Vegetarian Meals - A True Bonaza

Cooking vegetarian meals is a lot like following a good road map or guideline. Most cooking instructions or recipes are just that – a good road map. Cooking is chemistry; you add the ingredients, heat or cold at the correct time and out pops a delicious meal.

There are four or five different categories of vegetarians but only three main categories; and all are vegetarian to one degree or another. Preparing vegetarian meals will not require that you shop in specialty stores. Most groceries now carry organic fruits and vegetables and some organic dried staples.

Vegetarian meals are at their best when you use the best ingredients. The best ingredients are free of herbicides and pesticides and are organically grown. When you are preparing meals you should know and apply good food combination principles, not only for taste and appearance but also to so you receive all the important nutrients throughout the day.

Shopping for organic and vegetarian ingredients should not be difficult. Most groceries now carry organic produce and organically prepared prepackaged foods. Organically prepared foods are marked “organically grown”.

You should read the labels on processed and pre-packaged foods to figure out if they really are vegetarian. Some foods that you would think are vegetarian also include animal by-products or gelatin in the preparation.

Another tip to good vegetarian meals and lifestyle is to include a fast every week or two. The fast is 24 hours in length. People can chose to drink juices during the fast or not. If you do chose juice try to use freshly juiced fruits and vegetables to receive the most from the fresh enzymes and nutrients.

Fasting will help to clear your digestive system and help your body to work more efficiently. Only in today’s society have we learned to eat three meals a day each and every day. Our hunting and gathering ancestors often went a day or two without food, if food wasn’t available.

If you are cooking vegetarian meals for children you must take care to meet their special nutritional needs. Because most vegetarian foods are low in fat you have to include fat in their diets, especially if they are less than 2 years. Fat is vital to the brain growth of children less than 2.

Another advantage to eating vegetarian meals is that the need to count calories is almost nil. Most of the foods you are eating are low in calories and high in fiber and nutrients. Even the foods that are high in fat like nuts, seeds and avocados do not cause cholesterol issues since they are plant source of fat and not animal source.

As a vegetarian lifestyle becomes more popular restaurants are including vegetarian meals on their menu. Restaurants are also likely to make some accommodations to their current foods to make a meal that you can eat.

Eating and cooking vegetarian meals doesn’t have to be boring. Include foods you don’t normally eat, taste a variety of fruits and vegetables. You’ll be surprised at how the variety makes your meals more pleasurable.
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Vegetarian Diet Secret Revealed

Vegetarian diets are not just for health nuts anymore. Research has shown to improve the health of people eating vegetarian diets as well as giving them more energy and to help with weight loss as well as weight maintenance.

And vegetarian diets aren’t boring either. In the past years agriculture has advanced in the quality and variety of foods that weren’t available 50 years ago. Although we are creatures of habit the next time you go to the grocery store take a look around. Look past the apples, oranges and bananas to the star fruit, mangoes and kiwi. Although green peppers are a staple they also come in three other colors – red, yellow and orange – all with a distinctive sweet flavor.

Our sense of taste usually dictates what we will or won’t eat but our bodies require a variety of foods to stay healthy. We have become slaves to our palates without remembering that we eat so that we can live. Not the other way around. We do not live so that we can eat.

Unfortunately many people fall victim to advertising and the fast food gimmick that is part of today’s culture. Some fast food restaurants are actually beginning to offer vegetarian diet options – although the quality and nutritional benefits are questionable.

We actually have the ability to cultivate our tastes. In other words, keep trying vegetables, nuts and seeds in your diet. It won’t be long before something that once tasted ‘bad’ to you will be a vegetable or fruit you enjoy. A vegetarian diet can include a variety of greens, root vegetables, juices, nuts and seeds to ensure that our most important life insurance policy is paid up in full; that we are providing our bodies the health and nutrition that we need. We are, after all, exactly what we eat.

Some people take the position that ‘something’ will kill you at one point or another, so why not enjoy all the things that life has to offer. Unfortunately it may not be the length of life that is affected but the quality. Vegetarian diets decrease your risk of living life with pain, medications, need for oxygen delivery systems or faced with a life in a wheelchair, which is the outcome and not certain death.

For instance, dietary habits in Norway were studied and found that women who ate a significant amount of fat from meat based diets had 2.5 times the risk for developing breast cancer than those who didn’t eat meat.

Another argument against a vegetarian diet is that they require more work since you must be sure to get the correct amount of protein and essential amino acids. But, there are no perfect foods and even people who routinely include meat in their diets can be malnourished for exactly the same reasons.

Vegetarian diets are a choice. But what is interesting is that because you eat a vegetarian diet doesn’t mean it has to be a total vegetarian diet to get the heath benefits from eating more fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Integrating vegetarian cooking and meals into your daily habits will only help to improve your health and increase your energy.

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Simple And Healthy Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone

Vegetarian cooking is for everyone in the family, from baby to the centurian and is not as difficult as you might imagine. Everyone in the family can benefit from a diet high in vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds with little to no animal protein and fats.

Some people chose a vegetarian lifestyle because of political reasons, others because of religious reasons and still others are animal activists. Social, economic and health reasons round out the motivations that are common for choosing a vegetarian lifestyle.

Most vegetarians eat no animal flesh at all; no red meat, no fish, no fowl and no game. Some vegetarians will eat eggs and dairy products while others will eat neither. How you make your meals will depend upon a variety of vegetables that range in color and texture. You want to include high quality oils, sea salts and organic foods.

When you are cooking do not substitute textured vegetable protein, such as tofu or tempeh, for meat in your meals. There are recipes that use those proteins in the meal and the meal is designed for them.

