Regional Stock Reports

There was a time, say thirty or forty years ago, when vegetarians had a difficult time telling non-vegetarians why it was so imperative to give up meat. The situation was made worse because vegetarians back then did not get the support from the food manufacturers and supermarkets that they do now either. In brief, it was far more difficult to become a vegetarian than it is now.

Moreover, in those far off days, lots of hippies and others following an ‘alternative’ lifestyle were first generation vegetarians and so they could not look to their parents for support and advice. Those individuals are now in their forties and fifties with children and even grandchildren of their own, many of whom are also vegetarian.

Being second or even third generation vegetarian is very different from being first, not least because they have been able to see the effects of a vegetarian lifestyle on their parents and even grandparents. It may never cross such a person’s mind to crave a bacon sandwich with tomato sauce or a French dip beef sandwich au jus, because the idea is repugnant to them.

They have not had to make a conscious decision or a huge physical effort to strip meat from their diet after perhaps eating it for twenty years or more. My father gave up meat for ethical as well as practical reasons when he was sixty and he craved ‘bacon butties’ (sandwiches) for the rest of his life. He found it hard.

His reasons for giving up meat were pretty typical: he objected to the callousness to animals that is brought about by intensive farming techniques in some countries; he objected to the use of hormones and preservatives in live animals and he believed that eating so much meat was not a sustainable lifestyle for a burgeoning world populace, that was becoming steadily rich enough that everybody would would like to eat more meat sooner or later.

Society does not help or encourage the would-be vegetarian. The farming industry has grown huge and they have a vested interest in selling us their dairy, meat and eggs. It is hard to escape pictures and hoardings marketing their products. Although the situation is better these days, restaurants still cater usually to the meat-eaters and vegetarian meals always appear small and expensive by comparison.

Luckily there are plenty of ‘Eastern’ restaurants that cater naturally to the vegetarian because numerous Easterners are vegetarian. You can always find vegetarian meals on a Chinese, Japanese or an Indian menu. Hindus are vegetarian. Thai restaurants will also have a high proportion of meatless meals.

However, if you do not enjoy spicy food, you are back in the pizza hut or the sandwich bar in most towns. Society has moved on, but there is still a long way to go but the vegetarian life is definitely becoming easier to sustain. There is support in numbers, so it would be worth taking vegetarian cookery lessons if your resolve begins to weaken.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a number of topics, and is now involved with how to cook for diabetics. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

It is very handy to know something concerning the most common constituents of foodstuffs, so that you can use this knowledge to your advantage while choosing and cooking food. The more you know about the constituents of food the better able you will be to choose the best method of preparing that food. In this piece we will talk about some constituents of food.

Carbohydrates are a concentrated form of energy as is fat. However, the two substances differ in several ways, not least in that fat supplies energy in a very concentrated kind whereas carbohydrates provide energy in a more economical way. Over indulging in either fats or carbohydrates will result in becoming overweight quite quickly.

Therefore, this is the region that dieters must concentrate on, although ‘experts’ disagree which is the most detrimental. Traditional diets recommend cutting back on fats, whereas some more modern diets recommend practically eliminating carbohydrates from one’s diet.

The fact is that the body and most of the food that we put into it is made up of chemical elements, the most important of which are nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Protein is the only thing that we eat that contains nitrogen, which goes a long way to explain why protein is essential to us.

Protein is also the hardest substance to find in the vegetarian diet. It is not impossible by any means, but the options are severely restricted because most individuals get their protein from meat, fish, dairy and eggs.

The other three elements: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are constituents of carbohydrates. In fact, the very word ‘carbohydrate’ suggests the names of those three elements. ‘Carbo’ - carbon and ‘hydrate’ - hydrogen and oxygen, as in water. Carbohydrates are most extant in starches and sugars.

Starch is one of the most omnipresent kinds of carbohydrate. It is to be found exclusively in vegetables and pulses et cetera. While starch is boiled, it expands and bursts its cell walls causing water to thicken yet when it is cooked with dry heat, it melts and turns into dextrine, which is a stage before it turns into sugar.

Sugar is another vital constituent of carbohydrates and is also discovered usually in vegetables and fruit, although there is also some in milk in the form or lactose. Corn produces glucose. Young vegetables contain sugar, but as they become older it becomes starch.

Sugar melts with the application of heat, but if it is already in liquid form, it will give off water and start to caramelize. The distinctive colour or caramel is brown, yet if it is over cooked, it becomes dark brown and bitter. Sugar in fruit and vegetables will leak out into boiling water and so will be lost, unless that water is salvaged and used elsewhere.

Cellulose is a kind of carbohydrate closely related to starch. It is found in the structure of plants and vegetables but although it is largely indigestible, it cannot be left out of the human diet. Cellulose surrounds the goodness we are searching for in vegetables, so by cooking this food we are trying to break down the cellulose to release the goodness.

Young vegetables have thinner cellulose than older ones, which is why some vegetables have to be cooked quickly and fiercely whilst others have to be cooked slowly but gently.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a variety of topics, but is now concerned with how to cook for diabetics. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Cookbooks For Diabetics.