At the end of June this year, Joe happened to bring home a kid’s cookbook from the library that unknowingly was vegan. Enzo and I started going through it, making things in the cookbook and reading the facts and information that were spread throughout the book. Prior to this, we’ve been eating a mostly Paleo diet, lots of meat and eggs every day. I was eating dairy daily, however it seemed that it was really bothering Emilia’s stomach
through breastfeeding, so I fully cut out dairy around May. To transition to veganism, I just needed to replace the meat and eggs with plant based proteins like beans and lentils.
I’ve only known a couple of people who are vegan and it’s something I’ve thought about but never really looked into and I never thought I’d be able to give up the things I was eating. After reading through that vegan kid’s cookbook, the documentary What the Health came out. I happened to see someone post about it on Facebook and I watched it out of curiosity. It’s what pushed me to initially start eating vegan. I went on to start researching and learning more about the meat, egg, and dairy industries. I watched the Forks Over Knives and Vegucated documentaries (both on Netflix) which I highly recommend and I did a tremendous amount of online research to confirm what I had seen.
I also started researching nutrition, reading a lot of vegan blogs and watching vegan YouTube videos to get inspiration for my meals. I met with a nutritionist who is very knowledgeable about veganism and talked with Enzo’s pediatrician to make sure it was okay to transition him to this diet as well. The American Dietetic Association has a position paper highlighting the many benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet and states:
It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain
diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.
Though I started veganism for health reasons, I am remaining vegan for the animal’s rights. I’ve learned so much about the meat, egg and dairy industries and have seen too many images and videos of animals suffering, that I cannot contribute to those industries any longer. I will be posting more specifics about each industry in the future as there is way too much to share in one post. I hope I can help people open their eyes to what is really going on and make changes that can drastically improve their health, the environment and the livelihood of all animals and humans on this planet.
My wonderful husband, Joe, has revamped my website into pattavina.party. I will be sharing a lot of vegan-related information including posts that focus on each of the animal industries (meat, dairy, eggs, pets, fur/clothing, racing, etc.), vegan alternatives to your favorite foods, recipes, FAQs, nutrition, raising kiddos vegan, social situations, travel, veganism and Christianity and more. I also hope to continue posting about family updates and my faith. If you want to sign up for updates please click here or fill out the form below. I’ll be posting updates on the Vegan Mom Life Facebook page and continuing to share posts on my personal Facebook page as well. Lastly, I have an Instagram account @austinveganmama where I post lots of vegan meal ideas.
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