The serial-cycling diet: day 9

Lunch: Salad bowl of lettuce, a scoop of white rice, peppers and onions, sofritas, mild, hot, corn, guacamole.

Mostly uncooked vegetables. People spend all that time cooking meat, but not vegetables?

Between lunch and dinner: salted, mixed nuts, roasted in some damned vegetable oil.

Nuts for nuts (as seen on NYC food carts).

Dinner: Later at night, had some delicious eggplants, mushrooms, and zucchini, grilled by my roommate in olive oil and Indian spices. Finished with some not-so-sweet mangoes.

Now there’s some real, cooked, Indian vegan food. None of that bland crap outside.

Commentary: Some people wanted me to talk about my feelings. Here’s how I feel:

Cookie Monster agrees: screw raw vegetables.

I’m not hungry, but I don’t feel satiated. Make no mistake: I don’t think this is necessarily a fundamental limitation of a vegan diet. I think there are three factors at play.

First, most vegan food outside just sucks. Why are salads (i.e., cold, uncooked vegetables) so popular? How do people eat this garbage? I just don’t get it. This is why most people unfairly discount a vegan diet. It’s simply astounding what cooking and Indian spices can do. If I had more time, I would be cooking and enjoying this more. Richard Wrangham discusses in “Catching Fire” how an uncooked, raw vegan diet is a surefire way to energy deficit (we have shorter guts than most other primates). This leads to complications such as disturbed menstrual cycles, and (in my humble experience), flatulence. I don’t think our ancestors were as silly as our modern selves. If you must be vegan, I cannot stress enough the importance of cooking. It’s pre-digestion outside the stomach.

Second, I think this feeling is exacerbated by the chronic stress at work: I’m defending my thesis in a few weeks.

Third, I think we’re spoiled by modern life, especially in cities. Before the Agriculture Revolution (and even then), do you think our ancestors got a steady supply of either plants or meat only? I don’t think so. I think variation is an important part of our genetic heritage, something many people don’t understand.

Most of you are spoiled brats, like me.