Transitioning to Veganism

If you've been kind enough to be ready my blog over the last few months you'll know that I'm meant to be removing dairey products from my diet because of the problems milk can cause when you have PCOS.  You'll also know that I've been watching documentaries like Cowspiracy and Food Inc as well as educating myself on the food industry and the negative impact animal agriculture has on the environment.  And with the most recent information on fighting climate change and habitat loss indicating that making changes to your diet, especially removing animal products from it, is one of the leading ways in which we can do our bit it seems logical to me to start transitioning my diet from a vegetarian one to a vegan.  I've been thinking about this for a while, but for some reason the momentum to do it has really begun now.

I've already been taking steps, without necessarily noticing it, in that direction, but these have all been the easy ones.  One of these has been increasing the amount a fresh vegetables I get over buying processed food which is likely to contain an animal product.  This has been very easy as vegetable are yummy so why wouldn't you want to eat as many as is humanly possible.  I've also been swapping products to vegan alternatives such as plant based milks and the cheeky Quorn vegan products which I add to my suppers.  I've also added some ingredients that are important for everyone to have in a healthy diet, but are especially important when it comes to vegans.  I already love marmite, but nutrional yeast has been a great addition to ensure that I'm getting all my needed B vitamins.  It doesn't taste of cheese (I don't know why people say that), but it is pretty yummy and good to add to a range of things.

There have been some things I have found suprisingly easy to start removing from my diet.  Firstly milk.  Milk used to play a big part in my diet, in fact I craved it when I got home at night and would down a big glass of it.  But since removing it I haven't missed it at all.  It's not just that I've found an alternative that I really like, it's that the cravings have completely gone.  I'm not even particularly keen on the taste anymore and happy reach for water instead.  Then there's cheese, another item I thought I loved dearly.  I still have this in my diet now and then, but this has usually been when someone else has been picking the meal or when there is no other option on the menu (I'm going to find better ways of getting round this).  It was something that I enjoyed selecting at the supermarket and eating on a weekly basis, but now that I don't eat it weeks at a time I find I don't miss it at all.  Lastly there are eggs.  Who doesn't love a boiled or fried egg, or even eggy bread (oh eggy bread).  It used to be my weekend treat but I realised the other day that I hvedn't had any of those for a few months now and didn't even noticed.  I was like I just stopped choicing it as an options.  I know eggs are little power houses of goodness, but they obviously weren't as important to my body as I thought they were and I haven't even noticed not having them.

So where am I struggling? The answer to this is going to be boringly obvious.  To begin with there's chocolate.  I don't eat this anywhere nearly as regularly as I used to, but I still eat this enough. I don't even really enjoy it when I eat it, I think it's just the sugar rush I get over anything else.  On the good side I have found alternatives I can eat when I want something chocolately and I really just been to get off my arse and let go of the milky goo.  Then, of course, there's ice cream.  Now this is really my addition and I just can't seem to say no.  It's my end of the week treat and I find myself eating an entire tub of this, but it's full of the dairy I'm supposed to be giving up, is highly processed, and high in that additive sugar.  As far as I can see there is no non-dairy alternatives that have the same creamy texture, but that's fine as I'm supposed to be removing sugar from my diet anyway.  It's time to stop making excuses and just give the stuff up.

One habitat that I do keep forgetting is to check the labels of the products I'm buying.  It's usually when I'm hungry and doing the random grab anything you can find from the shelf, but there are other times where I've been guilty of assuming something won't contain any animal products and then finding that it does once I've got it home. I need to make a mental note that when I pick up any food items I check the ingredients first before I buy, even if my stomach is shouting at me.

One extra added motivator for me is that on weeks when I have managed to have a complete vegan diet I've had far more energy and felt much more alert.  It might not be the case for everyone but I believe that a vegan diet might be the right diet for my body.  It helps that when I am completely vegan I tend to eat much more fresh vegetables and less processed foods and I don't think it's going to be too difficult to make the final steps I need. I just need to give up those sugary additions I shouldn't be eating any way, so that'll be 'hello' to the little sugar monster running around in my brain for a few weeks.

