Whew! I just returned from Walt Disney World. The family had a great time but dining was always a burden. It seems to me that there are not a lot of CM-LO friendly options at the resort’s numerous restaurants. Many times a certain seafood dish had mixes of meat and or meat sauces. Especially on last Friday, the first Friday of Lent, extra caution had to be taken. I had to ask for substitute preparation for the food so that I could be completely meatless. It is tough to dine out unless you see a vegetarian dish listed. But you also need to ask what the components of the sauce are as well. A great percentage of chefs will use chicken broth in lieu of plain water or milk for many of their sauces. This as you know is not a CM-LO food. Vegetarian stock should be used. If you make a chicken dish use chicken broth. If you are cooking fish or seafood, then make a stock with just the fish and no meats. I was floored to see a clams and mussels dish with sausage buried in the stock. Always beware and ask! If your waiter doesn’t know then ask the cook! By the way, the Disney waiters are well informed and will tell you the specifics of the dishes if asked! Food for thought and food for Lent. CertifiedMeatless is the best! Make it a CM-LO day!

How did it go yesterday? Ash Wednesday is the first day to become CertifiedMeatless? If you had trouble finding food choices, then you did not consult the experts at CM-LO! Take a look today to plan your meals for the next 40 days and beyond!

The Great Lent has begun. It is the time for special abstinece. In the Catholic Church, this means abstaining from landed meats such as pork,beef, poultry, and game meats. CertifiedMeatless continues to provide you information on choices in which you can maintain the special abstinences required by Canon Law. For food choices please consult our links to manufacturers and their CertifiedMeatless food products. Check out our great recipe indexes found in our Links section! Also prepare yourself for the season! Make Lent CertifiedMeatless. Make it a CM-LO day!

Hello, Here is an excerpt from the Harvard Medical Journal. It shows good health habits for a healty hear! Remember today is Ash Wednesday so make your protein choices meatless for meatless Wednesday and a meatless Ash Wednesday! For further information go to http://CM-LO.com

A Heart-Smart Diet
The right diet can help prevent some forms of heart disease. To stay healthy, your body needs the right balance of foods. A “heart-smart” diet means:

Keeping your total calories under control
Eating as much vegetables as you want (at least several servings per day)
Eating more fruits
Replacing butter and margarine with mono-saturated and polyunsaturated oils
Avoiding trans fats and saturated fats
Eating whole grain foods instead of refined carbohydrates and potatoes
Getting your protein from fish, egg whites, legumes, beans, nuts and seeds.
Increasing your physical activity and trying to dedicate time for exercise every day

Hello all, Tomorrow begins the Great Lent. As you may know, for followers of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, Lent is the period of abstinence, piety, charity to others, and prayer. Abstinence is refraining from slaughtered landed meats and their by-products. CertifiedMeatless has a vast catalogue of food products that are void of landed meats and their by-products. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent for the Occidental Christians, is the ultimate in meatless Wednesday.

It is Friday and it is once again a day of reflection and abstinence. Not only good as a mortification, eating fish,seafood, and vegetables is a way of cleansing the body and allowing the body to obtain useful chemical components. Omega 3’s which are found in seafood has many properties that lead to better health. I am enclosing an excerpt from a study conducted by the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine published a few days ago. Please read and absorb the information. One note about fish oil and Omega 3 supplements: Many over the counter supplements are encased in geletin which is a meat derivative and therefore non CMLO. Choose carefully and choose supplements encased in dextrose or other CMLO acceptable capsules. More infomation at http://CM-LO.com.
Here is the excerpt and have a Certified Meatless Friday!

About Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids—also known as n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)—are important for a number of bodily functions, including the relaxation and contraction of muscles, blood clotting, digestion, fertility, cell division, growth, and movement of calcium and other substances in and out of cells.

The three major types of omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). ALA is found in seeds, vegetable oils (canola, flaxseed, and soybean), green leafy vegetables, nuts, and beans. ALA is converted, usually in small amounts, into EPA and DHA, after it is ingested. Fish oil and fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, and tuna are the primary sources of EPA and DHA. Algae oils are a vegetarian source of DHA. Omega-3s are available as dietary supplements, usually in the form of capsules or oils. Commonly used supplements include fish oil, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil.

Most American diets provide at least 10 times more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids. Scientists generally agree that people should consume less omega-6s and more omega-3s for good health; however, the best ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s has not been determined.

Hello and time to make a break from the meat from those SuperBowl parties! I came across a great article from the Mayo Clinic on the benefits of eating fish! Take a look at the article and determine how you can incorporate fish eating into your diet! For more help go to http://CertifiedMeatless.com

Omega-3 in fish: How eating fish helps your heart
The omega-3 fatty acids in fish are good for your heart. Find out how the heart-health benefits of eating fish usually outweigh any risks.

By Mayo Clinic staff

If you’re worried about heart disease — whether you want to avoid it, or you already have it and want to get healthier — eating one to two servings of fish a week could reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack by a third or more.

Doctors have long recognized that the unsaturated fats in fish, called omega-3 fatty acids, appear to reduce your risk of dying of heart disease. For many years, the American Heart Association has recommended that people eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids at least twice a week.

