Of all his new obsessions, I really like the idea of eating healthy. So we've decided to have a Vegan-ish diet. Yes, I call it Vegan-ish. Not unlike most Americans, Hubs and I grew up eating cheese burgers, and chicken nuggets, and pizza. In fact we quite enjoy a good hearty steak, and giving up the pizza will be difficult, so why the vegan-ish-ism? Quite a few reasons really.
First of all is the fact (yes fact) that the Human body is not build to digest meat.
We Humans have flat teeth for grinding, not gnawing and tearing, and have soft nimble fingers for picking nuts and berries, not the claws needed for tearing raw flesh. If we were meant to digest meat, our bodies would look more like a dog, or cat, with claws and sharp teeth. Also our digestive track is long and digestion in humans is very slow, perfect for digesting plant based foods! The digestion process takes about 48 hours for Humans, and about 2 for carnivores, meat tends to putrefy in our digestive track or get stuck in the many bends of our intestine. This can make us very sick!
A vegan diet is just plain healthy. In eating a vegan diet you are reducing the amount of fat and processed foods you eat, and are ingesting more nutrients instead of 'fillers'. People who switch to a vegan diet tend to lose about 20-30 pounds, although that is not one of the reasons why Hubs and I are switching. We are switching mainly because we like to feel good, and eating good means you feel good. Also we don't want to have to worry about diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, colon cancer, and auto-immune diseases which can be a side effect of eating meat and not enough vegetables/fruits.
Not to mention- a plant based diet encourages more (plant) farming and less animal farming which is good for the earth.
So Vegan it is!
But then there is the 'ish' part. Hubs and I have also eliminated gluten from our diet. Gluten is in wheat and anything that uses wheat. No bread, pasta, beer, crackers, etc. unless it is 'gluten free' of course. We first ventured into the gluten free diet more of an experiment. About 1/3 of my family members are on the gluten free diet due to food allergies, so it may just be good for me because of my genetics; but also it is a suggested diet for people with ADD/ADHD, or auto immune diseases, AND it is estimated that about 90% of the american population is allergic to gluten and don't even know it. So we threw our hands up in the air and said WHY NOT?! Really why?
Then, since we were altering our diet so drastically and were nervous about getting enough protein, we decided to keep seafood in our diet. This aspect of our new diet was to avoid that jumping in the deep end feeling.
So. Vegan - gluten free + seafood = Vegan-ish.
Now it's been over a month. I sorta wanted to try it out for a while before I announced it to the world. It isn't even 'facebook official' yet. Anyhow it's been a while and I feel awesome. I have more energy, I feel stronger, I have less of a double chin and more bones in my face (which looks awesome in my opinion), I have less gray under my eyes and more color to my complexion, and I have less pimples! Hubs who used to be hypoglycemic said that he hasn't experienced one blood sugar crash since we've started the diet, and exclaimed that he feels hungry - not shaky- and doesn't think he's felt actual hunger before.
It's amazing.
And I thought I would miss meat, and cheese, and bread, and croutons, and cheese its... but really I don't miss it one bit.
So look forward to some vegan-gluten free recipes in the future!
