Re: Health Attributes of processed (Vegan) Foods

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

To be fair to vegan receipes I will acknowledge one good idea I came across in this exercise. One vegan recipe suggested using raw cashews as a major component in a white sauce, along with cornstarch.

For decades I have neen making a white sauce I picked up from one of Pritikin's early books, which used white flour (whole grain flour does not work for this) and corn starch. This sparked my interest to replace the white flour in this recipe with raw cashews, and also replace the cornstarch with chickpea flour.

I can report that it worked REALLY well and presumably is healthier than either of the alternatives. It is necessary to blend the cashews for quite a while in the blender to end up with a smooth sauce.

Rodney.

> > >> > Hi folks:> >> > Clarification on a couple of points.> >> > First, the purpose of my original post was not to lament the lack > > of vegan recipes one might possibly cook, but instead to point out > > the nature of some of the foods vegans, and those who sell foods to > > vegans, apparently think are fine to eat. I learned a lot from > > this exercise about why vegans do not live any longer than health- > > conscious non-vegans despite the well known health issues > > associated with with many animal products.> >> > As Jeff Novick so often says: saying someone is vegetarian or > > vegan does not tell you what they eat, it tells you what they do > > not eat. And if many of them eat much of the stuff I described, > > then no wonder the not-overwhelmingly-favorable study results, and > > why some vegetarians I know are far from slim.> >> > Second, the purpose of serving some vegan ready-prepared products > > was for our guests and us to become more acquainted with the types > > of vegan foods that are available from serious vegan food outlets. > > The same remarks apply. We learned a lot ........ best not to > > touch many of these products with a ten foot pole.> >> > Rodney.> >> > -> >> >>

[Guest guest]

I’m reading Pollen’s latest book: “In defense of Food”. Precisely on this subject. And hilariously written.

He also authored “Omnivore’s Dilemma” - another first rate book about food.

Thanks to Jeff who originally mentioned these books.

From: claire roberts-torres <robertstorres@...>

Reply-< >

Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 16:06:13 -0700 (PDT)

< >

Subject: Re: [ ] Re: Health Attributes of processed (Vegan) Foods

so-no fat-free-sugar-free-dairy-free-all-natural-organic-vitamin-enriched cheesecake? you're breaking my heart!

<robertsjohnh@...> wrote:

Your experience with the " processed " vegan foods was probably more typical of processed foods in general than vegan diets. While it is a good reminder of sloppy or incomplete dietary thinking.

The food " business " is all about merchandising the appearance of being healthful, while appealing to our intrinsic taste hot buttons, (sugar, fat, etc). This is no different than " fat-free " foods, full of sugar, and " sugar-free " foods full of fat, and salt-free foods full of sugar and fat :-). People tend to oversimplify dietary choices into all good or all bad choices... life is rarely that simple.

Is anybody surprised? If it has a label on it, don't read the label.. just throw it away (exaggeration, read the label then throw it away).

JR

On Apr 1, 2008, at 3:02 PM, Rodney wrote:

Hi folks:

Clarification on a couple of points.

First, the purpose of my original post was not to lament the lack of vegan recipes one might possibly cook, but instead to point out the nature of some of the foods vegans, and those who sell foods to vegans, apparently think are fine to eat. I learned a lot from this exercise about why vegans do not live any longer than health-conscious non-vegans despite the well known health issues associated with with many animal products.

As Jeff Novick so often says: saying someone is vegetarian or vegan does not tell you what they eat, it tells you what they do not eat. And if many of them eat much of the stuff I described, then no wonder the not-overwhelmingly-favorable study results, and why some vegetarians I know are far from slim.

Second, the purpose of serving some vegan ready-prepared products was for our guests and us to become more acquainted with the types of vegan foods that are available from serious vegan food outlets. The same remarks apply. We learned a lot ........ best not to touch many of these products with a ten foot pole.

Rodney.

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