Signals from Vega

[dreamer_easy]

Veganism

Advantages
- more ethical
- healthier

Disadvantages
- less practical
- YUMMY EGGS AND CHEESE ZOMG

More ethical: egg and milk production are linked to rough treatment for animals, including the disposal of male chicks and male calves. This can be partly ameliorated by buying organic dairy produce and RSPCA-approved eggs, but never totally.

Healthier: Cutting out eggs and dairy would mean lowering the saturated fat in my diet (although again this can be partly ameliorated with low-fat cheese). Plus I'm lactose intolerant and have to take enzymes whenever I eat dairy. Compensating for protein and B12 is no problem.

Less practical: the first stage of changing your diet is just awareness. omg I didn't realise how much I was relying on eggs and dairy. Even Sanitarium's fake bacon contains whey protein. The available soy cheeses do not impress me. Takeaway food is a huge problem.

YUMMY EGGS AND CHEESE ZOMG: zomg!

In conclusion: if I try to be a strict vegan, I will utterly fail. Better to continue slouching in that direction.

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

What if you had designated cheat days? Like once or twice a month?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I think I need designated cheat days once or twice a day.

[matthewwolff.livejournal.com]

lol!

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the ZOMG factor keeps me from going vegan.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

NO MORE HONEY OMG

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oh, fuck bees.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I can but say:

Ow.

[alawston.livejournal.com]

You win the Internet.

Vague-anism

[stevencaldwell.livejournal.com]

I hear you Kate. The whole 'what to eat' schtick is so hard. I used to humour you so much over this whole vegetarian thing. I needed to be less vague about it. These days I am trying to bear in mind the following when I choose my food. If I am eating pain, I carry that pain. Or at least the echo of that pain. Am I capable and prepared to do that? What does it do to me to know I have condoned pain?

I can use convenience and, quite frankly, my mind to twist myself into knots over it. When that happens, I am eating even more pain. My pain.Pain with a soucon of guilt. So, slow the consumption of pain. Reduce it. In this life you will never stop the causes of pain, but you can cultivate and develop the intention to reduce. After all we, as the nebulous They say, are what we eat. Don't be pain. Eat the intention and realisation to reduce pain instead. One chicken burger, one Honey Smoothie at a time. :-)

Re: Vague-anism

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I think that's what's happening to me - the pain is starting to leak through. It's the same thing that happened at sixteen, when I first became a vegetarian.

Re: Vague-anism

[jblum.livejournal.com]

Perhaps an easier approach would be to acknowledge and observe the pain rather than trying to avoid it... I've been thinking about that sort of thing a lot lately in various contexts, that I can't tread so lightly as to leave no footprint, that I can neither avoid nor cure all the ills surrounding me. I have to find some way of coexisting with them, and allowing myself some contentment despite them... and in this case, that means accepting that I do want to eat cheese. Or in my case, meat. No guilt! (or, at least, very little...)

Re: Vague-anism

[stevencaldwell.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I first became a vegetarian because a nun told me to. (So much for guiding my own destiny, eh?)

The thought of meat makes me ill, yet I haven't faced the reality of eggs and milk (btw I've just had some yoghurt so how's that for hypocrisy) but, as I said before, reduction is the key.

Oh, and if it wasn't for you being a veggo, I would never have done it. The example of your life has more impact than a tiny Taiwanese nun with a stick, though she did hit quite hard.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

*Googling noises* Heavens! I didn't know eggs contained so much monounsaturated fat. Thanks for the pointer!

I <3 tofu and tempeh, but also use a lot of lentils and chickpeas, which I also <3. :-) I've eaten and enjoyed gluten, but don't use it at home. I don't use much in the way of peanut butter, either.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that many restaurants apparently consider fish sauce and oyster sauce to be "vegetarian". :-P

The most obvious vegan takeaway option would be pasta and a tomato-based sauce - during my months or years of severe lactose intolerance, I ate an awful lot of that!

[alawston.livejournal.com]

My housemate at university was lactose intolerant, but could handle goats' milk. That was a shock the first time I opened the fridge without paying enough attention. I would naively assume goats' milk to be a wee bit more ethical in production given that it can't be produced on such an industrial scale.

[outsdr.livejournal.com]

I spent about 10 years not drinking milk because my parents were raising goats and that's all we had to drink... raw goat's milk. To this day, the memory of the foul stuff literally makes me gag.

[hexacontium.livejournal.com]

Oh my... I can't imagine being vegetatian here, let alone vegan, as also fruits and vegetables from organic farmers just taste like water. I wonder, veggies here must have their tastebuds surgically removed, or they cover everything in a thick layer of cheese and honey.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

My experience of organic fruit and veg has, happily, been the opposite of yours - they tend to be *more* flavoursome than the supermarket stuff, although possibly only because they're days or weeks fresher.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

I don't understand your rationale for declaring veganism to be more ethical. Assuming that the male calves are sold for leather/meat, it wouldn't be wasteful... Even moreso, while individual bees may not like having their honey farmed, it certainly doesn't hurt them...

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I believe I had made my stance on bees clear elsewhere in this thread.

Veganism would be more ethical for me personally. I'm boycotting the meat industry; since dairy and egg production are inextricably linked to that industry, it's inconsistent for me to patronise them.

[the-cockfighter.livejournal.com]

Maybe Jon could buy you a cow and a few hens for your birthday?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

The lawn has not been mowed for about two months. Right now, I wish we owned a small herd of goats.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

There's a movement afoot to call people who occasionally eat meat and dairy flexitarians, which I like since it takes away the "I can't have" quality that seems to surround so much vegetarian and vegan talk. There's nothing so tempting as when it becomes forbidden and all that.

I was a vegetarian for two years, and in that time I ate an unbelievable amount of processed food. Now I eat meat, but not as often and I do more cooking, so now it feels like I'm adding to the types of foods I can eat instead of the other way around.

A couple of things I like to consult are Vegetarian Times (http://www.vegetariantimes.com), Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Students-Go-Vegan-Cookbook-Recipes/dp/0307336530) (it has the easiest and tastiest tempeh reuben recipe anywhere), and The Post Punk Kitchen (http://www.theppk.com). They have recipes for seitan (http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15959&p=1) and sushi (http://www.theppk.com/recipes/vegansushi.shtml) that I use regularly.

Also, re eggs: they contain lutein, which is really good for your eyes.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Thanx for the linx! My favourite recipe site is The Low Fat Vegetarian Recipe Archive, which is less horrifying than it sounds - lots of very simple recipes, from which I learned to cook. :-)