I Don't Do Vegan

A few weeks ago I cross-posted two blog posts about food on my friend Sarah's blog Charlotte Local Eats. My blog posts were about salmon and moose, respectively. Sarah blogs about all things pertaining to food, mostly to advocate buying and eating local food and eating healthier in general. Earlier this week she blogged about The China Study, a book about eating a whole foods, plant based diet. I haven't read the book, but her review was pretty interesting. I forwarded the review to Leigh, who really latched onto the idea of a whole foods, plant based diet and is still dumbfounded by the study showing the ingesting cow's milk has been linked to multiple sclerosis.

Then Leigh dropped a bomb on me: we're cutting out meat and dairy for 3 weeks as a test run for this plant-based diet thing. OK, I was a vegetarian for 6 years so I can understand the "no meat" attitude, but DAIRY?!?!?! Leigh grew up in a house where a jug of milk was a fixture on the table for every meal. We're from the land of sausage gravy and mac'n'cheese. Who is this person who's suggesting we give up DAIRY!?!?!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about healthy. In fact, since moving to Europe and coming home in 2010 Leigh and I have changed our diets significantly in an attempt to maintain our weight and be healthier. Since my metabolic diagnosis in May, Leigh and I have made even more significant changes to our diets, this time attempting to learn the science behind food and metabolism.

At this point I've talked about my health issues and dietary changes enough that a short recap is probably sufficient: I am genetically prone to extremely high cholesterol and triglycerides. I take a medication to improve my liver function and I avoid all foods that lead to higher cholesterol and lipid levels. This means very little red meat, no egg yolks, no prepared foods with more than just a few milligrams of cholesterol per serving. For triglycerides I can't eat anything white (rice, flour, sugar, etc), I avoid alcohol, and a few weird things like tropical fruit (coconut, pineapple, bananas). All of my sweeteners and fats have to be all natural (honey, agave, EVOO, etc) and low in saturated fat. Additionally, it's essential that I consume a lot of fish and oatmeal to counteract my malfunctioning metabolism.

Anyway, it's caused a huge change in our lives. Basically we don't eat anything processed and stick almost entirely to whole foods. But we still eat meat (mostly white meat and fish) and dairy (low fat cheeses, milk, and yogurt are staples). So for Leigh to suggest that we basically go VEGAN for 3 weeks is kind of a big deal. What will I eat if I don't eat greek yogurt (with honey)? It's a major source of protein for me and one of the few safe "sweets" I can eat regularly! And we LOOOOOVVEEEE milk and cheese, especially ricotta and goat cheese. What will we do without it?!?!?! Plus on top of that, vegans REALLY irritate me. Not the diet itself, I definitely see the benefits, but the political, holier than thou, attitude that often accompanies the diet. Can't people just do what's best for themselves without being pushy and annoying to everyone else? If someone wants to be obese and die young that's their business. If they ask you for advice, however, then preach away and save a life!

OK, off my soapbox. Anyway, so it looks like we're going to do this for three weeks starting next week. We have a ton of dairy in the fridge that needs to be eaten and we've scheduled our big grocery run for next weekend, so it's good timing. I don't expect this will be a permanent change, but it'll be interesting to see how we feel after a few weeks of cleansing our systems. If I lose weight and if my November blood tests come back with flying colors, I might continue a whole foods, plant-based diet on an 80-90% basis (meaning I'll have ice cream and cheese sometimes and red meat rarely).

But I have to ask one more time: Who is this woman taking away my yogurt? And what has she done with Leigh?!?!?!