Plant Based Diets Demystified Part 3 - Eating Out

Plant Based Diet Myth 3 ~ You can't eat out anywhere, or go out with friends.

Eating out is a social behavior. We love to go out for drinks and apps with family and friends, we love to see people, dinner and a movie is our favorite date. After working for years in restaurants, I believe it goes to our core feelings to be cared for. And not doing dishes is great! Besides that, we're busy people. There are kids to pick up, lessons, errands, and so on that need to be done. Sometimes they're during our mealtimes. We can either starve, or we can eat out.

Contrary to popular belief, there is generally SOMETHING you can eat at a restaurant. There are a few places where the pickings are slim, though generally those are places we shouldn't be eating at those anyway.

The first thing to remember is to choose restaurants that prepare most of the foods in house, as opposed to from frozen. One of the worst ones for preparing from frozen is Applebees. There are still options there (I normally get either a baked potato, or an Asian salad, no dressing no chicken). If the food is frozen and premixed in a restaurant there are very few ways to change what they have. It doesn't mean the restaurant is out, it just means you need to be more creative in what you order there!

Restaurants that prepare from fresh are a whole different story. My favorite for this is California Pizza Kitchen. I can change almost any item to fit my diet. They have a ton of foods that don't have meat, and then it's simply removing cheese. By the way, cheeseless pizza is AWESOME!

My other favorite hint for eating out is go ethnic. I have no problems with Chinese restaurants subbing tofu for meat in anything I want, or just doing a bunch of veggies. Mexican restaurants are great for veggie fajitas. Indian and Thai food also lends itself well to Plant Based eating. The fact that these typically aren't chain restaurants and help the local economy is also an added plus. It's a sad fact that 'American' food is the hardest to Plant base, since we generally rely on steak, cheese, and fat to make everything taste good instead of letting the veggies shine through.

There are also Vegan and Veggie based restaurants around. Trying a new restaurant for a change can be a lot of fun, and may make some new favorites, even among your non-plant based friends. It's a great opportunity to introduce people to different foods.

And remember, no matter what, you can always ask for a salad with every veggie they have and a balsamic dressing on the side. If the server has issues with what you can have, ask to speak to a manager. Restaurants want to make you happy, and most people who work there really want to feed you. That's why they're in the industry. They'll do whatever they can to make sure you leave full, and happy. Even bars will generally have celery and carrot sticks. If they don't, keep a snack in your pocket. I like Clif bars, or Larabars for emergency situations.

My biggest caution to eating out is that we typically have tastes associated with specific restaurants that at least first will bring out cravings. And the fact that the food is inevitably HIGH in fat, and sodium. You're better off to limit it to a special treat whenever possible. There is a great app for Iphones, and Androids called myfitnesspal.com. Using that app, you can instantly see the calorie, sodium, and fat for a lot of foods at restaurants. You will be shocked when you realize how many calories are in some foods at restaurants.

By preparing yourself with knowledge of menus and nutrition, you'll be able to make healthier choices that keep you on track with a plant based diet and still allow you the fun of eating out with friends.

Plant Based Diet Demystified Part 2 - Protein

One of the most common questions a Plant based person gets is 'Where do you get your protein!'

In the USA, we're told that protein isn't just part of nutrition, it's so important that not getting enough will immediately cause you to faint into an anemic heap of malnourished person. Of course really, anemia is caused by a lack of iron, but hey, just go with me here. We're shown pictures of steaks and told that this, is where our protein is located. In reality, that picture of a steak could be exchanged with any other food and the title of protein could be the same.

Animal based protein is a complete protein. Proteins are made up of amino acids, and meat happens to have all of these. There's approximately 7 grams of protein per ounce of meat. Which is why the meat industry is so quick to tell everyone that meat is necessary for protein. The fact that meat also contains cholesterol, saturated fat, is linked to chronic disease and cancer appears not to matter. What matters is that the protein is there, and it's complete.

What they don't tell you, is that protein is found in all food sources. Broccoli? Protein. Spinach? Protein. Barley? Protein. Kidney beans? Protein. Protein exists in everything. The difference is the amounts, and that plant based diets are incomplete proteins, not all plants have the same amino acids. Aha! So vegetarians ARE lacking in protein? Nope. Not at all. All we have to do is eat a varied diet. If we eat items from 2 categories of the following, we're just fine and dandy as we cover all the amino acids.

Grains: Barley, cornmeal, oats, rice, pasta, whole grain breads.
Legumes: Beans, lentils, peas, peanuts, soy
Seeds and nuts: Sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, cashews
Vegetables: Leafy greens, broccoli

Of course, how hard is it to get our 50 grams (averaging of course) from the above? Well, one cup of soybeans has a whopping 29 grams of protein, one cup of black beans 15 grams. A cup of oats has 6 grams (oat bran has even more!) A cup of broccoli has 4 grams. It isn't really hard at all, it occurs over the course of the day. And of course, as with every other diet, sometimes it will be higher and sometimes lower. Our bodies are smart enough to handle that and deal with it accordingly. Where you run into problems is if you're consistently low (or more likely high with how abundant protein is in food) and make your body deal with that on a daily basis.

