I’m searching for a veg-friendly general physician in Los Angeles.  Why?  Because it’s been a long, long time since I had a general check-up, because I just returned from Costa Rica where I’m 99.9% sure I had Dengue Fever, and because I’d prefer to see a doctor who “gets” my diet.  Sadly, it’s rare to find a mainstream, Western medical doctor who is familiar with and supportive of a vegetarian–much less vegan–lifestyle.

Lately I’ve been lucky: When my new OB/GYN, the caring and talented Dr. Stacey Rosenbaum, learned that I was a vegan, she offered no criticism.  Instead, she had the foresight to suggest that I take an extra folic acid supplement, just in case I become pregnant.  Dr. Rosenbaum gets an A+.  Now I need to find a General Practicioner on the same wavelength.

Googling thus far, I’ve only found one Los Angeles-based doctor who identifies herself as a vegan.  Her name is Dr. Heather Shenkman, she’s an Interventional Cardiologist, and this is her blog.  I had high hopes that her office would be able to refer me to a GP who would, at the least, be informed about and accepting of veg*nism, but my phone call led to a dead end.  Dr. Shenkman said that she was the only veg-friendly LA doc she knew of.

I have to believe that there are other Los Angeles physicians who are knowledgeable about living healthy as a veg*an.  I’m going to compile a list here, and I hope you’ll help me.  If you are, or know of, a vegetarian or vegan-friendly Los Angeles-based medical doctor (all kinds welcome) please email me and I’ll add your contact info to the list.

Vegetarian & Vegan Friendly Medical Doctors in Los Angeles:
Rita R. Kumar, M.D. - Internal Medicine, Clinical Genetics
Anna Milstein, M.D. - Cardiology, Internal Medicine
Stacey P. Rosenbaum, M.D. - OB/GYN
Heather Shenkman, M.D. - Cardiology

Photo: Eggybird/Flickr 

There have been some truly great scams throughout history, but perhaps none as wide-reaching and environmentally destructive as bottled water. Somewhere along the way, we were all deceived into thinking that bottled water was “better” than tap water, and that we had to shell out to healthfully hydrate.

It turns out the joke’s on us and the punch line, of course, is that a lot of bottled water is just tap water anyway. Aquafina, a PepsiCo brand, and Dasani, a Coca-Cola brand, are two examples of “purified” bottled tap water. Meanwhile, brands such as Fiji, which offers “all natural artesian” water, uncap their own ocean of concerns –namely that the bottles the pristine water is sold in require large amounts of oil to make, and the fuel needed to ship them all over the world results in a huge carbon footprint.

According to Pacific Institute estimates from 2006, “Producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil,” and “bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.” That doesn’t include the energy and transportation involved. And then there’s the waste. The Container Recycling Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit, reports that eight out of 10 plastic water bottles in the United States become garbage or end up in a landfill.

After years of buying into the bottled-water swindle, consumers are being spurred to return to the tap by the growing green movement and the current economic downturn. Fast Company recently reported that Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water last year — arguably $15 billion that would have been better spent on water purifiers and reusable bottles.   Take Back the Tap, a campaign spearheaded by consumer-rights organization Food & Water Watch, is encouraging individuals to take action by contacting their elected officials, and “calling on restaurantsto support the city’s tap water by keeping bottled water off their menus.” Refill Not Landfill and Filter For Good are two more campaigns, organized by Nalgene and Brita, working to encourage bottled-water drinkers to break the addiction. They’ve even partnered with Crystal Light to offer a “reusable water bottle kit,” replete with “one Filter For Good reusable bottle, ten Crystal Light On The Go sticks, and valuable offers including a $5 off Brita water filtration system coupon.” Their tag line should be “a spoonful of sugar helps the tap water go down.”

For those who don’t need the kit or flavor enhancers, the world of water filters, purifiers and reusable bottles is a veritable embarrassment of riches. Well-known brands include PUR and Brita, both of which offer pitchers, faucet mounts and refrigerator filters. Once you’ve filtered and purified your tap water, you’ll need something to carry it around in. This is where a reusable bottle such as the popular Nalgene comes in.

The company is currently in the process of phasing out production of consumer bottles containing the controversial compound BPA. Check out Nalgene Choice for more info.

If you’d rather avoid plastic altogether, consider my reusable bottle of choice — a pretty little stainless steel number from New Wave Enviro Products, which you can pick up on Amazon. Whatever you do, stay thirsty for knowledge and healthfully hydrated.

[Crossposted from Mother Nature Network]

Listening to Evan Kleiman’s Good Food on KCRW this past Saturday morning, I was reminded of the ironies and absurdities of bottled water. One of Kleiman’s guests was Kimberly Lord Stewart, author of Eating Between the Lines: The Supermarket Shopper’s Guide to the Truth Behind Food Labels. Stewart reminded listeners that a lot of bottled water is simply tap water, and most importantly, that making enough plastic bottles to meet American demand requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil per year. Environmental think tank Earth Policy Institute says that that’s “enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year” and that “worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.”

