It is my sincere hope that the information I provide on my little website assists you in being the healthiest Vegan you can be.

Wishing you all a beautiful day -- and a fantastically successful 2008! :O)
Sassy

PLEASE NOTE: For an easy-to-view version of this newsletter, or past issues, please visit the VeganCoach.com Backissues Page.

As a Vegan Nutritional Consultant I assist my clients by examining their current diet to figure out areas that might need more attention. It’s nice to have someone you can go to for advice that's YOU-nique.

If you...

• want someone you can call on to take your hand and walk you through the maze of vegan diet and nutrition information that you are constantly bombarded with;
• need someone who can answer all your questions about how to create a successful vegan diet plan with patience and understanding;
• simply don’t have the time to figure out which foods are best for your unique nutritional needs and vegan weight loss plans;
• want to spend your time doing what YOU love instead of spending hours on research;
• have limited special knowledge about food or nutrition -- but you're ready and willing to learn more...

...then working with me, your very own personal Vegan Diet and Nutrition Coach, may be just what you need.

For more information about this service, please visit the Vegan Diet and Nutrition Coaching page.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Get *SAUCED* With Sass!

How To Create Delectable
Meat-Free, Dairy-Free and Egg-Free Vegan Sauces
WITHOUT Recipes!

Unless your diet is made up completely of raw foods, chances are you're not getting the nutrition you could be getting from your food.

The reason? Raw plant foods naturally contain ENZYMES that help to break food down into particles that your body can use. If you eat cooked food (as most of us do), the very action of cooking your food destroys most of these enzymes, which means your body's natural enzymes must kick into overtime. Digestion takes a LOT of energy!

Ever feel SLEEPY after a meal? This is usually because your body is just completely overloaded with the job of digesting.

So to help your body along, use digestive enzymes. I've been using digestive enzymes for years, and highly recommend them. Just pop 1 or 2 in your mouth before a meal, and the enzymes will help your body do the work. Which means more energy for you! And more available nutrition for your body.

You'll likely notice a marked difference in your energy levels, since you're helping your body with its tremendous job of digesting your food. Enzymes can also help cut down on bloating that occurs after eating a cooked meal.

Digestive enzymes can be found in most health food grocery stores. You should also be able to find them in nutritional supplement shops.

But beware, not all enzymes are created equally:

1. Some enzymes digest certain foods, and not others. Be sure to use enzymes that digest a wide variety of foods.
2. Most enzymes come in capsule form, and these caps are made with gelatin (an animal product - usually horse hooves!). Always seek out enzymes that are made with veggie caps.
3. Pepsin is the chief enzyme of gastric juice; it converts proteins into the proteoses and peptones necessary for digestion. But supplemental pepsin is often derived from a porcine (pig) stomach lining. Ack!!!

I've been using the same enzymes for years and years. A truly superior blend of 13 active, plant-based enzymes. And they're surrounded by a veggie cap, which is just what our veg selves are looking for.

But most importantly, the pepsin is switched out for MycoPepsin™, which acts just like a piggie pepsin except it's 100% animal free.

Other ingredients include blue-green algae (a whole food which helps to supercharge the enzymes), fennel, ginger, and cayenne for additional digestive support.

These are truly the creme-de-la-creme of enzymes. They're a little spendy, but you're worth it. And they're not found in stores.

If so, pay close attention...

Beginning April 1st, if you want to purchase these hoity toity enzymes and receive a 20% discount, you'll need to sign up for automatic reorder, which commits you to spending $50/month, every month.

BUT you're in luck. Because for the entire month of March only, you can sign up to receive your enzymes at a 20% discount without any monthly commitment whatsoever on all future orders. You'll be "Grandfathered In".

This will allow you to receive 20% off every order you place, at any time, for the rest of your days.

Fill out this Contact form, including your phone number, and I'll be in touch. ;O)

Dear Sassy,
Thanks for the helpful info on cooking kidney beans from scratch.

Question: After I soak my beans as described, do I need to cook them prior to adding them to the crockpot (slow cooker)? In other words, will they cook enough (8 hrs on low) if they are added directly to my chili after overnight soaking, or do I need to cook them and then add them to crockpot for another 8 hours?


-- Claude, Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Hi Claude,

What a GREAT question.

Beans don't cook as simply as other foods in a crock pot. That's because the low setting is too low, lengthening the cooking time to 16 to 20 hours. But depending upon the age of the beans and the hardness of the water, the beans may not cook at all!

If you cook beans on the high setting, a large amount of cooking liquid evaporates. You'd have to watch the crock pot to be sure the beans stay covered with liquid.

If you want to experiment with your crock pot, try cooking soaked beans for 2 or 3 hours on high, making sure they're constantly covered by liquid. When they are just tender, turn the heat setting to low and let them cook 6 to 8 hours longer. (It's at this time you can add any other foods you'd like, except salt since salt can actually cause your beans to turn out tough.) During these last 6 to 8 hours the beans wont need any special attention.

Crock pots can also be used to reheat pre-cooked beans.

Hope this helps, Claude. :O)

Dear Sassy,
How do I stop eating meat?! I am such a carnivore and want to eat meat all the time. I know it is healthy and everything else to switch but I am scared to switch. How do I get over this?
-- JD, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan

Hi there, JD,

You like to eat meat. I can understand because I used to LOVE my prime ribs and cheeseburgers. I mean, I was a HUGE meat eater.

