Transcript: Vegetarian Living: Mr. Natural

Austin Connoisseur
Episode “Vegetarian Living: Mr. Natural”

Maria Mendoza: Food is medicine and medicine is food so is the saying of Hippocrates which is considered the father of the medicine from ancient times. So we are just going back to the basics. Well, I’m Maria Luisa Mendoza; I’m one of the owners of Mr. Natural in Austin. And this is a place where you can come, and it’s a health food store, it’s a bakery, it’s a restraint, and also a center of Yoga and meditation.
My passion of this kind of things we do is because I am a vegetarian person for about thirty years. I love Austin, I was not born here but I found Austin as a very beautiful city because it’s all green. The town lake with all the places we walk through or we can bike. And al the swimming holes that it has, its lovely.
The blue sky and all this green are relaxing to the eyes. I do think god blessed this city very much in many ways, I am no Austenite, but I love it like I was born here. I grew up in a family, a Mexican family where rice, beans, meat, and vegetables were part of my diet. I was kind of an ill person from my legs, my knees. Then I was having a hard time to find a good solution for that. We met Doctor Estrada, he was a naturopathic.
He was putting me into this style when I was still a vegetarian person. So his treatment in a way really made me free from those pains in my legs. I quit my job and I joined the program of Doctor Estrada. And I am a part of his program of teaching and educating communities in this type of life style.
Well, Mr. Natural is a center for holistic health, because you find a place where you can eat healthy food. That is with no meat, with no fats of animals, and also a place that has a vitamin section. You can come and find a yoga class and a meditation session for free, where you can try and join. Also we offer a very nice array of deserts and bakery, where everything is with organic flour. We are teaching how to take healthy thinking, because the healthy thinking is also going to have an impact on the emotional life of a person that has illness of any kind.
I would recommend to someone who wants to become a vegetarian, to go in a gradual way, reducing all the food that usually was taken. Like less fats less meats, less sugar. Check the amount of salt, because sometimes we eat a lot of salt too.
In a soft way, integrate into your diet whole grains, nuts vegetables, and protein from the soy. These will be fine, but if you combine in one cereal. From any kind, it could be rice or corn. And then you combine one of the legumes, like the beans any kind of bean. The combination of these two is a very good protein that you could have. Then add just vegetables, fresh vegetables, like salads or soups or steamed vegetables. Or you can have stir fry with nuts, like pecans or sesame seeds, or cashews, all that is going to enrich the flavor and also the nutrition of the vegetable dishes.
The fresh salads always are irreplaceable. The main goal is to stay healthy, because nowadays we have so many generations where we were told to eat meat, eggs and vegetables a little bit. And we have a generation full of arthritis, rheumatism, high blood pressure, diabetes. Your nutrition comes more direct form nature to yourself.
So when we have that type of food, also our digestive system works much better. And to give the opportunity of an eternity of to eat healthy and tasty that is the main goal. But also to motivate people to improve there lives, to find themselves and learn to be happy, how to be happy, how to reach the happiness, because that is the basic thing for someone who wants to be healthy. My name is Maria Luisa Mendoza, and I am a connoisseur.