So, I was doing research for a project I have due for my nutrition course and found that the ADA recently released a new position paper on Vegetarianism. This was particularly interesting to me because 1 – I consider myself vegetarian, even though i do currently eat seafood from time to time, so pescatarian would be the politically correct term, and 2 – I’m doing my project on vegetarianism in children.
I know a lot of folks, myself included, aren’t excited about the SAD (Standard American Diet) and could give two hoots about the food pyramid. Especially when you know that the US Department of Agriculture, which is an organization to make sure American farmers prosper, is the organization touting that we must drink / eat 3 servings of dairy a day and eat 3-5 servings of meat. Why? So American farmers get paid, that’s why. I’m going to stop here because I could end up going off on a total rant, so here’s my point.
The July 09 position paper stated,
“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”
Can you believe it? The ADA is stating that Vegetarian/Vegan Diets are perfectly acceptable, healthy, and nutritionally adequate for ALL STAGES of the life cycle. The paper even mentions an 100% raw diet and although it suggests there isn’t enough research to prove that a completely raw diet is affective for children, it doesn’t fault it for adults. Gotta love that they’re catching on. If you want to read the full paper, it’s only about 13 pages long, and it’s available on the ADA website.
I know it’s a small step and there are a ton more topics that the US is completely wrong on when it come to nutrition, but hey, it’s a start!
So on to my eats for the day. I went back to my norm for breakfast: chia seed oats with goji berries and better n’ PB.
Oats never fail me. Today’s oats were delicious and filling per the usual and I loved how soft the goji berries got from the moisture of the oatmeal.
I ended up hanging at work over lunch and eating an Amy’s Meal. The Indian Mattar Paneer meal is my absolute favorite Amy’s frozen meal!! It may not look like much, but the taste is on point. I truly love Amy!
I walked home for a quick visit Olive and made some homemade trial mix with raw cashews, cacao power, kashi go lean, and goji berries.
EVEN though I brought my own healthy mix back to work, I was still tempted by the chex mix at the office and it’s NOT even home made. If it weren’t from a stupid bag I wouldn’t be complaining this much about my love/hate relationship with the stuff, but at least I didn’t eat it for my entire lunch as I did yesterday. I’m making progress…. haha. Once that bag is gone I will be a happy camper.
After work ended, I went to the gym for a yoga class. The instructor never showed and after waiting around with the rest of the class for 10 minutes I decided to do my own workout. It’s a good thing I left, I’m pretty sure some people hung out in that room doing nothing for 30 minutes expecting her to show and I found out later that she never arrived.
I did arms, hopped on the treadmill, and then went to an awesome abs 30 minute class. My arms were so sore from the strength training I had a hard time doing the side planks in the class. At first I was like why can’t I stay up for more than a millisecond, then it dawned on me that I had just done about 25 minutes of arm exercises before class. oh yea!
After working it I headed home for dinner, brought to me by Isaac’s parents garden. Zucchini noodles (zoodles) with raw tomato sauce. To make the sauce I threw 2 medium tomatoes, 6 leaves of basil, 1 tablespoon of raw pinenuts, 1 clove of garlic, a small light green pepper, a spoonful of nutritional yeast, ground pepper and sea salt into the Vita and viola- raw pink tomato sauce.
So incredibly easy and quite delicious…. I had seconds!
It’s almost Friday! Woo-hoo, Isaac comes home tomorrow and we’re having a little get together at our place Saturday night. As you can probably tell, I’m excited for the weekend. Anyone have any big plans??
{ 16 comments }
Brittany Mullins, HHC
