Sunday 9 October 2016

veg diet 20120 - Part 8

If eating butter is a problem because you are watching your cholesterol levels then dip your bread in olive oil. When you try this with quality home made bread you will see how delicious it is. Vegetarians have respect for vegetables so find the best olive you can. It will be worth it. The varied taste of olive oil from different countries or even different estates will in itself add variety to you vegetarian diet.
Beans, lentils and grains are the staples of vegetarian diet. But they can become boring. Never be afraid to try new types or pulse and grain. if you have never eaten quinoa then you should. It is quick to cook and makes a change from rice. Try using barley instead of rice. Even the vegetarian staples need not be dull.

Making A Vegan Cake
Making a cake for a vegan sounds like a daunting task and possibly not be very rewarding one. No eggs, no butter, and no milk - how can that be a cake. But the secret is to stop thinking of it as a series of prohibitions and think of it as an opportunity to be creative.
Your vegan cake may be the best one you have ever made if you think outside the box. You are not making a substitute for a traditional cake. You are making a vegan cake. This is a cake in its own right.
A vegan cake might be a stack of pancakes made with buckwheat flour and layered with cashew cream and fresh strawberries. Cashew cream is made by grinding cashew nuts with a small quantity of water in a food processor.
Many fruit cakes do not require eggs because they are not intended to rise very high like a sponge cake. When decorated with icing they will be indistinguishable from any other fruit cake. Obviously you must use vegetable margarine.
A brownie type cake can be made without egg using only baking powder to make it rise. It will not have the height of a traditional sponge cake. But once it is cool you can assemble it into a taller and more impressive creation.
A cake of this kind can be made with good quality vegetable oil rather than margarine. This has definite health benefits.
For preference use whole meal flour in your vegan cake. You can also cut down on sugar or eliminate it altogether by using applesauce or grated carrot to sweeten it. This will make your vegan cake a much healthier option.
Sometimes you will have just have to make a birthday cake. In this case you will have to resort to an egg substitute. There is no other way to get the effect of a sponge that rises and stays risen when baked. The protein in the egg sets in the process of baking. Your local health food store will be able to provide you with a product known as Ener-G Egg Replacer. This will do the job and allow you to produce a vegan cake that is indistinguishable from a the "real thing."

Why Vegans Don't Consume Dairy Products
Becoming a vegan means giving up milk and dairy products such as butter and cheese. This a major change for people who are used to a European diet that historically has always used dairy produce.
But in many cultures dairy produce is eaten at all or only rarely. A vegan diet is common in some non-Western societies. It is therefore entirely possible to eat a balanced vegan diet that does not include dairy produce.
The emphasis on dairy produce in the Western diet has produced an enormous industry to stock our supermarket shelves. The nature of this industry is perhaps one of the best reasons for becoming a vegan and cutting milk and dairy produce out of your diet.
What was once a treat for high days and holidays has become a daily staple. There are powerful commercial interests involved in encouraging us to eat more dairy produce. That change in our diet has had serious effects on health. The same changes can be seen in other cultures that are in the process of changing to a Western diet.
The demand for milk has created an intensive dairy industry in which cows are treated as units of production not living creatures. Dairy cows are selectively bred for the highest milk yield. They are impregnated every year so that they continue to produce milk.
Cows in intensive dairy units are treated with antibiotics and hormones. Some of them never set foot on grass. The old image of the placid dairy cow in a green field is a thing of the past.
Calves are no more than a by-product of the process of producing milk. They are taken from their mothers within weeks of their birth. Male calves are disposed of as uneconomic or are sent for veal production.
More humane farming systems are used on some farms. Vegetarians who wish to consume dairy produce should seek out milk produced on farms with high welfare standards.
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But even if you can source good quality dairy produce from farms with high welfare standards you may wish to eliminate dairy produce from your diet and become a vegan. A vegan diet is a realistic option and for many people a vegan diet is an ethical option.

Why Vegans Don't Eat Eggs
Vegans are vegetarians who do not eat eggs or any other animal product. This is the strictest form of vegetarianism.
Many people feel that this is too extreme and too restrictive. They prefer a form of vegetarianism that includes eggs and other animal products that do not involve the death or harm of living creatures.
Vegetarians cooking for children are often advised to include some eggs in their diet. Pregnant women who are vegetarians often do the same. The advantage of eggs is that they are highly nutritious. They contain the same nutrients as meat because they are the food supply for the embryonic chick.
But modern farming techniques are convincing an increasing number of people that it is unethical to eat eggs. The battery farms in which most of the eggs available on supermarket shelves are produced cause harm and suffering to millions of hens. They are kept in confined conditions without space to move and engage in natural behavior. As a result they peck one another and have to be de-beaked. Their legs are malformed and they lose their feathers.
Some of us opt for free range eggs but there is no agreed definition of what free range means. Without visiting the farm it is very hard to know how the hens that produced the eggs have been treated. Even in a free range setting the chicks have been selected to ensure that they are female. A huge number of male chicks are discarded in this process and go into industrially prepared foods.
You might decide to raise your own hens. Backyard poultry keeping is becoming increasingly popular. But even here there are ethical decisions to be made. Hens that are no longer laying eggs traditionally go into the pot. That is fine if you are a carnivore but not if you are a vegetarian.
There are also strong health reasons for not eating eggs. Eggs are a source of saturated fat. They can raise you cholesterol level. So if you are worried about your heart health and have been told to reduce you cholesterol level it may be worth thinking about a vegan diet. It is possible for an adult to eat a balanced diet that does not include eggs.

