Weight Stigmatization.

Just because average weight people have the misconception that overweight people are lazy, stupid and lack self-control, doesn't mean you have to buy into that myth.  And yet it persists.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the use of food to control mood is a coping strategy.  It is not a character flaw or a personality defect.  

The researcher quoted in the article below, Professor Brenda Major, says that "the stigma attached to being overweight is devastatingly unhealthy at a psychological level." 

If you told someone 50 times a day that they were stupid, eventually they would believe it.  Let's all stop being the most critical person in our lives - and ignore those who rate us (at our work or even in the street).  It does the opposite of what we want it to.  Loving kindness is the answer.  Be compassionate to yourself and you will eliminate one of the main causes of your emotional eating - self-stigmatization.

Messages designed to encourage weight loss may actually have the opposite effect

If you're one of the millions of people who count losing weight among their top New Year's resolutions, you might want to pay careful attention to some new findings by UC Santa Barbara psychology professor Brenda Major.

It turns out that the weight-stigmatizing messages presented by the media - the ones that characterize overweight individuals as lazy, weak-willed, self-indulgent and contributing to rising health care costs - may be tipping the scales in the wrong direction. Designed to encourage weight loss, they may actually have the opposite effect.

According to Major's research, which appears in the online issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, when women who perceive themselves as overweight are exposed to weight-stigmatizing news articles, they are less able to control their eating afterward than are women who don't perceive themselves that way.

Using young women as their test subjects (because, as a group, young women are particularly vulnerable to issues related to weight stigma), the researchers asked half of the participants to read a mock article from The New York Times titled "Lose Weight or Lose Your Job." The other half read a similar article, "Quit Smoking or Lose Your Job."

"The first article described all real things we found in the media about different kinds of stigma that overweight people are facing in the workplace," said Major, a faculty member in UCSB's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

After reading the articles, participants were asked to describe them via video camera to someone who was unfamiliar with the content. A 10-minute break followed, during which the women were ushered into another room and asked to wait for the next phase of the experiment to begin. Available to them in that room were a variety of snacks, including M&Ms and Goldfish crackers.

The snacks were pre-weighed, and every participant was offered the same type and amount, and remained in the room for the same amount of time.

In the final phase of the experiment, each participant was asked a number of questions, including how capable she felt of exercising control over her food intake. "People might think the overweight women who read the weight-stigmatizing article would eat less than the others," Major said, "but they didn't. As we predicted, they actually ate significantly more than the other women in the study. And afterward, they acknowledged feeling significantly less able to control their eating.

"Many people who are overweight feel helpless to control their weight," she continued. "Our study illustrates that articles and ads about the obesity epidemic that imply it's just a matter of self-control can make overweight people feel even more helpless and out of control of their eating."

Major's current study builds on her earlier research demonstrating the negative effects overweight women experience when they are put into situations in which they fear being stigmatized because of their weight. In that study, each participant was asked to give a talk - which she believed was either audiotaped or videotaped - on the qualities that make her a good date. Major and her colleagues found that the overweight women who thought they were being videotaped had greater increases in blood pressure and performed more poorly than the others on a subsequent cognitive measure of self-control than did others in the study.

"Our first study showed that being worried about being stigmatized because of your weight can decrease your self-control and increase stress" Major said. "And two big contributors to overeating are stress and feeling out of control. Thus, we predicted that exposing people who think they are overweight to messages emphasizing the stigma overweight people experience could actually cause them to eat more rather than less. And this is just what we found."

One finding in the current study that surprised her, however, was that women who didn't perceive themselves as overweight and who read the "Lose Weight or Lose Your Job" article subsequently reported feeling significantly more in control of their food intake afterward. "This may partly explain why some people who've never had an issue with weight and feel in control of their eating think that weight stigmatizing messages ought to cause people to eat less," Major said. "For them, these messages have that effect. But for people who don't feel in control of their eating, these messages have the opposite effect."

