During the interview, Marla Rose and Eric Sharer referred to Paula Deen’s coming-out-of-the-diabetic-closet as a spokesperson for pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk and their $500-a-month diabetes drug, Victoza.

Excerts from Marla Rose’s interview with Eric Sharer:

Marla Rose: When interviewed last week, Paula Deen said that her diet played a role in her developing diabetes, but seemed to downplay it and place as much blame on heredity and age. As an RD, how much do you think diet is responsible for Type 2 diabetes? For example, if I were a vegan maintaining a moderately healthy diet and activity level but with two diabetic parents, as a dietitian, would you be concerned about me developing this disease as well?

Eric Sharer Many factors can increase risk of Type 2 diabetes: including obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet, age, and genetics. 7 Over time age can impact diabetes risk, but if this was the major contributor, there would not be such alarmingly high rates of type II diabetes in children and young adults. (8)

Also, if age/heredity was the main issue, than no one would be able to manage their diabetes and even reverse their diabetes with diet and lifestyle changes. Having a family history of diabetes puts you at an increased risk of developing diabetes to an extent, but that risk can be greatly diminished if one follows a healthy lifestyle during their life.

There are several reasons that diet and lifestyle play a huge role on diabetes risk and management. As previously stated, healthy cells and a healthy pancreas are key to preventing/managing type II diabetes.

Healthy cells are soft/flexible, easily allowing insulin in and out of their cells. A diet high in fat/cholesterol will cause the cells to become hard and rigid, making it hard for insulin to get into the cell.

Obesity causes the release of inflammation in the body that damages cells and also makes them rigid. Exercise helps open cells up and improve blood sugar control, so a diet lacking in exercise will further hinder blood sugar control. A diet high in refined grains/sugars causes constant stimulation of the pancreas/cells, many times resulting in decreased control.

(WebMD) Eating a low-fat vegan diet may be better at managing type 2 diabetes than traditional diets, according to a new study.

Researchers in the study found 43 percent of people with type 2 diabetes who followed a low-fat vegan diet for 22 weeks reduced their need to take medications to manage their disease compared with 26 percent of those who followed the diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Eric Sharer, RD, from comments to the vegan in chicago examiner post:

Today while reading a copy of The Vegetarian Journal, I found an interesting study to compliment this article.

A study of more than 200,000 people found a strong and consistent relationship between the intake of red and processed meats with risk of developing type II diabetes (t2d). Researchers found a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) by substituting food for red meat.

They found the following: that substituting 1 serving of nuts showed a 21% lower risk of developing T2D, and 1 serving of grains showed 23% risk reduction. Substituting a serving of fish or poultry had less of an impact on risk reduction.

This study also discussed their belief on why red meat increases risk of type 2 diabetes (t2d):

The high heme-iron content of red meat is very unstable and promotes oxidative stress, which damages the pancreas cells. Also the sodium and nitrates in processed red meat get converted into compounds, nitrosamines, which have found to be toxic to pancreatic beta cells, and increasing risk of diabetes. This study also showed a relationship between red meat intake and risk of obesity in the future.

Some food for thought…
Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Seen in Vegans

Eric Sharer is an RD and culinary expert, dedicated to promoting the health benefits of a plant-based diet for disease prevention, treatment, and optimal health. In addition to working at The Block Center, highly esteemed clinic for integrative cancer care, Eric is a Nutrition Advisor for The Vegetarian Resource Group, and a Food for Life Instructor for The Cancer Project. He is now starting up his own private practice as well.

Some of you may have read my previous comments on cake, and suspected that it was only the beginning. You were right of course.

I am now all about food. I have strong thoughts about foods I’d like to eat, so strong I can almost taste them. Interestingly, aside from cake daydreams, they are not for junk food.

Yes, the Occupy Zoe Movement (a movement of one) has been growing stronger and it has demands! Demands about food mostly, that I have difficulty opposing.

It started with broccoli. I’ve always been fond of broccoli, but now it tastes amazing. It’s the best broccoli I’ve ever eaten. I love it and it’s a good thing Bryan likes it too, or he’d be fixing alternate dinners while I ate broccoli, steamed, stir fried, raw in salad…Num! Wonder if Savvy Veg has a good cream of broccoli soup recipe. Now that sounds really good!

