One Week Into The Transition

It has already been a week since I started my transition. And I must say I'm feeling good, no real detox syndromes what so ever! So what have I been up to during this first week?

First of all I discovered – to my great satisfaction – that there is a gym-person hidden deep down inside me, which is pretty amusing. Yes, I went to the gym, did some dancing and even went to my first-ever meditational yoga class. I really need to start working on that one and hopefully I'll be able to concentrate a lot better in no time.

I won't hide that there were also some difficult moments throughout the week. For example ignoring the bad old habit of eating bread when I'm at work. It's not easy just because it's right there under my nose and I always used to nibble on it a bit. Freshly baked baguette still smells good and tempting, plus my hand is so used to reaching out for it. So I thought about the fact that all the ingredients in that bread are quite useless to my body anyway and had some nuts and fruit in stead. Plus I read an interesting article on how we tend to crave more of the aliments that are already fermenting in our system. For example the yeast that we consume from bread needs to feed off yeast and quick sugars in order to sustain itself inside our body. That is why the more you eat it the more you "need" it. Have you ever noticed that you can not stop after just a tiny bit of bread, that you want one more slice and then one more? So we are no longer in charge of our needs, it's the yeast inside us. Same thing for coffee and many other things. (source) Sounds a good enough reason for me to stop craving!

The second difficulty sometimes comes up in the evenings when I find myself all alone and deprived of communication. I do have many internet sites to read from and many podcasts to listen to on the raw subjects, as well as countless recipes to try out... But no (vegan) friends who could even remotely relate to the subject and with whom I could share my little joys and rants. In stead I feel that I'll have to justify my choices or that I'll annoy my omnivorous friends with my incomprehensible raw stories. I now realize how important it really is to have a community of raw people for support.

This lonely feeling obviously makes me grab for food and crave for something sweet. So one evening I improvised this really quick and easy desert by taking some ground almonds and a bit of walnuts and mixing them with about the same volume of soaked soft dates (the recipes usually advise using date paste, but I added a couple of prunes in stead), then rolling the dough-like mixture in almond powder in order to avoid stickiness. That makes a pretty nice sugar- and fat-free desert.

During this week I've seen, heard and read a lot of new and interesting things. For example I watched the documentary "Crazy Sexy Cancer" where the young and beautiful Kris Carr fights cancer with raw food.

I also heard a very interesting interview with Philip Mcluskey on the We Like it Raw podcast about how he lost over 60kg, avoiding a gastric bypass surgery, by switching to a raw food diet. Check out the before and after photos on his website, he's rather a hotty.

Right now I'm reading a book called "The Raw Foods Bible" by Dr Craig B Sommers and it is fascinating – filled with interesting and useful material that I would like to share on this blog. So coming up soon...

Raw Vegan 3-Week Transition

It has been nine months since I decided to go vegan. And already then I got a bit familiar with the idea of raw foodism and was persuaded that this was the way to go - the very best way of eating and living. But at that time it had still seemed a faraway goal, quite complicated and frightening. Which is all very normal since the first steps of going vegan also seemed a bit intimidating and very exciting. It was a lot to handle for a beginner, especially being the only vegan I know in this town (and in this country actually), I simply wasn't ready to take on the raw adventure.

By now the whole vegan thing has become just so natural that I'm only rarely reminded of it, for example when friends ask me to go eat French food in a restaurant with them (which basically means that the only vegan option on the menu will be the wine and even that is doubtful). Or when I see people eating their jambon-fromage sandwiches and wearing fur and leather coats in the streets... Most of the time I completely forget about it so that it starts seeming unnatural to me that I can not get non-dairy latté or milkshakes or vegan pizza when I'm out on town. How is it possible, I catch myself thinking, that no-one provides it when it is all so easy to make and all the substitutes are completely available?!

So lately I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and reading things on the internet that have made me think about raw foodism again. But let me explain a bit about what raw foodism is:

Vegan raw foodism is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet (I'd say at least 75%). Typical foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes that have not been heated over 40°C. Heating food destroys the enzymes, which assist in the digestion of foods and are known to be the "life force" of food. Researches prove that cooking not only destroys nutrition and enzymes, but chemically changes foods from the substances needed for health into free-radicals and poisons that render food unrecognisable to the organism and therefore toxic. Living and raw foods have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked. There are several different subcategories of raw foodists like fruitarians, sproutarians,  juicearians, but I prefer regarding the subject in a general manner for now.
As raw foodists claim all over the web, after an initial detox where the body ejects all the toxins that had been stored during all the years of eating cooked, follow the great benefits like weight loss, higher energy levels, clearer skin, overall improved health and many more. Soon the body will require much less food than before because everything it gets is alive and thus much fuller of energy. Eventually the organism starts regulating its needs a lot more efficiently by craving only the foods that contain the nutrients it is running low on.

All this sounds super great to me, although this is only the very surface of raw foodism. It is far from being just a diet; it is a whole lifestyle and a way of thinking. For example, as I see it, it also includes a more conscious and spiritual way of regarding life, the universe and everything: being more aware of myself and my surroundings, living in greater harmony with nature...

