Going Vegan?

[Amarna]

Posting out of curiosity. After a lot of research I'm seriously considering going vegan for both health and ethical reasons. However I know that my husband would never consider such a thing, he loves his meat and potatoes. And my five year old has grown up eating meat of all sorts and generally is a very picky eater so I wouldn't expect her to change her habits because I have. But I'm curious if those of you who are vegan could answer some questions for me regarding living with others who do not share your lifestyle.

I'm usually the one who cooks meals in the house with my husband working long hours often. Would you cook meat for another person?

What about your children? Do you encourage a vegan lifestyle for them? How can you be sure that they reach all their nutritional goals, especially picky eaters?

Edit: I feel like I should be clearer with regards to my children. They will mostly eat what I eat but if DH has chicken for example and DD wants some I wouldn't tell her no.

 

[MiniKiwi]

I was vegan for 10 years, until I got pregnant and I'm now a vegetarian. I don't mind cooking meat for OH but I can't physically touch it cause it makes me sick...

My daughter is only 9 months old and she isn't strictly vegetarian, I don't mind her having small amounts of meat if someone else has cooked for her. I prepare the majority of her meals and make sure they're nutritious, she isn't a picky eater though.

It's not hard to make nutritious vegan meals, getting a picky child to eat them is probably another story You might like to try a vegan kids cook book/website for tasty ideas

 

[sandilion]

Well i have been vegan for 6 months now, DH is a vegetarian and LO is a vegetarian currently.

I am strictly a vegan for health reasons. Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore animals, and very glad i no longer consume animal products, but the health benefits outweigh the want to consume animal products.

Funnily enough LO absolutely loves the vegan meas i cook. He LOVES my vegan cashew and lentil curries. And he is definitely very healthy. Nuts and beans/lentils actually contain more protein than meat does, and the meats now days are that polluted with hormones and crap that they are not even classed as healthy anymore. All the nutrients are killed off by the time the meat is in our hands. IMO, it's just pointless eating it other than for flavor - but IMO, i am eating to live not living to eat.

Once my LO get's to about 2 years old I will be encouraging him to be a vegan. He is a vegetarian right now, as even though i do not agree with dairy products (casein in milk is actually toxic for the human body. Cow's milk contains puss and is a big contributor to being falling ill) unfortunately the non dairy milk alternatives do not contain enough calories for a baby his age. I had to return back to work so had to stop BF (i work in rotating shifts which would not work with BF) so i feel right now I have no other option than to have LO on dairy (currently weaning off formula to full cream goats milk as it is a lot healthier than cow's milk) But i am still researching this.

So yeah, with the research and facts out there that living on a plant based diet is ideal for the human body and actually fights cancer (rather than cause it, which is what animal products have been proven to do) i feel i have no choice but to guide and feed my child a healthy plant based diet.

I am amazed though at how flavorsome the food is. I honestly am thriving as a vegan and have been doing some of the best cooking I have ever done. It's more flavorsome and creative than what people are aware of. Being vegan has really taught me how to cook. It's all about knowing your spices too, and thankfully my LO loves heaps of flavor and enjoys his spices.

And I haven't been ill since being vegan (I always was someone who was ill with whatever was going around) and i feel amazing. Now when i eat a little bit of cheese, i feel sick bloated and heavy. Once you're off it for a while i personally find it hard to go backwards. For me it's one or the other, and I am glad to choose vegan for myself and my family.

DH loves his cheese and isn't ready to give that up just yet. But he knows the benefits of giving it up so will in due time.

 

[Amarna]

Thanks for the replies. My main concern with my daughter is her pickiness. She loves soy and almond milk over cow's milk so that's great but hates most beans and nuts and won't touch them so naturally I'm a bit worried about her protein intake. I'll check out some cookbooks and see if there's a way I can disguise them in her food. Generally she doesn't like much meat either, really just chicken and fish so I suppose that's better than eating red meat all the time from a health perspective at least.

 

[sandilion]

Unfortunately chicken is one of the worst meats you can eat now days as it is the most pumped with hormones.

My LO loves cashew nuts and you can add them to food by blending them to a powder, then adding it to the food and cook them up. Delicious, and very high in protein and good fats.

Yeah id recommend just getting a couple vegan cook books and have a look at how things are done. The key ingredient I have found with vegan food is when a recipe says to use any water, use vegetable stock instead. And nutritional yeast is amazing too. Adds a great flavor to food and is packed with vitamins.

They're some tips that really helped me get on the right track with vegan cooking.