Some cravings last longer than others. I went through 6 lbs of cherries before that one went away. I think Bryan got to eat about three cherries total. Thank goodness they were on sale for half price, because if you’ve ever priced out-of-season cherries, and then bought them: A) You make too much money to care about your food budget, B) You are forced to overcome your sticker shock and buy them for a special occasion, or C) You’re pregnant, feel you must have them, and can’t be rational about it.

On the other hand, I had a craving for dill pickles that lasted a week until I finally had some, and I haven’t thought about them since. I just want to point out that since I didn’t also crave ice cream, craving pickles does not (yet) make me a pregnancy cliche. The fact that I had a yen for soaked walnuts and bought a 5 lb bag of them – now that might make me a cliche. There are a LOT of walnuts in a 5 lb bag.

Fruit has been very popular at my house ever since the Occupy Zoe Movement began. I must keep some sort of fruit on hand at all times. Most recently, it has been grapefruit. Juicy, heavy, sweet red grapefruit, peeled and eaten like an orange. Those I have to share with Bryan – apparently I’m not the only one with a thing for grapefruit. In fact, the other day he ate THE LAST ONE! I was very sad. But I had to forgive him, and I’ll tell you why in a minute. Besides, I just bought more. They’re nice and heavy – very promising.

Why I Forgave Bryan for Eating The Last Grapefruit: CAKE. I had an annoyingly persistent craving for cake. It filled my mind and made my mouth water. I tried to let it go but it wouldn’t budge. I tried to sate it with store-bought cake – no luck. It was pumpkin cake I wanted, moist gooey cake with chocolate chips like our neighbor bakes at Christmas time.

At the same time, we were short-handed at work,and I worked 13 days in a row without a full day off. During the first trimester. You know, the one characterized by fatigue? Ugh. I was exhausted. Much as I wanted that cake, I was lucky if I had the energy to bake a potato, forget anything else.

Ten days into the work marathon, I came home hungry and exhausted, too strung out to take care of myself. Bryan sat me down in the kitchen with a cup of tea and made me a snack. That was really nice of him – but wait, there’s more! As I watched in growing wonder, he proceeded to bake me a cake. Not just any old cake either. He got the recipe from our neighbor for that fabulous pumpkin chocolate chip cake, and baked it for me, because he knew I was too tired to do it myself.

It was delicious. Really Really delicious.

An unexpected man-made grapefruit shortage is the tiniest most insignificant event, when I know that I can count on that man to bake me a cake when I need it the most. As far as I’m concerned, he can have the last grapefruit out of this bag too.

I have a confession to make. Some of you are going to hate me for this. At least a little.

I have not puked once since I got pregnant. I don’t feel queasy in the mornings, and lately I don’t feel queasy at all.

In fact, the worst I have felt since getting pregnant is when I gave up coffee. The second worst is when I indulged a craving for fried potatoes – for dinner. Please learn from my mistake and don’t do this to yourself.

When the experts say avoid fried food, they really really mean it. The potatoes were tasty, and I virtuously ate peas as well. They went down great and I went to bed thinking “well I guess I’m an exception to that rule as well.”

Smug, overconfident me. Oh man did I feel rotten in the morning. My stomach churned for hours, complaining and threatening illness. Still no puking, but it was a narrow escape.

I did start out feeling queasy in the afternoons, between 2 and 4pm. I would get a bit light-headed and then I’d start to get a headache, and then I’d feel ill. Pretty quickly, I realized that this situation could be headed off with a decent snack. Thank you, fruit and nuts and yogurt.

Blood sugar goes away at an amazing rate when you’re pregnant, I’ve discovered. I used to get hungry and if I ate within 45 minutes, I’d be fine. Now if I try to hold out for 20 minutes, I suffer.

I picture the baby, happily resting on my bladder, slurping my blood sugar like a little vampire. Not that I blame the kid – if I was doubling in size every few weeks, I’d be hungry too.

