Hi there! Happy Meatless Monday! You haven’t forgotten about Meatless Monday, have you? Just because I’ve been MIA doesn’t mean you’re Meatless Monday motivation has been too, right? I sure hope not! But even if it has, it’s never too late to jump back on (or on for the first time) board starting at your next meal, or maybe just for one out of three of your meals on Mondays. Any effort is beneficial!

No bones about it here though, without mentioning names or pointing fingers , my lunch date had tuna in his lunch today. So you can see, even in this household MM doesn’t always happen, especially when we are on the road as much as we are right now (but maybe my evil tactics will rub off on him for next Monday or the next or the next muah hahahahaaaa.) Totally kidding…well, kind of.

Eating as healthy as possible on the road… Fresh Market Tunacado Roll for the Mr. and a Veggie Roll for me. Washed down with a kombucha, of course. I only say “of course” because these days, the day isn’t a day until the hub has a kombucha, I kid you not. So maybe my evil tactics are rubbing off on him a little bit? Just maybe.

On to today’s somewhat related topic and an explanation of the post’s title.

What do horses, cows, elephants and hippos all have in common? If you’re only thinking their massive size, you’re on the right track but there’s more. In addition to there large body size, each of these animals has extremely strong bones to hold up this enormous amount of weight. And guess what? These animals eat a plant-based, herbivore diet, meaning no animal milk for them. All of the calcium they consume in order to build and maintain those strong bones comes from the plants they eat. So why are we taught that we can only get enough dietary calcium to keep our bones strong through “three servings of dairy/products made from dairy daily?” Blah, blah, blah.

Simple answer: because of the mighty dolla bill.

I’m going to leave it at that, but I want you to know that there are other ways to get your calcium in for the day. And I’m sorry but no udder included!

Whether you don’t like the way dairy products taste or choose, for other various reasons, not to consume it, you can be sure that you are meeting your daily calcium requirements by including the following foods in your diet daily:

1. Leafy and non-leafy green vegetables: collard greens, turnip greens, kale, bok choy, mustard greens, broccoli, okra
2. Dried beans: black, navy, great northern, soy
3. Calcium-fortified plant based milks: almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, etc. (just check the label for calcium fortification)
4. Nuts & seeds: almonds, almond butter, sesame seeds, tahini (ground sesame paste, used in most hummus recipes), chia
3. Dried figs
4. Tofu (made with calcium sulfate, again check the label; non-GMO preferably)
5. Blackstrap molasses (add to oatmeal, baked beans, etc.)

And in case you’re wondering just how much you need daily, here is the government set RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for calcium:

See, it’s quite easy to get enough calcium without the help of our 400 lb+ cow friends. Don’t let your health be decided by the high dollar marketing tactics – plants can do it too!

I hope you have a wonderful evening! Good health!

Ashley

(This post has been brought to you by the magic and timeliness of my iPad. My first ever iPad blogpost. If you notice any abnormalities (like the large spaces before and after the pictures and the absence of my signature), I blame it on that. Not sure I will attempt this again.)

The post Calcium…Without the Udder appeared first on The Gypsy Dietitian.

Good morning and happy Monday! It’s already absolutely beautiful down here; I hope good weather greets you this morning wherever you are as well!

A few months ago, one of my friends messaged me asking this…

I am currently trying to conjure up a nutrition chart and was wondering if you had anything that you could email me.  I can seem to find just a basic chart that has daily requirements for vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, etc.,all that good stuff along with recommendations for the food to eat to get all the basic necessities.  I made little notes all the time as I read stuff and just want to have just one general sheet to look at as a reference when I am cooking.  I figured with all of your course work that this is like a basic chart that is in every book you buy…but who knows?”

Thanksgiving break came, as did finals, and then what do you know, Christmas break came as well.  In the midst of all of that, I COMPLETELY forgot that I was on the search for a chart to send back.

This past Friday at our practicum rotation site (Statesboro HS), one of my dear nutrition friends and I were talking about how we always wanted a chart like this.  And all of a suddend…BAM, I remembered that I never got back to my reader about the chart; I’m sorry

But because of this reminder, yesterday I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to send back to her and realized I really had nothing worthy of sending, so I decided I would just make my own. It looks like this…

You can down load and print it here….Vegan Nutrient Table …(it won’t let me delete the third page so just print the first two, obviously).

I know that not everyone is vegetarian nor vegan, but every table that I looked at only listed things like milk for calcium or Vitamin D and animal meat for B12. Being vegan and lactose intolerant, those aren’t even options for me, so I decided to just leave all animal products off.  As Americans, we are reminded everyday that milk contains calcium and is fortified with Vitamin D, you don’t need me to tell you that again if you are a milk drinker. Check out the nutrition facts page over at Forks Over Knives if you still think that milk is the best possible source of calcium, just saying…but I will leave that decision up to you.

This table includes previously known and published information/facts so I am by no means telling you anything new, just compiling it for you and making it easier to ensure that you get the proper nutrients throughout the day.

One thing I did leave off of this table was proper macronutrient and fiber recommendations. Again, this is published information that I am sharing with you from the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans based on a healthy individual, not information that I made up myself.

• The Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges: 
• • Carbohydrate: 45-65% of daily calories
  • Fat: 20-30% of daily calories
  • Protein: 10-35% of daily calories
• The Recommended Daily Intake for protein: 0.8 g/kg/day (10-35% total calories)
•  Example: If a male weighs 180 lbs, first convert that to kg (180/2.2=81.81). Now multiply that by 0.8g = 65.64. So he would need approximately 65 grams of protein per day.

The post Vegetarian/Vegan Nutrient Table appeared first on The Gypsy Dietitian.