All Things Vegan!

[cecilmeyer]

I have been a vegetarian not vegan for about 30 years.The only animal product I still eat from time to time is cheese and eggs.I cannot speak for members on this forum but I will give my opinion why they and I believe eating meat is taboo.Some living creature has to die in our current age to supply meat.Lab grown is coming but still in its development stages.I guess most of us have empathy for the beings life that is being taken just for the sole purpose of the taste rather than survival.When I drive down the highway and see animals that are going to the slaughterhouses packed in cattle cars in subzero weather I can only think of when humanity has done the same thing to his fellow man not to used as food but as slaves.When you see these beings up close and see they have emotions, feelings and they suffer and feel fear your conscious will fully awaken and see what we are doing is truly wrong.We share this world with other beings and they have a right to thrive too.And no I do not believe a mosquito has a right to spread malaria or ticks have a right to spread disease.I am a hypocrite in that regard!!And finally I am 50 years old and have very little health issues I am not overweight and I am on no prescription drugs so eating vegetarian has been very good for my health and my conscience.Hope that helps and if you have any questions about being a vegetarian or a vegan please feel free to ask.

[cecilmeyer]

All I can say is incredible.This brilliant man is close to 100 and he looks great and has all his mental faculty's still with him.He looks much younger than my Grandfather who passed away at 70 and my Grandfather was bedridden and almost to a vegetative state when he died.I can only hope others will listen to what this man has to say.

[Akasha]

Posted by promezeus (here)
My favorite Vegan recipe:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OSrJl1Dskzs

Apologies for missing this amongst the turmoil of the festive period. To****en brilliant! Coincidentally, I did a marinated tofu bake today. Instructions below:

2 cups warm water

1 TBS vegan bouillon

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

4 cloves finely chopped garlic

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp salt

2 TBS olive oil

2 bay leaves

4 TBS soy sauce/tamari

1 block of tofu

First stir the dry and wet ingredients together in a jug (minus the tofu). Then squeeze the tofu between 2 plates to get rid of excess water. Then cut it in half and place in an oven-proof container. I find 2 loaf tins are best for this. One to contain the tofu and marinade and the other to act as the lid. After 30 minutes in a hot oven (200 degrees C 'ish' depending on the oven) the lid can be removed and after a further 15 minutes the tofu can be turned over to caramelize the bottom too. 15 minutes after that, it's done. The marinade will have reduced to a delicious gravy too. I normally bake a bunch of spuds at the same time to get more value out of the whole process.

Bon appetit!

[Akasha]

Posted by cecilmeyer (here)
All I can say is incredible.This brilliant man is close to 100 and he looks great and has all his mental faculty's still with him.He looks much younger than my Grandfather who passed away at 70 and my Grandfather was bedridden and almost to a vegetative state when he died.I can only hope others will listen to what this man has to say.

A warm welcome to Avalon, Cecil. Is this the man you mentioned above?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hGQTpxjbwaM

[Akasha]

One of Neo HUMAN Eve's audio-visual experiences, entitled The Vegan Zeitgeist. Fat bass, cool beats and imaginative visual editing come together to deliver a powerful message (watch on highest def' possible):

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eCq2wb9KikA

[DeDukshyn]

I think I'm going to try this recipe today, "Curried roasted cauliflower and carrot soup" -- I've got some extra carrots and a cauliflower head that needs using, this should be perfect.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228566/...-curried-soup/

I'll have to pick up some limes and coconut milk. I'll post back and give my opinion if I get this done.

[bettye198]

Great thread and good Q and A. And one big comment, we need not to go the direction of one thing, one lifestyle suits all. Especially since we are a mix of DNA and culture and belief systems. I say this with great respect for health as I manage my husbands nutritional practices in two locations. He studied with some very avant garde physicians and practitioners all his professional life crossing the United States to find who is not afraid to work with energetic means and nutritional means to attain perfect health. Perfect may be a misnomer but it is a goal that resides in our spiritual being while walking the Earth.

