It is commonly believed that a vegetarian diet is a healthy diet. And that is usually true, but not always. Consider the mother who recently told me that her child had decided to become a vegetarian. As she described his diet, I realized that he did not eat a single fruit or vegetable! Isn't that a fundamental part of being a vegetarian? More and more, however, young vegetarians are turning into "carb-etarians," eating few fruits and vegetables and opting for starches, such as pasta, pizza and french fries. Clearly, this sort of diet is in no way healthy.
There are many ways in which eating a true vegetarian diet (complete with fruits, vegetables, and plant-based proteins) can benefit your health. Dairy foods and certain animal products, like beef, tend to be high in saturated fat and cholesterol; limiting or eliminating these foods from your diet is a great way to cut back on these "bad" fats. However, people who choose to adopt a vegetarian way of life tend to make up these calories by eating more carbohydrates like breads, rice, pastas and other starches. While your LDL cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol) can be greatly reduced from switching to vegetarianism, a diet too high in carbohydrates can actually result in elevated triglyceride levels. Triglycerides contribute to total cholesterol levels, both of which are risk factors for heart disease.
The foundation of any healthy diet is one with balance, variety and moderation. Eating a wide range of foods ensures that you will get all of the nutrients your body requires. So while adopting vegetarianism can be part of a healthy lifestyle, it is important to choose your foods carefully. Relying solely on carbohydrates for nourishment is not healthy. Dietary protein is important for maintaining your immune system and for building and repairing your body tissues. Vegetarians need to eat the proper amount of plant-based protein each day.
Meats, fish, eggs and poultry are the most "complete" sources of essential amino acids, the protein building blocks that the body can't make on its own. Other foods do contain protein but are usually "incomplete" sources of amino acids, meaning they have some, but not all, of the amino acids needed to make proteins. Vegetarians can ensure that they are getting all of the essential amino acids by combining foods, such as whole grains with nuts or legumes. For example, whole wheat bread with peanut butter, or rice and beans. These foods don't necessarily have to be eaten at the same meal; as long as you are having these foods throughout the day, the body is able to "pool" amino acids and save them to form body protein later on.
It is very possible to consume a vegetarian diet that has only plant-based proteins and is still nutritionally balanced. In fact, this type of diet can greatly reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. Diets rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, peas and lentils are full of fiber and antioxidants, which decrease your risk for certain cancers and heart disease. In addition to making you feel full and satisfied, dietary fiber can lower serum cholesterol levels and improve colon health.
The heart-healthy benefits that can be gained from switching to vegetarianism are not solely dependent on the foods you eliminate from your diet. What you include in your diet is also important. The bottom line is that vegetarians must eat fruit, vegetables, and plant-based proteins.
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Isn't this true for most people - not eating enough fruits and vegetables because we are too busy to take the time to chew?
The "plate rationing" of foods is insufficient. We need at least 3 to 5 full servings of vegetable and fruits in a day.
Starches are good for you but excess starch is just like simple sugar...high-glycemic, obesity and diabetes.
The Okinowans' in Japan are healthy because they ate unpolluted fish rich in omega 3. Can the fish now that Japanese eat be of the same quality? Farmed fish and wild fish aren't the same.
On top of that, Japanese drink a lot fo green tea and eat a lot of mushrooms. Their great health is NOT due to a diet high in starches! Some ppl metabolise starch really quickly, they are are less likely to suffer from high-carbs.
Potatoes today are not of potatoes of yesterday. Why a potato holds "enough protein" is because humans do not need a lot of protien. (We don't even need a lot of meat and milk!)
Milk...What does Wikipedia say about trans-fat in milk?
While I agree with most of what Weston Price advocates, I do not agree that humans cannot do without meat. There's almost everythg in spirulina (wakame and kelp noodles), including vitamin B12 that vegetarians n vegans need.
1. The notion of complete and incomplete proteins and food combining is a long-debunked myth. It originated in the 1971 book "Diet For A Small Planet," and even the author has recanted it. Even a monodiet of Russet potatoes (with enough calories) provides more than enough of total protein and every EAA. You can easily verify this yourself using a diet calculator like CRON-o-Meter (which pulls data from the USDA's nutrient database).
2. Starches are good for you. The longest-lived, healthiest populations we know of eat starch-based diets. The best longevity on record is the pre-WWII Okinawans, and their diet was: 85% carb, 9% protein, 6% fat. This was in a 2007 paper by Willcox, using data from the US National Archives, based on thousands of subjects. Similar macronutrient profiles are documented for the Chinese centenarians, Kitavans, Tarahumara, etc. This is the same diet Dean Ornish and others have used to reverse heart disease, diabetes, etc. All this is published in mainstream journals.
3. The foods you mention aren't "starches," they're greasy processed junk. Again using CRON-o-Meter:
Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza, regular crust: 38% fat, 38% starch, 17% protein, 4% sugar, 3% fiber
Burger King french fries: 47% fat, 46% starch, 4% protein, 0% sugar, 3% fiber
Canned spaghetti with meatballs: 43% fat, 31% starch, 16% protein, 11% sugar, 0% fiber
Do your homework before scaring people away from a healthy diet.
I still want to find a way to lessen my intake of meat, but I haven't mastered the vegan diet.
