Caity McCardell » Veganism

Colin at Vegan Spices Restaurant

Caity — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:59:17 +0000

Well, we’re outside the restaurant at the train station in this video, but I want to mention that we have finally found a main course that Colin will actually eat. It’s the orange chikin at Vegan Spices in San Luis Obispo. This restaurant is a goldmine for local vegans!!!!! We’re delighted – it’s a huge space (including outdoor and bar seating) and the food is delicious.

Reason #546

Caity — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:27:04 +0000

Reason #546 that I’m happy to be vegan is that I don’t have period cramps.

I realized during the start of my last period that before I went vegan I used to have cramps – painful ones – during my period. That all stopped when I stopped dairy, eggs and meat.

Reason #1 that I *don’t* like being vegan is that there really aren’t any restaurants within 15 miles that serve healthy food. We just got back from going out to Japanese food and I feel like I’ve been embracing a salt lick for an hour. Everything’s either dripping with salt or dripping with oil. My body she doesn’t like it.

Reason #2 that I *don’t* like being vegan is going to potlucks. There’s no luck, typically, in the pot if you’re vegan.

Reason #1 that I don’t like going to cohousing social events is that everyone’s smashed against me eating meat (which I usually don’t mind at all – it’s when it’s all over the place and totally within my physical space comfort zone that it starts feeling like I’m swimming in meat, smelling it. It’s like one of those dreams when you’re doing something perfectly normal and everything around you starts fading in and out and something is really wrong but everyone’s pretending everything is perfectly normal. And it can’t be true but are people purposefully looking at me and smiling while they’re taking a bite of their pork chop? And the blood and sauce are all over their faces and their eyes are getting really big and the music gets very dramatic and I think I’m going to pass out but then I just stand up and get another helping of Trader Joe’s spinach salad in a bag).

Farm Sanctuary Fundraiser

Caity — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:01:50 +0000

Gianna, Colin, Stefan and I are participating in the 2010 Farm Sanctuary Walk for Farm Animals in October!

Farm Sanctuary is the organization we’ve been supporting since day one of our vegan journey. They provide incredible legislative work, education and plain ol’ sanctuary for beat up farm animals. This isn’t a sweet neighbor lady who takes in stray dogs… and it’s not a group who’s going to show up naked with fake blood splattered around… Farm Sanctuary is an educated, well-armed group that makes significant change, both to report on the reality of farm animal conditions and to push through legislation that brings radical change into reality.

Would you like to donate to our team?

Here’s the link to our Team Page.

Protein Line

Caity — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:42:06 +0000

Thinking about what to say when someone asks where I get my protein. I was taken aback when one of the vegan women who actually eats high raw asked *me* how I get my protein. I realized that even vegan people who believe the Standard American Diet is too high in protein still are curious about it in the raw community (she misunderstood that I was raw, which isn’t true).

Q: “Where do you get your protein?”

A: Well, I’m not a junk food vegan – which would leave me susceptible to lower levels of vitamins, minerals and protein and high intake of fats and the unhealthy carbohydrates we want to avoid. Instead, I have really healthy eating habits that include healthy carbohydrates (like whole grains and brown rice) and oils that are good for my body. The grain, beans, dark leafy greens and other vegetables I eat have plenty of protein that allows me to achieve muscle strength, energy and overall health.
_____
Yeah, like I’m really going to give that speech. But it’s nice to clarify it for myself.

OK, I gotta get the heck out of this hotel and get to class!

Orthorexia Nervosa

Caity — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:45:07 +0000

I think I have a condition!

I “think” because it’s not clear if it’s bad or not. If it’s bad, then I don’t have it. If it’s good, then I have it. Ha!

Completely stolen from Wikipedia:

“Orthorexia, or orthorexia nervosa is a term coined by Steven Bratman, a Colorado MD, to denote an eating disorder characterized by a focus on eating healthy foods. Orthorexia is referred to as a mental disorder by some sources, however it is not recognized as a mental disorder in any of the medical manuals, such as the ICD-10 or the DSM-IV, neither is it part of the proposed revision of this manual, the DSM-5.

“Steven Bratman claims that in rare cases, this focus may turn into a fixation so extreme that it can lead to severe malnutrition or even death.

“Bratman coined the term in 1997 from the Greek orthos, “correct or right”, and orexis for “appetite”. Literally “correct appetite”, the word is modeled on anorexia, “without appetite”, as used in definition of the condition anorexia nervosa. Bratman describes orthorexia as an unhealthy obsession with what the health-conscious individuals considers to be healthy eating.”

OK, I’ve blatantly copied and pasted enough.

Can you tell me if it’s good or bad to have this condition? Cause I’m thinking about adding it to my blog title:

“Vegan, Unschooling, Cohousing, VFF Running Mom, Woman With Orthorexia Nervosa”

Change of Perspective – Raising Vegan Kids

Caity — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:12:23 +0000

I picked up my latest issue of Ode Magazine today – for “Intelligent Optomists,” which really has me craving my weekly pedophile update, dog attacks, celebrity gossip and other real news from The Week or SFGate.

