Month: December 2012

Doubts

“What I’d be concerned about is the long-term effects,” said my friend Ashley.

Ashley is the fabulous strawberry blond of hummus and quinoa fame.  She’s also a pediatric nurse who also works in palliative care.  She is a full-on “broad,” outgoing, direct, and someone who will always have your back.  “You see these long-time vegans who are now having all these health problems.  Like my friend Josephs’ mum.”  Joseph’s mum is a long-term member of the Mount Madonna Yoga Center.  “They’re showing signs of diabetes.”

“Diabetes?  How’d that happen?”

She shrugged,  “I don’t know.”

“I feel like I’m eating better than I have in a long time.  Because I’m actively thinking about getting the nutrition I need,” I said, “I can’t take it for granted, so I’m more focused on it.  I actually pay attention to what I’m eating more now.”

She shrugged again, “I don’t know.  I just know that people have gotten sick.  You have to trust how your body feels.”

Hmmmm.  All the vegan sites talk about how much healthier being vegan is.  This is the first time that I’d heard about nasty long-term effects.  I knew I had to be careful about getting the right kind of nutrients, but this sounded serious.  Can I evaluate how good this is for me by how I feel, if the long-term effects may creep up on me insidiously?

More doubts

My friend Susan gave me a tub of soup.  Susan is one of my best friends, a fellow yoga teacher, and an outstanding chef.  “It’s vegan, potato leek with tofu. I don’t think you’re getting enough protein.”  She laughed, but she was also not entirely joking.

“Why not?”

Susan throws back her fabulously curly dark hair, “Well, I just know how I feel.  I was vegetarian for years.”

“You were?”  I was startled.  I hadn’t known.

“Oh yeah.  Then I really wanted a hamburger, and finally I broke down and I ate it.  And it was the most delicious thing I’d eaten.  I couldn’t go back. ”  She paused,  “I didn’t realize how much I needed the protein until I ate it, and figure out how tired and run down I’d been feeling.”

She looked at her soup, “And you have to be careful with tofu and estrogen.  Don’t eat too much.  It’s not good for you.”

“Why?”  I’m stymied.

“Estrogen.  If you get diagnosed with breast cancer, one of the first things they do is take all the soy out of your diet.”  She nodded at my startled look.  “Oh, yeah.”*

I looked at my soup.

“I swear the by Zone diet.  Keep the sugar from spiking, keep the yeast down.  It works for me.  But you have to listen to your body.”

 

More food for thought.

 

*On further research, the role of soy and breast cancer seems to be unraveled – or at least highly contextualized.  Check out this article from the American Cancer Society.  However, when I’ve asked friends about trusting posts from the American Cancer Society, I’ve also gotten knowing looks: “Money,” they say.  “No one makes money unless you get sick.  There’s big money in cancer.”  So who do you trust?

“Paradoxically, estrogen can be both a beneficial and a harmful molecule.  The main beneficial effects of estrogen include its roles in programming the breast and uterus for sexual reproduction, controlling cholesterol production in ways that limit the buildup of plaque in the coronary arteries, and preserving bone strength by helping to maintain the proper balance between bone buildup and breakdown. Unfortunately, in addition to these important beneficial effects, estrogen can also be harmful. The most serious problem arises from the ability of estrogen to promote the proliferation of cells in the breast and uterus. Although this ability to stimulate cell proliferation is one of estrogen’s normal roles, it can also increase a woman’s chance of developing breast or uterine cancer.”  – Understanding Estrogen Receptors, Tamoxifen, and Raloxifene, National Cancer Institute.

See what a harmless little Facebook post can spawn?

Rachel Anne Scott

Avocadoes, tomatoes, chickpeas….who said being vegan wasn’t fun?

Carina Roter

Wait until you get hooked on RAW. More fun in the summer but you will feel amazing!

Tyler Wright

there’s a party in your mouth and everyone’s sprouting

Stephanie Belding

Woo hoo!!!! Wait til you discover nutritional yeast and hemp seeds and nori with everything- huzzah!!!

Gregg Paris Yates

Ummm. Vegan? Tell me this is a passing phase…

Brent Hammond

yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Roger Andrew

Just sprinkle it with bacon bits…

Stephanie Belding

Passing phase? What, compassion over killing, respect for all sentient beings, not to mention an environmentally intelligent and overabundant and nutritious diet? I never understand the judgment as some negative deprivation; then again I don’t let my palate dictate my ethics.

