Cereal
31 March 2011Last week at work I ate cereal for lunch every day. To be fair, my lunch breaks came before noon, so it felt more like a breakfast break to me. But I didn't eat just any cereal. No, I ate Hemp Plus.
It's so good, and good for me. It's a pretty small box, so I eat the whole thing. Apparently that's six servings. Anyway, it provides 60% of the daily iron I need, plus it's got omega-3.
It's a little funny, because last week, when I went on this little Hemp Plus binge, I was training a new guy, Jesse, so we ate lunch together every day. He probably thought that was all I ever ate.
I love cereal, because it's so quick and easy. But while we're talking about cereal, I should mention one thing that I learned in my college nutrition class. When cereal is enriched, the vitamins and minerals are sprayed on after the cereal is baked. Otherwise the baking process would detroy them. This means, when you add milk to your cereal, all the vitamins and minerals disolve into the liquid. So in order to get all those vitamins and minerals that are listed on the box, you need to drink the milk too.
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Vitamin A
30 March 2011Yesterday’s post about the French infant dying due to deficiencies in vitamins A and B12 got me thinking. I already know about vitamin B12, but apparently there’s more to this vitamin A thing than meets the eye.
First of all, there are two main types of vitamin A. There are actually more, but we don’t have to make this all confusing by talking about those.
Retinol is the form that our bodies use. It comes directly from meat and animal bi-products, and our bodies use it directly without having to convert it.
Beta-carotene is the plant form of vitamin A. When omnivores eat it, their digestive tracts convert it into retinol so it can be used.
You can overdose on retinol, and this could result in death. But you can’t overdose on beta-carotene, because if your body doesn’t need it, it won’t convert it to vitamin A and it will pass right through the system.
That’s right, it passes right through the system. There is no stored beta-carotene for the body to convert to vitamin A when it needs it. It needs to be eaten daily. You can find it in anything orange, because beta-carotene is orange. Carrots, bell peppers, papayas, yams, mangoes. You can also find it in a lot of green vegetables. The green chlorophyll just overpowers the orange color. Kale, collards, spinach.
But it’s also important to note that in order for your body to convert beta-carotene into retinol, it needs a couple of things. Fat and zinc. The fat needs to be eaten with the beta-carotene, and the zinc needs to be present in the body.
Assuming you’ve got enough zinc in your body, sweet potato fries should be a great source of vitamin A. Perhaps a little healthier would be making a smoothie that includes carrots and coconut oil.
People with certain ailments may have additional difficulties converting beta-carotene into vitamin A: underactive thyroid, diabetes, crohn’s disease, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, and gall bladder disease are all conditions that attribute to poor conversion.
In addition, infants have not developed the ability to convert it at all, so they must get their vitamin A from animal sources, like their mothers’ breast milk. Provided the mother has been eating enough carrots, there should be ample vitamin A for the infant.
And yes, mothers who are breastfeeding need to consume roughly twice the amount of beta-carotene.
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Vegans Can’t Breastfeed
29 March 2011Ok, that title is a little misleading and sensational, but so are the articles where I found this story. Vegans can breastfeed. But in 2008 a vegan couple in Amiens, France went on trial for “neglecting” their 11-month-old, which resulted in her death. The verdict should be in this Friday.
Specifically, the infant was deficient in vitamins A and B12. The articles—and there are a few of them, but they all say the same thing (have you noticed that a lot of information on the internet is just the verbatim retelling of other information found on the internet)—make it sound like the parents are on trial for being vegan and only feeding their child breast milk.
The more I think about this, the more it irritates me. The child was deficient of those vitamins because the mother was deficient, otherwise they would have been present in the breast milk. Why was the mother deficient? Because she didn’t eat well.
Vitamin A is in all sorts of vegetables. Eat two carrots and you’ll have just about all you need. Maybe a mother who's breastfeeding should eat three or four carrots.
And vitamin B12, well, you need a supplement for that, which she should have been taking.
The problem here isn’t that the couple was vegan; it was that they weren’t healthy. More importantly, when they took their daughter to the doctor for her nine month checkup, the doctor wanted to hospitalize her because she had bronchitis. The parents refused. They didn’t trust modern medicine.
They preferred to treat their daughter with a poultice made from cabbage and clay. They also didn’t bathe her with water, preferring, again, clay.
Where did they get all these crazy ideas? From “their books,” according to the articles. So apparently books are also on trial here. No wonder Borders went out of business.
Should these parents be sentenced up to 30 years in prison for neglect? Yes. But not because they breastfed, not because they’re vegan, and not because they read books. They should be sentenced because they are bad parents who went against their doctor’s advice and watched their child become ill and die.
Not all vegans wash their children with clay and apply poultices made of cabbage in lieu of modern medicine.
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Borders and B12
28 March 2011You've probably heard that Borders is going out of business. It's sad that books are disappearing. I heard once that if Barnes & Noble went out of business, that would be pretty much the end of books. I'd like to believe that the independent bookstores could keep it alive, but it's certain that the whole industry would change.
I've been checking Borders every week for the last three weeks, because I want to take advantage of this tragedy by buying a bunch of cheap vegan cookbooks. So far, they're still a little pricey for me. I'm hoping to wait until they're all 80% off and then buy five or so. The last store I went to was all out of vegan cookbooks, but the St Paul store still had a lot the week before. They don't seem to be the best sellers.
I did buy a book though. Not a cookbook, but a guide to veganism. It has a lot of useful information in it. It's called Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet.
Click on the cover to buy it at Powell's
I'll give a full review of the book once I've read it. For now, I've just read the section about vitamin B12, and I learned some interesting things.
First of all, this book says that vegans must take a supplement. I've this given as a reason that we're not meant to be vegan. We have to get our B12 from animals. But that's not the whole truth. It actually comes from bacteria. Even the B12 that comes from milk or meat gets there because the animal ate the bacteria that produce B12. So it isn't really a product of animals; it's a product of bacteria.