Do you have any tips on being vegan?  Are there any products that you would really recommend to people wanting to take this diet?  Please let me know, it would be very helpful.

Mini Film Review: Cowspiracy

This movie came out in 2014 but it took me a little while to watch this, though I've now watched it a couple of times.  It looks at the impact of animal agriculture on the environment and, perhaps more interestingly, the policies that environmental organisations have on dealing with the issue.

Made my Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn it looks at the impact animal agriculture has on deforestation, water consumption, and pollution, how it produces more greenhouse gases than transportation.  It's the primary cause of rainforest destruction, habitat loss, and ocean dead zones, all of which leads to species extinction.  As Kip found out, you can recycle, save water, be energy efficient, and use public transport as much as you want, but it's what you eat which will have the biggest impact environmentally. 

Despite this, the industry has mostly gone unchallenged and in fact during the filming of this documentary the producers were warned by the industries watchdogs and whistleblowers that carrying on their research could lead to them being arrested and were even risking their lives.

Perhaps the most eye opening part of the documentary is when they were interviewing individuals from environmental organisations they were reluctant to talk about changes to people's diet as a viable solution to the environmental issues we are facing at the moment.  It seems asking people to change this aspect of their lifestyle is seen as going too far despite the positive impact it would have.

I've been aware of the impact the meat industry has on our environment for about 10 years, which is when I first started researching into becoming a vegetarian.  I had thought it would be pretty common knowledge by now but, from the people I've been speaking to, it still isn't clear just how important taking meat out of your diet is.  This is probably connected to the way the animal agriculture industry is using their strengths to 'lean' on the issue, as highlighted in this documentary.  One thing that has changed in the last three years is that environmental organisations have now started talking more about the role meat and dairy can play in helping fight climate change, but it still doesn't seem to be given the level of importance it should.

The two things I got from this documentary film was firstly that there are people trying to fight any of the changes we need to make, making it far more important that we make these decisions on our own, and that taking dairy out of my diet is just as important as removing meat.  I have been removing dairy from my diet any way due to my PCOS, but this has added another reason and has definitely had more of an incentive then the health factor alone.  Over the last few months I've been removing and replacing all the dairy products I use.

You can learn more about the movie and order it (both in DVD and downloadable format) from the website, but you can also get it from Amazon or see it YouTube.  Definitely worth a watch.

Mini Movie Review: Super Size Me

Okay, so I'm not going to lie, a lot of the documentary movies I watch do revolve around food.  This is possibly because I spend a lot of time thinking about it as I try to eat less processed, more sustainable food.  I watched this movie a while ago and really liked it, so I decided to watch it again recently.

The premise is that Morgan Spurlock changes his diet for one month to only food from McDonald's and agrees to have his meal 'super-sized' whenever they ask him. It follows the usual route with Morgan seeing doctors before hand who advise him against this, him enjoying the start of it, then his body really reacting badly to this diet and the doctors and specialists being absolutely horrified that the results were so much worse then they were expecting.  The damage it does to his body over such a short period of time is pretty amazing, but not really surprising.  One of the most memorable bits is where he's forcing himself to have yet another meal and ends up having to quickly open the car door to throw up.  

It's not exactly surprising that eating that amount of fast food isn't good for you or that McDonald's uses clever marketing to get people to repeatedly choice their products despite the health implications, but it's still a very compelling documentary and a good reminder of that this type of food is actually doing to you.

The main thing that I've taken out of this movie is not that McDonald's is evil, though they're not great, but that all processed food with the same levels of sugar and salt is not only highly addictive but has serious implications for your health.  Even if you never went to a fast food restaurant but only ate processed food at home the effect on your body would be very similar.  It's also a good reminder of what happens when we allow companies that provide us with the food we eat to treat it as a commodity rather than a hugely important factor in our lives.  When they only see if as an object for making money the actual effect it is having on us becomes much less important than the effect it is having on us.

