Compassionate, Healthy Eating

So, here's my new diet plan:

As of June 22, I don't eat sugar.
As of today, I am a vegan.

Wanna know why?

Check out The Sugar Blues by William Dufty. Also check out Vegan Vittles: Recipes Inspired by the Critters of Farm Sanctuary by Joanne Stepaniak, peta.com, peta2.com, and veganoutreach.org.

I am striving to eat mainly whole foods rather than processed ones.

Because I have an autoimmune thyroid disease, I am limiting my intake of goitrogens such as soy, textured vegetable protein, peanuts, millet, and cruciferous vegetables (yeah, this is going to be a little challenging on a vegan diet). Fortunately, soy and TVP will be okay in small amounts, cooking cruciferous vegetables reduces their goitrogenic effect, femented soy products like miso are fine, and I was never a big fan of peanuts or millet anyway. The addition of iodine (plentiful in iodized salt and sea vegetables) to a diet helps reduce the goitrogenic effects of these foods as well.

I am working towards total elimination of artificial sweeteners. (I am too weak to throw out perfectly good packs of gum!)

Because their effects on the body are similar to sugar, I am limiting my intake of refined carbohydrates like polished rice, pasta and white bread. And since I may have a sensitivity to wheat, I am going to try not to overconsume that either.

So "what's left to eat?" you ask. Well, vegetables, of course! And a variety of whole grains, legumes, and fruits.

Here's to a whole new way of relating to food and to animals (which are, for me, no longer the same things) and to my body. Here's to sitting down to meals with a clear conscience and a feeling of peace. Here's to no longer feeling the strange and painful contradiction between laboring with love for hours to save a wounded fledgling swallow while knowing that, if it were a chicken, I would eat it. Here's to learning how to prepare delicious, healthful, gourmet vegan meals!

P.S. To Kelsey, thank you for loving and not judging me even when I was eating meat right in front of you. I strive to follow your example.