The Vegan Next Door

When Vegans Revert Back to Meat Eating

2012-02-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I meet someone who used to be vegan, but for whatever reason, eats meat again. I am always surprised by this, but I don’t worry. I know the vegan diet is not a temporary fad.

I, like you, have met countless people who tried Atkins and now eat carbs, tried Weight Watchers and no longer count points, tried the Zone Diet and no longer eat their food in perfect ratios. In fact, when a friend tells us they are starting a new diet, we expect they will not stick with it. Studies show that only a tiny fraction of dieters ever succeed in keeping weight off in the long run.

But most people I know who have gone vegan never go back to eating meat and dairy products. In fact, only a tiny fraction of vegans I have ever met have not succeeded in sticking with the diet. It happens, but only so rarely that I am surprised when I do hear about it!

Why is it that the vegan diet, which is seemingly so strict, has so many life-long converts? I think the reason lies in the motives: People who want to lose weight so they look better simply don’t have enough motivation to stick with it; vanity clearly isn’t as important as we might think or people would have the motivation to stick with fad diets. So they try diet after diet, but continually fail. However, people who learn about the ethical reasons for going vegan (animal cruelty and environmental impact, for example) have plenty of motivation; they can envision the cruelty that went in to the meat sitting on the end of their fork, for example, and literally cannot get themselves to eat it anymore. I am not an overly dramatic person, but I cannot even walk through the meat section in the grocery store anymore. All I can see when I look at the meat cases are animals that have slaughtered, often while still alive. So, in an interesting twist of irony, people who end up caring about something other than themselves often find all the motivation they need to stick with the seemingly strict vegan diet, and never look back.

As the vegan diet gains popularity, I think we’ll see more people try and fail, but only because they are trying it to follow a fad, hoping it will get them looking like Kathy Freston. For those who actually read vegan literature or watch vegan documentaries that go beyond just the weight loss benefits of a vegan diet, I think they will stick with it, because they will finally have sufficient motivation. This is the exact reason why I started by book, Vegan in 30 Days, with a chapter on “What is Your Motivation?” You need a strong motivation to make any change. But what I have found over and over again is that if you have the right motivation, you will not need any willpower. Being vegan will become effortless with just a little bit of dedication up front.

To get all the motivation you need, try reading these books and watching these documentaries. This is not a complete list, so if I’ve left your favorite off the list, make sure you comment and tell everyone what it is!

Books:

Diet for a New America, John Robbins

The Food Revolution, John Robbins

The China Study, Colin Campbell, PhD

Eat to Live, Joel Fuhrman, MD

Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease, Caldwell Esselstyn, MD

Slaughterhouse, Gail Eisnitz

Eating Animals, Jonathon Safran Foer

Videos:

Earthlings

Forks Over Knives

Eating

Got the Facts on Milk?

Events:

Healthy Lifestyles Expo: www.healthylifestyleexpo.com

Warmly,

Sarah

Honey: Vegan or Not Vegan?

2012-02-26T15:51:00.002-08:00

Honey. It has caused a big debate amongst vegans: Is it vegan, or is it not? The answer simply depends on how you define vegan. Those who define a vegan diet as devoid of animal products may claim that a honeybee is an insect, not an animal, and therefore honey is indeed a vegan product. However, those who believe that a vegan diet is devoid of products that exploit any creatures would argue that an insect should be respected just as much as any other being, and therefore, honey is not vegan. I fall into that latter camp because, although I don’t get the warm-fuzzies for insects, I don’t think I should respect their life any less. So, I don’t think honey is vegan, but it doesn’t mean I’m right.

I don’t want to try to decide here whether honey is vegan because I think you need to decide for yourself how you define “vegan.” However, I do want to shed some light on honeybees, as I knew nothing about them until recently, and expect many of you don’t either. It might help you make a decision about whether you want to eat honey.

First, why are honeybees so important? Bees are essential to humans because they pollinate the flowers of fruit trees. Without pollinated flowers, there is no fruit on most fruit trees. So, without bees, we have little or no fruit. About 1/3 of all U.S. crops depend on bees to pollinate them, and many plants on the endangered species list are endangered specifically because they are not getting pollinated.

Why are these plants not getting pollinated? Because the bee population has been dying off quickly and dramatically. Domestically managed bee colonies have dropped by half since 1945¹, and much of this has happened in the past 5 years or so. While the cause of these deaths was a mystery for many years (some theorized it was due to cell phone emissions, viruses, and other causes) it is now widely believed in the beekeeping industry that this massive decline is due to use of specific pesticides.

Beekeepers do not make most of their money from honey. Because bee populations are now so rare, and because huge industrial-sized farms have thousands of acres of crops that desperately need to be pollinated, beekeepers literally truck their bees across the country and “rent” their bees out for a few months at a time to farmers. This is where they make the majority of their money. A beekeeper in Florida might truck his hives to California to pollinate an avocado farm, then a few months later drive to Washington to pollinate an apple orchard, and then a few months later drive to Maine to pollinate a cranberry farm.

This practice of moving bees from state to state, climate to climate, is not natural for them. It also involves a lot of energy to raise bees and truck them all over the country … not a very good carbon footprint. Additionally, the bees’ honey, which in nature is made by bees for bees, is taken from them to be sold to humans, and they are given a form of sugar-water to eat instead. I don’t know if this is bad for them, but I can only imagine that their own honey is the absolute best thing for their health … just like mother’s milk is better for a baby than formula.

On the flip side, I will say that my friend Steve Blake, Doctor of Holistic Health in Nutritional Biochemistry and author of 29 health books, says that honey is actually healthy in small quantities – something rare for a non-vegan food. He says, “Honey is unusual in that it is a healthful non-vegan food. Raw, unfiltered honey contains propolis, which is a powerful antimicrobial. The pollen in unfiltered honey is also very nutritious and energizing.” However, Steve does not eat honey as a vegan, because he says, “flower pollen is available directly, without bothering any bees.”

I don’t want to get bogged down in ethics of insects. If you think about it, you probably kill a good number of insects on your windshield while driving to the store to get your honey. And it’s been pointed out by many people that if a vegan staunchly says we cannot kill insects, then does that mean that vegans cannot eat conventional (non-organic) produce? Conventional produce is covered in pesticides, whose main purpose is, of course … to kill insects. So a vegan who is staunch about killing insects had better make sure that 100% of their produce comes from organic sources.

But I will say this about vegan ethics: think it through, and decide what is right for you. For me, being vegan is about doing my best to respect the lives of other creatures. Therefore, I do my absolute best (even though it may not be perfect) to avoid doing things that put another creature in harm’s way for my own benefit, whether that means death or suffering or being forced into unnatural conditions. Therefore, do I eat honey? No – there are other alternatives I can use to sweeten my foods that don’t involve harming other creatures. But I do believe in supporting bees and I never kill them when they are on my property. I also believe that it is a good idea for people with fruit trees on their property to either bring in a hive or help current hives flourish on their property. The bees definitely need our support – I just personally don’t think that needs to be through eating their honey.

For more information, I highly recommend the documentary, Vanishing of the Bees (http://www.vanishingbees.com/).

¹http://www.compassionatespirit.com/is-honey-vegan.htm

Vegetarian to Vegan: Why Give Up Dairy and Eggs?

2012-02-14T19:25:00.001-08:00

My next book will be called Vegetarian to Vegan. I wrote this book for all the vegetarians who have approached me after my lectures, asking questions about why or how to give up dairy and eggs. Among the most common questions are:

· How do you survive without cheese/ice cream/butter/eggs/etc?

· What’s wrong with eating non-fat dairy products – they’re healthy, aren’t they?

· What’s ethically wrong with eating dairy and eggs? No animals were killed in the making of them!

· What’s wrong with eating cage-free, free-range or organic eggs?

If you’ve had these or similar questions, your answers can be found here, by watching my recent lecture, Vegetarian to Vegan, given at the Vegetarian Society of Hawai’i.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjOPzKc4vA

A big thank you to the amazing Bill Harris, MD, who kindly edited my video and added in all the video and many of the extra shots.

Enjoy!

Sarah

Vegan Valentine's Chocolate!

2012-02-12T13:00:00.003-08:00

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and what do we vegans like to receive on Valentine’s Day more than anything else? Chocolate, of course! But not all chocolate is vegan, so how do you find out what the best chocolate is for your vegan sweetheart? Keep reading!

White chocolate and milk chocolate are not vegan, but dark chocolate often is, so it’s easy to find vegan chocolate without going to a specialty store. Just look for dark chocolate and read the ingredient list to make sure there is no milk, butter, eggs or other dairy products. Keep in mind that cocoa butter does not come from a cow, so it is absolutely vegan! The higher the cacao percentage (usually around 75% and higher) the more likely the chocolate is to be vegan. Lower percentages often mix a little bit of milk in them, so check to make sure.

I’ll start with my personal favorite – Brook Le’amohala at Mama Earth Café on Maui makes the hands-down, best-I’ve-ever-tasted, chocolate. Notice I didn’t say best “vegan chocolate” … I said best “chocolate!” Her Cardamom Chocolate Aphrodesia will stun you. Filled with unique ingredients like cardamom, cashews, ginger and cayenne, this chocolate is sweet, nutty, gingery and spicy all at the same time – the flavors will burst in your mouth! Contact Brook at www.MamaEarthCafe.com to find out how to order it. It’s made on Maui and must be refrigerated, so expect a higher-than-normal shipping fee if you want to order it. Or just plan your next vacation for Maui!

My husband is a major fan of Theo’s brand chocolates, many of which are vegan. His two favorite flavors are the Madagascar chocolate and the Spicy Chili Chocolate. Theo’s is located in Seattle, WA, and is the first and only organic and Fair Trade chocolatier in the U.S. You can find it at many grocery stores, or go to www.TheoChocolate.com for more information. Their factory tours are a must when you go to Seattle!

My friend, Suezy Proctor, likes Whole Foods brands of chocolate, and when she wants a little chocolate fix, she simply has a handful of their chocolate chips. But if you don’t want to buy your Valentine chocolate chips, she recommends their Whole Foods Dark Chocolate candy bar with Almonds. She says the almonds intensify the chocolate flavor.

For other ideas, the internet is full of chocolatiers selling vegan chocolate. Simply google “vegan chocolate” and you’ll find dozens of sellers. However, let me tell you about my favorite. www.RescueChocolate.com sells 100% vegan chocolate, and 100% of the proceeds go to helping Animal Rescues. Buy the “Peanut Butter Pit Bull” and your money goes to Pitbull Rescues. Buy the “Bow-Wow Bon Bons” and your money goes to help shelter dogs find a home. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, buy the heart-shaped, raspberry ganache-filled “Wild at Heart” chocolates and your money goes to helping wild animals, such as those in circuses or research labs.

So, vegan readers, what is your favorite vegan chocolate? Comment here and let us know!

Vegan Valentine's Chocolate!

2012-02-12T13:00:00.001-08:00

So, vegan readers, what is your favorite vegan chocolate? Comment here and let us know!

Almost Vegan

2012-02-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

It feels like I’ve become a vegan therapist lately. There have been a rash of people who have come to me with concerns that they are not 100% vegan … people who used to be 100% vegan but now slip up with some regularity, people who are married to vegans but only want to be vegetarian, people who have written vegan cookbooks but don’t always eat vegan, people who love animals but haven’t yet been able to give up real creamer in their coffee, etc, etc…

These people, in general, seem to feel very guilty and suffer a lot of angst because they aren’t eating a perfect vegan diet. It always makes me sad because it seems they are only able to focus on the very small percentage of what isn’t right with their diet, and are unable to see the huge percentage that is right.

Instead of focusing on the 5% (or 0.5%!) of your diet that isn’t vegan, why not focus on the 95% (or 99.5%!) that is vegan? With all the choices you do make that are vegan, you are saving countless animals from suffering, cruelty and death; you are helping to reduce our world’s massive carbon footprint, you are doing great things for your health, and perhaps most importantly, you are setting a great example for everyone you know and meet. Just by saying, “I really strive to eat a vegan diet and am about 95% of the way there,” you show people that you care to do your very best and are making a big difference.

So, today I’d just like to give a tribute those of you who aren’t 100% vegan. Whether you’d like to be vegan, but haven’t yet made the final leap, whether you used to be vegan but have recently fallen to temptation, whether you are getting pressured to be vegan but really prefer to be vegetarian … you are still saving hundreds of animals from suffering and death. Could you save a few more? Perhaps. Is it worth feeling like a failure over? Absolutely not. If and when the time is right for you, you will go vegan. In the meantime, honor all the good that you are doing, and know that – even if you aren’t 100% vegan – you are still making a big difference and setting a great example.

Some of the Best Advice I Can Give

2012-01-23T13:57:00.001-08:00

Buying a home in Haiku has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. Not for the home itself, nor the beautiful weather of Maui … but for the genuine, authentic, loving people that I now consider my friends. These are people who love and support each other, challenge each other and bring out the best in each other.

I bring this up because it may be one of the best pieces of advice I can give those of you struggling with a vegan diet:

Be very conscientious about who you spend your time with, and do everything you can to surround yourself with people who will support you and encourage you in your journey.

Be very wary of those who try to hold you back, try to talk you out of your goals or dreams, or constantly play devil’s advocate while rarely seeing possibilities. When you hear people close to you say things like, “You’ll never stick with that!” or “Why bother – we’re all going to die of something anyway,” or “God, Joe, it’s just a freaking chicken! When did you become such a sensitive little wuss?” big, bright red flags should be waving frantically in front of you. These are not people who really want what’s best for you. As hard as it may seem, it will behoove you to either rid them from your life or minimize their presence in it.

People who don’t support your decision to go vegan are also the same people who will try to tear you down in other parts of your life. If you want to move to a new city, quit drinking, start a new business, write a book, explore spirituality or take on a new hobby, they’re often the ones that will say it can’t be done, it’s a silly idea, or just flat out laugh at you.

Instead, seek out people who really do support and care for you; people who see your goodness and bring it out of you. Seek out people who are strong enough with themselves that they are not threatened by you; people who support your dreams and goals, but will also lovingly challenge you if they believe you may be doing something harmful or not in your best interest.

You don’t have to move to Maui to find such people – go to places where like-minded people meet. If you’re a budding vegan, go to a vegan meetup where you’ll find others who care about health and have compassion for animals and our environment. If you’ve been reading Buddhist books and went vegan for reasons of compassion and loving-kindness, seek out a meditation group or other spiritual group in your area. If you love animals or feel strongly about the need to save our environment, meet incredible people who have similar values at volunteer organizations.

Plant people in your life who sprout seeds of goodness within you, people who inspire greatness, people who make you light up with joy just seeing their face. These are the people who will lift you up on their wings, set great examples for you and teach you new lessons so that you can really soar.

UN Advocates a Meat Free Diet

2011-12-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

While the US leads the world in many things, we seem to be sadly behind in the area of food. Huge corporate interests lobby hard to keep the public from seeing just how gruesome the slaughterhouses are (if you knew, you wouldn’t eat their meat,) just how filthy and cruel the dairy farms are (if you knew, you wouldn’t eat their cheese,) just how dangerous genetically modified foods are (if you knew, you wouldn’t eat their products) and just how damaging factory farms are to our environment (if you knew, you’d go vegan.)

