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Tofu scramble w/tomatoes & basil, Sandwich w/hummus, tomatoes, lettuce

One of the meals I made for myself was based on the recipes in the book, which tend to be easy and fresh and delicious (most are by chef Jason Wyrick). The recipe for hummus is so simple that I memorized it immediately and will make it often. This time I made it with white beans.

I followed a suggestion in the book to make the tofu scramble and save leftovers for other meals. This one, which includes fresh tomatoes and basil, I used in a sandwich on another day.

One point made in the book is that while there is a lot of flexibility in what you eat and how much and when, to make this a true trial you need to commit to following the principles for the full 21 days. (The reason behind the 21 days is that it is long enough to feel a difference but short enough that just about anyone can commit. Of course after 21 days Barnard’s hope is that we will simply continue eating this way.) For me this was a critical point. I have followed this or similar plans before but let higher-fat foods slip in there from time to time, perhaps rather too often, and therefore did not see the results I wanted to see.

The principles:

• Eat no animal products. Only plant-based foods.
• No added oils. Keep it very low-fat.
• Choose low-glycemic index foods (generally those high in fiber). If you are a serious athlete you may need some high-glycemic index foods as well.

The PCRM website and its related sites, including the Kickstart site, offer a wealth of information to answer any questions about this plan or about vegan nutrition in general.

Have you embarked on this plan? If so, how is it going for you?

The article is online at NPR and offers some questionable evolutionary science to suggest that a bacon-related relapse among a few ex-omnivores constitutes a trend. It says, “Because bacon is one- to two-thirds fat and also has lots of protein, it speaks to our evolutionary quest for calories”. That makes sense if evolution looks like this:

Before I list some reasons to avoid bacon, I’ll quote one of the article’s commenters, Toodloo, with added emphasis:

“To answer the question of why people fetishize bacon, the answer is twofold:
1.) Eating bacon makes consumers feel rebellious in this age of compassionate and healthful eating – after all, pig is the most intelligent and sensitive of farmed animals.
2.) Bacon is the ‘gateway meat’ because it is prepared in a way to mask its animal source: its crispy, not ‘fleshy’; salt covers the taste of pig; and its cut into tidy strips that don’t resemeble the body parts from which it is derived.”

No matter how good bacon tastes, there’s no good justification for eating it.

10 Reasons Why Eating Bacon Is Wrong:

1. Animal neglect and abuse are common in the pork industry, not the exception.
2. Pigs are usually slaughtered at about 6 months old. For perspective, a pig’s natural lifespan is about 15 years.
3. Castration, early slaughter, and selective breeding are the pork industry’s solution to “boar taint,” the offensive odor of post-pubescent male pig flesh.
4. The US legal agricultural definition of “euthanasia” includes hanging or beating sows and piglets without anesthesia.
5. Swine Flu (H1N1).
6. MRSA.
7. Cholesterol.
8. Hog waste lagoons.
9. Pigs are cute.
10. We can choose to eat something else. There’s no need to eat bacon or any other animal product.  

I am referring to a whole foods, plant-based diet that avoids added fat and processed and animal-based foods. This diet contains about 10-12 percent fat, sometimes pejoratively referred to as “extremely low fat”. Call it what you will, but this diet (also low in total protein, about 8-10 percent) produces, by comparison, “extremely low” incidences of sickness and disease. In fact, it now has been shown not just to prevent these illnesses but to treat them.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-colin-campbell/low-fat-diets-are-grossly_b_740543.html

He concludes by telling readers to “just try it.”

The very bad American standard diet habits are to blame for this. What happened to the calls for a tax on high fat cheeseburgers and other cardiac arrest-inducing foods that are part of everyday US standard nutrition? Oh I forgot – it didn’t go anywhere as US fast foods chains would lose 0.01% of their gazillion $ revenue per year….

You can no longer advertise tobacco in public media – and the same should apply for fast food too. The risks of dying early from obesity is almost as high as the current #1 preventable death reason: smoking cigarettes. The US medical costs linked to obesity topped $ 147 billion in 2008, and are expected to rise to $344 billion by 2018, if the current growth rates continue. This trend also estimates that the US will count 43% of its population as obese by that time.

That is, if people continue to turn a blind eye to the great alternative diets and foods that would make permanent weight loss and health seem like a walk in the park, in short: veganism!

