vegan

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Ask A Vegan Anything: Is Dairy Related To Allergies & Sinus Problems?

June 8, 2014 at 12:32 am , by

3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

You probably don’t remember the version of me that weighed about 35 pounds more.

That would be the version that also had chronic sinus pressure and allergy issues, as well as a rare, “uncurable” skin condition known as dyshidrosis.

The version of your Daddy that you know is the healthy version- the one that no longer has allergies or sinus issues, or that awful version of eczema.

Of course, the unpopular (and annoying) thing about my improved version of my life is that it had nothing to do with prescription medicine.

It had to do with me “going plant-based.” In other words, like Bill Clinton, I became a vegan. Here’s a relevant, recent conversation about it on Facebook:

Like ·  · Promote · Share
  • Crystal Brisendine Was it you that posted about changing your diet helped your allergies?
  • Nick Shell Yes, I’m no longer allergic to animals, nor do I get sinus infections, or really even produce mucus anymore, nor do I get sinus pressure, nor does my skin break out; not to mention, I had to get a weaker prescription for my glasses because my eyes improved. Most of these changes for the better occurred after only 48 hours after nixing dairy and eggs.
    9 hours ago · Like · 1
  • Nick Shell Ben Wilder, tell her about your experience, after I corrupted you with my crazy 48 hour vegan challenge…
  • Crystal Brisendine Ok great! Thanks! My allergies and asthma are so bad, I will try anything. I think all the medications I am getting are making it worse.
  • Nick Shell I will be glad to be your guide. Ask me anything. Also, just go to The Dadabase and search “vegan”. I’ve written a library of tips for you already.
    9 hours ago · Like · 1
  • Ben Wilder Thanks Nick. Hi everyone my name is Ben. If you told me a year ago I wouldn’t be drinking dairy milk and eating cheese, I would’ve said you’re the next big comedian. But it’s true. Going on 3 months now, I’ve eliminated dairy from my diet and my allergies are gone… so far. I was taking a Zyrtec pill every day. Not a few times a week or here and there… it was every single day. I can’t speak to the long term benefits of this change… yet. But you can sure as heck bet that I’m a firm believer already.

As you can see from this Facebook discussion, I am passionate about casually making it common knowledge that sinus and allergy issues are related to consuming dairy and eggs.

I want it to become common knowledge in the way, that finally, mainstream America is beginning to accept the connection between sugar and meat consumption with (preventable) Type 2 Diabetes.

Thanks to my many mentions here on The Dababase about my victorious battle with dyshidrosis and sinus & allergy problems, random sufferers of the same issues I once had are now taking me up on my offer to “Ask A Vegan Anything.”

Maybe one day, it will be considered ridiculous that junior high and high school sporting events are sponsored by soda companies.

Or that McDonald’s is a huge sponsor of the Olympics.

Ultimately, it all comes down to getting people to question what’s actually in their food. You wouldn’t normally eat weird chemicals that are linked to cancer.

But with processed foods, that’s unavoidable.

Some of the guys at work like to joke that the 2011 version of me looked “a lot heathier.”

I guess that depends on a person’s definition of healthy.

All I can say is that life without processed sugar, artificial sweeteners, meat, eggs, or dairy is a life without eczema, sinus pressure, or allergies.

This is the version of me you will always know. I have no motivation to ever go back.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Note: This is an opinion piece of the author and does not reflect Parents magazine or the medical establishment.

Poison Food
Source: TopMastersInHealthcare.com

3 Comments Posted on food reviews, Health, parenting, reviews, vegan

Vegan Friendly Review Of Atlanta, Georgia

June 3, 2014 at 10:03 pm , by

3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

As I just mentioned in the letter before this, we spent last weekend in Atlanta for the Wizard World Atlanta Comic Con. While there, we had a little adventure riding the SkyView Ferris wheel, on a whim.

I’ve noticed that my letters to you are taking more of a turn these days, as I find myself focusing more on reviewing road trip destinations, toys, movies, and vegan food… from a family friendly perspective.

So it only makes sense that I would like to point out something really cool that I learned last weekend:

Atlanta is undeniably vegan friendly!

I would have never assumed that.

Having grown up in Fort Payne, AL, just a 2 hour drive from Atlanta, I was familiar with a culture in which fried chicken and sweet tea were simply part of one’s identity.

To have even thought of not eating meat, dairy, or eggs was somehow… unChristian, unpatriotic, and basically, just overall blasphemy for a Southerner.

With that being said, Atlanta continues to show up in nearly every Internet search for “Vegan Friendly Cities in America.”

And it didn’t take long for our family to see that.

As we approached the Georgia World Congress Center where the Wizard World Atlanta Comic Con was being held, we encountered “Vegan Man” with his homemade costume, accompanied by his other friends from a group called Mercy For Animals.

Once I looked down at the pamphlet they were handing out to passersby, I responded with, “Yeah. I’m a vegan.” I instantly received a hug and great cheer.

When you’re a vegan family, it’s a given that you have to do your meal planning in advance.

