Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [36]
Pickles for better protein digestion
Pickled foods can help you digest other proteins. The bacteria found in the unpasteurized versions also increase vitamin levels of the pickled foods and help to promote a healthy digestive tract. Rather than using the pasteurized pickles found on grocery store shelves, which no longer contain the beneficial bacteria, try the fresh pickles from the refrigerated section or Asian markets.
You can also make your own at home using the Homemade Pickled Vegetables recipe in Chapter 13.
Combination, shmombination!
The seminal book Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe detailed the political, environmental, and moral impact of a meat-based diet for a fledgling vegetarian movement in the early 1970s. Her book also made popular the idea that protein foods needed to be combined properly so that all the amino acids were present at each meal to form complete proteins. She created entire lists of combined foods, such as different whole grains with certain beans as well as a type of nut and a certain vegetable. Many vegetarians stuck to eating from these lists to ensure they were getting the proper protein. This rather arduous style of vegetarianism has since been proven unnecessary, however. By eating a varied vegan diet every day, including whole grains, beans, soy foods, and fresh fruits and veggies, you get all the protein you need. Lappe has recanted her own theory of food combination as inaccurate and has since written more books that offer valuable lessons about the food justice movements as well as global food scarcity.
Traditionally, these pickled or fermented foods are eaten with or after a heavy, fatty, or protein-rich meal to help aid digestion. It’s remarkable that this incredible knowledge has been used the world over by many cultures without anyone ever using the Internet or sharing a recipe. It has been simultaneously used around the world in various cultures because people knew the natural fermentation helped them digest their food better. Vegetable foods like sauerkraut from Eastern and Northern Europe, cucumber pickles, kimchee from Korea, yogurt and lemon pickles from India, and umeboshi plums from Japan are all examples of pickled foods that are traditionally eaten with protein-rich meals to help the digestion process.
Soy, oh boy! The controversy and confusion
If you pay any attention to health and nutrition in the news, things can get a little confusing, especially when it comes to the topic of soy. One week soy foods and tofu are applauded in the media as a way to avoid heart disease and cancer, and the next week they’re vilified as the cause of other diseases and cancers. What’s the deal here? Consider the following contradictory statements:
Soy is good and protects against breast cancer and should be eaten by healthy women and breast cancer patients.
Soy is dangerous for women with estrogen-positive breast cancer or with a family history of breast cancer.
A study of Alzheimer’s patients found that rates were slightly higher in Hawaiian citizens who had eaten a lot of tofu over the course of their lives.
Studies in Asia, where soy intake is generally high, show lower rates of Alzheimer’s.
Contradictory studies from Harvard show that regular soy consumption raised or lowered sperm count in men.
Unfortunately, scientists don’t have enough evidence on either side to declare a winner.
A healthy vegan diet includes a wide variety of beans and legumes, and it shouldn’t rely on one food for a majority of its calories. Adding some edamame (whole soybeans), tofu, tempeh, soy sauce, and miso to your diet isn’t dangerous. Unprocessed soy foods or lightly processed soy foods like tofu, soymilk, and miso can be used regularly without creating health concerns. However, relying on highly processed foods like soy hot dogs, soy ice cream,