I do still eat processed food and I do still eat at fast food restaurants, but just not as much as before.  I try to make sure that, at the very least, my diet is 90% unprocessed foods made from scratch. This is not only better for me but is also much better for the environment.  And I feel all the better for it.

App of the Moment: Love Food Hate Waste

The app we'll be looking at this time is the Love Food Hate Waste app.  This was developed by WRAP (a British charity) and was designed to help us reduce food waste.  This is a particular problem as we throw away around 10 million tonnes of food and drink every year, more than half of which we could have actually eaten.  70% of this waste occurs in our homes.  Not only is this bad for the environment producing roughly 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is costing families between £470 a year for the average family to £700 for family with children.  All this information can be found on the WRAP and Love Food Hate Waste websites.

When you first open the app you can choose how you would like to log onto the app.  You can skip this part if you are just wanting to look at the recipes and portion sizes, but if you're looking to use the app to its full capacity then you will need to log in.

The app is pretty easy to use and self-explanatory and the first page takes you to the main menu page.

The first link takes you to all the recipes that are stored in this app.  If you are looking for a recipe for a particular item you can just put this in the search engine and it will bring up all the recipes that contain this ingredient.

The first page of the recipe give you basic information about the recipe and the ingredients.  The best bit is that is shows you who has actually added the recipe showing that is has actually been used by everyday people rather than recipes put together by a chef.  You can then slide along the screen to find out more.

The first swipe takes you to the hints and tips page giving advise on simple ways to reduce waste.

A second swipe allows you to change the number of people this recipe has to feed and changes here will change the ingredients list to ensure you only make enough to feed the family and reduce waste.

The last swipe takes you to the share section of the recipe, allowing you to share it with whoever you feel would benefit.

The next section on the main menu is the Portion Planner, which ensures that you are buying and cooking the right amount of food for each meal.

First you can select the category of the food from the top row and then something more specific in the bottom.  Once you have selected the product you would like you can change the exact number of adults and children the ingredient will have to feed and then click on Go.

This will then give you the exact weight you will need to buy which can be added to your shopping list on the app.

The third section is the Planner.  Meal planning is something that I already do, but at the moment I just use the good old fashioned monthly calendar to do this.  I am interested in using this section of the app as it would allow me to reduce using as much paper as I do now.  It would also make it much easier to base my recipes on what I already have, reducing the amount of food I could end up wasting, and also include my breakfast and lunch.  To add a meal just click plus sign.

You can then add a recipe already on the app or make up a new one of your own.

The fourth section is My Kitchen.  I haven't added any information to this section yet and I believe that, initially, this will be part of the app that requires the most amount of work as you will need to add all the ingredients you already have in your kitchen.  If you're anything like me you will already have quite a few items put away here and there, so it should be quite an interesting rummage around the kitchen.  As you use the app to meal plan and go shopping you won't need to keep adding these, unless you buy items not actually on the list.  You will also be able to use this list to work out what recipes you can already produce with what you have by clicking on Find A New Recipe.  To add an item click on the cross.

You can then add the items and, most importantly, the use by date.  This will help you ensure that you are using products up before they have to get thrown away.  It is important to remember at this point that for some products, like vegetables, don't need to be thrown out by the use by date put on my our shops, but can be kept for longer as long as they are still fresh.  To me this part is only important for canned and frozen products, and meat.

Next on the menu is the Shopping List.  If you have been picking recipes or determining portion sizes etc you will already have items on this shopping list.  But you can add more by clicking on the plus.

Then add the ingredient and the portion size.  It will let you know if you already have duplicates in your kitchen and, once you have been shopping, you can add the ingredients to your kitchen list.

The last section in the menu is the profile.  This not only give you information about the app but is also where you can update your personal details, the numbers of members in the household, and have a look at your achievements so far.

To me this is a good app to not only save on food waste but to also help you be more healthy by helping you actually cook the amount of food you should be eating instead of making, and then eating, too much.  When I first started concentrating on the size of the portions I was eating I was amazed at much over the right amount I was actually consuming.  It might not help you pick more sustainable food, but with the readily available recipes on the app it can help you cook more from fresh and this does make it easier for your to pick the healthier, more sustainable, option.

The app is free from the Love Food Hate Waste for both the iPhone and Android phone so it's definitely worth having a look at.

Mini Film Review: That Sugar Film

The film I have decided to highlight this time isn't necessarily an environmental film, but 'That Sugar Film' does promote a diet that is both healthy and sustainable.

It follows filmmaker Damon Gameau, who has spent the last few years eating a predominantly unprocessed diet (thanks to his Mrs), and decides to go back to the average, high sugar diet that most Westerns follow for 60 days.  In this movie he documents not only the effect this has on his health, but also on his moods.

What I find most interesting about this documentary was the fact that he kept in the recommended calorific intake each day and even regularly ate advertised 'healthy foods'.  Yet, despite this, his health still deterioate and he accumulated fat around his waist, one of the worst areas to you can accumulate it.  According to the research available at the time of the making of the movie, fructose is the one type of sugar that is particularly bad for us, always being converted by the liver into fat.  Unfortunately, this is the one sugar found in almost all processed foods.

It clearly shows that we need a shake up in how companies are allowed to advertised their products and how they present the ingredients we look at.  But it also highlights that we need to educate ourselves about the food we put in our bodies and not rely on the companies to provide us with a 'healthy option'.

While I do eat a predominantly healthy diet, it did make me realise that I still consume a lot of sugar and that this is probably stopping me from reaching some of my health goals.  I had reduced my sugar intake before, but it has slowly slipped its way back in and I have noticed my energies levels bounce up and down all day in connections with it.  It's probably about time that I go cold turkey when it comes to sugar, but after watching what Damon went through to begin with it is a little daunting.  However, it's definitely a route worth going down as this is not only a more healthy diet but not eating processed food is also more envirnmentally friendly and sustainable.

July The Vegan Box subscription

So it's that time of the month again, vegan box time.  Another interesting selection of vegan choices, some I was more excited about than others.

As usual there is the information sheet with information about the products in the box, details about the guest blogger, Hannah Victoria, who has produced this month's recipe and information about the charity they are supporting.  This time it's the Hessilhead Rescue Centre which cares for Scotland's sick, injured and orphaned wildlife.   

The recipe this time was Hanna Victoria's 3 Ingredients Peanut Butter Cups.  This seems a really quick and simple recipe that would be delicious and help with the unhealthy chocolate cravings.  I'm not usually a fan of peanut butter, but with the bitter chocolate I think these will actually be quite nice.  I am adding the ingredients to next week's shopping list.

As for last month's Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta, I absolutely loved this, but my partner wasn't so keen.  I am going to make it again though, just with a little less avocado as this was the part he didn't like.

The first product I grabbed were these Goody Good Stuff Cola Breeze Sweets and I have to say that I was ridiculously excited about these.  I haven't had cola bottles since I'd became vegetarian almost ten years ago and, I'm not going to lie, I missed them a little bit.  These tasted exactly how I remember them tasting with the sharp, face scrunching initial flavour and everything.  It almost felt wrong eating them, but it's just as well its such a small bag as I would have even all of them regardless of the size.

I really liked the look of these Oloves Chilli and Garlic Black Olives as I love olives and you don't normally get them in such an easy to carry packaging.  I couldn't actually really taste the chilli and garlic, just the black olives.  But this was fine by me as I love olives in just the flavour they have.  If I'm out somewhere and need a snack I'll definitely be looking out for these.

The Conscious Chocolate Goji and Coconut Mini Bar is clearly the little pocket sibling to the Conscious Chocolate with peppermint essential oil from the May box.  I do like the bitter flavour of Conscious Chocolate, but wasn't hugely keen on the flavour or texture of this one. I do prefer this size though, much better for those of us who have a habit of eating the whole bar.  I will keep looking out for other flavours of this bar though as I like the concept.

