The Fast: Day 38 Food for Thought

With two more days to go on this fast and with 40 days to contemplate food (sometimes way too much) I’ve had some time to become very informed and make a very deliberate decision regarding my diet.

I’m going vegan!  Vegans do not eat any animal products which include: eggs, dairy (cow’s milk, goat’s milk, butter etc.).  Strict vegans don’t consume anything that might have been processed with anything from an animal – I’m likely not going to be that hardcore, at least initially anyway.

I’m doing it for the health benefits.  I’ve been watching a lot of food related documentaries lately (because that’s what you do when you fast, you watch documentaries about food while your friends are out to dinner).  Two of them really impacted me greatly: Forks over Knives and Food Inc.  Forks over Knives focuses on cancer research and diet while Food Inc. focuses on the way food is manufactured and processed including our grains, fruits and vegetables.  It also shows some pretty gruesome and cruel practices towards animals and how far we have come from those days on the farm.

Without getting too preachy I’ll explain why I’m going vegan:

• Hello Fall!  Where did my allergies go?  My sinus allergies have been so much better.  Generally, when the seasons change I’ve been known to sneeze 13 times in succession and just be a mucus-y mess with plenty of sinus headaches and breathing problems but guess what?  My sinuses feel great and NO mucus build-up since starting the fast.  I think it’s safe to say that diet affects my allergies.  Upon doing my own research on how I realized that eliminating dairy has been shown to reduce allergy symptoms so there goes the dairy.
• Weight loss: A vegan diet is generally low fat since you’re not using any animal products.  Of course, you can definitely eat badly as a vegan, as you could with any other diet, but in general it’s more difficult to make those impulsive cupcake or candy bar buys when everything contains milk or eggs.
• “The anticancer” diet?  I could go into this but just save me the trouble and watch Forks over Knives – streams free on Netflix.
• Bye bye hormones: No more Bovine Growth hormone in my cheese!  No more other growth hormones in my chicken and no more mercury in my fish (Dear Scallops and Oysters:  I’ll miss you...but it’s not forever, we can rendezvous one night, just you and me, and I will be seduced in blissful seafood heaven.  A little mercury never hurt anyone, right?  P.S. don’t tell the other vegans.)

If I can fast for 40 days, I’m fairly certain I can eliminate most processed foods from my diet like refined sugars, flours etc.  My plan is to try and eat as whole as possible when possible.  This will ensure many good grains/carbohydrates and lots of fruits and vegetables.  I also may maintain my juicing of fresh fruits and veggies daily or every other day as I am enjoying it.

There is one thing I refuse to give up and that is coffee.   Countless times I’ve ALMOST broken the fast with a cup of hot, delicious coffee, but I persevered!  Sure, I almost brushed my lips against the forbidden cup but forbidden no longer.  Only two days separates us.  I can’t wait.  It will be heavenly.