Everything we eat requires evaluation. And not all the food we THINK is good for us has issues we need to always consider. I will not go into all that but just share what we eat. Gluten free flours if we are creating a waffle or pancake. Happy organic free range eggs ( I probably would not be a happy vegan without an egg) lots of vegetables freshly cooked,organic beans, lentils, peas. Quinoa, millet and so far unsalted organic butter. I have not found the sheep or goat butter yet. Goat yogurt, Goat kefir, make our own almond milk. Smoothies rich with vegies and some fruit and coconut milk. I am rethinking organic chicken. No red meat. Fish rare. Raw nuts and seeds.Coconut creamer for anything needing milk product.

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
I think I'm going to try this recipe today, "Curried roasted cauliflower and carrot soup" -- I've got some extra carrots and a cauliflower head that needs using, this should be perfect.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228566/...-curried-soup/

I'll have to pick up some limes and coconut milk. I'll post back and give my opinion if I get this done.

Well ... I ended up modifying it a lot (and doubled it) and ended up with a nice product. The recipe was a nice base. I added a red pepper, roasted sesame oil, garam masala and smoked paprika, forgot to buy broth - used an all vegetable -'chicken' bouillon, and a vegetable bouillon instead. Chopped a bunch of fresh basil in at the end. Turned out a bit tasting like a squash or pumpkin soup. I quite enjoyed it.

[Akasha]

Posted by DeDukshyn (here)

Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
I think I'm going to try this recipe today, "Curried roasted cauliflower and carrot soup" -- I've got some extra carrots and a cauliflower head that needs using, this should be perfect.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228566/...-curried-soup/

I'll have to pick up some limes and coconut milk. I'll post back and give my opinion if I get this done.

Well ... I ended up modifying it a lot (and doubled it) and ended up with a nice product. The recipe was a nice base. I added a red pepper, roasted sesame oil, garam masala and smoked paprika, forgot to buy broth - used an all vegetable -'chicken' bouillon, and a vegetable bouillon instead. Chopped a bunch of fresh basil in at the end. Turned out a bit tasting like a squash or pumpkin soup. I quite enjoyed it.

Tweaking (no, not Miley Cyrus style dancing) is often the order of the day when dealing with online recipes. Sounds like your mod's made it more tasty for sure!

[Akasha]

Orcas at Seaworld are on cocktails of drugs including benzodiazepines and antipsychotics:

Many SeaWorld orcas were on daily drugs to treat chronic stress, several of the park's former trainers have told The Dodo.

"We had whales who were on medication every single day of their life," said John Hargrove, who was a trainer at SeaWorld San Diego and SeaWorld San Antonio for a combined 14 years.

Hargrove recently wrote a book about his experience at the park.

The Dodo spoke to Hargrove and former trainers Samantha Berg, John Jett, Carol Ray and Jeffrey Ventre about the medications they administered to captive orcas at SeaWorld's three parks.

From antipsychotics (to decrease testosterone) to benzodiazepines (to calm the animals), the orcas needed a wealth of drugs to survive in a tank, and some of the drugs were so powerful they even put humans administering them at risk, the trainers allege.

While supporters of orca captivity argue that these drugs help orcas stay healthy, marine mammal scientist Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute told The Dodo that life in a tank is the root of the problem....

Full article here

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by Akasha (here)
Orcas at Seaworld are on cocktails of drugs including benzodiazepines and antipsychotics:

Many SeaWorld orcas were on daily drugs to treat chronic stress, several of the park's former trainers have told The Dodo.

"We had whales who were on medication every single day of their life," said John Hargrove, who was a trainer at SeaWorld San Diego and SeaWorld San Antonio for a combined 14 years.

Hargrove recently wrote a book about his experience at the park.

The Dodo spoke to Hargrove and former trainers Samantha Berg, John Jett, Carol Ray and Jeffrey Ventre about the medications they administered to captive orcas at SeaWorld's three parks.

From antipsychotics (to decrease testosterone) to benzodiazepines (to calm the animals), the orcas needed a wealth of drugs to survive in a tank, and some of the drugs were so powerful they even put humans administering them at risk, the trainers allege.

While supporters of orca captivity argue that these drugs help orcas stay healthy, marine mammal scientist Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute told The Dodo that life in a tank is the root of the problem....

