Here comes Santy Clause!!

I know the last few weeks have been a bit Vegan heavy.
Sometimes it just gets like that you know, so many things happen at the same time.

Sooooo...

For those that have grown weary of the multiple vegan posts its time to talk XMASCHRISTYULE!!!!

Yup.... Just 3 days before December 1st and then its a slippery downhill run to the big day itself! 
Scary stuff.

Who going to admit they have all their gifts sorted and are smugly sitting there laughing at all the wild eyed people panicking around December 20th?

Well not me.

I have a dilemma though... How can I share my green, ethical, money saving Xmas pressie ideas when some of the recipients read the blog!!! Gaaa!

Curse my family for being interested!
I wouldn't have this problem if I wrote an anonymous sex blog or something ;)

Anyway.... While I ponder what to do about this (ban them till December 26th??) Here's a video of Badger getting stuck in the snow!
For the full video go to YOUTUBE
If you like the video PLEASE come to youtube and RATE and COMMENT on the video.

I get kicks out of stuff like that.

Enjoy x

    

Ex-Vegan venting ahoy!

I though very hard about whether to write a post about this blogger The (formally) Voracious (Vegan). Once one of Twitters most outspoken Vegans she shocked the blogsheper by doing a 360 back to eating meat.
She maintains that many vegans are lying about being vegan and are still eating meat (on the quiet) and selling us a lie.
She said that her 3 years of eating vegan caused her health problems and depleted her vitamin and minerals stores. She talks about depression, exhaustion and how we are "meant" to eat meat.

You can read her post HERE.

Now I wasn't sure how to take this at first.
For a moment I did the whole panic thing, after all, its not just ME or even me and Kim , its our children as well.
What if she was right?
What if we were wrong?
Could I make such a turn around?

First of all I have to say I am blessed with a level headed husband.
Kim is Mostly vegan (with slips into the occasional chocolate bar and once a year (so far in 2010!) shellfish meal) and came to it on his own and well informed. He NEVER just followed me and was keen to do his own research.
He read her post and concluded that she was (his words) "A nutter".

She was upset that some vegans had attacked her for doing something to save her health, but I'm not sure they did. Some offered advice (unwanted) others dared to ask if she had seen a specialized nutritionist rather than her regular GP (unanswered by blogger). Yet others pointed out that her gym routine was a little excessive.

Now while I have nothing against someone deciding to quit veganism, for health or other reasons, and on Twitter I initially supported her and commiserated with her dilemma, I quickly grew upset with how her message to the world changed. All of a sudden her life was full of Bacon, cheese, steak and how good it was and how she needed it and it became a little much, especially when only weeks before she had been vocally deriding anyone who ate meat.
Also, although she claims to have eaten an amazing diet, following her tweets (and pictures and posts from her blog) her "meals" looked like nice snacks or entres, but not enough to sustain. She talked of HUGE salads and I saw 3 lettuce leaves.
Her gym habbit also rang alarm bells. Every third tweet was "off to the gym for killer cardio work out!" This girl has a serious gym addiction.

Down to earth hubby pointed out that living where she does (Saudi Arabia) there would likely be very few fortified foods she could purchase. So although we can have fortified soya milk and cereals and "mock" meats she was likely to be only eating basic whole foods.
A lot of her food was Raw, she seemed to mostly follow a raw vegan diet, and while raw enthusiast claim that the diet is healthy, many health professionals are not convinced. Coking helps the food digest easier, so although raw food is super packed with vitamins and minerals, they are not as easily absorbed.

Now it could be that she is right.
Who am I to say that everyone can handle a vegan diet. everyone is different and individual lifestyles or health problems can be problematic with some diets.
Most people who objected to the post seemed to object to her attitude.
Once she has ran a hard line telling everyone to go vegan for their health, the environment, the animals. Now her stance is "Stupid vegans! Learn from my mistake! everyone should go Omnivore! For your health! For the enviroment!"

What would I do?
Say my Dr told me my health was in danger I had to eat meat.

Don't think I haven't thought about this before.
Could I go back to being a full on meat eater?
Probaly not, I could see myself compromising, adding a little wild caught fish or wild shot game once in a while but chowing down on pork, beef or chicken? Unlikely.

No scratch that.
Not at all.
Anything likely to have been factory farmed will not pass my lips.

So this bloggers first meal as a newly "awakened" meat eater?
Steak..... really.

So she said veganism left her with no energy... Kim works upto 14 hours a DAY at a highly physical job. He couldn't do that if his energy levels where not being met.
She said every meal left her bloated but hungry... If your body is only getting large amounts of raw food it will have to work super hard to digest it. A head of greens is not a meal.
She said her hair was thinning and she was always getting ill.... Anyone who knows me knows how thick my hair is, how Kim at 54 has more hair than men half his age, that my sons have hair longer and thicker than most girls (note to self, buy scissors!).
Sure we get the ocassional cold, but when you have kids at school its part of life, and it seems to me that some of my meat eating facebook friends have at least one "Ugh , have a cold :(" status a month so you can't say meat cures all.

She said that having to take vitamins is wrong, but have you ever tried to buy vegan vitamins? Out of the thousands and thousands I looked I found THREE suitable for vegans... which tells you something about the sort of people who take the most vitamins. Many health professionals think EVERYONE should take multi vitamins, especially B vitamins. So few of us eat really fresh organic foods that by the time something has been picked, shipped, sat in a shop and then sat in our house before we eat it.... well, can the vitamin content really be as high as all that? If science can help me be healthy I'm all for it.     

NO diet cures all.

I will NOT stand with the meat eaters/veggies/vegans/raw foodists and say "Come to our side for everlasting health an vitality!" Life doesn't work that way.

"Ah!" Some of you more militant vegans/meat eaters might say. "But you eat eggs!"   

Seriously, our hens give us maybe on average an egg a day out of the four of them... add them up over a week and divided by 5, is it REALLY going to make THAT much difference?  

OK, So I vented.

Eat what you want, but don't make me feel bad for not eating as you do.

Rest assured that the moment I suspect any of us are not in good health I would go to the GP.

I care about animals, but I care about my kids more. 

Want to read more? Ginny Messina, MPH, RD is a dietitian specializing in vegan nutrition writes an interesting follow up to the post HERE.