the novice vegan

Recipe: Lasagna

2009-06-17T13:12:00.005-04:00

This recipe is adapted from my mom's lasagna recipe, which I thought couldn't be beat. I'm loving the vegan version.

Sauce:

24 ounces (two packages) Smart Ground (or other veggie protein crumble)
6 ounces tomato paste
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cheesy filling:

12-24 ounces vegan cheese substitute (Vegan Gourmet's mozzarella works well), finely grated
12 ounces Tofutti Sour Supreme
12 ounces firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt

9 lasagna noodles, cooked

Instructions:

Cook lasagna

Add and add tomato paste, tomato juice, water, parsley, salt, basil, oregano, sugar, and Smart Ground to frying pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

In bowl mix cheese, salt, basil, sour cream, and tofu.

Put 1/4 cup of sauce in bottom of 9 X 13 inch pan. Place three noodles on top of sauce. Put 1/3 cup of cheese mixture on top of noodles. Repeat two more times, ending with meat sauce on top.

Back at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for ten minutes before serving.

Article: Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States

2009-06-16T22:37:00.002-04:00

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es702969f

The above-linked article provides an interesting critique on the concern over the contribution of food transportation to green house gas emissions—the idea of eating locally. It argues that a dietary substitution away from meat has a greater potential to reduce a household's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions than an effort to purchase locally grown foods.

According to the article, the average household in the United States could have the same impact as buying local (which isn't very well defined in the article, but loosely means buying all household foods from local providers) if it substituted away from red meat and/or dairy for less than one day's consumption of calories.

The article isn't complete in its analysis in my opinion (doesn't include a full analysis of transporting other food items, such as cereals—the largest contributor to freight weight) and the model they use doesn't seem to capture all considerations of the cost of commodity flow. But I think it makes a very interesting argument.

I don't think that any of the article's conclusions justify ceasing efforts to buy locally. I could definitely further reduce my personal impact on the environment by eating locally. Plus, local purchasing has many benefits (and perhaps more important benefits) beyond reducing pollution, such as community-building and reconnecting the consumer with the origins of his or her food.

A good read.

Recipe: Carrot Cake

2009-06-07T18:38:00.002-04:00

My friend Claire introduced me to an amazing carrot cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the following ingredients in a large bowl:

3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon

In separate bowl combine the following:

1 1/2 cups corn oil
2 bananas, mashed
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In one more bowl combine:

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 1/3 cups cooked and mashed carrots
3/4 cups drained, crushed pineapple (one 20 ounce can)

Add the second bowl the the first, and mix well. Add the third bowl and mix. Batter should be thick.

Pour into two greased/floured 9 inch cake rounds and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Cake should pull away from the sides, and a toothpick should come out clean after being inserted into the middle.

The cake stands well on its own, but here's a great recipe for frosting from my grandmother (basically any grandmother knows this recipe, I'm sure):

Cook one cup of soy milk and five tablespoons of flour, stirring constantly over heat until thick. Cool completely.

In separate bowl cream two squares of margarine, one cup of sugar, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla. Add cooled flour and beat until creamy.

Voilà:

Recipe: Lemon-scented Quinoa Salad

2009-03-03T08:35:00.002-05:00

I had dinner with some friends last night. We made a great lemon-scented quinoa salad from 101cookbooks.com. The dressing is primarily tahini and lemon—an interesting bitter-sour combo. Highly recommended.

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 can garbanzo beans, or dried equivalent
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped

For the dressing:

1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped
1/4 cup tahini
Zest of one lemon
scant 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons hot water
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Rinse the quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa and water until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

While the quinoa is cooking make the dressing. Whisk together the garlic, tahini, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil. Add the hot water to thin a bit and then the salt.

Toss the cooked quinoa, beans, cilantro, red onion, and half of the dressing. Add more dressing if you like and season with more salt to taste. Serve garnished with a bit of cilantro.

Serves 4.

I doubled the recipe, but only used about 3/4 of the dressing.

Things to Eat: Trader Joe's Chicken-less Strips

2009-02-17T15:12:00.003-05:00

Soy meats make me nervous. But Trader Joe's Chicken-less Strips turn out to be a good option.

