Health tip: Try eating vegetarian sometimes

Richard Freytag Says:

February 24th, 2007, 21:07 pm

Soy protein is in sufficiently cured leaving in plant hormones that kill pigs, harm toddlers, and likely affect human biochemistry. Don’t eat even moderate amounts of soy prepared by modern means.

Leo Says:

February 24th, 2007, 23:04 pm

Care to name any references for that info? I’ve read dozens of books and sites, by credible and unbiased sources, and have never read a single reference to any toddler or human being harmed in any way by soy protein. In fact, millions of people eat it and are perfectly healthy — a claim that cannot be made about animal protein.

Anonymous Says:

February 25th, 2007, 13:15 pm

I whole heartedly agree about eating vegan/vegetarian will make you feel better. I’ve been vegetarian for 32 years and vegan for the past 7 months. I have never felt better. I can’t believe the amount of saturated fat I was consuming from cheese.

Leo Says:

February 25th, 2007, 13:53 pm

Congrats on being vegetarian and vegan, and thanks for sharing your experiences.

Anonymous Says:

February 25th, 2007, 21:21 pm

Thank you for the nice words and congratulations to you as well!

I really love your blog and the content is high quality. It’s probably one of the best GTD blogs out there and I’ve subscribed to most of them.

Keep up the great work!

Andrew Flusche Says:

April 20th, 2007, 20:56 pm

Leo,

I just wanted to compliment your chili recipe. I made a huge pot of it tonight, and it was delicious!! I can’t wait to try your soup recipe. I’m curious what other good eatin’ you have up your sleeves for us… :)

Leo Says:

April 20th, 2007, 21:05 pm

Hey Andrew, glad you liked it! It’s one of my favorites. My next post actually contains a quick vegan recipe for fried rice … other things I’ve enjoyed include pitas with falafels and hummus and tomatoes and lettuce (very easy to make and delicious!); tofu stir fry with veggies; Thai noodles … mmmm … now I’m hungry! :)

Bob Says:

May 20th, 2007, 18:35 pm

Not sure where Richard got his facts but there is quite a body of work about potential adverse effects of using soy protein. This site (which is anti-soy) has links to quite a few articles:

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/02hotoffthepress.htm

Leo Says:

May 20th, 2007, 19:07 pm

Hi Bob … thanks for the link. No offense, but it’s a load of bull. :)

For example, an article claiming that soy can make you sterile would greatly surprise all of Asia, which is the area with the heaviest soy diet and also the largest population growth.

Most of the research on this site come from a book and a foundation that are decidedly anti-soy and pro-dairy, and many links have been found between these and funding from the dairy industry. I think it’s clear that the dairy industry has been threatened by the success of soy milk and soy products (soy cheese, soy yogurt, etc) that taste good and are lower in saturated fat (as well as other dangerous hormones).

Bob, hundreds of millions of people eat soy products daily without adverse effects. Hundreds of scientific studies have shown soy products to be healthy, without side effects (in fact, studies show that they *lower* the risk of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, such as breast cancer), while only a handful of studies (again, funded by the dairy industry) show otherwise.

Leo Says:

May 20th, 2007, 19:25 pm

Just to give a more balanced view on the soy controversy, here are some links:

Eating Soy: Myths, Truths, and Everything in Between
by Christa Novelli, M.P.H.
http://www.vegfamily.com/health/vegan-soy-information.htm

Is it Safe to Eat Soy?
By Virginia Messina, MPH, RD & Mark Messina, PhD
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/soymessina

Is Soy Safe?
by Jack Norris, RD
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/soynorris

Soy – Food, Wonder Drug, or Poison?
by John McDougall, M.D.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/april/050400pusoy.htm

What about Soy?
by John Robbins
http://www.foodrevolution.org/what_about_soy.htm

Information on interpreting studies on soy
http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/134/5/1229S

And about Dr. Mercola and the meat and dairy industry Weston A. Price Foundation, their website offers laudatory reviews of recipe books for “delicious…warm pig’s head, ox tongue, roast bone marrow, calf’s heart, rolled pig’s spleen, duck neck terrine, duck hearts on toast, many recipes for lamb’s brain, blood cake (made with 1 quart of pig’s blood), pig’s cheek and tongue, gratin of tripe, haggis, deviled kidneys, and lamb’s kidneys.”

Ugh. They are telling us that soy is unhealthy and this is what they advocate?

Leslie Says:

May 29th, 2007, 5:54 am

Hi Leo, I’m pretty new to zenhabits…recently stumbled upon it. I have enjoyed your blogs and was happy to learn you are a fellow vegan! Two years and three months here, and going strong! Thanks for all the great blogs.

