As many of you know, Margie has been a vegetarian for a number of years. Dan is not a vegetarian, but he agreed before we were married that no meat would be allowed in our home. Amazingly enough, it wasn't even a battle, he just said OK! Of course, many people ask him if he misses meat and if it's hard for him to go without. His standard answer is always, "No, Margie is a really good cook, so I don't miss it at all." Besides, if he does get a craving for meat, he can always go out to a restaurant!
Because Margie is often asked about her vegetarianism, we thought we would add some information about it on our home page. Please feel free to ask questions (you can drop us a line at ) or check out the links to additional resources. Margie is not out to change the world, but she is happy to share her experiences (and recipes) with anyone who wants to feel as great about themselves and the world as she does!
In some ways, it is difficult to say where exactly my journey actually began. But I can say that it started as part of an interest in my health, and not in the interest of animal rights or the environment.
I have struggled with my weight my entire life. Although I was never a "fat" child, I always seemed larger than my classmates. And although my genetics are such that I never had a "round" shape, my body parts, especially my legs, were always "thick" (my mom sometimes jokes that this happened because I spent too much time in the Johnny Jump-Up!). So as a young adolescent girl and as a teenager, I was always very concerned about my weight and tried many many diets throughout the years.
While at college in the summer of 1989, I found myself living in a small condominium in San Diego with some other girls. As I was moving out, I discovered in my room a small two-page pamphlet from an organization called the Robbins Research Institute describing a new diet utilizing the concept of "food combining". None of my roommates admitted to owning the pamphlet, and so, always interested in new diets, I held on to it and filed it away.
Two years later, now at Brigham Young University, I discovered the long forgotten pamphlet. This time I decided to put it to the test.
Food combining is simply the notion that certain foods when eaten together in the same meal inhibit the digestive process, thus making it more difficult for your body to utilize and effectively eliminate them. Because your body's energy is so taxed in attempting to break down these foods, it does not have effective resources available to break down and eliminate waste. This not only contributes to weight gain, but also to disease. Your body does not have the energy it needs to repair cells, break down build up, fight against intruders, etc. The basic food combining "rules" are as follows:
The pamphlet I found had two pages. The first discussed these principles in the form of a flow chart, which showed what should be eaten with what, and the second had a sample one week menu utilizing these principles.
I followed the diet for two weeks, and I was astounded at the change that I experienced. I had more energy, I had regular elimination, and I lost weight. But, of course, anyone can follow a diet for two weeks. With only a two-page pamphlet to guide me, I soon got off course. And, despite my valiant efforts to find this "Robbins Research Institute" and get more information, alas they were nowhere to be found.
Another several years went by and I was now living in Virginia. It was 1994 and one Saturday I went to a church service project. After the project, several of us went out for breakfast, and at breakfast, one of the gentlemen started talking about a new diet he was on and how wonderful it made him feel. I soon discovered that he was utilizing food combining! Finally! Someone who had heard of this and had also experienced the amazing results! It turns out that he had been reading the book Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. At last there was a resource that I could turn to to learn more about these amazing principles.
Now you would think that I would be so excited about this that I would
run to the store immediately and get my hands on it! Well, I didn't.
I dragged my feet for several months until one day early in 1995 I found
myself in the library and saw it on the shelf. I picked it up and
as soon as I started reading it I was hooked. I went to the bookstore
and bought not only Fit for Life, but also Fit for Life II: Living
Health and the companion cookbook, A
So what on earth does this have to do with vegetarianism?
Recall that one of the food combining principles is not to combine protein with carbohydrate in the same meal. This means that if you want a steak for dinner, that's fine...just don't have a baked potato, too. If you want spaghetti, that's fine...just don't put meat in the sauce. And so on. Before long I realized that if I wanted to stick with food combining, I had far more choices with carbohydrate meals than I did with protein ones. For example, if I wanted spaghetti, I could have a roll, too, as well as a cookie for dessert. But if I went with the steak, I wasn't very likely to also want chicken.
And so the vegetarian path sort of fell into place.
Over the last several years, my vegetarianism has developed. As I have read more and more on the subject and met other vegetarians, my awareness of more than just the health benefits has increased. Where at the beginning I would occasionally eat meat because it was "my health choice", I now cannot tolerate the thought of eating a dead animal. I will occasionally eat dairy products, but I still primarily avoid them due solely to health principles. In our home the only animal products that we use regularly are butter (which I use because it is more natural than margarine, which is highly processed) and honey.
