I am not a vegan.
I will probably have a difficulty being one since I am a milk-aholic, cheese-devouver, chicken-lover, and cake-adorer.
Nonetheless, I highly think that veganism is a very intelligent and healthy way of eating; to me, it makes more sense being vegan rather then a vegetarian : 1) You do it not only for animal-loving reasons, but for health & body reasons, 2) Vegetarians eat a lot of foods that are produced by animals, which contradicts their true obsession with our little brothers (animals).
I respect vegan diet of the rich use of various greens that we, common healthy-diet people, can hardly pronounce or picture in our mind. According to my vegan friends, Jennie and Richie, vegan have so much fun with food. There are vegan pizzas, pastas, casseroles, lasagnas, breads, sweets, and as aforementioned delicious salads.
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| 1st picture - Thew most delicious green salad that I've ever eaten! Dining at the Candle 79 in NYC |
What about dairy products you ask? There are dairy imitations or substitutes that have practically the same taste as real dairy products.
To learn more (heath concerns, deficiencies, etc.) about veganism use a better written version of my blog - Wikipedia.
So, this week I decided to go partially vegan (I eat seafood). I had 3 reasons why I came over myself to try it: 1) I am trying to fast before the Ukrainian Christmas Dinner (Svyat Vechir); today is a Day 2 of my faux Veganism , 2) I want to see if I could survive on vegan diet, and 3) I need to fit into my pre-Chritmas holidays clothes :)
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| My vegan dish: golden potatoes, bok choy, brown mushrooms, and minced garlic |
If you come from a Soviet Block and try to explain yourself to your know-everything friends, below are a couple of responses you might get (and what I got).
I warn you, you will find a lot of close-minded thinking, ignorance, and inside-the-box-thinking.
I warn you, you will find a lot of close-minded thinking, ignorance, and inside-the-box-thinking.
- "That is bullshit! Humans are meant to eat meat! We are carnivores"
And that is according to the encyclopedia of a brick!!! Of course, I myself eat meats and yes, I do like them and will least likely give that happiness up. Yet, I would never argue that it is healthy to do so or stick my stubborn, ignorant antlers at a non-meat-eating person. It is not like these people are a nuclear danger to society.
I just do not understand why vegans and vegetarians are often "funnily" perceived by the everything-eaters? Are they funny because they do not buy the same frozen dinner that makes you buy medications to cure that cheap unhealthy stuff that is so full of all essential ingredients? And finally, are vegans and vegetarians look like aliens that masturbate in front of elderly?
My question is : are alcohol, cigarettes, junk food lunches, concentrated full-of-sugar juices, hormones & antibiotics full meats and diary consumption make everything-eaters or pardon, carnivores, smarter people after all?
See on the very bottom an academic proof on the reason why humans eat meat.
This one is my favourite: "Canadians/Americans do not know how to eat. All they eat is junk"
Are you laughing with me? Are your eyeballs rolling out of their birthplace?
This is #1 dumb statement that makes me pull my precious red-hair out of my head.
Yes, I would say Americans did introduce the rest of the world with the plastic cheese, who-knows-what-is-in-that balogna, hormone-full meats and dairy, waxed apples, cotton-ball bread, and many more. Nonetheless, people in every nation are different from the "incubator thought of them". Many Canadians and Americans are educated people who follow a great healthy diet that we Eastern Blockers do not even know about.
Please take a look at any Uki/Rus New Years table, for a great example! Even though everything is super yummy to a tiny detail, it always looks like "Who used more mayo?" competition or commercial. And I guarantee that rarely you will find more then 1 plate of fresh vegetables or a green salad anywhere on the table. I will agree that all mayo-ed, fried, Alfredo-sauced dishes are yummier then raw foods, yet they (raw foods) are more nutritious and clever to eat.
By the way, I would like to note that I completely understand why people of my tribe (Ukrainians and Russians) 60% do not count the green bunch (raw greens & veggies) as normal food - it is because we never got fresh produce during the cold season (or never ate out-of-season produce) due to high export prices or difficulty importing.
My question is : are alcohol, cigarettes, junk food lunches, concentrated full-of-sugar juices, hormones & antibiotics full meats and diary consumption make everything-eaters or pardon, carnivores, smarter people after all?
See on the very bottom an academic proof on the reason why humans eat meat.
This one is my favourite: "Canadians/Americans do not know how to eat. All they eat is junk"
Are you laughing with me? Are your eyeballs rolling out of their birthplace?
This is #1 dumb statement that makes me pull my precious red-hair out of my head.
Yes, I would say Americans did introduce the rest of the world with the plastic cheese, who-knows-what-is-in-that balogna, hormone-full meats and dairy, waxed apples, cotton-ball bread, and many more. Nonetheless, people in every nation are different from the "incubator thought of them". Many Canadians and Americans are educated people who follow a great healthy diet that we Eastern Blockers do not even know about.
Please take a look at any Uki/Rus New Years table, for a great example! Even though everything is super yummy to a tiny detail, it always looks like "Who used more mayo?" competition or commercial. And I guarantee that rarely you will find more then 1 plate of fresh vegetables or a green salad anywhere on the table. I will agree that all mayo-ed, fried, Alfredo-sauced dishes are yummier then raw foods, yet they (raw foods) are more nutritious and clever to eat.
By the way, I would like to note that I completely understand why people of my tribe (Ukrainians and Russians) 60% do not count the green bunch (raw greens & veggies) as normal food - it is because we never got fresh produce during the cold season (or never ate out-of-season produce) due to high export prices or difficulty importing.
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| Another dinner, this time with friends, at Candle 79 in New York |
On the Golden Statement of "WE ARE CARNIVORES" (source here) :
"Many people ask me, “If we weren’t supposed to eat meat than why do we?”. It is because we are conditioned to eat meat. Also, the ADA (American Dietetic Association) tells us that “most of mankind for most of human history has lived on a vegetarian or Lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.
"A popular statement that meat eaters say is; “In the wild, animals kill other animals for food. It’s nature.” First of all, we are not in the wild. Secondly, we can easily live without eating meat and killing, not to mention we’d be healthier. And finally, as I have already shown, we weren’t meant to eat meat. Meat and seafood putrefies within 4 hours after consumption and the remnants cling to the walls of the stomach and intestines for 3-4 days or longer than if a person is constipated. Furthermore, the reaction of saliva in humans is more alkaline, whereas in the case of flesh-eating or preying animals, it is clearly acidic. The alkaline saliva does not act properly on meat.
The final point I would like to make on how we as humans were not meant to eat meat is this. All omnivorous and carnivorous animals eat their meat raw. When a lion kills an herbivore for food, it tears right into the stomach area to eat the organs that are filled with blood (nutrients). While eating the stomach, liver, intestine, etc., the lion laps the blood in the process of eating the dead animals flesh. Even bears that are omnivores eat salmon raw. However, eating raw or bloody meat disgust us as humans. Therefore, we must cook it and season it to buffer the taste of flesh.
If a deer is burned in a forest fire, a carnivorous animal will NOT eat its flesh. Even circus lions have to be feed raw meat so that they will not starve to death. If humans were truly meant to eat meat, then we would eat all of our meat raw and bloody. The thought of eating such meat makes one’s stomach turn. This is my point on how we as humans are conditioned to believe that animal flesh is good for us and that we were meant to consume it for survival and health purposes. If we are true carnivores or omnivores, cooking our meat and seasoning it with salt, ketchup, or tabasco sauce would disguise and we as humans would refuse to eat our meat in this form."
