February 23, 2012

How to Survive on Special Occassions

Deep fried pork intestines

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For those who are trying to eat healthy, special occasions can be full of challenges and temptations to get you off track. These are times when you have to be prepared to find alternatives or to just politely say no.

Christmas, birthdays and holidays are full of good eats and wonderful treats, but also hide pitfalls for the health conscious. It is hard to say say no when everyone keeps offering your homemade fudge, cake, punch, fried food and goodies that will expand your waistline. You can do it if you are prepared and know how to find an alternative to these tempting but dangerous treats.

The first step is to learn to say no politely. People will understand and often admire your self-control. You have to remember that one treat may lead to another. The saying that “just one won’t hurt you” may be true, but it’s hard to stop after just one. You should also not feel guilty about turning down these treats. Your body will be grateful for your strong assertion to stay healthy.

You can also look for alternative snacks to eat. People will often have nuts, vegetables and other items on the table that you can hook onto when the treats are near. When the goodies come out, head straight for the vegetable tray and stay there. Keep carrots, broccoli and other healthy treats close by to ensure that you won’t be tempted. If you are bringing an item, cook up something that you know you can eat. This will help you to stay trim, fit and active throughout the holidays.

The Advantages of Being a Vegetarian

 

 

vegetables

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Many people in today’s society are choosing to become vegetarians. This has come over concerns with steroids and handling of meat along with improving health.

Vegetarians eat and live a very healthy lifestyle. They can choose from a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to eat and can cook them in a variety of ways. Those choosing to become one need to talk with their doctor or a nutritionist about how to meet daily dietary needs. When going off of meat, you will need to each fruits and vegetables that can help to give you the protein that your body needs. They can offer you guidance as to what kind of eating plan you should follow.

Some vegetarians may open up their diet to include fish. This can be an excellent source of protein and very safe if you careful what you buy. The Internet is full of sites that offer advice, recipes and information about this kind of lifestyle. Some of the advantages that you will have include:  an easier time controlling your weight, lower cholesterol, improved health and vitality. You will also be surprised at the variety of choices that you will have.

Try experimenting with new vegetables that you may not have tasted before. Squash is one vegetable that has immense variety, including spaghetti squash and more. By carefully planning your transition, talking with your doctor and learning as much as you can you will have an easier time starting on a new track to better health.

How to Eat Out the Safe Way

 

 

esto comí ese día... Maoz Vegetariano con Fala...

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When you choose to eat out, you are often unaware of the quality of the food and how it is prepared. There are ways to safely eat out if you do your research and are careful where you eat.

The first step is to check the nutritional information and reviews about various restaurants in your area. This is often available through the internet, and many restaurants will give you a nutritional fact sheet. You can narrow down your options by ruling out fast food restaurants that fry most of the foods they serve and use cheaper quality meat and produce. Family owned and run establishments usually are safer, using fresh produce and cook food more carefully.

Keep a list of the places that you have found are safe to eat at so you have a ready reference when it comes time to choose. If you are in an area you are not familiar with, your choices may be limited. Check the menu carefully for items that you can order with a relative amount of security, such as salads. Avoid using salad dressings that are commercially made as they may contain ingredients you may not want to ingest. The safest thing to order is vinegar and oil.

Many restaurants now offer a low-carb menu for the health conscious, including vegetable choices like green beans and side salads. This is a positive swing in the right direction. When possible, order from a senior or children’s menu if allowed. These are smaller portions than the regular meals that are served.

Eating Meat and Global Warming

Vegetarians probably had it right all along. Eating meat is not good for humans or animals. Even though the traditional arguments of ethics and health are valid, the most important reason to switch to a vegetarian diet might be due to the effects of factory farming on global warming.

 

A commercial meat chicken production house in ... 

Image via Wikipedia

In the past few years both the University of Chicago and the United Nations issued reports that eating less meat will help the curb the effects of global warming. It works similar to rationing. Meat can still be a part of a healthy diet, but consuming massive amounts of meat contributes to the problem. The size of the American population dictates that factory farms must mass produce meats to feed our voracious appetites. The United Nations estimated that more greenhouse emissions are created by raising livestock then by all of the cars, trains, boats, planes and buses in the world.

 

One of the biggest problems with consuming meat is that the diet clears our best natural defense against global warming. Millions of acres of forests and plants are uprooted to clear the way for fields and farms.

As emerging economies in China and India grow so has their appetite for meat, which has the potential to turn a bad situation to a dire one. Despite all of our advances as a civilization humans still do not understand the long term consequences of altering our ecosystem. Raising temperatures even a few degrees can cause massive changes to our environment. This is a change that our fragile civilization would struggle to face. Rather than attempt to resolve a disaster before it happens, preventative medicine seems to be the best cure. Eating less meat is a good first step.

 

Creative Foods Inspired by Your Kitchen Cabinets

Ever have those evenings where you really don’t want to go to the store just to get the 2 ingredients you are missing from a recipe? Unless you are Old Mother Hubbard and your cupboards are truly bare, here are some food ideas to get you started creating recipes based on what you do have.

