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Many of you may be putting on extra pounds during this stressful period. Lack of exercise in some cases is adding to the problem. The Vegetarian Resource Group previously published a weight loss article in Vegetarian Journal by VRG’s nutrition advisors Reed Mangels, PhD, RD and Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD.

This article was written to provide suggestions for vegans, or people who are interested in following a vegan diet, who want to lose weight. The weight loss plan is designed for non-pregnant adults. If you have a medical condition such as kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure, please consult your health care professional to make sure these ideas will work for you.

Included in the article is a chart titled “Lowfat Foods To Meet Your Nutritional Needs.” You’ll also find a sample menu plan, as well as lowfat vegan recipes including:

• Spinach-Onion Dip
• Spicy Creamy Sauce
• Oven-Roasted Salsa Tofu
• Tofu and Snow Pea Stir-Fry
• Seitan L’Orange
• Tempeh Cacciatore
• Baked Pears
• Glazed Pineapple
• Pineapple Cake
• Banana-Almond Shake
• Orange-Vanilla Smoothie
• Cool Rice Cream with Fruit

Read the entire article here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2006issue1/2006_issue1_weight.php

To subscribe to Vegetarian Journal in the USA, see: https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA and Canada. Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

To support the updating of this online restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate

Here are some new additions to VRG’s guide (Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many are doing take-out and/or delivery now):

Bread + Roses, 302 Main St., Hyannis, MA 02601

Bread + Roses is a Cape Cod bookstore café where you can enjoy coffee, food, and a good book. The menu consists of smoothies and bowls, pastries, soup, burgers, tenders, buffalo wings, and more.

C4Eats, 2003 Harrison St., Hollywood, FL 33020

Located in downtown Hollywood near the Hollywood Boulevard and ArtsPark at Young Circle, this small, bright vegan soul food place offers sustainable, seasonal foods with hours that aim to be accessible for most lifestyles, using organic & pesticide free ingredients whenever possible. Alongside healthy fresh-made juices, they have pancakes, waffles, or a sausage breakfast sandwich in the morning, then come back for a burger or vegan fried fish for lunch, and come back again for fried chicken or pineapple glazed ham with sides including greens and mac and cheese for dinner. You can eat at a counter in house, at benches outside, or take your food to go.

Get Hype, Central Market House, 34 W. Philadelphia, Lancaster, PA 17401

Get Hype offers delectable, crafted cuisine such as BBQ jackfruit ribs, sweet potato mash, collard greens, shortbread, and more.

Mush Wings, 405 N. Walker Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Mush Wings offers the kickin chic’N sandwich, pizza and wings specials, parma and buffalo, and other dishes.

Plant Vegan Food Truck, 4310 Almeda Rd., Houston, TX 77004

The Plant Vegan Food Truck offers salted caramel banana nut pudding, delectable sandwiches, real lemon cake, vegan chikn tacos, steak fingers, and more. They have excellent customer service, a convenient location with outdoor dining, and is highly recommended by the locals.

Sweet Mustard HTX, 5257 Beechnut St., Houston, TX 77096

Popular entrees include a thick protein-infused Belgium waffle with a pinch of cinnamon and a Philly-style cheeze steak with crumbles and sautéed portobello mushrooms and onions. Sweet potato tacos and a country breakfast with potato hash and scrambled JUST eggs are available during Saturday and Sunday brunch. A kid’s menu is also available and includes a burger and tenders. Sweet Mustard also offers pre-made individual holiday meals.

Sweet Peaces Veggie Bistro, 300 E. 1st St., Flint, MI 48502

A year-round vendor at the Flint Farmers Market, Sweet Peaces is a small vegan restaurant that prepares flavorful food kits, ready-made deli meals, and other international dishes with ingredients from small gardens and local, sustainable farms. The menu is revised daily for customers to try a diverse range of in-season dishes, such as Thai broccoli rice, African peanut stew, samosas, and more. Even those with a sweet tooth will be surprised to find several veganized bakery goods, like cinnamon rolls and chocolate chunk cookies. In addition, many of their dishes are sold in mini jars as meal kits to store at home and enjoy when ready. Next time you visit the Flint Farmers Market, don’t forget to try a dish, pick up a meal kit, or indulge in brownie bars from here!

The Vegan Marie, 274 NW 54th St., Miami, FL 33127

Enjoy vegan food in the heart of Little Haiti. An example of a previous plate included legumes, buckwheat, veggie patties (breadfruit + quinoa + seamoss), boiled sweet potato, plantain, pikliz, a side salad, and avocado.

