permits the eating of meat provided
the animal is a species permitted by the
Torah and is ritually slaughtered. At the
same time, the Torah stresses compas-
sion for animals, such as not causing
them pain and relieving an animal's
suffering.
Rabbi Jason Miller,
a Conservative rabbi
and founder/director
of Kosher Michigan,
has recently certified
several local vegetar-
ian restaurants as
kosher, including
Ar.
Inn Season Cafe in
Rabbi Jason
Royal Oak, Try It Raw
Miller
in Birmingham and
Southern Nosh in
Southfield.
"Meat is part of the Jewish culture,
particularly on Jewish holidays such
as Passover; Miller says. "However, I
believe strongly in the health benefit of
not eating meat, and Jewish teachings
value our health over all. My goal is to
keep kosher and be healthy"
Other reasons why people live as
vegetarians are for religious or spiritual
reasons. Jewish teachings, for example,
continually emphasize that we should

and, upon returning home, he and
his wife, Tracy, cleaned the kitchen
pantry. They have three adult sons.
Today he eats no meat, no dairy,
no oil and no nuts. Chatlin eats
fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Within three weeks, his chest pain
was gone. He lost 43 pounds in
10 months and enjoyed increased
vitality. He no longer needs an
immediate heart bypass.
"During these five or six months,
I felt like I was the only person
in Michigan with this problem,"
Chatlin says. "That's when I decided
to share my story with others in the
community because I wanted others
to know they also have an alterna-
tive to surgery"
Chatlin wanted to form a sup-
port group and queried hospitals
and medical resources for support
of his idea. He was referred to Dr.
Joel Kahn, a local preventive car-
diologist, several times. Chatlin
approached Kahn, who immediately
said he would help and volunteered
to be the speaker for the support
group's first meeting.
The group meets at Beaumont
Hospital in Royal Oak, which has
been very supportive.
At the first meeting, titled
Healing Your Heart through
Nutrition, I was expecting to gather

be careful about our bodies and health,
and scientific studies have linked
animal-based diets directly to heart
disease, stroke, obesity, high blood pres-
sure and some cancers.
Still other reasons to consider a plant-
based diet include a deep concern for the
environment, world poverty and hunger,
and a belief in nonviolence. Here, too,
Judaism teaches bal tashchit, that we
shouldn't waste or unnecessarily destroy
anything of value or use more than is
necessary to accomplish a purpose.
Yet meat production requires large
amounts of land, water, labor, grain
and energy. For instance, raising beef
requires about 78 calories of non-
renewable fossil fuel for each calorie of
protein from factory-farmed beef, but
only two calories of fossil fuel to pro-
duce a calorie of protein from soybeans.
In the words of the late Isaac Bashevis
Singer, Yiddish writer and winner of a
Nobel Prize for Literature: "This is my
protest against the conduct of the world.
To be a vegetarian is to disagree with the
course of things today. Starvation, world
hunger, cruelty, waste, wars — we must
make a statement against these things.
Vegetarianism is my statement. And I
think it's a strong one."

❑

at least 20 people and hoping for a
few more," Chatlin says. "Much to
my surprise, 123 people attended
and 23 signed up to be working vol-
unteers. On March 24, we held our
second meeting and I thought there
would be a significant drop off of
participants, but I was wrong. We
had more than 110 people attend-
ing and 44 of them were new faces"
People introduced themselves
to Chatlin after the meeting and
remarked that he should be happy
about the large turnout.
"Actually, I was sad that so many
people in our community were
reaching out for help because there
weren't resources already in place in
our medical community," he says.
"The support group is open to
everyone in the community. We
meet once a month and the vol-
unteers meet two or three times a
month"

It may be beautiful on the
outside but it's what's on the
inside that counts

■

REGEN I In TREET

T BLOOMF IELD65 )

IVING

regentstr

westbloomfield.com

Call us today at (248) 683-1010.

❑

On June 29, the group will see a cook-

ing demonstration with Amber Poupore

from noon-2:30 p.m. at her restaurant,

4460 Orchard Lake Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48323

The Clean Plate, a vegetarian restaurant

in Shelby Township. $30, including full

food sampling. On July 7, the group will

meet at Great Lakes Culinary Center in

Southfield. For details, visit www.

plantbasednutritionsupportgroup.org.

Ask about our dedicated Memory Care Unit

JN

June 26 • 2014

51

