In this edition of Missi Pyle’s guest blogs about becoming vegan, my witty friend is faced with the age-old dairy argument we’ve all heard before:
Wary about no dairy? aka Fred the Dairy Fairy aka Vegan blog #6! aka rip steve jobs. Sigh
The thing about being a vegan is, everybody has an opinion about it. Especially the bartender, at The Buggy Whip. Who incidentally is not only a bartender but also a professional nutritionist and architect with his very own clothing line. Hmmm. I guess business must be slow. or he just bartends on the side for funzies. Anyhoo. I was waiting for Megan and Meredith at the bar and looking over the menu for something vegan to eat. They had broccoli sauteed in garlic. yum. and a beet salad. I told the bartender, Fred, that I’d like both but that I was a vegan and just wanted to make sure both dishes were, you know vegan.
fred looked at me and shook his head. “being a vegan is not healthy.” wow. thank you so much for your opionion fred. tell me more. “i am a nutritionist, a professional nutritionist and if you don’t have dairy from a cow you can’t get enough calcium and will get osteoporosis and weak bones.” and shrivel up and die? ok, i get it. again, thank you for your opinion. I’d still like to have the broccoli and the salad. fred stared me down cold and hard like john wayne in some vintage western. i thought maybe he’d draw his pistol on me. but no. he just tore the ticket off his ticket order pad, slowly turned, glared at me one more time and walked into the kitchen.
wowzers! while fred was gone. i decided to do a little googling about this whole cows milk- osteoporosis thing. on my iphone. (sigh rip steve jobs… you will be eternally missed) Turns out there are an ass load of other ways to get calcium. Broccoli being one of them. suck on that fred! and look at all these other vegan foods that have calcium:
i have no idea what blackstrap molasses is. it sounds painful. but dang theres a lot of options.
when fred came back he brought me my broccoli which was sauteed in olive oil and an extraordinary amount of garlic. awesome. and my beet salad covered in cheese. i just looked at him. “really fred?” do you not remember the conversation we had 5 minutes ago? is this why all your other businesses are in the shitter? fred again looked at me like i was the dumbest a hole on the planet and said. “well i guess the cook might make you another one.” amazing.
he brought me back the salad with beets this time with no cheese and no salad dressing. i guess to teach me a lesson? and simply walked away. then meredith and megan arrived. meredith ate most of my broccoli. she is so cute, i didn’t mind. then we slammed a glass of vegan wine and took megan to the airport. which incidentally is right around the corner from the Buggy Whip. We did not take a buggy to get there.
alas. i wondered if you, my best friend, have thoughts on the calcium vegan conundrum. maybe you wanna share them with me? so i can go give fred the what for the next time i see him
that’s for fred. not you
until then
in the words of steve jobs…
stay hungry, stay foolish
ps. steve jobs gives this speech to the graduates of stanford. it is the most inspiring speech i’ve ever heard. I think i’ve listened to it at least a dozen times. it gives me hope when my heart feels heavy and i feel, you know, hopeless. if you have 10 minutes check it out.
For more info about calcium and why dairy is nasty, check out my blog post about organic dairy here, or page 34 of The Kind Diet.
What food myths were you surprised to discover?
Related Stories:
Missi and Meredith Do Vegan Texas-Style
Guest Blog: Missi Pyle’s Vegan Quest – Day 1
Guest Blog: Missi Pyle’s Vegan Adventure!
Guest Blog: Incredible Cruciferous Veggies!
