Her friends and relatives often tell her that they don’t know what to feed her when they invite her for dinner. Her answer is always the same: I’ll eat anything and everything that grows in the fields and isn’t sourced from animals. Shristi Shrestha, animal rights activist, freelance writer, and fitness instructor, has been vegan for five years now and says that it isn’t a difficult lifestyle, despite what many might think, if you educate yourself and realize how your choices affect every living being. Here, she joins The Week to talk about her vegan lifestyle and how those who are interested can join her in this noble path.
How did it all start?
I was a vegetarian for 10 years before I turned vegan and there’s an incident that brought that about. I used to feed an abandoned calf in front of my parent’s house. One day, I found it lying down on the ground looking very sickly. I put its head on my lap and he died a little later. The vet told me that this calf had been feeding on a lot of garbage and since garbage is often dumped in plastic bags, he had been poisoned and died a slow painful death. After that I couldn’t even look at milk the same way again. A mother’s milk is for its child and no one else. I have been working for animal rights for a decade and someone who works with animals can’t support animal abuse in any form.
Was it easy to adopt this lifestyle?
Being a vegan isn’t just about restricting animal products in your diet. You have to abstain from using anything that uses animals and their products in any form. It’s not only about food, it’s about the makeup you use, the clothes and shoes you wear, and so many other things you need on a daily basis. So yes, it took me a while to get used to it. I’m actually still learning every day. I’m, at the moment, learning to make milk from almond and soy. And there are brands like Fabindia, Body Shop, Himalaya that support veganism and those are the brands I use. Being a vegan isn’t hard if you make a conscious choice to ensure you don’t harm any other living being while going about your life.
What does you daily meal plans look like?
I have always loved vegetables and fruits and that has worked to my advantage here. When you become vegan by choice and not by force because of any health condition, it’s easy to not crave different kinds of foods you used to have earlier. There are just so many options to choose from – there’s the entire beans family, there is mushroom and tofu. I have raw garlic and water as soon as I wake up. I sometimes have soymilk and oatmeal, and satu, dahlia or multigrain bread. Then I snack on nuts. I try to avoid rice but these days, I have it once a day. For dinner, I often have vegetables or soup. I’ll make a big pot of cabbage soup and since my daughter Tara seems to have developed a taste for tomatoes throw in a big one for her.
Fitness myths debunked
How do you ensure you remain healthy and fit?
I was vegan even when I was pregnant and my baby turned out to be as healthy as any other child. There were people who were worried that my child wouldn’t be very healthy but she is a strong baby who doesn’t get sick often. In terms of nutrition, there isn’t anything you can get from plants that you will get from animals only. There is a substitute for anything and everything. I made sure I ate well and was properly nourished when I was pregnant. Also, when you are a vegan, you lose weight very easily because unlike meat that takes a lot of time to get digested, vegetables are easily digestible. But I try to eat every two to three hours to ensure I never go hungry. I snack on fruits, nuts, and salads.
What are some of the challenges of being vegan?
I usually don’t eat out and when I do I often go to the same places where I know the chef and they serve vegan food. From shampoos to household cleaners, I really have to look at the ingredients when I go to the supermarket. I try to find more homemade products. One of the main challenges for me was to look for a replacement for wool. I use silk because my mother has a lot of saris, otherwise I refrain from buying anything. I mostly use hemp, bamboo and cotton items. I have one pair of shoes and I’ll wear that all year round.
The only difficult thing about being vegan is not being able to make people care. You see the animals you love being abused on a daily basis and find yourself unable to stop that and that is what is frustrating. Otherwise, you sleep well at night, and you are happy and healthy. This lifestyle is a very liberating one.
How did life change for you after you turned vegan?
When I was a non-vegetarian, I was living in a bubble. It was the most selfish form of lifestyle I lived. You know other living beings are suffering because of your choices but you don’t care. After I became a vegetarian, I slept better, I felt better about my body, and my skin cleared up. I could even think better, and my mind was more alert than ever before.
Once I had a kid, I became even more conscious about the choices I made. I felt I would be robbing her of her innocence if I fed her meat. There is not much you can do for your kids in this day and age but you can raise them with such awareness that they grow up to be kind and compassionate. Being a vegan is the first step in all that. Tara is a vegetarian now but when she turns two, I’ll put her in a vegan diet. I’m currently talking to people whose kids are vegan and researching into it. There are people who say that I shouldn’t be taking away the right to eat what she wants from her. People know that nutrition-wise, she will be fine but they still raise their concerns. I feel her ‘rights to eat whatever she wants’ doesn’t justify the cruelty animals go through. Anything that is unnatural in the animal world shouldn’t be endorsed in any form whatsoever.
Vegan breakfast: Multigrain brown bread, guacamole with almonds and walnuts, banana and herbal tea.
