RE: bread, potatoes, and nutrition (was: Planet-Ve gan events 2000!)

[Guest guest]

Hi.

Thanks to eveyone for the staggering amount of information. I'm going to

have to print it out and study it - it's too much to take in at once! It

sounds like variety is the key, with the important subtext of " eat your

greens " . To be honest Vikas, I'm not sure how many vegans we have here -

yes I am, because I've just looked it up on The Vegan Society's website, its

a paltry 250,000. Disgraceful. Maybe that's why we're not very well

catered for. The Vegan Society publish a small book called the Animal Free

Shopper which lists vegan-suitable products (including but not limited to

food) available in the UK. D'you know there's not one shampoo that you can

buy in a supermarket? You either have to go to a health food shop (few and

far between and VERY expensive) or buy by mail order and pay postage on top.

I've come to the conclusion that we are a very backward nation in this

respect, especially since I've been a part of this group.

 

Reading all the nutritional info provided, I've decided that whilst I have

definitely not conformed to the guidelines for the " perfect " diet (I know

which brands of chocolate are vegan, for example) I'm a lot more

well-nourished than I was in my ovo-lacto times. Gone are the days when the

only green thing I ate was Sage Derby cheese (I exaggerate not - it's

amazing how you can be a vegetarian and virtually never eat green and yellow

veg). The other thing that strikes me is when I go to the supermarket and

see what other people are buying, how few of them are taking any notice at

all of the health warnings. I see trolleys piled high with sliced white

bread, cakes, biscuits, sausages, high-fat high-sugar processed foods of all

descriptions. And the people themselves, doughy, pasty and bad-tempered,

with doughy, pasty, bad-tempered children. Not all, obviously, we're not a

total nation of no-hopers, but enough to make me fear for the future. And

on the subject of children, I have also noticed that a high proportion of

the vegans I have encountered are childless by choice and intend to remain

so. Which I think is a shame on average because it would be nice to think

that the next generation is being taught by their parents respect for all

life. Which of course is difficult to do through a mouthful of pork chop.

Is this a British phenomenon, I wonder?

Someone mentioned baked squash. We've only just started seeing squash in

the shops here, butternut usually. How do I bake it?

Sorry to ramble, but it's nice to be in touch with like minds.

Take care, hope you have a good Sunday brunch, those of you who are lucky

enough to be going.

Cathy