Here are several weight loss tricks that I learned from reading, experience and from having a nurse as a mother and a diabetic as a brother. These are fantastic and I am giving you a large number so you can pick and choose those that work best for you.

1- Keep a diary.

The best way to know what you are eating is to write it down. Sometimes we don't notice, or remember, every parcel that we put in our mouths. This diary can also give you a much better picture of what you eat most of, and therefore make you understand much more easily exactly where you should cut or what you should change. You don't absolutely need to do this part, but it would help greatly. I strongly recommend you keep one for about three weeks.

2- Chew slowly.

Yes, there is a very good reason why our mothers tell us to chew slowly. For one, there are areas in your mouth that absorb nutrition, so the longer it stays there, the more nutrition you get. The more nutrition you get, the fuller you feel after a meal. Furthermore, the longer you take to chew, the faster your brain tells your stomach that you have had enough to eat. It can actually take up to 20 minutes for your brain sensors to detect that you are satiated, so the longer you take to eat, the less you will eat.

Also, avoid eating while doing something. Do not eat in front of the television, while reading a book or at work. The reason for this is simple: you end up associating food with that activity. Instead, drink low calorie liquids, like water, natural juice or a herbal tea. Have some coffee, if that's what you need. But don't eat.

3- Eat a very small amount around 30 minutes before a meal

Well, this is where I think our parents were wrong. Yes, eating before a meal makes you eat less - but that's a good thing. Eating smaller portions more often during the day is best to keep up our energy levels. To help you do this, eat a small snack - fruits mid-morning, nuts mid-afternoon - and a handful of veggies or fruits 30 minutes before your meal, including breakfast (for example, eat half a banana, shower, then have breakfast). This way, you control your hunger much more easily. The mini snack before a meal is for the same reason as to why chewing slowly helps you: it activates the brain's satiation sensors more quickly.

4- Eat complex carbs.

Carbs aren't the problem: simple carbs are. You need to avoid anything that has been processed, especially white flour. When purchasing bread or pasta, stick to the ones that are strictly whole grain - meaning that the hulls haven't been taken off before crushing them to make flour. To make sure you don't get tricked, read the ingredients because several companies put both whole grain and plain flour, but still label it 'whole grain' on the package. Look for ancient grains, too, which have a better nutritional value, such as spelt or kamut (these can be found mainly in natural and organic supermarkets). Also, chose brown rice over white but if you want the white one, avoid minute rices. Swap for potatoes or corn once in a while to keep your carb source varied.

5- Purchase natural and organic

Nothing is worse than processed food. Most packaged goods are processed, so if you're not sure how to tell the difference, just prepare your food from scratch. There are several ways to do that even on a tight schedule - if you read below, in some of the articles I wrote for The Flaming Vegan, I talk about some of the tips and tricks to keep your kitchen time down. Also, whenever possible, buy your food organic. Just make sure that you are still getting non-processed items by looking for whole foods, such as whole wheat flour. And, of course, stay away from salt, sugar, oil, and any other form of additives, even if they are natural. We should not be eating too much of these.

6- Exercise for a maximum of 30 minutes per day

Exercise with the purpose of losing weight in mind should be around 20 to 30 minutes per day. You don't need more; quite the contrary, if you do too much, you will make yourself hungry. And, when you are done with your short workout, make sure you have both water and a quick bite to eat to keep you satiated to avoid binging later.

7- Eat fat

Vegetable fats are good for you. You do need to keep them to a minimum, but if you eat the same amount of calories from animal fats as vegetable fats, you will gain less weight from the vegetable ones. The reason is simple: our system is not meant to digest animal fats. We are actually herbivores, and this type of food is not for us. Also, to get the best typè you can, eat it from the food and avoid using too much, such as salad dressing. Instead, try to get your fats from avocadoes, flax seeds, and nuts, for example.

8- Go veg

Being a vegan has many advantages, but the main one is health. If you watch the documentary 'Forks Over Knives' and read the book 'The China Study', you will see that we are not meant to eat animal by-products. Stars who have chosen to become vegan due to these publications include, amongst others, Michelle Pfeiffer and Ozzy Osbourne.

