National Nachos Day (cooking recipes)

(The Vegan Roadie) Lois Ellen Frank on Indigenous cooking

Chips, Beyond Burger, dairy-free shreds, spices

Nowadays, one can find a sheet-pan dinner recipe for pretty much any flavor that one craves. But before all of these existed, there were nachos.

The original sheet-pan meal can be found on virtually every bar and diner menu across the country. While nachos are now a popular Tex-Mex dish, they're a distinctly Mexican creation. Texas?

• (Yeung Man Cooking) Ultimate Vegan Nachos Recipe

(TYT Sports) Bass Pro Tackle Shop, Odessa, TX

Invented in 1940, nachos were born when Ignacio Anaya, nicknamed "Nacho" (which is short for the Spanish name Ignacio, from the Latin Ignatius), threw together a quick snack of

• corn (chips)
• dairy (cheese)
• chili (jalapeños)
• veggies (tomato, black olives, cilantro, guacamole)
• protein (pinto beans, Beyond Burger crumbles)

to sate the hunger of some guests visiting the restaurant he worked at in Piedras Negras ("Black Rocks"), Mexico.

The dish was an instant smash and quickly took hold in other restaurants before Texas-based businessman Frank Liberto created ballpark nachos in 1976, making them even more popular and readily available in the United States.

Nachos are typically eaten as a side or an appetizer, but with some careful doubling-up of ingredients and a few additions, they can become a hearty lunch or dinner.

The beauty of nachos is that while they have a few classic elements and ingredients, they can also serve as a vehicle for creativity and new flavors -- made fully vegan with full flavor.

So if anyone has ever had the urge to mix up a dish of nachos, here are some tips needed to make this dish even more special. More

• It's also National Men Make Dinner Day - What is it? How to celebrate

99 - Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky with Lois Ellen Frank (Keep On Cookin' Pod)

(The Vegan Roadie) March 11, 2024: Keep On Cookin' Podcast with Dustin Harder. Let's go plant-forward.

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky

This enriching cookbook celebrates eight important plants Native Americans introduced to the rest of the world: corn, beans, squash, chile, tomato, potato, vanilla, and chocolate/cacao—with more than 100 recipes.

When these eight Native American plants crossed the ocean after 1492, the world’s cuisines were changed forever. In Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky, James Beard Award-winning author and Chef Lois Ellen Frank introduces the splendor and importance of this Native culinary history and pairs it with delicious, modern, plant-based recipes using Native American ingredients.

Native plant based cookbook recipes

Along with Native American culinary advisor Walter Whitewater, Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky shares more than 100 nutritious, plant‑based recipes organized by each of the foundational ingredients in Native American cuisine as well as a necessary discussion of food sovereignty and sustainability.

A delicious, enlightening celebration of Indigenous foods and Southwestern flavors, Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky shares recipes for dishes such as Blue Corn Hotcakes with Prickly Pear Syrup, Three Sisters Stew, and Green Chile Enchilada Lasagna, as well as essential basics like Corn Masa, Red and Green Chile Sauces, and Cacao Spice Rub.

The “Magic 8” ingredients share the page—and plate—to create recipes that will transform our world.

BOOK: amzn.to/49HTAgA. Lois Ellen Frank: bio.site/redmesacuisine. IG: lois_ellen_frank. Dustin Harder: dustinharder.com IG: @thedustinharder David Rossetti: davidrossetti.com. IG: @drossetti

August Uposatha Moon (What happened? )

WHAT HAPPENED?

Traditional Buddhists gather for uposatha.

We arrive at 8:00 am dressed all in white to take the Eight Precepts with a monk, chanting (call and response) repeating an ancient formula in the language of the Buddha, Pali (Magadhi, the easier lingua franca version of Sanskrit). Then we are served breakfast, traditional island fare.

The Buddha mostly taught lay practitioners.

Taking our seats on the folding backrests provided for meditation, the monks chanted and gave sermons, with everyone smiling and encouraging everyone else.

Half of what is going on is in the ancient Buddhist island Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka. Before long, it's time for lunch, but before we eat the donor family receives a special blessing. They are offering it to benefit their dearly departed mother, so a special "transfer of merit" ceremony is conducted, where they gather in a circle up front and pour clear water into a cup until it is overflowing, as monks chant that what is given here benefit the grateful dead. If the departed should rejoice at this act of merit -- giving to feed practitioners of the Eight Precepts -- that will be excellent mental karma for those departed beings on the other side of the veil. They will therefore, in a place with very few opportunities to perform any skillful karma, gain that opportunity. Then we eat. Soon we will practice mindfulness walking meditation as a group, but that is always available to practice individually, inside or outside in the warm sun.

