http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ Just another bbPress community en Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:11:21 +0000 http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/slowing-down-eating-and-our-tastebuds#post-190 Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:36:55 +0000 jawnn 190@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>slow deep breathing also helps </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/slowing-down-eating-and-our-tastebuds#post-184 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:38:47 +0000 Pennie 184@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>I try to avoid any processed foods or foods or drinks that contain chemicals and preservatives. I don't think those chemicals are really healthy for our body. I prefer to eat fresh foods and simple drinks like fruit juices, tea and water. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-183 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:36:07 +0000 Pennie 183@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>My favorite part of being a vegetarian is growing my own food. I love eating fresh vegetables and herbs straight from the garden. The other positive about being a vegetarian is that I'm aware of everything I put in my body and know that I am eating healthy. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-148 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:33:47 +0000 kanmoorthy 148@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>I think there is very little data to support either way - whether (intensive) meat causes more damage to environment or vegetable growing. I remember vaguely reading somewhere that to produce a pound of meat it uses about 25000 litres of water where a pound of potato uses about 1/20 of that amount. But don't take this as factual as I just read it in some obscure media. What I am more concerned about is our general pursuit of economic successes measured in terms of monetary wealth. In the food industry, people want to sell more and more of what they produce and whether it is meat or vegetable - this is not a good proposition.</p> <p>I have been a vegetarian all my life - never tasted any kind of meat and have no clue how it tastes. People always tell me that being a vegetarian makes you weak. I don't think it is totally true. But of course you need to understand what they benchmark against. If you want to be a body builder or participate in strong man challenge, then being a vegetarian might not help. But for an average healthy life I can bet that being a vegetarian is not much different from eating meat.</p> <p>Our taste buds have been conditioned for certain food types and people who are accustomed to eating meat, would find it harder to let go. I agree with Pauline that it surely helps you slow down, which is the purpose of this community anyway. I live in Singapore and it is sort of difficult to find tasty vegetarian food. It forces me to cook and I find that experience meditative (although I wouldn't say the same about dish washing after cooking). It's helped me to differentiate, appreciate good cooking, explore a variety of foods that can be made with the same potato, tomato etc.</p> <p>Overall, I thoroughly enjoy being a vegetarian and will strongly recommend to anyone who is sitting on the fence. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-145 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:21:20 +0000 veronika 145@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>I am vegetarian but I do not have enough knowledge about how things are grown, etc to know what is worse for the environment, but I liked to think that by not eating meat vegetarians are in some way contributing less to global warming- which is the case if intensive meat production is one of the causes of global warming! But Giulia has a good point about the canned tomatoes produced in China being likely to be worse for the environment than local chickens... so there is more to it than we think </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/who%e2%80%99s-slow-and-when-are-you-slow-enough#post-98 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:50:06 +0000 axel 98@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Slowfood is an important organisation for us . To our opinion we should support all possible actions which leads to more awareness of what we are daily eating, doing, living .</p> <p>Our small contribute to improve this awareness we do through our restaurant.</p> <p>We are owners of a 35 seats restaurant in the middle of Italy. Because since I do not know anymore if we are “Slow” and misunderstood the Slowfood Organization goals, I would like to explain our philosophy. </p> <p>- Working / cooking with local products and respecting the so called “0-meter” policy. From the producer directly to the consumer!</p> <p>The (organic) olive oil from the village, fresh fruit and vegetables we take from local farmers, preferably organic. The meat is organic, traceable and always from our province.</p> <p>The selection of our wines in the Cantina is done by ourselves. Also here we prefer organic wines, from small local producers. Even the water we serve is from the nearby source. We have homemade bread and partly from a local bakery.</p> <p>- Freshness of the served food.<br /> The menu is very limited and almost daily changing. Our kitchen is small and we only have very limited space to store products to cool or freeze. This means we only work with very fresh products.</p> <p>- Respect seasons. Only vegetables and fruits of the season are served.</p> <p>I don’t know what your opinion is, but we think that we are very “Slow”.<br /> And I think, and this has been tol dus many times from our guests, that our restaurant would fit perfectly into the Slowfood guide. But we are not!</p> <p>Since 5 years we are running this restaurant. I know that we’ve been nominated, even from Slowfood people themselves, but never been selected for the Slowfood guide.</p> <p>In the time that we are living here, we’ve visited many “Slowfood” restaurants suggested by the guide and I have to say that we were many time very disappointed about their “Slow” level.