Vegetarianism Made E-Z (Recipes and Stuff - NO debate allowed here!)

[Monica]

What about low carb vegetarianism?

I don't subscribe to the 'low carb' theory so I'm probably not a good one to ask that question. I personally avoid refined carbs like flour and stick to fruits, veggies like potatoes, and sprouted grains. It's difficult to separate carbs from protein in a vegetarian diet, because the protein foods like beans and rice also have carbs.

So, I don't know the answer to your question, sorry. My guess would be that one would have to consume a lot of nuts and seeds to pull it off. They would need to be soaked and germinated, to avoid being constipating.

Also tofu is really bad for men due to the estrogen. I dont want to grow manboobs.

Yeah, I don't blame you! The subject of estrogens in tofu is very controversial. I have personally concluded that it's probably the GMO soy that is causing the problem. I cannot fathom organic soy causing hormone problems, because Asian men have eaten tofu, miso, soy sauce, tempeh and other soy foods for centuries and I've never heard of Chinese or Japanese men having manboobs!

So I suspect it's the corrupted soy that is the culprit. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if organic soy is completely safe either.

My family eats moderate amount of tofu/tempeh/miso but we are always careful to get organic, except for when we eat at restaurants.

I don't really know the answer to this, conclusively. I'm just sharing what seems reasonable to me.

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Great new thread.

I'm glad you like!

I too have issues with the soy bean, although unrelated to it's ability to raise or lower eostrogen levels.

A few weeks ago I got some major water retention and couldn't figure out why. We muscle tested and found it was from the soy lecthin granules I had put in my smoothie. Then we muscle tested on some older soy lecithin, that had been in the frig for about 5 years but forgotten, and I tested fine on that. We concluded that today's soy is much more toxic than soy from even a few years ago. Must be the GMO, I'm guessing.

I tested fine on organic tofu and miso.

I was wondering if anyone knows of tofu made with other beans. Can you make tofu with chickpeas for example?

Further, if you have made your own tofu would you think lemon juice a suitable coagulant?

That's a great question! I'm not sure about tofu, but there are lots of recipes for 'cheese' made from various nuts, like cashew and sunflower seeds. Lemon juice is used as a coagulant. I'll see if I can dig some of those out for you. They won't have the texture of tofu but might work in some recipes.