She suggested that messages related to weight loss would be more effective if they focused on good health and exercise rather than on weight and body mass index (BMI). "There is good evidence that BMI at very high levels is unhealthy. But people who are in the slightly overweight category actually live longer," said Major. "A recent paper published by the Centers for Disease Control that summarized the results of many studies reaffirmed the idea that people who are slightly overweight tend to live longer than those who are thin or in the 'normal' weight category. That information doesn't get much publicity, though."

Focusing on weight and BMI can do a tremendous disservice to people who are in a constant battle with their scales. "More than 90 percent of individuals who lose weight gain it back in two years," Major said. "There's so much biology involved and so many metabolic factors that it's difficult for almost everyone to lose weight and keep it off. Once people become heavy, their metabolism changes and the reward centers in the brain function differently."

Major argued that the stigma attached to being overweight is devastatingly unhealthy at a psychological level. "People are literally dying to be thin," she said. "When you have such a focus on weight and people saying they'd take 10 years off their lives in exchange for being thin, or young women saying they'd rather lose an arm than gain weight, it shows an incredible amount of fear."

Major's current research is supported by a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study weight stigma and its paradoxical and counter-intuitive effects. Next, she plans to look at the impact of weight stigma on changes in the stress hormone cortisol.

(This article appeared on Medical News Today website on 13/1/14)

The Biggest Loser - part deux...

How can someone lose 12 kilos in a week?  Dehydration?  Cutting off a limb?  Well, it seems that the word week has quite a fluid meaning, according to the Biggest Loser.  And a former contestant emphasises that it is, indeed, a game with drama, underhanded tactics and a big cash prize at the end.

Andrew 'Cosi' Costello tells his story (see below).  His sad opinion is "I would say that about 75 per cent of the contestants from my series in 2008 are back to their starting weight."

And one of his most sensible statements is "But the show doesn't address the reasons why people like me are so obsessed and addicted to eating excess amounts of food; it doesn't get to the root of the problem."

So the verdict:  The Biggest Loser is entertainment and a strategic money-making game, nothing more.  The weight loss should not be looked upon as something that you could do if you only had the willpower.  Thanks, Cosi, we now have it from the horse's mouth.

What is your opinion about The Biggest Loser?  Come on - share!

Former Biggest Loser contestant Andrew 'Cosi' Costello reveals the truth about the weight loss show

·        FEBRUARY 07, 2014 1:16PM

Andrew ''Cosi'' Costello and image of his former self during the 2008 Biggest Loser finale. Source: Supplied

ANDREW 'Cosi' Costello was a contestant on the Biggest Loser in 2008. As controversy rages over the dramatic weight loss of US contestant Rachel Frederickson, Cosi reveals his experience on the show.

Frederickson was crowned the winner of the US version of the show earlier this week after she lost a record-breaking 60 per cent of her total body weight.

Jaws dropped when the 24-year-old unveiled her thin, 105-pound (47kg) frame during the live finale, which aired in the US Tuesday night - a drastic change from when she first appeared weighing 260 pounds (118kg).

Frederickson's 155-pound (71kg) weight loss landed her $250,000 in prize money and also the title of the tiniest US Biggest Loser winner in history.

Today, Cosi writes exclusively for news.com.au about what contestants really have to go through on the hit Channel 10 show:

"The day I flew off to be a contestant on the Biggest Loser, my wife cried at the airport.

I returned more than four months later to discover that she had fallen pregnant the night before I left. So when I got out of the Biggest Loser house, I'd lost a heap of weight and she was carrying a heap more.

Four-and-a-half months is a long time to go without reading a paper, watching TV, driving a car or using money. In fact it's very similar to being in prison, except the inmates are fatter.

When it was the Christmas break, the crew and producers all took 10 days off. Everyone left, everything stopped. So while they enjoyed Christmas with their families, all the contestants sat in the White House with a security guard and supervisor.

