Careful - most of that TVP is a GM product.
Printable View
Careful - most of that TVP is a GM product.
Really? Because the restaurant labels the dish as "vegan." :confused:
A genetically-modified product CAN be vegan. :)
TVP contains quite a few unpleasant ingredients. The Sanitarium TVP also contains milk and gluten, and *may* contain egg. Importantly, soyflour is used, and the soyflour in the US is made from GM soybeans.
Artichoke47 is quite right, a GM product can be vegan. IMO, a can of cooked lentils does a better job in making protein balls.
Eve, do you have a recipe?
I don't like TVP much myself. I do keep a packet in the cupboard in case of emergencies (running out of food) because it is cheap and lasts a long while. I use it as you would "mince". Not that I've ever cooked mince, but you know what I mean.
Thanks for the info... I'll be careful :o
Sorry, Marie, no I don't. When I cook (which is not very often these days as I'm mostly raw), I make it up as I go along, according to whatever happens to be in my cupboard. But I certainly keep a can of lentils in my cupboard for the odd occasion if someone calls! :)Quote:
Marie
From http://www.vegsource.com/articles/veg_definition.htm:
"For example, in rats exposed to a known liver carcinogen and then fed levels of casein representing excess protein intake (20% of calories from animal-source protein), precancerous levels increased dramatically. Rats fed low animal-protein diets (5% of calories from animal-source protein) experienced a reduction in precancerous growths by over 90%. Similar studies with rats consuming excess vegetable protein (20% of calories from plant-source protein) also showed a dramatic reduction in precancerous growths -- the opposite of excess animal-source protein intake. When the "missing" amino acide, lysene, was added to the plant-source protein, making it a "complete" protein like animal protein, it had the same impact as feeding animal protein -- increasing cancer growth. 7 The take home message from these studies was that eating more than a very minimal amount of protein from animal sources promoted cancer growth while consuming excess protein levels from plant sources did not, but in fact reduced precancerous growth"
I don't really trust rat research, but I do find that post very interesting, Korn.
Hemp seeds are 25%-35% complete protein, like soya beans, but they don't have the trypsin inhibitors and oligosaccharides which impair digestion like soy. Their protein is in a particularly digestible and useful form, 65% is edestin. They also have perfectly-balanced omega fatty acids.
Here's an article about the nutrtional value of hemp seeds:
http://www.hempoilcan.com/nutri.html
it's very interesting, I think! :)
Here's what it says about edestin on that website:
'Approximately 65% of the protein in hemp seeds is made up of the globulin protein Edestin and is found only in hemp seed. Edestin aids digestion, is relatively phosphorus-free and considered the backbone of the cell's DNA. The other one third of hemp seed protein is Albumin, another high quality globulin protein similar to that found in egg whites.'
I'm not sure whether it's true that edestin is only found in hempseeds though, because in the Online Medical Dictionary, it says it's also found in castor oil beans and other seeds.
http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/o...ion=Search+OMD
kokopelli,
I gather you really, really like hemp seeds. Only thing I've ever made with them is hemp seed, chocolate chip cookies. Any possibility of you posting some recipes for hemp-seed based items in the recipe thread?
I use hemp seed oil on steamed veg and potatoes and salad, it's pretty easy to use because it tastes good.
Feline, I like the sound of your choc chip cookies :)Quote:
feline01
I've got a book called H.E.M.P. (Healthy Eating Made Possible) by Paul Benhaim, published by Fusion Press, which has lots of hemp recipes.
But so far I haven't been able to get the hulled hemp seeds he recommends, which would be good, because the hard cases on whole hemp seeds are not very digestible. I'm trying out a method of hulling the seeds today, by sprouting them first, then blending a little with water, until the hulls come off and float to the top.
I have heard, though, that in the US, customs won't allow any hempseeds into the country that haven't been irradiated to sterilise them and make them infertile, so they can't sprout and grow. I'm not sure whether that's true, but it doesn't sound very good, another example of rampant US Govt hemp paranoia.
