Fat, Calories, and Fiber. In addition to vitamins and minerals, vegetarians need to keep an eye on their total intake of calories and fat. Vegetarian diets tend to be.Fermented Foods: Top 1. Reasons to Eat Them. Fermented foods began to disappear from our plate very recently. Nowadays, pickles and sauerkraut are made with vinegar instead of the traditional method of lacto- fermentation using salt. Bread and pasta are made with commercial yeast instead of being naturally leavened with wild yeast (sourdough). Wine, beer and cheeses are being pasteurized — killing off all the good bacteria we so desperately need to maintain health. There are many advantages to going back to the traditional ways of our ancestors, and eating more fermented foods. Humans all over the world have been fermenting food since ancient times. The earliest evidence of winemaking dates back to eight thousand years ago in the Caucasus area of Georgia. Seven- thousand- year- old jars which once contained wine were excavated in the Zagros Mountains in Iran. There is evidence that people were making fermenting beverages in Babylon around 5. BC, ancient Egypt circa 3. BC, pre- Hispanic Mexico circa 2. BC, and Sudan circa 1. BC. There is also evidence of leavened bread in ancient Egypt dating back to 1. BC and of milk fermentation in Babylon circa 3. BC.“In the normal scheme of things, we'd never have to think twice about replenishing the bacteria that allow us to digest food. But since we're living with antibiotic drugs and chlorinated water and antibacterial soap and all these factors in our contemporary lives that I'd group together as a . Fermented foods improve digestion. Fermenting our foods before we eat them is like partially digesting them before we consume them. Tan Hsueh Yun recommends PEPPER JADE. Son-In-Law Eggs from Pepper Jade, a Thai vegetarian restaurant at Sunshine Plaza. ST PHOTO: TAN HSUEH YUN. Have you heard about the Paleo diet and were curious about how to get started? AN EARLY START ON A VEGETARIAN LIFESTYLE Nutritional Recommendations for Vegetarian Children By Sharon Palmer, RD In 2005, an Arizona couple was charged with child abuse. Veganism is both the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of. According to Joanne Slavin, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, “. That's because the lactose (which is usually the part people can't tolerate) in milk is broken down as the milk is fermented and turns into yogurt.”2. Fermented foods restore the proper balance of bacteria in the gut. Do you suffer from lactose intolerance? Irritable bowel syndrome? All of these conditions have been linked to a lack of good bacteria in the gut. Raw, Fermented Foods Are Rich in Enyzmes. Vegetarian Eating Patterns 211 Protein One misperception of vegetarian diets is that they are universally low in protein. Protein is found in a. Your body needs enzymes to adequately digest, absorb, and utilize the nutrients in your food. Fermenting Food Increases Vitamin Content. Fermented dairy products show an increased level of folic acid which is critical to producing healthy babies as well as pyroxidine, B vitamins, riboflavin and biotin depending on the strains of bacteria present. Vitamin Profiles of Kefirs Made from Milk of Different Species. International Journal of Food Science & Technology. Eating Fermented Foods Help Us Absorb the Nutrients. You can ingest huge amounts of nutrients, but unless you actually absorb them, they're useless to you. When you improve digestion, you improve absorption. Fermented Foods Keep Longer. Milk will go bad in the fridge but kefir and yogurt last a lot longer. Sauerkraut, pickles and salsa will keep for months. And if you've got a huge batch of produce in your garden that you don't know how to use up — ferment it! Fermented Foods Are Inexpensive. There's nothing fancy required for this hobby. And many of the foods required to make these recipes are very cheap. You can use inexpensive cabbage to make sauerkraut, or get yourself some water kefir grains and with just pennies' worth of water and sugar, you've got a health elixir slash soda pop. Fermented foods Have More Flavor. There's a reason humans enjoy drinking wine and eating stinky cheese. There's a reason we like sauerkraut on our hot dogs and salsa on our tortilla chips. Fermented Foods Build Immunity. I cured my rheumatoid arthritis and seasonal allergies, (both auto- immune disorders) by taking therapeutic- grade probiotics for two years. Fermented Foods Preserve Your Harvest. I love my vegetable garden. But I can't use all the vegetables I harvest. Fermenting my peppers, cucumbers, and cabbage allows me to preserve my harvest. And it costs almost nothing! How to Incorporate More Fermented Foods Into Your Diet. Look for sourdough bread instead of bread made with commercial yeast. Or you can make your own. Drink fermented beverages. Kefir is available at many health food stores. It's also very easy to make at home. Serve food with pickles, sauerkraut, salsa, ketchup, sour cream, kim chi, mayonnaise and other naturally fermented condiments. You can buy naturally fermented condiments at health food stores — or make your own. Get creative and experiment! Try making kefir ice cream, sourdough crackers, fermented coconut milk, mead (honey wine), Eat some Japanese natto (it's good!) with rice. Visit an Ethiopian restaurant and sample some of their delicious fermented injera bread. The options are endless! How to Ferment Foods At Home. It's easy to get started with fermentation. You just need some starter cultures, some mason jars, and you're good to go. Some of My Recipes for Fermented Foods. Here are a few of my recipes for fermented foods: Kefir. Salsa. No Knead Sourdough Bread. How to Make Whey & Homemade Cream Cheese. Kefir Soda Pop. BBQ Natto with Shrimp. You might also enjoy this article I wrote about the benefits of eating naturally fermented sourdough bread: Top 1. Reasons To Eat Real Sourdough Bread — Even If You're Gluten Intolerant. Pin This Post. Photo credit: Daikon Kimchi by peskymac on Flickr, Veganbaking. Why I'm A Vegetarian, Dammit . Usually it is in a situation where only a sentence or two is wanted as an answer, so I’ll say “because I wouldn’t like to kill an animal, and it doesn’t make sense to me to have someone else do it for me.” Which is completely true, but doesn’t really convey the complexity of my thoughts on the subject. On this blog, I’ve primarily focused on recipes, with a smattering of book and product reviews. But I thought I’d take one article to talk about my choice to be vegetarian. Let me start with a couple of reasons that aren’t my reason. Some folks are vegetarian for the health benefits. I’ve never been too interested in that angle. It seems that there are some net