We were not allowed to leave the house and we only got five minutes each to call our partners on Christmas Day (we only got to speak to our partners three times during the whole series) It was a very sad and depressing 10 days, but I signed up for the TV show so I can't really complain.

You probably think we spent all day everyday working out in the Biggest Loser house. Wrong. No one ever worked out for more than two and a half hours a day. You really can't do much more than that if you're training hard.

Biggest Loser cops a lot of bad publicity about what they do to the contestants. People need to remember that we signed up for a TV show and that's exactly what it is … a TV show.

They want the drama, the tears, the fights, the tears, the triumphs and the tears. Producers would push you to cry because that's what makes good TV. They continually asked questions like "Do you miss your kids?" Needless to say, I broke down more than once.

The only thing that really disappoints me about the Biggest Loser is the length of time between the weigh-ins. Have you ever wondered how the contestants manage to lose a staggering 12 kilos in a single week? We don't. In my series a weekly weigh-in was NEVER filmed after just one week of working out. In fact the longest gap from one weigh-in to the next was three and a half weeks. That's 25 days between weigh-ins, not seven. That "week" I lost more than nine kilos. I had to stand on the scales and was asked to say the line, "wow, it's a great result, I've worked really hard this week". The producers made sure that we never gave this secret away, because if we did, it created a nightmare for them in the editing suite. The shortest gap from weigh-in to weigh-in during our series was 16 days. That's a fact. The thing is, overweight people get inspired by watching the Biggest Loser. They get off the couch and they hit the gym. But after a week in the real world, some people might only lose 1kg so they feel like they've failed and they give up.

That's where the show is misleading. You need to remember it's a TV show, it's not all real. In fact, not even the scales we stood on were real.

What was real was the passion and kindness shown by trainers Michelle Bridges and Shannan Ponton. These two regularly came in on weekends to take us for extra sessions and they legitimately cared about each of us. They are very good people.

The Biggest Loser finale was an interesting event. I like to tell people it's similar to giving birth … it was long, drawn out and painful. The filming for the final episode took 12 hours. Before going on stage, there was a person behind the scenes whose job it was to help gaffer tape any "flabby" bits of skin. There's a tip for brides to be, nothing makes your tummy look thinner than tightly wrapped gaffer around the body. I refused to use the gaffer tape, but most of the other contestants had their stomachs and arms taped tight.

I would say that about 75 per cent of the contestants from my series in 2008 are back to their starting weight. About 25 per cent had had gastric banding or surgery. I sit in the middle somewhere. I lost 50 kgs, but have put 25 kgs back on since the show and my lifelong battle with weight continues. Anyone can lose weight in a controlled environment; I'd say it's almost impossible not to lose weight on the Biggest Loser.

But the show doesn't address the reasons why people like me are so obsessed and addicted to eating excess amounts of food; it doesn't get to the root of the problem. If any TV producers can work that out let me know, I'd love to go on your show!

You can read more about Cosi's weight loss battle, stories on marriage and fatherhood and his travels around South Australia on his Facebook page.

This article appeared on www.news.com.au  

The Diet Game

The team at the Pritikin Center have done it again!  Love their work  (www.pritikin.com).

They have created a sort of snakes and ladders game illustrating the fatal flaws in typical low calorie diets.

I've put the image below, but it is too big for me to include here effectively, so here is the link to it.

https://www.pritikin.com/your-health/health-benefits/healthy-weight-loss/1845-losing-diet-game.html

The object is to NOT play this game but follow a reasonable, healthy, satisfying eating program which leads to permanent weight loss.  I know I'd rather lose fat than water, and definitely not lose muscle mass.  What sort of diet game have you been playing???

The Biggest Loser.

I have long held the opinion that The Biggest Loser is predominantly about ratings and not about the people who participate.  It is, after all, a game - who can lose the greatest percentage of body weight wins the money.