According to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Americans spent an estimated $11 billion last year drinking 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water. Do consumers really need to spend more money, create more waste, and use more crude oil to quench their apparently growing thirst? Of course not. As far back as 2001 the BBC was reporting that bottled water is not only environmentally unfriendly but also a waste of money. So, what do we do? It’s not fair or effective to suggest that people make a lifestyle change without offering a viable alternative.

New Wave Enviro Products offers that alternative. The company produces a line of “high quality, innovative products for water filtration, dispensing and storage,” including the .6 Liter Tinted Stainless Steel bottle I have. You can choose from three bright, shiny colors: ruby, sapphire, or emerald.

There are other kinds of bottles to choose from as well, and they’re all durable and reusable. Save some (read: a ton of) money, save the earth, and quench your thirst all at the same time. Cheers, salut, l’chaim.

Buy New Wave Enviro Bottles on Amazon!

In my ever-expanding quest to find viable and realistic alternatives to the environmentally damaging, chemical-based, inhumane, agribusiness-driven global supermarket, I’ve become a frequent shopper at my local farmers’ market. Generally I go each Sunday morning, but this past weekend my landlords hosted a little St. Patty’s soiree in our backyard (replete with moonbounce and naked bartender), which meant I didn’t get to bed until well after 4 a.m., subsequently missing the market. I took this as an opportunity to check out Co-opportunity: Santa Monica’s Co-operative Grocer. Co-opportunity is “a member owned natural food grocer providing a community resource for healthy living.” They offer tons of organics, lots of locally-grown, and a plethora of non-toxic household and bath & body products.

One especially interesting bath & body company I discovered at the Co-op is Collective Wellbeing. Similar to GOOD Magazine (see previous post), Collective Wellbeing allocates a portion of the proceeds from each product purchased in a pool of funds from all purchases. Twice a year, a group of non-profits is chosen to receive what’s raised. The best part is that the company invites their customers to help choose what percent of the pool each group gets, thereby raising both money and consciousness. They call their program CollectiveCare. I bought the Detox Soap (with Active Charcoal/Zinc) and voted for Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Not an easy choice: other charities to choose from are the American Red Cross, the Organic Farming Research Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy.

The Detox Soap is great: gentle and really nicely scented. I’m looking forward to trying more Collective Wellbeing products in the near future.

Note to shoppers and armchair do-gooders: The soap was actually a bit cheaper at the Co-op than it is online (by about a dollar). Collective Wellbeing offers skin care, hair care, and body care. Also good for the soul.

Resources: National Cooperative Grocers Association

I’m a foodie. I don’t mess around. I was raised to appreciate a wide range of cuisines, from Cajun-Creole and Caribbean to Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipino, to Hungarian, Persian, Yemenite, and Ethiopian. See what I mean? For me, food is both a serious business and a passionate love affair. It’s how I travel the world when I’m stuck here at home. I do not take it lightly, and I’m lucky (and grateful) to have a lightning-fast metabolism.

I’ve probably spent a significant portion of my life thinking about where I want to eat, what I want to eat, and how I can recreate dishes like Bagali Shevid Polo and Masaman Curry at home.

Lately, my thought for food has inspired different food for thought.

I’ve become very interested in a different kind of ingredient list: specifically, what’s in the ingredients themselves.

I’ve started to wonder about pesticides, hormones, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This curiosity led me to the discovery of a recent book by Jane Goodall, titled Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating (2005). Harvest for Hope breaks it all down in very simple, usable terms, offering anecdotes, profiles, history and a lot of insight into the world and workings of contemporary Agribusiness.

Goodall is a scientist, famous for her groundbreaking work with wild chimpanzees, but the book isn’t preachy or academic at all—which is good, since the subject of food can be as tricky and awkward to discuss as sexuality. As a lacto-ovo-vegetarian who is painstakingly careful about choosing free range, hormone-free, grain/grass fed, humanely raised dairy products and eggs, I can vouch for this.

What’s really great about the book is the way it puts power back into consumers’ hands. Our culture has lost touch with where our food comes from—and often what it is, and what’s in it. Harvest for Hope offers information about the healthiest food for people, and the healthiest food for the planet. The environmental impact of Agribusiness and Industrial farming, not to mention Global Supermarkets and the thousand of miles (think fossil fuels) that most products travel to get to them, is devastating and unnecessary. From Chapter 10, ‘Global Supermarkets’: “…Few of us realize that a typical ‘fresh’ food item in a North American household typically travels between 1,500 to 2,500 miles. Each year, food and agricultural products travel about 566 billion ton-miles within U.S. borders alone—not including imports from overseas—according to USDA estimates.”

Harvest for Hope offers simple, affordable, and fun ways to effect change. It inspired me to start shopping at my local farmers market, and now I make a weekly ritual out of it. It’s so much more enjoyable than a stressful trip to the flourescent-lit, buzzing supermarket. I’ve started developing friendships with local farmers, and have eaten some of the absolute best produce, eggs and cheese I’ve tasted in my entire life. The only food that enters my house (and most of what enters my body) is organic—and amazingly enough, it’s not draining my bank account.

It has also inspired me to consider the possibilities of starting my own teeny-tiny urban garden, joining a CSA, and just generally learning more about New Agrarianism…but we’ll save that stuff for future posts. Until then, pick up Harvest for Hope on Amazon.