sweeteners or soy products

[Guest guest]

Mark and/or Slim,

 

Do you keep away from syrups, sweeteners, fruit jams, and dried fruits due to their high caloric count and low nutrition value? And, do you find tofu and tempeh too high in fat to eat on a regular basis?

 

Maureen

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Maureen,

It's weird, I've been a vegetarian formally and informally on the order three

decades and I've never had tofu. I've not bought it in any store. I know what it

must be like because I make some fermenting homemade soymilk with yogurt

starters which separates into tofu and whey. I'm playing with a new viili

culture a friend sent and in feeding that I had a cup of fermented tofu and

whey, rather than soymilk with my oatmeal today. But why pay for tofu when peas

and lentils are natural, nutritious and non-fat, and usually cost less? Equally

I don't use any of the processed soy foods with the cute names.

 

I make brown rice & /or rye berries cooked in some balsamic vinegar with lentils

and other legumes, diced onions, mushrooms or peppers, maybe some tomato sauce,

and greens from the yard. I don't know what to call it, so I call it

succor-tash, and make it in the rice cooker, bachelor easy.

 

You were asking about homemade tempeh. Tempeh, I understand, can also be well

made with lentils, chana dahl or split peas rather than soybeans or soy okara,

and so be non-fat. I belong to a group that discusses such things:

 

http://tech.TEMPEH/

 

But I haven't done this yet either. I guess because I need to order and keep a

specific tempeh starter.

 

I have no trouble avoiding fats. I do consume a little whole bean soymilk with

flax seed and cereal for my total measurable daily fat content of likely under

ten-twenty grams. I sometimes eat a few cooked whole soy beans in the rice pot,

too.

 

I eat some whole fruits -- apples, oranges, raisins, bananas -- but I think more

or less within Esselstyn guidelines, maybe one or two pieces a day. Usually it

is less as I don't go to the store every day and I run out, unless I have

homegrown tomatoes, which I don't limit at all when they are ripe in season!

 

Where I've probably been getting into trouble is with sugar and salt, as I use

this to flavor homemade soymilk and veggie yogurt. I don't use much, one or two

tablespoons brown sugar (which is subsequently fermented in the yogurt) and 1/2

to 1 teaspoon salt per half gallon, but it can add up when you like yogurt as

much as I do(!). Also I've been making kombucha tea, which I let ferment a long

time -- 3 weeks usually, but still may contain some sugar, hard to say how much.

So I've resolved to cut out the kombucha, seek some sweetening alternatives,

maybe stevia or agave, in homemade yogurt and soymilk. And/or start making

non-fat tempeh as my pro-biotic food.

 

No troubles with my weight or general health, 5-11 <160, just trying to fine

tune things, pushing 55.

 

Let's see if I can hold to that.

 

Slim

 

 

 

 

, maureen smith <maureensgardengrotto

wrote:

>

> Mark and/or Slim,

>

> Do you keep away from syrups, sweeteners, fruit jams, and dried fruits due to

their high caloric count and low nutrition value?  And, do you find tofu and

tempeh too high in fat to eat on a regular basis?

>

> Maureen

>