 

[Feisty Fidget]

I made the transition to vegan a few weeks ago - my decision to go vegan is a little different to most; I love meat and see no problem with meat farming BUT I think reared animals should live and be slaughtered in a dignified and respectful way - mass farming (even organic) is no where near this, so I have decided to abstain from meat and dairy for now - plus it is supposed to be very beneficial for fertility =D

 

[summer rain]

I am vegan and have been for nearly four months now. Before when I wasn't vegan I experienced scary neurological symptoms and repeated serious throat infections including quinsy. To be honest I was always allergic to dairy but chose to ignore this as I liked eating dairy so much. I am also lactose intolerant. My OH has similar issues. In late November OH was watching some general health videos on YouTube and he noticed how healthy the speakers were and found out, they were all vegan. That just made something click and he decided to try veganism. I was surprised as OH used to love his meat and eggs though he didn't have them everyday. The improvement in his health and energy levels has been incredible, his asthma and eczema have vastly improved, he had problems with fungal/yeast rashes before, now he does not, he has a lot more energy-before he was struggling with work as he is a cab driver who works nights.

I saw how well he was doing and took the plunge a week or so after he started. Straight away I noticed an improvement in my constantly sore throat and low level swollen glands that I had constantly for years, and now it is completely gone. I've had a couple of mild colds in the time I've been vegan but no sore throat at all. My energy levels have improved incredibly, I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome as a teenager and went through phases ever since where I'd just be exhausted, dizziness and pins and needles have gone too. I have no proof of this but I think maybe my lactose intolerance was preventing me absorbing certain vitamins properly, especially some of the B vitamins. Now I am getting vitamins from vegan sources (foods and supplements) I feel completely better. Despite a touch of pelvic pain I haven't been having any of the usual late pregnancy symptoms I had in all my other pregnancies either.

My OH buys meat/animal product stuff for the kids sometimes but I don't. I don't feel comfortable with it any longer. He became vegan almost solely for health reasons whereas with me it is a mixture of ethical and health reasons. I'd also feel odd cooking meat or fish etc as I have just become so unused to it. I would like the kids to become vegan and I am confident I can raise the new baby as vegan too, I have experience of one of my children having multiple protein allergies for two years and I managed to get him to put weight on and grow very well despite this and having a very restricted diet so I am sure it can be done with care. There are higher fat dairy alternatives available and ways of adding additional good fats into those that aren't so high in fat. I'm quite lucky in that overall my boys tend to gravitate towards healthier foods xx

 

[summer rain]

And there are some fabulous non-dairy, non-soy alternatives to cheese, yoghurt, meat and everything else these days so you really don't feel you're missing out. As you're in the US I have heard the daiya cheeses are amazing. It's also easy to make your own cashew butter based 'cheeses' at home if you have a blender, our blender died so not tried it yet. You can buy vital wheat gluten which is wheat flour with an extremely high protein content, you can then bake or steam your own mock meats. Yoghurt you can get coconut milk based yoghurt these days and I prefer it to dairy yoghurt I just wish the one brand available here would make a completely unsweetened version as they don't at present xx

 

[Amarna]

Thanks for all the comments and tips! I've stuck to the vegan diet so far and have noticed vast improvements in my general attitude and health. My skin has completely cleared up, I used to get these bad spots of acne on my face. All gone now! I'm happier, not as moody and my IBS symptoms are gone so far. And I have tons more energy than I used to.


My main concern with DD is protein. She love her fruit and a good portion of veggies. But she hates beans and nuts. The only bean she'll eat is baked or green beans. And the only nut is in the form of peanut butter. So I'll have to get creative with her meals.

I plan on checking out a natural/health food store to see what they have. I've seen Daiya "cheeses" at Wegman's and have heard good things but they're really expensive! If I were to buy them it'd only be a once in awhile thing. I picked up some Earth Balance butter alternative and that is great. This weekend I may try making some vegan cookies. I'm still learning new ways to cook vegan style but so far I'm loving experimenting and love how I feel.

 

[summer rain]

The vegan cheeses are pricey on the surface of things but you can tend to use less as they are more strongly flavoured, or at least the ones we have here are, a bit like parmesan or something like that (not that the flavour is necessarily the same but the concept of using sparingly). I figured out that the dishes we make with them cost the same or less per portion as before really which averages at 50p to 95p per person-so not a lot at all. We have found being vegan is just so much cheaper in general. We mostly use an Austrian brand called Vegourmet who get their cheeses made by a Greek company, they do different varieties and some are not very good from a health POV as they are made of a mix of starches and oils and not much else but the varieties we buy are tahini based so that is protein and calcium in one. You can also get something called nutritional yeast which has a cheesy flavour and has suprisingly high amounts of protein and b vitamins in, added to a sauce or dish with vegan cheese it makes it go a lot further as well as adding extra nutrients.

I confess I don't actually own any vegan cookbooks , majority of the ones sold here are American and adapted to UK measures; this is the worst of both worlds for us as I prefer to use US measures and we can't get some of the ingredients mentioned in the books. I own a couple of vegetarian cookbooks as the recipes can easily be adapted to vegan, I also have quite a few mennonite cookbooks and I love these as they are all about eating frugally and eating less animal products, so many of the recipes are unwittingly vegan anyway or very easily adapted.

