Folca, what does that "food pyramid" mean? Other than that it represents what the FDA says is "recommended." Obviously doesn't mean "you'll die if you don't do this" or even "you'll get sick if you don't do this," and it doesn't mean "you'll be healthy if you do this" (plenty of unhealthy people who follow that kind of diet). So what does it mean, and why do you want to follow it?

Yeah, but if we really respected Godwin's Law, we'd have closed the thread right away.

To illustrate why such an argument is idiotic...
+ Show Spoiler +

Some Jews actually fucking KILLED Jesus. What the FUCK?! Jews must be crazy hahahahahah. That means that the guy who kills Jews must be a good man!!! !!1one

Mooga

United States575 Posts

September 28 2008 06:37 GMT

#26

On September 28 2008 14:21 BottleAbuser wrote:
To illustrate why such an argument is idiotic...
+ Show Spoiler +

Some Jews actually fucking KILLED Jesus. What the FUCK?! Jews must be crazy hahahahahah. That means that the guy who kills Jews must be a good man!!! !!1one

Oh great. The infamous Nazi metaphor. Welp, I guess you can't expect to enter any internet argument and not get called a Nazi at some point.

BlackStar

Netherlands3029 Posts

October 01 2008 02:25 GMT

#27

B12 isn't an issue either. Or at least shouldn't be. We aren't discussing veganism.

One of the biggest issues may be that you end up eating more carbs and that you'll may eat more to feel satisfied. You''ll eat healtier but you may gain weight.

GrayArea

United States872 Posts

October 01 2008 02:30 GMT

#28

On September 28 2008 10:47 inlagdsil wrote:
I've been a vegetarian for 11 years and am still alive. I hope you like tofu. You will quickly learn to cook it well. Look for indian recipes, as hundreds of millions of them are vegetarian and eat very tasty food. Cook rice and mix it with different kinds of daal (lentils).
As xeofreestyler says, vitamin B12 is important. It and B6 are the only vitamins not present in vegetables. Eat eggs and dairy to get it.

Sup my fellow Indian

My parents are vegetarian, so a lot of the food we eat is vegetarian. Because I'm Indian, we mainly eat a lot of different types of curries that are made from different vegetables. We eat daal with rice too (which is like the standard Indian rice thing). So ya, look up Indian food, there are tons of Indian recipes that are vegetarian.

Falcynn

United States3597 Posts

October 01 2008 02:31 GMT

#29

On October 01 2008 11:25 BlackStar wrote:
B12 isn't an issue either. Or at least shouldn't be. We aren't discussing veganism.

One of the biggest issues may be that you end up eating more carbs and that you'll may eat more to feel satisfied. You''ll eat healtier but you may gain weight.

Well if he makes sure to eat enough fiber, he'll still be able to get that full feeling without eating too much.

jjl

United States85 Posts

October 01 2008 03:41 GMT

#30

(Jumping in slightly OT)
Just FYI, the average French person consumes 4 times as much better and 10 times as much alcohol as the average American. Yet, the French have the 2nd lowest rate of deaths due to heart failure (the lowest being Japan). If you buy into all of the debate about how diet is the sole (or the biggest) indicator of health, you might understand the Japan one, but certainly not the French one. This "French Paradox" itself is also in debate, but the statistics do show that they generally consume more animal fat, more butter, a higher ratio of saturated fat, and 3 times as much pork (according to Wikipedia).

There are other reasons to eat vegetarian too, such as what the OP wanted (and I'm not here to debate that), but when I first read about the "French paradox" I was pretty blown away. I can now eat bacon, large quantities of it too, without restraint or feelings of guilt. Sure, it's probably bad for me in some way or another, but I'm happy with this excuse :-)

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

October 01 2008 12:38 GMT

#31

You'll be fine with protein and that stuff, just keep up with the milk and get some legumes.

What you're going to be short on is the juicy, tender taste of flesh.

Nyovne

Netherlands19135 Posts

October 01 2008 14:24 GMT

#32

On October 01 2008 21:38 Jibba wrote:
You'll be fine with protein and that stuff, just keep up with the milk and get some legumes.

What you're going to be short on is the juicy, tender taste of flesh.

Oh god you just made me bumrush my fridge and make a murderously delishious roastbeef lettuce and goatcheese sammich.