</p> <p>(industry-frozen products / precooked stuff / out of season products (asparagus in November e.g.)/ kind of fastfood Italian restaurant where waiters are smashing the dish in fron tof you on the table.)</p> <p>Some people told me that I have to pay for the service to get into the guide, because more and more the Slowfood movement becomes a political issue. Beside that I do not have any idea who I should pay and what.. I don’t want to pay for this service. I like to get this recognition for our concept and way of business (life) and am expecting that from an independent source.</p> <p>So what is the policy of Slowfood in this.?</p> <p>How independent is their listing of restaurants really?</p> <p>Like I said before, we are appreciating and supporting the goals of Slowfood, but if we are not slow,</p> <p>Who is it then?</p> <p>I’m looking forward to your comment, also to understand the procedure.<br /> If you like to get an impression of our restaurant, please visit <a href="http://www.osteriadelcardinale.it." rel="nofollow">www.osteriadelcardinale.it.</a> </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/slowing-down-eating-and-our-tastebuds#post-69 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:38:36 +0000 raybakes 69@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Hi, I'm a Nutritional Therapist who saw Carl give a talk on Slowness this week. I felt inspired after the talk to put down a few things in this section and in the medicine section.</p> <p>My mother always said chew your food and eat slowly – well there is good reason! If we eat slowly and chew our food, the sugars from carbohydrates hit our bloodstream more slowly and evenly. Eating too quickly causes a spike in blood sugar which can result in more of our food going to fat rather than energy. </p> <p>Eating slowly allows enzymes in the mouth to start breaking down food and puts less of a load on the rest of digestion. </p> <p>Eating too quickly keeps us in a stressful state. Digestion only works properly when we are relaxed. The parasympathetic nervous system that drives digestion is suppressed during stress. Appreciating the colour, aroma, taste and texture of food is an important part of stimulating digestion. Only by taking time can we appeciate these qualities and improve our digestion.....and eating becomes more enjoyable too! </p> <p>MSG as a food additive speeds up our taste buds and makes us think something tastes good. Chinese food and crisps are a common source. Aspartic acid in aspartame and nutra sweet is an excitotoxin and can speed up brain cells so quickly that they die from a lack of energy. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-38 Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:06:40 +0000 Giulia da Urbino 38@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>I definitely agree that we should all eat less meat because INTENSIVE meat production is one of the causes of global warming. On the other side intensive agriculture is not good for the environment, so I think that the point is being conscious of how the food you're eating is produced, how it gets to you, what this means to the planet. Probably canned tomatoes produced in China (using chemicals in every stage of production) and shipped to Italy (it happens!) is worse for the environment than local organic free-range chicken...<br /> I'm glad that being a vegetarian ment a turning point in your life! </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-37 Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:16:33 +0000 Pauline 37@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>I agree that you do not need to be a vegetarian to live a slow life, but I think it helps because it makes you more aware of what you eat and why. For someone who is in a "fast" lifestyle, changing your diet either to be vegan, vegetarian or to concentrate on organic and quality foods is a good first step to get you to seriously look at the way you live and decide what changes to make.</p> <p>When I became a vegetarian I was living in a city (Vancouver) and working in the high-tech industry. I was in my late 20s and had big career plans. When we changed our diet, everything else in our lives started to change. We left our jobs and the city, we traveled for several years, we ended up relocating to a smaller town. We went back to work in high-tech, but in a very different way, working from home on contract or for ourselves. This was the change that I needed (obviously, not everyone needs to live the same way). I often wonder what my life would be like now if I had stayed on the other path.</p> <p>While I do not think that everyone should be a vegetarian, I do think that many meat-eaters eat too much meat. I would like to see more part-time vegetarians, eating meat-based meals only a few times a week or using meat more as a sidedish. It would help the environment too since worldwide meat production is one of the causes of global warming. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-36 Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:29:51 +0000 Pauline 36@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Hi Giulia! I was hoping for a non-vegetarian to post. But it is late here, so will reply tomorrow. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-34 Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:37:49 +0000 Giulia da Urbino 34@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Hi Pauline! ..the "Slow world" is a small world! ;)<br /> I definitely understand your reasons for becoming a vegetarian and I do agree that it helps going slow, ... but... my family have been growing organic for more than 25 years now and we also breed cows for meat, if you work for sustainability (environmental &#38; economical) using manure is definitely the best way to grow organically (I'm not implying that it's the ONLY way, but I promise that the alternatives are tough and I wouldn't be able to provide much organic vegetables and cereals for vegetarians to eat had I decided to run a "meat free" farm).