And I'm not alone.  Louise from Treatyourselfwell.com.au has blogged about the negative impact of TBL and her insights caught the attention of The Age.  I direct you to her important communication here.

http://www.treatyourselfwell.com.au/blog/the-biggest-loser-ararat-is-a-recipe-for-disaster/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treatyourselfwell%2Ffatchat+%28Fat+Chat%29

Here's a quote from her original press release.  "Louise Adams, a clinical psychologist specialising in weight issues, says “The link between socioeconomic status, poverty, oppression and prejudice with higher body weights is well established, and these links remain even when people’s eating and exercise habits are taken into account. It’s very worrying that these complex issues which deserve attention have been reduced to chasing temporary weight loss for entertainment’s sake”. (My emphasis)

Lets think about this.  Who is permanently benefiting from this program?  The television station, advertisers and the presenters.  Who may TEMPORARILY benefit - the participants.  And who gets shouted at and shamed - the participants.  

Our value as human beings is not based on our weight.  Perhaps the compassion and understanding of the presenters is blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes.  What do you think?

Caught out at the Food Court

Susie Burrell often has some interesting things to say in relation to nutrition and diet.  In a recent article for The Age, she calculated the calorific content of some food court favourites and the results may shock you.  These are seriously heavy meals that we may incorrectly consider to be light or a lunchtime snack.  

A few of  the BIG surprises:
Chicken Schnitzel Roll = 974 calories and 57.4g fat.
Pasta container = 695 calories and 16g fat.
Stir fry noodles with veggies and oyster sauce = 932 calories and 50g fat.

This doesn't mean that there aren't healthier choices at a food court - but the allure of the greasy, large noodle dishes or the great big foccaccias may override our desire to eat healthy and make the custom sandwich and sushi places almost invisible.

How to overcome this? Well, eating at home before going to the mall is one idea.  Just like the old adage that one shouldn't go supermarket shopping on an empty stomach, maybe we need to hit the mall with a satisfied tummy.  That could result in both a saving of calories and a sizeable chunk of change.  Or try pausing, breathing deeply and thinking to ourselves "Yes, I could have anything I want to eat but I am choosing to have a more healthy option in order to improve my well-being"  That pause can take the "mindless" out of the eating process.

What do you make a bee-line towards at the food court?  Is it a "whopper" in calories?  Or do you grab some sushi handrolls instead?  Inquiring minds want to know!!

How to modify your eating.

I recently blogged strategies from a nutritionist (e.g. only having one source of fat in the food you are eating) and that was full of sound advice and strategies.

At www.goodfood.com.au today there are more great modification strategies in an article by Tara Diversi, a  skilled dietician.  

A diet is by its very nature a temporary thing.  We go on it, we go off it (usually long before we've lost the weight we wanted to).  However, making modifications to our everyday choices can lead to better, healthier life-long eating habits.  Heed the words of the clever Ms Diversi.  

How will you utilise this information and what modifications will you make?

How to kick bad food habits

by Tara Diversi.  January 1, 2014

Creating a habit starts with a baby step in the wrong direction. Breaking these bad habits can take a little more effort.

As a dietitian, I often feel like I'm hearing confession from clients who speak of their “weaknesses” and the “wicked” foods that tempt them, from chocolate to chips to cheese. The simple solution is to remember the maxim, “everything in moderation”. But how do you put that into practice when a habit has formed?

When it comes to combating your temptations, there are tricks that can enable you to keep enjoying your food without gorging a week's worth of treats in one sitting. For specific food habits, there's usually a specific solution that can help reduce your reliance.

Sweet tooth

If you're eating sweets as everyday foods rather than celebration foods, you may have a hard time weaning yourself. Eating any amount of sweet food (from sugar or alternatives) increases your desire for it, and if you've switched to artificially sweetened foods in an effort to lose weight, it could actually have the opposite effect.  Satisfying your sugar craving can make you hungrier, and make you crave it even more.

Tip: Avoid eating sweet food early in the day as this is likely to set you on the wrong path.