Lizzi Hollanders

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz good luck with that riveting variety of palate sensations. I think I’ll just tuck into my duck breast with a port blackberry reduction, and my dessert of a flourless chocolate cake rich with eggs and cream and sugar…. or maybe I’ll make my rosemary crusted rack of lamb and pepper soufflé… or maybe a simply porter house steak with a peppercorn sauce or maybe…

Stephanie Belding

Wow Lizzi, you’ve obviously never had great vegan food. And do you want to know exactly how your food ended up on your plate and what it costs you, the animal s and the environment to get there? Or what the dairy- filled with pus and feces, btw- is actually doing your heart and arteries, not to mention your overall energy and libido? I dunno, I simply have no humor when it comes to choosing exploitation and suffering as one’s meal. Completely unattractive. Check out The Artful Vegan: http://bit.ly/8c9wb6 – the food will blow your mind. The most exquisite food anywhere from The Millennium Restaurant. Can we say enlightened?

Lizzi Hollanders

No, I don’t really care… I don’t buy mass produced food. I lived and grew up on a farm. I raised, loved and slaughtered animals. And as far as I am concerned you eat the diet your body wants. If my body wanted to be vegan it would be, but it does not want it. I wholly support anyone who wants to eat the diet that is right for them and their path and don’t have time to pass judgment or be all high and mighty about it. I was pulling Rachel’s leg as she knows full well. I deeply respect and support her in whatever choices she makes be it culinary or otherwise. FB is an open forum and sometimes tone is lost ergo my tone was *friendly sarcasm*. Each spiritual path is its own path. Yours is vegan, mine is paved with lard and I am content with it. You want to judge me and call yourself enlightened then by all means live by that code, have a good time and ttyl.

Brent Hammond

Luckily not all vegans are high and mighty Liz. I’ve been vegan for 1/2 my life. Couple of my best friends will never be vegan and I don’t hold anything against them for that. Will say I’m going to outlive them though. LOL.

Seriously though the best tasting meals are vegan — probably because if you just remove meat from a regular North American diet, there’s nothing left. Cooking without meat and dairy requires an expansion of creativity and knowledge. I do eat a much larger variety of food than I did when I ate meat, and than 99% of carnivores. And I can outcook most of them too… My main point is that it’s not restrictive; unless you keep you limit yourself by not exploring all the choices available. Also: not all vegans are judgmental and “religious” about their path.

Lillian Dunn

Oh, Rachel! See what you’ve started with your innocent little posting? Can’t we all just get along? 😉

Oh my. Oh, and in the time that it took me to go and pour a glass of wine and come back to the computer, this came in:

Stephanie Belding

I am really intrigued by your reaction-and yes it is an open forum and tone can be lost or misconstrued. I live by my code and obviously, you, yours. I love and support Rachel’s decisions as well- and it’s interesting that my posts are perceived as high and mighty and not as someone who is also expressing her opinion. I find often that people get quite angry, confrontational and harsh when it comes to food and ethics; I live my life as lightly as possible on the planet and when asked about why I make those choices, I respond with the ethical basis for how I live. How others react to it is indicative of who they are; when it’s construed as high and mighty or judgmental, that’s not my issue, that’s theirs.

Wow.

It’s like the book said, being vegan is quite the hot potato.

On first read, I thought Stephanie’s post was a bit confrontational.  After all, Liz was just being a smartass and funny and what’s the big deal?  No need to get hysterical, right?  But, because I also know Steph isn’t an “in your face” kind of vegan, I decided to drink my wine and read all the posts again.  It did get me to thinking…

What is it about veganism that people don’t want to take seriously?

Like my good buddy Greg writing, “Tell me this is a passing phase.”  Why should this be a passing phase?  What does he really have against veganism?  What could possibly be wrong with it?  Now, Greg is not an jerk, he’s a great guy, but somehow the word “vegan” and “animal rights” raises hackles.   Or at least seems to cause some knee-jerk casual derision.

Abolition v. Regulation

Unlike me, Stephanie objects to any exploitation of animals.  Period.  There is no “kind hunting” or “respectful killing.”  You don’t exploit animals for your food, your makeup, your clothes, or your bag.  She does not support zoos or aquariums.  She is what they would call an “Abolitionist” as opposed to a “Welfarist,” or someone interested in Regulation.

