Being Veggie 101

Hey!

Sorry I've been missing recently from quarterlifechange. I was nursing a headache, sinusey, blogey cold for the past couple of days so I have been slacking in most areas of my life. -if anyone has any cure all cold remedies, please share!

As you know, Fen and I are living the veggie life, meaning that we have not been eating meat. Hopefully some of you are trying the "30 day challange with us (come on it's really not that long!), our goal is that after 30 days we will be more apt to limit our meat eating to fewer times a week.

If for no other reason, I just found that according to The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, the meat industry generates nearly a fifth of the human-made greenhouse gas emmisions, which is more than transportation negatively effects our climate! insane.

That being said I wanted to address one of the most common questions to get thrown at vegetarians:

"How do you get your protein?????"

This is an important question, so i wanted to give all the new veggies some information, so that we can respond to the negative naysayers and also stay healthy and energized.

So here are my tenets of protein:
1. Most experts say that we need about .4 grams of protein per pund of body weight. Therefore a woman weighing 130lbs needs around 52 grams per day. If you are very active you need more, the average adult who execises regularly needs about 70g.
2. You need to get all your essential amino acids every day, we will call this complete proteins.
3. Animal Products contain complete proteins (all essential amino acids), therefore if you are not vegan, you can eat cheese, milk, yogurt, eggs etc. for complete proteins.
4. You can also get your complete proteins from vegetables and plant products by being more creative and mixing together a variety of nuts, corns, vegetables, and grains. Some examples of complete food combinations:
-rice and beans
-peanut butter sandwhich
-tofu and rice
-hummus and pita
5. You don't have to get your complete proteins in one meal, you can eat a variety of foods throghout the day and still be healthy. For example: bean soup for lunch and rice with dinner.
6. Basically variety is key. if you eat lots of differnet kinds of non-meat foods, instead of just potato chips and bagels all day, you should be ok.

ok that's my tutorial on protein, here's some websites for more info:

http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/farm/animal-agriculture-and-climate.pdf

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/

So, what are the chances I can convince Fen to be vegan next month???

If cher, i mean alicia silverstone can do it, then why can't we? anyone in?

-Kathryn