We always knew that but here’s a scientific view of a “cereal chemist” (what a job title) J.R. Oliver.

Bread is able to provide more satisfying bulk (by virtue of the complex carbohydrates) and almost as much protein. As a protein source, bread is cheap: at $1.20/680 g loaf, bread will provide 45 g protein per dollar whereas T-bone at $8/kg only provides 18 g protein per dollar. However, bread protein is deficient in the amino acid lysine and as such cannot be used as a total meat protein replacement. Nonetheless it has a valuable contribution to make to the diet because of its proteins, its complex carbohydrates and also because it is a valuable source of many vitamins (B-group particularly) and minerals.

This is definitely a good news despite the claim that bread cannot be used as “a total meat replacement” due to lack of lysine. Legumes are one of the richest sources of lysine.

Technorati Tags: vegan, vegetarian, protein, diet, nutrition, bread, meat

UK’s Animal Friends Insurance (AFI) offers cheaper life insurance premiums to vegetarians. The insurer is offering this discount based on the assumption that vegetarians are a lot less likely to suffer from a variety of illnesses. The company estimates that “the risk of vegetarians suffering from cancers is reduced by up to 40% and from heart disease by up to 30%”.

If you don’t eat meat, then you could expect to save approximately 10% on your Life Insurance premiums for the entire life of your policy! For example a 30-year-old female non-smoker Non-Meat Eater could pay just over £5 a month for £100,000 worth of cover over 25 years!

By introducing this policy AFI plans to remove the unfairness in the insurance industry when only non-smokers get to pay cheaper premiums whereas vegetarians are not being rewarded in the same way for their healthier lifestyle.

Although there’s no medical test that would confirm that you’re a strict vegetarian, the insurer is confident that meat eaters will not take advantage of this.

AFI is a non-profit insurance company that donates net profits from it’s business to animal charities worldwide.

Technorati Tags: vegetarian, vegan, lifestyle, insurance, AFI, UK

Many people automatically think that vegetarian diet is healthy. This is not entirely true. Although it’s a lot easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle on a vegetarian diet, the very assumption that your diet is healthy only because it’s vegetarian can bring problems.

Sometimes vegetarians can be very unhealthy either through laziness or lack of planning. If you assume that you can eat junk food as long as it’s vegetarian, you’ll find yourself with lots of health issues sooner or later. This is one of the reasons why some  do not last as vegetarians. Without proper planning a vegetarian diet can easily lead to things like obesity or nutrient deficiencies.

It’s a natural reaction for many recent vegetarians to replace high in fat and protein foods (e.g. meat) with starchy carbohydrates e.g. bread, pasta, potato. If you have a tendency to gain weight easily, it’s better to keep starchy carbs and sugars to a minimum and instead get more of veggies (except potato) especially greens, nuts, soy and wheat protein, fruit and dairy products. Try to eat as often as possible even 6 times a day. When you plan your snacks and are never hungry you have less temptation to resort to junk food.

If you’re new to a vegetarian diet try to learn more about nutrition and carefully think how you can replace your usual non-vegetarian foods with vegetarian alternatives. By doing it only once you’ll ensure that you’ll enjoy your new diet a lot more and will be a healthy vegetarian.

If you travel to eat you can’t go wrong with 6 tips for the traveling vegetarian. Unfortunately most of us can’t afford the luxury of planning every food intake mission. When you’re lucky to spare just a few minutes for lunch, how do you ensure that you get something fast and vegetarian? Here’s your food court guide to vegetarian eating out.

Mediterranean (or close to it) - Definitely go for salads. If you’re a vegan then skip pizza and Greek salad. You can always ask for steamed veggies (usually cauliflower, broccoli, beans) or baked potato and pumpkin.

Chinese/Vietnamese - Even non vegetarian places will have a pretty good idea how to cook vegetarian food. If you’re a vegan that’s probably one of the best options as they do not use cheese or milk. Even if it’s not on their menu they’ll be happy to make stir fry veggies with tofu and some kind of sauce.

Japanese - Sushi is a pretty safe bet. There are sushi with seaweed, tofu, vegetable eg cucumber, carrot, avocado. Seaweed salad and miso soup is an excellent addition to the above.

Indian - Although almost 40% of Indian population are vegetarians you’d be hard pressed to find a pure vegetarian Indian restaurant or a fast food outlet anywhere but India. Fortunately, almost any Indian cuisine specialist would have a couple of vegetarian dishes. Don’t count on them if you’ve a vegan as milk, ghee and paneer are used nearly everywhere.

Turkish - You’ll be surprised to find quite a few vegetarian options on the menu. Any vegetable that can be stuffed with or wrapped around rice is a go. This includes grapevine leaves, capsicums, tomatoes, eggplant, beans and spinach. Top it up with falafel and you’ll be set for a quick lunch.

If you look carefully you’ll discover a lot more options than I mention here. And just in case you find yourself in a foreign country without a foreign language make sure you head to http://www.allergytranslation.com and order yourself wallet size cards with you dietary requirements listed in the language of your choice. This will make your eating out even easier, and you’ll save yourself lots of trouble trying to explain what exactly you eat.

Marc Mongiardo from Nevada has a very non-vegetarian job. He’s a butcher. This didn’t stop him from becoming a vegan. For the last 5 years Marc has been also educating his customers about benefits of minimising meat consumption and switching to free range meat products. I can’t imagine how this can be good for his business but it’s definitely a good step towards saving more animals from slaughter.

“I feel like the process of people eating meat is going to be present no matter what. By cutting meat and knowing what it is, it helps reinforce the reasons why I am a vegan.”

Some animal liberation activists might be fuming about his semi-veganism. It helps to remember though, he’s not a vegan turned butcher, he’s a butcher becoming vegan. There’s a difference.

Thinking back about my teenage year, I now realise that I was an unconscious vegetarian for as long as I can remember. I never used to intentionally eat any meat product unless there’s some social influence that I wasn’t able to avoid.

In our world we’d never heard about the very idea of vegetarianism. And neither my parents nor myself ever thought that there’s anything strange about me digging into salads and potato dishes. So everyone accepted that I can eat what I liked most. Since nobody had any idea about nutrition either, they didn’t tell me what foods I should be eating to be strong and healthy. I can’t think of any event that could prompt me to choose vegetarian food. I didn’t see any startling displays of animal cruelty, even if I did, I didn’t really thought they’d have any significance.

A few years later through study of Eastern philosophies I discovered the concept of vegetarianism. It made it easy for me to understand why non violence and vegetarianism exists, however it wasn’t something that I needed to justify my choice of foods. I never questioned if a vegetarian diet is good for health or gives me enough protein etc. I just ate the way I liked. Of course, I became more conscious about what I ate and started reading labels, as opposed to just avoiding dishes with obvious pieces of meat in them.

I often find it interesting that some people think it’s hard to live, survive or shop on a vegetarian diet. I find it hard not to. Of course, modern technology makes it extremely easy, to purchase meat products in a totally “guilt free” pre-packaged way. Save the horrible bits that most wouldn’t want to take take part in, to put their food on the table, there’s still an awful lot of work required to make a living creature into a food item.

Without this “ready to eat” convenience most people would just go for vegetarian food only because it’s a lot easier to prepare, or it can be eaten right off the tree or a veggie patch. If it’s not for massive advertising of things that are “good for you” to eat, I wonder if there would be more unconscious vegetarians?

Although I never needed a reason to become a vegetarian, “discovering” vegetarianism got me interested in personal development, nutrition, bodybuilding, ancient cultures, philosophy and even zoology.