Hi!Welcome to the Envernet, my home page.My name is Enver Lopez, and I decided to write a little about vegetarian food, but from my own perspective.I hope that the information here can open your mind and introduce you to new perpectives.Peace,Enver.
Envernet´s
Opinion on vegetarian food. |
As a Vegetarian, you have to be very careful about what you are eating , and in which quantities.I believe more in Macrobiotical food than in Vegetarianism itself, and this after a long research of my own, and also by listening to others Vegans-Vegetarians.You see, some people would eat spaghetti and ketchup, or carrots and potatoes, and call this a vegetarian meal.That´s why I am giving some advices and tables about the matter.I would not reccomend you to live by eating Tofu seven says a week, either.Here comes my own opinion about some of the most popular feeding.However, I am not educated in alimentation questions, and this should be seen as a experience of my own, not as a medical prescription ;-).
This beans have been used in China undeer tha last 2000 years , and 1000 years in Japan.Different countries have learned to use their protein, since it can produce 33% more protein than any other cropSoy beans gives you 20 times more protein than animals, counting that animals do it crops, and so.Different products are TOFU ,TEMPEH,MISO; (which I eat almost everyday),SHOYU,NATTO
Usually, I prepare this ones by cooking them for about 6 to 7 hours, of course leaving them to sleep in water 12 hours before that.Why bother?Because the proteins in these wonderful beans are pretty hard for the body to assimilate.Chinese,Japanese,Coreans have worked with soy to minimize its possible dangerous elements, by fermentation,and other methods.
That´s why some people have trouble eating them just with 2 hours cooking.The Macrobiotical won´t recommend eating them as they are , and they instead would serve you a dish made of Tofu, Tempeh, Miso, or other product that originally comes from the soy beans.As you know, these one are high in proteins (About 34% of it ), but I have also heard that , since it is difficult for the body to assimilate it , they are not a perfect source of proteins , as many vegetarian would point.They should be eaten with rice, raw rice is my favorite.Be careful with these ones, as with everything.Recent studies has shown that soy beans can develope allergies in certain persons, and this allergies are as strong as lactose intolerance.
Tofu is for the oriental culture as important as bread for the west.There are around 38000 tofu-stores in Japan, and the medel-person eats around 70 tofu-cubes (ā 300 g. each) every year (this number is a bit higher in Taiwan and China).The japanese can like around 7 kinds of TOFU, (even more in China).It means to them as eggs and meat to the west.When it comes to proteins does our bodies assimilate about 65% of TOFU ´s proteins.(Meat is just 67%).It contains just a small quantity of unsaturated fats, and no cholesterol.And tofu contains 20% more calcium than milk products.As well as other minerals like phosphor,natrium,calium,vitamines B and E.According to taoism, is TOFU more ying.You can fry it with oliveoil, use soy sauce, or whatever your imagination dictates.
I love its smell, its taste, well I love it.Full of protein,made of soy beans,seed,salt,water and saké(yeah!).Ther is nothing like it in the West worldAnd its taste changes, like good cheeses and wines.It looks a little like peanut butter,the darker the colour the salter the taste.You may use it instead of salt,this living product (like yoghurt, even contains milk bacteries like Pediococcus,Halophilus and Lactophilus, as well as many other healthy microorganisms).Also, it´s know to help the body assimilate other products, beacues of its descomponating properties.Cholesterol free,and just 5% unsaturated fat.Get miso.
A popular indonesian food product, made of cooked soy beans,putted together by Rhizopus Oligosporus,a bactery that gives it a widht of about 2 cms.They are in sale in health-care stores, even in conserves.You can fry them, add some soy sauce, ans eat.I love them.It comes from Indonesian ,Java, where it was eaten for more than 2000 years ago.It contains about 21% of protein,could be compared with chicken 21%,beef,20%, etc.
This has a long history.The name is japanese, and has been made for several hundreds of years.It is made of flour, which contains carbohydrates,fats,minerals,and vitamins like B and E.Chinese people call it "Buddha-food", and tell it developed by budhist munks instead of meat.It contains about 18% proteins,and you are supposed to fullfill its protein by cooking with soy sauce.To tell you the truth (again , this is my point of view, no one else's) I am not so satisgied with it myself.I you are working hard, training your body, or any other physical activity, then probably Seitan is not for you.But, at the same time I know a lot of people who has lived long lives eating this product regularly, so, again, try experimenting (that's my solution to every thing).
Sugars
It is really
difficult for me to write about this, because the many books and people
I´ve met during the years have so different ideas and opinions about
sugars and whenever you may eat them or not.Also, the different sugars
may have different wyas to co-act with your body system.This is very complicated
to explain here, as it would take hours of explanation and you don´t
wanna listen.So I´ll give a shoot:The indian-american doctor deepak
Chopra and most of the people in Ayur Veda are for honey as a good source
of sugar.Thay just recommend no to warm honey, that means, eat it like
i is.At the same time, great japanese George Ohsawa would critisize himself
whenever he ate honey, telling it may cause stomachache in a wider perspective.Me,
I love honey, and it always linders my stomachaches (when I have ones,
I don´t remember having any since I started with this).Macrobiotics
condemn sugars, artificial sugars, and prefer the use of malt, wich is
extracted from rice, and wich seems to be a more natural way of getting
that sweet taste which we all like (and need.As I´ve said, the trick
is to keep life and food fun).
