According to Congress, pizza sauce is a veggie

All of you blog readers outside the United States will probably marvel at this news story: Pizza’s Veggie Status Causes Controversy in School Lunchrooms, with this statement: “Although Congress recently passed an agriculture appropriations bill that continues to recognize pizza sauce and French fries as vegetable servings in school lunches, local dietitians and nutrition experts say Congress missed an opportunity to improve the nutrition of school lunches.”

Truth can be stranger than fiction. Readers (especially from other countries), please comment and tell us what school lunches are like where you live.

Dietitians offer tips for vegans

In this HealthDay article, registered dietitian and nutrition educator Vandana Sheth and registered dietitian Andrea Giancoli offer some tips and debunk some myths. This article is well done and worth reading.

Study finds vegetarian diets are nutrient dense and consistent with dietary guidelines

According to a recent study from Eastern Michigan University published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, “vegetarian diets are nutrient dense, consistent with dietary guidelines, and could be recommended for weight management without compromising diet quality.” If you’re not a junk-food vegetarian or junk-food vegan and you’re mostly consuming whole, unprocessed foods, that seems like a no-brainer.

But this is interesting: author Bonnie Farmer (a vegetarian and registered dietitian) discusses whether people can get enough protein from plant-based diets. Although vegetarians in the study had lower protein intakes than the intakes of non-vegetarians, they were not lower than recommended amounts for adults. That’s important info for anyone who claims they can’t embrace a plant-based diet because they won’t get enough protein. Vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes all contain protein. And Farmer also points out that some studies show that vegans have higher iron intakes than both non-vegetarians and vegetarians.

Diabetic adopts “100-percent healthy plant-strong diet,” avoids medical complications

Besides introducing us to a Phoenix restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill, a recent John Robbins article in the Huffington Post titled Being Fat in America also profiles a young, obese diabetic woman named Natala Constantine. Natala avoided serious medical complications (including a partial leg amputation) by adopting a vegan diet. After returning to her doctors and asking why they had not recommended this course of action to her, the response was, “because it isn’t practical.” (As Natala points out, losing a leg at age 30 doesn’t seem practical either).

It’s a mystery to me (and other vegetarians and vegans) why plant-based diets continue to be viewed as weird or not practical, but one of our goals at Ethnic Vegan is to combat that myth and help you to incorporate plant-based meals into your everyday life. If you also find articles like this one interesting, check back here as we’ll occasionally include links to relevant news/ediorial items in this blog.

Meatout is March 20

“More than 30 million Americans have explored a meat-free diet.”

Whether you find that statistic heartening or depressing depends on whether you’re a glass-half-empty or a glass-half-full type, and a good argument could be presented for either opinion. In any case, here’s a heads up that Meatout is fast approaching.

Every year on March 20 (the first day of spring), supporters of the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) ask people to “kick the meat habit” and explore a wholesome, non-violent diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. If you’re interested in hosting an event, check out FARM’s action center and a terrific handout called Live Vegan.

PCRM files suit over vegetarian alternative to MyPyramid

This week, the organization Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for failing to respond to PCRM’s petition that offers the Power Plate as an alternative to MyPyramid.

Although obviously we’re in favor of a USDA plant-based eating plan made available for Americans, I was also interested in this news story from another angle: usability. The Power Plate graphic is simple and user-friendly. The PCRM recommends eating from the following four groups every day: fruits, grains, legumes, and vegetables. Bam. That’s it. The graphic is easy to understand, and clicking on any of the four groups also takes you to recipes that incorporate them. I didn’t find navigating MyPyramid to be that simple.

Anyway, I finally found an online form on the MyPyramid site to enter specifics and received a “customized profile.” Try it. If you’ve been vegetarian or vegan for awhile, the results are an eye-opener. My profile suggested that I eat 3 cups of dark green vegetables per week. Per week? Often I consume that per day, or sometimes even per MEAL. Wow.

We give PCRM a huge thumbs-up for undertaking this endeavor (plus bonus points for usability).