9- If you indulge, make it expensive

There are two reasons for this. One, you will buy less, therefore eat less of them. Two, there are very good chances that the more expensive ones are made from better quality ingredients, and are usually more natural, making you gain less weight from them. So, if you buy chocolate, look for the dark, 4$ per bar chocolates. Both your waistline and your tastebuds will thank you.

10- Fruits in the morning only

Fruits are very good for you... only in the morning. The reason is simple: they have a high amount of sugar. Your body needs vitamins during the day, but you can get them very easily from vegetables. So, stay away from fruits any time after your mid-morning snack. This will keep you from crashing in the afternoon. The same goes with anything sweet. If you can avoid any sweets at all after the morning period, your energy level will be much better for the rest of the day, and you will have much less cravings for yet another bit of junk food.

11- Drink lots of water

At times, when our body thinks it's hungry, it's actually thirsty. When you get a craving or feel a little hungry shortly after eating, drink an 8oz glass. Chances are, after 20 minutes, it will pass. If you are still hungry, then you can have something small to eat.

12- Try to avoid canned, frozen or packaged foods

Not only are they packed with salt and sugar, the packaging at times can infiltrate the food, especially the metal from cans and particles from plastic. This goes for yoghourt and margarine as well. Try to avoid these and buy margarine sticks wrapped in paper, preserves in glass jars and anything else, try to cook fresh.

NB: I have added a large quantity of articles I wrote for The Flaming Vegan which you can read at your own leisure. Most contain information that complement the 12 tips I just gave you. Some others are additional ideas on how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Good luck and I hope to hear from you on your journey. I would really appreciate receiving your feedback as I want to improve my work and see you succeed.

How to Do a Proper Juicing Fast

Juicing fasts are not unknown of, and more and more people are taking the chance and giving it a shot. And, unfortunately, fail. But, this is avoidable. One just needs to know how to do it.

There are several reasons to do this fast. Even though it is mostly used to lose weight, some have used it for drastic changes in their lifestyles, such as learning to become vegan or getting over drinking and drug addictions. This is the way to clean the slate and start fresh.

I was reminded of this drastic weight-loss method by the show Mike and Molly, and have seen how much they put it down. It is by far not the only way to lose weight, but most people add it to the list of risky and unhealthy methods because it is a quick way to shed off the unwanted pounds. However, there are many facts that are overlooked when trying this safe, reliable, and often misunderstood technique.

First, one needs to remember that this is not the ‘starving-oneself’ way of losing weight. Quite the contrary; when doing a juicing fast, NEVER let yourself go hungry. Keep drinking. The important thing to remember is that you need to ingest only liquids. The number of calories you drink don’t count – not one bit – because the purpose of sticking to liquids is to give your stomach a break and let the rest of your body take charge. How does this work? Well, all the energy that is normally used to digest your food (and it is quite a lot more than most of us think) is put to other tasks, such as cleansing your body and repairing anything that it hasn’t been able to take care of from being too busy breaking down your meals. Included in this process is the breaking down of fat cells, which is also where most of the undigested chemicals – the ingredients in food not meant for human consumption – accumulate. These chemically-stuffed cells are incredibly hard to break down if your body does not have the required amount of energy to do so. Exercise alone cannot take care of this, and your body needs to rest in order to be able to take on this task properly. And, the number calories absorbed from juice won’t affect this process.

Another area where the ingredients that can’t be digested accumulate is in the intestines. They actually form a layer that makes your insides blow up, making your belly area larger than it naturally should be. During the three first days of the fast, this is the area that is cleansed. Prepare yourself for three days on the toilet – maybe more, depending on the amount accumulated in your insides. The next step is the breaking-down of fat cells, which can lead to some dizziness if your body was overly-stocked with chemicals. However, once this process is done and you’ve decided to change your diet, you should be at a very low risk of gaining it back.

Afterwards, the body starts to repair itself. Whatever damage was incurred and that the body can fix without external help, such as the liver, will be done during the third and final step. At this point, your body no longer needs to be cleaned per se, but the work continues. You may need a few more days to ensure this is done properly. It will mostly happen during sleeping hours, and consuming plenty of water when waking up is necessary.

As much as I would love to say that anyone can do a fast for however long they wish, there are a few set rules to follow. The diet is very specific and a maximum amount of time is possible without causing lack of nutrition.

