RULES FOR RECIPES

Last Updated: 26 January 1998

The scope of this list is very narrow: *extremely* lowfat *vegetarian*
diets similar to McDougall and Ornish.  The McDougall diet is vegan
(no egg or milk products). The Ornish diet is almost vegan (permitting
only nonfat milk products and egg whites).  Both diets specify less
than 10% fat by calories in their strictest forms.

Thus, recipes posted to the FATFREE list must conform to the following:

INGREDIENTS NOT PERMITTED

	Meat
	Poultry
	Fish/Seafood
	Meat stocks
	Gelatin (product of animal bones)
        Marshmallows (a gelatin product. see note at end)
	Bonito flakes (seafood product)
	Worcestershire sauce (usually containes anchovies, use veg version)
	Whole or lowfat cheese
	Whole or lowfat milk
	Whole or lowfat sour cream/yogurt/other milk products
	Whole eggs or egg yolks
	Mayonnaise
	Fat/margarine/lecithin/oils (any kind, any purpose, see COMMENTS)
	Chocolate bars, chips or morsels
	Carob bars, chips or morsels

RESTRICTED INGREDIENTS

The following are high-fat vegetable foods that should be limited.
They should not make up a large portion of the dish (a good benchmark
is that the overall dish should be less than 15% fat) and there should
be a good reason for including one or more of these items (i.e. it's a
spectacular dish that would suffer without it).

	Soybeans
	Soybean derivatives (tofu, tempeh, miso, soy cheese, high-fat
			     soy milk)
	Nuts (except chestnuts, water chestnuts, and ginko nuts)
	Nut butters
	Almond cheese
	Seeds
	Seed butters (e.g. tahini)
	Olives
	Avocados
	Coconut

Note:  The following soy products are permitted without restriction:

	nonfat/lowfat soymilk (less than 15% fat by calories)
	nonfat soy cheese
	TVP (textured vegetable protein -- defatted soy)


ACCEPTABLE INGREDIENTS

The following ingredients ARE permitted on this list.  Various
individuals on this list may not eat some of these categories of
foods, but use of these products in recipes posted to the list is not
forbidden.  Keep in mind, though, that your recipe will be more widely
appreciated if it doesn't include these products.

Caffeine-containing products:

	Coffee
	decaf coffee (contains small amounts of caffeine)
	Cocoa

Non-vegan products:

	*Nonfat* milk/cheese/sour cream/yogurt/other milk products
	Egg whites

Low-nutrient products:

	Concentrated sugar sources (honey, rice syrups, concentrated
		fruit juices, white/brown sugar, molasses, etc)
	White rice
	White flour
	Salt
	MSG

COMMENTS

OIL: It is not acceptable to specify 1 T of oil to stir-fry vegetables
in recipes.  One tablespoon of oil is 13 grams of fat.  No pure oils
may be specified in recipes posted to to this list, not even when they
are added just for flavor notes.  The only exception is *light* use of
vegetable oil sprays.  Also watch out for hidden oil, e.g. marinated
artichoke hearts are usually marinated in large amounts of olive oil.

SUBSTITUTIONS: When posting recipes from sources that include oil or
high-fat ingredients, edit the recipe to eliminate those ingredients
before posting (don't just add comments saying "omit" or "substitute")
and make sure the recipe works without those ingredients. Making
lowfat substitutions in high-fat recipes doesn't always work.  I have
tried numerous times to adapt a delicious spinach dip recipe to
Ornish, but no matter what combination of nonfat sour cream/nonfat
yogurt/nonfat "mayonnaise" I try I just can't get it to taste good.

TOFU: Tofu varies widely in fat content, from as low as 15%CFF to over
70%CFF Because the lowfat versions of tofu are not widely available
yet, the use of tofu in recipes on this list is discouraged (see
comments at the head of the "restricted ingredients" section).  When
using tofu it is definitely worthwhile to search out the lower fat
brands like Extra Firm Mori Nu, Mori Nu Lite, White Wave Reduced Fat,
and Presidents (which have around 30% fat by calories).  Or look for
the baked varieties (which can be as low as 12% fat).  Don't just
indiscriminately grab a tub of tofu as you may be choosing a brand
with as much as 70% fat by calories.

MARSHMALLOWS: Marshmallows are a generally made from gelatin, making
them non-vegetarian.  Emes brand Kosher marshmallows are currently the
only known vegetarian brand of marshmallows (made from carrageenan).
If you wish to post a marshmallow recipe, it would be helpful if you
first verified that the recipe works with Emes brand marshmallows.
Some brands of marshmallow creme may be gelatin free.  The only
marshmallow recipes that should be posted are those using vegetarian
marshmallow products.

LABELS: To help folks out, you can add some identifying labels to the
subject heading of your recipe posting, but they aren't required.
Suggested labels: VEGAN (for recipes that contain no egg or milk
products), LACTO or MILK (for recipes containing milk products), and
OVO or EGGS (for recipe containing eggs).

These rules aren't meant to imply that everyone on this list does or
should restrict fat this strictly 100% of the time.  However, one of
primary purposes of this list is to serve as a source of recipes that
folks who follow very lowfat vegetarian diets can use for the bulk of
their eating.

If your recipe conforms to these guidelines, by all means post;
recipes are *always* appropriate for this list.

--
Michelle Dick       artemis@fatfree.com       East Palo Alto, CA
          Owner, FATFREE Vegetarian Mailing List