Seriously though, it's ok
Hello fellow internet friend,
Welcome to part 1 of the most drawn-out blog post ever… but there are smoothie bowls so yay?
God I’m nervous about this, I don’t know why as it’s not
really a big deal but for some reason it just feels like I’m about to expose
some sort of 1920’s jazz scandal. Truth be told, I’ve kind of been
procrastinating putting this up because once the box with a big V label on it
is opened, there’s no real way to close it again. It’s not really a big issue
is it? I mean we can still be friends can’t we? Yes. Good. Right then, before
we go any further…
Pre-warning: Today’s post is going to be bit on the long side due
to the nature of the topic being ever so nitty bitty (solid poetry there) and
there are a good few points that I would like to touch upon just so
that I can fully explain why I am making a somewhat noticeable lifestyle change.
However, as a functioning human I’m also aware that this subject alone can be
heavy enough to deflate even Nicki Minaj’s butt when spoken about for long
periods of time so I’m splitting this post into two parts and will try to keep
them as concise as possible (as you will soon see I failed at this for part 1).
Also please don’t worry, this isn’t an animal right’s rant or a
passive-aggressive dictatorship where I’m going to start threatening people
with kale. There also aren’t going to be any graphic images in this post so no
need to worry about scrolling tentatively down the page. In fact, the only
pictures you’ll find here are those of deliciously colourful (somewhat edited),
fruit-filled breakfast smoothie bowls. Thank goodness for summer smoothie
bowls!!! - But more on these in a sec. This post is simply a way to explain
myself from a friendly and non-judgmental platform and without intentionally
meaning to be so, has sort of become a method to ‘come out’… again; although
with my sexuality I didn’t really ‘come out’ but was more rather coaxed out by
friends and family with promises of hugs, glitter and cups of tea. I wasn’t
left disappointed ;).
Right let’s get into it.
Veganism (the lifestyle of not consuming/using meat, dairy,
eggs or other animal derived products to the best of one’s practicable ability)
– seems a bit overwhelming at first scope doesn’t it? I think so, hence why I
prefer the term ‘plant-based’ as it usually comes without the tree-hugging,
non-showering hippie stigma. Don’t get me wrong, I love walking around on grass
barefoot but I’m not really the sort to start talking to daffodils or braiding
my armpit hair (and neither are most vegans as it turns out). I probably first
became aware of this lifestyle from around the age of 8; my sister had one of
those pre-teen magazines all about make-up, boys and other sacred aspects for
that age-group but this particular issue included an article about a young girl
who lived a vegan lifestyle. In all honesty, I pretty much forgot about it soon
after reading it, I guess I saw it as something not really impacting me at that
time. I remember her saying that she hated her school shoes as they were made
of leather but most of us disliked our school shoes regardless of the material
anyway right? I did, those shoes sucked! The only other experience I can link
to veganism is trying to go vegetarian at the age of 9 and failing due to being
tempted by a tinned sausage… Suffice to say, times have changed a little.
I have been looking
into this lifestyle (on the down low) for about 6 months now after discovering
an amazing vegan food blog (Chocolate Covered Katie) and have been teetering
and tottering on the fence about it ever since. I could see the benefits, I
understood the lifestyle, I agreed with the ethics but at the same time a
niggling voice in the back of my head kept telling me that it was ‘too extreme’
and would be too difficult to maintain. Plus, I HATE being restricted - the
‘don’t put me in a box please Sue, I’m claustrophobic’ type of restriction-hate
- and so after much internal Gollum-Frodo-ring-like turmoil I decided to dive
into research (something I haven’t partaken in since the days of Yester-Uni). I
wanted to know the facts before I made a choice. Hence, I watched
documentaries, I read studies, I looked up articles, I studied vegan nutrition
and how to live the lifestyle healthily ensuring that it was possible to
maintain a balanced diet where I wouldn’t become deficient in things like Iron,
calcium or the elusive vitamin B12. I ignored vegan Youtube fanatics like
Freelee the Banana Girl and DurianRider (yes, these are real people) who preach
pseudo-science about shoving 30 bananas a day into your gullet – that my
friends is too much banana - and I focused on evidence from reputable sources
such as the American/British Dietetic Associations, the British Nutrition
Foundation and dare I say it… the NHS.
