Who are you? I'm Chandelle, and I write this blog. I'm the partner of Jeremy, who is a Waldorf grades teacher. We have two children. Isaiah is 4 and Willow is 2. They'll be featured occasionally on this blog. We recently moved from Salt Lake City to Northern California.
Why is food so important to you? With such a plethora of fantastic plant food in the world, and such amazing and simple methods of preparing it, it just seems silly and wasteful to continue eating crappy food. As long as I'm alive, I want to feel healthy and eat wonderful food. Both of these basic lifestyle choices are what I am promoting through this blog. Prevention is better than any "treatment," and eating healthy is simply the cheapest, easiest and most pleasurable way to prevent disease, extend life and create the vitality we need to be productive and happy.
Do you do this professionally? I am not a chef. I'm in school studying holistic nutrition and herbalism. I haven't settled on what exactly I plan to do within these disciplines, but I've been circling it for a while and I have plenty of time to settle down. I definitely want to work with low-income communities; I feel that the poor are doubly punished for their poverty because they are taught that they can't afford to live in healthy ways and then they aren't provided with medical care for the effects of their lifestyle. I'd like to have a private clinic where I work with the community on a sliding scale, so that everyone gets the care they need. Above all, I want to teach others how to care for themselves rather than always seeking a higher authority to dispense prescriptions (whether herbal, dietary or pharmaceutical in nature). I'd especially like to work with individual families in their homes, teaching them cooking techniques and recipes to improve their habits and experience of food, as well as ways to grow, harvest and make their own medicines from food and herbs.
Are you vegan? And what does "vegan" mean, anyway?"Vegan" generally refers to two practices. The first is simply that one does not eat any animal products. Such products include all meats (fish is a meat), all dairy products, eggs, and all animal byproducts such as casein, gelatin, internal organs, fish oils, lard, and so on. Most dietary vegans also avoid honey and other products from insects. The second, larger definition of veganism is the practice of avoiding animal products not only in one's food, but in one's clothing, footware, art supplies, cosmetics and so on. By this definition, one would also avoid beeswax, wool, silk, leather, pearls, sea sponges, suede, down, catgut, lanolin, urea, shellac and many other materials. Most vegans also oppose the use of animals for entertainment (i.e. zoos and the circus) and testing (i.e. experimentation and animal-based medicines such as HRT).
Our family is not vegan by either definition. We do not eat meat, eggs or dairy. But we do eat honey from local farmers. Many of our children's toys and art supplies contain wool, silk or beeswax. These materials are very difficult to avoid in the Waldorf setting. Most of these products have been purchased secondhand to avoid contributing to the industries in question. I also use sea sponges for menstrual care, and most homeopathic remedies are set in a lactose base.
Occasionally, I will refer to a vegan diet in this blog. I do believe that a vegan diet
and lifestyle is the best option for the preservation of our earth and the health of our bodies and moral character. I consider the lifestyle aspect a work in progress.
Do your kids eat a vegan diet? Yes.
Are your kids healthy? Yes! They are as healthy or healthier than most of the kids we come across (which is quite a lot, given my husband's profession). Neither of my children have ever had a serious illness. They get sick with colds once or twice a year, mainly when they spend a lot of time with other children. Both kids are tall for their age, at a perfect weight, well-proportioned, energetic, intelligent, and talented, and they have always been advanced in their development.
Is it difficult to raise kids without animal products? Absolutely not. Our kids are good eaters. They eat almost everything we serve them. They've had a lot of diversity right from the beginning, so they're generally not very suspicious of new foods and they love lots of different things. Like plenty of kids, they'd eat sandwiches every day of the week if we'd let them. But they also eat vegetables in abundance. Isaiah's favorite foods include collard greens, broccoli, asparagus and Brussels sprouts. Willow's favorite foods include carrots, celery, apples and spinach. Both kids love all the whole grains we eat, especially brown rice and quinoa. The key, in my opinion, to helping kids to eat healthy is very simple - feed them healthy things. We also try not to make the dinner table into a battleground. It just isn't worth fighting about and creating all sorts of pathologies about food. Everything we make tastes delicious, and that helps, too.
What sort of stuff do you feed your kids every day? We always start with a hearty breakfast, like pancakes or muffins or scrambles or crepes. Common snacks are plain yogurt with blueberries and flaxseed, nuts and dried fruit, or rice with nutritional yeast and flax oil. For lunch we often have leftovers from the day before, or sandwiches, or wraps, or dips with tortillas or pita, or light soups, or pasta dishes with lots of vegetables. Dinners are the sort of stuff you see here. Our kids don't have much of a sweet tooth. They love smoothies more than any other dessert.