Well, if they *do* sprout let me know :eek:
I'm not in the US, so no problems with sterilised hemp seeds. :)
People are actually allowed to grow hemp in Europe for fibre and seeds (the low THC varieties), like they are in Canada and Australia, in fact farmers are encouraged to grow it with subsidies.
But the sprouting first experiment didn't work...I sprouted them for a couple of days, just till the seed cases opened and the little root started to poke out, but the cases didn't rise to the top when I blended them. So I just carried on blending, then filtered the milk through a straining cloth. I'll put my hemp milk bhang recipe and some other recipes in the recipe section when I've got more time. :)
Maybe blanching would work. If you used a metal strainer you could dip them in boiling water for a few seconds, then dump them in cold water, then rinse them. It works for some seeds...
I'll try it and see.
phillip888, I know you are a raw food person, does that mean you don't have hot drinks, like tea, at all?
Would you still consider the seeds as 'raw' after they'd been blanched?
I've been making hemp milk with the seeds in different stages of sproutedness, and unsprouted seeds seem to retain more oil than sprouted seeds, but they're much harder to blend in my food processor.
I use the milk to make hemp milk bhang, a vegan version of the spiced Indian drink, and I heat the milk to just below boiling to infuse the spices. I hope this won't damage the protein or oil content.
I'm not a 100% raw, and tend to not worry too much about most things, but seeds often contain nutrients that are heavily denatured by cooking or processing. As far as I know hemp is not as sensitive to heat as others(although there is always a denaturing issue with cooking).
Blanching is the best alternative to hand shelling on some nuts and seeds, it exposes them to heat for a very short time (2-7 seconds), and is well, a fair compromise. It's not completely raw, but not cooked enough to do much either, in fact the reasoon it works is because it expands only the outer bit by limiting heat exposure to the innner bit, making it easier to remove.
So you know the hull is edible, maybe you could just soak them and grind them in to a meal? Or did you try that already?
I use whole hemp seeds to make 'hemp salt', like sesame salt (gomasio). I toast them for a little while, then grind them in a pestle and mortar and use it to sprinkle on salad, baked potato, etc. But the hulls do tend to be a little bit sharp sometimes, even when they're ground up. When I make the hemp milk, I strain it through a fine cloth, so all the hull stuff gets filtered out.
But I've seen photos of Chinese people eating toasted hemp seeds as a snack, and photos of different varieties of hemp seeds, and some of them are very much larger than the types that are currently available in Europe.
Apparently there's a valley in China where the people are particularly healthy and long-lived, where hemp seed soup is their staple food.
It'd be nice to get hold of some Chinese seeds, but the plants they produce have too high THC content to be legal for growing in Europe. All the seeds we get here are grown in Europe from plants with less than 0.3% THC, the Chinese plants have at least 2%
I tried the blanching method, but it wasn't very successful.
The hulls came off some of the seeds, but not most of them.
It's ok, though, I can still blend them up and strain them to make hemp milk :)
Well that sucks. If some of them worked though, maybe the timing is off, or you need to soak them in water beforehand.
Hemp milk and hemp seed soup sounds nice. Where is this in china?
Hemp milk bhang is very nice, I think it's probably almost perfect food, combining the nutritional and therapeutic elements of hemp flowers and seeds, and it would be excellent for anyone suffering from cancer, AIDS, MS, neurodegeneration, arthritis, etc. I'm still trying to perfect the recipe, I get curdling sometimes, and I'm not sure if it's due to too much heat, or acidity in some of the ingredients. When I get it right, I'll post it.
My partner found an article about so-called 'Happy Valley' or 'Long-Life Valley' in China, but I'm not sure where it was now. I'll see if I can find it again. :)
Just found the article here:
http://www.nutiva.com/about/media/2002_04_22.php
shame about the snake wine!
