A couple of days ago, I got the question
again: “What do you eat?” This question had followed my answer to a previous
one: “What do you feed your vegan Great Dane?” After I had given a breakdown of
the homemade vegan cooked and raw food, and the homemade vegan kibble and vegan
treats that I feed my Dane, the remark was “Your dog eats better than we do!” I’m sure, in many cases, that is true. My husband keeps telling me, “No one cooks
the way you do any more. No one cooks from scratch anymore. No one cooks as
healthy as you do. “
“No one?”
Of course, he is exaggerating a bit, but
I am sure that a great deal of people eat only processed food nowadays. Processed
food is any food that is heated, cooked, fried, refined, combined with at least
one other ingredient, homogenized, denatured, packaged, pasteurized, etc. If the food has been heated above about 110
degrees Fahrenheit, the precious enzymes are completely destroyed and many vitamins
and other nutrients are degraded or lost.
Think about it. Almost anything you buy at the supermarket
that is from a package on the shelf, has reduced nutrient value in comparison
with its fresh counterpart. If you want to eat healthy, you need to think, “Shop
the perimeter of the store, where the fresh stuff is.” And, if you think about
it, it’s even more limited than that. Stay away from the perimeter where the
cut up animal body parts are, and the lactating fluid and chicken embryos are.
Cooking from scratch takes a lot of
effort. It means that you might have to do some work in the kitchen when you’re
already exhausted from a day’s work. But
the important thing to remember is that those fresh enzymes from raw foods, and
the increased nutrient values from food made from scratch will inevitably add
to your energy and strength. Most of all, healthy food will protect you from
illnesses and strengthen your immunity. You will feel better, and you will have more energy, and you will not feel as exhausted. Trust me, a vegan diet is sooo much more tasty. The variety of foods and dishes in a vegan diet is vast, and it is vastly more flavorful.
So, to answer the question of what I eat,
I would have to say, “Everything! Everything except putrefying animal body
parts, lactation fluid and chicken embryos.
I eat all vegetables, legumes, green leafy vegetables. To make the meal look more appetizing to my
husband who became a vegetarian in June of 2006, and a vegan in April of 2011,
I serve things that look like a slab of protein, such as cutlets made of garbanzo beans, other legumes or grains, with mushroom
brown gravy, so it looks more like a “standard meal”. (For holiday dinners I serve a vegan roast, cooked and raw vegetables, mashed potatoes blended with olive oil and
fresh garlic. I can make a vegan pumpkin pie that rivals any non-vegan pumpkin pie.) We eat lots of raw
vegetables. (You’d be amazed at the number of raw vegan cookbooks out there -- with the tastiest of recipes.) And
then the question comes up: “Aren’t you afraid you’re not getting enough
protein?” My answer now is “I’m afraid I’m getting too much protein.” Why?
Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live, Super Immunity) did a
study, trying to put together elements in a raw vegan diet, and totaling the
protein and, no matter the combination of vegan possibilities, they could not come up with a diet that did not have sufficient
protein. The truth is, even romaine
lettuce has protein! Excess protein has been shown to tax the kidneys and to
age a person quickly. We all get plenty of protein.
When we are in Mexico, I don’t have as
many temptations to eat processed food.
In the States, when I’m feeling lazy, I have to resist the urge to buy
vegan mayonnaise, and make my own instead. It takes only a few minutes to make
a jar of my own mayonnaise. My jar of
mayonnaise never sits on a shelf. It
must stay in the refrigerator because it contains no chemicals to preserve it. My
favorite recipe for mayonnaise is from Vegan Vittles (1996 version),
by Joanne Stepaniak. (The three books I recommend the prospective vegan to buy
and use are: Vegan Vittles, Cooking with PETA, and Veganomicon. (Easily ordered from Amazon.) The first two will give you recipes for the
most basic of vegan substitutes, such as mayonnaise and sour cream (as well as other "down-home cookin' " recipes), and the
third is a scrumptious vegan “Betty Crocker-like” cookbook, which will teach
you how to cook from scratch easily, with joy and without fear.)
Here’s the version of Eggless Mayonnaise
that I love:
LOW-FAT
EGG-FREE MAYONNAISE
1-1/2 CUPS LITE SILKEN TOFU
(FIRM) CRUMBLED (ORGANIC, IF POSSIBLE)
2 TBSP. OIL – I USE AVOCADO OR OLIVE OIL
2 TSP. FRESH LEMON JUICE
2 TSP. APPLE CIDER VINEGAR
1 MINI-SPOON OF STEVIA EXTRACT POWDER
HEAPING ½ TSP SALT
½ TSP PREPARED MUSTARD
1. Place ingredients in food processor
or in blender and process several minutes (occasionally scraping sides) until very smooth and creamy.
2. Use at once, or transfer to a
container and refrigerate. Keeps for about
a week or so.
