Vegetarian diet

M

MO75

New Member
Against my good advice (well, I think it's good), my wife has decided to go vegetarian. Something about the cute unfortunate animals... Fortunately, she hasn't given me an ultimatum (i.e., "it's the meat or me, you choose"), but she is concerned about eating adequate levels of protein. She is active, goes to the gym three times a week (not HST though, again against my good advice). Her goals are mainly fat loss, but she doesn't want to lose muscle, she wants to look fit rather than gaunt. So anyway, from what I've read 1g of protein per KILOGRAM of body weight is enough to maintain muscle, especially for the ladies. Firstly, does this ratio sound right to everyone, or should she go for the 1g per lb of body weight? Another thing, what foods can she eat to keep up her protein levels? I've recommended cottage cheese, eggs, normal cheese (low fat), nuts, and lentils. Does anyone have any other ideas for high protein non-meat and preferably low fat food sources? She's not going vegan, but she is not going to eat any animal - fish, chicken, whatever (but cheese and eggs are OK).
Cheers!
 
Beans, legumes, milk MILK MILK

Those were the only foods I noticed that were missing... She could try other stuff too like tofu and those vege-meats - though the vegemeat has tons of other crap in them. I can't comment on the protein requriements (I'll let the others pick up on that), but I would think they would be around the 0.8/lbs at least. Personally, I try to avoid all cheeses except cottage, but that's just my preference....
 
Whoops, double post...

By the way, though these may not be ideal protein sources you can still get some from other things like bread and peas (or I guess a pea is a bean/legume? I'm not a botanist
tounge.gif
). I know my whole wheat bread has 4 grams per slice. That means in every sandwhich I get 8 grams for only 140 kcal...
 
As techo said, beans beans beans, all varieties. For maintaining muscle she could also go with .6 to 1 gram of protein per KG of LBM.

You should actually use LBM instead of total BM.
 
I'm not sure what "vegemeat" is (do you mean Vegemite?), but there are several really good meat "substitutes" (I hate that term) that are pretty protein rich. Tofu is one, of course, but so is tempeh, textured vegtable protein (or TVP- maybe that's what Techno meant), and gluten. Straight TVP is really super (and it's not loaded with any junk- it's just pure extruded soy protein, and makes a great addition to sauces for pasta, as well as fantastic (IMO) Sloppy Joe. It's got about 25-30g protein per .25cup of dry granules, which yields about .5cup reconstituted. The nice thing about it is that it's virtually fat free (unlike tofu).
HTH!
Jake

PS- MO, don't worry- vegetarians and carnivores can live under the same roof- peacefully, even! I'm a vegetarian, and my wife religiously holds to her right (and duty, apparently) to eat meat in all of its forms. I even cook it for her- is that love, or what???
 
Look for all of the soy proteins... you can find soy ground and all sorts of other soy products... chick patties, riblits.. it's all just soy designed for people who like the taste of meat--but refuse on ideological grounds.... and actually, some of this stuff I have found to be pretty good.

For instance.. I tried this vegan parmesean cheese and it tastes excactly like normal parm... only there is no saturated fats in it. So.. it's the little things.... but seriously.. try to get her to just eat seafood... that's what most vegetarians do anyway.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]try to get her to just eat seafood... that's what most vegetarians do anyway
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Actually, no, we don't! If you eat fish (or chicken), you're not a vegetarian!

That vegan parmesan cheese is excellent, BTW- it melts on top of pasta or hot veggies, and like Catalonia says, it's sat fat free.
Jake
 
I did a vegetarian diet for 2 years and I started to have all kinds of problems.
The main problem that made me stop was the fact that if I got a small cut it would take forever to heal. I bruised very easy. I was substituting my meat protein with
mostly beans and Rice .Never again will I go vegetarian.
 
dont you differ between people who dont eat meat but eat animal products such as eggs, milk and do eat chicken and fish? in europe we call such people vegetarian

if you dont eat animal products at all we call those people vegarian?


anyway - does your wife takes a proteinsupplement? and if yes, because of here vegertarian lifestyle - is she allowed to use protein supps with animal protein?

about the question of protein - you just always need to remember that non-animal protein is always worse for your body than animal protein...

and tell your wife for every animal she doesnt eat, I'll eat 2!
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Nemesis7884 @ Sep. 24 2004,11:00)]dont you differ between people who dont eat meat but eat animal products such as eggs, milk and do eat chicken and fish? in europe we call such people vegetarian
if you dont eat animal products at all we call those people vegarian?
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Someone who doesn't eat any meat or animal products is generally known as a vegan. This may not be accurate with all people, however - depends on who you talk to. Noramlly I refer to someone who doesn't eat any meat as vegeterian... But some people say that's incorrect and the proper term is lacto-vegetarian.
 
This is a source of confusion for lot of folks- here's the basic definitions:

Vegan: no animal products whatsoever (no meat, eggs, or dairy). Strict vegans don't wear or use any products made from or tested on animals, like leather or certain cosmetics.

Vegetarian: there are several different flavors, but none of these include eating meat, chicken, or fish. These are lactovegetarian (dairy is OK), ovovegetarian (no dairy, but eggs OK), and lacto-ovovegetarian (dairy and eggs OK).

Vegetarians and vegans don't eat meat of any kind, including chicken or fish. I hope that doesn't sound dogmatic- it's not supposed to be, but it's sort of silly to call oneself "vegetarian, but I sometimes eat [fish, chicken]." Personally, as one whom others would label a vegetarian, I also think it's silly to label oneself in any direction. If people ask, I simple say that I don't eat meat and let it go at that- not a big deal for me, and I hope not for others as well.
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Jake
 
Well, she eats dairy and eggs but no animals (including fish). She is using Quorn, which is good (high protein fake meat). I think she's also going to go in for some Quorn burgers and that sort of thing. She's not taking a protein supplement at the moment, but I think she is considering it. She can take some of mine, that's soy based anyway...

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]you just always need to remember that non-animal protein is always worse for your body than animal protein...
Click to expand...

Really? I didn't know that. Why is that?
 
MO, she'll be fine, as long as she watches what she eats (which is what everyone, carnivores included, should do). I also use "meat substitutes" like textured vegetable protein in various forms (burgers, sausages, crumbles (good in spaghetti sauce), and even "cold cuts"). But it's also prudent to take advantage of the"bounty of the earth" and eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole legumes and grains. I'm not sure if you or your wife know this, but just in case, there's a vegetarian food pyramid at http://www.vegsource.com/nutrition/pyramid.htm y'all might find helpful.

Jake
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]about the question of protein - you just always need to remember that non-animal protein is always worse for your body than animal protein...
Click to expand...

That's a persistent myth, a holdover from the 70s and the Lappe days when it was thought that you had to complement protein at every meal. It's simply not true, as long as you eat a balanced, well-thought-out diet. And I can't think of a single vegetable protein source that's "worse" for your body than even the cleanest, most organic, hormone- and antibiotic-free animal source!

Jake
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Jake @ Sep. 27 2004,10:11)]And I can't think of a single vegetable protein source that's "worse" for your body than even the cleanest, most organic, hormone- and antibiotic-free animal source!
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That's what I would have thought, I've been giving some consideration to eating Quorn ground beef with her, just because it's a lot less fattening than real beef...

Thanks for all the info, btw!
 
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