I think the turning point came for me when I read about how animals are treated to get that meat to my plate. The horror I felt is really difficult to explain. After that point, it became just EXTREMELY easy to leave meat off of my plate, eventually leading me to remove all animal products for the same reasons -- and it's been 14 years! Without looking back or feeling like I was missing out on something.

I simply can't tell you how liberating this was to my soul.

Now, if you just really feel that you can't give up meat, might I recommend that you look into organic and free-range meats -- the animals are raised and treated more humanely (although there is now some debate about this fact). They're more expensive meats, so it will likely help you to cut down on your intake. And then maybe you'll just whittle it down to none some day.

Take it in baby steps if you have to.

But if you REALLY want to stop eating meat, here are a couple suggestions:

1. Do some research and learn what you're putting in your mouth. I'd HIGHLY recommend reading John Robbins' classic Diet for a New America. My website doesn't cover the topic of how the animals are treated (I prefer not to go there because it's so upsetting to me), but you can read more about the topic at VeganOutreach.org.

2. If you are ABSOLUTELY 100% BOUND AND DETERMINED TO STOP EATING MEAT, then follow this link to watch a video called Earthlings. I warn you, this video can be extremely upsetting. It truly breaks my heart so completely that I can't watch the whole thing. But it may be just what you're looking for to help you make a decision to remove meat and other animal products from your diet -- and stick to that decision. Earthlings, narrated by fellow Vegan Joaquin Phoenix.

3. It just so happens The Great American Meatout falls in the month of March. Right around March 20th, the first day of spring, people all across the land make a promise to themselves to "JUST SAY NO" TO MEAT FOR ONE DAY. This would be a perfect time to kick off your desire to exclude meat from your diet.

Best wishes, JD. I know how you're feeling, and believe me when I say it's just so much easier to just give the stuff up then to torture yourself with the decision for the rest of your days. ;O)

Dear Sassy,
I have heard that cheese is very bad for human consumption. Is that true?
-- Dottie, Notre Dame, Indiana

Hi Dottie,

Whenever someone learns I'm vegan, one of the top things they say is usually something along the lines of "I think I could be vegetarian, but I could NEVER give up my cheese!" My response is always the same: "I understand completely!"

Since I'm part Italian, I grew up with my mom's delectable cheesy lasagna, manicotti, and baked ziti. And let's not forget ravioli! Growing up, every Sunday as mom made dinner, my sisters and I would sit around the table dipping big chunks of mozzarella cheese in warmed marinara sauce. We'd eat slice after slice of provolone cheese. Everything I ordered in a restaurant called for extra cheese, in my cheese-expert opinion. ;O)

I think when non-vegans meet a Vegan, they may not realize that they're not that different from each other. The Vegan, like me, may have grown up with just as big of a love for cheese as the non-vegan currently has. So why the change? What in the world would make THIS cheese lover turn her back on cheese forever -- with no regrets?

Plain and simple: Education. And when I decided to actually put all beliefs about cheese on hold so I could read the facts and decide for myself, it really was a no-brainer in the end.

I would say if you ask 5 Vegans why they no longer eat cheese, you'll likely get 5 different reasons.

So I can only speak to why I, personally, eliminated cheese from my diet.

Dairy cheese is made from cow's milk, mostly. What is the purpose of cow's milk? Feeding a baby cow, of course. And when I discovered that cow's milk helps a baby calf grow SO big and at such a rapid pace, it was easy to see why it was difficult for me to lose the weight that I had been slowly but surely packing on for years. When I said goodbye to cheese, the pounds simply melted off. YES, it was that easy.

Another reason I personally stopped eating cheese was due to my, shall we say, troubles in the bathroom. I could go 4 days without any luck, and if you're not evacuating your bowels every day (and even better after every meal) than you're setting yourself up for some very harmful results in the end...literally.

Cheese has a binding effect, and more importantly is quite glue-like when it leaves the stomach. Because cheese contains no fiber, it doesn't easily pass through your intestines. Instead, this gluey substance actually move very slowly and in the meantime decays right there inside of you. And let's not forget about the toxins that seep out of this decaying mass, right through your colon walls and into your bloodstream.

Gross, eh?

Maybe gross enough to make you turn your back on cheese? Well, everyone has their own threshold. ;O)

There are many more reasons eating dairy cheese makes absolutely no sense from a health perspective.

And for all those Vegans who think that simply switching out dairy cheese for non-dairy cheese is the perfect solution, think again. It has been discovered that casein, a milk protein which is found in MOST non-dairy cheeses, can actually cause cancer. Be sure to read my Special Report on The China Study to learn more about the topic of casein.

In the end, it's really up to you to do a little investigating and decide for yourself if you feel cheese is bad for you. Check out what Dr. McDougall has to say on the topic of dairy.. It should prove to be very eye opening for you.

Also, be sure to check out this month's recipe (below) for a delicious non-dairy cheese sauce you can whip up at home in minutes.

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

When I went Vegan all those years ago I relied a lot on Joanne Stepaniak's fantastic book The Uncheese Cookbook to help me make the transition to my new non-cheese-eating self.

Now, over a decade later, Joanne has come out with a new updated version, The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. I simply cannot recommend this book enough. It's filled with delicious un-cheese recipes that you can make at home in minutes. Really helps to satisfy that cheese lover inside of you, with no dairy or casein in sight.

Here's one of the recipes I've been making for years and years. It's very satisfying when you're craving something rich.

Vegan White Cheesy Sauce (aka White Rabbit)
(A thick, velvety smooth sauce. Great over steamed veggies, potato chunks or pasta.)
Yield: 2 cups