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How to get over the mindset of needing meat?
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16-03-2016 12:04am#1
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I've been a vegetarian for a long time and my mom was so it's not a foreign concept to me. My wife is not vegetarian but she lives with me so for expedience we often eat the same meal (and you know... being a couple
. It's what made me realize how central meat is to how many people approach meals.
As other people have alluded to there's a bit of science you'll need to get down. Meat is primarily a good source of protein (along with B12, omegas and some other important bits). Make sure you're covering that with other stuff because if you are always feeling weak or hungry after a meal it's not a proper meal and you won't feel satisfied.
What helped my wife was to have a good vegetarian cookbook that can spark off some ideas. There are sort of two ways to approach cutting down on meat dishes. One is two take a meat dish and substitute in meat replacements (Quorn style stuff, soya, tofu etc). To me that just makes an inferior dish - it doesn't taste like what it's trying to taste like. (I still do this, but I know that's a big problem meat-eaters have with that style of food.) The other option is to eat a meal that enhances the inherent traits of the food. I like the stuff that's in New Food For Though by Jane Noraika (can't link, new user).
As Speedwell said, relax about it. Militant vegetarianism means you can't enjoy your food and that sucks for everybody involved. Find your equilibrium.0 -
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How healthy are the fake meats
There are people out there that make a big hullaballoo over this meat substitute or that. Here's what I know (bearing in mind every body is different):
Despite fearmongering reports (Mercola in particular is an unscientific ass), soy foods do not significantly affect a man's male hormones... just ask the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans if they're dying out
Some of the plant hormones present in soy foods (and in other foods, not just soy) are analogous to (not the same as) estrogen in the human body and exhibit a largely protective effect against the common woes of menopause, breast cancer, and so forth... although when my mother had breast cancer, I made her quit eating soy foods because her cancer was estrogen-dependent. Mature dried soybeans themselves, like kidney beans, must be well-cooked to deactivate "antinutrients" that are hard for the body to process or that interfere with the body's ability to uptake nutrition from other foods. Fortunately all foods derived from soy are cooked adequately in commercial processing, and the occasional plate of green boiled soybeans (edamame) at the sushi place won't do you any harm. In this category I place soy milk, tofu, miso, tamari, soy sauce, mushroom soy sauce, soybean pastes, yuba "tofu skin", and the various products made from them such as marinated tofu "feta cheese" or other soy-based "cheese" substitutes. Mushroom soy sauce deserves special mention as a particularly convincing "concentrated beef stock" substitute.
You can find lots of soy-protein-based products frozen in shops catering to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese customers. My favorites are soy "fish" covered in a seaweed "skin", soy "eels" wrapped in seaweed, and soy "ham roll" that is good sliced on sandwiches or cubed in recipes. Other soy "seafood", "chicken", "duck", and "pork" products are also available, including a hilarious (and not particularly good) soy "pork belly".
In a second category I place highly processed soy foods made from extracted soy protein. The first kind, that you may know as TVP (textured vegetable protein), is granular, dry, lean, does not spoil, and upon reconstitution in boiling water or flavored stock, becomes a mince-like product. It is also available in stew-meat-like chunks, small thick cutlets, and palm-sized chicken-breast-like cutlets that all need to be stewed in stock (a pressure cooker works best) before they can be used in recipes. They have no particular flavor of their own except for a little remaining sweetness from the sugars present in the soybean. A slightly more refined product exists, "isolated soy protein" (not to be confused with the powdered "soy protein isolate"), that contains much less of the sugars but is otherwise used the same way. Questions have been raised about both the GMO status of the soy used, and the extraction method itself because it uses chemicals such as hexane (which are washed out of the final product). The sugars present naturally in the soy bean are like the indigestible sugars present in all dried legumes and are hard for many people to process because they feed gas-producing intestinal microorganisms, but most people are able to build a good tolerance to them in time.