Many European countries do not subscribe to some of our common food production practices; for example, they are so concerned about the risks of eating genetically modified foods that they have completely banned them. Yet our government keeps telling us that genetically modified foods are completely healthy. If that’s true, then why have so many countries banned them? I don’t have a degree in agriculture but I do have a good deal of common sense, and common sense is telling me that something smells fishy.

There are many reasons to support a vegan diet, but I’m just one vegan from Gig Harbor, Washington. You may not be swayed by me, but you might be swayed by the United Nations.

The UN is now publicly urging the world’s citizens to move to a vegan diet. A recent UN report claims that “a global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to saving the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change.” The report also points out that as the world’s population approaches over 9 billion people by 2050, it will not be possible to sustain the per capita consumption of meat and dairy products that we are currently eating. We will deplete our resources if we attempt to do so, noting that “agriculture, particularly meat and dairy products, accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use and 19% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions,”

For a political organization like the UN to strongly advocate the vegan diet is enormously predictive and important. They put legs behind the vegan diet, when many are trying to convince you that the vegan diet is just something that those California hippies are still trying to push. Perhaps those California hippies were decades ahead of their time.

To read an important article about this UN report from England’s Guardian newspaper, click the following link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet

Heroin and Chocolate

2011-12-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

We are often told that “all things are okay in moderation.” A little bit of chocolate, a couple of glasses of wine, a small piece of cake… As long as we eat and drink in moderation, all is well. But is it really?

Heroin comes from a plant – hey, it’s vegan! – yet would we argue that heroin, in moderation, is okay? Of course not. Heroin is addictive, and people who get addicted to heroin have a heck of a time getting off it. Many never do, and die from their heroin addiction.

What does this have to do with chocolate? Chocolate, indeed many other foods as well, like cheese, sugar and meat, is also addictive. I don’t mean that in a trite way. I mean they are totally addictive, like heroin is. Studies show that when we eat these foods, receptors in our brains start firing off, giving us strong feelings of pleasure, just like heroin. We start craving these foods, eat them when we aren’t even hungry, and go to great lengths to get them. As Neal Barnard, MD, points out in his new book, 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart, “No one ever went to a convenience store at 9:00 at night to buy cauliflower.” (page 37) Why? Because cauliflower is not addictive. Broccoli, lentils, carrots, spinach, chickpeas … they are not addictive. We don’t have unnatural cravings for them and we don’t overeat them when they are in their natural, wholesome states.

But let’s get back to chocolate and heroin. Heroin snatches people into its deathly grip by firing off pleasure receptors in the brain every time a person takes heroin. When you don’t take it, the brain starts having massive cravings, and the person will go crazy trying to get a hit so that they’re pleasure receptors will once again be satiated. The need is so strong that they will steal from their own mother, alienate themselves from family and friends, and put themselves in danger to get the money to buy more heroin.

And isn’t that true, to a lesser extent admittedly, with chocolate and other addictive foods? I have, and know many who have also, snuck away with chocolate, sugar or other treats and scarfed them down alone in a secret place where they couldn’t get caught. I know people who have passed up an opportunity to go out with friends so they could stay at home with a gallon of ice cream. A good friend ate her husband’s birthday pie – the entire pie – before he got home from work to have any himself. Another person I know sat alone in her car in the driveway and ate a large bag of Doritos before her husband came out, knocked on the window, and said, “What the F*%& are you doing???” Hmmm. Sounds vaguely familiar. In fact, sounds just like the behaviors of an addict.

Still not convinced that food can be truly addictive? Then let me hit you over the head with this study: Researchers at the University of Michigan did a study in chocolate bingers using the drug Naloxone[1]. Naloxone is a drug used to treat heroin addicts, and it works by blocking the receptors in the brain that heroin stimulates. If the person is on Naloxone and takes heroin, they won’t get the high they are used to getting because the receptors in the brain won’t get stimulated. The researchers gave the chocolate lovers Naloxone, and then put out a tray of chocolates. Guess what? Although this group was made up of self-proclaimed chocolate lovers, not many chocolates were eaten. The chocolate still looked and tasted the same as it usually did to the study participants, but they didn’t get the same euphoric feeling that they usually got from chocolate, and so they quit eating them after one or two. While it sounds like Naloxen might be your miracle drug, like most drugs, it has side effects and isn’t appropriate for the average person.

I know I’ve been blogging about food addictions a lot lately, but I have uncovered a serious truth in my life that I am convinced could help millions of people if they would take it seriously: Certain foods are very addictive – just like heroin, even if not to the same degree. We simply can’t keep telling each other that eating them in moderation is okay. It’s not. Trying to moderate addictive foods is like trying to moderate your intake of heroin, and inevitably leads to binging of these foods. And while food addicts don’t usually die from a food overdose like heroin addicts die from a drug overdose, their continual overeating of these toxic foods leads to cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other maladies … and people die of these food related diseases more than anything else in the world. Experts believe that 70-80% of all deaths are due to food related diseases, like type II diabetes.

Yet because food is socially acceptable, we minimize how bad it can be, and make it “okay” to eat it. In fact, we make it not just socially acceptable, but we make it practically a requirement – you must have cake on your birthday, and you must eat turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. This is completely unhealthy. Should you choose to try (and try and try again) to eat these foods in “moderation,” you will fight the same losing battle you’ve been fighting most of your life.

To break free, you simply must quit eating these foods altogether. Do not try to moderate them, and do not splurge every now and then unless you’re willing to accept the consequences – spiraling back into addiction, spending your days starting yet another new diet and wondering why you can’t seem to control your eating.

Not everyone is addicted to food. I know people who can have a few bites of a hot fudge sundae and be fine pushing the rest away. But if there are certain foods, be it cookies, doughnuts, chips, pizza, or something else, that you have strong cravings for and can never seem to eat in moderation, you are almost certainly addicted.

The good news is that you can break free. You can break free from living in a constant state of dieting and depression – if you can stick to eating a healthy vegan diet for just 30 days. You will probably crave certain foods for a few days or maybe even a few weeks, but if you can just stick to it for 30 days, I can just about guarantee you that all cravings will go away, and by then, you’ll also have lost some noticeable weight and will be feeling much better.

I truly believe that 20 years from now, food addiction will be recognized by the medical establishment as a serious condition. People are starting to speak up about it, and a few cutting edge doctors are starting to prove it (Neal Barnard, MD, Joel Fuhrman, MD and others). But if you need more proof, quit reading and just do it – for 30 days, eat nothing but fruits, veggies, whole grains and beans in their natural forms without covering them with oil, fats, salt or sugar. Then you can prove it to yourself.

Happy Eating,

Sarah

[1] Drewnoski A, Krahn DD, Demitrack MA, Nairn K, Gosnell BA. Taste responses and preferences for sweet high-fat foods: evidence for opioid involvement. Physiol Behav 1992; 51:371-9.

Why I'm So Mad ...

2011-12-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

I’m really, really mad. Most people can tell you how many days Kim Kardashian was married, yet hardly anyone I ask has heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Google it. It will freak you out.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean where all the currents converge, a massive garbage dump has collected. I mean a garbage dump that’s estimated to be the size of France. And that’s just the surface area – no one really knows just how deep it goes, but it could be miles deep. Where is all this garbage coming from? It’s mainly coming from plastic products that somehow find their way into the water. Plastic does not break down very easily, which is common knowledge, yet what really happens when we throw plastic products away? If they end up in our waterways they are likely to find themselves swept out to sea with the current, eventually stopping in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A quick Google search will instantly reveal pictures of plastic dishes, plastic Barbie dolls, and most commonly, plastic bottles, all floating around in a huge mess in the middle of the ocean, creating a massive garbage dump, the size of France, in the middle of the Pacific. Fish, dolphins and other sea critters can get caught in this mess and die. It’s devastating, yet very few people even know about it!

So I find myself, a concerned citizen, in that place of not really knowing what to do about it, but being very upset about it nevertheless. I started noticing on a recent vacation to Bali that plastic bottles were strewn all along the side of the roads, on the beaches, and in people’s yards. I went to a burrito restaurant last week and cringed as the young man donned a pair of fresh new gloves, made my burrito, then took them off and threw them away before ringing up my order. I wondered how many gloves fast food restaurants go through in a day doing this. I see people in the grocery check-out line putting every type of produce into those little plastic baggies – I understand putting a hundred green beans in a plastic bag (preferably a paper bag, if your grocery store offers them) but why on earth put bananas in a plastic bag? Why put apples or broccoli in a plastic bag? Just get them home in your canvas tote where you’ll rinse them off anyway. Speaking of canvas totes, what about all the people still using plastic shopping bags at every trip? At the airport a few weeks ago, I noticed an entire 4’ garbage can overflowing by 8:00 am with large plastic bottles and spray cans that people forgot they cannot carry on to the plane … and that was just one security checkpoint at one airport. The amount of waste we are creating is horrific.

I’m no expert on the environment, but I don’t think we need to be experts to understand that a garbage dump the size of France in the middle of the ocean is not a good thing. We vegans have all heard about how our diet benefits the environment, and we can feel good about that, but what else can we do to make a difference? How about…

· Commit to using canvas totes at every grocery outing. If you forget, you must go back to your car and get them, rather than use the grocery store’s plastic bags.

· Bring your canvas grocery totes to non-grocery stores, like Target or the book store.

· Never allow checkers to put individual items like tooth paste or washing machine soap into individual plastic bags “for your safety.” These products are already sealed like a vault, and they are not going to leak in your tote bag.

· Commit to only using produce bags for very small items, like green beans, that need to be contained. Look for paper bags instead, and request your grocer carry them if they don’t.

· Buy a gorgeous water bottle and only allow yourself to drink from it or from a glass – no more paying for water in plastic bottles. This tip can also save you a lot of money.

· Commit to drinking beverages you buy in convenience stores only from fountain-style dispensers – not from plastic bottles.

· Just before you take your garbage out to the garbage can, clean out your cat’s litter box and just throw it in with the load going out to the garage – don’t use individual little plastic bags which then go into the garbage can anyway.

· Instead of buying disposable plastic food storage containers (like the Ziploc or Glad brands) that you dispose of after a handful of uses, buy either non-plastic containers or more durable plastic containers (like Tupperware) that you can use years on end.

These are just a few ideas that I came up with quickly. Yet there must be hundreds of ways we can cut back our plastic garbage. What ways can you think of to help reduce your corner of the garbage patch? I’d love to hear your ideas!

Peace,

Sarah

PS. If you haven’t done it yet, go to my Facebook site and “like” The Vegan Next Door! I always post when a new blog goes up.

PPS. A big thanks to my friend Eric Depperschmidt, who opened my eyes to this topic. J

Navigating Through the Holidays, Vegan-Style

2011-12-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

The holidays are stressful for most people, but there are added stresses for vegans: How do you ask your family to cook a vegan meal for you? If they are coming to your house, do you make two meals, or request that they eat vegan? What do you do when someone gets confrontational about your diet at the holiday table? No worries – here are all your answers!

The first thing you must decide is whether you will be eating vegan for the holiday meal. If you are vegan for health reasons only, you may choose to splurge at this time of year, but I don’t recommend it – one splurge usually leads to many more, which leads you straight back to your old bad habits. If you are vegan for ethical reasons, then there is no reason to treat this day differently than any other – animals suffered and were killed for these holidays just like any other day, so you obviously won't be eating meat or dairy.

The next set of decisions involves where you’ll be eating. Is a family member hosting dinner, or will it be at your house? If you’ll be going to someone else’s house for dinner, it’s pertinent to call the host/ess. I always suggest offering to bring your own food; not only does this make life easier on your host/ess, it also ensures you that you will get a fully vegan meal. Many people, with great intentions, end up using dairy, eggs or honey inadvertently when trying to cook vegan. If you can bring a dish that is a meal all-in-one (such as a casserole,) this allows you to eat heartily and also offer some to others, so they will be able to see just how delicious vegan food can be. If your host/ess insists on cooking for you, then make sure that he or she knows exactly what a vegan diet is. Gracefully stress that vegan is different from vegetarian, and explain those differences. Offer up vegan websites with holiday recipes, or offer up recipes yourself. Again, this makes life so much easier for your host/ess.

If you are hosting the holiday dinner, then you have another big decision to make: Will you be making one vegan and one non-vegan meal, or will you request that everyone eat vegan? At my house, I now cook the holiday meal every year, and everyone eats vegan. The first year I hosted, I made absolutely sure that my recipes were delicious, and didn’t make anything for the first time and risk it not tasting good. I offered all the traditional favorites – mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, and apple pie – all made with vegan ingredients. They just happened to be the most delicious vegan versions you’ve ever had (Thanks, WholeFoods!) That first year, everyone crowed about how good the food was; I think they expected a dismal dinner! But that careful preparation set me up for all the years to come. People look forward to my dinner and know it will taste good. I always start dinner by giving gratitude for a warm house, great family and plenty of nourishing food.

Now for a common question that doesn’t just apply to the holidays: How do you handle confrontational family members who attack your dietary choices at the dinner table? I hope your family is open-minded and supportive about your decision to be vegan, but if someone is not, remember these two steps: First, remember that this is not about you. Even if you have a long history of not getting along with this person, their issue with your diet is simply not about you. It’s their own "stuff" coming out under the guise of your diet.

Second, answer them in one of two ways: First, if they ask “real” questions, such as “How do you get protein?” (Or, if they’re being cantankerous, “You can’t get enough protein on a vegan diet! I saw that on TV last week!”) just take a deep breath, keep your cool and answer the question. Try your hardest not to get defensive – there is no need, as your diet it great for your health, the animals, and the planet – it will hold up on it’s own without you taking a defensive posture. There will likely be many questions, so have patience, and be solid in your heart that you’re doing the right thing for you. If they don’t really have questions, or are clearly just trying to press your buttons and get you riled up, simply use this phrase as many times as you need to: “If you’re truly interested in learning about the vegan diet, I suggest you read ______________ (such as Diet for a New America, by John Robbins.) Once you’ve read it, I’d be happy to answer any questions you still have.” This basically forces them to take action before the conversation can go on. I’ve stalled a specific relative for years now when I used this phrase back around 2004. He finally quit badgering me because he has no intention of educating himself on the vegan diet, and I politely told him I have no interest in having an argument with him about it until he has educated himself on the topic. It’s worked like a charm.

If you have a really argumentative and downright nasty person at the table who just won’t let it go, then say, “I am not asking you to change your diet, so I’d appreciate it if you would quit badgering me about mine. Can we change the subject now, please?” Everyone at the table will appreciate it.

One last note: Do not solicit arguments by preaching about the vegan diet at the dinner table. Many people will already feel threatened by your diet because they know they are not healthy and don’t want to have to face it. If you start preaching about your diet to them, they will likely feel badly about themselves and may get defensive. Plus, the holidays are about enjoying each other and being grateful for each other – not about asserting personal opinions onto others. So, to avoid riling up your relatives, keep the topic off your diet unless someone else brings it up proactively.