But here's some more interesting stuff, 'Traditional Uses of Culinary Hemp Seed':
http://www.thehia.org/faqs/faq2.htm
It mentions that hulling hemp seeds has recently become possible due to machines that have been developed, and that in previous times, hemp was seen as a less desirable food because it was hard to get rid of the hard, dark hulls, which made ground hemp seed meal and butter gritty. But it doesn't say how the hulling machine works. :(
hi guys.
ive been a vegetarian for most of my life and decided to become a vegan a few months ago. ive been relying mostly on soya for protein but it doesnt really agree with me, it gives me stomach cramps. im just worried about where to get protein from now. does anyone know of a good substitute?
cheers :)
Hi regan. The human body needs about 9 grams of protein for every 20 pounds of body weight (1 gram of protein for every kilogram of body weight) to maintain health and muscle. I therefore get most of my protein through beans and legumes, tofu, and soymilk. These provide me with more than enough protein, so long as I eat enough of them throughout the day. Even foods like pasta and vegetables contain protein.
You can also find some vegan bodybuilding powders if you're trying to add muscle. Check out Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness for more on these.
thanks, but if i cut out soya, tofu etc do u think ill be able to get enough protein from elsewhere? its just that soya seems to be much higher in protein than other 'vegan friendly' food.
Some high protein nuts like almonds and peanuts can help make up your protein defecit and I strongly suggest eating as many servings of lentils, white beans, garbanzo beans, and/or long grain rice as you can as these are protein-rich vegan foods.
Figure out your body's protein needs based on the information I gave above and then adjust your diet accordingly. You can certainly cut out tofu and soya and still get all the protein you need, you'll just need to supplement your diet with foods like those I've listed above.
ok, great. thanks for ur help!
Check out this thread on soymilk: carageenan
1: Wheat, bread, pasta, oats, grain
2: Beans! Harricot, black eye, red kidney, cannelinni, pinto, butterbeans. Beans are full of protein, especially if you get a variety.
2: Green lentils, red lentils and other pulses
Basically mix group one with either of the other two (or both) to create a complete protein source. At least thats what I remember of the top of my head! I don't really eat tofu that often, and the formula above works great for me! :)
We have a bread company in the U.S. that makes bread from sprouts. It comes in many flavors and tastes like any other whole grain bread except that each slice contains 3-4 grams of "complete" protein. We try to use this bread on days when we aren't eating a lot of other protein. You will find that you have to be a little more conscious of what you eat as a vegan (this is a good thing!) and look at new ways to add protien to your diet.
Good luck!
*bows. Thank you very much!Quote:
IlFromaggio
The American's recommended daily allowance for protein is 0.8g / kg of body weight.
Many vegan nutrtionists recommend upping that by 15% if you don't compliment your proteins, which for vegan comes down to combining legumes ( beans, peas, peanuts ) with whole grains or seeds.
Here they have some tables that doesn't translate well to our format, but you can see them here:Quote:
But how do you get enough protein?"
How important a question this is for many potential vegetarians! Our culture seems to be obsessed with obtaining enough protein. And yet protein is one of the easiest nutrients to get. By an inappropriate choice of foods, a person might be deficient in vitamins A or C; but it is almost impossible to be protein-deficient on a calorically adequate diet. To see why this is so, we need to look at protein requirements as a percentage of calories.
Protein as a Percentage of Calories
Protein, fat, and carbohydrate--the three major components of common foods--all contain calories, in about this ratio:
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
Thus, if a potato weighing 100 grams contains 76 calories and 2.1 grams of protein, we say that it contains 2.1 x 4 = 8.4 calories as protein, or about 11% calories as protein.
According to the National Research Council, an adult male requires 2700 calories and 56 grams of protein. The 56 grams of protein represent 224 calories, or about 8.3% of calories as protein. For the adult female, the figure is about the same: 2000 calories and 44 grams of protein, or about 8.8% of calories as protein.
