Tag Archive: Veganism


FINALLY …AN ALL VEGAN BAR IN ITALY!

Filed under: Good causes, Health and fitness, Italy — 1 Comment
November 16, 2013

Caffe Pascucci, Piazza Trattati di Roma, 1, Savignano del Rubicone, Italy

From the outside this looks like another typical café/ bar in Italy – it has the kind of smart, stylish understated elegance that citizens take for granted. It is in a run of the mill location, situated  in the Savignano sul Rubicone shopping mall near the small coastal town of Cesenatico.

The green plant logo is the only thing that gives a clue that this is something different. Caffe Pascucci is the first 100% vegan bar in Italy! Three cheers for them!  It officially opened in September this year and hopefully will give others the courage to follow suit.

A lot of restaurants, shops and cafés are responding to the rising number of customers seeking humane alternatives to the standard carnivore diet. These, however, only take a half way house approach by providing veggie friendly food without entirely sacrificing the ubiquitous ham and salami options.

After 17 years of living in Emilia-Romagna,  it is a relief to finally find a place where there are no such compromises. All the drinks, snacks and light lunches at Pascucci are unapologetically 100% vegan. Continue reading →

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A RAW FOOD CURE FOR COMPLACENCY

Filed under: Health and fitness, Movies — 1 Comment
September 30, 2013

AVERAGE JOE ON THE RAW  directed by Daniel Hayhurst (USA, 2013)

At the age of 30, Seth Hayhurst was beginning to show the onset of middle age spread but could not by any stretch of the imagination be called obese.

Actually, you would say that he looked in pretty good physical shape. Mentally, however, was another story.

He’d gone through a messy divorce and ,although now in a good relationship, he realized he had ‘anger issues’  and attitude problems that needed to be addressed.  He declares that he wanted “to be shiny again”.

Above all, he felt his life was slipping into a mundane pattern in which he was destined to become just another average American with declining health and lower energy levels.

In the introduction to this documentary, directed by his brother Daniel, he says: “I looked in the mirror and saw complacency. I saw a man settling into normalcy ……so, I could just fall in line with the rest of the people on the assembly line of commonplace OR ….. I could make a push at my limitless potential. I could try to reset my intelligently designed body to heal itself!” 

 His radical solution is to ditch fatty meat orientated fast foods and embark on a 60 day raw vegan diet. Seeing how others who ate like this looked vibrant and alive convinced him that this was the life changing, clean living alternative he was looking for.

Continue reading →

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THE CHANGING FACE OF VEGANISM

Filed under: Good causes, Health and fitness, Italy, Politics — Leave a comment
September 1, 2013

vegfest-forli-cesena-2013This weekend was the 4th edition of the Veg Fest near my home town of Cesena in Emilia Romagna. This has been an annual event for the past five years (one year was skipped as the original venue fell through).

For the past two years the festival has been held at Parco Fellini in Gambettola, a small town situated midway between Cesena and Rimini.

The organisers are the local group Lega Anti Vivisezione (LAV) whose broad goal  is to promote Vegetarianism/Veganism as a more humane lifestyle choice.

I attend as one of the converted, having been a vegetarian for almost 40 years now. These days, I count myself more as a demi-vegan. To fall short of being a full-on vegan as this would mean the stiff challenge of foregoing most beers, wines, cheeses, cappuccino, dairy ice cream etc. etc. I’m working on it!

It is interesting to note the social changes over the past five years using this Veg Fest as a subjective indicator of some subtle ways in which attitudes are shifting. Continue reading →

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GOING BERSERK OVER ICELAND

Filed under: Books, Humour, Music — Leave a comment
August 1, 2013

ICELAND, DEFROSTED by Edward Hancox (SilverWood Books, 2013)

If I was commissioning a book about Iceland, I would want something that was more than a standard check list of places to visit and things to do.

I’d want a book that told me exactly why this small duck-shaped country is so unique, stunningly beautiful and how it comes to be blessed with the knack of producing so many stunning musicians.

And lo and behold, I don’t need to commission anything because Edward Hancox has just published almost exactly the book I’ve been looking for. The book was crowdfunded through kickstarter and hit the target in just six days, as clear an indication as any that I am not the only one looking for a book on this topic. Continue reading →

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VEGAN CAKES – NOT SO NAUGHTY AND STILL NICE

Filed under: Good causes, Health and fitness, Italy — Leave a comment
June 16, 2013

The winning entry.

Victoria reigns!

It’s perhaps understandable that many vegan books and cooking classes focus mainly on the nutritional aspects on the diet.

Above all, they aim to convince doubters that you can still eat (and live) ethically and healthily after cutting out animal-based products.

The fact that this lifestyle requires a lot of self-discipline means that many regard practitioners as the dietary equivalent of flagellants; deliberately torturing themselves because of their radical beliefs.

All the more important therefore to show that vegans recognise the importance of comfort food; something you eat primarily with pleasure in mind.

This is why in the inaugural cake competition held at the village of Sorrivioli di Roncofreddo near Cesena in Emilia-Romagna was such a welcome event. Continue reading →

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