My granddaughters were visiting me last weekend. I taught the 10 year old how to make scrambled eggs and she ate them everyday. The 16 year old made bread with me and proudly ate it with some cheese and tomato. It takes some time and some understanding of physiology and listening to the body, and if you keep the junk away, it helps. What seems to work the most is peer pressure, parents eating correctly and some common sense.
BTW, I think good bread is an excellent food source that has played a role in civilization from the beginning of mankind. I make my own, use it for pizza, which is also a good balanced food that kids will eat.
I'm sure you can bake bread with the wild precursors or modern bred grains too.
Saturated fat raises large fluffy LDL (the harmless kind) and HDL (the good kind). Furthermore, saturated fat increases the efficiency of conversion of ALA into essential fatty acids, and improves the absorption of fat soluble nutrients from the gut, such as beta carotene. Medium chain saturated fatty acids are used directly by the liver for energy. Saturated fats aren't easily oxidized, so don't contribute to oxLDL like polyunsaturated fats do. In addition, saturated fats exhibit antimicrobial properties.
And most vegans probably don't realize this, but the fermentation of plant fiber in the large intestine produces significant amounts of short chain saturated fatty acids - I've a sneaking suspicion that successful raw-food vegans are very effective caudal gut fermenters and are getting by on a diet effectively fueled in part by saturated fat.
Animal foods are highly nutritious. They are the only source of preformed vitamin A, and they include vitamins D, and K2, all which are critical to health. They contain anti-microbial saturated and monounsaturated fats, without which the body makes itself. Pastured meat, dairy, and eggs from healthy animals contain high amounts of betaine, choline, vitamins B6, B12, and folate, which help to keep levels of homocysteine, a protein that accelerates aging, at a safe degree.
The idea that animal foods are inherently unhealthful is a fallacy. The quality of animal foods is dependent on how they were raised and whether they ate a high-quality evolutionary diet.
Weston A. Price Foundation is highly questionable as a reliable source of nutritional information. Many of their activities, including their 2009 conference, are sponsored by peddlers of meat and dairy products, such as: Green Pasture, Vital Choice, and U.S. Wellness Meats.
I recently visited my cousin and his wife for a week and I watched their 5yr old eat nothing but carbs. Breakfast was a huge white bun with no butter or contents, lunch was a marguerita pizza (dough, sauce and cheese) and dinner was pasta with no sauce. When he needed to go to the bathroom, his parents or I had to go with him to read while he tried to pass a yellow, hard bowel movement that hurt him. I went out and bought raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and put them on the table, making a big deal out of the taste of sunshine. He went to reach for a blueberry and his mom chose that time to say "Oh, he doesn't like fruit".
Allowing a 5yr old to choose their diet is irresponsible at best, abusive at worst. Parenting takes more than just saying yes to a child's whims and it's our job to ensure that a child is eating a well balanced meal. Preparing and serving a balanced dinner and expecting it to be eaten usually results in it being eaten. (at least in my home)
Keep in mind that parents tend to know their children better than any outsider does, and they care about them more than you do. I'm not suggesting that anyone promote junk food because that's the only thing their kids will eat, but the diet you describe . . . well, it could be worse.
I'm not your mother but I am A mother and I had no reason to push fruit on my kids because they have always had a varied and good diet. I didn't have to trick them into eating things but I did have to model good eating habits so they would see it every day.. and their dad had to learn to love veggies so he could do the same. It was our job...
There was never much good evidence that saturated fats are "bad", and now there's even less:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/ajcn.2009.27725v1
Dietary cholesterol has very little effect on blood cholesterol.
Mono unsaturates appear to lower total LDL while leaving HDL relatively unchanged.
Polyunsaturates lower total cholesterol (this includes HDL).
Saturated fat will *lower* atherogenic Lp(a) and raise large fluffly LDL and HDL, which is a big positive that can't be had by increasing dietary intake of polyunsaturates.
Since high total cholesterol only correlates with a minority of CHD cases (that is, a causal role has not been identified), how can you be certain the effect of replacing saturates with unsaturates is a "big positive", when (poly)unsaturates have either a neutral or negative effect on HDL?
One thing you can hope for is the influence of a girlfriend. Guys will eat something if their girlfriends love it, and they are sometimes too polite to turn down something the girls or their mothers cook for them.
Conversely, my oldest son started eating a wider variety of vegetables to annoy his former girlfriend while they were breaking up, because she was a KD and McDonald's kind of person.
I have seen some explanations offered about texture sensitivity, etc. But I have always wondered if there is not some underlying issue related to insulin resistance. Her docs simply tell us to give her vitamins and not let her eat sweets, etc.
Does any one know what causes this or better yet how to change it?
Certainly there are ways we could improve our approach, but I still wonder if there is not an underlying cause of this. I wonder if it is not more than simply behavioral, but doesnt have some biological underpinning. Maybe not - but I would be interested to know if this is the case.
Even with our "eat or don't eat" approach, it is driving me crazy.
Sorry parents, but the only reason why your kid only eats crap is because the minute they refuse to put a piece of grilled chicken in their mouths you run to the microwave to heat up processed chicken nuggets.
If parents only had the balls to just let their kids go bed hungry once and a while, they'd soon learn that the grilled chicken is going to start to look REAL GOOD once they realize its the only option.