My Journey to Healing and Wellness
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, IBCLC
How a Carnivore Became an Herbivore
I used to hate vegetables! Whenever my mother would cook a vegetable dish, I protested like a true activist who bravely fought a dictatorship for human rights (but who was not yet enlightened about animal rights). I loved her sinigang na manok sa sampalok (chicken cooked with tamarind broth), adobo, bopis (made of pig’s internal organs), fried chicken, shrimp crispies and her 101 ways of cooking bangus (milkfish) and tilapia, so why should she force me to eat vegetables? It’s so undemocratic!
Eating out means gorging on grilled pork, sisig, dinuguan, beef kare-kare, isaw, chicken liver and gizzard, chicharon bulaklak and more fried chicken, with a bottle or two of Coke! Why would I waste my money on vegetables?
We grow our own chickens and pigs in our backyard and I helped my mother slaughter the chickens to sell them in the market or prepare a sumptuous meal. How I loved cooking chicken and pork adobo brimming with all the fat!
My father used to work in an ice cream company and he would fill up our refrigerator with ice cream of all sorts, milk, cheese and butter! And because he ate his share of ice cream in the factory where he maintained the freezing plant, we had all those delicious treats only for ourselves. When we celebrated our birthdays, we did not have lavish parties but we always had an ice cream cake. Aside from that, we also looked forward to days when my mother would make milky iced candies to test a freezer sent in the house for repair by one of my father’s clients. When he worked overseas he would send us boxes of chocolates and cans of butter, which my mother complemented with processed meats and loads of cheeses.
No wonder, I was almost always sick! I lost track of so many doctors’ appointments, dextrose bottles and blood tests. When I left home to work for NGOs, I applied for social welfare cards in several hospitals to save on the costs of consultation and hospitalizations. I was in and out of the hospital due to severe illnesses that brought me so much pain. During these episodes, I always wished I would die. It was so awful that one time, the entire hospital heard my scream when they injected antibiotics to my dextrose near my wrist. The excruciating pain travelled up to my underarm! My husband got worried so he tried to talk to me but I couldn’t answer him because as I was delirious with high fever. This happened a few days after our church wedding and that was how we spent our honeymoon.
In May 1985, I volunteered as a lay missionary who worked for peasants mired in poverty. It was a passion to “Serve the People” among activists during the Marcos era. It was also during this time that my boyfriend introduced me to his parents, 100% Ilocanos who loved to eat meat but more often had vegetable dishes on the table. Meal times during visits to peasants’ homes, or my future parents-in-law meant an opportunity to polish my acting skills that I studied in college. I tried to conceal my disgust when they serve local vegetable dishes called dinengdeng and pinakbet that looked like pig’s food to me. I pretended to smile and eat with gusto.
On December 1987, I became pregnant and instinctively, I ate more fruits and vegetables. Instead of detesting it, I found out that my body now craved for it. I also stopped drinking coffee, soft drinks, sweets and other processed food. That is when I discovered another benefit of a plant-based diet. I just had one bout of morning sickness and I gave birth without experiencing pain, no thanks to anesthesia. Pregnancy and birthing was a breeze!
I learned how to cook more nutritious meals for my child when she began to eat. While breastfeeding her, I also downed more bowls of vegetable soups that my mother-in-law prepared for me. With all these healthy practices, my daughter did not have any serious illness and never experienced being hospitalized while she was growing up! She recovered easily from a day of fever, a cough or a cold. These illnesses usually occurred after attending children’s parties when she was exposed to non-vegan food.
On May 1991, I worked with an international NGO based in Baguio City that funded farmers’ projects on organic farming. These farmers visited our office and sold their produce at very reasonable prices. Their fruits and vegetables tasted a lot sweeter than those sold at the public market.
