What DO You Eat? Black Vegetarians Explain

 

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We are almost to the end of the third week of Vegan MoFo 2014. Today we continue with our look at Black Vegetarians and the responses from our online survey. One of the questions inquired about about how they eat. Are they vegan? raw? lacto-ovo? you get the idea.  The majority of folks said they are vegan. You can click on the image to see the breakdown. A number of them gave more details about what they eat in the comment section. These answers are listed below.

Forty-six people from across the country and the world answered at least some of the questions and 38 answered all of the questions. The survey was hosted on Survey Monkey and respondents followed a link to the survey. Links to the survey were posted on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and sent to our email lists. To read the previous posts about the survey see Survey OverviewWhy We Are Vegetarian and Why Is Vegetarianism Important For The Afrikan Diaspora?

What Is Your Diet Like?

“I eat Greek yogurt. I do not eat eggs, milk, butter or cheese.” F age 47
“I am pescatarian.”M age 25
“I eat mostly vegetable meals, lots of salads, vegetable soups and snacks (or fruit), some raw snacks (like broccoli with hummus or bean dip) and hormone free chicken, fish or salmon. I try to eat all veggie meals 4 or 5 days per week. I drink almond milk instead of cow’s milk. For medicinal purposes, I drink 4 glasses of wheat grass juice per day and take 4 capsules of Moringa. ” “I have been eating like this for about 1 1/2 years.” F age 50
“I want to be a vegetarian and needs some guidance on how to transition from a meat diet to a plant based diet.” F age 47
“At the beginning of the journey, and at the fasting stage to begin life as a vegan.” F age 59
“I eat raw often, vegan 95% of time.” M age 66
“I will eat almost anything, however, most of the time I eat vegetarian.” M age 54
“Vegan most days except on a few occasions.” M age 57
“Working towards becoming a 100 percent raw vegan.” “I was vegetarian for 13 years, then I got pregnant and began eating meat again. After I had my son, I became vegetarian again and now I am a full vegan.” F age 42
“Our family’s meals consist of mainly a variety of raw fruits, lightly steamed or sauteed vegetables, seasoned grains (such as quinoa and yellow corn grits), legumes cooked with a New Orleans style flavoring, with the exception of meats, and green salads (including live sprouts and various veggies of choice- brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, etc). On occasion, we will experiment with a new recipe or create a dish to try out.” “I became a vegetarian in the late 80’s after reading Dick Gregory’s book “Cooking With Mother Nature”, and relocating to Atlanta where there was more information on how to live a vegetarian lifestyle. It was a much easier transition being away from the temptations of what I thought was wonderful food in New Orleans. My husband and I began our transition in New Orleans by cutting meats from our meals, beginning with pork and beef, then chicken, with seafood being the last (and most difficult to let go!). We began learning that it wasn’t the flesh which made meat taste good, but the seasoning and herbs used in cooking, so we began adjusting some of the recipes we traditionally ate back home to fit our vegetarian lifestyle. We decided to go vegan in the late 90’s to include more raw foods in our diet after meeting and learning from several vegan educators, including Dick Gregory, Queen Afua, and Aris Latham. As we realized there was much more we needed to learn, we were guided by the Opare Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. We are still growing and learning as much as possible, and anticipate the complete healing which we now understand is very possible, provided we remain steadfast, open to the possibilities, and forgive ourselves when/if we make mistakes. ” F age 53
“I eat raw daily.” “I have been raw a little over 2 years.” M age 50
“I have been a vegetarian for the last 9 years. I just started eating vegan since February of this year.” M age 54
“I include raw food in every meal but I enjoy cooked veggies and starch.” F age 45
“My vegetarian diet has been off and on (fish and dairy in and out) over ten years.” F age 52

That’s it for today! We still have one more survey post to go. I’ll share that next week. Thanks to all the folks who agreed or volunteered to have their photo included in my collage. Aren’t they beautiful faces?

Ama Opare
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