E2 - 28 Day Challenge Wrap-Up

So I promised a follow-up post to our conclusion of the 28 Day (not quite) Challenge.


If you've read my daily posts you know that this challenge has been just that, challenging. The kiddos, especially the littles, constantly rejected my vegan offerings and often were fed a different meal. I was hoping that the challenge would encourage some weight-loss and it didn't, not for any of us. I think this happened for several reasons. 1. I deviated from the menu on occasion based on our schedule and what I knew we would, and would not, eat. 2. We rarely added extra exercise into our day and 3. portion control. I didn't feel bad having seconds if it's a plate of veggies... maybe I should have.

Several of you have asked questions. Here are some of them....

Why Almond milk and not soy? Soy contains estrogen-like chemicals, called phytoestrogens, and heightened exposure to estrogen has been linked with increased risk of breast cancer. I've got three young daughters and two growing boys who don't need any extra estrogen.


Is regular organic milk that bad? Organic milk is a better choice than regular milk simply because it's organic BUT organic milk 1. is still dairy, and 2. is ULTRA pasteurized - the process of
heating every particle of milk or milk product to 280ºF. This kills a lot of the beneficial nutrients... think about raw veggies vs cooked veggies. Cooked veggies aren't bad for you. You just retain more of 'the good stuff' when you consume them raw.


Does raw milk have casein? yes, because casein is an animal protein.

How does eating vegan affect your grocery bill? Well, this challenge affected our grocery bill somewhat. We eat out a LOT (3-4 meals a week) but on the diet we only ate out maybe once a week. This decreased out dining out budget but increased our grocery bill. Also, because there was a menu to follow as opposed to being able to meal plan based on grocery store sales had an impact too. It's the end of the month and we're making meals from what's in the freezer and pantry. I think going forward this shouldn't change our bill too much. You can get good deals on produce if you buy what's on sale and seasonal items tend to be a little cheaper. Also, I never bought a single container of 'milk' without using a coupon (lots of which I found online & printed at home). I matched it with stores that had it on sale and saved a lot this way.

Doesn't eating all those veggies and fiber cause lots of gas? Our house has definitely been a little rooty-tooty and not so fresh-n-fruity lately. Several forums I read said that your body needs time to adjust to cleaning out your system and processing all this extra fiber. Some people said they've eaten vegetarian for many years with no relief of excess gas. I think it depends on the person?? 


What websites are good for vegan recipes? The Post Punk Kitchen has quite a few recipes as well as a forum for asking questions. VegWeb has a lot of recipes too. I like the Engine 2 website but I found several of the recipes there are incomplete, so if you see a recipe on there you'd like to try google it. Several of them have been posted on SparkRecipes and are good. There are a lot, just google it. I'll post some of my favorites as I come across them. And if you've got some good ones please share! :)

Where do you go from here? Well, we've decided to make several of these changes permanent. Like always I'll continue to cut more and more processed foods out of our diet. We've been switching all of our 'whites' to 'browns' for a while now - brown rice, whole wheat flour, sucanat - instead of their white, over-processed, nutritionally void counterparts. We've never been big beef eaters so that's not too different but we do consume a lot of chicken. I'd like to cut this back a bit and try to have more meat-less meals. Graham is consuming almost no dairy and will continue to do so. He's realized the benefits on his digestive system and doesn't want to go back. All of us will make a permanent switch to almond/coconut milk. The kids love the original almond milk so why not? Less hormones that way too. I've started doing the Apple Cider Vinegar drink. I usually add 4 tsp to a 16 oz bottle of water and drink half of it in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. A friend mixes hers with apple juice to combat the pungent taste. I don't mind vinegar so the taste doesn't bother me. The girls have had a little here and there and they don't mind the taste in water either. Dr. Mercola has a good article about ACV. Make sure you read the whole thing.

I think more than anything we've been armed with information, information that can help us make wiser decisions on what we use to nourish our bodies. I have to balance what I've learned with what the bible says about the food God has provided. I think, like always, everything in moderation. A little meat won't kill us and I could use a little bacon in my life :)

Milk. It Does A Body Good?

When we watched Forks over Knives there were several things that, when they were said, really made since to me. Either because it sounded logical or because I've experienced this myself. They drew many connections between our diet and the presence of disease. One study that hit home in a hard harsh way was the connection between consuming low or non-fat dairy products and prostate cancer. Right at 4 years ago my Grandfather passed away after battling with prostate cancer. Prior to his illness he was the picture of health. He had been in the navy as a young man and I think a lot of those disciplines stuck with him. He was very active and strong, always watched what he ate. Consumed very little red meat and what he did eat was super lean. He ate fish, lots of veggies, & took his vitamins. One thing he was also strict about was his consumption of dairy, in a low fat or non-fat form. He, like most Americans, believed that the fat in milk was bad for you but you need the calcium so reduced fat was the 'better' choice.

"The fat in milk is there for a reason, namely to help the body absorb the milk's calcium and Vitamin D; improperly absorbed calcium can be 'toxic'." - Joanna Evans of the magazine What Doctors Don't Tell You

My Grandfather wasn't a smoker nor did he have any other risk 'factors'. For me, my Grandfather is a perfect picture of these studies. The 'modified' dairy makes since in connection to his cancer. In retrospect it makes me very sad that this one, simple thing, could have given us more time together and his final years less of a struggle.

I thought this was a good article from a UK men's health magazine explaining the issue.

There is a clip in the film where they explain how your body processes milk and absorbs the calcium. It also explains how the calcium in cow's milk is not easily absorbed. When we consume milk it creates an acid-like condition in the body called metabolic acidosis. The body leaches calcium from your bones in an effort to neutralize this, causing our bones to become weak and brittle. This, based on what we've been taught (mostly by the dairy industry), seems backwards. But my mom's mom is another example of this. Now, she did smoke for MANY years which probably only compounded the issue but she drank lots of milk. She was diagnosed with osteoporosis and like so many these days, dealt with hip fractures.

Another concern with milk and dairy products is casein. Casein is the main protein present in milk and (in coagulated form) in cheese. It's commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk. It is used in processed foods and in adhesives, paints, and other industrial products.

In T. Colin Campbell's The China Study he describes a direct correlation between casein administered to rats and the promotion of cancer cell growth when exposed to carcinogens. One group of rats was put on a 5% protein diet and another group on a 20% protein diet. Regardless of the amount of aflatoxin (a potent carcinogen) administered to these rats, NONE of the rats on 5% protein developed foci, precursors to cancerous cell growth, and EVERY rat on 20% protein developed the pre-cancer foci. Other studies conducted by Dr. Campbell on humans confirmed this correlation between the amount of protein consumed and the promotion of cancerous cell growth. Basically, he discovered that cancer growth could be turned on and off by adjusting the amount of animal protein in the diet. Casein has also been shown to aggravate the symptoms of Autism causing many with the disease to adhere to a gluten-free casein-free diet. *

Sadly casein & rennet, another bovine derived protein, are found in TONS of stuff, just like corn, including soy and almond cheeses. This makes it pretty much impossible for anyone eating a typical American diet to stay under that 5% and is why 1 out of every 2 men and 1 out of every 3 women will get cancer.

We've been using almond and coconut milks and like them a lot. They taste great and don't cause any digestive issues for the boys. I think this is a change we'll make permanent.


More reading:
Cancer Project

* from Wikipedia