AMONG SHEIKH HAMZA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS: FORKS OVER KNIVES
While I would not completely recommend a “vegan” diet, I think the modern diet is a danger to our health, and this wonderful documentary can be a life changer for those of you who aren’t aware of just how harmful our Western diets are. (I include most modern Muslim diets in this, given the overconsumption of meat and the increasing corporatization of our means of production.)
One of the favourite books of Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Mark Hanson
English | 2011 | 224 pages | EPUB | 5.3 mb
What if one simple change could save you from heart disease, diabetes, and cancer? For decades, that question has fascinated a small circle of impassioned doctors and researchers—and now, their life-changing research is making headlines in the hit documentary Forks Over Knives.
Their answer? Eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet—it could save your life. It may overturn most of the diet advice you’ve heard—but the experts behind Forks Over Knives aren't afraid to make waves. In his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn explained that eating meat, dairy, and oils injures the lining of our blood vessels, causing heart disease, heart attack, or stroke.
In The China Study, Dr. Colin Campbell revealed how cancer and other diseases skyrocket when eating meat and dairy is the norm—and plummet when a traditional plant-based diet persists. And more and more experts are adding their voices to the cause: There is nothing else you can do for your health that can match the benefits of a plant-based diet.
Now, as Forks Over Knives is introducing more people than ever before to the plant-based way to health, this accessible guide provides the information you need to adopt and maintain a plant-based diet. Features include:
- Insights from the luminaries behind the film—Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. John McDougall, The Engine 2 Diet author Rip Esselstyn, and many others
- Success stories from converts to plant-based eating—like San’Dera Prude, who no longer needs to medicate her diabetes, has lost weight, and feels great!
- The many benefits of a whole-foods, plant-based diet—for you, for animals and the environment, and for our future
- A helpful primer on crafting a healthy diet rich in unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, including tips on transitioning and essential kitchen tools
- 125 recipes from 25 champions of plant-based dining—from Blueberry Oat Breakfast Muffins and Sunny Orange Yam Bisque to Garlic Rosemary Polenta and Raspberry-Pear Crisp—delicious, healthy, and for every meal, every day.
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Diet for a Small Planet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Diet for a Small Planet | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Author | Frances Moore Lappé |
| Illustrator | Kathleen Zimmerman and Ralph Iwamoto |
| Country | United States |
| Subject | Cookbook, vegetarianism |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Publication date | 1971 |
| Pages | 301 |
| ISBN | 0-345-02378-1 |
| OCLC Number | 247743 |
| Dewey Decimal | 641.6/3/1 |
| LC Classification | TX392 .L27 |
Diet for a Small Planet is a 1971 bestselling book by Frances Moore Lappé, the first major book to critique grain-fed meat production as wasteful and a contributor to global food scarcity. Eating a plant-centered diet, she argued, means choosing what is best for the earth and our bodies—a daily action that reminds us of our power to create a saner world.
The book has sold over three million copies and was groundbreaking for arguing that world hunger is not caused by a lack of food but by ineffective food policy. In addition to information on meat production and its impact on hunger, the book features simple rules for a healthy diet and hundreds of meat-free recipes.
Knowing that her audience would be skeptical that a vegetarian diet could supply sufficient protein, much of the book is devoted to introducing her theory of complementing proteins, also called protein combining. This is a method of eating different plant foods together so that their combined amino acid pattern matches that of animal foods. But while Lappé was correct that combining would indeed result in a more meat-like protein profile, it is also unnecessary: Individual plant foods contain all the amino acids required by humans, in amounts which satisfy growth and maintenance; however, certain deficiencies of particular amino acids should be considered since such deficiencies can have a negative effect on health.[1] In other words, mimicking the composition of animal proteins is not essential to human nutrition. After this was pointed out, Lappé recanted the idea of protein combining in the 10th anniversary 1981 version of the book:
- "In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein ... was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought.
