Vegan Tuna Burgers: Old-fashioned Comfort

When I attended Gregory Elementary School in West Orange, N.J., our infrequent art and cooking classes were always an exciting break from the classroom. They were held in a big activities room filled with long tables and lined on one wall with a kitchen. Once a month or so we trudged up there for “home economics,” which always involved preparation and tasting of a simple recipe.

An absolute favorite and one I always remembered was the tuna burger recipe we made in 4th grade. My mom made them at home for me several times over the next couple of years. While I was writing an article this week about vegan sandwiches, tuna burgers popped into my head.

So I pulled out my mom’s old Betty Crocker Cookbook, a loose leaf style book into which she had added her own favorite recipes. And sure enough, there in the luncheon section was the torn stained copy of Tuna Burgers, with my mom’s handwritten notation that it was from my 4th grade class.

It was fun to veganize and I was pretty pleased with the result. The recipe below calls for kelp granules which are essential to get that seafood flavor. Most natural foods grocery stores carry this product or you can order it directly from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables.

Here is vegan comfort food at its best:

Vegan Tuna Burgers

1 15-ounce can or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup cubed yellow vegan cheese (I used Vegan Gourmet Cheddar-style)
½ cup vegan mayonnaise (I used Vegenaise)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp kelp granules
5-6 whole wheat hamburger rolls


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Process the chickpeas in a food processor until coarsely chopped. (Or if you don’t feel like getting the food processor dirty, you could do this by hand with a pastry blender). Be careful not to over-process; the chickpeas should not be pureed.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the burger rolls, of course) and mix by hand to blend. Spread the mixture on the bottom halves of the rolls and cover with the tops. Wrap each burger loosely in aluminum foil and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. The inside should be hot and a little melty and the roll should be toasted.

Can a Vegan Support Meatless Monday?

I’ve been in this business a long time—as both an activist and a dietitian—and I must say, I’ve never been so confused about all of the terminology and events and opportunities surrounding plant-based eating. My head is often spinning but I’m starting to see that this is a good thing. The reason there is so much going on is that lots of people are talking about animal agriculture.

When I first became a vegan the only people who even knew the term factory farming were other vegans. Now almost everyone knows what it is and that it’s bad. And little by little, people are starting to respond. The responses are often weak, that’s for sure. And the activist part of me feels disappointed about that.

But as a dietitian, I have a somewhat different take on it. Spend a few years providing dietary counseling to mainstream Americans and you develop a rather different idea about what constitutes progress. Anything that gets people thinking about the reasons to decrease intake of animal products is good. In that respect, even lukewarm efforts like Meatless Monday can make a contribution.

My biggest complaint about Meatless Monday is the focus on climate change and health, two virtually useless arguments for veganism. I refuse to let that stop me from taking advantage of Meatless Monday to promote my own agenda, though. I perceive it as an invitation to talk about factory farming and animal rights with all the Meatless Monday-ers I meet. It’s also a great opening for letters to the editor to share reasons for going vegan.

All by itself, Meatless Monday doesn’t get me too excited. As a springboard to more meaningful activism, though, it might have some merit.

Best Vegan Nutrition Websites

I’ve been writing in my examiner column about some things to watch for when evaluating vegan nutrition resources. Today I listed my favorite websites for finding reliable information on vegan diet and, for those who don’t read the Seattle Vegan Examiner, I want to reprint them here.

Eating well—both from a culinary standpoint and a health standpoint—is good activism for animals. After all, when studies reveal health problems among vegans, it’s obviously bad for the image of vegan diets. And when vegans make diets needlessly complicated, it makes others view veganism as a chore.

So, when it comes to sources of vegan nutrition information, I’m picky. There are very few websites that I can comfortably recommend. The list below is short, but you can always rely on these sites to provide good nutrition information. In no particular order, these are my top picks for reliable information about vegan diets.

veganhealth.org

Developed by dietitian Jack Norris, who is also co-founder of Vegan Outreach, this is the most comprehensive overview of information pertaining to vegan health on the internet. Jack includes great background information on all of the topics as well as links to other helpful articles. If you need to know something—it’s here! And it’s 100% reliable.

vrg.org/nutrition

The Vegetarian Resource Group promotes vegan diet and their materials are almost exclusively oriented toward vegans. This page is an index of articles on a wide variety of topics related to vegan nutrition. Many of them are written by VRG’s nutrition advisor Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, who is among the most knowledgeable and respected vegan nutritionists in the country. She’s also a vegan mom!

vegetarian-nutrition

This collection of articles was compiled by Winston Craig, PhD, RD, nutrition professor at Andrews University. Dr Craig is also among the most respected and reliable sources of vegan information. He is very well-known among vegan nutritionists. He has written many of these articles himself and also reprints pieces written by other professionals. You’ll find a lot to read here, all of it very interesting! I find myself dipping into his website all of the time.

vegnutrition.com

This is me! I put this site together primarily to help new vegans and those making the transition from lacto-ovo vegetarian to vegan diet. It covers the bare basics—enough to allow you to plan a healthful vegan diet but not a whole lot of background material. Needless to say, I consider it to be reliable information.

