|
VEGAN FEAST SUBSCRIBERS' COOKING AND RECIPE FORUM>
Need your opinion -Dietician or Nutritionist,etc?
Val
98 posts
May 10, 2005
11:07 PM
|
I've been a vegetarian for a little over a year now, and have been a vegan for about 6 months. That's not a long time but I should have lost some weight, instead I have put on weight.
I'm thinking about seeing a dietician, nutritionist or someone in the medical field who can help guide me by giving me some tips / meal plans, etc.
Does anyone know who I should make an appointment with ? I don't have health insurance right now, so I have to pay for it anyway, so getting a referal from a doctor is not an option. Would appreciate any suggestions anyone can give me.
Thanks!
----------
Val
Last Edited Val on 10-May-2005 11:08 PM
|
Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
973 posts
May 11, 2005
11:54 AM
|
Val, you may not need to go to a dietician (and, BTW, a registered dietician is what you want if you do--an RD-- they have a degree in nutritional science. Anyone can take a course and call themselves a "nutritionist").
People think that they will automatically lose weight on a vegan diet, but that's not necessarily the case. In fact, many of us gained weight at the beginning-- I certainly did! I was eating too many nuts, using nut milks and eating avocadoes and olives with abandon. I also sauteed everything in oil and used lots of oil in my salad dressings. I also wasn't excercising enough.
There are an increasing number of vegan convenience foods available, which tend to be relatively high in fat, and so it is quite possible to have an unhealthy vegan diet (just as it is possible to have an unhealthy meat or dairy based diet) or to be an 'overweight' vegan.
Try to avoid fried foods, spread fats thinly on bread, and replace high fat snacks with fresh fruit. Fill up on plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, pasta, potatoes, rice and other cereals. Make sure you eat regularly, and try to start the day with a high fiber breakfast (missing meals can cause you to eat more to compensate). Finally, you could look at increasing your activity level - walking being one of the best exercises.
Calories are calories, no matter what your diet, and fat has the most calories. When I went on a low-fat diet and started walking every day (and eventually took up weight training), I was able to keep my weight under control.
I do eat some fat, as you can see from my recipes, but on a daily basis I use as little as possible and save my fat quota for where it matters-- like a couple of pieces of good vegan chocolate, or sesame oil in a dish, or 1/4 of an avocado in my salad, etc.
You also have to watch portions-- except with veggies. Eat all the veggies you want-- just don't put oil and earth balance all over them.
Learn how to saute without fat (which I call "steam-frying". Learn how to make salad dressings with little fat (a little fat helps you ingest the antioxidants in veggies). Learn how to bake with little fat (use applesauce for 3/4 of the fat and use pastry flour, which has less gluten than regular flour,so you get a more tender product (fat coats gluten and makes it tender, so, with less fat, you want less gluten).
My first 3 books (almost no-fat, almost no-fat holiday and 20 minutes to dinner) are all very low in fat, and there are low-fat recipes in all the other ones, especially "Fiberfor Life". Try fatfree.com and fatfreevegan.com for recipes, too.
Alot of people try the McDougall plan, but I find it too restricted, so I use a sort of version of the weight watcher's plan. In fact, Weight Watchers is great-- you can join online and there is a vegan option.
Other books that I think are excellent are "The Good Carbohydrate Diet" by Dr. Terry Shintani, and "the Okinawa Diet Plan".
Again, I can't emphasize enough how important exercise is!
I can send you some low-fat tips and recipes, etc, if you like.
Here is a post I did for someone;
Calories DO count, but, if you learn about foods and their nutrients, fat content, etc., you don't have to strictly count calories. Weight Watchers has vegan and vegetarian plans and they go by a point system, which takes calories, fat, fiber and nutritional content into account. You can join them online.
Another way which might help you is to check out the "Picture Perfect Weight Loss" books. Go to this website:
http://drhowardshapiro.com/
to read about “Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss”, “Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss Shopper’s Guide”, and Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss 30 day Plan”.
These books are not vegetarian, but he uses A LOT of vegetarian products as alternatives to the normal high-calorie, low-volume foods .
“Dr. Shapiro believes that many people with weight problems are visually motivated. With this in mind, he created an innovative diet book that utilizes more than 170 full-color photographs of food equations. On each page spread, readers actually see what they are tempted to eat. Next to this is an abundance of alternative options-for the same total calories. With only a fraction of the choices from the second column, a dieter will be completely sated-and will have consumed fewer calories. Nothing is forbidden-dieters can even eat restaurant and airplane food! Without memorizing complicated lists or counting calories, Dr. Shapiro's images leave a lasting impact, allowing dieters to make intelligent food choices for a lifetime. “
If you go to the demo, after the reviews, you’ll see an example of these pictures—the book is full of them! You really get some surprises from these pictures!. It’s a real learning experience. For instance, an individual pizza using veggie pepperoni and veggie sausage will be 300 calories LESS than the same size one using the real thing! A veggie hot dog on a bun with sauerkraut, relish and mustard is equal in calories to ONE cocktail frank in a a pastry covering! For 420 calories you can eat two skinny frosted Pop tarts—for only 250 calories you can have 3 toaster waffles with light syrup and blueberries. For the same amount of calories as one commercial 6 and 1/2 oz. Bran muffin you can have all this—1 wholewheat roll; 1 pumpernickel roll; 3 slices pumpernickel toast; 3 slices light wheat toast; 1 and 1/2 lbs. (!) assorted melon; and 1 c. blackberries!
