How to whittle down your waist & boost your health

Love to eat more healthily but can’t quite find the time? The hectic modern lifestyle needn’t mean suffering on the health stakes. Did you know that cutting out meat could cut your chances of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer – and could even add up to six years to your life expectancy?

Of course, if you replace meat with chocolate éclairs and chip butties you’re unlikely to reap maximum health benefits. The key is choosing healthy meat substitutes, such as tofu and other ‘mock meats’, beans, lentils, whole-grain products (brown rice, whole-grain bread), dark green and deep yellow vegetables, soya milk and nuts.

But going veggie needn’t mean learning enough new recipes to fill an encyclopedia. Many familiar dishes such as Spaghetti Bolognese, chilli and stir-fries can easily be made veggie. Most people have about seven or eight dishes that they cook regularly and, surprise surprise, vegetarians are no different.

Check out the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation’s guide to transforming everyday meals into top veggie tucker…

Traditional Breakfast	Veggie Version
Cereal with milk and fruit served with orange juice	Cereal with fortified soya/rice milk and fruit, served with orange juice
Scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, cup of tea	Scrambled tofu, wholemeal toast, veggie sausage, cup of tea with soya milk
Pancakes and maple syrup	Pancakes (egg and dairy-free) and maple syrup with fresh fruit
Traditional Lunch	Veggie Version
Chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayo; yogurt; crisps	Smoked tofu or hummus sandwich with lettuce, tomato and vegan mayo; fruity soya yoghurt; piece of fruit
Chicken soup, bread, green salad and vinaigrette	Vegetable or minestrone soup, wholemeal bread, green salad with low-fat dressing
Burger and chips	Veggieburger in a wholemeal roll, chutney and vegan mayo with extra portion of salad
Sausage Sarnie	Veggie Sausage Sarnie on wholemeal bread, tomato/brown sauce and salad
Traditional Dinner	Veggie Version
Grilled salmon, boiled new potatoes with butter; asparagus with parmesan cheese	Grilled giant field mushrooms drizzled with olive oil, garlic and shoyu (a type of soya sauce); boiled new potatoes with basil and black pepper; grilled asparagus with a drizzle of olive oil and nutritional yeast flakes (Marigold/Engevita brand available in large supermarkets and health stores)
Spaghetti Bolognese and garlic bread	Veggie Bolognese (substitute frozen veggie mince for meat). Serve with crusty bread and green salad
Quiche Lorraine, chips and salad	Red onion tart, baked potato or low-fat potato wedges and salad
Chicken Chow Mein	Sticky tofu stir-fry with noodles
Chilli Con Carne	Chilli Non Carne (substitute frozen veggie mince for meat), guacamole, rice and salad
Bangers and Mash	Bangers and Mash – vegan sausages, mashed potatoes creamed with vegan margarine and soya milk; steamed greens and gravy

If banishing a beer belly appeals then look no further. Researchers at the American Cancer Society studied more than 75,000 people for a decade to find out which behaviours were most associated with an increasing waistline. Even after controlling for other factors, people who ate more than a single serving of meat per day were 50 per cent more likely to put on weight around their middles (the most unhealthy way to carry fat) than those who ate meat just a few times per week.

A Rough Guide to Healthy Portion Sizes

It’s easy to make sure that you’re getting a balanced diet with the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation’s pin-up and keep guide. Healthy eating is simply a matter of recognizing what constitutes a healthy portion size and knowing how many servings to eat on a daily basis. Place special emphasis on eating a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains every day and you won’t go far wrong. For further information, send for our guide Nutrition in a Nutshell and our Veggie Vitamins and Other Good Things! Wallchart (price £3.70 for both, including postage and packing). Please make your cheque payable to the VVF and send it, together with your name and address, to: VVF, 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH.

Number of servings	Food	Healthy portion size	To provide
At least 5	Fruit and vegetables		Folate, Calcium, Iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Fibre
	Fresh fruit	1 medium piece the size of a tennis ball
	Dried fruit	1-11⁄2 tablespoons or 1 golf ball
	Green or root veg	2-3 tablespoons or 1⁄2 tennis ball
	Salad veg	80g or 1 large cereal bowl
3 or 4	Cereals and grains		Energy, Fibre, B Vitamins, Calcium, Iron, Protein
	eg Cooked brown rice, cous-cous or other grains	2-3 heaped tablespoons or 1⁄2 teacup
	Breakfast cereal	25g or 1 regular sized cereal bowl
	Wholemeal pasta	1 cup (cooked) as side dish or 2 cups as main dish
	Wholemeal bread	2 slices
2 or 3	Pulses, nuts or seeds		Protein, Energy, Fibre, Calcium, Other Minerals
	Peas, beans and lentils	1⁄2 cup (cooked)
	Nuts or seeds	2 tablespoons or a small handful
Small amounts	Vegetable oil, margarine		Essential Fatty Acids*, Energy, Vitamin E (Vegetable oils), Vitamin A & D (Fortified Margarine)
Some	Foods fortified with vitamin B12 eg yeast extract or fortified soya milk
Also try to drink one to two litres (at least eight glasses) of water each day.

*Ditch fish from your diet! Omega 3 fats are found in dark green leafy vegetables such as broccoli; some nuts, especially walnuts; seeds, especially linseed (also called flax), hempseed and rapeseed, and oils extracted from these foods. One teaspoon of flax seed oil or a handful of whole seeds and nuts (linseed, hempseed or walnuts) each day should provide you with sufficient omega 3 fats. These fats are easily damaged by light or heat so try and keep these foods refrigerated and use them cold, for example on cold vegetable/rice/pasta salads and so on. Virgin olive oil is the best oil to use when cooking as it is much less prone to damage.