Full article here

While I do think "zoos" or whatever could be possibly made well accommodating for many animals, ones that normally would not survive in the wild for example, marine mammals are just not in that category. They need huge areas of ocean to live properly. A tank? That is just not right. No wonder they have to give them drugs to sedate them.

We should be going out to them to see them in their territory ... they seem to actually enjoy that anyway ...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QaihEthj4qs

Or ... it could be trying to lure him into the water ...

[Akasha]

Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
.....Or ... it could be trying to lure him into the water ...

I certainly wouldn't put it past him.

But regardless, that clip trumps all Seaworld "performances" in existence. Thanks for sharing .

[Akasha]

Why Vegan? Well there are a multitude of reasons, at least 150 billion per year as it happens, not to mention all the ethical, ecological and health related issues. The following short presentation nails it (no graphic content so click away):

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=y2k4NHjAP84

[Akasha]

We're living in a nation
where there's growing condemnation
of what is done to those who cannot talk

I was blind to all their pain
so I couldn't feel the shame
in that broken piece of body on my fork

Then I wondered could any child
breed a bird that can't be wild
to eat its wings, take off its legs and head?
no.

So we pay for hidden slaughter
'til we've addicted sons and daughters
to our habit of eating the dead

And it's not so very long
since who could see the wrong
in breeding humans as slaves without pain

It could be a woman without a vote
or killing a leopard for its coat
did we ever see the evil of the day?

So do you think you're any better
now the animals we fetter
outnumber every human ten to one?

And many children hardly eat
because their food has fed your meat
while the blame for this shame you pass on

so give me avocados
and I'll eat tofu burgers
you can even give me black bean curd

but please, don't give me bread
if it's wrapping the dead
remains of the body of a bird………

Full recital of this powerful poem in the short video below

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PbjOafxvU-o

[lunaflare]

Great thread and good Q and A. And one big comment, we need not to go the direction of one thing, one lifestyle suits all.
Agreed. Great thread. Veganism is way more than one lifestyle "suiting all", however.
The ramifications of adopting this mentality are literally world shattering. paradigm breaking.
It is the overt and covert cruelty directed at living creatures enslaved to slaughterhouses and factory farms, that blatantly reveal the state of our human consciousness.
The terror, grief and fear associated with killing animals powerfully contributes to the vibration here in this dimension.
Not for better, for worse.
Animals deserve dignity and respect, yes?
We don't need meat to survive. We have become addicted, mind-controlled and sufficiently compassionless to contribute to a grossly cruel industry.
And stupid. Animal products are not good for one's health.

[Olam]

I read this tread for a while, when I was at the phase of deciding what kind of diet I was to adopt now.
After doing lots of research I decided to go the Ketogenic type of diet which is radically different from Vegan.
I was pondering going vegan for a long while, but I just knew that I was not to be satisfied with what it offers.
To each his own and whatever diet one undertakes, as long as you are happy eating that way, I think its the most important detail.

Basically, it boils down to two choices of fuel for the body.
You either burn glucose (Vegan lifestyle and many others), or you burn ketones(fat).
When I saw the ketogenic lifestyle I just knew it was for me...but with some tweaks.
Some people on keto eat dairy products, coffee, I don't.
As far as the choice of meats as yes meat is essential in this type of diet, I also choose to be strict on that.
So right now I don't eat red meat as I have no source of grass fed beef around and I don't eat the meat from cows boxed in and fed genetic crap.
I do have organic chicken, butter and eggs and so this is what I get.
I only eat wild caught fish too.

Now I don't mean to derail this great thread, I'm just offering options to whomever are "shopping" around for a new diet lifestyle.

Lastly, one reason I chose this diet was for very practical reasons, if you are vegan, you burn glucose and so you have to deal with blood sugar rises, insulin variations and all the complications this can have on the system. If you eat a big bowl of fruits, you are bound to have somekind of sugar crash at some point and you have to eat more often.
When your body burns fat(ketones) instead of glucose, you have no insulin issues of sugar rising in the blood. The fat burns at a slow pace and so I only have 2 meals a day now and I am never hungry in between meals, I never have sudden losses of energy and its just more simpler for me!
Oh and the food is great as we all know what fat tastes like. I have not been on it long enough to see the effect on blood fat, but as far as I know, the people on this for years have actually very healthy blood as the body burns out the extra fat.
Anyhow, sorry for the rant, I just thought it would be pertinent to add this to the thread.

