Vegetarian and Vegan Food Lovers

  King´s Vegetarian Food Manufacturing Company Limited is deeply committed to the health, quality, naturalness and transparency of our vegan and vegetarian products. By keeping these values in mind we cherish the welfare and well-being of each and every...

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This is another article originally published in the Conversation whcih again testifies that although cars and manufacturing companies have a responsibility for green house gases and emissions, they are by far not the worst culprit. Keep reading.

 This reaserch team from University of Oxford, has discovered what millions already are aware of. It was also reviewed in Cowspiracy and other documents. If we just think about it for a moment, there is a definite logic in these arguements. Even you you don’t support vegetarianism or vegenism, you have to admit that after properly reviewing the data and evidence this is a real and true problem. Being vegetarian or vegan will not only save lives but it will save this little planet of ours called earth for lifetomes to come as well as give everyone a better standard of living as we change and adapt to different lifestyles. THE real question is” CAn we aford to continue to ignore every new stydy released which points to the same outcome for us all?”

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We made vegan calamari over bruschetta and tzaziki sauce with with almond sour cream. No dairy or egg, Really good snack or party dish

Spicy and sweet soy jerky. Fully vegan. Who would have thought.

Chinese Soy BBQ also known Char Siu with Asian Slaw sesame vinaigrette. Sometimes I put it on a skewer with mushroomss, squash, tomatoes and grill. As I grill, brush with bbq oil.

This was oe of my favorites. We had vegan soy leg, made tandoori marinade again with the almond based sour cream and annato for color. About 25minutes marination and blasted in the oven for 20 minutes. Side of nutty baked basmati rice with cardamon. mmmmmmm! 

 Vegan Sweet and Sour with colourful veggies. Fast too, only about 20 minutes start to  finish. This was the crowd pleaser. Never met someone who didn’t lke sweet and sour.

All these dishes have high protein, calcium, carbs, fibre, and low sugar, NO CHOLESTEROL, low fat. 

See, you can have your cake and eat and it is yummy.

If anyone wants recipes, let me know and i wil post them for all to share.

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Do Vegans and Vegetarians stay Vegan and Vegetarian?

What do you think? Take a guess at the percentages of how many stay, switch around or give up. I will tell you later in the blog.

Some concepts are important to consider;

- Why you became vegan or vegetarian?

- Who was your mentor?

- Was it a sudden decision or thought over time?

Was there a difference bewteen the people who chose ethics such as animal care,  no killing, starvation; or environmental reasons such as protecting the planet, gas emissions and ozone etc..?

Did having a mentor make a difference when people changed their diet? Did they stay longer?

How much thought did you place into your decision to become vegetarian or vegan? What was your basis?

What studies have shown is that people who suddenly chose to change their diet usually based their decision on less than supportive reasons. Maybe someone at work suggested it or perhaps a significant other or loved one strongly pushed you to. The difficulty with this decision base is that it didn’t last. Why didn’t it last? Believe it not, it was because the decision wasn’t based on their choice. When people were pushed into a choice it was easier to fall off because the commitment level was not strong enough to maintain. The first hint of test or trial could prove negative.

 The percentage of people who chose ethics as their base revealed the following results,

1. Those who were vegetarian or vegan over 6 years 97% remained either vegetarian or vegan.

Those who chose environmental reasons over 6 years, 93% stayed vegetarian or vegan.

Overall 3% of ethical based choices fell off and 7% of environmental reasons fell off. Those are great numbers and it seems that ethical is a stronger motive than environmental yet both are great reasons with values.

The interesting aspect between those that remained vegetarian or vegan was the movement between the two categories;

- 22% of vegetarians over the time frame changed to vegan diet

- 16% of vegans switched back to vegetarian.

Interestingly enough, the largest shift between vegan and vegetarian was men. The switch was 33% of the vegetarian men became vegan. This was more than triple the ladies. The ladies number were more steady.

Care to guess the age group successes?

Well it seems that 18-169 yrs old and 20-269 yrs old were strong and 100% remained either vegetarian or vegan. No one reported falling off their diet.

