Traveling as a Vegan in a Land of Meat

This is my second time travelling for work since choosing to consume a plant-based diet.  Eating vegan is harder than you thing, and can be much more expensive than eating whatever is most convenient or cheapest on the menu.  To top it off, I'm trying to do this in Texas!  When I think of Texas, I think of cattle, beef, and steaks.  And I have to keep this up for a week and a half.


So here's how it's been going so far:


Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the airport: We stopped at the Alterra stand and at first I didn't notice that they have my ultimate favorite breakfast item ever, the Morning Glory Muffin, so I went for a vegetarian meal thinking I wouldn't know how substantial the rest of my meals would be for the rest of the day.  I got a veggie breakfast burrito (including eggs & cheese) and a chai with soy milk.  I feel slightly better about getting eggs & cheese from Alterra because its a local business that I know tries to use fresh local ingredients whenever possible, so that makes me feel *slightly* less guilty.  I used to worry about the research that has shown too much soy to be unhealthy for you, and even linked to infertility.  But I asked my RE doctor about it, and she said that estrogen in meat has been linked the same way, and if I'm not eating meat, soy was fine.  She also said it's fine for me to be adopting this more vegan lifestyle as long as I'm getting enough calories every day.  It was a relief to have my doctors "okay"!


Monday at the Cincinnati airport for a long layover I had lunch at an Outback Steakhouse.  I had a plain baked potato with a side of steamed vegetables.  Glad I had those eggs & cheese earlier...


For dinner that night, I ordered room service in my hotel room because I had a big project for work I needed to work on in order to submit it the next day.  There weren't any vegetarian items on the menu so I called them to ask what they suggested.  The chicken quesadilla, without the meat, and they'd add some grilled veggies to it.  Okay, fine, but I told them to go really light on the cheese, skip the sour cream, and add guacamole.  Cheese twice in one day... I paid for it later that night :/


Tuesday I ordered the most amazing sweet potato pancake with pecans, score!  For lunch that day I went to an Indian restaurant with on the advice of the concierge, in search of some substantial vegetarian food.  I found plenty of nutritious food (think lentils, chick peas, brown rice, whole wheat pita, and veggies), so it was great and I ate all of it.  Sadly though, it just confirmed my growing fear that I don't like the spices used in Indian cooking.  And I LOVE spicy food... just not this kind of spicy.  That night for dinner, I ordered chips & salsa with guacamole & went to bed with a full belly.


Breakfast on Wednesday was oatmeal, but the consistency was watery and I think it was more of the "instant" kind than the steel cut or whole grain kind.  Lunch was a Cliff bar and a Green Machine Naked Juice.  Dinner I splurged in the hotel restaurant (it wasn't close to anything and all other dining required cab rides) and ordered grilled veggies, brussel sprouts, and a pecan caramel  bar for dessert.  Went to bed feeling not quite so stuffed that night, but satisfied.


Yesterday I ordered the hotel restaurant's a la carte hot breakfast item, which was a six grain whole grain dish - it was AMAZING!  Wish I could eat that stuff every day!  I wasn't too hungry for a long time after that so I didn't eat lunch until about 2pm, when I just ordered a repeat of my veggified quesadilla, no sour cream, light on the cheese, add guacamole.


I had to switch hotels yesterday because I'm going to a different conference now, starting today.  This one is in downtown Dallas so I have a lot more dining options available to me.  Across the street is a Thai/Japanese restaurant called Zenna.  I had seaweed salad, miso soup, edamame, and one tofu roll.  Went to bed stuffed again and it was amazing!  May need to eat there again before I leave...


This hotel offers a hot complimentary breakfast.  When I first arrived, I noticed the "hot breakfast" consisted of eggs, sausages, and tortilla shells.  "Well," I thought to myself, "I guess this is going to be a vegetarian meal for me if I want any substance."  So I made an egg & cheese burrito with salsa, and then noticed the waffle maker.  I knew it wasn't nutritious, but it would be a fun treat that I could eat, so I poured some batter into the iron.  That's when I noticed the hot oatmeal with pecans.  Doh!  I need to learn to be more patient and observant!  The also had all kinds of bagels & breads with peanut butter too.  At least I know I can stick to my convictions the other mornings I'm here.  Today was just an exception I guess.  Oh well.

What to do about dairy? Is soy a good alternative?

This Morning's Soy Decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte

I was craving something warm and comforting this morning, so I decided to swing by the coffee shop at work today and get a latte. 

In the old days I would have ordered a small (or "tall") sugar-free vanilla latte with skim milk, no whipped cream.

