Since I can rarely afford non-industrial meat, I eat mostly vegetarian. But in December, I moved back to Missouri to live with my boyfriend, who is definitely a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. Luckily for me, my boyfriend shot three deer this past fall, so we’ve both been happy eaters.

Deer numbers are at historic highs and large deer populations are well-documented to wreak havoc on ecosystems. So, not only is venison a sustainable meat, but eating venison can actually help the environment.

Venison is also an extremely lean meat, with a more delicate texture than beef. Although some people complain that venison tastes “gamey,” I have found that venison only takes on a gamey flavor if cooked improperly.

A lot of supermarket vegetarian burgers try so hard to resemble meat that they ignore the fact that vegetables actually taste delicious in the first place. Why try to replicate a beef burger with a monotonously colored brown thing full of mysterious ingredients and even weirder textures when you can eat a vegetable burger that actually showcases the flavors of the vegetables? Here on Eat.Drink.Better we’ve seen fantastic burgers made of black beans, white beans, lentils and portobello, and and even beets! Here’s another veggie burger that’s brightly colored, packed with exciting flavors, and simple to make with both fresh and canned vegetables. Plus, it’s healthy but still deliciously tasty thanks to the freshness of just-grated carrots and zucchini with the heft of canned chickpeas and the salty tanginess of halloumi cheese.

Last week, a commenter on my post about giving up cheese mentioned that eggs are a real stumbling block for her. She didn’t specify whether it was eggs in baking or the whole egg that she missed, but either way it’s a topic that bears addressing!

While I can’t promise that there’s a reasonable vegan equivalent for something like deviled eggs, there are lots of options to satisfy your eggy desires without any animal products!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably found yourself in the situation of being ready to make dinner but then realizing you haven’t bought groceries in a while and there’s not much to eat in the kitchen. When you’re hungry but also too lazy to leave the house to go shopping, it’s time for some serious MacGyver action. But instead of defusing a dangerous bomb with just a paper clip and duct tape, the task is to create a tasty meal with the only tools in front of you: the contents of your fridge and pantry.
Thankfully, there are a few recipes that can nearly always be created at the last minute with just a few ingredients. One of my favorites is Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, which sounds complicated but is just a simple and delicious dish of pasta with olive oil and garlic. I’d venture a guess that most people usually have a box of dried pasta stashed somewhere in the kitchen and olive oil and garlic are generally pantry staples. Ta-da! You’ve got the makings of Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. If you happen to have any other fresh vegetables in the house, you can toss them in as well. It’s a great way to cook green by using up produce before it goes to waste and cooking a filling and tasty meal without any meat.

Before you feed your libido with a vitamin C-packed glass of orange juice, you might want to consider reaching for the whole fruit instead.
In her recent book, Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, Alissa Hamilton tells you what’s really in that not from concentrate box from the grocery store.

To keep it from oxidizing, manufacturers process Valencia orange juice to remove oxygen before it’s stored in huge tanks for almost a year at a time:

When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor providing chemicals. Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh.

In November of last year, two writers working for the Soil Association (the major Organic organization in the UK) published a 212 page document titled: “Soil Carbon and Organic Farming:  A review of the evidence on the relationship between agriculture and soil carbon sequestration, and how organic farming can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaption.”   Yesterday I posted an “open letter” to the authors of this article on SCRIBD and also emailed it directly.  I pointed out how the massive conversion to Organic that they advocate would actually be a driver of climate change, not a solution.  I hope they will respond.