According to www.abolitionistapproach.com, an abolitionist approach:

(1) requires the abolition of animal exploitation and rejects the regulation of animal exploitation; (2) is based only on animal sentience and no other cognitive characteristic, (3) regards veganism as the moral baseline of the animal rights position; and (4) rejects all violence and promotes activism in the form of creative, non-violent vegan education.

Whereas a Regulation approach basically says it’s okay to eat treat animals as resources, as long as you are humane.

At this time, I’m more in the Regulation camp.  Not to cop out, but my reasoning is that animals have been killing animals for ….well, ever.  Circle of life and all that.  However, we have become so removed from the actual process of killing that we’ve been able to forget what our part in the circle actually is.  Most of us participate in a culture of denial around how meat actually comes to us.  Not when we can pop into the store and buy something called “meat” that we easily forget was once the rib of a cow.  And we’re not encouraged to think too much.  One of my best friends used to say  that “hamburgers come from the hamburger tree.”  This is a very enlightened lady I’m talking about.  But, uh, no, hamburgers DON’T actually come from the hamburger tree.

And the ways in which animals are being slaughtered… I mean, it’s pretty terrible.   (Don’t take my word for it.  Do your research.  I trust you not to bury your head in the sand.)  And here’s my problem.  I like animals.  They shouldn’t be in pain, and terrified, and tortured.

So here’s what I’m realizing about vegans:  Veganism is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.  It’s a moral code.  And Vegans live by their ethics.  The non-violence of Vegan ethics brings to mind Jainism.  Jains are a spiritual sect so interested in the well being of other creatures that they sweep the floor in front of them to ensure they won’t harm insects and creepy crawlies.  Some Jains wear face masks so that they don’t accidentally breathe in insects. Here’s a quote:

“Those who eat the meat of other [living beings] in order to satisfy their own flesh, they are definitely murderers [themselves], since without a consumer [there can be] no killer.” — Acharya Hemacandra (12th c. Jain ascetic/scholar)

Pretty intense.  But if we think of Vegans like Jains, why do we admire one’s commitment to a peaceful life and yet taunt Vegans for their choices?

Maybe we just want to knock them off their moral pedestal: “What makes them think they’re better than us?”   My guess is we wouldn’t get defensive if we really believed in what we were doing.  My hunch is that we want to make fun of vegans because there’s actually something there worth thinking about.  So while it’s true that some people really can’t do a vegetarian diet,  for a lot of us those are excuses that we use when we don’t want to look any further.

So I ask: are we really consuming with awareness?  Or do we just keep recreating the cycle of what our mums and dads fed us  without really, deeply questioning how we want to spend our time, our dollars, and our energy?

Food for thought.

Author’s note: And interestingly, since I have written this article, Greg actually tried being vegan for health reasons…

Ah, what to feed a vegan?

Alan and I headed over to the home of some friends that we know for chow and movies.

Ash is a great friend of ours who is an outgoing nurse with a thick head of strawberry blond hair who is unfazed by the vegan challenge. As we were traveling partners through India, I can attest that she is pretty much unfazed by anything.  Her date was a laid back guy who baked his own bread.  He also had a pull down screen for watching movies on, which pleased Alan, who is a rampant cinemaphile.

They have cooked (or rather, not cooked) up something wonderful.

Ash has thrown together:

• quinoa
• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• chickpeas
• cilantro

Alan hates cilantro (“It tastes like weeds”), so we leave that off of his.

She put together a vinaigrette:

• honey
• apple cider vinaigrette
• Dijon

She was so happy to oblige me in my vegan quest that I didn’t have the heart to tell her that honey is off the vegan list.  VEgans out there: substitute in maple syrup and you’ll be just fine.  Her date threw his bread into bake and whipped up some homemade hummus.  This was hands down the best hummus I have ever had.

Simple, delicious food.   The food far eclipsed the movie (some Angelina-being-Bad-Ass-in-a-car flick).   In fact, the food was so good that the next day I posted about it on Facebook.  Little did I know what drama would ensue from an innocent little post.

Never underestimate the power of social media to make a mess….(stay tuned)

Previous Eating Experiments

I’m one of those people that likes to have a book to latch onto for dietary inspiration.  I read all the testimonials inside about people changing their lives and I feel unstoppable:  “This is the answer!  This is the key to being healthy!” I tell myself exuberantly.

This feeling generally lasts a month.  Maybe two.

