This article intends to knell the time-less debate on whether humans are natural vegetarians or not. I personally had been a non-vegetarian for over 20 years and I can say it was more of a conditioned habit than a conscious choice of healthy eating. Eating meat is also something fabled to make you grow healthy and strong, something a vegetarian diet wasn’t supposed to offer. I must also admit that eating much meat never really felt healthy, more like a guilty trip gone bad. Then there was the weight-training community, which I used to be a patron of, who believe that meat is necessary to make up for all the essential amino acids needed by the human body.

The vegetarian movement shook things up, when people opted to go green in the light of animal cruelty and other ethical issues. It was funny how some people went green with their eating habits, just for the sake of being in tune with the trend.

I had my own growing concerns regarding the consumption of meat. Are animals really abused and ill-fed in those facilities? What about the people’s health condition who consume such meat? Do we really need the meat industry for humans to thrive? I often used to question myself whether we were designed to eat meat or not. While I am in no position to settle all the moral debate around this issue, it wouldn’t hurt to figure out the answer behind the big question: Are we natural herbivores or not?

I searched the Internet for some really interesting articles by experts, which led me to some interesting conclusions. This might get the non-vegetarian faction ticked off and hence I keep all personal opinions aside and only incline myself to the facts.

There were plenty of common characteristics observed between a human and a herbivore. I have mentioned some of the most relevant ones:
1) Intestinal length
The intestinal tract length of carnivores is 3-6 times their body length as opposed to herbivores who have 10-12+ times the body length. The likely reason being that digested meat cannot stay for a long period inside and has to be expelled. Humans have the same intestinal tract ratio as herbivores.
2) Stomach Acidity
The stomach acid of a carnivore is 20 times more acidic than that of a herbivore. Human stomach acidity is similar to that of a herbivore.
3) Saliva
The saliva of carnivores is acidic whereas herbivores have an alkaline saliva and so do humans. The saliva of carnivores does not contain carbohydrate-digesting enzyme, amylase- which both herbivores and humans do.
4) Sleep Cycle
The sleep pattern observed in humans resembles to that of a herbivore. Carnivores sleep the most.
5) Dietary Fiber
Herbivores need fiber in their diet to move food along the long and convoluted digestive tracts and so do Humans. Carnivores don’t require fibre in their diet.
6) Cholesterol
A carnivore digestive system can handle the cholesterol situation well, which humans cannot. Cholesterol is only found in animal foods and never in plant-based food.
7) Thermo-stasis
Carnivores deploy hyper-ventilation to regulate body temperature while both, herbivores and humans observe perspiration.

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There are a few people who know that cabbage is an appropriate vegetable for preparing soups. However, it is a fact that cabbage soup recipes are considered to be one of the most delicious and preferred dishes ever. Yes, it is an extremely surprising fact but it’s true and nobody can deny it.

Perhaps, what most of the people are saying right now is something like “Oh my God, cabbage soup…could that be really consumed?” Well, the answer is: “Yes, it definitely could be used” and not only that it’s actually a great way for diversifying the first dish of the dinner or lunch. Why is it good to be used as a first meal? Unsurprisingly, because cabbage soups are sour and they really turn the appetite on which contributes a lot to the better and faster digesting. Can anybody believe cabbages soups are that useful?

However, cabbage soup recipes are by far not the only ones underestimated by the majority of people. What else is underestimated? Undoubtedly, those are the taco soup recipes! Who would believe that something so good and delicious like a taco soup would be considered “disgusting” and automatically placed in the group of meals which one feels ashamed to consume! You didn’t know that there is such a group of meals, did you? Well, there is and there is no doubt that most of the people do not know it and cannot even realize it. Just think all about soups such cabbage soup, hodge-podge, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and peppers and many others- all of them are incredibly delicious but not popular at all! Why is that? Obviously, they have been put in the group of “shame meals”.

But let’s continue with the cabbage soup recipes- they really deserve acknowledgement and there is one thing for sure- the only ones who do not like them are the ones who have not given it a try! There is really no person who can remain indifferent to a portion of cabbage soup- it always makes a person’s body feel in a different way. For example, if a person comes back home after an exhaustive day and does not have a good appetite, then starting the dinner with a cabbage soup is the best thing to do. As it has already been mentioned, the specific sour taste of the soup makes a person’s appetite increase! It’s also a great way to forget about the tiring day. And all of that is owed to a portion of delicious cabbage soup. It sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

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IT'S renowned for its slippery, glutinous texture and its touted ability to ward off ageing and boost the libido. While shark fin soup will be a staple at Chinese New Year banquets in Australia this week, it is under attack from conservation groups.

