Post Punk Kitchen Forum

One of my sisters won't EVER eat anything vegan. EVER. Even if it's just forking tomato soup, which she would eat if it wasn't pointed out/obvious that it is vegan, and my brother-in-law will just roll his eyes at everything I eat/prepare. And now that they have a baby, they are extra crazy about making sure there is always lots of meat on the table when we're together. My mum is normally really happy to be vegan-friendly when we visit (she adores Veganomicon), but this year after xmas it was all about meat because "Alex is nursing a baby". My boyfriend made deliciously rich olive oil roasted garlic mashed potatoes during that trip, and both my sister and brother-in-law wouldn't eat them when they found out they were vegan, even though mashed potatoes are my sister's favourite food ever, and they were seriously just potatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Ha. My first newspaper job was as a sports writer. One of my colleagues was OBSESSED with food, what people ate, mentioning it in stories. Often food was in the lede, but when it was not, anyone copy editing or proofing that night would make a game of finding this guy's food reference of the day. (8th graph! Skittles!) So that might have more to do with the writer than veganism.

I busted Mr 'Fulish going out for hot dogs after we ate dinner. Baby steps!

You could use this to drive her crazy.

Those potato chips are vegan.

That beer is vegan.

That orange juice is vegan.

That peanut butter sandwich is vegan.

What's your move now, player?

The whole OMG I AM PREGNANT/NURSING AND CAN'T BE VEGAN makes me roll my eyes and walk away.

I hear "Oh my friend was vegan and then she got pregnant and had to eat meat" so often. So then I say "Oh, how old is the baby?" "15" Yeah, whatever. I could give a rat's patootie if you stop being vegan, but please don't present it like you *HAD* to, especially if you then never went back to being vegan after your baby was weaned. Of course what I really say is "Oh wow, I am so lucky to have such great support. I know *so* many people who have had healthy vegan pregnancies!" Oh wow, look at that rainbow! And then I run away, so they can't tell me that soy causes hormonal imbalances.

This happens to me at least once a week.

ETA: does anyone have a scientific study that shows that soy doesn't cause hormonal imbalances with any more repercussions than cow milk? Or something with recommendations as to how much soy is appropriate for kids? I would love to have something to plunk down when people quote "Dr" Mercola.

Second Vegan Pet Peeve - DR MERCOLA. When I hear his name, my eyes glaze over and I wait for the first opportunity to run away.

Aha! I was wondering why all those Jersey meat eaters were checking out my asparagus.

Family pet peeve: My parents always eat what I cook, and they seem to like it. My dad loves lasagna with tofu ricotta, beans and rice (esp gallo pinto), ancho lentil tacos (even though he hates meat tacos), falafel, quinoa salads, hummus, pesto pasta, peanut noodles etc etc, and my mum loves anything with beans and lentils, for example she's crazy about snobby joes, mujaddarah, lentil soups and all things chickpeas. BUT they never cook stuff like that for themselves. They eat variations of the same 5 or so dishes over and over again, all centered around meat. Even if those dishes are things they're tired of or didn't like to begin with. They would never dream of basing a meal around beans, they seem completely unable to think outside the box. Every once in a while they make vegetable soup and pancakes, and maybe pasta with vegetable and cheese sauce, but they won't go further than that when it comes to vegetarian food. I just don't get it. What are they afraid of?

It isn't a vegan pet peeve, but it is a health pet peeve. Dr Oz and Dr Mercola.

I fail to understand people who can't think outside the "meat, veggie, and starch" box. Even as an omni, I was more of a one-dish meal person...get it all in there with lots of nutrition all at once. I do the same thing as a vegan.

I had a really weird/positive experience with someone who referred to Weston A. Price the other day. Our downstairs neighbors, who are kind of like failed hippies, have three kids. The mom was telling us about how she followed advice from "this guy called weston price who's a nutritionist or something" when weaning her firstborn and I sort of braced myself for impact and happy reports about bone broth. But then, all she said was that he recommended lots of vegetables and organics. So I was like, buh? I know he does that too, but that doesn't seem to be the thrust of his advice. This is the same woman who is super excited to borrow all my vegan cookbooks and ate a muffin at my house that she thought was the best muffin that ever happened and had to have the vegan recipe and when I was explaining to her about Ener-G, she was like, that sounds like such a good thing to have, I will run out to whole foods right now and buy it instead of subbing an egg, even though I feed my kids eggs and bacon for breakfast every day. It was such a weird exchange, and mostly positive.

Luckily balance was restored to the universe when I wound up in a facebook fight about feeding my kid soy formula or soy milk and the responses were all mercola/wapf references.

this is my mom. she went vegetarian probably around a year ago and STRUGGLED a lot of bust out of the meat (or meat substitute), veg, starch box. im still not sure she's out of it.

to be honest as much as i love my mom and am so proud of her for going veg she is not the best cook. not a bad cook, just a bland cook.

usually my meals consist of one thing rather than compartments of things. so usually something over rice.

im not sure who Dr Mercola is but man i cant stand Dr Oz. when i used to go to the gym regularly his show was always on when i was there and usually in front of whatever machine i was on and i get really bored when working out so i would watch it to distract myself and i just......ugh....i dont like him.

From now anyone who hits one of my pet peeves is going to be subjected to a retelling of this weeks This American Life about Hog Bungs. Anyone who wants to tell me how I am going to die from anemia or destroy the rainforest should know that there is a good chance that they're eating "poo-ey tasting rectums".

ha! this was the greatest thing ever. seafood! it's so good for you! who even knows what's in that weird vegan stuff? WELL I KNOW WHAT IS NOT IN IT AND THAT IS BUNG.

Ginny Messina has some stuff on her blog. Here's something about soy and estrogen: http://www.theveganrd.com/2011/08/soy-isoflavones-and-estrogen.html.

Not long ago I was looking up stuff in the NIH database regarding testosterone and soy. What I found was that it seems to have no effect or may even increase testosterone in men and oes not increase estrogen.

Linanil, link?

The pig bunb episode was amazing. Every part was good.

From Slate: Why Calamari isn't Made From Hog Bungs
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food ... e_but.html

But it so doesn't matter, the show was about the journey.

I'll have to go look for it again Ariann, I was looking at the NIH databases http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

I did a quick search right now and the only related thing I found was a study on goats which increased testosterone in male goats undergoing puberty. The ones I read a couple months ago were on humans.

Apparently LiveStrong thinks soy formula is bad, but they can't actually say it because there is no scientific proof:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/46886 ... k-infants/



This is seriously the argument against veganism that I hear at least once a week. Fearmongering is awesomesauce.

Well isoflavones are a bit different in that it is more highly concentrated, I believe. I tend to rely on research of soy foods vs isoflavones which very few people eat unless it is soy protein powder. Given that, I've read very little on the research of isoflavones but I'm not sure if it is because less research has been done or otherwise.

I think the Vegan RD article that quark posted is useful on the soy vs isoflavone issue.

I just wish there was a scientific article that could shut people up, not just a vegan website, but something that seems more unbiased.

Also, I just want someone to explain to me why feeding my kiddo tofu and soy isn't going to have her go into puberty at 9, so I can explain it to people. Oh and why you don't have to worry about your son getting giant soyboobs and wee manbits because of soy.

This?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19524224

Thanks! Can I get more than the abstracts somewhere?