Going Veggie

[teacake]

Papaya isn't particularly sweet imo, unless you eat the dried stuff which is usually full of added sugar. One thing I like about papaya is you can taste the beta carotene in it, it's intense.

The big prawns get called tiger prawns here.. we only say shrimp for the most part about the teenie weenie ones that get used in fried rice.

[Sector 7]

teacake wrote:

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The GAC!!!!!!!!! My god! It's like the heart of something.

I must eat this before I die.

teacake wrote:

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Hey lurok did you see what it said about Gac?

"Also, be careful with the rinds, because they are super poisonous. "

"Today is a good day to die."

[teacake]

I have now eaten a Century egg. I post this just to say that people who think vegetarianism is duller than meat eating are wrong.. there are many adventures out there.

[teacake]

Just made this quick stir fry.

Broccoli, zucchini, carrot, red capsicum, spring onions, chillies and mung beans on top. When it was almost done cooking I put in the sauce which was a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, sweet soy sauce and hot water to liquify it. So it's all subtly peanutty and hot.





One thing you can do with capsicums (peppers) is freeze them. They vary wildly in price here, sometimes very expensive but if I go to the right places they can be cheap. I'll buy several bags of them and chop them into strips or chunks and freeze them in sandwich bags. Though they will not be crispy enough for a traditional salad when you defrost them they are perfect to have on hand for any stir frys or stews etc.. or pizza. My dad told me about this years ago and I've had a freezer full of red capsicum ever since

[J. Allen]

^ Oh my! That looks delicious!
Also, now I want to try a Century egg.

[teacake]

While I was eating the century egg I was thinking about how dumbed down eggs are to our tastes if we just buy chicken eggs from a supermarket. I've been eating a lot of just laid NOW eggs from my neighbour's chickens and they are far more eggy in flavour, really quite strong compared to regular old supermarket eggs. They are a lot better than the so called free range eggs I've had too, which while nicer are not as noticeably nicer as the ones from next door. We are used to bland eggs as we usually only eat eggs of a chicken as well. If you've ever had duck eggs you know what I mean, they are a robust eggy flavor. I think we've lost EGG as a flavour.

The century egg was like concentrated SUPER egg paste on the inside in taste, the white (which was completely clear blackish green, like gelatine) was pleasant and kind of fresh though that might have been a mental trick of it being transparent. If you wanted to add egg flavour to something you could slice up the century egg and toss it in (which is done with porridge and other things). We don't often think about adding egg flavour because we don't often see eggs as a flavour in themselves.

[Gul Re'jal]

teacake wrote:

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Just made this quick stir fry.

Broccoli, zucchini, carrot, red capsicum, spring onions, chillies and mung beans on top. When it was almost done cooking I put in the sauce which was a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, sweet soy sauce and hot water to liquify it. So it's all subtly peanutty and hot.

Must. Eat. This.

[teacake]

This is a long but interesting article with stories of the marketing and science of junk food over the last few decades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/ma....html?hpw&_r=0

Now I'm off to make hummous to eat with carrot sticks..

[J. Allen]

teacake wrote:

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This is a long but interesting article with stories of the marketing and science of junk food over the last few decades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/ma....html?hpw&_r=0

Now I'm off to make hummous to eat with carrot sticks..

Wow! That is one hell of an article, and it pinpoints quite accurately just how this has all worked out, and why so many are so fat. Yes, personal responsibility comes into play quite heavily, but it becomes much harder to fight your body when the food you're eating is sending mixed signals purposefully designed to make you want more.

Thanks for posting that, teacake. I bookmarked it!

[teacake]

I think it's a huge encouragement to think about what we eat! Our tastes buds have been trained by people who want us to purchase products, not food.

[J. Allen]

teacake wrote:

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I think it's a huge encouragement to think about what we eat! Our tastes buds have been trained by people who want us to purchase products, not food.

Yep. To be honest, the first week I switched over to being Veggie, it wasn't the meat that gave me trouble. On that front, I didn't have a single craving. The problem was the junk food. I like potato chips, pretzels, cheese popcorn, all of these salty foods that have lots of fat and carbohydrates as well, and it was damn near impossible for me to cut back on them. I still allow myself a small serving of potato chips (low salt, low fat) every day until I either completely wean myself off of them, or find a better, truly healthier alternative.

The baby carrots thing, though? Totally there. I love baby carrots. They have a nice satisfying crunch while being juicy at the same time. I don't need anything with them, just a handful of baby carrots taste great.

Still, it's almost insidious to see what is produced to get us eating. It started out as "give them what they want", and evolved into "give them what we entice them to want", finally becoming "just chemically force their bodies to demand our product, and then sell it to them". It's almost like a drug! Actually, that would be a drug!

Remember the episode of DS9 "Rules of Acquisition", where the (female) Ferengi waiter, Pel, convinces Quark to sell sand peas that, when mixed in with food, make people want to reflexively take a drink? The same motive and principle applies here, but it's in more than just one restaurant, or in one type of food. It's spread across every type of food that has any level of processing in it whatsoever.

[teacake]

We can retrain our taste buds. I eat junk at times but I don't eat it as a meal and I don't have much tolerance for it. I have a thing about trying new flavours of stuff and if it's a potato chip I haven't had before I'll have few.. but if I ate any more than that it would just taste like salt. I couldn't eat a bag of them. I'm always amazed people put salt on salads, tomatoes, avocado, eggs.. these things taste quite salty to me just as they are. But we've gotten so used to the taste of salt they don't taste right without it. Our base "just right" level (or bliss as the article said) with salt is waaaay too high. I think you're right to wean yourself off realistically with some carefully chosen treats still, in my experience if people just give up everything they have big lapses. Allow yourself a few chips, and then that craving is done for the day.

btw I'm not wanting to come across here as some food finger wagger. I think I've got it easy in the healthy eating game because I don't have as much stacked against me as some do. I was raised in a health food house as I said in the beginning of the thread so food facts/suspicion and thinking about labels is just second nature. I live in a country whose diet seems to be far less based on processed and fast food than the US and where making things from scratch is the norm. I don't have a sweet tooth and I can't remember ever craving desserts etc.. so though I do eat certain sweets I don't care if I don't and find it easy not to. All of which is just the luck of the draw and genetics.

The reason I do post in this thread (not even being a veggie) is that a. I am a "foodie" person and this is the thread with real food as opposed to the US junk food/chain restaurant (same as junk food) discussions that food talk usually ends up being about here and b. that I do care about people's diets. I hate seeing how badly people eat (reading the dinner/eating threads) on a daily basis. I think it's FANTASTIC to read your story of taking your health in your own hands and getting great results. And not only that, enjoying it! It has encouraged me to be more mindful about my own diet and I've thought of this thread a few times while making choices. There are always delicious good choices to be made Even though as this point in my life I have no health problems I always think, how the fuck do I know what's going on in there? What's sticking to my arteries? Why wait to make good choices when a doctor says to, which frankly is something we will ALL HEAR ONE DAY. Just do it now I reckon.

My god I've waffled on.. well the reason I feel I need to justify and/or apologize for possible food finger wagging is how I was raised, where everything you put in your mouth was an ideological statement. I do not want to be that person and I have a voice in my head whispering that's what I sound like whenever I say anything vaguely food lectury or factish.

[SmoothieX]

With the durian and century egg, you'd like this youtube channel.

[teacake]

What the heck, why is Vegemite on that channel.. that is black gold man.

[CorporalClegg]

I actually kind of like Vegemite.