Monday, April 15, 2013

Savannah's Journey. . . How I went from SAD to Plant-Based

Thanks to Sophie and Cathy who generously invited me to contribute to their blog!

My journey is a little bit of an unlikely one.  I'm kind of like the "accidental vegan" in that I never intended to be a vegan. Far from it, in fact.  I had been raised on the standard American diet (SAD) and raised my own children, who are all adults now, on it.  I loved a nice steak and ate eggs a couple of times a week.  Weight has never been a huge issue, although I have struggled from time to time.  I'm active and overall, figured my nutrition was pretty decent with a reasonable amount of fruits and veggies.  But then a couple of things happened. . .

First, someone close to us had a heart attack at not quite 40 years old. He wasn't particularly overweight, but he definitely ate the SAD heartily.  He coded in the ambulance and had to be resuscitated.  It was huge wake up call for this father of two.  When it was time to start his cardio rehabilitation, he rejected the notion that he would just clean up his diet a little bit and hope for the best.  He adopted Furhman's Eat To Live way of eating, and now six months later, he has lost 30 pounds, his lipids are amazingly low now, and he is committed to a whole food, plant-based diet for life.

My husband, who does struggle with his weight, and I talked about our friend's heart attack quite a bit.  We were skeptical at first, but started to open our minds that maybe there was something to the overall concepts put forth by Drs. Furhman, Esselstyn, McDougall, Ornish, Barnard, etc.  We started to entertain the notion that perhaps we were meant to eat plant-based foods.  As by nature we are not people who generally jump right into anything, we continued to discuss and knock it around. . .

And then my husband's sister died of cancer.  Beyond our grief was the knowledge that she was only one year older than him and she died far too young.  We didn't blame her diet, per se, but it made us take up the conversation again with renewed vigor.  

Then we broke down and watched Forks Over Knives.  We had put it off because we had heard the evidence was pretty compelling and we weren't sure we wanted to hear it.  But at that point, we were ready.  Once we heard the information, we googled and researched like crazy for a couple of days, looking for any evidence that this was just outright quackery.  Instead, we came away with the just the opposite impression:  there was no turning back.

We slowly started emptying our home of anything with animal proteins, oils, and just junk in general.  We knew we needed a plan because, in a practical way, we had no idea how to be vegans, so we read a number of books by respected authors who advocate for a plant-based diet and settled loosely on John McDougall's The Starch Solution as our blueprint.  One major reason for our choice in this regard is that with McDougall's plan, there is no need to be hungry.  I knew that if my husband was going to have to be hungry a lot, he wouldn't stick with it.  That, and on McDougall's plan, avocados are not the devil, and I just need some guacamole now and again.  We made a shopping list and headed out the door for Whole Paycheck and the die was cast.

The first week my husband lost 7 pounds and I lost 3.5.  Two weeks into it, he had lost a total of 11 pounds and I lost another 3.  And here's the thing:  we are never hungry at all.  In fact, I had to get used to feeling quite full.  I love so many of the things I'm eating, I love the way that I feel, I love the energy I have. . . and I love that my husband is on the road to regain his complete health, get off blood pressure medication and toss his sleep apnea machine out the window.

As with Sophie, animal protection didn't weigh that heavily in our initial decision.  I was aware of the abuses in big agribusiness, and bought free-range and grass-fed animal proteins when we could, but it was not a decisive factor.  However, I have begun thinking about it more and more and am continuing to evolve in my thinking.  I guess my position now is that I'm happy to no longer be contributing to animal suffering.  Our main motivator, by far, was our health, but once you start thinking like this, pretty soon the concern for the environment and animals starts to figure into it, too.  Anyway, that's enough for now. . . 

One of the best things about it is the food is yummy and hearty!  Here's one of my favorite recipes, which I gleaned from the February 2003 edition of The McDougall Newsletter:



Tunisian Sweet Potato Stew

1/3 cup of water
1 onion, chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped (I substituted some milder peppers)
2 teas fresh minced ginger 
1 teas minced fresh garlic

1 1/2 teas ground cumin
1/4 teas ground cinnamon
1/8 teas crushed red pepper
1/8 teas coriander
2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 14.5 ounce cans chopped tomatoes
2 14.5 ounce cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I pureed these in my food processor b/c I don't like the texture of most beans)
1 cup green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Place the water, onion, jalapenos, ginger and garlic in a large pot. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Add cumin, cinnamon, red pepper and coriander. Cook and stir for 1 minute. Add sweet potatoes, garbanzo beans, green beans, vegetable broth and peanut butter. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Stir in cilantro and let rest for 10 minutes. This can be served over rice or quinoa, too, but we just like it by itself.


Enjoy!
~S~