While I was Away - I Became a Vegan

[AEON]

About 6 months ago - me stepdaughter showed me one of those animal-slasher-flicks. I had seen them before and wrote them off as propaganda. This time however - I was genuinely shocked and moved to do something about it in my own small way. I became a vegetarian with a few slip ups - then eventually graduated to full-blown veganism.

One of the main reasons for this change was my faith. As a Christian, I'm led to love all of God's creation - and to spread that love whenever possible. I can't in good conscience eat a plate of meat after knowing that the animal that provided me this meal was more than likely tortured (some more/some less) from the moment of birth until death.

Also - the impact on the environment to support the meat industry is immense.

I usually just eat raw fruits, nuts, and vegetables and I supplement my protein with Sun Warrior Raw Vegan Protein - in case anyone was wondering. Occasionally - I will let whole grain pasta, tortilla chips, and alcohol slip into diet, but I try not to make them staples. I also avoid frankenfoods (fake meat). In essence - I've become a short-haired, athletic hippy.

Anyway, since I hadn't been around for so long - I though I'd share something that had changed in my life since I was last posting regularly.

BTW - I'm careful not to judge those that still eat meat - as I was among them just a short time ago. I also don't evangelize unless I'm asked, which is rare. Perhaps after a few years of sticking to it, then I may become more vocal about it.

 

[bonocomet]

Cool. My daughter has recently switched to an almost exclusive vegan lifestyle, though she also is still striving to do better. There are still some things to work on. Because of the meal choices she prepares herself I've been making some changes too, trying to cut out a lot of the meat. However I'm not quite ready to give up seafood yet, though it isn't something I eat every day. And I still enjoy yogurt, so those are changes I'm working on. So far I feel better though with the changes I've made.

 

[AEON]

Cool. My daughter has recently switched to an almost exclusive vegan lifestyle, though she also is still striving to do better. There are still some things to work on. Because of the meal choices she prepares herself I've been making some changes too, trying to cut out a lot of the meat. However I'm not quite ready to give up seafood yet, though it isn't something I eat every day. And I still enjoy yogurt, so those are changes I'm working on. So far I feel better though with the changes I've made.

It's strange how our kids can sometimes act like our parents.

I think the changes you are making are great. I tend to view it more in the positive than the negative - meaning, the less you eat meat - the more positive. So, if you still have some meat in your diet, but not as much as before, then I think it is still a positive thing.

Although - sometimes I miss cheeseburgers, especially In-n-Out - to quote Jules from Pulp Fiction, "But I do love the taste of a good burger. Mm-mm-mm."

 

[Pearl]

I'm not looking to give up on meat anytime soon, but I am looking into vegetarian and vegan recipes for health and wellness reasons. Ever since I began losing weight two years ago, I've been realizing how much crap is in our food. So to keep a steady, reasonable weight and to eat better food, I've been checking out more organic, "green" food. Plus, it's a good chance to expand your dish choices.

 

[Thora]

I've been (mostly) vegan for the majority of my life. I'm lactose intolerant, so that was cut out of my diet at an early age. My body has always found it nearly impossible to digest red meat, plus I never liked the taste of it much anyway. I rarely eat poultry (maybe once a year at Thanksgiving or something), but I will eat seafood, however. Living on the west coast, and growing up with the ocean as my front yard, there's just no way that I'm ever going to give that up. I LOVE seafood!

So I can't ever be a true vegan, but I'm mostly there. I've found a lot of great cookbooks and food websites over the years, so there's never been any shortage of interesting and delicious things for me to eat. If you want any links, just let me know.

 

[iron yuppie]

I've been vegetarian for five years now, and I can honestly say it is one of the best life choices I ever made. In addition to the health benefits, it has opened me to a whole new world of foods and cuisines and forced me to learn how to cook legitimately.

The animal rights element was also a significant motivating factor for me, but I think it is an encouraging sign that many meat-eaters are becoming much more conscious of how their food was raised and treated. In Chicago at least the pasture-raised and cage-free phenomena is becoming more prevalent in restaurant and farmer's market advertizing by the month.