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Have you ever noticed that the label on a package of rice or dried beans says that the serving size is ¼ cup? Who eats a ¼ cup of rice as a serving? I decided to dive into the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations about labels to find out the reasoning behind portion sizes on grains and beans.

According to the FDA’s website, “By law, serving sizes must be based on the amount of food people typically consume, rather than how much they should consume” (1). Information from national surveys are used to set label portion sizes for everything from bagels (a serving is 110 grams) to wine coolers (12 ounces) to ice cream (2/3 cup). Of course, if a package is a single-serving container, the serving size must be the entire bottle even if it contains more than the portion size set by the FDA (2).  For example, if the FDA’s serving size for soda is 12 ounces and a bottle of soda has 20 ounces, the serving size for that product would be 1 bottle (20 ounces).

The FDA has designated 45 grams of dry product or 140 grams of prepared product as the serving size for grains such as rice and barley and 35 grams of dry product as the serving size for dried beans (3). Food companies are required to use a common household measurement like cups or tablespoons on the label and cannot just indicate how many grams there are in a serving (2). Thus, food producers must decide how to express 45 grams of dry grains or 35 grams of dry beans in terms of cups. Based on what I’ve observed, it’s common to use 1/4 cup of dry product as the portion size for dried beans and dry grains. Some companies do specify 1/4 cup (dry) but if they don’t, you’re safe to assume that if a quarter cup is listed as a serving, it’s likely to be the dry amount of the product. Some packages also include a statement along the lines of serving size: ¼ cup (makes ¾ cup prepared) but manufacturers are not required to do this.

If you’re trying to use the food label to figure out how many calories (or carbohydrates or other nutrients) are in a dry grain or dried bean that you’ve prepared, you have a few options.

• You could only prepare the amount that is identified on the package as the serving size – for example, 1/4 cup of dry brown rice – and see how much this makes when you cook it. Is that the usual amount that you eat or will you need to make more and then increase the nutrient content from the package accordingly?
• You could prepare the amount you usually make, perhaps 1-1/2 cups of dry brown rice, then determine the amount of cooked rice that this makes and back calculate to see how much cooked rice would result from 1/4 cup dry rice. Additional calculation could allow you to determine how many calories or nutrients are in the portion you eat.
• You could contact the manufacturer and politely request that they include a “prepared” amount on the label and inquire what that amount would be.

Ideally, in my opinion, FDA would make it easier for consumers who prepare foods from scratch and require food companies to use serving sizes that would be more meaningful than 1/4 cup of (dry) brown rice!

To read more about food labels see:

What’s Going On with Daily Values on Food Labels?

More About the Updates to the Daily Values on Food Labels

Puzzling Nutrition Information on Food Labels

References

1. FDA. Serving size updates on the new Nutrition Facts label. 2020. https://www.fda.gov/food/new-nutrition-facts-label/serving-size-updates-new-nutrition-facts-label

2. FDA. Food labeling: Serving sizes of foods that can reasonably be consumed at one eating occasion, reference amounts customarily consumed, serving size-related issues, dual-column labeling, and miscellaneous topics: Guidance for industry. 2019. https://www.fda.gov/media/133699/download

3. 21. CFR. 101.12. 2015. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2015-title21-vol2/pdf/CFR-2015-title21-vol2-sec101-12.pdf

This bill was passed in May of 2021:

“EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN SUBSECTION (C) OF THIS SECTION, BEGINNING JULY 1, 2022, A MANUFACTURER MAY NOT SELL OR OFFER FOR SALE IN THE STATE A COSMETIC IF THE MANUFACTURER KNOWS OR REASONABLY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT THE FINAL PRODUCT OR ANY INDIVIDUAL COMPONENT OF THE FINAL PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED OR MANUFACTURED USING ANIMAL TESTING THAT WAS CONDUCTED OR CONTRACTED BY OR FOR THE MANUFACTURER OR ANY ENTITY THAT SUPPLIES, DIRECTLY OR THROUGH A THIRD PARTY, ANY INGREDIENT USED BY A MANUFACTURER IN THE FORMULATION OF A COSMETIC ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2022”

For more information, see: https://legiscan.com/MD/text/SB282/2021

Every issue of Vegetarian Journal we review books. Recently we took a look at The Vegan Friendly. This 304-page book offers a wide variety of recipes including Breakfast Burritos, Toaster Pastries, Sushi, Yellow Tofu Curry, Spicy Udon Noodle Soup, and Ice Cream Cake.

