GregX999

Yeah yeah yeah... those are all good movies. But the BEST movie EVER... http://www.imfdb.org/images/2/21/Big_Trouble_In_Little_China.jpg Hands down!! Greg

I've been using Nutribody protein (http://www.nutribodyprotein.com) - it's a blend of rice and pea. It tastes good enough to me that I can actually drink it just mixed with water. It's not great that way, but not horrible. Usually I blend it with fruits. I guess it's pretty expensive though. But I like the idea of the blend to maximize the amino acid profile. I just can't stand hemp protein - no matter what it's blended with - the taste and the texture, to me, are ing. Greg

Wow! That's so awesome!! Just curious... did you start loosing weight when you switched to eating vegan, or were you vegan for a long time before hand? (And you don't need make-up!) Greg

I just saw this thread, doh! I used to race BMX (NBL) when I was 10-14 years old. I was even number 10 in NY State when I was 13. Man, those were the days! I wonder how my parents felt/feel about it - having to drive me all over the state every summer to race in all the races (I have good parents!) Now I mountain bike. And I drive myself to the trails. Greg

I bought some. It's one of the best tasting non-whey, non-soy proteins I've ever tried - it has that "earthy" flavor and grainy texture, but WAY less than hemp protein. I've tried it mixed just with water - it's not great that way, but not totally ing. The sweetness has that "artificial sweetness" flavor to it. It's pretty good mixed with fruit. And I also mix it into oatmeal (after pre-mixing with a bit of water first). As long as I can afford it, I'll definitely buy it again. Greg

I've tried a few different flavors of that - it's pretty good. Yeah, most flavors contain bee pollen (which I don't mind) and some contain D3 - so you need to read the ingredients carefully. Greg

I like Dawkin's other books too. Like "The Selfish Gene". His books really make you think! Greg

Excellent article!! While it's seems (to me) to be 100% true for "most" people, there's still the large body of evidence that claims people trying to build lean muscle (such as most of us on this site) need more protein than 20, 40 or even the USDA's 56g per day. I've thought about this often over the past year: If one consumes 1g of protein per kg of body weight in order to pack on the lean muscle, does that mean that he/she is damaging his/her health by over-consuming protein? Greg

That doesn't sound totally vegan to me. Unless they were wild donkeys, not captive, and they came up to you of their own free will.

In the past, when I've gone long periods without eating any legumes, and then started up again, I too would discomfort and lots of gas. But if I just start slowly and eat a little more each day, within a week or two I am able to eat 2 or 3 servings a day without any problems at all. I think maybe it just takes a week or so for the right bacteria to build up in your digestive system. (???) Greg

So, I've tried tempeh a few times before, but never really liked it very much at all. But, finally today, I've learned the right way to prepare it! The few times I've had it before I would take it out of the package, cut it into strips, and it would be the first ingredient into the pan followed after a minute or two by all the veggies to make a big stir-fry. But apparently, you need to cook it before you cook it! This time I put it in a little "pan" aluminum foil with a splash of water and a dash of namu-shoyu and baked it at 350 for 20 minutes (flipping it over half-way through). I use a small toaster over for this - it'd be a bit overkill to bake a 3 inch by 3 inch square of tempeh in a regular over. So if you don't have a toaster oven, apparently you can also do basically the same thing in a shallow pan with about a quarter-inch of water in it - and just simmer the water. Anyway, after baking, I then "cooked" it the way I've done before, but this time it was much more tender and not as bitter and "beany" tasting. Lesson learned! Greg

As long as you eat a mix of different grains (rice, oats, rye, barley, wheat, spelt, etc...), legumes (beans), whole fresh fruits & vegetables, and some nuts (not too many if you're trying to loose weight) all throughout the day then you'll be fine. To maximize protein, I eat more beans, more oatmeal, more brown rice (whole grain rice), and use powdered protein shake mixes with things like pea, rice and soy protein. There's also soy milk, tofu and tempeh (but they have slightly higher fat - not perfect for trying to loose weight). Just eat a variety during the day. You don't have to worry about specific combining for each meal. Your body will hold on to amino acids for awhile so if you get a lot of one type for breakfast, and a lot of another type for lunch, it will still put them together. For gaining muscle, just be sure to also eat LOTS of calories and lift weights. Greg