30-39 yrs old lost 6% as only 94% held on.

40-49yrs old was equally strong as 100% held on.

50-59 yrs old saw a 93% retention rate, losing 7%.

60-69 yrs old retained 95%

70 yrs old + saw 100% retention.

The numbers between men and women for retention we very similar so I didn’t break them out. 

The question is why, was the retention 100% within the groups it was and less in the other stated groups? Care to guess? 

We don’t actually have that answer so we won’t hazard a guess but it was very interesting to see the numbers.

 .It seems overall, people of any age group once choosing to be vegan or vegetarian with a good reason and self belief seldom fall prey to temptation and quit.

I suspect that over time with the changes in society and its acceptance, the % will only rise from here as these choices become more and more mainstream.

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Why People Choose a Vegetarian or a Vegan Diet?

This is a difficult post, because to properly discuss this topic we must consider all reasons, all alternatives and all ethnic backgrounds.

Did you know that there are over 600,000,000 Vegetarian or Vegan already practicing in the world. That is a stagerring number. If somebody told me that number 10 years ago, I won’t believe it. The time has come, the changes have been afot worldwide for a long time now, and vegetarian or vegan isn’t a fashion statement any more. It is a way of life. Please let me explain.

There are many reasons people in general change to vegetarian or vegan, but what is very clear is most begin with vegetarian then choose vegan later.

The top reasons are;

1. Spirituality

2. Compassion

3. Health

4. Reduced risk of cancer, and heart disease

5. Help support the environment

6. Help eliminate world hunger and famine

Considering the origin of vegetarianism and pure vegetarianism and the era in which it began. It is quite easy to understand why spirituality is the most widely reason chosen for vegetarianism or veganism.

It is the mantra of spiritual belief that to be vegetarian or vegan is to purify oneself. One cannot purify the subtle areas of the mind without purifying the body firstly. Spiritual people believe that everything on the planet has energy, and we take in that energy everyday be it good or bad, positive or negative. What we put into our body has a definite effect on our mind and state of being as we ingest that energy or frequency. Fruits, vegetables and  grains have the highest frequency and clear energy (positive), while animals have the lowest frequency or energy (negative). Further to this point, this animal was killed to provide sustanance for a human being so the energy and responsibilty for killing (also called Karma), becomes shared by anyone eating this animals flesh. This is a very deep subject, which I couldn’t hope to bridge in even three blogs, but I believe the point of spirituality seems very clear and millions of people practice and follow it. Most common of the realizations after the change to vegetarian or vegan is the admonition of less prone to anger mind, less prone to feeling of outbursts and  generally a more positive feeling, mind and countenance. 

Compassionate reasons for being Vegetarian or Vegan

If you have ever seen the food chain in its entirety regarding the animals which feed us you will understand this section.  In Canada and the U.S.A., the following facts are true. The meat people eat mostly comes from factory farms as listed below;

1. 97% hen-laying eggs

2. 79% Cows

3. 95% pigs

4. 99% turkeys

5. 99% chickens

Factory farms are the cruelest, most inhumane way to raise animals. See this video if you aren’t sure  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShNFRLCW2as&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DShNFRLCW2as&has_verified=1  

Regardless of factory farms or not, animals are living beings as well as are humans or even your pet. You wouldn’t eat your pet would you? What is the difference. A life is a life. The compassion means that you care for all life forms not just human. All life deserves a chance to live and be treated properly. Notice the young girl in the picture, compassion doesn’t stop with animals, for if you have true compassion, you care about humans too. It takes over 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound meat, plus water and land. One pound of meat feeds 2 maybe 3 people for 1 meal. Meanwhile 16 pound of grain can keep a family of four alive for two weeks. Compassion also means you want to save the starving people worldwide, instead of feedng the grain, corn, water etc.. to the animals and taking land for housing to take care of the animals.

Compassion is  very big word, it is a very big concept, and if we all had a little more compassion, the world would start to change for the better.

