A FEW OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS THAT I READ IN 2018

As we approach the end of year, I think back on some of the books I’ve ready in 2018 and which ones people with similar interests would also enjoy. To that end, here are some of the best books I read this year:

Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight

Nike co-founder Phil Knight weaves a gripping story of how his athletic empire was built though passion, trial and error, actual trials, luck, an enormity of work, and even the occasional lie to his banks and suppliers. What became clear to me in reading it is that Knight wasn’t driven by money, though Nike has made him a multi-billionaire. Other factors, from simply wanting to win to seeking approval from his father and coach, were far bigger drivers for him. But Knight also clearly viewed what he was doing as a mission to help others. More of my thoughts on the book here.

Elon Musk, by Ashlee Vance

Yes, Musk’s story of going from janitor to billionaire is impressive. Yes, his work ethic and engineering-oriented mind make for fascinating stories. But the real issue that kept striking me is that Musk doesn’t seem that motivated by making money for himself, though of course he’s done that in droves. Rather, his entire reason for existence is to use business as a way to help solve some of what he sees as humanity’s most pressing problems. More of my thoughts on the book here.

Quirky, by Melissa Schilling

Melissa Schilling’s book explores common traits among some of the most successful innovators of all time. The litmus test for Schilling to enter such a coveted club is much higher than merely hitting the innovation jackpot and changing the world one time. For Schilling, being a super-innovator means being serially successful in a variety of fields. Think Einstein, Franklin, Edison, Tesla, Jobs, Kamen, Musk, and yes, of course, Curie, and these are the folks to which Schilling devotes her study. More of my thoughts on the book here.

Rescuing Ladybugs, by Jennifer Skiff

Humanity is often very skilled at inflicting suffering on the rest of the animals with whom she shares our planet. This book tells the story of several individuals who are doing their part to try to stop that suffering and help create a kinder world for all animals, humans included. I really enjoyed reading these tales of the different ways people have been called to give a voice to powerless animals. Perhaps the most poignant quote for me in the book:

“The history of the world will, one day, be defined by the people who witnessed the tragedy of impending extinction and were able to turn humanity’s destructive patterns into creative solutions.”

 

This article was originally published on paulshapiroblog.com.

ICELAND BECOMING A HOTSPOT FOR PLANT-BASED EATERS

It seems so unlikely that a cold Nordic country where it’s very difficult to grow fruits and vegetables would become a “hotspot” for those who prefer to eat a plant-based diet. However, there are those who are determined to manifest that goal, turning their icy homeland into a plant-powered Valhalla.

Eat among tomato plants

In the tiny enchanting town of Reykholt, you can go to a restaurant in Friðheimar, a special greenhouse that grows 10,000 organic tomato plants using natural geothermal heat which protects them from the freezing temperatures and biting wind. They don’t just specialize in plant-based cuisine, but in tomato-based cuisine in particular. Check it out.

An all-plant-based hipster hangout

Kaffi Vinyl in the heart of Reykjavík is a combination of a bar, a cafe, and a record shop. How fnu to be able to listen to musical offerings while feasting on tamarind-glazed tofu with a sweet potato and carrot puree, or roasted chickpeas and cauliflower, or a pasta with thyme, mushrooms, and cashew cream sauce. Save room for some decadent peanut butter cashew cheesecake as well.

A former ship workshop that was turned into a restaurant

Slippurinn is reached by boat to Heimaey, the only inhabited place in the Westman Islands of Iceland. Its talented chef, Gísli Matthías Audunsson, has a gift in the art of preparing sophisticated vegan dishes such as a celeriac nut and sunchoke steak with grilled peppers and pine. Foraging results in fantastic kelp chips, other dishes from “weeds.” Sounds fantastic.

An eight-course feast focused on plants

Nostra in Reykjavik offers an all-vegan menu that includes confit leek and onion broth, carrot that was cured for 12 hours, lemon thyme and bay leaf sorbet, a cocktail made of Arctic thyme, and more.

