Veggie file

Name: Polina Marinova
Since when are you vegetarian: Vegetarian from 7 years, vegan from one.

Can you share with us in one sentence why...

I am trying to behave with as much respect, compassion and care as possible towards this planet and the earthlings, without living on the suffering of others - the only step towards such way of life and ethics is the vegetarianism.

To become a vegetarian is often easier than explaining to the people around you what kind of animal you are and what are you grazing... And most of the times why... The vegetarianism often arouses to the society strange suspicions and even stranger questions, to which we have laughed very well at the beginning together with Polina Marinova from our Vegetarian internet society. But only at the beginning! After that her serious answers have come together with the idea in each issue of “Usuri” a vegetarian or a vegan to answer to them.

Poly is the advertiser of the vegetarianism.

Although her activity in the internet society (www.vegebg.org) goes let’s say behind the curtains - according to her words, now there are procedures for registration running, so that the rights of everyone who does not eat meat can be properly asserted. In order the society to take them seriously, it turns out that they have to play according its rules.

When I was answering her emails, I couldn’t even imagine that this is the same beautiful girl “Usuri” have met on a course for cooking with awareness - then it was the last month of her pregnancy, now Poly is enjoying her baby, who is growing up healthy and happily, thanks to the vegetarian food. And that is why Poly is one very positive example for all of us how we can enjoy the world - to love it and to give to it, but with the important condition not to cause anyone suffering.

1. Aren’t you missing the cheese?

No. The milk consumption of other species, especially after the period of breast-feeding, is something totally against the nature. We just need to look at the animals around us. None of the mammals in the nature is drinking milk from other kind, as well as none of them continues to drink milk after the period of breast-feeding. The nature has destined the cow’s milk for the calves, the goat’s milk is for the kids. This way they get everything needed for their organism. For people this is mother’s milk, this is the most important thing for a baby. After this period the person stops needing milk. Even our organism is organized like that. Until our third year we have the lactase enzyme, which helps the assimilation of the lactose from milk. After this age the organism stops producing it, so we are no longer able to assimilate the lactose. It is clearly why we are organized like that, in the best case the child has to be breast fed until it becomes three years old, after that it doesn’t need milk anymore.

2. If all people become vegetarians, aren’t the animals going to conquer the planet?

This is really funny and I could even say gormless claim. Millions of animals are being artificially bred, so that they turn into food. In the nature, in their natural environment, these animals would never reach such population, at least because of the natural selection of species. Animals like wild pigs, wild goats or wild rabbits, which are not forcefully domesticated and artificially bred, are they really going to conquer the planet!?

3. And aren’t the plants feeling pain when they are being eaten?

What an impressive argument against the vegetarian hypocrisy! Shame on you, all plant killers who read this!

Of course, this claim is nothing more than shallow defence of animal killing. All of a sudden the meat-eaters have begun to care about life! In contrast to animals, plants don’t have central nervous system or brain. It is hard to make any analogy between cutting an apple and cutting cow’s throat.

The hypocrisy of meat-eaters is really enormous. They not only consume animals directly, but also consume indirectly a lot more plants than vegetarians do, because animals for slaughtering are fed with huge quantities grass, grain, nuts and seeds! Of course, human beings have the right to live, therefore to eat. And even if we accept that eating plants is evil, then at least for sure it is the less evil thing.

4. From where does a vegetarian or vegan get its proteins?

Our organism doesn’t need so many proteins, as most people think. Its actual necessities are between only 30 and 45 g a day. The overconsumed proteins are not only wasted, but also cause a serious damage and even can cause cancer and heart diseases. To get 45 g proteins a day it is not necessary to eat meat; we can get them from 100 % vegetarian menu, compounded from different grain and legume foods, nuts, seeds, vegetables. Grain foods, legume foods and nuts are natural concentrates of proteins. Peanuts and lentils for example contain more proteins in one piece than the hamburger, pork meat or the veal stake. Plant foods are one great source of nourishing proteins and they are being assimilated easier than meat products. Practically it is impossible to suffer lack of proteins if you eat enough natural unrefined food. So today the main problem is not the low consumption of proteins, but the overconsumption of protein food. Neither the vegetarians, nor the vegans or even the omophagists have problem with getting proteins.

5. You are eating fish, right?…

This question has always amazed me. I have no idea why species that inhabit water areas are being treated as something different from animals. From ethical point of view is there really difference if the animal lives on land, in water or in skies?! To let it be clear - people who consume fish, mollusca or any other sea, river or marsh creatures are not vegetarians!

6. Ok, but if we don’t milk the cows, aren’t they going to explode?

Each female mammal no matter if we talk about human, cow, sheep or cat, after giving birth begins to produce milk, as the quantity totally refers to the needs of the baby. The nature is perfect, it allots to the baby as much milk as it needs. When the baby starts to suck more rarely (it begins to eat different from the milk food for example), the quantity of milk produced by the mother decreases. When the kid is weaned, the milk stops naturally. This is the case for people, as well as it is the case for animals. The problem with cows, bred for milk is that the calves are being taken from their mothers right after their birth, so that there is enough milk for people. The cow as every mother suffers from the separation and days on end cries and goes around restlessly looking for her baby. And the calf is being fed with low protein mixture so that its muscles atrophy and it turns into tender veal. Again because of the economical profit the cows are being forced to produce a lot more milk than they would have produced in their natural environment. This is made by artificial stimulation of the lactation. As a result their udders grow a lot, which is extremely painful. Then as a result of the forceful overproduction of milk problems like milk canal occlusion appear really, which leads to inflammation and suppuration. It goes so far that the milk cannot flow out and a cut in the udder has to be made, so that it does not “explode” and the collected milk and pus can flow out. Treated this way cows hardly live until their tenth year, meanwhile in their natural environment they can live 25 years.

