Vegetarian Cuisine - Articles - Zimbio

Find Out How Vegetarians and Vegans Can Eat For Muscle Building!

Sun, 17 Nov 2008 16:28:00 GMT

posted by your-holistic-life
By Caleb Lee
My previous article on eating clean outlines simple nutrition guidelines for you. But then I got an email from a vegetarian wanting some tips.

Protein is definitely one of the most important "macro nutrients" you need to build muscle and to help you recover from your strength training. Most experts recommend at least 1g per pound of bodyweight each day.

Yet nearly all of the recommendation for getting protein consists of eating stuff vegetarians and vegans can't - if that describes you, read this article for muscle building nutrition advice for vegetarians and vegans

In What Way Vegetarians & Vegans Eat?

The majority eat loads of vegetables, legumes, fruits, tofu and soy. Selected classes consume eggs & dairy as well. But never animal flesh of any kind (meat, fish or poultry).

* Lacto-ovo Vegetarians. Eat eggs & dairy, but no animal flesh.

* Lacto Vegetarians. Eat dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, except eggs.

* Ovo Vegetarians. Eat eggs but not meat or dairy products.

* Vegans. Does not use or consume animal products of any kind.

Problems You'll Run Into With Vegeterianism & Veganism.

Vegetables and fruits are excellent for fiber, vitamins and minerals. Green vegetables are great too because they increase your alkalinity levels and neutralize acidic foods like meat. Here's a few "problems" you'll run into eating like this though:

* Allergic reactions - if all you eat is dairy and eggs you for protein, then you can run into lactose intolerance, acne, or other allergic reactions from all the dairy food

Low Testosterone - meats, eggs, and dairy products have saturated fat and cholesterol which enhance testosterone. If your T levels are down you'll have a reduced amount of muscle, less strength, less energy, lagging libido, higher body fat, and less of an "ambition"

Excellent Sources of Protein for Vegeterians & Vegans

If you're lacto and/or ovo it's trouble-free. Just don't eat meat and follow my other eating healthy rules to get your protein: cheese, milk, whey protein, eggs, and all that. If you're vegan, there's several fresh sources of protein:

* Beans. Lima, mungo, winged, fava, kidney, hummus, garbanzo, black ...

* Legumes. Cow peas, chick pea, snow peas, lentils, peas ...

* Whole Grains. Oats, breads, brown rice, quinoa, granola ...

* Protein Powder. Hemp protein, soy protein, rice protein ...

* Milk. Soy milk, rice milk, plant milk, coconut milk, almond milk ...

* Soy. Soy milk, deli-style soy meats, soy cheese, tofu, soy beans ...

* Nuts. Walnuts, almonds, pistachio, cashew, peanuts, peanut butter

* Seeds. Sesame, pumpkin, hemp, flax

10 Sites For (Delicious) Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes

Tue, 12 Nov 2008 21:46:32 GMT

posted by m38967

Want some great vegetarian recipes but don’t know where to go? Maybe you’re looking for vegetarian Thanksgiving ideas? Well check out the 10 recipe sites below — their wealth of ideas won’t leave you disappointed!

1. Vegetarian Times

Vegetarian Times magazine is a fun read, and a terrific resource for everyone from starting vegetarians, to long time healthy-eaters. The recipes section of their website is quite spectacular.

They have so many recipes they had to include a full featured, intuitive search which includes categories such as your diet type (vegetarian, vegan, etc.), the appliance you’re cooking with, the season, and even special categories to select a holiday. If that’s not enough to get you drooling, users can rate recipes, so you’re sure to find good ones.

Check it out here:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/

2. VegCooking.com

What better place to find vegetarian recipes than a site entirely devoted to it? While Vegetarian Times may be slightly quicker and more intuitive for quick recipes, VegCooking is more full featured, with shopping and dining guides, and more.

When it comes to recipes, the site has some delicious ones. Check out their seasonal article on making a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast. You won’t be disappointed!!

http://www.vegcooking.com/

3. VegWeb

VegWeb is much more organic in format to most other recipe locations. Users submit recipes and photos and other users submit reviews. The recipes here include delicious entries like “Double Chocolate Oatmeal Banana Cookies” and “Vegan Banana Pancakes”. Strengths are its grassroots nature and the fact that it caters to a variety of diet types.

http://vegweb.com/

4. Savvy Vegetarian

This site has a lot of recipes. If you can get past a garrish color scheme (at least on my browser) and are willing to dig into the less-intuitive (or at least less graphically pleasing) menus, you should find some good stuff here.