If wheat has 17% of calories as protein, potatoes 11%, broccoli 45%, corn 15%, and so on, then all of these foods provide enough protein on a calorically adequate diet, even if you eat nothing but potatoes, wheat, and broccoli. In fact, of the common plant foods, almost all provide more than 10% of calories as protein. Only the fruits, as a rule, contain less; but this is not going to be a problem unless one is trying to live on an all-fruit diet.
http://www.vsc.org/protein.htm
Table 2. Limiting amino acid content of selected "Low-Protein" plant foodsQuote:
"But what about protein complementarity?"
In 1971, a revolutionary new book came out espousing the virtues of a meatless diet. It became a million-copy bestseller and convinced many people to try vegetarianism or become vegetarians. That book was Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé.
In her book, Lappé put forward as her central concept the idea of "protein complementarity"--the idea that vegetarians should eat different kinds of proteins at a single meal in order to get the same quality of protein which was found in meat. Countless thousands of vegetarians thereafter referred to Lappé's charts and tables and struggled to understand the intricacies of balancing tryptophan, lysine, methionine, and all the other amino acids.
The basic idea was this: while meat contains all of the amino acids, plant foods were deficient in one or more of the eight "essential" amino acids. Therefore, balance plant foods weak in one amino acid but strong in a second amino acid, with other plant foods strong in the first but weak in the second. Simple, right? Well, simple to some people, but not so simple to others, who eventually gave up the effort and went back to a meat-based diet out of fear of missing one or another of the amino acids.
And yet the central thesis of this best-selling book, one which even today many vegetarians believe in, is false. There's no question that you need all of the amino acids. But virtually all plant foods have all of the essential amino acids; and not only are the amino acids there, they are present in more than enough quantity to meet the needs of normal adults, if you are on a calorically adequate diet.
It's true that plant foods have more of the requirements of some amino acids than of others. Rice is strong in tryptophan, methionine, and valine, and weak in isoleucine and lysine. But rice protein sufficient to provide 100% of our quantitative protein needs, also provides 265% of the adult male requirement for lysine and 266% of that for isoleucine. (It provides 400% or more of all of the others.)
The same is true for virtually all other plant foods. In fact, some plant foods which do not quite provide the requirement for total protein, such as sweet potatoes, do provide the minimum requirement for all of the essential amino acids.
Rats and People
The whole idea of "protein complementarity" got started in 1914 when Osborne and Mendel published a paper on rat nutrition. They noticed that baby rats fed a plant food diet did not grow as fast as other rats who ate the same diet plus a lysine supplement. Conclusion: these plant foods needed a lysine supplement.
Unfortunately, the nutritional requirements of rats and humans are quite different, and this was quickly demonstrated by experiments on humans. Studies in which humans have been fed wheat bread alone, or potatoes alone, or corn alone, or rice alone, have all shown that these plant foods contain not only enough protein, but enough of all of the essential amino acids, to support growth and maintenance of healthy adults. Particularly striking were the experiments involving rice: not only was the rice protein more than adequate, it was adequate when only about 2/3 of the calories were provided through the rice. This means that the actual requirement for protein for most individuals is actually less than 8% of calories as stated by the National Research Council; the NRC has padded its figures with a "safety factor" which many individuals do not need.
A few sample plant foods are shown with their "limiting amino acid" content in the accompanying table. (Limiting amino acids are the amino acids the food contains the least of in relation to human nutritional requirements.)
Check http://www.vsc.org/protein.htm to see the table...
Quote:
Protein Deficiencies?
There are some ways you can become protein deficient, but it's pretty hard. One way is not to get enough food. We sometimes see people in famine areas with bloated bellies who are suffering from protein deficiency. They are also suffering from deficiencies of calories, iron, calcium, and vitamins A through Z. In short, they are "starving to death," and their problem is not so much lack of protein as it is lack of everything.