Cooking is chemistry in the kitchen. In other words, mixing foods together is really the same as mixing chemicals in the lab together – there is a specific mixture that will produce excellent results. Using high quality contents makes for delicious meals. Substituting textured vegetable proteins for meat in recipes that require meat only leads to poor tasting meals using a high cost product.

Most families also enjoy pastas. Your cooking can include whole grain pastas and spaghettis. Using whole grain pasta, and not whole wheat pasta, will make an improvement in the food you eat and your health. Add plenty of vegetables to increase the fiber content of the meal and reduce the calorie intake. One recipe with pasta can include lots of vegetables tossed with a good flavored olive oil that was sautéed with garlic.

Pizzas are a wonderful addition to your recipe arsenal. Diced tomatoes, olive oil or red sauce and quick sautéed vegetables will tempt your taste buds. Cheese is actually optional on pizza!

But your vegetarian meals do not stop there. Chinese foods can be very healthy when you steer clear of the fried foods and the dishes that feature noodles. Stick with the sautéed vegetables. Do you have a favorite sauce? You can request that sauce over your favorite vegetables – hold the meat please!

When you are cooking your meals you also have children to consider. As vegetarian diets are becoming more popular several good vegetarian cookbooks have been written specifically to meet the caloric and nutritional needs of children. Salads and cooked vegetables will not meet the needs of your children. But a properly balanced vegetarian diet will.

When you are a vegetarian, cooking for everyone in your family, you may have a bit more planning to do but the end results are definitely worth the effort. You and your family are healthier and more energetic. You can face the world with more energy than you’ve ever had!

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Vegan Vegetarian - Why we need it

A vegetarian lifestyle is becoming more popular as research shows that vegetarians live longer and healthier lives. A vegan vegetarian is the strictest type of vegetarian diet and practiced by the minority of vegetarians. However, while it has the strictist diet regimen, it also reduces your potential for disease by the greatest amount. As with any anything else, the greatest effort often yeilds the most reward.

The vegetarian way of eating isn’t new. As far back as 400 B.C. vegan vegetarians were called Pythagoreans after the famous philosopher who believed that as long as people were committing murder, killing animals, they would not have joy and love in their lives.

Vegans were called Pythagoreans until 1847, when the term vegetarian was coined by Joseph Brotherton in Kent, England at the inaugural meeting of the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom. The word vegetarian is a derivation of the Latin word Vegetus meaning whole, sound or fresh.

The original Pythagoreans enjoyed a lifestyle that was with or without eggs, although most people included eggs in their diet. Today there are several types of vegetarians, vegans are only one.

The basic definition of vegetarianism is people who do not eat meat, poultry, fish or the by products of animals, with or without the use of dairy or eggs in the diet. Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarians eat eggs and milk products. This is the most popular type of vegetarian lifestyle.

Lacto-vegetarians eat milk products such as cheese, yogurt, milk and ice cream. They don’t eat eggs. Strict vegans eat no meat of any type, no dairy, no eggs and no meat by-products. They eat only fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Some vegans aren’t strictly dietary and also don’t use animal products in their clothing or household goods. Veganism is a way of living that attempts to exclude all forms of exploiting animals for food, clothing or other purposes.

Vegan diets use less energy and water resources than does the growth of livestock. Plant growth uses the energy and water resources while the livestock depletes the resources. Decrease plant growth also contributes to soil erosion, ground water depletion and deforestation.

Vegan diets have a positive impact on more than just your health and environment. Becoming a vegetarian is not as difficult as you might imagine. And once you’ve tried the vegan lifestyle, full of energy, good health and positive impact on your life, you’ll never go back!

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Becoming A Vegetarian - What You must Know

Becoming a vegetarian is easier than you might think. Vegetarian eating is different but not difficult; it takes commitment, but it isn’t rocket science.

First you have to distinguish what type of vegetarian you are most interested in becoming and, more importantly, why? People become vegetarians for many reasons. You may convert to vegetarianism because of religion, animal rights, and health and wellness reasons. You must define your reason first so that you know where to turn for motivation and support when you are faced with adversity.

Becoming a vegetarian means not eating meat, which includes beef, poultry, fish or even the by-products of meat like dairy or eggs. Whole foodies do all of that PLUS eat only raw foods like fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts.

Most people make the decision to become a vegetarian because of health and wellness reasons. But Hindu and Buddhists are strict vegetarians and others practice vegetarian eating habits because they are animal activists and abhor the treatment of animals during the slaughter process.

Becoming a vegetarian has gained widespread acceptance in the past 5 years as research is showing that eating a vegetarian diet will lower a persons risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

There is more than one way to eat a vegetarian diet. You should know yourself enough to know if going cold turkey or moving into a vegetarian lifestyle slowly will be more successful. Making the change slowly begins by excluding meat and fish. Some people find that excluding one type of meat a month makes the transition easier.

Recent research has shown that vegetarians live longer and healthier lives. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) states on their website that vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, foliate and antioxidants such as Vitamins C and E.

Becoming a vegetarian also makes it easier to maintain an appropriate weight. Some criticisms include the difficulty that some people have getting all of their essential nutrients. However, eating a normal variety of whole grains, beans, nuts, and vegetables will OFTEN give vegetarians more than adequate amounts of the essential nutrients.

After becoming a vegetarian many people report “feeling better” and having more energy with the diet change. Your daily dietary intake should include vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and whole grains in order to maximize your intake of the necessary vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs to thrive.

Becoming a vegetarian is a choice. Everyday you chose your diet, exercise, stress levels and work patterns. Sometimes we think they are chosen for us but it’s just not the case. We choose. Becoming a vegetarian is a continuum effect. It’s never that you are or you aren’t but rather how much of a vegetarian are you?

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