Considerations for a Vegan Meal
What to keep in mind when preparing a vegan meal
If you are vegan or want to know about this healthy lifestyle, you might have heard at least once an expression like “vegans are people who don’t just believe meat is murder, but those who stand up for the rights of cows, chickens, and bees to be released from their indentured servitude.” Stated like that, it might be unclear if it is a positive comment… or just the opposite!
Maybe the main concern about vegan nutrition is how to create meals with sufficient protein. The good news is that people require far less protein than they realize and that there there are many excellent sources of plant protein. To begin with, it is good to remind ourselves that the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is calculated as follows:
Body weight (in pounds) X 0.36 = recommended protein intake (in pounds)
Vegans don’t need to live off protein shakes to get the intake they need, either. According to Mike Malher, from Monkey Bar Gymnasium, there are vegan friendly foods loaded with protein, especially lentils, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, almonds, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, almond butter, peanut butter, and hemp seeds. So it is possible to find a mix for everyone. For example one serving of lentils mixed with one serving of hemp seeds is around 0.7 0z (20 grams) of complete protein. This mix is a nice balance of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fat. It is also possible to combine beans and rice for a complete protein meal, but this becomes a high carb. meal, which is not a good fit for everybody.
Some people “eat for fuel and health” and prefer to be moderate in protein, fairly high in fat, and moderate in carbohydrate diet. An example of such a vegan meal is three servings of lentils (0.85oz of protein) mixed with two servings of pistachios (0.49 oz of protein and 0.91 oz of healthy fat), add two cups of broccoli and two cups of mixed vegetables. A tablespoon of olive oil makes the mix easier. Then, it is just a matter of adding chef’s secrets to make it tastier (spices, sauces, etc) . A vegan meal like this will provide around 1.41oz of protein and the fat count is high is appropriate for people who workout. Thus, at the end, the ratio will depend on each person lifestyle.
But fat is not only useful for “fuel” that last longer than carbohydrates. Not only mood and energy are low in a low-fat vegan diet, but the skin dries up and altogether will make you look like a zombie (living-death). A very good tip is getting 20-40% or more of your calories from fat. Of course it has to be healthy fats such as: Hemp seed olive oil, almonds, walnuts, marine algae DHA, pecans, almond butter, and avocadoes. It is good to also keep in mind that some saturated fat is required for optimal health. So you could use a good bran coconut milk.
Also, and because it is not the emphasis of this article, vegan meals don’t have to be dull 0r tasteless. Besides, it is always possible to modify any number of traditional meals or sweets by taking away any animal by-products. Vegan nutrition opens the door to creative, not time intensive; filling, but not dense; savory, but a little bit sweet meals.
It’s official, vegan meals can be more innovative than the usual rotation of salads, soups, and grains!
Some vegan meal related links:
- a raw food diet and the athlete – the healthy diet podcast this week is about exercise, the athlete and a healthy raw food diet. show notes: don’t athletes need more energy than a raw diet or vegan lifestyle can provide? testimonies from or about vegan athletes. …
- living the raw food lifestyle – display your fruits and veggies – believe it or not, one thing that was hindering our raw food lifestyle was the way the fruits and veggies were being stored in the refrigerator. what i mean is, after shopping friday mornings, we would come home and just kind of stuff …
- Roots and Grubs » Blog Archive » Go vegan! (briefly) – Yesterday Iris and I had a great visit to Pike Place Market. Our main goal was to get some mussels for dinner and check out the new bun bakery, and we were successful. Usually we buy from Pure Food Fish, but I figured mussels are mussels, so we bought from Pike Place Fish, the fish-throwing guys.
- what’s a good vegan meal replacement? – I need to find a good tasting meal replacement that I can drink after lunch before cross country. I’ll only be able to mix it with water, so keep that in mind. Any suggestions?
- New Release: Becoming Raw – Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, the registered dietitians behind the highly regarded Becoming Vegan book, have just released a new title: Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets . The raw foods movement contains tons of …