Categories of recipes include bread, beverages, vegan desserts, pastas, salads, soups, and tofu recipes.

http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/index.php

5. Simply Recipes

Simply recipes is a blog headed by Elise Bauer. It has a massive list of neatly laid out recipes. When looking for a random recipes the layout works very well. Looking for a specific recipe might be slightly harder. Still, there’s just so many good recipes here, with attractive pictures, that its hard not to love this site.

The site employs several culinary bloggers, so there’s lots of fresh creativity as well.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/vegetarian/

6. BBC Good Kitchen’s Vegetarian Section

BBC? Like the British news station? Yep! The British Broadcasting Company, interestingly has a massive culinary page filled with recipes of all kinds. To go along with Europe’s Vegetarian-friendliness, BBC Good Food indeed has a full page of vegetarian recipes filled with beautiful pictures.

The recipes are split into Dessert, Dinner Party, Main Course, Starter, and Vegan dishes. More recipes can also be found under Occasions and Cuisines, but these are not purely Vegetarian, so beware.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/vegetarian/

7. The Food Network

I admit, I’ve been a bit of an addict of The Food Network at times. Even if you don’t find cooking TV shows fun, its hard to deny their eye-catching website’s appeal. Why do I rank it this low? Well there’s pictures of meat entrees everywhere, which may turn off some. And while there’s many vegetarian recipes, including a large soy section, there’s less than some places and they’re less sensitive to special diets like veganism.

Still it’s worth checking out, in my opinion:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating/index.html#tab3

8. Veg Kitchen

Veg Kitchen has an attractive website, easy to follow recipes and a lot of them. The only thing that I was not a big fan of, and this is pretty subjective, is the lack of images to accompany the dishes. I liked how some of the sites included tempting pictures to motivate you to embark on your culinary adventure.

Still this site is a treasure trove of some great vegetarian (and vegan) recipes.

http://vegkitchen.com/

9. 101 Vegetarian Recipes

The site “101 Vegetarian Recipes” is slightly deceptively named as it actually has more than 101 vegetarian recipes. The site has no pictures, but has many good recipes, most of which are Vegan.

One minor note is the site pops up recipes in a new tab, which I suppose can be good or bad depending on your browsing preferences.

http://www.101vegetarianrecipes.com/

10. VegNews

This site wins points for creative appetizing recipes with beautiful color images. Navigation is easy as well. The only drawback that makes it less than tantalizing, is that there’s only a small rotating selection of recipes and it’s hard to navigate to past recipes.

http://vegnews.com/ (recipes)

Albert Einstein Was a Vegetarian

Sat, 2 Nov 2008 19:51:13 GMT

posted by BasilAndSpice

Mark Reinfeld has been preparing inspired vegan and live food cuisine for over 15 years. He is the founding chef of Blossoming Lotus Restaurant and the recipient of a Platinum Carrot Award given to Americas top “trailblazing and innovative chefs." He is a recognized authority in the field of healthy cuisine. His first book, Vegan Fusion World Cuisine has won 9 international awards including a Gourmand Award for ‘Best Vegetarian Cookbook in the USA.' His latest book is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw.Have a question for the natural chef? Please email mark@veganfusion.com

Mark Reinfeld--

Who are these vegans and what is the vegan diet about?

A vegetarian diet is one that does not include meat, fish or poultry. Vegan food contains no animal products or byproducts. It’s vegetarian without the dairy or eggs. The lifestyle of a vegan is also free from animal products. This means no leather handbags, no silk shirts, no products tested on animals, and so on. Because vegan foods do not include any animal products, they're often referred to as plant-based foods. The reasons people choose to become vegan are many, as you will discover as you read this article.

A Little History

The Vegetarian Society was formed in England in 1847 to provide a forum for vegetarians to share their love of all things vegetarian. One hundred and forty people from diverse backgrounds and social positions attended the first meeting, and the society has grown into a robust movement with branches around the world.