Protein, its important but you'd be surprised at what carb foods are high in protein, pasta, wholewheat bread and cous cous for example. A lot of veggies are high in protein too

https://gentleworld.org/10-protein-packed-plants/

https://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

Baking, that can be an adventure, my first vegan baking attempt was chocolate brownies and it ended up like crumbled up chocolate cookies, it was nice with coconut milk ice cream though. I've had a lot more success since, I usually replace some of the eggs in the recipe with coconut milk mixed with coconut yoghurt (this is a fantastic buttermilk sub too) and the rest with No Egg which is like Ener-g Egg replacer but a lot less expensive and with a lot less ingredients, only thing is it contains no raising agents so you usually need to add in a bit of extra baking powder or the buttermilk sub. Kosher for passover chocolate chips and baking chocolate are usually vegan and always soya free as well, as soya isn't allowed on passover, the Oneg brand from Brooklyn are superb. Anything with more than 2 eggs in the original recipe can be hard to replicate successfully. Evaporated milk in recipes I have had amazing success substituting canned coconut milk for it, I am going to try substituting powdered milk in recipes with the coconut cream powder as well. Coconut milk products contain barely any protein but I will usually add higher protein flours in to compensate. I also tend to put ground almonds in a lot of cakes and cookies xx

 

[Feisty Fidget]

Summer rain, you are a wealth on knowledge Am paying extra special attention as a fellow Englander

I will admit that I had my first vegan melt down friday and gave in to cheese Am trying not to beat myself up over it too much Am due to start a high juice diet at some point this week, so very curious as to how this pans out!

 

[summer rain]

Awww don't worry about it. My OH has the odd meltdown every so often and how he feels afterwards, bloaty and ugh, he remembers why he became vegan to start with. I found another vegan cheese the other day called veganic and it tastes exactly like cheddar in texture and taste, it's only around £5.50 for a huge 500g bag of ready grated-it's meant to be for pizzas but can be used for pretty much everything really. My only gripe is its a very fine grate, I would prefer it more coarse. Like all the more realistic cheese subs it is quite processed but as an occasional treat it probably isn't going to do any harm. It's better slightly melted but in my experience all pre-grated cheeses are, regardless if they are vegan or not. Today I am making vegan banana bread and not sure yet what I'm making for our evening meal xx

 

[MamaFlick]

My OH and I became vegan about 2 months ago. It would be difficult if he wasn't, since we always eat dinner together and eat the same thing. I can't really give advice on that.

However I did want to say - health wise, it has been an amazing two months. I got weighed about a week ago and I actually lost a pound since my last visit, which is good since I was nearing the top of the weight gain chart. Now I'm right on track. Baby is growing perfectly. Also, I had my gestational diabetes and anemia tests the other day and both came back great. So being vegan has been really good for me so far.

Supplement wise, I take a magnesium/calcium pill called SlowMag, a B12 pill, and my prenatals.

 

[MamaFlick]

Summer rain, you are a wealth on knowledge Am paying extra special attention as a fellow Englander

I will admit that I had my first vegan melt down friday and gave in to cheese Am trying not to beat myself up over it too much Am due to start a high juice diet at some point this week, so very curious as to how this pans out!

It happens - don't worry about it! I've made a rule for my pregnancy... if I crave something, it probably means the baby needs it for whatever reason, and I'll go ahead and eat it. I've had a cheese enchilada. I also ate pepporoni pizza a few days ago... I felt pretty bad about that since I actually ate meat... But I had been craving pepporoni pizza for several days and then I was at my friend's house helping her make her wedding centerpieces, and they ordered pizza and I didn't have anything to eat... and I was so hungry!!! But the next time I helped her, I prepared by bringing myself a PB&J. Although that day they made chicken nuggets which I wouldn't even have been tempted by anyways... ew!

 

[summer rain]

Just a heads up, as I was just reading about this in a booklet from the vegan society the other day, if you don't eat a lot of table salt (US) or are outside the US (where table salt isn't iodised) then it may be wise to take an iodine supplement of some type, most pre-natals do contain it but I have seen a few that don't and most regular multi-vits don't contain it either. It seems that seaweed is a good source but make sure if buying supplemental kelp to buy the type of kelp that has been processed and cleaned properly; as it can be a source of toxins otherwise-also some of the cheaper kelp supplements contain dangerous amounts of iodine-one sold on ebay in the UK has 300mg (milligrams) in a tablet, the recommended dose is 150mcg (micrograms) a day for regular folks, and around 300mcg for pregnant and BF women. On Ocado (UK grocery shopping site) they have a powdered version that has around 2000 doses in a jar costing about £11, so not bad at all xx