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Just in time for Thanksgiving, Quorn foods, which creates a line of meatless products, has come out with a new Turk’y Burger that has 50 percent less fat than a traditional turkey burger.
Rather than using soy, wheat gluten or textured vegetable protein like many vegetarian products, Quorn relies on a mycoprotein-based ingredient that contains less fat, fewer calories and more fiber than meat. In addition, it contains nine essential amino acids making it a powerful source of protein for vegetarians or for those who are trying to reduce their intake of meat.
Last week, I posted an article on a few menu options at Hardee’s that were - um, how should we say - less than healthy? (See the Fried Bologna Biscuit for yourself.) So in order to give this fast-food chain a fair shake, we took a closer look at their alternative menu, which is touted as being healthier and able to meet the specific dietary needs of its customers.
Rather than creating a menu of low-cal fast-food options, Hardee’s instead takes its traditional menu of burgers and sandwiches and gives you the option to reduce carbs, lower the fat, eliminate the gluten, trim the calories or lose the meat for a vegetarian option.
But is this alternative menu all that healthy? At closer inspection, it resembles a sneaky marketing ploy that slaps on catchy healthy lingo to high-fat and high-calorie fast-food eats.
In the latest edition of Vegetarian Times, Bob Harper, best known as the tough but friendly trainer on The Biggest Loser, spoke about changing over to a vegetarian diet. I myself have given up most meat sources as well, eating a diet rich in veggies and fish, which depending on who you talk to might have you calling me a Fishetarian or a Pescatarian.
I’ve enjoyed many health benefits that have come with eating a more vegetable focused diet, which include lower risk for high cholesterol, lower risk for cancer, and potentially living longer as backed by the China Health Project, which found vegetarians live on average 7 years longer. In addition to the health benefits we can also impact our environment with less waste and air pollution that is generated from the farms that output hundreds of animals every day and this waste in turn can end up in our water system.
In a 1997 study by the Senate Agriculture Committee, it was found that 60 percent of American waterways were polluted with the major contributor being animal agriculture.
Who wants to spend hours in the kitchen all summer? I don’t. I’d rather be outside enjoying the sunset or taking a walk. Instead of sweating it out over a stove every night of the week, take an hour or two over the weekend and prep a few make-ahead meals or get some help from the grocery store and whip up a healthy dinner without even doing so much as pre-heating the oven.
Check out these ideas for quick and healthy dinners:
- Pick up a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, bagged salad greens, and a loaf of rustic bread from the bakery. Serve up a 3-4 ounce piece of chicken, 2 cups of greens, and a chunk of bread. Dinner is done!
There’s now more evidence of how a vegetarian lifestyle can be beneficial. But it’s not altogether convincing either.
In a British study of about 60,000 people, experts found that those who were vegetarian ran less of a risk of developing cancers of the blood, bladder, stomach, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and multiple myeloma than the meat-eaters in the study.
Interestingly, this benefit didn’t include all forms of cancer. Bowel cancer was not impacted by the non-meat dietary habits.
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