It was also at this time when I met a vegetarian who encouraged me to avoid meat but told me that cheese and dairy products are good sources of protein and calcium. I tried her recommendation and together with organic fruits and vegetables, I also cooked and fried a lot of vegetarian meat. I still ate dairy products but not as much as the outrageous quantity that my family used to consume. Instead of cow’s milk, I started making soy milk at home.
In 1993, I experienced another pain attack of my scoliosis and an office-mate encouraged me to consult a doctor who promotes indigenous food. Although she promotes the consumption of fruits and vegetables, this doctor also tells her patients to eat organically grown animals and seafood caught from fresh water. At this point, instead of reverting to eating animals again, I became a vegan.
Later on, I realized that being vegan helps protect the environment! Why even the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization said so!
Even the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines conceded that: “A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average US diet.” Harvard School of Public Health on the other hand promotes the consumption of 8-13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day!
Best of all, a vegan diet and lifestyle is cruelty-free. After watching videos on how animals are treated in industrial farms and the way they react at the prospect of death, I felt so at peace that no animal ever experienced suffering just so I could satisfy my palate. At this point, I also stopped buying products made with animal skin/leather and supporting companies that conduct animal testing.
Throughout the years that I subsisted on a plant-based, sugar and dairy-free diet (and chemical food additive-free too), I noticed that I was able to conquer the severe and chronic illnesses that used to bother me in the past:
Later on, my taste buds changed and I would prefer to eat fruits and vegetables instead of vegetarian meat. My body also complains when I eat vegan food laced with sugar and food additives like TBHQ and MSG. My diet allows me to identify what causes my body pains. Mostly it is triggered by food and it is so severe, that sometimes even just two pieces of puto (rice cake cooked with sugar) or MSG in a vegan dish would give me a stiff neck or shoulder!
As for my husband, he conquered (currently with no maintenance drugs) his malaria, rheumatic heart disease, gout, high blood pressure, bloody stools and migraine with a plant-based, sugar-free diet as well. He had two bouts of Transient Ischemic Attack (2001 and in 2015 when we ate in a vegan restaurant and the food was very salty!) Thankfully, he also stopped smoking two packs of cigarettes a day!
How I wish all vegan dishes are healthy but the current reality is that it is not. Mind you, it is not easy to avoid eating something delicious and vegan because it is not healthy! I love to eat like you! I am also a foodie. :) I do not like to spoil fun! Those who personally know me appreciate that I love to crack jokes (though it may sound corny) and even make fun of myself.
But my choice right now is to choose to eat something healthy or get hospitalized like I used to or perhaps die like my best friend since elementary who loved sisig, dinuguan, chicharon bulaklak and ice cream like I do! She suffered from stroke at the age of 45!
I hope this will also help explain why I post a health warning on some vegan food that people consume. I have to warn some of my patients (mothers with babies and young children) as a lactation consultant and some of my friends (50 years old and above) that I have encouraged to eat healthy because they are/were severely sick like me.
Personally, I feel the need to inform people that being vegan is ethical but I also need to encourage them to practice it in a healthy, evidence-based manner. I would not recommend an unhealthy vegan food to anyone because if that person will get sick, he or his family and friends would think that it is because he shuns meat instead of blaming all the unhealthy vegan food that he devours. And that will give a bad name to the vegan lifestyle.
Yes it is vegan, but I feel that we also have to ask if that food will make us sick? As a vegan, I feel it is my responsibility to keep my body healthy. We do not need to get sick or die for not eating animals. We need to live healthy lives to protect animals AND to inspire others to follow our footsteps.
I used to hate vegetables! Whenever my mother would cook a vegetable dish, I protested like a true activist who bravely fought a dictatorship for human rights (but who was not yet enlightened about animal rights). I loved her sinigang na manok sa sampalok (chicken cooked with tamarind broth), adobo, bopis (made of pig’s internal organs), fried chicken, shrimp crispies and her 101 ways of cooking bangus (milkfish) and tilapia, so why should she force me to eat vegetables? It’s so undemocratic!