<br /> What I'm saying is that, luckily (for someone who loves her steak every once in a while, I'm not a great meat eater but I wouldn't easily give it up), there are also other ways (food-related) to go slow. Respecting the animals when they live and when they die (I understand that this might sound hypocrisy to some of you), respecting the soil, following the seasons and letting natural cycles rule your cycles are ways to do so.<br /> I hope you all will have a great slow 2009 (either vegetarian or not!) </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-32 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:50:18 +0000 Pauline 32@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Papernapkin: I agree, growing your own vegetables is the way to go. We don't for many reasons - we travel to Europe in the summer and do longer trips, you need a lot of water for gardens in Santa Fe, I have been consumed with work for the past few years. Congrats to you for growing your own!! </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-31 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:47:22 +0000 Pauline 31@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>When I first became a vegetarian it was because we had changed our diet and were only eating meat once a week. I had never been comfortable eating meat. I did not like to eat deer meat that my father got from hunting. I did not like to eat a freshly killed and plucked chicken. I started to think that if I could not go out into a field, kill an animal, skin it, cut it up, cook it and eat it, then I should not be eating meat. I was eating meat but pretending that it did not come from a dead animal.</p> <p>So, it was easy for me to stop eating meat since we had worked into it gradually, having more grain and vegetable based meals and finally just stopping the one meat meal per week.</p> <p>Our main reasons for stopping were for health (a better diet) and because the commercial meat you get in North America can be bad and is frequently produced in inhumane conditions. My husband eats fish once a week and has occasional turkey sandwiches, so is not a vegetarian.</p> <p>Interesting tidbit: Most animals that humans eat are vegetarians, because a vegetarian animal tastes better. Cows, chickens, pigs, horses. Dogs and cats eat meat and we don't eat them (well, most people don't).</p> <p>I like Deborah Madison's book "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone". She used to run Greens in San Francisco (vegetarian restaurant) and now lives in Santa Fe NM (where I live, but I don't know her). </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-30 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:38:09 +0000 papernapkin 30@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Nice post. </p> <p>I have been vegetarian for more than two years now (yes I am newbie) and I find it definitely helps you slow down. And once you start growing your own food it helps as well. But everything from the food you grow, the preparation, to the consumption, is 110% better. </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-29 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:25:03 +0000 ruby 29@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Very Very true.</p> <p>Actually we arent made to eat meat. Our teeth is not designed in a way to eat flesh, unlike the tigers, the lions and others.</p> <p>In a chat with Dr.Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya<br /> (Heart Specialist) Bangalore it was asked of him </p> <p>" Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart? </p> <p>( to which he answered ) Ans: No "</p> <p>If it was good for the other organs he would have said No, not good for the heart. But I do not know about the other organs.</p> <p>Now listen to this "When a person dies, we bury it. Do we consider our bodies to be a grave yard to bury these dead animals, that we eat.</p> <p>We can simply get all the protiens, and other vitamins, minerals etc from the plants. When we cut a plant it grows back. When we cut an animal we are actually working towards the extinction of these species. </p> <p>Dont do it. Its better that ways. Think about the pain that it goes through before you eat it up. </p> <p>And probably it is because we end up killing animals that we are turning out to be violent in nature. That is probably why you have so many killings happening around you. We have probably become insensitive in nature. And we need to stop it before it eats us up.</p> <p>When you eat an animal, before it dies it has a lot of negative energy-its fear, its remorse on having killed it etc and then we eat it up and in the process end up being negative in nature ourselves.</p> <p>Realize it before it is too late! </p> http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/topic/being-a-vegetarian-helps-you-slow-down#post-27 Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:09:41 +0000 Pauline 27@http://www.slowplanet.com/forums/ <p>Being a vegetarian changes your life in more ways than changing what you eat. You are forced to slow down because you have to think more about what you are eating. No more grabbing a McDonald's burger for a quick lunch. Maybe if vegetarianism becomes more accepted, and McDonald's offers veggie burgers, you will find "fast" vegetarians but for now being a vegetarian means making most of your meals, cooking from scratch, eating grains and vegetables instead of animals.</p> <p>I have been a vegetarian for over 25 years (started in my mid-20s). In the early 80s my husband and I were looking for a healthier way to eat and worked our way from Pritikin to McDougall to vegetarian and ended up at Macrobiotics.</p> <p>When vegetables are the main part of your diet, you want the best vegetables you can find so we eat organic and try to find locally grown/produced foods. Cooking dinner is one of the calmest parts of the day for me and I really enjoy preparing our meals.</p> <p>I left the traditional business world (and gave away my suits) a few years after becoming a vegetarian. For me it felt like becoming a vegetarian was the first step in making a lot of changes in my life, to live more intentionally and to slow it down. </p>