Archive for May 2010
Healthy Vegetarian Recipes
May 30, 2010 | 
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Healthy vegetarian recipes are considered to be economical and humane. A balanced healthy vegetarian diet provides essential nutrients, and it keeps the weight down naturally. Take note: vegetarians have very few illnesses linked to fat consumption.
Consider this: until the most recent times, grains were the staple diet, while meat was a luxury reserved for the wealthy few. However, today, in our affluent society, we use grain to fatten the cattle stock! Many critics say this is a wasteful uses of resources, as it takes less grain to feed a person directly than it takes to fatten animals to feed that person. More and more of our population has become vegetarian not only for the reason mentioned above, the reason being that vegetarians are less likely to be obese or have heart or kidney disease and/or diabetes. it is a known fact that vegetarians have lower blood pressure, and much fewer incidents of digestive tract diseases. As well, vegetarians healthy recipes are a more economical use of the earth’s resources.
Consider this: on the whole Americans consume about twice the amount of protein required, and medical experts warn that we are paying for our high meat consumption, and animal fats as well, through record rates of strokes, heart disease and certain cancers and other disorders. Of course, there are many non-believers.
Healthy Vegetarian recipes must combine grains, seeds and legumes in order to get the amount of protein they need with all the essential amino acids. There are numerous amounts of healthy vegetarian recipes. Some examples of these are;
rice and beans, bean-vegetable chili served with tortillas, baked beans and corn bread, hummus, cheese rolled in chopped nuts, bread sticks with sesame seeds, macaroni and cheese, and split pea soup. These are complimentary proteins. A healthy vegetarian diet must contain enough iron as the iron from plant sources serves only 1/4 as much as meat does. Every healthy vegetarian recipe should include a high amount of Vitamin C as the Vitamin C helps the to promote iron absorption. Good food high in Vitamin C are citrus fruits, potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, peppers melons and strawberries. Vitamin D is needed for calcium absorption and is contained in the foods egg yolks, fortified milk and fatty fish. Also, exposure to sunlight enables the body to manufacture Vitamin D.
Healthy vegan or have a much more difficult time in consuming enough calories without supplements. Vegan and fruitarians must consume large amounts of nut butters, dried fruits and breads just to maintain their weight.
The facts remain – eating healthy vegetarian recipes has many health benefits, one of which being the avoidance of OBESITY – the reason being their healthy vegetarian recipes are bulky, filling, high in fiber, low in fat and therefore, low in calories. Studies have shown that a cholesterol free plant based diet is also low in saturated fats and can reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, heart disease and stroke. Healthy vegetarian recipes also have proved to show less osteoporosis, kidney stones, gallstones, and adult-onset diabetes.
Having read the above information, which would you choose? Healthy Vegetarian Recipes?
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Tags: Digestive Tract Diseases, Lower Blood Pressure, Staple Diet | 
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Reasons for Choosing a Vegetarian Diet
Let us start with a brief background on some the reasons people have chosen a vegetarian diet in our history:
The idea of vegetarianism is not a new one, by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed man has in one way or another eaten vegetarian diets since his beginnings. Granted, the first vegetarians did so only out necessity. Meat may not have been available due to harsh winters, animal migrational patterns or even poor tribal leadership. Only foraged food would have been available under such circumstances.
As man evolved and became more able to manipulate his environment, so came the option to choose. Available facts point to the first vegetarian ideologies being practiced in Egypt around 3,200BC where some religious groups abstained from eating flesh, as they believed it produced bad karma with regards to their reincarnation.
Around 2000BC Hindus, on the Indian sub-continent, began practising vegetarianism in the belief that a vegetarian diet is needed to reach spiritual enlightenment. Even today, Hindus make up the largest percentage of vegetarians on the Earth.
Also from the Indian sub-continent, around 600BC, came the religion of Jainism. In its teachings, Jainism insists that we honor the spiritual nature of all life. Extemely dedicated Jainists go to the extent of straining insects from drinking water and even wearing masks to avoid inhaling small, airborne creatures. They will only eat fruits that have natually fallen from trees and are not supposed to eat honey or rooted plants.
Janism is the only religion requiring their monks to be vegetarian.
Vegetarianism was also popularised in Ancient Greece by many of the great philosophers including Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Indeed vegetarians in Europe were originally referred to as Pythagoreans, after the Greek Philosopher Pythagoras advocated a vegetarian diet for its nutritional and ethical values. He claimed,
“As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
It was not until 1847, when the first vegetarian society was formed in Ramsgate, Kent UK, that the name Vegetarian was first conceived. Contrary to popular belief, the word Vegetarian arose from the Latin word `vegetus`, meaning `lively` which was how early vegetarians claimed their diet made them feel.
Many reason have been voiced in favour of vegetarianism in our history including the long held philosophy that vegetarians are living longer, healthier lives than their meat eating counter-parts. Much evidence has already been accumulated to support these claims.
Now let us look at some of the reasons that justify becoming vegetarian in our modern society.
Necessity
The case of necessity speaks for itself really; anyone unable to find a supply of meat sufficient to sustain life must find an alternative until such time that meat becomes available again.
Economic
An Economic Vegetarian is someone who practices vegetarianism either out of necessity, lack of funds for instance, or because of a conscious or philosophical viewpoint that the consumption of meat is economically unsound and that vegetarianism will help improve public health and curb many starvation issues.
