Who needs the beef??!!
Hi again. I'm vegetarian, as I said. Now I know what some of you are thinking right away -- but trust me, you would really enjoy the foods I make. Really.
A lot of my customers who say they can't live without their meat say they would choose some of my dishes over a hamburger any day.
The main thing is, I like food that is made with love and care, tastes great . . . and makes people happy and healthy. So now for the why and how of veggies and main dish alternatives...
Why veggie?
First of all, if a vegetarian diet was good enough for the folks in the Garden of Eden, it's good enough for me. Seems no one had a problem in those times with heart attacks and cancer and all the other diseases that plague us today. That's because they ate a good high fiber, anti-oxidant rich, zero trans-fat veggie diet. And even when they got thrown out of the Garden, folks still lived to an advanced age. Remember Methuselah?
I first got interested in healthful eating and living in 1972 when I was pregnant with my older son, Dan. My family laughed at me when I made him a whole wheat carrot cake for his first birthday, but now that's a top requested item when I cook for them.
Eating natural grains and fruits and vegetables just always seemed like the right way to eat. I discovered that without much effort, my weight stayed at what it was when I was 17, and I just felt good. Nowadays I prefer Middle Eastern and North African preparations. They're beautiful, well-seasoned and wonderfully healthy.
In my opinion, there are at least seven reasons to go vegetarian:
- religious and philosophical
- moral
- environmental
- healthful
- tasteful
- aesthetic
- efficient
Religious and philosophical. As a student of religion, one of the things I have found fascinating is how much one can learn about a religion by focusing on its food tabooes and rituals. Judaism, for example, forbids consuming blood ("the life is in the blood") and while meat-eating is allowed, it is surrounded by a variety of restrictions and specifications that are part of its system of kosher laws. Buddhist monks are vegetarian and indeed are not even permitted to garden (i.e., to grow and harvest their own food) but rather have a begging bowl and go out daily to obtain food from the householders. Today many Buddhists who are not necessarily monks are vegetarian. Understanding food philosophies tells us much about the philosophies of the respective religions.
Moral. It is a crime that on a planet so richly endowed with the capacity to produce food, and with a global economy, so many are starving at the same time that food is prodigiously wasted in other locations. Acres and acres of cropland that could feed huge numbers of people are used instead to grow food for animals that are slaughtered for their meat which then nourishes a very much smaller population.
Environmental. Methane gases from cattle raised for beef are significant contributors to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Raising beef cattle requires more land resources (and depletes them) than raising vegetable crops to feed human beings.
Healthful. The new government guidelines for good health recommend 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day! For so many Americans, this seems like a lot -- how can one possibly accomplish this? With great difficulty on a meat-based diet! On a plant-based diet, however, one Vita-Mix smoothie or one serving of a delicious homemade soup might contain most of your day's requirement. There is also an emphasis on anti-oxidants to fight many diseases of aging. The easiest way to make certain you are meeting your anti-oxidant quota for the day is to focus on color. The more richly colorful your diet, the more likely it is that you are getting the requisite anti-oxidants.
Flavorful. Falafel. Ever had it? If yes, 'nuf said. Falafel is the McDonald's of the Middle East -- there are stands on every corner. Savory balls of dried beans ground with spices, deep fried, dropped into pita pockets onto a bed of hummus, topped with a chopped salad of tomato, cucumber, pepper, onion and cilantro and lemony tahina dressing and warmed with a hot sauce made from chiles or jalapeno. Now to my way of thinking, those sandwiches are soooo... much more interesting and flavorful than a piece of meat on a bun with lettuce. In the Middle East, there are usually a host of salads and garnishes that you can add to your sandwich -- a variety of flavors and colors and tastes. Those flavors and colors and tastes derive from veggies prepared with rich spice blends. Salads and pickles are a taste adventure in the Middle East.
Aesthetic. Have you ever seen a more beautiful color than the color of a cut beet? In our cafe, I make a sample plate with all of the salads I have made on any particular day and a couple of pieces of falafel. When the plate is complete, it is something to see! I set up each salad into a pie-shaped wedge, and the plate is covered with 10-12 beautifully colored wedges. My sweet pepper salad in shades of red and orange and yellow makes the center, and my brilliantly green z'hug (Yemenite hot sauce) sits next to the peppers in a small, clear container. One of these days I mean to take a high resolution picture, blow it up, frame it and hang it in my livingroom. It is a work of art.
Efficient. A plant-based diet is efficient. It conserves the earth's resources. It involves three major steps: planting, harvesting and marketing. Conversely, a meat-based diet requires the same three steps plus a whole series of intervening steps involved in raising and slaughtering cattle for beef. Less food can feed more people in a plant-based world. And food can be prepared more quickly. Indeed, fruits and vegetables can be eaten with little or no preparation. when my son was two, he used to sit in the garden while I worked it and happily munch vegetables he pulled from the plant. So if we consider the cumulative minutes put in by each person on earth toward their particular tasks in a meat-based diet cycle vs. the cumulative minutes invested by each person in a plant-based diet cycle -- well, it seems to me that we might save the world a LOT of time. Time we could use to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of this world.