In 1944, members of the Vegetarian Society who wanted to focus solely on veganism formed the Vegan Society. Donald Watson was the first president, and he actually first coined the word vegan. Today, the Vegan Society is a vibrant international organization that continues to promote its message.

Famous Vegetarians

Throughout history, great thinkers, philosophers, artists, and musicians have embraced a vegetarian lifestyle. Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, and Nikola Tesla were vegetarians. Woody Harrelson, Alicia Silverstone, Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Kasem, and so many other celebrities also eat meat-free. Even musicians such as and Bob Dylan and Natalie Merchant are vegetarians. The list also includes Vincent Van Gogh, George Bernard Shaw, Dr. Jane Goodall and even the original Ronald McDonald.

Albert Einstein, best known for his famous, mind-bending E=mc2 equation, thought a vegetarian diet was the key to health for us and for the planet. He even went so far as to say, "Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

Whether they're members of the Vegetarian or Vegan Society or your next-door neighbor, each vegetarian and vegan has his or her own reasons for eating meat-free. Most people embrace the veggie way because of health, environmental, or ethical reasons.

Meat-Free for the Health of It

A great deal of evidence exists linking the consumption of animal products to heart disease and certain forms of cancer. Other studies suggest that over-consuming animal products leads to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, gout, and kidney stones. In addition, animals raised on factory farms are routinely given hormones to accelerate their rate of growth, and antibiotics to protect their health when housed in less than sanitary environments.

Go Veg, Walk Lightly

Following a vegetarian lifestyle is a great way to help the planet. Today, people are becoming more aware of environmental issues. Earth Day celebrations, rain forest preservation, and global warming initiatives are becoming more widespread. But how does eating meat-free help the earth?

The environmental impact of a vegan diet is a fraction of the impact of the standard American diet (SAD), with its high consumption of animal products and processed foods. Going veg for the planet returns a lot of positive effects. Check out this list for a few of the biggies:

· Feed the hungry. Animals are fed more than 80 percent of the corn and 95 percent of the oats grown in the United States. Each year, the U.S. livestock population consumes enough grain and soybeans to feed more than five times the U.S. human population. Less than half of the harvested agricultural acreage goes to feed people.

· Preserve the rain forests. To support cattle grazing, Latin American countries are deliberately destroying their rain forests. These rain forests contain close to half of all the species on Earth and many medicinal plants. For each acre of forest land cleared for human purposes, 7 acres of forest is cleared for grazing livestock or growing livestock feed.

· Pure and clean water. The factory farm industry causes a tremendous amount of groundwater pollution due to the chemicals, pesticides, and waste runoff inherent in its practices.

· Efficient land use. The human population is increasing at a dramatic rate. How we use land to produce food is more of an issue as the human race proliferates. According to the USDA, 1 acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of vegetables. This same amount of land can only produce 165 pounds of meat.

There are many more benefits, of course, including soil preservation, the rights of indigenous people, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Insuring the integrity of the plant kingdom as our sole food source is one of the greatest challenges humankind faces today.

Vegetarian by Personal Conviction

Many people become vegetarians because of religious or ethical convictions that prohibit the killing of animals. Some simply don't think it's cool to kill and believe we are meant to be stewards and caretakers of the earth and its inhabitants. These people do not wish to support practices that inflict harm or suffering on any creature who has the capacity to feel pain.

The small family farm where husbandry practices engendered a certain respect for animals used for food is becoming a thing of the past. Today, most of the world's meat, dairy, and egg production occurs on massive factory farms owned by agribusiness conglomerates. Farming has become big business, and profits dictate how the animals are treated - which means they're often kept and transported in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

It's Getting Hot Around Here!

World scientists agree that global warming poses a great risk to humanity and life as we know it. The key to reducing global warming is to reduce activities that produce the greenhouse gases that cause the earth's temperature to rise. To help achieve this goal, we must carefully examine the amount of resources it takes to support our lifestyles. One way is by looking at our carbon footprint - a measure of how much greenhouse gases our actions produce in terms of carbon dioxide.

According to a 2006 UN Report ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow,' raising livestock for food consumption is responsible for 18 percent of all greenhouse gases emitted. That's more than the entire transportation industry around the world combined!