I weighed up the pros and the cons (there are many of each
with this lifestyle), asked myself what my personal priorities were, talked
about it with my family, read and watched some more stuff and settled on a
choice.
My decision was to try transitioning into a vegan lifestyle over
the next year and to take it from there. If my health remains in good tact and
it turns out that my body can run just fine without the necessity for animal-derived
products then I’ll start working on other aspects of veganism like
clothes/personal hygiene products however, this change is not something that I
am going to rush into all at once.
There are quite a few reasons that finally prompted me to
give this lifestyle a go but there are also quite a few counter-arguments that did
deter me from trying it sooner. I will share some of the main ones for me
personally in a tick but in order to stop this post from becoming too much like
being droned at by a science teacher, for each reason and prior concern I had
about veganism I’ll also share a smoothie bowl recipe. Nothing softens facts about
plants like smoothie bowls! Also if you’re not interested in my reasons for
going plant-based that’s totally cool, feel free to just look through the
recipes (they’re tasty enough for anyone and everyone to enjoy)J.
For those who don’t know (although you must know, everybody
knows) a smoothie bowl is basically a thickened up smoothie – think somewhere
between a milkshake and ice cream – which is poured into a bowl and topped with
a whole range of textural and exciting toppings. Ooooh texture, we do like a
bit of that. And before anyone panics and accuses me of dumping my beloved oats
for these social media whore-breakfasts (they are popping up everywhere –
they’re the Starbucks of the internet) I of course have added oats to all of these
recipes – mainly because I like a substantial breakfast in the morning and also
because I actually can’t go a single day without them. Nope, not a single day.
For all of the smoothie bowls below they contain three
staples which I’ll refer to as ‘the base’ throughout the rest of this post.
These staples consist of:
- 1 large/ripe banana (chopped into bits and frozen),
- 1/3 cup oats,
- 2/3 cup plant-based milk (I use unsweetened almond milk but any should work)
Now, without much further ado let’s get into some smoothie
bowls – seriously, July has been good to us recently in terms of weather and
with the slight increase in heat comes the need for starting mornings with something refreshing,
indulgent and most importantly, cooling. The first five recipes
will be in this post and the next five will be in part 2 and also please note
that the toppings I chose for each bowl are simply recommendations, take and
leave what you want.
Happy smoothie-bowling!!!
Carrot Cake Smoothie bowl (possibly my favourite – big surprise there)
To a high speed blender or food processor, add:
- The 3 base ingredients (frozen banana, oats and milk)
- 1 cup peeled, roughly chopped carrots (roughly 2 medium carrots)
- 2 small soft, pitted dates (can add more if a sweeter taste is desired or use a sweetener such as truvia, maple syrup, coconut sugar etc)
- ½-1 tsp cinnamon*
- 1/8-1/4 tsp ginger *
- 1/8-1/4 tsp nutmeg*
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Blend it up and for toppings:
- A sprinkling of desiccated coconut
- Some chopped walnuts
- 1-2 tbsp raisins
*With the spices, start with less and add more to taste if
you want a stronger spiced flavour, it’s very easy to go overboard with the
nutmeg trust me. The same applies for the dates in this recipe; you can always
add more but you can’t take away – life advice there, you heard it here first!
Well you probably didn’t… moving on!
Reason 1) Ethics – my main reason behind undertaking a vegan
lifestyle is to stop any contribution that I may be having towards unnecessary
animal suffering. There is lots of horrific and graphic online footage featuring
the way that some livestock are treated during the agricultural process and
whilst this is a reason alone in itself, I do also believe that this is NOT how
all agricultural animals are treated. What it actually came down to for me was
that eating pigs for example (most of which are of the same intelligence level
as a 3 year old child) because we have decided that they as a species are to be
a food source but not species like domestic cats and dogs just stopped making
sense. I didn’t see how I could get outraged over things like the Yulin dog
meat festival in China when we do the same thing to other species everyday -
but it’s ok because we’ve decided that it’s alright to eat other certain sentient animals? Like I said my perception simply shifted a little. Please know that
I’m not judging you at all if you don’t share this view; I grew up eating (and
loving) meat, it’s a part of my culture and something I still would enjoy. I
don’t hate the product, I just hate what it takes to get it and for me
personally it just reached a point where it stopped being worth hurting other creatures that are capable of feeling pain simply because I enjoyed the way they taste.
