Case in point: Everything in the vegan snack section at Whole Foods. What a dream! Vegan blueberry donut holes! Vegan lemon vanilla cookie bites! Are you kidding me? It was my savior last week to satisfy my cravings (for whatever reason, last week I wanted to cheat really, really bad). Somehow I don't feel bad gorging on Soy Dream or a bagel with Tofutti, but honestly, is it really any healthier for me than the dairy version? I wonder how many chemicals and flavorings they need to add in to make it taste like the food that it's imitating? I wonder what the nutrient comparison is?
Moral of the story, reread Amanda's post about "In Defense of Food" and keep in mind that processed food, vegan or not, still packs in empty calories and a lot of chemicals and additives. I think next time I do a detox I'll focus more on "Not eating anything my Grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" rather than just replacing my normal diet with the soy version of it. Being a vegan doesn't mean that you're necessarily healthier. For years I was an unhealthy vegetarian and it's just as easy to be an unhealthy vegan. This week I think I need a vegan junk food detox...
But as my Dad would say, "Everything in moderation". A soy creamsicle every now and then won't undermine the healthy eating habits that I have in place 90% of the time.
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I ate half a bag of tortilla chips at 1:00am last night. They are vegan, don't have high fructose corn syrup or artificial anything, but I ate a crapload at 1:00am, so that's surely not part of a healthy detox. I have trouble with the moderation part. I'm mostly eating healthy foods, but I'm still stuffing my face until I'm so full! How the heck do I break that habit?
ReplyDeletedanne...i love this post. it's so true...vegan food can be very unhealthy. my kids were just asking me the other day if there was such a thing as a fat vegan...i was like yeah it's totally possible! sure it's tougher, but vegan food doesn't neccessarily mean healthy...vegan breakthroughs like ice "cream" and "cheese" have been miraculous, but definitely not healthy, and certainly over processed. when i over indulge on one of these products (and i usually overindulge when i do buy them because i rarely do) they feel heavy digesting in my body, similar to if i've had something by accident that was cooked with butter. fake products just happens to be the lesser evil. btw...i am in no way implying we are fat vegans, or that these products aren't wonderful (once in a while). also...i was totally having urges to cheat last week too! i was like, i just want a ginger ale, or a piece of candy. however, i really do think after this month i will cut back on my caffeine and alcohol consumption and not just flee back to my old ways!
ReplyDeleteummm...march?
ReplyDeletebring it, im in.