Understanding the meaning of uposatha days in Buddhism (spiritualculture.org)

.

Although mostly silent and very respectful, people love to chat, mingle, and socialize. We sit apart from the crowd in the large outdoor patio near the temple's giant bodhi tree. The monastery looks like a high school with many rooms, offices, monks' quarters, a giant lawn, bell tower, parking lot, bathrooms, reading room, gym floor, stage, and lots of pews. It was originally built as a Protestant church in the valley with a great view of the San Gabriel Mountains on a very quiet street in the middle of Suburbia.

In the other direction, on a distant hill is Going West (Hsi Lai) Mahayana Buddhist Monastery, one of the largest Buddhist complexes in the U.S. Another talk is followed by a guided meditation with a singing bowl gong and very soothing words. Tea is offered to us individually. We meditate and about 5:00 pm, as the retreat is ending, the ordinary Sunday Rains Retreat services are just beginning. What had been about 50 participants balloons up to more than 100, also all dressed in white, arriving to hear a sutra or sermon.

We are in a side classroom, near the special golden cetiya shrine room, with the Nepalese monk Ven. Suwan, and the pews are filled with everyone else listening to the Dhamma in Sinhalese. The English class addressed the deeper meaning of the Four Noble Truths:

1. Unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) is universal
2. There is a cause (a reason why)
3. There is a solution (cure)
4. There is a path-of-practice to end all suffering.

It is called "noble" (Aryan) because these four truths are "ennobling," this is, leading towards enlightenment for the practitioner who realizes their deeper significance.

The historical Buddha did not teach them for people to memorize or "believe," but rather to realize that these universal are always true and guide living beings toward liberation from all suffering all the way to the realization of nirvana. That could take lifetimes or be accomplished in this very life.

There's no time to waste and no telling we'll ever get an opportunity like this for eons, so precious is a human rebirth and all the more rare to ever meet the Dhamma, the Buddha's Teachings with a body and mind about to put his instructions into practice. Then dinner is served, a great assortment of island fare, mostly vegetarian/vegan and lots of conversation and mingling. It was a blessed time and repeats every month with the dates noted on this poster:

Event details

Monthly Day Retreat Calendar

It's that time of year again, "Buddhist Lent," the Rains Retreat (Vassa), for intensive practice.

There is the weekly observance in accordance with the phases of the moon, but generally the full moon is thought to be the most important and it is usually the one observed the uposatha with the Eight Precepts and intensive meditation and hearing the Dhamma (Dharma).

The Theravada/Pali language tradition of Southeast Asia (Sri Lankan, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, and to a lesser degree in Vietnam and the United States) observe it in this way, particularly in the large diaspora communities of the United States. In the greater Los Angeles area, where all of these ethnic and cultural communities are represented, temples hold special events.

The Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara (now the MindfulnessMeditationCenter.org) deep in the suburbs of the San Gabriel Valley city of Covina, is having a daylong Full Moon Observance Meditation retreat on Sunday, August 10, 2025, from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm.

This service is FREE or by donation (dana) and includes breakfast and lunch. It is conducted in Sinhalese and English. And there is an opportunity for any questions and requests for clarification. WEAR ALL WHITE as is the ancient custom from the time of the Buddha. (It is not an enforced rule but really does help and will certainly make one more comfortable and show respect among the locals from the East).

• Mindfulness Meditation Center
• 1023 N. Glendora Ave., Covina,
• SGV, Los Angeles County 91724
• INFO: (626) 364-7497

Happy Nat'l Pizza Day (Gluten?)

VIDEO: The Right Stuff celebrates National Pizza Day (Feb. 9, '25) with Good Morning America

The Right Stuff celebrates National Pizza Day

(Good Morning America) Feb. 7, 2025: Lifestyle contributor Lori Bergamotto shares top pizza recommendations for Super Bowl Taylor Swift Viewing party and National Pizza Day this Sunday. GET PIZZA FIX HERE: tinyurl.com/bdhzaw3u

Pizza is an American invention

Gluten-free vegan deep dish?

They don't eat pizza in Italy. They don't even know what it is. Italia eatta panini, a kind of fluffy bread with just a few garnishes for flavor. It took an American to make a pie. Living on the West Coast, which may arguably be the best coast, we are all about a thick crust, preferably gluten-free.

