Jynx

First off I do not want this to be a debate or argument. Now...

I am looking to go towards a vegetarian diet. I am looking for vegetarian and vegan dishes to cook for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks whatever. They do not have to be 100% vegan or vegetarian just yet.

Anyone know of any good recipes? Maybe recipe books?

Anyone have a shopping list they use?

Anyone know any good forums or places for food ideas and info on this?

Thanks

DannoXYZ 

I posted a couple here: Recipes Thread . I've pretty much given up on cookbooks and just do an internet-search when I want a certain recipe. Print it out and go shopping.

Tabagas_Ru

Awwww a debate would be fun, no. Well I guess I will have to show you this, here is a link to a vegetarian cookbook

Nickel

I like surfing vegetariantimes.com for recipes.

KyleKranz

Read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, it looks at the health aspects of this type of diet. It's an excellent read.

Biopsy

https://www.vegetarian-restaurants.ne...stFoodRest.htm

https://www.healthychefalex.com/recipes.htm

www.goveg.org

Just do a bit of research, don't worry about what people tell you about not eating enough protein and all that crap, you'll be fine as long as you watch what you eat with proper portioning. Most people consume way more protein than their body will ever use anyway.

My personal take on it -
After a while, you don't miss meat at all. I'm at the point now where I really begin to feel uncomfortable watching other people eat meat. In our society where we have so much available to us there is just no reason at all for any of us to commercialize suffering of life. There is enough pain and suffering in the world, why contribute to it?

oh - And don't ever let anyone give you **** about your diet, it's your body and you've got your reasons.

Carbonfiberboy 

Buy any cookbook by Molly Katzen. Choose your carb first, then its accompaniments.

jmechy

I stopped eating meat in July and have totally stopped craving it as well (although, sometimes when i'm REALLY drunk I want chili fries for some reason...)
I do eat lots of dairy forms of protein though: yogurt, cheese, sour cream, eggs, chocolate milk.
Figuring out what to make really isn't as difficuly as I thought it would be at first, turns out most of my favorite meals were without meat or could be done just as well without meat anyway.

I also gradually got into vegitarianism. I dropped red meat, and chicken/white meat followed about 2 weeks later. I was able to drop fish for a while afterwards, but now just limit it.

colombo357

Curious...

aside from any personal/moral dilemmas, why would an athlete want to become a vegetarian?

Garfield Cat

Most "professional" athletes have short carreers compared with the life span of say, a professor, a sales person, a mechanic. But even in the highly competitive college sport like basketball, you see these athletes taking their nutrition very seriously. They're performance driven.

Lecterman

My wife is a vegan. She always gets recipes at theppk.com

urban rider

I did the same many years ago. You can do a gradual ease into becoming a vegan. If you have a "taste" for a particular meat, i.e. chicken I found that there were excellant meatless chicken dishes to choose from. Tofu and the right spices take on the characterisics of most meat. During the summer I found that my focus is on fresh fruit and vegatables anyway. In the winter I am focused on oatmeal, nuts etc. Find out what works best for you.

Gas, the price of a can of beans.

BearsPaw

I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, but I also think most of the health concerns you might hear are nonsense. Anyways, if you are worried about getting enough vitamin X, you may wish to track your meals on this website: www.fitday.com.

I used it for a while, and it was helpful to see what I was getting too much of (usually salt) and what I was not getting enough of.

Durward_Kirby

Thanks for the fitday link! I started using it today.

trimacian

Glad to hear you are considering the switch! It's a wonderful lifestyle filled with TONS of rewards.

As far as recipes go, anything put out by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (including 'Vegan with a Vengeance', 'Veganomicon' and theppk.com) is downright stellar. Honestly, I would starve without her...

As far as the athletic concerns, I am a competitive runner (NCAA division II) and have actually noticed an increase in performance. I have a close friend who is shooting for the trials in the 5k and has been straight vegan forever. I have heard similar results from two others who made the switch. It might just be the food-consciousness, but I'm not convinced. Regardless, if you are thinking vegan, you're most likely thinking nutrition as well, which is a winning situation...

Good luck!

cluelessgoon

I've been a vegetarian powerlifter for 21 years and I don't think it's harmed my lifting much. Naturally I have much higher protein requirements but in this day and age there are a billion suppliments which can take care of that. For endurance athletes the vegetarian lifestyle is really good as protein requirements are not as arduous.

