> Food and Nutrition > Diets > vegetarian and vegan

Fifteen years ago, if you told someone you were vegetarian, they would feel sorry for you, think you were crazy or worry that you would be unhealthy. Now it's so popular that most restaurants have several vegetarian dishes on their menus. Cities like Vancouver and Toronto are blessed with a wide choice of vegetarian eateries and yearly events that draw thousands of people to sample vegetarian foods.

Research by medical doctors such as Michael Klaper, Dean Ornish, Neal Barnard and John McDougal clearly shows that a lower-fat, non-animal diet produces good health, better than average stamina and longer life. In fact, the veggie diet is endorsed by the American Dietetics Association, which proclaims that vegetarian diets are healthful and nutritionally adequate when well planned. This means we should have a wide variety of plant foods, and eat enough calories.

Dr Ornish uses a low-fat diet, some stress management and mild exercise to reverse heart disease in 82 percent of patients awaiting costly and traumatic by-pass surgery, without the use of drugs. Dr Robert Kradjian, a prominent breast surgeon, explains how this diet could help prevent and treat breast cancer in his famous book, Save Yourself From Breast Cancer.

Lately, there has been an explosion in the media of diets advocating larger intakes of high-fat, high-protein foods and reducing carbohydrates intake. Some vegetarians feel this is a backlash promoted by financial interests of the chemical, agribusiness and pharmaceutical industries. Huge advertising dollars tout anti-vegetarian diets and many consumers are buying into this.

I feel this is a tribute to the recent gains by the vegetarian movement. Witness the "McLibel Trials" in the UK, and the lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman in 1998 by the Texas cattlemen when Lyman exposed the truth about Mad Cow Disease on Oprah's show.
Implementing the Ideal Diet Organic plant foods, not genetically engineered, offer the best ticket to good health and long life. But even non-organic produce is much less problematic than food from animals, for two reasons. One, animals bio-accumulate all the toxic foods and fodder they ingest, concentrating the toxins in their fat and muscle. Two, there is virtually no regulation on the use of pesticides and chemicals on crops grown to feed animals, while there is some regulation on plant foods grown for human consumption.

There's much concern about protein, calcium, and vitamin B₁₂. Francis Moore Lappe herself retracted her original theory about the need for combining various plant proteins (written in her first book, Diet For A Small Planet) after later research showed the liver has an amino acid pool where the component parts of proteins are broken down and stored, combining in the necessary ratios for the body's needs.

A good diet should have a wide variety of different foods, as close to nature as possible. Grains should be whole and well cooked. Legumes, including soybeans and peanuts, are protein power foods. Vegetables and fruits, preferably raw, as well as nuts and seeds, make a well-rounded diet. These same foods would supply adequate quantities of calcium, iron and other micronutrients the body requires. Controversy about B₁₂ makes fortified beverages or a supplement tablet good insurance.

Veggies for Life

If you're pressed for time, a good pot of soup could be the center of your meal. A nutritious soup can be made fat-free, leaving some leeway for a dessert treat. Add whole-grain bread and some raw veggie sticks to complete the meal. If you eat fresh fruits in the morning, the enormous variety of soups and breads could easily be the mainstay of your diet. Use a combination of vegetables and whole grains like millet, buckwheat, brown rice or barley to enhance an otherwise wheat-laden diet. Legumes such as lentils, chick peas or tofu complete the nutritional requirements.

Other easy choices are hummus made of pureed chick peas and sesame, wraps containing shredded veggies, refried beans or hummus, chunks of veggie cold cuts and yummy salsa, or a fat-free pasta sauce using bottled tomato sauce with yellow squash and onions, with added marinated tofu. The combinations are endless.

Remember that we are all unique, genetically, biochemically, and environmentally. The choices and proportions ideal for one person may not be best for you. Experiment with different combinations among the plant kingdom and see how your system reacts. Most people do well on some form of vegetarian diet. Some emphasize mostly raw (natural hygiene), some mostly cooked (macrobiotic); some favor higher protein (more legumes, nuts, seeds, tofu or tempeh), and some feel best on a higher carbohydrate diet.

When you choose a vegetarian diet for the new millennium, know that you have a good endorsement from Time Magazine (November 8, 1999), which stated that we may not be eating meat if we wake up to what the mass production of animal flesh is doing to our health–and the planet's.

Diana Jewell is an author, lecturer, and former President of EarthSave Canada. She lives in Vancouver where she teaches vegetarian cooking classes.

Source: alive #207, January 2000