Amala and Maneka in the News

[Guest guest]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/diet/Vegan-for-li

fe/articleshow/5513024.cms

 

Vegan for life!

 

ANURADHA VARMA, 31 January 2010, 12:00am IST

Two leading ladies of the vegan movement exhort us to value life, not

destroy it!

 

 

Actress and animal rights activist Amala makes her own vegan desserts

and believes in beauty without cruelty

 

I turned vegan one-and-a-half years ago. It was during an inspection of

slaughterhouses that I realised how animals were treated. Cows that

should ideally live to 18 years are killed as they turn six, due to

constant breeding and milking. Male cows are killed for veal.

 

The first week that I gave up milk, I realised I had been lactose

intolerant without really knowing it. Like a lot of people, I had always

felt uncomfortable without really knowing why. Initially, switching to

soya milk had its own problems as very soon, I developed an allergy to

it. Soya is fine as a bean. Now, I don't really use food substitutes so

much as i think differently.

 

If I need milk with my breakfast porridge, I soak five to six almonds

overnight and blend it for instant milk. This is also great for adrak ki

chai. I avoid tea, though, for the tannin content. For desserts, I make

my own. I chop bananas and freeze them for 48 hours, which changes the

texture completely, and then I blend it with coconut milk and sprinkle

nuts. I use figs and raisins for natural sugar. I learnt some of this at

a homeopathy workshop that I attended.

 

My husband Nagarjuna and sons are non-vegetarian, and I don't impose my

food choices on them. My husband tells me, however, that he feels

inspired and will turn vegan one day, though he's not ready yet. I lead

by example!

 

From telling me not to turn vegan - because I was being 'over-sensitive'

or would suffer from lack of calcium -people have turned to appreciating

what I eat. I often carry my own food wherever I go, but sometimes,

friends make something specially vegan if they know I'm coming over.

When I eat out, I like to take the chef into confidence and explain what

I would eat, so that the next vegan who comes along will have an easier

time. Eating out can be tough, especially Indian cuisine, which is rich

in ghee, like dal makhni or naan.

 

As for calcium, I get more from sesame seeds than I would from milk. I

also take a course in B12 vitamins for a month every year.

 

Veganism is a lifestyle choice, and I am vegetarian in my choice of

clothes (I wear artificial 'sai' silk), shoes and make-up too. It's

beauty without cruelty, all the way!

 

Make a difference, be vegan, says politician and activist Maneka Gandhi

 

Being vegan is not as much a food choice as a belief system. When you

value life, you do not destroy it. I choose not to be part of any system

that's based on violence, greed and exploitation. Just as I would not

wear a bag made of a baby's skin or a coat of its hair, I would not use

one made of a lamb or a calf or any other creature. Wouldn't that seem

the natural choice of any reasonable person?

 

There is nothing difficult or different about being vegan. Indian food

is essentially vegan. Our sabzis, rotis, dals, pickles, papads, salads

are all free of animal ingredients. Drinking milk is not only

unnecessary, it's unnatural. As with all animals, mother's milk is

intended as a complete food for babies only until they sprout teeth.

After that, milk cannot be digested as your body stops producing

lactase, the enzyme needed to digest lactose.

 

Also, 17 per cent of the world's methane is produced by cows, who are

forcibly bred to keep them lactating. This besides, milk production is

immensely cruel with calves being killed so we can have their mothers'

milk.

 

As for food substitutes, you don't substitute poison with anything. I

eat and enjoy all kinds of food. All I'm giving up is cholesterol (no

plant foods have any cholesterol), and the risk of bird flu, mad cow

disease and all the many afflictions linked to meat and dairy.

 

All green leafy vegetables contain calcium. So do sesame seeds. Hummous

is wonderful. In fact, the calcium in milk cannot be absorbed as it

doesn't have phosphorus in the right ratio.

 

On an average, vegans live six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters.

Studies show that vegetarian kids grow taller and have higher IQs than

their classmates. At 6 feet, my son is possibly the tallest member of

the family and he has a Mensa IQ.

 

Being vegan is such a natural part of who I am! Veganism is common

parlance abroad. Things are changing. I expect that in the not too

distant future eating animals will be considered as barbaric as we now

consider cannibalism. Being vegan is the single most powerful way an

individual can make a difference.

 

(As told to Anuradha Varma)

--

Regards,

 

Nilesh Bhanage

+91 9920777536

www.pawsasia.org

www.freewebs.com/pawsproducts

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