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| The first day of the Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair turned out to be absolutely balmy with lots of sunshine to enjoy! |
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| jae steele (not a typo, she uses lower case letters for her name) prepares for her demo. |
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| Panel discussion, which was not without controversy! |
The 27th annual Vegetarian Food Festival (put on by The Toronto Vegetarian Association) is on this weekend, September 9-11, at Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West (just west of the base of York Street) in Toronto. Opening night brought perfect weather as summer made an encore appearance. I enjoyed browsing all the exhibits and trying a few delicious food products. I avoided many of the more processed items. There are so many tastes to try you need to be judicious in your choices.
After having my fill of probably too many assorted goodies, I sat in on a demo by jae steele, who prepared her delicious chocolate fudge (yes, we got a sample) made with black beans and only a touch of sweetener, a huge contrast to the usual pure sugar/fat combo that comprises traditional fudge. I am definitely going to be trying this one, but have a number of my own alterations in mind already, so stay posted!
Next was a presentation by Terry Hope Romero, author, former Post Punk Kitchen TV host and blogger, who talked about how to write a story for your blog.
Finally, I attended a panel discussion, moderated by raw chef, Lisa Pitman, which featured Dr. Michael Greger, Julieanna Hever, RD, Robert Cheeke, jae steele (holistic nutritionist, cookbook author, and midwife-in-training), and Doug McNish (vegan chef). The panelists engaged in a lively discussion about many topics, including their favorite plant-based foods, weight loss, bodybuilding, protein, fats, B12, food addiction and more. There was some disagreement, especially when it came to added fat in the diet unless the LDL score was perfect.
In the end, I picked up the Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness: The Complete Guide to Building Your Body on a Plant-Based Diet book by Robert Cheeke as I am very interested in learning how he managed to gain so much muscle when most say it can’t be done on a vegan diet without tons of meat, eggs and other animal product.