Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Vegetarian Diet
trying to establish a comprehensive and nutritious vegetarian diet for some time now; always researching to find new information on how to best supply my body with the essential nutrition it requires.
that being said, does anyone here follow a comprehensive vegetarian diet? would love to get ideas from established Buddhists on how you go about it.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
that being said, does anyone here follow a comprehensive vegetarian diet? would love to get ideas from established Buddhists on how you go about it.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
0
Comments
go to vegetarian restaurants and take notes.
(if there is a hippy neighborhood where you live, you'll probably find many great vegetarian restaurants there)
Equal quantities BY VOLUME of Linseed, Sunflower seeds and Almonds. I also add half a measure of volume of pumpkin seeds.
Put into a processor, grind to a powder, store in fridge for 1 week.
Sprinkle on any damn thing you want.
cereal, salads, even peanut butter, cream cheese and lettuce sandwiches.
Chickpea and soya bean salad, with chopped preserved lemons, organic olive oil and white wine vinegar, and a little fresh mayo. Goodness that's yummy, with brown bread....
I want to be a vegetarian for ethical reason but my primeval instinct for meat lets me down.
I would love to hear some ideas what exciting food, I can serve at the party?
/hoping to prove that vegetarian food can be tasty and well presented/
Hopefully, my friends will at least share my sentiment.
I don't struggle with any areas in terms of getting recommended daily intake as a vegan. B12 levels are easily obtained through fortified multivitamins (Many soy milks, health optimizers, multivitamins, tofus, etc are fortified). However, I highly recommend you use a multivitamin like Deva http://www.devanutrition.com/multivitamin.html, but aside from that, just eat healthy. As Zayl said, beans, tofu, and nuts are great. You don't have to put emphasis on it, but if you're buying these regularly, you'll be fine.
If you're really interested in monitoring what you eat, I recommend a site like FitDay so you can be sure you're getting good levels of micro's and macro's.
http://www.fitday.com/
I also recommend getting some blood tests to see if you have any deficiencies. I have an iron deficiency, so I just make sure I eat more foods with iron (greens like kale and cabbage, etc). Protein in a veg*n lifestyle is actually not much of a concern. An average westerner consumes appx. 16% protein in their diet, where a healthy dose is known as around 8-10%, which from a veg*n lifestyle is often met without consciously putting effort into it.
On a similar note, it's good to switch up your sources of protein. Many products for veg*ns are soy based, which isn't healthy to have too much of (everything in moderation!). I eat tofu (soy-based), Flax, granola, peanut + hemp cereals, almond or brown rice milk, and cook with beans and quinoa here and there.
And brown rice = yummeh. There's sooooo much you can do with rice!
Federica's suggestion also made my mouth water
at a point now where i feel i've gotten a good rotation of beans, fruits, nuts, veggies, rice and tea, but, always trying to keep my ear to the ground and learn from others.
many thanks for the wealth of information, again.
so, a monk that plants and prepares rice can live without donations?
Vegetarians do need to rotate their foods more than meat eaters do... on the bright side, you'll probably live longer since eating meat has a way of masking health problems and shortening life expectancy (according to my holistic nutritionist). That said, don't be disappointed if you find you cannot sustain a vegetarian diet, as not everyone can biologically do it... almost everyone can at least reduce the amount they eat to no more than once or twice a week though.
Eat as much variety of fresh veggies, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds and beans as you can find. Whole grains are better than processed grains; eating the actual, cooked grains themselves (as opposed to breads and pastas, even whole grain varieties) is ideal, though some of that is certainly fine; mix it up. Grains like quinoa are awesome because they contain loads of iron and protein, and getting alternative grains helps you eat less of overeaten foods like wheat, which can lead to problems.
