Vegan • Page 14

where was it? i'm only familiar with clover's meatball sub you mentioned.

 

Is by Chloe's still a thing?

 

yup! just tried the fenway location for the first time a couple months ago

 

I've been to that one when I visited once, it's actually pretty nice. I just feel like the company isn't doing as well as they once were, still feel weird about them firing Chloe.

 

ah i don't know anything about the history or who chloe actually is, just googled this article though
By Chloe Chef Ousted For ‘Gross Negligence’ of Vegan Fast-Casual Company

 

Yea, this is a really one sided article and she's being defended by Lisa bloom so I don't think it's that simple. I've read bad stuff about the big businesses that owned it when it first happened as well.

 

It is at Rail Trail Flatbread in Hudson. We just moved to Maynard after living in Woburn for 7 years. We still don’t know much about the overall area but we’ve found a few gems so far.

 

So I was at the gym and on one of the TVs I noticed the local news was talking about the beyond burger and based on what I gathered apparently meat farms and people are mad they are calling a meat alternative a “burger” and want them to remove it from their name. Then they were like in depth debating what makes a burger a burger. The ceo of beyond meat says they are “hitting all the compositions of being defined as a burger” but meat industry ain’t having it as they believe burger means meat. Also they said meat alternatives are up 5% and I’m guessing this whole debate is because they are losing sales...

 

Sounds like the dairy companies that are trying to stop nut/plant milks from being called “milk”

Assholes

 

So I was just talking to a friend who was out collecting signatures to help get a candidate on the ballot here in MA. He said there was a guy there who was really really into climate change issues, but his big argument was that veganism actually is the biggest contributor to climate change.

My friend just ignored him so he didn’t really get a ton of details, but I guess the Cruz of the guys argument was that it takes more energy to produce a vegetarian diet than it does to raise a cow, which goes against everything I have ever heard or read.

I think his argument is BS, but has anyone here ever heard anything like that before? Sometimes I just get curious where that stuff starts.

 

I’ve heard people talk about almond milk being unsustainable, and it does use a lot of water. But compared to the water and emissions from cow waste for regular milk and or one beef patty it doesn’t even compare.

 

Yeah that makes no sense

 

The one big agriculture I know that is not sustainable is corn.

 

And soybeans

 

Those damn giant quinoa factories with their giant smokestacks

 

I think you were at then, mostly, where I'm at now. I'm just experimenting with stuff now. I gave in to meat twice last week, but that's fine. The circumstances I was in it was just easier to eat it(and it was good). The spreadsheet you mentioned in a post was a good idea and I may do that. I'll consider myself in plant-based kindergarten or 1st grade at this point. Excited to learn more of what I need to be eating to get all the nutrients I need, great meat replacements and things like that.

 

Glad to see you made your way over here. I should have mentioned this thread to you in my response. The visual of going through and listing healthy vegan foods was good for me because I could have a visual of how much is really out there. And then once you build it out from finding new foods you really begin to feel good about the switch and believe it's not that daunting.

There is a lot of information out there and it really is a continual progression of improvement. I am not a perfect vegan or plant-based eater and I don't claim to be. I just try to be better than before. I am open to trying new approaches. I am the opposite to most vegans where meat is the hardest thing to avoid as opposed to cheese, eggs, or milk.

When I made my first posts in here and was training for the Columbus marathon, I was mostly eating two plant based meals a day with a few days where I wasn't perfect. Now, I am still not completely perfect. There have been times where I've gone veg or ate meat. But my home is completely removed from those products or most restaurants I can avoid it pretty easily. I am also down to most days eating one meal. Some days I will throw a second in based on feel. One of hardest things in terms of nutrients to gain in the plant-based life is B-12 and if you buy nutritional yeast and use it in different recipes (it has a sort of cheddar flavor) you will gain access to it.

In terms of your running, I think you will find the lifestyle lends itself really well to what you are trying to accomplish. You are trading some foods that fill but don't add value (probably bog you down some) and are taking in foods that are loaded with good nutrients and good energy. I think you will find you are able to recover quicker, have less severe bathroom breaks, less need to go to the bathroom on a run, and eventually a little more confidence because you feel more energetic.

I know this is super long, but definitely PM me if you want to drill in a little more because I am very willing to talk about my positive experience with it in marathon training and in my day to day now.

 

Dude thanks so much. I’ll reach out soon probably. I’m trying to fill the house with only items that fit my eating habits, but my wife is the complete opposite as of now. I’ll buy my self kale salad and black bean chips, and I’ll also buy my wife Doritos and sweet tea. Haha. Makes it hard when you get hungry at home.

 

Yes, definitely reach out. I lived with different people during my "go-live" stretch so I understand what your are working through. Simplest advice I will give you for now would be to work mostly with plant-based foods you know you like and enjoy. When you get bored of the same foods, then branch out to something different. If you eat foods that are familiar and you know you dig, you won't really feel like you are missing out or feel the temptation as much.

 

on the subject of Daiya, my gf HATES Daiya cheese. I'm usually wary of fake cheeses but Chao is pretty good. My gf loves it for grilled cheese. we also just discovered kite hill's almond milk ricotta and it is AMAZING. Spendy, but soooo good. we made lasagna with it, along with Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese, meat crumbles, nutritional yeast, eggplant, mushrooms, spinach, zucchini and homemade tomato sauce.

before the bake:


i feel like the cheese can brown but we didn't leave it in long enough because we were too hungry. i don't know if i like the mozzarella cheese, but it was tolerable. this lasagna was so good, we ate it for the rest of the week without throwing away any leftovers

 

Most of the food I make myself at home lately is vegan, but I still order things with dairy in restaurants just because it's hard to avoid.

I also use dairy when making my daughter's food, because she's 8 and picky and loves grilled cheese and bean and cheese tacos and sour cream and drinks milk every day.

 

Looking at some of the stuff I've bought recently; it's definitely some OK stuff in the grand scheme, but not 100% plant based. Some organic peanut butter, jelly, and salad dressing mainly. I'm going to finish the stuff off anyway since I don't want to be wasteful. I'll space it out.

 

I wouldn't get too hung up on whether something is technically plant-based or vegan. You can get really technical with things and drive yourself crazy on if something is ok or not. Especially starting out, I would focus on the bigger picture and slowly work your way down. Focus on cutting meat and dairy and forget the rest until you have that part down. The two examples I use a lot and have probably said it in here already are that of Oreos and Skittles. For a while, Oreos used animal lard in the filling and now they don't. So Oreos are now technically vegan (definitely not plant based or healthy). Not sure if it's still the case but in the early to mid 2000's American Skittles used animal products in the white "S" on each candy, but UK Skittles did not and were technically vegan. Those are two pretty ridiculous examples, but it just shows how there can be a lot of differentiation within the community and how far you want to drill down. I think taking care of the bigger tasks first is going to take care of the majority of the health benefits and make it simpler starting out. You can always tweak and improve as you go.

 

I have a strong urge to quit my job and open a vegan sandwich shop. Somebody stop me.

 

Restaurants come and go a lot so it seems like a risky investment, but on the other hand there are never enough vegan restaurants