And it gets more interesting. Maybe you've heard the myth that B12 can be found in fermented food, like tempeh and sauerkraut. Well, yes, that used to be true. Back when we were dirtier. It used to be that when things were fermented, they would get contaminated with bacteria, like the bacteria that produce B12. These days, we ferment things in sterile environments, and we add chlorine to our water, and we wash our vegetables three times or more. Look at a package of bagged lettuce and it will probably say "triple washed."
But, there's more news. This sterile world that we live in, those of us who live in developed countries anyway, can also produce supplements. The supplements are made by bacteria in sterile labs. So we're still being just as vegan. We're not cheating by taking a supplement. It's the same stuff that you'd find in your milk. We're just taking it in pill form.
Here's another thing I'd been wondering about. The B12 pill Sunny and I take has more than eight times the amount recommended for a day. Does this mean we can take just one per week? The bottle says to take one per day, but why do we need eight times the amount? This book says that we can take supplements two or three times per week. Beyond that, they body may not store enough of the excess.
But our bodies do recycle the B12 we have. Once we use it, it ends up in our stomach bile and the body will extract it and use it again. Up to 75% of it is reused. This is why some people can go twenty years without it. On the other hand, the effects of deficiency could be irreversible, so I'm not taking any chances.
Sidenote: I have another blog. Actually, I share it with the other editors of 5x5. We'll be posting once a week, on Mondays. Check it out.
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Soap Update
27 March 2011I talked about soap back in December. For years I'd been using Dove, but I found out that Dove is made by Unilever, and Unilever tests its base ingredients on animals. So I looked for something else.
What I've been using since then is this Trader Joe's Tea Tree Oil stuff.
I had wanted to get the oatmeal stuff, but it has honey in it, and I didn't go searching beyond Trader Joe's. Anyway, the soap is doing a good job. It doesn't leave my skin feeling quite as happy as Dove did, but happy enough. And, I just realized that it's been three months since I first talked about soap and I'm still using the same bar. The package comes with two bars, and I haven't even taken the second bar out yet. I'm just about to though.
The other soap I use is Dr Bronner's. I mentioned that in my last soap post as well, but I don't think I really emphasized its magical powers. It's made with hemp, first of all, which an amazing renewable resource. And second, it can clean anything.
I have a bottle of it that I mainly use for washing grease off my hands when I work on my bike, but I ran out of shampoo the other day, so I used Dr Bronner's instead. That's when I remembered how great the stuff is. A little bit goes a long way. It comes in different scents. I have peppermint, which is the only one we sell at Trader Joe's. I think it's also the original scent.
Seriously, it's amazing stuff.
Now, about the shampoo I've been using. It's also from Trader Joe's (I'm loyal), and it's called Refresh. It's a citrus shampoo, and, well, I don't go crazy with shampoo like some people do. It washed my hair just fine, and it has this little symbol on the back, which makes me feel good.
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Significant Others
26 March 2011I was dating a vegan, Alicia, when I first decided to go vegetarian. We didn't date for very long, and when we broke up my aunt asked me if I went out and ate a hamburger right afterwards. I didn't. And I still haven't. Nope, I didn't go vegetarian to impress Alicia, although I think maybe I did try to start skateboarding for that reason. It didn't work. I never even learned to ollie.
The point is that while I didn't go vegetarian for Alicia, she did play an influential role.
A few people have asked me if Sunny is doing this vegan for a year thing too. Yes, she is. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to continue being vegan when your partner isn't. You'd have to make two separate meals, or at least make one with the cheese and one without. Going out to eat would be difficult if the non-vegan wanted to eat at a steakhouse where there are no vegan options. Ok, there's always salad, but going out for a salad seems ridiculous. Maybe if you were going to a fancy restaurant that specialized in salads, but at a steakhouse, I imagine the salad being more of an afterthought, made with iceberg lettuce.
Shelly told me that she'd like to be vegan again, but it's difficult when Lawrence brings home a pound of cheese every day. If you like cheese, and it's in your refrigerator, I could see it being a big bump in the road.
I suppose having a supportive partner would be enough. If they were willing to eat a vegan meal once in a while and didn't force you to go out to carnivorous restaurants, and if they kept the non-vegan food in the house to a minimum, that could be ok. Although, I think I might get a little preachy.
I mentioned in my post about vegan terms that the ethical vegans are the ones most likely to be pushy about their beliefs. I consider myself more of a nutritional vegan (I mean, if I had to choose one over the others) and the more I read about the health benefits, and the better I feel from following a plant-based diet, the more I want to spread the word. I want to say, "You're going to have a heart attack if you keep eating like that, idiot," or, "You know, you wouldn't get cancer if you just went vegan."
I know, I'm speaking in absolutes, and I know that "just going vegan" isn't that simple for most people. I try to keep my ranting to a minimum. But if my wife wasn't vegan too, I'd have a hard time watching her eat non-vegan food, knowing it isn't good for her.
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Meatless Mondays
25 March 2011At Trader Joe's, we have a demo station where we hand out samples of different products we sell. For a few days now we've been sampling grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon. Yesterday a little boy took one of the samples and then asked his dad if it was Meat Friday. It was pretty funny. I guess at school they must have Meat Fridays in the cafeteria.
I don't know if that means that Monday through Thursday they eat vegetarian.
Anyway, this reminds me of Meatless Mondays. I've read about this at a few different places, but I just checked out the official website. They've got recipes and all sorts of other motivational things.
The main reasons they promote going vegetarian one day a week seems to be health and the environment. Considering that, they have suggestions to help you out. My suggestions would be don't simply choose the Gardenburger from McDonald's or eat something with a lot of palm oil. Neither of these things are super healthy or great for the environment.
Actually, what I forgot to mention in my Palm Oil post is that palm oil is very high in saturated fat. That's a rarity among vegan fats. And, in case you didn't know or forgot, saturated fat is the bad one.
Today is Friday. Most people do their grocery shopping over the weekend, so this gives you time to plan a day of vegetarian meals. If it's new to you, just try one vegetarian meal. You don't even have to do the whole day. Start small. It's better for your body anyway. Imagine what a shock it would be for a hardcore meateater to go vegan, cold turkey. It wouldn't be pretty.
Check out the recipes on the Meatless Mondays website, or check out some of my recipes. Give it a try. It can't hurt.
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Hummus
24 March 2011I've been thinking about making my own hummus for a while now, but every time I think about it I end up deciding I'd be doing work for no reason. Trader Joe's has a lot of different hummuses to choose from (although one of them uses lactic acid, so check the ingredients) so why would I waste my time making my own?
But a couple of days ago I wanted to make the masala burger open faced sandwich and I didn't have any hummus. What I did have was a can of garbanzo beans, a Vitamix...and everything else I needed to make hummus. So here's my recipe:
Hummus
1 can Garbanzo Beans
⅓ c Tahini
¼ c Lemon Juice
1 t Salt
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 T Olive Oil
1 t Smoked Paprika
1 t Fresh ParsleyI just threw it all into my Vitamix in no particular order, blended it up for a bit and realized why it's a good idea to make your own hummus. It was delicious on account of the smoked paprika. I love smoked paprika.
Of course, I won't stop buying the Trader Joe's hummus, because it's still good and super convenient, but I'll keep making my own and adding different ingredients.
Unfortunately, Blake told me to today that he's allergic to garbanzo beans. Poor guy. No hummus or falafel for him. Sorry Blake. But he and Kiara have both told me that going vegan for lent has been going well.
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Palm Oil
23 March 2011Maybe you remember my telling you that I've been cutting back on sugar, and a large part of that is that I don't eat cookies all day long at work. It's true. I used to buy a box of Trader Joe's Joe-Joe's (they're like Oreos, in case you didn't know), or Maple Leaf Cookies, which are also cream filled sandwich cookies and munch on them throughout the day.
I got away from this habit by bringing a homemade smoothie to work and sipping on that all day instead. It works well when I remember to do it. I have splurged a few times and bought the box of cookies. The calories aren't the issue with me, because I ride my bike a lot, and I'm pretty active at work, and I have a generally fast metabolism. What I don't like is the lack of nutrition and the stimulating energy that requires me to eat more cookies twenty minutes later just to stay energized.
When I do eat the cookies, people ask me, "Are those vegan?" They are, I tell them. They're made with palm oil. That's what the cream is. When I told this to Parker, his response was, "Palm oil is great for the environment."
Ok, it's true. The palm oil industry has destroyed and is still destroying acres and acres of rain forest including the natural habitats of the Sumatran orangutan, Asian rhinoceros and Sumatran tiger (all of which are endangered) and they've contributed and continue to contribute significantly to greenhouse gases. (Wikipedia)
I already knew a little about this, but I guess Parker's remark finally put me over the edge. I will no longer be eating those cookies.
But guess what else uses palm oil. Earth Balance. This is the margarine we've been using as a substitute for butter and other margarines. We actually used Smart Balance before going vegan, but Smart Balance, like a lot of margarines out there, uses whey.
Earth Balance, I suspect, uses palm oil because it's solid at room temperature. So when they combine it with other oils (soybean, canola, olive) and add whatever flavors they need to in order to make it taste a little more like butter, it also has the consistency of butter.
There's another way to get that butter consistency out of oils that are generally liquid at room temperature, but it ends up creating trans fat, which is bad, bad, bad for your body.
So, Sunny and I briefly thought about giving up Earth Balance, but then I thought, it's called Earth Balance. Don't they care about the earth? So I checked it out. Here's the pdf from their website that talks about it. And if you don't want to read that whole thing, here's the gist of it:
30% of the palm oil they use is certified organic and sustainably grown. They get it through Agropalma. You can check out Agropalma's website here, but if you don't read Portuguese you may want to use Google Translate.
70% comes from suppliers that are members of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Starting this year Earth Balance will be purchasing Green Palm Certificates, which help fund the growth and expansion of sustainable palm.
Earth Balance is in the process of teaming with organizations to help reforest the land in SE Asia.
That's pretty good right? Now the bad news is that Earth Balance uses such a small amount of palm oil compared to other companies that all this may just be a drop in the bucket. But at least it's something. At least they're taking responsibility for their actions, and in turn my actions for eating their yummy fake buttery spread. Maybe they'll lead the way for larger companies to follow.
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Mother Nature Network
22 March 2011If you found this blog through Mother Nature Network, Welcome! I hope you enjoy reading some of the archives and stick around to read some of the coming posts.
If you don't know what Mother Nature Network is, allow me to explain. MNN is a website that provides news and information about the environment. Environment is a broad term, so you'll find a variety of articles, blogs and whatnots. With the recent problems in Japan, and the not as recent problems in the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention climate change and all that, it's good to know that there's some good news out there too.
Laura Moss, from MNN, just wrote an article, "9 bloggers' yearlong green journey," about nine different people who are changing their lifestyles to help the planet and blogging about it. I'm one of the nine, and if you think this blog is interesting, you should check out the other eight. Living without waste, living without plastic, living without a car. Strange how living without can open your eyes to so much you've been missing.
Thanks to Laura Moss for letting us all know about some inspiring people...and for promoting my blog.
Check out Mother Nature Network. Especially these treehouses.
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Seasons
21 March 2011It’s spring! Finally. Am I right? I love winter, don’t get be wrong, but this one was crazy. We got more snow here in Minneapolis than ever in recorded history. Or so I’ve heard. I had a little trouble verifying this online, but that’s what I’ve heard the customers at work saying.
Here’s another thing the customers at work say: “These peaches weren’t good.” Well guess what. It’s not peach season.
Somehow we’ve used the magic of technology to produce most fruits and vegetables year round. Now if only we could use that magic to make them juicy and flavorful as well. This is important: they’re still best when they’re eaten during the time of year that nature intended.
