VegE-News is a monthly news and events email service. It is free to subscribe. Their July issue 's stories included:

Health
• Personal values deceive taste buds. Many heavy meat-eaters believe they eat meat because of the taste. But according to groundbreaking new research the reason that a beef burger tastes better than a veggie burger to some people has more to do with values than actual taste.

• Dr. Ornish: The never-ending diet wars. A new study, funded in part by the Atkins Foundation, comparing the Atkins diet, a Mediterranean diet and a low-fat diet has resulted in headlines saying that a low-carb diet is best for weight loss and health. However, according to Ornish, the study is extremely flawed. The participants who followed the "Atkins diet" were counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to avoid trans fat. A vegetarian Atkins diet?

• Could missing molecule explain why meat causes disease in humans?

• German study: Vegetarians live longer. A study of 1,904 vegetarians over a period of 21 years produced shocking results: Vegetarian women benefited from a 30 percent reduction in mortality and vegetarian men reduced their risk of early death by 50 percent!

• Research: Popular tilapia fish contains potentially dangerous fatty acid combination.

Environment
• Diet for a more-crowded planet: Plants.
• Global warming: The meat of the matter.
• Oceans empty of fish - and the ecosystem is gasping.

Lifestyles and Trends
• Canada: These elite athletes are vegetarians. A group on Vancouver Island is showing that athletes don't need meat to compete. "Dinner last night was a big yam, about two cups of broccoli, two cups of kale and a little veggie chicken thing," says Dave Shishkoff, 32, a competitive cyclist and a vegan for almost 18 years.  Dave is also president of the Victoria chapter of Organic Athlete, an organization dedicated to providing information and support to vegetarian, vegan and whole-food athletes.
• Meatless in Moscow.
• Flexitarians: Fewer omnivores find meatless meals a dilemma.

Animal Issues and Advocacy.
• EU proposes crackdown on seal hunt. The announced plan covers hunts worldwide, but focuses on Canada due to claims by anti-hunt campaigners that it is the cruelest. Canadian seal hunters use spiked clubs and rifles to kill seals.
• Rabbi finds vegetarianism to be a religious ideal.