A Sample July Day of Vegan Meals

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Hippocrates

When they find out I’m vegan, friends, family, and medical doctors’ first concern is whether I’m getting enough iron, protein, and vitamin B6. The answer is yes and backed by a pile of medical research. My personal results? My lab tests for those and everything else has been rock solid great. While meat-eating friends my age and twenty years younger talk about weight or high blood pressure or cholesterol or diabetes, I can’t add my own complaints. Doctors usually frown when they see my chart and wonder why I take no pharmaceuticals*. They check my labs and wonder why my numbers are so good.

Yep! Plant-based, whole foods are what we should all be eating. It’s humane, the number one thing any individual can do to save the planet, it’s healthy, and it’s the way to solve world hunger.

Next thing I’m asked–what do you eat? I freeze up with that question, because I have lots of choices and am never sure what to recommend in a sentence or two.

Here’s what I ate yesterday. 

BREAKFAST: Coaches oats with flax and chia seeds, cocoa nibs, raw pumpkin seeds, blueberries, banana, and a splash of maple syrup. Ooh, expensive you say? Not really. Breakfast probably cost a dollar and took minutes to make. Guess what? About 28g of bio-available protein too.

LUNCH: A Beyond Meat Beast Slider with horseradish mustard&pickle&basil leaf, color variegated potato salad with Italian spices and vinaigrette, chopped cabbage with a sprinkle of raw pistachios and cantaloupe on butter lettuce for dessert. Protein count? About 18g.

DINNER: A quesadilla with nopali corn tortilla with vegan cheese, spinach, red onion and guacamole. Olive and chives hummus dip with orange sweet pepper, rainbow carrots, and celery. Banana ice “cream” for dessert with a vegan gingersnap. About 15 grams of protein.

I don’t starve and haven’t been overweight since I gave up meat in 2004. After yesterday’s eating, I weighed a pound less today. When I switched from vegetarian to vegan, I lost seventeen pounds in six weeks.

Most knowledgeable doctors will say that you should be counting fiber, not protein. Who is old enough to remember Weight Watcher’s Fat & Fiber plan? A good cardiologist would agree that a diet that maximizes fiber and minimizes animal fat and processed vegetable oils is the best way to go. Who needs to count calories, fiber, fat or protein if you eat your Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen? There’s an app for that! Keep it real and keep it simple.

I make an herbal iced tea early in the day. After coffee in the morning, I drink iced tea and water throughout the day. I make power green smoothies often.

Next? I’ll be experimenting with Banza chickpea pasta (vegan and gluten free) and cilantro vegan pesto. I bought six boxes of the pasta, so will try my summer pasta recipe with it–a lovely chilled salad with oomph. I’m making Easy Peanut Noodles for dinnertonight.

Happy eating!

Michelle

• Note: Pharmaceutical medicine is valuable for a small portion of our population. It has saved the lives of family and friends and I’m glad that it’s available. For conditions caused by diet? Let’s fix the diet!