Health Benefits of vegetarian or vegan diet

http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian This is a great study on the benefits of vegetarian or vegan diets

In summary the following benefits apply

1. Reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes

2. High potassium and magnesium intake of fruits and vegetables reduces blood acidity

3. Higher intake of fibre, folic cid, Vitamin C, E

4. Reduced risk of cataracts

5 Lower Cholesterol

6. Maintain proper body weight, muscle mass

7. No hormones, antibiotics etc...

You will find yourself healtier, lighter, more energy, happier, and less risk of so many sicknesses by avoiding the elements that cause them 

Heart disease and and cancer risk in non-vegetarian diet.

It has been proven many times that a vegetarian or vegan diet greatly reduces the risk of heart disease by at least 50%. This is largely due to greatly reduced cholesterol and fat in the diet.  

Cancer risk is lowered significantly due to consumption of fruit and vegetables.Over 200 studies have revealed that a regular consumption of fruits and vegetables provides significant protection against cancer at many sites. People who consume higher amounts of fruits and vegetables have about one-half the risk of cancer, especially the epithelial cancers. The risk of most cancers was 20-50% lower in those with a high versus a low consumption of whole grains.  About three dozen plant foods have been identified as possessing cancer-protecting properties. These include cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower), umbelliferous vegetables and herbs (carrots, celery, cilantro, caraway, dill, parsley), other fruits and vegetables (citrus, tomatoes, cucumber, grapes, cantaloupe, berries), beans (soybeans), whole grains (brown rice, oats, whole wheat), flaxseed, many nuts, and various seasoning herbs (garlic, scallions, onions, chives, ginger, turmeric, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and basil).

5 &6 Help support the environment and eliminate world hunger and famine. I grouped these two together as they are similar topics.

We all have heard, seen documentaries or simply are aware of the massive amounts of water, corn, grain, land used to raise cattle, pigs, chickens, or any other livestock for human consumption. The land it takes to feed one human beef can easily feed 19 people various vegetables. It takes 5000kg wheat, 19,000l water etc.. to raise one cow. If we grew wheat, fruits, and vegetables as vegetarians or vegans, all the food going to feed all the animals raised for human consumption would end world hunger and famine very quickly. The vast open land it takes to support raising livestock would be saved and utilised for housing and work projects for the homeless worldwide. There are currently over one billion cattle on earth feeding less than half of the world’s population.

The emissions created from all this livestock are far more harmful than all the cars and transit combined in the world. By becoming vegetarian/vegan, we are in essence reducing global warming. 

I hope you enjoyed the read, please feel free to share feedback on anything above.

#Vegetarian Lover

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How to eat a proper vegetarian diet?

If you have been vegetarian or vegan for awhile, than you most likely understand how to take care of your body, both internally and externally. Seems strange right? Not realy; what we do the the inside we do to the outside.

The learning when it comes to being vegetarian or vegan or no different than any other learning curve. I think it is great that you want to become vegetarian or vegan. There are a few things to consider firstly though;

1.  Understand what nutrients your body requires daily, so you can properly take care of yourself.

2. Understand where there nutrients come from so you can create a balanced healthy lifestyle while being vegetarian or vegan.

3. Understand how to combine foods to gain the most out of them.

#dailynutitionalrequirements 

The above chart is an indication in simple terms of what the average person needs to intake in a day. If you are very active or sedentary than you must adjust these numbers to reflect your lifestyle.

Where do I get these nutrients from. Yes, as a vegetarian or vegan you can still get all the nutrients you require

The first chart was a listing of protein. We see we need from 10g to 40g . Here is an idea of what to eat to get this amonut of protein.

- Quinoa .5cup = 4g protein

- Almonds 30g = 6g protein

- Adzuki beans .5cup = 8g protein

- Edamame shelled .5cup = 13.5g protein

- Corn .6cup = 3g protein

These are only 5 items we commonly eat and you can see form a protein perspective it is really not hard to achieve a high protein diet. Many items will contain within one serving a rich compliment of proteins and other nutrients. Pay attention to the fact that there are no prepared foods here, gimmicky items, or special ingredients. You can find these items anywhere.

