Our story It began in a foreign country in Western Europe. It was the summer of 2018. We made a move and later, another decision that would change our lives f o r e v e r. The city was Berlin. The year was 2017, in the … Read more...
Canada’s food guide is a victory for vegans
As Canada’s food guide tagline states: eat well, live well. Vegans have known this all along. If not for the animals and the planet, then for your health.
As a child, I remember flipping through the colourful few pages of Canada’s food guide. It was accessible at school and at different offices, probably including the doctor’s office. As I flipped the pages, I noticed the daily requirements of each food group, thinking of how I could possibly eat more fruits and vegetables.
As an adult, before becoming vegan, I still felt discouraged by the high serving sizes of fruits and vegetables. Why? Well, even my younger self intuitively knew that these foods were best for me. With vitamins, minerals, and life-saving properties, unlike the brown and white recommended protein, grains and dairy products.
In January 2019, Canada finally released an updated food guide (the last was in 1992) that is much more well-rounded. As well, it is a great teaching tool for the population to take our health in our own hands by consuming more of the foods that we intuitively know is better for our bodies.
Source: Canada’s food guide wiki
What the food guide highlights:
No serving sizes
This is fantastic for people who like me, felt discouraged by the daily recommendations… Is a bowl of grapes two servings or one? Are grapes too sweet to compare to a serving of berries? You see, the serving sizes can complicate things, and take the attention away from the main thing, which is to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
Have plenty of fruits and vegetables (1/2 of your plate)
Increase intake of plant-based foods
The new Canadian food guide simply illustrated that most foods consumed should be plants. There is no emphasis on animal products, which we should consume minimally if at all. This is a great achievement for vegans! It is known that animal foods can increase the risk of chronic diseases like heart attacks and cancer. Plant-based foods, on the other hand, are known to reverse chronic disease.
but a known fact.
Canada’s Food Guide states…
Eat protein foods (a 1/4 of your plate)
There are many alternative plant-based sources of protein as pictured above. These include but not limited to lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu, nuts, and seeds.
The heart and stroke foundation promotes the consumption of protein as per the Canada food guide animal foods as a normal part of nutrition, without mentioning the link between the illness they seek to cure. On a positive note, the foundation encourages choosing plant-based protein more often.
”Canada’s Food Guide recommends that protein foods should make up a quarter of your plate and be consumed regularly. Eat more plant-based protein. When choosing your protein foods, opt for plant-based more often. Plant-based protein foods can provide more fibre and less saturated fat than other type of protein foods.”
A long-term study published in October 2016 finds a link between the cardiovascular cause of death, animal protein intake. And at least one risk factor such as limited exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, obesity, etc. The study followed two large populations of nurses and other health professionals from the 1980s to 2012.
”Moreover, we observed that substitution of plant protein for animal protein from a variety of food sources, particularly processed red meat, was associated with a lower risk for mortality, suggesting that the protein source is important for long-term health.”
Canada’s Food Guide recommends…
Eat whole grains (a 1/4 of your plate)
The emphasis is on “whole”. Simple carbohydrates are unhealthy because they spike blood sugar levels quickly. And the false energy spike that we get short-lived, leaving us tired and hungry. Whole grains are closer to what nature intended. They keep us fuller longer and don’t digest as quickly, so they don’t affect our blood sugar at the same rate.
Choose brown rice, red rice or wild rice over white rice when possible.
Opt for millet, amaranth, and quinoa over simple carbs
Whenever possible, eat spelt, Ezekiel or sprouted grain bread over white or “whole wheat” bread.
Better yet, choose gluten-free bread. Whatever you do, see how you feel after eating food.
Notice that wheat hasn’t been mentioned. This is because the wheat crop of today is not like the past.
‘Today’s wheat is greatly genetically modified to grow faster and provide a higher yield of wheat per acre. More food to the starving poor was a blessing, but could there be disadvantages with the modern super wheat?” Source
Many people have discovered that eating wheat/gluten causes a “foggy brain”, a sluggishness and bloating. Even worse, many people’s health is threatened due to celiac disease, while others, as mentioned above, are simply sensitive to wheat gluten.
Also, when food is overproduced, appears in most processed foods, we should probably be careful of it, ie. wheat and soy.
