It’s a clever term that sticks in your head. But it might link itself to memories of extreme vegans you’ve met. The ones that burned their leather Bibles or don’t eat honey because it exploits bees.
I went vegan after being diagnosed with cancer. Well, at first I was vegetarian—after we consumed all that comfort food stew that Julie made on the shock/horror day of my diagnosis. But everything I was reading about eating to heal cancer and the effects of the treatment lead on from vegan to ‘plant based whole foods’ or PBWF for short. But vegan is more in the common vernacular. It’s the word you need to use in a restaurant as an easy explanation of your needs. It’s the word to look for on labelling.
The problem is that vegan doesn’t mean unprocessed, or without added sugar or nutritious. There are a lot of things that fit in the vegan food category that no one would ever claim could help your body’s health. White granulated sugar is a prime example—vegan (well after investigating this, only UK granulated sugar is vegan, not in the USA).
So just to be clear, I ‘went vegan’ for my health. Purely selfish, no animal love involved. And for nearly 4 years now I’ve kept it pretty strictly. PBWF is much harder. The plant based part I’m pretty good at. The whole food part is much more difficult. It means no processing so that would include oils. Olive oil is a processed food. The fiber has been extracted. Fibre is where the good stuff is.
I’m not anywhere near adhering to a PBWF eating program on a full-time basis. And I have days that I eat fish—which sometimes includes tartar sauce that isn’t vegan. And on special family days like Thanksgiving and Christmas I do eat the turkey and ham—because food is more than nourishment, it’s woven into our personal culture.
So for a month or so short of 4 years I’ve been changing my personal food culture. Ask my family, they see it. I eat a spinach salad nearly every day. I never have butter. I have soya milk on my granola with added chia and pumpkin seeds. I drink green tea. I love roasted cauliflower. I think that hummus is a great accompaniment to just about everything. Eating vegan has become part of my ‘rule of life.’
We’re nearly at the end of Veganuary, but if for any reason you are thinking of radically changing your eating habits, I want to encourage you. I feel great, I have lots of energy. I’ve enjoyed a variety of new foods. My cancer status is ’no evidence of disease’—and that’s another longer story.
And if you are facing a health challenge of any kind, can I lovingly challenge you to give up meat? And eggs? Milk products? Yes, I know that one is hard. Can you do it one day a week? Or one meal a day? Look at what you’re eating. Maybe there are already vegan meals that are already part of your food culture. Give it a try. Give it one month, any month, the month that you alter your food culture habits and see what happens.
Maybe you will fall in love with hummus too!
