"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Stunt Nutrition

I was given a challenge and then decided to challenge myself. First, could I come up with a healthy vegan diet that was gluten-free? Then, could I come up with a healthy diet that fits in with the Paleo Diet guidelines?

First, the standard I use is: eat like a tiny pregnant teenager in 1980. That means using the most stringent standards for nutrients, but keeping calories to 2000. The 1980 standard is used because the RDAs keep getting changed, always becoming more lenient; it's said it's because the science is better or the testing is more accurate, but there's a lot of politics and I'm using the harder standards. I also incorporate other data, such as that vitamin C becomes counterproductive over 250 milligrams and the amount of vitamin A depends upon the source.

The vegan diet has infuriatingly tiny portions of many items. The challenge of the Paleo was to keep the amount of fat, particularly saturated fat, low; it ends up being 25% fat, 20% protein by having a huge amount of fruit.

Gluten-free Vegan

1/8 oz. walnut
1/8 oz. sunflower seed
1/2 oz. almond
1/4 oz. pine nuts or 1/2 Tbsp. sesame
1/4 c. miso or 1/2 c. tempeh or 16 oz. soy milk (fortified with calcium, vitamins D and B-12)
4 oz. orange juice (calcium and vitamin D fortified)
1 c. blueberries or cranberries
banana
4 oz. grape juice or pomegranate juice
1/2 c. dry pasta (210 cal.): mung bean thread, 100% buckwheat soba or corn pasta or rice pasta; with 1/2 tsp. olive oil, 1/4 tsp. dried basil or oregano, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 c. cooked lentils (or other beans), with fresh garlic, and curry (ginger, turmeric,fennel, clove, black pepper, chili, cumin)
1 1/2 c. cooked Uncle Ben's converted, long-grain parboiled rice or Basmati rice or other long-grain, high-amylose rice (esp. brown); with 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. iodized salt, 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. (precooked) quinoa, amaranth, teff or wild rice
coffee: 2x 5 oz., each w/ 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
tea: 2x 6 oz.
water: ad libitum
1/2 tsp. flax oil
10g. dry spirulina
1/2 oz. torula (nutritional) yeast
2 tsp. dry wheat grass
100g. raw sea vegetables: carageenan, kombu, nori or wakame
1/3 c. cooked broccoli
1/3 c. cooked spinach
1/3 c. cooked mushrooms (button and shiitake)
celery stalk
1/8 sweet potato, 1/3 c. cantaloupe or 1/4 c. winter squash

Paleo Diet

1/4 oz. walnut
1/4 oz. sunflower seed
1 oz. almond
1/4 oz. pine nut
peach
tangerine
fig
1 c. blueberries
1 c. raspberries
banana
date
2 c. grapes (European, adherent skin)
1 c. watermelon
artichoke
1/2 c. asparagus
1/2 c. cooked broccoli
1/2 c. cooked spinach (or other green leafy veg.; some sources say spinach isn't allowed because it "negatively affects acid/base balance")
1 c. cooked mushrooms
celery stalk
1 c. baked acorn squash
7 oz. roasted skinless turkey breast
6 oz. pink salmon, canned with bone
2 sardines (Atlantic)
1/2 oz. canned clams (i.e. one 3 oz. serving per week)
10 g. dry irishmoss (carageenan)
10 g. dry kombu (brown kelp)
water: ad libitum (preferably from a calcium-rich source)
vitamin D supplement (or cod liver oil)

For the record, I ascribe to neither of these.

9 comments:

Diane said...

Do you offer a weekly delivery service?

Kel said...

Well, it certainly sounds better than the hypertonic high fructose corn syrup they'll be serving at Ice Age this year :(

wildknits said...

So - give you another challenge - can you design one of those for a person with nut allergies?! ;->

Not a strict vegetarian, but not necessarily a carnivore either - rather opportunistic (eat low on the food chain) BUT - nut allergies make life interesting (and mine are mild, though annoying).

Beth said...

I try to limit my dinner recipes to no more than 5 ingredients, preferably one of them being cheese. Can you tell I don't cook? I don't even know what some of those ingredients in the post are! I need to work on that...

SteveQ said...

Lisa, these were tough to do. Nut allergies on top of them is simply impossible, though starting with just nut allergies, it's not too bad. I use them because several are unusually high in one nutrient or another (stunt foods).

I know the seaweeds are unusual; they are also "stunt foods." The exotic grains I actually like. The fermented soy products are definitely an acquired taste.

SteveQ said...

Oh, and one of the rules I use is that nothing takes more than half an hour from start to finish to make, so the huge list of ingredients isn't really that bad.

And Beth, I love cheese (especially the stinky runny ones), but both these diets forbid dairy.

wildknits said...

Love seaweeds (they are a favorite snack food at the wildknit household - even Porter liked them), and knew most of the ingredients.

Part of why I have expanded my diet is the food allergies/intolerances - it is hard to eat vegan/vegetarian when nut allergies and dairy issues get in the way. So, compromise by eating mostly game or organically raised critters when I do eat animal derived protein. And am thankful no issues with gluten!

Will recipes be forthcoming? Love to share them with the chief cook ;->

SteveQ said...

Lisa, I was going to say the easy way to avoid nuts is to substitute skim milk and wheat germ (neither allowed on either of these diets), but now you mention dairy issues...

wildknits said...

Throw in rice milk and you have a peek into my diet... and why I probably worry more about what to eat on long runs than the averge person.

thought experiments are fun. The reality - rotate the diet, all things in moderation and don't overindulge or obsess too much about what you can or cannot eat (and I can only say that as none of my food intolerances or allergies are severe - just annoying).

Now... recipes?!?!