Try the recipes section of the vegetarian bodybuilder website. Veganfitness has a lot of recipies too.

Speedee

To perform better and live longer.

jbhowat

Perform BETTER? Heh. Maybe if you're going from eating fast-food or something to having a very good vegetarian diet.

You seriously think that a vegetarian diet will allow a cyclist to perform better than a diet that includes meat? You realize that non vegetarians can eat the exact same diet as a vegetarian, right - except they can have the added benefit of meat and meat based products if they want. I'm not advocating eating hamburgers daily, but if you want absolute maximum performance you won't limit a whole category of items from your diet. If you're real serious and put a lot of effort into your diet you can perform the *same* using a vegetarian diet, but the argument that you will perform better by vowing to not eat meat is insane and i'd like you to explain to me how it is possibly.

Edit: the same argument applies to "living longer". First of all show me scientific proof that vegetarians live longer than non-vegetarians who follow a healthy diet that includes some meat. You can't.

DM4

It sounds as though you are saying that we meat eaters are causing pain and suffering in the world. I disagree. If someone has a desire to go the vegan or vegetarian route that is fine, however people are meant to eat meat. This is why the human body has sharp teeth in the front of the mouth; for ripping and tearing muscle and flesh.

And regarding a meat eaters diet, you said it best yourself, "And don't ever let anyone give you **** about your diet, it's your body and you've got your reasons.

Az B

Incorrect. Using familiar mammal predators as an example, ie felines and canines, there are many very important differences in the design of our bodies, especially the digestive tract. For example, meat eaters intestines generally run straight from the stomach to the anus to allow quick disposal of quickly rotting meat. Human intestines are much longer, typically about 25ft long. Also, the stomach acids of carnivores such as canines is about 12x more powerful than human. This is because red meat is difficult to digest.

And I don't have to point out that all meat eating predators have much strongers jaws, more pronounced fangs, and most have claws for ripping and killing. Our nails and teeth are really lacking by comparison.

Don't get me wrong. I love red meat. I eat it all the time. But the simple fact of the matter is that the human body can easily live without meat, and red meat is probably one of the worst things in our diet. And there are many elite level athletes that are vegetarian, so it's not impossible to accomplish. Our western culture places quite a bit of misguided emphasis on eating a lot of red meat.

Az

jbhowat

Chimps hunt and eat small game and even other primates, (rarely even other chimps). Not a lot and there is no evidence that humans are supposed to eat a LOT of meat, but comparing our meat-eating short-comings in relation to a big cat or canine (neither of which has a "straight line" of small intestine.. more like 2-3x their body length, IIRC) doesn't mean we shouldn't eat meat at all. At some point in our evolutionary history we DID (or possibly always did) begin eating some amount of meat. There is actually substantial evidence that our bodies have evolved to adapt to eating meat. There has been no reason for our jaws to get bigger (in fact they are getting smaller) because we have made use of tools for much of our history (cutting meat, making smaller bites, etc).

If we were made to eat only vegetables our digestive system would not resemble that of an omnivore (which is does). It would look like that of a strict herbivore, which it definitely does not. I don't think any non-vegetarians are actually saying we should compose our diets of MOSTLY meat or anything, because obviously we aren't set up like a carnivore. Saying that there is a performance or life expectancy advantage simply because one *does not eat meat* is lunacy. There is nothing wrong with meat in moderation as part of a balanced and sensible diet (which admittedly should include *very little* red meat).


Seriously, if you want to talk about the human digestive system vs a carnivore vs an herbivore, we fall in between but still much closer to a carnivore (as do all omnivores). Unless vegetarians have started to ruminate.... Are the bacteria in your gut fermenting or putrefying?

BearsPaw

I love how the OP started off with "First off I do not want this to be a debate or argument," and now it's a big debate / argument.

Durward_Kirby

https://www.ivu.org/oxveg/Talks/longtermhealthveg.html

Speedee

Yes I do.

What benefit?

Most vegan / vegatraian athletes actually adopt the diet as a way to get to the next level - including Levi Leipheimer. Saturated fat and cholesterol is not exactly performance enhancing.

Meat eaters have higher levels of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes than non-meat eaters.

Jynx

LOL. It made it much further then I thought before it got hijacked. Its okay though I got the info I needed so lets start the debate!