A Local Vegan Shares Her Passion for Food and Health While Addressing Important Issues About Our Society.
I did an in-person interview with Alyssa Nevergold, a senior at CSU in the journalism department. A friend introduced the two of us because we both share a passion for plant-based food. I chose to interview Nevergold about her journey to becoming vegan because of her passion for health, the environment and animals. Nevergold talks about her transition to a plant-based diet and provides simple life hacks that helped her make the transition. She also touches on several key issues that are important for everyone to think about.
Q: When did you make the transition to a plant based diet?
A: I made the full transition to not eating meat in March of 2017, so it has almost been a year.
Q: What or whom influenced you to make the decision?
A: While I was studying abroad in Spain last spring, I met my friend Rachael who is 100% vegan.
Every time I saw her she had an aura about her that was so happy and light, and everything she was eating was extremely fresh. Everywhere we went she could find something to eat, and so I was like wow, this is so inspiring. I want to be like that.
Q: What was the main reason a plant based diet appealed to you?
A: As I was traveling, I realized I didn’t like the food because it had meat in it. So I started ordering things without meat and I started liking the food more. The more I paid attention to what I was eating, the more I realized I have always been super picky about eating meat.
Things like textures and color and the way meat looks has always bothered me and even as a kid the only thing I would eat with meat in it was chicken soup. So once I made the connection that I preferred to not eat meat, I started to research more about the vegan lifestyle.
Q: Was the transition easy for you to make?
A: Well, first it started off as more of a preference, but then being with Rachael really helped me make the transition. She started teaching me about the health benefits of not eating meat and things like that. Now I’d say I primarily don’t eat meat because of the health benefits in general.
When I came back from Spain, I pretty much cut out all animal products and became vegan. That lasted a few months over the summer. But once I came back to school I realized how difficult that was. So I’d say I’m more of a vegetarian with vegan tendencies.
I’ve pretty much cut out everything that I can see with my eyes that has animal products in it. I don’t buy groceries with animal products, so I eat vegan at home. But I’ll be honest; it’s really about convenience when I go out to eat with friends or when I’m with my family. I feel like once I graduate I’ll make the full transition to veganism though; it’s something I really value.
Q: What can you share with our audience about how to make a smoother transition?
A: A piece of advice that Racheal shared with me that I found incredibly helpful was to find three recipes that are quick and easy and make them all the time. Then, add to it and start experimenting with other foods.
Also, as you are transitioning and you don’t mind eating more processed foods, it’s really cheap and easy to go to King Soopers and buy meat alternatives. They’re cheaper than regular meat and they’re really tasty too. It is important to slowly cut those out eventually though, because they’re not great for you either.
Q: Do you save time eating a plant based diet?
A: It takes me way less time to cook up tofu than it did to cook up some chicken. I throw everything into a baking dish in the oven and leave it for twenty minutes while I go and do homework. I don’t have to sit there and watch it and when it’s done it’s this delicious, healthy meal. I can make a way better meal without animal products and it tastes amazing and takes half of the time.
Amy’s is the best if you’re tight on time and can’t cook for yourself.
Q: What vitamins or supplements do you take to get all your nutrients?
A: B vitamins because you can’t get them all from plant based proteins. Although, foods like grapefruit and nutritional yeast have B12 in them.
When I’m craving foods I know it’s just because my body needs something I’m not getting. So I started taking more B vitamins and now I rarely crave certain foods.
One thing I noticed is that I was anemic before I embraced a plant based diet and now I don’t need any extra iron which is a really nice health benefit of this lifestyle.
Apps are helpful too. I use Cronometer, which is kind of like MyFitnessPal, where you put all of your exercise, food and water information into. But Cronometer also tells you how many vitamins and minerals you are getting in a day as well. That way I can tell which days I need to eat B12 and when I don’t.
Most days I hit all of my nutritional goals. I eat a lot of leafy greens and I always eat everything on a bed of greens.
Q: How do you think society influences eating trends?
A: Food is such a social thing, like eating pizza with your friends. It’s so hard to sit there while all of your friends are eating pizza and you have to say you’re not going to eat that today. The alternative is buying a whole other pizza for yourself, which isn’t always financially feasible.
My major is journalism as well, and I think about how the media portrays it too. We’re constantly seeing what they want you to be consuming. You look at a TV and see these happy people eating their animal products and there is so much money being pumped into that industry. Not only through those brands that are creating the commercial, but the government.
Just look at the FDA’s guidelines. They’ve been telling us since we were children we should be eating dairy and now they’re questioning if it is really even healthy for human consumption.
Q: Do you think that people are beginning to wake up to what they’re putting into their bodies?
A: I feel like the world is starting to wake up. I think they’re starting to wake up to processed foods and how unhealthy they are for you. I mean if you look at animal products, meat tends to be really processed. An apple isn’t processed — it’s straight from a tree.
I think people are starting to be more conscious of the food they eat, their overall health, and how food is linked to disease.
Q: What message(s) would you like to share with our audience?
A: When we’re babies the only product similar to an animal product that we consume is our mother’s breast milk. Other than that we don’t have teeth so we’re eating fruits and vegetables.
What does that tell you when the time we need nutrition the most, as infants, we’re not consuming animal products. So why are we eating it as we are getting older?
Something I think about is that as a kid we are given a plate with meat on it and we’re never actually told where that came from. And I think that millennials are really curious. So my question is why you are not as curious about what you’re putting into your body every day?
You’re questioning our government so much and our government puts out a lot of funding into what research they do(about animal consumption). But why aren’t you questioning that issue?
Even if you want to eat meat, why are you not questioning why it’s OK to physically beat animals and put them into places that are so confined and not allow them to live their lives?
On social media a while back people were posting these videos about how in some Asian countries people would cook dogs on the street and people were freaked out. And yet, they aren’t questioning the cows, chicken or pigs?
Millennial's are fighting for our ecosystem and climate change and they’re upset about them. But what they don’t realize is that these very issues are attached to the consumption of our food and what we’re buying.
So I have to ask why are you so curious and passionate about these other issues, but not the way you participate in the same issues every single day of your life. I feel like it’s a whole other ethical issue that people our age should be interested in.
Could you sit there and watch a video like Bacon in Reverse and then eat your meat and not be repulsed at all? Not just by how the animal is treated, but by what is going into your meat (chemicals) and the type of activity happening in order to get that meat to your plate?
I’m not saying that every meat processing plant is like that. I know smaller farms do try and kill animals in less cruel ways. I’m not ignorant to that fact, but we need to be aware of how the food is getting onto our plates.
It’s making the conscious effort to connect your brain to the fact that you’re about to eat an animal that was a living being before it got to your plate. You’re never taught that, but if we were taught that at age five, would you really eat it? I mean, look at all the people with pet pigs now, would you eat your pet?