Vegan Diet Guy

You often see high profile vegan coaches and chefs coming clean about how they have fallen off the wagon: If they’re raw vegans, they may have eaten something cooked, while those on a vegan diet may have eaten something containing animal products.

Adopting a vegan diet made me extremely conscious of what I eat, so eating non nutrient-rich plant-based foods, or even healthy ones to excess–is also falling off the wagon for me.

After using an online meal planning system for a few months to ensure I was getting enough nutrition from plant foods alone, I became much more aware of the size of the portions I should be eating, too.

For example, in the past, I would eat much of a 1lb bag of nuts (chips, popcorn, etc.) by the handful–out of stress or while distracted–without realizing that a “proper” serving size was a single handful, or around 2 oz. (56g). Not long ago, I thought people who weighed their meals were a little whacky, but  now I use my kitchen scale often to keep me on track. At least I don’t carry it around with me, or I’d really be off my trolley.

Recently, I stumbled upon “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think” by Brian Wansink, PhD, which described an experiment demonstrating how movie-goers ate more popcorn if served in a bigger bag, regardless of whether it tasted good or not. (more…)

Everyone (at least everyone who’s seen a tub of Quaker Oats) knows oatmeal is good for your heart. Now, if only everyone understood the most effective way to reduce cholesterol and dramatically improve your health is–plain and simple–by eliminating animal products from your diet.

In Honolulu airport recently, I glimpsed a large sign outside Starbucks with a photo of a bowl of oatmeal. Later, an article in January’s Entrepreneur Magazine confirmed the trend: While Starbucks in U.S. has offered oatmeal since 2008, more quick-serve restaurants–including, of all places, McDonalds–plan to offer healthier options, such as fiber rich and whole-grain oatmeal, to meet calorie and labeling requirements of federal healthcare reform.

Although eating oatmeal for breakfast is a far cry from everyone adopting a vegan diet, influential restaurant chains offering oatmeal (hopefully not laden with dairy products, sugar or chemical preservatives) can only help to make people more aware of health benefits of plant-based foods. (more…)

Tokyo is a city famous for its convenience, but unfortunately not so for vegan eating.

Maintaining a healthy vegan diet in Japan and other countries where veganism has not caught on often means having to make everything from scratch, from breakfast cereals, breads, egg-replacers, non-dairy milks and mock meats, to vegan mayonaise, cheeses and ice creams.

On my latest trip to the States, I went out of my way to sample a number of vegan ready to eat and convenience foods. Since meeting Tal Ronnen last year, I was intrigued by the Gardein plant-based products he is developing–which according to some vegans–feel too much like eating meat. (more…)

Fast Tube by Casper

Recently, when I told a new acquaintance I was vegan, he said that explained why I look emaciated. He was just out of university, making him roughly 25 years younger than me. At first, I felt offended, then pondered writing an “Emaciated Bastard” Cookbook.

Just by coincidence, someone sent me this video, “Sugar-The Bitter Truth,” which says people in modern countries weigh 25 lbs more on average than 25 years ago. It dawned on me these statistics probably don’t apply to the majority of vegans, even guys like me who have only been vegan for a few years.

Recall the October CNN interview where Bill Clinton reported his weight and waist-size were the same as when he was in high school, after only a few months of his having begun a plant-based diet? Indeed, PETA’s website confirms that adult vegans weigh 10 to 20 pounds less than adult meat-eaters on average. (more…)

Tastes great when you're 5 miles high.

Airline meals were the butt of many jokes until they were largely eliminated from domestic flights. Now, all you hear is how much people miss them! However, international passengers can still look forward to airline meals, if only to break up the monotony of long-haul flights (or deride in their blogs).

Most airlines offer a wide variety of “special meals,””  including various kinds of vegetarian ones, such as Asian vegetarian, and lacto-ovo vegetarian, in addition to vegan.

Not long ago I wrote about a suprisingly good vegan meal served up by Philippine Airways. After writing PAL to commend them, PAL’s customer service quickly provided me with photos of their lunch as well as a description of the dish. (more…)

Fast Tube by Casper

I’m embarassed to admit that it took a non-vegan late-night talk show host, Craig Ferguson, to remind me of World Vegan Day this year. Albeit, Ferguson referred to it as “National Vegan Day” instead of its proper designation. In reality, I suspect Vegan Day is largely unknown and unobserved outside the US and UK.

Last year, my partner and I promoted World Vegan Day by giving away vegan baked goods in our downtown Tokyo neighborhood, but this year I’m visiting family on the US east coast, and staying up late due to lingering jet-lag.

Just prior to Ferguson’s show, I saw Janet Jackson discussing her (“on and off”) vegan diet with Jay Leno, and recommending her two favorite vegan restaurants, Vegan Glory in Los Angeles, and Red Bamboo in NYC. Seeing how Jay’s girth has increased, following Janet’s advice would probably do him a world of good. (more…)

Could your morning cappucino or latte fix possibly be keeping you from giving up dairy products and progressing toward a healthier diet and lifestyle?

For many people, switching to a non-dairy milk in their coffee takes more than a little getting used to. It doesn’t help that the big chain coffee shops charge extra for soymilk, but eliminating dairy milk from your espresso drinks may be just what you need to build momentum for becoming vegan. (more…)

While some visitors to this site come searching for first-hand vegan diet advice and easy and delicious vegan recipes, others wind up here simply curious about how vegans can live without consuming any animal products, including dairy or eggs.

A vegan diet is widely described as a “strict vegetarian diet”, and apparently even vegetarians see it as too difficult to follow. On the other hand, many long-term vegans cannot identify with the challenges of those trying to go vegan.

All the hyperbole over a vegan diet can be overwhelming to someone just considering beginning one. To ease the journey, I recommend the term “plant-based diet”–focusing on the vast number and variety of plant foods available, instead of what you perceive you’ll be giving up.

When I first read “The China Study” and decided I was ready to take author Colin Campbell’s One-Month Challenge (“You’ve eaten cheeseburgers your whole life; a month without them won’t kill you.”), I wondered why the publisher didn’t commission a China Study diet plan and recipe book to aid the transition to a plant-based diet.

Well, Rip Esselstyn’s “The Engine 2 Diet” is about as close as you can come. (more…)

Before becoming vegan, parmigiana “you name it” was one of my favorite dishes. Who could resist anything coated in oil, two or three kinds of cheese, and tomato sauce?

So when I spied a pack of decent sized “American (globe) eggplant” the other day (vs. the smaller and more commonly available Japanese variety-this is Japan, go figure!), I knew it was time to try out the low-fat version of eggplant parmesan I had seen on FatFreeVegan.com.

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