Every year or so I ask Andrea, a wonderful lady in Drinking Liberally and a vegan, how vegans get enough calcium. This is because I quit dairy almost two years ago, and haven't been happy with the results when I have experimented with reintroducing it. This time, she pointed out that vegans don't need as much calcium since digesting meat requires a lot of calcium. (If that came out wrong, it's entirely a function of my inconstant command of English and is no reflection on Andrea.) But I eat meat.
So she suggested sauteeing kale, baking it, or trying it with garlic and hot sauce. I admitted that organic kale smells and tastes a lot more like something I would actually eat on purpose. And all those suggestions do indeed make me feel more like eating kale daily, or more nearly daily.
Andrea said she just doesn't worry about calcium. As it's short-sleeve weather again, I was able to brandish my tiny wrists and suggest that maybe I never got much calcium out of all that dairy I used to consume. And I noted that my rib cage pops, which I find alarming. She remarked that Jeff, her husband (also wonderful and a vegan, but somewhat more unusually, a jet fighter pilot) has that, too, and that she didn't think it indicated a calcium deficiency. I noted that I didn't have the problem until I quit dairy.
Regardless, it was nice to have the support and good suggestions. She also suggested I visit VegWeb (which I will do shortly assuming I remembered the site's name correctly).
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