I will be posting updates and thoughts as I go through my transition, as well as links and further information on raw food during the next three weeks. Hoping that the detox period will pass quickly and that my addiction to cooked foods (it might sound like I'm over-dramatizing it but believe me, we really are addicted to cooked food just as we can be to nicotine, alcohol, sugar, cheese etc.) will pass without huge withdrawal cravings.

I've survived the fist two days pretty well, making myself a yummy eggplant lasagne, listening to Raw Vegan Radio podcasts (if you are interested in this subject I really advise you to listen to this episode) and being encouraged by Jenna Norwood's experience (hey, if she did it, why can't I)...

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Raw Vegan Eggplant Lasagne

• 1 medium to large eggplant (aubergine)
  
• 2 cups of water
  
• 1/4 cup nama shoyu, or tamari sauce
  
• 1 tsp. sea salt

Peel the eggplant and cut it thinly lengthwise. Marinate in water, nama shoyu, or tamari sauce and sea salt for at least 3 hours, and up to 12 hours - the longer the better. Dry the eggplant slices with a paper towel. 

Tomato sauce:

• 1 cup (cherry) tomatoes
• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (soaked for 1-2 hrs)
• 1 tsp. tomato concentrate
• 2 dates (soaked for 2 hrs), or some agave syrup
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbs. fresh parsley, 1 pinch fresh oregano,
1 handful fresh basil,
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp. sea salt 
  

Blend everything together, add the soaking water from tomatoes for better consistancy if necessary.

Cheese sauce:

• 1/3 cup tahini (sesame purée), or chickpea purée
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil (I used half of it and half of water)
  
• 2 Tbs. nama shoyu, or tamari sauce (unless the tahini is already well salted)
  
• a pinch of tumeric powder (curcuma) or light curry powder for the extra zing

Mix together in a bowl until smooth.

You'll also need about 2 cups of shredded zucchini (courgette). Create different layers, alternating: tomato sauce, eggplant, cheese sauce, shredded zucchini, tomato sauce, etc. Finish with shredded zucchini, and decorate with a few thin slices of red onion. (source)

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For more information check out also:

Steve Pavlina's 30-day raw food diet trial

The Living and Raw Foods F.A.Q.s

Raw foods educator Angela Stokes talks about how to survive food cravings

Some More Products of Animal Slavery (Vol. 2)

WOOL

Many people believe that shearing sheep helps animals who would otherwise be burdened with too much wool. The truth is that without human interference, sheep grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes. In Australia, sheep are specifically bred to grow excess wool and to have wrinkly skin, which means more wool per animal. The idea that taking wool does not harm the sheep is comforting mythology. Most shearers are paid on a piece rate and not by the hour, which encourages extremely fast work (“gun shearers” can spend as little as 2 minutes per sheep) and many animals end up being severely injured in the process. Besides that, young lambs’ tails are chopped off not long after birth and the males are castrated without anesthesia.

Australian ranchers perform a barbaric operation called "mulesing" where they, without any painkillers whatsoever, slice chunks of flesh from around the animals’ tail area. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that prevents flies from hatching eggs between the warm moist skin wrinkles. Ironically, the exposed, bloody wounds themselves often get flystrike before they heal, so mulesing may kill more sheep than it saves, but it still continues. After the operation, lambs can be seen writhing over the ground on their sides, trying to escape the pain.

Once the sheep are no longer producing prime wool, they are shipped to slaughter to the Middle East or North Africa. Only about 17% survive the enduring weeks- or months-long journey through all weather extremes on crowded and disease-ridden ships with little access to food or water, only to be killed at their arrival.

Even though sheep’s wool is the most commonly spread, there are also other sorts of wool like angora, cashmere, mohair or alpaca that all involve similar violence and abuse. As for “cutting” the wool out, there are plenty of lighter and less itchy alternatives out there, including cotton flannel, polyester fleece, nylon, acrylic, orlon, Tencel (breathable and biodegradable) or Polartec Wind Pro (made from recycled plastic bottles with four times the wind resistance of wool).

SILK

The silkworm produces a fine thread by making a figure-eight movement some 300,000 times over several days, constructing a cocoon to inhabit in a state of sleep and casting off its skin. After this the pupa begins the period which would normally result in transformation into a winged moth. However, the pupa would normally begin to secrete an alkali that eats its way through the cocoon — ruining someone’s future silk suit. Therefore, as the cocoons take shape, the silkworms are killed by heat: immersed in boiling water, oven-dried, electrocuted or microwaved.

The silk production terminology - stifled for killed and crop for pupae - echoes the denial that we are dealing with living creatures which are awe inspiring when one considers their metamorphic life-cycle

Plant fibers are capable of producing some great silk alternatives. For example, fibers from the pineapple, silk-cotton tree or milkweed seed pods may be made into fabrics as strong and lustrous as any silk. Synthetic fibers like nylon, polyester (Terylene, Dacron) or acrylic (Courtelle, Orlon, Dralon) also have their qualities.

DOWN

Down, the soft feathers from the breasts of geese and ducks, is either plucked from birds slaughtered for food or from forcibly restrained live animals. Either way, they live miserable lives, packed by masses in confinement inside large warehouses. Birds who undergo live de-feathering may be plucked every six weeks - up to five times during their short painful lives.