I would vote for upping the medical insurance rates of people that refuse to let go of the American SAD diet in favor of better food choices. Fatal illnesses like heart disease and diabetes are almost always preventable! Even today, an obese person pays about $1,429 more in medical costs than a person of healthy weight – and by 2018 this discrepancy will rise to $2,460.

Sadly, the highest obesity rates are often found in the poorer parts of the population, where saving today on the dollar-meal at Mc Donald’s pays a fateful tribute to increased Medicare spending by the end of the year. That is what all kids should be taught in school!

For a land that considers itself free we are under serious dictatorship of the food industry – and for all the wrong reasons. Nothing to be proud of!

—

Sources:

• http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2010/r100803.htm
• http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-11-17-future-obesity-costs_N.htm

About the author: Ina Mohan is founder of Belsandia

As a reminder of how natural a carb=centered diet is, McDougall says:

“Starches have fueled the engines of human civilizations for at least the past 14,000 years. Carbohydrates (starches), such as rice in Asia, corn in Central America, potatoes in South America, and barley and wheat in Europe, have provided the bulk of the calories for almost all human diets.”

Now, go read the whole thing here: http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010other/news/weil.htm

Dear Vegan,

I’ve been reading about veganism for years. However there’s something I’ve been struggling with. I’m a partial vegetarian and I’m to integrate that with a fat restricted medical diet for several years now.

Due to disease, I’m restricted to a very low fat intake. This is a problem with a vegan lifestyle. Things like nuts or meat replacements are way to fatty for me.

Do you have tips or sources I can use to figure out how to integrate a vegan lifestyle with the medical diet I’m on?

Thanks in advance,
Wannabe Fat-Free

Dear Wannabe Fat-Free,

It’s definitely possible to meet your nutritional needs by eating purely plants and also avoid fat. In fact, a number of doctors recommend a low-fat vegan diet.

There’s no nutritional need for processed meat replacements or nuts. Instead, stick to high protein foods that are naturally low in fat like:

• rice & beans,
• quinoa,
• edamame.

And eat fortified foods or naturally low fat foods to obtain other nutrients. For example, eat leafy green vegetables, broccoli, or fortified orange juice for calcium. Try spinach, oatmeal, potatoes, or enriched pasta for iron. Eat fortified soymilk or take a multivitamin to obtain B12. And get some sun for vitamin D.

I suggest that your read the books and articles by these doctors:

• Dr. Barnard – http://www.nealbarnard.org/
• Dr. McDougall – http://www.drmcdougall.com/
• Dr. Esselstyn – http://www.heartattackproof.com/
• Dr. Campbell – http://www.tcolincampbell.org/plant-based-nutrition/

And once you’re educated about nutrition and feel confident, here are some low-fat vegan recipe sources:

• http://fatfreevegan.com/
• http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/

I hope this has been helpful. Remember, virtually anyone can go vegan!

Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood vegan.

—

*This is not health advice. Consult a doctor or dietitian if you have a medical condition that restricts your diet.

On August 7th, PETA Files posted that they were doing a billboard that said, “Save The Whales. Lose the blubber: Go vegetarian.” The billboard had a cartoon drawing of the back of a large woman wearing a bikini on a beach. No whales were shown in the image.

It’s true that the average vegan or vegetarian weighs less than the average non-veg person. It’s also true that vegans and vegetarians are less likely to be obese or morbidly obese than non-veg people. But that’s just an average. Vegans come in all shapes and sizes, including overweight, obese, and morbidly obese.

Here’s the real issue: eating large amounts of animal products is bad for your health. It’s likely a primary factor in the development of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. It’s not the excess fat on your body that is most likely to kill you, it’s what that fat often represents: an unhealthy diet and/or a lack of exercise.

But make no mistake, there are plenty of skinny people who live sedentary lives and/or eat unhealthy food. I used to date one of those people – a guy who ate nothing but frozen peperoni pizzas and candy, but had a super-fast metabolism and stayed stick-skinny. That, or he had a tapeworm. And I know countless people who eat unhealthy food and just work it all off at the gym. There are even plenty of skinny people whose thinness represents extremely poor health, for example: crack addicts, anorexics, and AIDS patients. The point is: You can’t tell how healthy someone is just by looking at them.

On August 7th, I wrote this when I read the post at PETA Files:

I think this billboard is mean-spirited.

Let’s just do some math here, OK? If someone is 250 pounds and they slim down to 200 by going vegan, they’re probably still technically over-weight and they’ll still receive prejudice, verbal attacks, and fat-shaming from fat-phobic, mean-spirited people. That billboard is part of that problem.