Of course protein is important. You need protein to survive. Protein is needed to have muscle, hair, energy and so on. The amount you need varies from person to person, it's around .08 grams of protein per kilogram of weight. There is no scientific data that proves excess protein is healthy, though some that shows it isn't healthy.


So why did your 2nd cousin Gina tell you she tried eating Vegan or Veg for a couple days and felt 'terrible' from the lack of protein. This could be for a couple reasons. First, she may very well have simply eaten junky foods. Living on potato chips, and spaghetti isn't a health diet. Or, more likely, if she was eating a healthy diet, her body was resetting. It's a big change to go from eating 150 grams of protein (not uncommon believe it or not ) to the correct 50 grams. And any dietary change can result in you feeling a little weird as your body sorts itself out. Of course it could also be psychosomatic. You 'know vegan diets are so low in protein' and expect to feel weak or weird. In my case, I switched from eating a very high protein, low carb diet to eating Pescetarian in March. I had one day where I felt like I was coming down with the flu and then it went away. Was I fighting something off? Maybe, or maybe it was my body resetting. I went from eating 150 grams of protein a day to about 70 at that point in time (I track my food). After that though, I had more energy and felt better than before.

From the time we're little, the fact that we need to eat meat for protein is drilled into us. It's no wonder that overriding that picture of steaks for protein from our minds is such a struggle.

Plant Based Diet Demystified Part 1

Last night we went grocery shopping. It was inevitable, we were down to two blocks of tofu, and a bunch of leeks in the fridge. I do not exaggerate here. As our groceries were being rung up the cashier commented that we sure ate healthy. Except for the diet soda. I told her we were vegan, and that was our only vice. She immediately started asking us questions, and I of course enthusiastically started telling her about how much better we felt and how much we were enjoying the food. She just looked at us and said, 'yeah, but don't you get BORED eating that way?'

I just laughed to myself, but that statement keeps coming back. There are a lot of misconceptions and myths about a plant based diet, and I decided to address them. These include:

• Plant based diets are limited or boring.
• Plant based diets are too low in protein.
• Plant based diet make it too hard to eat out/socially eat.
• Plant based diets and meals are too hard to make/take too long.
• I could never give up ______________ to eat a plant based diet.
• Plant based diets are devoid in nutrients. 
• Plant based diets are too expensive!

Over the next few weeks I'll write about each of these one at a time. We'll start with the first statement: Plant based diets are boring and limited.

I want you to think back about your meals over the past 2 weeks. How many times did you eat chicken, beef, or pork. How many different cuts? Did all those cuts though have the overwhelming taste of chicken, beef or pork? Just with different seasonings or textures? Roast, vs hamburger, chicken breasts vs fried leg?

Now, think about what else you ate in these 2 weeks. Most likely potatoes, rice, lettuce maybe? Peas, corn? Probably all prepared the same way? Served as a side to the meat unless you were eating a casserole. I bet if you combined everything total, it would amount to approximately 10-15 ingredients total.

In the past 2 weeks, our plant based household has eated:

Arugula
Brussels Sprouts
Carrots
Cabbage
Bell peppers
Celery
Dill
baby leaf lettuce
romaine lettuce
spinach
oyster mushrooms
portobella mushrooms
Leeks
bean sprouts
kale
almonds
pecans
cashews
black beans
northern beans
adzuki beans
barley
brown rice
sweet potatoes
pineapple
oranges
mango
strawberries
apples
cranberries
tofu
Meat replacement products
chickpeas
bananas

I could go on, but that covers the basics. We have had stir fries with thai flavorings, teriyaki flavorings, tofu scrambles, baked veggies, pasta, soups, stews, smoothies. With so many fresh vegetables there is no limit to what can be done. None of these would be better with meat. Once you stop eating meat and stop relying on it's rather one dimensional flavors, you find a world of flavors you didn't know existed.

Contrary to popular belief we don't survive on salads, though as it happens I am having one for lunch right now. My lunch salad consists of mixed baby greens, red bell pepper, celery, diced apples, sliced mushrooms, slivered almonds, and it's all topped with a balsamic dressing. This is a salad you'd pay 10.00 for in a restaurant, but I can make it myself whenever I want since I now always have these ingredients available to me. It's anything but boring or plain. For dinner tonight I'm torn as to whether I'm fixing spaghetti with roasted veggies, black bean tacos (black beans, taco seasoning, veggies, salsa on a whole wheat tortilla), or tortilla soup.

I challenge you to look at your diet, track it for 2 weeks and then select 5 veggies to add into the mix over the next 2 weeks that you're not eating now on a regular basis. After 2 weeks, try another 5.