Dear , re food matters.

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

Glad I spotted your question - I often skim through....=) Delighted to help

you.

About going vegetarian, DON'T HESITATE! As the Nike ads used to say " JUST

DO IT! " =)

You mentioned balancing the diet. Well, of course this is vital no matter

what kind of programme we chose, but it's interesting to consider the fact

that when " nutritionists " and doctors talk about veg diets, they are

starting from the assumption that it is both normal and desirable for humans

to eat animal products. Neither of these are true. Our digestive systems

are overwhelmingly similar to those of the fruit and leaf eating primates

which tends to strongly suggest that that is also our natural diet. Those

who give credence to the Bible may also like to compare Genesis 1:29 where

man's diet is stated to be of fruit and other vegetation. (Worry not, I

shan't preach!!!) So it's always good to bear in mind that we do not to

*replace* animal products, as we are not really meant to have them in the

first place!!

All the nutrients humans need can be found in plant food. That is all

except Vitamin B12, but meat comsumption is strongly suspected to be the

reason why our intestinal flora do not synthesize this vitamin well as do

the flora in other mammals. For instance, cows don't drink milk for B12!!=)

If this is a concern, one can always supplement.

Most people, when considering vegetarian diets are concerned about certain

nutrients, so I'll give a brief summary of source and so on.=)

Protein. The US Natural Hygiene writer Harvey Diamond said in his book " Fit

for Life " , (buy it - WELL worth reading, esp for weight loss), that the fear

of death amongst most people is NOTHING compared to the fear of not getting

enough protein!! He's right. Most people I talk to are terrified they'll

curl up and die of deficiency if they don't eat meat. However, how many

people do you know who are protein deficient. Exactly, none!=) We do know

a fair few with chronic symptoms of protein over-consumption though....=(

Scientists have been trying to design a protein deficient diet for decades

but, unless onelives on boiled sweets and jellies, they can't do it.

Basically, if calorie needs are being met, so are protein needs. Humans

need, as a percentage of calories, less than 5% protein which means that

even most fruits are over the limit at 8% or more!!=) Human breast milk has

less than 2% most of the time. So, fear not the protein myth.=) Protein

rich veggie foods are: everything from the plant kingdom, but esp pulses,

nuts, green veg, whole grains and so on.

Iron: There's another fear that vegetarian are prone to anaemia, but this

is not statistically true, as it happens. Meat eaters suffer proportionally

more iron-deficiency and pernicious, (B12 lack), anaemia than pure

vegetarians. Iron rish foods include all green leave, nuts, pulses, seeds,

whole grains, watermelon and, again, most other plant foods. Plant foods

are also v high in vitamin C which improve absorption. Handy, huh?=)

Calcium: Cow's milk may contain a lot of calcium, but that doesn't mean it

works for us. There are a few reasons why dairy consumption leads to

negative calcium balance although intakes are high on paper. One is that

cow's milk is possibly the most indigetible food that a human can consume.

It turns into thick gooh once in our system and coats everything with a

sticky paste. Even cow's need 4 stomachs to digest it!! It prevents

absorption of almost everything and, as we can't digest it properly, we

can't get at the calcium. It's also too high in protein and, as it has

often been heat treated, is also highly acidic both of which lead to calcium

actually being leached from the bones to keep the blood pH stable and spare

us from instant death! So, what else is there? Again, the same sources:

nuts, greens, pulses and especially seeds. Sesame seeds, (try to get them

raw), have 11 times as much calcium as the equivalent portion of milk and

it's easily available to humans.

So, who need animal foods? Not us! There are several good vegan cooking

lists at Yahoo. You can do a search on the Groups Home site or I can give

some suggestions if you want to mail me personally. I also have two pdf

files that I downloaded of nutrient dense vegan cooking that I'm happy to

mail on to anyone who's interested.=)

Sorry this was so long. I'll post the comments about fruit and candidiasis

separately.

Love and grapes,

Elisabeth.