Protein in my Brocolli?

When protein is mentioned, most people think about meat -- beef, chicken, pork, and fish. Most people often mistakenly think that only animal products can provide us with protein. Most are not aware that vegetables are an abudant source of protein.

Amino Acids make up Protein

First, it should be known that dietary protein are made up of 21 types of amino acids. In terms of consumption as food, these amino acids can be divided into two types: essential and non-essential. So what's the difference?

Our bodies can make 13 amino acids. These are the non-essential amino acids; they're non-essential because we don't need to eat them because our body can already make them. The other 9 amino acids are essential. We need to consume these because our body cannot make them. Yes, it's that simple.

Animal Protein vs Vegetable Protein

Now let's get back to the topic of protein in vegetables. As mentioned before, vegetables are an abundant source of protein. The tricky part is that vegetable proteins are a mix-and-match of various amino acids, some are essential types and others are non-essential. So in order to get all the essential amino acids we need from vegetables, it would be prudent to eat a wide variety of different types of vegetables. The only exception to this is tofu, which has all the essential amino acids, and it's a reason why it's a favorite of a lot of vegans and vegetarians.

Although it's not necessary to try to combine different vegetables in one meal to get all the needed protein. Consuming a variety within a day is alright. Still, certain combinations make it convenient to get all the essential amino acids. A classic example is rice and beans.

In contrast to the mix-and-match amino acids of veggies, meat protein contain all the essential amino acids in one package, so it's not necessary to eat different variety of meat to get all the essential amino acids.

With that said, getting protein purely from vegetables alone is a perfectly fine way to get your protein. In fact, it can be healthier, because unlike meat, vegetables are 100% cholestoral free.

Kinta Restaurant

To those who don't already know, I have opened a restaurant on the corner of SE 35th and Belmont, Portland Oregon. Vegetables take center stage for every dish, as you are able to choose your own vegetables for each dish. Along with the regular varieties, there's also local organic veggies. Meat (chicken or shrimp) is added to the side upon request.

JAMA studies

On the January 8th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 3 studies were done to find out about the correlation between cancer and heart disease rates of women who had diets that were high in fruits and vegetables and low in fat versus those that had diets higher in fat and less in fruits and vegetables. These 3 studies concluded that there were no difference between rates of breast and colorectal cancer and no difference between rates of heart disease between either groups of women.

If we take earlier studies showing high correlations between consumption of meat and higher risks of colorectal cancer with this most recent study regarding vegetables, it seems to support that, in regards to colorectal cancer at least, it's not eating more vegetable that helps, but rather reducing the amount of red meat that we eat that counts.

Even so, it's still a good idea to eat your vegetables, as there has been numerous studies showing that vegetables can decrease chances of certain cancer, specifically pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.

Here's a link to a study done by researchers at the University of California, San Fransisco, on the effects of vegetable consumption and pancreatic cancer:
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/view.article.php?ArticleID=20970

Here's an article about a study done by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, about a diet high in soy, grains, and vegetables and its affect on lung cancer:
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/view.article.php?ArticleID=21127

Here's another article on a study regarding vegetables and lung cancer done by researchers at the Georgetown University Medical Center:
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/view.article.php?ArticleID=20960

Happy Chinese New Year!

Many Chinese families from all corners of the world are celebrating Chinese New Year this week. It's the year of the dog, and on the traditional Chinese calendar, the year is 4703 or 4704. In Malaysia, where 25% of the population is ethnic Chinese, one can hear the joyful sounds of New Year music playing in retail stores, people wearing red (color representing happiness and good fortune), new year lanterns hung in front of houses, fireworks, and lion dances on the streets. Being a highly tolerant country, individuals of other races and faiths in Malaysia share in the celebration.

Phan and I went to a local Buddhist temple today (NE Glisan & 167th Ave), as we did for last New Year. We wish everyone a great year ahead, with full of good health, prosperity, peace, and happiness!

An Old Man, a little Boy, and a Donkey

When we posted a glimpse of the menu on our restaurant website, there were people posting their concerns about our vegan-friendly dishes. When we announced that there will be grilled chicken and shrimp available to go with the dishes, we got comments from some local vegans posting their concerns about us offering meat.

There's a story I'd like to share, for those who don't know it. Here's my short version of it. It's about an old man, a little boy, and a donkey. An old man, a little boy, and a donkey were heading towards a faraway city. As they started off on their journey, after awhile, both the old man and the little boy got tired. So they both rode on the donkey at the same time.

As they passed the first village, people were looking at them with consternation, whispering to each other, "Look at how cruel that man and boy is, both riding the poor donkey, how tired that donkey must be". The old man felt ashamed, so he got down from the donkey and let the little boy ride on the donkey.

