Stuffed Mushrooms and Survival of the Fit Enough

Vegan / Vegetarian Meals Part III:

Here’s an easy way to prepare stuffed mushrooms for vegan weight loss or vegetarian meals. (Find mushroom recipes at the end of this post.) While choosing and cleaning your mushrooms, here are some things to ponder:

Mushrooms, Survival and Natural selection

If working with mushrooms gets you to thinking about how quickly they reproduce via airborne spores (leading to words like “mushrooming”), which gets you pondering reproduction and ideas about human “survival of the fittest”, then you may find yourself wondering who’s surviving better today – meat eaters or vegetarians / vegans. Before exploring clinical studies and statistics to answer that question, let’s take a step back.

The words of philosopher Herbert Spencer regarding “survival of the fittest” (pertaining to an economic theory) are sometimes confused with Darwinian “natural selection” (albeit later used by Darwin himself in a metaphoric sense to describe social / environmental adaptation), however Dr. Eugenie C. Scott (physical anthropologist – director of the National Center for Science Education) makes it clear that:

An interpretation of the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ to mean ‘only the fittest organisms will prevail’ is not consistent with the actual theory of evolution. Any individual organism which succeeds in reproducing itself is ’fit’ and will contribute to survival of its species, not just the ‘physically fittest’ ones, though some of the population will be better adapted to the circumstances than others. A more accurate characterization of evolution would be ‘survival of the fit enough’.

Yet, as the world population continues to “mushroom”, survival of those “fit enough” to reproduce may not be sufficient to dictate actual survival of the species, and the principles of Darwinian evolution, based on natural selection, once again come to the forefront. Consider these words from “On the Origin of Species”:

As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.

Therefore, in order to (hopefully) be “naturally selected”, and have “a better chance of surviving”, it’s reasonable for humans (with large brains capable of reasoning), to use every advantage in “any manner profitable to itself” to ensure a better chance of survival.

What do studies indicate about who’s adapting and surviving better today? Meat eaters or vegetarians and vegans?

The main health issues around the world (apart from non-diet related contagious diseases) is that of cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity, plus certain types of cancer and gastrointestinal disorders – directly linked to the consumption of animal products.
Large scale studies (on meat eating versus vegan or vegetarian diets) began in the 80’s, and included thousands of participants from the US, the UK and China. Results suggested that less meat eaten, less disease and better overall health.

In the 90’s, the World Health Organization found that vegetarians were not only healthier, but didn’t show evidence of a significant iron or protein deficiency, which had previously been thought to be a problem. There was also evidence that dairy products and meat (not only didn’t help to combat things such as osteoporosis) but contributed to low bone density, cardiovascular issues, kidney disease and certain types of cancer.
The Oxford Vegetarian Study showed “vegans had lower LDL-cholesterol concentrations than did meat eaters” and in the end, “death rates were lower in non-meat-eaters than in meat eaters for each of the mortality endpoints studied…” which included heart disease and malignant neoplasms. Vegans had less risk of developing type II diabetes and fewer incidences of emergency appendectomies. Conclusions indicated that by eliminating meat (alone) from the diet there was about a 15 to 25% reduction in coronary heart disease risk, and that when other animal products were also eliminated (such as dairy and cheese), the risk of cardiovascular related diseases decreased even further.

The following quotes have been taken directly from “The Oxford Vegetarian Study: an overview”, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Paul N Appleby, Margaret Thorogood, Jim I Mann, and Timothy JA Key:

The effects of various dietary factors on mortality from ischemic heart disease and all causes of death were examined in a recent analysis (12). Subjects were grouped not only according to their diet (meat eater, semivegetarian, or vegetarian/vegan), but also by their consumption of meat, eggs, milk, cheese, fish, green vegetables, carrots, fresh or dried fruit, nuts, and alcohol, according to the answers they provided on the recruitment questionnaire. Subjects were also divided into thirds by estimated intake of total fat, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol from land animal sources, and into thirds by estimated dietary fiber intake based on their reported consumption of fiber-rich foods. Attention was paid to the possibility of previous cardiovascular disease or diabetes at recruitment, with the main analysis restricted to subjects with no history of preexisting disease. All death rate ratios were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, and social class, and comparisons were made without reference to an external population as was the case in the earlier article…

…Vegetarians and vegans had lower mortality than meat eaters (defined as subjects eating meat at least once a week) for both ischemic heart disease and all causes of death…
…The most striking results from the analysis were the strong positive associations between increasing consumption of animal fats and ischemic heart disease mortality…
…Consumption of eggs and cheese were both positively associated with ischemic heart disease mortality in these subjects.

Who stands behind the findings of these studies?

The American Diabetic Association, the British Medical Association and the World Health organization stand behind the findings of the studies mentioned. This doesn’t mean that high carbohydrate diets (of mostly corn, beans, rice and fried tofu) are the healthy ones, but it does suggest that properly balanced vegan or vegetarian diets which are low in saturated fat, may be better.

