Angel Food owner, and creator of the first commerically available mixes for making vegan marshmallows and vegan meringues at home.
I stopped eating red meat. Within a week I knew I didn't want to eat chicken or fish, either, so I became a vegetarian. A few weeks later I also stopped eating all animal products, including dairy and eggs, so I was officially a vegan.
My health has always been pretty good, but I’m definitely healthier on a vegan diet. No surprises there: by cutting out animal products you automatically eat more plant foods, and boost your intake of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. Plant-based diets also tend be lower in fat, and no plant food contains cholesterol. I lost 10kg within my first three months, without even trying.
Eating vegan doesn’t mean no fun! I enjoy vegan cakes, cookies, chocolate and ice creams but most of my diet is whole foods – whole grains, legumes, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. The only supplement I take regularly is one B12 drop each morning.
Everything else I get from real food. For example, I get calcium from leafy greens, cashews, tofu, soya milk and tahini. I get iron from beans (which don’t make you fart if you cook them properly!), dried fruit like apricots and dates, leafy greens and whole grains, and from cooking in a cast iron pan.
Getting enough protein is not a problem. Virtually every plant food contains some protein, and if you eat a variety in the course of the day, your body gets all the amino acids to make complete protein. Most people eating a standard Western diet consume far too much protein, which is very hard on your kidneys and other organs.
The main difficulty with becoming vegan was that my new vision of the world made me very uncomfortable with my work as a freelance writer. Subjects that never used to bother me – such as goosedown pillows or the wonders of freerange bacon – were now very problematic.
So I set up Angel Food, which satisfies my desire to operate in a more vegan environment and my need to reach out to others about this wonderful way of life!
A female cow, like a female human, only produces milk when she has given birth; the milk is vital food for her baby. Dairy cows’ babies are taken away within days or even hours of their birth so that all the milk can be collected for human use. Her female babies may become milk-producing machines, too; her male babies will become meat. When her milk production is past its peak, she too becomes meat.
Commercial egg production is similar. About half of the chicks are male and are killed within hours of hatching. The layer hen, whether she's in a battery or free range system, will be despatched as soon as she's past her peak productivity.
Email: info@angelfood.co.nz
Phone: (09) 376-4623
From Cathie of Auckland, who made our tofu-based chocolate mousse and took it along to a family gathering and didn't mention the tofu until they said how much they'd enjoyed it!