kharizma05's Journal, 23 August 2012

Try reading "Eat to Live". It emphasizes avoiding animal based products. 

No. Good nutrition is a balance between carbohydrates, protein, and fat. While meat is loaded with calories, replacing it with fruit may overload you with sugar, and unused sugar is stored as fat. I recommend using the food journal and aime for around 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 20% fat. You'll find that small portions will suffice, especially when vegetables lend to protein intake. Also, protein doesn't have to be expensive, take beans, canned fish, and eggs for example. Some people will cook a whole chicken, turkey, or beef roast then freeze left overs in individual servings for convenient meals later. 

My carnivore wife happily substitutes meat for my lentil dishes. I'll have to resurrect my lentil burgers too. Beans & Rice will substitute very well for meats. I have to add a disclaimer that wifee can only stand a week or so of meat subsitutes, and then it has to be the real thing. I guess I'm that way too, I like to eat some kind of beef or pork at least once a week, though I sure love vegetarian fare! 

I'm following a plant based diet after reading "Eat to Live" myself, but I found that I gain weight if I eat starches (such as bread and pasta) and not enough protein. I even had to limit the whole grains. Now I typically eat a serving of meat, eggs, or fish per day, and I avoid dairy products. 

I switched to a plant based diet after watching Forks over Knifes and I love it. My grocery budget didn't change, but we are eating better foods. I try to substitute nuts and eggs for beef protein and we switched from milk to almond/coconut milk. We still eat meat but in the form of fish and poultry. Cutting out the red beef allows us to save money and we can afford salmon and talapia when it's on sale. We're a family of 4 on a tight budget. 

Ground beef is full of fat as well, black bean burgers make a tasty substitute as well. There are recipe's on eat to live, and also on my nutritarian diet. 

Thanks everyone for the feed back on my journal. I'm going to lower my meat portion and try to eat more seafood I think.