What I'll Be Missing

It has been brought to my attention all the things I will be missing, now that I have decided to follow a vegan diet. Many of these foods have been part of my life for, well, most of my life. And thinking about them makes me realize the emotional connection we can have to the food we eat. In fact, I've already had a couple experiences in one week that make me realize the awkwardness that can come up when you tell someone you are making a choice to not eat certain foods (as opposed to telling someone you have a specific food allergy--no one ever questions that). Some of these foods include...

1. New York/New Jersey-style pizza (sigh)

2. Salt bagel with cream cheese (unbelievably a fixture in my NJ diet since third grade)

3. Dunkin Donuts coffee with skim milk and sugar (not a big deal since I can find other things to go in my coffee)

4. Emily's frozen custard (!)

5. Traditionally made cakes, cupcakes, and certain pies (double sigh)

6. Two breakfast dishes that my dad makes for me every time I go visit--florentine omelet with spinach and feta cheese and his yummy blueberry pancakes (although as we found out this morning, there are pretty good vegan recipes for pancakes)

There are more, of course, but these are the ones that stand out. First of all, I don't want anyone to be offended if I refuse something they make because of what it's made with. It's nothing against the cooking (you all know from past experience how much I love these dishes). Also, don't feel like I am deprived by not eating something or that you have to go out of your way to make something special. I (and most vegetarians/vegans) have made this choice for my own health as well as the health of animals and the planet. I will miss these things, don't get me wrong. But I feel very comfortable with my decision and I'm sticking to it!

Interesting Info (Part Two)

Jonathan Safran Foer's book, Eating Animals, presents a tremendous amount of information about the horrors of factory farming. Not only are the animals in these operations treated terribly, but the environmental waste created by these "farms" can be devastating. Here are some more points from his book to take seriously...

• "A typical pig factory farm will produce 7.2 million pounds of manure annually, a typical broiler (the chickens people eat) facility will produce 6.6 million pounds, and a typical cattle feedlot 344 million pounds."

• One major company (Smithfield) "kills more individual hogs than the combined populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Fort Worth, and Memphis-- some 31 million animals." 

• It is cheaper for large animal production companies to pay fines for pollution than to change the way the factory farming system works, even though it is wreaking havoc on the environment. 

• Pregnant pigs (sows) are kept in "gestation crates" that are so small that they cannot turn around. They can barely move, no bedding is provided, food is reduced to prevent too much weight gain, and they must "lie or step in their own waste to force it through the slatted floor." Contrary to popular belief, pigs are very intelligent (more so than most dogs) and such conditions can cause psychological issues. In the wild (or on a non-factory farm) pregnant pigs will spend a lot of time foraging for material to build a nest for her approaching litter of piglets. Just because they are in large hog operations does not mean they don't have these instinctual urges and the denial of this leads to much suffering. 

There are far worse things that occur in "hog operations" and processing plants that I can't even relate on this blog. (Seriously, read the book!). But in my opinion, nothing good can come from food that is produced in such damaging and cruel ways. 

Interesting Info (Part One)

This is the first of three blog entries about interesting (well, at least I think so) facts I learned from Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals...

• "On average, Americans eat the equivalent of 21,000 entire animals in a lifetime."

• "Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E.coli and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected." (He's talking about factory farm birds here which account for 99% of the chicken Americans consume). 

• According to Scott Bronstein (a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who conducted interviews with over 100 USDA poultry inspectors from 37 plants) "Every week, millions of chickens leaking yellow pus, stained by green feces, contaminated by harmful bacteria, or marred by lung and heart infections, cancerous tumors, or skin conditions are shipped for sale to consumers." Mmmmm.

• Chickens are frequently injected with "broths and salty solutions to give them what we have come to think of as the chicken look, smell, and taste. 

• The original strain of influenza is thought to have originated from migratory birds and the original case of H1N1 can be traced back to a factory farm housing hogs in North Carolina, not Mexico. (Safran Foer goes into a very extensive and convincing correlation between increased factory farming/meat consumption and the rise of flu epidemics. I don't have enough space to go into it here--you have to read his book!). 

The fourth point here made me think of something I never thought of before I became vegetarian. Almost always, we cook meat with some type of sauce or marinade. Or we put ketchup on a burger or mustard on a hot dog. Is there anyone who actually likes to eat meat by itself? Also, we have to be so careful handling raw meat because of possible disease transmission yet pop it in the oven or on the grill and 30 minutes later its "scrumptious." Hmmm.