I certainly hope your holiday table is pleasant and happy and full of joyful people who respect each other. Remember, your decision to be vegan is doing so much good for your health, the suffering of animals and the environment, that the holidays should be extra joyful! What a blessing to be able to share your holiday table with the people you love, eating nourishing food that supports your values.

Peace,

Sarah

Do YOU Have a Food Addiction?

2011-12-01T00:56:00.000-08:00

I recently had a huge shift in awareness. The kind that makes you wonder how you could possibly have missed it for so many years. It has to do with food addictions. My own, in fact, that I didn’t even realize I had.

I have been aware of the topic of food addictions and have even blogged about it before (Food Attachments and Addictions, August 4, 2011). Yet, I suppose I minimized it in my own head. Yes, I love cookies, and simply cannot stop at one or two, but I only ate them about once or twice a week, so I didn’t think I was truly addicted to them. That word seemed a bit over the top – something that described other people.

However, my great friend Emily Boller, who lost 100+ pounds on Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live diet, recently challenged me about my sugar eating. I got to thinking about what she said, and was inspired to do some research, where I came across this little quiz. (Note: I’ve truncated this quiz, and you can substitute “cookies/sweets” with “chips/salt” or whatever food you can’t seem to say no to):

You Might be Addicted to Cookies/Sweets If:

1. You believe you can “control” how many cookies you ingest, yet most times are unsuccessful.

2. You regularly have the thought that it is OK to eat sweets when ______ (blank) occurs. (For me this was Date Night, birthdays, a weekend, I’m at my favorite vegan restaurant, my husband brings them home as a treat, etc.)

3. You make excuses for eating sweets, blaming it on people, places and things. (“Oh, it’s only licorice – it’s fat free!”)

4. You start to become jealous of people around you who can eat sweets in a controlled manner.

5. You expect a reward for staying away from sweets.

6. You blame other people for all the sweets you eat. (“My mother shouldn’t have let me eat all those sugary cereals growing up.”)

7. You hang out with other people who constantly eat sweets (thus making it seem okay for you to eat them as well.)

8. You begin to have an “I don’t care attitude” about all the sweets you eat, even though you know they aren’t good for you.

9. You deny it’s really a problem. (“Compared to most people, I’m a health nut! I don’t really eat that many cookies and sweets…”)

When I answered these questions, I had this utter and profound realization: This is me!!!!! If this quiz helps define a sugar addict, then I am certainly an addict! What was most shocking though, is that this little quiz didn’t come from someone’s personal blog or unverifiable source … it came from a very credible drug and alcohol website; yes indeed, everywhere you see the word “cookies/sweets” in the quiz above, it originally said “drugs/alcohol.”

Eckhart Tolle says that often times simply gaining knowledge about something will create the change you’ve been seeking. That’s exactly what happened to me; just the knowledge that I was truly addicted to sweets caused this profound shift in my habits. The day I read that quiz, I quit eating all refined sugars. I suppose I was so disgusted that cookies and sweets literally had that kind of a hold on me that I wanted nothing to do with them any more. For some reason, it seems more legitimate that cocaine could hold someone in the grips of addiction, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it be sugar. Interestingly, about 1 in 100,000 people will die from cocaine addiction, but 70,000 in 100,000 will die from some diet-related disease, like heart disease, cancer, stroke or diabetes. So food addictions are clearly not an uncommon problem.

Interestingly, in David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating, he says very clearly that salt, sugar, and fat – most especially when combined together – are very addictive. I read that years ago and I always quote it in my lectures, but I guess I never realized that he was talking to me. Now I know.

When I look back at my childhood, I can’t remember ever not scarfing down sugar at every chance I got. It started with gummy bears, then moved to Ding Dongs and Ho Hos, Pixie Sticks and ice cream. Every morning I had Fruit Loops or Cocoa Pebbles or Lucky Charms. As I grew up and became health conscious, I dropped those things for frozen yogurt (yay – a healthy treat - ha!!) and licorice (fat free!!) and eventually dropped that for my vegan treats – mainly vegan cookies and vegan ice cream. They may not have any animal products in them, but they are packed full of refined sugars.

With this new discovery about the addictive qualities of food, I am reminded about all the lectures I have heard great speakers like Joel Fuhrman, MD, Michael Klapper, MD and Neal Barnard, MD give: No one ever became addicted to broccoli, cantaloupe, black beans or brown rice. These are nature’s foods, designed to nourish us and keep us healthy – not toss us in the physical and emotional throes of an addiction.

If you think you may be addicted to salt, sugar and/or fat, perhaps today is the day you will commit to setting yourself free.

Why Wine is Not Healthy

2011-11-09T00:28:00.001-08:00

We love to hear that our bad habits are healthy – it gives us permission to continue making poor choices. For example, the rumor that chocolate was a health food had women everywhere jumping for joy! Not surprisingly, just about every newspaper and women’s magazine reported on it, and it quickly became widespread knowledge that “a piece of chocolate a day is healthy.” While it’s been demonstrated that the polyphenols in cocoa may help lower blood pressure and improve endothelial function, when you swaddle it in piles of sugar, fat and animal protein, it’s certainly not healthy. Even dark chocolate, which often doesn’t contain any milk products, is still made with copious amounts of sugar. Yet so many of us like to believe that chocolate is healthy so that we can eat it without guilt.

Like chocolate, we’ve also been told that a glass of red wine a day is healthy. YAY! But wait – where did that rumor come from? The Framingham Heart Study, probably the largest population-based study ever conducted on heart disease, found that alcohol consumption of up to two glasses a day actually lowered the risk of coronary heart disease. But that’s just your heart, and your total state of health is made up of much more than just your heart. For example, while small amounts of alcohol may help decrease heart disease, it may also be killing off your liver. (This is the problem with relying on sound bites in the media for your health facts.) Indeed, that same study found that people who drank more than 2 glasses of alcohol a day increased their risk of death due to cancer and liver disease.

Red wine, specifically, is touted as being healthy in moderation because it contains resveratrol, which comes from the skin of the red grapes (thus why red, but not white, wine is recommended.) Resveratrol has a reputation for it’s anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, blood-sugar lowering, cardiovascular and possibly lifespan effects. But what most media sound bites don’t report is that these studies were done in yeast, fruit flies, nematode worms, fish, mice and rats and they often found contradictory results; positive results with resveratrol have yet to be shown in humans. Furthermore, many scientists theorize that resveratrol may have some negative effects: It may stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells, slow the development of blood vessels, and may actually cause cancer.

What’s more, red wine only has a very small amount of resveratrol in it – about 1mg per glass. So even if it’s found that resveratrol is healthy for humans, the jump that the small amount found in a glass of red wine has notable benefits is a big jump indeed.

And wine has much more in it than just resveratrol…

Ethanol, which is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, is toxic to pretty much every organ it comes in touch with. It is the same stuff we use in solvents and fuel. In fact, Ford’s Model T ran on ethanol until 1908. Not surprisingly, it increases the risk of liver damage, certain forms of cancer, hypertension, fetal damage, malabsorption, chronic pancreatitis and nervous system damage, among other maladies. So the question is this:

If you want to increase your intake of resveratrol, why would you choose to get your resveratrol from alcohol, which is so toxic, when you could just eat some red grapes instead?

If you’re truly concerned about your health, I think it’s better to save alcohol for very special occasions. If you wouldn’t drink it when you’re pregnant or feed it to your child, why would you make it a regular part of your own diet?

Why Oil is NOT Healthy

2011-10-24T18:03:00.001-07:00

We have been taught that oil – especially olive and canola oils – are heart healthy. They are good for us, and we should swap out butter and margarine and cook with these heart healthy oils instead. However, I believe that nothing could be further from the truth.

The heart healthy rumor about oil came from the study that coined the “Mediterranean Diet”, The Lyon Diet Heart Study. In this study, all 605 patients had survived one heart attack. The patients in the treatment group were told to eat a “Mediterranean Diet,” high in fruits, vegetables, breads, beans, nuts, and seeds. They were told to go light on dairy products, fish, poultry, meat, eggs, and wine. They were also told to add in olive oil, for its monounsaturated fats. The people in the control group were given no dietary advice, and ate a diet typical of most Westerners, particularly high in saturated fat.

The study had very good results: The people on the Mediterranean diet were 50-70% less likely to experience any kind of cardiac ailments. Since olive oil was specifically recommended in this study for it’s monounsaturated fat content, this is where the belief that olive oil is healthy originated.

But what we don’t hear about the Lyon Diet Heart Study is this little factoid: Fully 25% of the people on the Mediterranean diet had either died or experienced a new cardiac event during the four-year study. That’s one in four people on the Mediterranean diet!

Compare this to Caldwell Esselstyn’s diet, which is vegan with no oil or other fats included. The patients in this study had suffered from an average of about three cardiac events before the study started. Of all of his patients that fully adhered to his diet, there was not one further cardiac event in twelve years.

If you want further proof, here’s another compelling study: A group of students’ arteries were tested after eating a 900-calorie breakfast, to see the effects of fat on the blood vessels’ ability to dilate and contract. Our blood vessels need to be able to expand and contract to regulate blood flow to the organs that need it most. Half of the students had a fat free breakfast of 900 calories, and the other half had a fatty breakfast of 900 calories. After breakfast, the student’s arteries were tested to see how quickly their arteries could bounce back after being restricted for five minutes. The arteries of the group that had no fat in their breakfast bounced right back after being constricted for five minutes; but the arteries of the group that had the fatty breakfast took up to six hours to regain their ability to dilate and contract normally. All oil, my friends, is 100% fat. Even olive oil.

Heart disease is not really a disease of the heart; it’s a disease of the blood vessels that occurs when blood (and the oxygen it carries) cannot get to the heart because the vessels are blocked up and compromised. When a blood vessel to the heart gets clogged up and closes, then the heart does not receive any blood, and a heart attack occurs. Our vessels are probably the most important part of our overall health, and fat undoubtedly has a negative effect on our vessels – even “healthy” oils, because they are still 100% fat. Therefore, many doctors, including Caldwell Esselstyn, recommend no oil in the diet.

I’ll finish with my personal experience with Dr. Esselstyn. After being vegan for 4 or 5 years, I stood up at a conference and asked Dr. Esselstyn this question: If I am 100% vegan and therefore not ingesting any cholesterol, why does my cholesterol remain so high at 230 mg/dL? He challenged me to get the oil out of my diet. He said that “eating fat causes the body to manufacture excessive amounts of cholesterol,” even if those fats come from plants. I honestly didn’t believe him, but agreed to his challenge anyway. My cholesterol had never been below 200 mg/dL, even when I first had it tested at 19.

After just one month on his oil-free vegan diet my cholesterol fell to 151 mg/dL, and my LDL was so low that it was imperceptible on the cholesterol test! When I added oil back in to my diet, my total cholesterol jumped right back up over 200 mg/dL again, and my LDL to 120 mg/dL. For me, this is personal proof that really hits home: Oil is not healthy!

Tomato Eggplant Appetizer

2011-10-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

When I first got married and started having a little fun in the kitchen I came across a recipe for an appetizer similar to this one. Now I don’t follow any recipe and instead just wing it on my own, but it’s always a crowd pleaser and it’s simple to make.

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant (about the same diameter as your tomatoes)

2 Large tomatoes

4 Yellow Peppers

1 Jar Whole Roasted Red Peppers

Chives – a few long ones and many diced pieces for garnish

Vinaigrette

Preparation:

Slice your tomatoes and eggplant, creating 8 full pieces each.
Slice your yellow bell peppers and roasted red peppers into similarly-shaped round pieces, about the size of your tomato slices. I know this is a little challenging, but just do the best you can. You may want to use a hollowed out soup can to get the right size, and “trace” your knife around the pepper, using the can as your guide.
Spray olive oil and a little bit of salt and pepper on each side of your eggplant and yellow bell peppers. Broil each side until soft and hot.
Start by placing a piece of eggplant on a plate, then stack a tomato, yellow bell pepper, and roasted red pepper, another piece of eggplant, yellow bell pepper and top off with a slice of tomato.
Pour your favorite vinaigrette over the top and sprinkle with chives.
Enjoy!

Animal Transportation

2011-10-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how pork gets to Hawaii? Me either. But if you knew, you’d probably start writing letters to the local papers, as I recently found myself doing. Laurelee Blanchard, who runs the Leilani Farm Sanctuary in Maui is a great friend of mine, so I was thrown into this topic recently as she fought hard with other animal rights activists for the plight of the pigs … and found huge success.

Hawaiians love their pork. It’s one of their favorite cultural meals. Next time you vacation in Hawaii, take notice how on Sundays the local parks are taken over by large families as the BBQs are fired up for a day of family fun. Perhaps the thing I like most about Hawaii is this strong focus on family and friendships. However, as the smell of BBQ pork starts wafting through the air over the pristine beaches, I can’t help but assume that most Hawaiians don’t know how their pork got to Hawaii either.

Until recently, most pork sold in the state of Hawaii came from live pigs. This sounds great – get your meat as fresh as possible and all – but we don’t often think about how our dinner is transported. According to Laurelee in an article recently published in the Maui News (October 8, 2011):

“A transported pig's journey begins with a nearly 24-hour-long truck ride from Iowa, Montana or South Dakota to a holding facility in Vacaville, Calif. Hundreds of pigs are kept at this facility for several hours before being transported, via truck, to the Port of Oakland.

The pigs are then crammed onto a vessel where they are provided neither straw nor other bedding to protect them from extreme temperatures or slippery flooring. There is only one livestock attendant onboard responsible for caring for as many as 920 pigs. For approximately five days, the animals are forced to live in their own feces, urine and vomit, and even amid the corpses of other pigs until the dead animals are thrown overboard by the livestock attendant.

Upon arriving in Honolulu, it is usually several hours before the pigs are unloaded from the ship. They are left suffering in the heat with minimal ventilation before they are transported, via truck, to the Hawaii Livestock Cooperative slaughterhouse, which has been cited numerous times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the inhumane handling and slaughter of animals, where they are slaughtered and processed.

As if the extreme animal suffering weren't enough, scientists, as well as health and food safety officials, have noted that the stress of long-distance transport of live animals increases the animals' susceptibility to disease. This, in turn, increases the risk of food-borne illness and disease transmission to humans who consume meat from these animals.”

We don’t like to know about these things, because then we have to think about them. Yet, the plight of a pig’s journey is quite similar to most animals who end up in our meat supply. You can literally see chickens stuffed into cages with their heads poking out the sides of a huge transportation truck as it flies down the freeway at 60 mph. Cows also can endure very long trips that can last as long as 36 hours, forced to stand the entire way, often with no access to food, water or bedding. They might be driven like this through the 110° heat an Arizona summer or the -10° freeze of a Minnesota winter. These are conditions that we wouldn’t dream of putting a human through, so why would we do it to animals?

Fortunately, thousands of pigs have received a victory at the hands of Laurelee Blanchard and the other animal rights activists who spent so much time to save them from this suffering: Three of the main supermarkets on the islands now refuse to purchase pork that has been shipped live from the mainland. All of these supermarket chains have vowed to buy frozen pork instead. Interestingly, this may end up shutting down the only slaughterhouse on Oahu.

