Creating Health

Zoodles with garlic and kale

So the vegan journey continues. I am well past the two month mark now and there are some interesting observations. For starters, my overall health has improved. Not surprising. Just about every morsel of food that passes my lips is made from scratch. Yeah, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. For some this may sound like drudgery, but for me it is a little slice of heaven. I find it creative and peaceful and at the end of every session I spend chopping, slicing, mixing and whirring in there, I have a tangible result and I feel productive. Some are more successful than others. 

There was a bitter pot of soup that was a flop and went in the bin and a vegan feta cheese made out of tofu that joined the soup. May they rest in foul tasting peace together. However for the most part the food has been very good, with some dishes deserving of  "seriously awesome". Last night for instance - the recipe was for Vegan Chikin Pot Pie. I did not use the faux chicken that the recipe called for and instead added more veggies and it was a real winner.  I am not a fan of all those fake vegan meats and cheeses that you can buy in the grocery stores. I find they can be as full of weird shit and preservatives as other meat-filled processed stuff that is available, so I make my own vegan burgers and cheeses so I know exactly what is in them and can add things that make them healthier and/or tastier. You could say I have become semi-obsessed with knowing what the hell I am putting in my body, and you would be right. 

I feel the same way now about cosmetics and anything that I slather on my skin. Eating is the not the only entry point for toxins. My household cleansers are all environmentally friendly and I practice organic gardening. One result of all these changes in my daily life is that it has taken away the guilt I used to feel about using toxic products that end up back in our soil and water table. As for the guilt I used to feel about killing animals, well that is a thing of the past now too.

Perhaps the most glaring thing I have noticed is how I feel after I eat my meals. Even when I eat too much at a meal, I never feel heavy or bloated. I like the new feeling. Another thing I like is never having to worry about cross-contamination in the kitchen when I am cooking. With no raw animal products being cleaned or cut up there is no need to worry about that. I have never enjoyed handling raw meat and chicken and I don't miss that at all, especially reaching inside the Thanksgiving turkey carcass to dig out that limp bloody wet bag of organs before stuffing that bird. 

So, those are some of the benefits. The most difficult aspect I have encountered is the challenge of eating out in restaurants as so few of them offer vegan choices and I don't consider french fries a healthy vegan choice. Nor does a pathetic tossed green salad with bottled dressing and a slice of barely ripe tomato excite me. I would rather stay home than eat like that. If I lived in a metropolitan city, I would have more choices, but such is my present situation. There is one restaurant in Bundaberg that can and will cater to vegan diets with creativity and flare, but driving over an hour to go out for a meal is not the most practical choice. 

The other challenge that I have managed to politely deflect so far is having to defend my choices. The big question everyone always asks is how do you get your protein. From now on I am going to just tell people to google it. All the information you need about getting adequate protein on a vegan diet is out there and it is easy and a no-brainer so stop asking. Most people consume way too much protein anyway - you can google that too.  And yes, I do take a Vitamin B12 supplement and I use fortified nutritional yeast in many recipes, so I am not going to shrivel up and die anytime soon for lack of it. 

The best question of all though is ..."What do you eat if  you don't eat meat and dairy?" HUH? I eat every and all types of vegetables, fruits, grains, nut milks, coconut yogurt, nuts and seeds and I experiment constantly with various combinations and seasonings. My meals are inventive and delicious and satisfying. In fact, my cooking is so much more creative now than it has ever been. Now that vegetables are the starring role on my plate, I am finally whipping them into the culinary main event they deserve to be versus the boring sideshow they have been relegated to for way too long.

I have also discovered a whole new tribe. There is a big bad vegan world out there. We may be separated by miles but we are connected in the cyber world any time of day or night with a click. We follow each other on Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest and it will be a miracle if I ever live long enough to try all the tempting and tantalizing recipes I am accumulating daily. I have new vegan heroes like Angela Liddon, author of Oh She Glows and talented raw chef Doug McNish and Rich Roll,  and blogs like The One Ingredient Chef , The Minimalist Baker, The Sprouted Kitchen, Fork and Beans, Gluten-Free-Vegan Girl, Pickles and Honey, Vegan Richa, Hell yeah it's Vegan and on and on. 

The truth is, going vegan has been like a big new adventure in living for me.

One that hopefully keep me living long enough for many more adventures.

Eating Crow and Humble Pie

What's more annoying than a reformed smoker?

A reformed carnivore.

This morning I am neither smoking or ordering up bacon and eggs. No, I am eating crow, aka, a shit sandwich.  I have been preaching and the funny thing is, I hate preachers. I recall when my daughter first became vegetarian about 7 years ago, she would sit across from me in a restaurant and ask me how I was enjoying my baby lamb or little calf or my plate of flesh and I would reel her in and tell her that vegetarianism was "her" personal decision and that it was not right to judge or try to force her opinions on others and after a while she backed off and we all lived in harmony with our food choices.

