I learned a few things at the grocery store today.

[LeftyMom]

1. If I go hungry, I will spend all of my money on ice cream. Investing in whoever makes Soy Delicious would be smart.

2. Boys need rules. Lots of rules. Rules you never imagined having to tell them, like "don't yell Rage Against The Machine lyrics in the store."

3. Parenting boys lowers your standards. After explaining #2 I was just happy he'd picked a song that didn't involve the word "motherfucker."

4. They don't have the f*&$*n vegan sour cream anymore. How the hell am I supposed to make onion dip?

[Bullwinkle925]

1. Hi Lefty -

Funny stuff.

I've been interested in your 'vegan' lifestyle. When did you begin and how did you take those first steps?

[LeftyMom]

2. Thanks!

Well, I'm a bit of an odd case. Most people wrestle with the idea and come to the conclusion that they ought to go vegan over time. I decided to go vegan within an hour of first hearing of the concept, though the practical matter of actually doing so took me some time.

What happened is that I was browsing one day and came across a website that described some very basic information about how farmed animals are treated and the damage that animal flesh consumption does to our bodies. I was actually eating some spaghetti with meat sauce as I started reading all of this and found that I simply could not finish. So what I decided to do was to go ovo-lacto vegetarian that very day and give myself a year to learn more about nutrition and veg cooking and to transition to veganism. It actually took me less than 6 months, I simply couldn't bring myself to eat eggs or cheese anymore as I found out about the practices involved in thier production and noticed how much better I felt without them.

I lost about 35 lbs, then stabilized within a few lbs of my ideal weight. I was monitoring my athsma for a study at the time I went veg, and I went from attacks roughly 3 times a week and frequent waking due to shortness of breath as an omnivore to very infrequent attacks while ovo lacto. When I eliminated dairy from my diet I stopped having attacks at all and that's continued for almost 4 years although I do have occasional shortness of breath or tightness in my chest.

If I had it to do over again, I wonder if it might have been better to just go vegan in one fell swoop. My thought was that it would be easier to re-learn to cook as a vegetarian and have cheese and eggs for familiar dishes, but I really re-learned twice, first with a very cheesetarian (and unhealthy) model of veg eating, then with a whole-foods focused vegan diet. All that dairy didn't agree with me anyhow and my digestion was much improved when it was gone. But I'm not sure if I'd have managed a more sudden change and I've been vegan almost 4 years now, so it worked and I have no regrets. :)

[Bullwinkle925]

3. Do you substitute a lot of soy cheeses, etc?

What are your favorite recipes?

[LeftyMom]

5. Not really.

As far as subsituting directly for animal products in non-vegan recipes, cheese is a bit of a pain. The problem is that most vegan cheese doesn't taste that great (especially for people who are newly vegan and able to compare it to real cheese.) The mouth feel and texture is usually pretty lacking.

The good thing is that most people find that after a short time without cheese (usually a week or three) they stop craving it. It turns out that cheese has these chemicals in it called casomorphins that stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. They're present in all mamamlian milk, presumably to keep nurslings on the breast and thriving, but the cheesemaking process concentrates them. Once people stop eating cheese for a while, or if they're on a medication that blocks opiate receptors, cheese loses it's appeal.

I guess what I'm saying is that there are vegan cheeses out there, (there are also some better ones that are supposed to be marketed here soon) but generally I don't bother. Well, except for the can of soy parmesean I keep around for pizza.

Other dairy products are easier to substitute, since there are one for one equivalents for fluid milk, sour cream, cream cheese and butter. Oh, and vegan ice cream kicks ass.

[Bullwinkle925]

13. Interesting.

I zoomed around one Vegan site and was surprised to see that honey is also a no-no. Do you refrain?
I just had my first soy chai-tea latte. Not bad. But since it contains honey, it won't make the true vegan list. I always begin my days with a super-hot chai tea latte as I'm not much of a coffee consumer.
I know this is will take some time to adjust - I'm going to give it my best shot. I've had the Soy Ice Cream before and it is good. On my way to Trader Joe's now to nose around.
Thanks for all the help.
BW925

[LeftyMom]

15. I don't eat honey

I wouldn't give anybody who does a hard time, but I personally don't. Personally I want to eliminate my involvement in animal exploitation as much as I practically can (there are some things I'm stuck with due to lack of alternatives, like the stearic acid in my tires or the animal-tested prescription medicine I need when my neck pain is intolerable. Shold animal-free alternatives become available I would embrace them.)

Honey is a bee colony's way of storing food for the winter, so when it's harvested and replaced with a less nutritionally dense sugar subsitute, some of the bees die of hunger who otherwise wouldn't. Usually some bees are crushed by the removal of the slats and manipulation of the boxes as well. It's certainly not a cause of suffering on the scale of factory farming or confinement agriculture, but it's something I don't need and can do without pretty easily, so I do.

I don't know if you know about it but we have a veg/vegan/AR group here with a ton of recipes and disussions about different aspects of veganism: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=231 There are quite a few recipes in my journal as well, though I've been a bit slack about posting new ones.

[Thtwudbeme]

14. my first step towards being a vegetarian

(disclamer: Michael and I still eat farm eggs (yard chickens---or "free range," and some seafood) came from studying Buddhism in my religious studies classes.

When I read that some of the Buddhist monks consider eating meat essentially "eating a bad death"...that did it for me. Not one piece of chicken, beef, or pork has passed my lips since.

Stephanie

[flvegan]

4. Hold on...wait...

1. Understood. Pass.
2. So let's say this boy instead embraces "Black Masks and Gasoline" (Rise Against) rather than RATM. Is it RATM you hate, or the intent? Wish I could still get away with yelling that shit in the store, dammit. Tell you what, I'LL work with LeftyKid on this one, okay? Hee hee...
3. I don't think delaRocha used "motherfucker" that much. Why do you hate RATM?
4. Onion dip? Duh. You obviously need to stage a protest of sorts, standing naked with a sock over your privates. Oh, wait...that's what RATM did...nevemind.

[LeftyMom]

6. 2. Well, I was at the subruban bougie food co-op

downtown I don't think anybody'd have turned thier head at a five year old in the refrigerator section yelling about the renegades of funk. In the burbs? :rofl: Tell you what, you take him to the store and he can yell any damned thing you two crazies get in your heads. ;)

3. He yells it pretty damn loud at the end of Killing In The Name Of. LK and I have already had a talk about how he's not allowed to repeat the ending to that song. But yes, I hate RATM, which is why my 5 year old has never heard them and thus his singing at the grocery store was clearly inspired by alien mind control rays hidden behind the zenisoy pudding cups.

4. Or I could go to whole foods and get some tomorrow. :shrug:

[flvegan]

7. Hate...RATM

Why do you hate America/RATM?

[LeftyMom]

8. because I'm evil when I get no onion dip

Blame the food co-op.

[flvegan]

9. Your co-op is

outranked by only a few, but a few nontheless...

[LeftyMom]

10. Outranked by places with vegan sour cream, no doubt.

I bet it's the god-damned "no transfats" policy again. I don't see what the hell the point of the rice-based sour cream they had was. Why bother when it still has dairy ingredients?

[flvegan]

11. Vegan guac, too.

Sorry. Truth hurts from time to time.

[LeftyMom]

12. I'm allergic to avocados, so that's no big deal to me.

:)