Yet, while this is a major victory for animal rights activists, it is, perhaps, a somewhat minor victory for the animals: Not only do the pigs live their entire lives in a concentration camp-like hell, they are still slaughtered at the end of it. And as I just pointed out, there are billions (no exaggeration here) of other animals like chickens and cows that also live a life of hell, only to be transported for hours in harsh conditions to their death at the end of the road.

So, this is one of the many reasons that I am vegan: To save other sentient beings from as much suffering as I possibly can. I’d like to live my life as a poem of compassion for others – humans and non-humans alike.

I think the biggest success about Laurelee’s efforts may be in how far she is spreading the word about compassion, and urging us all to reach deep inside to our sense of humanity … and decide not only to quit eating pork transferred alive for long distances, but to quit eating animals and their products altogether. My hat is off to you, Laurelee!

Vegan Spanikopita

2011-09-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

Vegan Spanikopita

From the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine Cookbook

As I bit into the vegan spanikopita at the Blossoming Lotus, I fell head over heels in love. “If this is vegan, I could easily convert everyone I know!” I thought to myself. Fortunately, although the Blossoming Lotus is no longer in Hawaii (only in Portland), they did create a beautiful cookbook, and I splurged and bought a copy several years ago.

I was eager to make the spanikopita for my dear husband, but I put it off for ages simply because it looked really time consuming … and I am decidedly lazy in the kitchen.

But much to my and my husband’s delight, I not only set about making the spanikopita last week … I found it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be! And it’s delicious, just like the restaurant, with all wholesome ingredients, so you feel great about eating it. For an alternative, you can skip the phyllo dough and put the filling into lettuce wraps or straight into pretty serving dishes.

Here is a photo. I don’t want to violate copyright laws by printing a recipe that is in a copyrighted book, but you can find the recipe in the Blossoming Lotus’ cookbook, Vegan World Fusion Cuisine. I highly recommend the entire cookbook – the food is truly gourmet vegan and much of it is raw. On a final note, a friend of the owner of Blossoming Lotus told me that he created that epic restaurant during a two-year vow of silence! Amazing!

"Vegan-ish"

2011-09-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

It was a great moment for vegans when we turned on the television and saw Kathy Freston on the Oprah Show touting the vegan diet. With her beauty and poise, she made a great spokesperson for the vegan diet.

However, as the show went on, she assuaged nervous Oprah staffers by telling them that they didn’t have to go 100% vegan … they could be “vegan-ish.” That’s when many of us vegans started to get a little uncomfortable…

It’s not that I’m opposed to people eating only a partially vegan diet. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know that I am a big proponent of doing the absolute best you can, and being really proud of that. Even if you only feel that you’re able to eat a vegan diet 50% of the time right now, you’ll still be reducing the suffering and needless death of animals by 50%, you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint by 50%, and you’ll make some great strides toward bettering your health.

However, there is a difference between a bonafide vegan and someone who eats a vegan diet: The word “vegan” connotes a basic philosophy that other living beings are not ours to exploit. Therefore, vegans do not eat other animals or their products, we do not wear other animals (like leather, suede, fur or wool) and we do not use products that contain animal ingredients (such as many shampoos and other household products.) It may be next to impossible to do all this perfectly, but as long as a person is doing his or her best to abide by these principles, they are officially vegan.

There are many people who are not particularly concerned about the animals or environment, yet choose to eat a vegan diet for health reasons. These people are eating a vegan diet, but are not vegans, because true veganism is an entire philosophy – not just a diet. In fact, many people are now using the term “plant-based diet” instead of “vegan diet” to differentiate between those who adopt this diet for health reasons versus philosophical reasons.

However, while you can be a bonafide vegan or a person who eats a vegan diet, you cannot be “vegan-ish.” For example, just like you cannot be Christian-ish (you either believe that Jesus is the son of God or you do not) you cannot be vegan-ish either (you either believe it is acceptable to kill or exploit other beings for human purposes or you do not.)

I’m not here to tell you what you should believe. If you eat a vegan diet full time or part time, I’m simply requesting that you either call yourself a vegan, or say that you eat a vegan diet, based on whether you espouse a vegan philosophy. Just please don’t call yourself “vegan-ish!”

The Vegan Craze

2011-09-07T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s taken 9 years since I went vegan, but I’m officially no longer a freak: The vegan diet has decidedly gone mainstream, and I couldn’t be more excited!

It probably started when Skinny Bitch became a best-seller, convincing all those Cosmo-reading 20-somethings that you could slip into a size 2 and be kind to animals at the same time, all without ingesting any of those *$#@(*&! chemicals. Around the same time, Colin Campbell published The China Study, which convinced some big-named football player to go vegan, and that caused a stir in the sports world. Then Kathy Freston appeared on Oprah, explaining that you could be “vegan-ish” and still make a difference in your health and weight (read about my thoughts on that in next week’s blog.) Oprah challenged her whole staff to go vegan for a week, and the world followed. That’s when we vegans were finally vindicated: If Oprah endorses it, everyone knows it must be okay.

More recently, Bill Clinton came out of the vegan closet when he told Larry King and, later, Sanjay Gupta, that his newfound health and physique were due to a vegan diet. Sanjay Gupta ran a 1-hour program on the diet, highlighting Caldwell Esselstyn and friends, and we vegans were jumping up and down in our living rooms saying, “I’VE BEEN FOLLOWING THEIR WORK FOR YEARS!!!” We vegans have been following, promoting, touting, recommending and worshipping people like Caldwell Esselstyn, MD, Colin Campbell, PhD, John Robbins, Jeff Novick, RD, Joel Fuhrman, MD and John McDougall, MD for years. So it’s a happy day for us to see our heroes finally making it on CNN and Oprah. It just doesn’t get any bigger.

However, what makes me so excited about it is that, unlike Atkins, Weight Watchers, gluten-free diets, etc, I truly believe the vegan diet will have a very high retention rate. The reason is simple: We Americans say we want to be thin, and we continually diet in the pursuit of being thin, yet research shows that somewhere around 96% of people are not successful at getting the weight off and keeping it off. This tells me that our motive (getting thin) is simply not compelling enough. If it was compelling enough, we would have lost the weight and kept it off the first time.

So what does motivate people to lose the weight and keep it off? Well, for most of us, it’s not our vanity, much to our surprise. It usually ends up being something like a serious health problem due to being overweight or, for those who come across the information, the knowledge of the atrocities in factory farms.

While many people will become introduced to the vegan diet after seeing Oprah or President Clinton on TV, they will likely start googling “vegan diet” and checking Amazon for related books. Eventually, they will come across Diet for a New America, The Food Revolution, or one of the many ground-breaking books that goes beyond the health benefits of a vegan diet and covers the extreme cruelty and environmental destruction of our mass-farming system. That’s the information that will convince people to go vegan for life. You see, the motivations of life, compassion and stewardship are compelling enough for people to stick with this diet.

So, cheers to Oprah, Caldwell, Sanjay, Colin, Bill and all the others that are helping to make vegan mainstream! With every new vegetarian or vegan, 100 land animals are saved every year!

Be Kind to Yourself

2011-09-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

I read in a recent blog where the author said she was “feeling like a fraud for struggling to take advice she’d offered in an article.” I can totally relate. People assume that as a vegan author and speaker I must eat perfectly every day – never slipping up on vegan sweets or (gasp!) snarfing down an order of fried onion rings.

But I do. I have a penchant for the vegan coconut chocolate chip cookies at Mana Foods, and the vegan Caesar Salad at Watercourse. I used to buy into the opinion that if I am a vegan author I must eat perfectly. Of course, I didn’t (and still don’t) eat perfectly, so when I did splurge on some vegan carrot cake or a vegan Oklahoma Ba-cun “Cheese”burger at Native Foods, I would feel bad about myself for days. “If I’m going to be a vegan author, I need to set an example!” I’d tell myself. “If I’m going to tell my audiences to avoid salt, sugar and fat so they can really reap the full benefits of a vegan diet, then I have to do the same thing too … at all times, perfectly!”

But do you know what? As I’ve been growing up, I’ve been slowly learning to be kind to myself … and alas, I find that I want to splurge on those things less and less. It used to be that if I was in LA, I had to go to Native Foods at every opportunity and inhale one of those burgers for every possible meal. Who knows when I might get back to LA? But I don’t do that anymore. In fact, I may go once, or not at all. Not because my willpower has changed, but because I want to be kind to myself and my body, and I know that I often feel worse when I eat heavier foods. But sometimes I do eat one, and when I do, I enjoy it, and savor it, and am happy that I ate it when I am done. After all, nobody does a Bac-un “Cheese”burger like Tanya at Native Foods!

Geneen Roth, in her book Women, Food and God, talks about this concept of being kind to yourself in depth, and makes a point that I have found to be very true: IF you can successfully beat your body into skinny jeans through painful workouts and near-starvation diets, you’ll probably live a miserable existence; and if you can’t, you’ll probably beat yourself up about what a loser you are with no willpower. Either way, you lose.

Yet many of us fear that if we don’t continually beat ourselves up about our food and diet choices, we will blow up into balloons – we’ll eat with abandon and become morbidly obese. Yet, the opposite is ironically true. If you come from a place of loving yourself, and allow yourself to feel your feelings instead of numbing them with food, then your body naturally eats when it’s hungry and doesn’t want to eat when it’s not. You slide into this place of bliss where you can trust your instincts to guide you to eat what you want, in the proper amounts, when you’re truly hungry for it. Curiously, you may find that your skinny jeans fit with no battle!

If you’re one of the many people who battle with your diet, where food becomes a source of pain rather than pleasure, it can turn around … and quickly. But it takes one big step … learning to be kind to yourself. So quit criticizing your thighs every time you pass a mirror and focus instead on how grateful you are that those thighs can carry you around. Many do not have thighs that work, and cannot go for a walk through the park or play a game of tennis. Quit noticing every wrinkle that appears, and instead be happy that you’ve had so much to smile about over the years. Take time for yourself, and stop to smell flowers or talk to the neighbor’s doggie. Notice the warmth of the sun on your arms in the summer and the beauty of the snow in winter. Pour a cup of tea and just sit by the window and look out for a while. Be grateful. Most people around the world have such big worries that they cannot afford the luxury of worrying about their thighs.

For more information, look for books and products by Geneen Roth and Louise Hay, among others.

The Spirituality of Veganism

2011-08-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

I love hearing people’s success stories about switching to a vegan diet … how they lost the weight that had chained them down for years, or overcame their battle with diabetes or cancer by turning to a whole-foods, plant-based diet.

But more than those stories, I love to hear how people feel – perhaps for the first time in their lives – that they have found spirituality through their diet. I am one of those people.

While it may sound far-fetched that spirituality can come from your diet, it actually makes perfect sense. When you start learning about the vegan diet, you’ll eventually learn about how the animals we call “food” essentially live their lives in concentration camps called “factory farms.” The cruel and inhumane conditions that only end for these animals upon their slaughter touch in many of us a deep-rooted sense of humanity that we may not have known existed. A sense of what’s right and what’s wrong springs forward, and we know beyond a shadow of doubt that we will never again contribute to the senseless cruelty and death that befalls millions of "food" animals every year.

And as we go forward into this new vegan life, many of us realize over time what has really happened … that we have come to recognize the preciousness of life – all life in its many forms – and we become a steward of life. We realize that some greatness, call it God or whatever you want, runs through all life equally, and a human is not “better than” or “worthier than” or “more important than” a dog, a cow or a chicken. We may have more cognitive abilities, but it doesn’t make us any more worthy of life.

Interestingly, reverence for life is at the heart of Buddhism, which tells us that no sentient being should have to suffer, and that our mission on earth is to reduce the suffering of others. Christianity, Judaism and Islam have love and peace at the heart of their doctrines – how better can one show love and peace to another creature than to choose not to let it live an entire life of hell, just for your lunchtime pleasure?

So, whether we go vegan for health reasons, animal cruelty reasons or environmental reasons, many of us discover perhaps the best benefit of all – one that we never expected in a million years – that we have found God through our choice of diet. We see it in the eyes of a cow, feel it when we pet a sheep, hear it in the peep of a baby chick. And we know we have come home, to a place where love is at our core.

“Wings cannot carry you to God.

Only love can carry you there.”

~ Rumi

The Carbon Footprint Game: Local Foods vs Beef and Dairy

2011-08-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Although Al Gore surprisingly “forgot” to mention the incredibly detrimental environmental effects of raising animals for meat and dairy products in his epic film, Inconvenient Truth, the word is starting to get out anyway.

It seems to me that more and more people are truly becoming environmentally conscious – not just because it’s trendy to be green, but because people are just really starting to care.

One topic that has gained a lot of momentum in the green circles is the idea of eating local food. Most of our food travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches our plate, creating a significant amount to our carbon footprint. Eating locally grown food (usually defined around ~150 miles or less) decreases the amount of gas and emissions used to get your food to your plate, and is a relatively easy way of lessening your carbon footprint on our planet.

However, what many people don’t realize is that transportation only accounts for 11% of our food’s carbon footprint – 83% comes from the food production process itself. Cows have an extremely high carbon footprint, not only because they emit a lot more methane but also because caring for them uses more emission-producing processes than other meats, like chicken. Therefore, beef and dairy products are the worst things you can eat if you care about the environment.

A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology¹, which discusses this topic in detail, concludes: “Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more greenhouse gas reduction than buying all locally sourced food."

Imagine switching not just one day a week away from beef and dairy products, but 3 days, 5 days, or 7 days! Imagine if you also switched away from chicken, fish and eggs (which, while better for the environment than beef or dairy, are still much worse than an all-veggie diet.) Imagine if you convinced many friends and family members to do the same. We could really have a significant impact on global warming.

If you truly care about the environment but haven’t switched to a vegan diet yet – even if only part time – then you are contributing a lot more than you probably realize to our environment’s demise. But once you know better, you’ll do better, so read more in John Robbin’s book, The Food Revolution. For a serious dissertation (and huge eye-opener!) on the topic, read Livestock’s Long Shadow, a 400 page report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

¹Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008, 42 (10), pp 3508–3513

Veg*n Activism

2011-08-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

There are a few topics in our culture that get people mightily defensive about – religion, politics, and food. Tell someone that we should/shouldn’t scrap the welfare system, and tempers will fly! Suggest that there is/isn’t a god, and veins will start popping! Tell people how that chicken got to their plate … unh unh. Don’t go there.

If you are like most people, you bristle and defend yourself when someone states diabolically opposite viewpoints as if they were fact. For example, I am outraged when someone states that I can’t be healthy if I’m not eating meat. (This really kills me if they are overweight, which is usually the case.) Similarly, when someone says that they don’t believe things can be all that bad in the factory farms because, after all, the government is overseeing the system, I just want to pull my hair out! AAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

However, is it possible that you are causing the same reactions in your friends and family? If you ask with disgust, “Do you have any idea what that poor chicken went through to get to your plate???” Or, “I never eat fish anymore. Let me tell you about how the fishing industry is ruining our oceans…” Chances are that they are ready to pull their hair out too. If you commonly find yourself in arguments or full-scale wars about your veg*nism, chances are, my friend, that you are starting it. It’s not always the case – there are definitely people who will attack, simply upon hearing that you are veg*n – but my experience is that that’s very rare. If you are commonly getting into arguments, you are probably being seen as either proselytizing or coming across as better-than-thou.