Well, I tried the Chai Latte Spiru-tein and the Berry Blue Fruitein. The Chai Latte one was okay, but nothing to write home about (and it was greenish... not exactly looking like Chai). The instructions say to mix it with 8oz milk. I used 4oz soy milk and 4oz water. The Berry Blue Fruitein one was really good. It says to mix with 6oz water. I blended it with a bit more water than that and a banana. The packet of the Luscious Blue Fruitein lists ergocalciferol, not cholecalciferol. So that one does seem 100% vegan so far. The two Spiru-teins I have just list "vitamin D" in the ingredients - it doesn't say from what. It's a bit strange that this company doesn't make these products 100% vegan. They also make whey protein. And I would think that the total number of people that would choose this pea/rice/soy protein over whey would be very small - pretty much only people that CAN'T eat whey, and vegans. Seems like they could really increase their market for the stuff by just switching from D3 to D2 and not using bee pollen. I think I'm going to buy a tub of the Luscious Blue Fruitein as well as try out the other flavors. Greg

For health reasons against dairy, check out http://www.notmilk.com. I can't think of any sites off the top of my head that talk about meat/poultry, but I know I've read quite a few. Stuff in books too. Greg

I agree with a lot of what you said. We can't get our own water because it's all polluted!! We're paying the water company not only to pump it to use, but to pump us water that's at least drinkable. (Although I buy bottled water because I refuse to drink fluoride and chlorine). Food is certainly something we *could* grow ourselves, provided we have land (more on that below) and the time to do it (more on that below too). Shelter... I build a fort in my parents back yard when I was a kid. But I wouldn't want to live in it. But I don't think it would be all that hard to build something decent. It's not rocket science, but it is something most people know nothing about because they don't need to know it. But... in our society you do have to pay for land. In so many places the cost if the land is more than the cost of the actual house... unless you love out in the boonies. (But I think number 4 on your list should be social interaction. ) And if you want to live where there's lots of social interaction, you'll only be able to afford a very small piece of land - not enough to grow food on. And then also you have even LESS access to clean water. So if you need to pay for land (and pay the taxes on that land), you have to work anyway. And if you have to work for money, you have less time to build your house or grow your food. It's all a big catch-22 that can only be fully solved by going back to a tribal society where there are no "jobs", no taxes, no land ownership, no pollution and no body to provide anything so you have to make/grow/gather it all yourself. But of course that won't work in a world of billions of people. There are many levels of self-sufficiency between the two extremes to be sure, many of them even realistic in todays world. It's just a matter of what you're prepared to give up to reach them. Greg

I think that's purely a call you need to make for yourself. "Pure" veganism seems to mean not to take advantage of animals in anyway - including keeping them in captivity and sheering them. Although, many sheep today are bred for wool production and actually NEED to be sheered once a year. Although if you watch someone sheer sheep (who does it for a living), they're certainly not being all that kind to the animal. For *ME*, the D3 thing is a bit of a gray area. Although I had thought that D3 was much better than D2... I'll have to look more into that since reading I'm Your Man's post. Greg

Of the three samples I bought, the Chai Latte Spiru-tein does indeed have bee pollen in it. I didn't notice that when I skimmed the ingredients in the store. The unsweetened vanilla Spiru-tein and the Fruitein don't list bee pollen as ingredients. Personally, my reasons for being vegan are, in order, personal health, environmental, then animal cruelty/rights (which many would find heresy, but to them I go ). So while I won't go out and buy a jar of honey or a bottle of bee pollen, if something contains a bit of honey or bee pollen, but is otherwise vegan, I'll still eat/drink it. Greg

Hey, has anyone tried or have an opinion on these products from Nature's Plus? More Than Milk http://www.naturesplus.com/products/category.asp?criteria=category&category=24 Spiru-tein http://www.naturesplus.com/products/category.asp?cryteria=category&category=25&productNumber=45848 Fruitein http://www.naturesplus.com/products/productDetail.asp?productnumber=45899 and http://www.naturesplus.com/products/productDetail.asp?productNumber=45863 All of those things use a blend of pea, rice and soy proteins - good if you don't want all soy (like me), and can't stand hemp (like me). They're labeled as "vegetarian". And a quick scan of the ingredients doesn't seem to show any animal products. I bought a couple sample-size packets of the Spiru-tein and Fruitein to try out. I'll let you guys know what it tastes/feels like. I got Chai Latte and Plain flavors of Spiru-teen and Luscious Blue Fruit Fruitein. I never even heard of the More Than Milk thing until I saw it on their website. Greg

+1. I just found that site the other day. I guess I've been lucky. My parent were "more or less" supportive of me switching to being vegan. But they're used to me doing all kinds of crazy things anyway. But they also know I've been "into" nutrition for quite awhile and can give them a "scientific" answer for just about any question they'd pose. When they have me over for dinner my mom goes out of her way to make sure she has enough vegan things for me to eat while they're eating their BBQ chicken. I think my dad probably things it amusing and no doubt wonders how long until I go back to eating "normal"... To go back to notmilk.com - I sent my mom some of the articles from there as they relate directly to things that I know are on her mind such as osteoporosis (wow, spelled it right on the first try!) and Alzheimer's (had to use spell check for that one). Good luck with your family! Greg