So we found a perfect 100% vegan Asian fusion restaurant calledThe Loving Hut. It was inexpensive and delicious!

While we were waiting for the food, you enjoyed “putting the ants in their bed.” (That consisted of you sprinkling salt and pepper in their tray.)

Conveniently enough, the restaurant was right across the street from the Sandy Springs Whole Foods, which was just right around the corner from the Le Meridien where we stayed.

So between The Loving Hut and Whole Foods, we never had to worry about where our plant-based meals would come from.

I loved being able to start each morning withBuchi on tap. (That’s basically the vegan version of soda; it’s a brand of Kombucha tea, based out of Asheville, NC.)

As for you, as a treat, you got to enjoy some “natural bears” and “squishy fish,” which were basically gummy bears and Swedish fish that were made without dyes from bugs or petroleum.

So with all that being said, we are now officially confident to visit the wonderfully entertaining city of Atlanta again, as a plant-based family.

Yes, Atlanta is very vegan friendly.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

P.S. Our next “family friendly road trip” where we will test the “vegan friendliness” of a city will be Lake Tahoe, Nevada… in just a few weeks!

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Ask A Vegan Anything: “Where Do You Get Your Vitamin B12?”

May 28, 2014 at 8:51 pm , by

3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

Today, as part of my “Ask A Vegan Anything” series, I want to address the topic of Vitamin B12.

After I became a vegan, I was warned that I would not be getting any of my Vitamin B12, which I was told exclusively comes from consuming animal products.

I was told I could suffer permanent nerve damage if I was Vitamin B12 deficient.

Honestly, I’m not fully convinced this will happen to me, based on a lack of proof that other vegans across the world are actually suffering from a Vitamin B12 deficiency.

For me, I need to see the “missing link” to fully believe that vegans (who eat plenty of  fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds, not vegan junk food like Oreos, Ramen noodles, and soda) are actually unhealthy because of a lack of Vitamin 12.

However, I still consume at least 500% of my Vitamin B12 on most days. Yes, that’s right: 500%.

We keep something in our pantry called “nutritional yeast.” (At Whole Foods, it sells in bulk for $6.99 per pound.)

It’s pretty cheap and doesn’t really have flavor, so it’s very practical to just sprinkle it into our food; it’s really no big deal.

That’s it. That’s how we can ensure we get our Vitamin B12.

But other than that, our almond milk also contains B12 as well; 50% of the suggested daily amount, to be exact. It’s added into a lot of foods, actually.

Right now, you and Mommy are mostly vegan, but you both do consume a small amount of dairy; though nowhere near as much as compared to a year ago before I nixed the stuff altogether.

Perhaps the day may come when either or both you decide to join me in my 100% plant-based life, as opposed to 96%.

If that day comes, we’ll simply buy more nutritional yeast if we have to.

(Mommy has already switched from using dairy milk in your mac-and-cheese to almond milk, as she has done for the milk in the coffee she makes for herself in morning.)

Throwing in some nutritional yeast flakes is really is no hassle. With just a few spoonsful in a meal, it provides 5 times the amount of Vitamin B12 that we supposedly need.

So that’s why as a vegan, I’m not worried about becoming deficient of Vitamin B12. That is, if vegans actually do suffer from that to begin with…

Either way, I’m covered.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Ask A Vegan Anything: Here’s Your Chance

May 10, 2014 at 9:09 pm , by

3 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

Starting today, I’m inviting the social media universe to “AMA”… ask me anything regarding our plant-based lifestyle.

I grew up during a time when it was normal to put my faith in finding the cure for cancer and disease by mailing in yogurt lids, running in races, and wearing ribbons.

Fortunately, in the past couple of years as the number of vegans in America has more than doubled, another option has begun spreading- thanks to Netflix documentaries and social media.

Turns out, your dad is one of those people who is attempting to positively (not narcissistically) set the record straight for anyone with sincere, curious questions; making myself a human Guinea pig for the world to see.

People who are like me believe there already is a cure for these cancers and diseases…but that the cure comes in a very inconvenient format:

Prevention (and reversal) through an exclusively plant-based diet of simply fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds.

It makes me think of the clever quote by Albert Einstein:

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

Obviously, I won’t live forever in this body and I don’t believe that a 100% plant-based diet makes me invincible. Still, I don’t want my future years with you to include me having diabetes or cancer, knowing there might be something I could have done to keep it from happening.

But I suppose until a person watches Forks Over Knives on Netflix, it’s difficult for them to see the simple scientific and historical connection between animal product consumption and disease.

For me, it’s common knowledge that dairy consumption is linked to allergy and sinus issues, overproduction of mucus, osteoporosis and breast cancer.

(This is TMI, but I stopped producing white or any colored mucus the weekend I became a vegan. It has only been clear and minimal since my conversion last April; not to mention, no sinus pressure or infections since then, whereas I previously had those issues for 22 years straight.)

And that meat consumption is linked to diabetes and prostate cancer.

And that as a vegan, by default, I consume less than 1% of my daily allowance of cholestrol for each day, because there’s not enough cholesterol in plants to register more than 0.99%.