Instead, try compassionate activism. Compassionate activism has three steps:

1. Never assume that your way is the right way for everyone.

2. Set a good example that exemplifies your beliefs

3. Spread your beliefs using peaceful methods and means.

Here is a fantastic example: There was an article earlier this week about some Buddhists that set 600 pounds of lobsters free that were destined to become dinners¹. Did the Buddhists steal the lobsters and set them lose? Hijack a boat and throw the lobsters overboard? Scream about the injustices of lobster farming to passersby? No! They saved their money, bought the lobsters, and then set them loose in a beautiful ceremony … smartly letting the press know about it beforehand. Pictures of the lobsters belly-flopping their way to freedom made it all over the press, with an explanation of how Buddhists believe all life is sacred, all creatures should be free from suffering, and that they were celebrating a particular holiday that focuses on doing good deeds. Kind of makes you want to look into Buddhism, doesn’t it?

This is the type of compassionate activism that I believe we vegetarians and vegans should strive for. Positive, uplifting and inspiring activism. Setting an example that people really want to follow is one of the best things we can do.

If you are interested in making a difference, try this idea that came across my inbox this morning from FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement) – they are setting up booths in busy places that offer people $1 to watch a 4 minute video about the horrible treatment of animals on farms². What a fantastic idea! As a volunteer, you can be there to compassionately talk to the people after they are done watching the video. No doubt, many will be in shock, and ready to make some changes.

PETA, FARM and many other organizations can use your help. Or, you can always come up with your own creative ideas for reaching out and making a difference. Whatever it is, go for it, using the tenets of compassionate activism.

Just think … for each person you turn vegetarian, you are saving over 100 lives a year for the rest of that person’s life!

¹http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20110809-293593.html

² http://www.farmusa.org/PPV.html

Food Attachments and Addictions

2011-08-03T21:51:00.001-07:00

The most common type of e-mail I receive is from people who seek advice about what clearly seems to be a food addiction (although they often don’t know it.) The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines “Addiction” this way:

“Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry … This is reflected in the individual pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. The addiction is characterized by impairment in behavioral control, craving, inability to consistently abstain, and diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships … addiction can involve cycles of relapse and remission...”

Hmmm. Sounds like many of our relationships with food, doesn’t it? Re-read the definition, keeping your eating habits in mind.

Why am I bringing up addiction in a vegan blog? Because in a 1995 Vegetarian Times article, David Herzog, Director of the Harvard Eating Disorder Center said that the percentage of his patients that called themselves vegetarian was about 33%. This number is way higher than the national average of vegetarians, which is under 5%. And what many people don’t realize is that eating disorders are a form of addiction.

Please do not think I am claiming that vegetarianism or veganism can cause eating disorders –that couldn’t be further from the truth. What I am suggesting – as are the experts – is that people with eating disorders sometimes hide their restrictive diets under the guise of vegetarianism.

But I digress – even if you do not have a bona fide eating disorder, you could be one of the millions of people around the world that suffer from food addictions. If you crave certain foods, at certain times or in certain situations, this is probably you. For example, I recently decided to give up alcohol for a while and see how I feel. I am not an alcoholic, but was very surprised at how difficult it was to forego that one glass of cabernet at dinner that I liked to enjoy with my book at my favorite vegan restaurant. I may not be addicted to wine, but I sure am attached to having that glass at that restaurant as I read a book!

The first step to overcoming any hurdle is to acknowledge it. If you can see that you have an attachment or addiction to food, then you can do something about it. For example, you can seek a professional therapist that specializes in addictions or eating disorders, or for a less expensive route, simply read books or go to professional Internet sites to learn about the subject. These small steps can be your first step to freedom from food.

The goal is to be able to get back to life. This is, perhaps, the most liberating experience: To break away from food addictions, and live life without thinking about the next meal, or what you shouldn’t have eaten yesterday that you did, or what you’re definitely not going to eat today; to go to your son’s soccer game without obsessing about what’s being sold at the concession stand, or to go to a movie without missing the plot because you’re trying to hold yourself back from the popcorn seller. … To go out and live, free from attachments and addictions. For those of you whom this description fits, ask yourself if it’s time you finally got the burden off your back? Is it time to get help?

If You're Going to be a Vet, You Can't Eat Your Patients!

2011-07-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

There are many things I love about my husband. Besides being a loving, supportive, and funny man, he’s also smart, handsome and incredibly humble about it all. With this humility, he isn’t likely to express his opinion very loudly, unless he’s among his closest friends – he just assumes that everyone has their own path, and it’s not his place to barge in and tell them how to live.

So I was more than a little surprised when he told me recently that he challenged a patient of his who said she was going to be a vet. “So you must be a vegetarian?” he asked the young college girl. “Ummm … no…” she said hesitantly. “Hmm.” He paused. “Well, I’m a doctor and I’m not a cannibal – how can you be a vet and eat your patients?”

At this point of the story, I was on the floor rolling – mainly due to his comment, and also due to his bravado in standing up for the veg*n diet. Like I said, he’s generally pretty quiet about his opinions when he’s with strangers. I can imagine this poor girl who came in for a routine eye exam, only to have her doctor nail her to the wall about eating her future patients! But I’m sure he made a point that stuck with her. YAY, husband!!

So, for today’s blog, I simply ask you: “Do you stand up for your veg*n diet?” You don’t need to throw blood on fur-wearing opera fans if that’s not your style, but can you at least stand up for what you believe? Can you proudly tell people that you eat this way, and briefly explain why? If not, then practice your elevator speech. You never know when you might say something that sticks.a

Why You Can't Seem to Quit Eating Cheese

2011-07-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

If you’re having a hard time going vegan because you just can’t seem to give up cheese, you’re not alone! Many of us have felt the pull to cheese like a crack addict to crack. In fact, you may even feel like you’re … addicted.

Believe it or not, it could very well be that you are addicted to cheese! Cheese contains casein, which breaks apart in digestion to release naturally occurring opiates called casomorphins. Astonishingly, casomorphins mimic the reaction of morphine on our brain! These opiates in dairy products may be responsible for the calming effect of nursing in infants, and also for the addictive qualities in cheese.

Before I was vegan, my four personal food groups were Swiss, Havarti, Cheddar and Chocolate. In college, I was always a cheap date because I’d choose fettuccine alfredo over steak or lobster any day. Interestingly, when I wanted to lose weight, I fantasized about someone putting padlocks on my refrigerator so I simply couldn’t get to the food. (Sounds like the fantasy of an addict to me.) I remember when I first read the advice in a Susan Powter book to give up dairy, it seemed like it would be easier to give up everything else except for dairy, and specifically cheese. I think I might have been one of those cheese addicts.

So what do you do if you suspect you are a cheese addict? Don’t despair! You won’t have to put yourself in lockdown if you really want to give up cheese. You simply have to clean out your taste buds for about 30 days before whole, natural foods start tasting amazing once again, and foods like cheese, ice cream and chocolate start to sound unappealing. I know this sounds impossible, but trust me, I’ve seen it happen to many people, including myself. In fact, in Tina’s Blog (see my last blog post,) she surprisingly announced that this started happening to her around Day 15 or so of the 30 Day Challenge in Vegan in 30 Days. Food just wasn’t tasting very good anymore – things she used to love were becoming too salty now. All she wants to eat now are fruit smoothies made with ripe, juicy, natural fruits. Now that’s an improvement!

To learn more about the 30 Day Vegan Challenge and how to clean out your taste buds for a lifetime of good health, you can read more in Vegan in 30 Days. To learn more about the chemical effects of how casein turns into casomorphins, you may want to google Neal Barnard or Bill Harris, both of whom are medical doctors that I have heard speak to this topic. Neal Barnard’s book Breaking the Food Seduction, specifically speaks to this topic. To read Tina’s humorous blog, click here.

Tina Goes "Vegan in 30 Days!"

2011-07-08T03:59:00.000-07:00

Raspberry lemonade does NOT count as two servings of fruit and caramel corn does NOT count as a serving of vegetables!! If you love a good laugh, read Tina's Blog as she goes “Vegan in 30 Days.”

Modeled after my book, Vegan in 30 Days, Tina takes the vegan challenge and decides to follow the 30 day plan to slowly give up all meat, dairy and eggs, and go 100% vegan. However, with her incredible humor, she’ll have you rolling! Here are some excerpts:

Day 3 – The Fruit & Veg Cleanse

“So, I'm not what you would call a "go-getter" first thing in the morning. I wake up gradually. Consciousness sneaks up on me with little cat feet; it doesn't drop on me like Queen Latifah ... Keeping all this in mind, my morning started with me actually getting out of bed (as all mornings do), taking a shower, going on Facebook to harvest my Cityville crops, and then grabbing 3 leftover Bottle Caps from last night's Blockbuster snack pack. I ate them before I even realized what day it was. So, within 15 minutes of getting out of bed, I'd already violated the Fruit and Veg Cleanse with Willy Wonka candy. Oops.”

Day 5 – Find Substitutes

“I do frequent the health food store in Chelan, probably 5 times a year or so, even though it's 60 miles one way and gas is like $85 a gallon. I do this because it makes me feel trendy and green, and because I figure there's going to be some single men there.”

I'd Like to Be Vegan ... But I Just Can't Seem to Give up Dairy!

2011-06-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

After I give a lecture, the number one comment people make to me is, “I’ve been vegetarian for years, but I just can’t seem to give up dairy!” If this sounds like you, read on.

I always joke that, before becoming vegan, my four food groups were Swiss, Havarti, Cheddar and Chocolate. As soon as I went to college and began making my own food choices, I naturally gravitated to all things dairy – Melted Cheese Hoagies, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Macaroni and Cheese, Fettucine Alfredo, Frozen Yogurt with M&Ms on top… I know how much you love your dairy!

Yet when you face the reality of what dairy cows must go through to produce dairy products, it becomes hard to look yourself in the mirror and still eat them. Many vegetarians explain their dairy consumption by saying, “Well, the cow didn’t have to die to give me this cheese.” However, if you think about it, at least a beef cow has a short life before it is slaughtered in terror; the dairy cow lives about 5 long years of misery and pain in inhumane conditions … and then she is slaughtered in terror. If she had a conscious choice, I expect a dairy cow would prefer to be slaughtered early than to live out her days in such pain.

Others try to justify their dairy consumption by saying, “It’s just a small amount of creamer for my coffee,” or “It’s just a little sprinkling of cheese,” but the fact remains that we vote with our wallets: Every time we choose a small amount of creamer or a little sprinkling of cheese we are directly responsible for the pain and misery of these animals.

Laurelee Blanchard is very familiar with the atrocities that happen in factory farms, dairy farms and egg farms. As the founder of Leilani Farm Sanctuary, she has made it her life’s mission to teach people about farmed animals, and encourage them to start loving the animals and stop eating them. She has kindly provided most of the following information on dairy cows.

Dairy cows on large factory farms are typically housed indoors or on dry feedlots year round and lactating cows are often kept restrained in tie stalls or stanchions. Most dairy calves are removed from their mothers immediately after birth. The males are mainly sold for veal or castrated and raised for beef. “Bob veal” calves are killed as soon as a few days after birth; those used to produce “special-fed veal” are typically kept tethered in individual stalls until they’re slaughtered at about 16 to 20 weeks of age. The female calves are commonly subjected to tail docking, dehorning, and the removal of “extra” teats. Although they don’t reach mature size until at least 4 years old, dairy cows first give birth at about 2 years of age and are continually bred again beginning about 60 days after each birth. Each year, approximately one quarter of the cows who survive the farms are sent to slaughter, most often due to reproductive problems or mastitis. Cows can live more than 20 years; however, they’re usually killed at about 5 years of age, after roughly 2.5 lactations.

If the anti-cruelty laws that protect pets were applied to farmed animals, many of the most routine U.S. farming practices would be illegal in all 50 states. Disregard for farmed animals persists because few people realize the ways in which these individuals are mistreated, and even fewer actually witness the abuse. Once aware, most people are appalled.

I think we don’t want to face the cruelty of the dairy industry because we don’t want to give up our favorite foods. Once you realize that most of those foods are still available to you under new brand names, you will realize what all vegans do: Being vegan is actually easy! Shifting away from dairy products and toward healthier, cruelty-free foods is easy – and tasty – with so many amazing alternatives available today. I defy any skeptic to make a grilled cheese sandwich using Daiya brand cheese with Earth Balance buttery spread, or scoop up a helping of Coconut Bliss Ice Cream for dessert.

Look for these types of vegan products and more at your local health food store. I highly recommend going to a good health food store (as opposed to a national grocery chain with a health food section) and asking the staff there what the best-selling vegan products are. They will be happy to steer you toward the brands that customers and staff rave about.

If you are vegetarian and would like to go vegan, but feel overwhelmed, I offer you a challenge: Commit to being vegan for just 30 days. During that time, you will find vegan dairy substitutes, learn to ask for vegan entrees at restaurants, and learn to pack your own food if you need to. For more assistance, you can look for my book, Vegan in 30 Days, which will step you through the process day by day. Once 30 days has passed, you’ll realize – like the rest of us – that being vegan really is easy! Yes, you can be vegan!

Eggs - What's the Big Deal?

2011-06-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know my story know that I, like many of you, went vegan overnight after reading John Robbin’s book, Diet for a New America. As an animal lover, my husband knows to pull the car over instantly if a cute dog is sitting on the sidewalk that looks like it needs a good petting (they all do!) But after reading Diet for a New America, I had to ask myself, “Other than my personal familiarity with them, what distinguishes a dog from a chicken? A cat from a cow?” In looking at photos like the one below, with egg-laying chickens crammed into cages for their entire lives, poop falling on them from chickens above, stepping in their own excrement and fighting with their cagemates, I had to ask myself, “If these were puppies instead of chickens, we’d be outraged! Why aren’t we outraged for the chickens?”

It is, of course, a matter of familiarity, cultural norms, and probably, the “cuddle-factor” of puppies. But none of these arguments really holds up against the ultimate question: Does not every animal (and human) deserve to live its life out under natural conditions, free from pain and suffering at the hands of others?

To me the answer is clearly “yes.” I may not feel as strong a connection to chickens as I do to puppies, but that doesn’t make them less worthy of love or more worthy to be abused.

Laurelee Blanchard is a compassionate woman who has dedicated her life to rescuing farm animals that were either destined to become dinner, or were in other abusive situations. Running Leilani Farm Sanctuary on Maui, she provides tours to locals and tourists alike, teaching them that all animals - not just our house pets - have personalities and intelligence, and all creatures deserve our love and protection.

Laurelee has offered to provide information for our blog on farm animals, for which we are very grateful. If you are moved by what you read, please visit Leilani Farm Sanctuary's website!

************

People who know chickens as friends know that chickens are not “all alike.” They know that, like all species with certain traits in common, chickens have individual personalities, distinctive identities, and unique ways of expressing themselves.