Canada’s Food Guide suggests…
Make water your drink of choice
The above suggestion is self-explanatory, but why must we drink enough water?
Nutritionists agree that to say that our body needs water is a gross understatement, after all, water is key in the body’s function:
- all organs of the body use water
- for digestion
- nutrient absorption
- produces and cleanse our blood
- cleanses the body of waste
- regulates body temperature and much more.
Dr. Robertai Lee explains American’s chronic dehydration at Medicine Daily, stating that “60 percent of our body is composed of water, 75 percent in our muscles, 85 percent in our brains, it’s like oil to a machine”.
Have you seen documentaries like 127 hours where a man trapped on a mountain survives for days after drinking water? His likelihood of survival increased because dehydration can kill us faster than starvation, so get a metal or glass water bottle and drink water!
Still, there is the fear of drinking too much water, but in truth, most of us don’t drink enough pure water. The water contained in processed drinks doesn’t count!
Many people aim for 8 cups of water, but most of us don’t drink nearly this much, yet as Diabetes Strong explains, for Diabetics, “Even a mild level of dehydration – something you may not even feel – could easily leave your blood sugar levels 50 to 100 mg/dL higher than if you were drinking enough water”.
Canada’s food guide simplifies nutrition for us, but it is key that we take a personal interest in what we consume, how active we are, and how many ‘bad habits’ we have because these factors affect the quality of our life today and in the future.
What do you think of the Canada food guide?
References:
- Nutrition Studies.org
- Song M, Fung T, Hu FB, et al. Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. JAMA Intern Med 2016.
- The Daily Meal
- Diet Doctor.com
Berlin Clothing Swap – time to swap!
“Here We Swap Again” was the witty name of the latest Berlin Clothing Swap which took place on September 22, 2019. We encourage you to swap with us!
Berlin Clothing Swap is a non-profit organization that organizes a clothing swap for all every season. The next swap proudly takes place at the Museum of European Cultures on November 24th, 2019.
Berlin Clothing Swap is invaluable and has grown monumentally. Founder Jenna Stein is a natural at running well thought out and seamless events. Recent events have been buzzing with limited space, packed with busy swappers who couldn’t believe their luck in getting through the doors, with a long cue outside the entrance.
This community event has reached over 49 000 people. Hundreds of whom filled the space on that exciting Sunday afternoon.
Recent swaps have been noticeably the busiest events yet!
What you need to know to attend the next Berlin Clothing Swap!
Follow Berlin Clothing Swap on:
Share the events on all your socials
Share the event on your socials and tell your friends and family to join the thrifty fun! You can keep such a generous event to yourself, there’s plenty of clothing, shoes, accessories and even household items waiting to find new homes.
Declutter and bring what you don’t need to the next swap
Marie Kondo all your belongings starting with your clothes. Put all your clothes on your clean floor, carpet, or bed and go through each item one by one and ask, “Does this spark joy?”. If the answer is no, put it in a pile to swap!
Do this with your shoes, household item, and electronics.
Now, look through all that does not spark joy for you, would you take it home if you saw it at the Berlin Clothing Swap?
Quality check guide
- The item has been washed and is clean.
- The item is tear-free (unless it’s the manufacturer’s intended style). Open seams can be fixed.
- The electronic wires are all provided with the item and are free from tears and frays.
- The free-from pilling (tiny balls on the clothing).
- The item is not so old that it’s completely faded.
- The jeans are free from stretched out and fragile crotch. If this is the reason you are getting rid of them, add to the discard pile.
- Refrain from taking size tags off to help swappers choose quickly without trying on.
- Lingerie (undergarments like bras) are clean and new or lightly used.
- Jewelry is not green or rusted/ corroded.
Now ask yourself this…
Would I take this item home or gift it to someone I care about?
The value of swapping
Swapping is the anti-culture solution to shopping. Our society is consumerism, fast fashion is a sick norm that has damaging effects on the environment, financial independence and most importantly the space labor it takes to produce quickly and cheaply in run-down and collapsing buildings. The other end of our consumption habits is ugly.
Make a change
Watch the documentary on fast fashion, The True Cost to learn the shocking truth behind where your clothes come from! It may give you the shock you need to swap till you drop!
