Balanced Vegetarin Diet

There is a general consensus among doctors advocating a plant based diet. They are convinced that diets high in animal fats such as the American diet are detrimental to health. At the same time, a vegan diet high in carbohydrates much like an Indian diet can increase cholesterol, triglycerides and heart disease. There is loads of information available on the internet about, how carbohydrates are converted to triglycerides, which are in turn converted to VLDL and it is a plaque causing mechanism. I am a meat eater and I have followed a no carbohydrate diet myself and seen all my lipid profile numbers improve.

It is difficult for a vegetarian to follow a no-carb diet for too long. But to maintain a healthy lifestyle all you need is a well balanced diet, low in carbohydrates. Poorly planned vegan diets may be low in vitamin B₁₂, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, iron, zinc, riboflavin (vitamin B₂), and iodine. I have some easy to follow suggestions for Indians, on how to maintain a healthy vegetarian lifestyle.

What are the key foods that should be included in every Indian vegetarian’s diet and how to include them? I have carefully made a list of foods that are readily available in modern India and crucial to maintaining healthy levels of Vitamins and minerals that really fuel our body.

Walnuts, Almonds, Peanut, Chia seeds(Sabja), ground Flax seeds, sesame seeds, cilantro, beans,  Yoghurt, Milk, millets,(jowar/bajra), sprouts, leafy green vegetables, soya products, citrus fruits, broccoli, cabbage, balanced mix of all fruits and vegetables and a mix of different healthy oils.

Consuming a small portion of all these foods in your daily diet can give you all the required nutrients that a difficult to get from a vegetarian diet as compared to a non vegetarian. I would like to share with you how I have personally incorporated these. I have a salad for lunch, but this is not any ordinary salad. I call it a SUPER SALAD. The reason behind this is, I cover almost all my essential foods in this one meal. And it is a high fiber, high nutrient, low carb like meal.

Eat your fruits for a snack or along with breakfast. I eat them with sprouted beans and some cheese. You can eat them as is.

I make a blend of:

Lettuce

Cucumber, zucchini

Green peppers (Capsicum)

Red and yellow peppers (Roasted and peeled)

Lightly boiled Cauliflower, Broccoli, carrots, French beans

Cherry or plum tomatoes

Wedges of Citrus fruits

Loads of chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons of beans (soaked and cooked/canned)

To this I add my Nuts:

2 Walnuts

2 Almonds (soaked overnight)

4 Peanuts (soaked overnight)

1 teaspoon of chia seeds / sabja(soaked overnight)

1 dry fig chopped smaller

1 teaspoon ground flaxseed

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

 For the dressing, I use whichever dressing I like. It is important that it tastes good to you, if not; you will discontinue eating it. I love plain mayonnaise with an occasional hot sauce or ¼ spoon of some jelly or jam. That way you can flavor it differently every day. A good balsamic vinegar and olive oil is another of my favorites. It is a hearty wholesome salad like no other. Add your own twists with sautéed mushrooms and onions, jalapeños and olives. Add as many vegetables that you can, but try to add all the nuts and seeds. This needs some planning once a week, but it is well worth it. I have separate containers for all my nuts, seeds and dry fruits. With some prep work the night before, you can have a healthy salad every day of the week.

In this salad I have almost covered 70% of the required foods. The rest are covered in snacks and dinner. I take a salted lassi (yogurt+ water + salt + jeera powder). If you don’t like leafy vegetables, here is what you can do. Boil and puree spinach. Mix it with the jowar (millet) flour, without adding additional water. Add some seasonings, turmeric, ajwain, chilli powder and salt. Roll rotis and roast them until they are nice and crisp. I add a dash of olive oil and eat it as a snack or with dinner. Here you got your leafy veggies in.

For dinner, make a tofu or paneer or a bean burger, without the bun. They are hearty and taste really good. There are tons of recipes available on the net. Eat it with onions lettuce and tomatoes, with or without the bun. Or a healthy traditional meal made of 1 Jowar roti, dal and a vegetable.