I've already tried, and am a fan of, the Yushoi Snapea rice sticks in Slightly Salted.  I had never tried this flavour as I'm not a salt and vinegar fan, but as it was in this bag I thought I would give it a go.  The flavours are much milder than the usual salt and vinegar crisps, but still still not my thing.  However, if you like salt and vinegar you'll love these.  I do like the snack size of these as I can normally only find the larger bags and that's really dangerous. I also like the coupon for 50p off that came in the box - thank you very much. 

This I'm actually drinking right now. The Virtue Ice Tea in Lemon.  I can't quite decide how I feel about it.  I love that it has B vitamins in it and it does taste nice for the most part, but there is a slight flavour that goes through it that I'm not too keen on.  I think it might be the sweetener as I just don't like the taste of these no matter what they're in and I think I'm prefer this without, even if it meant it was a little bit more bitter.  However, this could be something that I could get used to and I might see if I can find this again, maybe in other flavours, to see.  It is a quite refreshing and, lets face it, it has tea in it.

I was actually quite excited about the Angelic Gluten Free Chocolate Coconut & Oat Cake Slices.  For one, it took up half the box and it had three things I love - chocolate, coconut and oats.  Unfortunately, I didn't really like these.  The texture was fine but there was something about the flavour that I just couldn't get around.  I think it was the dates, for which I have a love/ hate relationship with. However I did like the other flavours coming through so I think I'll definitely try other products by this company when I come across them, and I would definitely try them if you are ok with dates.

One of the non-food items was the Fry's Family Foods Plants of Fire BBQ Recipe Book.  This book does, of course, contain recipes for their own products, but looks like it can be adapted to fit items that you normally use.  I'm always happy to get new ideas to keep out meals interesting and, despite loving the internet for recipes, I find using hard copies of recipes easier to use in the kitchen and I can be less protective of them (I'm not a tidy cooker).  I am interested in their products though.  I have been using Quorn for many years and it's been really helpful in helping my partner and me find a happy medium of eating vegetarian for me but still keeping the same textures and types that he is used to as a meat eater.  However, not all their products are vegan and Fry's Family Food are.

The last item is the Harpers Bizarre The Raspberry Kind candle.  This smells lovely, and very strong, when you open the tin and the scent also lingers even if you leave the lid off.  It burns really well and evenly, and the scent does fill the room easily and is pretty true to how actual raspberries smell.  Once burning the scent isn't hugely strong, but reaches a nice level. They also support the Jerry Green Dog Rescue. This is definitely one I'm looking out for and may actually order online.

Click here to read my blogs on the April, May and June The Vegan Kind boxes.

App of the Moment: Vegetarian Society

I have to admit that I didn't find becoming a vegetarian very difficult.  I was already eating a predominantly plant based diet and never thought that meat was particularly amazing.  I'm also one of those people that would happily just cut up a whole load of vegetables, chuck them in a frying pan and just eat them like that.  But when I moved in with my partner last year I had to become a little 'adventurous'.  He was kind enough to agree to eat vegetarian at dinner time, but it did need to be a little bit more varied and like a traditional meal.  To begin with I used (and still do) the Quorn recipe book, which is a great book for converting traditional meat meals into vegetarian ones, but we have been wanting some more variety and for that I've been turning to the Vegetarian Society app.

This app is unbelievably easy to use.  You can click tab on Search to get all of the recipes or if there is a specific ingredients or food type (ie tacos or sushi) then you can type it into the Enter keyword/s box and click on search.  But I'm not usually able to be that exact and tend to do more 'in the ballpark' type searching using the menus by tapping on the 'All' sections beside each title.  Meal type is whether it's a starter, main, soup, etc; Diet is whether you have any dietary requirements such as vegan, gluten free, nut free, etc; Preparation type is based on your cooking abilities and covers simple, moderate, gourmet, and recipes for caterers; Occasions is if it's for a specific occasion such as Christmas or Burns night (we are in Scotland after all); and lastly Cuisines is the usual Indian, Chinese, Italian, American, etc.

