Vegan Panacea

A few months ago, a friend gave us the book The China Study, a book that traces the correlation between meat and dairy laden diets (aka the typical American diet) and cancer and heart disease. The China Study turned my nutritional knowledge upside down. What I thought was a good healthy dinner, was not.

I read the book in 3 nights and became convinced that this would save my child, our family from cancer. I purchased all types of milk alternatives like soy, rice, almond and flavored soy milks to taste test them and decide as a family what would work best for us. My family are big milk drinkers. Trey goes through a few gallons a week on lattes. M and J and I drink 1% and go through a few gallons a week too. We changed from milk with dinner to orange juice, and soy milk tastes like cereal milk so that wasn't too difficult. I stopped cooking with cheeses, and as I use cheese to flavor everything, this took some effort. Since my children stopped eating any types of meat a year or so ago, the meat part wasn't all that difficult to give up (there was the occasional piece of bacon at Grandpa Dick and Nana Helen's).

After taking out a few vegan and vegetarian cookbooks from the library, and changing some of my favorite recipes to vegan, we have created a recipe file that really is starting to work. When we go out the girls will order pizza, or something with cheese. That's fine too. This change was not about being the perfect vegan. It was about changing my cooking so my children get most of their nutrients from plant based foods and less than 10% from milk/ cheese/ eggs/ meat products. And in this we have been successful.

When I read the book, I literally glowed with the thought that this would be the panacea for the cancer. Since then, I have read that vegetarians and vegans are less likely to have cancer, but not much less likely. The risk decreases by say 20-40%, and that's great, but it's not 100%. Last Thursday at clinic, Mady's doctor mentioned that a boy brought up on a vegan diet, never using a microwave, using glass containers and iron skillets has bone cancer. So although she rained on my panacea parade, I needed to hear it. This is one aspect of a many headed monster, most of which is unknown. So we will continue our vegetarianism, but not sweat the occasional ice cream. And I really hope it helps.

Here is a surprise favorite. A recipe for Harira, a lentil soup modified slightly from the book A Taste of Morocco by Robert Carrier.
4 tbs olive oil
1 large Spanish onion peeled and finely chopped.
generous 1/2 c lentils (I use canned lentils)
1/2 c chickpeas
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered ginger, saffron
1/2 diced sweet red pepper
salty and black pepper to taste
8 c water
generous 1/2 c rice
1 package active dried yeast
2 Tbsp chopped fresh green cilantro
4 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped (I have used a large can of chopped toms and it's still terrific)
lemon quarters (a must)

Saute the onion for 5 minutes, add the legumes, spices, red pepper, saute for a few more minutes, add the water, let simmer for 1-2 hours. Cook rice and add cooked rice to soup. Dilute yeast in a little of the soup broth and add to soup. Stir in cilantro, toms and parsley and cook for 15 min. Serve with lemon quarters.