While I'm thinking of it...

Something just came to mind that I want to speak about. Just because a person decides to speak out in defense of animals does not mean that they are anti-human. It seems like animal rights activists get a bad rap because of what they stand for. It is not an either/or situation. Choosing to live in a way that reduces the suffering of animals can also benefit people. Why would a person's work to end the abuse of animals  be a bad thing? I don't get it.

I also think people tend to forget that, when it comes down to it (and feel free to disagree), we are animals too.

The Book Made Me Do It!

As I've progressed along this journey, I've read a lot of books on the subject of plant-based diets. They have all been informative and have made compelling arguments, but only one made me cross the line from vegetarian to vegan. That book is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

www.eatinganimals.com

Safran Foer is typically a fiction writer so his style for this book is quite different than any of the others I have read about being vegetarian. He uses the facts, and even (pork, beef, dairy) industry data to make his claim for being vegan, yet he never comes right out and says "You need to adopt this lifestyle." The research speaks for itself. He even admits in the book that he can't seriously argue that eating vegan necessarily tastes better than the alternative and that the smell of a BBQ still appeals to him. But because of what he has seen, Safran Foer says that a few minutes of culinary pleasure and satisfaction are not worth the suffering he knows went into that food.

I will be sharing some of his information with you on this blog in the coming weeks but I highly recommend that you read this book. It is shocking, disturbing, logical, and hopeful all at the same time. Check out this interview Safran Foer did on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knClcpPR6mc

Let's get started

Before I get into the nitty gritty of the story behind those spare ribs on your plate, I want lay out some of the benefits of adopting a healthy vegan diet. Healthy is the key word here because you can certainly consume a vegan diet full of junky foods. Remember that Fritos and Sour Patch Kids are both considered vegan!

So here we go (and this is by no means an exhaustive list...)
1. Reduced intake of saturated fats (you know, the crap that clogs your arteries and leads to heart attacks?)
2. Higher intake of fiber
3. Increased intake of phytochemicals and antioxidants found primarily in plant-based foods.
4. Optimal intake of protein (no, you don't need to eat meat to get enough protein; consumption of meat can lead to excessive amounts of protein intake which, among other things, can drain calcium from your bones).
5. Decreased rates of heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, macular degeneration, arthritis, osteoporosis,  and many forms of cancer.
6. Weight loss (if needed).
7. Increased energy (and, personally, I've noticed a sense of calm since I stopped eating meat that wasn't there before).
8. Stronger hair and nails; clearer skin.
9. Decrease in PMS symptoms (come on ladies, that's reason enough!), allergies, and migraines.
10. Reduced animal suffering.
11. Much needed help for the environment (this is a huge factor as factory farming is the leading cause of environmental pollution and climate change right now, not the kind of car you drive or the plastic bags you put your groceries in).
12. Reduced chance of getting food related illnesses (E. coli; campylobactor; salmonella).
13. More food for everyone (did you know that 80% of the corn grown in this country is for livestock? yes, that's right, 80%).
14. Eliminate your consumption of hormones and antibiotics used on animals in today's factory farms.
15. All the cool people are doing it. :)

I could go on and on and I hope to convince you, with some of the arguments that convinced me, that going veg is the way to go!

Just Couldn't Stay Away

Okay, listen. I just couldn't stay away.

The more I think about it, read about it, learn about it, the more I need to share it with you. This blog has previously focused on living a healthy lifestyle through good nutrition and exercise, hence the title "Healthy for Life." The name of the blog will not change but the main focus will.

Today I am making a commitment to become vegan. I've wanted to do this for a while but I kept making excuses for delaying it (oh, I'll be vegan at home and eat cheese out at restaurants; I'll eliminate eggs but I'll still eat baked goods that have eggs in them; I don't want to inconvenience anyone; if we're on vacation, I'll have cheese and eggs, etc, etc). But enough is enough.

I want to share my journey with you, as I have been doing, but there is information I've been learning that I have to share with you. Some of this information might be unpleasant or might ruin your appetite. Some of this information might stop you from reading mid-paragraph. Some of this information might cause you utter disbelief.

But some of this information might change the way you think about your food. Some might cause you to start eating completely vegetarian once, twice, three times a week. And some might cause you to change the way you eat totally, for the rest of your life. I can only hope to have that kind of influence.