As they passed the second village, people were looking at them angrily, whispering to each other, "Look how disrespectful that boy is, riding on the donkey while the poor old man walked all this way on his own tired feet". Not wanting people to think ill of the little boy, the old man trade places, so that he rode on the donkey while the little boy walked on foot.

As they passed the third village, people were looking at them and frowned, whispering to each other, "Look how irresponsible that old man is, riding on the donkey while the poor little boy walked all this way on his tired little feet". Having gotten enough of the villagers' criticisms, both the old man and the little boy walked on their own, with their donkey following behind them.

Their walk was long, their shoes became torn and worn, their clothes dusty and dirty. Both looked very tired and are about to pass out at any moment. When they finally reached the city, people were looking and laughing at them and smirking, whispering to each other, "Look at the two foolish beggars, they have a donkey and yet do not ride it..instead of riding the donkey to save themselves some energy, they are suffering because of their foolishness."

So who is right and who is wrong?

Chicken

Since we will be serving chicken in our restaurant, we experimented with a few dishes with chicken. This was made awhile back. Here we have a dish that actually looks relatively simple, but tastes a bit more complex than it seems. From the top we have yellow basmati rice. The chicken was marinated with Kinta Restaurant's "secret" spices. At the bottom of the photo is potato rendang, which was made from various curry spices, coconut milk, and fried coconut meat. To complete the plate, we added some fresh cooked broccoli.

The chicken was purchased from a Halal butcher.

Potatos Potatos

The above is a macadamia curry soup. We used this as a soup base for noodle soup using brown rice spaghetti noodle. The stuff floating in the soup is taufu pok. Taufu pok is fried tofu but it has a springy texture with more air holes than the usual tofu. It really looks like a sponge. The spongy texture of the tofu helps to absorb the soup in the tofu. So when you bite into it, the soup oozes into your mouth. I kinda of like this soup because it has macadamia nuts, it's great! Vegans and vegetarians can have this soup too.



We use gram flour (also called besan flour or chana flour or chick pea flour) to fry the orange yam and the sweet potato together. In between the yam and potato is nian-gao (made of glutinous rice flour, rice flour, coconut milk and brown sugar). Nian-gao is a must have Chinese New Year cake. Nian-gao literally means more improvement or advancement each year. Yup, this is what we hope for 2006. Both vegans and vegetarians can enjoy this dish too.

Flexitari what?

Flexitarian. Join the new revolutionary movement that will steer America towards a level of higher consciousness. If you are a meat eater, becoming a flexitarian is acknowledging that the health of your body and the health of your environment is important, and that if you take care of them, they will take care of you.

What Is It?

What is a flexitarian and why would you be interested in adopting this dietary lifestyle? A flexitarian is someone who consumes mostly vegetarian meals, with the occassional meat. For instance, someone who eats primarily vegetarian meals on a daily basis, but eats some meat just 1,2, or 3 times a week is a flexitarian. Thus, meat is no longer a primary focus of any meal, it is used only as a side complement to a meal, and it is not used for every meal.

Why Should I Care?

Simply put, flexitarianism provides a degree of advantages that a vegetarian lifestyle provides, without having to be committed to abstain totally from meat. The advantages is to your health, to the environment, and to the animals.

First I will go over just some of the many health advantages of following the fexitarian dietary lifestyle. I'll leave the environmental and animal welfare issues to a later post.

Part I, Your Health

The only source of dietary cholesterol is through animal products. By reducing your consumption of animal products by half or more, you are reducing your cholesterol from food sources by half or more. This, in turn, will have positive effects on your long-term health by reducing your chances of having cardiovascular disease. This means less chances of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.

Certain types of common cancers are also highly influenced by our diet. Colorectal cancer is one of them, and there have been several studies that show a direct link to eating red meat and processed meat and having colorectal cancer. In the U.S., colorectal cancer is the 3rd most common type of cancer. The studies show that the more red meat you eat, the higher chances you have of getting this cancer. For men, the chances are double if they eat 3 ounces of red meat a day, and for women their chances double if they eat 2 ounces of red meat per day. Just to give you perspective of the quantity, a typical burger from Red Robins has 6 ounces of red meat. I give you several references here:

Medicinenet
WebMD
Tufts University

And it is not just colorectal cancer. Other studies have shown that there is a correlation between higher meat consumption and some other cancers as well.

Another health reason to eat more vegetarian meals is that, yes your parents were right, vegetables are good for you. By eating more vegetables, you are also consuming more fiber (in addition to some vital vitamins), which has been shown to have multiple health benefits. To find out more about fiber, read here:

Harvard University

As there are so many health-related issues to mention, we will continue this discussion on an ongoing basis.