Digest Number 820

[Guest guest]

.. . . and what your ethics are about taking and eating " products "

from other beings because we *can* - clearly there's no proven human

need to consume dairy or honey. Humans can survive on a pretty basic,

mundane diet - yet we've been conditioned to accept certain foods as

" tasting good " - Trader Joe's puts honey in *alot* of their products

because they think people like the taste it imparts - it's conditioning

and the rationalization of that conditioning . . . a large part of

what has made me successful as a vegan is that I have realized that I

don't really like the taste of what comes from other beings - their

" byproducts " - diary and honey don't taste good to me - why would I

want to eat them? Bees could drink milk and cows could eat honey but

they (typically) don't because those things just don't compute as food

to those beings. Humans will eat all kinds of stuff, food or not,

because we *can* - because we're conditioned to perceive as to what

does and doesn't taste good. And that conditioning, fortunately, can

be changed.

 

angel A <catgrrl809 wrote:

>

> ah. the age old " vegan " question. So, by the same guidelines, one

> could have a cow in his or her backyard and drink that milk...... it

> wouldn't be " wrong " by those same definitions....but it all depends on

> what you think " vegan " means.

[Guest guest]

FWIW, we've been grinding our own infant cereal (brown

rice and oatmeal) since my daughter was 7 mos. (We

have a really fantastic blender). We did start off

with Earth's Best Organic Iron-Fortified infant cereal

at about 6 mos, and she HATED it. Would not take it

unless it was mixed with a much greater quantity of

something she liked. And it made her all kinds of

constipated. Since we switched, she hasn't been

constipated, and she just had her iron levels checked

(she's 9 mos now) and the doctor said it was

" fantastic " , although I don't remember the exact

number.

 

So, yes, they could grind grain fine enough to make

baby cereal (you want it to be completely powdered,

with almost no gritty bits, and if you can sieve those

out, even better), but you do have to cook it for

about 10 minutes, unlike the instant boxed stuff. Or

if you have a blender, you can cook it first and then

blend it to mush, but then you have to blend every

three days or so. I wouldn't worry about iron

supplementation unless your baby had an issue with it

- has she had her levels checked? Our ped told us that

iron supplements can actually interfere with absorbing

iron from breast milk, which is the best way for

babies of that age to be getting it.

 

Good luck

 

-kt

 

______________________

 

Message: 3

Wed, 4 Feb 2004 20:35:17 -0500

" Lisa Tigani " <kwcanine

RE: Infant Cereal

 

Hello:

 

Question on infant cereal.

My daughter is 8 months now. I am still nursing a

number of times a

day. She

has been eating Healthy Time Organic Infant Cereal for

about 2 months.

I

can't find it anywhere now due to some problems at the

company, I think

they

are discontinuing it. Anyway, in my search for an

alternative the

salesclerk

at the health food store suggested I try just giving

her regular grains

finely ground. This store has a grinder and will grind

for you. Thought

it

might work, however when she gave me the bag of ground

spelt/kamut it

looked

a little chunky to me. I am not a hot cereal person so

figured maybe it

looks like this before cooking and will sort of

dissolve more when

cooked.

After cooking for almost a half hour, salesclerk said

it would only

take a

few minutes, cereal was still pretty chunky. I tried

it with disastrous

results. Poor girl gagged and couldn't even swallow

it. So I have two

questions....

1/ It I take it back do you think they can grind it

find enough for an

infant?? I mean they can grind it into flour so I

guess they should be

able

to but will she eat it.

2/ Also, I was wondering about " vitamins " . Most infant

cereals around

here

are fortified with iron...didn't know if just ground

grains would

suffice.

Salesclerk seemed to think since they were whole

grains they would

" naturally " contain enough vitamins...She may be right

but I am pretty

sure

she doesn't have any children so not sure how familiar

she is with the

special nutritional needs of infants.

 

Thanks

Lisa

 

 

 

 

 

 

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