Protein: The Big Question

Homemade Sushi

Now that I’ve gone vegetarian, I need to think about where to get protein since I won’t have the simple answer of “meat.”

Like most people, I thought protein pretty much only came from meat. Hence, my hesitancy about ever going vegan. But I have since found out that most vegetables have plenty of protein and that you don’t need meat to get it.

Look up “what vegetables have protein?” on Google and you will get a protein counter. Choose any veggie and it will show you how much protein is in it. Cool, huh?

According to FitDay.com, these are the top 7 veggies to pack protein:

1. Peas (16+ grams per cup)

2. Corn (5 grams per cup)

3. Broccoli (3 grams per cup) Add rice and beans, and you have a high protein meal!

4. Chickpeas (8 grams per cup)

5. Spinach (13 grams per cup)

6. Artichokes (4 grams per artichoke)

7. Potatoes (5 grams per medium-sized potato)

According to The Vegetarian Resource Group (www.vrg.org):

“Although protein is certainly an essential nutrient which plays many key roles in the way our bodies function, we do not need huge quantities of it.”

You only need up to 0.36 grams per pound that you weigh. So a 180-pound person (and most of us are or should be less than that) only needs as much as 65 grams. And more is not better. In fact, VRG stated that too much protein can increase your risk of osteoporosis and kidney disease.

They have a great chart showing some sample meals and how much protein is in them. Here’s a daily meal chart I made up: (showing examples of a few protein foods only. You can, of course, eat other things with these, and probably should if you want to feel full)

Protein in grams:

Breakfast: one potato (5), baked or shredded and fried as hash browns. Add some bell pepper and onion (1.5). 6.5 grams.

Lunch: Spinach salad (13) with peas (16), tomato (1), cucumber (1). 31 grams.

Dinner: Broccoli (3), brown rice (5) and black beans (15). 23 grams.

Total: 60.5 grams.

Add a snack of a handful of almonds: 4 grams.

Drink some soy milk with that: 7 grams.

Total for the day: 71.5 grams.

Now you’ve taken in more protein than you actually need.

What kinds of whole food and grains contain protein? Oatmeal, whole wheat bread, bagels, peanut butter, spaghetti, veggie burgers, soy yogurt, lentils, quinoa, sunflower seeds, etc.

According to www.cookinglight.com, the average protein requirement for women is 46 g and for men it is 56 g. They add a couple more ideas to the protein menu: cottage cheese (13 g per half cup) and pumpkin seeds (7 g per ounce).

Most vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains contain plenty of protein. Fruits don’t have protein, for the most part, but they do contain many essential vitamins, minerals and other nutrients as well as calories needed to get through the day. And fiber.

As an example of what one might eat, I have kept track of my meals for one day:

Breakfast:

1 1/4 cup Hash browns cooked in 1 tablespoon olive oil

(2 g protein, 70 calories, 0 fat, 16 g carbs, 20 mg sodium, 300 mg potassium, a little Vitamin C)

Frank’s Sauce

(0 protein, 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 carbs, 60 mg sodium, a little Vitamin A).

Strawberry-peach smoothie (peaches, mandarin oranges, coconut milk, mango, strawberries, ice)

(1.1 g protein, 184 calories, 1 g fat, 44 carbs, 4.2 mg sodium, 45 mg potassium)

Total protein: 3.1

 Lunch:

-Homemade Veggie Sushi

(3.6 g protein, 191 calories, 2.5 g fat, 9 g sodium, 37 g carbs,)

-Almond milk

(1 g protein, 60 calories, 2.5 g fat, 160 mg sodium, 35 mg potassium, 8 g carbs, vitamins & minerals)

Total protein: 4.6

Dinner:

-Butternut Squash Bisque

(1 g protein, 100 calories, 1.5 g fat, 650 mg sodium, 19 carbs, vitamins A & D, calcium, iron)

-Homemade wheat bread

(15 g protein, 445 calories, 3.2 g fat, 93 carbs, 462 mg sodium)

-Summer Salad (spinach leaves, mozzarella cheese, mandarin oranges, almonds, pink vinaigrette)

(3.6 g protein, 295 calories, 9 g fat, 288 mg sodium, 25 g carbs)

-Iced Herb Tea

Total protein: 19.6

Snacks:

-Cup of soy milk (7 g)

-Handful of almonds (4 g)

Total protein: 11

Total for day: 38.3

Not quite the 46 that I probably need, but it was close.

