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EVERY meal? If so, then you (and your friends) should explore some other options.
nope. no where did i say every meal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark of the Moon
And your "real world" experience is no more true than MY "real world" experience (and that of MY friends), which DOESN'T include "fake meat" on a regular basis. <*shrug*>
Whether "fake meat" is a regular component of a vegetarian meal or not actually isn't even germane to this topic, which is the purported evils of tofu. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but most soy-based "fake meat" isn't even made from tofu.
So let's stay on the topic of how bad tofu is, even though (as I keep saying), it's not a mainstay of most vegetarian diets.
I wouldn't take any article seriously that is rife with misspellings and grammar errors, and contains virtually no scientific basis.
Eating too much of anything - even something like broccoli - probably isn't great for you. Humans are omnivores - we didn't evolve to eat lots and lots of one food source only (as in only tofu, only beef, only cheese, etc)
I believe that eating tofu causes less health problems than eating meat or dairy
I agree, especially considering the antibiotics and hormones rampant in the meat and dairy industry.
I've been vegetarian for over 20 years now. I use ~1/8-1/4 of a cup of organic, unsweetened soy milk in my coffee every morning. I should probably be ~more~ concerned with my caffeine consumption?
I ocassionally "splurge" on edamame. Seriously, I can eat 1/2 a pound at a sitting! I don't think it's any more unhealthy than the person who eats a quarter-pounder or a big steak.
I use tofu (organic, usually extra firm) or tempeh in cooked recipes a few times per month. We get most of our protein from beans, legumes , nuts and seeds.
We consume very few processed food products.
I agree with what the others said about moderation in all things.
I rarely, if ever, eat "fake meat." Why bother? There are shelves and shelves of it at my local (Asian) grocery store, though; fake intestines, fake mutton, fake abalone, etc. I highly doubt all, or even most, of the people buying it are vegetarian. The same store (which was taking a delivery of whole pigs last time I walked by) has quite a large meat and fish section, so I know there are plenty of non-vegetarian customers shopping the fake meat section as well as the extensive tofu aisle as well as the meat/fish counters. I don't like tofu all that much myself, so like plaidmom, most of our protein comes from beans, legumes, and nuts. We eat dairy, too, so I also get some from there.
It's one of my pet peeves, actually, when non-vegetarians assume that all of my meals involve fake meat and/or tofu. I'm not concerned about tofu, and think I should probably eat it a bit more than I do. Variety and moderation seems the way to go. I suppose if one ate tofu at every meal there could be problems, but then, too, you'd also run into problems if you ate pork at every meal or any number of other foods.
PS, if you're a vegetarian, there isn't a lot of fake meat/protein out there that isn't soy-based. Thankfully I've found Quorn (which is mushroom based) but besides Quorn, most everything else has soy as one of the main ingredients.
The other kind of "fake meat" is made of wheat gluten. It's also a long standing Asian product. I've seen companies that make sausages and such this way.
Just so you know, Mercola and Weston Price have various anti-vegetarian articles on their site, so that's another reason not to take them too seriously, they are clearly biased. Also note that they mention the study about tofu and brain aging, but don't mention the other data from the study (they examined over a dozen health aspects in the study). The other data included a rate of Parkinson's disease that was 2x for regular milk consumers. Consumption of milk and calcium in midlife and the future risk of Parkinson disease -- Park et al. 64 (6): 1047 -- Neurology
They accept one part of the study that meets their views, but don't mention one of the other parts which contradict what they are promoting. That too shows bias.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark of the Moon
There's also this BBC article, which states that there may be an increased risk of dementia due to tofu consumption. The study cited was conducted on elderly individuals who ate tofu on a daily basis. (Midway through the article, one of the researchers states: that there was no suggestion that eating tofu in moderation posed a problem.)
I got around to reading some of this, but the whole journal article mentioned in the BBC article is not available to read. Here are lots of links to think about:
Below quote is from the above "Honolulu-Asia Aging Study" article:
"If Midlife Tofu Consumption Leads to an Exaggeration of Brain Aging in Late Life, Why are Rates of Cognitive Impairment not Higher in Japan and Other Asian Nations where Soyfoods are a Staple?
Our findings are counter-intuitive, given the great life expectancy of the Japanese, reports suggesting lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease (but higher rates of vascular dementia) in Japanese elderly [1,3], and the well-established belief that tofu is a health promoting food. While no definitive explanation is possible, possibilities include (1) our findings are spurious or are peculiar to this population or (2) the widespread consumption of tofu in Japan and other Asian nations has contributed to the total burden of aging-related cognitive decline in that population, but its impact is relatively modest, compared with the influences of age, education, cerebrovascular disease and possibly other factors."
This also aligns with the finding of others:
"The prevalence of EOD in Japan appeared to be similar to that in Western countries with the notable exception that vascular dementia was the most frequent cause of EOD in Japan."
In fact, the Japanese results appeared to have the same level of dementia as Western countries, so conversely, Western diets/culture without tofu/whole soy products were no better than the Japanese levels of dementia.
It is noteworthy, that Alzheimer's is the more common form of dementia for Western countries, but as mentioned, vascular dementia (low/restricted blood flow to brain) was more prevalent for Japanese. The reason it's noteworthy is that vascular dementia is more understood than Alzheimer's so potential prevention and observation is possible.
None of the data provides causality in the case of tofu and dementia, but considering that vascular dementia is more prevalent, it is more likely that soy could affect the vascular system which then leads to vascular dementia, as opposed to directly affecting the brain itself (as in Alzheimer's).
Whether "fake meat" is a regular component of a vegetarian meal or not actually isn't even germane to this topic, which is the purported evils of tofu. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but most soy-based "fake meat" isn't even made from tofu.
Most "fake meat" is now made from isolated soy protein. I guess it's more akin to grabbing those containers of "soy protein" from the bodybuilding store and making them into some food item. Definitely not what people were doing in the past when the kitchens only had stones and fires for making food.
I wouldn't take any article seriously that is rife with misspellings and grammar errors, and contains virtually no scientific basis.
That was the post I slammed when I saw it. It didn't even appear as being credible. If someone wants to make a point, they should at least attempt to appear credible.
It's one of my pet peeves, actually, when non-vegetarians assume that all of my meals involve fake meat and/or tofu.
Variety and moderation seems the way to go. I suppose if one ate tofu at every meal there could be problems, but then, too, you'd also run into problems if you ate pork at every meal or any number of other foods.
Thanks, uptown. Sounds sensible to me. Don't know why it's so hard for some people to understand this ~~~
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