Please focus on health, not on size.

I chose those numbers because they’re a practical way too demonstrate PETA’s claim that “vegetarians are 20 to 30 percent leaner than meat-eaters”.  For the record, Atkins weighed 258 pounds when he died. I wasn’t alone in my criticism. Many others chimed in to comment there and across the blogosphere.

There’s a BIG difference between:

1. people who respect and protect whales yet call large people “whales” (PETA)
   versus
2. people who don’t care the least about whales (or any other animal) and who call large people “whales” (the general public)

But there’s still the problem that calling large people “whales” is derogatory, insulting, and just plain MEAN.

But here’s where I’m confused:
The billboard was originally announced August 7th.
Why all the outrage about it nearly two weeks later?

Could it be that the critics don’t pay attention to anything PETA does until it hits the big time? Could it be that the anti-PETA critics just don’t really know what PETA does? Or do they really, truly ignore all the good stuff PETA does and only chime in when it’s something bad?

Seriously, what gives?

—
UPDATE: Looks like anti-PETA bloggers and protesters were played. PETA updated the billboard after complaints aired:

“Want to know how to slim down and still eat the foods you love? Just go for fiber-rich whole foods and watch the pounds come off.” [...] “Trying to lose weight? Then fiber-rich foods definitely are the way to go. Case in point: Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that people who ate the most vegetables, fruits, and other fiber-rich foods lost 2 to 3 pounds more per month than those on lower-fiber diets.”

Basically, they explain why vegetarians and vegans tend to be slimmer than non-veg people, without trying to explain that: veg*ns tend to eat more unprocessed foods that are rich in fiber whereas non-veg people tend to eat more processed foods that are low in fiber.

You can read the article here >>

But why lose weight? Because obesity is linked to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

“In 2002 my mom had a heart attack, and I went to get my health checked. It wasn’t good. I was 22, and I already had a blood pressure of 140/88 and total cholesterol of 296 (below 150 is recommended, and anything over 240 is considered very high). And, of course, I was over 100 lbs. overweight. Heart disease and diabetes runs all over my family, and if I didn’t change something I was destined for problems… likely early in my life.

“After the 296 cholesterol reading, my doctor prescribed me a statin drug to lower the number. But I didn’t want to be drug-dependent for life, so I chose another path. I became a vegetarian (at that time still eating some fish).

“I had my cholesterol checked again after three months of being a veggie. It was down to 171! And my blood pressure had returned to a healthier 123/79. My doctor was floored.”

There was more. After I became a fish-eating vegetarian, I became a real vegetarian and then a vegan. But I still had weight to lose. My cholesterol was better, but not good enough, and my vegan diet wasn’t really helping with the wight loss. I was at a plateau.

A month ago I attended a nutritional seminar from Dr. McDougall. What I learned there resulted in changes to my diet. So far, one month in, I’m on schedule.

I’ve been eating this new way now for just over a month (about 32 days). I weighed 213.6 pounds (97kg) the day I started, and yesterday morning I cracked the 200 barrier, weighing in at 199.4 (90.6kg). So that’s 14 pounds (6.4kg) lost the first month. Yesterday I fit into a pair of pants that I’d been keeping in storage anticipating that one day I’d be able to wear them again.

The idea of the diet is very simple:

Eat only foods that are low in caloric density (and high in nutritional density).

That is, stick to foods that have relatively low caloric contents for their weight. In practice this means eating salad greens, green and yellow vegetables, fruits, whole grains (but not whole grain flour or bread), beans and lentils, and starchy vegetables like potatoes. Avoid adding oil to anything, avoid all meat, eggs, and dairy products (no problem for me because I was already a vegan), avoid nuts and avocados, and avoid “empty” carbs like soda and white flour.

Of the foods I eat, I eat as much of them as I want whenever I’m hungry.

Here’s a sample menu for a day, including the areas where I’ve been cheating a little bit. I like to cook, so I’ve been cooking some nicer meals a lot, but this menu will be what I would eat on my laziest day where I didn’t really want to cook at all.

Breakfast:

• Bowl of oatmeal (3/4 cup dry rolled oats) topped with berries and maybe a teaspoon of maple syrup, and
• An apple and a mandarin orange, and
• 2 cups of black coffee (I have a significant coffee habit that I’m going to improve, but not now.) You could have one cup or tea instead if you want to limit caffeine.