A sampling of what I’ve previously done:

• The Zone: I did this about about 15 years ago.  The idea at the time was to eat 30% carbs, 20% fat, and 20% protein to stay in “The Zone,” where you will keep your sugar levels even.  But if you’re eating the right carbs, you won’t spike your sugar levels anyway, so that didn’t make total sense.  At any rate, since I did it, they’ve upgraded their PR and now call The Zone an “anti-inflammatory diet.” They’ve changed their recommendation to be 33%  protein and 66% fruit and veg (with a dash of flax oil for your omega’s), which is…sort of a no-brainer.  Eat lean protein and whole foods?  Get rid of processed flours and sugars?  I’ll lose weight and feel better?  You don’t say!
• The Aktins Diet:  Yes, I even tried this carnivorous extravaganza about 8 years back when I was trying to be a very thin actress.  I ate cheese, cold cuts, eggs, and ricotta cheese desserts.  And I lost weight, which is saying something because I didn’t have a ton to lose.  But whether I lost weight because of the diet or because I couldn’t stomach eating another turkey slice is uncertain.  Let me say right now that I do not advocate doing this diet, as it cuts out all fruit and veg.  Seriously, does that make any sense?
• Eat Right for your Blood Type: When I was looking into killing my Indian bug, I went to a naturopath, who took $60 from me and made a book recommendation.  So I bought the book.  I read the book. I was baffled by the book.  The lists of foods that I could or could not eat made no sense to me.  Disgusted, I donated the book.  If you are a control freak and can stay on top of the rules, you may have better luck.  However, I did learn that my blood type – A+ –  is the blood type that does well for vegetarians, so maybe that’s some reinforcement.
• “The Anti-Aging Plan”:  This has the distinction of being hatched out of a biosphere experiment.  I tried this back in the late 90’s when my brother-in-law gave me the book for Christmas.  It’s actually pretty awesome and still makes total sense to me.  Basically, eat nutrient-dense food.  Keep your caloric intake sensible (although if you eat nutrient dense food and calorie restrict, there is some scientific evidence this may prolong your longevity).  When I read the book, they were still promoting taking lots of supplements, but I think has actually fallen by the wayside and now it’s just about eating really nutritious food.  But a great read and very sensible.  I’m still inspired by it.

Vega

My current inspirational book is called, “Thrive.”  I actually picked “Thrive” off the bookshelves a few years ago on a whim, not even realizing at the time that it was vegan book.  It is written by Brendan Brazier, a triathlete who realized that his diet was holding him back from taking the next step forward in his racing.  He discovered through trial and error that a plant-based diet allowed him to recover faster, improved his endurance, and therefore improved his racing times. Not a bad endorsement of the health benefits of veganism!

I plucked “Thrive” back off my bookshelf to give my Veganism another pillar of support and decided to try some of their products.

I wasn’t completely new to Vega.  A couple years back I’d tried making a shake out of a tub of vegan super food that I’d been given while working at the Estes Yoga Journal Conference.  The result back then had been a shake that was blue and cold and lumpy.

“That retails for $89,” Vegan Steph had told me.

Make that blue, cold, lump, and expensive.  I wound up letting it sit in my cupboard and eventually threw it out.

However, since then, the product lines have seriously evolved.   I can now confess to being seriously enamored with their (still expensive) products.  The chocolate protein bars and Vega One Nutritional shake are my favorite breakfast snacks.   A non-vegan friend of mine was told by her doctor that Vega was the highest quality shake on the market, which is another good endorsement.  And you get around 25 grams of protein in the protein specialized formulas – yay!  That’s about half my day’s protein in 5 minutes of delicious!

And for traveling, you can’t beat it.  Throw a couple sachets in your bag and shake one up in your Starbucks travel mug at the airport. They are a great back up plan when you don’t have your juicer and Vitamix handy.  While they’re still slightly chalky and they do have a hint of stevia taste, I’m pretty thrilled with them.  And they’re great for when you’d like more options at the airport than $6 crudite and hummus snack packs.

Other inspirational Vegan reading on my shelf:

• Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet – this is an incredible resource.  Great detailed descriptions of all areas of intake and where you get what.  A must for your vegan bookshelf.
• Skinny Bitch – an excellent, playful, and irreverent guide to veganism.  When you need to feel sassy.
• How it all Vegan – a classic recipe guide.  Those girls are so cute.
• Fast Food Nation – this just makes you want to be vegan…or seriously question your diet.

Okay, so when SPUD sent me YAMS in my pre-fab juice box, I was seriously skeptical.

Yams?

Yes.  Yams.

