In this edition of Missi Pyle's guest blogs about becoming vegan, my witty friend is faced with the age-old dairy argument we've all heard before:
Wary about no dairy? aka Fred the Dairy Fairy aka Vegan blog #6! aka rip steve jobs. Sigh
The thing about being a vegan is, everybody has an opinion about it. Especially the bartender, at The Buggy Whip. Who incidentally is not only a bartender but also a professional nutritionist and architect with his very own clothing line. Hmmm. I guess business must be slow. or he just bartends on the side for funzies. Anyhoo. I was waiting for Megan and Meredith at the bar and looking over the menu for something vegan to eat. They had broccoli sauteed in garlic. yum. and a beet salad. I told the bartender, Fred, that I'd like both but that I was a vegan and just wanted to make sure both dishes were, you know vegan.
fred looked at me and shook his head. "being a vegan is not healthy." wow. thank you so much for your opionion fred. tell me more. "i am a nutritionist, a professional nutritionist and if you don't have dairy from a cow you can't get enough calcium and will get osteoporosis and weak bones." and shrivel up and die? ok, i get it. again, thank you for your opinion. I'd still like to have the broccoli and the salad. fred stared me down cold and hard like john wayne in some vintage western. i thought maybe he'd draw his pistol on me. but no. he just tore the ticket off his ticket order pad, slowly turned, glared at me one more time and walked into the kitchen.
wowzers! while fred was gone. i decided to do a little googling about this whole cows milk- osteoporosis thing. on my iphone. (sigh rip steve jobs... you will be eternally missed) Turns out there are an ass load of other ways to get calcium. Broccoli being one of them. suck on that fred! and look at all these other vegan foods that have calcium:
i have no idea what blackstrap molasses is. it sounds painful. but dang theres a lot of options.
when fred came back he brought me my broccoli which was sauteed in olive oil and an extraordinary amount of garlic. awesome. and my beet salad covered in cheese. i just looked at him. "really fred?" do you not remember the conversation we had 5 minutes ago? is this why all your other businesses are in the shitter? fred again looked at me like i was the dumbest a hole on the planet and said. "well i guess the cook might make you another one." amazing.
he brought me back the salad with beets this time with no cheese and no salad dressing. i guess to teach me a lesson? and simply walked away. then meredith and megan arrived. meredith ate most of my broccoli. she is so cute, i didn't mind. then we slammed a glass of vegan wine and took megan to the airport. which incidentally is right around the corner from the Buggy Whip. We did not take a buggy to get there.
alas. i wondered if you, my best friend, have thoughts on the calcium vegan conundrum. maybe you wanna share them with me? so i can go give fred the what for the next time i see him
that's for fred. not you
until then
in the words of steve jobs...
stay hungry, stay foolish
ps. steve jobs gives this speech to the graduates of stanford. it is the most inspiring speech i've ever heard. I think i've listened to it at least a dozen times. it gives me hope when my heart feels heavy and i feel, you know, hopeless. if you have 10 minutes check it out.
For more info about calcium and why dairy is nasty, check out my blog post about organic dairy here, or page 34 of The Kind Diet.
Most people in developed countries have been brought up to believe that our teeth and our bones can only grow healthily if we drink cow’s milk. Over the last three decades we have witnessed a barrage of marketing campaigns designed to reinforce the idea that only milk can supply calcium in sufficient quantities to help us grow big and strong. But is milk really good for you? An increasing amount of research challenges the outdated notion that cow’s milk is best and in fact shows that our consumption of dairy products is doing us much more harm than good.
If you check this, I just want to say I think you are awesome.
I love the show Boston Legal, and the character you played was nothing short of perfectly amazing. That show had a lot of characters in it's 5 years, but you stood out in such a unique and believable way.That character was HILARIOUS!
You rock.
Now this doesn't have anything to do with calcium. But, milk leaches calcium from bones, it does not help build your bones strong as advertised. Your body processes calcium most effectively by getting it from vegetables. It is the easiest way for your guts to utilize vitamins.
Now that I have talked calcium, I can gush some more.
You are an amazing actress, and I wish I knew what other work you are doing.
Getting enough Vitamin D plays a big part in calcium absorption and can be more of a factor in bone health than a lack of calcium. Weight bearing exercises also tell your body to lay down more bone or keep the bone it has. Also interestingly, countries with the most dairy consumption have the highest incidence of osteoporosis and countries with the little to no dairy have the least incidence.
Ben Miller- amino acid combining is an old myth. In fact, the original source of the theory, Frances Moore Lappe, changed her position on protein combining. As long as you eat a varied diet, you don't have to combine amino acids in a single meal, you can have bean burrito for lunch and then rice for dinner rather than making sure you have both rice and beans to complement in the same meal. I also bet that studies also show that many non-veg people are also nutritional deficient.
Girl, I know how you feel. My fiancé and I have both become Vegan recently. We both work at the same place and most of the employees are older. Well, I was at a workshop and my fiancé was eating lunch by himself the other day and happened to mention to one of our (older) coworkers that we were vegan. Well her response, "What does it matter what you eat, something’s going to kill us anyway." Yes, exact words... no matter that this woman is over weight and has health issues from FOOD!!! I mean, every time she eats a doughnut she has to shoot up some insulin. Ugh, what does it matter to other people what you put in your body? I'll tell you one thing, when I die it wont be the food that killed me!
Actually, I've read many studies that consuming milk CAUSES osteoporosis! Is it an odd coincidence that the places with the highest levels of osteoporosis are also those that drink the most milk? Not a chance.
Developing countries, who don't drink any milk beyond infancy have no cases of osteoporosis.
Great post! I love this topic. Those who attack Vegan eating really do not have a leg to stand on, and if you think about it, why are their panties in a knot to prove that we are wrong? Could it be because they know THEY are wrong? They are jealous that we can keep our bodies clean and free of animal fat, and all the hormones, chemicals, and every other horrible things that comes with eating meat and dairy! Don't even mention the animal cruelty issues, because they don't get that either. I guess with all issues in life, there are two sides, sometimes more. We must respect others, but what I don't get is why they have to attack us, and worse ...with wrong, inaccurate information! They don't even have their facts straight. I would have done exactly what you did, and I have many times, which is firing back with supporting evidence that they are simply wrong! Plant life alone provides us all the protein we need, let alone calcium, and much much more! Good job in silencing those who fear us! KEEP ON KEEPING ON!!! And please visit me at http://themeganlifestyle.wordpress.com/ I'd love to have you ALL visit me, and check out my book - The ME-gan Lifestyle!
Love and hugs........ knowledge is our best weapon!!!