1- This fast must be done with only fruits and vegetables. No grains, salt, sugar of any kind are accepted as they will stop the process at hand. A blender or a juicer is necessary (or both if you wish to vary your drinks). The idea is to keep everything liquid, and if you wish to have vegetable juice from a blender, it is possible but a bit limited. I recommend going to natural and organic stores to find ready-made juices of all kinds, but be careful and read the labels. No additives of any kind are allowed, especially salt, sugar and lactic acid (derived from dairy).

2- The recommended period for a fast is between three to ten days. However, you can fast safely for up to 30 days, but never go beyond a month.  If you wish to continue, go back to eating normally for a couple of weeks, then start again.

3- Drink more than the daily recommended amount of water to avoid clogging your kidneys. They will be working overtime to cleanse the body of any unwanted intruders.

4- Those that are very overweight or obese should not do this right away. They should start off by eating only fruits and vegetables for a period of time, stop, and do it again until they reach a weight that is much closer to the average. Then, they can embark on this diet. The risk is that they will clog their kidneys and make their system go into shock, making it much easier to fall off the wagon.

5- Vary your juices as much as you can and keep drinking all day long, as much as you need to. Never go hungry. Remember that there are plenty of low-calorie vegetable juice options. To ensure getting as many nutrients as possible, make your own.

6- If you feel that you just can’t make it through a day without eating, consume only easy-to-digest fruits or vegetables that fill you up quickly, such as bananas or ripe avocados. Never eat celery, carrots, peppers or cucumbers, for example, as they are very difficult to digest.

7- When you are ready to get out of it, learn to listen to your body. You will have to start eating very slowly by sticking to raw fruits and vegetables only at first. If you wish, you may even take advantage of this to learn to become a raw foodie. But, if you wish to go back to cooked foods, go slowly and don’t rush. Make sure you don’t overtire your stomach and follow your body’s indications as to what it wants since it knows what it needs. It may tell you to stop eating junk food entirely, and this may be the time to step into an incredibly healthy lifestyle.

This is a cleanse that will not only make you look better and become healthier, but will also give you an incredible amount of energy. You will notice the difference very quickly.

Every Vegan's Tools

Although I would love to be able to say that vegans don’t need anything to cook, that would be lying. Most of us would be lost without a few special tools. While searching online, I found articles writing tips on cooking, and these items came up as the things that the chefs recommend vegans acquire to make things easier in the kitchen.

1. Wooden cooking utensils for coated pans

It is important that your cooking utensils be coated, plastic or wood, but the best ones are made of wood. This prevents scraping and damage to your pots and pans, especially non-stick pans.

2. The Vitamix

Yes, the blender our beloved The Flaming Vegan website is advertising is an excellent tool that some vegans swear by and would not be able to live without. It makes fantastic juice – so this may even save you the need to buy a juicer, and apparently even makes raw vegetables into soup in only three minutes because the motor heats but doesn’t burn out.

3. Solid pots and pans

They are tougher to clean, but since they are well balanced for the heat, your food is cooked more evenly. Furthermore, they can be used in the oven, reducing the number of dishes to clean afterwards and the space you need to store your cookware.

4. Food processor

The more buttons, the better. This is one item that saves a lot of time and if you have one of the higher quality ones, you can manage more types of food. Just remember that the size doesn’t really count – it’s the amount of gadgets included. Plus, by saving time chopping and slicing and dicing and grating, you’ll be more tempted to eat healthier.

5. Pastry whisk and biscuit cutter

This is the economical solution to making biscuits, cake and scones all the while ensuring you get the best results. As it is, if you over-mix a batter, the result isn’t as fluffy or moist as most would like it. So, try this instead and see how mixing with elbow grease can save you both money and make your pastry better.

6. Fine grater

This tool can help you prepare fresh ingredients such as lemon zest, ginger, nutmeg and garlic to add to your cooking. It helps bring out the flavour of the ingredients because they are cut finer this way than with a normal knife.

7. Miniature whisk

This tool is great for sauces and salad dressings. You’ll never buy dressing again.

8. A top-quality chef’s knife

The best knives are what you need to slice, dice and chop faster and more accurately. You don’t necessarily need the entire chef’s ensemble, but having at least a large knife, a paring knife and a good bread knife as a minimum is a good idea.