Between these four sites, you truly should find everything you need to know about vegan nutrition.

Easy Vegan Dinner: Tequila Tempeh & Coconut Lime Rice

I blog recipes only occasionally since there are so many great vegan cooks on the internet—and I’m merely a good-enough cook. But sometimes I stumble over a recipe that is so fantastic or I find myself pulling together such an exceptional menu that I feel compelled to share. And that’s the case with last night’s dinner. Here is the menu:

~Tempeh Marinated in Tequila

~Rice with Corn, Coconut Milk and Lime

~Spinach (fresh from the garden)

~Salad (even fresher from the garden)

I think this menu sounds a little fancy, and it would, in fact, be perfect for company. But believe me, it was super easy. Once you have the tempeh marinating and, if you cook the brown rice ahead of time, the whole meal can be prepared in about 20 minutes. The tempeh is spicy and goes well with the more tropical and breezy flavor of the rice dish. I had red wine with this, but it really is a menu that calls for beer or margaritas.


Tequila Tempeh (recipe is from Turtle Island Foods)

8 oz tempeh
¼ cup oil (I used canola)
¼ cup rice vinegar
1 tbsp dried red chili flakes
¼ cup tequila
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
2 cloves minced garlic

Whisk together the marinade ingredients (that would be everything except the tempeh.) Cut the tempeh into thin cubes. Pour marinade over the tempeh and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Longer is better.

When you’re ready to cook, you can skewer the tempeh and cook on a hot grill, basting with the marinade. I don’t have a grill, though, so I poured the whole thing into a skillet and let the marinade cook down and the tempeh get a little brown.

The recipe for Coconut Lime Corn and Rice is from the Dine Dish Delish blog. I used brown jasmine rice rather than wild rice and parsley instead of cilantro. (I didn’t have any cilantro on hand, mostly because I don’t like it that much.) I also made this a one pot meal by simply stirring the corn, lime and coconut milk into the cooked rice and then gently heating it. Frozen corn just needs to be heated; it doesn’t need to be cooked.

The Atkins Diet Goes Vegan

Dr Atkins must be turning over in his grave. Researchers from Canada and the United States have taken his diet and—yikes!—veganized it. Their findings were published in the June 8, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Everyone knows about the infamous Atkins Diet, of course. It promised weight loss to anyone who severely restricted carbohydrate intake and filled her plate with fatty meats. For whatever reasons—and the possible explanations are hotly debated among nutritionists—the diet works for weight loss.

But there are some obvious problems with the Atkins approach. First of all, while weight loss almost always results in lower LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol), that doesn’t happen on the Atkins plan. In fact, not surprisingly, cholesterol often goes up. High meat intake is also linked to digestive tract cancers. And then there is the matter of ethics and responsibility; who wants to be eating a diet that destroys the environment and promotes animal suffering?

But what if you replaced all the animal fat and protein in the diet with plant sources of those nutrients? Clearly it would produce a more healthful and responsible version of the Atkins Diet. But would it reap the same weight loss benefits without all the pitfalls? That’s what the researchers who developed the “Eco-Atkins” diet aimed to find out. They designed a 100% vegan diet that was high in protein (31% of calories) and fat (43% of calories).The protein was derived from gluten, soy, vegetables, nuts and cereals. Fat came mostly from nuts, vegetable oils and soy products.

Twenty-two subjects followed the diet for four weeks and had a weight loss that was similar to what people achieve on the Atkins Diet. But the advantage of the plant-based regimen was obvious since they also experienced a drop in LDL-cholesterol while maintaining levels of the good (HDL) cholesterol.

Another group in this study followed a carbohydrate-rich lacto-ovo vegetarian diet that was moderate in both protein and fat. They, too, lost weight and had lower LDL cholesterol levels at the end of the study period. But their ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol wasn’t quite as good as in the Eco-Atkins group. That may be due to the generous amounts of nuts, soyfoods and unsaturated fat in the higher protein diet; all three of those have been shown to have a beneficial effect on the ratio of good to bad cholesterol.

Those eating the Eco-Atkins diet also rated their diet as more satiating compared to the people eating the high-carb diet. But the higher protein diet was also higher in fiber, and both protein and fiber have satiating effects.

I have long been an advocate of boosting plant protein intake for weight loss and also of including higher fat foods in diets to reduce heart disease risk. There is lots of research to support both. The Eco-Atkins Diet is certainly a very extreme version of those recommendations and it’s not one I’m rushing to recommend. In any case, the study was just four weeks long and included only 44 subjects.

