New Life Organic Green Cuisine brings home vegan diet
When I was growing up my parents were part of a growing number of people who were choosing to be vegetarian. In those days it was decidedly unfashionable to decline to eat meat. You can’t fully imagine how a brown rice, nut and tofu diet might have diminished the social life of a six-year-old kid during the early ’70s (in Canada).
The no meat rule in my house also included a general ban on refined sugar or anything with too many chemical ingredients. I distinctly remember salivating at the chewing gum and chocolate bar goodie bags at a friend’s birthday party, only to open my own bag to find pumpkin seeds and a peanut butter ball rolled in (unsweetened) coconut. My goodie bag had been pre-filled by my mother (I can only assume it was done so that I wouldn’t feel left out). My own bitter disappointment was only surpassed by the looks of horror on the faces of my peers, horror quickly followed by relief, then reassurance; their bags contained "the goods" that goodie bags should.
Well, times have changed since then. The number of people who have chosen to become vegetarian in North America and Europe has been on a steady rise. Vegetarianism is not only recognized but it is becoming increasingly more accepted in our neck of the woods. Choosing to follow a healthier diet is not the sole reason for the change. A growing awareness surrounding the politics of food production and the growing imbalance between wealthy and poor country food consumption underscores the responsibility of food choices to those of us in the fortunate (read Western) areas of the world.
These issues have motivated long time local caterer Karen Kay to offer a new food delivery service called New Life Organic Green Cuisine. This new service supplements her existing 15-year catering business with partner, David Kay, Kaytering Whistler. Karen’s primary challenge with this endeavour is to increase public awareness of the impact that food has on the environment as well as its influence on health. By delivering a variety of organic whole grain and legume prepared meals, she will foster personal relationships with local consumers emphasizing her slogan that choosing to eat these types of foods "gives life to you and the planet."
A vegan diet is one in which no animal product is eaten, not even honey. In earlier days it was referred to as a macrobiotic diet. Lacto-vegetarians accept dairy items but exclude eggs. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians will eat dairy products and eggs but no meat or fish, while demi-vegetarians refuse to eat red meat but will consume fish, poultry and dairy products.
Karen’s prepared meals are vegan, relying on the protein and carbohydrates in beans, lentils and whole grains for well balanced and complementing nutritional needs. New Life Organic Green Cuisine offers breakfasts, soups, grain dishes and dinner entrees that are ready to heat and serve. Some examples of her dishes that I was fortunate to try are a Southwestern black bean chilli ($3.50 for 250 ml.) which was mildly hot and exotically spiced; a nutty, toothsome textured wild rice and barley mushroom pilaf ($3.50 for 250 ml.); and a breakfast pudding of whole oat groats that was satisfyingly sweet and wholesome ($3 for 336ml.). I also sampled her hummus which is wonderfully full of garlic with a very light texture. Her soups can be bought and eaten at Blenz. All of her food is prepared in a commercial kitchen.
Karen admits to having been brought up "on the worst food diet possible," however, she has maintained a vegan diet for many years and has raised her children on a predominantly vegetarian regimen. New Life Organic Green Cuisine allows Karen to don both her professional hats at once; she is a certified chef and a holistic nutritional consultant. The meals that she offers through this service benefit from both certifications. All her ingredients are organic and everything is cooked from scratch. The beans that she uses are cooked with dulse, a coarse-textured, red seaweed, which helps break down the fibre in beans so that they are easier to digest. It also adds to the flavour of the cooked product. She stays away from canned beans, maintaining that they are a high glycogen product and that their texture is not the same.
New Life Organic Green Cuisine donates 10 per cent of its proceeds to EarthSave Canada (www.earthsave.bc.ca), a non-profit, charitable organization founded by John Robbins, author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Diet For a New America. Robbins is the heir to the Baskin Robbins ice cream fortune but chose instead to investigate the realities of a meat-eating diet and its impact on environmental sustainability and world hunger. The book presents a severe scrutiny of the American flesh-eating diet, contributing ominous statistics that, though not scientifically verifiable, offers a valid panoptic view. Generally, world hunger could be diminished if more people chose a vegetarian diet. Cycling grain crops through livestock is an inefficient use of grain to produce food. Using viable acreage to raise livestock instead of grains and legumes is staggeringly wasteful. Some of the facts excerpted from Robbins’ book:
• Number of people who will starve to death this year: 60 000 000
• Number of people who could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10 per cent: 60,000,000
• Number of human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by United States livestock: 1,300,000,000 (population of U.S.A.: 243,000,000)
• Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on 1 acre of land: 20,000
• Pounds of beef that can be grown on 1 acre of land: 165
• Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef: 16
• Water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons
• Water needed to produce 1 pound of meat: 2,500 gallons
The full list of facts excerpted from the book can be found at www.aapn.org/vegstats.html.
I am no longer vegetarian, despite being raised as one, but the facts illuminated in the writing of this column certainly advocate reducing the amount of meat that I eat. Choosing meats that are organic and free range ensures that the industry treat animals humanely. It also sends a message to the meat industry that antibiotics fed routinely to livestock and pesticides used on the plants to feed livestock will not be accepted. Consumer food choices can help create an ecologically sustainable future.
Admittedly, in the fast paced Western world of convenience it is difficult to remember to soak your beans the night before cooking them or waiting an hour for brown rice or barley to cook. This is where New Life Organic Green Cuisine finds its niche. Offering weekly specials in addition to the general menu, Karen also provides a "work week special" where she will fill your fridge with a week’s worth of prepared dishes complete with cut, ready to cook, fresh organic vegetables. Her dishes freeze well and are convenient and affordable. To place an order call 604-932-3262.