I had a weepy moment the other day. I was tired after work and there was nothing available of the grab-and-eat variety. Too tired to fix something, I went upstairs and sat down on the couch to read a romance novel. About an hour in, I got to a bittersweet part and was a bit teary eyed – which is normal.

What’s not normal at all is that I set down the book and cried some more. I quickly realized that my blood sugar was through the floor, and as Bryan wouldn’t be home until late at night, too late to rescue me, I’d better feed myself.

Don’t judge me for eating Oriental Ramen and frozen veggies. I know the vegans will be incensed and point out that it has beef extract in the flavoring, but even chicken stock makes me horribly ill, and this doesn’t, so I figure it has to be the merest smidgen.

Besides, when you’re so hungry that you can’t stop crying because the hero and his very best friend realize they only love each other as friends, a three minute cooking time is of paramount importance.

I wished that Bryan would bring home cake. There was no junk food in the house except for ice cream and I didn’t want ice cream. I wanted cake. Moist, gooey carrot cake. Or pumpkin cake. With cream cheese frosting.

Occasionally, being pregnant is like sharing my head with a deranged calorie driven seven-year-old. Have you ever tried to talk a seven-year-old out of cake?

Anyway, aiming to avoid becoming a complete basket case, I am learning new habits. I must always eat breakfast. Always. I also must have a snack between breakfast and lunch, and again right after work (even if there is nothing easy to eat).

The snacks don’t have to be major, but they can’t just be fruit. That doesn’t stick with me long enough. Craisins and soaked walnuts are an amazingly tasty combo. Peanut butter and honey on toast is another winner.

I wouldn’t turn my nose up at cake either … if there were some on hand … pumpkin is very nutritious, right? And cream cheese has calcium…

I’ve heard that ‘real’ cheese is addictive, and I believe it. I think it’s the casein.

One of the hardest things for me to give up when I went vegan was parmesan cheese. I was used to eating it on just about everything.

Eventually, long after the parmesan addiction had lost its grip, I found a substitute, made with ground walnuts, lemon juice and nutritional yeast, among other things. I found the recipe in Bryanna Clark Grogan’s World Vegan Feast cookbook.

Now there’s a woman who understands that ‘real’ cheese is addictive! And how vegans suffer without it. Bryanna has no less than 11 vegan cheese recipes in World Vegan Feast alone, and possibly more in her many cookbooks put together.

Bryanna and other cookbook authors and food manufacturers have made valiant efforts to bridge the gap between ‘real’ and vegan cheese, with varying success.

I’ve tried a few brands of packaged commercial cheese substitutes. Mostly, they’ve convinced me that the phrase ‘vegan cheese’ is an oxymoron.

Some, called veggie slices or other names suggesting they are non-dairy, have casein from cows milk as an ingredient – so they melt well. That taught me to always read labels! It also taught me that the main problem with vegan cheeses is that they don’t melt easily. Never mind if they say they do. That’s just hype.

Commercial vegan cheeses also taste nothing like ‘real’ cheese, to me. That’s not necessarily a flaw, but it’s not what my taste buds expect. Plus, they are often strangely colored, especially the orange ones which claim to be cheddar flavor. Same goes for so-called ‘real’ cheddar cheese, come to think of it!

To my dismay, the cheese alternatives are often VERY expensive - 8 slices which probably cost 50 cents to make go for $3 – $4 in the grocery store. And each slice is wrapped in plastic which is tedious to remove, and has to go in the garbage and live in a landfill for a thousand years or something. Tsk. But it’s the same with ‘real’ cheese slices of course.

The best brand of vegan cheese I’ve found so far is Follow Your Heart. I’ve only tried the Mozzarella style, $4.26 for 10 oz at Earth Origins in Palm Harbor FL. That seemed like a decent price to me, maybe $1 more than the same amount of dairy Mozzarella.

I sliced my Follow Your Heart Mozzarella cheese alternative thin (1/8th inch) for grilled cheese sandwiches (my favorite comfort food). The cheese melted in the middle, and got quite runny, oozing out the long middle cut when I sliced the sandwich. The cheese at the outside edges remained stubbonly firm, and wanted to break apart and fall out when I cut the sandwich.