9- Knife sharpener – preferably electric

If you want to keep your blades working their best, make sure you have a sharpener and sharpen them regularly. Look at how the blade looks when you buy the blade and as soon as it starts to dull, sharpen it. It’s worth it.

10- Hand-held immersion blender

This is great when you want to either prepare just one small smoothie or recipe, or when you need to puree something after cooking it, then cook it some more. It saves the trouble of transferring from one spot to another, and saves on dishes and on space.

11- Mortar and pestle

This is great for anyone using whole and fresh spices and herbs, or for making pesto or mashing garlic and ginger.

12- Slow cooker

Yes, it gets put down for being the ‘lazy cook’s tool’, but the stews and soups that come out of that baby are fantastic. If comfort food is what you crave, this is your ‘must-have’ tool.

Nutrition Absorption

For optimum health, it is not only necessary to eat healthy foods. Eating raw foods help enhance moods and curve cravings or excessive thoughts of desires. So, what else can we do to ensure we are eating right? Well, some of the tips I will explain to you may very well surprise you.

1- Fruits are only for breakfast.

We need to separate types of fruits to avoid excessive stomach secretions that can upset the delicate balance of what is being ingested and digested. Furthermore, we need to try to avoid eating fruits during the day as much as we can, especially the ones higher in acid - except for lemons and limes. These two have such a low amount of sugar that they can be paired with other foods with minimal impact to digestion. Otherwise, although fruits are great, it is better to leave them at the first meal of the day or, better yet, before eating breakfast, such as before showering.

2- Carbs are fattening only if....

... they are simple carbs. Complex carbs, which are the ones we find in their natural form, are healthy and much more calorie-wise than we think. The reason for that is that if our system has a hard time breaking them down, then we don't absorb most of the calories from grains such as wheat. You may be wondering what is the point of eating them if we don't digest them, but get this: we actually don't need to absorb much from them, anyways. The main purpose of most carbs, especially complex ones like grains, is to help pass food in our digestive tracks so that we can go to the bathroom more easily. They are the ones that help keep the tubing system clean! Therefore, when looking for a good fiber supplement, get one that is made of whole grains, such as flax seeds or natural psyllium (and don't forget that fiber itself is never digested). Your bottom will thank you. Otherwise, corn and potatoes make excellent vegetable carbs that the system also appreciates for the variety it brings to your diet, and the added nutritional boost that comes from the fact that they are vegetables.

3- If you are feeling excessively tired...

... you may need lemon juice on your high-iron foods. The idea of making a lemon tofu stir-fry is excellent. Or try any other form of high-iron veggies - such as spinach - with strawberries and kiwis. Make sure you drink guava or orange juice with your high-iron breakfast cereal. Check out my recipe for a yummy saladhere.

4- Several vitamins need fat

There are quite a lot of vitamins, including vitamin E, A, D, K and beta carotene, that need a little help to be absorbed. To do so, a healthy fat, such as avocadoes, nuts, vegetable oil or flax seeds, can be all you need to ensure you get the most out of your vegetables and fruits. Although the idea of eating most types of fat is a little strange with fruits, try adding a bit of nuts to your fruit salads. As for veggies, cook them in vegetable oil, or make a salad with a balsamic or italian vinaigrette, add a spoonfull of flax seeds, or better yet, simply slice a quarter of an avocado to make it complete.

5- Vitamin D for calcium

The best way to ensure we are getting all our calcium needs is to complement it with Vitamin D. The best source is, of course, the sun, which through some process which I won't get into with you because I'm not a biologist, creates it in our skin and ensures we have it. So get lots of sun! For those of you living in a location where it rains a lot, such as London, England or Vancouver, Canada, may I suggestt sun-dried shiitake mushrooms? Other mushrooms work, especially button mushrooms, so now you have a good reason to always eat them! Don't forget to ensure that your soy milk has added vitamin D as well, as this is another excellent source.