Chocolate

If chocolate is your particular vice, there's no point feeling guilty. A recent study from New Zealand found that those who associated eating chocolate cake with celebration were more successful in reaching their weight loss goals than those who associated it with guilt. If you have a treat planned, you're less likely to overeat because you're feeling emotional, through convenience or boredom.

Tips: Always buy single-serving chocolate bars. You can't eat half a block when you only have a single serving in the house.

A want for chocolate disguised as a need may in fact be a need to eat a more protein-rich breakfast.  Swap your usual cereal and toast for vegie eggs (an omelette or scrambled eggs with vegetables like mushrooms, onion, capsicum and zucchini) or cottage cheese, baby spinach and smoked salmon on a multigrain English muffin.

Cheese 

Sure, most people find cheese and bacon delicious. However, they've both become condiments added to flavour dishes rather than being treated as ingredients in their own right. We tend to use them almost as an insurance policy against a bad meal.

Cheese can be part of a healthy diet, but when it is used with other high fat ingredients it just adds kilojoules and re-flavours the food rather than enhancing the original ingredients.

Tip: A slice of cheese can adds between 400-500 kilojoules to a meal or snack; two slices gives us the energy equivalent of a medium chocolate bar.

Treat cheese as an ingredient, not as a condiment.Photo: James Davies

Soft drinks

I am often intrigued by the amount of supermarket real estate devoted to large bottles of soft drink. While a two-litre bottle may be the same price as a 375ml can, you're more likely to drink or eat the first thing you see in the fridge, so as with chocolate only ever buy single serves. Also if you've got some milk-a-holics in your household, put the milk in the fridge on a shelf rather than in the door, and keep the door free for storing water or sparkling water.

Tip: Wean yourself from sweet drinks with sparkling water with a little lemon or lime added. You will soon find soft drinks too sweet for your liking.

Salty snacks

When you have a mid-afternoon craving for sweet or salty food it's easy to convince yourself "my body must need it" and to eat food you hadn't planned to.  Salty food in particular can be moreish - it's easy to stop at 15 raw almonds, but when they're toasted and salted, that second handful goes down very easily.

Tip: Use flavours of foods enhanced by herbs, spices or aromatic vegetables while you're trying to reduce salt. Keep small portions of chips and nuts in individual serves. Mix salted nuts with raw nuts to reduce overall salt, and swap salted snacks out slowly. It is easy to eat a meal worth of kilojoules in a snack when it is salty like chips or cheese and crackers.

Coffee

There are health benefits associated with drinking coffee. Between two and four cups per day has been shown to reduce the risk of some chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. The benefits are less apparent when you add syrups, sugar, chocolate or enjoy milky coffees. Lattes, flat whites and cappuccinos are more like snacks than drinks, and can add a huge number of unwanted kilojoules that don't fill you up. Two regular lattes per day above nutritional requirements will take the average person an hour of walking to burn off.

Also, too much caffeine can cause an increase in stress responses and sleeplessness. It may make you feel better at the time, but for a long-term improvement on your energy, replace some of the caffeine-induced energy with whole food energy at breakfast, lunch and dinner, for example, by eating at least two serves of vegetables a day.

Tips: Treat milky coffees as a stand-alone snack, rather than a drink. If you're drinking more than four cups per day, try herbal tea alternatives. Peppermint tea is a great pick-me-up for the afternoon. Beware of teas that have a lot of sugar added - usually fruit-flavoured teas.

Give yourself a goal for number of coffees per day, order the smallest size and gradually reduce the sugar you add. This will allow you to enjoy a few cups per day guilt-free and savour the true quality coffee taste.

Tips for fighting bad food habits

·         Plan when you'll eat your favourite treat, in small amounts and preferably away from home.

·         Keep a barrier between you and the danger food. For example, keep in drawers rather than on desks or in the fridge rather than in the door.

·         If you buy food in bulk, separate it into individual serves in reusable small containers.

·         Don't use fatty foods as condiments

http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/how-to-kick-bad-food-habits-20140101-305vm.html

Flexitarianism: What the.....?