And there are growing international efforts to ban the delicacy from the table for good. Hong Kong-based Peninsula and Shangri-La hotel groups have taken shark fin soup off their menus and Singapore's largest supermarket chain, NTUC FairPrice, will cease sales of shark fin products in March. The Taiwanese government, European Union and state of California have all announced bans on shark finning.

Shark finning is banned in Australia but there is nothing to stop fisherman slicing fins off carcasses once boats land onshore - so Chinese restaurants still serve the dish. In Sydney, the managing director of Fat Buddha restaurant, Kim Yee Joy, said tradition dictates that many customers have shark fin soup for Chinese New Year. ''It's one of our main traditions and has been eaten for many years,'' she said.

She recognised the ecological impact of shark finning, but said her restaurant ''must have shark fin soup, otherwise no one will come to the restaurant for functions, weddings or Chinese New Year. There is nothing we can do about shark finning''. But Mike Rutzen, the founder of The Australian Anti Shark Finning Alliance, believes it is ''not an excuse to say it's tradition''.

''Foot binding was also a tradition and it is no longer in practice because it is cruel and barbaric'', he said. ''Just like foot binding, shark fin soup should be relegated to the history books.''In an effort to ''encourage'' restaurants around the country to stop featuring shark fin soup on their menus, Mr Rutzen last year established an online registry dubbed the 'Wall of Shame', listing 184 restaurants serving the soup.

Mr Rutzen said the registry had been welcomed by some restaurants, which had explained they were ''looking for an incentive to take shark fin soup off their menus and now they had an excuse''. Among the high-profile names on the list are Fat Buddha in George Street and Golden Century Seafood in Sussex Street.The alliance, along with federal Greens MP and environment spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann, has called for legislation making it a criminal offence to possess, sell and trade shark fins.

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The campaign to reduce the demand for shark fins achieved its greatest victory to date on Wednesday when the Shangri-la hotel group announced that it would no longer serve the dish, which is decimating populations of the ocean predator.

The resort company, which operates 72 hotels, took the step just days before the Chinese spring festival, the main season for shark fin soup consumption at banquets in Hong Kong and the mainland.

It is estimated that between 26 million and 73 million sharks are killed each year to supply this billion-dollar industry. Almost a third are consumed during Chinese new year.

But conservationists' efforts to reduce demand have gained pace and prominence in the past year, particularly since WildAid international ambassador and basketball star Yao Ming spoke out against shark fin soup.

In November, the Peninsula hotel became the first traditional hotel in Hong Kong – the centre of the trade – to remove the dish from its restaurants. It was followed by 112 companies who signed up to a "Say No" initiative to remove shark fin from corporate banquets.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has now gone a step further by unveiling a "sustainable seafood policy" that also includes a commitment to phase out the use of other endangered marine species, including Bluefin tuna and Chilean sea bass.

The company had previously taken shark fin off its restaurant menus, but offered the dish on demand. The move was welcomed by conservationists as a sign that some major corporations are starting to take sustainability more seriously.

"This is very significant. Two leading hotel groups have now sent a very strong message to the food and beverage industry and the wedding industry. I don't see why others don't follow suit," said Bertha Lo of the Hong Kong Shark Foundation.

However, there is still a long way to go. The foundation's recent survey of 64 leading Hong Kong hotels found that 98% served at least one endangered marine species. Almost all included shark fin, which is particularly popular at wedding banquets. Very few had policies for sustainable seafood sourcing.

Conservationists said corporate social responsibility programmes had improved in recent years to include energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions, but still usually neglected impacts on wildlife.

"We are seeing announcements one by one, but it is not enough just to stop serving shark fin," said Stanley Shea of Bloom Association, a Hong Kong-based NGO. "Hotels also need to put in place public policies on sustainable seafood sourcing."

The government in Hong Kong has yet to act, although surveys by the Bloom foundation suggest that 88% of consumers want the authorities to prevent sales of products that involve killing threatened species.