I hope this helps. For more information, look up those websites above.

Cheers and Hugs!

Denise

Recipe of the day:

Homemade Sushi (California Rolls)

2 cups jasmine rice, cooked (2 cups of rice with 1 1/2 cups water, in rice cooker or on stove for 20-25 min)

1-2 Tbls rice vinegar

1 cucumber, sliced lengthwise and cut into 3-4 inch strips

1 large avocado, sliced

1 package carrot slivers

1 package imitation crab, optional

1 package seaweed strips

1 rolling mat 

Cook rice. Add vinegar when done, stirring to mix in thoroughly. Cool at least 2 hours before proceeding.

Prepare your rolling mat by wrapping in plastic wrap.

Put a large scoop of rice on the mat. Spread so that it is just a little larger than the seaweed paper.

Place the seaweed paper shiny side down on the rice.

Line up cucumber, carrots and avocado along one side (long ways, closest to you). Add crab, if desired.

Roll the whole thing, squishing tight when the two ends touch.

Cut into 8-9 pieces. Lay flat on a plate.

Serve with soy sauce, wasabi sauce, and pickled ginger.

You can add some Spicy Sushi Sauce on top to make it spicy:

1/2 cup mayo 

2 Tbls Sriracha sauce

Mix together. Drizzle on top of rolls. Add fish roe if desired.

You can also sprinkle toasted French's onion pieces on top as well.

Growing (Food and Knowledge)

Today’s documentary is: The Beautiful Truth.

It is a young boy’s journey to discover the truth about the relationship between cancer and a whole-foods diet. It talks a lot about the Gerson Therapy, by Dr. Gerson. His daughter Charlotte Gerson carries on his work along with her son. They show the boy, Garrett, all their findings, even taking him to meet many of her patients.

If you are sensitive about cancer and have heard of the Gerson Diet, this is something very interesting to watch. Dr. Gerson fought against tobacco use back in the 1920’s. He was ridiculed by other doctors for saying that tobacco was bad. They scorned him for suggesting that if doctors would simply wash their hands between delivering babies, this would greatly reduce the mothers’ chances for infection. He was apparently way ahead of his time!

An interesting fact that turned up was regarding MSG, or mono-sodium glutamate. MSG actually turns off your “full” switch in your brain and causes you to keep eating because you don’t feel full. (I’ll talk more about MSG later ...)

The show is about an hour and a half but has some interesting facts. You may be surprised to find that doctors, the FDA, large pesticide manufacturers and even a large seed manufacturing company refused to talk to the boy and his father who were filming this. It really makes me wonder - and even feel a bit paranoid about some of these companies - are we really being lied to on such a large scale?

Well, decide for yourself, but I tend to think that there is a lot of corruption when it comes to money and power. Unfortunately it involves our health.

I am definitely growing a garden this year. I bought a can of non-hybrid (heirloom) seeds. We already had one in the basement plus a few other seeds. Purchasing heirloom seeds is good if you want to be able to keep the seeds from those plants to grow more plants next year. Hybrids are good when you don’t want seeds in your fruit, but you can’t grow producing plants from what seeds are in them. They are “sterile.”

I found a great recipe for whole wheat bread today. It doesn’t need to be kneaded, so it is perfect for me. I am not good at keeping up with all the rising and punching down of bread dough. You can find it on my recipe blog: chefmamanise.blogspot.com

It turned out really good! I was so afraid it would be a flop so I’m excited that it turned out! I used half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour because we aren’t used to whole wheat yet.

I have been slacking for a week now on my exercise and I’m afraid it is taking a toll: I’ve gained a couple pounds. We were traveling as well, so that made it worse. But the good thing is that I stayed with my diet and so it was only a couple pounds rather than a bunch.

Keep working hard at your diet!

Cheers and hugs!

Denise

Inspiration for Life

Avocado Taco

When you make a major change to your life, it helps to have someone to look up to, others to inspire you and a partner to keep you going. As I have watched various documentaries, I have been inspired to make my recent changes permanent and to be as healthy as possible. It hasn’t really been that hard to look up vegetarian recipes or find others with the same ideas since the Internet is so available. And my awesome husband has been my partner in this - in fact, he actually started it! - so I have someone to be my partner, the shows to inspire me, and the Internet to give me people to look up to; three essentials that I totally recommend.