Juicing a yam seemed like about as good an idea as juicing a potato, which is to say, not at all.  Would juice even come out of these tubrous little guys?  I had my doubts.  But SPUD seems to know that they’re doing in the juicing world, so I figured it couldn’t have been sent by accident.

Inspired by the color, I decided to go all shades of orange.

It blew my socks off.

Yammy Yumminess

• 1 yam (small)
• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 lemon
• slice ginger

Now, to date, this is the most delicious, sweet juice that I have made.  Given the name, I should have figured that sweet potatoes would be, well…sweet, but I was still surprised.  (What is the difference between a yam and a sweet potato, anyway?)  The yammy juice was on the thicker side, giving this juice just the tiniest bit more heft than other juices.  The lemon and ginger went in for a splash of zing, the celery so that I didn’t feel completely non-green, and away we went.

I would never had expected juiced yams to taste so good, but now it’s top of my list.  And the color alone will wake you up in the morning.  However, note to self to watch the sugar content – it gets high quick with something this sweet.  Next time I’ll use 1/2 yam – or use yam or carrot, but not both.

Or just do the same thing because it’s like having dessert in a glass but with more vitamins 🙂

Nutritional Info:

• 1 yam (small) – estimated 200 g (1 cup)
  • 6% RDA Vitamin A (276 IU)
  • 14% RDA Thiamin (.22 mg)
  • 28% RDA  B6 (.58 mg)
  • 12% RDA Folate (46 g)
  • 58% RDA Vitamin C (34.2 mg)
  • 12% RDA Phosphorous (110 mg)
  • 46% RDA Potassium (1632 mg)
  • 40% RDA Manganese (.8 mg)
  • Calories: 236
• 2 carrots
  • a whopping 660% RDA Vitamin A  (33,000 IU)
  • 20% RDA Vitamin C (12 mg)
  • 18% Potassium (640 mg)
  • 32% Vitamin K (16.4 mcg)
  • also some B6, Folate, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Manganese
  • calories 80
• 100 g of celery (roughly 2 stalks, though this can vary)
  • 9% RDA folate (36 mg)
  • 37% RDA Vitamin K (30 mcg)
  • 7% RDA Potassium (260 mg)
  • calories = 15
• 100 g of lemon (about 1) yields:
  • 88% of RDA Vitamin C (53 mg)
  • calories = 30
• Total Calories: 361 (whoa!)

Last weekend, my teacher Gil Hedley spoke about how the models we use to describe our experience will dictate what we are actually able to see.

For example, St. Francis of Assisi “was ever so unsparing towards himself that at the last he felt constrained to ask pardon of “Brother Ass”, as he called his body, for having treated it so harshly. ” (Catholic Encyclopedia)  In describing his body as an recalcitrant Beast of Burden, St. Francis created a model where the body needed to be disciplined and flogged into reluctant submission in order to be worthy of God.

The model of our body that we generally accept in North America is the one that we are inundated with through the media.  When we view our own bodies through the accepted lens of our culture, we will almost always find a disconnect between our culture’s ideals of beauty and ourselves.  We are:

• too old
• too fat
• too flabby
• too weak
• too flat-chested
• too big-boned
• too short
• too tall…

And because this model dictates how we see our bodies, we are almost always trying to discipline or starve them into “behaving.”   (In yogi circles, we also sometimes embark on severe “cleanses” as a way of clearing out the terrible impurities that are no doubt infesting us.)

Gil proposed a new model.  “What if we see the body as a temple. You go inside to be elevated.”

I paused.  I have heard the line, “My body is a temple,” so many times that now I just roll my eyes and think about how I should be eating kale and drinking kombucha.  Because when I have heard, “My body is a temple” in the past,  it’s invariably spoken as a reason to keep things OUT, rather than letting things in.  As in, “I don’t eat fries or drink – my body is a temple.”

However, in viewing the body as a temple to be entered, Gil shifted the metaphor.  Now, our body becomes a vehicle through which to feel and experience, rather than an object that we are expected to adorn and show.  The body is something beautiful to be cherished, entered, and explored  – rather than a pristine edifice to be whitewashed and protected against all intruders.

We are invited to knock on the doors of ourselves and go inside.

When we enter our own inner sanctum, we have the opportunity experience our body, our breath, and our feelings.  Our body – this body – becomes the pathway through which our human experience unfolds and evolves.  Our intimacy with this glorious and subtle array of sensations brings us closer to being Aware, Embodied, Alive.

