Healthy Living

Why is it that everything considered to be good for you, is called “alternative?” Think about it - shopping at a natural food store, using homeopathic remedies, or driving an alternative fuel hybrid vehicle is not part of mass culture. And until it is, we may continue to see a steady rise in obesity, heart disease and immune disorders. The fact is we live in a country that promotes unhealthy consumption - high sugar snack foods laced with artificial preservatives and trans fat fillers - particularly in our schools and in the media where life-long habits are influenced.

Many products are designed to support personal and environmental wellness are not easily available to everyone, but only to those who actively seek them out. The good news is, that is changing. Consumers that care, like you, are demanding that more and more companies develop products that represent this changing view. And as a result they are becoming easier to get.

This changing viewpoint extends beyond the foods we eat, to their packaging and the commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle to help preserve the health and well being of our planet for generations to come. Please share your favorite brands or markets or websites from wherever you live around the world where we can bring about integral veg'n… :-)    bon appétit

Re: Healthy Living

I like it.  There is a good discussion on this in the Green Living Pod but i enjoyed this read.  Thanks Kathy!

Re: Healthy Living

“many products  that are that support wellness—are not aviable to everyone”
TELL ME ABOUT IT!!
I am a low income person and was frustrated lately when a major food store chain in my area stopped carring vegitarian products! It seems that they just don't turn enough profit for the majority of folks that shop there.
It is hard to find alterturives because 1. most “health food” stores won't take food stamps and 2. it seem to me that the junk food market is aimed at low income people. Think about it! Next time you go to a corner store in a poor neighborhood, look at what the shelves are stocked with–makes my blood boil!!
Fat, Salt and sugar seem to be the cheap things.
Fresh produce is priced out of the range of lower income folks, accept for the farmer's markets and they only take cash for the most part.
I have been manageing to be vegiatarian on a fixed income by using the mass produced products spairingly(Veginase, Morning Star ect) I found recipes for my own veggie burgers that are bean based(dry beans are cheaper)
I try to make more at home.
But I am still angry about the lack of education that is needed to let folks in on the fact that healthy need not be expensive.
Whenever I mention my being vegatarian to my neighbors, they roll their eyes and say they 'can't afford it” and ask all the questions about where I get my protien …..yadda yadda yadda.
I would love to start a info center for them to be educated about the benifits of being veggie–but they seem to be so conditioned to buy junk, that they don't or won't even try.

Re: Healthy Living

Dear Lizzyl
seems you have the chance to be the change you wish to see… it is frustrating when we wait for others to change.

Where I live; South Africa, there are not many vegetarian foods, never mind vegan foods. None the less my husband, Gien, who is Chief Chef in our home, never ceases to amaze me with the wonderful, tasty vegan food he produces. It's as though he can transform any existing dish into a vegan one. He has posted recipes in our group and I'm sure he'd be happy if anyone has any questions they may wish to ask him on creating veggie food 'from the basics'.

love
Hummingbird

Re: Healthy Living

I have been playing around with some of my former favorites and making them veggie. I found a great recipe for quishe in a book called “Cook with the Left side of the Brain'
It uses tofu and miso. I use a vegan egg replacement that we have over here(Bob's Red mill-wwwbobsredmill.com) and I have thrown in some veggie cheese and some veggie sausage too.
I love to mess around with recipes.
That is why I find cooking a challenge these days. Alot of people think that all us vegitarians eat is “rabbit food”
NOT SO!
I have been able to experment with Indian, Middle Eastern, and Oriental foods.
I have discovered new things that I never thought of eating before.
Cooking has become an adventure insted of a chore!

Re: Healthy Living

I so agree, Lizzyl - I also love the adventure vegan diet has brought of rediscovering food!

Re: Healthy Living

Lizzyl, your grocery store might be willing to special order those products for you.

There are significant numbers of vegans/vegetarians who avoid processed foods like fake meats, fake mayonnaise, etc. We just don't need those kinds of foods - and as you point out healthy whole foods like beans, lentils, or rice are cheaper anyway. It's cheaper to buy a bag of flour and some yeast and make your own bread – much tastier too!

Farmers markets are increasingly accepting foodstamps in our area. Progress! Community gardens are and will get more popular.

Last time I checked dairy products are expensive but people still unfortunately buy them.

Re: Healthy Living

I do make my own  bread! Have for years. My kid was raised on my bread, not store bread. The farmer's market in my town accepts speacial coupons for people on foodstamps–trouble is, the people who are supposed to distrbute the coupons seldom show up.
I have some pepper seedlings that are coming along nicely and my eggplants are poking their shoots up-I am going to transplant them to a bigger space in about a week and in another two, my strawberries and tomatos will go in.
Here's hoping they take off.

Re: Healthy Living

sounds very tasty, love