Lasagna

The popular recipe for lasagna calls for lasagna noodles, ground beef, ricotta cheese, marinara sauce, and the likes; however, not all lasagna has to be the same. Many vegetable lasagna recipes exist in addition to Mexican/Taco Lasagnas. The true basic recipe for lasagna is lasagna noodles, some sort of sauce, and some cheese to hold it all together, and the cheese is optional. For a sauce, you may decide to mix some taco seasoning with rice and corn and a little sour cream and mix it together, and seal the deal with some cheddar jack.  No lasagna noodles? No fear, you can then consider the next option, casseroles.

Casseroles

The basic concept of a casserole is to throw a bunch of food into a pan and bake it. You can do chicken and noodles and vegetables inspired by some chicken noodle soups, or you can mix rice, fruit, and some pudding. Don’t forget to try to create a crispy topping like bread crumbs, crackers, or cereal.

Rice

The basic recipe for rice (and not the minute kind) is to use two parts liquid to one part rice, and add a little salt and butter. You don’t have to use water as a liquid, and you are allowed to add things like black eyed peas, beans, vegetables, fruits, seasonings, etc. It’s best to stick all ingredients in the pot and then bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

The Case Against Milk

Milk is a staple of many diets all over the world and for quite some time. Well, not as long as most people think. Considering the amount of time that humans have been on this earth, milk has not been drank very long. Every one has seen the adds that profess the greatness of milk and multitude of vitamins and minerals it provides the body. These ads may not be as true as they once were. Scientists are now finding that milk has some bad attributes to it, and that consuming the amount of milk that we do these days could be more detrimental to peoples health than not consuming it. Here are a few reasons why milk might not be so good anymore.

Reasons why Milk Might be bad

1. BGH- BGH is known as bovine growth hormone. For the past two decades or so companies, and more specifically large, corporations have been buying the large majority of cattle stock in the United States. After they purchased the cows they began to give them the bovine growth hormone to make them bigger so they could produce more milk. This has had negative effects on not only the cows themselves but the milk the produce and researchers strongly feel that BGH is responsible for the deleting the natural immunities that children have from birth.

2. Pasteurization- When companies pasteurize their milk, they take out all the vitamins and nutrients and then add them back in after the pasteurization and homogenization process. Doing so renders the healthy benefits of the milk powerless to help the human body to grow or maintain itself. The vitamins thus become irrelevant.

3. Over consumption- Scientists believe that the body does not convert milk to energy very easily, which is a large part of the reason for so many people being allergic to it. Over consumption of milk is bad for the body and breaks down important internal organs used during the digestion of foods.

Knowing where to buy milk and how much to buy can make the difference between it being healthy or not.

Why Donate?

Why Donate

Vegetarianism and Veganism is crucial to the survival of humans, animals and the well being of the planet.  We belong to a circle, were everything on this planet affects the lives of all other things.  For example, the exploitation and cutting down of the rein forests is creating global warming, as well as depleting the natural resources of South America and the homes of all the animals that live in that area.  When everything is depleted, the ecosystem will be off balance and to bring the world back into equilibrium, the planet will do what is necessary, as it has for the last 4.6 billion years.

Spreading the word of vegetarianism/veganism is a time and economical draining effort, but the cost of not informing others is incalculable. Your donation and support will allow this website to stay in operations, will allow us to grow in members and we will be able to spread our word farther. Hoping to one day reach every person on this planet.

Remember, we have not inherited the Earth from our past, we are borrowing from our future.

Please

and help make a difference

The Vegan Diet: Revolutionizing the Culinary Industry`

It’s bigger than you think, this digital age we’re right smack in the middle of. Don’t be intimidated, though–even though the World Wide Web has gotten so huge. It’s so monumental that every topic or issue you can possibly think of is exploding onto the scene at an alarming rate due to the continued shattering of information breakwaters. Anyone can know anything online now.

This can be a good thing on many levels: one in particular, the culinary industry.

Think of the possibilities of new kinds of food being introduced to revolutionize your palate and revamp every restaurant or grocery store ever in existence. The topic is now vegan diets, no surprise there, of course; and for sure, culinary institutes are the place to go if possessing the passion to learn about it. Now with the onset of online degrees thanks to this digital era, more and more students can pursue a profession in cooking, learning about vegetarian cooking–and then opening more and more restaurants that can provide those types of cooking. After all, the movement of Meatless Mondays has been going global for awhile now with the likes of Oprah and Mario Batali on board.

Think about the ramifications of this amazing development. Because of the digital era, because of the rise of online education, the culinary culture and quality can single-handedly change to the point when vegetarians are not a minority but an equal ratio to the regular diet of meats. Simply put in the effort to attend online classes dedicated to the culinary arts, and you’re miles ahead of learning the ins and outs of an industry that is ripe with discovery.

It’s an amazing time for the quality of life–all because of the digital era, because of the convenience of online education. Look to the future and put on your shades, because it’s going to be bright.