Even so, there are some interesting take home messages here. The findings support the fact that, for weight loss, it doesn’t matter where your calories come from. Second, it supports other earlier findings that replacing some carbohydrate with plant fat can be better for reducing heart disease risk. And finally, whatever advantages there may be to eating more protein, it is clearly better to get that protein from plant foods. Plant protein can do anything that animal protein can do. And, in this case, plant protein did it better.

Supplements for Sad Vegans

Are you sad? I often am. Anyone with a genetic predisposition to depression knows what it’s like to have the blues for no earthly reason. And when you are an animal rights activist, it can make things a whole lot worse.

Let's face it, when you care about animal suffering, it's pretty easy to feel despondent and despairing. How many of us can read about factory farming or puppy mills or fur farms without feeling anger at the least, and more often a sense of overwhelming sadness.

Maybe we can’t change our genes or control all of the things in the world that make us unhappy. But lifestyle, including diet and exercise, can make a big difference. For example, vegans can be at higher risk for certain nutrient deficiencies that might affect mood.

Research suggests that low intakes of vitamin D, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acids might lead to depression. For everyone—omnivores included—the only sources of vitamin D are supplements, fortified foods and sun exposure. (Actually, there are a few animal sources of vitamin D, but it is very unlikely that omnivores can eat enough of them to meet needs; that’s why cow’s milk is fortified by law.)

Getting enough vitamin D from sunlight is tricky because there are so many variables such as where you live, your age, and the level of pigmentation in your skin, not to mention the fact that sun exposure raises risk for skin cancer. Therefore, it is prudent for everyone to get some vitamin D from fortified foods or supplements. Vegans can look for supplements of vitamin D2 or ergocalciferol, which is plant-derived. Aim for 200 IU (which equals 5 micrograms) per day, or 400 IU for those over 50 and 600 IU for those over 70.

All vegans need to supplement with vitamin B12, using either fortified foods or chewable supplements. You can find more information about this in my examiner column on B12.

Whether or not vegans need to supplement with the long-chain omega-3 fats (DHA) that are found in fish oils isn’t known since the research is conflicting. In the meantime, it might be a good idea for vegans to take around 200 micrograms per day of an algae-derived supplement. Jack Norris, RD has a list of vegan DHA supplements on VeganHealth.

For most people, taking supplements isn’t likely to cure depression. But a diet that is deficient in nutrients can definitely sabotage efforts to feel better. A well-balanced diet with appropriate supplements or fortified foods can help.

Saturated Fats, Heart Disease, and Other Things We Still Don’t Understand

What is this love affair that everyone seems to have with bacon these days? It seems to appear in every other recipe published on the internet. The most recent ones I saw were for bacon candy and bacon brownies.

Now the latest internet claim is that lard—which is rendered fat from pigs—is supposedly good for us. Ugh. The basis for this idea is that much of the fat in lard is either monounsaturated (like the fat in olive oil) or is the type of saturated fat that doesn’t affect cholesterol levels.

I don't know--maybe so. But, dietary fat is a bit more complicated than that. Some types of saturated fat (including the palmitic acid in lard) have been shown to have other effects in the body which raise risk for heart disease.

Still, over the years, much of the canon about diet and heart disease has been challenged and debated. How much does saturated fat matter? We really don’t know.

Canadian researchers recently looked at different dietary factors and ranked them according to how strongly and consistently they affected heart disease risk. They reviewed findings only from the types of studies that provide the most conclusive evidence and they went all the way back to 1950. Their findings were published in the April 13, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Here is what they concluded:

• Factors that had a strongly protective effect against heart disease were vegetables, nuts, monounsaturated fats and Mediterranean style of eating.

• Factors that strongly raised risk for heart disease were trans fatty acids, high glycemic index, and Western dietary pattern (characterized by high intake of processed meat, red meat, butter, high-fat dairy, eggs, and refined grains).

• There was moderate evidence for a protective effect for omega-3 fats, folate (a B vitamin), whole grains, vitamins C and E from foods, beta carotene, alcohol, fruit and fiber.

• The evidence was weak for any effect of vitamin C and E supplements, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, total fat intake, omega-6 fats, and individual foods like meat, eggs, and milk.

This is just one review, of course, and it is hardly the final word on diet and heart disease. It is suggestive of where the evidence stands right now, and mostly shows that we still have a lot to learn about this dietary issue.

But, there is certainly no evidence here that eating lard is good for you as the lard advocates claim.

There is, however, strong support for the idea that whole plant foods protect against heart disease. And, it’s clear that the way most Americans eat now—a diet that includes large amounts of animal fat—raises risk for heart disease. The American Heart Association still recommends a diet low in saturated fat.

I think that tells us that we vegans are on the right track when it comes to healthful eating. But does it make the case for vegan diet? Once again the answer is no. There is one case for veganism: It’s the only ethical and humane way to eat. That’s a claim that the lard fans and saturated fat promoters can never make for their diet.