Read the review here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2021issue4/2021_issue4_book_reviews.php

Subscribe to Vegetarian Journal in the USA only by visiting https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

What do we know about vitamin B12?

• It’s an essential nutrient.
• Vegans need to use vitamin B12 supplements and/or foods fortified with vitamin B12.
• People, possibly including lacto and lacto-ovo vegetarians who eat few animal products often need to use vitamin B12 supplements and/or foods fortified with vitamin B12.

A recent study (1) adds to our knowledge about vitamin B12 and supports the U.S. recommendations that older adults (those 51 years and older), whether or not they are vegan, use supplements and/or fortified foods to get their vitamin B12 (2).

In this study, which was conducted in Ireland, 15% of older adults had a condition called atrophic gastritis. People with this condition produce low amounts of acid in their stomachs. Acid is needed to separate vitamin B12 from protein so that it can be absorbed. The vitamin B12 in fortified foods and supplements does not require stomach acid for absorption. Not surprisingly, those older adults with atrophic gastritis were more likely to be deficient in vitamin B12.

Another issue related to vitamin B12 is the use of a category of drugs called proton pump inhibitors. These medications are used to suppress stomach acid and to treat conditions like reflux and ulcers. Because these drugs reduce stomach acid, they also reduce vitamin B12 absorption. In the study from Ireland, proton pump inhibitors were used for more than 6 months by more than a third of older adults. Those taking higher doses (more than 30 milligrams daily) had a higher risk of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Although older adults using vitamin B12-fortified foods 5 or more times a week were at lower risk of developing a deficiency of vitamin B12, some older adults using fortified foods, especially those with atrophic gastritis, were at risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. This may be because of the relatively low amount of vitamin B12 used to fortify foods in Ireland.

Vitamin B12 deficiency in older adults has been associated with depression, confusion, dementia, poorer bone health, and heart disease (3) so it is important that older adults are aware of the need to get their vitamin B12 from supplements and fortified foods.

That’s where vegans come in. Many of us are aware of the need for vitamin B12 supplements; we know which foods are fortified with vitamin B12. We can share this information with older friends and family members who should be using fortified foods and/or supplements as their main source of vitamin B12.

To read more about vitamin B12 see:

Vitamin B12 in the Vegan Diet

Vitamin B12 and Nutritional Yeast

Does Your Favorite Plant Milk Provide Vitamin B12?

Do vegetarians (vegans, lacto vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians) have to take vitamin B12 supplements?

References

1. Porter KM, Hoey L, Hughes CF, et al. Associations of atrophic gastritis and proton-pump inhibitor drug use with vitamin B-12 status, and the impact of fortified foods, in older adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2021;114(4):1286-1294.

2. Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board: Dietary Reference Intakes for Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B-6, Folate, Vitamin B-12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998.

3. Porter K, Hoey L, Hughes CF, Ward M, McNulty H. Causes, consequences and public health implications of low B-vitamin status in ageing. Nutrients. 2016;8(11):725.

Each issue of Vegetarian Journal includes a column titled Vegan Action. The recent issue features Scott Williams who runs Camp4Real in Virginia. Williams engages kids with not only healthy exercise but also healthy, plant-based diets. Read the article here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2021issue4/2021_issue4_vegan_action.php

Subscribe to Vegetarian Journal in the USA only by visiting https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

Due to the generosity of an anonymous donor, The Vegetarian Resource Group each year will award $20,000 in college scholarship money to graduating U.S. high school students who have promoted veganism/vegetarianism in their schools and/or communities. Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or fowl. Vegans are vegetarians who do not use other animal products such as dairy or eggs.

One award of $10,000 and two awards of $5,000 will be given. Entries may only be sent by students graduating from high school in spring 2022. Deadline is February 20, 2022. We will accept applications postmarked on or before February 20, 2021. Early submission is encouraged!

Applicants will be judged on having shown compassion, courage, and a strong commitment to promoting a peaceful world through a vegan/vegetarian diet/lifestyle. Payment will be made to the student’s college (U.S. based only). Winners of the scholarships give permission to release their names to the media. Applications and essays become property of The Vegetarian Resource Group. We may ask finalists for more information. Scholarship winners are contacted by e-mail or telephone. Please look at your e-mail.

For details on the contest, see: http://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

Very Good Butchers plant-based meat products include bangers (sausages), BBQ, burgers, ground, hot dogs, pepperoni, ribz, and steak. Read our review in Vegetarian Journal: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2021issue4/2021_issue4_veggie_bits.php

Subscribe to Vegetarian Journal in the USA only by visiting https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php