6- Avoid coffee and tea when eating

Coffee and caffeine in general disrupts the absorption of much needed vitamins and minerals. It not only slows calcium absorption, it may also even make your body lose an extra amount. Women who are menopausal are especially at risk, but this is something that needs to be addressed at an early age as well. Make sure you consume your calcium without coffee, and try to have your coffee separately. If you consume a lot, find good sources of calcium to replace what is lost, or cut down on your caffeine intake in general. This includes, of course, any tea, several sodas (not just the dark ones - Mountian Dew is the highest soda in caffeine), chocolate, and so on.

7- Try to avoid supplements if you can

The reason for this is actually qute simple. If you take too many supplements of one kind, such as zinc, you may be interfering with the absorption of iron and calcium, and vice-versa. These three minerals use the same cellular receptor sites and if one takes up too many, the others will be lost. It is always best to try to get every mineral the natural way by combining foods that work well together. To ensure maximum zinc intake, combine it with protein, for example.

8- Avoid antacids

These little digestive aids actually limit the absorption iron, so if you feel like your meal gave you heartburn, reach for something that will calm it without the need of medication. My body reacts well to soy milk, which seems to always make the burn pass. Although as

vegans we don't each much food that actually gives us heartburn, it may still happen at times - especially for those of us who get chocolate or french fry cravings - and the help of something natural is always better than chemical.

9- Eat raw foods

Most of you may have heard how eating raw foods are better for us because of the amount of vitamins and minerals that are lost during cooking. However, did you know that the most important one is enzymes? This little wonder is a vital part of the fruit or vegetable that dies with heat. We need it because it helps us digest our food. Now, our body contains enzymes and can create more, but with the help of raw fruits and vegetables, we are helping our stomachs by giving it what it needs externally. Since we are putting less stress on our bodies, we are requiring less work from it. Once cooked, though, all enzymes are dead and our bodies need to create them for our entire meal. This is a problem because we are taking up quite a lot of energy and time needed for our body to repair itself. Medical professionals go so far as to state that all illnesses and diseases are due to a lack of or imbalance of enzymes.

Dairy Suggested, Says Food Guide

The American Food Guide states that dairy is only suggested, as per this articlewritten in 2011. I only just recently read up on this new information, which to me, is actually news. I've been in Colombia for just over a year and missed out on this interesting fact. Although you may all be familiar with this information already, I will guide you through the details that surprise me and that make me smile.

First, this is done with Michelle Obama's collaboration. I was already aware of the program she had started to get kids of the couch - especially those that watch too much TV and/or play for hours on end on their gameboxes - in order to decrease, or at least stop the increase, in weight gain amongst Americans. I recall her stating in an interview with Ellen that this was because most people understand the role of exercise for our health, but she was still a little hesitant to speak of how much our eating habits affect us. Well, the new plate format of the American Food Guide shows that she has chosen to take that step. And I command her for it.

For both the American and the Canadian Food Guides, the trend is now to put fruits and vegetables first, as the most important food group to consume. For the longest time, grains were first and although they are fairly important, they are not as important as veggies. Fruits are needed, but the Canadian Food Guide still doesn't make a strong enough emphasis on the fact that raw vegetables contain less sugar and more of the needed vitamins and minerals to keep us healthy.

The plate design makes the understanding of this principle incredibly simple. Not everyone learns the same way, and although this may overly-simplify the complexity of how to eat healthy, it makes it easier to see what it is our plates should be containing, which far too many people failed to understand - or just wouldn't take the time to learn - through the previous format.

Furthermore, this guide also says that dairy is only suggested. Would this be indirectly admitting that perhaps humans shouldn't be consuming dairy? Although they don't come right out and say it, vegetarianism is also accepted - by saying that meat alternatives are fine, but this has been in the guide for quite some time already. The lack of emphasis on dairy is new, though, and I, for one, appreciate it.

I am hoping that Canada will follow this lead as I believe that it will help avoid reaching the same rate of obesity as the Americans.

Are Fruits Poisoning Us?

I won’t repeat everything several of us already know about fruits. There are tons of benefits, not to mention their sweet aroma and wonderful flavours. However, these little wonders of nature can actually poison our system if not handled properly. Unlike vegetables, which can be mixed with pretty much anything, fruits need to be handled with care… lots of it. First thing we need to understand about them, before understanding how they can actually harm us, is knowing their categories.

1- Acids This is the group which contains all citrus fruits except lime. Others include pineapple, passion fruit and tamarind. Their main characteristics are the obvious acid flavour, their capacity to lower cholesterol and uric acid, and their high content of complex acids.