The protein in Milk is very difficult to assimilate, and milk is one of the most popular products when it comes to allergies.Specailly common among older people, we keep on giving them to our children.There are many theories envolving this:Deepak Chopra, in his book "Perfect Health", recommends drinking milk by itself, carefully not to mix it with other tastes, but the sweet ones, and he citates honey, as one of those.Animal milk is given to animals for them to grow way faster than we do: it takes several months for babies to stand on their feet , but for most animals it is a question of hours or days.That is why the need some of the ingredients of milk, which tell the brain to order the body to grow fast.Not recommended (by me).
I 've got several arguments talking against the use of meat for eating:
*the human stomach is not made for assimilating the hard proteins of meat.
*people has hands for picking , not for scarring animals.
*the human instenstine is not as a large as an animal´s , which make it possible for parts of meat to rotten on your stomach.
*Humans are , accroding to the chinese Tao philosophy , YANG animals, and in need to eat YING vegetals to create harmony within the body.Of course we still need portions of yang , found in fish and beans, and this must be taken in a personal basis.I strongly suggest experimentation.
*The use of animal meat as a source of proteins doensn't consider the debilitation of the body and stomach for taking the protein and assimilating it into the body for the creation of , for example muscles.This make the emergy (SHI) of the body to drop instead of raise.
Vegetarians won't accept fish as a part of their daily eating.However, macrobiotical persons chooses to eat fish one to three times per week, beacuse fish has an enzime calles B-12, which won't be found in animals, and which is important for the body to prevent possible heart diseases.Also, the oils of the fish are beneficial for the maintenance of low blood pressure.And I love fish , yo.My opinion is this :fish doesn't cost you anything (or at least not so much ) to be raised and growed, while meat will cost you for feeding and protecting .Fish is a generator of jobs, work which is dispensable and, in some countries, as mine, high source of food for the people.
I adore this one.Specailly raw rice, all kind of seed is to be appreciated, and this includes pasta too.Still rice happens to be popular, good and great with almost everything.Get rice.
They came from Peru, and were the salvation of Europe under a long time.At the beggining, potatoes were a poisonous vegetable, but the Incas treated it with great knowledge to be able to raise them in the mountains and eat them .Some people reccomend eating bread along with the potatoes, to get some seed, which is O.K.Personally I would instead eat rice, or any other seed, because of its poisonuos aspects.
Take 25% to 35% of them when you eat.Do not cook them for a long time :a short , hard , high degree cooking will do best.Be careful with eating them raw :some bodies will acept it and even demand it, when other ones will get stomachaches, and wonder why.It is wide spread that eating raw vegetables is good but this is still false, when you think that every body reactions different to every meal and every eatable item.Also, see what kind of DOSHA you are, according to the Indian Culture Ayur Veda.Seek for colors :dark green, lively orange.Think that the white and pale are mostly water , but they won't damage you, so eat them if you like them.The clue here is taste.If you are avoiding milk , I recommed eating Broccoli and Sea alges, which has lots of calcium.Fish for the vitamins, get information about every vegetable and what it contains. |
The Indians traditional medical philosophy and ways.You'll see ,throught the years, I have learned that it is important to learn and understand how different cultures has different opinions about food and eating's philosophies.Depending on where and how they live, these traditions can variate very much.I have a theori going on:since everybody comes from different places, the information assimilated in the DNA is still there, information about for example, alimentaion.So that is why I recommend you to investigate what your ancestor were eating, their daily habits, and so on.I was studing Ayur Veda, just to see what it has to give me , and I could also name Taoism,as many other cultures, like the Inca culture in Peru , where I come from.Read as much as you can, and, again according to the laws of Macrobiotics, experimentate.Also:
Here comes another of my unorthodoxous theories (wow!).Since it is important to understand how your body work, then I reccomend you to study your own origins, finding out what your ancestors used to eat , like 1 000 years ago.This information still flows in your veins, in your DNA code, which I find being the secret of your existence.Our knowledge of DNA is so vey small, and I strongly believe ther is more there to discover.When it comes to Religion, again, it is interesting to incestigate what different cultures have being eating, since their knowledge is far more superior and old than our own one, even with the advantages of technology, science, etcetera.Back to roots, back to natural, that's a good line.
