What's New on Beyond Veg

---

If you're a repeat visitor, you can save time by checking this page
for articles that may have appeared since you were last here.

UPDATE (23 September 2012): 1 additional article is complete and will be posted before the end of October. 5 other articles are complete or nearly complete, and are on what has become a lengthy hold awaiting publication elsewhere. Multiple other new research articles are in varying stages of completion and will be posted when complete - in some cases, after first publication elsewhere. An e-book is on hold while other projects are in-progress; the release date is sliding into 2013.

• Exploring the Roots of Naturalism in the Vegetarian, Raw Foods, Natural Hygiene, and Vegan Movements   Date: 23 September 2012.
  An in-depth review of select writings published in the early 1800's that were influential in the founding of vegetarian-related movements in the U.K., U.S., and other Western countries. These writings document the religious, cultural, and long-outdated "scientific" basis for some of the misinformation that is still being promoted today by activists for vegetarian, raw food, natural hygiene, and vegan diets.

• Investigating Raw Vegan and Other Diet Gurus: Can You Trust Them?   Date: Issue 1.4, released 29 April 2012. Issue 2.0 is in the works and will be expanded and reorganized to make it easier to find information by-guru.
  A detailed investigative report on negative and/or questionable behavior by well-known raw vegan gurus. Documented by numerous offsite links to public record/public access information. Check to see if your raw guru is mentioned!

• Book review: The Live Food Factor: A Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet.  Date: 25 September 2011

• Book review: Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets.  Date: 25 September 2011

• Are enzymes really the life force in raw foods?
  Heat treatment tests on seeds disprove raw food enzyme claims.  Date: 10 July 2011
  Some raw food gurus claim that heat sensitive enzymes that degrade at temperatures above 48° C/118° F are the life force in raw foods. If that is true, then seeds heated above that temperature should be dead and not sprout. Unfortunately for the enzyme promoters, some seeds can withstand much higher temperatures and still sprout. A dead seed cannot sprout, so the only dead thing here is the claim that heat-sensitive enzymes are the life force.

• Restricted Diets for Healing: Risks of Compliance.   Date: 10 July 2011
  Choosing a highly restricted diet as your only healing method may be risky for those seeking healing from serious illness. Blindly following this approach can lead one into a high-risk trap.

• Edible Editorials section.   Date: 10 July 2011
  Links added (at bottom of page) to 2 offsite articles.

• England, 1875: A Vegan, a Fruitarian, and Opposition to Animal Experimentation.   Date: 10 July 2011
  Documents a person in 1875 following what we now call a fruitarian diet, and a different individual following what we now call a vegan diet. (This article is a side result of a search to identify the earliest use of the term beyond vegetarianism.)

• What is Humanity's Ancestral (Natural) Diet?   Date: 26 June 2010
  Select elements of the metabolic and genetic evidence for human omnivory are discussed in this article commissioned by a raw vegetarian magazine. Other topics covered include:
  

  • the relevance (behavior, genomic comparisons) and irrelevance of non-human primates as models for humans,
  • the important role of culture in human evolution, and
  • the contradictions of raw-vegan evolution pseudoscience theories.
   
  This version includes material excluded from the print version for length considerations, and includes the full reference list. Although written from a pro-vegetarian perspective, the article should be of interest to those interested in "natural" diets, e.g., Paleo, Primal, and many other diets.

• Is a Strict, 100% Vegan Diet Optimal (for Everyone)?   Date: 13 June 2010
  A 100% vegan diet - done intelligently - can work well for many people, but that does not mean it is optimal for everyone. This article examines a variety of issues related to strict vegan diets: nutritional requirements with an emphasis on essential fatty acids (EFAs) and choline, common logical fallacies found in vegetarian advocacy, and the naive naturalism promoted in the raw, vegan, and vegetarian communities.