2- Semi-acids This group contains the fruits that are slightly acid in flavour, due to the less complex nature of their acid content. Apricots, strawberries, tomatoes, seeded passion fruit and peaches. They are high in protein and contain cyanide.

3- Sweet fruits The sweetest ones are the ones that contain vitamins such as A, B12, B15, C and E and do not contain acid. These can be mixed together amongst themselves without a problem, except for watermelon. Others in this category include bananas, papaya, pears, grenadine and apples.

4- Neutral Like the name indicates, these fruits do not have a strong flavour. However, they are rich in protein, minerals, oligoelements and vitamins. This is the category of all types of nuts – peanuts, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and so on – and coconut.

The fruit is complex in nature. Since they are sweet and / or acid, our stomachs need to produce a different secretion to digest them. This is why it is important not to mix certain fruits together, nor to eat fruits along with most other types of food. According to Montignac, a popular French Canadian dietician and author, these colourful and tasty organisms need to be eaten either at breakfast – alone, or some fruits can be mixed with vegetables – or on an empty stomach, two hours before your next meal. Therefore, the fruit can be digested properly without needing to secrete more than one type of stomach fluid at a time. For some of us, the idea of never having fruits for dessert or as part of a meal can be devastating. Therefore, moderation is needed, if not a complete change in habits.

If that wasn’t already difficult enough, there is also the problem of having to separate certain fruits to avoid irritating our digestive track. Acids and semi-acids absolutely cannot be mixed with other types of fruits on top of needing to be eaten without any other food groups. However, you can mix sweet fruits with vegetables since they do not produce any negative effects. They do not, however, mix with any other food group.

Any form of nut or dried fruit, or their oils, cannot be mixed with sweet fruits since they produce a form of poisonous fermentation, resulting in severe indigestion and may lead to disruptions in the liver. So much for peanut butter with certain flavours of jam, or with banana slices.

Other examples of harmful mixes include:

1- Carrots and oranges together create a high level of acidity in the system which can lead to damage to the ureter or renal system by over-stimulating the biliary system and destabilizing the liver.

2- Mixing pineapples with any form of dairy can poison the system.

3- Lemons and papayas mixed together can destabilize the system’s haemoglobin levels, leading to anaemia.

4- Guava and banana mixes cause hyperacidity or acidosis.

With this in mind, when choosing juice blends – choose carefully!

Spending Less Time in the Kitchen

1- Make lots of recipes at once, so you're in the kitchen just one day per every four or five days, or for the entire week. Then, freeze some of it and put the rest in the fridge. Each meal should last up to three days without freezing.

2- Make enough dinner for lunch the next day. Leftovers are great for lunch, especially if there is a microwave at your workplace. Take advantage of it!

3- Don't be afraid to go simple. Peanut butter and jelly or banana sandwiches, once in a while, are good! Or use hummus and alfalfa sprouts, or slices of tofu with lettuce and tomatoes.

4- Get a slow cooker. Awesome, healthy, delicious, and what a time saver!

5- Gather some friends together and make a day out of it. Multi-tasking is what makes cooking a little difficult, and if you want to shave some time, assign one task to each person. Don't forget to pop open a bottle of wine with that!

6- Plan your meals. Make a meal plan for the week. Go once to the grocery store for the entire week, instead of two or three times per week.

7- Pre-chop your fruits and veggies. Once you're back from the grocery store, chop them all in snack-size portions. It will be so much better to cook afterwards.

8- When you're baking, bake several items at once. When the oven is on, save time and energy by using it once to bake everything. Then freeze them.

9- If you already know how to cook non-vegan meals and you're used to them, use replacements. Go for the vegan ground beef, the veggie hot dogs, and the egg replacement. Tofu can be used in quite a lot of dishes, too.

10- Cook with nuts. They are delicious in sauces, soups and stir-fries, not just desserts!

11- If you can afford it, buy the ready-chopped and ready-made salads at the store. You'll save loads of time. Or, opening a jar of spaghetti sauce instead of making your own is nothing to be ashamed of. You can also personalize it by adding a few veggies and spices.

12- Use vermicelli noodles. They only take five minutes to cook, and they are great with any type of sauce you can think of, or in soup.

