The basic message is this – in order to obtain addequate nutrition, you need to be sure to eat a varied diet full of fresh ingredients and whole grains.  

Many foods in a tradional meat/milk/egg diet can be substituted easily.  If you are vegan, you can replace cow’s milk with a fortified soy, rice, or almond milk.  You can replace cheese with soy cheese, rice cheese, or nutritional yeast flakes.  Replace your eggs with tofu or when baking, use 1Tablespoon flax seed meal with 3 Tablespoons water.  (I use this in a vegan brownie recipe that is really good).

Here are some nutritional specifics:

Protein. Your body needs protein to maintain healthy skin, bones, muscles and organs. Vegetarians who eat eggs or dairy products have convenient sources of protein. Other sources of protein include soy products, meat substitutes, legumes, lentils, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

Calcium. This mineral helps build and maintain strong teeth and bones. Low-fat dairy foods and dark green vegetables, such as spinach, turnip and collard greens, kale, and broccoli, are good sources of calcium. Tofu enriched with calcium and fortified soy milk and fruit juices are other options.

Vitamin B-12. Your body needs vitamin B-12 to produce red blood cells and prevent anemia. This vitamin is found almost exclusively in animal products, including milk, eggs and cheese. Vegans can get vitamin B-12 from some enriched cereals, fortified soy products or by taking a supplement that contains this vitamin.

Iron. Like vitamin B-12, iron is a crucial component of red blood cells. Dried beans and peas, lentils, enriched cereals, whole-grain products, dark leafy green vegetables, and dried fruit are good sources of iron. To help your body absorb nonanimal sources of iron, eat foods rich in vitamin C — such as strawberries, citrus fruits, tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli — at the same time you consume iron-containing foods.

Zinc. This mineral is an essential component of many enzymes and plays a role in cell division and in the formation of proteins. Good sources of zinc include whole grains, soy products, nuts and wheat germ.

Post from: Blisstree

Vegan Nutrition Advice From the Mayo Clinic

I thought, “Flat belly? Not at 42.” I dismissed the idea, accepted that I am what I am.  Then, tonight I was surfing around, looking for new recipes and I see that Prevention magazine has a whole Flat Belly Diet section. Prevention magazine?  My grandma reads Prevention magazine and she’s way older than I am.

The Flat Belly Diet is not about vanity, it’s not about abs of steel, it’s about getting rid of that layer of fat around your middle that settles in at middle age. The fat is more than unsightly – it is dangerous. The diet fights two types of fat – subcutaneous fat and visceral fat.  Subcutaneous fat is all over the body. The visceral fat lies deeper and it wraps itself around your heart and your organs. People who carry this fat, they can develop something called Metabolic Syndrome, or Syndrome X. Visceral fat is deadly. It increases your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, high cholesterol, breast cancer, and dementia.

You can read more about here, but here’s the good part – the 5 foods that are recommended with the Flat Belly Diet, they are all vegetarian foods!!  These foods, known as MUFAs are monounsaturated fatty acids. They work to lower your cholesterol and actually slow the aging process. You eat one serving of one of the list items at a meal.

The 5 foods are….

*Oils – flaxseed oil, canola oil, olive oil, sesame oil, etc

*Nuts and seeds – almonds, sunflower seeds, natural peanut butter, tahini, etc

*Avocado – avocado!!!! (my favorite food)

*Olives - black olives, green olives, tapenade, etc

*Chocolate – dark or semi-sweet (my second favorite food)

For serving ideas and serving sizes, look here. These are all foods that are already in a vegetarian diet, in my regular diet. This is absolutely do-able. Meals are supposed to be around 400 calories, eaten every 4 to 5 hours, and keeping the daily total at around 1600 calories.  

I can think of some meal ideas right now………

*A serving of avocado on whole wheat toast for breakfast

*Spinach salad and a vinaigrette made with olive oil, sprinkled with sesame seeds

*A dish of noodles topped with a mixture of peanut butter, sesame oil, tamari, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds

*Brown rice cooked with slivered almonds

*Extra-thin crust pizza with little or no cheese and olives

*A square of dark chocolate for a snack……okay, not a recipe, but still, yum!

In addition, the diet recommends controlling stress, using a food diary, and developing a support system. If you are doing this diet, please let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear how you are doing.

Post from: Blisstree

Go Vegetarian For the Flat Belly Diet

But will dropping meat really help you lose weight? Perhaps, but not necessarily. While there is some research out there which suggests that vegetarians weigh on average less than omnivores (there’s a great post on this topic over at Exceptionally Fat), the presence or absence of meat in one’s diet is just one of many factors which effect weight and weight loss. There’s plenty of highly-processed vegan junk food out there, and it’s not going to help you lose weight any more than its non-vegan counterparts are. Total calories consumed, activity level, and specific foods eaten will all have an influence on your body weight, as will genetics and probably a zillion other variables.

As for me personally, my average weight stayed about the same after becoming a vegetarian. My weight tends to drop a little when I get regular exercise, and when I watch my calorie consumption, but there definitely wasn’t any magical weight loss which occurred after I stopped consuming dead animals (nor was weight loss a goal when I went vegetarian, although it would have been a welcome side effect had it happened).

The point of this post is not to discourage those who have weight loss as a goal from giving vegetarianism a try. Quite the opposite – I think vegetarianism is fabulous (I am, after all, the author of a vegetarian blog). I just want to manage your expectations. Vegetarianism is not some weight-loss miracle cure. There are many benefits to eating vegetarian, and I encourage you to educate yourself and find out whether it’s right for you (and of course, talk with your doctor). A thoughtful vegetarian eating plan full of fresh, whole foods can be great for you in more ways than one, especially if health is a priority for you. Which, of course, I hope is the case no matter what your size.

If you are here because you’re curious about making the switch to vegetarianism, I encourage you to take a look at some of the other posts in my Vegetarianism for Beginners series. And if you have any questions for me, don’t be afraid to leave a comment or send me an email. Best of luck with all your new year’s resolutions!

Post from: Blisstree

Will going vegetarian help you drop weight in 2008?