Our Vegan Advocacy Work
Back in the time of Copernicus, most would have thought it impossible if you said that you were going to convince everyone that the Earth revolved around the Sun, rather than the other way around, but it did eventually happen! So, the past teaches us to have hope for the future. In our 90 years combined teaching, my husband Bill Tara and I have high hope we can all come together and make a better world, a VEGAN WORLD where humans and non-humans alike live in harmony. Success can only be achieved through education, understanding and ultimately action.
It’s Not Difficult To Be Vegan
Going vegan is simply a choice you make. Many people live in their head and over think the concept of where to begin. It’s easy, you remove all the animal food and replace with delicious plant-based foods, the choice is yours. You can do it right now.
We Are All One
When we reflect deeply on our relationship with the outer world, our environment, we realise that we are never independent of its influences. Food is the link between the inside and the outside world. Our Human Ecology Diet is abundant in every vitamin and mineral required for good health, vitality and longevity. Our vision for MACROVegan is to continue to share our passion for a vegan world.
How to Rethink Protein Once and For All
Protein is a subject that always comes up when discussing veganism. When you think of the biggest animals on the planet, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, these are huge mammals, they don’t eat meat, so where do they get their protein? They eat what grows out of the ground and that is where they get their protein; it’s as simple as that. There are many foods in the plant kingdom that are especially rich in protein. All the legume family, anything that is grown in a pod, lentils, beans, chickpeas, whole grains are full of protein, and many vegetables are rich in protein too.
Protein Is In Everything: Vegan Athletes Are Renowned For Their Athletic Excellence.
If you are getting enough calories from wholefoods, such as grains, beans, legumes, vegetables, seeds, nuts, fruits, you will obtain your requirement of protein easily and in a healthful way because the protein is in the bean, in the lentil, in the wholegrain. A healthy diet rejects the animal products as well the highly processed and sugary foods that flood the marketplace.
Protein deficiency is not an issue on a vegan diet. That’s not the problem, there are plenty of amino acids, plenty of protein on a plant-based diet. In fact, the health crisis exists because people are eating way too much protein, which in fact injure your arteries and your kidneys as it leaches calcium out of your bones. The solution is eating a diverse diet and not just focusing on two or three foods.
Eating a plant-based vegan diet does not mean living on processed foods, sweets or sugary drinks. You must eat FOOD AS GROWN to receive the adequate protein you need daily. Corn on the cob is one thing, corn chips are different, potatoes are a wholefood, and potato crisps are not. In our decades of health counselling, Bill and I have yet to meet someone with a protein deficiency. Only those starving to death are deficient in protein. If you are going to be adopting a whole food plant-based diet, there are some things you must do properly. It’s not just a matter of eating snack foods or processed fake ‘meats’ and burgers, and think you are going to be healthy.
Plants are high energy foods, it’s good to note that an increasing number of athletes are switching to a vegan diet. Recent winners of long distance events like triathlons, marathons, and bicycle events are eating a vegan diet. Even professional footballers like Lionel Messi have made the switch. They know that they suffer fewer injuries and recover their energy better by eating plants.
Exciting Facts About Making Vegan Choices
- Vegetables are easy to grow, any gardener can grow potatoes, carrots, greens etc., and they are inexpensive, rice and beans are also not expensive, (especially when you buy in bulk).
- Animal meat is not required to build muscle or bone. These are mythologies that are based on limited science and the livestock and dairy industry.
- Plants are lower on the food chain, the environmental pollutants that are so prevalent in our food are in low concentrations in your plant-based foods. Animals that are eaten are fed food grown with pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and drink water exposed to industrial pollution. These contaminants are stored in the fatty tissue of the animal. They can concentrate 1000-fold as they go up the food chain. This concentration of toxic products affects all animals on land or at sea.
- Plants are environmentally friendly. You can grow 17 times more nutritional energy on a piece of land with vegetables than you can with animal food. The difference between growing potatoes and raising beef is 100-fold.
- We are all living on a planet that is food stressed. There is a real risk of food shortages. We need to grow more food and healthy food. There are near to one billion people (our brothers and sisters) starving to death, while nearly one billion people are eating themselves to death. 85% of non-communicable diseases are dietary related.