I’m not the best at knowing when each fruit is in season. I generally ask Sunny. But here’s what I do know: it’s almost strawberry season. And when I say almost, what I mean is that there are already some decent strawberries in the stores. They’re only going to get better and better. I’m not sure they’re the greatest for simply eating right now, but if you wanted to make a pie...
I did make a pie over the weekend. Sunny and I stayed in a cabin that didn’t have an oven, although it did have electricity, so I packed my Vitamix and made a raw strawberry pie just like Jónsi & Alex showed me. Oh right, I didn't have a pie pan, so I used a frying pan. Although it's on the stove, I didn't fry it.
It’s was yummy. In addition to being raw and vegan, it’s sugar-free and gluten-free. It’s also very good for eating.
I made it pretty much exactly the way Jónsi & Alex showed us, but I didn't have anything to measure with except the Vitamix. It does cups and ounces, but not so much with the teaspoons.
I imagine you could make a smoother crust by either using the dry blade to grind the almonds up even more or buying almond meal. I liked having it more coarse with large almond bits here and there. For the filling though, if you don't use a Vitamix, you'll end up with bits of coconut and strawberry in it. I'm sure it would still be good, but you'd almost be making a completely different pie.
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Out of Town
16-20 March 2011Sunny and I are going out of town today for a long weekend. We're renting a cabin up north of Duluth. I'm never quite sure what to expect when we go to new places. Apparently there's electricity, but no running water. There's a microwave and range, but no oven. There are pots and pans and other dishes, but we're accustomed to having an array of fancy kitchen gatchets at our disposal. So, we're packing a lot.
At first, I thought we might not take the Vitamix, but then we decided it's portable. Why not? And we want to make smoothies in the mornings. Once we decided to bring it, it opened up the flood gates. We're packing a lot of things, and a lot of food, and we're going to be trying some new recipes.
We're planning to make that strawberry pie that Jónsi & Alex told us about. We're also going to make a couple different types of soup. And a few other things.
I'll let you know how these recipes went when I get back on Monday. We'll also spend a little time in Duluth, so I'll let you know if we eat at any restaurants. And I'm planning to catch up on some reading, so you can expect some new book reviews in the near future as well.
Until Monday...
Jónsi & Alex
15 March 2011Laurie just told me about these guys. They're artists. They make music and visual arts, but they also make food.
Jónsi is from the band, Sigur Rós. He's Icelandic, so that's fun. Alex is from these United States. If you go to their website, jonsiandalex.com, you can see all sorts of cool things.
They have videos of the recipes they make, and at the end of the video it shows the list of ingredients in case you missed something they said.
Not only does the food look amazing, but the videos are fun. It's not like your Rachel Ray or Martha Stewart cooking shows. Here's an example. It's strawberry pie. The bunny isn't an ingredient.
If you just watched the video, then you probably picked up on the fact that the food is vegan and raw. That's a common theme. Click here to see more of the recipes.
And enjoy this music video by Sigur Rós. It's called Glósóli.
Are all Icelandic children that beautiful? Seriously, those are some good looking kids. They're going to grow up and become models, unless the harsh Icelandic weather ages them too quickly.
In case you didn't know, that fancy blender they're using is a Vitamix. Woot!
Thanks for telling me about these guys, Laurie.
Doctor, Part Two: White Blood Cells
14 March 2011I got the blood work in the mail from my doctor visit. The cover page said:
The results of your recent labs were NORMAL.
Just like that. Normal was in all caps, but without the italics. I did that. It’s MLA. Before the blood work came back, my doctor had told me it would be a good idea to take a multivitamin, but if everything is normal, as it is…why mess with something that ain’t broke. Right?
But then I scanned through each item. Calcium was one of the specific things she tested, because vegans could be deficient in it. I’m not. I ran a 9.3 and the healthy range is between 8.5 and 10.4. That’s mg/dL, which stands for milligrams per deciliter. Whatever. I’m right there in the middle. In your face milk!
She didn’t check my iron levels. I guess she didn’t think it was a concern. So I’ll just keep making sure I’m eating food rich in iron: dark, leafy greens (spinach, collards, kale); beans, lentils; dried fruit (prunes raisins); artichokes.
As I was scanning through my blood work, I saw one item in bold. WBC. I didn’t know what that was, so I Googled it. White Blood Cells. So, apparently my immune system isn’t what it could be. This has actually been a concern of mine, since I’ve gotten sick twice since going vegan. However, those were both in the beginning, and I haven’t been sick at all in two months or so.
Why is my WBC count low? How can I make it higher? Does it need to be higher considering I’m not getting sick? Why didn’t my doctor mention it?
Apparently, it’s low because I’m vegan. I did a little research and found that vegans generally have lower WBC counts. So that’s why.
There are certain things I can eat to raise it: carrots, kale, almonds, navy beans, dark grapes and other red, yellow and orange colored vegetables. Eat your colors!
There are also certain things I can do:
Avoid Sugar
(I’m eating far less sugar now than I was before going vegan.)
Eliminate Unhealthy Fats: Corn and Safflower Oil
(Still probably eating less of these than the average American.)
If you’re overweight…
(I’m not.)
Drink Plenty of Water
(I could be drinking more.)
Exercise
(Yep!)
Avoid Stress
(I think I’m less stressed than most people. I think. I do have a lot of gray hair though.)Here’s why it may not need to be higher, and why my doctor probably didn’t mention it. First, note that I found this information in the comments sections of a health forum, so maybe not the most reliable, but the person is explaining what they heard directly from a doctor:
Because vegans don’t consume meat, dairy and eggs, they don’t consume the bacteria that come along with meat, dairy and eggs. This means that their white blood cells have less to fight. Fewer battles means they need fewer soldiers. In addition, the soldiers that vegans do have are probably stronger. Like Spartans. I’ve got Spartans in my blood and they’re kicking ass.