Truth is my knowledge of macrobiotics, and macrobiotical food is very, very small.You see, I got introduced to macrobiotical food on summer 1997, in Björklyckan, Sweden.After lots of stomach problems which I won't discuss here, I understood that my eating had to dramatically change.The pioneer leader and foundator of macrobiotics is George Ohsawa, born i Japan, 1893.His real name was Yokizaku sakurazawa.Ohsawa´s father was a sword master, and belonges to the samurai-or warrior class in Japan.According to the tradition he was trained to become a amurai himself.This meant a severe chidhood-full of problems,rage,pain, struggle,so he´d learn how to survive under difficult circunstances.
He got sick, with TBC , and was obligated to find a medical cure,contaacting dr.Sagen Ishizukas.This man recommended him Ohsawa to eat raw rice, egetables,salt and oil.Oshawa got cured,and reflected about many of Ishizukas theories, giving the method a new name:Makrobiotik.The name was already used by Goethes´doctor Hufeland in the beginning of the 19th century.
Ohsawa was an active businessman,creator,doctor,food-guru,science man,peace-activist,alquemist and poet.He dedicated all his life to help people live better,healthier and more peacefully.He wrote about 300 books, and gave 5000 speeches all over the world.
Macrobiotics can be explained as "Tao´s way", having its offspring on East Philosophy, which tells us about moderation in our lives.Those who start living in a macrobiotical way look forward to create a balance between body and soul-powers.So you can create a more hamonious life.Being healthy means also accepting changes.It is important to be open and moderate, because every overuse stops us from our personal development.And even when food isn't everything, you can deny its importance in the desicon of changing your life.I don't mean that those who just look upon the food issue will understand and live macrobiotically.Do not forget living happily,enjoying the movements of the body,and a harmonious contact with other people.
The word macrobiotics comes from greek, and means "The Enormous Life".The idea is to make life open and , well, enormous.Giving importance to perspective,better your cappacity to assimilate and live.This can happen with with the proper use of proper food, which mean correct quantities,according to our personal neccesities.Whenever we eat more than we need, ther is a lack of balance in our bodies, and it is so hard to find this balance in our lives and keep it.I reccomend studying everything, and experimenting as much as you can, to better your knowledge of yourself, in relation to the food and lifestyle you have.However, ther is one mor thing to tell:this is not strictly vegetarian food, as most macrobiotics do eat fish.
There are different ways to see eating.I prefer to see it as medicine, instead of something we usually do without thinking about it (like sleeping, or going to the bathroom).Let me explain:the moroe we learn to valuate the food we eat, the better it will be assimilated to our bodies.If you eat under stress cinscunstances, in a hurry, or with people which compnay you don´t really like., this will all have a response in your assimilating system, which is , of course, too complex to be explained here.However, you can read more about it here.There are, though, several philosophies that should be taken with major interest.Let me give you some examples:
*Don't hurry.Eat slowly, taken deep breaths, waiting some minutes after your food is eaten, to get the feeling that you can relax.I know how difficult it is to actually make this on real life, but try this some days and you'll know what I mean.
*Eat the strong food first, like beans and fish.Then proceed with rice and vegetables.Of course you don't need to take this literally, but with some practice you´ll get use to order in your eating.
*Eat when you are hungry.This doesn't mean you will run for chocolate every half an hour, but by reading the following you'll see:
*Get use to certain hours when you'll eat in a daily basis.This will get your stomach to work more efficient, by being hungry when you are supposed to, and by not being it between meals.Actually , there are two ways:eating well a few times a day, and eating small quantities of food several times.Truth is, this will depend completely of what your body needs, so listen to it.
*Don't eat late at night.At least not strong meals.Of course, this sound very normal and logical, but I've seen lots of people getting foods at T.V. time without the less consideration of what your stomach is telling you.I recommend (and this is also in several books), not eating three hours before bed time,and not eating strong meals less than four hours from each meal.Also, If you are into training, don't eat two hours before training,and half and hour after training.You'll get use to it.
*Here come the big one:Avoid alcohol, drugs, tobacco.No further info is needed.A certain amount of alcohol is actually beneficial for the veins,to prevent them for assimilating saturated fats on it.But no more than that.
*Finally, I´ve read that, as long as you keep hungry until you are 20 years old, then there is no bigger problem.How does this work?I can´t tell, but all the big people belong to this category.And, before, your eyes could tell whenever the food was bad or good, but this perception seem to have dissapeared with time.So now use your knowledge.
Now this is Sweden , and tha facts is that they don't have any e-mail or home page,so if you want to contact them , I'd have to tell you to write them.The adress is the following:
Björklyckan phone #:046/455-920 25 |
Well, right now, that is the information I can give to you.Part of the fact here comes from several books, so let´s make a list:
*"Perfect health", by Deepak Chopra
*"På Kornet", by Karen and Steven Acuff (swedish and german only!)
*"Zen and the art of archery", by G.Herrigel
Lots of things won't make it possible for me to explain much of what I would like, but this page will keep on growing all time, so don't give up.Mail me if you got any further questions.
Peace, Enver.
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Enver Lķpez. Copyright
1988 for Hardest Communications and Haster.