Fat Free Vegan Basics

I've been selling my clothes, shoes and bags on ebay for over 3 months now and I get the awesome opportunity to correspond with my buyers about things we're interested in. One of my buyers' user id on ebay contained the term 'tofu' so I wrote her and asked if she was vegan - turns out she's not but she does eat a lot of tofu (to be honest, I NEVER ate tofu until I became vegan more recently).

My buyer also asked how I knew what to eat to be vegan so I replied with a quick and dirty version of what I'm doing plus the resources I used to get where I am today. I am NOT an expert by any means but I am someone who was put in the position of saving my own life because I don't have health insurance and I don't want to get into the heart surgery game (once you have it you'll always have to have it). Here's an excerpt from the email that I hope will help you and others looking for the simple version of what this is and how to get started:

"Regarding the eating - it's pretty simple, sort of. Here's what I can't eat:

• Added oil of any kind (natural fat in soy products, fruits and vegies are ok)
• Anything with a face or mother
• Dairy and all dairy products (includes 'whey' that is in a lot of processed foods)
• Avocados (too much natural fat)
• Nuts and nut products (too much natural fat)
• Coconut (too much natural fat)

I basically read EVERY label before buying - even brands that have fat free products could add some fat (even healthy fat) in their other products. It's a lot easier to find fat free items than vegan unless you buy from the internet. Here's a link to my blog http://savingtheresa.blogspot.com/ - you'll notice a link to 'fat free recipes' on the upper right hand side of the page. These are recipes I've created to keep track of my kitchen experiments. I really love flavor and therefore you'll find a lot of flavorful recipes that can easily be modified to be less spicy.

Regarding my limitations - if you're not having heart or artery problems, you could eat avocados and nuts, no problem. This gives you a lot more to work with since there are nut cheeses available that aren't bad at all (my brother is a vegan/vegetarian so I tasted his products back in 2008).

A great resource for what I'm doing and why is Dr. Campbell Esselstyn's book: http://www.heartattackproof.com/ I bought mine on Barnes & Noble's website. My brother and I also revere the work of Colin Campbell's 'The China Study': http://www.thechinastudy.com/ as well as John MacDougall who provides a lot of recipes that he and his wife developed to support their non-dairy vegetarianism: http://www.drmcdougall.com/

This is all promoting diet/nutrition as an alternative to medications which cause other problems in the body with long term use. The belief is that so many of the mental disorders (ex.., bipolarism, alzheimer's, depression, panic/anxiety) and diet related illnesses (ex., diabetes, hypertension, heart and artery disease) can be eradicated simply by eating a plant-based diet. Of course, stress relief (ex., meditation) as well as daily exercise go a long way to support sustained well-being."

Peace and Love,

Theresa