The East Coast, in New York style, a flour tortilla is used, the thinner the better. (How does that make any sense?) Living outdoors in giant in backyards, the west and Southwest can have their own pizza ovens year around, except for the two weeks when it rains.

Vegan nut cheese drizzling, Beyond meat toppings, and lots of fresh green basil, thin heirloom tomato slices, herbs, and no pineapple (we repeat, no pineapple, this is not Hawaii), with savory spices, maybe even some shitake mushrooms... There's no end to what the imagination can create on Pizza Day.

Oddly, this year falls on 4/20, and Pizza Day falls on Super Bowl Sunday -- traditionally known as the day more avocados are consumed than any other (except maybe Cinco de Mayo) due to the dips, chips, and sandwiches. It's almost as if someone, some deva up there, knows what's going on down here.

• Q: What's wrong with gluten?

Gluten kills (Pura Vida Foodology)

A: Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye, oats, and buckwheat (not a grain or grass but full of a gluten to protect itself), a plant toxin appearing in different forms with different names but doing the same thing to our intestines -- stripping the cilia and leading us to have digestion and malabsorption issues. ALL oats (even the ones labelled "gluten free") are the worst because they are full of avenin (oat gluten); the label is accurate because the wheat version (from cross-contamination) is called gluten, not the oat version.

Our intestines should look like a shag rug on the inside, not a smooth water hose. But as colorectal exams show, we are no longer equipped to absorb nutrients. All humans are harmed by any amount of gluten (gliaden, avenin, etc.), but we're used to it.

Monsanto (Bayer Inc.) and others have manufactured new higher-gluten forms of grains. That makes food production more convenient, addictive, and harmful. We all want spongy, chewy, moist breadlike products, full of protein (the cause of gluten's harm) and lots of starch, which is quickly converted into sugar by the body.

Youngevity Founder Dr. Joel Wallach (doc)

Dr. Joel Wallach (criticalhealthnews.com) states that nothing is more widespread and harmful than the glutens (a plant lectin), killing countless people every year but doing so slowly by malabsorption, malnutrition, and the inability to replenish the micronutrients needed for vibrant living. Deficiencies caused by eating glutens cause many diseases, and supplementing won't help if we are still being exposed to gluten (hidden everywhere or in obvious sources) because our cilia has not been allowed to grow back. Macronutrients like calories come in, but not the trace minerals and vitamins from healthy foods and supplements. The soil is depleted, so even the best most varied (organic, seasonal, local, fresh, healthy) diet will not help restore the 65 to 90 vital nutrients we need if gluten is still in our diet. 

• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen B., Imogen (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly VEGAN TEST KITCHEN; Good Morning America, Feb. 7, 2025

Year End Yoga Party, Sacred Ritual

WHAT HAPPENED?

Sign up here: Kinship Yoga Studios

We convened, got raffle tickets, placed potluck items on a table, reviewed the silent auction objects on offer, and settled in for the hailing of the Four Directions by Araceli in Native American tradition, with a conch shell trumpet and palo santo incense. Then we journaled a letter to ourselves to be opened in six months, the summer to come, sharing a small part of it with the whole group as we got in touch with a vision of nature and a sacred animal. Very New Age. Then the Sanskrit chanting began, accompanied by bongos, a spaceship like percussive instrument, and harmonium, in call-and-response kirtan. This was followed by the raffle, with a free ticket going to anyone who brought a potluck item. The prizes were in the $50 to $180 range, donated by local merchants supporting Yoga Gives Back and Ambassador Stella. Everyone got two hugs and we met eyes with another person, all designed to get people out of their shells and into the social community. Many females pranced about in skimpy yoga gear, laughing, making new friends. Then we feasted and had mocktails, hot chocolate, fresh persimmon juice, exotic teas from the Tea Bar, as well as soft drinks. This was followed by effusive sharing by anyone who wanted to say something, as we moved to the gift exchange blanket. Participants were encouraged to donate a gift for it, which everyone could see. Then items were chosen, infused with good mojo as the items got handed to the left and arrived at the designated chooser.

