the cows’ milk (including grass-fed cows’ milk) contained concentrated radioactive I-131, and the expectant or nursing mothers drinking the cows’ milk inadvertently poisoned their babies.  The radioactive pollutions in the environment, such as depleted uranium, become more concentrated higher on the food chain.  Dioxin in the environment is found concentrated in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at 200 times a safe exposure level.  This is one reason why a live-food, plant-source diet, eating low on the food chain, is the safest and best diet at this point in history and the foreseeable future. 

            A small point on the level of risk benefit, if you happened to live on the West Coast, all the way to Vancouver, where the peri-natal rate was increased by approximately 50% and in the Boston area by 900%, it would not have been wise to eat animal and dairy products locally.  We may have to look at locavore ideologies as secondary to the bigger health issues, as eating locally only yields 11% less CO2 compared with procuring products from around the globe.

            For more information on how food can mitigate the effects of radioactive toxins, read chapter 29, “How Diet Can Protect You from the Dangers of Radioactive Radiation” in my book Conscious Eating (North Atlantic Books, 2000). 

            Additionally, it is helpful to understand that the energies behind these earth changes are “wake-up calls” from God to change our adharmic lifestyles.  I urge you to consider these prophetic unfoldings and examine your lives.  Make changes that help you to move away from the Culture of Death and into the Culture of Life and Liberation.  This includes careful consideration of everything from diet to doing service and charity, and no longer living according to the “relative morality” that has become the world’s standard.  It might be useful to return to the basic moralities and ethics shared between all the world’s spiritual scriptures.

Blessings to the evolution of your Whole Person Enlightenment.

Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D.(H), D.D., Diplomate American Board of Holistic Medicine, and Diplomate in Ayurveda