- "With three important exceptions, there is little danger of protein deficiency in a plant food diet. The exceptions are diets very heavily dependent on [1] fruit or on [2] some tubers, such as sweet potatoes or cassava, or on [3] junk food (refined flours, sugars, and fat). Fortunately, relatively few people in the world try to survive on diets in which these foods are virtually the sole source of calories. In all other diets, if people are getting enough calories, they are virtually certain of getting enough protein."[2]
In 1975, Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins launched the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) to educate Americans about the causes of world hunger. In 2006, Frances' daughter, Anna Lappé, took Small Planet a step further with her book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It (ISBN 978-1596916593). She revealed the disturbing connection between food production and climate change and outlined how we can eat food that’s better for people and the planet.[3]
Topics covered in the book
- Part I: Earth's Labor Lost—Protein in United States agribusiness
- Part II: Bringing Protein Theory Down to Earth—Protein in human nutrition
- Part III: Eating From the Earth: Protein Theory Applied—Includes tables of food values, and explanations relating proteins to caloric and economic factors
- Part IV: Combining Non-Meat Foods to Increase Protein Values—Guidelines and recipes
- Appendices, Notes, Index
References
- Jump up ^ Complementary Protein Myth Won't Go Away!, Jeff Novick, M.S., R.D., Healthy Times (May 2003)
- Jump up ^ Diet for a Small Planet (ISBN 0-345-32120-0), 1981, p. 162; emphasis in original
- Jump up ^ Diet for a Hot Planet, Small Planet Institute
- GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD IS NOT TAYYAB, AND THEREFORE HARAAM!
- DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ!
- ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE AND USE YOUR BRAIN!
- HOWEVER, THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS QUITE USEFUL.
WHAT IS TAYYAB? AND WHY SHOULD WE EAT TAYYAB?
My mother looks at the milk and the blue edge it makes in the pot, just delivered by the milkman and shakes her head. “What is it?” I ask, “ He has mixed water in the milk” she says shaking her head disapprovingly…
That made the milkman deceitful to my young eyes. He wanted to make two quarts out of one quart so he would make more money. Mentally I excuse him because I believe he is poor and thus he does that to make ends meet.
The first part of this article are the quotes about Tayibbaat plural of Tayyab from the Quran, and the second part (scroll down) is what I have surmised from reading the Quran, some tafsir and from observation and medical facts……….So bear with me as I bring Allah’s commands with the way we live and how science is the outcome of Allah’s words and promotes His words, only if we listen………..
Allah Subhanawataala commands us to eat from the beautiful and bountiful food that he has made for us which is halal and tayyab.
SURAH BAQARA: 2: 168
He reminds us again of the delicious and wonderful things he has made for our palate:
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ ﴿١٦٨﴾
[2:168] Sahih International
O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth [that is] lawful and good and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.
So eat of the lawful and good food which Allah has provided for you. And be grateful for the Favour of Allah, if it is He Whom you worship.
Allah Subhanawataala says that he has honored us by providing us the Tayibbat (loosely translated here as lawful and good)
( سورة النحل , An-Nahl, Chapter #16, Verse #114)
And indeed We have honoured the Children of Adam, and We have carried them on land and sea, and have provided them with At-Tayyibat (lawful good things), and have preferred them above many of those whom We have created with a marked preferment.
Allah Subhanawataala defines some of the characteristics of some of the Tayyabaat which is the plural of Tayyab:
( سورة الإسراء , Al-Isra, Chapter #17, Verse #70)
They ask you (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) what is lawful for them (as food). Say: “Lawful unto you are At-Tayyibat And those beasts and birds of prey which you have trained as hounds, training and teaching them (to catch) in the manner as directed to you by Allah; so eat of what they catch for you, but pronounce the Name of Allah over it, and fear Allah. Verily, Allah is Swift in reckoning.”
In the final passages he offers beauty, and good ness in food to His creation and offer them: (Tayyibaat translated as lawful and good)
( سورة المائدة , Al-Maeda, Chapter #5, Verse #4)
And eat of the things which Allah has provided for you, lawful and good, and fear Allah in Whom you believe.
Allah Subhanawataala commands Prophet Muhammad pbuh to reiterate His blessings to the people:
( سورة المائدة , Al-Maeda, Chapter #5, Verse #88)
Say (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم): “Who has forbidden the adornment with clothes given by Allah, which He has produced for His slaves, and At-Taiyyibat of food?” Say: “They are, in the life of this world, for those who believe, (and) exclusively for them (believers) on the Day of Resurrection (the disbelievers will not share them).” Thus We explain the Ayat (Islamic laws) in detail for people who have knowledge.
Here Allah Subhanawataala connects the Messendgers, Tayyibaat and righteous deeds and that Allah knows what people do including the Messengers:
( سورة الأعراف , Al-Araf, Chapter #7, Verse #32)
O (you) Messengers! Eat of the Tayyibat and do righteous deeds. Verily! I am Well-Acquainted with what you do.
Allah Subhanawataala again reminds of his blessings of the Tayyibaat in food provided by HIm:
( سورة المؤمنون , Al-Mumenoon, Chapter #23, Verse #51)
(Saying) eat of the Tayyibat (good lawful things) wherewith We have provided you, and commit no transgression or oppression therein, lest My Anger should justly descend on you. And he on whom My Anger descends, he is indeed perished. [Tafsir At-Tabari]
The halal part is easy…you avoid the flesh of the swine and carrion, dead animals, and alcohol and you are almost home free.