[Akasha]

Posted by Olam (here)
.....Anyhow, sorry for the rant, I just thought it would be pertinent to add this to the thread.

Apology accepted, although this thread is fairly specifically labelled.

Now if you want to talk about vegan ketogenic diets, that would be a different story although those pioneering them seem few and far between, essentially getting by on avocados and nut butters and not much else.

If/when you start to have cardiovascular issues due to the quantity of LDL cholestrol you are consuming, perhaps you'd be good enough to let us know that all that animal fat wasn't such a good idea after all.

Dr. Kim A. Williams, president-elect of the American College of Cardiology takes a different approach:

Advice From a Vegan Cardiologist



Dr. Kim A. Williams, the president-elect of the American College of Cardiology, often sees patients who are overweight and struggling with hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. One of the things he advises them to do is to change their diets.

Specifically, he tells them to go vegan.

Dr. Williams became a vegan in 2003 because he was concerned that his LDL cholesterol — the kind associated with an increased risk of heart disease — was too high. Dr. Williams wrote about his reasons for going vegan and his belief in the cardiovascular benefits of a plant-based diet in a recent essay at MedPage Today..... Full article here

Regarding the misconception, that fruit makes you crash, the data says the opposite. When fructose is consumed in whole form, i.e. eating the whole fruit raw and unrefined, the glycemic load is always sufficiently slow release and more than manageable for anyone with a normally functioning pancreas.
Of course refined sugars are an entirely different story and, as you say lead to inevitable "crashes".

Have you considered sharing your keto-experience over time in its own thread? Positive, or negative, it would be valuable for anyone considering such a diet. Just don't forget those blood tests!!!

[TargeT]

Finally, Vegan meat! (err... yeah?)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y027yLT2QY0

http://www.memphismeats.com/

[Akasha]

Posted by TargeT (here)
Finally, Vegan meat! (err... yeah?)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y027yLT2QY0

http://www.memphismeats.com/

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!

Ironically, being that authentic in taste would probably turn my stomach given that it's been such a long time since I ate meat. However it no doubt represents yet another viable transitional vehicle for many of those wishing to go plant-based, not to mention less cows being bred for slaughter and the ecological implications linked with that......which reminds me (again), did you manage to finish Cowspiracy yet (or shall I just stop asking)?

[Olam]

Posted by Akasha (here)

Posted by Olam (here)
.....Anyhow, sorry for the rant, I just thought it would be pertinent to add this to the thread.

Apology accepted, although this thread is fairly specifically labelled.

Now if you want to talk about vegan ketogenic diets, that would be a different story although those pioneering them seem few and far between, essentially getting by on avocados and nut butters and not much else.

If/when you start to have cardiovascular issues due to the quantity of LDL cholestrol you are consuming, perhaps you'd be good enough to let us know that all that animal fat wasn't such a good idea after all.

Dr. Kim A. Williams, president-elect of the American College of Cardiology takes a different approach:

Advice From a Vegan Cardiologist



Dr. Kim A. Williams, the president-elect of the American College of Cardiology, often sees patients who are overweight and struggling with hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. One of the things he advises them to do is to change their diets.

Specifically, he tells them to go vegan.

Dr. Williams became a vegan in 2003 because he was concerned that his LDL cholesterol — the kind associated with an increased risk of heart disease — was too high. Dr. Williams wrote about his reasons for going vegan and his belief in the cardiovascular benefits of a plant-based diet in a recent essay at MedPage Today..... Full article here

Regarding the misconception, that fruit makes you crash, the data says the opposite. When fructose is consumed in whole form, i.e. eating the whole fruit raw and unrefined, the glycemic load is always sufficiently slow release and more than manageable for anyone with a normally functioning pancreas.
Of course refined sugars are an entirely different story and, as you say lead to inevitable "crashes".

Have you considered sharing your keto-experience over time in its own thread? Positive, or negative, it would be valuable for anyone considering such a diet. Just don't forget those blood tests!!!

Thanks for your info, yes I am now getting the papers for a blood test, but the real answer will be sometime in a few months to see how it has changed.