The taste of FYH Mozzarella straight from the package was bland, like dairy Mozzarella, but otherwise didn’t taste very cheesey to me. I thought a touch of lemon would’ve helped give it that slight cheesey tang of Mozzarella. Still, it had a decent texture, and my grilled cheese sandwich was more than edible.

Now, of course I don’t expect you all to give up buying those vegan cheeses - which hopefully will improve. After all, 10 years ago, they didn’t exist. And I certainly can’t fault anyone for wanting the cheesey taste.

But I must say that I’ve had more success making my own vegan cheese using the Suisse Melty Cheese recipe from World Vegan Feast. It was easy and cheap to make, with no soy or gluten, stored well and firmed up nicely in the fridge, and made a quite satisfactory grilled cheese sandwich. Next time I make it I’ll try leaving out the 2 Tbsp water to make a firmer cheese.

I’ve made the Walnut Parm from the same cookbook, and I look forward to trying the Vegan Gruyere, made with agar and other seaweed thickener so the cheese will melt properly. I’ve often used Vegan Cheese Sauce inspired by the sauce in the vegan fettucine alfredo recipe in Jolinda Hackett’s Everything Vegan Cookbook.

Making my own vegan cheese has shown me that even if cheese alternatives don’t taste quite the same as ‘real’ cheese, they can still be deliciously cheesey tasting and melty.

If cheeses like the ones I’ve made were commercially available, they’d be more expensive to make and priced a lot higher. I’m not sure that I’d pay the price, although as things stand, I hesitate to buy a cheese alternative at any price!

But maybe people who don’t have time or inclination to make their own vegan cheese would pay for the improved taste and meltability. Would you buy vegan cheese if it wasn’t an oxymoron?

Enthusiastic convert to healthy plant based diet unintentionally loses weight along with the meat, and wants to know how to keep his weight up and eat healthy too.

Hello Savvy Vegetarian,

I recently started changing my diet. I am juicing fruits and veggies and cutting out meat. I feel GREAT! I am very excited about my new, far healthier diet.

The only problem is that I am losing weight. While this is generally considered a “good” thing, I’m not overweight and I would like to maintain the size I am.

Do you have any advice regarding good calories and how I can keep the weight on in a healthy way?

Thanks so much!! ~Max R.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Hi Max,

Most people I’ve heard from consider weight loss the #1 benefit to a veg diet. But I have heard from a few like you who are alarmed by the weight loss.

From my own experience, I know that vegetarian or vegan diets are no quarantee of weight loss. It’s just that many new veggies naturally embrace low calorie foods like salads and smoothies with enthusiasm – they are fabulous! – but tend to neglect carbs and high fat foods, so they take in fewer calories.

That’s ok if you want to lose weight, but to maintain a healthy weight, you need a balanced nutritious diet which includes plenty of fresh veggies and fruit, but also whole grains, beans & tofu, nuts & seeds, a reasonable amount of added fat – and enough total calories.

What’s a reasonable amount of fat?

According to the latest nutrition theories, you should consume 10 – 15% of your daily calorie intake as fat. On a 2000 calorie diet, then, 200 – 300 calores should come from fat. Ideally, most of that would be fat from foods.

Meat and other animal foods such as dairy are often high in fat, which is why omnivores usually have no problem maintaining or increasing their body weight. When you cut animal foods out of your diet, you need to eat some high fat foods to get enough fat in your diet – unless you WANT to lose weight!

Most plant foods have some fat - some just have more than others.

1 Tbsp of added fat in the form of unprocessed cold pressed oil such as olive oil, coconut oil etc has about 150 calories, plus essential fatty acids and a few other nutrients which your body needs – in tiny amounts. So it makes sense to get most of your fat from nutritious foods such as avocados, coconut milk, nuts & seeds, and whole soy foods like tofu or tempeh.

Consult the list of high fat foods in the advice post How to Gain Healthy Weight on a Vegetarian Diet. And consider other ways to boost your calorie intake enough to maintain a healthy weight.

