Recipe + Interview » Being Vegan is Hot!

01 Dec Recipe + Interview » Being Vegan is Hot!

Posted at 07:00h in Food, Recipes by Wander-lust 0 Comments

This week our World leaders including Barack Obama, Xi Jinping, Angela Merkel and David Cameron are coming together to talk about climate change.
The summit, also referred to as the COP21 (Conference of Parties), are finally making promising progress after seeing the first press conference on TV.
The 6th summit started yesterday and will run until December 11th and it will be held in Paris.
If you care about the earth’s future as much as we do, this is a day we should take a second and think about how we can help by becoming “Greener”.

One of the main reasons for our greenhouse gas emissions are due to Animal Agriculture. I have addressed this issue before in my blog post about the documentary Cowspiracy. (Produced by Leonardo Dicaprio)
After watching this film, I decided to try and become a vegan. I have been doing this for about 2,5 months now and although I am still struggling with some foods like prawns, oysters and other shellfish, I have eliminated other fish, eggs, milk (from animals) and cheese. The change wasn’t too drastic for me because I have already been a vegetarian (that ate fish) for over 27 years.
I must say, I feel a lot better! Not only mentally but also physically. But the word VEGAN still has a certain reputation.

“Vegan is not sexy? Think again!”

I spoke to one of Amsterdam hottest ladies Isabella Machinè about her recent diet change and her look on sustainability. Lucky for us, she also kindly shared a delicious vegan recipe just for Wander-Lust!

When and why did you decide to become vegan?
I’ve been a vegetarian for six years and vegan for about 6 months now. Why did I became a vegan? Well: to save animals, decrease climate change, decrease the chance of getting a heart disease, decrease the chance of getting cancer, decrease deforestation, decrease water pollution, live longer, lose weight, have better sex and again: save animals :-).

When did I decide to switch from veggie to vegan?
I became aware of how being a vegetarian still doesn’t really have that much of a positive impact on the environment and animal welfare. Dairy cows are some of the worst treated in the industry. And why(!?) should we drink milk that is supposed to be for baby cows?! You won’t drink your mothers milk after the age of 1 right? I simply don’t want to be part of any animal cruelty, pollution of mother earth and I certainly don’t want to eat death. If you have Netflix and you want to get to know a little something of what is going on in the world I would highly recommend ‘Cowspiracy’. This documentary is hands down the most shocking and game changing film I’ve seen. The documentary ‘Earthlings’ is what originally turned me vegan. I practically turned vegan over night and never went back. But I know this won’t work for everyone. If you care about climate change, deforestation, species extinction, ocean dead zones and world hunger then I strongly suggest you watch this! Also read the book “Skinny Bitch”. Seriously, read it.

Has it been difficult?
No it hasn’t been difficult at all. Ironically, the hard part is the constant explanation I have to do. People often ask me why I turned vegan, and if it isn’t hard to be one etc. etc. Being a vegan is not hard at all! It’s a discipline you’ll have to get used to. One does this by simply thinking well about what sort of food he or she consumes. Instead of looking at recipes with meat or dairy products, look at those that do not have these ingredients. You can find everything about food on the internet, just type ‘vegan recipes’ in our beloved Google and you’ll have recipes for days, years even! And when you have found yourself buying the healthy stuff, make this a normalcy. It’s all about priorities!

Isabella feels better than ever after choosing the vegan lifestyle

You are an interior designer/stylist, how important is sustainability in your work?
Very important, and so it should be for everybody in every profession and sector. It’s no coincidence that the leaders of 180 countries come together to discuss how we all should conquer the 2 degrees celcius increase that we are heading towards. Now is the time to drastically change how we deal with our climate. As for me in my work I always look to find solutions to not have to consume more energy than that is needed for a certain project. When hunting for unique pieces I am carefull about the heritage of the products. Sometimes I can work with a budget that will allow me to work with craftsmen which is a great way of being sustainable and this is also a guarantee for quality. And of course second hand products!

What’s your biggest tip when it comes to going-green?
Let’s say I’m a missionary for veganism. I would advice everybody to seriously start looking on how to stop their consumption of animal products. I could name countless ways of how one can reduce their use of energy and how one can contribute to reduction of Co2 emissions but the answer lies within turning vegan. That should be the thirst thing on everybody’s agenda.

Isabella’s Smoothie bowl
For this smoothie bowl you need:
• 1 banana • 2 fresh figs • 1 kiwi • a handful of kale • 1 scoop of vegan protein (I use @gardenofliferaw_nl ) • Almondmilk •
Throw everything in a blender until you get a creamy texture, top it off with fresh figs and seeds! Et Voila!

Isabella’s delicious breakfast recipe

One of my favorite recipe’s online at the moment is this crispy tofu & rainbow veg sushi by Renee Press.

Who said that vegan food was boring?

Other hot vegans are:

» Liam Hensworth (Is it hot in here?)
» Natalie Portman
» Famke Jansen (Our Dutch pride and Joy)
» Andre 3000 (I bet you didn’t know this right?)
» Olivia Wild
» Jared Leto
» The VeganBro’s (2 Aussies that completely transformed after becoming vegan. Oh yeah, ther’re funny as hell)

2 hot vegans: Liam Hemsowrth and Olivia Wilde