It is believed the mainland could move faster than the territory – as it has done with air pollution. But most hotels in Chinese cities will continue to serve shark fin as a traditional part of the festivities to usher in the year of the dragon on 23 January.

Among them is the Grand Hyatt in Beijing, which was offering a new year special spring festival banquet of 888 yuan (£91.50) per person, including shark fin soup. Outside of the holiday season, it offers the soup alone from 468 yuan (£48) to over a thousand yuan. "It depends on the type of shark. We have all types," a restaurant employee said.

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January is National Soup Month, which makes sense, considering the first month of the year is typically marked with below-freezing temperatures, snow and slush. What's better than a delicious, hot bowl of soup on a chilly day? A delicious, hot bowl of soup that you don't have to make -- that's what. This January Gut Check will revisit some of our favorite hot soups to help guide your belly through this month-long soup celebration.

Any restaurateur who chooses Middle America to bring to life a French/cajun-themed menu has an uphill battle ahead. We've all seen (or, more accurately, smelled) the rivers that straddle this city, days away from either ocean, rendering even the most highly reputable STL joint's "fish guy" highly suspect. Enter a craving gone rogue and find yourself at Lola (500 North 14th Street; 314-621-7277) for the seafood stew: chunky fish, shrimp, mussels and fennel in a tomato broth.

It initially looks less than promising. A handful of mussels and some other mysterious hunks of sea creatures float around in what at first appears to be a thin anemic broth, with an afterthought of dry bread perched on the side. Groan.

It turns out the mussels are tiny but plentiful; the shrimp have the opposite problem. They're fat and tasty, but came just two to a bowl. The chunks of fish fill the role that noodles so often do: nice, might be missed if absent, but ubiquitous. The fish acts as filler rather than lending any complexity. But the real surprise is the broth. The soup itself packs more flavor than the bisque-like bases that other seafood stews have in comparison. And, most notably, it's seafood in the Midwest that doesn't taste like seafood in the Midwest. Score.

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IP Double any of these soup recipes and then freeze the cooled leftovers in individual-sized plastic containers for easy defrosting.

 HEARTY MINESTRONE

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 ribs celery, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into...

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Did you know that January is National Soup Month? With the winter's cold temperatures finally settling in, what better time of year than now to enjoy a soup of your choice to keep you warm, cozy and nourished all winter long. A classic favorite is chicken soup -- and there are more ways to make it other than chicken noodle. Soupbox with 2 Chicago locations was in the ABC kitchen to share a few of their recipes.

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Perry Brelet packs a van with several ice chests every Wednesday about 9:30 a.m. to deliver freshly made soups to clients throughout Uptown New Orleans and Metairie. Most of the came in by phone the day before. "Most of the people aren't even home," Brelet said. He punches customers' Soup-R-Cards and collects empty mason jars, leaving in their place full containers, usually in coolers set outside.

The Vintage Garden Kitchen, where the soups are made, is an Arc Enterprises company, providing job training to people with intellectual disabilities to help them achieve financial independence. Workers chop fresh vegetables, jar the prepared soups and deliver them to customers' doorsteps. The kitchen crew works alongside a trained chef who teaches them practical, marketable skills. Jennifer Calzada, an Uptown resident, learned about The Vintage Garden Kitchen on TV and signed up to receive regular, weekly deliveries through a "soupscription."

Calzada generally orders the specials of the week for her roommate's mother, 80, a diabetic. Because the website lists ingredients and nutritional information, including total calories and sodium content, the soups are ideal for those trying to adhere to special diets.

Soups are made from scratch with locally grown produce, a large percentage of which come from Arc Enterprises' own organic, pesticide-free garden. "We wanted to produce something healthy," said Nicole Blair, director of Arc Enterprises who was instrumental in getting the business off the ground about five years ago. Tomato basil was the first soup, followed by black bean.

Chef Leo Tandecki's repertoire now includes more than 20 soups. His recipes are really "creative and healthy" made without cream, dairy or fillers like wheat flour, Blair said. "Out of all the Arc businesses, the kitchen is by far the best in allowing our employees to grow into independent jobs," Blair said. Arc Enterprise's businesses include Mardi Gras bead recycling, landscaping design and maintenance, janitorial services, snack and beverage vending services and sustainable, urban farms. Those businesses produce about a dozen different types of jobs, Blair said. "Everyone has unique talents, and it is fun to develop that," she said.

