As a youth growing up I was always led to believe meat was the one and only source of meaningful protein. A good portion of meat, a portion of rice or chips and a string of vegetables was my daily meal for the majority of my life. So to start an internship in HappyFood where I would be solely dealing with vegetarian foods was a bit of a scare and brought on some anxiety (I thought I would be constantly starving.).
For my first blog post I thought it would be best to tackle my main concern when it comes to vegetarian living. As a person who does a lot of physical activity daily, how can someone gain sustainable protein nutrition without eating meat? This isnāt really an informative blog but a voyage of exploration for myself.
All my life I have been an advocate of sports and exercise. I have had a whole host of sporting endeavors in my short life whether it is football, boxing, skateboarding, rollerblading or surfing. You name it I have tried it. The same open mindedness has not been given to my diet. In recent years I have made a conscious decision to eat healthier for sports by substituting chips for sweet potatoes and garlic bread for green salads but the protein aspect of the meal is still meat. My underlying food closed mindedness still exists and I still feel like I am selling myself short.
After researching a number of health websites and blogs I have began to understand the amount of good in fruit and vegetables I have never knew existed. With my weekly meat overload in mind and the high amounts of research suggesting meat with every meal is bad for you, I am going to try a variety of vegetables that are green and unknown to me but high in protein and other good things.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be sampling various glorious greens in search for healthy protein. Fingers crossed I donāt die of starvation or fall ill from meat withdrawal symptoms.
by Andy Dunphy