Of course now, with my commitment to a healthier lifestyle, I needed to make a few modifications. 

1. I try to avoid artificial sweeteners, so I had to get a "regular" flavor shot (as I get better at this, I'll probably want to cut the flavor shots out completely). 
2. I've been off of caffeine now for exactly four months, so of course I had to choose decaffeinated espresso.
3. Finally, as I'm trying to refrain from all dairy that I do not know where the milk comes from or how the cows live, I chose soy milk.

This cow at a modern California dairy has a swollen udder.

Today’s large farms tend to confine dairy cows in drylot

feedyards (shown) or inside barns.1 The animals commonly

suffer udder infections, metabolic disorders, and lameness.

See VeganOutreach.org/dairy

In addition to abstaining from dairy for ethical and even environmental reasons, I have been reading a lot about the health effects of dairy.  The information I have found has made me consider cutting out dairy from my diet completely, even if I find milk, cheese, or yogurt produced from grass-feed, free-range, humanely treated cows.

Our bodies are not meant to drink any milk except our own mother's milk, and only while we are infants.  Humans are the ONLY animals that drink another species milk, and the only animals that drink milk after infancy.  That right there should tell us something about how unnatural our society's obsession with dairy is.


Click here for info on this spoof.

In the U.S. alone, about 80% of African Americans, 90% of Asian Americans, and 60% of Hispanics are lactose intolerant.  People with lactose intolerance experience gas, discomfort, and sometimes diarrhea upon drinking milk.  Those who can digest cow's milk are mostly of white European descent and are thought to have a genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago in our evolution so that we could survive on a herd's milk under harsh environmental conditions.

Cow's milk has been linked to obesity, breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  It underlies asthma and allergies, and messes with our hormones. 



In 1900 American girls started menstruating, on average, at the age of 14.  Today, they begin at 12 1/2, with the first signs of puberty showing up in some girls as young as 7. 

These stats really hit home for me, as when we were growing up we used to drink at least 3 servings of milk (thankfully skim) a day , and I got my period just before my 11th birthday!

All of the reasons above have made me try to avoid most dairy whenever possible.  It has been about a month now, and when I have eaten "humane" dairy on occasion, I notice a difference right away in how my body reacts!  I feel gassy and bloated, and a little sluggish afterward.  That's all the proof I need that our bodies are not naturally made to digest cow's milk!  Of course, cheese and ice cream are soooo good, so it may come down to the the occasional hard decision for me, knowing full well what the consequences will be when I choose to indulge.

So this morning I got a Soy Decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte, a perfect Fall pick-me-up!

Or was it?

I've also been coming across a lot of information about the negative health effects of soy, one of the most disconcerting to me being the links between soy and infertility.

Soy and Fertility
Soy is an excellent source of protein and also a phenomenal source of phytoestrogen (also called isoflavones) - a plant form of oestrogen that mimics our own natural hormone.  


Some research has shown that eating large  amounts of soy may throw off a woman's natural hormone levels, increase her menstrual cycle length, and affect ovulation.  


There is also some inconclusive research showing that eating too much soy may reduce a man's sperm production, which may be due to the phytoestogen  mimicking natural oestrogen.  Too much estrogen is never a good thing when it comes to sperm production.  The soy-sperm link is more pronounced in overweight and obese men, probably because they already produce more of the natural hormone than thinner men.

So, what am I going to do about milk?  Probably what I have been doing already.  Refrain from cow's milk (but if I ever HAVE to buy it, it would be organic), and limit my consumption of soy milk to rare treats at the coffee shop.  At home, I enjoy almond and coconut milk in my cooking and smoothies, and have become obsessed with Dark Chocolate Almond Milk for a sweet treat when I am craving something like ice cream.  I am not concerned about getting enough calcium, as I can get plenty from plant-based sources, but that is a topic for another post.


I am very concerned with consuming too much soy in other food products now that I've made a commitment to this new plant-based diet.  It seems that at restaurants, you'll often find the token veggie burger (aka, soy product) as your only option on the menu.  At home, I plan to continue exploring whole grains and legumes as my main sources of protein, and reserve soy products for when I'm on the road or in social situations where I don't have access to the types of natural foods I'd prefer to be eating.


I'd love to hear from other vegetarians out there, to hear what their favorite sources of protein are, and to learn more about their own opinions on the so-called "dangers" of soy.  I am still very much in the learning, or "information gathering" phase of this lifestyle change, and welcome all the advice or stories I can get!