Calcium in a plant-based diet

Milk is also linked to type 1 (juvenileonset) diabetes and other serious conditions. Happily, there are many other good sources of calcium. Keeping your bones strong depends more on preventing the loss of calcium from your body than on boosting your calcium intake. Some cultures consume few or no dairy products and typically ingest fewer than 500 milligrams of calcium per day.However, these people generally have low rates of osteoporosis. Many
scientists believe that exercise and other factors have more to do with osteoporosis
than calcium intake does. CAlCiuM in tHe Body Almost all of the calcium in the body is
in the bones. There is a tiny amount in the bloodstream, which is responsible for important functions such as muscle contraction, maintenance of the heartbeat, and transmission of nerve
impulses. Many people avoid milk because it contains saturated fat, cholesterol, allergenic
proteins, lactose, and frequent traces of contamination, or simply because they don’t feel
well after consuming dairy products.


We regularly lose calcium from our bloodstream through urine, sweat, and feces. It is renewed with calcium from bone or from the diet. Bones are constantly broken down and made anew. Up until the age of 30 or so, we build more bone than we lose. Later, the bones tend to break down
more than build up. The loss of too much bone calcium can lead to fragile bones or osteoporosis.
How rapidly calcium is lost depends, in part, on the kind and amount of protein you eat, as well as other diet and lifestyle choices. reduCing CAlCiuM loss A number of factors affect calcium
loss from the body:
• Diets that are high in protein cause more calcium to be lost through the urine. Protein from animal products is much more likely to cause calcium loss than protein from plant foods.
This may be one reason that vegetarians tend to have stronger bones than meat eaters.
• Diets high in sodium increase calcium losses in the urine.
• Caffeine increases the rate at which calcium is lost through urine.
• Smoking increases the loss of calcium from the body.

Where to get it
(content in milligrams)
Vegetables
Broccoli (1 cup, boiled) 62
Brussels sprouts (1 cup, boiled) 56
Butternut squash (1 cup, baked) 84
Carrots (2 medium, raw) 40
Cauliflower (1 cup, boiled) 20
Collards (1 cup, boiled) 266
Kale (1 cup, boiled) 94
Sweet potato (1 cup, baked) 76
legumes
Black turtle beans (1 cup, boiled) 102
Chickpeas (1 cup, boiled) 80
great northern beans (1 cup, boiled) 120
Kidney beans (1 cup, boiled) 62
lentils (1 cup, boiled) 38
navy beans (1 cup, boiled) 126
pinto beans (1 cup, boiled) 79
Soybeans (1 cup, boiled) 175
Soymilk (1 cup, calcium-fortified) 368
Tofu (1/2 cup, raw, firm) 253
Vegetarian baked beans (1 cup) 86
White beans (1 cup, boiled) 161
Whole grains
Corn tortilla 42
rice milk (1 cup, enriched) 300
Wheat bread (1 slice) 26
Whole-wheat flour (1 cup) 41
Fruit
Dried figs (10 figs) 140
naval orange (1 medium) 60
Orange juice (1 cup, calcium-fortified) 300*
raisins (2/3 cup) 53
Source: u.s. department of Agriculture, Agricultural
research service. 2004. usdA national nutrient database
for standard reference, release 17. nutrient data laboratory
web site: nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp
* package information where to get it

Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone

Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone

Working at Catacombs warehouse, I run across many, many cookbooks, and more often than not take them home to try them out. This cookbook has quickly become one of my favorites. Every recipe — really, every one! — that I've tried so far has been excellent — not just good or successful, but above and beyond what I expected. There's no shortage of material, either; this cookbook is huge, sturdy, and will last a lifetime. Most recipes are very easy, and I love Madison's clarity (at the beginning she tells you what size carrot, onion, or garlic she assumes). The introduction is thorough and relevant for cooks at any level, bringing cooking back to its essence: experimentation, fresh ingredients, and pleasure. And, as Madison states on the cover, you don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy these recipes; you could add meat to many, and the book is worth keeping for its extensive section on vegetables and side dishes alone. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone covers most everything you could imagine, including breads, desserts, sauces, soy. If I had a kitchen fire, this is the cookbook I'd rescue.

Recommended by Jill, Powells.com

Six years in the making, Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone expands the spirited approach to vegetarian cooking that garnered awards for Madison's two previous, best selling cookbooks, The Greens Cookbook and The Savory Way. "My students have been telling me for years that there needs to be a reference guide for vegetarian cooking," she says. "This book is for my students and for those home cooks, beginner or experienced, who are inspired by the smell, the taste, the possibilities of fresh vegetables."

