Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wednesday evening roundup and ramble

A rambling but interesting look at Egypt's military.

I hope I'm not addicted to anxiety.

Mark Bittman's post on real food is very timely--not just in response to the new nutritional guidelines--but also in terms of my own food journey. I haven't been following Oprah's vegan week, but I was disappointed to read about the role of fake meat in her vegan exploration. I don't have a problem with fake meat as a sometimes food or as a gateway food, but it's not something I want to or can eat regularly, and--unless you're getting organic soy, etc.--it's not especially sustainable. I bring this up now because I've decided to reintroduce small amounts of seafood into my diet. I really, really wanted to give up animal products entirely, at least as part of my regular, at-home diet, but it just didn't work. I realized this because I felt like crap right before leaving for California a few weeks ago, and I'd gained weight (I don't weigh myself, but I could tell). In California, seafood was the best non-meat, non-dairy option, so I ended up ordering it for dinner... and I immediately felt better. Yes, I'm taking B12 supplements, but something was missing, and it might have been extra protein. Which I might have gotten from a boca burger... but I'd rather get it from some wild-caught Gulf shrimp.

This may also explain why my past attempts at going vegan went nowhere (they preceded my pescetarianism, so I was already a vegetarian). I'm committed to a plant-based diet, but I'm also committed to real, unprocessed, and unrefined food. Some vegans make it work by consuming TVP (and/or crap). Even in PCRM's Kickstart, it was hard to find recipes without processed soy or refined grains.

There may be other unprocessed, plant-based foods I'm not thinking of that could help me get that extra protein, but for the time being, eating a little bit of seafood makes me feel a lot better, so I'm going to keep doing it.

All that said, check out Mark Bittman's vegetarian sushi guide. He says brown rice won't work, but I think black rice just might.

1 comment:

Tmomma said...

we eat meat in our house but the idea of fake meat is just yuck to me. if we didn't eat meat we wouldn't sub it with fake meat. when we have meatless dinners we don't add fake meat. sort of like fake cheese, the only reason i add it is....well, actually i've more or less stopped buying it b/c it's expensive, fake and doesn't really add much to the dishes i used it in.