Another way to become protein deficient is to get almost all of your calories from alcohol and/or sugar. Sugar contains no protein! Hard liquor contains virtually no protein (beer contains very small amounts). So if you are an alcoholic sugar junkie, you may be in danger of protein deficiency. Another possible source of deficiency is that infants may be fed foods which they cannot digest.
Because of the sufficiency, or overabundance, of plant protein, animal products (milk, cheese, and eggs as well as meat, fish, and poultry) are completely unnecessary for adequate protein nutrition. Breast milk, incidentally, which has provided human infants with adequate protein for hundreds of thousands of years, provides 6% of calories as protein--far less than that of whole cow's milk, which contains 22% of calories as protein.
Not only is plant protein sufficient, it is often superior to animal protein. Excessive protein consumption is now strongly linked to bone weakness and osteoporosis. Studies done on calcium loss have shown that as protein consumption increases, so does calcium loss. Not only that, the protein in meat (which is higher in the sulfur-containing amino acids) causes a greater calcium loss than the same quantity of protein in soybeans! So as far as preventing calcium loss and the possibility of osteoporosis, plant protein is superior in this case to animal protein.
The word on protein complementarity is: forget it. The whole idea that this is necessary is a myth. Frances Moore Lappé has now essentially reversed herself on this issue, saying that getting enough protein "is much easier than I thought." It's good to get a variety of foods, because you need all the various vitamins and minerals--not because of protein. If you get plenty of a variety of plant foods, regardless of your combining techniques (or lack thereof), and you get enough calories (not too difficult for most of us), it's almost impossible to be protein deficient. Protein is one of the easiest nutrients to get.
--Keith Akers
For a complimentary copy of Vegetarian Living, the Society's bi-monthly publication, or for any information about vegetarianism and vegetarian diets, write or call:
VEGETARIAN SOCIETY OF COLORADO
P. O. Box 6773
Denver, Colorado 80206
(303) 777-4828
From http://www.bodyfatguide.com/AnimalProtein.htm:
The Problem with Animal Protein
by Ron Brown, author of The Body Fat Guide
THE "natural" diet of humans is an interesting topic. Nature demonstrates that each species of life form is specifically adapted to a particular mode of feeding, based on the anatomical and physiological structures of that species. In times of scarcity of food, a species might turn to other types of food for survival. Nevertheless, the health of the species remains ideally suited to a particular type of food to which it is constitutionally adapted.
This observation may be applied to humans as well. The evidence suggests that although humans may derive nourishment from a wide variety of foods, not all of these foods may be within our best interests physiologically. Such is the case with foods high in animal protein.
The work of researchers such as Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University has demonstrated that a diet high in animal protein is correlated with higher incidences of cancer and cardiovascular disease in humans. Why is it that animal protein raises cholesterol levels and produces diseases like arteriosclerosis? The latest research suggests that foreign proteins absorbed into the blood, such as undigested animal proteins and other toxic substances like sodium chloride and toxins from cigarette smoke, cause inflammation in the endothelium of the blood vessels, which eventually leads to hardening and narrowing of the arteries.
Two interesting questions are derived from examining this research: What makes a food high in animal protein, and what role does saturated animal fat play in causing disease?
The French Paradox
Looking first at the role of animal fat in producing disease, one comes across a contradiction to the conventional wisdom: the French Paradox. If eating animal fat produces heart disease, why do the French, who eat plenty of saturated animal fat, have lower rates of heart disease?
The explanation that is consistent with the research on animal protein is that the French consume animal fat largely in the form of butter and cream, which is very low in animal protein. When considering the overall diet of the French, one sees that it is much lower in total animal protein then the Western diet, even though it is higher in animal fat.
Similar to aspirin, red wine is reported to make blood platelets less sticky and thus less likely to form blood clots that cause arterial obstruction leading to strokes and heart attacks. Even so, wine has not been reported to directly reduce arteriosclerosis and cholesterol levels. However, since wine contains no animal protein, while milk does, wine may indirectly lower cholesterol levels because significantly less animal protein is included in one's diet when one drinks wine at meals instead of milk, as do the French.