Each meal should include both carbohydrate and protein rich food, plus a bit of fat in addition to the fruit and veg. Grains and legumes (beans & lentils) together are the healthy alternative to meat. Except for B12, they replace the nutrients in meat, but not most of the fat. So that’s where the high fat foods come in.

By the way, carbs are important foods, worthy of respect. Unless you’re (diabetic, you can get carbs from all forms of grains and high carb veggies. Whole grains especially have valuable nutrients not plentiful in other foods, plus they’re high in fiber, so they digest slowly and sustain your energy for several hours. If you’re not getting enough carbs in your diet, your body will burn fat for energy – which you don’t need.

Try tracking your calorie intake for a week, using a free service like nutritiondata.com. Adjust what you’re eating and the serving sizes to bring your calories up to a level that keeps your weight up.

Dr. John McDougall has written an article to set the record straight about Steve Job’s pancreatic cancer in relation to his long time vegan diet.

In this long and informative article, Dr. McDougall uses cancer statistics and research to show that Steve Jobs most likely would have had pancreatic cancer since he was in his twenties, and that it was almost certainly caused by his exposure to toxic chemicals used in his early hands-on days of building computers.

Dr. McDougall pointed out:

“His diet was in sharp contrast to that of his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, who ate at Denny’s and whose favorite foods were typical American pizzas and burgers.(189) Wozniak, who is overweight, was four years older than Jobs and is still alive. Because of this apparent paradox many people discount the importance of a healthy vegan diet.”

“Steve Jobs getting cancer was an unfortunate accident—like being struck by lightning or hit by a car. The carcinogen(s) entered his body and due to genetics, “bad luck,” or other unknown and uncontrollable factors his body was susceptible. The cause of his cancer was not due to his vegan diet. In fact, his healthy diet likely slowed the growth of his tumor, delayed the time of diagnosis, and prolonged his useful life.”

The article clears up a lot of confusion and mis-information about Steve Jobs death from pancreatic cancer, in particular the idea that he behaved irresponsibly, stupidly and selfishly in sticking to his vegan diet and refusing surgery in 2003. According to Dr. McDougall’s analysis of the probable cause and course of the disease in Steve Jobs, surgery in 2003 would have had no effect on the course of the disease, as it didn’t in 2004, and again in 2009 when he had a liver transplant.

I was struck by what Dr. McDougall said about Jobs unnecessary guilt and regret, stemming from what his doctors told him: “Jobs lived the final 8 years of his life with regret, guilt, and remorse over delaying his surgery for 9 months after the initial diagnosis of cancer. With one honest sentence his doctors could have relieved him of this heavy burden. This simple fact could have been told: “Mr. Jobs, you had a body full of cancer long before October of 2003, when you were diagnosed by a needle biopsy.” Apparently, not one of his doctors—not Jeffrey Norton, who had operated on his pancreas in 2004, nor James Eason, who had performed his liver transplant in 2009—told Jobs this indisputable truth.”

Dr. McDougall’s article confirms my suspicions that cancer often begins early in life and takes a long time to manifest symptoms, so the idea that doctors can “catch it early” and successfully treat cancer is misleading. After seeing many friends go through horrendous months and years of cancer treatment, I feel that chemo, radiation or other cancer treatments often cause terrible suffering, while survival and recovery statistics aren’t encouraging.

Alternative medicine and special diets likewise seem to have limited usefulness considering the typical cancer time line. By the time you notice symptoms and start doing something different, it’s often too late. However, from what I’ve seen, alternative medicine and diet can as Dr. McDougall said, delay the growth of cancer, improve quality of life and give you more time.

Cancer is an epidemic. There are so many ways that you can get cancer – just breathing the air can do it. It amazing that we all don’t have cancer. But people who get cancer often feel that there must have been something they did to get cancer, there must have been something they could have done to prevent it, and there must be things they can do to stop it. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes cancer just seems arbitrary, capricious and cruel.

I’m sure Steve Jobs would agree that it’s better to be alive than dead, and it’s good to do whatever we can to be healthy. He did what he felt was right for him and his body, and I’m sad that he regretted anything about his remarkable life.