( سورة طه , Taha, Chapter #20, Verse #81)
Say (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم): “I find not in that which has been revealed to me anything forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it be Maitah (a dead animal) or blood poured forth (by slaughtering or the like), or the flesh of swine (pork); for that surely is impure or impious (unlawful) meat (of an animal) which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for others than Allah (or has been slaughtered for idols, or on which Allah’s Name has not been mentioned while slaughtering). But whosoever is forced by necessity without wilful disobedience, nor transgressing due limits; (for him) certainly, your Lord is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
However what I have noted living in the west and observed also in the East that people love packaged food, the packaging is enticing and the inside is sweet.
( سورة الأنعام , Al-Anaam, Chapter #6, Verse #145)
In Pakistan and the Middle East people love imported packaged foods from the west. What none of us has realized that in doing so we are negotiating a challenging terrain packed with both haram and non-tayyab items in our food, which may be invisible to our untrained eyes.
Can we call bread as being made out of flour? Apparently not! A Dutch researcher has showed this that some bread have Hog hair added to improve their texture.
I was curious as to what is tayyab versus halal, and at a meeting this was beautifully stated with an example as follows:
A cow is milked and a bucket is ready with its milk, this milk is halal and tayyab, then an animal comes and urinates in it, now the milk is still halal but no longer tayyab. Which means something else not an essential part of it has been added to it.
When do we add things to our food?
In teasing out what is tayyab and what is not?- To enhance its taste: such as salt, spices and sugar
- To make it stay on the shelf longer so that it does not rot or loose its palatability
- To make a small amount go a long way (such as the milkman in the story of my mother)
Here are my conclusions:
When one adds things such as salt spices and sugar as long as it does not destroy the nutrients of the food, it is tayyab and also if added in small amounts such as not to overpower the original food.
When someone adds something to the food item for the sake of number 2 and 3:
It could be due to:
- Primarily to make money and or
- To transport food to where it is needed.
Whereas if a cook takes fresh vegetables and put some butter and spices on it those vegetables are still tayyab as long as the vegetables do not lose their character and nutrition in the process of adding those additives.
A great example is high fructose corn syrup.Earlier in this century the “commodities” in the stock market were farm items, which were entirely dependent on natures whims, thus the stock market could crash if there was a drought or a natural disaster.
Notice that in the last several decades the American stock market is steady. The reason being the farms mainly grow corn, which is collected and stored in Government subsidized bins, and in subsidized factories is converted into several kinds of additives that are added to many different foods. This make it last longer and give it a desirable taste and also boosts the stock market as the product of corn is consistent and last for a very long time and has found use in additives in almost everything, food and otherwise.
This in not my discovery. It is beautifully chronicled in the book “The Omnivores Dilemma”High fructose corn syrup is used in bread, in juices, in cream, in chocolate milk, in prepared frozen dinners, in some pills; it is in almost everything in the States that is on the grocery store shelf.
Since high fructose corn syrup is not a part of bread, and gives flour a very sweet taste that overrides the destruction of taste and nutrition that has come from years that that baked bread has sat in trucks, warehouses and the grocery store shelf, it is acceptable and even desirable to the American palate.
We Muslims start feeding our children all these lovely baked goods from the grocery store since early infancy. The high fructose corn syrup silently kick their insulin producing mechanisms into high gear, which are very active in their youth attempting to fight this constant inpouring of high fructose into the blood stream.By the time American Muslim children reach puberty, they are overweight or on a constant diet (diet drinks also have a chemical sweetener that incites hunger). This makes for a young adult who is unhappy with how he or she looks, feels and relates with the rest of the world. Add the dark skin color, immigrant parents with an accent and it makes for a young person who lives a dissociated life, one persona at home and one in mainstream society and tries hard not to mix them.
While in the Middle East and China I find that the affluent class likes to eat European or American baked goods, cheeses, frozen foods and jams. Once while I was in Beijing the line in front of McDonald was long enough to go around almost two blocks.
Most all of these exported gourmet foods are loaded with additives that are unnatural to these foods, and may even have a pig product as demonstrated in the Dutch researchers work and thus are NOT TAYYAB and may not even be HALAL!
Where in the study of the Quran did the scholars forget TAYYAB and just latched on to HALAL and why?
I have no answer to this question, do you?
O mankind! There has come to you a good advice from your Lord and a healing for that which is in your breasts, – a guidance and a mercy for the believers.
( سورة يونس , Yunus, Chapter #10, Verse #57)
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