I’ve checked a lot of nutritional labels over the past year, and have yet to find anything I eat (even “fatty” avocados, cashews, and almonds) that registers as more than “0%,” even though plant-based food do contain some cholestrol.

Granted, I personally understand the skepticism…

I’ve mentioned that just a few weeks before becoming a vegan, I made the statement, “Vegan are idiots!” Now here I am, having consumed no animal products in over a year.

Still breathing, full of energy, with no more allergy and sinus problems, with a weaker prescription for my glasses, and am overall healthier than I’ve ever been in my life.

To some, I am a walking contradiction. How can a person who eats no meat, dairy, eggs, or animal bi-products (marshmallows, pudding, candy containing artificial food dyes, etc.) get enough protein, fat, and vitamins?

It could be easy to assume, if nothing else, I’m secretly hungry all the time. Yet I’m not. When I’m hungry, I eat- and then I’m not hungry anymore.

Once I nixed animal products from my diet, I was forced to get the “living” nutrition from the unprocessed fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds that I was previously neglecting because I was instead consuming animal products and pseudo “healthy snacks” like yogurt, granola bars, and diet soda.

As a new wave vegan, who chooses a plant-based diet not necessarily because of animals’ rights but instead because of the obvious health benefits, I want to be a positive, inviting example of our family’s lifestyle.

What I want to do is start making myself more available and present, in real life and on social media, for curious people who have honest, sincere questions about how we live.

In the process, you will learn more about why our family lives the way we do. After all, you and Mommy are almost completely plant-based as well.

I wonder what people will ask me, now that they know that a friendly, mostly sane vegan is giving an open platform to ask questions about our plant-based lifestyle… I’m ready.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

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The Peculiar Public Demand For Non-GMO, Plant-Based Restaurants

April 17, 2014 at 9:18 pm , by 

3 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

I get it that “plant-based families” like us live a much different lifestyle than mainstream America, but I know we can still have fun and “be normal.”

And hopefully,these letters I write to you each day demonstrate that.

Granted, we don’t really go to restaurants, and I suppose that’s not normal.

One of the main reasons is we’re too cheap; which I plan to write more about later…

But the biggest reason we don’t go out to eat is because we can’t/don’t trust what’s in the food at most places.

It’s one thing to avoid all animal products (including butter, cheese, eggs, lard, etc.) but for our family, it’s more than that.

We care about avoiding foods with GMOs. We don’t trust foods that have been compromised by Monsantobecause we believe they are a science experiment on the human body.

In 2013, one million Americans idenitified themselves as vegan (that’s 2.5% of the population), while another 7.3 million identified as vegetarians. That’s a lot of people, actually.

Well, I would have to assume we’re not the only plant-based Americans who hardly ever visit restaurants anymore…

Mainstream American restaurants like Red Lobster and Abblebee’s have lost us as customers as we’ve began watching documentaries like Forks Over Knives, which clearly spell out the connection between getting cancer and the consumption of animal products; as well as what to eat instead, to still get the nutrition we need-perhaps even getting much more than we were getting before!

So if we’re not spending our money at places like those anymore, where are we spending it instead?

Well, as for our family, at least… we’re not.

In other words, I see a largely untapped market: Non-GMO, plant-based, organic restaurants.

I think there’s a lot of money not being made off of people like us.

But that can be tricky for businesses trying to legitimately invite us in.

I know I wouldn’t take a restaurant seriously if they served soda, which is full of GMOs, chemicals, artificial colors and processed sugar; all of which are ingredients I run from. (Diet soda contains even more chemicals I don’t trust.)

It would sort of be an insult if the place was trying to present itself as not simply just “vegan friendly,” but a Non-GMO, plant-based, organic restaurant.

Perhaps my motto, as a vegan, is a quote from Hippocrates:

“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”

What that means is that if a businessman was clever enough to start a franchise of restaurants that only sold food that was non-GMO, plant-based, organic, and free of artificial flavors, and colors… and avoided oils and gluten… and didn’t use microwaves…

Then I think that businessman could make money off of people like us.

I say that because that’s exactly what happened this past weekend. Mommy found a Groupon for a place calledGreens Cafe at Symmetry, here in Nashville.

We loved it so much that we ended up completely missing the Vanderbilt scrimmage game we were so excited about. We showed up as everyone was leaving. Oops.

But it was really nice for the three of us just to hang out at a café for brunch on a Saturday morning and not have to worry about anything; mainly the food, but for me, I was happy that I had no dishes to clean up.

(I may talk about this too much to you in these letters, but I do a lot of dishes. Living the plant-base life means extra dishes, like the food-processor, for example.)

I do predict within the next decade, more places like this vegan café will be springing up; especially in the mainstream franchises.

Did you know I am a prophet?

Not really. I just know there’s money not being made out there and there’s men with slicked-back hair, wearing nice suits, who are eager to start making that money off of families like us.

And I wouldn’t be insulted if they tried.

 

Love,

Daddy