Why do we seem to need to label everything with a made up word?  Why not just say "flexible eating".  Well, whatever the reason for the strange name, the article has sound suggestions to improve the quality of what we eat, move away from packaged and pre-prepared foods and up the vitamin and mineral content of our daily diet, without sacrificing flavour or texture.

This article appeared in The Age (originally in the New York Times) and refers to the fact that these drastic "all or nothing" changes that we make - often at the beginning of the year - tend to last an average of two weeks before we tire of the hunger and monotony and get stuck into a gallon or two of Ben & Jerry's.  

What flexible changes could YOU make to your food consumption that would enhance your health and wellbeing?  Would love to hear your suggestions.  Yum Yum.

Flexitarianiasm: sustainable resolutions for your diet

Mark Bittman
Published: January 2, 2014 - 9:36AM

New Year's resolutions tend to be big, impressive promises that we adhere to for short periods of time - that blissful stretch of January when we are starving ourselves, exercising daily and reading Proust. But, and you know this, rather than making extreme changes that last for days or weeks, we are better off with tiny ones lasting more or less forever.

Mostly, though, when it comes to diet, we are told the opposite. We have a billion-dollar industry based on fad diets and quick fixes: Eat nothing but foam packing peanuts and lemon tea, and you'll lose 30 pounds (14 kilograms) in 30 days. Then what? Resolutions work only if we are resolute, and changes are meaningful only if they are permanent.

What follows are some of the easiest food-related resolutions you will ever make, from cooking big pots of grains and beans once a week, to buying frozen produce, to pickling things à la "Portlandia." Committing to just a few of these, or even one, will get you moving in the right direction toward eating more plants and fewer animal products and processed foods.

My suggestions are incremental, but the ease with which you can incorporate them into your normal shopping, cooking and eating routines is exactly what makes them sustainable and powerful.

Flexitarianism is about making a gradual shift, not a complete overhaul. It is a way of eating we are much more likely to stick to for the long term - which, after all, is the point of resolutions in the first place.

COOK SIMPLE, UNSEASONED VEGETABLES EVERY FEW DAYS

You can steam or parboil or microwave. Once cooked, vegetables keep a long time. And then they're sitting there waiting to top pastas and grains, to bolster soups and salads, to whip up veggie wraps or just to reheat in oil or butter with seasonings.

Leftover vegetable spread - Purée any leftover vegetables (as long as they are tender) in the food processor with olive oil, fresh parsley leaves, lemon juice, salt and pepper until the mixture reaches the consistency you want. Serve with bread, crackers or crudités. It's nice on toast as breakfast.

COOK BIG BATCHES OF GRAINS AND BEANS

Because it's nearly effortless, and having cooked grains and beans on hand at all times makes day-to-day cooking a breeze. They will keep in the fridge up to a week. White beans with kale and sausage - Sauté some loose Italian sausage in olive oil until lightly browned. Add minced garlic, cooked white beans, chopped kale, a splash of bean-cooking liquid or water, salt and pepper. Simmer until beans are hot and kale is wilted. To garnish, add oil and parsley.

BUY HALF AS MUCH MEAT, AND MAKE IT BETTER MEAT

Thinking of eating meat as an indulgence lets you buy tastier, healthier, more sustainable meat without breaking the bank.

Thai beef salad - Grill, broil or pan-sear a small piece of flank or skirt steak until medium-rare; set aside. Toss salad greens; plenty of mint, cilantro and basil; chopped cucumber; and thinly sliced red onion. Dress with a mixture of lime juice, fish sauce, sesame oil, sugar and minced jalapeño. Thinly slice the steak and lay it on top; drizzle with a little more dressing and any meat juices. Garnish with herbs.

SPLURGE WHEN YOU CAN

That way, the foods you consider special treats are truly special. For me it's dark chocolate, meat and cheese.