Eating out means gorging on grilled pork, sisig, dinuguan, beef kare-kare, isaw, chicken liver and gizzard, chicharon bulaklak and more fried chicken, with a bottle or two of Coke! Why would I waste my money on vegetables?
We grow our own chickens and pigs in our backyard and I helped my mother slaughter the chickens to sell them in the market or prepare a sumptuous meal. How I loved cooking chicken and pork adobo brimming with all the fat!
My father used to work in an ice cream company and he would fill up our refrigerator with ice cream of all sorts, milk, cheese and butter! And because he ate his share of ice cream in the factory where he maintained the freezing plant, we had all those delicious treats only for ourselves. When we celebrated our birthdays, we did not have lavish parties but we always had an ice cream cake. Aside from that, we also looked forward to days when my mother would make milky iced candies to test a freezer sent in the house for repair by one of my father’s clients. When he worked overseas he would send us boxes of chocolates and cans of butter, which my mother complemented with processed meats and loads of cheeses.
No wonder, I was almost always sick! I lost track of so many doctors’ appointments, dextrose bottles and blood tests. When I left home to work for NGOs, I applied for social welfare cards in several hospitals to save on the costs of consultation and hospitalizations. I was in and out of the hospital due to severe illnesses that brought me so much pain. During these episodes, I always wished I would die. It was so awful that one time, the entire hospital heard my scream when they injected antibiotics to my dextrose near my wrist. The excruciating pain travelled up to my underarm! My husband got worried so he tried to talk to me but I couldn’t answer him because as I was delirious with high fever. This happened a few days after our church wedding and that was how we spent our honeymoon.
In May 1985, I volunteered as a lay missionary who worked for peasants mired in poverty. It was a passion to “Serve the People” among activists during the Marcos era. It was also during this time that my boyfriend introduced me to his parents, 100% Ilocanos who loved to eat meat but more often had vegetable dishes on the table. Meal times during visits to peasants’ homes, or my future parents-in-law meant an opportunity to polish my acting skills that I studied in college. I tried to conceal my disgust when they serve local vegetable dishes called dinengdeng and pinakbet that looked like pig’s food to me. I pretended to smile and eat with gusto.
On December 1987, I became pregnant and instinctively, I ate more fruits and vegetables. Instead of detesting it, I found out that my body now craved for it. I also stopped drinking coffee, soft drinks, sweets and other processed food. That is when I discovered another benefit of a plant-based diet. I just had one bout of morning sickness and I gave birth without experiencing pain, no thanks to anesthesia. Pregnancy and birthing was a breeze!
I learned how to cook more nutritious meals for my child when she began to eat. While breastfeeding her, I also downed more bowls of vegetable soups that my mother-in-law prepared for me. With all these healthy practices, my daughter did not have any serious illness and never experienced being hospitalized while she was growing up! She recovered easily from a day of fever, a cough or a cold. These illnesses usually occurred after attending children’s parties when she was exposed to non-vegan food.
On May 1991, I worked with an international NGO based in Baguio City that funded farmers’ projects on organic farming. These farmers visited our office and sold their produce at very reasonable prices. Their fruits and vegetables tasted a lot sweeter than those sold at the public market.
It was also at this time when I met a vegetarian who encouraged me to avoid meat but told me that cheese and dairy products are good sources of protein and calcium. I tried her recommendation and together with organic fruits and vegetables, I also cooked and fried a lot of vegetarian meat. I still ate dairy products but not as much as the outrageous quantity that my family used to consume. Instead of cow’s milk, I started making soy milk at home.
In 1993, I experienced another pain attack of my scoliosis and an office-mate encouraged me to consult a doctor who promotes indigenous food. Although she promotes the consumption of fruits and vegetables, this doctor also tells her patients to eat organically grown animals and seafood caught from fresh water. At this point, instead of reverting to eating animals again, I became a vegan.