But some people are still concerned about mercury or other contaminants in fish outweighing its heart-healthy benefits. However, when it comes to a healthier heart, the benefits of eating fish usually outweigh the possible risks of exposure to contaminants. Find out how to balance these concerns with adding a healthy amount of fish to your diet.

What are omega-3 fatty acids, and why are they good for your heart?
Fish contain unsaturated fatty acids, which, when substituted for saturated fatty acids such as those in meat, may lower your cholesterol. But the main beneficial nutrient appears to be omega-3 fatty acids in fatty fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of unsaturated fatty acid that’s thought to reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also believed to improve learning ability in children, decrease triglycerides, lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, enhance immune function and improve arthritis symptoms. Consuming one to two servings a week of fish, particularly fish that’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids, appears to reduce the risk of heart disease, particularly sudden cardiac death.

Does it matter what kind of fish you eat?
Fatty fish, such as salmon, herring, and to a lesser extent tuna, contain the most omega-3 fatty acids and therefore the most benefit, but many types of seafood contain small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Most freshwater fish have less omega-3 fatty acids than do fatty fish from the sea. Some varieties of trout have relatively high levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

Remember when CertifiedMeatless announced its series on the Mediterranean Diet? Well here is another article on our series. To refresh, the Mediterranean Diet is high on fish and vegetarian products. It frowns upon red meats. So since it is Friday, make it a CM-LO, Certified Meatless Friday! Check our previous posts for Mediterranean Diet ideas. The article below is a study from the American Journal of Epidemiology as reported by Reuters:

New research from Spain confirms the benefit of a Mediterranean diet to a healthy heart.

In an analysis of more than 40,000 Spanish adults followed for an average of 10 years, researchers found that sticking to a Mediterranean diet significantly reduced the risk of a first heart attack or other heart disease-related event.

Specific components of a Mediterranean diet differ from region to region but, generally, the key features include high consumption of olive oil, plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole-grain cereals, nuts and seeds. Fish is favored over other meat sources with relatively low consumption of red meat. Alcohol, especially red wine, and dairy products are used in moderation.

For years, evidence has been accumulating regarding the protective effects of a Mediterranean diet against heart disease, Genevieve Buckland and associates at the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Studies of varying sizes and designs have shown that a Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of death in people who’ve had a heart attack, curb the risk of stroke, and boost survival in people living with heart disease, they note.

However, Buckland and associates were concerned that weaknesses in previous research limited the strength of conclusions. To investigate further, they used data collected between 1992 and 2004 from 41,078 healthy men and women from five Spanish centers involved in the 10-country European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, or EPIC, study.

The participants, whose average age was 49 at enrollment, provided information on what and how much they ate. The researchers also took body measurements, asked about behaviors such as smoking and physical activity, and medical history.

Each participant was given a score on an 18-point scale based on how closely their diet adhered to the Mediterranean ideal; the higher the score, the higher the adherence.

During an average follow-up of 10.4 years, 609 of the study participants suffered a heart attack or severe chest pain called unstable angina requiring intervention. Nine of them died.

When the researchers compared these heart events with Mediterranean diet scores and adjusted for confounding factors, they found that the higher the score (and adherence to the Mediterranean diet) the lower the risk of heart disease.

Specifically, high adherence, compared with low adherence, to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a 40 percent reduced risk of a first heart disease-related event, they report.

Heart disease is a top killer worldwide, accounting for roughly 30 percent of all deaths, equal to approximately 17 million deaths annually, the investigators note. Nearly half of these deaths are due to heart disease.

It’s thought that 80 percent of heart attacks and related events could be prevented by modifying behaviors — like adopting a healthy diet. And the current study suggests that drastic diet changes may not be necessary.

Each 1-unit increase in the Mediterranean diet score was associated with a 6 percent reduced risk of heart disease, Buckland and colleagues report. Even a 2-unit increase in Mediterranean score, “which required less drastic and more feasible dietary changes, has a protective effect,” they report.

The researchers say more study is needed to pinpoint key protective components of the Mediterranean diet and how these components confer their protective effects.

In the meantime, however, their results add to a growing body of evidence pointing to the heart health benefits of a diet rich in olive oil, plant-based foods, and fresh fish and low in red meats.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, December 15, 2009.

Reuters Health

Great tasty recipe for the day: Use enough pizza dough to fill a round 12″ diameter baking stone.Sprinkle flour on the stone and roll the dough. Any good vegetarian tomato sauce will do but I used the “B” brand tomato with chopped garlic sauce. Ladle the sauce onto the dough. Take a good helping of chopped onions, peppers, and mushrooms and sprinkle all around. Top off with a good mozzarella which does not contain enzymes. Bake at 410 degrees Farenheit for 14 minutes. Wonderful, crisp, and delicious!

Today is the last monday for January 2010! Lets make this a day to become Meatless or even CertitiedMeatless! Read a nice little blurb about oats and strawberries! Sounds like a tasty treat. Here in the greater NYC area it is wet and dank. For myself to start off the meatless monday and meatless week ahead, I shall have a nice warm bowl of Cream of Wheat with honey and cinnamon! Fantastic eh? Try more ideas at CM-LO.com!