I personally prefer to eat them cold, like on a sandwich. But they're decent warmed up (just a little more soft in texture). They also have beef strips—I'm waiting to try them on a brave day.

I've also enjoyed the teriyaki soy chicken available in the deli at Whole Food.

Places To Eat: Washington, D.C.

2009-02-09T18:21:00.002-05:00

Here's a few great places in the D.C. area that offer excellent vegan options:

Sticky Fingers Bakery: Yummy baked goods, all vegan-style. The peanut butter fudge cake is going to blow you away. Located near the Columbia Heights Metro Station.

Vegetate: A posh atmosphere that offers many vegan options. Just a few blocks away from Logan Circle.

Busboys & Poets: My favorite place to eat in D.C. (pre and post vegan). Just go. Located near the U Street Corridor.

Moroni & Brother's Restaurant: Will make any pizza vegan (well, any pizza without meat). Found on Georgia Avenue.

Java Green: Cool little vegan/eco-friendly cafe. Down the road from Dupont.

Any others?

Article: Vegetarian Mortality Rates

2009-01-08T21:56:00.006-05:00

Denzil, my brother, pointed me to an interesting study done in 1999 on Vegetarian vs. non-vegetarian mortality rates. Interesting stuff.

Click Here.

Note: I found the conclusions stated in the abstract to be subtly different, both in strength and in principle, to the findings stated in the article (read it to see what I mean). A great study, though, regardless.

Apparently "in comparison with regular meat eaters, mortality from ischemic heart disease was 20% lower in occasional meat eaters, 34% lower in people who ate fish but not meat, 34% lower in lactoovovegetarians, and 26% lower in vegans." This surprised me. I thought that vegans would win out, hands down.

I inquired of my go-to guy for clarity on these (and many other) types of things - Dave, my brother-in-law. His thoughts on the study were very informative:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Mark,

I hadn't seen this. Thanks for soliciting our thoughts. Here is what I found to be significant:

There are 4 domains that I think should be examined in determining whether or not a study is valuable: 1. is the source reputable? 2. is the data highly-powered? 3. was the recruitment of subjects biased? 4. does the study address all possible interpretations of the data?

As for point 1, the investigators are heavy hitters. Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine aren't going to attach their name to easily-dismissed research. I was also pleased to see my alma mater (University of Otago) included. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is reliable, although I was surprised to see that this came out in 1999. That's considered old research in 2009.

As for point 2, this study is reasonably solid. The n was 76172, of whom 27808 were vegetarian. By way of comparison, a lot of PhD research is completed with n values as low as 100, so this study did have a respectably broad pool. At the same time, other significant studies have had much higher n values. The Cornell-Oxford-China Diet & Health Project studied 10,200 Taiwanese families, and used 1.4 million death certificates as their comparison group. In sum, the 'Mortality in vegetarians' study was better than many, but a higher n would have been better still. That said, all of the data they reference are statistically significant; I couldn't see any finding which was powered at more than .05 (and several findings were powered at P <.0001), which is a good sign. This means that there is very little possibility that these findings could have been arrived at via random chance, and that the variables chosen (i.e. vegetarianism) are almost certainly correlated with the findings.

As for point 3, there are some minor problems. Notice how subjects were recruited in the Oxford portion of the study: 'nonvegetarians were recruited from friends and relatives of vegetarians'. The problem is that vegetarians (who are generally healthy) aren't likely to have extremely unhealthy friends. I would guess that a cohort comprised entirely of 'non- vegetarian friends of vegetarians' is not representative of society as a whole, and would make the non-vegetarian cohort seem artificially healthier. A better recruitment method (e.g. truly random data sampling) would have been better.

As for point 4, the study does not address the possibility of lower morbidity for vegetarians, even in the absence of differences in mortality. This is an important limitation. Also not examined were differences in mortality from other causes (e.g. kidney disease).