I skipped to a piece about the brain, about how people with mental disorders of any spectrum suffer from societal judgment – harsh prejudice harkening back to racial, gender and sexual inequity. The piece reminded me that runaway slaves were considered mentally incompetent (why else would they want to run?), low scorers on intelligence tests in the 30’s were considered “morons” or “idiots,” and homosexuality was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until as recently as the 1970s.

So much has changed, we like to say. Women have the right to vote. Blacks and whites live in relative harmony (relative to the 50s). Lesbians and gay men can marry now, right? Oh.

Because I think about animals, the Ode Magazine piece reminded me that animal rights activists like to say, “some day we’ll look back on factory farming in the same way that we look back on other injustices of our time. And we’ll thank God it’s over.”

And because I’m a parent of vegan kids, the Ode Magazine piece sparked a complete shift in my thinking about raising vegan children.

A little background: Some of our friends think being a vegan family is like being religious. Eating a plant-based diet is equitable to dragging our kids to church on Sundays, praying at the table, talking about how God is our lord and king. You know, being vegan is pushing an agenda on our kids.

They think that when our kids get older they’ll jump at the chance to eat at McDonald’s. That first hamburger is going to taste so good, they say. They’re craving real food.

And as a parent of vegan children, I try to laugh about that. Who cares, I counter confidently. They might also join a biker gang. How can I possibly worry about trying to control that?

I’ll admit, though, that there’s a piece of my heart that aches about the possibility of Gianna and Colin racing to eat meat and dairy when they head out my door. My friends are right – being a vegan family *is* like having a religion, and I don’t want them to leave the Vegan Church.

A friend of mine grew up with vegan parents. He rolls his eyes and cringes talking about it, teasing them. He sounds ashamed of them. (I want to tell him that going back to veganism might help reverse the MS devastating his body, but that’s another story.)

So where’s the Ah Ha Moment I got from the Ode Magazine piece? It’s this:

I believe that when my children grow up they will be wise and thoughtful. I want to believe that they won’t tease me and Stefan about our food choices. They’ll say we were part of a movement, a proud one, that stood for something. WE STAND FOR SOMETHING.

Instead of teasing us or being embarrassed and calling us hippies with crazy ideas, they’ll actually be more sharp than that.

When Gianna and Colin talk about the early 21st century, they’ll ask, “why didn’t you do anything?” All those animals were being tortured and held in servitude; the Earth was being dumped on by massive holes full of animal poop; rain forests cut down to make room for cattle; global warming sped up; the oceans depleted; lists of diseases caused by eating animals…

and all we did was go vegan.

“Why weren’t you protesting in the streets, Mom?” Gianna might ask.

Maybe I’ll sheepishly reply, “we were so busy raising animal rights activists!”

I don’t have to worry about them becoming omnivores. What I look forward to now… my kids shaming me for not doing more.

Sexy Vegan Kid

Caity — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:37:27 +0000

Bibi, my 15-year-old niece said that Colin will grow up to be a skateboarding, vegan teen with long brown hair, and all the girls will swoon, thinking he’s the sexiest thing around. Which makes my niece very cool because she knows that being vegan is, really, sexy.

(BTW, I’m trusting that when my son is a teenager, kissing a meateater will be equated with kissing a smoker.)

Vegan Candy

Caity — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:18:49 +0000

Recently an adult friend in the community asked if she could buy the kids some salt water taffy. It was very conscientious letting us know what’s in the candy, making sure I was OK with them eating it, etc. She ended up getting some other candy in addition to the taffy – candy that was vegan from Whole Foods (she checked the ingredients thoroughly) – but Stefan didn’t know that. He just saw this candy Colin was eating and said he thought there was probably gelatin in it. He talked to Colin about what gelatin often contains – horse hooves.

So Colin goes to the adult friend and declares that he couldn’t eat the non-taffy candy because it has horse hooves in it. She comes over and has what appears to be an awkward conversation about it and later emailed Stefan.

It’s these situations that Stefan and I differ in our approach. I trust that this particular adult would only give our kids vegan food. In fact, so often our kids are at other people’s homes in the community and I trust that they respect our values. I don’t need to oversee what’s going in their mouths. Being a relaxed parent is more important than seemingly policing the situation.

I understand why Stefan took the candy away from Colin, but I sometimes feel the need to weigh the impact of that with a bigger picture view. How people view us is important for the animal rights movement – Anxious Vegans just give the impression that we’re not comfortable with our choices and that it’s not worth it to be vegan.

Watermelon Juice

Caity — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:10:33 +0000

My new favorite thing in the world…

Take cold watermelon from refrigerator, throw in the blender, blend for 20 seconds (or more if you have seeds to crush up – nutrient-rich!) and drink, drink, drink! Absolutely delicious. Who needs to chew watermelon when you can consume 1/2 of one in 10 minutes? My body, she loves it.

UN Promotes Veganism

Caity — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:03:11 +0000

According to numerous sources, such as the Guardian, the UN urges a global move to meat and dairy-free diet. “Lesser consumption of animal products is necessary to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change, UN report says.

“As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.”

Thanks, UN.

I just wish someone like Obama would jump on that bandwagon.