Vegan and vegetarian food on the cheap

Sharra

*claps Heather* well said

I'll echo the Cranks comments - if you are veggie and don't own it, give it a try, I've tried nearly all the recipes in there (I'm on my 2nd copy cos the first one got worn out) and they are all brilliant. Lentil and Cheese Wedges and Homity pie are among my favourites - they freeze well too, so make double at a time

Ted_Hutchinson

Sharra wrote:

*claps Heather* well said

I'll echo the Cranks comments - if you are veggie and don't own it, give it a try, I've tried nearly all the recipes in there (I'm on my 2nd copy cos the first one got worn out) and they are all brilliant. Lentil and Cheese Wedges and Homity pie are among my favourites - they freeze well too, so make double at a time

My Cranks books are also worn out through overuse. On the whole though Cranks recipes aren't imitation meat recipes so the point I was making, that those who really like meat like recipes should eat meat is valid.

My concerns that a strictly vegetarian diet doesn't provide sufficient omega3 fatty acids remains and hasn't been adequately responded to by any veggie poster so far. See
Flax is Not the Best Omega-3 Fatbefore replying.

Magentasue

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

My Cranks books are also worn out through overuse. On the whole though Cranks recipes aren't imitation meat recipes so the point I was making, that those who really like meat like recipes should eat meat is valid.

My concerns that a strictly vegetarian diet doesn't provide sufficient omega3 fatty acids remains and hasn't been adequately responded to by any veggie poster so far. See
Flax is Not the Best Omega-3 Fatbefore replying.

Well, i don't like meat or pretend meat like soya or quorn. I like veggie peasant type food like veg in cheese sauce, pizzas, potato pies and bakes.

Are there any non meat/fish sources of omega 3 fatty acids?

Trow

Ted - it is impossible to have a perfect diet. If you eat fish you end up consuming mercury. If you eat meat you eat a product that has proven links to high cholesterol and heart problems. What do do?

Well I contend that the best resolution is to allow every individual to make that decision for themselves.

Out of curiosity - if someone went into your field while you were there, killed the cows and cut you off you a piece of its rear end - would you think 'oh yummy'?

cristin

QUOTE=Ted_Hutchinson]
If your not eating meat or fish then where are you getting your ALA which is to some extent the precusor to Omega3?

Dear Ted, I am not an expert on nutrition, but there are vegetarian alternatives to getting ALAs and omegas. I am a vegetarian as I have already said and I take a tablespoon of hempseed oil everyday - this contains omega 3, 6 and 9 in abundance - for example for every 100ml it contains 18ml omega 3, 56ml omega 6, 11ml omega 9 etc etc. So there are alternatives to the flax seed oil and walnuts even in a veggie diet. But as someone else on here said, no diet is perfect. My OH and two daughters are not veggies. Every week I make sure they either eat meat or have at least 2 portions of oily fish (did you know that simply by eating oily fish twice a week a man can halve his risk of having a heart attack - but I digress) I will not force anybody in my family to be a veggie just because I am one - they can make their own mind up. The reason I am one is simple - if I cannot bring myself to kill it why should I enjoy eating eat? This may be an old fashioned view, but one that I think about evey time I see a piece of meat. Could you kill that cow in the field and eat it?

crana999

I haven't eaten meat, fish etc since I was 3..I'm almost 19..and my brain still appears to function reasonably well (I don't know what my IQ or anything is, but you have to be reasonably functional to get in here..). Damn, maybe I could have been a genius if I'd eaten more fish.

It's not like if you don't eat meat and fish your brain liquifies and drips out your ears and you turn into a vegetable (ahem).

heather38

you can buy veggie omega 3 caps, they are algae sourced and come in a gelatin free capsule, there is also omega 3 oil in tofu, walnuts, leafy green veg, rape seed and flax seed/oil
hope this answers your question

Magentasue

Yippee! I eat plenty of green veg and walnuts now and again. Please tell me the absorption rate is doubled if you drink plenty of coffee and red wine.

Ted_Hutchinson

Well as there are lots of veggies who have got it sussed perhaps some of you could share your knowledge at help for 3.5yr diet (aneamic and protein deficient)I've given some suggestions but really it needs someone committed to veggie principles to come up with suggestions. I found it very hard not to tell her to put her child's health before her principles and give him some meat/fish as that's where the most concentrated sources of protien are found. It's clear this child isn't thriving on veggie food so why stick with it?

Trow

Ted - surely it is not for any of us on this thread to answer why someone else is sticking to a particular eating regime!

Having said that, my kids were veggie for the first few years of their lives and thrived. There is no details of what the child is eating so how can anyone make a judgement on that? You can have poor veggie diets just as you can have poor meat diets. You can bet that the obesity problem in America and elsewhere doesn't stem from largely veggie diets. What is clear is that the child isn't thriving on its current diet - but as the only thing we know about that diet is that it doesn't include meat/fish, we don't know how much protein he gets from other sources, how much fruit/veg he gets etc.

When I was pregnant my doctor was initially worried about the fact I was strictly vegetarian (I am not strictly veggie any more, due to the fact we got a share in a boat so caught our own fish) so did every blood test he could think of that might affect the pregnancy/baby. (well, maybe not every test, but it seemed like it) and his conclusion was to keep on doing what I was doing as, despite what he expected, my iron levels were higher than average, and he found no deficiancies at all.