As a vegan living in an area with NO soy, tempe, and limited choice, which dairy/meat should I "cheat" with?

Question

I recently turned vegan and for the next 15 months I will be living in a small town in Bulgaria. The produce selection here is very limited and seasonal. There are no supermarkets and no soy or dairy-free products like in the USA.

Some Americans who were vegan before beginning our work here are now vegetarians simply because it has become too difficult to maintain a vegan diet with such limited selection. My current choices for dairy are: Bulgarian cheese, low-fat yogurt, eggs, and obviously milk. My meat choices are: ground beef, expensive (and questionable) chicken, pork, livers, chicken hearts, and Bulgarian beef/pork patties (loaded with fat and cholesterol) My protein has been coming from nuts, beans, peas, and whole grains.

Seeing how being a strict vegan may be nutritionally impossible, my question is...

Which dairy/meat foods are "healthier" and can sometimes be relied on for protein? I just read the China Study, so all animal protein sounds "bad" now. Any healthy ideas

Answer 1

Get a nice juicy T-Bone into you.

Medium rare, with pinkness inside :-)

Answer 2

It is not cheating.  It is living on what you have.  Deal with it.

Answer 3

Well I doubt you can pack food for 15 months but pack as much as you can..mainly the protein stuff since you cant refrigerate the cold stuff. I feel sorry for ya having to "cheat". I guess your going for work or something. Tell me what job so I will not choose that to major in lol.

Answer 4

I don't think you should go back to meat unless you're set on it. Just eat some of the dairy stuff and stick with some of the protein you already eat from nuts etc (or is this not possible?)

Are you a veggie out of health reasons then? Maybe eat yoghurt, cheese, and egg then, but not too much milk. And don't have dairy too often. People don't need as much protein as they think they do, unless you are ill or growing.

Answer 5

You can still do very well on just beans, nuts and whole grains! That's tons of protein, don't discount it! 15 months won't derail you completely - you really aren't getting much more protein from tofu than from a serving of beans, and really this might be an opportunity to learn to cook vegan without relying on soy or "fake" meat products, which are convenient but not essential to a vegan diet.

If you are a vegan strictly for health reasons and you want to suspend your vegan diet during your stay in Bulgaria, I'd stay away from dairy as it has relatively no health benefit. Increasing dairy does not make your bones any stronger, and numerous research has shown time after time that overloading your diet with calcium from dairy is like dropping off bricks at a construction site and hoping that they'll just happen to become a building - unfortunately, you aren't supposed to consume dairy past being weaned as a toddler, and dairy is detrimental to your health in many other ways as well. I would suggest Dr. Neal Barnard's books, he's from The Committee For Responsible Medicine, which is an organization I aspire to be a part of as soon as I finish my phD. This organization does not bow to pressure from food industry lobbyists, and tells it like it is.

The food industry buys over the government when it comes to what they'll promote as healthy, and fund many a university study, so don't jump on the band wagon on any one "health food" that suddenly gets promoted. Right now dairy is flaunted as some weight loss, strong bone magic substance, but there is no research to support this, and in fact a lot of research shows that it is the other way around completely.

Completely suspending any moral or ethical aspects for being a vegan, I would suggest free range eggs. Bulgaria, just like Romania and Poland (I've been to all three) have plenty of local farms, the food industry has become partially industrialized but factory farming isn't anywhere near as prominent as in other Western countries.

A half hour ride in any direction and I'm sure you'll be in the countryside, with farmer's stands that have fresh eggs from cage-free, happy, healthy hens that lead long, happy lives. My own grandmother and my paternal aunt have hens in Eastern Europe.

Have a nice time in Bulgaria, my friend's there for the whole summer. :) From what I've heard from him, there's loads of local farms you can go to where you can get relatively cruelty free eggs without feeling guilty.

Answer 6

You are not even asking a question related to vegetarianism here so I don't know what answers you expect.  

I suppose they have no beans or grains in Bulgaria either?

Answer 7

I am with Maggie on this. I live in the States and am vegan (for five years now). Unfortunately I am allergic to soy, so I have had to go vegan without tofu or any processed soy products.

I get my nutrition from a rotation diet of pasta, brown rice, beans/legumes (soybeans are not the only bean on the planet!), wheat/seiten/gluten, and a heavenly cashew cream sauce/nuts. I do believe all those are available in Bulgaria. I then add seasonal produce of fruits and vegetables (onions, garlic, and ginger are my spicy vegetables that I add to my food). My vegan daughter is at Cedar Point working for the summer and is doing alright on her limited budget and availability of produce too. She loves her rice cooker and curry powders!

As a vegan bodybuilder, I do supplement with a brown rice protein powder in my morning oatmeal, but other than that, I get enough protein. You will find out that it is not getting the protein inside you by eating stuff, but digesting the protein once it is inside. (Ginger helps in digestion!).

Answer 8

Nuts, beans, peas, and whole grains, and what ever fruits and veggies you can get, will work so why abandon your diet choice?

Being a vegetarian/vegan isn't about eating processed veg food, it's about knowing what you can eat in place of meat, or eggs/dairy if your vegan. Unprocessed food is always better for you.