Chickens have memory and emotions, and a keenly developed consciousness of one another and of their surroundings. Researchers have recently published findings on chicken intelligence that have challenged old notions about avian cognitive abilities. For instance, scientists have found that chickens clearly understand cause-and-effect relationships, an advanced comprehension skill that puts their intellect beyond that of dogs. In the book The Development of Brain and Behavior in the Chicken, Dr. Lesley Rogers, a professor of neuroscience and animal behavior, concludes, “It is now clear that birds have cognitive capacities equivalent to those of mammals, even primates.”

More than half a billion eggs originating from two factory farms were recalled earlier this year because of salmonella outbreak. Eggs are our number-one cause of salmonella poisoning, not surprising given the conditions in which they’re produced. Egg factory farms consist of a series of warehouse-like sheds that house 200,000 or more birds in each windowless building. Inside, hens are crammed into thousands of wire battery cages, stacked several tiers high and extending in rows for the length of the building. The stacked cages force chickens to live in the bacteria-breeding excrement of those above them—causing ammonia burn to their eyes, which can lead to blindness.

Within the cages, each hen has about 67 square inches of space, less than a sheet of paper; not even enough space to spread her wings. Many hens raised under these conditions die of stress or disease. Since only female chickens produce eggs, about 280 million male chicks per year are shoved into plastic bags to suffocate, or are ground up alive.

But what about free range eggs? No government laws regulate the use of terms like "free-range" on egg cartons, so some "free-range" eggs may actually be produced by hens who spend their lives in small, conventional battery cages. Often "free-range" hens, though uncaged, are confined in crowded sheds, with little or no access to the outdoors. Once their egg production wanes, “free-range,” “cage-free,” and “organic” hens are slaughtered, the same as factory-farmed hens.

Healthy and humane alternatives to eggs are available at natural food stores, including powdered egg substitute for baking, tofu scrambler, and eggless mayonnaise.

Vegan Leadership

2011-06-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

One of the potlucks I went to a couple of weeks ago on Maui was at the amazing Spirit of Aloha Oceanfront Botanical Gardens. The owner, Frederic Honig, is a dedicated vegan, and called together top vegan leaders on Maui for a vegan strategy meeting to help promote veganism on Maui. Held on 11 acres of gorgeous oceanfront property, representatives from raw food retreats, a farm sanctuary, locally renowned vegan cooking teachers, vegan/raw authors, and others – all gathered to discuss ways to maximize veganism on Maui. Topics included:

· How to spread the word about veganism on Maui

· How to promote local vegan and raw businesses

· How to encourage all restaurants on the island to offer vegan options

· How to bring conscious eating to local schools

· How to help local Hawaiians adopt a vegan diet, and

· How to help people connect their food choices with the animals.

As I sat at this auspicious meeting of incredible leaders in the vegan community, I looked out over the ocean and thought, “Where else are people doing this? Where, across this country and across this world, are people actively meeting in an effort to reduce the suffering of animals, the destruction of our environment and the health of our communities?” There are state vegetarian and vegan societies, meetup groups, and others who are planning similar meetings. Have you investigated where those meetings are taking place near you? Have you been to one? If none are close by, perhaps it’s your turn to step up and be a leader! The power of one is mighty, but the power of a dedicated and passionate group has no limits.

Maui Vegan Potlucks

2011-06-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

As new homeowners on Maui, I have come to know and love the island, and especially the North Shore for its amazing vegan community. One of my very favorite things that I have learned there is the value of potlucks. If potlucks don’t get you excited, stay with me – this is something that really could change your life!

What I love most about Maui, but especially Haiku, is the strong sense of community. In less than a year, I feel like a have friends there that I can truly call family. I think people who move to Maui are very unique: Not only do they have the courage to up and leave everything they know and love on the mainland, but they also leave all of their friends and family an entire ocean away. I have a theory that, because so many Maui residents have left their loved ones on the mainland, they end up creating a second family amongst their friends on the island. The sense of community is like no other place I have ever been.

One of the ways in which people in Haiku become as close as family is by having regular potlucks at each others’ homes. And I mean regular! It’s not uncommon to be invited to 3 or 4 potlucks every week – many, if not most of them, vegetarian or vegan! Potlucks are a huge part of the culture on Maui. The great thing about this is that you get to choose from so much delicious vegan food while you get to connect with your “family.” Just like in a large family gathering, food is everywhere, and everyone is chatting and laughing, so happy to see each other.

In Washington, potlucks are rare amongst my friends, but I plan to change that! One of the many things I’ve learned from the people on Maui is that our connection with one another is more important than anything. Therefore, instead of slaving over the kitchen twice a year to host the perfect four course meal, I’ll be more likely to loosen up, and just tell everyone to show up once a month with a vegan dish. Because it will be so easy, I can host dinners many times a year without feeling any pressure that my meal has to be perfect or impressive. After all, do my friends really care? Hopefully, they just want to share my company, as I do with them.

If you yearn for a closer connection to your friends, neighbors, colleagues or family, take a lesson from Maui – make your relationships stronger easily, by inviting people over for a vegan potluck. Your hassle time is extremely low, but the paybacks are great. And the food … delicious!

Maui - The Vegan Capital of the World!

2011-05-31T08:47:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Maui, where we bought some property earlier this year. I have always yearned for a place on Maui, but had just assumed that if we ever bought a place, it would be a small condo somewhere near Kihei – the touristy side of the island that I was most familiar with. In a surprising and seriously synchronistic chain of events, Mark and I ended up buying 8 acres in Haiku with a Vegan Farm Sanctuary on it (www.LeilaniFarmSanctuary.org) … and I anticipate that it will be one of the best things we have ever done.

Why do I bring this up here, in my vegan blog? I bring it up because I consider Maui to be the “Vegan Capital of the World,” especially the North Shore, where the towns of Pa’ia and Haiku are famous for their vegan and raw food populations and their focus on spirituality.

Just about all restaurants in the area actively offer vegan options, and there are three restaurants in Haiku/Pa’ia that are 100% vegan - The Fresh Mint, Veg Out and Prana Nui. Even in large cities, 100% vegan restaurants are hard to come by, much less in small towns like Haiku and Pa’ia. Non-vegan restaurants here almost always offer vegan options – the Pa’ia Burrito at Maui Tacos is perfect when you’re starving after a long day at the beach, and the Vegan Pizza at Flatbread is to die for.

Local tourist shops carry a lot of vegan clothing, hats and gifts, reflecting Maui’s natural focus on preserving our resources and being kind to the earth. You’ll see a lot of people hitchhiking – many who are young surfers that can’t afford a car, but others who simply choose not to own a car and contribute to polluting our air.

The grocery store in Pa’ia – Mana Foods – is literally crammed with vegan options, and you’ll bump into people as you squeeze between the vegan frozen soft-serve and the hot-from-the-oven vegan scones. They don’t just carry a few brands of soymilk – they carry pretty much all brands, and the same goes for all other types of vegan substitutes. For those feeling a little lazy at dinner time, Mana’s vegan frozen food section goes as far as the eye can see, and their produce section is packed with straight-from-the-trees/ground produce that is delivered fresh from local farmers. Their deli is a vegan smorgasbord, making it very difficult to decide what to eat for lunch, and includes a fantastic salad bar with all your naughty favorites – macaroni salad, potato salad, etc – all done vegan!

While you’re in Mana Foods, spend some time reading the community bulletin board. Here, you’ll find information on vegan cooking classes, raw food retreats, yoga and meditation classes, and a multitude of spiritual gatherings. If you’re in need of a serious health cleanse, take up residence at The Temple of Peace, where they’ll feed you raw food and juice you for several days.

I never found it that challenging to travel as a vegan … I can always find a salad, some veggie sushi or a veggie pizza with no cheese. But on the other hand, I rarely find vegan culinary delights when I travel. Maui is different. If you’re looking for an amazing getaway, lots of sun, activities and like-minded vegans, head to Maui. To really get enmeshed in the vegan community, stay at the North Shore and immerse yourself in the community by going to classes, gatherings and meetups. Who knows … if Maui calls to you, you too, might soon call Maui home!

Vegan Athletes

2011-05-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have had a rash of questions lately about how to use the vegan diet to optimize athletic performance. While I have race-walked marathons and played competitive tennis as a vegan, I have never paid particular attention to my diet while competing – I just ate my regular vegan diet. However, if you are interested in optimizing your athletic performance, I do have some advice…

First, google vegan athletes in your area of interest. Robert Cheeke is famous for vegan bodybuilding. Scott Jurek is a world-champion vegan ultra-marathoner. Martina Navratilova – the tennis player with the most grand slam championships in the world – was vegan before most people even knew what vegan was. See what vegan athletes in your area of interest have to say on their websites about how they get the best performance out of their diet.

Second, check out books about vegan athletic performance. There are not many out there, but my favorite is Thrive by Brendan Brazier. As an Ironman Triathlete, Brendan began tweaking his diet in small increments in his teens, in an effort to maximize his performance. As he deleted items and added items in and out of his diet, he finally came to a diet that he felt absolutely allowed him to perform at his peak. As it turned out, that diet was 100% vegan, and nearly fully raw.

Finally, experiment yourself. Try eliminating fat for a week. Try eating small meals throughout the day, versus eating three larger meals. Try wheatgrass shots, different hydration methods, and varying your protein intake. Take notes and notice how you feel when you wake up, before you work out, after you work out, and throughout the day.

With a little extra effort, your vegan diet can catapult your performance. Just ask Carl Lewis, Mike Tyson, or Tony Gonzalez!

Quick and Easy Meals

2011-05-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

If you are a busy person or can’t stand spending your time in the kitchen, you always appreciate a really quick meal. One of the easiest I’ve found is lettuce wraps.

To make a lettuce wrap, you simply buy romaine lettuce (or endive, or any type of lettuce that you can make a little cup out of,) take a favorite filling and put it inside the lettuce cup. Roll it up and eat it like a burrito!

Do you have leftover Mexican dip from yesterday’s party? Leftover veggie ceviche (see January 20^th blog)? Leftover couscous? Many types of leftovers can easily be wrapped up in lettuce leaves and made into a quick meal. Here are a couple of easy ideas, in case you don’t have leftovers handy:

Black Bean Lettuce Wraps

Take a can of black beans, 2 tablespoons of salsa, 1 teaspoon of cumin and 1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro. Mix together, put into lettuce cups and serve.

Hummus Lettuce Wraps

Spread hummus on lettuce leaves, top with sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, chopped basil and chopped kalamata olives. Roll up and serve.

Kid’s Lettuce Wraps

Spread almond butter on lettuce leaves, slice banana on top, and serve. This is a fantastic way to get your kids to eat greens!

How to be a Classy Vegan Guest

2011-05-04T08:31:00.001-07:00

“HELP! I’ve been invited to someone’s home for dinner! How do I tell them I’m vegan?” This is one of the biggest conundrums for vegans – eating at other people’s homes. But it doesn’t have to turn into drama. Follow these steps to make sure you are a respectful guest … and get a great meal!

1. Tell or remind the host/ess that you are vegan. You may think the person knows or that they remember you are vegan, but you really don’t want to show up and find that they didn’t know or didn’t remember after all, and have them become horribly embarrassed that they don’t have anything appropriate for you, or feel that they have to scramble in the midst of all of their other preparations to make you something vegan. Unless you are 100% sure they know that you are vegan, it’s best to pick up the phone and politely remind them.

2. Offer to bring a dish. When I call the hostess, I always offer to bring a dish. I say something like, “I just wanted to call because I wasn’t sure if you remembered that I eat a vegan diet. I really don’t want to put you to any more work, so would it be helpful if I brought a vegan dish to supplement your meal, and I’ll bring enough for everyone?” I usually throw in something like, “Many people have found this makes life much easier for them!” which lets them assume that most other hostesses accept this offer, and they feel like they can too.

3. Make it easy. If the hostess tells you not to worry about bringing your own dish, then you may want to offer to help. If she sounds a little clueless about how to go about making a vegan meal, “Don’t worry about bringing a dish – I’ll figure it out,” then I either offer again to bring a dish, or ask if it would be helpful if I e-mailed over any recipes. If your hostess is really excited to experiment in the kitchen, then just sit back and enjoy! But …

4. Make sure your hostess understands what a vegan diet is. This is the most important step. If your hostess is definitely going to cook for you, then make sure that she really knows what a vegan diet is. A family member of mine got Italian take-out when I came over, which should have had tons of options, but came back with Eggplant Parmesan, pasta with cream sauce and salad with cheese. She was horrified when my cousin pointed out that none of it would work for me. I could have prevented her that embarrassment if I had been really clear about what I could and could not eat.

It can be tricky to eat at someone’s house as a vegan, but it doesn’t need to be. The important thing is to remember to be proactive about what you can and cannot eat, gracious about whatever works best for them, and thoughtful about how you can help.

3 Easy Steps to Vegan Entertaining

2011-04-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

“HELP! The neighbors are coming over for dinner – how can I feed them a great vegan meal that they will love?” The idea of serving a vegan meal to friends or family can seem daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. Just follow these simple rules:

1. Know your house rules. Are you okay having meat and/or dairy products in your house? Are you okay cooking them? Do you keep a strict vegetarian or vegan house, and no exceptions are made for guests? Know this ahead of time. If your guests offer to bring a dish, you may need to let them know of your house rules in a very kind and respectful way.

2. Know your best recipes. I have a recipe for vegan paella that’s amazing. I also have a recipe for vegan risotto that is to die for. Same for Veggie Ceviche (find that recipe in my book, Vegan in 30 Days!) Vegan chili is an easy dish that most people won’t even notice doesn’t have meat, especially if you include ground tofu in it. These are the types of recipes that I pull out when I plan to entertain.

When you are having guests over, this is not the time to try brand new recipes, and it’s probably not the time to trot out something like low-salt, low-fat vegan tofu quiche. You might think it’s great, but someone used to eating the standard America diet will probably not like it. As you try new recipes, always put a notation in your cookbook that reminds you of whether it’s good enough for carnivorous guests. I rate all my recipes 1-5 stars. If it’s 5 stars, I know I can serve it to my Dad! Also, try recipe sites (like VegWeb.com) where dozens of people have rated the recipes. If a recipe for Shephard’s Pie has 39 ratings and an average rating of 5 stars, it’s probably a winner!

3. Offer several choices. I have been vegan for so long that I forget how different food can taste when your palate is cleansed of animal foods. Things that you think are delicious really might not taste that great to someone who still eats meat and dairy. So, just in case your signature dish is not as memorable to your guests as you’d hoped, I suggest offering a few dishes. For example, if you’re making vegan chili, also make vegan fajitas.

4. Enjoy! Many people (myself included) get so worried that their guests will like their food, that they don’t really enjoy the meal themselves! But it’s like any food – meat based or not … sometimes your guests will love your food and sometimes maybe not. You must get the idea out of your head that just because it’s vegan they will automatically hate it. If you know your best recipes and offer two or three selections, you’re bound to make everyone happy!

