“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” - Albert Einstein -
My youngest daughter is seventeen - you might remember seventeen, the age at which all things are possible. She's working out what she wants to do in the future and figuring out who she is. She's really quite amazing and watching her go through this process is quite eye opening and I wonder if my parents took the amount of time I spend studying her studying me.
One of the things she has done is decided "enough is enough" and started improving her diet and getting in shape. She is working out and has gone vegan, eating no meat / animal products and is working really hard to go raw vegan.
As a result of her dietary changes, I have had to learn a lot about veganism and vegetarianism and other isms I didn't know a thing about . So before I go further, lemme give you the short version.
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Ovo-vegetarianism includes eggs but not dairy products and Lacto-vegetarianism includes dairy products but not eggs.Ovo-lacto vegetarianism (or lacto-ovo vegetarianism) includes animal/dairy products such as eggs, milk, and honey. (This is the most common type of vegetarianism in the USA.)
Veganism excludes all animal flesh and animal products, including milk, honey, and eggs.
Raw veganism includes only fresh and uncooked fruit, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. Vegetables can only be cooked up to a certain temperature.
Fruitarianism permits only fruit, nuts, seeds, and other plant matter that can be gathered without harming the plant.
Sattvic diet (also known as yogic diet), a plant based diet which may also include dairy (not eggs) and honey, but excludes anything from the onion or leek family, red lentils, durian fruit, mushrooms, blue cheeses, fermented foods or sauces, alcoholic drinks and often also excludes coffee, black or green tea, chocolate, nutmeg or any other type of stimulant such as excess sharp spices.
Buddhist vegetarianism (also known as su vegetarianism) excludes all animal products as well as vegetables in the allium family (which have the characteristic aroma of onion and garlic): onion, garlic, scallions, leeks, chives, or shallots.
Jain vegetarianism includes dairy but excludes eggs and honey, as well as root vegetables.
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Wow... that's a lot to learn, but even more to practice. Like I said, she's vegan and going raw vegan, but not completely there yet. Like I said, I'm proud of her. Through the working out and eating right, she's lost a bunch of weight and is gettting in shape. Her goal is to eventually run a marathon. I can't say I'll ever run a marathon, and honestly, I don't want to. But I do want to run in the Susan G. Komen 5K next year. She's just one of the inspirations I have for doing so.
My mother had breast cancer and has been cancer free for more than five years now. It had spread to her lymph nodes and she had to have some of those removed. Fortunately, it hadn't gotten bad enough that she would have had to have a mastectomy. She and several other people I know are other inspirations to make the run. I have to do my fair share of getting back into shape, but there's no reason why I can't ... except for excuses. Lots of excuses.
As I look further into vegetarianism and getting back into shape myself, I may decide to modify my diet. I don't think I'll ever go vegan. I have to face it - I'm a Texan and I love a good steak. However, I believe I can morph more that direction and definitely eat more of a natural / vegetarian lifestyle and less of a processed foods lifestyle and make it work.
More on that as I make the change for the better... and again... I just have to say - I'm really, really proud of youngest. Rock on, girlie!!!
