The Hindu Business Line : Nutrition pyramid

A posting dated February 17 on www.prweb.com is headlined, `Nutrition expert challenges BBC on sources of protein in vegetarian and vegan diets'. One learns that the expert, Yvonne Bishop-Weston, avers that a vegetarian diet is suitable even for elite athletes, contrary to what the TV channel had shown. "On BBC 2's The Truth About Food, champion athlete Colin Jackson was put on a vegetarian diet for eight weeks. He complained that he lost power and could manage five less press-ups without the meat. Like many men Jackson seems to believe he needs meat to maintain masculinity."

Yvonne says, "It's actually quite hard not to get enough protein to attain the generally accepted average level of health — even potatoes and oats have protein in them. However if you want to prove that a vegetarian or vegan diet is nutritionally superior to a meat-based diet and attain optimum health, then you might like to do a little more than eat porridge and mash." Vegan, for starters, is `a strict vegetarian; someone who eats no animal or dairy products at all,' as www.onelook.com defines.

For help with eating, you may try Rasha's Road to Nutrition by Shalini Sharma and Shehnaz David, from Euro Books (www.eurobooksindia.com). First come the veggie friends. "I am crunchy munchy, red in colour. Eating me will make you see, even birds on far away trees." As you might have guessed, it's `tat a rat a tarot... the carrot'. A few pages later you hear another self-introduction, thus: "I am leafy and green with Popeye I am always seen. If you eat me you can be as strong as a lion, as I am full of iron." Spinach!

The chapter on fruity friends begins with this: `Dressed in a yellow peel, I am a complete meal. I have a long and curvy smile, pick me for your salad, and you could run a mile.' Well, you can't say no to `tan-nan-tanana... nutritious banana'.

The book concludes by suggesting a 6-5-3-3-2 pyramid combination. This stands for a daily dose of: six servings of grains such as beans and corn flake cereals, five of veggies, three of fruits, three of milk, and two of meat. On the last, there is an alternative for vegetarians: `peanut butter, nuts and soya beans'.

Fun read that Yvonne might approve of, though not BBC.

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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Nutrition pyramid