This is an interview with Yolanda Soryl, the Coordinator of the Christchurch Vegetarian Centre.

OrganicAthlete: What was the inspiration for the Vegan Triathlon?

Yolanda Soryl: A very small group (3) of Christchurch vegans wanted to take part in a local women’s triathlon but we missed the enrolment. So we decided to organise our own triathlon. As we are all vegan, we thought it might be a positive thing for our community to make it an all vegan event. We did and it felt great. More exhilarating than just going in a regular event. And the post tri dinner was the best!

Veg diets good for your heart

In other breaking news – the sun came up this morning. But seriously, this study had some cool factors to analyze. The good cholesterol levels for the vegetarian group tended to be a little lower, but it wasn’t significant. Overall, those following a diet high in plant foods and low in animal foods had a lower probability of developing heart disease.

Teixeira RD, et al. Cardiovascular risk in vegetarians and omnivores: a comparative study. Arq Bras Cardiol 2007;89:237-244.

More than one reason for a plant based diet

Have you ever noticed how you may begin something for one reason, but then you find many other reasons that reinforce your beliefs? Well, vegetarianism is no different. The main reasons for following a veg diet in this study were health and the ethical treatment of animals. Other reasons included concern for the environment.

Fox N & Ward K. Health, ethics and environment: A qualitative study of vegetarian motivations. Appetite 2007;Epub ahead of print.

Soy isoflavones don’t influence breast cancer

Research shows mixed results for soy isoflavones and the risk of various cancers. This study didn’t show any significant associations. It was a big study, with almost 38,000 women being analyzed. The researchers did use food frequency questionnaires, which can muddy up the data. This study tells me that isoflavones may not be the magic bullet that some are hoping for, but soy foods are full of nutrition and can be included on a regular basis in their unprocessed forms.

Travis RC, et al. A prospective study of vegetarianism and isoflavone intake in relation to breast cancer risk in British women. Int J Cancer 2007;122:705-710.

Can peanuts help maintain a lean body?

Nuts are interesting. While being high in calories, those that consume a lot of them tend to maintain their body weight. This study analyzed the fat weight of feces (I’m glad Traoret CJ wasn’t my grad school advisor), and found that eating whole peanuts results in more fecal fat excretion than peanut oil, peanut butter, or peanut flour. Basically, don’t stress about the higher amounts of fat in nuts – they are extremely healthy!

Traoret CJ, et al. Peanut digestion and energy balance. Int J Obes (Lond) 2007;Epub ahead of print.