I thought I would start listing some of the shows I’ve been watching so that you can watch them, too. If you are serious about getting healthy - especially if you are already on medication for heart disease or high blood pressure - then these are essentials to getting motivated. I understand it’s sometimes hard to make a change or even want to make a change - I am stubborn at times and a great procrastinator - but if I were someone else writing to me, this is what I would say: make this a priority! You say you don’t have time to watch these programs? That’s not true. You make time to watch Downton Abbey and browse Pinterest; you can watch a program that’s actually going to make a difference! Don’t be so lazy! Don’t make excuses! When you really want something, you go after it. I’ve seen you searching for the best deal on a smart phone and then save money for it and purchase it. I’ve seen you work for things you want. You think you don’t have time? Baloney. If you don’t have time to change your way of living, you will most certainly run out of time much sooner than you think because you’ll be dead before you can make the decision that you need to be healthier if you want to live longer. Get with it! Make this change before it’s too late!

Now that I just chewed myself out, give yourself a little pep talk as well (even if you have to be hard - it’s tough love, baby!)

So I thought I would start by watching the shows that my husband has already watched and then pass those on to you. If you will watch them, I promise you will be motivated and ready to change. They are informational and easy to watch. Even if you don’t agree with everything they say, you can’t help but be amazed at some of the statistics that they show you. It’s kind of hard to argue with some of their findings! Facts are facts and you will probably agree that they are pretty firm.

Today’s show is Forks Over Knives. I have mentioned this one before but I hadn’t watched the complete show all the way through yet. So I did.

The scariest part of this documentary was that they have found a staggering level of hypertension and obesity in one group of people in the United States that I hadn’t thought about before. In this group there is a high level of hypertension. Forty percent of these people are obese and fifty percent are taking drugs for it! Is it white-collar executives? Housewives? A certain religious group or ethnic group? Nope. It’s grade school children. Children!

Two doctors were doing studies; one was studying the scientific side of things while the other was doing clinical tests. When they finally met up, their findings were phenomenal. In every study, in many countries, they basically found that where there were higher levels of meat and animal-based diets, there was also a higher level of heart disease. Every time!

During World War II when the German army invaded Norway, they confiscated all livestock to feed their troops. The Norwegians were forced to eat plant-based meals. During this time, the levels of people with heart disease dropped. A few years later, when the Germans left and they returned to animal-based meals, heart disease levels rose again. And this is no coincidence. They found these same results time after time as they studied place after place, in labs and in different countries.

I think you will find the facts very interesting. There is so much more they tell you and plenty of facts.

Lee sums it up well. “What I liked best about Forks Over Knives,” he says, “is the research that they have done on worldwide trends for cancer, osteoporosis, prostate cancer, etc. that show the links between eating meat and dairy and the higher rates of cancer in those countries as opposed to the lower rates within countries that eat mostly plant-based diets. Because my dad died of prostate cancer, I found the link between cows milk and that cancer startling, and have decided to forgo drinking milk and limit milk-based product drastically for myself. 

“I also love,” he continues, “that they have examples of actual people that they have helped by changing their diets to a plant-based diet. It was great to see actual people who improved their lives by changing to a plant-based diet, by getting off of medications, and having their cholesterol, blood sugar and other indicators come back in-line for a healthy person.”

We were both inspired by the trend, in these people, to not only stop their illnesses and conditions, but to actually reverse them as well. That has given me much hope!

I think it’s also important to note that this is not a wimpy or girly thing to do. I know a few men who think that salad is girl food. Well, that’s wrong thinking. A fire station (full of men) in Texas changed their diet to plant-based, whole-food meals and improved in strength, stamina and health, even saving the life of one of their fellow firemen. And firemen are the manliest, toughest guys I know.

If you have Netflix, it is easy to find this program there. You can purchase it on YouTube or watch segments, as well. They also have a website: ForksOverKnives.com with recipes, testimonials, articles and other help sections and lots of information.

I hope this helps and gets you motivated. It worked for me!