Every couple of years I hold a fundraiser at my house for one of my favorite charities. After I went vegan I had to decide what concessions I was willing to make for my guests. I struggled and struggled that first year I was vegan about whether to suck it up and serve them non-vegan food. I thought about it long and hard and asked friends and family for advice, but when I turned the question into, “How many animals will I let die so my guests can eat?” the answer became so incredibly obvious: absolutely none. So I spent the week before my party planning out my menu and really pulling out all stops to make the food amazing. No kidding – that year I had more comments on how delicious the food was than any other year before!

The Power of One

2011-04-18T22:48:00.001-07:00

I was sitting in an office the other day, and the calendar had an adorable picture of a puppy and kitten together with the caption, “April: Prevent Animal Cruelty Month.” Who knew? But what a great topic for my blog!

Animal abuse is horrific. I can’t even watch the Animal Planet anymore because they are forever airing shows about the SPCA going into homes and saving animals from the most terrible conditions. I would cry so hard that my husband finally said, “No more Animal Planet – you’re too tender hearted.” He’s right. I only like to see puppies and kitties doing cute or funny things, and the people who adore them so happy to be in their presence. With practically no willpower over my diet my entire life, I read one little book (Diet for a New America, by John Robbins) and was so upset by it that I went vegan absolutely overnight.

Which brings me to the topic of today’s blog: What’s the most effective way that you can help prevent animal cruelty? Well, unless you’re abusing animals regularly, the most effective way to help prevent animal cruelty (and it is extremely effective) is to quit eating them, eating their products, wearing them and using them.

Most every animal sold for its meat is kept in absolutely deplorable conditions, and usually sent to the slaughterhouse under terror and pain. I really want you to take a moment and imagine this scenario: You live in an elevator your whole life with 5 other people. You are all fed the same disgusting food every day, and you defecate and urinate all over your elevator and have to step in it and sleep in it all the time. The fumes from your waste are so bad that you all get respiratory illness, the filth so bad you get infections and diseases, and rats are running through your elevator, biting you. You are crammed into such a small place that you get into huge fights with the 5 other people in the elevator. You bite each other, scratch each other and kick each other. Many of you go crazy, becoming quite dangerous to the other people in the elevator. You become afraid to sleep. On top of that, the people who own the elevator put antibiotics and hormones and other things in your disgusting food, making you grow too fast for your bone structure, resistant to bacteria, falling further ill, sick and sore. At some point, a couple of you in the elevator can’t even stand anymore, you are so beaten down by your conditions. This is what it is like for chickens stuffed into tiny cages together, or pigs in a hoghouse.

I don’ t need to go into gorry detail here about the atrocities of factory farming. However, I bring this up specifically so that you can imagine what it might be like yourself to live a life of confinement, pain, disease, emotional trauma and fear … and then contemplate why you might expect an animal to go through this type of cruelty – and much worse – only to become your dinner, your jacket or your shoes. I highly recommend the video Earthlings if you haven’t heard about all of the sources of animal products before.

Ask yourself, why would I treat a dog any differently that I would treat a chicken? They are all lives, and I argue that no one type of life – even a human life – is more worthy than any other. If you wouldn’t want to be treated in such inhumane conditions, then don’t expect another animal to do it for your sake either.

PETA says that a vegetarian saves 100 land animals a year by not eating them. That doesn’t include fish and shellfish, nor does it include the raw suffering of dairy animals and laying hens that aren’t killed for our meat, but suffer endlessly to give us dairy and eggs.

So, it’s April – Prevent Animal Cruelty Month. What will you do for the rest of this month to help prevent animal cruelty? Go vegetarian? Go fully vegan? Choose to buy the car that doesn’t have leather seats? Take your nephew to the beach instead of the circus or zoo? Rescue a cat or dog that is headed for the gas chamber tomorrow? Or maybe it’s time for you to reach out and become more vocal about why you are vegan? It doesn’t take much to make a huge difference.

The Power of One is amazing.

Honey, You Don't Love Yourself Enough!

2011-04-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

I have an amazing life coach. I hired her a couple of years ago when I was going through a very rough time in my life. In one of our first sessions together, as I was spilling out all the wrongs that were happening to me (yes to me – I saw myself as a victim,) she cut me off and said, in an amazingly direct way said, “Honey? You know what your problem is? You don’t love yourself enough!”

WHAT??? “Of course I love myself!” I shot back. “In fact, people often comment that I have great self-esteem and confidence. Those things come from loving yourself!” But she was just starting on me, on a journey that would last two years. “Honey, you’re not listening,” she said. I didn’t say you don’t love yourself. I said you don’t love yourself enough.”

Wow. That stopped me cold. It never occurred to me that I didn’t fully love myself, but I knew something had to be right in that statement, because it just hurt too much to hear it. If it really wasn’t true, it wouldn’t bother me at all. Like if someone accused me of being purple with orange polka dots, that wouldn’t hurt – it’s simply not true. But this hurt. Bad.

Over the coming months, I went to work on myself. I put aside everything else – desires to achieve, accomplish, acquire more, look great, gain publicity … and just read and read about how to love yourself more. And an amazing thing happened. I quit overeating. Not that I ate huge amounts before, but I certainly overate almost every day, defined as eating when I was not truly hungry. As I began to love myself more and more, I didn’t want to overeat. I wanted to treat my body and my spirit better. Sugary foods started sounding awful. What an amazing discovery!

But then, when life started to happen again and another hard time hit, I began hitting the vegan cookies again, and overeating. My great friend (whom I won’t name here – she’s somewhat well-known) had not eaten an unhealthy bite for years, yet hit a really rough period around the same time, and started downing treats and fatty foods like nobody’s business. As we discussed this we had this amazing discovery: It’s a blessing when you start to overeat.

Here’s why: Most of us have overeaten for years – every day we eat more than we need, downing salty crackers, chips and sugary treats, eating half a bag of cookies or chips before we even realize that we have opened the bag. We are absolutely unconscious - unconscious of what is hurting our hearts so badly that we are overeating so much. In this state of unconsciousness, we turn to food (or for some people, alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, etc.) to numb us from experiencing our pain. We simply don’t love ourselves enough to face what is hurting and deal with it head on. When you love yourself enough, you will face things head on, knowing that you will get through whatever it is, and grow from it all.

When you begin to overeat, you will start to recognize it for what it really is – a hurting heart that needs to be heard and loved. Perhaps you are fearful that someone you love is going to leave (or that it’s time for you to leave them) and you will be all alone. Perhaps you are fearful that you are not good enough in some way. Perhaps you are supremely angry about something, and not letting yourself acknowledge that anger. Perhaps you feel wronged, and are not speaking your truth to the person who wronged you.

Nowadays, when I overeat for a meal, it’s no big deal – perhaps it was just too tasty and I couldn’t stop myself from going back for seconds or thirds. But if I’m overeating for 2 or 3 days in a row, I sit on my meditation cushion and ask myself over and over again, “OK Sarah. What’s hurting inside?” Usually the reply back is, “Nothing! That’s the weird thing about it - nothing’s wrong at all!” But if I sit quietly and just ask over and over, “What’s hurting? What’s hurting? What’s hurting?” an answer will all of a sudden appear from nowhere. That’s usually when I’ll burst into tears, or scream out in rage over something that I was completely unconscious about, until I started overeating.

So after 39 years on this planet, many of them baffled and upset over the mystery of why I overate, I finally embrace my overeating. When I overeat, it’s a sign that I am not right; that I need to sit on my meditation cushion and love myself enough to go deep inside and face whatever it is that is hurting or upsetting me. When I’ve faced it and dealt with it, not only am I done overeating, I am also at peace with whatever was causing me to hurt in the first place. And I feel amazing. Ahhhh, the beauty of overeating. It’s simply a sign to wake up and be conscious … and to love yourself enough.

Inside Out

2011-03-22T21:42:00.001-07:00

I know someone who doesn’t take such good care of her body. It’s not that she’s overweight, but she drinks like a fish and subsists on Wheat Thins and Diet Pepsi, among other things. I want to tell you the same thing I tell her when she asks for my dietary advice.

We look at fat person and think, “That person sure looks unhealthy.” But what makes up someone’s health? Is it just their weight? Absolutely not! Weight is just one of many indicators about the state of our health. Since we adults tend to be very visual we believe what we see, and we can see if someone is fat or thin. However, we cannot see the insides of our bodies without cutting them open. You have probably never seen the inside of one of your arteries, and you probably have no idea if your liver is shriveled up and sickly or if your kidneys are enlarged and diseased.

I am a big believer that our insides tell the story of our health before our outsides do. If you could get a camera and run it through your arteries right now, you’d probably be shocked to see signs of coronary artery disease. Autopsy studies done on children who died from accidental deaths (like car accidents) found that children as young a 4 years of age had signs of coronary artery disease! Unless you eat like a purist, it’s a sure thing that you do too.

We can’t see our insides, so we forget about them. But since we are so visually oriented, try imagining this scenario going on inside of our bodies: Our insides (organs, blood, immune system, etc) work their tails off to keep us healthy. We throw sugar, salt, fat and chemicals down our throats, and our insides become like a firefighting department, racing into gear to save us from ourselves! Alarms and bells are going off everywhere! Imagine, after eating a meal made up of salt, sugar, fat and chemicals, all your organs screaming to each other, “AAAACCCCKKKKK! Saturated fat coming down the pipes! Oh No! 2,000 mg of SALT coming our way! Watch out! Yellow #11 and Red #7! HEEELLLLPPPP!! All hands on deck!”

They do a great job of handling all this stress we put on them, but over years and years of abuse, they eventually wear down, and they start crying out for help. In the early stages, these cries for help can show up in the form of fatigue, weight gain, and inability to concentrate, among other things. Later on, if we ignore these cries for help, they become screams, and this is when we start peeing every 15 minutes … and find out that we have diabetes, or we have chest pain … and find out we’re having a heart attack.

What would your pancreas look like if you could open up your body and see it? What would your heart look like? Your arteries? Your brain, liver, kidneys, ovaries, prostate, etc? Would they be pink and healthy and happy? Or would they be showing the signs of how hard you are making them work?

A healthy vegan diet is so easy on our insides. When we eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans that don’t have a lot of added salt, sugar, fat or chemicals, our insides can practically process our food while they sleep. These foods digest quickly, leaving healthy vegans feeling energetic and alert, not bogged down or groggy. They are naturally low in calories and fat yet provide huge amounts of nutrients, including (yes!) calcium and protein. As a result, vegans are trim, vibrant, need less sleep, have tons of energy, and in my opinion, are generally quite a happy lot.

So the next time that soda, chips and candy (even the vegan brands) are calling out your name, go consult with your insides: Do you really want to put them through so much pain when they have worked so hard to keep you alive all these years? If you’re mindful enough to remember to ask, the answer will assuredly be “no.”

Lessons From Oliver

2011-03-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

My sheep died last week. I am devastated. I miss him terribly, even though I only got to see him about once a year on my annual trek to Animal Acres, a farm animal rescue outside of LA. He won such a place in my heart that he is in my author’s bio picture on the back of my book!

But with his death, we can learn a lot from Oliver. He, along with many other sheep and goats, were found in 2005 just after Animal Acres opened. There were discovered in a slaughterhouse where the animals were found living in a cement building with no windows, surrounded everywhere by piles of excrement. Many of the animals were so weak they could no longer stand. Some, like Oliver, had horrible wounds, suffering at the hands of our fellow humans. The massive scar on his neck was a reminder of his slaughterhouse days that would stay with him for the rest of his life. All the animals found there on that fateful day suffered from infections, parasites, and severe respiratory illnesses, presumably from smelling the toxic fumes from the waste that they were standing in all day. Our fellow humans did this to Oliver and the other animals there.

Yet, when they were rescued and brought to Animal Acres to receive health care and to live out their lives at the beautiful sanctuary, Oliver forgave humans, and became an ambassador for the sanctuary. He was always the first to come trotting up to visitors, and loved to snuggle and kiss. If you stopped petting him he would gently nudge your hand, lest you had accidentally forgotten he was there. If you wanted to go visit the cows or chickens or goats, Oliver would escort you there, and be right by your side, so content to simply be in your presence.

Do you have people in your life that you are still holding grudges against? Are there events from your past that you are still bitter about? Is there someone in your life that you need to reach out and snuggle with more often? No matter what you have suffered at the hands of others, you can still turn your heart around and learn to love again. Although some may think “he’s just a sheep,” Oliver has taught me an amazing lesson, and I hope that, with his death, he can still continue to teach others, too.

The Mysterious Case of Sarah Button

2011-03-08T21:08:00.000-08:00

I got carded tonight at a restaurant. It’s true! I’m turning 40 later this year, and I got carded tonight at a restaurant. This is probably a bit flattering for anyone my age, but let me tell you why it is especially flattering for me…

When I was a teen, my best friend and I baked in the sun for hours every day each summer. I mean we would slather on the baby oil (forget sun protection!) and lie there without moving until we were blistered and red. It’s horrible to admit, but it’s true. One time I blistered really badly … and laid out again the very next day.

Fast forward 15 years. When I was about 28, the company I worked for had a couple of meetings every year where they spoiled us a bit and paid for a spa treatment. I always chose a facial, which was a love/hate thing. I loved facials because they were so relaxing – I always feel asleep I was so relaxed! Yet I hated them for a self-imposed reason … whenever I sat in the chair and the facialist started looking at my skin up close with her special light, she would always ask, “And how old are you, honey?” I always turned the question back to her: “Well, based on my skin, how old would you guess I am?”

Ahem. I can hardly say it out loud, but over the course of about 5 facials over a 3 year period, every single facialist guessed that I was between 39-42, yet my real age was 28-30. I was so dejected each time it happened, but figured it was my penance for baby oil and hours baking in the sun. I figured my skin would never get any better, but I hoped I could keep it from getting worse. Maybe I would actually catch up with the age I looked!

Well, when I went vegan I read somewhere that the vegan diet gives people great skin. But when I went vegan, my skin wasn’t at the forefront of my mind, and quite honestly, I was pretty skeptical about that claim anyway. I truly believed that skin damage couldn’t be reversed. Yet over the years as I aged, people’s estimates of my actual age kept decreasing! It didn’t happen quickly, but for sure people started regularly guessing 35-36, then 32-33, then 30, and then … a couple of years ago, someone guessed I was 29. I couldn’t believe it! I laughed out loud, but inside I wrote it off as an “older lady’s guess” and figured that since I beat her in singles tennis, it just made her feel better to assume I was in my 20’s. But it seems I was wrong. No kidding, I have had at least a dozen people since then guess I was in my 20’s. No one ever guesses 40 anymore! It’s like the mysterious case of ~~Benjamin~~ Sarah Button!

As I get older, I am trying to lose my attachment to all things that support my ego, including my looks among other things. I haven’t found one piece of evidence that our egos do us anything but harm. But it does tickle me to know that I actually looked young enough to someone that they felt they had better card me tonight. It goes to show you that there are short-term effects of the vegan diet (weight loss, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, etc) and long-term effects too (better skin!) Even if you aren’t vain (or are trying not to be,) it’s amazing to know what incredible things the vegan diet is doing for your health. If, over many years, your skin starts to look a decade or two younger, imagine what is happening to your arteries, liver, kidneys and heart!