Here's a more scholarly example from the American Journal of General Nutrition. It says:
Vegans had significantly lower leukocyte, lymphocyte, and platelet counts (these are types of white blood cells).
And then:
Vegans did not differ from nonvegetarians in functional immunocompetence assessed as mitogen stimulation or natural killer cell cytotoxic activity. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 70, No. 3, 586S-593S, September 1999)
So it’s fine that my WBC count is a little low. In fact, as the year goes by, my count will probably get lower. A lot of vegans range between 2 and 3, instead of the 4 to 11 that the general population needs to be in.
We could speculate on a lot of things here. My coworker, Matty, says he’s conditioned his body so he can eat anything without getting sick. How did he do this? By eating anything. Meat-eaters can eat meat without getting sick, whereas the immune system of a vegan isn’t really built for it. On the other hand, the immune system of a meat-eater isn’t really built for a vegan diet. This is probably why I got sick during my transition.
So if Matty and I were both stuck on an island with nothing to eat but dead seagulls, he would fair better. But if we were living in the heartland of the United States with a wide variety of food choices, I’d fair better.
The conclusion is that my blood work looks great, and I don’t plan to take a supplement.
Lent
12 March 2011I mentioned the other day that Blake is going vegan for lent. Kiara is too. Turns out going vegan for lent is a growing trend. In fact, lent itself is a growing trend. Even non-catholics observe lent, kind of like Christmas.
I think lent is great. It’s a great way to practice self control.
Going vegan for lent has its ups and downs. I think it was right about at forty-five days that I had gotten over being sick and started feeling really great. I feel bad for anyone who tries veganism for lent, doesn’t feel well for those forty days and ends up with a negative impression of veganism. Maybe that won’t happen though. Every body is different.
The New York Times has an article about going vegan for lent, and they have recipe ideas. I looked at a few of the recipes, and I have to say it doesn’t look great. It looks a lot like a non-vegan’s idea of veganism. Beans & Bulgur, Carrots & Lentils, Beans & Veggies. Healthy for sure, and possibly very appetizing for some people, but I’m afraid these are the sorts of recipes that make people afraid of veganism.
I brought some of that jambalaya in to work today for Blake. I hope he likes that. I also ate some more of it myself. I really need to find some other recipes that use okra, because I love it right now.PS, I'm posting this early. Of you're reading this today (Saturday) then remember to set your clocks ahead. If you're reading this tomorrow (Sunday), then hopefully you're not already late for work.
Vegans Can't Adopt
12 March 2011Not in Crete anyway. Apparently, Greece takes their cuisine very seriously. I've been to a few Greek restaurants, and all I can ever remember when I leave is grease and an upset stomach. I'm not saying there isn't good and healthy Greek food out there, I just haven't met it.
According to the University of Crete Medical School, children need to eat meat, dairy and seafood. On this basis, a vegan couple in Crete have been denied the right to adopt for fear that they will pass their dietary restrictions onto their adopted child.
I don't know much about Greece's government, except, wait, didn't hey invent democracy? Hmm...
I guess this issue doesn't hit me real close to home since I don't have a strong desire to raise children, but if someone told me I couldn't do something that I really wanted to do because I'm vegan, I would probably be pretty upset. I guess, if there were no other way around it, I might give up veganism in order to do that restricted thing.
For example, if I had to choose between eating vegan and riding my bike, I'd choose my bike. I can be pretty stubborn though, so I might just try to do both anyway.
So, apparently Greece has some pretty strict adoption rules on account of not having many children to give away. They have a pretty low birthrate. I imagine they reject the right to adopt for any reason: single, gay, unable to sing on key, having a hairy back. No wait, hairy backs are favored over there, right? Oh, cultural differences.
Pets
11 March 2011Should pets be vegan too? Can they? It makes sense that vegans, at least ethical vegans, would have animals. They probably chose veganism because they like animals, so they probably have a few animals of their own.
Wait, I take that back. Some ethical vegans may have a more hippy ideal that animals can't be owned, man, so they don't have pets.
Anyway, cats are obligate carnivores. I don't know all about the chemistry or biology that says they have to eat meat, but they do. According to Wikipedia, they have shorter small intestines. I guess that means they can't digest certain types of food.
Dogs, on the other hand, are omnivorous. Technically, they can be considered carnivores, but not obligate carnivores. This means they can digest a wider range of food, pretty similar to us. So, although there is debate, just like us, dogs can be vegan.
In fact, sometimes when dogs have allergies, a veterinarian might suggest a vegan diet. Then they could introduce other ingredients one at a time to isolate the allergen.
Other times, protein is an issue. Some dogs, like Judy's dog Ariel, need less protein. Ariel is also allergic to a lot of stuff. She's almost died a few times. She's a full bred Australian shepherd, and she has a lot of the problems that come along with being a full bred.
Ariel eats vegetarian dog food. It may even be vegan. I know that it reminds me a lot of nutritional yeast. It has that color.
There seems to be a lot of debate over this issue. I, for one, have no problem feeding my animals other animals. I learned in The Lion King, and on my Elton John Greatest Hits album, that it's the circle of life.
Chickens, for example, are omnivores. The animals they eat are bugs and grubs. So it's strange that some eggs are marketed as vegetarian fed. That means they're being fed corn. Chickens aren't meant to survive on corn. I guess the appeal is that at least you know they aren't eating other chickens.
But back to cats and dogs. My view is that when you get a pet, you're bringing a little bit of the wild into your home. You can only domesticate an animal so far. Just ask Roy Horn.
Bryant Lake Bowl
10 March 2011I've lived less than two miles from Bryant Lake Bowl for a year and a half now and I just finally went there for the first time. I tried to go there a couple of weeks ago, but Surly was having a five year anniversary and it was packed. I couldn't even find a close place to lock up my bike. But yesterday Sara and I went there for happy hour.
I checked out the menu on the website beforehand. It didn't look super promising, but I could at least order a salad if nothing else. Then I checked out the FAQ page, and it said there were vegan options.