With twenty extensive chapters beginning with "Becoming a Cook" and finishing with "Desserts: Ending on a Sweet Note," Madison shares her expertise with warmth and enthusiasm. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience as a chef, cooking teacher, and home cook, she discusses fundamentals such as kitchen equipment, cutting and chopping techniques, basic ingredients from herbs to nuts, and cooking methods like steaming and stir-frying. Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone includes nearly every imaginable category of vegetarian fare, from savory breakfast foods, soups, salads, and sandwiches to flavorful gratins, pastas, tarts, pizzas, grains, eggs, and baked goods. Each chapter contains recipes appropriate for a variety of occasions—from family meals to dinner parties—which can stand on their own or accompany meat, fish or fowl.

You'll find comforting American favorites like Cream of Tomato Soup, Red Bean Gumbo with Greens, Winter Vegetable Pot Pie, and Rhubarb-Apple Crisp, as well as Madison originals such as Winter Squash Galette, Silky Mushroom Pate, Goat Cheese Souffle with Thyme and Spinach, and Herb Torta in a Potato Crust. Madison's travels and exploration of global cuisines are evident in dishes such as Sizzling Risorto Gratin, Glass Noodles with Spinach, Tunisian Tomato and Pepper Stew, and Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Roasted Peanuts. With zesty choices like Black Bean-Smoked Chile Dip, Posole with Red Chile Pods, and Goat Cheese Enchiladas with Corn and Red Mole, she also pays homage to the American Southwest where she resides. Recipes are introduced with a bit of personal lore or hints from the author, giving this admittedly vast cookbook an endearing, personal tone, as if Deborah Madison herself were in the kitchen, chatting with the reader.

The backbone of this indispensable volume is the chapter "Vegetables: The Heart of the Matter" an A-to-Z guide with information on how to buy, store, prepare, and complement the majority of vegetables the modern cook will encounter today, from the familiar such as carrots, peas, and zucchini to the new favorites such as chard, fava beans, kohlrabi, broccoli rabe, and artichokes. If you've ever wondered what celeriac is, or need to identify the differences between mustard greens and turnip greens, Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone has the answers. As Martha Rose Shulman says, "It's not only a cookbook. It's the standard text we've been waiting for."

In short, for those of us dedicated to eating healthfully, who adhere to a vegetarian diet, or simply savor the bountiful diversity, flavor, and texture of vegetables, grains, legumes, and other vegetarian fare, Deborah Madison's sweeping new Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone is bound to become a classic.

Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone
by Deborah Madison
Published by Broadway Books;
October 8, 1997; 752 pages
ISBN: 0-7679-0014-6

Vegetarian Festival

Vegetarian Festival


The Vegetarian Festival is a religious festival annually held on the island of Phuket in southern Thailand. It attracts crowds of spectators because of many of the unusual religious rituals that are performed. Many religious devotees will slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other self destructive acts, although the devotees do not suffer any harm. This is attributed to spirits that are said to protect the devotees.

The Vegetarian Festival lasts for 9 days and 9 nights from the 1st to the 9th Chinese lunar month. This festival normally falls on the eleventh or around October. The Chinese call it "The ninth month vegetarian festival".

In Thailand, the vegetarian festival centers are in Trang Province, in Krabi Province and in Phang-nga Province. But the most famous center is in Phuket Province. Due to the old and believable legend is that while there was an epidemic at Kratu District in Phuket, a group of Chinese opera entertainers performed their vegetarian festival and built some Taoist temples to get rid of bad lucks and to heal the ailments. The native people there then all believed those activities. They have maintained and performed this festival until now. In the beginning of this festival, some the local people representatives went to Kung Sai Community in China to invite the joss-stick smoke and ash called among the natives Hiawaient to perform their vegetarian festival. On the way back from China to Phuket, the joss-stick had to be lit all time.
On the first night of this festival, there is an important activity, The Tall lamp or Ko Teng Raising Ceremony at each Taoist temple. The nine wicks-in-oil in a glass cover are arranged in three rows on Ko Teng. This tall lamp represents Kiu Ong Tah., The holy Chinese God. Once the tall lamp is lighted and raised, it signified the arrival of Kiu Ong Tah and Siva, the God of Heaven.
The tall lamp is lowered by a pulley to add oil to the wicks and raised to the top of the post everyday in order to prevent the lighted from going out.
Another activity on the next day is to light big joss-stick. Some ritual propitiation, such as, sandal wood, slabs, the gold and silver paper and amulets are burnt to worship the shrine spirits, such as, the previous dead Kings or the dead people who had their good deeds for the nation.
After the first three days, the vegetarians realize that they have purified themselves. There will be and invitation the other two gods through the spirit mediums. The first god is 'Lamtao' who is the god register for the birth record and 'Pugtao' the god register for the death record. The Peung Kun or the God soldiers are invited to Protect vegetarian people from the evils and monsters. The highlight of this activity is watching the spirit mediums performances. Some of the god soldiers 'characters like Hieng Jia, or Buosong who could kill tigers with their bare hands are very exciting. The devotees are given Hu (a piece of paper with Chinese alphabets believed to be a holy amulet).