So if you are vegan, be happy about the good things you are doing for your body. If you are not vegan yet, keep making good choices each meal. You may not be 100% vegan, but as you get closer and closer, you’ll be doing your body more and more good!

Coconut Curry Lentil Soup!

2011-03-04T00:55:00.000-08:00

I had a lunch meeting recently, and my clients kindly took me to an organic restaurant that had several vegetarian and vegan options. The soup of the day was this amazing coconut curry lentil soup. I went home and tried to re-create it, and surprising no one more than myself, I nailed it! (I’m not known for my culinary skills!) Here is the very easy recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 Cups Dried Lentils

3-4 Cups Vegetable Broth

1 Can Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes (if you can’t find fire-roasted, you can substitute for regular diced tomatoes)

1 Can Regular Diced Tomatoes

2 Cans Lite Coconut Milk (Use 1 1/2 cans to make it thicker than the photo)

1 t Red Curry Paste

Directions:

Cook lentils in the vegetable broth until almost all the way cooked through, about 40 minutes.

Add all other ingredients and simmer, about 5 – 8 minutes.

Vicki's Secret to Weight Loss!

2011-02-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

As I finished last week’s blog, it immediately gave me the idea about what to write for this week. I have a friend named Vicki that I have played tennis with for ages, and a few years ago, she surprised us all by dropping about 60 pounds very quickly. Furthermore, she’s kept every ounce of it off since! No, she didn’t go vegan, but her advice can help vegans and non-vegans alike.

What is Vicki’s simple secret to permanent weight loss? She continually asks herself two questions before she chooses to eat something:

1. Would I be just as happy (or sufficiently happy) with a healthier choice? If not…

2. Would I be okay eating a smaller portion of this less healthy food?

Here’s how it might look: You’re dying for a piece of your old favorite pizza, which is definitely not vegan. Ask yourself:

1. Would I be happy with a vegan Tofurkey pizza (which tastes just like my childhood favorite Jeno’s pizza, if you ask me!) This is still not a particularly healthy option, but it will be leaps and bounds healthier than regular pizza, as it won’t contain nearly as much saturated fat, no cholesterol and will have much fewer calories.

2. If your answer is “Yes” then ask yourself if, instead of the Tofurkey pizza, you could have a pizza without cheese? I love pizza without cheese – I put sundried tomatoes, capers, roasted red peppers, corn and all kinds of delicious toppings on it. If you can add in a whole wheat crust, then you’re done. This is a fully healthy meal! If not, then ask yourself if you can have a bit less of the Tofurky pizza, and add a large salad to it instead?

3. If your answer is “No” then see if you can just have one piece of your old favorite, instead of having the whole pizza.

Do you see how this works? All it requires is that you are conscious before you eat. You must be conscious enough to stop, ask yourself these questions, and answer them honestly. If you are the type of person who eats half a bag of chips before you realize you’ve even opened the bag, then this requires some practice.

Once you begin asking these questions you will likely start dropping pounds and gain much better health. How? Because every time you eat, you will be conscious of what and how much you eat – you will be making decisions on what you will and won’t eat, and this will allow you to feel like you’re in control – not the food. Even if you consciously choose to eat something unhealthy, you will feel like it was your choice. This feeling of being in control – and undoubtedly making some (perhaps many) better food choices every day – will give you a greater sense of self confidence. Your weight will start dropping, and you will feel good about it – not like you had to starve yourself to drop those few pounds.

I know many of you follow my blog as you go vegan to try to lose weight. Although this tip is not relevant only for vegans, it’s one of the best tips I’ve ever seen when put successfully into action. Let me know how it goes!

All You Can Eat!

2011-02-16T17:16:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to one of my all-time favorite veggie restaurants. I ordered two entrees. One for me, and the other for … me! This is not uncommon – in fact, my manager once told me that I’m only to expense my own meals when I'm traveling for business – not my friends’ meals … and I had to fess up – they’re both MINE!!!

However, this is one of the things I love most about being vegan: You can eat a lot of food and still not get fat. If I ate normal-sized portions, I’d be one of those skinny vegans like Kathy Freston, showing off my Size 2 butt on Oprah. But I love food and like to eat a lot of it, and since I sometimes order two entrees, I have a Size 6 butt. Size 8 on a bad day. I figure that’s not too bad for someone who eats like she's eating for two.

So, here’s what I’d like to tell you if you are new to veganism:

The vegan diet is not a calorie-restriction diet!

When you are hungry, simple eat...

Just make sure it’s vegan. The more you eat healthy vegan foods (like fruit, salads and beans) and the less you eat unhealthy vegan foods (like vegan cookies, cakes and ice cream) the more you can eat and the thinner you will be.

Furthermore, the more you eat healthy vegan foods, the more you will crave healthy foods. We are a nation addicted to sugar, salt and fat – even vegans – so before you pick up that bag of vegan cookies, ask yourself, “Would I be happy if I had a (whole!) cantaloupe for dessert instead?” If not, how about some whole grain toast with some almond butter on it? The more you can make those swaps, the healthier – and thinner – you will be … and you can eat like a horse along the way!

What's Your Number?

2011-02-10T22:42:00.000-08:00

Many people who ask me with interest about the vegan diet, ultimately give me that wistful look of having a dream they think is unlikely to ever come true, saying, “I wish I could be vegan, but I just can’t seem to give up eating ________.” They feel that the idea of being 100% vegan is something that is just too hard, and that they’ll never be able to succeed.

But herein lies the question: Do you have to be 100% vegan to make a difference in your health, the lives of animals, and the environment? The answer is, “absolutely not!”

While I do believe that being 100% vegan is one of the best things you can do for your health and one of the most compassionate acts you can make toward our fellow earthlings and our planet, you don’t have to be 100% vegan to make a big difference.

Every meal you choose to eat that has no meat and no dairy will most likely be better for your health, will help to save a life, will help avoid further suffering of animals, and will make our environment cleaner. (For details on how, read John Robbin’s epic book, The Food Revolution.) Like a smoker that can’t quit seem to quit, he will benefit by cutting back on smoking, even if quitting altogether is what’s ideal.

The more you can have meatless meals, the more you can choose fruits and veggies over fast food and processed foods, the more you choose to cut back half (or all) the cheese on your pizza or the butter on your bread, the more you will make a difference in your health, the lives of animals and the environment.

So, if the idea of being a vegan sounds great but you’re overwhelmed by the thought of it, don’t think that you can only benefit by going 100% vegan. Try going vegan on Mondays. Try going vegan on weekends. Try going 20% vegan, then 40%, then 60%... My husband is about 80-90% vegan, yet enjoys superb health and is still making a huge impact on the lives of animals and on our environment by making it this far. It’s something to be very proud of!

One of my biggest motivations in teaching others to go vegan is a statistic that PETA has on their website:

Every vegetarian saves 100 lives each year by not eating meat.

If this is true, you can save 10 lives every single year just by going 10% vegetarian or vegan! 20 lives each year by going 20% veg! 50 lives by going 50% vegan! Multiply your veggie percentage number by the number of years you expect to live, and you can see what an amazing impact you can have! Imagine how high your number could get! Imagine how much healthier you’ll become along the way!

And then, if you find yourself thinking wistfully about all the lives you’re saving, but wish you could save even more … teach it to others.

Weight: Be Kind to Yourself

2011-02-02T20:50:00.001-08:00

Many people assume that once you adopt the vegan diet, you’ll never overeat or have to worry about your weight again. This isn’t necessarily true, although I will say that it is incredibly hard to be a fat vegan. Having said that, overeating is an addiction just like smoking or alcohol can be, and many addicts will simply switch out Oreos for vegan cookies. I know I did!

Here’s the good news: Vegan junk food generally has fewer calories and saturated fat than standard junk food, and certainly won’t contain any cancer-causing animal proteins. So, even if you are addicted to sugar, salt, fat and thus, overeating, you’ll probably still lose weight as a vegan junk foodist.

However, here is something else I have learned in all my studies in Plant-Based Nutrition and putting it to use in my own life: If you cut out most salt, sugar and fat from your vegan diet, you will naturally begin to crave healthy foods. Grapes will explode on your tongue and corn will cause your taste buds to dance! Then, when you get stressed out and go on a binge, you’ll want to reach for healthy foods, and I’ve never known anyone to get fat from binging on apples or spinach.

But here is what I’d really like to say today about weight: Be kind to yourself. If you are in the middle of a very stressful time and have put on some weight, that’s okay. It will come off when it’s ready, and quite frankly, I believe in the phrase, “The more you resist, the more it persists.” So, instead of resisting the new pounds and trying to bludgeon yourself into a miserable starvation routine to get them off (which will just induce even more stress), sit quietly in meditation for a few minutes, and know that all is good, just as it is. The pounds will come off eventually. Go to the issue that is causing you stress, and work on resolving that issue so that you can move forward, back into your most healthful body.

All is good, just as it is, right here, right now.

Vegan Work Travel

2011-01-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

I have a job where I’m on the road almost every week for work – sometimes flying around my territory seeing customers, but often for large corporate meetings or medical meetings that involve business dinners in a banquet room. My diet always seems to end up as a topic of conversation at the table. Why? Because when the waiters come out to the tables with rubbery chicken or overcooked steak for everyone else, they inevitably come out with some colorful array of veggies, beans and whole grains for me, drawing everyone’s eyes to my plate!

Last night, at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, I had this gorgeous mix of roasted veggies over couscous with a thick, bright orange slab of butternut squash, cooked just perfectly. The night before I got a veggie tart with perfectly ripe heirloom tomatoes on the side.

How to make sure you’re served not just a vegan meal, but also a good vegan meal? The answer is simple: Call ahead to the hotel (or meeting planner), tell them exactly what you won’t eat as a vegan that they might not be aware of (butter, cream, milk products, etc) and then tell them what you do want. I often politely ask for a whole grain with beans and/or veggies and not too much oil. If you don’t want white rice with steamed veggies, tell them that as well! Many a great conversation has started around the table based on people’s envy over my vegan dinner! I’ve even had two customers go vegan after reading books that I recommended in those conversations!

Veggie Ceviche

2011-01-19T11:41:00.001-08:00

I’m not a huge fan of cooking, but I am a huge fan of eating! However, because I really care about my health, I am forever looking for whole, vegan recipes that don’t use oil, margarine, or other added fats that aren’t whole foods by themselves. Do you have any original, great recipes that fit these criteria? If so, let me know so I can post them!

Here is my absolute favorite recipe, taken from my book, Vegan in 30 Days. Even non-vegans beg for the recipe and claim it’s a hit at home! I like it best cold, but if you want it warm for the winter, just heat it up (and add the avocado and cilantro afterward.)

incredible Veggie Ceviche

Ingredients:

½ Red Onion, diced

3 Tomatoes, diced

1 Red Pepper, diced

1 Green Pepper, diced

1 C Corn

2 Cans Black Beans (or pinto, or a mix)

1 Avocado, diced

8 Sprigs Cilantro, diced

3 T Red Wine Vinegar

Dash of Cayenne Pepper or Chipotle Powder

Juice of one Lemon

Dash of Tabasco Sauce

Prepare:

Mix first 8 ingredients in a big bowl. Mix last 4 ingredients in a cup. Combine and serve!

Vegan Restaurants - What's YOUR Favorite?

2011-01-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

I adore eating out at restaurants. I’ll eat at fancy places and at dives, by myself or with other people … as long as the food is vegan and delicious, I’m in!

I travel around the country constantly for work, and one of the best perks is the ability to try out vegan and vegetarian restaurants in different cities. Here are some of my favorites … but I haven’t tried them all! If you have a favorite that’s not on this list, let me know and we’ll post your recommendations too!

SUTRA, Seattle: This place is so good, my husband and I become investors. Good thing – Chef Colin impressed the producer of the Food Network so much (without even knowing who he was until dinner was over!) that the Food Network spent 14 hours in the restaurant video taping Colin at work. He is a true master! Dinner only, prix fix, nearly all local, organic and vegan. Dinner is always different, and I have had some of the best meals of my life there

MILLENIUM, San Francisco: Millenium is famous. The food is incredible – you just want to stop and close your eyes and savor each bite! Yet, even as a 100% vegan restaurant, it’s so good that you can take work clients there for a “fancy” dinner, and they will absolutely love their dinner and feel completely satisfied.

SUBLIME, Fort Lauderdale: Another 100% vegan recipe on the high-end of the restaurant scale, Sublime has been written up as one of the best vegan restaurants in the country, and for good reason. If you miss the taste of real macaroni and cheese, veal piccatta and sushi, Sublime will give them back to you … and you won’t be disappointed! When I go to Ft. Lauderdale for a week every May for work, I will eat there 3 or 4 times!

WATERCOURSE, Denver: I go to Denver more frequently than anywhere else, and I pick my hotel based on its proximity to Watercourse! I’ve found their menu to be a little hit or miss, but when you hit it right, the food is amazing. I have eaten their vegan Caesar Salad and Portobello Cap three times in the last three days! If you want vegan “hot wings with ranch” – by god, you’ll never know you’re not having the real thing.

CARMELITA, Seattle: Carmelita isn’t 100% vegan, but most items on the menu can be made that way. They focus on in-season, organic food, and it absolutely shows in the taste. I ate there a few weeks ago by myself, and was actually “Mmmming” and “Ahhhing” out loud!

NATIVE FOODS, Los Angeles: If you like fast food, this is your heaven. The Oklahoma Bacon Cheeseburger is astounding, as are the Scorpion Burger and Pizzas. The do have healthy options – brown rice bowls with variations of veggies and sauces and some great salads – which are also delicious, so if you like “healthy food that’s fast,” you’ll love it here too!

CAFÉ GRATITUDE, San Francisco: Nearly 100% raw, what you’ll like about Café Gratitude even more than the food is the vibe. The raw lasagna is called something like “I am Adorable” and one of the brown rice and veggie bowls is called something like “I am Abundant.” Although it sounds hokey, you can’t help but feel that all is right when the world when the waiter puts your plates down in front of you and your dining partner, saying, “You are abundant … and you are adorable!”

HERBIVORE, San Francisco: A great diner-style restaurant, with delicious, fresh, inexpensive healthy vegan food. The menu is 100% vegan and stretches for miles, giving us vegans more options than we usually get all year. A great place to try!

ARAYA, Seattle: Speaking of menus that stretch for miles, Araya also complies. If you miss really good Thai, Araya is a Thai restaurant with very conscious and compassionate owners, dedicating to serving cruelty-free food. If you know Seattle and like Wild Ginger, I think Aray’s food compares! Perhaps not as high-end, but drop-dead delicious Thai. Make sure you try the Pumpkin Curry and the Drunken Mushrooms.

FRESH MINT, Pa’ia, Maui: Even on Maui and even in Pa’ia, known for it’s vegetarian community, it’s still hard to find a 100% vegan restaurant. Fresh Mint, a Vietnamese restaurant fits the bill nicely. It’s not fancy, but the food is good, and you’ll love how all the diners know each other, showing you the community side of Maui that the tourists haven’t found yet. If you reach out and are friendly, you’ll likely get invited to multiple parties and potlucks while you’re on vacation!