Sandy Says:

May 30th, 2007, 17:51 pm

Hi Leo,
I have been a hypoglycemic for most of my adult life, with my symptoms worsening within the last three years.
I was encouraged by my doctor to go on the Atkins diet and found that this info seemed to be backed by many websites that I found.
Assuming that after all these years, doctors and nutritionists knew what was best, I blindly followed their advice. After all it had been explained to me that my body couldn’t handle sugar in any form, which meant no fruit and very few veggies.
After about four months on this diet, and actually feeling worse instead of better, I decided to look for an alternative diet that someone could recommend.
I went to the library and found a book on hypoglycemics, written by a hypoglycemic/nutritionist. She believed that the idea that fruit had the same effect as refined sugar on our bodies was false and not all sugar was the same. She experimented by putting hyoglycemic patients on a vegetarian diet and had great success.
So I hit the internet again and was surprised to find that there were other hyopglycemics out there that were making the same recommendations. They basically were saying to forget everthing that our doctors were telling us and make the switch.
Well it turns out that doctors don’t always know best, because I made the switch and within a week my symptoms were gone.
For the first time in years, I feel amazing (and I am down 21 pounds)! I’ve also converted my husband who has also lost 11 pounds. By the way, I eat soy products regularly and have had no problems.

Eddie Says:

June 21st, 2007, 14:06 pm

1. Soy - like anything else, is best eaten as close to as it looks like at the source as possible. Like anything else, be selective in your soy products - many sources of soy are genetically modified, it’s a staple of many cultures, no surprise agri-business has gotten their hands into it.

But most of the people/organizations against soy seem to have an agenda - they don’t want it to replace our precious meat.

Protein, itself, in American diets, at least, is overblown. I mean, seriously, how many people in America have serious problems from protein deficiencies due to diet, at least, compared to the amount of people who have serious ailments and diminished life expectancy from high protein diets. Meat (and even, tofu) isn’t the only way to get enough protein in your diet for most people. Many nutritionists conclude its about the amino acids, anyway, not the protein. The amount of protein the average body needs is easily reached via non-meat, non-dairy food if you spend a little bit of time caring for yourself.

2. Great recipe. I replaced the can of corn with frozen corn (because I think they taste better and have supposedly higher nutrition) and added it after the stewed tomatoes. Let simmer for at least 3-5 minutes to defrost and heat the corn.

3. A great cookbook for vegetarians is the 15-Minute Vegetarian Gourmet by Paulette Mitchell. She takes the same principles of this recipe: simple, knowing which ingredients to get canned/frozen and which to get fresh. But it really should be called the 30 Minute… . Few of the recipes are 15 minutes unless you don’t count the chopping.

Jörn Says:

July 27th, 2007, 6:07 am

Hey Leo,

cool article!
I have given much thought to the idea of eating vegetarian for one month each year. Since I most likely won’t be able to cut out meat for the rest of my life, I thought this would be a good alternative.

Problem: I don’t know jack about nutrition / vegetarian diet. You don’t happen to have some links up your sleeve to get me started?

Regards,

Jörn

Ryan Says:

October 2nd, 2007, 15:49 pm

Soy is a great thing, but some people do need to be careful about food allergies with soy. I used to date a girl who was quite allergic to it and didn’t find out until many years after she began starting her day off with a nice glass of soy milk, and then wondered why she felt terrible all day long.

Of course she was allergic to everything…so it wasn’t just the soy.

Brandi Says:

October 5th, 2007, 16:31 pm

Looks like your yummy chili recipe stirred up quite a bit of soy-controversy. I’ll have to try it! I usually add a cup of finely chopped carrots to my vegetarian chili, which adds a bit of sweetness as well as extra nutrients. It also gives a nice texture that you’d never know was from carrots. I’m featuring a Recipe Thursday post on my blog. If you have any other good recipes, I’d love to feature one sometime!
http://www.whiteorchidmelody.com/blog

enkanna Says:

October 31st, 2007, 11:45 am

The easiest way to eat/cook Vegetarian is just buy any Indian cook book. About half of the country(India) cannot afford eating meat every day and over the last 5000 years we have adapted amazingly eating veggies.
The idea is making a curry with any vegetable to get the nutrients from the veggies. So literally any vegetable can be made into a curry, don’t worry all of them will not taste the same. Each curry takes the flavor of the vegetable used to cook with.
So the question, what about the protein???
Well… the most under appreicated protein source according to me are lentils. A cup of lentils have 35% of the daily required amount of protein. Please see the below link on info on lentils
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=52