How do you keep your kids away from candy, chocolate, cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream and other standard childhood fare? Our kids eat this stuff, it just happens to be healthier and we don't finish every single meal with half a quart of ice cream or two slices of pie. It's a
treat, after all, not a regular event. I make my own ice cream from coconut milk, with minimal sugar and plenty of whole fruit. We make cookies, cakes and pie with minimal sugar and oil and whole-grain flours. Our kids are too little for candy.
As for the crap other people try to serve them? We exercise our parental right to say "No." If our wishes are not met, that person won't be spending time alone with our children. It's that simple. Our word is law. Whether you agree with us or not, you must respect our parental choices. We must be able to trust that you will treat our children respectfully. It's cruel to go against a parent's word with small children who are innocent of such deception.
Anyway, our kids get all kinds of fun stuff at home! They have a birthday cake like anyone else and chocolate chip cookies on rainy afternoons. They never feel deprived. I think part of the reason they don't feel deprived is because we don't use sweets as rewards or bribes, which is a terribly destructive practice.
But they're going to want to try meat someday. They're going to experiment. What will you do then? We will always answer our children's questions in age-appropriate, respectful ways. As they get older, we'll encourage them to do their own research, including by personal experience. We'll support them in their explorations, while continuing to accept them with love regardless of their choices, and they'll always have wonderful healthy food waiting for them at home.
It's important to us that our children grow up with positive messages about a plant-based diet. We don't tell them that people are mean if they eat animals or that their friends are eating disgusting things. We just explain,
We eat a diet based on plants, because we love plants. They keep us healthy, build our bones and make us strong. We don't eat animals because we don't want to hurt them. Some people eat animals and we love those people, but we only eat plants. Isaiah's favorite random thing to say right now is, "Cow milk is for baby cows. Breastmilk is for babies. And we drink plant milk!" (Actually, we don't drink plant milk, but we do use it for cooking.) He said last week, "If I drink cow milk, I can be a baby cow!" Cutest little bugger on the planet, I'm tellin' ya.
Where do you get your protein? Most Americans get hundreds of times more protein than they need, and this massive imbalance is a problem. The meat and dairy industries have done an excellent job of creating a cultural diet based on their products by instilling a fear of some nebulous, mythical "protein deficiency," and now most Westerners are collectively digging their graves with knives and forks while asking vegetarians why we don't join the party. On a vegan diet, we still regularly consume twice as much protein as we need; in fact, you really have to work at getting
just enough protein, and not too much, to fill the Recommended Daily Allowance on just about any diet based on the foods available to us in the West. The disease of protein deficiency, kwashiorkor, is essentially unheard-of in industrialized countries. In our society, our problem is not deficiency. Our problems is excess, and protein is a part of that. Our family gets protein from whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables and beans. Almost every food we eat contains protein.
So you pretty much have a perfect diet, huh? Not hardly! We do try very hard to eat only whole foods, to eat locally, to eat seasonally, but we're not perfect by any means. Jeremy and I have a massive sugar addiction and we continue to buy some imported foods (like coconut) that we aren't quite ready to part with. We make mistakes all the time. We try to view our diet and lifestyle as a process, not a goal.
I read this book/article/email forward about how you're poisoning your body/making boys gay/giving yourself cancer/inducing deficiencies/destroying the earth, etc., if you eat soy. Can you comment on that? I could, but it would take too long. I don't agree with everything John Robbins says in
this article, but it's worth a look for a generalized answer. We include fermented, whole forms of soy as just one part of a varied diet based on vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, seeds and beans; soybean products do not comprise the bulk of our diet. In fact, a person eating the Standard American Diet, based as it is on conventional meat, dairy, refined grains and processed foods, probably eats more soy than anyone.
Do you want to know all about how great it is to eat "ethical meat" and how you should definitely do it, too? Not particularly. I feel very comfortable with my family's diet, and within my belief system, "ethical meat" is an oxymoron. I've worked hard to overcome a sense of moral superiority for eating a plant-based diet, but I'm still trying to live the best I can by my values and ideals. If "ethical meat" fits within
your system of values and ideals, then we can get along just fine, but please don't preach at me and I will pay you the same respect. I try to avoid engaging in this sort of debate. Every person needs to decide for themselves what ethics they choose to live by, and there isn't any one answer that is right for everyone.
What sort of camera do you use?How can I improve my photography? I use a Canon Rebel XTi. I am by no means an expert at photography. My photographs need a lot of improvement, but you should have seen how bad they were when I started! The most important tips I can give you are to use natural light only, to never, ever use your flash, and to take
lots of pictures.
Do you do any other writing? Yes. I blog at
conscious intention. I discuss food, family, spirituality, feminism, voluntary simplicity, current projects, local culture, egalitarianism, our efforts toward self-sufficiency, natural family living and occasionally things that annoy the hell out of me. I also frequently post my photography there.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
I'm Chandelle, and I write this blog. I'm the partner of Jeremy, who is a Waldorf grades teacher. We have two children. Isaiah is 4 and Willow is 2. They'll be featured occasionally on this blog. We recently moved from Salt Lake City to Northern California.