I feel, after reading Dr. McDougall’s analysis of Steve Job’s pancreatic cancer, that who gets cancer or other catastrophic illnesses, and who survives, is a mystery known only (perhaps) to the higher powers. And that maybe disease is a hint that we should contact our favorite higher power and ask for guidance.

Read Dr. McDougall’s illuminating article on Steve Jobs, cancer and vegan diet

Families are trimming their budgets, and two areas of spending that create a drain on finances are food and health care. The two fields seem unrelated, but could not be more connected.

One easy way to eat better, improve health and lower the high cost of food is to adopt a vegetarian or plant based diet.

A plant-based diet is very nutritious and heart healthy. Vegetarianism is perfectly safe for children, and getting them started on a healthful path early in life will help them to have a financially sound future.

Some people feel vegetarianism is only for the wealthy, so they follow the Standard American Diet that leads to a lifetime of health complications. With soaring healthcare costs, it is imperative for Americans to re-examine their diets.

It is easy to save money while eating a vegetarian diet and below are food options that are inexpensive and rich in nutrients and versatility, making them sound food investments.

While some vegetarian-specific items, such as soy hot dogs, can be costly, whole foods, which everyone should eat for good health, are not.

Legumes, for example, are common staples in vegetarian cooking. They are available for pennies per serving and can be used to cook a wide range of dishes from around the world.

Beans and lentils come in many varieties, and are packed with protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, low in fat & cholesterol. Canned beans cost less than a dollar per cup cooked, and dry beans, even less.

In a spot check of a Safeway store on the west coast, a pound of 80% lean ground beef cost $2.99, on sale, while 1 lb of beans cost $1.99. 1 lb of the meat yields four servings, at 22.9 grams of protein per serving, but also packs in almost 15 grams of saturated fat. Meanwhile, that pound of dried beans can add up to eight one-cup servings, packing in 15.2 grams of protein per serving, and less than one gram of fat.

That means that you’re paying about twice as much for the protein in the hamburger meat than you are in the beans, while depriving yourself of dietary fiber, and increasing the amount of cholesterol and saturated fat in your diet. If you buy beans in bulk, the savings are as much as 4 times greater.

Every kitchen should stock pasta, rice, quinoa or other grains. They can be used in many kinds of dishes, and when kept in a cool, dry place, will keep for several months. Quinoa is a particularly good investment as it high in protein, and one cup cooked contains more calcium than 32 ounces of milk.

Tofu is an inexpensive, calcium-rich food. One 14 oz pkg of firm tofu has 4 – 6 servings, contains 40 – 50 g protein and costs $2 – $3. A single package of tofu, or even half a package, is plenty for most recipes.

Tofu can be used in place of meat, for stir-fries, sandwiches & burgers, salads, casseroles and pasta dishes. Sliken tofu varieties are good for smoothies, desserts and dairy food substitutes.

Frozen and canned fruits or vegetables are easy on the budget, store for long periods and are versatile. Frozen fruit can be used for smoothies and canned fruit is an easy snack or dessert. Frozen and canned vegetables are easily steamed or thrown into other dishes like soups.

For fresh produce, visit local farmers markets and roadside fruit stands. What costs $2.99 per pound in a grocery store can often be found for much less at a fruit stand or farmer’s market. It is not unusual to find organic produce in these stands, often for the same prices as traditionally grown items. If you can, grow your own veggies for a fraction of the cost in stores.

Beyond the price of food, healthy people don’t see the doctor as often. Office co-pays can really ding a household budget, and when we eat nutrient-dense foods, we see the doctor less because the body functions the way it should. This translates into more energy, which evolves into a more active lifestyle, will also stave off chronic diseases later in life.

When someone suffers chronic disease, such as diabetes and high cholesterol, in addition to seeing a doctor more frequently, she must then pay for prescriptions on a continued basis. Long-term use of prescriptions causes more problems than they treat, which creates a vicious cycle of doctor visits and prescription drugs.

If a person develops heart disease, in addition to the increased office visits and prescription drugs, a bypass surgery costs $60,000. It is more simple and cheap to take charge of one’s health by following a balanced, vegetarian diet, which has been proven to reverse symptoms of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Simply by moving toward a plant based diet, or adopting a vegetarian diet, you pay less money for better health. What a deal!