Yoga New Year: 108 Sun Salutations (1/1)

(This means everyone ended up with a gift, and some with more than one. The owner, Ryan and his young daughter, Louisa (the youngest teacher the studio has ever produced), were on hand. It was all handshakes, hugs, and even some yoga jokes. (Yoga jokes? A hippie is standing in front of a yoga studio and the owner says, "Man, you gotta leave." The hippie replies, "Nah, Man, 'amastay," you know, which sounds like "Namaste." Dumb as it might sound, it got a great laugh because up until tonight, no one knew there were such things as "yoga jokes." Not to be outdone, Ryan the owner said the place wasn't always going to be called "Kinship." He toyed with the idea of naming "Om Depot." That also got a great laugh). Hugs, kisses, number exchanged, and some people lingered to chat after four straight hours of spiritual fun and frolicking. It was a great time. And we were all reminded that in three short days, it's the 108 Sun Salutations Yoga Challenge in the same room at noon.

9th annual New Year Sacred Ceremony, Yoga Gives Back fundraiser, Potluck w/ Stella, Araceli, Veronica

Date: Saturday, 12/28/24, 6:00 pm-10:00 pm. Welcome to the 9th annual New Year Sacred Ceremony (fundraiser and Veggie Potluck) the final Saturday of the year.

• Sacred Ceremony: 6:00 pm-7:45 pm
• Fundraiser, Potluck, Gift-Giving Blanket: 7:45 pm-10:00 pm
• Price: $25 in advance, $33.00 day of event
• Fundraising to benefit the charity: Yoga Gives Back (YGB)
• Hosted by Stella Han, Araceli Contreras, Veronica de Soyza
• NEXT: Yoga New Year's Day: 108 Sun Salutations (1/1)

Join us for Kinship’s beloved annual gathering to honor the end of one year and welcome the New Year with community, intention, and celebration.

All proceeds from this fundraiser benefit Yoga Gives Back (YGB), a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women and children in India.

What is metta? Ask Larry David about universal love for all beings, including ourselves.

 

Event Schedule

• 6:00 pm: Sacred Ceremony

We begin with a sacred ceremony to honor the interconnectedness of all life. This space will be infused with culturally-inspired observances, reverence for ancient wisdom teachings, and intentions for peace and healing in the coming year.

• 7:45 pm: Fundraiser, Veggie Potluck, Gift-Giving Blanket

After the ceremony, we continue with a fundraiser, delicious veggie potluck, and the beloved Gift- Giving Blanket tradition. This portion of the evening includes opportunities for music, poetry (open mic), and community connection.

Event details

New students, Kingship, Highland Park

Sacred Ceremony creates a sacred space to honor life’s journey and our relationships with all beings. Through culturally respectful rituals and shared intentions, we cultivate a collective vision of peace for the New Year. Our gathering includes a series of meaningful activities to inspire growth, healing, and connection: 

• Smudging with white sage

Purify and cleanse personal energy through the sacred practice of smudging. Using the smoke of white sage (Salvia apiana), we clear away negative energies and create an open space for healing, renewal, and positive transformation.

• Journaling activity

We take a moment to reflect on our journey and set powerful intentions for the year ahead. Answer a few curated questions to guide reflection, focusing on what we wish to release and what we want to invite into our life.

• Sacred chanting

Together, we chant sacred Sanskrit mantras, uniting our voices and hearts in harmony. This collective vibration invokes peace, healing, and strength, setting a powerful intention for the New Year ahead.

• Gift-Giving Blanket

History (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

Inspired by Native American traditions, the Gift-Giving Blanket invites us to bring a gift to share with the community. After laying a gift down on the blanket, everyone will have the opportunity to choose a gift brought by someone else. (No need to purchase any gifts; we encourage to recycle from our own possessions to lighten our load). Gifts can be new or gently used items. All are welcome — whether or not bringing a gift to share.

• Fundraiser for Yoga Gives Back (yogagivesback.org)

yoga-gives-back.networkforgood.com

Yoga Gives Back is a non-profit organization that supports women and children in India, providing educational opportunities and micro-loans to help them build sustainable lives. Stella Han is an ambassador for YGB and will lead this fundraiser. Contribute directly to the cause via Stella’s fundraising portal:

• Donate here: yoga-gives-back.networkforgood.com/projects/209730-stella-han-s-fundraiser

Alternatively, donations can be made via Venmo: @stella_han_yoga. Please include “YGB” in the comment section along with an email and phone number. (All personal contact information is only visible to Stella Han). Cash or checks are accepted as well.

• Veggie potluck

What is there to eat? Compassionate veggie food

Bringing food is optional, but to contribute, please email Stella (the coordinator and organizer) at stellaheartyoga@gmail.com with details of the dish you plan to bring. All dishes must be vegan or vegetarian. Please also include an ingredient card next to the dish for transparency so diners can avoid allergens like gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, all of which contain their own form of this popular toxin that destroys the cilia of the gut lining and results in malabsorption and eventual malnutrition). All contributors to the potluck will receive 3 raffle tickets. Please mention to host about contribution to ensure receiving the raffle tickets.

