TVP

Hey guys, I've always known of textured vegetable protein, but I know absolutely nothing about it.

Is it an ideal thing to have in a diet?

Anyone have tips or recipes on using it?

I'd like to have a more vegan-focused diet (currently I eat maybe 80-90% vegan) and was thinking TVP might help me with that while keeping calories down and protein up.

Any help or advice on it would be awesome

TVP == Textured Vegetable Protein.

Basically, it is what left of the soy bean after "they" have taken out all of the oil. All of the protein, calcium and other nutrition without the fat. The "leftovers" are then "textured" into flakes, crumbles, cubes etc. You soak the TVP in hot water to inflate it, then you cook with it.

Some people object to TVP for two reasons

1. It gives *SOME* people gas

2. Hexane, a carcinogen, is used to separate the oil from the soy beans

As far as #2 goes EXTREMELY LITTLE hexane is uses, several decimal places of a fraction of what the safe does is. There are brands of TVP made with organic soybeans that do not use hexane ( read the label, write to the company ). They can be a little bit more expensive.

As far as keeping protein up and calories low there are many other soy foods like tofu, tempeh, edammame and various faux meats. There is also seitan ( wheat gluten ) which is extremely high in protein, extremely low in calories and can be made to look like meat.

HTH