Kitchen crew members are learning skills not everybody has and ones they can teach, as well, Tandecki said. Being a team member generates empowerment, respect and responsibility, he said. "Intellectual disabilities are not physical disabilities; their knife skills are on par," said Tandecki who trained at the prestigious California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. But this kitchen crew's "patience, dedication and positive attitude are above par," he said. The role of teacher, passing on his skills, drew him in emotionally, Tandecki said. "I enjoy every day I go to work."

Carrel Gueringer, a children's book author and librarian at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, can't say enough about The Vintage Garden Kitchen. "The people that work there are so friendly, so kind, so wonderful," she said about its customer service staff.

Teachers at Sacred Heart started ordering soup delivered to the girls' school so they could eat it for lunch. Gueringer also registered for home delivery to suit her husband, who is on a restricted diet because of his high blood pressure.

"It's homemade, delicious -- it doesn't taste like soup that comes out of a can," she said. Gueringer loves the wild mushroom and asparagus as well as the fiery shiitake mushroom and barley, but they are all good, she said. "It's like having to choose between your children!" Gueringer exclaimed.

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In effort to clear his name, director and founder of Hazon Yeshaya Rabbi Abraham Israel publishes conclusions of internal audit. In an attempt to clear his name and save his soup kitchen charity, Rabbi Abraham Israel, director and founder of Hazon Yeshaya Humanitarian Network, released the results of an internal audit Wednesday.

While the audit lacks certain fine details, such as the names and addresses of the schools and other programs his humanitarian network services in Israel, the work was carried out by a registered CPA and claims to account for all the monies raised here and abroad by the charity.

In a statement released together with the audit, which examined Hazon Yeshaya’s operations in 2010, Israel said he believed the report would discount any claims or suspicions raised in recent months about the charity. Last October, former supporters in the UK and in Canada alleged they had been misled about the exact size and scope of Hazon Yeshaya’s operations, and subsequently closed down the charity’s branches in several international locations.

“The damage caused by these scurrilous rumors has been immense,” said Israel. “We have suffered a huge fall in donations and our good name has been blackened for no reason. Those who called themselves our friends have hurt us deeply and reduced our ability to help those who are in desperate need of our assistance.”

In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post, Israel admitted that a sharp drop in donations had led him to revise previously published figures. He estimated that in 2011 Hazon Yeshaya had raised $8,500,000 from international donors, compared to $11,285,932 the previous year.

“We used to produce 14,000, but now donations are down so it is less,” admitted Israel, adding, “In the past we served 14,000, then we went down to 9,000 and today we serve about 5,000 hot meals a day.”

The audit released this week shows that Hazon Yeshaya funded a wide range of vocational training courses; special classes to become religious court employees; free dental treatments; medical kits for soldiers; and food, transport and other services for kindergartens and schools for children in need.

In addition, it shows that loans were given to impoverished families and food baskets, and other ready-prepared meals were distributed to the poor. The audit, however, does not show exactly which schools or institutions received meals from Hazon Yeshaya, where they are based, or how much money the charity raised abroad.

Also, the auditors did not appear to visit any of operations outside Jerusalem. Israel explained that “there is a lot of competition out there with other charities and a lot of jealousy” which is why he does not share such information publicly. It is this level of secrecy, however, that caused suspicions to mount among Hazon Yeshaya’s former supporters around the world.

On Wednesday, those who used to represent the charity in Canada discounted the information in the audit, saying they still had many unanswered questions about what does not appear in the document.

Even though former supporters in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa and France have declared they are freezing all fund-raising activities until further information determines the charity’s true work, no one was willing to comment directly on the audit.

In response to a previous request for information from the Post, a representative of the charity’s former supporters said: “We have found very serious irregularities with Hazon Yeshaya, which have been further confirmed by other groups.”

“We have asked questions since early September that have never been answered,” the representative added, highlighting that the Canadian Friends of Hazon Yeshaya “stopped funding him since August, followed by Hong Kong [October], Australia and South Africa [November] and UK and France [December].

Also large funders have also stopped their donations.”The representative also pointed out that the US branch of the charity is still operational. “Unfortunately the US charity has no independent trustees,” said the representative. “It is controlled by Abraham Israel and his family.”