Turns out the black bean burger has egg in it, which I knew might be the case. Sara pointed out that they had Pad Thai, but I thought, I don't really want to order Pad Thai from a bar. I can get Pad Thai at True Thai. In the end, I ordered Mock Duck Rolls with Ginger Tahini Sauce for an appetizer...and I got the Pad Thai, because the waitress told us it's one of their signature dishes. Sara also ordered some chips and guacamole, which we shared.
The Mock Duck Rolls were pretty good. Sara said they tasted a little like Gorditas from Taco Bell. They were fried. Sort of a hybrid of an egg roll and...maybe a taquito. I really liked the Ginger Tahini Sauce. I bet I could make something similar with my Vitamix pretty easily.
About that Pad Thai: I still think Pad Thai should be eaten at a Thai Restaurant, not a bowling alley/bar. It was good enough to eat, but I wouldn't go back for more. The tofu seemed like it had been added as an afterthought. It didn't have any sauce on it, and it just lacked something. I'd liken it to the frozen Pad Thai meals we sell at Trader Joe's, which is good for a frozen meal (I've eaten it plenty of times) but if you're going out to a restaurant you expect more.
Bryant Lake Bowl is a pretty nice place. I guess I was really just in the mood for a burger. Spicy black bean burger sounds good. I guess I need to figure out how to make my own without eggs.
Terms
9 March 2011I’ve talked before about the different reasons a person might choose a vegan lifestyle, but I haven’t been using specific terms. Instead I’ve been saying, for example, “a person who goes vegan for animal equality reasons,” which is a little verbose. So I did a little research and found some terms that are already in use. They’re pretty self explanatory, but I’ll explain them a little further. That is to say, I’ll give my interpretation and throw in a little bias.
Dietary VeganI wanted to call this Nutritional Vegan, but then I found that Dietary Vegan is already in use. Contrary to popular belief, a vegan diet is very healthy, when it’s done right. In fact, many people believe that it’s healthier than eating meat, dairy, eggs, etc. Dietary Vegans have made the choice to go vegan for health reasons. There is a misconception out there that people who choose veganism are placing ethics above nutrition. Actually, nutrition itself is reason enough to choose veganism.
Dietary Vegans are only vegan in the food that they eat. They may wear leather and fur and generally make use of other animal products in their lives, just not in their meals.Ethical Vegan
These are the people who choose veganism because they don’t want animals to be abused. They eat vegan and wear vegan. They are also the group that people complain about when they complain about vegans. PETA is a group of Ethical Vegans.
Because Ethical Vegans choose veganism for reasons other than nutrition, they might be the ones who do it wrong. A Dietary Vegan is more likely to pay extremely close attention to the nutritional elements, while an Ethical Vegan might only pay extremely close attention to making sure even the trace ingredients are free of animal cruelty.
Don’t get me wrong. Ethical Vegans can be delightful people, and they can eat good, nutritional food. All I’m saying is that this is who people are probably thinking of when they get annoyed with vegans.EcoVegan
The reason I first went vegetarian. For the planet. EcoVegans choose veganism because it causes less harm to the planet.
This is a subject that I’ve talked about before and I’ll talk about again. Today, I’ll just give one example. Every action requires energy. Growing plants requires a certain amount of energy. We could eat those plants, or we could feed them to animals, which requires more energy, and then eat those animals. It’s just another step along the way that requires energy. And energy is only one of the resources. There’s also land and water.
EcoVegans choose veganism to help the planet. They most likely eat and wear vegan.Religious Vegan
This one seems simple at first. This group believes that God wants them to be vegan. Done. But wait, there’s more. With religion in general, it seems that followers have explanations other than simply “God wants us to.” It’s more like, “God wants us to because...”
So when you dig deeper, it’s probably God wants us to be vegan because it’s better for our health, we should take care of all of God’s creatures, and we should take care of God’s planet. So, while Religious Vegans are probably content following their God’s rules without question, if you question them, they may give you a more worldly explanation.These are terms I’m going to start using more often, and now you know exactly what I mean when I use them.
Mardi Gras
8 March 2011First of all, the whole idea of Mardi Gras is contrary to what I believe. Mardi Gras is the big party where you do and eat whatever you want before giving something up for lent. This is the attitude people have when they adopt a temporary diet that is too restricting. The entire time they're just longing for the thing they're depriving themselves of. Better to cut back a little and maintain it than have a big feast, fast, and then have another big feast.
But parties are fun. Mardi Gras is actually celebrated in other parts of the world too, but in the US, I think everyone thinks of New Orleans and Cajun food. And I made jambalaya.
Jambalaya
1 Onion
3 Garlic Cloves
2 Stalks of Celery
1 Green Bell Pepper1. Chop up these four things and sauté them.
1 c Wild Rice, uncooked
2 c Brown Rice, uncooked2. Add the rice and sauté for another minute or two.
2-6oz cans of Tomato Paste
10 c Vegetable Broth3. In a separate pot, heat these two things up.
4. Then add it all together and simmer.2 Zucchini, sliced
3 c Okra, cut into chunks
1 c Mock Meat (I used Chorizo Style Seitan; you could just leave it out)
4 leaves of Collards, chopped5. Sauté this, then add it to the pot.
2 t Oregano
2 t Spanish Smoked Paprika
1 t Cayenne
1 t Black Pepper
2 t Parsley
1 t Salt
1-28oz can of Diced Tomatoes
2-12oz cans of Red Beans or Kidney Beans6. Add the rest of this to the pot and simmer until the rice is cooked.
If you have a five gallon bucket, that might be a good place to store the leftovers, because this makes a lot, yo. But it's delicious. And it's good for you too, so you don't have to fast for forty days afterwards.
Actually, Blake has decided to go vegan for lent. I mentioned a while back that he was thinking about it. It's official now. Blake, I'm brining you some jambalaya, because I have a bucket full.
Ezekiel Bread
7 March 2011The other day, Amy's Facebook update was all about how great sprouted bread is. I didn't get it. Ok, so it's low in carbs and calories. Those are two things that mean nothing to me. I've never understood the no carb diet, and, hate me if you will, but I've never had to count calories.
Anyway, after I found out that the naan I've been eating actually has egg in it, I had to search for another bread. Actually, I was at Whole Foods the other day and I bought a loaf of sprouted bread made by a local bakery. I don't remember the name of the bakery now, but after we ate that loaf up, I checked out the sprouted bread a Trader Joe's. Most of it has honey, but not the Ezekiel bread.
Not the Sesame Ezekiel bread anyway. I haven't checked the rest yet.
I know this stuff has been around for a long time, and I know there are people out there who swear by it. I will too now. Oh my goodness, it's delicious and it's a complete protein.
Why haven't I been eating this stuff already?
I have to say that I like whole grain breads. I'm not a fan of the white bread that practically falls melts in your mouth. I like chewing my bread. So if you're a huge fan of white bread, Ezekiel bread may not be for you. But if you only eat white bread...I'd suggest changing that.
Seriously though, this bread is amazing.
Corn Chowder
6 March 2011I got this recipe out of Entertaining in the Raw, but I made a few changes. I used some roasted corn in addition to the regular frozen corn, and I used smoked paprika instead of chili pepper.
4 cups: Frozen Corn & Roasted Frozen Corn
¾ cups: Coconut Meat
2½ cups: Cashew Milk
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon: Salt
To Taste: Black Pepper
2 teaspoons: Smoked Paprika
3 Tablespoons: Olive Oil
¼ cup: Agave Syrup
½ cup: Coconut Water1. Cut open your coconut. I bought a new saw for this so I wouldn’t have to use my kitchen knives, a screwdriver and a hammer. I’d suggest getting a knife. Also, the meat from one coconut is about ¾ of a cup, and the water is about ½ a cup, so don’t bother measuring. Just use the whole thing and then you won’t have to worry about what to do with the unused portions.
2. Set aside ¾ cup of the corn.
3. Throw everything else in the blender. Better yet, use a Vitamix. That’s what I use. Blend it until it’s as smooth as you want.
4. Throw that mixture into a pot with the corn you set aside and heat it up until it’s the desired temperature.
I've gotten a little experience cutting open coconuts now. Practice makes perfect.
Doctor
5 March 2011I told you all way back in November that I was going to see a doctor to get nutritional advice, and I finally did it. Four months later.
The main thing I talked to her about was my knee. She asked me questions, twisted my leg around, poked and prodded. Because it really only hurts when I run, she couldn't find any problem. She referred me to a specialist: a doctor who deals with athletes.
She kept calling me an athlete, which was a little strange for me, because I just think of myself as a guy who rides his bike to work. I guess because I'm training for a marathon, that makes me an athlete, but I've only just begun training, and it hasn't been going very well.
I told her that I'd had some chest pains, so she gave me an EKG. I had wires attached to my arms and legs and six more wires on my chest. The only red flag that came up was that my heart rate was low. I think it was forty-two beats per minute. When the nurse checked my heart rate, she made a weird face, and I thought maybe it was high because I'd just ridden my bike there. Anyway, the doctor just threw out that athlete word again. Athletes have low heart rates.
Heartburn also came up. I actually woke up yesterday with heartburn. I've had it before, but I never put the term "heartburn" on it. I never really knew what heartburn was, so I always thought, maybe I get heartburn but I don't know it. And it turns out that's true. Heartburn is a bit of a misnomer. It has nothing to do with your heart. And to make matters more confusing, sometimes (every time I've had it) it's only in the upper portion of the abdomen. I figured heartburn is in the chest, and it usually is. Sometimes heartburn can make its way up into the throat and jaw.
She tested me for some bacteria that causes the same symptoms as heartburn. If that's what it us, I can take a pill to kill it. Otherwise, I think I have to adjust my diet slightly to take care of it. I usually get it in the morning when I've eaten too much food too close to bedtime. Eating breakfast makes it go away, but yesterday morning I wasn't allowed to eat, because I was going to have some blood work done.
Ok, so finally we talked about general issues concerning veganism. She's checking my blood to make sure I'm getting enough iron. The results haven't come back yet, but she told me that it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a multivitamin once a day.
If you remember my post about calcium, then you remember my issues with taking supplements. The main point is that it's better to get the nutrients from food. I suppose sometimes that's near impossible, so if the blood work shows that I don't have enough iron, I may go ahead and start the multivitamin thing, but I'll wait for her to tell me that. I may also just try to eat more foods high in iron.
Other than those things, I'm really quite healthy. I weigh 149.5 pounds, which is more than I thought. I haven't weighed myself in years, but I've always thought I was about 145. Then I lost some weight (it was physically noticeable; I still hadn't weighed myself) when I first went vegan, but I gained it back.
My blood pressure is good, although I don't remember the numbers she told me. I don't know what they mean either. But it's good.
So there you go. Overall, veganism isn't killing me.
Naan
4 March 2011I’ve been eating eggs.
Here’s the deal. A while back, I scrutinized the ingredients of a lot of the bread we carry at Trader Joe’s. I was looking for whole grain bread. I found that all the whole grain bread we carry has honey in it. I keep meaning to make my own bread, but in the meantime, I found that the whole wheat naan doesn’t have honey. Score. I even posted a recipe that uses this naan. One of my favorite recipes, in fact.
Well, it’s true that the naan doesn’t have honey, but I guess in my search for bread without honey, I forgot to check for eggs. And then I just kept buying it because I knew I’d bought it before.
Aaron pointed it out to me. I probably wouldn’t have looked at the ingredients again otherwise. Now I’m questioning everything I’ve been eating. I should recheck ingredients.
So today I bought whole wheat pita bread. That is vegan. No honey; no eggs.