Later on, I realized that being vegan helps protect the environment! Why even the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization said so!
Even the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines conceded that: “A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average US diet.” Harvard School of Public Health on the other hand promotes the consumption of 8-13 servings of fruits and vegetables a day!
Best of all, a vegan diet and lifestyle is cruelty-free. After watching videos on how animals are treated in industrial farms and the way they react at the prospect of death, I felt so at peace that no animal ever experienced suffering just so I could satisfy my palate. At this point, I also stopped buying products made with animal skin/leather and supporting companies that conduct animal testing.
Throughout the years that I subsisted on a plant-based, sugar and dairy-free diet (and chemical food additive-free too), I noticed that I was able to conquer the severe and chronic illnesses that used to bother me in the past:
- Annual attacks of Malaria (1985-1987)
- Episodes of Uterine Bleeding (1997 - discovered that it was due to some seafood/organic yogurt/egg that were accidentally added to my food or when I intentionally ate it on about 3 occasions).
- Scoliosis (painful since childhood and the pain magically disappeared in 1983 when I went vegan and sugar-free)
- Chronic Nose Bleeding since childhood
- Chronic Respiratory Tract Infections since childhood (with an episode of Primary Complex)
- Kidney Infection -Thanks to Chippy, other salty junk food and Coca-cola. And perhaps the food during my wedding. Yes, I was rushed to the hospital a few days after my wedding!
- Perennial Urinary Tract Infections
- Hepatitis A
- Hypotension
- Palpitation and Tremor - Thanks to several cups of coffee a day with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar per cup.
- Headaches
- Stiff Neck and Shoulders
- Cramps
- Perennial constipation
- Allergies – Rhinitis and Eczema
Later on, my taste buds changed and I would prefer to eat fruits and vegetables instead of vegetarian meat. My body also complains when I eat vegan food laced with sugar and food additives like TBHQ and MSG. My diet allows me to identify what causes my body pains. Mostly it is triggered by food and it is so severe, that sometimes even just two pieces of puto (rice cake cooked with sugar) or MSG in a vegan dish would give me a stiff neck or shoulder!
As for my husband, he conquered (currently with no maintenance drugs) his malaria, rheumatic heart disease, gout, high blood pressure, bloody stools and migraine with a plant-based, sugar-free diet as well. He had two bouts of Transient Ischemic Attack (2001 and in 2015 when we ate in a vegan restaurant and the food was very salty!) Thankfully, he also stopped smoking two packs of cigarettes a day!
How I wish all vegan dishes are healthy but the current reality is that it is not. Mind you, it is not easy to avoid eating something delicious and vegan because it is not healthy! I love to eat like you! I am also a foodie. :) I do not like to spoil fun! Those who personally know me appreciate that I love to crack jokes (though it may sound corny) and even make fun of myself.
But my choice right now is to choose to eat something healthy or get hospitalized like I used to or perhaps die like my best friend since elementary who loved sisig, dinuguan, chicharon bulaklak and ice cream like I do! She suffered from stroke at the age of 45!
I hope this will also help explain why I post a health warning on some vegan food that people consume. I have to warn some of my patients (mothers with babies and young children) as a lactation consultant and some of my friends (50 years old and above) that I have encouraged to eat healthy because they are/were severely sick like me.
Personally, I feel the need to inform people that being vegan is ethical but I also need to encourage them to practice it in a healthy, evidence-based manner. I would not recommend an unhealthy vegan food to anyone because if that person will get sick, he or his family and friends would think that it is because he shuns meat instead of blaming all the unhealthy vegan food that he devours. And that will give a bad name to the vegan lifestyle.
Yes it is vegan, but I feel that we also have to ask if that food will make us sick? As a vegan, I feel it is my responsibility to keep my body healthy. We do not need to get sick or die for not eating animals. We need to live healthy lives to protect animals AND to inspire others to follow our footsteps.
