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With summer right around the corner, you will likely find yourself being invited to numerous barbecues, or perhaps even hosting your own.  The good news is that you don’t have to give up your vegetarian lifestyle in order to participate in this popular summer time activity.  In fact, with the right vegetarian recipes, you can still enjoy eating from the grill while steering clear of meat.  Here’s one great recipe you might want to try grilling at your next outing.

First, gather together the following ingredients:

½ cup soy sauce or tamari
½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp cider vinegar or rice vinegar
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
¼ tbp minced dried hot chili

Whisk all of these ingredients together and emulsify.  This will serve as your marinade.

Next, gather these ingredients:

1 pound of package firm tofu, drained
16-20 medium shiitake mushrooms
1 large daikon radish
1 head bok choy

Slice the tofu in half lengthwise and place in the marinade for one hour at room temperature, turning frequently.  After one hour is over, slice the tofu so it is in 1 inch cubes.

Next, wash and trim the mushrooms and then scrub and trim the daikon.  Slice the daikon into 1 inch thick pieces.  Then, separate the bok choy leaves, rinse them off and pat them dry before setting them aside.  Slice the stems of the bok choy so they are 1 inch thick.  Marinade all of these ingredients, except for the bok choy leaves, for 15 minutes.  Brush the bok choy leaves with the marinade rather than soaking. 

Finally, skewer all of the ingredients in an alternating fashion. Then, grill the skewers for 12 to 15 minutes over medium-hot coals.

Heather Mills, who is the former wife of Paul McCartney, has recently purchased a restaurant in East Sussex, England.  The good news?  The new restaurant will cater entirely to vegetarians.  In fact, Mills plans to serve only what she calls “plant based” foods.

The new restaurant is slated to open in July and will include a number of meat substitute meals.  In fact, Mills has reportedly stated that her new restaurant will be quite appealing to meat-eaters as well as to vegans.

“What is definitely going to shock people is the meat replacements,” she is reported as saying.  “They have a real meat taste to them.”

To open the restaurant, Mills purchased The Big Fish Café, which is located in Hove, for 155,000 pounds.  Her new restaurant, however, will be called V-Bites and will ultimately include an ice rink right outside of the restaurant.

To help promote the new restaurant as well as to encourage vegetarianism, Mills recently participated in a food festival in Brighton. Here, she demonstrated how to create a variety of vegetarian dishes, including meat-free “chicken” curry and “beef” stir-fry.

Are you a baseball fan who is looking for a great baseball park where you can enjoy a vegetarian meal?  If so, you will be happy to know that there are plenty of parks out there that offer yummy vegetarian options.  In fact, PETA has recently compiled a list of the top 10 parks for vegetarians.  These include:

· Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)
· AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants)
· Coors Field (Colorado Rockies)
· Turner Field (Atlanta Braves)
· Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros)
· PETCO Park (San Diego Padres)
· Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers)
· U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox)
· Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)
· Miller Park (Milwaukee Brewers)
· Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)

Honorable mention was also given to the following parks:

· Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers)
· Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays)
· Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals)
· PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates)
· Dolphin Stadium (Florida Marlins)
· Nationals Park (Washington Nationals)
· Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland Athletics)

Vegetarians in India have won a small victory in terms of having their beliefs respected.  Apparently, vegetarians in India do not eat vegetables that grow under the ground, such as potatoes and carrots.  So, out of respect for their special dietary needs, five airlines in Taiwan have started to remove these and other root vegetables from their in-flight vegetarian menus. They will, however, be adding more uncooked vegetables to their menus as part of the change. 

The airlines that have made these changes include:

· China Airlines
· EVA Airway
· Mandarin Airlines
· TransAsia Airways
· Uni Air

Unfortunately, the move to remove root vegetables from their in-flight menus has met with some opposition from Taiwanese passengers, however, as they already feel their menu options are far too limited.  The biggest concern is the fact that ginger is also considered to be a root vegetable and it is difficult to achieve traditional Taiwanese flavors without the use of this spice.

The changes to the airline menus were actually imposed by International Air Transport Association, which is trying to help ensure passengers do not accidentally ingest foods that are against their personal or religious beliefs.  But, creating a menu to please everyone has been difficult because the rules for vegetarianism are different among various cultures.  Taiwanese, for example, do not eat garlic or onions, while some also steer clear of mushrooms. 

The good news is that vegetarianism has become so popular that coming up with great menu choices has become a serious issue.  Hopefully, the move toward vegetarianism will continue to grow even stronger!

According to the May issue of Diabetes Care, researchers have determined that following a vegetarian diet may help protect individuals from developing both obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The study, which was conducted by Serena Tonstad, MD, PhD, from Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California and several colleagues, took a closer look at 22,434 men and 38,469 women between the years of 2002 and 2006.  The purpose of the study was to compare the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in those who follow a vegetarian diet compared to those who do not.  For those of us who follow a vegetarian diet, the results aren’t much of a surprise.

“The European Prospective Investigation found that BMI was highest in the meat eaters, lowest in vegans, and intermediate in fish lovers,” reported Dr. Tonstad.  “The protective effects of vegetarianism against overweight may be due to avoidance of major food groups, displacement of calories toward food groups that are more satisfying, or other factors.  Based on a review of experimental data, investigators have suggested that the portfolio of foods found in vegetarian diets may carry metabolic advantages for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.”

The researchers took a look at data such as self-reported lifestyle information, medical history and food intake.  They then nfound that vegans had the lowest BMI of just 23.6 kg/m2 . The more meat the individuals had in their diet, the greater their BMI became, with non-vegetarians having an average BMI of 28.8 kg/m2 . The researchers also found that the prevalence of type 2 diabetes steadily increased according to the amount of meat consumption.  2.9% of those following a vegan diet suffered from the disease, while 7.6% of non-vegetarians suffered from diabetes.

Adjustments were made to compensate for other potential causes of the differences, including ethnicity, age, education, sex, physical activity, income, sleep habits, television watching and alcohol use.

“The 5-unit BMI difference between vegans and nonvegetarians indicates a substantial potential of vegetarianism to protect against obesity,” the study authors write. “Increased conformity to vegetarian diets protected against risk of type 2 diabetes after lifestyle characteristics and BMI were taken into account. Pesco- and semi-vegetarian diets afforded intermediate protection.”