I’m headed back to Whitman tomorrow, and as soon as I get there, I’ll
be starting my first food challenge for the year: one month being vegan.
I’ve been a vegetarian (or pescatarian, more accurately) for most of
the last twelve years, with a brief hiatus this past year to travel (Ghana and
Ecuador are not veggie-friendly countries) and explore the world of local,
grass-fed beef (which is probably a better choice than processed soy in the
long run). Being a vegetarian is incredibly easy for me—while I like the taste
of meat, it’s not something I crave or feel that I need to be healthy. I get
plenty of iron and protein from other sources, and I pretty much subsist on
beans, lentils, yogurt and cheese. (I try to steer clear of soy because of its
role in deforesting the Amazon, the way it’s usually grown in monocultures and
the way it’s processed using a neurotoxin which can cause severe health
problems in workers. But sometimes, you need to have pho or pad Thai.)
Being vegan is a whole different ballgame. I love cheese. It’s like, my
favorite food. I recognize that being as outraged as I am by factory farming
while conveniently ignoring where my cheese and yogurt come from is
hypocritical, and I’ve tried to get better about that in the past year. While I’ll
eat cheese when it’s served to me, I try to only buy happy local cheese when
I’m in charge of my own food. But the majority of the animal products I do eat
come from the same factory farmed sources I’m always complaining about.
I’ve gone into detail about my food philosophy a million times on this
blog, but quick recap: I don’t think being vegan is particularly healthy for
most people, I think framing veganism as the solution to factory farming is
really disingenuous and alienating, I think the ability to be vegetarian or
vegan is often a function of privilege (knowledge, cooking facilities, time,
money) and I don’t think individual choices are a valid solution to anyenvironmental problems, especially not something as complicated as the
industrial food juggernaut. BUT, I’m also a person who thinks and talks about
food and food politics a lot, and if that’s a thing I’m going to be doing for
my life, I think I should at least know what it’s like to actually be vegan. I
figure a month is long enough that I’ll get an idea what it’s like and won’t
just spend the entire time counting down to my next quesadilla, but short
enough that I can stick it out without being miserable or unhealthy if it
doesn’t agree with my body.
I’m interested in exploring how I feel during this month, especially
since I’m following it with a no processed foods and no added sugar month (and
then going back to being a regular pescatarian). As many of you know, I have an
adolescent dragon named Chester who lives in my stomach and likes to throw
temper tantrums and/or loud parties. So anything which makes his life a little
easier works out well for me too. I’m going to be recording general impressions
(do I feel healthy? full? hungry? craving certain foods? well-nourished?), as
well as weight (I’m guessing I might lose weight, but probably not much, given
that Tim’s Cascade Chips are vegan), energy levels and anything else different
that I notice. My hope is that I’ll use this month to explore new recipes and
come out of it with some healthier and more conscious eating habits. Stay tuned…
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