• Attire

What about New Year's Eve?

Dress warmly and comfortably. If feeling inspired, festive or spiritual white attire is optional as we gather to celebrate and set intentions for the New Year with a clean slate. We look forward to coming together in community, celebration, and giving.

For more information or questions, please contact Stella Han:

• stellaheartyoga@gmail.com
• LOCATION
• REGISTER: Kinship Studios
• (213) 585-8451
• 5612 North Figueroa St.,
• Higland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
• Events+Workshops — Kinship, Highland Park
• RSVP:

1. New Year Sacred Ceremony, Fundraiser, Veggie Potluck w/Stella, Araceli, Veronica, Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 6:00 PM | Meetup
2. New Year Sacred Ceremony, Fundraiser, Veggie Potluck w/Stella, Araceli, Veronica, Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 6:00 PM | Meetup
3. New Year Sacred Ceremony, Fundraiser, Veggie Potluck w/Stella, Araceli, Veronica, Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 6:00 PM | Meetup

• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Holiday Party Vegan Potluck (12/14)

The Holidays, when things get cold and dark, are the best time of year to party. It's also the birthday of the hippie owner John., so it's an extra festive occasion of Christmas, Kwanzaa, Channukah, and Late-Diwali.

• [Humans need social contact, according to psychology, whether they think they like it or not, as we are pack animals and interdependent angels. So get out' the house and into a festive potlach atmosphere of interaction, and give an Irish goodbye when it gets to be too much.]

Use the back door for free parking

Yogis Cody and Stella have a night of music, singing, Sanskrit chanting (kirtan), party games, and lots of delicious food.

It's through the Cosmic Breezeway and in Oh Happy Days Vegan Cafe, a throwback to hippie times when all anyone did was smoke herb, attend anti-war protests, farm hair, and go to college to get a degree in systematically questioning the status quo and the corporate power structure.

Not Mt. Wilson's Cosmic Cafe up the street

Ah, those were the days when you could just turn on, tune in, and drop out. Come by to celebrate and give well wishes to the birthday boy with live musical performances.

Bring a VEGAN (no animal products of any kind) item, dessert, guacamole, salad, soup, or good quality chips. There's always pizza and entree items. All are welcome. It's FREE, so RSVP:

• Disclosure Project: Vegan Potluck HOLIDAY PARTY for the cafe owner's birthday, Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 7:00 PM | Meetup
• Nature Center: Vegan Potluck HOLIDAY PARTY for the cafe owner's birthday, Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 7:00 PM | Meetup
• LA Foothills: Vegan Potluck HOLIDAY PARTY for the cafe owner's birthday, Sat, Dec 14, 2024, 7:00 PM | Meetup
• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Cody, Jen, Wisdom Quarterly

Another look at Greta Thunberg (PBN)

When Greta Thunberg becomes an international model, then the world will go vegan.

Greta Thunberg: Saving Our World

...and my Mama's good looks? (temu.com)

(PLANT BASED NEWS) It was easy to write off Greta Thunberg (and get "High" listening to fellow Swede Tove Lo instead).

• Swedish, being what it is, misleads our pronunciation. Greta's surname is Toonberg, and singer Tov Lo is actually Too-vuh-loo. English is very flexible around the world.

Greta is the autistic, Swedish, blonde 16-year-old (now 21) getting arrested to protest climate change because the mainstream media (MSM) portrays her as a self-contradictory nut.

The MSM never mentions Greta's an ethical vegan (someone who avoids eating flesh and animal products to save the world and all the beings in it), which is the best thing one can personally do to save our world, preserve human health, and alleviate animal suffering.

Climate change activist Greta targeted by online trolls/Thunberg fined over climate protest

Hundreds of thousands of young people around the world join Fridays for Future strikes (BBC)

Who is she, what has she achieved?

Greta may show more angry emotions on her face than other nonautistic people in the spotlight. But she's right.

Yes, this Swedish climate activist is a citizen of the world. And she is being used and co-opted as a role model for worldwide environmental activism that often undermines her message and makes sure nothing fundamentally changes unless it profits the powers-that-be (Big Oil, transnational corporations, world capitalists eager to set up a pollution credit market to milk money out of degrading our environment while letting corporations off the hook for polluting the planet).