This does not mean we should start drinking wine; rather, it implies we might be better off drinking less milk! But, before striking out animal-protein foods altogether, such as milk, meat and eggs, it is best to analyze how much animal protein these foods contribute to one's diet. One can then decide how much of these foods, if any, to eat.
As pointed out in: Maintaining Healthy Bodyweight on a Raw-food Diet, it is instructive to analyze the nutrients in one's diet according to calorie intake.The following table shows how meat, fish, poultry, dairy and eggs increase the percentage of calories from animal protein in one's diet.
Percentage of Calories from Protein in Animal Foods
Food
% of Calories from Protein
Beef, Regular Ground
21.42
Beef, Lean Ground
26.84
Beef, Extra Lean Ground
31.84
Butter
0.49
Cream, 25% Fat
4.04
Sour Cream
5.92
Cheddar Cheese
20.00
Cottage Cheese, Lowfat
62.22
Chicken, Skinless Breast
73.60
Egg, Whole
33.60
Egg White
82.35
Fish, Flat
82.30
Milk, Whole
21.19
Milk, Skim
39.06
Tuna, Solid White, Water
85.71
Turkey, White Meat
76.17
The implications from an analysis of this table's data are quite startling! Note that butter, high in saturated animal fat and considered one of the worst of foods for increasing heart disease, is actually less than one-half of one percent animal protein by calorie. This is consistent with the explanation of the French Paradox.
Next, notice that milk (cow's milk) is as high as beef in percentage of calories from animal protein. Ironically, as the fat content in beef and milk are reduced, their percentages of animal protein by calorie increase! In other words, if animal protein is the disturbing factor that causes arteriosclerosis, then having a 3-ounce lean-beef hamburger with a higher percentage of animal protein may be worse for your heart than a 3-ounce regular-fat burger!
This is supported by evidence from the Canadian and American Heart Associations that shows cholesterol levels are not significantly reduced simply by substituting low-fat versions of animal foods in one's diet. The research of Dr. Dean Ornish shows that one must eliminate animal foods altogether, or at least, as Dr. Campbell's research shows, reduce one's intake of animal protein. Low-fat animal foods do the opposite—they actually increase the percentage of calories from animal protein!
Finally, to drive home the point, consider the staple animal foods of dieters: fish, tuna, turkey, skinless chicken breasts and egg whites. Although these foods are low in calories and fat, the amount of animal protein in such foods is around 80% by calorie!
The recommended amount of protein for an adult diet is about 5% of one's maintenance calorie intake. There are plenty of natural foods one can consume other than animal foods to provide this amount of protein, as well as provide other important nutrients. And, although low-fat animal foods might assist you in keeping calorie intake low for weight-loss purposes, they may not be the best choice for your health.
I don't eat many whole proteins in my diet since turning vegan. Sometimes organic peanut butter, tofu or nuts (soaked, not roasted). I am honestly even stronger and fitter than I was before going vegan. So far I haven't had any noticeable deficiencies, which leads me to believe the nationalized "standards" are funded by the Meat Industry.
Quote:
regan
A good substituite for tofu/soya is seiten (wheat meat) as they are very simillar and "meat like"
Others have mentioned protein from veggies, whole grains, nuts/seeds, etc. A lentil/bean/brown rice mixture is good and can be made into mock meatballs or patties to eat.
Does anyone else sometimes crave protein rich foods?
I can go for months eating normally and then suddenly I will crave nothing but beans, tofu, seitan, nuts (which I eat regularly anyway) and all of those fake "meats" (which I normally don't eat due to it being very processed) - veggie burgers, fakin bacon, etc.
I get awful food cravings in general, and I have read that they are blood sugar related. My blood sugar always tests normally and I feel that if I crave it, my body must need it.
Anyone else? :confused: