This week I finally feel like I made some progress. I’m getting more used to not eating certain things and preparing easy vegan replacements. I know it seems pretty much like common sense but it has been endlessly helpful to have vegan-friendly snacks always on hand. Carrots and hummus have become a lifesaver and I keep a stash of almonds on me at all times. I even found a great brand on gelatin-free fruit snacks at Target because I’ve been having the worst craving for fruit snacks! Clearly these don’t make up a full meal but they have helped me avoid the caught-off-guard factor I struggled with.

I also found THE COOLEST restaurant by my home in Long Island. It’s an average family-owned pizzeria except they offer an entire vegan menu! I went there over the weekend and was able to go wild with all my Italian faves. I tried a little bit of everything – fried “calamari,” eggplant rollatini, lasagna, and — of course — a cannoli for dessert. And without a shadow of worry that I was going into non-vegan territory!

On top of that, I’ve been experimenting a lot more with vegan cooking. This weekend I made a bulgur wheat dish with curry and chickpeas. It actually came out great and my family ate it and enjoyed it. It also made for good leftovers to bring to work for lunch. I also made vegan brownies made with – prepare yourselves – prunes! I mushed them up in the blender (that’s the precise culinary term) and it somehow made up for the missing egg/butter consistency. And the brownies tasted good!

Basically, I think I am starting to get the hang of this whole thing. There hasn’t been any drastic weight change, but I do feel better and more energetic, as I have from the beginning. This is all making me want to keep going beyond just the month of November and now I’m starting to think I can pull it off for good. I guess we’ll see what Thanksgiving brings!

Okay, so this week was kind of hard. And I think I may have accidentally cheated. I went out over the weekend and have a tendency to eat when I’m drunk. On Friday, my friend and I stopped at McDonald’s (a forbidden land for vegans) and I actually was able to resist any burgers or nuggets. On Saturday, as the drunk munchies struck again, I got bread sticks from Pizza Hut. In my drunk, hungry state of mind, I was pretty sure these must be vegan, but on second thought they must have had butter, which, of course, is a no-no. Oops. To be fair, I really thought I was making the right choice (as opposed to, say, a personal pan pizza in all its cheesy glory).

My time at work wasn’t much easier. On Tuesday my manager brought in pints of Ben & Jerry’s, just for fun. Really? Like, REALLY? Just rub it in a bit more that I, the biggest ice cream lover of all time, can’t dig in to free Ben & Jerry’s (mint chocolate chip, no less). But I was actually able to stay focused and keep my eye on the prize.

I’m trying to really connect with why people choose this sort of diet. In fact, I’ve tried to seek out a bunch of vegan blogs and books to help motivate me and get me to understand what sort of things I can gain by doing this. I never would’ve called myself a huge animal person before, let alone any type of activist, but I can’t help but feel a tug on my heartstrings when I look through the PETA website for inspiration to keep going with this.

And I have to be honest, I already feel a lot better. It’s kind of weird that it happened this quickly, and yes, it’s been a challenge so far, but I truly feel good. My family had a vegan night on Sunday since they knew I was doing this challenge, and there were a bunch of dishes with lentils, rice and chickpeas. And let me tell you, it was GOOD. Let’s just say I may have helped myself to seconds…or thirds. When I was done and full, it wasn’t the kind of full that weighed me down, like after a big steak. It was more just satisfied, but not icky feeling.

So after week one, I can tell this isn’t going to be easy, but I’m feeling good enough to want to finish strong. My next big hurdle: homecoming weekend at the school I went to. Wish me luck, ‘cause I’ll need it.

Thanksgiving is a tricky holiday for college students. If you’re within commuting distance of home, you probably can’t wait to burst through your front door to wafting aromas of a decadent home-cooked meal. But if you’re one of the many students who opted to go to school out of state or far from Mom & Pops, you might find yourself stranded in College Town USA, especially if plane tickets home are too expensive to rationalize a short round-trip for Turkey Day when winter break is just around the corner. So don’t despair if you’re holding down the fort in your dorm with other grounded co-eds, here are some foolproof recipes that taste like home.

Cranberry Sauce (from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients: 1 bag (12 ounces) cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, 1 cup water

Instructions: In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, lemon zest, and water; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cook until cranberries are soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, and let cool to room temperature.

Lean, Green, Vegetarian Casserole Machine (from the Operation Beautiful side project Healthy Tipping Point)

Ingredients:

1/2 red onion
3 cups green beans
2 tablespoons garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package sliced portobello mushrooms
1 can large butter beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup soy milk
Pepper and salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare green beans by rinsing, trimming, and chopping into bite-sized pieces.  Place beans in pot of water and bring to boil for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile thinly slice 1/2 red onion.   Combine sliced onions, garlic, and olive oil in a hot wok and cook until browned.
4. Rinse mushrooms and combine mushrooms with onion mix in a large bowl.  Set aside.
5. Rinse and drain a can of large butter beans.  Use your hands to mash the beans thoroughly to create a paste.
6. Combine beans, soy milk, pepper, and salt with the onions and mushrooms.  Mix thoroughly.
7. Once green beans have boiled to the point of softness, drain and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
8. Grease a casserole dish and pour the mix in.
9. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.
10. Remove and serve.

Whipped Sweet Potatoes (from All Recipes)

Ingredients: 2 lbs sweet potatoes (peeled & cubed), 2 tbsps. orange juice, ¾ cup brown sugar, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 2 tbsp. butter, 1 cup mini marshmallows

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large saucepan cook sweet potatoes in salted water over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, or until soft. Drain, and add orange juice, brown sugar, nutmeg and butter. Whip until smooth. Spread into a medium size casserole dish and top with marshmallows.
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes, or until marshmallows are golden brown.

Beginner’s Fool-proof Turkey Tips (with more tips from How to Cook For Beginners)
I promise, it’s not that hard!

1. Defrost the turkey in the refrigerator. Make sure you start out 3-5 days in advance as it will take that long.

2. 24 hours before baking, remove the turkey from the package, discard the innards, towel off the turkey and dry it. Then leave it in the refrigerator so that the skin can get even dryer. Removing the moisture will allow the turkey to get a very even crust and golden color.

3. BUY A MEAT THERMOMETER! The little thing in the turkey that pops out is a piece of crap. When using the thermometer that you buy, make sure it is calibrated, and insert it in to the fleshy part of the turkey leg or breast, away from bone. 

4. When you are about to roast the turkey, slide pieces of butter underneath the breast skin, and rub butter or your favorite oil all over the skin and liberally season the cavity and skin with salt and fresh cracked pepper. This will make things nice and brown when roasted. Throw a few carrot pieces, celery, onions, bayleaf, and parsley stems into the cavity when roasting, it will help add flavor.

5. When roasting, start with a very high temp, I like 450. I will roast it for 30 minutes at that temperature, then drop it to 350 for the duration of roasting. The high temp helps get the turkey nice and golden. Check the meat thermometer. A done turkey will measure at 165 degrees.

6. Take that bad boy out, get a boy with a love of electric tools to carve it up and serve!

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month

October is finally almost over, and while I am frantically scrambling to come up with another costume for tonight, I am also thrilled that I am only one day away from being done with my meatless month. I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last beefy indulgence. I am really surprised by how well I did and the fact that I didn’t have even a morsel of meat during this whole time.

Being meatless has been a great way to shake things up and make sure that I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. A bunch of my girlfriends were talking at dinner the other night about how one girl had been vegetarian for a while, and she actually GAINED weight because all she ate was carbs. That has definitely not been my experience at all. October has been an insanely busy week with academics, and I haven’t had enough time to work out as often as I regularly do. Yet not only have I not gained weight, I lost some! I don’t own a scale, but I can feel it in my clothes. Losing weight was in no way my goal in going meatless, but it’s not a bad side effect at all!

While I might not ever learn to like tofu, I have definitely expanded the variety of foods that I eat. Morningstar Farms Chik’n Nuggets (SO GOOD!) are something that will definitely stay on my regular grocery shopping list, as will the mass amounts of fruits and vegetables I’ve been buying.

This month has also provided me with sympathy and mad respect for vegetarians. It is interesting to see how often there isn’t a real vegetarian option offered at big events, especially because vegetarianism is not exactly rare in our world today. Just last night, I was at my sorority’s progressive dinner, and while everything was delicious, there were no real vegetarian main courses. (There was, however, a delicious looking home made chicken pot pie, and it took all of my willpower to refrain. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard at anything.) But I survived anyway, just like I’m sure real vegetarians must have to do all the time. So props to them!

I have always been an avid meat lover, one of those people who says that I could never be a vegetarian or understand why people are. This experience has definitely changed my mind, because although I still love meat, I have gotten to see first hand the benefits that vegetarianism offers. I never, ever thought that I would say this, but I am considering becoming a real full-time vegetarian. Weird, huh? I do really crave meat, but I’m intrigued by the way my body and my tastes have changed this month and am tempted to see how embracing this lifestyle full-time could impact my health.

I guess we’ll just have to see how I feel after my first piece of meat on Monday. Will it be so amazing I’ll never want to part with it again, or will it make me feel so full and heavy that I’ll be craving hummus and carrot sticks instead? Not sure, but I do know one thing: this challenge has taught me a lot and while the month is up, I’ll definitely be taking these lessons with me (to some extent) in the long term.

Ready or not, Chipotle, here I come!

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month

Okay, so it’s been kind of a busy fall season so far, and I haven’t had a ton of time (read: any time where I wasn’t either studying or drinking) to call home (delinquent daughter… whoops!). Anyway, my family had no idea that I was going meatless for a month, and I just mentioned it in passing to my mom on the phone, and she laughed. She thought I was joking.

To be fair, my mom knows that I LOVE meat, and so she was really concerned that something was wrong because there was no other plausible explanation in her mind as to why else I would stop eating it. So after some intense mother calming (during which I was chowing down on some delicious hummus), and multiple reassurances that I was still getting plenty of protein and not about to pass out at any moment, my mom finally let up on the whole issue.

To be honest, hearing other people’s reactions when they realize that I’m not eating meat for a month has been one of the most interesting parts of this meatless commitment. It seems like eighty percent of people that I encounter respond with something along the lines of, “Oh my gosh, I could NEVER do that, why in the world are you doing that?” I’m not even a full-time vegetarian, and I’m still rather offended by the way people speak to me about it. I mean, honestly, I say more power to vegetarians; it is so much healthier for you and your body, and there are countless environmental, humanitarian, not to mention nutritional reasons to make the choice to be a vegetarian or even a vegan. While, yes, obviously I will be the first person to admit that meat is incredibly delicious… it still doesn’t seem appropriate for strangers to insult or question someone’s life choices, even if it isn’t meant in an intentionally harmful way.

Vegetarians out there, is this something that bothers you, or something that you’re just used to by now?

On other vegetarian related issues, everyone told me that not having as much protein would make me feel more tired and lagging (that was one of my mom’s main concerns), but I haven’t noticed it at all. On the contrary, despite the fact that October has been an insanely busy month for me  (a ridiculous amount of midterms, our sorority’s new members preparing for initiation, health and safety checks that I have to perform as an RA, and a general lack of sleep), I am not any more tired than I was when I was eating meat. That makes me wonder if I’d have even more energy if I maintained this diet during a more normal month.

Finally, just during this past week, a huge group of my friends went out to Flat Top (a stir fry restaurant), and I tried cooked tofu there. It was a considerable improvement from my attempt at cooking it, but I’m still not particularly crazy about the texture. There’s just something a little off there for me, but the taste is not nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be and I didn’t feel as overstuffed and lethargic as I normally do when I fill my bowl with meat, meat and more meat.

Looking back on my challenge so far, I’m honestly a little shocked that I have made it 23 days without meat! There are only eight days left until I can chow down on beef once again and while I am seriously considering limiting my meat consumption once October is over, I know I’m going to end this whole thing about 12 hours early. Why? Uh, free burritos at Chipotle on Halloween, that’s why. Yes, they do have lots of veggie options, but the steak there just calls out to me. Loud and clear. It’s been hard enough to turn it down when I have to pay for it, but it’s FREE!

What can I say? I’m only human.

So, only eight days to go. I just hope that, after 30 days sans meat, indulging in it won’t make me feel icky (as I’ve heard it does). But at the end of the day, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. I mean, it’s FREE CHIPOTLE. If there’s one thing that’s worth a little pain, that would be it.

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month

I can’t believe that I have made it through two weeks as a vegetarian! Honestly, I am a little surprised – I haven’t cheated at all! Not a single piece of meat. Not even chicken broth, because I was worried that would count.

Not that’s it’s been a total breeze…

By far the most difficult vegetarian moment for me this week was when one of the clubs I’m in had a group dinner… at Chipotle. Now, I know a lot of people like Chipotle, but I love Chipotle. LOVE. Their meat is one of my FAVORITE things in the whole wide world. I don’t even need a burrito; I could be totally content just eating their meat plain… straight out of those silver serving buckets.

So to say it was a wee bit challenging to go in there and not get my favorite Steak Burrito doesn’t really do my feelings justice. I thought about getting a vegetarian burrito, but I’m not a big fan of their beans and  thought it would be too empty without meat. So I went with a veggie quesadilla instead. Not exactly the world’s healthiest option, but it kept me perfectly satisfied while everyone else chowed down on their delicious and meaty burritos.

Point: Emmy.
And things only got better from there.

While the meatless Chipotle run wasn’t easy, by far the highlight of my week was discovering all of the awesome vegetarian substitutes out there. Who knew all this stuff existed?! While I wasn’t able to find the chicken substitute called Quorn in either of our local grocery stores, I was able to track down some of the MorningStar Farms Chik’n Nuggets and Chik’n Patties that everyone commented about last week. And wow, they are DELICIOUS! I’ve actually eaten their Chik’n Nuggets with kids I nanny for before, and I had no idea that they weren’t actually meat! I also tried their Spicy Black Bean Burgers, and I was surprised how much I liked those too!

I also tried cooking tofu this week…which wasn’t quite as successful as the MorningStar Farms situations. Not that I’m blaming tofu, though; I have a feeling this was probably just a failure on my cooking skills. Dinner was still alright because the pad thai noodles I made were delicious enough to stand on their own, but the tofu…disaster.

I’m not giving up on tofu, though. I’m definitely going to try again next week (but maybe I’ll get it from a restaurant this time…). Boca Burgers are also on my list to try, and that’s a big one. For some reason, I’m a bit more skeptical of those than of the Chik’n Patties and I don’t know exactly why. With the breading around the Chik’n things, it’s easier to camouflage the slight difference in taste and texture from real meat.

I’m so…..scared.

But I’m also super proud of how far I’ve come. And surprised by how much I’m liking it.  Maybe I can do this for more than a month! It’s not that hard and I feel great. Though I’d better hold out to see how these next two weeks go before I make any commitments!

[Check out the other One Month Challenges we've taken on! And if you've got a challenge you want to tackle, email us and we could feature you next month!]

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month

So, I’ve successfully made it through my first week without meat… and it hasn’t been too bad!

I’ve really liked that not eating things with meat has really forced me to try different foods and eat a more balanced diet, which is exactly what I was hoping would happen through this experiment. I’ve discovered that my school’s market actually has AMAZING hummus and vegetable plates that I’d never tried before. Like really, I don’t know what they put in the hummus, but it is madly addicting! I’ve also found a great vegetarian pad thai, a yummy Mediterranean veggie salad, and an amazing pesto tortellini all in just one of the campus markets! Who knew veggies could taste so good?

But I’m not taking any of this for granted. I’m lucky that my university offers so many Vegan/Vegetarian options and I know that not every school is quite as accommodating. If I had to exist on salads and plain noodles all month, I think I’d go crazy. Thank god I’ve got a variety of interesting and tasty options to choose from.

The only really difficult thing this week has been when I’m eating dinner with people who are eating meat. I never realized how good that stuff smells. Like the kind of smell that makes my mouth water and belly rumble. I feel like a Pavlovian dog… or maybe that dog in the Beggin’ Strips commercial; the minute I smell it I can’t get the craving for a burger or chicken or pepperoni out of my head.

For instance, last night, my friend was trying out a new recipe for Chicken Parmesan and it looked delicious. Obviously, I had to refrain from diving head first into the oven partaking in the yumminess because, as much as I wanted to pretend chicken wasn’t meat, it most certainly is.  It wasn’t that big of a deal because I still had some delicious pasta and salad for dinner, but I definitely had a hard time refraining from taking even the smallest bite of that breaded chickeny goodness. I also felt really bad turning down a meal my friend had so graciously cooked. She knows about my challenge, but still…. I wonder if actual vegetarians ever feel that way.

Or if they ever miss chicken parmesan as much as I do. For real, I can’t stop thinking about it. I already know what I’ll be cooking come November 1st.

[Check out the other One Month Challenges we've taken on! And if you've got a challenge you want to tackle, email us and we could feature you next month!]

Nom nom nom.

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. Last month we followed Meredith on her quest to give up junk food. This month, Emmy's going 31 days without beef. Or chicken. Or turkey. Or....you get the idea.]

Let me start off by saying that I love meat. Like a lot. If I could eat a steak for every meal, I would. And if it weren’t gross to bathe in burger meat, I’d probably do that too. (Don’t judge.)

So why on earth would I give it up for a month? Surprisingly, I have loads of reasons. First, I was inspired by the Vegan/Vegetarian club here at Loyola and their participation in Meatless Mondays, the idea being that we can all improve our health by just giving up meat one day a week. That got me thinking: if I could get healthier by trading out meat just once a week, imagine what I could do if I cut back even more? And seeing that it might not be that hard, I thought I’d go full throttle.

I want to go meatless to see what it’s like, how it makes me feel, and how it makes me look. I am also hoping it will inspire me to stop eating ice cream and chips for meals and actually do some real cooking.

For me, going meatless for a month is a drastic change, but one that I’m excited to try.

The benefits of not eating meat seem to be endless, not to mention that the less animal products you eat, the more the health benefits increase. As I’ve had it explained to me by real, full-time vegetarians, vegetarianism is not eating meat (obvi), fish, or eggs. Some (AKA vegans) even give up all dairy and anything that might have an animal product in it. To just give it a try though, they recommended that I start slow by just eliminating meat.

So that’s the plan. For the next 31 days, I’ll be a meatless carnivore (well, technically a Pescetarian – who knew there was a word for it?!), and keeping you all updated on what it’s like and how I do.

Hopefully going meatless will force me to eat more vegetables and try new foods. And, finger’s crossed, it won’t totally backfire with me replacing healthy dinners with bags of meat-free Doritos.

So, all you vegetarians out there, was it a hard transition for you to go meatless?
Have any advice or good recipes for me?

[Check out the other One Month Challenges we've taken on! And if you've got a challenge you want to tackle, email us and we could feature you next month!]

[Meet Margaret, a freshman at Yale. We've been checking in with her every week to see what she's doing, who she's meeting, and what new college surprises she's tackling (or freaking out about) as she embarks on the journey we call college. Or as I like to call it, the best thing since dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter cups.]

At my old high school, we were never served veggie burgers, nor did we have to choose between vegan and non-vegan options in the cafeteria. I’m from Cincinnati, a city that boasts about its chili (which is really just a runny sauce on top of noodles…). Needless to say, the infinitesimal number of students who identified with vegetarianism at my school only did so for religious reasons. And some of them cheated.

Keeping that in mind, entering the dining hall at my college was like entering the land of some kind of lotus-eating, vegetarian haven, or, in my case, a carnivore’s personal version of hell. It’s not that they don’t serve meat; they do. But they also serve various other reinterpretations of meat: tofu ravioli, lentil hamburgers, vegan minestrone soup.

Upon seeing these, I became bitter and questioned why tofu ravioli was necessary when ravioli is obviously meant to be stuffed with beef and cheese (at least according to my man, Chef Boyardee). Didn’t all the vegetarians here realize what they were missing out on? Chicken tenders and steak? Bacon and sausage links? What was the point of all this? It’s not like one vegetarian will directly save the life of a cow or singlehandedly better animal welfare. Vegetarianism is pointless.

At least that’s what I’d always thought. But much like my drinking habits, my study habits and my feelings towards sex, being in college has made me re-think the way I eat.

By being thrown into a new environment where I’m exposed to new people, new ideals and a whole lot of  vegetarians, I’ve been forced time and again to re-evaluate what I’ve always known. And most recently, I’ve begun to reconsider the food that I put into my mouth. Whereas before I used to think that vegetarianism was a black and white issue – you either eat meat because it’s tasty or you don’t because you think cows are cute – I’ve learned that it’s so much more.

It’s a fact that Americans didn’t used to eat as much meat as we do today. Really, if you think about it (or Google it, like I’ve been doing constantly lately), the amount of meat we consume today really isn’t natural. And medical reports don’t lie; meat can definitely up your cholesterol and is one of the main contributing factors to our high rate of heart disease in this country.

Now, I’m not sure if I could go completely meatless (I like chicken tenders too much), but I’m definitely cutting back. And in the end, that’s not even the point. While this specific change is about tofu and lettuce, it is only one of many changes I’ve noticed since I got to Yale a mere month ago. Yes, I’m still staying true to who I am as a person, but the naive, sheltered Cincinnati girl I was before coming here is almost unrecognizable. With every new experience I have, class I take, reading assignment I complete and person I talk to, I’m learning more than I ever have before.

And I’m becoming a much more tolerant and open-minded person because of it.
I’m even eating (and enjoying!) tofu ravioli, and those are words I never in a million years thought would come out of my bacon-loving mouth.

So tailgate season is upon us and the time has come to bring out our barbecues, lazily relax outside and revile in the sunshine with our friends while we’ve still got beautiful weather on our side.  Or desperately hot, sticky, and humid weather, depending on where you go to school.  Whatever. The point is, it’s tailgate season and that means hot dogs and hamburgers and various other things cooked on an open fire. You drooling yet? Wait. Before you indulge in that perfectly grilled hot dog, there are a few things you should know.

Note: to those of you who want to continue to consume burgers and hot dogs in ignorant bliss, stop reading now.  If you are intrigued to know what these patriotic foods do to your body, however, let’s keep truckin’.

For all you hot dog, hamburger, and bacon lovers reading this, I really wish I could ease the blow of what I am about to report, but there is really no other way to present the facts: processed meat consumption, even more so than other forms of meat, is correlated to an increased risk of all types of cancer.  Red meat and processed meats contain more totally repulsive saturated and trans fats than any other animal product.  These types of fats have received recent media attention for their harmfulness to the human body, yet the fat issue doesn’t quite tell the whole story of why eating hot dogs, hamburgers, bologna, sausage, and other processed meats is ultra bad for you. 

Scientific studies show that consuming red meat and processed meats on a regular basis more than doubles the risk of many cancers, most commonly colon and pancreatic cancer.  Even eating just a bit of the stuff, like two or three ounces a day, has been shown to vastly increase the risk of cancer.  This is some freakin’ scary stuff.  Maybe that grilled hot dog will be less appetizing now that you know it will double your risk of getting cancer, and maybe even worse if you consume this stuff all through your childhood and young adult years.

While I am not done reporting on the scary involved in eating red and processed meats, I wanted to take a brief respite from presenting the negative and include some words of encouragement.  Veggie burgers taste absolutely amazing and there are SO many options on the market now.  Take Boca Burgers Roasted Onion Flavor, for instance.  Who doesn’t love the smell of mushrooms and onions on the grill?  I can personally attest that these burgers are hearty and flavorful.  Amy’s Organics sells like four or five different veggie burgers, all of which are dandy (The Texas Burger is a personal favorite).  How amazing is freshly grilled corn on the cob, a portabella burger, or veggie shish kabob?! So basically, even without a big, juicy (unhealthy) burger, all is not lost!

Okay, so back to the negative.  Turns out that toxic nitrogenous compounds are ever so abundant in red and processed meats.  Red meat also has a high heme (also called haem content).  Heme is an iron-carrying protein that has been shown in studies to eat up the cells lining our digestive tract and promote colon cancer.  Pleasant, right?

Other not so cool facts about meat:

1)   Animal products contain no fiber, remain in the digestive tract longer, and in general, slow digestive transit time.  This slower transit time heightens exposure to toxic compounds.

2)   Animal products contain far fewer antioxidants and other disease fighting chemicals than plant foods.

3)   Meat actually contains more fat than protein.  Did you know that broccoli actually contains more protein per calorie than a piece of steak?

4)  Studies (cited below) show that eating those hot dogs, hamburgers, bacon and balogna will increase your risk of depression and other mental health problems.

5)   Too much meat and dairy harm sperm (again references below).

6) Dioxin is the most toxic chemical known to science and is known to cause cancer in humans.  It is estimated that 93 percent of our exposure to dioxin comes through eating animal products, including processed meats. Dioxin settles and accumulates in fat, so the more animal food we eat, the more dioxin we get (last reference).

So there you have it.  The facts the Hamburger Helper Company and Oscar Mayer Inc. would like to keep under the rug.  I love tailgating as much as the next girl, but let’s recognize the truth about what those hot dogs and hamburgers can really do to our bodies.  Pass me the grilled veggies, fresh fruit, and veggie burgers please!

References:

1. Chao A, Thun JT, Connell CJ, et al. Meat Consumption and Risk of Colorectal Cancer JAMA 2005;293:172-182.

2. Sesink AL, Termont DS, Kleibeuker JH, Van der Meer R. Red meat and colon cancer: dietary haem-induced colonic cytotoxicity and epithelial hyperproliferation are inhibited by calcium. Carcinogenesis 2001;22(10):1653-1659. Hughes R, Cross AJ, Pollock JR, Bingham S. Dose dependent effect of dietary meat on endogenous colonic N-nitrosation. Carcinogenesis 2001; 22(1):199-202.

3. Akbaraly TN et al. Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age. Br J Psychiatry. 2009 Nov;195(5):408-13.

4. Brinkworth et al. Long-term Effects of a Very Low-Carbohydrate Diet and a Low-Fat Diet on Mood and Cognitive Function. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(20):1873-1880

5. Beezhold BL et al. Preliminary evidence that vegetarian diet improves mood. American Public Health Association 2009 National Meeting, Abstract 206464.

6. Leung BM, Kaplan BJ. Perinatal depression: prevalence, risks, and the nutrition link–a review of the literature. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009 Sep;109(9):1566-75.

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