Check Your Plate… Before It’s Too Late
A week ago, a dear friend of mine, Bella, informed me that her 60 year old father was just diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer. This is one of the tougher things in life to respond to: when your good friend tells you their dad has cancer. It’s deeply upsetting, uncomfortable and all I wished was that I could do something to help.
Bella created a Go Fund Me page and with help from friends and family was quickly able to meet her goal of 20,000 dollars in order to get her father the treatment he will need. And that’s fucking amazing. Her and her father are in our thoughts.
A few days pass. It’s Monday night and Bella, myself and all of our classmates/closest friends are at a potluck. We’re drinking, listening to music and eating delicious food. I, of course, pulled out all the stops. My main thrill in life is cooking for other people. Cooking tasty, creative vegan food.
To this holiday themed potluck I brought vegan pierogis stuffed with sweet potato and sauerkraut made from SCRATCH (rolling dough is a bitch in college housing), vegan/gluten free scalloped potatoes made with cashew cheese, and vegan macaroni and cheese with a sauce made from potatoes, carrots, nutritional yeast (look it up) blended into submission until it becomes “cheesy” creamy goodness. Not to toot my own horn (as I’m about to toot my own horn), but my dishes were completely gone first… before any of the other standard meat, dairy, egg dishes. This always happens. Here’s why: 1) people want to see if food created without animal products can compete with the rest, 2) they try it, 3)it’s usually better and more creative then anything else in the room and they realize this, 4) they figure because it’s made without all the junk, it’s far healthier so… 5) they go in for seconds, 6) then thirds. You see?
A few minutes after the meal was finished, Bella pulled me aside. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about your recipes,” she said. And I — who both loves talking about food and about myself — launch into the conversation.
“Are you considering going vegan?” I ask.
“Well, it’s for my father actually. I’ve been doing a lot of research and there are so many cases of people having their cancer cured or reversed just from eating a vegan diet,” she said, with a hopeful smile. I enthusiastically told her that I have been reading the same thing for years, and that I highly, HIGHLY suggested she convince her father to start eating plant-based. I told her that I would send her delicious recipes and tips to getting started.
It’s scenarios like this that make me grateful for the vegan diet… But also disheartened. It was not until Bella’s father was diagnosed with a disease that she had become interested in being plant-based. Obviously, these things are better late then never. But what so many people don’t realize is that cutting animal products out of their diet is not only a healing method, but a PREVENTATIVE method. I became vegan at the young age of 19, yet still wish I had come across this lifestyle before then because I feel so blessed to have been able to experience all the magic this diet has brought me. It’s something I want everyone to experience. I went them to experience it before they become overweight, before they get diagnosed with diabetes or cancer, before they have a close call with a heart attack.
Let’s begin now. Before it’s too late. Because you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Life is a great place full of best friends, drunken pot luck dinners, and scrumptious vegan food. You’ll want to be around to see it.
