30 Day Vegan

[Guru-In-Vegas]

Today caps off the last day of 30 that I went vegan.  I originally gave up beef, poultry, and pork five years ago and thought trying this out would be a challenge.  And it sure as F*** was.

For those that need a quick defenition, vegan is a term used to describe someone who eats NOTHING from an animal.  No dairy, meat, not even HONEY since it comes from bees.  Yeah, pretty wild.

I've never been a person who is at the mercy of their "indoctrinated tastes" (feel free to ask me about that if you would like to know what the hell I mean by it) but going completely vegan is a hell of a lifestyle change and I admire people who are able to go through it for the long haul.  It's not like I struggled with it or anything it's just frustrating as all hell trying to figure out and research what you can and cannot eat.  We would seriously spend hours researching ingredients and suitable substitutes just to come up with a basic dinner that didn't taste like algae spread on styrofoam.  Not only that but it's expensive as shit.  100 bucks got Ms. Guru and I a whopping week's worth of groceries.  Worst of all was eating at work because if Ms. Guru didn't pack my vegan lunch I would pretty much be stuck eating peanuts and sunflower seeds the rest of the day until I got home.

It wasn't all bad though.  I learned quite a bit by researching ingredients.  For example, "vegetarians" who eat cheese aren't really vegetarians.  Cheese contains rennet which is a calf's stomach lining used to coagulate the cheese.  Very interesting stuff.  Certain red food colorings and their origins might also be of interest to some people.  I also learned that vegans share the same life expectancy as regular meat eaters.  The highest life expectancies belong to those who shared my original diet, which is vegetarian except with the addition of seafood. 

Good experience overall.  Kinda glad it's over but I do not regret doing it.  I told my partner in crime (I'm really glad she did it with me) that this might be a yearly tradition. . .  yea right. 

[janetmschulte]

Wow, congrats on the effort! I think I could be persuaded into doing the vegetarian thing if I was shown one of those pita videos that detail how the slaughterhouses treat the animals. If I actually thought about what I was eating, I don't think I could continue to eat meat, even though I really enjoy it. I take on the "ignorance is bliss" attitude when it comes to eating meat. Sad but true.

Good luck if you ever decide to make the vegan thing a full time gig! I don't think it will ever be for me though

[Gabriel]

My mother decided to go vegan for lent. She seems to be doing OK after a week. Since she's a dietitian, this is like some kind of fun experiment for her. Also, there is some recent research that suggest a vegan diet can lower fasting blood sugars pretty dramatically in a short period of time. If true, that would be good news for type 2 diabetics or those at risk.

[Dave Gray]

Wow, congrats on the effort! I think I could be persuaded into doing the vegetarian thing if I was shown one of those pita videos that detail how the slaughterhouses treat the animals.

I think you mean "PETA".   "Pita" is what you put the animals in when you're eating them.

[Gabriel]

I think you mean "PETA".   "Pita" is what you put the animals in when you're eating them.

Mmmmm...gyro.

[TonyB0D]

vegans are nuts.  i don't trust anyone that doesn't like bacon or jerky

[Frimp]

^^ LMAO

I tried it when I was 19 or 20. I actually went 3 weeks without eating meat of any kind. I wound up weak, and got sick as hell. I've always had a very strong immune system. It came back after I went back to eating meat.

Someone here recently had a sig that said "Meat is murder...Tasty tasty murder" (I think it was Sunstroke)

That was such an awesome sig.  

[Sunstroke]

Vegetables are what my food eats before it becomes my food...

[Tenshot13]

Vegans look like zombies. 

[Frimp]

Vegetables are what my food eats before it becomes my food...

QFT


And, I would QFT Tenshot's post, but I didnt want to QFT 2 posts in a row. 

[Guru-In-Vegas]

Good luck if you ever decide to make the vegan thing a full time gig! I don't think it will ever be for me though

I honestly don't think I could do it full on.  Not only is it a pretty unhealthy diet, it is extremely inconvenient.  30 days was good enough for me to get a good idea of what it's like.

I tried it when I was 19 or 20. I actually went 3 weeks without eating meat of any kind. I wound up weak, and got sick as hell. I've always had a very strong immune system. It came back after I went back to eating meat.

If done improperly it can become detrimental to your health.  Just like if someone were to only eat chilli-cheese fries for three weeks straight.  Not exactly the path to long life.  Same thing goes for diets consisting of only iceberg lettuce and baby corn.

Vegans look like zombies. 

I think I look pretty healthy.  Let's just say I don't fit into the stereotypical vegan/vegetarian=pussy look.  Now if you'll excuse me, I got a grilled cheese sandwich waiting to get crushed  .

Modified to add - That was delicious. 

[Thundergod]

Brother, you are the man, . Cuz my ASS I'd be able to deal with 30 days.

Vegetables are what my food eats before it becomes my food...

This man is absolute genius. Genius I tell you.

[Buddhagirl]

Good job. I'm probably just one step away from being vegan. I already am a strict vegetarian, but I eat cheese and some eggs. Though that is slowly being pulled out since I am very, very lactose intolerant.

Vegans look like zombies. 

  Really? Because the vegans I know look really nice and healthy. I'm almost one and I think I look far from zombieish.

[fyo]

For example, "vegetarians" who eat cheese aren't really vegetarians.  Cheese contains rennet which is a calf's stomach lining used to coagulate the cheese.

That's incorrect.

Rennet is complex of enzymes produced in the stomach lining of mammals.

There are many methods of producing these enzymes, which (btw) constitute less than 0.1% of the final cheese.

One of these methods, likely the one your research lead you to, is taking the freeze-dried stomachs of calves and chemically and mechanically extracting the enzymes. While perhaps not palatable to some vegetarians, it's certainly not cut and dried (haha).

MOST cheese today, especially domestic cheese (and all kosher cheese), uses rennet from non-animal sources, mainly produced by specific molds or fungi.

According to the government, about 60% of domestic hard cheese was made with genetically engineered chymosin in 1999. The number today is undoubtedly MUCH higher. This specific source of this is typically a genetically engineered strain of the common fungus Aspergillus niger.

There are many other sources of non-animal rennet (or rennet substitutes), so the amount of hard cheese produced domestically from animal-rennet in 1999 was SIGNIFICANTLY below 40%.

Of course, in an irony of ironies, the "genetic engineering / GM foods are bad" lobby consists, in my own personal non-scientific experience, mostly of vegans and vegetarians. So, no using genetic engineering to get that fungus to produce chymosin, because, well, that's just WRONG.

[Thundergod]