On the whole, this study is (mostly) well-done. The main conclusion it draws is in the last line: 'In conclusion, vegetarians had a 24% lower mortality from ischemic heart disease than onvegetarians, but no associations of a vegetarian diet with other major causes of death were established.' Note that they didn't say 'associations of a vegetarian diet with other major causes of death were disproved', just that they weren't established by this study. The take home messages: 1. being vegetarian almost definitely lowers heart disease mortality. 2. mortality from eating meat seems to be dose-dependent, as infrequent meat eaters had lower heart disease mortality rates than regular meat eaters. 3. a better study design (or better data) would be needed to examine morbidity for veg vs. non-veg. 4. more study would be required to comprehensively disprove links between cancers and eating meat. 5. the study has some contradictory findings: 'some of the individual study results were significant in different directions' - which means it is hard to draw broad conclusions. 6. no real conclusions can be drawn about veganism, since the n for vegans was so small, and because they had to fudge some data by classifying all non-vegetarians as regular meat-eaters when they tried to bulk up their data using the Health Food Shoppers Study for the vegan comparisons.

That's all I've got. Clearly, it is just one person's less-than-fully-informed opinion, as I haven't seen the raw data.

What did you think?

Cheers,

-d-

Recipe: Mushroom Gravy

2008-11-28T23:53:00.001-05:00

My family indulged me a bit this year. We went vegan for the big dinner. Well, except for the turkey (meat) and green bean casserole (cream). Just a few small adjustments and most of our selections were animal friendly. For instance, substitute vegetable broth and margarine for chicken broth and butter, and you’ve got yourself a vegan stuffing (so long as the bread is vegan, of course). Soy milk and margarine in the potatoes—vegan mashed potatoes.

Gravy is a bit trickier, but Mom found a recipe (see Classic Mock Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy) from the Food Network that we’ll use for years to come. I made some adjustments (mostly because I initially misread the recipe), but we came up with something real good.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons margarine

8 ounces mushrooms (sliced)

1/4 cup flour

2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 tablespoon red wine (or grape juice if there’s no wine around)

2 tablespoons Tamari soy sauce

Salt & pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Melt margarine in large frying pan.

2. Add mushrooms and sauté until brown.

3. Add flour and cook 2-3 minutes (making a roux, so don't worry if it sticks to the bottom of the pan a bit).

4. Add broth, wine, and soy sauce.

5. Using spatula, scrape flour pieces off bottom and sides of pan. Simmer five minutes, stirring constantly (sauce should begin to thicken).

6. Put mushrooms and a little liquid in blender and blend (until mushrooms are a purée).

7. Pour purée back into pan with liquid.

8. Cook five more minutes. Let cool slightly, add salt & pepper, and serve.

Advice: Stop Worrying About Protein Already!

2008-10-27T23:21:00.006-04:00

Hi Mark,

I know that this e-mail is hopelessly belated, but it has has been on my to-do list for a while, and I'd like to check it off. I hope it's not useless at this point.

First of all, good on you for trying veganism. I think it's admirable. I'm not much of a salesman, so I'll just leave it at that.

Second of all, it's a common misapprehension to worry about nutrients in a vegan diet. Really, in the modern world, how many diet-related health problems flow from deficiency, and how many from overabundance? Have you ever met anyone with beriberi, or pellagra, or rickets? Conversely, I'd be shocked if you don't personally know someone with CVD, Type II Diabetes, obesity, etc.

As with micronutrient deficiencies, macronutrient deficiencies are similarly rare. Indeed, the best hypothesis about osteoporosis in the US is that it's a problem of overconsumption of protein [which leaches calcium], rather than a dietary calcium deficiency. Note that the WHO's recommendation for dietary intake of calcium is only 520mg for people in developing countries. It jumps to 1000mg for people in North America & Europe who get too much protein. You can either eat too much protein (and compensate with higher calcium levels), or you can eat the proper amount of protein and the proper amount of calcium. The latter choice is clearly more sustainable. N.B. since most people of Asian and African descent are lactose intolerant (amounting to about half of the world's population), it doesn't make much sense that humans would be reliant on dairy products to avoid osteoporosis. Paranoia about calcium is the stock-in-trade of the dairy industry.

Object lesson aside, when people fret about a vegan diet, they are usually most concerned about protein, calcium, iron, and B12. I'll address each of these briefly.