As you can see, there are many reasons people choose to go veg. So don’t be intimidated if someone you know adopts this form of eating. Ask a few questions. You might be surprised at the answers.

Why Eat Raw?

Cold Turkey Weight Loss--No Pun Intended

Vegan Kids Take It To School

How Did YOU Get Turned On To Vegetarianism?

Fri, 25 Oct 2008 15:00:58 GMT

posted by m38967

The vegetarian lifestyle is really a wonderful opportunity, in that it gives so many people different and unique experiences. You can dabble in it or jump full in. You can go vegan, or just avoid meat. There’s complete freedom, and so many benefits — social, health, environmental, and moral.

(no fish were hurt in the writing of this post)

I feel very fortunate to have been able to be raised a vegetarian — but my parents were not vegetarians when I was growing up. No, I turned my parents to vegetarianism at age 5. I wanted to dedicate my first post to this story, which I feel is just one example of the diversity of the experiences that turned each of us on to vegetarianism. And I encourage you to share your own story after reading mine.

My Love For Nature, Fish, And How I Helped My Parents Go Veg At The Age of 5

As a child I was a bit precocious in my environmental consciousness and love for all things nature, including its animals (it’s no wonder I would one day be fated to blog). I gave up diapers at a ripe young age of 2, when I heard that they had to cut down trees for them. Yes, I was a bit of a weird child, but my parents catered to my unusual whims.

One of my early loves was fish. I memorized every single type of fish and could repeat them with alarming accuracy. My grandmother at one point became quite unnerved when I began to recite the names of fish in a book of hers. She quickly closed the book and said “That’s enough of that!”

My love of fish, however, brought me sadness because at an early age I could comprehend at some level that the fish in the store at the butchers counter were dead. These weren’t like the magnificent creatures that I saw swimming in my beloved fish cards. They were cold lifeless, and if I dare say, a bit sad looking. So whenever I saw my favorite fish — the rainbow trout — at the fish store, I took to saying “Rainbow Trout want out!” in a mournful voice.

My parents at the time ate a pretty healthy diet, but did eat some fish and chicken. However, they began to feel increasingly guilty taking home fish, when it obviously upset me to see them dead. So when I was just 5 they made a big decision — they were going to go vegetarian and give up fish and chicken, raising my brother and me vegetarian.

Now

Over the years my enthusiasm for vegetarianism has waved a little bit at times, but has never faded. And I find myself today finding great joy in exploring it. And my parents? They are still vegetarians, and its already helped them. All of my grandparents had severe heart disease by their 40s, but my parents, thanks to a vegetarian diet and exercise are virtually problem free. For families with genetic predisposition to high cholesterol and heart disease, the vegetarian diet definitely seems a great choice from my experience, and studies have backed that up.

So, How Did You Get Turned On To Vegetarianism?

My story’s pretty fun I admit, but I’d equally love to hear each of yours. Diet is a very personal topic. I’d love to hear how each of you got turned on to vegetarianism, and what challenges you faced!

Welcome New Writer: Jason Mick

Fri, 25 Oct 2008 01:25:23 GMT

posted by m38967

I am happy to announce that we have a new writer on Groovy Vegetarian. His name is Jason Mick and he has been a vegetarian since the age of 5. I’m super duper excited to have him.

What Does Jason Do?

Jason is currently an editor for a hot technology blog (Daily Tech) and will contribute veggie articles here about once or twice a week.

Where Is Jason From?

He happens to reside in the most spectacularly fantabulous place on Earth, the windy City Chicago.

Check out his mini- bio below:

Jason Mick is a news editor and columnist for the leading science and technology online publication, DailyTech. He was raised vegetarian and convinced his parents to go vegetarian at age 5, thanks to his strong love for fish. He has worked in the electronics field for such companies as Siemens VDO, Lear Corporation, and Ovonics Battery Company. He graduated with a BA in computer engineering from Oakland University and is currently in a Masters/PhD program in Chemical Engineering and Physiology at Wayne State University.

In his free time he enjoys music, backpacking the scenic Michigan outdoors, writing fiction, reading about alternative energy, and spending time with his beautiful girlfriend Megan.

Welcome Jason! Happy to have you on board the Groovy Veg train.