13- For those of us who love to cook with dried beans, peas and so on, cook a large batch at a time. Then, you can get creative with them and use them in sauces, stir-fries, as snacks with soy sauce and lemon juice, or baked with veggies and soy milk.

14- Grate your veggies and potatoes. Then, fry them in a pan with both vegetable oil and vegan margarine, and some spices. This is delicious and nutritious!

15- Use veggies that don't take long to cook and have lots of flavour, such as tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms and celery.

16- Make soup. It doesn't need to be watched like other meals, and it is possible to make large varieties in large quantities. Your imagination is the limit!

10 Ways to Up the Veggies

Although most of you are vegan, what do you do when your significant other is not? How do you encourage them to understand the importance of eating their greens without making it too hard for them? I prepared a few tips and tricks for you. Here they are:

1- Prepare them ahead of time

Make sure to have vegetables in two of your meals (both at noon and at dinner – at least one of them raw) as well as at least one snack a day. Getting a variety is important. To make it easier, have a mix of cut-up veggies in the freezer to quickly cook them for stir-fries or sauces.

2- Make dessert

It is easy to make zucchini chocolate cake, carrot and raisin loaves, or beet cupcakes. Change the recipe around to make it tasty - add pineapple, cinnamon & nutmeg and you get an awesome spice cake, or change the raisins to ginger for the carrot loaf and you have a tasty treat!

3- Make soup

Creaming vegetables for a soup is definitely a great way to enhance a meal with vegetables. As you are mixing them together, you can camouflage the flavour of one less liked veggie with the loved ones very easily, or by adding soy milk and spices.

4- Have fruits and veggies handy

When you come home from grocery shopping, immediately cut up all your fruits and veggies into snack-sized slices. That way, you will find it more tempting to reach for them when you get the munchies. And, it cuts down on meal-preparation time.

5- Hide them

Those who hate veggies won't be able to tell that they are in pasta sauces – especially if you puree them. With all those tomatoes and spices, they won't know that you added spinach and carrots.

6- Snack it

It is easy to turn snap peas, beans, radishes, chick peas or any other fresh veggie into a snack – especially the crunchy ones. They replace chips well, especially if you add a little soy sauce to them and bake them at a low temperature to soak in the flavour.

7- Dip

It is easy to add finely chopped spinach, cilantro, chunks of mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers, bits of zucchini, or even green peas to hummus, eggplant dip, onion dip, or any other you can think of.

8- Vary your salads

Salads are an easy way to add vegetables to one's diet. You just need to add small bits if it is an unloved item, or just grab some mushrooms, peas, corn, or even fruits, to the mix. The best way to always continue enjoying salads is to make a variety, and to make sure to use as much of your favourite veggies as you can.

9- Juice it

You can either purchase a juicer – which is actually quite expensive – to make juice, or you can use a blender. If you are not into pulp, use it to make desserts and soups, or to add to burgers, mashed potatoes, and your spaghetti sauce. Either way, juicing is a great way to easily get a load of vitamins. And, you can easily make a glass of green veggies taste great by adding just a bit of apple. For optimum fruit juices, add a bit of ripe mango.

10 - Blend them in cheese sauce

Although I don't encourage dairy, if it is the only way to get a difficult child to start eating sizeable portions of veggies every day, then by all means, go for it. Or, try using vegan cheeses – there is quite a good variety out there.

Either way, when you are trying to encourage someone to start eating vegetables or encouraging them to become vegan, the best advice is to start with veggies they like, and work your way up. Tastes can change, but it does take a while, and it does need to be done in a way that doesn't scare your loved ones away.

Soy Now Good for Women With Breast CancerGood news! For the longest time, people have falsely believed that women with a history of breast cancer in their families or that were at risk for any other factor can now relax and enoy their soy if they want. Studies have proven that they can go back to enjoying their healthy and vegan food as they wish.

The reason behind this is quite simple. Previous studies have found that a natural compound found in soybeans called soy isoflavones have a similar effect to estroegen, but at a much weaker level. These same studies stated that this is a cause of breast cancer by promoting the growth of breast cancer cells. However, this compund being much weaker than actual estrogen, it isn't enough to do any harm at all.