 

[AEON]

I've been (mostly) vegan for the majority of my life. I'm lactose intolerant, so that was cut out of my diet at an early age. My body has always found it nearly impossible to digest red meat, plus I never liked the taste of it much anyway. I rarely eat poultry (maybe once a year at Thanksgiving or something), but I will eat seafood, however. Living on the west coast, and growing up with the ocean as my front yard, there's just no way that I'm ever going to give that up. I LOVE seafood!

So I can't ever be a true vegan, but I'm mostly there. I've found a lot of great cookbooks and food websites over the years, so there's never been any shortage of interesting and delicious things for me to eat. If you want any links, just let me know.

Yeah - it seems fish are one of those "borderline" creatures for me. I have a difficult time really feeling compassion for them beyond what I feel for, let's say, insects. Since I didn't like seafood that much anyway - it was easy for me to "give up".

 

[bonocomet]

Sounds like some of us have made the switch to pescatarianism, which is eating seafood, but the flesh of no other animals. I'm good with that for now, because like you Thora, yeah I love seafood. However I still eat dairy, so I'm not sure where that puts me. Pescatarian/vegetarian?

My daughter is trying to make the full switch to veganism, which means not only eliminating all animal derived or tested products from your diet, but from the products you use as well, like soaps, makeup etc. To really do that faithfully though means a lot of research, as you can't always really even trust the company's labels or websites. They find ways to slip through loopholes in wording on that stuff sometimes, unfortunately.

 

[IWasBored]

seems to me like you can either become the type of vegan that eats well and just doesn't consume dairy/meat/fish/etc, or the idiotic kind that goes on some jicama and flax seed diet cos all their other hippie friends are doing it. You sound like you did the former, and that's definitely a good thing.

I eat red meat, pork, chicken, often cooked in the worst possible ways and from the lowest quality fast food sources. It's terrible, and costs too much. But I'm lazy, I suck at cooking, and I work 3rd shift. So I eat that crap more often than I should. Laziness is really the biggest factor, it's the reason I started eating meat again in college. Dining halls and being a vegetarian grew to be too much of a pain in the ass. But to be honest, I never stopped eating meat for any moral or ethical reasons--it was simply because it grossed me out to pick through bits of squishy fat and random vasculature and ligaments if I was eating chicken, or gristle in a burger. So out of laziness, I got over some of that, and don't eat half the tofu* I used to eat. I did eat a lot of fake meat stuff, since it was really just the other non-flesh bits in my animal flesh that creeped me out, and at 12 I wasn't overly concerned with the health benefits of a vegetarian vs omnivorous diet. I was rather obnoxious, constantly trying to gross out the rest of my family by calling their turkey burgers bleedy burgers. Mmmm, chicken tendons--I mean tenders. Shit like that. I've always eaten dairy, though. Not a huge fan of fish, never have been outside the occasional deep fried whitefish or fish sticks.


*i went grocery shopping today actually, and there is some tofu I'm really looking forward to marinating in some soy sauce and then throwing on the grill (probably on skewers with mushrooms, green pepper, and zuchinni. i forgot to buy garlic) for dinner (or breakfast technically, I guess) when I wake up. I grew up eating tofu, though. I get that a lot of people my age and older don't want to go near the stuff because it is kind of a bizarre consistency if you're not used to it. But my mom used to make me sandwiches when I was a kid that were tahini, a slice of tomato, some tofu with paprika on it, baked in the oven. Tofu doesnt have the gross fatty/chewy/ligament/veiny bits, nothing for me to obsessively pick out. In preschool I actually preferred cold chunks of tofu with tahini to peanut butter and jelly, because my experience with pb&j at that point had been crunchy peanut butter and blueberry jam on rye bread, and I really didn't like caraway seeds...by third grade I'd discovered white bread and grape jelly. But for a little while, before my mom had three of us to feed, I had less than typical American kid food preferences.

 

[iron yuppie]

Tofu can be great if you know how to use it. There was a Himalayan restaurant in Madison I used to frequent that had an incredible tofu sandwich: grilled with a turmeric-garlic sauce on roti bread. They told me the secret to a good grilled tofu is pressing it for about an hour before grilling or searing it. That gets rid of the excess moisture and gives it a firm consistency that lets the grill work its magic.

