The Rise of the Power Vegan + POM Wonderful + GoGo Juice + Tillamook Cheese Winner

Men's Journal (October 2010) had an article that both elated and depressed me. Kevin Gray's "The Rise of the Power Vegan" was a welcome notice by the mainstream media of the benefits of shunning animal products. Spotlighted public figures included Tony Gonzalez, tight end for the Atlanta Falcons, Scott Jurek, ultramarathoner, and Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.They also include a 3-week trial, with challenges and solutions for those that want to try it. That's the elation.

After lauding the diet, espousing its benefits, and praising it to the sky, they conclude with a final paragraph that starts thus: " Gonzalez also eats fish five times a week, and chicken and turkey every few nights." That's the depression. Not sure how fish, chicken, and turkey fit into a life style that shuns the use of all animal products.

I appreciate the attention Men's Journal is bringing to the vegan diet, just disappointed that they included Tony Gonzalez, who apparently only did the 3-week plan.

--------------------------------------------------

A shot of me enjoying some POM - yes, my diet is working

It seems like years ago, but it's been only months, since Ryan from POM Wonderful sent me samples of this pomegranate juice to try out (sorry for the delay, Ryan). From the website: "POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice and POMx are full of antioxidants called phytochemicals. Phytochemicals protect plants from harmful elements in the environment, like ultraviolet radiation and pests. They also provide plants with their sensory characteristics such as color, flavor and smell. Polyphenols are an important class of phytochemical. And tannins, particularly punicalagin, anthocyanins and ellagic acid are all members of the polyphenol family. While many fruits contain some of these antioxidants, pomegranates have large amounts of all three. POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice contains a great deal of these vital elements because of the way we press our fruit. Immediately upon harvest, we take our fruit to our specially designed presses, which are similar to those used to press champagne grapes. These presses allow us to extract antioxidants and polyphenols from the inedible portion of the fruit, as well as the arils." I have a soft spot in my heart for pomegranates, from my middle school years growing up in SoCal. Our middle school playing field was surrounded by houses, several of which had pomegranate tree branches hanging over their rear fences. After school, when they were in season, I would grab ripe pomegranates and eat them on the way home, arriving there stained in red juice. POM Wonderful takes me back, and if you had a deprived childhood devoid of pomegranates, this is the product to rectify the situation.

 As you can see from the graph, pomegranate juice is very high in total polyphenol content. That's why, in the evenings, as a recovery drink, I've been mixing my POM with some red wine - maximum benefit, maximum pleasure.

--------------------------------------------------

In exchange for signing up for the company newsletter, GoGo Juice sent me a sample of their pear juice. "GoGo Juice is a pure, NOT from concentrate, certified organic juice drink that is just like what you would make at home with a juicer. We take ripened fruit, peel the skins, remove seeds and cores, and juice them. That's it! We do not add any sugar, colorings, preservatives (except Vitamin C), press aids, filter aids, chemicals or other stuff. GoGo's products are, and always will be, suitable for families on special diets such as Gluten Free/Casein Free, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Feingold and many others."  Our entire family really enjoyed this juice and the bottle did not last long, even though the juice is bottled full strength and they suggest you cut it at least 50% with water (or maybe wine?)!

--------------------------------------------------

The winner of the Tillamook Cheese giveaway is Karen, who left comment #7. Denver is safe for now, as Beth was comment #8 and thus not the winner. I wish she had been the winner, because she is feeling down due to a fracture of her femur neck, which apparently is not in her neck but rather in her hip. We are all happy that falling off the stripper pole onto her head was not the cause of the injury. Karen, email me with a name and address where you'd like your prize package sent.

(Disclaimer: I was sent these products for free to review on my blog - courtesy of POM Wonderful and Tillamook. The Gogo Juice was a free sample in return for signing up for the company newsletter. I did not pay for the items, receive payment for this review, or agree to give the items a positive review. Aside from information gleaned from the company websites, the opinions are my own.)

Have a product you'd like reviewed? Contact me at lakotega@yahoo.com.