The down industry is directly linked to the meat and foie gras production, so the cruelty that ducks and geese endure is as horrifying as for any other factory farmed animal. Let me just derive from the subject fot a little bit and use the opportunity to show you this video on foie gras:

Meant to keep the birds and their eggs warm, down feathers are commonly used in pillows, jackets and comforters, for which it can take the feathers of dozens and dozens of birds to fill. So why rob these millions of birds bare naked if we don't really need down anyway? In fact, hypoallergenic synthetic down, polyester fill, Primaloft or Polarguard may even probably end up weighing less on your wallets, not talking about your consciousness.

And do I even have to mention the use of fur and leather? If you hesitated with answering that then why haven't you still seen the "Earthlings"? It's too scary and sad and revolting? Then go see the wonderful, beautiful film produced by Tribe of Heart called "The Witness" and take a look at this while you're at it.

Some More Products of Animal Slavery (Vol. 1)

First of all let me start by reviewing the basics. In 1944, Donald Watson created the term "vegan" and gave it the following definition:

Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals.

Bearing this in mind, I’d like to go through all the products that, as soon as I mention my not consuming them, make even the most vegan-tolerant people mostly go "Huuuh? But whyyyyy!?" and roll their eyes behind my back…

 

HONEY

It is not a question of whether bees are intelligent or not. They are obviously amazing creatures in many different ways: able to communicate on several different levels (odor, sound, movement, etc.), they have an incredible skill of orientation, covering over 100 km² per colony and always finding the straightest way back to the hive; they are the hardest workers and their society is extremely well organized. (Watch this for example).

It is not a question of whether they can or can not feel pain. Although I’d like to remind you that bees, as all living creatures, have a complex nervous system as well as the ability to move in order to avoid harm (which you must have noticed if you have ever come across one of them and tried to slap them away). It is not only an evidence of common sense and logic but has also been researched in scientific studies.

 

The real ethical problem is in the simple fact that humans have enslaved bees, using them uniquely for our own benefit. Now, there are many misleading general perceptions on the way beekeeping is organized. Firstly – most honey is not produced at sweet little flowery farms, but in huge industrialized factory farms. Secondly – people do kill bees and not only by getting stung. In fact, beekeepers kill their queens and replace them by new ones coming from commercial suppliers every one or two years in order to maintain control over the hive and to keep honey production at maximum. Even worse – some bee farmers kill off their hives before every winter because it is more profitable for their income.

Contrarily to what we might expect, bees are not domesticated and if given the opportunity they could abscond (the entire colony leaves) or swarm (they raise a new queen and divide the hive in half to leave and form a new colony somewhere else). But bees cannot leave even if they wanted to because beekeepers control their queens and capture the swarming colonies to bring them back. Even during fall and winter a mouse guard is placed in front of the hive entrance.

”Beekeepers are continuing an ancient tradition," one might say in their defense. Think again: the hives used in bee farming today were invented only 150 years ago and are specially designed for large-scale honey extraction. These methods are therefore radically different from those created thousands of years ago and have nothing in common with beekeeping methods that emphasize humility, respect and being part of nature as opposed to managing nature for human gain as our capitalist order dictates.

"They only take the excess honey that bees produce," some claim. Actually, all beekeepers take nearly every last bit of spring-season honey. And according to James E. Tew, an Extension Specialist in Apiculture: "Commercial beekeepers frequently extract [read: steal] all fall-season honey and then feed colonies either sugar syrup or corn syrup in quantities great enough to provide all the winter food the bees would need." But anyone in their right mind can guess that honey is not just some random sweet sticky stuff that bees like to eat – it is their natural food that contains just the right amount of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals that their bodies need to function and that they will not get from plain sugar water. Just like infants need their mother's milk and not the milk produced by a mom of another species... 

Bees are also used for other byproducts such as beeswax for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, polishes, and candles; royal jelly (that some people believe has youth-preserving qualities) and venom, sought for medicinal purposes. All this does not mean that vegans are left without any thick sweet and sticky yummy stuff to spread over our vegan pancakes or to add into our vegan cookies. There are numerous plant-based honey alternatives out there including Agave nectar, Maple syrup, Barley Malt syrup and many more. You can find plenty of information on honey alternatives and vegan honey recipes here.

And if you are sick and tired of all these "vegangelical" and hard to digest facts about bees, I encourage you to go and see the "Bee Movie" which is light and funny and sweetly sincere regarding many points of the bee-being.

How It All Vegan

Now that the first basic steps have been taken, I think it's time to explain a bit why the hell I'm writing all this, in a word - how it all vegan... So today I did this little something in order to celebrate my two-month "veganiversary". And who knows, maybe this story about a new beginning also marks a startingpoint for a long tradition of more talking and less writing... you never know ;)

HERE you have the possibility to subscribe for the upcoming "podcasts" (just click on the RSS icon) or download the audio source directly to your computer.

The links to pretty much everything I talk about here are available on the sidebar and in my older posts (steps 1 & 2).