Unless you are of Asian descent, I don't recommend a lot of soy (it's a common allergen, and can lead to problems in very large quantities). Once or twice a week at most imo. Tempeh is the best form of soy as it's fermented and less adulterated than tofu, and tempeh contains B-12 too (tofu is fine imo once in a while)... I avoid isolated soy protein and tvp, not healthy at all as they're very adulterated and processed. Also, try to get non-gmo soy, or organic even better... long story, check out millionsagainstmonsanto.org for more about that.
For B-12, fermented foods like miso paste are healthy to eat every day. I like to rotate my miso, and get chick pea and aduki bean-based varieties of miso (so as not to get too much soy in my diet).
Remember that the body requires some saturated fat. I made this mistake early on. I compensate by using coconut milk, and a little dark chocolate here and there. Peanuts are good too, though not so much if you have mold and yeast issues like me though (and I love peanuts too!). Just make sure you get some saturated fat in daily, so you don't end up like I did when I started out and pass out from losing 30 pounds... 20 of which I didn't need to lose, lol.
Iron is not a big deal imo (unless you're anemic). Just as long as you get in a lot of dark leafy greens and whole grains like quinoa and amaranth in your diet, and some beans, nuts, and seeds have it too.
It's a common misunderstanding that cow's milk is the best source of calcium. Almonds and kale each have more calcium than cow's milk per ounce, and unhulled sesame seeds have a whopping amount of calcium. Broccoli too is very high in calcium. Cow's milk has been linked to osteoperosis in fact in some studies... it seems the calcium is not only not absorbed in cow's milk, but the milk itself may block the body's ability to absorb calcium.
I do not rely on supplements. Imo, they're ideally for treating health problems, and should not be relied on for your primary nutrition. Nutrition should come from whole foods. The only major thing I can think of offhand to watch for is iodine. For that, I consume sea veggies like wakame and arame. They're also great foods for the thyroid (most foods that support the thyroid are fish and meat-based). Coconuts and grape leaves also are good for the thyroid. I mention this because I have had a thyroid problem since before becoming a vegan, so be careful if that's an issue for you. Also, soak your beans in water with a little bit of sea veggies for 30-60 minutes before use if gas is an issue... kelp in particular is recommended for this. Sea veggies release enzymes into the water that help break down the indigestible skins of beans which lead to gas.
If you feel you must use supplements, use whole food supplements. They cost a lot more, but at least they will actually be absorbed (regular supplements are mostly excreted right back out again).
I could go on and on about this topic...
Also wanted to mention, in response to wanting new recipes, I actually use miso paste in my sauces. It's not just for soup. I don't heat the miso (that kills the B-12 and probiotics... yes, miso contains probiotics too), but rather add and mix it in after the food is cooked. Adds great flavor to all sorts of Asian dishes (Indian, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) in particular, and can be used even in Italian and other European dishes I find (chick pea miso in a pasta fagioli dish, for example). 1/2 to 1 tablespoon is roughly enough per serving.
That sounds interesting.
Tell me more!
You can input your daily intake and it will tell you if you are getting enough of everything or what you are lacking. I rarely eat meat (lazy don't wanna cook it), and I rarely eat protein substitute (if my gf doesn't feed me, I eat only dry cereal). In nutrition class I did this intake project, and found that I was getting more than the recommended allowance of protein. The source? 2 pieces of bread, a cheese stick, and the veggies I ate that day (go figure). Vegetarians just need to get B12, but most of them get enough protein, especially if they drink milk or eat cheese.
But every time I take plenty of fruits I get diarrhea.
Did any of you have this problem?
or you could be intolerant or sensitive to fructose.
Have you had a medical and seen a qualified dietician?
maybe throwing yourself from one diet into the full throes of another, isn't as healthy as you might hope.
No never seen a dietician.
If you're following a vegan diet, I wouldn't call that 'normal'.
It would only be normal for you, if you'd never known anything else.
My personal opinion is that veganism is extremely commendable, but can be restrictive if you don't have guidance, and some formative experience on food combining and knowing what's good For You specifically. Changing your lifestyle takes groundwork.
Thanks @Kartari!