Groxie

(Sorry it took me so long to post—we were without internet yesterday!)
John and I are not vegan, but we often whip up vegan meals without making a conscious decision to do so. Recently we decided to turn these happy accidents into a commitment to make a few vegan meals a week. We are doing this for a few reasons:

For our health

The incidence of heart disease is much lower among vegetarians, and even lower among vegans. One reason for this is that our only source of cholesterol in food is from animal products. Meat consumption has also been linked to certain cancers. On the massive factory farms where livestock and dairy cows are raised, they are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics in order to keep them alive and productive in the stressful, unnatural, and unhealthy environment. These chemicals eventually make their way into our bodies, and have been blamed for myriad health issues.

Wikipedia has a lenghty article on veganism that addresses health benefits. There are many good references there.

For the environment

I have mentioned before the large amount of water it takes to raise livestock. Grain is raised for livestock feed, and the grain must be processed and delivered to farms. All of this takes additional fuel and other resources. Once livestock are ready for slaughter, they are packed into trucks and driven to a slaughterhouse, as it is illegal for farmers to slaughter anything other than chickens on their own land. Once livestock enter the slaughterhouse, who knows? There is no transparency to these organizations, so it is very difficult to know exactly what kind of resources they use.

Factory farms pollute the land and water with excessive fertilizer and pesticides, along with massive amounts of animal waste that include the same hormones and antibiotics that make it into the food system. These wastes and chemicals enter rivers and lakes as runoff, and are responsible for contaminating the water and killing off millions of fish. Communities downstream of factory farms or Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) suffer the ill effects.

Again, Wikipedia has a detailed article about “environmental vegetarianism.” I honestly didn’t even know this was a catch-phrase.

Because it is yummy and easy

I hope you will agree that adding a few vegan meals to your life might be a healthy thing to do for you and the planet. But you might be concerned about how difficult it will be and whether or not you will find something tasty. Fear not—there are tons of great vegan resources out there to get you started. You can decide how far you want to take each meal. Some vegans will not consume sugar that is charcoal filtered; many won’t eat honey. If you’re just doing this a few times a week, you don’t have to develop a grand life style plan—just pick what seems the most reasonable to you.

Now onto the yummy part. Ethnic cuisines are a great way to build up a vegan meal catalog. Indian food in particular lends itself well to vegan substitutions, but with all of the vegan-oriented products on the market you can make almost anything—even twinkies! There are many vegan food blogs out there, but I’ve picked out a few of my favorites where I often find inspiration. With great instructions, pictures, and reader comments to help you along, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of delicious recipes to try!

• Eat Air
  This blog is written by a couple in Charlottesville, and has some great recipe links and ideas.
• Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
  I’m not sure I am down with eating vegan and fat free, but some of these recipes still look pretty tasty!
• Vegan Feast Kitchen
  This blog by a vegan food writer has a huge list of delicious recipes on the left side of the blog.
• What do Vegans Eat?
  This one has less recipes, but lots of inspiring pictures and ideas.

If you prefer tangible cookbooks, I see these two referenced over and over: Vegan with a Vengeance, and Vive le Vegan. I found both on half.com for about $12.

Keep in mind that buying vegan substitutes like meat analogues, vegan cheese, and other replacement dairy items can get pretty expensive. Fortunately, you can also just rely on good old fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, spices, and oils as a basis for daily meals. TVP and tofu are great protein sources, and you don’t have to dole out tons of money. TVP can be purchased in bulk at most big health food stores, and I have found our local Asian markets to be the best source of cheap tofu. I can get four large block for about a $1.