Monday, October 20, 2008

from the ppk "ask a vegan"

So its early morning and I dont know what I will do when Mofo is done and I have just gotten bit by the MOFO bug myself!!
Here is something from the forums this morning.. food to follow later!
Dear Ask a Vegan,

1. Where do you get your protein?
I get most of my protein from Beans. I still dont know what a legume is?? But I also live on quinoa and thats a "complete protein" the box says so..

2. I could never be vegan because I am addicted to cheese. I worship cheese, and have even built an altar to/out of it in my kitchen. How do you LIVE without it? I guess I was always into food and what it does to enhance your life, cheese not so much. When I was training for my triathlons and looking into nutrition cheese was a NO NO. So giving it up as a vegan wasnt hard. Now, they do make soy cheese and funny word cheeses like teese or sheesh.. ha ha ha I havent tried them YET but I hear they are pretty fantastic. The hardest to give up would have been eggs for me. But I kept getting sick when I ate them (or mayo or dressings for salads) so that got weeded out for me. And once I decided to go vegan I read Meat Market by Erik Marcus and that solidified why I dont want to support cheese, milk, egg, or animal meat, and all products from animal sources. 

3. So, do you just live on salads or what? I actually have been hating on salads. If I were to be labeled as living on something it would be Stif fry, soup, raw veggies and juicing my wonderful produce. If you were to see my kitchen from June to Sep you would say I lived off Zucchini and ppk's zucchini bread.. my garden was so plentiful!!

4. If you have kids someday will you force them to be vegans, too? Because that seems really unfair to deprive them of their right to eat Chicken McNuggets with all the normal kids! My kids are not allowed in McDeath's. This is becuase the last time we were there to play on the gym equipment (dont yell at me) they were telling everyone that the chickens they are eating die while they are still really young and are not taken care. "Dont you know those chickens didnt live a long time or have a happy life" so.. until they can pass out leaflets and understand a bit more we dont want to SCARE potentials from joining us due to guilt.. but yes I AM soo proud of them.
They are also sick less often, spring back quicker if they do get sick, have better complexions, and have a heart to "make" (lol) other people understand just what they are doing. In such a non critical way too. My husband is supportive of what I am trying to do and thinks its great for the kids too.. but he still eats the way he always has and if the children make the decision to eat his food we talk about what it is but I let them make the choice. I know some wont agree with me for this, I invite them to move in with me and help me rather than lecture.. or just help, since we dont really have room for another body here!!

5. Not a question, but I knew someone who was vegan once and she got really sick. He doctor told her she had to start eating bacon double cheeseburgers (with a side order of liver, just to be safe) or she would DIE. Well as for media, Supersize me will tell her what that kind of eating will do, and for Books there is a study called the China study that shows quite the opposite.
While there is a debate on vitamins and supplements we do know that b-12 is one thing that you need to get into your body that you may not get from food. Since my kids cant take a horse pill, we give them lots of NORI since it has it (tell me if I am wrong PLEASE!!) and they are getting occasional foods which I would not eat, but their father does.

questions brought to you by Desdemona @ ppk forums

1 comment:

Becka Robinson said...

Ps...I am a HUGE cheese fan too. But, I notice a HUGE difference in my body and how I feel when I cut dairy out of my life. So...what's worked for me is to cut all the extra cheese out. For example....

I don't just sprinkle it on everything anymore
I don't use it to add flavor (I use spices, esp cayenne)

I don't put it in sandwiches because you can't really taste it there anyway.

I don't keep milk or ice cream or yogurt in the house.

This way if I want something I have to go out and actually get it. Every now and then I'll go to marble slab or Gurtzberry for ice cream and yogurt but it's much less than if I had a gallon in my freezer.

Same with cheese. For recipes that definitely need it (like mexican) I'll use it. But for other stuff I cut it completely out. That way, every now and then I can REALLY enjoy it. (Like goat cheese ravioli for dinner or fancy cheeses with wine) That makes me love it that much more but also understand that cheese should not be my easy fix for tasteless food.

Anyways, I've babbled enough. I just wanted to share because I am a cheese and ice cream monster and I thought I'd never be able to cut back but now I'd say I'm about 85% dairy free and I feel really great.