Frits

11782 Posts

October 01 2008 14:32 GMT

#33

lol that hitler vegetarian connection is so irrelevant

just like people somehow bring up stalin when atheism is concerned

even grown ups do this how can anyone be so retarded

Ki_Do

Korea (South)981 Posts

October 01 2008 15:11 GMT

#34

goshh, what a tasty piece of meat.
gonna eat some now

nA.Inky

United States794 Posts

October 01 2008 18:02 GMT

#35

My recommendations all allow for mucho experimentation to find the optimal balance for you.

Hummus - a really tasty dip, essentially a bean dip. It is kind of a mediterranean/middle eastern food, perfect for dipping cellery or carrots, or putting on bread as a dip or to make a sandwich. Good protein, very healthy, etc. Look for a more detailed recipe. You need a blender or processor. 1 can chickpeas. A jar of tahini (like peanutbutter, except made of sesame seeds). Olive oil. Lemon juice. Fresh garlic. Black pepper. Water. Oregano or parsley. Salt. Add all that shit togehter and blend it for a few minutes and you get hummus. I also recommend adding something hot, like red chile pepper flakes. See a recipe for the proportions.

"Indian" style lentils. Throw a bunch of lentils in a pan with water, boil. Add a chunk of butter, add salt, add curry, add red chile pepper, add chile powder, add garlic. Cook for about 20 minutes or until lentils are nice and soft. Enjoy~

Apple smoothy: Blender. An apple, preferably of large size. (My favorite is the pink lady variety, but lately I use Red Delicious due to price/availability). Spinach. Flax seed. Add a "good" amount of water to the blender (a half cup maybe? A whole cup? - I just experimented and judge by sight - I'm not an expert chef). Add 8 heaping TEAspoons of flax seed (a good amount of flax seed). Add as much spinach as the blender can hold (maybe 4 big handfuls). Slice up the apple and add that. Blend. Enjoy! This is a very green mixture, and very tasty. I don't much taste the spinach or flax, but rather the spinach and flax just kind of mellow out the apple flavor, so essentially it is a very mellow apple drink. You can experiment by adding other stuff... I drink this smoothy every day, and consider it a good way to get a good helping of flax seed and raw greens. the apple is just for flavor. I say this because one might be tempted to add lots of flavorful fruity shit to their smoothy to get something really tasty, but my philosophy is that you should add as much of the healthy bland stuff, and use a LITTLE fruit to make it taste good. Fruit normally tastes awesome anyway, so just eat that separate. But you could experiment with adding sprouted wheat berries to the mix - it makes it thicker and a little less good, but WAY more healthy. Only reason I don't do that is it just makes it a lil more time consuming than I'd like.

Simple "mediterranean" salad: A few handfuls of spinach, some red onion, a tomato (sliced), feta cheese, and possibly kalamata olives. Add olive oil and hot chile flakes. This goes EXCELLENT with pasta or pizza.

I'm a vegetarian. My diet is far from optimal (I eat pizza once or twice a week. I eat a good bit of pasta.) I eat lots of salads. Lots of fruit and greens and carrots! In a given day, I might eat a few apples, a few oranges, and a few bananas. I eat a good amount of whole grain bread, often with olive oil. I eat LOTS of beans and rice (pintos with red chile sauce). I love lentils and Indian food.

BottleAbuser is right, if you eat even a small variety of whole (unprocessed) foods - preferably organic - you'll be totally healthy.

As a vegetarian - and this applies for everyone - you should avoid soy, refined sugar, trans fats, aspartame and other artificial sweeteners, and MSG. Soy is heavily marketed to vegetarians, and it blocks absorption of essential vitamins and minerals, while also dosing you with estrogen. It should not be consumed except when fermented. (Avoid tofu, soy milk, soy ice cream, soy burgers, etc).

VIB

Brazil3567 Posts

October 01 2008 20:07 GMT

#36

I wanted to be vegetarian or at least drastically reduce the meat I eat. But it's so hard to find veg food. I don't cook, I have no idea how to make raw rice eatable. And there is literally only 1 (ONE) vegetarian restaurant in my town, and they only open for lunch and only during weekdays.

I don't really care about eating healthy stuff I believe I'm healthy enough. I just wanted to reduce the amount of meat because of all the multiple ecological impacts associated with it. But it's so hard to find good vegetarian food when I go out to eat ><

Are there some noodles easy level meatless food that I could buy? I mean those soy beefs, I love those but they look so hard to make. Is there an easy way around?