So if you want to go where vegan eating is hot, think about going to Iceland.

 

This article was originally published on paulshapiroblog.com.

AN EVIDENCE-BASED DIET: POWERING YOURSELF WITH PLANTS

So you want to give plant-based eating a try. A lot of folks do it because they want to help lighten their footprint on the planet and the animals who inhabit it. But perhaps even more people do it because they want to lighten the burden they’re placing on their own bodies. In fact, a whole food plant-based diet has a vast array of health benefits.

Why do plants do a body good? Turns out, lots of reasons.

Give Yourself Better Odds

People following a plant-based diet have lower rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other leading killers of Americans. As Dr. Michael Greger points out in his bestselling book How Not to Die, if you want to live longer, the evidence shows that eating lots of whole plant foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, mushrooms, and whole grains, for example) and few animal products is the way to go.

Lower Body Fat

Vegetarians and vegans tend to have lower body masses than their meat-eating counterparts. In a country plagued by historically high rates of obesity, this can help be the difference between major health problems or longer lifespan.

Less Inflammation

You probably already know that inflammation doesn’t exactly do a body good. If you doubt it, read this. So, what foods are anti-inflammatory? Unsurprisingly, plants are the champs here.

From berries and beans to fruit and flax, the diet that prevents inflammation doesn’t include many foods from animals.

Even More

These are just a few of the favors you’ll do yourself if you eat lower on the food chain. If you want to be reminded of even more reasons, sign up for this daily short video from Dr. Greger with cool info on more benefits of powering yourself with plants.

This article was originally published on paulshapiroblog.com.

A FEW OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITE RESOURCES FOR PLANT-BASED ADVICE

Do a search for “plant-based” or “vegan” and prepare to be inundated. Demand for information about how to enjoy more meat-free meals has never been higher, but at the same time, there have never been more sources available out there. What’s an aspiring herbivore to do?

No doubt there are many awesome resources out there, but here are some of my personal faves:

NutritionFacts.org – the all-encompassing site put out by Dr. Michael Greger, author of the mega-bestseller How Not to Die. For years he’s been producing a video a day (literally every single day) reviewing the scientific literature on everything from the benefits of soy to the perils meat-heavy diets.

Plant Based on a Budget – Okay, so I have a personal bias here as the site’s run by my fiance Toni Okamoto. But seriously, there’s a reason it’s so popular: really good recipes and videos that show how easy it to save dough by eating veggies.

World of Vegan – Just how easy is it to be vegan? Long-time animal advocate Michelle Cehn helps you with more resources than you can imagine on her very useful site.

Kristie Middleton – The author of Meat-Less, Kristie’s a guru of helping institutions incorporate more plant-based meat into their offerings. But her site is great for helping individuals like you too, with easy recipes for everything from your homemade oat milk to nacho cheese made from potatoes and carrots. (I’ve had it–seriously: it rocks.)

HappyCow – Traveling and not sure where to eat? This site (and the app, which I highly recommend) has your back. Just enter a zip code or city into the site’s search engine and see all the places that will make eating vegan food fun and delicious. I use it pretty much in every new city I’m ever in.

If you’re already convinced of the “why” to choose plant-based, these sites are great for offering you the “how.” In addition, I’d recommend making friends who share the same passion. New behaviors are far more likely to stick if you surround yourself with others who practice them!

This article was originally published on paulshapiroblog.com.

Making Mastodon Gummies – Geltor is Recreating a Truly Paleo Diet

Originally published on TechCrunch by Paul Shapiro

Most paleo dieters try to stick to some type of regimen similar to what they think our distant, pre-agricultural ancestors might’ve eaten. Few, however, talk about eating literally what those ancestors ate. Yet for Geltor, a Silicon Valley-backed start-up based in San Leandro, synthethic biology became the ticket for creating just such a literal understanding of the paleo diet.