To make it more appetizing cook the lentils with any leafy vegetable or any vegetable as a matter of fact in a pressure cooker along with some salt, curry powder.
Once cooked, in a pan add some olive oil and add a few cloves of crushed garlic and turmeric powder(1 tsp). Once the garlic is sauted add this to the cooked lentils and enjoy this with white rice or brown ice. The simplest and most nutritional food good has given us…

The next time look at your cat’s or dog’s teeth and now look at your teeth, they don’t look similar wonder why…

If you can take a look at the teeth of a goat,cow, giraffe…. etc
eerily they are same, wonder why…

Leo Says:

October 31st, 2007, 15:55 pm

@enkanna: Excellent! I totally agree … Indian food is amazingly delicious, and there are so many great vegetarian dishes that you can never go wrong. Yum.

JSG Says:

February 27th, 2008, 16:21 pm

Great recipe. I made a huge pot full, and I am loving it! I am thinking about making it often (so, no more lunch or dinner worries)

I did make a couple of modifications: I added a spoonful of cinnamon (for bit of fragrance and different type of heat), and I added 3 tablespoon of “Garam Masala” (it is indian spice powder which I bought it from whole foods market).

Keep giving up nice recipes….

Jennifer Says:

July 18th, 2008, 16:16 pm

@enkanna: Well no, it’s not that India can’t afford meat, it’s that they choose not to eat it! While there are many wealthy Indians (and meat isn’t THAT expensive really) 86% of the country practices Hinduism, and the religion prohibit meat (because it violates one of their core principles, non-violence) Being a born Hindu myself, I love being a vegetarian (not vegan though - but I do watch what milk I drink, where it comes from, and how cows are treated to keep with the whole ethical food thing)

As for soy, PROCESSED soy has many problems, but NATURAL soy products (i.e. non-GE whole soybeans) are just fine. Unfortunately, I love my veggie burgers too much! Great recipe though.

Brandon Watkins Says:

July 29th, 2008, 8:47 am

@leo
I just made up my own vegetarian chili recipe from scratch this past weekend. I put about double the vegetables you use in yours (1 full onion, 2 green peppers, 2 red peppers). But one thing I really like that I used differently was a 29oz can of crushed tomatoes instead of sauce/paste/etc. Also, I added 3 diced, fresh tomatoes. Your recipe sounds great - I’m not trying to take anything away from it. :-) I thought you might like trying the crushed tomatoes though.

@enkanna
That’s a great idea, and I love Indian food!

Renee Varnadore Says:

March 22nd, 2009, 14:40 pm

Hi, Fabulous recipe, I do something similar with cans of diced tomatoes with bits of chilies in them. It saves chopping time and simmer time to have the vegis mixed with the tomatoe product already.

Vegan Eating Out Says:

April 23rd, 2009, 2:29 am

So many people are adverse to trying meat free dishes when they don’t even realize that if they simply remove the meat from what they’re already eating and eat more of it it can be just as fulfilling and leave you without that bloated feeling. My site shows you the vegan menu choices you have at popular restaurants and fast food chains that you already visit so take a peek and consider changing your order every now and then.

EPP Says:

April 23rd, 2009, 9:36 am

Have you looked at a goat’s teeth? or an elephant? or a cow? They look somewhat like ours..but not exactly. Have you looked at a cat’s teeth? Again, somwhat like ours, but not exactly. Have you looked at a bear’s teeth? A dog’s teeth? a raccoon’s? Eerily similar. They are all omnivores, just like us. We have canines and grinding teeth.
Also, our digestive systems are not built like a carnivore or an herbivore. We are omnivores we need a lot of variety in our diet. I think Americans eat too much meat, but some meat is good.

Also - great recipe! I put a little ethically raised ground buffalo meat in (1/4 lb) instead of the soy protein - it has been a huge hit! Thanks!

Rick Weightloss Says:

May 23rd, 2009, 14:20 pm

what
any problem with soy??
Soy’s food is the most favorite food in Indonesia,
that’s call “tempe”
:)

jomanette Says:

June 7th, 2009, 17:09 pm

It feels wonderful to get off from meat and saturated fat once to twice a week. Going vegan is not a bad idea.

free divorce papers Says:

June 7th, 2009, 17:17 pm

I go for meat-free dishes twice a week. It gives me a different kind of energy.

Bryan Says:

June 17th, 2009, 20:07 pm

Hey Leo! Just wanted to let you know that I absolutely love this chili recipe. The great thing about it is that people who don’t know the recipe swear that its made with real beef! My own father (long time soy-hater) switched largely to soy products after trying this chili. Thanks a ton!