7. And why you don’t love people, but animals...

Veganism is compassion and love towards all kind of forms of live, towards all creatures, with which we share the planet Earth. Veganism means respect and direct concern about the ecological state of the planet, about the population and the upcoming generations, as well as concern about the starving people in the developing countries.

Cattle-breeding is the biggest pollutant of the environment, even bigger than the transport. Cattle-breeding is responsible not only for the pollution of the air and water resources, but also for cutting out the forests. The based on vegetable food diet is most acceptable ecologically. The rejection of the consumption of animal products by the vegans has positive effect on the environment, connected to that has positive effect on people also, as well as on future generations, which will inherit the Earth after us.

And this is not all. With one hectare agricultural land 20 times more people on vegetable diet can be fed, than people on meat diet, because in the second case the cultures, grown on this hectare of land will be used for fodder for the animals that will be slaughtered in future. If people pass to vegetable food, there will be enough food for all starving people.

Really in the violence towards innocent and defenseless creatures there is something extremely unbearable for me. I am against all forms of violence, oppression or domination! That is why I cannot be tolerant towards people, taking part in the violence and killing of animals.

8. So what, you are eating only the accompaniments?

I claim absolutely responsibly that meat-eaters eat more unvaried food than vegetarians or vegans do. In most of the cases they eat some kind of meat with trimmings or salad. Most of them haven’t even heard about food like quinoa, amaranth, kamut, they have no idea about the huge choice from cereals, nuts, seeds, vegetable milk... The Earth has given us such abundance! Vegetarians and vegans eat extremely diverse food and they experiment more often with new flavours and foods.

9. Isn’t it difficult for you to be a vegan?

Me too thought that it is difficult to be a vegan, that is why I have been postponing this for so long. But now I know that there is nothing easier and more natural than being a vegan. I know that this is the most compassionate, ecological and healthy way of life. I know that what I am doing is good for me, for animals, for people and for the whole planet. I know that this is the right thing and this gives a lot of strength. In animal products there is nothing utterly necessary for human organism, that is why their consumption is not a necessity, but just satisfying food vagaries. We live in times, in which we do not need to consume animal products to be sated, we do not need to wear leather or fur to feel warm, and we neither need to visit zoos, dolphinariums or circuses to have fun. We already have accessible and better alternatives.

To get vegan food is easy. Nature gives us plenty of fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, nuts, seeds, which we can find easily in each supermarket. There is also a huge variety of vegetable milk, for example milk made of soya, rice, quinoa, kamut, hazelnuts, cachou, almonds... There is also vegetable yoghurt, as well as sweet creams, cookies, chocolates. Different vegan cakes, tarts and other sweets can also be prepared. Or said in other words, there is no excuse for the consumption of products gained by violence and exploitation. When you try, you will understand that compassion has better taste than meat, milk or eggs do.

10. And do vegetarians eat meat eating plants?

Ha-ha, I have never come across meat eating plants, but if I see one, I wouldn’t eat it.

In the kitchen of the vegan

Here are some recipes, which Poly cooks alone at home with pleasure

First: bean rissoles
Products:
•    1 onion, chopped fine
•    4 cloves of garlic, shabby
•    1 teaspoon ground cumin
•    1 teaspoon ground coriander
•    1 teaspoon red piper
•    400 g. red bean from can
•    flour for rolling
•    vegetable fat for frying
•    salt to taste

The procedure is as it follows:
Fry the onion in fat for about 8 minutes until it grows soft. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, red piper, red bean and fry it 5 minutes more. After this you take the mixture away from the hot-plate and put it in a bowl. Crease everything very well until it becomes in the form of rough mess and let it grow cold. Put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, until it gets ready. Shape rissoles with the size of walnut and roll it in flour. Fry them in a hot vegetable oil until they become golden as you turn them from time to time.

Second: stew from red lentils with vegetables
Products:
•    1 cup of red lentils (about 200 g)
•    700 g different vegetables (aubergine, courgette, red pepper, carrot)
•    2 tomatoes
•    1 teaspoon mustard
•    1 ½ teaspoon ground cumin
•    1 ½  teaspoon ground coriander
•    1 teaspoon lightly hot red piper
•    1 teaspoon curcuma
•    vegetable fat
•    salt to taste

It is cooked like this:
Leave the red lentils to boil up in about liter of water (it depends how thick you want the stew to be). It has to grow softer, but not to boil soft. Cut the vegetables into cubes. Heat up the fat in the pot and start frying the mustard. When the seeds stop jumping, add the ground spices. Fry them few seconds and add the vegetables after that. Fry them 10-15 minutes as you stir them all the time, until they become golden. Add the boiled lentils (together with the water in which it has been boiled) to the vegetables. Put also peeled and cut in small pieces tomatoes. Add salt. Leave it boil on light fire for about 10-15 minutes more.

Dessert: homemade chocolates
Mill in a coffee-grinder raw nuts: walnut, almond, hazelnut, cachou, sesame and other. If you want add ground coconut dust. Strain fresh dates after removing the pits (in place of them you can use steeped for 12 hours beforehand dried fruits). You can also add a little bit of maple syrup or boric honey, so that the dough becomes stickier. Add vanilla powder, cinnamon, pinch of ginger. Strain all until you get thick mass. Form little round balls from the mixture, which can be rolled in coconut dust or in ground in flour walnuts. Good appetite!

The strangest and most annoying questions, posed to vegetarians or vegans, have been generalized by Denitsa Dabijeva.

The answers are from Polina Marinova.

Material of magazine “Usuri, published also in Zoya.bg