Veggie Newsletter

March 2019

April 6th Meeting

“Taking University of Mary Washington Towards a Sustainable Future” Genesis Avila Lougo, Director

Don’t forget this is a time of sharing so bring your favorite pot luck dish and please bring your own plates and flatware. Someone has to wash that stuff and we’ve gotten lazy in our old age. (Seriously, we appreciate the help)

Meeting time is 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on April 6th 2019 at 3451 Jefferson Davis Highway.

March Meeting

Waste and Abuse of our Food SystemSharon Bivins

We had a great discussion of this important topic and while we didn’t come to any finite decissions we did have a lot of good ideas.

Vegetarian Group Schedule

2018/2019April 6- “ Taking University of Mary Wash-ington Towards a Sustainable Future” Genesis Avila Lougo, Director

Earth Day…April 27, 2019- Please mark your calendar and plan to be a part of this fun infor-mative event at the Old Mill Park.

May 4- “Incorporating a Diverse Variety of Nutrients into Our Daily Diet” Clarice Barker

June-August-Have a Great Summer!

www.fxbgveggie.com

“ I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholester-ol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.”

Dean Ornish, MD

For all our celebrated diversity there isn’t one area that you will get more push back than in what goes into our mouth. Anytime I read the news there is always one article on how such and such doctor, researcher, or (fill in the blank) has determined what we should or should not eat.

One week it’s Atkins, the next it’s paleo, and lately it’s keto with a little “stay away from lectins” thrown in for fun. All in all, at any given time someone is on one diet or another. The lowest common denomina-tor that we can use at the Fredericksburg Vegetarian Group is a vegan diet. If we promote vegetarianism, we get complaints from the vegans and believe it or not we have several non-vegetarians, i.e. meat eaters in the group. So, by pro-moting a balanced vegan diet we hit the hot spot with everyone because at the base of any diet there are vegetables. We get a lot of pushback on this subject so I would like to address it.

I would prefer to call a vegan diet a plant-based diet, but old habits die hard. Today’s plant-based diet is healthier for you than a vegan diet because a vegan diet can consist of egg-free donuts three times a day. In fact, a daughter of one of my oldest friends became a veg-an in college and miscarried her first child. Her second child was mentally challenged, but by the time her third child was conceived her doctor had convinced her that she had to eat meat to have a healthy child. The third child was healthy. So, on the outside this appears to confirm all the dire warning that you get about a vegan diet.

When I have told others about this young lady one

of the first things that someone will say is that she was probably uneducated. They are right and they are wrong. She was a A+ student in high school, aced her SAT’s and got a full-ride scholarship to the Colorado School of Mines, one of the best engineering schools in the nation. She graduated with honors and started at her first job with a 6-figure salary. Definitely not unintelligent and not uneducated. She, however didn’t know beans about nutrition and when we talked about it she was stubborn as they came.

Now for the truth, she didn’t like green vegetables, so her diet consisted of pasta and bread with a few do-nuts and sweets thrown in for variety. Even a person who is not trained in nutrition will see that this is a diet designed to cause problems. Adding meat only injected a small amount of B12. It wasn’t the lack of protein that was the issue, it was the lack of nutrients that was her problem.

The following chart from Dr. Campbell’s book the China Study shows really where the deficiencies in the average diet are.

The only areas that a plan-based diet comes up short to a meat-based diet was in cholesterol, fat, and pro-

Why Vegan?

Don’t forget our new address for our meetings. Unity of Fredericksburg at 3451 Jefferson Davis Hwy.

Don’t forget our new address for our meetings. Unity of Fredericksburg at 3451 Jefferson Davis Hwy.

tein. We don’t need any more cholesterol or fat in our diet and the protein was one point off, not significant enough to even be considered an issue.

Now let’s look at what the plant-based diet added. In all the micronutrients the plant-based diet was head and shoulders above the meat-based and in the case of the fiber, just 500 calories provided more fiber than most Americans get in a whole days’ worth of food. The key here, as in any well-balanced diet, is to eat a variety of different foods.

After the question of “where do I get my protein” I am often asked about vegan children, as evidenced by the above example. there are those horror stories around conceived and raised on a vegan diet. However, a veg-an diet is only as lacking as the food that makes it up. Any diet has the potential to be a horror story. Public opinion being what it is, it is the “abnormal” diets that get the press. We talk all the time about the obesity problem in the U.S. and in the case of children, who usually have little control over what they eat, we are seeing perfect examples of malnutrition, just not lack of calories.

According to a position paper on vegetarian and vegan diets from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association):

Appropriately planned vegan, lactovegetarian, and lacto-ovo vegetarian diets satisfy nutrient needs of in-

fants, children, and adolescents and promote normal growth.

One of the complaints that I receive is that vegan children are shorter than their peers. This is true. On average a vegan child will develop slightly slow-er than their meat-eating friends, however at the end of their growth the average vegan is 1 inch taller than their friends. And while we are on this subject how many are aware that the rapid rate of growth and development that we are seeing in children is NOT normal? There are many ideas as to why children are maturing so rapidly but, the number of hormones in the meat and dairy that they eat is generally accepted as a contributing cause.

Even the World Health Organization and American Heart Association recommends a plant-based diet. It is healthier for all concerned and has several advan-tages that some don’t think about. 1) healthier for the planet, 2) less costly for the family, 3) easy to maintain, and surprisingly, 4) easier to entertain.

So, in summation, a diet is only as healthy as the food that comprise what we eat. A well-planned diet, whether it is meat-based, vegetarian, or vegan is important for everyone. And no, fast food is not part of that diet.

March RecipesRinse and cook the dry lentils into 1/2 cups of water until tender, do not drain. Mash three fourths of the cooked len-tils with immersion blender, food processor, or by hand.

Toast the oat flour and oats in the skillet to soften the fla-vors (optional) and add the spices as well.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl including one heaping teaspoon of chilies in Adobo Sauce, mix all and add to a loaf pan lined with parchment paper.

Add toppings and bake uncovered at 355° to 425° for one hour. Let rest in order to firm up before removing from pan.

I double recipe as it freezes well. A bag of dried lentils makes a double recipe, more or less.

Be creative . . .

Change spices and toppings

Note: Oat flour can be substitutes for any type of flour.

*Be sure that the oats are certified gluten free.

Lentil LoafVegan, Soy Free, Gluten Free*

Source: Clarice Baker

1 cup lentils or 2 1/2 cups cooked. Use green or brown lentils.3 tablespoons ground flax seed4 cups cooked vegetables including 3 cloves of garlic and any diced vegetables3/4 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup oat flour1/2 teaspoon cumin1/2 teaspoon garlic powder1/2 teaspoon onion powder1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon pepper1 heaping teaspoon chilies in Adobo Sauce

Toppings

3 Tbsp catsup (option tomato paste or sauce)1 tablespoon maple syrup1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar