Latest news with #Burros
Boston Globe
29-06-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
John Robbins, author of ‘Diet for a New America,' dies at 77
Advertisement The book's message, Mr. Robbins wrote, was 'that the healthiest, tastiest and most nourishing way to eat is also the most economical, the most compassionate and least polluting.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy in 1988 compared 'Diet for a New America' and its impact on the way we think about food to Rachel Carson's classic 'Silent Spring' (1962), which warned how the unlimited use of agricultural pesticides like DDT had contaminated the soil and water and threatened the health of wildlife and humans, and which helped spur the modern environmental movement. Through the years, food writers for The New York Times have described 'Diet for a New America' as 'groundbreaking.' But Mr. Robbins's methods of raising awareness of the healthful effects of a vegetarian diet drew some criticism from Marian Burros in a 1992 Eating Well column in the Times. Advertisement 'Much of what Mr. Robbins has to say about diet in this country,' Burros wrote, 'is unremarkable: We eat too much meat and dairy products. Much of what Mr. Robbins has to say about the inhumane treatment of animals on factory farms is correct. But Mr. Robbins undermines his case by exaggerating; facts mix with factoids and anecdotes.' Burros cited experts who challenged Mr. Robbins's contentions that raising cattle was responsible for the deforestation of the United States, and that meat and dairy products contained more pesticides than plant foods. Mr. Robbins, quoted in the column, acknowledged that his message was 'a little complicated for the bumper-sticker mind and the sound bite.' John Ernest Robbins was born on Oct. 26, 1947, in Glendale, Calif. His father, Irvine, was a founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream company with his brother-in-law Burton Baskin. His mother, Irma (Gevurtz) Robbins, ran the household. The family pool was shaped like an ice cream cone. At age 5, John contracted polio. He was in a wheelchair for about six months, his left leg was impaired, and he walked with a limp as a boy, Ocean Robbins said in an interview. But through yoga, exercise, and a healthier diet, Mr. Robbins as an adult built his body to the point where he could run the equivalent distance of a marathon and complete the swimming, biking, and running stages of an unofficial triathlon. Mr. Robbins worked in the family ice cream business in his younger years, helping to concoct a popular flavor, jamoca almond fudge, and to popularize Baskin-Robbins' distinctive pink spoons. But, as a devotee of Thoreau, Emerson, and Whitman, he later mutinied against materialism, telling the Times in 1992 that, in his family, 'roughing it meant room service was late.' Advertisement He also said that he wished his father had spent more time with him and less time on his company; sometimes, he said, he thought that 'my primary importance to him was that I would carry on the business.' Months after Baskin died of a heart attack in 1967, Baskin-Robbins was sold to the United Fruit Company. Irv Robbins remained with the company until he retired in 1978. According to Ocean Robbins, his grandfather had offered not to sell the company if his son would join him in business. But John Robbins declined. He was concerned, he said in a 2019 interview with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, that the consumption of large amounts of ice cream, loaded with saturated fats and sugar, had contributed to Baskin's cardiovascular problems, and also concerned about the treatment of cows at commercial dairies, where they produced ice cream's primary ingredient: milk. 'It broke my heart to see them treated so poorly,' he told PETA. 'I found the idea of profiting from such cruelty to be appalling.' Irv Robbins was angered by John's rebuff, Ocean Robbins said. 'He thought he had fallen prey to the hippie counterculture world where you just reject everything.' Upon graduating in 1969 from the University of California Berkeley, where he studied political philosophy, Mr. Robbins sought a simpler life. He and his wife, Deo, moved to Fulford Harbour, British Columbia, where they built a one-room log cabin that was later expanded to three rooms. Advertisement Ocean Robbins said that his parents did not own a car and lived on $500 to $1,000 a year, teaching yoga and meditation classes, growing what crops they could and taking one delivery per year of food they couldn't grow themselves. By the mid-1970s, John Robbins had reentered academia. He received a master's degree in humanistic psychology in 1976 from Antioch College (now University) in Ohio through its affiliation with Cold Mountain Institute in British Columbia and began a career as a psychotherapist. The family moved to the Santa Cruz area of California