Snack:

• 1 or 2 fruits, and/or
• snacking vegetables like carrots or snap peas

Lunch:

• Salad greens with cherry tomatoes with low fat vegan dressing, and
• Steamed vegetable (often frozen, sometimes fresh: string beans, peas, broccoli, asparagus, etc.), and
• Stove-top potatoes or sweet potatoes/yams cooked in water (instead of oil), and
• Large cup of juice spritzer (this is what I used to kick my once really bad soda habit) It’s one part fruit juice to about four parts seltzer water.

I cook up about 5 medium-sized potatoes and my wife, Elaine, and I eat them for lunch and then snack on them later in the afternoon until they’re gone. Sometimes I boil/mash them and add onion, garlic, jalapeno, etc. We eat the potatoes with seasoning… I like to sprinkle on a cajun spice blend I prepare. Elaine likes adobo.

Generally I fill half a large plate with salad, a quarter with the steamed veggies, and a quarter with the potatoes. I usually go back for seconds on the potatoes before the meal is over.

Snack:

• Leftover potatoes/whatever was lunch, and
• fruit or snack vegetables, and
• 1 cup of black coffee (told you I have a habit.. 3 cups a day is pretty standard) You could have tea instead.

Dinner:

• Salad greens with cherry tomatoes, and
• Steamed vegetables, and
• Main dish (low fat vegan starch-based), and
• Bottle of beer (stick with water or juice if you’re limiting or removing alcohol from your diet)

Example of dinner main dish:

• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of pinto beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1/2 cup of frozen corn
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced or canned
• spices (cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, etc.)

1. Stick this in a pot, stir it up, and cook it until the liquid reduces somewhat.
2. Serve over brown rice.

Usually go back for seconds on the rice and beans too.

Ways I’ve cheated: I eat white rice instead of brown probably once or twice a week or so. I’ve had avocado a couple of times. The coffee and beer is my consistent cheating. I had one slice of cake and one order of fries during the month. I eat more fruit than I’m supposed to.. probably about 5 pieces a day and I’m supposed to limit to 3. I’m not going to sweat that.

So far the “cheating” I’ve done hasn’t stopped me from achieving my goals… so to that extent it’s really not cheating and is just living my life. The point is: a little cheating won’t undo the good. The more healthy foods you choose, the better.

For all my meals, the rule is that if I’m still hungry, I keep eating until I’m not hungry anymore. I usually cook at least double what I’d eat at a meal so about half my meals have been leftovers.

Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with this diet. I’m never hungry for long, I feel great, and the weight is just coming right off. I haven’t even added to my exercise routine yet. I plan to increase my exercise gradually as time progresses. Once I lose more weight I’d love to start playing soccer again.

• Learn more about Dr. McDougall here: http://www.drmcdougall.com/
• And visit the web forum to discuss diet and health here: http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/index.php

“what is someone who wants to lose weight supposed to do? The answer is fairly simple: Switch to a diet made up of a diverse selection of foods: vegetables, whole grains (we should skip the refined carbs– South Beach gets that right, of course), beans, chickpeas, nuts, fruit, lentils, etc. A wide array of evidence shows that vegans are less likely to be overweight or obese than meat-eaters–because it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle transition. Because these foods are less calorie dense and lower in fat than animal products, and because all plant foods contain zero cholesterol, eating that way allows us to shed weight in a sustainable way.

“And a well-rounded vegan diet will provide us with a healthy mixture of complex carbs, protein and healthy fats, as well as vitamins, minerals and fiber. Because most nutrition advice is aimed at meat-eaters, it’s worth reading up a bit on how to maximize the health advantages of a vegan diet; I like the Optimal Vegan Nutrition web page. And of course we shouldn’t think that our healthy new diet means giving up tasty food–web sites and cookbooks with thousands of delicious vegan recipes abound; eating should be a celebration”

While there’s certainly some controversy regarding the promotion of veganism as a weight loss method, the fact remains that vegans DO tend to be lighter and that even the heavy ones are generally healthier than their meat-eating counterparts.

The article is a gentle reminder that veganism is a healthy weight loss method because it’s not a diet, it’s a philosophy. We’ve written about this concept here before: it tends to be much easier to decline cheese (and the extra calories, fat, hormones, pesticides, and cancer-causing agents in the cheese) when one thinks of the ethical implications of dairy cows, veal, and all their suffering than when one thinks of how good they’ll look in a bikini. Veganism becomes a lifelong commitment to animals, the environment, and one’s own health, not a temporary fad diet to lose a few pounds.