Today’s recipe is: Avocado Taco. Find it at: chefmamanise.blogspot.com

Cheers and Hugs!

Denise

You're What?

I have to laugh whenever I tell someone that I’ve changed my eating habits to vegetarian. So many seem to say the same thing and I don’t blame them. I was always skeptical of vegan and vegetarian menus, too. So it’s fun to see myself in them and have a laugh at their reactions.

Food is a comfort for me, sometimes, I admit. In the past, whenever I have been really stressed out I wouldn’t eat for half the day, then I would become suddenly famished and eat whatever I could find or go get fast food because it’s quick and filling. Or sometimes I would just eat because I was bored.

When your body craves junk, it’s a huge sign that you are not eating well and probably should change your habits. And sometimes those habits are not easy because of things such as:

-being addicted to something such as caffeine

-becoming used to specific foods and the feeling they give us (and thus feeling a sort of “craving” for them)

-we have grown up with certain ways of eating and schedules, such as “cleaning your plate” or only having 3 meals per day or not wasting anything you have taken

-we have been conditioned by marketing or misinformation that we should eat certain foods, that they are good for us, and that we can’t get certain nutrition any other way

-loving a particular food so much that we cannot give it up, even though it is unhealthy for us.

The list goes on, of course, but these are just a few things to think about.

Going vegetarian/vegan wasn’t an easy decision. Lee and I have been on a downward spiral for some time over the years; eating out a lot, snacking late at night, eating seconds, taking bigger portions than we need, eating in front of the TV - many bad decisions regarding food. Our bodies have already started to repel some of those things naturally; we have become lactose intolerant and can’t eat ice cream or any milk products much any more. But this wasn’t enough.

Last year we participated in a health clinic at Lee’s work. Both he and I had some eye-opening news.

Lee’s blood pressure was high and he was at risk for quite a few illnesses. His cholesterol was really high as well.

My blood work came back with mixed results. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my liver count was good and that a couple other things were great for someone my age. But I was at-risk for diabetes, my blood pressure was climbing, although not alarming yet, and a few other numbers had me worried that I needed to change.

As I have begun to study health and find out information on what really makes our bodies tick, I have had to re-learn things and change my view. Without an accepting attitude and a willingness to change, I have started to understand, I will die an early and uncomfortable death. Heart disease scares me as much as cancer does, and if there is something I can do to prevent it, I am now ready to say that I am willing to do it.

Yes, I love bacon. Meat is great and has a great place in my diet. But it is also not a necessity to my diet and I could keep eating what I want and loving the food and the way it tastes so good but that was not going to change how my body felt like it was falling apart from the inside out. In fact, as I have found out, it is actually contributing to my decline in health and increase in pain.

The other choice was to change my diet to something healthy (although it sounded boring at first), start exercising to keep my muscles and joints in shape (and I am not a big fan of working out) and change some lazy habits that were only making things worse.

Lee and our little grandson Haden.

And then something else happened: we became grandparents. We have a sweet little 7 month old grandson and another one due next month. When I look into that beautiful face and eyes, I realize that although I may be “old” enough to be a grandma, I wasn’t old enough to be feeling so ill and immobile because of my poor choices. I am 49 and feel like I’m 89! That’s just not right.

So when some people laugh about my change in eating, I just smile on the outside because I understand. I thought it was crazy, too. But I cry a little on the inside because I know that a few of them don’t understand that this could save them. There is a possibility that they could stop taking pills for high blood pressure or other illnesses simply by giving up a few items of food that they think are so essential!

I would much rather enjoy my grandchildren than eat a piece of bacon. After all, I gave up a scar-free, slim body and went through hours and months of pain and discomfort to get my children here, would I not give up a few things for my grandchildren as well?

So when I say I am vegan, I am not saying that I am simply “giving up meat,” but I am saying I love my family enough to give up a few things in order to live more fully for them.

And if you are following this blog for the same or similar reasons, I am here to help and encourage you. Let’s get healthy together!

Hugs and cheers!

Denise

Post note: I tried the Coconut Key Lime Pie and it is sooooooo good! Expensive to make, but so worth it! I used a regular almond crust instead of the dates and lime one, but it was very decadent and delicious. Even my teenage boys loved it!

Go to chefmamanise.blogspot.com for today’s recipes. See ya there!