The Indian Vegan Kitchen (6 page)

It is important to recognize that, as with a nonvegetarian diet, including a variety of foods and proper planning of meals is necessary to get all the nutrients you need. These days, it is much easier to be a vegan, as many essential nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, and zinc are added to commonly consumed vegan foods.

When planning your vegan diet, give extra attention to the nutrients discussed below.

Getting enough protein is a common concern among vegans and vegetarians. Chosen wisely, a plant-based diet with plenty of variety and sufficient calories can provide more than enough protein.

As a nutrient, proteins perform many functions, as they are part of every body cell. You need a constant supply of protein to repair, build, and maintain body tissue. The building blocks of protein are known as amino acids. There are two kinds of amino acids—essential and nonessential. Our body makes most of the amino acids naturally; these are known as nonessential amino acids. The ones we cannot produce ourselves are called essential amino acids; these must be obtained through our food choices.

To use protein efficiently for maintaining tissue, it is important that you eat enough calories from carbohydrates and fat. If you consume an inadequate number of calories, protein will be used for energy and thus not be available to do its intended job. And if you eat more protein than you need, the excess protein will be converted to calories—not stored as a reserve supply of protein.

It was previously believed that people needed to consciously combine specific plant-based foods at each meal to get complete protein—protein that has all the essential amino acids. Research indicates that if you eat a variety of plant foods—grains, beans, nuts, and vegetables—and enough calories over the course of a day your body will make its own complete protein. By eating a variety of plant proteins, you may get some essential amino acids at lunch and some at dinner, and your body does the matching up for you.

Typical Indian meals are usually served with a variety of food groups such as dal and
chawal
(beans and rice), or roti and
subji
(flatbread with vegetables), with salads and chutneys, naturally providing complementary protein at a specific meal.

There has been so much emphasis on protein in recent years that people often feel they require a lot more protein than they actually do. According to the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), adults need 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. A mixed balanced vegan diet with grains, beans, and vegetables will provide you with adequate protein. To determine your protein needs, see the table below.

Carbohydrates are your most important source of food energy, powering everything from breathing to thinking to running. As with any healthy diet, the carbohydrates in a vegan diet should consist of 55 to 60 percent of total calories. In a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, that’s 1,100 to 1,200 calories from carbohydrates.

Over the last decade or so, carbs have received a bad rap. High protein-low carbohydrate diets have been promoted for quick weight loss. These diets are not balanced and have been unsuccessful in long-term weight loss. If you eat too many total calories, excess calories will be stored as fat—whether they’re from carbohydrate protein, or fat.

Worrying about simple and complex carbohydrates can be confusing. Some simple carbohydrate foods are high in fiber and nutrients, such as fruits; and some complex carbohydrate foods, such as processed white flour, are low in fiber. Rather, let’s shift the focus to nutrient density and fiber content of foods. Dietary fiber comes primarily from carbohydrates and is loaded with health benefits.

In general terms, fiber refers to complex carbohydrates that your body cannot digest or absorb—instead it is eliminated. High-fiber intake is one of the numerous benefits of the all-plant diets. Dietary fiber helps protect us against almost every major chronic disease that plagues modern civilization, including heart disease, cancer, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, hypoglycemia, and obesity.

Health experts recommend that most adults should consume 20 to 35 grams of fiber per day. That is 15 to 22 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories consumed. A person on a 2,000-calorie diet should eat 30 to 44 grams of fiber per day.

Fibers are the structural components of plants, which gives food its shape. Two types of fiber—insoluble and soluble—are characterized by how they dissolve in water. Both types of fiber are important to your health and can be found in plant-based foods.

Insoluble fiber
can be found in whole wheat products, corn, and the skins of many fruits and vegetables. Insoluble fiber is termed “nature’s broom,” since it helps regulate your bowel movements by reducing the transit time of undigested food through the intestines.

Soluble fiber
is found in oats, barley, dried beans and peas, and many fruits and vegetables (such as carrots, apples, and oranges). When soluble fiber combines with water in the digestive tract, it binds to nutrients such as cholesterol and escorts them out of the body.

Both types of fiber have been shown to reduce blood glucose levels in people with diabetes. High-fiber foods digest more slowly than processed foods and thus help regulate blood sugar levels so you don’t experience peaks and valleys in your energy levels throughout the day. Eating fiber-rich foods also gives you a sense of fullness, which can help you reduce your total daily caloric intake.

Too much of any food component is not good for you, even fiber. Excessive fiber can make your diet too bulky, which can jeopardize absorption of some nutrients such as calcium, iron, and zinc. In general, vegan diets will not result in excessive intake of fiber unless you add concentrated fiber foods such as wheat bran to whole foods.

Gas production is a normal, healthy function of the intestines, but unfortunately abdominal bloating can be uncomfortable. Here are some things you can do to help digest fiber-rich foods and minimize side effects:

Eating vegan does not automatically mean that all your dietary concerns are over, particularly when it comes to the issue of fat—how much, what type, and making sure you’re getting the essential fatty acids are all important.

The two essential fatty acids, linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid, are widely available in foods. In most cases, you get these fatty acids from vegetable oils such as canola, soybean, and corn oils, as well as nuts and seeds. In your body, alpha-linolenic acid converts to omega-3 fatty acid, which has been shown to help prevent heart disease. Eating a variety of foods and balancing your plant-based diet makes it easy to get enough of these fatty acids.

The optimal amount of fat in the vegan diet is the same as for other diets; it’s the amount of fat needed to ensure good health, promote proper growth and development of children, achieve adequate nutritional intakes, and maximize absorption of nutrients. It is also needed to prevent, treat, or reverse chronic diseases.

Extremely low-fat diets were in vogue in the 1980s and led to mass confusion as to the amount of fat one should eat. Low-fat diets are not recommended for vegans or the general population.

The nutritional analysis of each recipe in this book includes the total fat per serving. Knowing how much fat you need per day helps you keep food choices in perspective.

Optimal fat for good health and disease prevention is getting 25 to 35 percent of your daily calories from fat.

Lipids are fatty substances found in food and our body. There are several kinds of dietary fats, which have been classified into several categories based on their structure.

There are two types of unsaturated fats: polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Studies indicate that both of these fats help lower cholesterol levels when used in optimal amounts. Good sources of polyunsaturated fats are safflower, sunflower, corn, and soybean oils. The major monounsatured fats include canola, olive, and peanut oils. I primarily cook with canola oil for its health benefits and because it has minimal flavor of its own. You can use any vegetable oil of your choice.

Saturated fats are generally solid at room temperature. These fats are considered “bad fats,” as they are linked to increased risk of heart disease. Most vegans do not need to be concerned about saturated fats, as most plant foods do not contain them. Animal sources, including dairy products, are the main sources of saturated fat in the Western diet. Plant sources include coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter. The latest recommendations on saturated fats are no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fats, and 7 percent if you have heart disease.

Most vegans can include some tropical fats in their diet. The small amount of saturated fat coming from plant foods such as coconut, nuts, and other fat-rich plant foods will not adversely affect the saturated fat ratio. On the other hand, for people eating high-fat animal foods, tropical fats add more saturated fat to the diet, thus adding fuel to fire. (Too much saturated fat can also be of concern for people who use tropical oil for all their cooking.) Coconut is extensively used in south Indian dishes. I have included some recipes that use coconut products for variety and flavor.