Do You Really Want the Same Food?
In 1986 I started planning for my first live-in program at St. Helena Hospital in the upper Napa Valley in Northern California. This community is largely made up of people of the Seventh Day Adventist faith. Their church is known for supporting vegetarian diets. Naturally, I asked the local people where to eat. They recommended the A&W restaurant on main street, Highway 29, on the west side of St. Helena. That evening I ordered their famous “veggie burger.” My first bite told me a serious mistake was made. I complained to the man behind the counter, “I ordered the veggie burger and you gave me a beef hamburger.” His response, “Thanks for the compliment—our veggie burger tastes so real.” I threw the burger in the trash and walked out. It was disgusting—A burger so greasy and beef-flavored, that I expected to find chunks of bone and blood vessels.
The Natural Human (Near) Vegan, Starch-based Diet
Fortunately, there is one single big solution that will revitalize people, cut food and health care costs, protect animals, and reduce environmental pollution, overnight: reestablishing the natural human diet of starches. My battle to spread this message relies on those people most ripe for change: especially vegans of all shapes and sizes. The switch is a simple one: rather than getting calories, like all other Americans and Westerners—and most vegans—now do, from fat and protein, the primary fuel becomes carbohydrate from starches. Rather then starvation, this change means fuller satisfaction and radiant health. The more you eat the trimmer and healthier you become. All large populations of active, healthy people, throughout written human history, have obtained the bulk of their calories from starch. Examples of people once thriving on common starches include Japanese and Chinese in Asia eating sweet potatoes, buckwheat, and/or rice, Incas in South America eating potatoes, Mayans and Aztecs in Central America eating corn, and Egyptians in the Middle East eating wheat. Men following diets based on grains, vegetables, and fruits have accomplished all of the great feats in history. The ancient conquerors of Europe and Asia, including the armies of Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC) and Genghis Kahn (1167 - 1227 AD) consumed starch-based diets. Caesar’s legions complained when they had too much meat in their diet and preferred to do their fighting on grains.
You Are What You Eat: The Low-fat Vegan
At every step of recipe design and food preparation, starches replace fake meats and dairy products manufactured from soy, seitan, sugar, salt, artificial flavorings and other chemicals. Oils, even the “healthy ones,” are banned.
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Bean and grain burgers replace Boca Burgers.
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Add rice to your bean chili instead of Gimme Lean.
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Oatmeal for breakfast rather than greasy sausages and breakfast links.
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Olive oil is substituted with low-fat salad dressings.
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Leave the soy cheese off the whole wheat pizza.
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Replace oils in baking with fat replacers like “Lighter Bake,” prune puree, or applesauce.
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Just leave the oils out of the recipe whenever possible.
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Have fruits for dessert.
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Finally, for faster, greater weight loss minimize the use of all processed plant foods, which means simple sugars and flours.