Boost your health and wellbeing by going veggie
DID you know by ditching meat you enjoy great health and reduce your chances of developing obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer? Going veggie can increase men’s life expectancy by up to six years!
As part of National Men’s Health Week, (June 9-15) leading health charity, Viva!Health is challenging men to give some of the great recipes featured below, a go in the kitchen.
Viva!Health senior nutritionist, Amanda Woodvine, says: “Strong scientific evidence shows that vegetarian diets can be used to prevent and treat high blood pressure, lower cholesterol and even reverse heart disease. The more meat you eat, the more likely you are to end up with clogged arteries. Research shows that an animal-free diet can heal damage to the arteries. A low-fat, vegetarian diet eaten for just a year can reverse blockages, resulting in improved blood flow.”
Fact digest
– Vegetarians visit hospital 22 per cent less often than meat eaters
– A lifelong vegetarian on average saves the NHS £45,722!
– Veggies tend to have healthier cholesterol levels and up to 50 per cent less risk of high blood pressure.
– Vegetarian and vegan diets can be used to prevent and treat high blood pressure, lower cholesterol and even reverse heart disease.
– Men who eat just one meat meal a day are 50 per cent more likely to put on weight around their middles than those who eat meat just a few times per week.
– A low-fat veggie diet produces better weight loss than Atkins, Weight Watchers or the Zone diet – healthily and without ever feeling hungry.
– Impotence and heart disease can be caused by clogged arteries and the more meat you eat, the more likely you are to have them. Going veggie for a year can heal some of the damage and start to unblock arteries and get the blood flowing to where you want it.
Viva!Health has produced a great new Healthy Heart pack, featuring information, tips and easy-to-follow recipes showing how to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as heart disease and stroke. It also demonstrates simple disease-busting changes you can make to your meals – with results that will please everyone! Visit vivahealth.viva.org.uk to order (just £5.00 inc p&p).
Also check out their V-Plan Diet on vivahealth.viva.org.uk. It costs just £2.50 inc p&p.
For more information, please contact press officer Helen Rossiter by emailing press@viva.org.uk.
Here are some simple ideas for delicious and healthy lunches that don’t sacrifice taste.
Salsa Surprise
Makes 1-2 wraps/sandwiches
5 minutes
½ a tin of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
½ -1 jar/tub of salsa
Handful of sweetcorn
Hot chilli sauce to taste
A dab of tomato paste
Thinly sliced red onion and gherkins
Two wraps or four large slices of wholemeal/malted bread
Mix filling ingredients together then place in the wraps or bread.
It’s All Greek to Me
Makes four wraps/pittas
5 minutes
Four wholemeal pitta or 8 slices wholemeal bread
4 four reduced-fat hummus
Filling
Half a cucumber, chopped small
1 large tomato, chopped small
Small bunch of rocket or watercress, chopped with scissors
4 tbsp plain dairy-free yoghurt (eg Alpro Yofu from supermarkets or Sojasun from health stores) mixed with 1 clove of garlic, crushed, plus a handful of fresh mint, chopped
1. Mix all filling ingredients together so that everything is well-coated.
2. Spread a quarter of the hummus inside each pitta/wrap, then place the filling mix on top.
Flavoursome Falafel
Serves 4
5-10 minutes
Four falafel (Cauldron or other brands, from large supermarkets or health stores)
½ a bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
Shredded green lettuce
Sweet chilli sauce
4 tbsp plain dairy-free yoghurt (Alpro Yofu from supermarkets/health stores or Sojasun from health stores)
Four wraps or 4 wholemeal pitta
Mix filling ingredients together. Place inside pitta or wraps.
Pasta & Sausage Salad
Serves 2
10 minutes
250g/9 oz wholemeal penne or fusilli pasta, cooked in boiling water according to packet instructions (about 10 minutes). When cooked, drain and rinse with cold water
Two veggie frankfurters or cooked veggie sausages, sliced into small chunks
Two tbsp sweetcorn
¼ cucumber, chopped small
½ a red onion, sliced thinly
One large or 6 small cherry tomatoes, chopped or halved
Tomato relish OR 2 tbsp low-fat salad vinaigrette dressing
1. While pasta is cooking, prepare other ingredients.
2. Mix them into pasta and coat well with relish/dressing.
3. Place in two sealed containers so you have enough for 2 lunches.
Snack attacks
Keep the munchies and bad fats at bay with one of these energy boosters
Mixed nuts, seeds and dried fruit; almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, raisins, and apricots
Mixed dried fruit – eg apricots, dates, figs, raisins, or a mixture
Fresh fruit – 1 piece, eg an apple, nectarine, small bunch of grapes, half a melon, half a pineapple
Low-fat flapjack
Sexy Seeds – 1 handful of sunflower and pumpkin seed snack (or any combination of seeds)
Delicious – a real nutritional boost to your day (and being zinc rich they are good for your libido too!)
You can buy tubs of these in large supermarkets or health stores but they are much cheaper and dead easy to make yourself!
5 minutes – In a heavy or non-stick frying pan, toast as many seeds as you can fit in. Stir continually with a spatula so they don’t burn.
When most of them are golden brown, add a dribble of soya sauce and stir it in well to coat all the seeds. Let everything cool then place in a screw top jar. They keep in the fridge for a week or two.
PS It’s also worth checking out your local sandwich shop and see what they have on offer. Hummus is an obvious sarnie filler, but many outlets now sell a much larger range of veggie combos. And if they don’t do anything at present, say you’ll support “em if they add more options to their menu. Or get in touch with us and we’ll send them some ideas – our local sandwich shop caters for everyone from vegans to raging carnivores, so the market is obviously out there!
About the author
Dr. Justine Butler
Justine joined Viva! in 2005 after graduating from Bristol University with a PhD in molecular biology. After working as a campaigner, then researcher and writer, she is now Viva!’s head of research and her work focuses on animals, the environment and health. Justine’s scientific training helps her research and write both in-depth scientific reports, such as White Lies and the Meat Report, as well as easy-to-read factsheets and myth-busting articles for consumer magazines and updates on the latest research. Justine also recently wrote the Vegan for the Planet guide for Viva!’s Vegan Now campaign.
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