Continue reading: Vegan / Vegetarian Meals Part IV: The Spicy Vegetarian Chili Issue – Protein vs. Carbs…

Posts in this series include:

- Vegan / Vegetarian Meals Part I: Tofu Recipes and Brain Food

- Vegan / Vegetarian Meals Part II: Evolutionary Mélange and a Vegetable Soup Recipe

- Vegan / Vegetarian Meals Part III: Stuffed Mushrooms and Survival of the Fittest Fit Enough…

- Vegan / Vegetarian Meals Part IV: The Spicy Vegetarian Chili Issue – Protein vs. Carbs

- Vegan Vegetarian Meals Part V: Vegetable Lasagna: What’s Under the Vegan Layers Without the Cheese?

Mediterranean Mushroom Recipes:

1. Spanish Style Stuffed Mushrooms

This is a modified version of the Spanish stuffed mushrooms (champiñones rellenos) that traditionally are made with bits of cured ham or bacon, and topped with cheese. However the avocado is creamy and replaces the need for the cheese and the zucchini gives the stuffing a wonderful texture.

Ingredients:

12 large mushroom caps (wipe or brush them gently to clean)
3 medium ripe tomatoes
1 small zucchini
1 large avocado
1 onion
olive oil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
sea salt
fresh ground pepper

Preparation Instructions:

Chop the zucchini into fine cubes, peal the tomatoes (by placing them in boiling water for a couple second) then chop them as fine as possible and mince the onion. Now, prepare the mushrooms by removing their stems and cleaning them with a brush or cloth, and set them aside. The mushroom stems can be finely chopped and added to the other chopped veggies. Mix the vegetables together, except the mushroom caps.

Preheat the oven to 189 degrees and prepare a baking pan or cookie sheet with a tiny smear of olive oil. Place the mushroom caps on the oiled pan and fill them with the chopped veggie mixture. Dribble a little olive oil over them and sprinkle them with sea salt, oregano and fresh ground pepper. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft and mushrooms are golden.

While the stuffed mushrooms are baking, peel and remove the seed from the avocado. Mash the ripe flesh with a fork or blend until smooth and creamy, adding sea salt and a dribble of olive oil to taste. (a little lemon juice can stop the avocado from turning black)

Remove the stuffed mushrooms from the oven and place a teaspoon of the avocado mixture on each. Sprinkle with paprika or cayenne for a little color, and garnish with the chopped parsley. Serve on a bed of rice as a full meal or use as a starter – in Spanish they call them “tapas”.

Mushroom recipes abound in Spain, and one of the variations on the above stuffed mushrooms dish is with eggplant. Instead of using zucchini, use a small eggplant and chop it really, really fine. Eggplant has a meaty consistency, which, just as an example, can be used to simulate thick Argentinean style grilled stakes quite perfectly.

Unusual Mushroom Recipes:

Latin-American Mushroom / Tofu Ceviche

In Latin-American there’s a popular seafood dish called ceviche (cebiche / seviche) which can be made without seafood using mushrooms and tofu. If you’ve never tried seafood ceviche, then this will be a unique new recipe to try, without any expectations or comparisons to the seafood version.

(These mushroom recipes are all designed to serve 4)

Ingredients:

½ a block of firm tofu
10 large mushrooms sliced
1 purple onion (cut and soak in water to eliminate the strong taste)
1 rocoto or a small portion thereof (this is a South American chili pepper that can be substituted for fresh cayenne) Don’t add this ingredient if you don’t like HOT dishes
a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley or cilantro (cilantro is traditional and gives it a distinctive Latin flavor)
1 fresh garlic clove (crushed)
2 celery stalks
6 lemons (just the fresh squeezed juice – do not use concentrate – it must be fresh)
4 large lettuce leaves
1 sweet potato
1 cob of corn
sea salt
fresh ground pepper

Product example: ‘Inca’s Food’ Aji Rocoto Molido by La Tienda

Preparation Instructions:

Boil the corn on the cob and the sweet potato and set aside.

Mix the lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, cilantro, rocoto (chili peppers) in a bowl and mix well. This can be left to stand for a while to create a milky marinade – this is what will give everything its flavor. After 20 minutes to half an hour, add the chopped tofu, mushrooms and celery. Mix well and let stand. After a few minutes, add the onion.

The mixture can sit and marinate for as long as possible, then when you’re ready to serve, place a lettuce leaf on each plate or large bowl, and add ¼ of the mushroom ceviche mixture onto each leaf. Uses slices of the previously cooked sweet potato and the corn cob (chopped into four pieces) to garnish each serving.

This may well be the most unique of all the mushroom recipes you’ll find to add to a vegan or vegetarian menu.