Author Bio: Kate Manning didn’t expect to find herself at the intersection of business, marketing, and the Internet, but with sound writing and editing skills, she makes the most of it with MBA Online.

Message for Savvy Vegetarian:

First of all, thanks for creating the Savvy Vegetarian web site!

A little story about myself: I have struggled with weight issues most of my adult life. Recently I decided (educated myself) that there are tremendous flaws in the western diet.

When I first met my wife in college she was nearly a vegetarian, and used to have many militant vegan friends. These militants really turned me off about this style of eating. Their closed minded anger fueled rants about people and food had a tremendous negative effect on me.

Now I’m staring 40 in the face and have never been in worse shape and very overweight, bordering on obese. I have watched a couple of independent documentaries “Food Inc” and “Forks over Knives” as well as reading a few books on nutrition by doctors and scientists. They all come to the same conclusion; a whole foods plant based diet is the healthiest way for human beings to live.

So, I decided about a month ago to live as near a vegan diet as possible. No sugars, no white flour, no processed foods, no soda pop, no caffeine, no alcohol, no meat, and no dairy, no artificial dyes and flavorings. More whole grains and plant based foods minus all the bad stuff has already helped me to lose 10 pounds in the last month and a half. Internally I am feeling so much better.

I have already cooked several recipes from your web site and have enjoyed them very much. I am quickly winning my wife over, and even my 12- year old son, but am having a difficult time weaning my 7-year old son off of the sugar, and still have battles with him when it comes to eating my cooking.

Anyway thanks for making your vegetarian & vegan recipes available to those who want to make lifestyle changes in their eating habits. – Michael H.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Hi Michael. You’re welcome. Thanks for your inspiring story! Three cheers for you!

I have a few comments about your sugar-addicted 7 year old reluctant vegan son.

Remember, a short while ago, before your conversion, that reluctant 7 year old was you! You didn’t want to know the truth until you were ready to figure it out for yourself. And he probably isn’t ready either.

Plus, it’s a lot to ask kids that age to make such major dietary changes, because their brains haven’t matured enough to follow the logic. Lecturing and forbidding just seems to make them dig in their heels.

So I suggest using the carrot instead of the stick approach, and weaning him gradually. First offer homemade treats that aren’t so full of sugar and other bad things, in exchange for his usual treats. If he’ll agree to that, check out Savvy Veg dessert recipes with him, or get a copy of the healthy dessert cookbook, Sweet Freedom. Get him involved in making the treats.

The only problem I can see with that idea is that you might be tempted to eat them! Or he might want to eat them all! So give some of the goodies to disgustingly skinny people you know. It’s the best revenge! Or a homeless shelter or something like that.

Then offer him rewards. E.G. My grandkids get a lot of candy given out to them at school (I know, it’s criminal!). My daughter has them put their candy in a quart jar, then when the jar is full, they get $5. Great motivator!

Give him a small glass of unsweetened fruit juice a day instead of pop. Real fruit juice in flavors he likes. Offer it as a reward for abstaining outside the home. It’s still sugary, but will satisfy his sweet tooth without all the horrible effects of all the bad things in pop. And it’s something special just for him. And of course, don’t buy pop or let him buy it. You have some control there.

Once he’s moved over that far from his present intractible position, it’ll be easier to nudge him along further toward eating your cooking. Try to make more kid friendly foods for him, and give him some healthy choices. Try my daughter’s weekly menu plan for kid friendly meals, and tips for getting your kids to eat more veggies.

All the best, Judith Kingsbury

1. GMOs Are Unhealthy.

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients. They cite animal studies showing organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility. Human studies show how genetically modified (GM) food can leave material behind inside us, possibly causing long-term problems. Genes inserted into GM soy, for example, can transfer into the DNA of bacteria living inside us, and that the toxic insecticide produced by GM corn was found in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn fetuses.