Fibre , we can see we need an average of 20g to 38g per day. What is a good source of fibre? See the attached chart  

Look at the chart for a moment. Did you think it would be this easy?

1. Avocado - 1 small piece =9.2g fibre

2. Sweet potato - 1cup = 6g fibre

3. Squash 1cup = 6.6g fibre

4. Apple mdium size = 4.4g per apple

5. Lentils 1cup = 15.6g fibre.

These again are foods we typically buy regularly and are available at everyday grocers. Notice they are all regular foods again? No special needs here, no special drinks required, no shakes.

Calcium was next I believe we need 1200mg per day,

Have a peek at the two charts below.to I only posted vegan sources to make it easy. If you are not vegan but vegetarian then it become even easier to receive your daily intake of natural calcium

1. Fresh Kale 1cup = 185mg calcium

2. Broccoli 1cup = 95mg

3. Turnip greens 1cup = 250mg

4. Oranges 1 each = 60mg calcium

5. Soy milk fortified 1cup = 250mg

You can see you will have no trouble achieving your daily needs of nutrients in our diet. 

No special shopping trips nor special routines. Believe or not you can still live and operate as a regular person. 

When going out though, try to look ahead of time if the location serves or caters to vegetarian or vegan requests. Most nowadays do as it has become so mainstream.

By consuming this type of diet, there are unbelievable benefits you will receive naturally. This is another blog but just to tease you now;

- healthier internal body

- healthier skin and tone

- healthier hair and organs

-lighter feeling (more energy and longer)

-easier to maintain body weight. You won’t become skinny as food still contains fat, but it is the good fats your bosy needs for muscle tone, development and energy, not the kind that sits at our waistline giving us headaches of how to get rid of it.

Looking for more help on dietary needs, reach out to us on our blog. We help create healthy living alternatives everyday for people who are thinking about being vegan, vegetarian or just simply looking to be healthier naturally.  

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#Are Humans Born Vegetarian 

This question has been asked repeatedly over time. Both sides (vegetarian and non-vegetarian) feel they have compelling arguements to the discussion.

Let’s look at the facts form science

1) Our teeth are designed for grinding, chewing slowly. They have little ripping ability. 

2) Our jaw has movements with lateral ability, carnivores have no lateral movement ability.

3)We have miles of large intestine 9times, through which to metabolize food and absorb nutrients, carnivores have only1.5 to 3 times their length. See the herbivore picture above for similarities.

4) Our urine is alkaline we where carnivores are acid

5) Humans have large salivary glands and carnivores have small salivary glands.

6) Humans have small mouth openings and carnivores have large mouth openings

7) Our stomach acid is much weakerthan a carnivores stomach acid as they consumer whole or large pieces of flesh and we do not.

In essence humans are designed to be vegetarian from birth. As a species we didn’t even eat meat for milennia until recently in our hstory. We didn’t posses fire or means to cook, so we survived by foraging.

Predatorial species (carnivores) have natural built in hunting abilities, speed, pouncing, scent, tracking ability. We do not possess these abilities, we couldn’t even hunt as a species until we created weapons to hunt with. True carnivores require no assisted weapons in the hunt. 

Our body does not digest meat of any kind properly. It lingers in our system for days until our body completely processes it. In the process it has gone rotten in our bodies after a day before our system expunges it. Humans have basically been conditioned to eat meat until it has become a part of society.

How about psycology? Ever feel the urge to run down the street or a park and randomly catch a small forest animal and eat it there on the spot? probably not, I am guessing. What would people think if you did? Call the hospital to arrange a visit for you I think. Carnivores, do feel the need to hunt and kill and eat raw flesh and they do.

As a human we can get 100% of all our daily vitamins, nutrient and minerals from a vegetarian diet. It is as simple as eating a balaned diet following the colour spectrum to ensure a balance daily.