There are loads of oils, other than olive oil, that are heart healthy. But the key is to not heat them to their smoking point or they go rancid and can clog your arteries. Use a blend of oils like mustard, Olive, peanut, Rice bran and sesame. For Indian cooking I recommend that you use a minimal amount of oil to make the tadka (tempering) and then add more later, for flavor.

This covers almost all my foods. Last but not the least is Vitamins D, D2 and B12. A good 10 min soak in the sun between 10am-4pm. If you hate the tan cover your face or take a supplement. It has been found that Vitamin D has been ignored since long, and there is a host of diseases that it can help you fight. Vitamin B12 deficiency is potentially dangerous and the most serious side effect of a vegetarian diet. Vitamin B12 is not found naturally in plant foods and therefore, milk products such as 1 cup of yogurt, and 1 cup of milk and some sprinkling of cheese should be taken daily. Get your Vitamin B12 and D levels tested. If they are low then consult the doctor about supplements.

If a vegetarian diet is followed diligently, keeping all the nutrients in mind, it has been believed to be a healthy choice.

Indian Vegetarians ALMOST eat right

By Indian standards, I am a pure meat eater. But my portions are smaller than most of the Western world. I read and write a lot about food and this has got me into researching about Vegetarianism. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada have stated that at all stages of life, a properly planned vegetarian diet is "healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provides health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases".  Large-scale studies have shown that mortality from ischemic heart disease is significantly lower among vegetarians, 30% men and 20% among women than in non-vegetarians. Vegetarian diets offer lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein, and higher levels of carbohydrates, fibre, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals.

31% of Indians are vegetarians, while another 9% consumes eggs. Even the ones who do consume meat, do so very infrequently sometimes for cultural and mostly for economical reasons. When I see so many Indians and even vegetarians die of heart attacks it makes me wonder, what we are doing wrong. By 2030, India will have the largest number of diabetics in the world. I have been one for the last 20 years and it scares me.

This may seem like a rather controversial topic. But, it being so close to my heart, I could  not avoid researching and sharing my views. The Western world is talking about avoiding processed food. Avoid GM foods. Avoid processed flour and eat whole grains. Avoid carbonated drinks and fast foods. Eat organic as pesticide use in their world is very high. Eat home-made meals, cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients. Eat freshly cooked foods. Wait a minute, aren’t we Indians already doing that?? For generations we have been eating home cooked meals, by our mother and grandmothers, freshly cooked before meal time, comprising of whole grain roti(bread), no GM allowed in India, most ingredients locally bought, no sodas or fast foods and lower use of pesticides. Of course, there has been a lot of westernization and some of the bad habits have influenced us. But, that will take a while to show effect on our new generation. But, we need to look at our parents and our generation too who have not been brought up on chips and coke.

The problem here is the high consumption of carbohydrates. The main staple of the Indian diet is carbohydrates (roti and rice). We eat the vegetables along with the roti and not the other way round. In other cuisines the starch is only a side dish. Indian meal has a large serving of rice and along with it is the veggie made with a whole lot of spices meant to be eaten in a smaller portion. Sometimes there is dal and pickle. A spoonful of pickle replaces a bowl of the vegetable you could have eaten. Dal and beans have protein but carbs too and they are eaten in small portions too. Traditionally an average meal would be 3 rotis, 1c rice, bean/dal, veggie, yogurt, pickle, salt, added sugar, ghee etc.

7” roti  = 23 gms carbs. 3 rotis = 70gms.
1 cup of rice = 44 gms of carbs.
½ cup of beans or thick dal = 15 gms 
Non starchy veggies = 0 gms,
Starchy Veggies = 15/20 gms,
½ cup of yogurt = 8gms 
One meal counts to approximately 147 -150 gms.

