Classified_ad Classified_ad

With the cost of meat, as well as everything else, going sky high these days, the relative ease on the pocketbook of eating vegetarian or close to it becomes more and more tempting. Still there are problems in the making of the transition. Our attitude towards "vegetables," mainly. Most of us have known them only as dull, eat-them-they're-good-for-you side dished to the main course, the real thing: meat! But get turned on to granola or quiche, avocados, tofu or curry! Catch the subtle spectrum of flavors that open up w whole new world to tickle your palate, and you just may find the edge taken off your appetite for that hot, juicy steak. Not to mention that bellyful of meat may lay you out stone logy for an hour or two, sluggish and snail-swift.

Not so though if you eat vegetarian or thereabouts. For many, vegetarianism means the exclusion of meat, but may include such products as eggs, dairy items, fish, or poultry. The word itself is etymologically related to the Latin 'vegetare'  meaning 'to enliven', and that's just how you feel walking away from that kind of meal-not gorged but satisfied and revitalized. The kind of energy created by this diet is slow burning and long lasting in contrast to the sharp swings between lethargy and intense activity that heavy meat/sugar eaters experience.

Meat has its distinct problems. For example, the U.S. high fat content of meat contributes greatly to the premature hardening of the arteries that appears in our population today. So-called 'primitive' peoples who rely mainly on plant sources for their diet are not plagued with these 'civilized' afflictions precisely because they are more attuned to their digestive tract.

One Person's Meat...

"Man cannot live by bread along-he must have meat!" was a line my brother and I would toss back and forth between us as we grew up on a steady diet of meat for most every lunch and dinner, if not breakfast too. Hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks, roasts, barbecue, you name it I ate it and loved every minute of it.

But get up close to a mirror and give yourself a good grin. The teeth falling out of your head there are really rather inadequate to the task of chewing up a hunk of animal so your body can digest it easily. To get around this we cut it into small manageable chunks, and pound it, marinate it, tenderize it, or age it, and then cook it so our molars can render it to a digestible pulp. Those choppers erupting from your gums are not those of a carnivore, but an omnivore, designed, in the main, to process plant matter into human flesh.

...Is Another Person's Poison

Meat today is systematically adulterated, from the synthetic sex hormones, antibiotics, and drugs administered to feed cattle to make them gain weight faster to the nitrates, nitrites, benzoates, and other poisons added at the packing plant to preserve the appearance of freshness and wholesomeness. The meat is saturated with pesticide residues too-DDT, DDE, TDE and other more sinister characters that are used to produce cattle feed. Add this to the already slow process of digesting meat, and it's not hard to see why it slows you down for awhile after eating. Moreover, many of these chemicals, notably the pesticides, accumulate in the fat deposits of the body, leading to later complications; others are carcinogenic and are one of the reasons cancer rates are on the rise.

But I Don't Need Meat?

The only important nutritional element we get from is protein and its derivatives. Meat lacks practically all the other food factors essential to good health. Foods such as beans, peas, lentils, eggs, cheese, whole grains, and especially nuts are alternate high-protein sources that not only contain essential vitamins and minerals, but are often more economical to boot. There is no difference in the quality of meat vs. non-meat protein, just that non-meat protein is easier to assimilate. 

Balancing Amino Acids

However, what is necessary is to get a protein intake balanced in amino acids. Proteins are long chains of nitrogenous organic acids called amino acids. Altogether, there are twenty-two amino acids, of which the human body can synthesize but eight. These eight essential amino acids are dependent upon each other, like links in a chain, from which the body synthesizes all the other amino acids. Thus for any protein source, the ability of the body to incorporate the protein into its living tissue is only as great as the weakest 'link' in the 'chain' of essential amino acids.

Meat, fish, milk, and eggs are referred to as 'balanced' proteins because they contain the essential amino acids in relatively equal proportions. Plant sources of protein can be just as rich and in some cases richer than meat, though they are usually deficient in one or more of the eight essential amino acids. This problem is easily overcome by combining foods, like corn and beans, so that the profile of the combined essential amino acids is proportionately balanced, providing the body with the building blocks to rebuild worn out cells rather than mere calories. Three good books to scope out for a more detailed account of balancing proteins and recipes are Protein for Vegetarians, Diet For A Small Planet, and Recipes For A Small Planet.

Going Vegetarian

Making the transition from a meat-prominent diet to a primarily vegetarian regimen can be difficult as your digestive tract has to do an about face from digesting meat protein to digesting plant protein. This may cause problems, notably, difficulty is assimilating the food value of your new diet. Many people find that gradually cutting out meat and increasing plant sources provides an orderly transition and allows the new culinary skills a little time to take.

Another way to help the transition is fasting for awhile between the time you stop eating meat and the time you begin a full vegetarian diet. Fasting tonifies and cleanses the digestive tract, increases the assimilative capacity, and allows the body's metabolism to flush out many of the toxins accumulated from the meat you've been eating. Fasting rejuvenates the tissues, promotes autolysis (self-digestion) of abnormal growths, physiologically rests the body organs, promotes the body's natural healing process and increases nerve energy. For an excellent discussion of rational fasting check out the book Protein For Vegetarians. So remember! Call any vegetable! And the chances are...!

-Tom Kuzma

Gourmet Natural Food Restaurant 662-2019

Seva

Lunch & Dinners

11:00-8:30 Weekdays

11:00-10:00 Saturday

4:00-8:30 Sunday

Closed Monday

314 E. Liberty Ann Arbor, Michigan

What's New on South U?

Get all the news as it happens

Daily

N.Y. Times
Chicago Tribune
Detroit Newspapers 
Washington Post
Wall Street Journal
Miami Herald

Weekly

U.S. News
Time Magazine
Newsweek
New Yorker
Sports Illustrated

Monthly

Cosmopolitan
Redbook
Hot Rod
Esquire
Playboy
& Hundreds more

Plus
All the bestsellers in paperback & hardbound books and magazines on every conceivable subject. Alphabetical by author.

Special orders welcome

Another Community Newscenter

Open 8:30 am-11 pm 7 Days a week

1301 South University 662-6150

The New Bimbo's

327 E. Michigan

Ypsilanti

Live Music & Dancing til 2 am nightly

Three bands in concert on Tuesdays

M.C. & D.J.-Stanley the Mad Hatter

Soul nite wed & thurs

Steaks & pizza too!

(under new management, soon to be renamed.)