Food. We all depend on it for survival. I have been gathering thoughts and info for this post for many months. I think this will be the first of numerous posts about eating. Why write about food? Mostly because I want to share what I know to help others to better their health and wellness.
I just finished a great book called Mad Cowboy by Howard F. Lyman, which finally helped me to sum up my thoughts and start writing this post. In a nutshell it's his story of going from cattle tycoon to vegan. This man's story is very relevant to a place like rural Alberta, where cattle ranches cover the countryside, cowboys are as common as steak houses and burger joints and the word vegetarian is seldom heard or understood. I struggled at times, often avoiding talking about food, for the first 6 years that I called the Canadian prairies home.
My journey to veganism began when I was probably 14 years old. I can't recall my age exactly, but I do recall what prompted my food reformation. It was the movie Babe. Yup. The talking pig. I was very saddened and disturbed at the implications of animal farming for human consumption. I would rather pet animals than eat them. Unfortunately, a young teen doesn't have as much say as they would often like to in what's for dinner. So I continued to eat what was in our grocery basket and on our dinner table.
When I went off to art school at 19, I became more interested in the topic of animal rights. I watched films by PETA such as "Meet Your Meet" and read Fast Food Nation by Eric Scholsser. Again, I was disturbed and inspired by what I saw and read. Slowly, but surely, I eliminated most meats from my plate.
In 2003, I moved to a yoga ashram in rural Pennsylvania where I adopted a fully vegetarian diet. No meat was allowed on campus. So for the 6 months that I resided there, no meat was eaten. Not even fish or seafood. However, for 5 years after that, I ate the occasional shrimp or salmon at holiday dinners and the like. This all came to an end when I was camping with family in 2008 and the kids wanted to catch a fish and cook it up for dinner. No problem. We cast in a line and caught a wee fish. Who was going to kill and gut it? We all declined that job position. Or conclusion was that if we couldn't do the dirty work, we shouldn't be eating it. Why should someone else be doing the killing and we just enjoy the end product? Sounds like a cop out. That was the end of fish and seafood in my diet. Fully vegetarian.
So how did veganism become the norm for me? Well, my former husband has two young boys. When they came and stayed with us each summer, we noticed that the youngest, who was 4 at the time, had a constant "cold". He had an icky stuffy nose, dark circles under his eyes (as did his big brother) and digestive troubles, to boot. We decided to eliminate all wheat, dairy and soy products (all common allergens in young kids) out of our kitchen and see what happened. Result? Within a week he was breathing clear, looking perky and refreshed and his tummy seemed back to normal. Bonus: we were all feeling better. We didn't even realize that we were not ourselves until we knew what it was like to feel awesome. We were astounded! I haven't turned back since.
(Except...when we kept a small flock of backyard hens for fresh eggs. We treated them like part of the family and they all had names and personalities. What a fun experience for all of us. We had eggs galore. After that, I had made a deal with myself to only purchase eggs directly from people that I knew who loved their hens and fed them well. Since then, I have also scrapped eggs from my diet again. I have discovered how much better I feel not eating them.)
Do I miss meat or dairy products? Not at all. It took time to adjust my mental and intellectual self to get to where my emotional and spiritual self were at with these lifestyle choices. The hardest part was fielding questions from mostly curious and occasionally standoffish people who don't understand why I have made this choice in my life. The two most common questions are "why are you a vegan?" And "how do you get your protein?" And here are a few tidbits of info from Mad Cowboy to help answer them:
Vegans have one tenth the chance of heart disease of meat and dairy consumers.
Too much protein can actually cause osteoporosis. Over-consumption of dairy (concentrated proteins) forces the body to secrete the excess proteins along with calcium (which it pulls from our bones) to neutralize the acidic blood.
50% less cases of diabetes are found amongst vegans.
Regardless of what you believe or what you've been taught, no one needs to consume animal flesh or byproducts. There are more than ample amounts of protein in all plant foods. Simple. All plants contain protein. As long as you don't become a junk food vegan (ie. "I get my fruits and veggies from French fries, potato chips, popsicles, and ketchup") and you eat whole fresh foods, you will be getting lots of vitamins minerals...and proteins.
Take a peek at this chart:
I was thrilled in 2012 when the documentary called Forks Over Knives was released, and veganism became a more widely understood term amongst the general public. If you haven't seen it, and are curious about making a healthy change to your lifestyle, it's an awesome film. I think I have seen it 5 times. Check your local library system to borrow it...and invite some friends over to join in the learning!
Something else that I have gathered via personal observation and reading various books over the years is that many older folks suffer from inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and gout. These are often linked to high acidity of the body. Guess what! Animal food products such as meat and dairy create an extremely acidic environment in the body. Eliminate them, and watch the inflammation start to minimize. Try it. I'm not a doctor by any means, but I have seen this help people to find some relief. Other contributors to an acidic body are alcohol, sugar and caffeine. Use them sparingly. This chart gives a great visual.
Another fact we all should know is that no plant based food contains "bad" cholesterol. If you have had issues with high cholesterol levels, reducing animal products in your daily routine might help bring those numbers down. What have you got to lose? Put yourself to the test.
A wonderful woman recently gave us a copy of an audio cd called Living in Harmony with All Life. It's an overview of a book titled The World Peace Diet by Will Tuttle, MD. In there he states that he believes many of the root causes of upheaval on our planet stem from the slaughter, abuse and consumption of animals. This eventually lead to the abuse and animal-like treatment of humans, which is still occurring today in many parts of the world. Once people disregard each other, the next step is to disregard the natural world around us. The formula equals utter destruction.
We did a U-turn in Cleveland, OH to take a photo of this banner opposing fast food in their neighborhood. A piece of McDonalds litter was in the foreground. Ironic?
If you're thinking "I could never give up ice cream and cheese", think again. According to Dr. Tuttle, the human tongue takes only three weeks to replace all of its cells and therefore, retrain taste buds. Our food choices are habits. We can retrain our minds to love eating healthier foods. You have a choice. Don't let your mind (or society) tell you otherwise.
Here is a link to an unique European documentary with no dialogue that shows us the behind the scenes production of all of the things we put into our grocery bags; from meat to bread to cheese and veggies. It's very real, not censored, so be prepared, it could upset your kids. The thing I liked about this film is that its not geared toward anything. It's just showing the reality of our commercial food system.
Try omitting one animal product at a time. Either find alternatives or just learn to live without, knowing you are changing your lifestyle for the love of yourself and the love of our world.
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