Why is food so important to you?
With such a plethora of fantastic plant food in the world, and such amazing and simple methods of preparing it, it just seems silly and wasteful to continue eating crappy food. As long as I'm alive, I want to feel healthy and eat wonderful food. Both of these basic lifestyle choices are what I am promoting through this blog. Prevention is better than any "treatment," and eating healthy is simply the cheapest, easiest and most pleasurable way to prevent disease, extend life and create the vitality we need to be productive and happy.
Do you do this professionally?
I am not a chef. I'm in school studying holistic nutrition and herbalism. I haven't settled on what exactly I plan to do within these disciplines, but I've been circling it for a while and I have plenty of time to settle down. I definitely want to work with low-income communities; I feel that the poor are doubly punished for their poverty because they are taught that they can't afford to live in healthy ways and then they aren't provided with medical care for the effects of their lifestyle. I'd like to have a private clinic where I work with the community on a sliding scale, so that everyone gets the care they need. Above all, I want to teach others how to care for themselves rather than always seeking a higher authority to dispense prescriptions (whether herbal, dietary or pharmaceutical in nature). I'd especially like to work with individual families in their homes, teaching them cooking techniques and recipes to improve their habits and experience of food, as well as ways to grow, harvest and make their own medicines from food and herbs.
Are you vegan? And what does "vegan" mean, anyway?
"Vegan" generally refers to two practices. The first is simply that one does not eat any animal products. Such products include all meats (fish is a meat), all dairy products, eggs, and all animal byproducts such as casein, gelatin, internal organs, fish oils, lard, and so on. Most dietary vegans also avoid honey and other products from insects. The second, larger definition of veganism is the practice of avoiding animal products not only in one's food, but in one's clothing, footware, art supplies, cosmetics and so on. By this definition, one would also avoid beeswax, wool, silk, leather, pearls, sea sponges, suede, down, catgut, lanolin, urea, shellac and many other materials. Most vegans also oppose the use of animals for entertainment (i.e. zoos and the circus) and testing (i.e. experimentation and animal-based medicines such as HRT).
Our family is not vegan by either definition. We do not eat meat, eggs or dairy. But we do eat honey from local farmers. Many of our children's toys and art supplies contain wool, silk or beeswax. These materials are very difficult to avoid in the Waldorf setting. Most of these products have been purchased secondhand to avoid contributing to the industries in question. I also use sea sponges for menstrual care, and most homeopathic remedies are set in a lactose base.
Occasionally, I will refer to a vegan diet in this blog. I do believe that a vegan diet and lifestyle is the best option for the preservation of our earth and the health of our bodies and moral character. I consider the lifestyle aspect a work in progress.
Do your kids eat a vegan diet?
Yes.
Are your kids healthy?
Yes! They are as healthy or healthier than most of the kids we come across (which is quite a lot, given my husband's profession). Neither of my children have ever had a serious illness. They get sick with colds once or twice a year, mainly when they spend a lot of time with other children. Both kids are tall for their age, at a perfect weight, well-proportioned, energetic, intelligent, and talented, and they have always been advanced in their development.
Is it difficult to raise kids without animal products?
Absolutely not. Our kids are good eaters. They eat almost everything we serve them. They've had a lot of diversity right from the beginning, so they're generally not very suspicious of new foods and they love lots of different things. Like plenty of kids, they'd eat sandwiches every day of the week if we'd let them. But they also eat vegetables in abundance. Isaiah's favorite foods include collard greens, broccoli, asparagus and Brussels sprouts. Willow's favorite foods include carrots, celery, apples and spinach. Both kids love all the whole grains we eat, especially brown rice and quinoa. The key, in my opinion, to helping kids to eat healthy is very simple - feed them healthy things. We also try not to make the dinner table into a battleground. It just isn't worth fighting about and creating all sorts of pathologies about food. Everything we make tastes delicious, and that helps, too.
What sort of stuff do you feed your kids every day?
We always start with a hearty breakfast, like pancakes or muffins or scrambles or crepes. Common snacks are plain yogurt with blueberries and flaxseed, nuts and dried fruit, or rice with nutritional yeast and flax oil. For lunch we often have leftovers from the day before, or sandwiches, or wraps, or dips with tortillas or pita, or light soups, or pasta dishes with lots of vegetables. Dinners are the sort of stuff you see here. Our kids don't have much of a sweet tooth. They love smoothies more than any other dessert.
How do you keep your kids away from candy, chocolate, cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream and other standard childhood fare?