- Vegetables don’t grow microbes, they don’t grow e-coli, they don’t grow mad cow disease, they don’t grow listeria. If a vegetable or grain does have a contaminant on it, then it originated from an animal. Animal faeces are a major agricultural pollutant.
- Vegetables taste amazing. Sweet potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, rice, etc., because they are full of natural sugars and you have taste buds on the tip of your tongue that taste sugar.
- Vegetables store well, you can dry and store potatoes for 10 years. Grains and beans store in a cool place for years.
- Plant based foods are easy to travel with.
- Wholefoods (not processed junk food) are great foods for weight loss. Remember, they have no fat.
- Everything that breathes wants to live, Please GOVEGAN and love all of life
Follow our MACROVegan dietary guidelines here for a list of nutrient sources
Complex Carbohydrates
Whole Grains, Beans, Vegetables, Fruits
Proteins
Beans, Seeds, Nuts, Whole Grains, Seaweeds
Fat
Seeds, Nuts, Beans, Tofu, Tempeh, Oats
Calcium
Dark Greens (Kale, Collards, etc.), Soybeans, Seaweeds, Seeds
Iron
Dark Greens, Seaweeds, Millet, Lentils, Garbanzo Beans, Seeds
Vitamin A
Dark Leafy Greens, Carrots, Squashes, Seaweeds
B Vitamins
Whole Grains, Sea Vegetables, Lentils, Fermented Foods
Vitamin B12
Fortified Foods, Nutritional Yeast etc., B12 supplementation
Vitamin C
Dark Greens (Kale, Parsley, Broccoli, etc.), Local Fruits
Vitamin E
Whole Grains, Olives, Seeds, Leafy Greens
Trace Minerals
Sea Salt, Seaweeds, Organic Produce
Ingredients List for A Healthy Transition to A MacroVegan Diet
Instead of: Use:
Baked goods Dairy-free cookies, muffins etc.,
White bread Wholegrain, sourdough bread or sprouted bread
Cheese Nutritional yeast, vegan nut cheese,
Meat Beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh
Meat stock Miso, miso bouillon, dulse or vegetable stock
Milk Rice, oat or almond milk
Pasta dishes Wholewheat, rice or spelt pasta, udon or soba noodles
Iodised Salt Natural sea salt
White rice Short grain brown rice, quinoa, barley, millet, buckwheat
Sugar Dried fruit, brown rice syrup, barley malt, maple syrup
Scrambled eggs Tofu, (scrambles well)
Setting Up Your Kitchen!
There are some essentials you need in the kitchen in order to make vegan cooking easy and delicious.
The Essentials:
- A sharp knife
- A wok, saucepans and soup pot
- Cutting board
- Steamer basket or bamboo steamer
- Hand Blender
- Strainer
- Wooden spoons
- Mixing bowls
Stock Your Cupboard With:
- A variety of grains
- A variety of beans, dried
- Canned organic beans
- Dried sea vegetables
- A variety of noodles
- Natural sweeteners: rice syrup, barley malt, etc.,
- Dried fruit
- Seeds and nuts
- All-fruit jams
For Your Refrigerator
A colourful array of vegetables for daily use is key to a healthy vegan diet.
You Will Save Money Being A Vegan
There is a huge misconception that it is expensive to eat this way. On the contrary, we hear from so many of our students and clients that they have saved up to 40% on their groceries since becoming vegan. Depending on where you live in the world food choices vary but vegetables, beans and grains are always available.
Making Vegan The New Normal Is Our Mission
Vegan For:
The Animals
Our Health
Our Environment
World Hunger
EVERYTHING
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world
Nelson Mandela
About The Author
Marlene is a long-time vegan, activist, lover of animals, nature and life and passionate about human ecology. As an eternal optimist, increasing the number of people worldwide to switch to a wholefood plant-based diet and vegan life is her mission. Together with her husband Bill Tara, they have created The Human Ecology Project.
As a high profiled and dedicated health counsellor and teacher with over 40 years’ experience in the health industry, Marlene’s dietary advice draws from the fields of Macrobiotic Nutrition, her studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine and her certification in Plant- Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
International Author & Teacher Macrobiotics & Human Ecology