I gave a persuasive speech the other day on why people should consider going vegan (no animal products in your diet) and it got me wondering if there were any other board members who are vegan or vegetarian.
I've been vegetarian for 2 years and vegan for about 6 months now. At the beginning it was Food Inc. that got me. I went "cold turkey" after watching it and never looked back.
If anyone out there is looking for help or advice on where to start or anything like that feel free to ask!
Personally, the soy arguments are complete and udder (lol) bull shit ( cow puns ). Like everything else, eat it in moderation. I've cut it from my diet completely and saw no change, and I ate lots and lots of it and saw no change. It's just meat industry propaganda - followed by people who think it's crazy to give up eating meat, since it's the whole circle of life, survival of the fittest bullshit.
also @ chili - my recipe the most recent time, which was the best yet:
sauteed two small onions and peppers in canola oil ( don't fry with olive oil its bad ) in the big pot till everything smelled good, then i threw in the garlic, washed off beans (i had kidney and pinto, wash so you dont fart all night ), and two cans of spicy black beans from whole foods and diced tomato and then I let it cook. I added seasoning pretty early and constantly till I found the taste I wanted.
Right near the end I threw pineapple on the stove top to sear it a little and threw that in to get the best chili i've made yet! topped with buffalo sauce and daiya cheddar
Not sure if anyone posted a link to this yet, but this chart helped me a lot when I knew I wasn't eating enough of the right kinds of food.
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm
as of tomorrow, i will have been vegan (cold turkey) for 2 months. so far, so good. i've lost 15 pounds and am definitely feeling healthier. i'm still eating way too much packaged foods and microwave burritos for lunch, but it's been a huge change nonetheless.
I cut everything out cold turkey 4 and a half years ago and have felt very few temptations. The biggest temptations come when I'm super hungry, but they are going away over time as well.
Prior I was an avid meat eater and broke Kosher whenever I could [ cause it was kept at home... ] to get like shrimp and bacon and shit.
On September 2008, after jokingly picking up two cheeseburgers and shouting “THESE WILL BE THE LAST TWO CHEESEBURGERS I WILL EVER EAT!”, I went vegan.
I lost close to 15 pounds the first week or so that I transitioned. It was because I wasn't eating a lot because I didn't know what to eat. As I realized that almost everything was vkosher, I gained it all back. Watch out for pasta!
At first, I did it to try it out. It was a test of self worth, pride, and curiousity . From there, I did research on animal cruelty and that sold me completely and stuck. Currently, I'm vegan for the animals. Believe it or not, I would love me a nice piece of steak, but unless the cow tells me I can eat it, I won't be.
living the cruelty-free life style
cool vegan things
Oreos
Starbucks : any coffee with soymilk, excluding caramel and chocolate flavours. IE: toffee nut soy latte [ delicious iced ], or vanilla soy latte [ delicious hot ]. those are my two fav drinks there.
Sour Patch, Airheads, Twizzlers, Five Gum (I'm not sure about orbit).
Purple Doritos (spicy and sweet), plain lays, barbecue lays.
FROM TACO BELL - fresco bean burrito + guacamole, crunchwrap supreme - substitute beans, remove the cheese and sour cream, add guac
some pre-made apple pies / strudels ( just check for eggs).
ramen noodles without the seasoning, which is disgusting anyways
french fries, IF fried separate from chicken. You can ask // see for yourself. At BK and Wendy's they should be fine, but mcdonalds uses milk in their fries recipe. don't ask.
SOME popsicles - some have gelatin, so watch out
ALL SORBET. Sorbet, by definition, cleanses your palate, so it can't have dairy in it.
Some bagels. Usually I go ahead and eat it anyways, but DD bagels are made with duck hair. yuck.
Earth Balance margarine is vegan. However, I would recommend against it because it is oily and can cause break outs ( at least for me and my 21 year old puberty ), and is also made with Palm oil, which is a whole nother can of worms ).
BK veggie burger is NOT vegan, and neither is Subway's veggie patty. At Subway, breads that ARE vegan are Italian & Hearty Italian. NONE of the wheat breads are vegan. Until I decided that Subway was disgusting, I used to get the ft long hearty Italian with all veggies, plus salt and pepper, spicy mustard and sweet onion dressing.
At the super market, most real white bread is vegan. If you're at whole foods, most breads are safe, but cheap brands like Wonder use egg and or honey in all of them. ALWAYS check your wheat bread for honey.
Sherbet is not vegan, and neither are donuts, croissant rolls, some english muffins, honey nut cheerios, waffles, pancakes ( but the homemade batter is ), brownies, cookies, 99% of all chips - MOST contain A milk ingredient and most other sweets. but banana substitutes are easy anyways.
CASEIN, WHEY, and LACTATE are NOT vegan. Sometimes this doesn't show in the allergen spot.
White sugar is not vegan. I personally struggle with this one, but it is a long time goal.
REMEMBER, you don't have to be the "perfect" vegan. Just try your very best and don't give up when it gets difficult, like when you're with family and or at restaurants.
Regarding pizza - lots of sauces are made with cheese. Especially at restaurants. The dough is usually vegan however, and if they take the cheese off its not bad. However, you're still paying a lot of money for bread, sauce and some veggies. It's not worth it. If you want your own vegan pizza, buy daiya cheese and make it yourself.
You're going to find yourself spending a long time looking at ingredients until you get good at it.
Easy checks:
If it has cholesterol in it, it's not vegan.
At the bottom, by law, food is required to display allergens. These include all fish, dairy, and eggs. However, honey, chicken, beef, or pork, does not display, so make sure you look anyways.