Most of us know that Vitamin C is needed for a healthy immune system, but did you know that Vitamin C is also required for healthy functioning of over 300 metabolic processes, including a healthy libido? Your body does not naturally produce Vitamin C, so it must be obtained by what you eat. C aides in the production of anti-stress hormones, helps the body fight off toxins and may even reduce your levels of LDL (the “bad” cholesterol). How does Vitamin C directly affect your sexual health? For one, C can help make a man’s little swimmers strong and healthy by protecting sperm from free-radical damage and toxins, thus increasing fertility. C also helps to build and maintain blood vessels through out the body, including the female genitals. Proper blood flow through these vessels is key for female stimulation and healthy lubrication during sex. C is also involved in the synthesis of the sex hormones, estrogen, androgen and progesterone, all of which are involved in sexual function and fertility. C is required for the metabolism of Folic Acid, which is needed during pregnancy to regulate embryonic and fetal nerve cell formation and is vital for normal development. Vitamin C is now being used in many menopause products to help reduce symptoms, as well as in vaginal creams to help eliminate dryness, which can make sex painful. A healthy and de-stressed immune system, strong viable sperm and a lubricated vagina with the ability to get aroused, sounds like it’s time to load up on Vitamin C enriched foods!

All of this infrastructure could be out of commission in a century. Nearly all the infrastructure in Dubai could be underwater by 2100.

Up to 85% of the population and 90% of the infrastructure of coastal zones throughout the UAE is at risk from climate change, a new study by researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute finds in: “Climate Change - Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation in UAE.”

Despite uncertainty about to what extent, some degree of global warming is already happening and will only continue, resulting in an unavoidable increase in sea levels. How much that will be is uncertain. The uncertainty comes from not being able to predict whether and how fast and how effectively political actions will be taken to reduce greenhouse gases. There is no uncertainty about the science of climate change itself.

One of the best things about sourcing locally grown farm produce is that you’re guaranteed to get a variety of different items as the seasons change.  Pulling the first new season Discovery apples out of my fruit and veg bags a few weeks ago put such a smile on my face. This week’s enormous cabbage also made me laugh, partially because the basketball-sized monstrosity was even larger than my face.  Which of course left me facing an interesting question: what does one make with an excess amount of English cabbage?

It’s another installment of the Veg Bag game, where I explore new recipes to use up the array of organic fruits and vegetables that I pick up every week. Carrots and potatoes are a familiar arrival (which have gone into crispy pancakes and veggie fritters) but this week’s cabbage presented a new challenge.  I also received some lovely green beans about the length of my forearm - who says organic vegetables have to be smaller than conventional? With all these excellent British vegetables in hand, I had to go for an old-school British classic: bubble and squeak!

A friend recently hipped me to thermos cooking, which takes advantage of the thermos’ insulation to trap and use food’s residual heat for cooking. I was intrigued and immediately starting looking for more information on the subject. Here’s what I learned.

Thermos or vacuum flask cooking is an easy way to save energy. It’s as simple as using a crock pot but requires a fraction of the energy.

You can cook either in a regular old thermos or invest in a vacuum flask. The vacuum flask retains heat a bit better, but they’re on the pricier side. It’s a two part situation, where the food vessel goes inside a vacuum seal that helps retain the heat.

For those of us who love a crispy slice of bacon but also care about the impact of our food choices, eating meat can be a very complex issue.  Just for starters, there’s the environmental aspects of meat production, the safety concerns with industrial processing (read this frightening article in the NYTimes about ‘anthrax sausages’) and the thorny ethical questions of animal welfare to consider. It’s a difficult question: how can we have our steak and eat it too?

My current solution? Buy locally and sustainably raised meat from farmers markets. I went to the bustling Union Square Greenmarket in New York City last weekend to explore my meat purchasing options and do some research. And by ‘research,’ I mean ‘eating.’ Here are photos and some reasons why farmers markets are a great place to get your meat fix.

Priscilla Magnusen, raw food expert and teacher shares some valuable information with us about going raw.

How does going Raw or adding in more raw food to your diet affect your overall health?
When you eat a raw and living food diet you are feeding your body and your cells the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that cooking destroys. The act of heating food over approximately 112 degrees Fahrenheit destroys enzymes in food.

Our food choices have a cumulative effect on our body, and whether we are conscious of it or not, what we eat affects our mental and emotional health, just as much as our physical health. People who eat raw food invariably experience improved physical health and mental wellbeing, more energy, weight loss, detoxification, and a stronger immune system. I’ve personally witnessed people heal themselves of diabetes, migraines, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, crohn’s disease, IBS, arthritis, allergies, candida, depression, and fibromyalgia.