Any Veggies Out There?

[Ratrod]

My favorite vegetable is steak.

[Madsakre]

This thread is filled with all kinds of wrong.

Indeed. eat atleast 600 grams of veggies/fruit. And shiteloads of meat etc. Make a big Y on your plate. one big side is veggies, the other rice/spuds etc. and the small one, FLEISCH!..

[FredD]

My favorite vegetable is steak.

+1  !!  :lol:

[tomjackson]

I've just had my cholesterol taken as part of my NHS health check wich you get when you turn 35.
It's spot on and actually lower than it was when I got it taken 20 years ago at school, so being vegetarian may have helped.  Certainly when the nurse went through diet she wanted to tell me to eat less red meat so she was happy when I said 'none'.

Unfortunately I didn't fare as well with the alcohol questions.....

I think the most important thing is avoiding processed foods, there's no point giving up pepperoni's and eating cheese strings instead.  There are good and bad vegetarians just like good and bad meat eaters.

[Sifu Ben]

Vegetarians can often have very high cholesterol because they eat disproportionate amounts of cheese.

[Madsakre]

Vegetarians can often have very high cholesterol because they eat disproportionate amounts of cheese.

 or nuts. or eggs.. or....

[Philly Q]

Nuts don't give you high cholesterol.  I don't think eggs do either.  Cheese, maybe, since it's much higher in saturated fat.

Since I switched to a low-carb diet my cholesterol has come right down, but I eat loads of nuts and eggs - and oily fish, and olive oil, and rapeseed oil.  Cheese too, but not massive amounts.

With meat, I tend to buy very lean cuts, then I can control the amount of fat (and how saturated it is) by the amount of cooking oil I use.

I'm convinced the obesity epidemic is much more related to high-carb diets than high-fat ones.

I think the most important thing is avoiding processed foods, there's no point giving up pepperoni's and eating cheese strings instead.

Yep, there's a lot of cr@p in processed food which just doesn't need to be there (including too much salt!)

[Madsakre]

 I don't think eggs do either.  

Eggs are very high on cholesterol. the yolk is almost pure cholesterol

[Philly Q]

I believe there is research which suggests that just because a food contains cholesterol it isn't necessarily harmful to your cholesterol levels (any more than other types of fat).

And of course your total cholesterol level is made up of "good" (HDL) and "bad" (LDL) cholesterol.  As I understand it, saturated fats and trans fats are the main factors raising LDL (and lowering HDL!)

I'm not claiming to be an expert on this, it's just what I've read.  It could all be bollocks.  But I'm definitely healthier than I was a year ago so I'll carry on eating my egg yolks.

[Sifu Ben]

Yeah, many foods that are high in cholesterol don't effect your cholesterol levels. It's saturated fat that does the damage.

[tomjackson]

Yeah, I have loads of eggs and nuts so it's definitely neither of those.  Nuts probably lower cholesterol if anything, or at least improve the good to bad cholesterol.

It's old and bad information about eggs, they make little effect on cholesterol levels.

http://www.bhf.org.uk/default.aspx?page=12920

My overall score was 4.2 and I average at least an egg a day......

Too much cheese probably has an effect due to the saturated fat.

[nfe]

also veggie'ism isn't just about reducing meat for health benefits but reducing suffering for beasts, compassion!

I'd tend to be of the opinion that veganism is about reducing suffering for beasts whereas vegetarianism may be about pretending you care, or trying very hard to convince yourself you do. If indeed that reasoning even enters into your head at all. I've tons of vegan pals who are vegan on the basis that they don't want to be involved in harming animals. But that's probably only a concern at all for two or three of my dozens of veggie pals.

My ex was veggie for the first few years of our relationship so I used to eat quite a lot of vegetarian stuff. I didn't find it hard at all to find interesting things to eat, but I think it would have been hard to keep it interesting every day (we didn't live together until she had started eating meat again). Mostly it was pasta variations, curries and so on. I still enjoy a savoury cous-cous stuffed pepper, now'n'again.

[dave_mc]

^ to be fair, if the animals are well looked-after, then vegetarianism does do them less harm than being a meat eater. :lol: also it might be "i can just about manage being a vegetarian, but could never manage veganism, so i'll do what i can".

as i said, i'm not a vegetarian at all, but i don't think it's fair to suggest veganism or nothing...

[nfe]

I dunno... It's the very worst treated animals that provide dairy products...

I'd quite like to be vegan on that principle, but I've nothing like the will power to stop eating (and using) animal products entirely. I think I could stick to being veggie quite easily but I don't see the point if I'm still going to consume animal products from the really awful production methods.

Brazilian recipes might be something to look up. When I was playing in a samba band we used to play lots of carnevale events and there was always great grub. All of it seemed to consist of beans and sauces but lots of it was great. I'm admittedly unsure as to how authentic it was, but it was always Brazilian folks running the things.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, I have loads of eggs and nuts so it's definitely neither of those.  Nuts probably lower cholesterol if anything, or at least improve the good to bad cholesterol.

It's old and bad information about eggs, they make little effect on cholesterol levels.

http://www.bhf.org.uk/default.aspx?page=12920

My overall score was 4.2 and I average at least an egg a day......

Too much cheese probably has an effect due to the saturated fat.

My cholesterol has gone from 6.0 in January last year to 3.8 in December.

At my age, I don't suppose I'll be able to improve much more than that, but if I can maintain I'll be reasonably happy.

So anyway, the nuts and eggs don't seem to be doing me any harm.