This morning, one of my dearest friends told me I sounded preachy lately and she was absolutely right. Just because I have changed, it is no business of mine to try and change the world along with me. I think I have gotten a little carried away with my postings on Facebook and even though I had an inkling I was being annoying at the time, I still felt passionate enough about the relationship between food and health, that I went ahead and hammered my point a little too forcefully. The truth is, I don't know for sure if eating meat or dairy is the cause of illness, or if not eating them is the cure. Nobody really knows for sure. There is research to support both ends of the spectrum. 

There is a good chance I did the same thing to smokers when I quit smoking in my twenties. The difference back then was that if I did preach, it was not splayed all over the internet. So, to any and all of you reading this blog, I vow from this day forward to try not to preach. The last thing I want to do is annoy or offend the people I love and care about. I certainly see that there is no one right answer and to illustrate exactly how true that is, take a look at the following two stories. The first one is the story of Annette Larkins, a 70-something woman from Florida who claims her raw vegan lifestyle for the past 27 years has been her answer to the proverbial quest for the fountain of youth. The second story is that of the Guinness Book of Records world's oldest female body builder, Ernestine Shepherd,  who eats 10 egg whites and a handful of walnuts for breakfast everyday. Both of these women seem to be healthy and full of 
vitality.

Vegan, Annette Larkins

Body Builder, Ernestine Shepherd

Maybe we all just need to do what feels right for us. The goal is not to live a long life, but a long and healthy life and how you get there is a very personal journey.

It may not be killing you...Yet!

There seems to be this old school thinking that if what you eat has not "killed you", then it is safe to eat. I had this conversation one day with my aging parents. They are adamant about using their artificial sweeteners. Apparently one of their many doctors told them it was safe to use them, so that was all they needed to hear. Despite my encouragements to try Stevia or honey or maple syrup or agave, they insist on using them. They even said to me - "it hasn't hurt us". Well, that is where I beg to differ. No, I said, you are certainly still alive, but do you honestly think you are in good health? There was a slight pause as I put that thought out there for them. But, it was not enough to get them to change their ways. 

My father has had several illnesses over the past decade or more. He has had a quadruple bypass surgery. He is diabetic. He is currently battling lymphoma and just endured 7 weeks of chemo. He chalks all this up to the luck of the draw. Some people just get sick he reckons.  He has never even considered that what he eats might have an impact on his health. I don't get it. I also don't get anyone else who thinks this way. He does not consider for a moment that a lifetime of artificial sweeteners, sugar, alcohol, meat and dairy consumption and massive quantities of prescription drugs have had anything to do with his countless health issues. His health issues have been frequent and many since his early 50's. He has seen dozens of doctors and endured many surgeries. Not once has he put two and two together.

What is even more tragic in all of this is that not ONE of those doctors over the last 20 years has ever given him any nutritional advice. NOT ONE! This is more than tragic. It is criminal. It is criminal that our doctors do not study nutrition. It is criminal that they do not consider it in their diagnosis of patients. It is criminal that they are undereducated in the field of nutrition. They see thousands of patients and by the time they see them, it is all about treating the symptoms and trying to stop the disease that has already set in due to lack of proper nutrition. There are countless research studies available that have linked cancer and meat consumption. There are as many linking inflammatory diseases like arthritis to dairy consumption. There is even a new study that has linked diabetes to meat consumption, not sugar as many believe. The information available to everyone including doctors is overwhelming, and yet they still do not advise their patients to try changing their diets. 

My own personal experience very recently is what finally pushed me to change to a plant-based diet. I went to see a doctor about some serious digestive issues. I was astounded that this doctor did not ask me one single question about what I was eating. NOT ONE! He was quick to write a prescription for tablets and testing as though what I was eating mattered not. That is when the light bulb finally went on for me. I always knew deep down inside me that it was the key, but now I was ready to really make the necessary changes to test my theory. I stopped eating meat and dairy and have been eating a plant-based diet for over two months now. I have had the odd glass of wine or beer, but did find that it did not always agree with me. I quit coffee and tea and added more fermented foods. I eat very little sugar.  I stopped taking the meds he prescribed after 3 days. They were making me feel worse.

I have been sleeping better. I have more energy. All of my Achilles and ankle swelling is gone. My arthritic hands are 80% better. I do not take any medications whatsoever. I try to eat organic as much as possible. I have to wonder how my father's health may have been had he adopted some of these strategies in his 50's. 

So, the next time you say that the food you eat is fine; that it is not affecting your health and it does not matter, then turn to me, and tell me about this ailment and that ailment, I urge you to make some changes and just see what happens. It makes more sense to me to give your diet an overhaul rather than run to the pharmacy and scarf down pills to ease  your symptoms. Your symptoms are trying to tell you something. Masking them does not get rid of the root causes. 