Numerous health problems increased after GMOs were introduced in 1996. The percentage of Americans with three or more chronic illnesses jumped from 7% to 13% in just 9 years; food allergies skyrocketed, and disorders such as autism, reproductive disorders, digestive problems, and others are on the rise. Although there is not sufficient research to confirm that GMOs are a contributing factor, doctors groups such as the AAEM tell us not to wait before we start protecting ourselves, and especially our children who are most at risk.

The American Public Health Association and American Nurses Association are among many medical groups that condemn the use of GM bovine growth hormone, because the milk from treated cows has more of the hormone IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1)―which is linked to cancer.

2. GMOs Contaminate―Forever.

GMOs cross pollinate and their seeds can travel. It is impossible to fully clean up our contaminated gene pool. Self-propagating GMO pollution will outlast the effects of global warming and nuclear waste. The potential impact is huge, threatening the health of future generations. GMO contamination has also caused economic losses for organic and non-GMO farmers who often struggle to keep their crops pure.

GMOs Increase Herbicide Use

Most GM crops are engineered to be “herbicide tolerant” – of the deadly weed killer, Roundup. Monsanto, for example, sells Roundup Ready crops, designed to survive applications of their Roundup herbicide.

Between 1996 and 2008, US farmers sprayed an extra 383 million pounds of herbicide on GMOs. Overuse of Roundup results in “superweeds,” resistant to the herbicide. This is causing farmers to use even more toxic herbicides every year. Not only does this create environmental harm, GM foods contain higher residues of toxic herbicides. Roundup, for example, is linked with sterility, hormone disruption, birth defects, and cancer.

4. Genetic Engineering Creates Dangerous Side Effects

By mixing genes from totally unrelated species, genetic engineering unleashes a host of unpredictable side effects. Moreover, irrespective of the type of genes that are inserted, the very process of creating a GM plant can result in massive collateral damage that produces new toxins, allergens, carcinogens, and nutritional deficiencies.

Read points 6 – 10 of 10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs. And start eating organic now!

Question:

I cook quinoa often and love it however the last three times I made it my stomach got very upset.

Do you think it is because I put tomato sauce on it? Never bothered me before and that’s the only way I eat it is with sauce – Gina M.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Hi Gina, my stomach has never been upset by quinoa, which is considered an alkaline forming food, but it has been upset by eating tomatoes, which are considered an inflammatory or acid forming food by ayurveda and other alternative medical modes.

From what I’ve been reading, tomatoes and other nightshade vegetables are alkaline in chemical composition, but are an acid forming food.

From Chi Machine International:
“There are two types of acid and alkaline foods:
1) Acid or alkaline foods, meaning how much acid or alkaline the foods contain.
2) Acid or alkaline ‘forming’ foods, meaning the pH condition foods cause in the body after being digested.

The second type is what you need to be concerned about. Lists of alkaline and acidic foods that you find online are often misleading because they focus on the first type, going just by the chemical composition of foods, rather than their effect on the ph balance of the body. I’ve seen tomatoes on alkaline food lists.

People prone to ulcers, acid reflux, IBS, arthritis, or other “inflammatory” disorders are often warned away from nightshades, which include tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant. More information about nightshades and inflammation

If you don’t usually get negative effects from eating tomatoes, this could be a temporary thing. If tomato doesn’t agree with you right now, look at it as a chance to get a little more variety into your diet.

I know it’s quick and easy to just open a jar of tomato sauce and plop some on top of your quinoa. But there are other easy-to-make sauces you could eat with your quinoa: e.g. chickpea or cashew gravy, vegan cheesey sauce, mushroom leek sauce – all found in Savvy Vegetarian’s Sauces Dips and Spreads Recipe Index

If you’re feeling slightly more ambitious, try these other tasty saucy recipes:
Veggies in Coconut Curry Sauce
Chili Beans in Vegetarian Gravy
Tofu Veggie Stir Fry

All those recipes are easy, and lend themselves to many variations. Including beans, tofu, or tempeh in the foods you eat with your quinoa ups the protein value of your meal.

We like many different kinds of stews on top of our quinoa – or rice – especially curries. Check Savvy Vegetarian bean or vegetable recipes for more possibilites.