Depending on how far you go, your coat probably isn't vegan, nor your feather pillow, leather shoes, hand soap, body wash, shampoo, etc.
I personally will NOT buy anything leather or feathered or what not, but if I already owned it, I'm not going to get rid of it. I currently do own all vegan shoes, dress shoes, belts, coats, and use vegan body wash ( and dont use shampoo, cause it kills yer hair). Vegan toms are my favorite.
Do yourself a favour and keep your mouth shut. NO one gives a fuck that you're vegan, and if you bring it up, you're asking for trouble. You will be asked why you can't eat chicken nuggets. If you're at a dinner party, tell them you're lactose intolerant and meat upsets your stomach. no one questions lactose intolerance.
If you were stranded on an island with a chicken, would you eat it? The answer is yes. Why the fuck wouldn't you?
When I transitioned in high school, I got made fun of a ton, and I think it's because I opened my mouth and told everyone. I now do not tell anybody unless it comes up in serious conversation. I cannot stand when people sit with me at a restaurant and tell me what I can get. " Oh, can you get the brie and avocado sandwich? Oh, what about this pizza? Wait, why can't you have dairy? 'because it comes from an animal'. But the animal isn't hurt. 'It's not natural.' blah blah blah. Unless the person is genuinely interested, save yourself the trouble!
Some other common questions with answers:
- Is cum vegan? Yes - because the other person gave consent.
- Whenever someone asks why you can't eat something, explain that you choose not to, and that you choose not to eat animals. I use this explanation with honey all of the time, because people will not believe that the bees are hurt.
- Humans are natural omnivores. This is soooooo correct. We have to use tools to kill animals, fires to cook our animals, and refrigerators to preserve it, so obviously it's natural. We cannot possible kill a cow with just are hands and mouth, it would take forever. Our canine teeth are sharp for fruit, not for tearing apart the skin of an animal. This is a tough argument to keep with people, so I'd advise ignoring it.
- Why can't you eat eggs? Because they come from an animal. If you really want to gross people out, tell them that chicken eggs are the equivalent of a female period.
- Is cheese vegan? Why do people ask this question? REALLY, someone, why?
- Where do you get your protein? Nuts, spinach, beans, rice, soy, etc. Protein is in almost everything. You can explain, if you want, how protein need is hyped up in the US, and how people consume tons more than they need to.
- Where do you get your other vitamins? Daily supplement just in case.
B12 is the only vitamin that you cannot find in your food, so find a gelatin free substitute pill or gummy. I personally use these - http://heronutritionals.com/vitamins.jsp?productid=40. They are gummy, delicious, vegan, and I can barely eat just two of them. I actually signed up for an Amazon subscription so they get mailed to me once a month.
Fake meat / cheese / milk
Almond milk is the best. Hands down, no competition. I do not drink glasses of milk anymore. I use vanilla almond milk for pancakes and for coffee creamer. I use soymilk only for cooking / baking something that needs to have no flavour. I do not recommend soy or rice, as they are not nearly as healthy or tasty as almond milk. Blue Diamond is my favorite brand.
Fake meat - chicken is always the closest to most accurate. Most are made out of soy. I try hard to avoid it, but I splurge whenever I crave something or am out to eat at a fancy vegan restaurant. The best chicken from the store is Boca brand chicken patties and chicken strips from either trader joes or gardein.
MANY veggie burgers are not vegan. Same goes for portabello burgers. CHECK TWICE! Usually, morningstar or boca will label it. It took me three years of eating the cardboard crap to realize just how gross soy burgers were.
Seitan, pronounced satan ( just kidding, that's just how I pronounce it ), is made from wheat gluten, and is much healthier than the processed soy counterpart. It's also, usually, yummier.
I am not a fan of tempeh, but some people claim to love it.
TOFURKEY brand tofurkey is pretty freakin good. Add some mustard and lettuce on a roll and you've got yourself a very good sandwich. Their roast beef / ham isn't close to as good as the turkey. Same goes for Thanksgiving - the tofurkey roles are pretty darn good.
Fake bacon and pepperoni aren't very good, but can be fun to fool around with. Fake sausage is quite accurate and protein packed but it tastes very fake at the same time.
Regarding cheese, brand Daiya ( pronounced Day-uh ), is pretty darn accurate. It makes me gassy. I feel sick if I eat too much fake soy or cheese, so I only ever eat it now when I am treating my self.
All cheeses need to be melted in order to taste better.
Cream cheese by tofutti is very good. Their sour cream is mediocre.
Vegan yogurts - made from soy, are also good, but make sure the cultures are actually from plants and not animals.
SILK HAZELNUT CREAMER IS DISGUSTING and tastes like paint please do not buy.
In summary, going vegan was the greatest thing I've ever done. It defines me as a person. I feel better than I used to, LOVE LOVE LOVE cooking, love talking to other people about being vegan ( i've converted like 5 people, easily, who are still vegan today ), and wholly endorse it. It can be difficult, especially due to peer pressure, but it's worth it. it's so worth it. fuck everyone else.
TLDR, go read it.
if you did read it all, well, thanks for reading and I hope I helped.
The cove is the saddest movie of all time. How can you find anything sadder than actual footage of a group of dolphins being massacred? Maybe a group of people being killed would be worse, but you can't really show that in a movie (at least a mainstream one, not those many faces of death things or whatever).
Call and change his orders whenever he places them. Always get sauceless pizza and wings. Make his phone number your screen name and troll Pizza Collective asking for cassette copies of TMNT - Coming Out of Their Shells.
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