None of this is new. Hippocrates had it figured out a long time ago. 

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

"Walking is a man's best medicine."

"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health."

-Hippocrates

Vegan Confession

Hello, my name is Debra and I am a vegan. 

That's right. Vegan. It is really no surprise to some of you I am sure. I have been slowly heading toward this lifestyle for a few years now. It is not even a big deal really, other than it is something I plan to write about here from time to time and share recipes and state of health updates when they are warranted.

In fact, a recent mini-health crisis is exactly what finally pushed me over the fence and into the land of plant power. I was having some digestive issues and found it necessary to see a western doctor as I did not know a good naturopath here in Maryborough. So, off I went and after a brief interview, I departed with the usual prescriptions for meds to "cure" my ails. I reluctantly spent the next few days downing the pills according to instructions and instead of feeling better, I began to feel worse. So, back to the doctor I go, and he takes me off those meds and gives me some different drugs. Stonger meds. Meds he usually only gives to patients for their nausea following chemotherapy. 

Things got worse. My nausea was gone, but now I was constipated. Badly constipated. OH MY GOD CONSTIPATED! Should I go to the hospital constipated?! As I lay in bed suffering and whimpering, I came across a book review for Rich Roll's new book, his follow up to Finding Ultra, titled The Plant Power Way. This is a man who was 40, fat and depressed a few years ago and is now a successful athlete, author, speaker and overall GOD of good health. His wife, Julie Piatt is his amazing counterpart and GODDESS of the green garden herself, and, the book's co-author. She is the chef in the family. I had been following this duo for some time, watching their story unfold and longing to be like them; to have that kind of dedication to my own health. Instead of skimming past the glowing review as I might have done in the past, this time I dove in. This was it. This was my turning point.

After downloading a few of their recipes, I ordered the book, and that day I became vegan. Just like that. Initially I thought maybe I would clean out the meats and cheeses from my fridge, but it really didn't matter. I did not even want them anymore. And besides, I am not the only one living in this house. Right now, I have one carnivore and one vegetarian in this house, so I was going to have to get used to the idea that I would be surrounded by foods I was no longer going to be eating, rather than use it as an excuse to stop me from eating the way I wanted to eat.

I was also inspired over the last couple of years by a restaurant called Raw Aura in Port Credit outside of Toronto. It is a raw, vegan eatery that I had enjoyed many times before I moved down under. I LOVED the food there. I never ate a bad meal there. Everything was fresh and full of flavour and beautifully presented and I always left feeling energized and well nourished. I never felt full and bloated. I never had a sugar crash two hours later. I once said, if I ever won a lottery, I would eat there three times a day. So why not eat there three times a day? In essence, it is entirely possible to eat there three times a day...only I would be making it myself at home. So, I started incorporating some of their recipes into my repertoire of daily meals. 

Google is a wonderful tool for this. I would look in my fridge and see what veggies were available on any given day and google things like "butternut squash, broccoli and cauliflower vegan recipes" and then just scroll through until I found one that sounded good and try it. I made some awesome dishes - Cauli-alfredo (no cream, no cheese, you'd never know, with quinoa pasta), Garlicky roasted Butternut Squash, Curried Coconut Soup, Creamy Cherry Tomato Sauce (cashews replacing the cream), Chick Pea Blondies, Chocolate Chia Pudding (avocadoes instead of milk) etc. I fed it to everyone in the house. They came back for seconds. No one complained, in fact, they raved. And that, I have decided is the trick. I think we all have this dread about how we will survive without cheese or meat, but the truth is, we can. Not only can we, but it can be beyond delicious. 

So, I stopped taking the meds. I am going to heal myself with food. If nothing improves in a month, I will reconsider. I had an ultrasound to rule out any sort of sinister tumour or whatever and it came back clear, as well as some blood work and other tests. I am also going to try to eliminate gluten wherever possible in case that has been a trigger for me. I am six days into my new regime and already feeling better. 

There was another inspiration leading me here as well. It could be the most important one. My brother is vegan. He chose to change his approach to food a few years ago when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He was a typical meat-eater leading up to this. After undergoing surgeries and chemotherapy, his doctors were delighted with his success in fighting off his cancer. He told them he had gone vegan and their response was - "keep it up, it's working." He allowed fish in his diet; the only animal protein he eats now. So, although this does not adhere to strict veganism, it is still a 99% vegan diet. I have decided to follow suit and allow fish from time to time as it will make life easier when dining out.

I will leave you with a link here to 5 recipes from The Plantpower Way. I made the Easy Tomato Sauce last night...left me wanting to lick the bowl! Super easy too! Go to the link and look for the pin with 5 easy recipes. Enjoy!

www.pinterest.com/richroll/nutrition-resources/