Jimmy Carr: Punching down those d*mn vegans

Why didn’t Thunberg win Nobel Peace Prize?

Thunberg has something to say but we'll almost never hear it. Instead, we get the twisted message that benefits the status quo. Go vegan. Eat plant-based for flavor, animal kindness, and human health and longevity. (Do it right or many of the benefits will not be realized; it's not just what we don't eat but what we take in in its place).

• FTP: Greta charged with disobeying police, media says

Greta grabs attention, rallies support for Gaia (W)

★ CHECK OUT PBN INSIDERS FOR THE BEST STUFF: plantbasednews.org/insiders ★ SUPPORT THIS WORK BY MAKING A CONTRIBUTION: plantbasednews.org/support ★ GET FREE MODEL MEAL INSPIRATION GUIDE: bit.ly/pbnmealguide ★ CHECK OUT VEGAN PREGNANCY GUIDE: theveganpregnancyguide.com ★ CHECK OUT OUR VEGAN PARENTING GUIDE: raisingachildvegan.com/ ★ 50% OFF OVER 100 WHOLE-FOOD PLANT-BASED RECIPES: from the biggest names in the plant based world - use discount code PBN at checkout: bit.ly/2O1Iz0N ★ HELP TRANSLATE OUR VIDEOS: bit.ly/translatePBN ★ SIGN UP TO RECEIVE OUR WEEKLY HEADLINES IN INBOX: plantbasednews.org/signup ★ GOT A NEWS STORY WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT? Please email press@plantbasednews.org or leave a message on our hotline UK landline: +44 207 0960 175, US landline: +1 (818) 963-5411 WEBSITE ★ plantbasednews.org

• Greta Thunberg, Plant Based News, April 23, 2019: CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Alkaline diet is the way to good health

The word vegetarian does not come from vegetable but from vegetus (life, growth).

.

All non-starchy vegetables and fruits have an alkaline-forming effect on our body's fluids. Potatoes and bananas are slightly more acidic than most other vegetables and fruits.

For this reason, to be alkaline and healthy, non-starchy fruits, berries, and vegetables form the main bulk of our diet.

• Toxic contaminated meat recall update as millions of pounds included after outbreak (Newsweek)

Food Combining Myths, Science (nutriplanet.org)

Fortunately, nature has arranged it so that green vegetables, such as kale and broccoli, are not only very alkaline but also superfoods that are nutrient rich. 

Most legumes are semi-alkaline, while whole grains are more acidic. Refined grains (like white rice or milled flour) have an acidic effect on the body.

All animal products -- slaughtered flesh, eggs, fish, dairy -- in addition to extracted, process, simplified sugars have an acidifying effect. Therefore, these foods should be eliminated from the diet or greatly reduced.

Go nonviolent and vegan? Not necessarily. For example, a vegan living mainly on protein bars would end up with an acidic and unhealthy bloodstream due to the sugar and grain, while an omnivore eating lots of fruits and vegetables and a small amount of meat and dairy might stay alkaline and healthy.

Food combining for digestion (True Activist)

The body maintains homeostasis (equilibrium), which means a blood pH level of about 7.35-7.46 to maintain good health. We do that by eating a diet of primarily alkaline producing foods, mainly fruits and vegetables. These foods are also the most nutrient dense foods. 

There is no need for paleo folks and vegans to go to war in a battle of words regarding what is right or wrong with an alkaline diet. The facts speak for themselves.

In essence, we can become acidic on any diet if we eat too many acid-forming foods: too much animal protein and fats, too much sugar and refined carbs, as well as too many deep-fried foods.

• Joy of Meditation Retreat | Prama Institute, NC

Whether to be a vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore is, in the end, more a question of ethics. We can be healthy with any label, provided we eat alkaline foods.

Food Combining Charts (alderbrooke.com)

So if, on the one hand, one dislikes killing animals, impregnating, imprisoning, and otherwise making animals miserable and instead wants to be kinder to them and the planet, then a vegan diet is the healthiest and most environmentally-friendly.

If, on the other hand, one just wants to stay healthy, then junk (processed) foods and animal foods need to be minimized or eliminated altogether. Whatever one eats, the main bulk of our intake needs to be mainly vegetables and fruits.

• “Come Heal @ Prama” (prama.org)
• My Journey Toward Sowa Rigpa – The Science of Healing (Buddhistdoor Global)
• A Vegan Diet for an alkaline body (prama.org); Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly