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Articles and Information
My Commitment to Be Vegan
by Rachel Mohan
The Greeks will be the death of me. First they created their accursedly complex language with which I daily struggled while navigating Plato; then along came spanakopita.
It's a simple food. Phyllo dough, crusty and golden, wraps a small amount of spinach, laced with feta cheese. Not vegan. Why, Zeus? My policy with foods I don't care to eat is usually to avoid them altogether. I have a weakness for desserts; therefore, I simply don't bring any into the house. But every Saturday in my quest for health and well-being, and in no small way to sate my conscience, I sojourn to the farmer's market, and inevitably find myself gravitating toward the booth housing some very lovely middle-eastern and Greek foods. My good friend, Emir, presides over the various flavors of hummus, tabouleh salad, pitas, and tapenade. There is baklava there too, but somehow it's easier to forgo than its humble companion, seated in a tray nearby.
"Hello, Rachel," says Emir. "Any spanakopita today?" When he's that persuasive, how can I resist? Once in a while in the past, I'll admit, I capitulated, guiltily snatching it up. But lately I've been holding strong. These are the days when I remember why I avoid animal products in the first place, and more importantly, what I feel like after eating cheese. Blehhh.
It's so hard to break out of old habits and comfort zones, and reject 'positive' labels reinforced shadily by big business and more benignly by that sense of "this is the way we've always eaten." One thing I've learned is that it matters a great deal how you look at food. Do you have a list of "can't have" foods? Well, there are few foods that you can't have; nearly everything we eat is the result of a conscious decision. When you order a veggie patty in a hip restaurant but forget to say "no cheese," then it's not the fault of the waitress or cook when you get your plate with cheese oozing everywhere. When Emir lifts the corners of his mouth into a smile while asking me that one simple question it's not actually twisting my arm. Choice is key. The phrase "I can't have it because..." is a lot harder to swallow than "I choose not to have it because..." The first is a denial, a negative. The second is an assertion, a positive. The second phrase lends itself to creativity because you can choose something healthy and life-affirming to replace the less desirable food. Denial of a food only produces bad feelings, resentment, and promotes cheating.
What I conveniently forgot those times at the farmer's market was the commitment I made to myself and to my son to eat healthily and to minimize my environmental impact. But the truth is, with only a little investigation, one can find a vegan alternative or substitute to satisfy. And well-established habits are hard to argue with. It takes a lot of willpower to crack out of the cheese mold, but the struggle, for me, grows less and less every day. I can stick with it.
Rachel lives in Long Beach, writing and cross-stitching when not working at her favorite bookstore. She marvels how Southern California has turned into Florida this winter.
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