My Dr. does not know I am vegan...

From Anita:
Hello Folks,

I keep getting the question "What does your Dr. say about you being a vegan"...and pregnant? I don't know. I've never told him. I think we should regard Drs. as technicians, there to do a technical job and that's it. Why we think they have infinite knowledge about all things escapes me. My Dr. probably took one nutrition class in the 1960s. What is he likely to know about nutrition? He may spout off to me his own preconceived and uneducated comments, but I can get those anywhere, and for free. So no, my Dr. does not know, and I have no intentions of telling him. He spares me about 30 seconds per visit, and that is more than enough for me.

I am, however, obsessed with nutrition info and love to fantasize about making well-balanced vegan toddler meals once little "Leo" is on solids. I've been obsessed with nutrition for years now so I am already pretty well informed. But the thought of feeding a little one is just endless fun for me.

I am very committed to cloth diapering. I've already bought some supplies. We don't use paper towels at my house and I do not use disposable feminine products so why would I use disposable diapers? Not a chance. Everyone sounds dubious, but I am excited - probably overly so considering what I am so looking forward too!

Aside from that, the pregancy is going smoothly, no problems so far, although I sure do whine about the various symptoms I've got...numb fingers, out of breath, little weird pains in my abdomen. I am 26 weeks so far....happy to wait quite a few more!

I'm pregnant - and yes, still vegan....

From Anita:
I will be 20 weeks pregnant in a couple of days, and this week, I had my first craving. I kept thinking I had cravings before, but now I get what a REAL craving is. All I want is fruit cups. With chile and lime if you've got it. I spent $80 on fruit this weekend and have been chopping 'em up. I went to the pulga (the flea market) in Brownsville, got a fruit cup - and I think that is what set it off. Yum! I went to Paletera today at 3:00 -- could not contain myself. I just HAD to go and knowing it is so close to my work - I think I'll be going back.

I keep googling "vegan pregnancy," trying to see some useful info or at least something interesting. SO many articles about celebrities giving up their vegan or vegetarian diets while pregnant. How? I don't get it. I was near some fried mozzarella cheese about 14 weeks in, and that made me ill. I have had very little nausea, unless I smell BBQ or that sickening raw meat smell at the grocery store. They made tripas (cow intestines) at work -- I was gagging worse than I have the whole pregnancy so far. (but if you know the smell of tripas, that is probably a view shared by many non-pregnant folks).

Actually - it's not that I don't get it. I get the whole pregnancy - I want it and I want it NOW syndrome. I am living it every two hours these days. I can see that those that see their veganism as a nice way to keep trim and be "pure" will not want to - not really be ABLE to, during a pregnancy. I just don't see veganism as a sacrifice. I did at first, but I quickly learned I can still be a glutton and be a vegan. Yum yum yum!

Thank goodness Andrew is such a good cook, and is still willing to cook - because I hate cooking now!

What's up with The New York Times' editorial pages?

Did The New York Times' editorial pages really print false information? Look at this fake letter supposedly written by the mayor of Paris. Why is that not surprising? Look at what the Times' editorial pages said about vegans. The nation's best newspaper has tremendous journalistic standards in its news sections, but on its editorial pages, it seems to print whatever it can get its hands on.

'Tis the season, you know

I probably shouldn't be disappointed, but I can't help it. My work put on a Christmas lunch for everyone, and I got my hopes up for a second. The bosses got pasta, pizza and salad. Guess who the salad without dressing was for? I may be a vegan, but I'm not a big fan of iceberg lettuce with red cabbage and tomatoes and no dressing. How boring. The sad thing is they know I'm a vegan, but I was not consulted. By experience, I knew that would happen, so I knew to bring a lunch. I could have guided them to getting a chesseless pizza from Papa Johns with all of the vegetable toppings. Now, that would have been more up my alley. Shucks. I did get a very nice gift from our administrative assistant: a vegetarian cookbook. Well, it wasn't all bad. I can't wait to make our Christmas tamales.

Should Vegans Boycott Olive Garden?

For years, I had been going to Olive Garden with my family in a variety of cities. I knew that I could at least get whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce on it. And, my family was willing to go. So, it was a compromise that didn't make me upset. It never occurred to me that what I was eating might not be vegan at all. Here is what the Olive Garden website says:

Which menu selections are vegetarian?
A few of our menu items can be adjusted to accommodate a vegan or vegetarian diet, but none wholly meet the criteria. Depending on your personal philosophy, we can suggest the following items as meatless, but not necessarily vegetarian or vegan:

Minestrone soup (vegetable and mushroom base; no meat protein)
Garden Salad (without dressing)
Marinara Sauce (mushroom base; no meat protein)
Capellini Pomodoro
Eggplant Parmigiana
Fettuccine Alfredo

It is interesting to me that they say that vegetarians and vegans can be accommodated, but then it says none of their menu items "wholly meet the criteria." To me, that means, nothing is vegetarian or vegan. It makes me think of the food scientists in "Fast Food Nation" adding flavorings made of meat products. That's what McDonald's did when they stopped frying their French fries in beef tallow. To keep the same flavor, they simply added essence of beef fat into the fries. I wonder what sort of crazy experimentation Olive Garden is up to, but as far as I am concerned, they can keep their meals created in laboratories to themselves. They do not cook authentic Italian food, and I will never trust them again.

It wasn't the onions that made me want to cry

Has it really been that long since I last made a post? I've fallen out of the habit of regularly posting. Well, I've been meaning to share these pictures I took back in April. Anita and I were really excited about finally getting to go to the Onion Festival in Weslaco. Unfortunately, the Onion Festival is not a celebration of the onion as much of it's just a typical festival. They had bands performing, arts and crafts tent and the non-vegan friendly food stands. When we had enough of the festival on that sweltering day, we had the misfortune of see this poor cow put up for display. The cow was being used to advertise milk. She was howling and miserable. People would come up to her oblivious to her suffering. This is systematic of our culture. We use animals for our benefit, but we refuse to see them, even when they are right under our noses. Unlike fellow humans, there is no minimum standard for treating an animal.

Sad about seitan

I'm sorry I've been slow about posting blog entries. I have several things I want to get off my chest soon (with pictures). I only have a week left in this semester, and maybe (perhaps I am being too hopeful) I will be able to get some of my mind back then. I just wanted to relay my birthday experience (from April 16, I'm slow). My wonderful wife made me sesame seitan for my birthday. It was so delicious. I've had similar dishes in the past, but now I'm learning I don't feel so well after having such a mega-dose of wheat gluten. After I eat it, I start getting a headache and feeling flushed. It's hard to explain, but I really don't want to experience that ever again. I know for certain it was the seitan because I ate two plates of leftovers, and the symptoms returned. The strange thing is I don't think I am overly sensitive to gluten in foods. I'm guessing it is just having such a concentrated amount in one dish. Well, at least my last seitan dish was a winner, and so much for snubbing my nose at others who balked at seitan. I understand how they feel now.