positives, although, as with any area of nutrition and medical research, there are so many confounding factors it is difficult to say much with certainty. I look at this more as a bonus. Since I’m not getting a lot of saturated fat from meat, it means I probably have a little more leeway to eat extra cheese and chocolate. My weight has stayed quite constant for years, and my vitals are all good. So knock wood. Then there are people that go veg because of the environment. It takes vastly more grain, water and petroleum inputs to produce a given number of calories and grams of protein of meat than if you eat the grain directly. Again, for me the environmental benefit is a nicely aligned bonus, not a primary reason. Undoubtedly being a vegetarian does mean treading more lightly on the resources of our increasingly crowded planet, and I’m all for that, for the same reasons I recycle or compost. But I think that alone wouldn’t make me 1. I’m much closer in philosophy to those who are vegetarian for animal welfare reasons. You’ve seen the pictures of calves in confinement boxes, debeaked chickens, tubes forced down the throats of geese to make foie gras, acres of fish gasping for air in the hold of a ship, and a hundred other horrors of factory farming. I’d personally never want to support that kind of treatment. In recent years, there has been a huge upsurge in demand for and availability of ethically raised animals. For many folks, that resolves the issue. They choose to partake of meat, but only when they know the animal has been well treated in life and death. I totally get that, and certainly if I were going to eat meat, I’d go that route. In my mind there is no question that it is a vast improvement over industrial methods. That concept also goes hand- in- hand with a commitment to eating the whole animal, which is more honorable than wasting much of it. For me, the choice is even more personal and visceral. When I look in the eyes of an animal, I simply feel this sense of empathy, and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that they feel pain, can and do suffer, and want to live. Am I anthropomorphizing? And I’m not foolish enough to think that they feel or emote or remember in the same way as humans. Still, when I see a pig or a chicken, a cow or a goat or a fish, I just never think “boy, I’d like to cut your head off, skin you and eat your muscles”. I remember feeling this way even as a kid. I never liked even to bait a fishhook. The idea of spearing the living worm was abhorrent to me. I assume that that basic revulsion towards killing or inflicting pain on animals is there, in me, for a reason. I’m sure that I could learn to override it, but in normal circumstances, why would I want to? Let me be clear: if I ever find myself lost and starving in the woods with a gun (highly unlikely!) and no knowledge of edible plants (sadly, likely), look out deer- boy, you are going down. I don’t judge other folks. The vast majority of my friends eat animals, as does my wife (rather infrequently). I watch cooking shows and read cookbooks that include lots of meat recipes. I often watch Iron Chef (Japanese or American) and see rather gross butchering that makes my meat eating loved ones utterly nauseous, and I can watch usually with equanimity. Because that is simply what other people choose to do, and I respect their choices. I guess I only gently hope that everyone gives it thought and checks with themselves to make sure there isn’t too big of a disconnect between their beliefs and their choices. I applaud anyone who has made a conscious decision in any direction. I can’t really argue with the idea that eating meat is a natural, human behavior. Certainly our ancestors have been doing it a long time, though many of our closest primate cousins don’t. It just isn’t the right choice for me. I’ve also found the argument that vegetarians are responsible for deaths of millions of animals in plowed farm fields to be disturbing and a bit persuasive. I’ve simply had to accept that perfection is not accesible to humans, that we do the best we can. I also undoubtedly step on untold numbers of tiny bugs everyday. Whadaya gonna do? Along the same lines, I’m a lacto- ovo vegetarian. I eat dairy products and eggs, and I know that often involves cows and chickens living uncomfortable or unhappy lives. I’m simply not willing to go vegan, but again that is a choice I respect. I do try to choose the most ethical dairy and eggs I can get my hands on. I want to be honest. For me there are significant downsides to being vegetarian. As you know I’m an extremely avid cook, and hope to open a restaurant someday. That path would be drastically easier if I ate and cooked meat. There would be many more restaurants where I could apprentice, and many more potential patrons when I have my own place. As a cook, I’d probably enjoy the added challenge of learning how to work with a whole additional range of ingredients. And I firmly believe that planning menus around meat is much easier. Simply starting with the “protein”, as it is euphemistically called, lays a big flavorful foundation which requires only simple accompaniments to make a great plate of food. Vegetarian cooking requires generally more prep and more creativity. Also, I dislike the feeling of social disconnection that comes from not being able to share in other people’s food culture and hospitality, especially when traveling abroad. I recently read an article by another long- standing vegetarian who chose to eat meat while visiting his friends in France. That wouldn’t work for me, but I can understand the impulse. It was a pleasure to travel in India a few years ago, where being vegetarian is a totally normal, accepted way of life. All of that said, I don’t think of being vegetarian as some sort of privation. I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to drink, I love to share the pleasure of the table with friends. I love the incredible variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and dairy products that are available. I love the farmer’s market. I love great restaurants whether with 5 stars or 5 greasy tables. I love exploring new cuisines. I love the thrice daily ritual of dining, and the multi- sensory experience in a world that lately seems to be confined to keyboards and pixels. I love when a bite of food makes me say “oh holy shit that is good”. So there you go. Now you know why I’m a vegetarian, and next time someone asks I can just rattle off this URL, right? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Are you a vegetarian with similar or different reasons? Does my thought process ring true to you or sound ridiculous? The Paleo Diet for Vegetarians.
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