Concern 1) Extremism – Like most people I did at first think
that this lifestyle was for lack of words extreme. I associated veganism with
aggressive activism, dogmatic lectures, anarchistic public displays, ‘meat is
murder’ posters and wheat-grass. All of these things are… just not me. However,
not everyone has to be an extreme activist and I think that that’s perfectly ok
– actually no, it’s great. I know that eating a vegan diet is also referred to
as extreme due to the cutting out of complete food groups (something that I
wouldn’t normally agree with) but again looking at our eating habits another
way - we’re the only species to take the breast milk of another animal and give
it to our own young. This alone baffled me (not very hard to do) and I asked
myself would I drink chimpanzee milk? Probably not. Why though? We’re 98.8%
genetically identical to chimpanzees; surely it would be less extreme to drink
the milk of the species we’re most closely related to right? Again, it all
boils down to our perceptions of what is extreme and the social norms that we
as a society have deemed appropriate.
Peanut Butter Bliss Smoothie bowl
To a high speed blender or food processor, add:
- The 3 base ingredients
- Another large/ripe frozen banana
- 2 tbsp peanut butter or 2 servings of PB2 (powdered peanut butter)
Blend it up and for toppings I crumbled a failed PB and
Jelly oat cookie on top but I would recommend:
- A sprinkling of chia seeds
- A dollop of homemade or no-added sugar jam
- Some roasted peanuts
Reason 2) How I feel - Since eating more plant-based foods I
have noticed that I have a lot more stamina and my workouts are much more
productive and successful although I will admit that it took some experimenting
with different combinations of foods to achieve this. As pre-workout fuel,
fruits and foods higher in carbohydrates/natural sugars tend to help power me
through whilst proteins like lentils, beans and pulses are good for post work
out muscle recovery. This has also allowed me to incorporate more peanut butter
into my diet which is never a bad thing. I would also like to point out that
this is what currently works for me, I can’t speak for others and different
foods will always affect people uniquely at different times in their lives. In
a year’s time I may have to change it up.
Concern 2) Protein – Probably the most common issue associated
with vegan diets, however my take on the topic was actually slightly different
than most. I was already aware that most people in the developed world probably
consume a bit too much protein already and that there is plenty enough that can
be derived from plants – even 1 cup of broccoli has 4g. In particular, high protein sources such as
lentils (18g per cooked cup), chick peas (15g per cup) and peanuts (9g per ¼
cup) are not only readily available but also fairly cheap. However, my first
real issue was that whilst there is no difference in quality between animal and
plant-based protein, the absorption rate by the body from plant protein is a
little lower due to the fibre that is also present within the food. Luckily
this is remedied by simply making sure you are eating enough (yay) and on
another note, please also remember that fibre is a good thing and shouldn’t be
avoided for this reason. My second concern was actually about whether you could
easily obtain all 9 essential amino acids that are not synthesized in the body.
The short answer – yes. Complete sources include Quinoa, Buckwheat, Hemp seeds,
Chia seeds and Soy. What’s more, you can get all essential amino acids from
other foods by simply combining different sources of plant proteins (namely
legumes and grains e.g. hummus on a whole wheat pitta, oatmeal with peanut
butter, a lentil, bean and corn chilli). It’s surprisingly easy.
Strawberries and Cream Smoothie bowl
To a high speed blender or food processor, add:
- The 3 base ingredients
- 1 cup washed/ hulled strawberries (frozen strawberries provides a thicker consistency similar to a soft serve ice cream here)
- 2 small soft, pitted dates
- 1 tbsp almond/cashew butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Blend it up and for toppings:
- A few chopped almonds/cashews
- A sprinkling of oats
- Some chopped, fresh strawberries
- Some fresh mint leaves
Reason 3) Health benefits – Carrying on from how eating
plant-based has improved the way I generally feel, there are also associated
health benefits to eating a vegan diet. If well-planned and nutritionally
complete (as with an omnivorous diet) eating this way can lead to consuming
lower levels of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. This can result in a
reduced risk of heart disease, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, strokes and
obesity. However, it is important to stress that this is if a vegan diet is in
fact balanced. Just because something is vegan does not mean that it is healthy
- more on this in a sec. I also just want to state that unlike a lot of vegans
I’m not one of those people who demonize the health aspects of whole-food,
unprocessed animal meats, fish and eggs. I do think that in small amounts (much
less than most people actually consume) such additions to a diet can contribute
to good health – I am just choosing not to consume them mainly for ethical/environmental
reasons.