Our kids eat this stuff, it just happens to be healthier and we don't finish every single meal with half a quart of ice cream or two slices of pie. It's a treat, after all, not a regular event. I make my own ice cream from coconut milk, with minimal sugar and plenty of whole fruit. We make cookies, cakes and pie with minimal sugar and oil and whole-grain flours. Our kids are too little for candy.
As for the crap other people try to serve them? We exercise our parental right to say "No." If our wishes are not met, that person won't be spending time alone with our children. It's that simple. Our word is law. Whether you agree with us or not, you must respect our parental choices. We must be able to trust that you will treat our children respectfully. It's cruel to go against a parent's word with small children who are innocent of such deception.
Anyway, our kids get all kinds of fun stuff at home! They have a birthday cake like anyone else and chocolate chip cookies on rainy afternoons. They never feel deprived. I think part of the reason they don't feel deprived is because we don't use sweets as rewards or bribes, which is a terribly destructive practice.
But they're going to want to try meat someday. They're going to experiment. What will you do then?
We will always answer our children's questions in age-appropriate, respectful ways. As they get older, we'll encourage them to do their own research, including by personal experience. We'll support them in their explorations, while continuing to accept them with love regardless of their choices, and they'll always have wonderful healthy food waiting for them at home.
It's important to us that our children grow up with positive messages about a plant-based diet. We don't tell them that people are mean if they eat animals or that their friends are eating disgusting things. We just explain, We eat a diet based on plants, because we love plants. They keep us healthy, build our bones and make us strong. We don't eat animals because we don't want to hurt them. Some people eat animals and we love those people, but we only eat plants. Isaiah's favorite random thing to say right now is, "Cow milk is for baby cows. Breastmilk is for babies. And we drink plant milk!" (Actually, we don't drink plant milk, but we do use it for cooking.) He said last week, "If I drink cow milk, I can be a baby cow!" Cutest little bugger on the planet, I'm tellin' ya.
Where do you get your protein?
Most Americans get hundreds of times more protein than they need, and this massive imbalance is a problem. The meat and dairy industries have done an excellent job of creating a cultural diet based on their products by instilling a fear of some nebulous, mythical "protein deficiency," and now most Westerners are collectively digging their graves with knives and forks while asking vegetarians why we don't join the party. On a vegan diet, we still regularly consume twice as much protein as we need; in fact, you really have to work at getting just enough protein, and not too much, to fill the Recommended Daily Allowance on just about any diet based on the foods available to us in the West. The disease of protein deficiency, kwashiorkor, is essentially unheard-of in industrialized countries. In our society, our problem is not deficiency. Our problems is excess, and protein is a part of that. Our family gets protein from whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables and beans. Almost every food we eat contains protein.
So you pretty much have a perfect diet, huh?
Not hardly! We do try very hard to eat only whole foods, to eat locally, to eat seasonally, but we're not perfect by any means. Jeremy and I have a massive sugar addiction and we continue to buy some imported foods (like coconut) that we aren't quite ready to part with. We make mistakes all the time. We try to view our diet and lifestyle as a process, not a goal.
I read this book/article/email forward about how you're poisoning your body/making boys gay/giving yourself cancer/inducing deficiencies/destroying the earth, etc., if you eat soy. Can you comment on that?
I could, but it would take too long. I don't agree with everything John Robbins says in this article, but it's worth a look for a generalized answer. We include fermented, whole forms of soy as just one part of a varied diet based on vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, seeds and beans; soybean products do not comprise the bulk of our diet. In fact, a person eating the Standard American Diet, based as it is on conventional meat, dairy, refined grains and processed foods, probably eats more soy than anyone.
Do you want to know all about how great it is to eat "ethical meat" and how you should definitely do it, too?
Not particularly. I feel very comfortable with my family's diet, and within my belief system, "ethical meat" is an oxymoron. I've worked hard to overcome a sense of moral superiority for eating a plant-based diet, but I'm still trying to live the best I can by my values and ideals. If "ethical meat" fits within your system of values and ideals, then we can get along just fine, but please don't preach at me and I will pay you the same respect. I try to avoid engaging in this sort of debate. Every person needs to decide for themselves what ethics they choose to live by, and there isn't any one answer that is right for everyone.
What sort of camera do you use?How can I improve my photography?
I use a Canon Rebel XTi. I am by no means an expert at photography. My photographs need a lot of improvement, but you should have seen how bad they were when I started! The most important tips I can give you are to use natural light only, to never, ever use your flash, and to take lots of pictures.
Do you do any other writing?
Yes. I blog at conscious intention. I discuss food, family, spirituality, feminism, voluntary simplicity, current projects, local culture, egalitarianism, our efforts toward self-sufficiency, natural family living and occasionally things that annoy the hell out of me. I also frequently post my photography there.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!