Environmental
Environmental Vegetarians are similar to Economic Vegetarians. According to the United Nations, the livestock sector (cows, chickens, pigs, etc) is one of the three most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. It is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases. The use of feedlots, for cattle feeding, is one of the most inefficient and environmentally harmful ways of producing meat; yet they still remain widespread throughout cattle farming.
Religion
Many religions support vegetarianism including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Taoism. They offer similar teachings which stress the value of all life and forbids the act of destroying life simply for human gains.
Distaste
Some people genuinely do not enjoy the taste of meat, suggesting it tastes sweaty or fatty. Others choose to be vegetarian because they find meat products aesthetically unappetizing. An example being, the carcass of a herd animal lying in a field would attract real carnivores such as big cats or wolves, but the mere sight would disgust most humans.
Animal Welfare
Many vegetarians, especially western vegetarians, are motivated by animal welfare. They see animals as our friends, with whom we share the world and not as mere food. The fact that most parents actively encourage their children to love and appreciate animals is totally contradictory to the way in which humans really respect and treat animals.
Personal Health
Possibly the single most reason more and more people are turning to vegetarianism, current studies are showing that vegetarians are living longer and healthier. A study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999 found that the mortality ratio in fish eaters was lowest (0.82) then followed by vegetarians (0.84) occasional meat eaters also at (0.84) compared to regular meat eaters at (1.0).
A recent study shown in the British Medical Journal concluded that,
“Higher IQ at age 10 years was associated with an increased likelihood of being vegetarian at age 30…IQ remained a statistically significant predictor of being vegetarian as an adult…”
Conscience
Conscience is a conglomeration of all the other reasons. It is our moral conscience, which allows us to weigh up what we see, hear and know. It is our choice whether we allow it to influence out daily life. Those who are able to suppress their consciousness, deliberately or otherwise, will ultimately make a decision that will not favour the miss-fortunes of animals.
I hope, that in some way, this article will encourage people to explore vegetarianism as a real option. Whatever reasons for becoming vegetarian, one thing is not in doubt; vegetarianism is here to stay and it looks likely to become the preferred diet of choice for all humans in the not too distant future.
The Power Of A Little Rocket
The Power of a little Rocket
No, I’m not talking about the Kennedy Space Center kind of rocket, but that little green herb which is just so useful, and tasty, whatever the season.
I first became hooked on rocket when I was living on the Northern Queensland coast near Cairns, in Australia, and my American next door neighbour appeared at my door, holding a large Tupperware-style box. I say appeared because she was 4’11inches tall and used to wear a large gardening hat for shading the sun. If you were standing at my kitchen window you would see the hat silently waft passed the window, a bit like a moving object all on its own, and knew that Donna had arrived.
‘I’m going away for a few days, and I’ve made this rocket salad which I don’t want to go to waste. Would you like it?’ offering me the aforementioned Tupperware-style box. I’d only known her for a few weeks and our relationship had not been extended to more than exchanging pleasantries over the driveway when returning from shopping, so I did, for a couple of seconds think this a little strange, but being a straight forward kind of guy, (did I just say that?), I thanked her very much indeed, promising to return the box in a few days, after I’d enjoyed the contents.
‘Keep it in the refridgerator, and it’ll last you a few days,’ she advised in her North American drawl, and was gone, leaving me, standing in my kitchen with a tupperware box in my hand, watching the hat pass my window from left to right this time, as she returned to her home.
I gingerly removed the lid and was immediately hit by the rich spicy aroma I have come to love. I reached for a fork and started poking around, and discovered the salad was dense with rocket leaves, onion rings and sliced tomatoes, in layers. She’d ‘dribbled’ a little oil and vinegar dressing across each layer. I started tasting…and have been a devoted fan of rocket ever since.
Quite apart from the wonderful peppery taste and substance to the herb it’s been proven recently to have anti-ulcer properties, is great as a digestive stimulant and high in sulphur, iron and vitamins, all of which are good for one’s hair, skin and nails.
It’s become a popular salad favourite in European, Middle Eastern and South American cuisines and is delicious in salads when dressed with a little oil, vinegar and lemon juice. It can be used in open sandwiches, mixed with other assorted leaves, cooked gently and used with roasts and other oven-cooked meats - and it adds fabulous flavour to the skin when draped over a roast chicken in the oven. it resembles spinach when boiled gently. Use it as I tend to do, as a healthy helping on its own on top of some crisp iceberg lettuce, with an unhealthy dollop of mayonnaise on top!
Another of my favourite uses is to chop some leaves very small, in the way you would parsley, and fold it into cooked hot pasta, before adding a main ingredient such as cooked chicken, bacon bits, tuna, or mushrooms. It adds a beautiful spicy flavour to the pasta which I find other herbs lack. Make sure you cook your pasta in plenty of water with a good swirl of your favourite olive oil in the water first, so the pasta doesn’t stick together when you drain it, and the rocket will fold in nicely.
For a vegetarian pasta meal try adding chopped rocket to some pasta along with some chopped sundried tomatoes which have been marinaded in olive oil, (‘tomates toscana’ if you’re here in Spain) and fold all the ingredients in gently. It’s absolutely delicious.
So there you have it…the power of a little Rocket. Try my suggestions and make up your own mind and ideas…you’ll soon be hooked!
Stephen Swire
http://www.proofreadyourenglish.com
Posted in vegetarian pasta | Tags: Northern Queensland, Queensland Coast, Spicy Aroma | No Comments »