Eat you orange, yellows, greens, white, purples everyday mixed in with nuts, grains, seeds, and legumes. You won’t miss any aspect of a balanced diet. 

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What is a vegetarian or vegan

In order to understand #what is a vegetarian vs a vegan we first need to give a definition to each term.

The basic definition of a vegetarian is someone who abstains from eating meat, fish, poultry, pork or any other animal food product even such as gelatin, or some food colouring as they are animal based as well. The list is long believe it or not.

The vegan is much stricter though. They start with the basic vegetarianism then add no egg, or dairy to the list. Typically as well vegans will not associate purchases of non-food items related to animal based products as well. That means no alligator shoes, leather handbag, snake skin belt etc.

This list is very basic yet fundamental. The list includes many derivatives of vegetarian levels of commitment such as

#What is a Lacto-Ovo Vegetrian - Again, similar to vegetarian diet in restricting animal, fish, poultry etc, but they will consume dairy or egg products.This is the basic vegetarian level diet.

#What is a Lacto- Vegetarian - this category consumes no meat, fish, poulry or animal products. They also do not consume egg products, They will however consume dairy products. We will consider this as step up from basic basic entry level vegetarian.

 #What is a Ovo-Vegetarian -  They also do not consume any listed animal products similar to vegetarian diet but include no consumption of dairy products. They will consume egg products however.

#What is a Vegan - this is the strictest level of vegetarian. They will also not eat fish, meat, poultry or any derived form of animal product but also add to this list no egg or dairy. Typically as well vegans will not associate purchases on non-food items related to animal based products as well. That means no alligator shoes, leather handbag, snake skin belt or wool sweater etc.

#What is a Polloterian - this is a category where you are #semi-vegetarian, meaning you are on the road to becoming vegetarian. You will not eat red meat, fish or seafood, pork but will still consider to consume poultry. Poultry and fowl are the only meat this group eats.

#What is a Pescatarian- this group of people like polloterian do not eat fowl, red meat or animal land products. They still however eat fish and seafood.

#What is a Flexitarian -  a flexitarian is a plant based diet with the occasional intake of all meat, fish or seafood in their diet. They will try their best to limit how much non-vegetarian product they consume in their daily diet.

As a vegetarian myself eventually on my way to being vegan as is my whole family and my wifes family, we must pay respect to all those already vegetarian or vegan. What is more important though is pay our our highest respect to those making the true effort to become vegetarian. Even though Pescatarian, Pollotarian and Flexitarian are truly not a class of vegetarian, these categories have been developed due to the ever increasing amount of people recognizing the need to try to eat vegetarian. For some of us, it was or seemed easy to make the change. There is a reason for this, as we were most likely ready physically, emotionally and mentally for the change, maybe we even had support of friends or family. It is not that easy though for many people to make the change suddenly, and lets be honest here; most of us grew up where eating animal life was considered a normal part of life without a second thought. It is for this reason that we must honour those people making the effort to change, because if we offer any other feedback, we may derail their efforts therein hurting oursleves. 

The numbers are very stagerring in North America for the vegetarian/vegan population. In Canada there are a reported 2.8million vegetarians or vegan as of this year 2016. In the U.S. there are a reported 16million reported vegetarian or vegan followers as of this year. These numbers are amazing considering how many there were when i grew up. I never met a vegetarian or vegan actually until my early 20′s. Great for them though for what they had to have endured so long ago and the feedback they would have received. The numbers are of course self-reported which means there could be a variance of 2% each way but none the less this is incredible.

But WAIT - there are even more categories of Vegetarinas out there. My list above presumes we are all from North America. Well we aren’t, so allow me to add to my list from other cultures where the vegetarian, vegan movement started while we as a country were not even a country yet.

 #Vegetarian Jain - This category of vegetarian is for pure vegetarians. They will eat only fruit or stem vegetables which grow above the ground and not eat egg of milk. On top of that they don’t consume  onions, mushroom, garlic, ginger, carrot, beet and radish etc. There are more of course. Jain is one of the oldest styles of vegetarian from India.