 

[anitram]

I think it's mostly a healthy lifestyle (though one of my bridesmaids is vegan and she has had a lot of health problems with anaemia which she could just not control adequately without medication) and it's definitely very healthy for the environment and the planet. I've used a lot of her recipes and a blender like the Vitamix is so valuable with that type of diet.

I am not a big red meat eater and I come from a Mediterranean culture where we eat a ton of fish, several times a week, so I think I'd never go vegetarian due to those cultural influences and the fact that I love seafood.

 

[AEON]

I've used a lot of her recipes and a blender like the Vitamix is so valuable with that type of diet.

Yes - a good blender is a necessity.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Tofu can be great if you know how to use it. There was a Himalayan restaurant in Madison I used to frequent that had an incredible tofu sandwich: grilled with a turmeric-garlic sauce on roti bread. They told me the secret to a good grilled tofu is pressing it for about an hour before grilling or searing it. That gets rid of the excess moisture and gives it a firm consistency that lets the grill work its magic.

Tofu

I have been vegan for about 8 years now, next to quiting smoking it is the best descision I have made for my health.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I have been thinking about starting juicing. I have a friend who swears by it, and she has lost so much weight. I think she has a Ninja. Vitamix are so expensive, I'm sure they're worth it.

I have a real issue about texture, it has to be completely smooth. I won't even drink orange juice that has pulp in it. Does Vitamix really make it completely smooth?

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Well something like a Vitamix is going to be better at making things like smoothies which are very smooth but may be too thick for you.

If you want pure juice you might consider getting a juicer. They vary in price and quality but a good entry level is a centrifical juicer from Breville.

 

[last unicorn]

I've been vegetarian for five years now, and I can honestly say it is one of the best life choices I ever made. In addition to the health benefits, it has opened me to a whole new world of foods and cuisines and forced me to learn how to cook legitimately.

The animal rights element was also a significant motivating factor for me, but I think it is an encouraging sign that many meat-eaters are becoming much more conscious of how their food was raised and treated.

Same for me, but I've been vegetarian for 20 years now and almost vegan for about 3 years. I love to cook and I've learned so much about food and nutrition since becoming a vegetarian. I live about 90% vegan. I have friends who are vegan and I know it's possible. I don't like milk, I'm intolerant to lactose. I would eat a slice of certain blends of cheese from time to time, mostly sheep or goat, but I can live without that very well. Also, I don't use eggs. If I'm eating pasta, I make sure there are no eggs in there. I find it, however, quite difficult to be a full vegan when it comes to traveling and being invited for dinner. It's very hard, in some countries harder than in others. I find it easier in summer because I eat lots of fresh food and vegetables, salads and such, but it's stressful for me to travel as a 100% vegan.

I eat a lot of whole-grain and cereals, pulses and seeds, I try to have as much variety as I can with my food and I don't have any health problems. The hardest thing for me was and still is letting go of sweets, but recently I discovered vegan ice cream and cake - I even got a great recipe for that from a friend, so I do eat sweets and pastry, but I shouldn't. I'm not a fan of tofu or any meat-like substitutes, I really don't find that very attractive and don't feel I need it.

My prime motivation for becoming a vegetarian were animal rights, ethical reasons and factors such as climate change. I've read so many books and articles about these issues. I come from a very very meat-orientated family and found it tough to become a vegetarian. It became easier when I moved to the city. I just love the international cuisine and it's good to see that there has been a process in developing more awareness for the vegetarian lifestyle with hotels and restaurants.

 

[nbcrusader]

I have been thinking about starting juicing. I have a friend who swears by it, and she has lost so much weight. I think she has a Ninja. Vitamix are so expensive, I'm sure they're worth it.

I have a real issue about texture, it has to be completely smooth. I won't even drink orange juice that has pulp in it. Does Vitamix really make it completely smooth?

I've enjoyed both juicing and smoothies for quite some time now. My in-laws gave us a mixer that is close to the Vitamix (one probably offered by Costco a few years back). Very effective in creating a good smoothie.

Juicing can be done by centrifical juicer or a masticating juicer. Centricial juicers are faster, but are also very noisy. The centrifical juicer strains out the pulp, so you do get a very liquid product. I enjoy adding a bit of ginger root for a little zing.