On The
support a robust vegan infrastructure, with new cookbooks and gourmet recipes, hip new restaurants and an explo- sion of websites and chat rooms devoted to a plant-based lifestyle.
Some omnivores doubt that people can be either
healthy or satisfied without the nutrients and flavor of ani- mal products. After all, didn’t we evolve from meat eaters? Yes, our hunter-gatherer forebears may have liked meat, explain some experts, but it comprised only a tiny part of their diet—those animals were hard to catch. Instead, early humans subsisted largely on wild vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. Milk and cheese didn’t become a diet staple until 10,000 years ago, and then only in Europe. Author Virginia Messina, a registered dietitian with a
WHY PEOPLE ARE PUTTING MORE PLANTS ON THEIR PLATES
by Kristin Ohlson
35 years. There, he cared for workers hailing from China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines, and quickly noticed that first-generation immigrants didn’t have the diseases he’d been trained to treat: no heart disease, no diabetes, no cancer, no arthritis. However, he saw more evidence of these conditions with each succeeding genera- tion, as the workers increasingly indulged in standard American fare. “My first-generation patients kept to the diet they had eaten in their home countries,” McDougall says. “They lived on rice and vegetables, with very little meat and no dairy. But, as their kids started to eat burgers and shakes, the kids got fatter and sicker.” Accounts like this contribute to the fact
B
that today, as many as 8 million Americans say that they are vegetarians, according to a 2009 Harris Interactive survey commissioned by The Vegetarian Resource Group. Of these, about a third are vegans, who avoid meat, eggs and dairy products, as well as meat. Many choose a plant-based diet for better health; others, because they believe it’s more humane and environ- mentally conscious. According to the Natural Marketing Institute, as many as 30 percent of Americans say they are trying to reduce their meat intake. Vegan advocates, who include celebrities like Ali- cia Silverstone, Tobey Maguire and Woody Harrelson,
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ased upon what he observed at a plantation in Ha- waii on his first job out of medical school, California physician John McDougall has eaten a vegan diet for
master’s degree in public health, based in Port Townsend, Washington, says her research for the American Dietetic Association confirms that vegetarians overall have lower levels of bad cholesterol, less obesity and a lower inci- dence of both hypertension and colon cancer than meat- eaters. Vegans have even lower cholesterol and blood pressure than vegetarians who eat eggs and dairy. But eschewing animal products only leads to im-
The American Institute for Cancer Research
recommends avoiding processed meat and eating no more than 500 grams (18 ounces) of red meat a week, the equivalent of six 3-ounce servings.
proved health if people follow some basic guidelines. Veg- ans must be sure to eat a variety of whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds—good sources of protein—as well as fruits and vegetables. (Messina notes that the average person needs about 55 grams of protein a day, about half that ingested in a typical America diet.) And, while plant diets are generally rich in iron, Messina notes that vegans need to make sure that the iron is well absorbed by eat- ing a diet rich in vitamin C—leafy greens, as well as citrus, peppers, potatoes, melons and tomatoes. She reminds vegans to get enough zinc in their diets with nuts, seeds and seed but- ters like tahini. Some nutritionists suggest that vegans take a vitamin B12
supple- ~ Elaine Magee,
WebMD.com
ment, as well as a calcium supplement. Vegans insist that giving up these animal products doesn’t mean giving up the pleasures of food. Perhaps no vegan chef has done more to convince skep- tics than Isa Chandra Moskowitz, with cookbooks like Vegan with a Vengeance, Veganomicon, and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. (She also founded the Post Punk Kitchen vegan website with free recipes at
theppk.com). Many of
her recipes take fewer than 45 minutes to prepare, often from inexpensive ingredients. “It’s an economical way to eat,” she says. “It’s the way poor people have always eaten.” Certainly, it takes some
retraining to adopt a vegan diet. Some people start by keeping meat portions to three or four ounces and going meat-
2010-2011 Arizona
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