Suspicions about Hazon Yeshaya were first raised this past summer when the charity’s Canadian Friends requested Israel provide them with some more details about food distribution and other services. When Israel’s response was insufficient, they sent a charity investigator to Israel and based on his findings decided to suspend all work with charity and raise the alarm among other groups worldwide.

A few months later, with the support of the other international funders, the group hired a team of private investigators, including ex-Mossad agents. This team filed a 100-page report with vast accusations, including the fact that Hazon Yeshaya was selling food to some of the organizations looking for charity.

While they claim to now have concrete evidence that Abraham Israel grossly mislead them, the former supporters in Canada and the UK said they could not divulge any exact information from the report at this time. In his interview with the Post, Israel maintained that the allegations against him are too vague and that they stemmed from an attempt by his former supporters to “steal” his properties and ruin his reputation. “All we are trying to do is feed the poor and it is devastating not to be able to do this,” he said.

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We often think of soups as merely a side dish or a last-ditch effort to use up leftovers, but don't overlook main-course soups that are inspired by main courses. We've all heard of tortilla soup, meatball soup, baked potato soup or sweet potato soup topped with bacon and sour cream, but soup made with leftover barbecue ribs? Sally Swift is on it.

"Take the meat off the bone, just like a ham," says the longtime producer of "The Splendid Table," the weekly radio food show that airs locally on KUT. Add chicken stock, a can of tomatoes and leftover pinto beans in a pot and bring to a simmer. "And there's no reason you couldn't top it off with a vinegary coleslaw as a garnish."

No matter if you're talking lasagna or spring rolls, there's probably a way to turn your favorite dish into a soup. You can add chicken, beef and/or vegetable broths to just about any set of ingredients; the trick is to get the right proportion of liquid, fat, vegetables, proteins and starches like rice or noodles.

In some ways, all soups are reflections of liquid-less dishes: Chicken and rice, lentils, seven bean. But others, like cheeseburger soup, push the limits. Do you really need to throw a perfectly good cheeseburger into a soup pot? No, but sometimes you're in the mood for a change, and ground beef and a block of cheese might be the only things in your fridge.

Then there's a whole slew of soups in between. On page D8, we have recipes for soups inspired by lasagna, yam curry and plate of kielbasa, kale and potatoes, but you could take the idea and apply it to just about any casserole or main course in your recipe box. The key is breaking down a meal into its parts and then reassembling them with more liquid. Some of the less soup-friendly ingredients, like cheeses, breads and salad greens, can be added as garnishes right before serving. (See below right for a recipe for croutons that you can make with a regular old loaf of sliced wheat bread.) Starches overcook in an instant, so I prefer to cook the pasta or rice separately and then add to each individual serving, just before the garnishes or toppings.

The flavors and textures of a corn casserole can translate into a chunky corn chowder-like soup that you could top with diced ham. Throw roasted vegetables with vegetable stock into a food processor or blender — or use that new immersion blender you got for Christmas — and serve in a bread bowl with a spoonful of sour cream. Leave it to Second Bar and Kitchen chef David Bull to make a pepperoni soup that tastes like pizza in a bowl, which he serves at the restaurant.

Slow-cooker pot roast is only a few cups of broth away from a warming bowl of fragrant soup. "Big braised meats are the perfect thing to turn into a soup because you have all the liquid from the drippings," Swift says. Let the liquid cool and then remove most of the top layer of fat and build your soup from there.

Ruth Ellsworth Carter, a local restaurant consultant and cooking class instructor who spent more than 20 years as the soups-and-sides chef at Eastside Cafe on Manor Road, says she's always thinking of ways to turn other dishes into soups. One of her favorites is a pumpkin ravioli with shiitake soup that she made after eating a similar dish by the famed waterways of Venice on a trip to Italy.

To cut down on the amount of heavy cream, milk or half and half you are using in creamy soups, Carter recommends thickening with mashed or pureed potatoes instead. Other thickeners to keep in mind as you think about building your soups: roux (three parts flour cooked in two parts fat); cornstarch or corn masa blended with a little water; or even pureed corn tortillas or toasted nuts. Flour tortillas or other flour-based dumplings also will thicken your soup.

Overcooked vegetables can sink a soup, and Carter recommends adding vegetables according to how long they take to cook. For instance, carrots would go in before zucchini. She'll sometimes even take out some of the vegetables that she put in at the beginning, so they've added flavor to the broth but won't take away from the final overall texture.

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