You Are What You Eat
You’ve certainly heard the expression many times, “You are what you eat.” Have you ever really thought about what it means? And do you think about it when you’re making food choices?
In some ways, we do become what we eat, literally. Have you ever seen an example of your blood plasma after eating a fast food hamburger? What was previously a clear liquid becomes cloudy with the fat and cholesterol that’s absorbed from eating a high-fat hamburger.
And when you think about it, we also become what we don’t eat. When we switch from eating meat to a vegetarian-based diet, we become less fat, less prone to many types of cancers. Our cholesterol can improve. When we’re leaner and eating fewer animal products, then many other health and fitness issues are reduced. The incidence of Type II diabetes is reduced. Blood pressure falls into normal ranges. When you’re healthier, you’re taking fewer medications. Even if you have a prescription drug benefit in your health plan, you’re still saving money with fewer co-payments on medications.
If you have a family history of high cholesterol or high blood pressure, then it’s particularly incumbent on you to revise your eating habits. Moving towards a more vegetarian diet has been shown statistically to reduce the incidence of so many of the diseases of industrialized countries. Vegetarians are statistically healthier than omnivorous persons; they’re leaner and live longer.
Isn’t it time to think about what you want to be and to eat accordingly? Do you want to be sluggish and fat? Do you want the risk that goes with eating animal products, with their high fat content? Or do you want to look like and be what vegetarians are? Leaner and fitter with a longer anticipated lifespan. It’s never too late to change what you’re doing and increase your chances for a longer, fitter life.
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Turkeys
The consumption of turkeys in the U.S. has escalated through the years. It’s no longer eaten primarily at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but throughout the year. The process of mass- producing turkeys for human consumption is as barbaric, if not more so, than the process of mass-producing chickens.
Turkeys are kept in cramped, dark spaces to discourage the naturally aggressive behaviors that occur when an animal is kept confined without space to roam and feed freely. They’re overfed to the point where their legs can’t support the weight of the breast tissue. And this animal which normally has a 10-years life span is generally slaughtered at about 2 years of age.
Unhealthy and overcrowded conditions mean that disease amongst commercial turkeys is widespread, resulting in approximately 2.7 million turkeys dying in their sheds every year. Foot and leg deformities, heat stress and starvation caused by the inability of immature birds to find the feed and water troughs are commonplace. Ulcerated feet and hock burns are common - caused by continual contact with litter contaminated by urine and feces.
Can you really sit at dinner on your next holiday and look at a roasted turkey the same way? Turkeys come with the same recommendations for cleanliness and cooking that chickens do. You have to be sure they’re cooked to a specific temperature to ensure that any disease- causing bacteria are completely killed. You should clean up any counter space with bleach, again to kill all bacteria.
It makes a compelling case for switching to a vegetarian diet, doesn’t it? Suddenly, the jokes about vegetarian dinners, with nut loaves and vegetables, instead of meat, seem to make more sense, not only from a health standpoint, but from a humane issue as well. Why do we persist in eating in such a way that makes us unhealthy and is inherently bad for us? For you next holiday dinner, consider the possibilities of an all-vegetarian menu. So much of the dinner is vegetable- based to begin with; it’s a small change to replace turkey with a plant-based main course as well.
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Pig Farming
Many people reject eating pork and other meats derived from pigs for religious reasons or health reasons. When people start eating a more vegetarian diet, red meat is usually the first thing they eliminate from their diets. When they do, various health indicators generally start to improve, such as their cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings. Health is one of the most compelling reasons to eat vegetarian, but the inhumane treatment of the animals mass- produced for human consumption is another reason many people are rejecting a carnivorous diet.
Pig farming follows the same processes that chicken farming and other animal farming employ. The pigs are kept in small crates with limited movement. They’re overfed so they can be slaughtered more quickly. Their living conditions can be dirty and they’re fed growth hormones to stimulate weight gain and antibiotics to ward off diseases that are the results of their living conditions.
They’re forced to live in unnatural conditions and they exhibit signs of chronic stress that other animals produced for human food do. They chew on the bars of their cages or worry with their water bottles excessively. Their limited range of movement prevents the rooting behavior that’s natural for a pig.
The pigs pay an extremely high price to feed us. And we pay a high price for eating pork and other red meat. We’re basically not made to eat meat. Our teeth weren’t developed to rip and tear meat. We evolved from herbivores and it’s still the better way for us to eat. When we eliminate red meat and other meats and animal products from our diet, we get healthier – more lean and fit, less tired and sluggish. And there’s the added psychological benefit of knowing that we’re not contributing to the suffering of innocent animals.
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