When humans first arrived in North America, we found a continent filled with gargantuan animals. Mastodons may have been the biggest, but sadly for these long-tusked relatives of Asian elephants, they didn’t evolve around Homo sapiens and consequently were little match for us. Very quickly, they and other so-called megafauna found themselves endangered and then totally extinct. Some of the vanquished beasts remain today, however, sealed shut in icy graves that have preserved their bodies for millennia.

And as with all ancient organisms, if there’s any protein still to be found on them, it’s probably going to be in the form of collagen, the abundant molecule found throughout much of our bodies. Indeed, humanity has now taken an initial step toward resurrecting the huge creatures on whom our forebearers feasted, at least at the molecular level, by sequencing the long-gone animal’s proteins. Anyone with an Internet connection can freely access the mastodon’s protein sequences in just a few seconds.

Enter Geltor, which is using fermentation to essentially reverse engineer collagen—and its byproduct gelatin—from microbes like bacteria. In a process similar to how baker’s yeast produces CO2 to make bread rise and brewer’s yeast produces alcohol, Geltor uses microorganisms to produce actual collagen strands. Cofounders Alex Lorestani and Nick Ouzounov program the genetic code into the microorganism, which then starts pumping out the desired proteins.

After mastering this ability with DNA sequences of animals still walking the earth, in late 2015, Lorestani and Ouzounov decided to take their experiments to (pre)historic heights. Geltor sent an order to a DNA printing company to get a vial of DNA encoding mastodon collagen. Once secured, the scientists put it through their process and started producing actual mastodon gelatin.

Lorestani and Ouzounov could’ve made gummy bears, but the two cofounders thought it’d be cooler to order an elephant mold from Etsy  instead. (They couldn’t find mastodon molds, but it’d be hard to tell the difference anyway, they figured. Gummy elephants would have to do.) Very quickly, after mixing their gelatin with some sugar and pectin, the world had its first mastodon gelatin candy. Watching Ouzounov put the small gummy elephant in his mouth, Lorestani thought, “Man, this is the first time anyone’s eaten mastodon protein in a really long time.”

In other words, perhaps the only truly paleo diet today.

The company’s since gone on to raise millions of dollars in investment, and is producing real collagen from more conventional animal DNA that it’s now selling into the cosmetic market. It even grew an actual sheet of leather, cow-free of course, and produced the world’s first lab-grown leather-bound book.

Geltor is part of a group of start-ups pioneering the field of clean animal products: real animal foods grown  without having to raise and kill animals. The term is a nod to “clean energy,” but in addition to lightening the “food-prints” of animal products by growing them with far fewer resources, clean meat (and gelatin) is just cleaner from a food safety perspective.

Rather than risking contamination from intestinal pathogens—like E. Coli and Salmonella—that can plague the meat industry today, divorcing meat production (and its byproducts like gelatin) from livestock-raising could be a food safety advocate’s dream come true. It also opens up all types of functionalities that just don’t exist when we’re locked into obtaining animal protein from animals themselves.

“As a food community, we’re settling for protein production platforms we have at our fingertips.” Lorestani observes, sitting in his office—shared with fellow start-up Memphis Meats that’s growing real meat from animal cells as opposed to animal slaughter—cloaked in his signature gray hoodie. “Mostly that means exploiting animals, or in some cases plants that are really abundant. We’re really good at producing huge numbers of animals, and it’s worked okay for a while. But today animal agriculture is a big strain on our civilization, and we can do better. That’s what we want to show.”

The idea of eating protein from extinct animals may not be appealing to everyone, paleo-loving or not, but the way we produce animal products today is simply unsustainable for the species currently inhabiting our planet, human beings included. It’s no secret that our high demand for meat and other animal products is a leading driver of wildlife extinctions today.

Because of the work food tech companies like Geltor are doing today, we may soon have a much safer, eco-friendlier, and humane way of bringing animal products to our tables. It’s also a way just might prevent more species from going the way of the mastodon.