Probably the most frequently asked question of vegetarians is, "Where
do you get your protein?" Neal Barnard,
I do not make too much of an effort to include high protein plant foods, such as beans, tofu and meat analogs in my diet, though I do fix them on occasion. Contrary to popular belief, there is protein in just about everything you eat (the other day I bought a pre-packaged salad...it had 3 grams of protein per serving!). With a well-varied diet, it is nearly impossible not to get the recommended daily allowance of 44 grams. In fact, protein deficiency is practically unheard of in developed countries. (See "How Much Protein Do We Need?" on page 12 of The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond. This has references to reports by the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Research Council.)
If the most frequently asked question is about protein, by far the second most commonly asked question, especially if the vegetarian is not eating dairy products is, "Where do you get your calcium?"
Dr. Barnard wrote, "The key to bone strength in not to maximize calcium intake but to minimize calcium loss. A plant-based menu is far superior to meat diets in this respect. The best calcium sources are green leafy vegetables and beans." (Food for Life, ibid.)
It is also interesting to note that the number one inhibitor of calcium absorption (which consequently leads to high calcium loss) is high protein intake. In the January/February 1992 issue of Health Science magazine, Joel Fuhrman, M.D. wrote, "Comparative population studies indicate a definite correlation between high meat consumption and osteoporosis. These studies consistently reveal a sharp change in the bone mineral content of older women in high meat-eating populations, a variation unmatched by women in populations that do not consume diets high in meat. Vegetarian populations, even those with low calcium intake, did not develop post-menopausal osteoporosis, and had a higher bone density than conventional Americans. Studies comparing omnivorous and vegetarian women with the same calcium intake showed significantly denser bones among the vegetarian group...Interestingly, countries with the highest consumption of dairy foods and calcium, such as the United States, also have the highest incidence of osteoporosis." Dr. Barnard adds that "fracture rates are much lower in Asian countries where milk is not commonly consumed." (Health Science, July/August 1997).
A more serious issue than protein and calcium, but one that people ask less frequently about, is the issue of Vitamin B12. B12 is the only vitamin not available from plant sources. Rather, it is produced by bacteria and other one-celled organisms.
Although the human body is fully capable of living on an animal free diet, the theories behind the B12 issue are interesting. First, our primate relatives generally consume bugs and larvae inadvertantly (and sometimes on purpose), which would supply them with B12 (only a minuscule amount is necessary). Also, B12 is found in the naturally occurring soil bacteria which we would normally consume if we didn't wash our produce so well today (obviously a necessity).
B12 is not very much of an issue for me for several reasons. First, studies have shown that the human body is capable of storing B12 for 20 to 30 YEARS. So if a person has EVER consumed animal products, they generally have a good supply. Second, my diet is not completely animal free, as I do occassionally have dairy products. And finally, I do receive B12 supplementation in the soy milk that I use, as well as in the fortified cereal that Dan and I regularly snack on.
B12 WILL be an important issue for my children, however, since they will not have developed the reserves that I did by eating animal products for over 25 years, and since I will most likely be more picky about their consumption of dairy. They will most likely require a daily supplement.
B12 is an important concern, and B12 deficiency is a very serious, incurable condition. I do not take it lightly. There is some comfort, however, in the fact that almost all reported cases of B12 deficiency are related to the patient's inability to appropriately absorb B12, not from a lack of the substance in their diet. (See "The Debate Over Vitamin B12" on page 19 of The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond. This references research by the American Dietetic Association, as well as Vegan Nutrition by Michael Klaper, M.D. See also "Vitamin B12, A Genuine but Simple Issue" on page 156 of Food for Life by Neal Barnard, M.D.)
If you would like to find out more about living a healthy lifestyle through vegetarianism, I highly recommend the following:
Books:
Web Sites:
All of the books and web sites listed above contain recipes and advice on following an animal free diet. However, I have found the following cookbooks extremely helpful:
The American Vegetarian Cookbook by Marilyn Diamond The Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler The Almost No-Fat Cookbook and The Almost No-Fat Holiday Cookbook by Bryanna Clark Grogan