Are you a vegan?
 

Hi.

I'm just wondering if there are any vegan cyclists and what do you usually eat on tour?

My wife and I have been vegan since last August. I'll find out this summer whether vegan touring in the midwest is possible/advisable.

It should be easy to find vegans. They typically wear shirts and other signs showing the rest of us how inadequate we are. They also will inject veganism into every conversation.

I know this isn't true for all. But the ones trying to guilt trip every one else are very pronounced.

What are the benefits of being a vegan? Just wondering. :popcorn

We went vegan because my wife's sister, who was a professional triathlete, and is still elite level, had an operation for a 90% blockage in a carotid artery. Her doctor advised going vegan to cut out all animal fat. With additional family history of the same, my wife felt it made sense, so there we are. In addition, eating that low in the food chain cuts about 70% of one's carbon footprint. As mentioned above, some are boorish about being vegan, but certainly not all. And as proven above, some are simply boorish for God knows why.

I'm vegetarian, not vegan, and find touring in Canada ok for food.

Stores are stores of course and I would assume a vegan knows what to look for there, and most cafes or diners do a grilled cheese sandwich, veggie omelette or pasta dish. Vegan gets harder though because of the no cheese/eggs/milk stuff. In urban areas that may be ok but in rural areas you may need to have access to some neccesary staples figured out. I sometimes take a small jar of peanut butter and drink milk at gas stations so I'm not totally doing a carb/sugar diet on the road. I might worry that as a vegan you would find protein sources in restaraunts limited and may need to stock up on nuts where ever you can along the way. The problem being that vegan limits most of the commonly available protein sources so you can become quite hooked on carbs sugars to meet your increased fuel consumption while biking long term. I can look at food either from an enjoyment or survival perspective. Often my main non cafe foods are canned beans (common everywhere), clif bars and alphagetti's with eggs, cheese and milk thrown in whenever possible. I don't have a definite answer but know vegan is a tough row to hoe.

My reasons for being vegetarian are spiritual rather than health related and I don't push them on anyone. To each their own is my motto. I have to say though, I'm seen far more sarcastic comments from non vegan/vegetarians on these boards over the years than the other way around.

"90% blockage in a carotid artery"? In a professional triathlete? How is that even possible, you would think the intense workouts would blast that plaque right out.

Yes. It's called a widowmaker. https://myheart.net/articles/the-widowmaker/

Yeah, I don't think it works that way.

Other than perceived health? None

Well, there is a school of thought that says diet has no effect on plaque. And as evidence supporting the theory, there are people on zero-fat diets that still get plaque deposits. If the plaque could not have come from dietary fat (none is being consumed by the patient) then it must have some other cause.

I meant that it's doubtful that workouts "blast the plaque out." And if they did, it's a stroke when that blasted plaque finds its way to the brain. I'm sure there are different schools of thought. The school of thought from which my sister-in-law's doctor is coming led him to advise her to cut animal fat out of her diet, eat more greens, etc. I believe it was prudent of her to take his advice and prudent of my wife to follow suit.

I wasn't trying to take over her medical care, just throwing out some ideas I have heard discussed about how (and why) arterial plaque is formed that I found thought-provoking.

Considering how many people die from blockages vs. how much we know about what causes them and how to prevent them, I had assumed our understanding of them would be more thorough. The low fat diet is currently popular among doctors, but the conventional wisdom on that might change at some point.

No offense taken. I was responding mostly to the "blow out the plaque" idea.

Me? No..
 

What do you make to eat at home? why not continue to do that on the tour?

hit the farmer's produce markets ..






...

I worked with a guy who was in the same boat. (He's now retired, not dead.) Even with an extremely low cholesterol diet he still has high cholesterol. It's genetic.

qft.

As for touring in the Midwest. If you are eating out rather than cooking, it could be challenging. When I did ACA's Northern Tier back in '99 I actually gained weight in the Midwest. We ate out more than usual. Sometimes it was necessary due to lack of resources. Sometimes it was because it was so damned hot that nobody wanted to cook. We had a couple of vegetarians are they sometimes had slim pickings. But maybe things have gotten better since then. Staying in or near, or passing through, larger towns might help.

Bread, nuts and nut butters, rolled oats, dried and fresh fruit, fresh veg, depending on what's in season. Berry and fruit season in upstate NY a few summers ago was fantastic.

I know some obese vegans. It's not necessarily healthy. Pasta and olive oil to excess won't do you much good. Beer (some at least) and chips is vegan.

I use the term "plant based" to avoid the flame wars. Here's one: What's the worst part about being a gluten-intolerant vegan, retired early from buying Bitcoins, who does Crossfit and has a shelter dog? Deciding what to tell you about first.