#Asian Pure Vegetarian - similar Jain vegetarian but they do eat fruit and vegetables form the ground. They don’t consume onion or garlic though.

#Raw Vegetarian - this category of vegetarian does not consume any animal product or product of animal origin and won’t eat food cooked above 44c.  They typically eat fruits, nuts, nut pastes, legumes, sea vegetables, mushrooms, herbs. The list of course is far longer but in essence basicall not cooked food.

If you fly on an airplane I will list the codes for you below when available how the airlines code your meal.

#Airline meals

 #VGML - Vegetarian Meal, also called vegan meal as it contains no meat, animal product, fish or seafood, nor egg or dairy products or by-products

#VLML - Vegetarian Lacto-Ovo Meal, this is the standard regular vegetarian meal as described above. No animal products or bi-products but contain egg and dairy.

#VOML - Vegetarian Oriental Meal, this is a standard vegetarian meal but prepared Asian Style

#VGML - Vegan Oriental Meal, this is a vegan meal prepared Orintal Style

 #AVML - Asian Vegetarian Meal, this is a vegetarian meal which is prepared using aromatic flavours and spices form the Indian sub-continent.

#VJML - Vegetarian Jain Meal, this category is the same as the described Jain Vegetarian above.

 #RVML - Raw Vegetarian Meal, as described above it is the uncooked vegetarian meal.

#FPML - Fruit Platter Meal,  although this is not a category of vegetrian or vegan as of yet, on the airlines it can be requested.

#HNML - Hindu Meal, this is for the Hindu community who are not strict vegetarian, it does not contain beef.

I really enjoyed sharing this information with you today, and look forward to my next blog where I will tackle the difficult yet contraversial topic of #Is Humankind naturally born vegetarian or was it learnt and why.

I will do my utmost best to present only the facts of course but from Science and Spiritual as the Spiritual Belief overall has the most followers

Bye for now, and happy reading

#Vegetarian Lover out  

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King’s Vegetarian Food short introduction video. Yours truly doing the talkingI hope you enjoy watching and please comment

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First Ever Blog, Introductory Post

Hello everyone, 

My name is David Younge and I have created this blog for #Vegetarian Lovers and #Vegan lovers. I work with a company called King’s Vegetarian Food in Misissauga. I have been with them for four years now but truly engaged since two and a half years.

I myself am a vegetarian since 5 years now (and I love it by the way)! I have created this blog to share so many topics on Vegetarian and Vegan eating, foods, #myth busting, life style of vegetarian or vegan. 

I am very lucky to be associated with this company as they are an awesome (old word I know), group of people. I have the best job I tell you. My average day looks like this

- Go to work at my fabulous factory

- Create promotions for vegetarian products

- Speak in engagements about the benefits of vegetarianism or veganism

-Attend trade shows about vegetarianism

-We even sponsored the Toronto Vegan Food Fest the last four years. I am sure many of you from the GTA maybe even saw me there. I was the frantic one running betwen two restaurants and serving Sweet Mango and Thai sticky rice. Oh yah, you know what I am talking about! 

Anyways, back to reality,  This great company has been around now for 18 years. Long time I know. Maybe you know their restaurants, Zen Gardens, Kings Cafe Toronto? Maybe you even ate there? They have great food.

I will love to share with you many topics in regards to vegetarianism or veganism, from what it is, why are we vegetarian or vegan, How to eat properly as a vegetarian or vegan, what diference will you notice as you change your diet, do veggies stay veggies, will I die if I become vegan (seriously, I got asked that question more than once!)

I thank you for reading my first blog, and truly hope you will return from time to time for my updates. I plan to speak from facts and research but also from experience, and sharing over the years what others shared to me. This is what will make this blog great I think.

Please have a look at the video which I will include. It is a shameless (kidding!) introduction to our company with a few words  form yours truly.

Have a truly spectacular day and Stay Healthy and most of all Stay Real and  True to Yourself! 

#Vegetarian Lover Out

David