Sexiest Aussie Vegetarian Celebrity

“Never feeling the sun on their backs or the grass beneath their feet, unable to spread a wing or stretch a leg … animals suffer on factory farms.”
Missy Higgins

MELBOURNE singer Missy Higgins has been crowned this year's sexiest Aussie vegetarian celebrity by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"I'm just a real lover of animals and I think when I was a kid that's why I became a vegetarian," Higgins once said.

"I went to boarding school and the meat that was served was disgusting mass-manufactured mystery meat and so it wasn't very hard to get motivated not to eat that."

A Life Time of Good Health

By Fauja Singh

People call me “the Turbaned Tornado” – I’m the oldest marathon runner in the world. Last month, just three weeks after my 101st birthday, I ran the London Marathon in seven hours and 49 minutes. I’ve completed eight other marathons in the past 12 years, including the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, which I ran when I was 100 years old. How do I do it? Simple: firstly, I eat only vegetarian foods – I am told that vegetarians tend to live an average of six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters do. But I also walk or jog every day. Age may bring wisdom, but if you want stamina, endurance and a lifetime of good health, turn to nutritious vegetarian foods.

This National Vegetarian Week, I hope to inspire others to eat healthful, plant-based meals. I can’t dictate what others eat, but I want to share the benefits of vegetarian eating with everyone who is willing to listen. I’ve been predominantly vegetarian my whole life. In the Sikh religion, we eat to live, not live to eat. In Punjab, the green belt of India where I’m originally from, most people eat what they grow – I attribute my longevity to simple Punjabi vegetarian foods, such as chapati, dal, sabji and saag.

But eating vegetarian food is also part of my training regime. We all need a balanced and wholesome diet. It doesn’t matter how nice to look at or sweet food is – if your body can’t digest it, why eat it? In many parts of the world, people are dying because of starvation, whilst others are dying because of overeating. My solution is just to eat what my body needs. I don’t believe in waste or excessiveness, and I believe that it takes up to 16 pounds of grain just to produce 1 pound of meat, so eating vegetarian foods helps conserve land, water and energy.

I’m a member of the Sikhs in the City running club, and the average age of the elders’ running team is 86. The London Marathon was my last long race, but I don’t plan on hanging up my running shoes just yet – the day I stop running will be the day my body stops altogether. I’m still going to compete in short races of 5 or 10 kilometres.

One day, I hope to climb the stairs to the top of one of the world’s tallest buildings, the Taipei Tower, which is 101 stories high. One never knows what life will bring, but I am hopeful that my passion for an active lifestyle – and my healthy vegetarian diet – can help propel me to the top. And when I reach my destination, I will be able to say that no animals had to suffer because of my food choices along the way.

Source : The Independent

Living a Life as Vegetarian is a Wordless Prayer to the Almighty.

Raden Ayu Kartini, (21 April 1879 – 17 September 1904), or sometimes known as Raden Ajeng Kartini, was a prominent Javanese and an Indonesian national heroine. Kartini is known as a pioneer in the area of women's rights for native Indonesians.

Raden Ayu Kartini was born into an aristocratic Javanese family in a time when Java was still part of the Dutch colony, the Dutch East Indies.

After Raden Adjeng Kartini died, Mr J. H. Abendanon, the Minister for Culture, Religion and Industry in the East Indies, collected and published the letters that Kartini had sent to her friends in Europe. The book was titled Door Duisternis tot Licht (Out of Dark Comes Light) and was published in 1911.

The publication of R.A. Kartini's letters, written by a native Javanese woman, attracted great interest in the Netherlands and Kartini's ideas began to change the way the Dutch viewed native women in Java. Her ideas also provided inspiration for prominent figures in the fight for Independence.

In her letters, Raden Adjeng Kartini wrote about her views of the social conditions prevailing at that time, particularly the condition of native Indonesian women. The majority of her letters protest the tendency of Javanese Culture to impose obstacles for the development of women. She wanted women to have the freedom to learn and study. R.A. Kartini wrote of her ideas and ambitions

Vegetarian Lifestyle

It is known from her letters dated October 1902 to Abendanon and her husband that at the age of 23, Raden Adjeng Kartini had a mind to live a vegetarian life. "It has been for sometime that we are thinking to do it (to be a vegetarian), I have even eaten only vegetables for years now, but I still don't have enough moral courage to carry on. I am still too young." R.A. Kartini once wrote.

She also emphasized the relationship between this kind of lifestyle with religious thoughts. She also quoted, "Living a life as vegetarian is a wordless prayer to the Almighty."

Carrie Underwood Goes Vegan

Country music star Carrie Underwood has revamped her diet plan and become a vegan.

The singer adopted a vegetarian lifestyle several years ago after discovering the long-term health benefits of cutting out meat, and the former “American Idol” star reveals she’s now avoiding animal products all together in a bid to boost her overall well-being.

She tells Self magazine, “I’ve been a vegetarian for seven years, but after seeing a friend who looked amazing and had recently gone vegan, I thought, ‘What’s holding me back?’ Now I’m 95-percent vegan.”

However, Underwood insists she’d consider adding dairy back into her eating regime if she could run her own farm.

She adds, “My veganism is based on a concern about where my food is coming from. In my perfect world, I’d have webcams wherever food is processed so I’d know how clean it is.

“I’ll never eat meat again, because I look and feel better without it, but if I could raise my own cows and chickens and produce my own eggs and cheese, it would be awesome! The food would taste better, because the animals would be happy!”

70-Year-Old Looks 30 Years Younger - Thanks to Raw Food Diet

When Annette Larkins goes out with her husband of 54 years, people assume she is his daughter.

The image of health, vitality and youth with a petite size four frame and a line-free face, Mrs Larkins is in fact 70 years old.

The resident of Miami-Dade County, Florida, attributes her youthful looks to her raw vegan diet and grows almost everything she eats in the garden she refers to as her 'fountain of youth'.

During a visit to her home, ABC News reporters explored the back yard, every of inch of which is covered in plants and trees that grow the fruits and vegetables Mrs Larkins eats.

She told reporters: 'My diet consists of fruits, nuts, vegetables and seeds. I do a lot of sprouting of seeds and as you can see from my garden and of course, these are the raw foods that I eat.'

The sprightly septuagenarian did not always eat this way. Husband of 54 years, Amos, owned a meat factory in the 1960's and it was around this time that his wife decided to go vegetarian.

27 years ago she went one step further by turning vegan and now everything she eats is raw. Nothing cooked or processed every passes her lips.

Mrs Larkins also juices her fruits and vegetables and collects rain water to drink and to water her garden.

For his part, Mr Larkins wishes he had followed his wife's example. Looking considerably older, he also takes prescription medicine for diabetes and high blood pressure while Mrs Larkins won't even take an aspirin.

When they walk down the street together, he admitted: 'They'll ask me what am I doing with this young girl.'

Recognizing how positively she could influence others, the formidable 70-year-old has already written two booklets titled: Journey to Health and produced a DVD about her nutritional regime.

'I am very vibrant, I have lots of energy, as I told you before, I am up no later than 5:30 in the morning as a rule, and I am ready to go' she told ABC.

Her husband agreed, gushing: 'She's an amazing person though. Oh man, I mean really. She does everything- build computers, make all her own clothes, grow her own food, speaks three languages. It's amazing.'