Vegetable protein is every bit as high quality as flesh protein. The human body has the capacity to 'pool' amino acids for 24 hours, so you don't really even need to worry about combining proteins in a single meal on a vegan diet. If you did something dumb like eat oatmeal for all 3 meals a day, you might have problems, but I don't suppose anyone really does that. The hallmark of a healthy diet - vegan or otherwise - is a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods, eaten to satiety (but not more). Eat only complex carbohydrates, drink water if you're thirsty, eat vegetables as snacks and fruit as dessert. Exercise every day. Diet needn't be much more complicated than that, although I can speak more clinically if you'd prefer.

Back to protein: eat as many different kinds of protein-containing foods as you can if you're really worried about it (soy and quinoa are 'complete' proteins, nuts + beans + legumes are other good vegan sources of 'incomplete' proteins). But, don't worry about it. You can't go too far wrong. Going from memory, the world record holder in the bench press was vegetarian, and the guy who has won the IronMan triathlon the most is vegan. There's nothing inherently missing from a vegan diet w.r.t. protein.

Calcium: I addressed this a little bit already. Don't overeat protein (and stay away from animal proteins, which leach calcium more than vegetable protein), and you'll be fine. Get some calcium citrate powder if you're really concerned. Tofu and soy-milk are also sufficient sources of calcium.

Iron: Green leafy vegetables, beets, and beans. Anemia is less of a problem for guys anyway.

B12: Nutritional yeast (which is grown on B12-containing media), or supplements.

Some good sources of info:

The McDougall Plan, Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine Vegetarian Starter Kit [http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/]
The Spectrum (By Dean Ornish- not totally vegan, but probably close enough)
Diet for a New World, etc.

If you are really having a hard time finding info (or have more specific questions), let me know and I'll track stuff down.

BTW, my mom got her bachelor's degree in Human Nutrition, and has an MPH. She can answer questions that I can't. If you're really concerned about something, LMK and I'll take a stab or forward it to my mom.

Finally, you mentioned being worried about too much soy. I'd suggest that you temper that slightly: processed soy foods probably aren't great for you, but anything made from whole soybeans is probably healthy. If you're drinking soymilk, choose something made from whole beans over something made from soy protein isolate. Choose gluten over TVP. But really, if soy was especially bad for you, wouldn't most Asian people manifest serious health problems? I would guess that soy is quite healthy in its natural form. People start having problems only when it is processed and concentrated unnaturally.

Anyway, I hope this addresses some of your concerns. Considering how much of the world's petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are related to eating meat/dairy (not to mention the ethical problems with killing sentient beings), going vegan is an eminently reasonable response. At least, that's what I've come to believe. I think veganism is more defensible than any other diet, but I should probably get off my soapbox now.

Kind regards,

David

Things to Eat: Grocery List from Trader Joe's

2008-10-14T11:38:00.003-04:00

Trader Joe's is kind enough to provide shoppers with a list of vegan products. THANK YOU Trader Joe's! It's a great list if you're shopping at Trader Joe's (obviously) but it's also useful for generating ideas and finding non-Trader Joe's vegan products.

http://www.traderjoes.com/Attachments/Vegan.pdf

For those of us lucky enough to have a store nearby, here's a list of a few of my favorite Trader Joe's-brand products, in reverse alphabetical order, that make me realize that I can not only survive as a vegan but totally thrive:

Whole Wheat Couscous
Veggie Sticks Potato Snacks
Vegetable Root Chips
Thai Lime & Chili Cashews
Soy Yogurt
Popped Potato Chips Salted
Organic Cinnamon Spice Oatmeal
Habanero and Lime Salsa
Eggplant Caponata
Dried rambutan
Concerto Dark Chocolate Batons

Website: VegDC

2008-10-10T11:39:00.003-04:00

http://www.vegdc.com/restaurants.php

A wonderful list of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the DC area.

Website: The Vegetarian Society

2008-09-30T11:41:00.002-04:00

http://www.vegsoc.org/index.html

The Vegetarian Society is a group in the United Kingdom dedicated to promoting and understanding the vegetarian/ vegan lifestyle. The website contains a whole gamut of information geared toward readers in the U.K. The restaurant and shopping pages might not be that helpful to most people (unless you're a reader in the U.K.) because they are specific to consumers in the region. But the site contains easy to understand (but non-technical) information about nutrition. As always, readers should parse out the vegetarian and vegan suggestions.