Concern 3) Weight – It may not surprise you to know that I
am naturally quite a slim guy and back when I was focusing on the wrong
aspects of nutrition and working too long hours with too little sleep, my BMI
slipped into the underweight category. Since then I have managed to put on a
substantial amount of weight (not as much as I would like yet) but one of my
concerns about veganism was that on a plant-based diet, I would simply
disappear – or get carried away by a gentle breeze whenever I was next to hold
a helium balloon. However, being vegan does not equate to eating salad and in
fact it’s very easy to put on weight; as mentioned above just because something
is vegan does not mean that it is healthy. Oreos are vegan-friendly and so are
chips usually, in fact there is a whole host of junk food (some
intentionally vegan and others
unintentional) such as chocolate bourbons, party rings, skittles, most Pringles,
vegan burgers, vegan hot-dogs, vegan
pizzas, cakes and cookies that one could consume on this lifestyle. However,
whilst this would ensure a person wouldn’t lose unnecessary weight, it also
wouldn’t be too healthy in the long run. The stats still stand that a healthy
balanced diet consisting mainly of whole, unprocessed foods (whether vegan or
not), that suitably meets an individual’s caloric needs whilst being
nutritionally complete and combined with moderate exercise and regular sleeping
patterns can ensure healthy weight maintenance.
Peach Crumble Smoothie bowl
To a high speed blender or food processor, add:
- The 3 base ingredients
- 1 fresh/frozen white peach (also known as flat peaches/doughnut peaches)
- 2 small soft, pitted dates
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp almond butter
Blend it up and for toppings:
- Some granola of choice (I used a homemade almond variety)
- Some slices of fresh peach
- A sprinkling of extra cinnamon
Reason 4) Lower levels of toxins - another health benefit
that can come from a balanced vegan diet. Quite a lot of mass/factory produced
meat, fish and dairy products can contain high quantities of antibiotics,
hormones, steroids, potential carcinogens and poisonous metals such as mercury.
Now, I’m not saying all animal products contain these things e.g. if you get
your beef from your local, organic farmer’s cow called Gladys who is grass-fed,
free range and not injected with a concoction of drugs then it’s a bit of a
different story. Unfortunately, a lot of the meat/fish/dairy found in
mainstream supermarkets is not of this sort and as a general rule of thumb, the
cheaper the product, the worse the quality. My advice would be that if you are
going to eat meat, try and source it as locally and organically as possible and
whilst I no longer personally agree that there is such a thing as ‘ethical
slaughter’ at least the quality of the animals life is much more likely to be
of a higher standard.
Concern 4) Nutrient Deficiency – despite there being a
potential for lower levels of toxins from this lifestyle, there is also a risk
of it being lower in levels of certain nutrients. It’s all well and easy to
simply say that eating a ‘whole-food plant-based diet’ is enough to keep you in
optimal health but I am not one to take the risk of my long-term health lightly
and as a result knew some research was going to be required. For the most part,
you can get the majority of everything you need from plants e.g. calcium from
dark leafy greens like collards, kale and broccoli (or if you don’t want to
drown in greens – fortified almond milk etc), Iron from lentils, quinoa,
legumes, tofu, oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and cashews and protein
from…well just about anything. However, there are two vitamins that I will
touch upon in a little more detail, the first being Vitamin B12. This B vitamin
is usually found in meat/animal products not because they produce it but rather
because it is found in soil and when livestock graze upon good quality soil,
they in-turn ingest some and along with it B12. However, it is also worth
mentioning that because of modern agricultural practices, a lot of today’s soil
is over-sterilized and hence lacking in B12. A large proportion of farmed
animals are actually injected with synthetic B12 in order to provide the public
with adequate levels. Vitamin B12 MUST be supplemented on a vegan diet either
through supplementary pills or through fortified foods such as most plant-based
milks or nutritional yeast (a form of deactivated yeast that has a slight
‘savory/cheesy’ flavour). I am currently going with the latter option because
I LIKE FOOD. The only other slight concern I had was in regards to Vitamin D. This
is a fat-soluble vitamin that our own bodies produce after exposure to sunlight
(about 15-30 minutes of direct sunshine a day for most) and the only dietary
sources come from fatty fish, eggs (if the laying hens have been fed Vitamin D)
and mushrooms (if treated with UV during the growing process). The vegan diet
hence contains little Vitamin D and living in England, going the sunshine route
seemed well… beyond risky to say the least. At the moment because it is summer
and there actually has been a good deal of sunshine, I’m not too worried but
come winter I may look into supplementation.
