blog post Today on Lanarama: Foodie Friday! Veganism! Can You Go Vegan for 5 Days?

I've been vegan for 3 years (and lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 11 years before that). Going vegan was one of the best decisions I've ever made! Most of my friends and housemates have been veggies, so life is easy, meat-free, and delicious.

I was more-or-less vegan for about a year (I ate honey, and used some animal products for non-food purposes). I gave it up in the summer because I found it hard to eat enough protein and calcium (I'm lazy).

Nutrition's not a big deal if you're doing it for five days, but if you're going for it long term, I found this helpful:

http://www.dietitians.ca/news/downloads/vege_Guide%28EN%29.pdf

(There are some related tables around, but they're not in as nice a format for printing)

been veggie many years, only vegan about 6 months. when people make me food with eggs or cheese though i'll eat it out of respect. eating eggs and cheese doesn't gross me out like eating animals does.

after being veggie for awhile i couldn't ignore all the great reasons to be vegan, from health to environment to ethics to $$. and it's made me be more creative in the kitchen.

For me, when I first went vegan, I craved dairy a little for about two weeks. So if you try it for five days and you still want cheese/milk/whatever, that doesn't mean you couldn't get used to it after a little while longer.

I may go back at some future point, if I ever become the sort of organized person who plans meals in advance, because I did a lot better at it when I planned what I was eating. Won't be next week, though.

Yes, I am a vegan. I've been a vegeterian for 10 years but then when i started dating my partner i made the transition, along with a few too many trips to the exile infoshoppe downtown ottawa.

He basically showed me how easy it was to eat vegan food. So many enthnic foods are vegan (Indian, chinese, ethiopian). I couldn't even imagine eating meat again- it's just stuff to me that I'm not interested in.

There's a stigma around vegans, but the way I deal with it is simply cooking for everyone around me and not even telling them it's completely animal and bi-product free.

That being said, i've just started a new job and I've decided NOT to let any one know my beliefs and instead cop it up to food allergies.

And we just moved so we got all new kitchen supplies and let me tell you, it's SO exciting to eat from pans etc, that have NEVER touched meat! and to go to the fridge and pull anything out that we can eat with out worrying.

p.s. if you're vegan you HAVE to love cooking.

Remember what Judge Reinhold said in Beverly Hills Cop? The average human has 8 pounds of undigested red meat in his bowels!

I had moose burgers tho 2 days ago ... Gimme a mountain to climb .
Can a Vegan diet feed a lumberjack ?

Hey! I'm @pipingloud. I feel like I'm stalking Radio 3 today, sorry!

Are there any concerns with these diets and getting pregnant?

If you cut out any food that's a by product of animals including bees, aren't bees & wasps responsible for pollinated a giant percent of the crops in north america? I mean, why not enjoy the honey too is all I'm getting at since crops are basically a by-product of bees already.

I first discovered vegan baking while in Melbourne a few years ago. A bakery there made the most delicious muffins and loaves I have ever had. No baking (vegan, homemade, or otherwise) has compared yet.

I recently made some vegan brownies that are super yummy (although I wish I had a better food processor). They don't have flour in them either, mostly just beans and bananas. So they're also protein-fiber bars (pretty healthy for a brownie) and you don't have to stop at just one!

A lot of vegans breastfeed (human mothers can consent in a way that animals can't).

Formula-fed vegan babies need actual (soy-based) baby formula. Most of the horror stories involve people substituting normal soy milk or other non-formula things for formula.

Yeah, if I had kids, I'd rather they have some organic milk than anything else, be it either soy or pasturized.

Yeah, I'm all for the moderation. I may love my meats but I appreciate all foods, veggies & fruit included of course. You just have to eat sensibly, like, I may love a good steak but I don't like eating a giant 14 oz porterhouse or anything. It's just too much. I'd take a nice 8oz rib eye or something any day.

Oh yeah, anyone have any good kale recipes? I love the stuff but I don't know what to do with it past regular kinda fried in a pan with garlic and/or balsamic.

Mmmm kale, one of my favorite veggies. I love it sauteed with garlic and red pepper flakes or steamed. I get a lot of my kale recipes from: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ The white bean and kale soup and polenta and kale casserole are really good!

I need cheese too badly to go full out vegan... but 5 days is definitely doable.

Meat is gross anyways.

Wow, awesome kale recipes on there!
I wanna make some kale chips to bring into work. That's as awesome as cauliflower popcorn from the Surreal Gourmet http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=7182

I have cauliflower, I love popcorn, therefore I will try it tonight. It looks weird though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_CjK-yY2WM

In my first year of University I went vegan for 5 days, I already didn't drink milk because of my medication. I felt depressed, tired and constantly hungry, so I stopped.

I used to get my meat from a local butcher, but they closed to open a Subway.

Something else to think about:

"According to a 2006 United Nations initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to deforestation, air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of topsoil, climate change, the overuse of resources including oil and water, and loss of biodiversity. The initiative concluded that the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.
Animals fed on grain need more water than grain crops. In tracking food animal production from the feed through to the dinner table, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1. The result is that producing animal-based food is typically much less efficient than the harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits.
The environmental impacts of animal production vary with the method of production. Grazing-based production can limit soil erosion and also allow farmers to control pest problems with less pesticides through rotating crops with grass. In arid areas, however, it may as well catalyze a desertification process. In a world that utilizes around 30 percent of its surface to raise livestock, it is important to recognize the potential effects grazing has on the soil ".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_vegetarianism

I always thought it was a strange argument when Veg/Vegans would bring up taste. It doesn't taste better, I've had a bunch of Vegan Cooking from good Vegan cooks and its good, but not better. For some reason it feels like a dishonest point.

You're not the only one, but I've always thought raw Kale tasted a bit like the grass did whenever I'd wipe out in soccer. Maybe I'm just weird, though... It is pretty good raw with rice, weirdly. Cooked rice, of course.

I'm actually going carnivore this year. i think its really unhealthy not to eat meat and fat. saturated fat is actually really awesome for you. following the paleo lifestyle, and staying healthy.