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The Vegetarian Way will appeal not only to vegetarians, but also to parents who want their families to eat a vegetarian diet, and to countless others who want to cut down on the amount of animal products they eat.
Virginia Messina is a registered dietitian with a master's degree in public health nutrition. Mark Messina holds a doctorate in nutrition and has worked in the Diet and Cancer Branch of the National Cancer Institute. The Messinas live in Washington State.
Read a review of this book from the March/April 1997 issue of the Vegetarian Journal. Read more about the Messinas.
Vegetarianism isn't a radical departure from "normal" eating patterns. Rather, it takes us back to where we belong. It is the diet best suited to human nutrition and health needs. It is the diet most compatible with the earth's resources. It is the diet that best addresses world food needs and world hunger.
But despite that, a vegetarian diet is likely to raise questions and concerns for many people. These run the whole gamut. Not just "where do you get your protein" but "where do you shop, how do you get kids to eat vegetables, and what happens when you have dinner at the boss's house and she serves filet mignon." We wrote this book in order to answer those questions and deal with such concerns. Our goal is to give you a complete overview of what you need to know about vegetarian diets-from raising vegetarian children, to losing weight on a meatless diet, to figuring out what to do with tofu.
We expect that our readers will approach this book from varied perspectives. Perhaps you are a new vegetarian or are contemplating the plunge, but you have questions about meeting nutrient needs and planning meals. Maybe you and your spouse have been carefree, healthy vegetarians for years, but the imminent arrival of a new baby has raised all kinds of questions. Or maybe you had absolutely no interest in a vegetarian diet until last week when your sixteen-year old daughter arrived home for dinner-the very night you made her favorite spaghetti with meat sauce-and announced that she had gone meatless. Finally, you may be looking to cut down your meat intake, exploring meatless meals for fun and as a way to improve your health.
Whatever motivates you to learn more about a vegetarian diet, your knowledge can only make your life better. Confirmed vegetarians may learn nutrition tips here that will make their diets even healthier. We hope that new vegetarians will feel more relaxed about vegetarian nutrition and that prospective vegetarians will gain enough confidence to change their diets.
We also hope to convey some of our own enthusiasm for vegetarian eating. We bring a dual perspective to this subject. First, we are professional nutritionists-a registered dietitian and a Ph.D. in nutrition-who have chosen to make vegetarian diet our area of expertise. Not surprisingly, we're also vegetarians. In fact, between the two of us, we have more than thirty years of experience in meatless eating.
Our own experience as vegetarians has been a true evolution. We've explored all the reasons for eating this way-health, concern for animals and the environment, spiritual and world-hunger issues. We've evolved from semivegetarians to lacto-ovo (including dairy and eggs in our diet) to total veganism (no animal products whatsoever). For us, a vegetarian diet is more than a responsible way of eating. It's a way of living the good life. Many friends and family members have tried tempting us with a juicy steak, afraid that we were missing out on something. But we know that they are the ones who are really missing out on something special. For one thing, vegetarian food is wonderful. It's fun and it's delicious. It includes exotic Indian curries, pasta tossed with fresh spring vegetables, tender marinated vegetables grilled to perfection and served on crusty rolls, and spicy Caribbean bean dishes. It can also be familiar, comforting foods, like tacos, potpies, and warm, savory soups. We started eating the best food of our lives when we went vegetarian. What a wonderful bonus that this food is also the healthiest there is.
But if people should be eating vegetarian meals, how did most Americans and northern Europeans end up eating such a meaty diet? It's purely an accident of prosperity. Throughout most of the world, people can't afford to eat much meat. It's just too costly to produce, requiring much land, water, and animal feed. But in the United States, many kinds of food are relatively abundant and cheap, so we can afford to eat anything we want. Most people elsewhere do not have the same food choices that we enjoy, and their diets are more closely linked to local products.
When people do eat a less expensive diet of grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits-all locally produced-they are actually much better off. Those of us who eat everything we please pay the price for it in a big way. Not just in terms of medical bills but also in the cost of dwindling environmental resources.
There is good evidence that this trend is reversing. Many people are reducing their intake of meat-mostly for health reasons. But even more dramatic are the numbers of people embracing a vegetarian diet--twelve million of us, according to a recent Gallup poll. We used to be the counterculture. Now all of a sudden we're trendsetters. And the decided opinion of the media, the nutrition profession, and the food industry is that we are important consumers and that we are here to stay. Just look at what has happened in the past few years.
In a 1991 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all people who eat in restaurants said that they patronize only those establishments that offer vegetarian entrees. While these people aren't all vegetarians, they care enough about having the choice to limit the restaurants they go to. The National Restaurant Association took this poll seriously and recommends that all its member restaurants add vegetarian entrees to their menus. The grocery business has taken note of its vegetarian customers as well. Veggie burgers, once the domain of the health-food store, are showing up in the freezer case of supermarkets and are being produced by some of the world's largest food manufacturers. In the past ten years alone, more than two thousand new soy-based meat and dairy substitutes have appeared in food markets. And one national grocery chain that offers regular coupons for free meat to its customers recently amended the offer to include meat substitutes for vegetarian customers.
Nowhere is vegetarianism more popular than in the media. Vegetarian cookbooks are appearing on best-seller lists, and a number of magazines aimed exclusively at vegetarians are appearing on newsstands.
But despite all the growing interest in meatless eating, there is no single, comprehensive guide for vegetarians of all ages and types-from the parents of a new vegan baby to the vegetarian senior citizen. Our goal in writing this book is to address the full spectrum of vegetarian issues, including nutrition basics, meatless cooking, socializing, and special situations like diabetes and weight control. In exploring the nutrition issues surrounding vegetarianism, we looked at as many scientific studies as we could find and examined every perspective. We tried to be objective, honest, and balanced in our assessment of the health effects and nutritional adequacy of a meatless diet. In examining other, nonhealth reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet, we studied agricultural publications and research on the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. As a result, we believe we are giving you the most reliable, up-to-date information that is available.
As we wrote this book, our goal was to be informative; we weren't necessarily aiming to write an inspirational text on the virtues of vegetarianism. But as you learn more about this way of eating, it is difficult not to be inspired. There is a perfect and comforting symmetry here. What is good for your body turns out to be good for the planet. When we eat in a way that is respectful and kind to our bodies, it is also respectful and kind toward the rest of the world-humans and animals as well.
Vegetarians no longer must defend and explain their diet. Vegetarianism is gradually being recognized for the smart, healthy, caring, and responsible choice that it is. We hope that this book makes some small contribution to this more accurate view of dietary choices.
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups diced potatoes (new, waxy potatoes are best)
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
Salt to taste
Saute the onion and garlic in the oil in a large skillet over medium heat for two minutes. Add the potatoes and saute for an additional minute. Pour in the vegetable stock, quinoa, corn, oregano, and tarragon. Bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until all the stock has been absorbed, and add the salt.
3 medium red-skinned potatoes
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 small eggplant, peeled and cur into 1/2 inch chunks
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped rosemary leaves
Salt and black pepper to taste
Wash the potatoes and place them in a medium pot. Cover them with water and simmer until the potatoes are just tender, about 30 minutes. Cut them into 1/2 inch cubes.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place all the vegetables in a bowl and toss
them with the olive oil, garlic, and rosemary. Add salt and pepper. Spread the
vegetables in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and roast them in the oven for 20
minutes, or until almost tender. Turn on the broiler and broil for 1 to 2 minutes,
until the edges of vegetables are brown.
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