“OMG! Have you become a vegetarian?” exclaimed a friend of mine when he saw me gulp down a whole glass of soy milk. He concluded is was soy milk for on the table was a plastic bottle half-filled with the white stuff that most would shriek from.

After my finishing my glass of soy milk, chilled and lightly sweetened, I faced him with a smile and answered, “Hell no! Why would I give up enjoying pork chops and beef steaks. Hotdogs and hamburgers. Those things might be filled with nasty substances, additives and industrial-strength preservatives, give you a killer heart condition, but hell, I’d never give them up for a completely green, geeky and gay vegetarian diet.” (Okay, here’s a more serious link about vegetarian.

His stunned silence were broken by these words; “Oh. Right. But you’re a geek, a skinny-ass geek if I may add. So it would make sense that you convert into a vegetarian diet if you really want to seriously gain weight.”

What a (Jerk!) good friend he is right? They are the group of people who would never waste a second to tell you what they honestly think about you. Unlike your parents who insist that you’re the most beautiful creature in the planet that’s why no one in school should pick on you for being ugly. But that’s another story. I love you mom!

Moving along, my friend is right. Heck, everyone who knows me or have seen my photo would agree that I am a skinny-ass blogger and I should do something about it. Then again would going on a vegetarian diet really help me gain weight? Hmm?

Reviewing my biology lessons, we gain weight by converting excess calories into either body fat or muscle mass. So the basic formula (nutrionists, dieticians, doctors and other smart-asses do correct me on this) would be: your average daily calorie intake, which is the amount of food you eat every day and its equivalent in calories + 300-500 more calories.

The added 300-500 calories would be an excess, and if your body doesn’t consume it, it will be saved up for rainy days and stored as body fat or muscle mass. Usually it’s the former but for yours truly, a little of either or both would do just fine.

So which diet would give me those extra calories? I say both! You may argue for and against which diet, vegetarian or meat-based, is best all you want but I’d be diplomatic and enjoy both worlds. Red meat, fish, eggs, a few greens here and there especially if it’s kare-kare, fruit juices (tropicana + gin) and what used to be cow’s milk, now is soy milk. Just for a change, a healthy change.

And now for the sake of this post’s title and pleasing the new lord of the internets, here are some goodie bits about soy milk.

Soybeans contain all three of the macro-nutrients required for good nutrition: complete protein, carbohydrate and fat, as well as vitamins and minerals, including calcium, folic acid and iron.

Soybeans are the only common plant food that contain complete protein. Soybean protein provides all the essential amino acids in the amounts needed for human health. The amino acid profile of soy protein is nearly equivalent in quality to meat, milk and egg protein.

Soymilk is an excellent source of protein, B-vitamins and iron, and if fortified, provides adequate calcium. It has low levels of saturated fat and no cholesterol.

(I stole it, sourced it from here.)

And here’s more from nutritionist Patricia Greenberg, B.A.

Like milk, soy is a great source of protein and can easily be found with added calcium. But drinking soymilk has the following advantages:

• Soymilk is cholesterol free.
• It contains cancer-fighting isoflavones.
• It is readily available from organic sources (containing no pesticides).
• Soybeans grow abundantly and actually replenish the soil they grow in.

Cow’s milk (unless you always buy organic) contains pesticides from the feed as well as antibiotics. Those additional substances, not naturally found in milk, are added by the dairy farmers and can be harmful to humans, even in small quantities. The use of cow’s milk also has ecological disadvantages. The amount of soy that could be grown on acreage used by grazing cattle could feed more people than the cows do.

Jhay’s friend: Oh, cool. But you’re still way too busy with school, your extra-curriculars, your social involvements, your Call of Duty tours and drinking bouts and stuff. Can’t you see that the “extra” calories you added to your diet are being consumed as well?

Me: Uhm…yeah. So?

Jhay’s friend: Don’t you think you should really eat more, sleep and rest more while adding more healthy foods to your diet?

Me: I know okay?! I know!

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