Other cautions about soy: Soy milk, by itself, is not an adequate replacement for infant formula, even in the case of lactose intolerance (use a proper fit-for-purpose lactose-free infant formula instead). Because of the plant hormones and because of potential sensitivity issues, it isn't recommended to feed large amounts of processed soy (including soybean oil) to small or developing children. (In the East, they eat soy foods in moderation, not a constant barrage of soy oils, prepared tofu products, soy protein as a food additive, and soy milk.) Soy allergy is not particularly uncommon, and like any other allergy can appear spontaneously; just keep an eye on yourself and notice if you are particularly short of breath or develop rashes after eating a meal heavy in soy products.
Many meat substitutes, including the ones made most commonly at home such as "homemade vegan pepperoni", get their protein and bulk from wheat protein (wheat gluten). This is the protein that makes bread dough stretchy; it is the same gluten that breadmakers use. You can process high-gluten wheat flour into gluten by rinsing, but it's a real pain to do. Commercially, it comes as a creamy powder in a few different "strengths" depending on the proportion of carbohydrate left behind in the final product; typically 80 percent protein or so. You mix the powder with plain water and seasonings or flavored stock to get a stretchy, resistant "dough" that you can boil, steam, or bake.
Commercially prepared gluten is used in dozens of ways; one particularly nice product is tinned vegetarian "duck" seasoned with soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Vegan "hot dogs" are so good that, when I used to bring them to barbecues in Texas so I'd have something to eat, I'd often find them nicked right off the grill before I could get to them. Approaching the offender: "Did you know that was a vegan hot dog?" "Are you serious? I thought it just wasn't as greasy. Are there any more left?" Ugh. There are a huge range of modern gluten-based products available (well, not here in Sligo, but you Dublin people can probably get nearly everything). If I had one wish, it would be for the top-of-class Field Roast products to be available here. They are made from wheat protein, bean and pea protein, whole grains, whole beans and peas, vegetables, and wholesome seasonings.
If you have celiac disease, these products are, of course, utterly unsuitable for you. Some people have "gluten sensitivity" and should be aware of the presence of gluten in vegan meat substitutes. Many people who are unable to eat wheat gluten, however, are perfectly able to handle rice or corn gluten, or bean, pea, and nut proteins. Many cases of supposed "gluten sensitivity" are actually problems with other ingredients used together with flour in baked goods, for example. It pays to be tested if you're suspicious of gluten in your diet. I have no issue with gluten despite being a person with Asperger's, and I don't think gluten sensitivity as a "cause" of high-functioning autism is credible in the absence of other symptoms such as constantly disturbed digestion (which people with autism frequently have anyway because we tend to be anxious). Wheat gluten is not in general as digestible as other whole-food proteins, however.
Then there's Quorn, which was introduced to America as "mushroom fiber". Those of us "in the know" rolled our eyes a bit at that, given that the fungus, a fusarium mold, is about as related to what we call "mushrooms" as human beings are to sea slugs. The proper word is "mycoprotein". I find it mildly palatable but I'm not impressed; it seems to utterly lack character. The fibrous structure is pretty interesting, though, and perhaps the bland flavor of the "meats" derived from it is due simply to the processor's wish to appeal to a wider non-foodie customer base. If you are allergic to molds, Quorn might be something for you to avoid, but I am unaware of any widespread concerns. On the other hand, except for its protein content and a surprisingly high content of dietary fibre, I am not aware that fusarium mycoprotein is particularly nutritious. The health claims in this informative presentation http://www.mycoprotein.org/assets/nutritional_profile_of_quorn.pdf are typical of lean-protein and fibre-enhanced foods in general, not specific to mycoprotein foods. Prepared mycoprotein usually contains egg, so read the ingredient panel if you are a vegan.
In summary, all protein-based meat substitutes are adequately safe and nutritious when used in moderation and in good balance with other wholesome foods. The primary health risks in their use are not actually from the proteins themselves (in the absence of allergies/sensitivities), but in the other ingredients such as salt, sugar, fat, and eggs that may be used in their processing, and in possible food-chain mishandling (as may occur with any food product) from the processor all the way to the kitchen counter. For proper food safety, treat processed vegan meat substitutes (including reconstituted TVP) as you would the equivalent products made from fresh meat.0
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