As I'm trying to transition into a more vegan diet I use the Diet section most to select all the Vegan recipes the app has.

What you get after your selection or search is a list of all the recipes available on the app for that request.  The best thing about the list provided is the fact that you can also see whether the recipes are vegan, egg free, gluten free, wheat free, nut free, and low in flat.

Once you click on the recipe the first page with give you an Overview about the recipe, how many it will serve, and the preparation time.  You can then tap on the Ingredients and the Method for the recipe.  You can also tap on Save at the bottom of the page which then saves it to your My recipes.  You can get to this directly from the front page next time you open the app.

You can get this app for free from the Vegetarian Society's website (oh and this is not a sponsored post, I just like the app).

Happy eating!

June The Vegan Kind subscription box

So another lovely The Vegan Kind vegan, lifestyle box came to my door again at the beginning of this week and I wasted no time in opening it to see what we had this time.

To begin with is the usual sheet letting you know about the guest recipe contributor is, information about the charity that The Vegan Kind supports (which is Teen VGN's Vegan Summer Camp, and details about the products in box.

The recipe this time is a Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta by Fettle Vegan, run by Amber who produces plant-based recipes.  I love avocado's and I love pesto so this is right up my alley and I've already added it to my list of menus for next week to test out.  The biggest test will be whether or not my partner, Jim, likes it.

The first thing I saw (and the first thing I ripped into before even taking a photo) was the Hoots Cheese and Onion Multigrain Snack.  This was really nice, not too cheesy or strong, and I really liked how crunchy it was.  I also liked the fact that Hoots is now removing animal products from their food.  Jim liked them too and actually took the pack out of my hand.

The next product I tried was the GranoVita Vegetable Pate. I spread it on some toast to try it and while it reminded me of a meat based pate I had at school years ago it wasn't something that I was particularly keen on.  It was salty tasting to me (it has sea salt added to it) and I'm not a fan of salty food, but if you do like slightly salty food then you should try this.

The next product I pulled out was the Good Full Stop Chocolate and Orange Bar which is a chocolate and orange fruit and nut bar.  It definitely tasted of orange chocolates and which quite easy to eat on that front.  The texture was squiggy though, I prefer my snacks to be crunchy.

I actually took the Foods of Athenry Chocolate and Raspberry Cookie with me when Jim and me went to Lunan Bay (East Scotland).  This we really liked.  It's not a chewy as usually cookies are, which we actually thought was a good thing, and the flavours were not too overpowering.  All and all this one was definitely a success and I will definitely be looking out for these when I'm having a cookie monster moment.

This was the last food product I pulled out, and actually the one I was most interested in, was the Smooze Fruit Ice.  I have a real ice-cream addition.  Not chocolate, not cakes, and not biscuits, but ice-cream.  Normally when it kicks in, and I give in, I get a big tub of Cookies and Cream which I finish completely.  What I'm hoping will happen is that this might be able to replace that as a smaller, vegan version of this to help with the cravings so I don't fall of the wagon.  Mango was the perfect one to get as it's a fruit I love and this was a really nice product.  I'm not sure it's exactly the same of the Cookies and Cream, but I think I will be able to use this as a substitute while I deal with this addition.

For me the best part of this box is the non-food products and this one was the Green People Sun Lotion.  I am a fan of Green People and have purchased and enjoyed their products in the past (specifically their sunscreen), so I was really pleased to receive this.  I was also intending on buying some sunscreen on the day I received this box as I'd run out, so this was perfectly timed.  This is a great product, rubs into the skin really well, isn't white, and lasted a long time.  I would recommend this (this size is £13.50 on the Green People website).

Click here to read my blogs on the April and May The Vegan Kind boxes.