Gone Vegan

This past year has been a bit of a challenge.  We’ve gone vegan, so I’ve had to learn to cook all over again.  And it’s not just the garden variety of veganism that says “if it has a face or a mother, don’t eat it,” it’s the fat-free variety.  No nuts, no oils, no avocados or coconut - and limited soy products.  We are on a plant-based diet out of desperate necessity because my husband has heart disease and I honestly believe this will add years to his life.  Medical science backs this up.

I read “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease,” by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and that’s all the convincing I needed.  He felt the American diet is the root of our high rates of heart disease and cancer.  He worked at the Cleveland Clinic, American’s premier heart institute.  He asked the cardiologists there to send him patients they were sending home to die because there was nothing more the medical community could do for them.

Dr. Esselstyn put 18 terminal heart patients on a strict fat-free vegan diet.  His study lasted 12 years and was well monitored and documented.  No one cheated, and twenty years later they were all still alive.  It’s a powerful testimony to healthy eating.

Two weeks after my husband retired at age 55, our only child was born.  Now that Kory is nearly 70, Kaleb is nearly 15.  We are far from done raising that boy, and I’m trusting God that Kory lives long enough to meet his grandchildren.  This is our motivation.

After doing Dr. Esselstyn’s program for a few months, I had some questions, so I e-mailed him.  I was more than a little surprised when he called me personally to talk about Kory’s diet.  When I told him we’d gone vegan, his response was, “Well, you can eat French fries and drink Coke and call yourself a vegan.”  He wasn’t too impressed. When I explained, in detail, Kory’s fat-free vegan diet, he gave me a few tips to speed the healing in his arteries.  “Eat kale six times a day, and cut out the coffee,” he said, like he honestly believed Kory would do that. 

Based on other research I’ve done, I know kale is the super food of all superfoods, so Kory started sautéing kale in red wine and putting it on a Ry-krisp cracker more than once a day.  I think that phone call was the best motivation for Kory to fully buy into this whole vegan thing.  But it’s still a challenge, especially when we travel or get invited to someone’s house for dinner.  But, we stick to it.  Well, Kory does, anyway.  Me, I’m a cheatin’ vegan, as I occasionally cross over to the vegetarian regime and delight in forbidden dairy products. 

Kory’s now embraced kale as his daily bread, but giving up the morning coffee was a tad bit too much. He needs just a little more quality to go along with his quantity in life.