"Oh good. That will give me time to tell you all about my autistic son ..." :rolleyes:

Full disclosure: not vegan, but have lived with some vegans in Europe. Depending on where you are touring there, it can be very difficult. Food labeling laws aren't always adequate, even if you know the local language to begin with. Obviously if you are preparing all your own food, you'll find much of what you want in the grocery stores, but trying to find a vegan restaurant somewhere like rural Czech is simply not going to happen.

Best advice I can give from them, if you aren't strict vegan because of innate ethical beliefs or medical issues, be open to some compromise. Even as a non-vegan, I live by that whenever traveling outside of home.

Also, depending on where you are considering, it is worth checking out India for a trip. It is dead easy to be at least completely vegetarian there (can't speak to whether their cooking practices are vegan or not).

Nope, meatatarian here.

I am vegan and unlike most carnists I don't feel the need to talk about it all the time non-stop and have it plastered everywhere from T.V. to print ads to just going into the average grocery store and then whine when some who is vegan actually mentions veganism.

Veganism is about not exploiting animals no matter who they are. If you feel as if you have a right to exploit someone else, please tell me then would you want the same thing you have done to someone else done to you? I prefer to live my life trying to treat others the same way I would want to be treated, I see no reason to live any other way!

As far as eating on tour, it is quite easy. You can get all forms of freeze dried and dehydrated meals and fruits and vegetables that are vegan as well as some some prepackaged stuff like Tasty Bites (and similar knockoffs) and you can make your own with a dehydrator. You can also bring oats, rice, quinoa (Keen One makes a delicious instant one), lentils, instant noodles, TVP, instant mashed potatoes, nuts... You can also bring various bread and nut butters and jellys, jams, preserves... If you are smart go to places that do take out and get sauce packets like Sriracha, soy sauce, hoisin sauce and mix in some peanut butter powder into some noodles and maybe some dried veg and cut up some primal strips on top and you have some delicious peanut noodles.

This a great site for pre-made vegan backpacking meals which also work perfectly for touring:
https://outdoorherbivore.com/vegan/
There are also a lot of other brands also doing vegan options these days.

As far as powerfood/sports nutrition goes Pro-Bar, Clif, Science in Sport, Skratch, Floyds of Leadville (if you are into CBD), Nuun as well as quite a few others offer vegan bars, gels, chews, drink mixes, etc. I would use this exclusively but is very handy while riding. My favorites are the SIS Isotonic gels (you don't need water to consume) and Clif shot blocks and nut butter filled bars and I frequently use the Pro-bar gels but their packaging isn't as good as Clif, and just bought a whole bunch of Nuun tablets for my water. Never underestimate the usefulness of electrolyte drink mixes, there can come a point where you literally cannot consume any more water and even if you could water won't replenish everything you lose.

Sometimes I will also eat out on tour and Happy Cow is a great resource for travelers seeking vegan food. I use it all the time when out of town.

Really it is super easy to eat while on tour and I have never really had any issues other making or finding food even some of the worst grocery stores and convenience stores will generally have at least something these days. If you are especially creative in the kitchen or by the campfire you can come up with some pretty delicious and exciting recipes using odd ingredients.

This gave me a chuckle. I have a friend who loves bicycles, loves riding, and would be down for all kinds of touring. Unfortunately, he wears his vegan status like a barbed club, and whacks you with it at every opportunity. His constant "vegan-evangelism" would probably make me kill him before we hit 100 miles.

For the OP: I go WFPB for months at a time, but on tour I'll cheat with a fresh brat on a brotchen or a cheeseburger.

So when you mention eating a cheeseburger it is just fine but when someone mentions veganism it is some form of evangelism? I don't get it? Animal exploitation can be seen and heard so often in daily conversation without a care. Imagine someone was stepping on your foot and you kept saying stop stepping on my foot and that person told you "you are being a anti foot crushing evangelist" and continued to step on your foot.

I was a vegan for a while when I was in my late teens-early twenties. Now I'm 52 and have been "paleo" for 4 years. All my "numbers" as measured by medical science are perfect. Also, when I gave up grains, beans, dairy, sugar, and industrial seed oils, several lingering health issues disappeared, such as seasonal allergies (a.k.a. "hayfever"), afternoon tiredness/sluggishness, mental fogginess, and bowel issues. Never felt better.

Granted, I'm not perfect all the time: I still drink a beer every now and again, and sometimes eat corn and rice products. I stay away from wheat/gluten foods, however, as I am clearly intolerant.