Vegetarians

[metsandfinsfan]

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I double-checked. Chicken eggs are indeed a very good source of the complete protein compliment for humans.

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and a vegan won't eat them either

[Blarg]

Even a lot of vegetarians won't, so forget that.

Anybody eat those egg-beater type things? I just tried some that are supposedly 99% egg whites, and they taste okay. Course, still no good for a vegetarian/vegan, but at least that's a big part of any health problem re: eggs taken care of.

[Phil153]

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I double-checked. Chicken eggs are indeed a very good source of the complete protein compliment for humans.

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The concept of complete protein and protein combining never had a scientific basis, and was debunked nearly a quarter century ago (1983). Yet most people still believe it (it's even in the encyclopedia Brittanica, lol), thanks partly to marketing by the meat industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining

Even vegetarians on a poor diet get far more of each amino acid than they need,as well as more than adequate protein. See the table above. On the other hand, animal proteins, when taken in excess (which means the average western diet), are not that good for most people.

I was raised a vegetarian (no meat or fish), and am 6'0, 90 kg, and lean. I ran track and played rugby in school, did very well in school, and went to uni at 16. I also look healthy. I definitely haven't suffered at all from a vegetarian diet.

Eating wholegrains instead of micronutrient deficient white bread and rice, as weall as fresh food and a balanced diet is far more important than eating or not eating meat. Look at the nutrient profiles of various foods and that becomes obvious.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

As for your OP, many vegetarians do look unhealthy - because they eat terrible diets. The average western diet is quite poor already with the meat in it, and if you take that out and keep eating empty calories such as white bread/rice/pasta, you're not going to do very well.

[rothko]

excellent post, phil. there really is so much misinformation out there, propagated largely by special interests within the food industry.

[Moneyline]

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How can you cook anything decent without butter or cheese or eggs? I just don't get it at all.

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I'm not a vegan, but I very rarely eat dairy because I'm lactose intolerant. It's really not that difficult cooking without butter and other dairy products. Milk can be replaced with soymilk and dairy-based fats and greases can be replaced with olive oil. In most cases I think cooking with olive oil actually makes stuff taste better, and it's certainly more healthy.

I strongly recommend cooking in olive oil the next time you fry an egg, it makes it taste much better.

[Ron Burgundy]

"Butter is for unrefined palates, use olive oil instead."

- Mario Batali

[Low Key]

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Eating wholegrains instead of micronutrient deficient white bread and rice, as weall as fresh food and a balanced diet is far more important than eating or not eating meat.

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This is what makes me sad about living in the midwest. Most of the people who convert to vegels (vegetarianism is too long for me to type, so I use a word made up in Get Fuzzy) do so in such an unhealthy way because they do it out of outrage, moral reasons, health reasons, but don't have any other plan of execution other than to cut out meat or use lots of meat replacement products. These people usually fail in the long run to make a permanent change, in my experience. (I've converted a lot of my friends, not thru my own actions, I'm one of the quiet vegetarians who just tries to live right)

Also, I'm glad to see you debunk the complete protein/amino acid thing. Most people don't know this about the human body, but it does store a lot of amino acids to use with others whenever it needs to. Eating all types of amino acids at every meal is completely unnecessary.

[Blarg]

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"Butter is for unrefined palates, use olive oil instead."

- Mario Batali

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Tony Bourdain loves Batali, but he makes a lot of fun of some olive oil pretensions even among Italian chefs, who he says often use just as much butter as everybody else.

[Ron Burgundy]

woopee, it still tastes like urine.

[Low Key]

Olive oil or butter? Either way, buy some quality products next time and you won't have this problem.