To make matters even more interesting, soy isoflavones have been found to reduce risks of breast cancer reocurrence. This compound, once thought to interfere with the drug normally used to reduce the chances of reoccurence, actually works along with the drug.

Please note that this study was not conducted on soy isoflavone supplements, and that the 10,000 people in the study group were from China and the US, and were followed for a period of 8 years. All were breast cancer survivors.

On another note, soy products of all kinds are now celebrating their acceptance in the FDA as a product that can be used to help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by keeping cholesterol levels down, and they even have the right to flaunt it on the product labels. That, along with the fact that the American Heart Association is encouraging soy consumption to help reduce heart disease, are significant proof that society is moving towards a healthier, leaner style of diet. Who is breathing a sigh of relief along with me? **siiiiiiiighhhhhhhh**.

Now, for the fun part. I came across this absolutely adorable video and just HAD to share it with you. Take a look (but please don't forget to be patient and wait until the publicity is over): click here.

GMO Soy

Genetically engineered plants have had their genetic makeup altered. This is done in a laboratory and most modifications are done using a method called the biolistic method (aka the biolistic particle delivery system or ballistic bombardment), which requires a particle gun. The technique, invented between 1983 and 1986, uses a real 22 calibre gun to shoot a bullet covered with the genetic material and some tungsten powder or, nowadays, gold dust, down a barrel. They hit a 'stopper', perforing it, before making it to the petri dish. This forces the entry of the virus or protein that they are trying to break into the genetic makeup of a plant in the target cell by literally smashing it in. They need the virus because plants don't accept new DNA into their system with open arms; proteins are often added as well to ensure the new DNA 'sticks'. The rate of success with the gun is not at 100%; at times, several attempts are needed before accomplishing their goal. Most of all, they can't know if they succeeded until the plant has grown, so this process can take quite a while to achieve.

Roundup Ready soybeans are the most commercialised ones. According to Marie-Monique Robin's book and movie "The World According to Monsanto" (click here to watch full movie FREE - Robin allows free distribution of her movie), Monsanto giant owns 90% of the world's genetically modified soybeans. They have been engineered to withstand the ferocious chemicals in their fertilizer, Roundup.

The story behind this fertilizer is frightening. Monsanto is a large corporation that has existed for over 100 years and is the father of plastic and creator of several chemical products. If not the most dangerous, their "Agent Orange" is high up on the list of most toxic chemicals to ever have existed on this planet. One of the chemicals used during the war of Vietnam to help American soldiers find their way through the dense jungle of the tropics and the rainforests (a few other colours were created as well), the American army would send planes over the land where the war was taking place to spray the product freely - so anyone who was there was also covered, as well as the buildings and any living thing that happened to be in the way. Although Monsanto knew of the dangers of his product, he never warned either the government nor the army of the consequences that would follow.

If you are interested in reading more about this, google it, or watch the movie to see what the consequences were. The number of lawsuits that followed the war are numerous, but Monsanto being such an enormous corporation and by paying corrupted government employees to overpower the FDA and other such government organisations that are supposed to be key in keeping Americans' food and lives safe, it survived... to come back stronger than ever: by tampering with our crops.

What is worse is that they know that the newly created soybeans, Roundup Ready Soybeans, can cause cancer. It is disturbing that corporations who claim to have only the

best intentions can lie so blatantly to us. Furthermore, they used to announce that their fertilizer is biodegradable when all it does is kill anything that gets in its path. A test was carried out: fish in a tank all died within three minutes with a lower dose of this product than was recommended for plants. This means that any waterway that is close to a farm using it can say goodbye to its wildlife. Now, imagine what this does to the farmers cultivating the product. To spray it, they need the exact same types of suit that people manipulating radioactive products have on to carry out their duties. And this is what they give us to eat!

To make matters worse, no studies have been published - anywhere - to show that humans can safely consume GMO products. Where is the tranquility of mind that we need? They can't even offer us any.

I am posting this at this point since I have just written an article about soy being healthy. Please note that I am speaking of non-gmo soy, of course. Or, to be on the safe side, chose the organic alternative. The cost is not that much higher than regular soy.

Here is the link to my blog, so you can receive more information on being a vegan in general:

http://www.theflamingvegan.com/bloggers/70