True Thai
3 March 2011Probably my two favorite cuisines that I like to go out to eat are pizza and Thai. You've probably picked up on the pizza, from the number of times I've posted about Pizza Luce. But I don't think I've talked about Thai food yet.
The other day, Sunny and I ate lunch at True Thai, which is on Franklin and 27th Ave, in the Seward neighborhood. It's pretty close to the Seward Co-op. Yep, I recon we'd be set if we lived in the Seward neighborhood. Maybe I'll look into that.
Thai food is easily made vegan and gluten free. It really appeals to everyone, because you can also order meat, seafood, or whatever you want.
Here's the number one thing to remember if you're going out to a Thai restaurant: tell them you're "strict vegetarian." This is another way of saying "vegan." I imagine you could also say vegan, but if you're going to a more authentic restaurant, where the servers speak English as a second language, you're more likely to get your point across by saying "strict vegetarian."
If you don't say this, your food will probably be made with fish sauce. It's in a lot of Thai food, and some people, my brother included, will say that you can't make Thai food without it. It's just not as good. I'd disagree.
What is fish sauce? Ok, so back in the day, fishermen couldn't go too far into the deeper parts of the ocean to catch their fish. They just didn't have ships capable of handling the harsher waves and weather. So they stayed in the shallow areas, which means they caught smaller fish. Some of the fish didn't have much meat to be eaten, but they figured out a way to get their protein. They stuck all these little fish into a barrel, let it ferment and turn into a liquid. Then they mixed this liquid with rice and ate it. That's how they got their protein.
The other day Lulu was telling me that she brought Melissa over and showed her how to make a few different dishes. One of them was a curry. Lulu said to me, "She wouldn't even eat a little fish sauce!" As if that was the craziest thing in the world. I'm sorry, but it's a sauce that is made from fish. Fish stuck into a barrel and left until it liquefies. I just thought it was funny.
Anyway, as you move further inland, in China, soy was added to this fermented concoction as filler until finally only soy was used. Thus soy sauce was invented.
Alright, so in the past, Sunny and I haven't been that great at saying, "We're strict vegetarians." I guess I thought they probably don't put fish sauce in everything, but you should assume that they do.
I ordered the Pineapple Curry with tofu and I think it was the Magnificent Masaman Curry that Sunny had. Hers had potatoes. They were both amazing. I wish we'd thought to request brown rice instead of white, but whatever.
We also split a Green Papaya Salad. A green papaya is just what it sounds like, a papaya that isn't ripe yet. They shred it and use it as the base ingredient. So, instead of lettuce. It was delicious. I found a few recipes online. There are a lot of variations, most of which include some sort of meat. I'm just not sure if I can buy a papaya green enough to work.
We've eaten at True Thai quite a few times. We've checked out some other Thai restaurants in town too, but we prefer True Thai. It's not too expensive, it's delicious, and we've never had a problem with the service.
Check it out.
Refrigeration
2 March 2011I've talked about a few types of food preservation. One of them was cheese (turning milk into a solid makes it last longer), one of them was freezing (obvious) and today I'm going to talk about refrigeration (obvious, again).
I made two mistakes today: I forgot to post my blog before going to work, and I ate lasagna that had been sitting on the counter for three days.
Yes, folks, even vegan food needs to be refrigerated.
Actually, I'm not sick because of it, but when Sunny got home she told me I shouldn't have eaten it because it had gone bad. I remember thinking, this needs to be eaten today before it goes bad. I guess it should have been eaten a day or two ago. Or it should have been refrigerated.
Even cavemen knew that food needed to be kept cold. They used ice.
At work, certain refrigerated items get priority when it comes to putting them in the cooler. Number one is raw meat. It sounded a little strange to me the first time I heard it, but hummus is pretty high on that list too. Low on the list, even below salad, is eggs. Crazy, right? But in Europe, eggs aren't even refrigerated in the grocery store. They just sit out on the shelf.
When I first went vegetarian, I remember thinking, it's going if this sits out overnight because it's not meat. That's true to an extent. Raw meat requires certain safety procedures that vegetarians don't have to worry about with their food. But three days is too long, even for vegan food.
Just like freezing, refrigerating only slows down the enzymes, so food still spoils eventually. And the nutrients in food aren't destroyed when food is refrigerated, although the flavor might be.
Don't ever refrigerate tomatoes, if you know what's good for you.
I'm learning from my mistakes.
1. Refrigerate, even though it's vegan.
2. If you think you're going to forget to post your blog in the morning, post it the night before.
Liquid Diet
1 March 2011That's what it feels like some days. That I'm on a liquid diet. When I was in high school (at a boarding academy) the nurse would put us on a liquid diet sometimes when we were on sick list. Sick list was when we were too sick to go to classes, so we stayed in our dorm rooms all day. Being relegated to our rooms was a way to ensure that we weren't just interested in skipping classes. If we were too sick for classes, then we were too sick to go outside at all. I think the liquid diet was the same. We didn't always have to go on a liquid diet though, and there was jealously when two of us faked being sick and one got to eat solid food.
What I remember best from the liquid diet was gelatin. Surprising that they would let us eat that. My high school was vegetarian—no meat in the cafeteria—yet they would let us eat something derived from the skin and bones of animals.
Funny that I'm vegan now, but when I went to this vegetarian high school, I ate meat every chance I got.
As I mentioned a few days ago, the reason it seems like I'm on a liquid diet these days is that I've been drinking two smoothies a day. I have one in the morning and another at work. Even on my days off, when I'm hanging around the house, I make a smoothie, because it's so much better for me than eating chips or some other junk food.
I also really love using my Vitamix. When I have more time, I plan to experiment with other uses for my Vitamix, but right now, it's basically a super fancy smoothie maker. And I love it.
Of course these smoothies are much more nutritious than the liquid diet we had at the academy, and I feel full and satisfied after drinking one. The problem is that I like to chew things sometimes. Solid food is good. Maybe when I have more time.