Dark chocolate ganache - Heat 1 cup cream in a saucepan until steaming. Put 8 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate in a bowl and pour the hot cream on top. Stir to melt and incorporate the chocolate; use immediately as a sauce, or cool to room temperature and whip to make a smooth frosting or filling.

BUY FROZEN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Because out-of-season produce from halfway around the world doesn't make much sense or taste best. Fruits and vegetables (from peaches, to corn, to squash) frozen when they are ripe are a better alternative, and incredibly convenient.

Frozen peach jam - Combine 1 pound frozen peaches, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to boil, then adjust heat so it bubbles steadily. Cook, stirring occasionally until thick, 15 to 30 minutes. Cool completely; it will keep in fridge at least a week.

PICKLE

So the copious amounts of fresh produce you buy never have to go to waste. And because it tastes good.

Quick-pickled cucumbers and radishes - Put thinly sliced cucumbers and radishes (use a mandoline if you have one) in a colander. Sprinkle with salt, gently rubbing it in with your hands. Let sit for 20 minutes, tossing and squeezing every few minutes. When little or no liquid comes out, rinse and put in a bowl. Toss with some sugar, dill and vinegar, and serve. Garnish with dill.

MAKE YOUR OWN HUMMUS, BEAN DIPS AND NUT BUTTERS

With those around, vegetables and fruit practically dip themselves. You'll be filling up on produce without even noticing it.

Hummus - In a processor or blender, combine cooked chickpeas, minced garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Purée; taste and adjust the seasoning. Garnish with oil, lemon and smoked paprika.

MAKE YOUR OWN CONDIMENTS

Store-bought versions of ketchup, barbecue sauce, salsa and the like are often loaded with preservatives and sugar. Besides, creating your own recipes is a blast.

Marjoram pesto - In a small food processor, combine a cup of marjoram (leaves and small stems) and some garlic; process until finely minced. Add red wine vinegar and olive oil; purée. Add capers (about a tablespoon) and pulse a few times. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

EAT VEGETABLES FOR BREAKFAST

You already eat fruit for breakfast, so what's so strange? Veggie-based breakfasts are common around the world: cucumber and tomato salads in Israel, pickled vegetables in Japan, a bean and tomato stew in parts of Africa. Think of it as a très chic international trend.

Cauliflower tabbouleh - Pulse cauliflower florets in a food processor, or chop them by hand, until they are small bits resembling grains. Toss with chopped tomatoes, plenty of chopped parsley and mint, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

COOK PLANTS AS YOU WOULD MEAT

Because bold, meaty flavours aren't reserved just for flesh.

Breaded fried eggplant - Dredge 1/2-inch-thick eggplant slices in flour, then beaten egg, then bread crumbs. Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment and refrigerate at least 10 minutes (up to 3 hours). Shallow-fry (in batches, without crowding) in 1/4 inch olive oil in a large skillet until browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Garnish with parsley and lemon.

COOKING FOR CARNIVORES? MAKE EXTRA SIDES

Let the people around you have their fill of meat while you eat a bit, but fill up on vegetables, beans and grains.

Roasted broccoli gratin - Put broccoli florets in a baking dish; toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 425 degrees until the tops are lightly browned and the stems nearly tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with bread crumbs (preferably homemade), mixed with Parmesan if you like, and a little more olive oil. Continue roasting until the bread crumbs are crisp.

COOK OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Because some of the best vegetable-centric food comes from halfway around the world, where it is "food," not "flexitarian."

Caramel-braised tofu - Put 1 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a deep cast-iron skillet over medium heat; cook until sugar liquefies and bubbles. When it darkens, turn off the heat. Carefully pour in 1/2 cup fish sauce and 1/2 cup water; cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until it becomes liquid caramel. Add sliced shallots, cubed, pressed or extra-firm tofu, lots of black pepper and lime juice. Simmer, stirring occasionally until the tofu is hot.

The New York Times

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/flexitarianiasm--sustainable-resolutions-for-your-diet-20140101-305zq.html