My specific vegetarian diet

As I was overseas in the past few years, I have developed a specific diet which not everyone can comprehend easily.

My lovely Sweet Basil, not only it is good looking, its fragrance helps to expel mosquitoes, and it is a very delicious salad ingredient.

First of all, I am vegetarian, but I am not a simple vegetarian. From the original philosophy, it is an integrated spiritual diet which infuses Chinese medicine, Indian Ayurveda (A natural therapy which mainly uses herbs, its philosophy is very similar to Chinese medicine), European biological concept and wisdoms from everywhere in the world. I found that I can choose to extract the best from them, they are complementary, but not conflicting.

I believe ‘What you eat is what you are.’ And our body is just like a temple, we have to respect and love it. Will you offer rubbish to the deities in the temp? Of course not! So why would we eat junk food? This is totally unreasonable, so we have to make sure we know what we put in our mouths.

In the perspective of Chinese medicine, my body constitution is cold. So since young, I had quit eating cold food, 99% of the time I don’t drink cold drink and cold sweet soup. Since then, my menstruation pain had lessened. I even tested it when I was a student by drinking a few cans of cold drinks in the month, my pain was increased (of course this is one of the reasons only). I hadn’t eaten watermelon (its property is cold) for ages, but I couldn’t resist eating with other volunteers, after I finished my farm work under the hot sun in Long Vally workcamp. The result was my cycle came 5days earlier!

From the perspective of Ayurveda, my body constitution is air and fire (Vata-Pitta), so I should avoid eating dry, gas-producing, chili and bitter food. In order to balance my body constitution (just like the five-elements concept in Chinese medicine), I have to eat more oily and heavier food. Therefore, I always remember to replenish my oil, like always eating avocados and I generously put a lot of extra virgin olive oil in my salad, to balance my dry body.

From the perspective of European biological food, I have tasted the differences between organic and not organic food, I have also tasted the differences between food with added preservatives and chemicals. There are plenty of fresh, organic and suitable for vegetarians delicacies in the supermarkets or cooperatives in Europe, such as quinoa, couscous, polenta (grains made with maize), spelt and tempeh (fermented food made with soy beans) etc. And the most important point is that they are much cheaper than those in Hong Kong!

From the meditation spiritual perspective, I don’t eat the five strong smell food (like onion, galic and chives etc) and ginger. 2500 years ago, Buddha had already pointed out that these kinds of food will arouse our sentiment and desires (one Italian friend jokingly pointed out that, no wonder they are so passionate, because Italian cuisine is full of onion and garlic.). If the purpose of your meditation is to empty all your emotion and five senses, you wouldn’t want to put double efforts if you could just put half.

Besides, learning bit by bit from different part of the world, I also learnt that not to drink one hour before and after eating, nor during eating. Because liquid can dilute the gastric acid, slow down the digestion. There are reports about drinking a glass of cold drink during meal increases the risk of having heart diseases.

Although I love eating different kinds of cheese when I was in Europe, my body is still not European, just like we don’t have the enzyme that helps to decompose alcohol, so our faces easily turn red and we are drunk easily, my stomach also feel slow when I have eaten cheese and milk products. So I seldom eat them. As I also don’t eat eggs, I am almost a vegan.

I don’t drink because my liver is not so good. I don’t take caffeine, because this is not the essential nutrition for our body, its diuretic nature is also a burden to my dry body (not suitable to Vata-Pitta). Except boosting one’s energy, I really don’t see any other positive functions for our body.

As a result of all the above factors, my specific diet is developed.

Many people asked, ‘If you don’t eat this and don’t eat that, you don’t have anything to eat then?’ If you speak from a Chinese style vegetarian perspective, yes, because the Chinese style just has mixed veggies hot pot, mixed veggies hot pot with red yeast, mock chicken, mock goose, stir fry veggies etc. They are boring and do not provide enough nutrients.

However, the world of vegetarian is very open, wide and colourful, the food is also incredibly delicious. Let me share my secret, for example, we can get everything we need from a bowl of salad.

Let’s look at what I usually put in my salad:

The core food: Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots (full of dietary fibre) and extra virgin olive oil.

My secret receipt is to put: Red beetroots (full of iron), Jicamas (help to quench our thirst, full of proteins and vitamin C), quinoa (full of proteins and calcium), avocados (fat, vitamin B and E etc), different nuts like cashew, walnuts and hazelnuts (proteins, carbohydrate, vitamin B, different minerals and calcium), different seeds like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (full of proteins, vitamin B and E), different dried fruits (iron, vitamin C and antioxidant), flaxseed powder (only the grounded one release its omega 3 nutrient), brewer’s yeast (full of proteins).

The nutrient which vegans always lack of is vitamin B12, usually people eat vitamin supplements, but I found the oat mix with grains’ essence by Greenmax with fortified vitamin B12. So I usually add this powder instead of milk into my porridge in the morning breakfast.

So you see, only s bowl of salad plus a glass of oat mix drink can supply you with all the nutrients your body needs, so do you still have excuses that eating animals is for your health?

The all-encompassing salad, plus heavy taste pumpkin soup with different vitamins and minerals. They can fill your stomach, but you will feel light and healthy after eating them.

In fact, it is not difficult to be a vegetarian, it all depends if you have the heart, persistency and determination. Be the change you want to see! If you want the world to be better, you should start off from yourself! Let me introduce my favourite vegetarian restaurants next time.