in 1984. Around that time, Mr. Robbins began reading books about the treatment of animals at factory farms, which led to further reading about the links between food, health, and the environment. From that sprung the idea for 'Diet for a New America.' In 2001, Robbins wrote a follow-up, 'The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World.' In 2012, he and his son founded the Food Revolution Network, an online education and advocacy organization dedicated to healthy, ethical, and sustainable food that claims more than a million members. In 2019, Ocean Robbins said, his father began experiencing symptoms of post-polio syndrome, losing strength and suffering chronic pain in his legs and later enduring sleep and cognition issues. In addition to his son, Mr. Robbins is survived by his wife, whom he married in 1969, and two sisters, Marsha Veit and Erin Robbins. In the late 1980s, his son said, John Robbins reconciled with his father: Irv Robbins, suffering from weight issues, heart disease, and diabetes, was given a copy of 'Diet for a New America' by his cardiologist. The doctor had no idea that the book had been written by his patient's son. Advertisement Irv Robbins read the book, gave up sugar, reduced his meat consumption, lost weight, improved his golf game and lived another 20 years, Ocean Robbins said. He died in 2008. It was confirmation, John Robbins liked to say, 'that blood was thicker than ice cream.' This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Hillsboro's Xavier Washington has MNPS close to TSSAA boys basketball state tournament breakthrough
MURFREESBORO — Hillsboro senior guard Xavier Washington waited until he was deep into a hallway in the belly of MTSU's Murphy Center to release his emotions. His scream said it all. Washington made all five of his 3-point attempts and scored a team-high 20 points on perfect shooting from the field, and the Burros will play for a TSSAA boys basketball state tournament championship for the first time since 1956 after defeating Bradley Central 63-48 in the Class 4A semifinals Saturday at MTSU's Murphy Center. More: How Bronzden Chaffin's emotional side led to Upperman's to first-ever TSSAA basketball state title game More: How Kasen Buie put Loretto on brink of a TSSAA boys basketball state championship The celebration included a big bear hug from Hillsboro coach Rodney Thweatt when the starters went to the bench in the final seconds. 'We just put so much hard work in in the offseason … It was painful sometimes,' Washington said. 'This was the moment when it paid off. I was just excited to get out of the game and see all my teammates smile, because we knew the hard work we put in finally paid off.' Hillsboro (33-5) held off a late Bradley Central (25-9) run and now has a chance to break a long Metro Nashville Public Schools drought. The district has not produced a Large Class boys basketball state champion since now-defunct Pearl's Class AAA title in 1981, and only two programs have won it altogether. Overton won the 1976 Class AAA title. Many MNPS programs have tried — including talented Cane Ridge teams led by Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller in 2021 and 2022 — and failed. 'It's a lot of weight for the kids to carry representing an entire county or an entire city. But we're going to represent Metro to the best of our ability,' Thweatt said. 'Definitely the goal is to win it, and if we do we'll accept all of that responsibility or praise for breaking through that streak, for sure.' The Burros have been an established Large Class power under Thweatt, going to six state tournaments since his hire in 2006 — seven including the 2020 tournament that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Burros haven't been to a state title game since Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president, and this is just their second appearance ever. They have never won the championship. Cortez Graham-Howard scored 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Tyren Fisher added 13 points and eight rebounds for Hillsboro, which got out to a 20-9 first-half lead only to see Bradley Central go up 27-26 with 7:30 in the third quarter. Washington's 3-pointer moments later put Hillsboro up 31-27, and he put the game to bed with another trey with 4:08 in the fourth quarter to give Hillsboro its biggest lead to that point, 53-39. Washington went through a cold stretch after the district tournament but kept coming in to the Hillsboro gym to shoot at 6 a.m. each morning. 'I get to work and he's already at a basket,' Thweatt said. 'That kind of commitment has to pay off at some point and it paid off in the second half. We didn't doubt one of those shots going in.' Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@ and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA boys basketball state tournament 2025: Hillsboro defeats Bradley Central