My temple opens its doors to all experience.  It’s big inside – there’s room for french fries and wine.  There is also room for discomfort, for fear, for disappointment, for longing.  We can begin to experience our joy and sorrow, disappointment and hope, our pain and pleasure.  And by courageously and honestly accepting all that is, we are invited to soften into who we really are.

We go inside – and we Rise.

 

 

 

 

So, does juicing really taste better than drinking the packaged juices at the store?

To answer this question, I decided to do a simple taste test.

I haven’t gone into the store and bought “kale-cucumber-tomato” juice before, but I’ve certainly had my share of store-bought orange juice.  So it seemed to me that a great flavor test would be doing a little comparison between freshly squeezed and store bought OJ.  One product, one flavor.  Nowhere to hide.

I put three oranges into my juicer and away we went.

Test Results

If you love OJ and have never had it freshly squeezed, then I suggest you put away your computer and go buy a juicer right now.  Now.  Run, don’t walk.

Rather than spend $8/ glass at your nearby fancy brunch place, invest in a juicer and have this nectar available to you at any time.  Freshly squeezed orange juice is…like something the juicing angels dropped down from heaven: naturally sweet, tangy, pulpy, and – weirdly – room temperature.  As irrelevant as it might seem, all the orange juice that I’ve had in my day has been cold from the fridge (unless it is a juice box beverage like Capri-Sun…but let’s not go there).   Perhaps similar to a red wine, the relative warmth of the juice opened all sorts of yummy flavors into my mouth.

In short: delicious.

The flat, perky taste of Tropicana simply cannot measure up against the effulgence of fresh orange juice.  And if you do mostly savory juices like I do, the sugar kick is like a ray of internal sunshine.

I’m not sure about the comparison in nutritional content, but I’d wager the freshly squeezed outstrips the Tropicana.  Either way, you’ll get a hefty whack of Vitamin C, A, Thiamin, and Potassium to start off your day.

Side hint:

I’ve developed a rather nasty habit of taking chlorella powder as a supplement.  Chlorella itself is great; the nasty part is dissolving it into water and actually drinking it.  (Tastes like lawn mower detritus.  I hold my nose, swallow quickly, and drink more water before I dare to breathe again.)  On the advice of a friend, I used some of my OJ as the solution for the powder and – presto – the unpleasant taste was almost completely obscured.  Brilliant!

 

 

 

 

 

Red.  Daring.  Slightly immoral.  It’s the …Scarlet Lady!  I had red chard in my fridge just begging to be used so I went for it and used it a theme.  Today was all about being red, red red.

The result: While I didn’t turn suddenly scandalous (more’s the pity), I did enjoy the sweeter side of the beet and carrot.   And the color was simply fabulous.

Note to self: do not wear white while drinking this juice.

Scarlet Lady:

• Red chard – 3 leaves
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 beet
• 1/2 lemon

Nutritional Stats:

• 100 g Swiss Chard
  • 122% RDA Vitamin A (6166 IU)
  • 50% RDA Vitamin C
  • 5% RDA B6 (.1 mcg)
  • 4% FDA Folate (14 mcg)
  • 9% RDA Vitamin E (1.9 mcg)
  • 1038% Vitamin K (830 mcg)
  • 5% RDA Calcium (51 mg)
  • 10% RDA Iron (1.8 mg)
  • 20% RDA Magnesium (81 mg
  • 5% RDA Phosphorus (46 mg)
  • 11% RDA Potassium (379 mg)
  • 9% RDA Copper (.18 mg)
  • 19% RDA Manganese (.37 mg)
  • calories: 20
• 150 g tomatoes (about 2 plums)
  • 25% RDA Vitamin A (850 IU)
  • 34% RDA Vitamin C (21 mcg)
  • 10% RDA Potassium (350 mg)
  • calories = 30
• 200 g carrot (about 2):
  • a whopping 660% RDA Vitamin A  (33,000 IU)
  • 20% RDA Vitamin C (12 mg)
  • 18% Potassium (640 mg)
  • 32% Vitamin K (16.4 mcg)
  • also some B6, Folate, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Manganese
  • calories 80
• 50 g of beet (about 1/2 medium)
  • 14% RDA folate (54 mcg)
  • 9% RDA manganese (.16 mg)
  • 4% RDA vitamin C (2.8 mg)
  • 4% RDA potassium (162 mg)
  • calories: 22
• 50 g of lemon (about 1/2) yields:
  • 44% of RDA Vitamin C (26 mg)
  • calories 15
• Total calories: 167