Ok, ok... I'll do it!! Lots of leg lifts and twisty things. I will indeed cut out bread (even though I only eat whole grains and sprouted grains). Soda? What's that? I actually haven't had soda in years. I only drink water, coffee, green tea and soy milk these days (not at the same time) (I want to cut out coffee, but damn it's hard). Also, I'm not too worried about fruit adding fat, just with it interfering with loosing it. But for this super-trimming stage, should I still maintain 100-120g/day protein intake? Or is dropping down 70-90g okay? I'm unsure what the "accepted" amount per kg is for loosing fat but not muscle. Greg

Hey Gorilla, I just read through this thread for the first time. Have you stayed 100% raw since your last post back in 2007? What happened as far as your health, body composition, exercise habits, etc.? Greg

Thanks for all the replies! Octopussoir, I think my ab muscles are an ok size compared with the rest of me. I can juuuusssst see the top 4 of a six pack, especially when the light is just right. I just need to get rid of that fat!! Veganmaster, I actually read your blog a few weeks ago. Lots of good stuff. It convinced me to lower my fat from 20% down to 10-15% and up the carbs without worrying too much about tons of protein. I'm getting used to 10-15%. But 5-10%?? Right now I think I only have 1 or 2 fatty things per day - things like chia seeds, guacamole, a bit of oil/vinegar on a salad, or the fat in a Clif Builder bar. Gaia, that's what I was thinking of trying next actually - halving the fruit and upping the veggies. If I kept the same calories I guess I'd also have to up the starch (oatmeal, rice, potatoes) since the veggies have less calories for how filling they are. Beforewisdom, yeah, I know veggies fill you up more with fewer calories. That's why I'm eating so much fruit. It's actual "work" to make sure I eat 3000 cals per day. If I didn't track all my food and make sure I ate 3000, I would probably come in at around 2500 per day. I think I'll finish out the week at 3000 per day, but replace some of the fruit with more veggies, grains and beans. Then next week I'll shift down to fewer cals. Any opinions on how low I should go? I would think maybe 2000 would melt the fat faster but I don't want to loose muscle either. If I went down to 2000, would I still need to keep my protein like it is now (100-120g)? Or would as low at 70g per day be okay? (I weigh somewhere around 70kg.) Greg

Ok, I'm by no means "fat", my BF is probably around 10-12%. But I think about half of that is wrapped around my midsection covering up the lower "2" of my 6-pack and sticking out over my waistband. The rest of me is quite trim - ie: when training shoulders I can see lots of those little grooves in my shoulder muscles. I've come down from probably around 15-16% BF in the last 4-5 months. But I'm really banging my head over this last little "hold-out" of plumpness. I'm 5'9" and about 150-155 lbs. I lift about 45mins 3 or 4 days a week, and do some type of cardio (running or biking or HITT) for 30-60 minutes, 2-3 times per week. Since I'm also trying to gain muscle, I've been eating 3000 calories per day - about 100-120g protein, 30-40g fat (10-15% of calories from fat). Those sites that calculate how many calories per day you should be eating tell me around 3200-3600. So I thought 3000 would be a good number. I had previously been eating only 2000-2500 calories per day as I didn't know how many I really needed if I wanted to put on more muscle. I thought maybe by eating so few my body had lowered its metabolism or had been in some kind of "starvation mode" or something, hence upping to 3000. A good portion of my carbs come from fruit as I love it. For instance, today I had a total of 7 peaches, 3 bananas and 3 oranges (spread throughout the day - but two shakes of 2 peaches and 1 banana, one of those shakes with soy protein powder too). Today, total calories from fruit = 930 calories (230g of the 550g of carbs I ate today... almost half). The rest came from oatmeal, brown rice, a salad, broccoli, a whole grain roll and beans. Am I sabotaging myself by eating so much fruit? I've read such conflicting info. My calorie intake seems about right now - I think. Greg

I made these today and they are DAMN YUMMY!! I couldn't find defatted soy flour though, so I just used regular soy flour but I used low-fat "Silk" soy milk. I think the soy flour had more fat than I saved by using the low-fat Silk, so mine probably came out with a wee bit more fat, but they still must be quite low. I used a 12 muffin pan (and got 12 muffins total) and cooked them for about 30 mins and they came out perfect. Thanks for the recipe Medman!! Greg Edit: I did the math... mine have 8g pro, 44g carb, 3.5g fat, 8g fiber and 223 calories per muffin

Hmmm... some good ideas here. I like the soup idea now that the summer is winding down. And Garam Masala is on the grocery list. Greg