I like that this source is a non-U.S. site. Much of the information is based on another government's approach to nutrition, which makes for an interesting comparison.

The information sheets are helpful and thought-provoking. There's a great one on omega three fats (I'm pretty much dead set on not letting the chemical synapses in my brain dwindle). But the BEST thing about the site is the a huge recipe index of vegetarian and vegan dishes.

I'm not the biggest fan of websites that have pictures of animals on the homepage, and this one does. I guess I always worry about stumbling onto pictures of animals being slaughtered and such, as I often do browsing the vegan-information web-world. But, not to worry. No pictures of cows stumbling because their hips don't work or chickens with their beaks burnt off on this website.

Article: The U.N.'s meatless drive

2008-09-20T10:02:00.000-04:00

A red-meat-eater in a Prius is probably hurting the environment more than a vegan in a Hummer.

Website: Vegetarian Nutrition

2008-09-16T10:34:00.001-04:00

http://www.vegetariannutrition.net

Vegetarian Nutrition is a site created by the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetics Group of the American Dietetics Association (ADA). The website provides extensive information on the nutritional necessities of a vegetarian diet—and it does so using language and concepts that are easy to understand.

I particularly enjoy the articles page which includes many helpful articles (a few of which will be featured on our blog) arranged in categories. There's also a great resources section which contains links to useful websites and a listing of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks.

Much of the information on the website is geared toward mainstream vegetarianism, so be sure to review the information through a vegan lens.

Advice: How to Be Vegan for Dummies

2008-09-11T08:21:00.000-04:00

An email exchange with Mark's sisters:

Hey Sisters,

So Micah and I have decided to spend a month researching what it will take to be healthy vegans and then do it together for some as of yet unspecified period.

Just thought I'd ask if there are any awesome resources that you know of off the top of your head. I'm sure I'll be asking you more as we go along.

Mark

Andrea wrote:

Hi there,

Being vegan has always been one of the most incredible, beautiful, mutually reinforcing endeavors that I have embarked upon.

I may have already told you this story, but when Dave and I first started dating I made a trip back to Iceland to visit some friends and they were shocked that I had met another "wegan". My friend yelled up the stairs, "I can't believe it, she's found another wegan!" It's funny how much flows naturally from what you ingest, who you are as a person and who you meet because of it.

Read some Michael Pollan just because it's interesting:

Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
The Omnivore's Dilemma
The Botany of Desire

I know that you have already read a lot—so I am forwarding this e-mail to Dave for a more careful medical analysis.

Concerning soy, Dave has a phrase that he loves which is: Enjoy all things in moderation, including moderation. Soy, and highly processed foods in general—whether vegan or not, is not generally fine for your own health, but there are some practical environmental considerations.

For me, my diet has always been dictated first by my moral code, second by environmental factors, and third by my own health. Rarely are those three things at odds, but I think that soy—although it does not impinge on my moral code directly—has indirect consequences for the other two. All three of those things are sort of linked anyway. I can't remember if I told you, but New Zealand just passed some legislation that requires food to have its mileage on the package (next to the calories, or kilojoules as they like to measure it here). This food mileage thing is forcing me to recalculate a lot of my consumption decisions. It's an interesting process.

Can you narrow down the resource request? Are you looking for health, environment, recipes, or other? I certainly can provide some good resources in all of those.

Andrea

Mark wrote:

Hey,

We are concerned mainly with health for now. What kind of foods should we be eating every day so that we can maintain an active, healthy lifestyle? I know Micah likes to run (I think he may be training for a marathon), and I definitely need to maintain muscle mass and strength for jiu jitsu as well as running.

What are the primary indicators for a healthy diet? Number of amino acids? Amount of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins consumed? I'm kind of shooting in the dark here, so I was just thinking you could give me a launching point—a paragraph or two on "how to be vegan for dummies" and then we can probably research from there.

Mark

A Conversation

2008-09-07T23:34:00.000-04:00

Micah: "Hey Mark, do you want to start being a vegan with me?"

Mark: "Sure."

Micah: "Okay, cool."

Mark: "Cool."

Micah: "Cool."