Vegetable soup for the soul.

[Guest guest]

Vegetable soup for the soul

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Why are most people afraid of turning vegetarian? Dola Mitra finds out

Unless you’ve just landed on earth from Mars or Venus — depending on the gender

you belong to — you must surely be in on the planetary trend of extolling to

high heaven the virtues of vegetarianism. And yet you continue to remain a

non-vegetarian. It maybe because you like eating chicken. In which case, there’s

no point in egging you on. But it may also be because you are one — a chicken,

that is.

 

“Excuse me,” you might say.

Make no bones about it• Breakfast: Two pieces of handmade bread (rotis) made of

wholemeal and soya flour mixed together. To be taken with a seasonal vegetable

preparation or curd.

 

• Lunch: Rice (preferably brown) with a bowl of lentil soup (dal) or kidney

bean/chickpea cooked according to taste. Fresh vegetable salad made with

tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli etc. Any seasonal fruit.

 

• Dinner: Two pieces of handmade wholemeal bre-ad with a paneer preparation.

Salad. Bowl of rice pudding or any other dessert.

 

• Incorporate into your daily diet — maybe as snacks — such nutritious food as

Bengal gram (sattu), puffed rice (muri), sprouted chickpea (chhola) and plenty

of dairy products, fruits and vegetables.

 

• Some minerals — like iron — are found in liver and other meat products. If you

are not having these, a good substitute is lots of green vegetables like spinach

(which should be taken with items containing vitamin C such as lime/lemon to

help absorption).

 

• However, Dr Shuvam Chak-raborty of Escorts Hospital, Delhi, says, “You

shouldn’t make drastic changes to your diet before consulting a nutritionist or

a general physician.” He explains, “If your body is used to a diet high in

animal protein, you can’t suddenly deprive it of that. Acclimatise the body by

slowly giving up flesh and fowl.”

But the truth is that dieticians and physicians the world over point out that in

spite of a vegetarian diet being as effective as a non-vegetarian one in meeting

all the dietary requirements of a person, it is fear that often keeps people —

who are otherwise eager to do so for various reasons, such as religion, concern

for animals — from becoming vegetarians.

 

“They fear missing out out on important proteins and other nutrients found in

non-vegetarian food,” explains Nina Singh, a Calcutta-based consultant

dietician. “And since proteins — along with carbohydrates, fats, vitamins,

minerals and other trace elements — are absolutely essential components of a

healthy daily diet, it is but natural that they should want to make sure.” In

fact, according to Singh, a person needs one gram of protein per kilogram of

body weight, a day. She says, “While the main source of most of the other

essential components of a healthy diet, like vitamins and minerals, are found in

a purely vegetarian meal, people usually associate protein with non-vegetarian

food. But the fear that becoming a vegetarian will deprive a person of this

essential protein is, by and large, a result of misconceptions.”

 

Sally Jordan, a sports dietician nutritionist at the English Institute of

Sports, says it is possible to replace with a good vegetarian meal the nutrients

that you get from a non-veg one.

 

Singh points out that the myth may have its origin, among other things, in the

fact that animal protein — contained in meat, fish, eggs — is classified as

Class I protein, while vegetarian protein belongs to Class II.

 

Animal proteins are grouped in the ‘superior’ category of Class I proteins with

a ‘greater biological value’ because they contain all nine essential amino acids

— histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine,

tryptophan and valine — and most of the 22 non-essential amino acids (which are

the essential agents of cell growth, resistance power and other bodily

functions). However, says Singh, “Even though individual proteins sourced from

vegetarian foods do not comprise all the essential amino acids, combinations of

various vegetarian proteins can add up to fill the requirement.” For instance, a

combination of such pulses as lentils, kidney beans and different types of

cereals, like rice, wheat, corn or any other grain will, says Singh, “increase

the biological value of the protein”, and can be taken in lieu of, say, a

portion of meat.

Eat your heart out Here’s the perfect four-course vegetarian menu of Yvonnick

Jegat Deniau, executive chef at the Park Hotel, Calcutta:• For starters, a salad

tossed with pieces of apple, strands of asparagas, bits of pistachio and slices

of sun-dried tomatoes.

• Cucumber-mint soup comes next.

• The main course is Zucchini Parmigiana served with khuskhus and tomato sauce.

Recipe: In a pan, boil two to three cups of water with a few drops of olive oil.

Remove from fire and pour two to three cups of dry semolina (suji) into it.

Cover the pan and let the suji cook in the heat of the boiled water, till it is

fluffy. Add lots of chopped garlic, onion and zucchini sautéed in olive oil.

Serve with tomato sauce and khuskhus.

• End with Paklava — a pastry-like dessert made from philo pastry dough

sprinkled with lots of almonds, pistachio and other nuts.

In fact, a host of protein-rich vegetarian foods in different food groups, taken

in combination, can really make up for the protein you miss out on if you don’t

eat meat or fish. Some of the important sources of protein are pulses such as

lentils, soya beans, kidney beans, chickpea; nuts such as peanuts, almonds,

cashewnuts, sunflower seeds; cereals and grains such as oatmeal and whole wheat,

and vegetables such as broccoli, mushrooms, green peas and different types of

beans.

 

Popular wisdom has it that three amlas can do the work of one egg. But you may

ask, why bother with three amlas when you can just pop an egg? Good question.

But the answer is — ‘better’. That’s right, many nutritionists and physicians

consider vegetarianism to be a better dietary option because vegetarian food is

almost always free from the negative effects — such as high cholesterol, one of

the commonest causes of high blood pressure — of non-vegetarian diets, which are

rich in red meat.

 

Says Leena Bhattacharya, copywriter at the Calcutta advertising agency, Shape,

who has been a vegetarian for the past two years, “Frankly, I had originally

decided to stop eating flesh to protest against cruelty towards animals, but now

I realise that I also feel healthier.”

 

“Vegetarianism has even been associated with a healthier body and therefore

longer life,” agrees Dr Subir Ghosh, formerly a chief physician with the armed

forces. And this realisation is making a lot of die-hard non-veg lovers turn

vegetarian. In fact, the 70-something doctor himself became a vegetarian almost

40 years ago and today is as fit as a fiddle.

 

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