I don’t necessarily recommend buying these books (they are expensive, with all those color photos), but try to get them from your library.
A good way to stay satisfied is to add volume to your food. The addition of low-cal vegetables is the easiest way—pasta with lots of grilled or steamed vegetables added will seem like a lot more than it is! Adding chopped carrots and/or shredded cabbage to a pilaf made with bulgur or quinoa also makes the dish seem like a lot more than it is. Eating soup is also beneficial. You don’ t have to go on the boring “Cabbage Soup” diet, but eating a bowl of high-volume, low-calorie soup before a meal is proven to result in eating less of the main dish.
SAUTEEING WITHOUT FAT: I call this “steam-frying”, but lately I’ve been “sauteeing” in my microwave. Here’s the “steam-frying” method:
**** STEAM-FRYING*****
One term that you will see over and over in my recipes is "steam-fry". It simply means sautéeing or stir-frying without fat. To do this, use a heavy skillet, non-stick or lightly greased with about 1/2 tsp. of oil brushed on with your fingertips, or sprayed with a pump oil sprayer, or pan spray; or a well-seasoned wok; or a well-seasoned wok, greased in the same way.
Heat your pan over high heat, add your chopped onions or other vegetables and one or two tablespoons of liquid (water, broth or wine), depending on the amount of vegetables. Cook over high heat until the liquid starts to evaporate, stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon. Keep doing this until the vegetables are done to your liking, add JUST ENOUGH liquid to keep the vegetables from sticking to the bottom of the pan-- you don't want to stew them! (Also, DON'T crowd the pan!)
You can brown onions perfectly by this method. As soon as the natural sugar in the onions starts to brown on the bottom and edges of the pan, add a little liquid and scrape the brown stuff, mixing it into the liquids and around into the cooking onions. Keep doing this until the onions are soft and brown, being careful not to scorch them.
TO “STEAM-FRY” IN THE MICROWAVE, use a glass dish, such as a round 10” casserole dish. Spray with cooking spray or rub the surface with oil. Add your chopped onions, garlic, carrots, celery, etc.. Cover (you can use a plate) and microwave 5 minutes, or however long it takes to soften them. I haven’t actually browned things this way—have to experiment more, but it works great and you don’t have to watch the veggies—you can be fixing the rest of the recipe. Just add the softened veggies to the recipe.
Use these to convert your own favorite dressings:
BRYANNA'S LOW-FAT OIL SUBSTITUTES FOR SALAD DRESSINGS
makes 1 c.
Use this simple mixture in place of all or some of the oil in salad dressing.
1 c. cold water or light vegetable broth (broth adds the most flavor to a dressing)
2 tsp. cornstarch or potato starch
Mix together in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and clear. Cornstarch will have to boil; potato starch does not.
OTHER OIL SUBSTITUTES: (My preference is the garbanzo broth)
If you prefer, you can use cold potato cooking water, or broth from cooking chickpeas [garbanzo beans] (this jells like chicken broth when it chills) or white kidney (cannellini) beans instead of the starch mixture. Other options might be tomato juice or vegetable juice cocktail, or other freshly-extracted vegetable and fruit juices. If the dressing needs some thickening, use pureed fruit, pureed cooked beans or vegetables, roasted garlic, or a bit of blended silken or soft tofu, tofu sour creme or tofu mayonnaise; or one of the following;
1.) guar or xanthan gum, vegetable gums which don't have to be cooked, just blended well. Use about 1/2 tsp. to 2 c. liquid (broth plus vinegar or lemon juice).
2.) powdered pectin (Certo). I haven't tried this, but add about 2 tsp. for each 1/2 cup TOTAL of liquid (broth plus vinegar or lemon juice) and shake or blend vigorously (no cooking required, but refrigerate at least one hour before serving).
ABOUT TOFU AND FAT:
I eat soyfoods all the time and I pay close attention to fat and calories. Sure, you can use low-fat soymilk (or, what I do—get a rich soymilk like Vitasoy and dilute with water, 1/2 and 1/2), and low-fat soy flour, if you like, but I don’t bother with lite tofu. A 12.3 oz. box of silken tofu contains only about 150 calories in total!