An average recommended carbohydrate is: Women : 45-60 grams of carbohydrate per meal (3-4 carb choices/meal) Men: 60-75 grams per meal (4 to 5 carb choices/meal). This varies with activity, total protein and calorie intake. There are good carbs and bad carbs but, the bottom line is that you need to control your carbohydrate intake and also choose good, fibre rich carbs. What we need to watch is that even beans, pulses, carrots, peas etc. have carbs. They are the fibre and protein rich carbohydrates and are a better choice than the refined flours. Nevertheless, they need to be counted.

Why talk only about carbs? Carbs are not the only culprit but they are the main one. Yes! Excessive carbs are converted into cholesterol and triglycerides, they increase your LDL cholesterol and therefore translate into heart disease and diabetes too. In my next article I will discuss the details of this claim and suggest the food choices keeping in mind nutrition for vegetarian diet.

Why Different Taste Preferences?

I have always wondered why foods taste different to everybody. Is it only that people are inflexible when they do not like a particular taste? Like olives or anchovies. My son is very picky with his food choices while my daughter is more flexible, pretty much like me. Observing him has made me think that there may be a physiological difference between the two, because there are tastes that he is genuinely not able to tolerate.

This made me look up the net a little and hit the concept of supertasters. Wiki: A supertaster is a person who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average. This obviously, leads to picky eaters. And the other end of the spectrum are non-tasters. Non-tasters eat wider range of foods and mind you have higher BMI's. Now this hurts. I like all kinds of foods, enjoy various tastes and cuisines, so you call me a "non-taster". Completely contrary to what I think I am. And these picky, critical, choosy people who have some input or the other to improve every food item they eat, get to call themselves, "SUPERtasters". They are a challenge to every chef.

Research says that, whether you're a non-taster or a supertaster or somewhere in-between depends on your sensitivity to a bitter chemical called 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). Non-tasters can't taste the bitterness of PROP at all. Medium tasters sense the bitterness but do not mind it, while supertasters find the taste of PROP revolting.

Children taste PROP more strongly and therefore taste the bitterness of foods more. I guess when we say that people acquire state for bitter vegetables once they become adults, only means that our taste buds become less sensitive to PROP once we grow up. I pity my children for all those times that I forced them to eat their veggies and the bitter ones too.

Supertasters are not only sensitive to the bitter tastes but also to overly fatty, salty and sugary foods. This helps them make healthier choices in foods, but at the same time sometimes keeps them away from foods high in flavonoids as they can be bitter tasting.

Mothers have trouble raising kids who balk at many foods. They complain and worry about their child receiving the right nutrition. But in the wake of this information we can assume that such Supertasters have a higher chance of being healthier than their counterparts.

How and Why to use Chicken Base?

Chicken base is a must-have if you can find it in your side of the world. I get mine from USA. My sister-in-law is sweet enough to carry it for me every 2 years. I am sure it is available in some specialty store locally in India, I just haven't looked hard enough. The latest one that she got me is an Organic, low sodium chicken base. It doesn't get better than this!

The reason I call it a must-have for all pantries is, that it is a super-ingredient. A good chicken base can be the foundation for a lot of good dishes. It is simmered much longer than a stock and the flavor is much richer. May it be soups, gravies, pasta, or Indian curries to give them a deeper flavor, it works perfectly. You can add it to any gravy or saucy dish in place of salt, to enhance the flavour. It substitutes a fresh broth and requires less space to store as compared to a can of broth.

Sautee some onions and garlic in butter, add mushrooms and some chicken base, cream(optional), adjust the seasoning and you have a quick and easy pasta sauce. For all such recipes where you want a flavorful sauce but no cream or cheese calories, use the chicken base and little bit of any thickening agent. You have a healthy recipe. Add a tablespoon to your risotto and see the difference.

I use it for a chicken noodle soup, chowder or a cream of chicken soup. I use it for non-chicken soups too. A veggie soup can be cranked up a notch with this. Anytime I don't have an appropriate stock for my dish, I add a dollop of chicken base. It is a savior for all the emergency times when you want to quickly cook something but still leave a mark. I add a tablespoon full to all my Indian gravies and get loads of compliments. I have added it to my marinades, salad dressings, bakes and rice.

Add your ideas to my list and share them with me.