The Vegan Verdict

Today is November 2nd, exactly one month since Operation Go-Vegan began, and the results are in.  I don’t want to be like E! News on Monday evening who saved the Kardashian Divorce Report until the last five minutes of the news hour.  Let’s get to the juicy bits right now:  

• Mom: 10 pounds lost in two weeks
• Dad:  10 pounds lost in two weeks
• Ian:  8 pounds lost, 1” off waist in one month
• Me: 4 pounds lost, ½” off waist in one month

That’s right. My 60-year old parents, who dropped out of the race two weeks after crossing the start line, made Dr. Oz-worthy health gains.  Not fair, right?  This whole vegan experiment was MY idea, after all, and I didn’t lose five pounds each week.  

Actually, I kind of expected these results.  You see, my parents were as unfamiliar with veganism as they are with "The Facebook."  Conversely, I’ve been experimenting with vegan cooking for awhile.  So going into the 30-day challenge, I already knew how to lightly cook Seitan and how to bake cookies with canola oil and EarthBalance.  But my parents went cold turkey (pun intended), refusing to use any vegan substitutes.  Stuck eating lentils and red peppers every night, of course they lost weight quickly.  On the other side of town, Ian and I did use some vegan substitutes to fulfill our cravings and did not lose weight like gastric bypass patients.  We treated the substitutes like Nicorette, helping wean us off our addiction to dairy and meat.

It worked.  As the month passed, each day got easier than the previous one.  Now it’s November 2nd, and we have zucchini and yellow peppers marinating in our refrigerator.  So, as the four of us quickly learned, picky eaters / vegan novices will lose much more weight on a vegan diet, but will also have a harder time sticking with it because - let’s be honest - who wants to live a life without chocolate chip cookies?

Even though I didn’t drop the lbs like a paid Jenny Craig spokeswoman, I crossed the vegan finish line because it made my body feel good, inside and out.  Here are some of the positive health effects I experienced:

• Clearer sinuses:  I used to think I was an evolutionary anomaly because I periodically could not breathe through my nose.  I attributed my nasal asphyxiation to my too-small jelly-bean sized nostrils.  Incorrect.  Dairy is the real culprit.  So no dairy = no stuffy noses.
• Less bloating:  If dairy can clog up my nose, you can imagine what it was doing to my digestive system.  ‘Nuff said.  On a related note:
• Better and more regular bathroom visits:  Like my mom said, “Fiber will change your life.”  
• NO HEARTBURN: I sporadically get heartburn at night, perhaps once or twice a month. Not this month.
• Satiation: Eating vegan food this month helped me understand the difference between feeling full and feeling satiated after a meal.  Like I told Ian a few days ago, before this experiment I never really knew what it felt like to only feel full in my stomach.  Pre-veganism, I always felt burp-ey or gassy after a meal.  But eating meat-free and dairy-free foods isolates satiation in my stomach alone, and it feels great.
• Increased energy level and improved body clock: I don’t feel sluggish after meals, and that energy carries over through the rest of the day and night.  I sleep for eight hours every night, and wake up around the same time every morning.

Some anecdotal observations that may or may not have anything to do with the plant-based diet shift:

• Slower heart rate:  I’ve always had a fast heart rate.  Like 80-90 beats per minute maybe.  But something curious happened last week.  I was relaxing in bed a week ago and inadvertently felt my pulse.  I listened to it for a few seconds.  Realizing it seemed quite slower than normal, I put my first two fingers up to one of those bulging pulse centers on either side of my throat just to make sure I wasn’t going into cardiac arrest.  Nope.  My pulse was just slower.  I can’t put a number to it, but it’s definitely been a bit slower than I remember it.  I’ve heard that plant-based diets lower blood pressure, so perhaps they affect heart rate as well.
• (Earmuffs, gentlemen) Longer menstrual cycle:  My period mysteriously came (a fretful) five days later than normal in October, shifting my cycle from 25 days to 30.  If this keeps up, that means two less periods a year - yes, please!  (Added health bonus:  Research suggests that fewer periods over the course of a woman’s lifetime reduces her risk of breast cancer.)

Finally, three noteworthy secondary benefits of a vegan diet:

• Better Cooking:  I cooked more meals this month than I ever have before.  Italian flatbread, Thai Peanut Noodles, Mexican Pasta - our kitchen started to feel like Epcot, but without the overheated children and stressed out parents.  After a month cooking without animal products, I have renewed my belief that learning how to cook vegan food may be the foundation for learning how to cook, period.  Without being able to resort to adding cream cheese and bacon for flavor bursts this month, I had to master the delicate art of using spices and oils in my recipes, a much trickier albeit worthwhile endeavor.  
• Saving Money:  Not eating out + Only buying produce and grains = Major food savings!  I know folks like to say that eating a vegan diet is expensive because carrots are pricier than potato chips.  Agricultural politics aside, Ian and I saved a lot of money on food this month.  Most days, we spent less than $10 a day on food for both of us.  Just look at my Mexican Pasta recipe.  The ingredients add up to ~$8-10, and a whole pot of it usually lasts the two of us for 2-3 days!
• Spiritual Lightening:  Not to get too ethereal here, but there is something spiritually rewarding about eating a diet that is kind and compassionate to other sentient beings.

Excluding the menstrual cycle thing, Ian and my parents shared many of these benefits with me.  I’ve read that most adults do have some degree of difficulty digesting dairy products.  Unsurprisingly then, the most significant shared benefit - as experienced by three of the four of us vegan test subjects - has been a general feeling of lightness and clarity inside our bodies.

My dad was the odd man out. Eating vegan upset his stomach.  And that’s one of the downsides of a plant-based diet: some bodies do not immediately agree with a switch to a diet heavy in fiber.  So my dad understandably jumped off the vegan train to eat a poached egg.  

Ian and I are fortunate to have not had any digestive upsets like him, but we have experienced some downsides of a vegan diet.  First, we had to start watching our nutrient intake more carefully.  We bought multivitamins fortified with vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and vitamin D.  We each take one with dinner every night.  Easy.  Not being able to partake in fun size Snickers bars at Halloween on Monday night: not so easy.  This inability to participate in cultural events in a “normal” way is, without a doubt, the most emotionally and philosophically challenging aspect of any form of vegetarianism.  I’m already preparing myself for rolled eyes and hurt feelings as I politely refuse, for the first time ever, the turkey and other tasty dishes at my grandparents’ house this Thanksgiving.  

So there you have it.  I’m refusing turkey and my favorite side dish, green bean casserole, on Thanksgiving this year because - here’s the verdict - we’re sticking with it.  This month-long plant-based diet experiment has turned into an indefinite lifestyle shift for the two of us because, as we were surprised to discover, we both like being vegan.  It lightens our spirits and refreshes our bodies.

Thirty days ago, we were already planning our dinner on November 2nd.  Something cheesy.  Maybe pizza or baked spaghetti from Fazoli’s with those tasty garlic butter breadsticks.  We’re still curious to see how our bodies would react to dairy after a month of not eating it.  But when I just asked Ian if he wanted to order a pizza, he shrugged his shoulders and casually responded, “I don’t think I want anything with cheese tonight.”   C'est la vie-gan.