As for regular tofu, it has gotten a bad rap because 50 percent of its calories are from fat. But the total amount of calories in tofu is very low, much lower than equivilant amounts of avocado, nuts, etc, and much lower than eggs, oil and solid cooking fats. A serving of tofu is about 80 calories—that would be about 6 oz. silken tofu, 4 oz. medium-firm tofu, 3 oz. firm tofu, or 2 oz. extra-firm tofu.
Using tofu in baking instead of oil and eggs, just as a for instance—when I use 8 oz. of med.-firm tofu in a muffin recipe for 12 muffins, each muffin contains only 1 gram of fat. A traditional “low-fat” recipe with 1 large egg and 1/4 cup oil (not counting any nuts) would result in muffins containing about 5 g fat per muffin.
Anyway, we need some fat in our diets, and the fat in soy is good for us. Ordinarily I would not use soy oil, because it is extracted chemically. But, in it’s natural state in a soyfood, it is good for us.
EXERCISE IS IMPORTANT:! you can pick your activity. I usually walk 50-60 minutes, as fast as possible, with lots of uphill, 6 days a week. I also dance daily (and perform in a troupe), and weight train 6 days a week. But I am trying to vary my exercise and do new workouts every so often because the body will get used to a workout and it stops being effective after a while. For example, when I first started weight training, 25 lbs. came off like magic! After two years, 10 lbs. crept back on, even though I changed nothing about my eating and exercise. Now that 10 lbs. is really stubborn and doesn’t want to come off! Author Debra Waterhouse writes: “ I think a different level of exercise is beneficial for each woman. If you’re doing [cardio] five times a week for 30 minutes and you don’t see a change, then increase it to 35, 40, 45, or 50 or more. You’ll find that point where all of a sudden your body says, “oh, okay, I can release a little bit of fat”. This was good for me to hear, because I seem to need more exercise than most of the books and articles suggest, and I thought I was weird or something! I like Joyce Vedral’s books for beginning weight training.
A woman should go no lower than 1200 calories, because below this it’s hard to get enough nutrition and your body starts to go into “starvation mode”, slowing down your metabolism. 1300 calories is better, distributed as follows: 7 servings carbohydrates (preferably complex, meaning unrefined; and includes starchy vegetables like potatoes, peas, etc.); 6 servings protein (which includes dairy substitutes made from soy—other dairy subs are not high enough in protein to qualify); AT THE VERY LEAST 3 vegetable servings—but can have as many low-cal veggies as you want (starchy vegetables, like peas, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc., are classified as carbohydrate servings); 2 fruit; 8 extras (sugar, jam, etc.); and 3 fat servings.
According to Debra Waterhouse, author of “Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell” and several other excellent books, women, especially women approaching middle age and older, lose weight better if they have several small meals in a day, if they eat their largest meal of the day at breakfast or lunch, and if they don’t eat in the evening, when the older female metabolism slows down considerably, so I plan mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, or, if I have a large meal of foods I really like, I’ll save some of it for a snack later.
NUTRITIONAL AND EXERCISE SUPPORT:
VEGAN FOOD GUIDE PYRAMID: http://www.nutrispeak.com/veganpyramid.htm
VEGAN FOOD GUIDE; http://www.nutrispeak.com/vegan_food_guide1.htm
VEGAN FOOD GUIDE RAINBOW: http://www.nutrispeak.com/veganrainbow.htm
VISIT THE “FITNESS PARTNER CONNECTION JUMPSITE” AT:
http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/
Click on the “activity calorie calculator” and then type in your weight and the duration of time you exercise—a great long list of different activities will come up, with the calories burned according to your weight and how long you performed the exercise! Neat!
For a “Healthy Body Calculator” by a registered dietician, visit:
http://www.dietitian.com/ibw/ibw.html
For a “Biofitness Body Composition Report” based on a different type of measurement than the weight/height ratio (a measuring tape method devised by two doctors—here’s what they say about it:
“This method of Body Fat Testing is for people without experience and/or equipment.
This tape measurement method is 3.5% (+ or -) as accurate as a hydrostatic water tank test ($50 to $100) and .7% (+ or -) as accurate as a multi-site skin caliper test ($15 to $25).”
http://www.biofitness.com/bodyfat.html
----------
"To look like a goddess, eat like a peasant." Karen Andres
|
Val
103 posts
May 11, 2005
3:28 PM
|
Bryanna,
Thank you for all that wonderful information. I'm going to print it out and refer to it whenever I need to. You're so right about the avocados - I was making dips and stuff from avocados when I first became a vegan, I also used to eat lots of olives, nut butters, nuts, and now that I think about it, I certainly started adding more fat to my diet.
I will start cooking from your first 3 books on a more regular basis (right now I cook from various cookbooks including yours and also use my own veganized recipes).
I'd love to have the other tips and recipes, etc. you said you could send me. I'd really appreciate that.
Thanks again!
----------
Val
Last Edited Val on 11-May-2005 3:28 PM
|
|