Chocolate Cherry Smoothie bowl (aka The Black Forest Bowl… another possible favourite)
To a high speed blender or food processor, add:
- The 3 base ingredients
- ½ cup pitted cherries (frozen give a thicker texture here)
- ½ cup fresh/frozen spinach (warning: the more greens you add, the more of a green tinge the smoothie will have but you can’t taste it regardless so it’s up to you I guess)
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp truvia (I would recommend truvia for this recipe as it counteracts the cocoa’s bitterness and also masks the spinach well)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Blend it up and for toppings:
- Some chopped almonds
- A dollop of unsweetened soya/coconut yoghurt
- A tbsp of chia seeds
- Some fresh cherries
Reason 5) Superficial health benefits – Ok, so this one is a
little shallow on the basis that it doesn’t revolve around the important
aspects of health but still if eating more plants is going to give me a better
complexion then there’s nothing wrong with that! I do need all the help I can
get – have you seen my face? – It’s like that rock giant out of ’The
NeverEnding story’. Once again this all comes down to whether a diet is
balanced or not (seeing a pattern here?) but a vegan lifestyle where one
consumes lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, pulses, healthy
fats and also meets nutrient requirements can significantly improve the
condition of hair, skin and nails. It also helps keep you plenty regular (if
you know what I mean) and can even help improve memory.
Concern 5) Having to change myself completely – whilst I’m
all for a little bit of self-improvement, I didn’t want this to take over my
life. I didn’t want to be known as ‘Alex the vegan’ when there are still a lot
of other aspects that make up my personality. Touching on the point I made
earlier about staying the same person – me taking up this lifestyle doesn’t
mean that I’m going to start screaming if I’m out to dinner with my friends and
someone orders BBQ ribs. I’m not going to join a commune and I’m not going to
start assuming a moral high ground over everyone else because despite what
stereotyping tells you, you don’t have to do that to be vegan. I’m not going to
lose friends over this, I won’t make a habit of forcing this topic into
conversations when it’s not relevant and I don’t hate farmers. The only part of
me to change is my perception of certain aspects of the world around me; hence
I am changing my lifestyle to fit with this new way of seeing things. Like I
said, my priorities have changed a little is all – I love the taste of BBQ chicken, prawn skewers and soft buttery cookies (who
doesn’t they’re bloody delicious) but I’m now aware of some other things that I
simply care more about. Also, as you’ll see in part 2 of this post, it’s not so
much about giving these foods up as it is simply replacing them with
alternatives from other sources. You don’t have to give up anything, you can
still have buttery tasting cookies without the butter J.
Right, before this surpasses the bible in terms of heavy reads,
we’ll end part 1 here. I hope you try out these smoothie bowls; they really are
the perfect way to cool down on the rare occasional hot morning whilst also giving you a fantastic
burst of energy, plus they’re also ridiculously easy to make (providing you
have a blender of course because without one of those it can get quite tricky).
As you can probably tell most of the above reasons/concerns
I gave for veganism were mainly focused at an individual level but for part 2
I’ll explain some of the environmental/global factors that influenced my
decision as I think along with ethics, these are what probably effected me the
most. Again sorry that this post was a little long, I promise that part 2 will
be condensed to a bit more of a reader friendly standard and also if you have
any questions, please feel free ask. Once more, I’m still me; I’m still your
chum. Have a great day and I’ll be back again soon to share more smoothie bowls.
Yaaaaaaaaaas!
All the best,
Alex
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