Also recommended: Fashion Factories Undercover
Visit the upcoming Berlin Clothing Swap!
Attend the upcoming swap on November 24th, 2019 at the Museum of European Cultures from 1-4 pm. It’s free! Take advantage of this free offer, engrave is normally 2€.
Being vegetarian before vegan is unnecessary
Being vegetarian? How come I wasn’t aware of the word vegan?
As a teenager, I worked at a grocery store near my house and I was a cashier. I remember being at the first belt near the door, the worst position when it was winter. There, at the shortest belt, I would cash out customers with 1 to 8 items. Guess how many of those 1 to 8 items were meat? Probably just half the time and yet carved in my brain is the nightmare of scanning meat products, especially raw flesh which would often be cold and leak through the thin plastic wrapping unto my clean belt.
My face is expressive so I couldn’t hide my disgust. I would disapear from view for a second (wishing to disappear from there) as I grabed the spray bottle and tissue in the lower cupboard under the cash register all the while screaming internally, and wipe the belt clean before serving the next customer. I was a fast scanner, so the disruption of my work was probably evident but forgiving. It was in those moments that I one, wanted another job, and two wanted to never see or touch meat again. It was awful…
Vegetarianism – here I come!
In the summer of 2006, I graduated from Highschool. Before starting University in the fall, I went camping as a counsellor. Our meals are prepared for us to meet our specified dietary needs. It was there that I decided I was a vegetarian. I was away from home, a high school graduate and nearly a first-year uni student, so WHY NOT?!
When I returned home, I didn’t have the same ease to choose vegetarian because there was no such thing in an African household. I began to cool for myself. Of course, my parents were shaken and worried that I didn’t eat meat which was a cultural necessity with most meals. My mom tried to tell me to eat it and failed so she enlisted my calm Dad to do the job. He told me it would be my last day being vegetarian and I was calm and silent. I was vegetarian for 10 years.
Learning about my health
Years earlier, the doctor confirmed that I was lactose intolerance so I stopped drinking milk, although sometimes I would chance it with ice cream… I know, I know… I went through a period of buying lactase enzymes to help me digest milk products. They were expensive and I hated standing in the aisle reading all the labels, trying to get the most out of my money and so I stopped buying them and accepted my digestive intolerance.
I enjoy researching different topics so vegetarianism was exciting. I looked up what the body needs and substitutes for my favourite foods. Still, I ate pasta, rice, and noodles, starches that turn to sugar once digested. I enjoyed beans as it was a part of my cultural cuisine and I ate vegetables too. My mom would buy many vegetables and put me in charge of eating them so they wouldn’t go to waste (sometimes I failed).
Beans make me
Hello, world – I am vegan!
I became vegan in 2016 and although in the past I was envious of those who could carelessly eat creamy cakes and sweets, I had no temptation being day-dreaming for a split second about a carefree reality. I wanted my own vegan version and I have become somewhat of a seasoned baker since being vegan.
Why did it take me so long to make the leap to veganism?
Like my wife, I also thought being vegan would be much harder and limit my options even more. I say often that I was about 98% vegan
I never imagined I’d be married to another vegetarian, let alone vegan. We were both vegetarians when we met so we never had an issue of where to eat, I would pack us a plant-based meal and we’d be out and about!
Being vegan has blessed me in many ways. First, I am open to more vegetables and foods. I never run out of inspiration to create new meals because of the lovely vegan/plant-based community. Secondly, I am more creative with food. I eat colourfully and it’s tamed my sweet tooth. Lastly, it made me question other areas of my life that I wasn’t being so conscious about such as food waste and plastic craze. Even the products that I used reflect my lifestyle. I actually started wearing my natural hair before being vegan. The natural beauty from within shines out!
Current goals?
I am working on getting my water intake up again! And regularly exercise as my dopamine instead of social media and sweets!
Read more on veganism and plant-based living:
What is Being Vegan All About?
Let’s chat: What’s your vegn story? How did you make the leap?
Berlin Vegan Summerfest & The Official Animal Rights March Berlin 2019
To be precise, this weekend was an amazing experience!!!!!!!!! All things that matter to a vegan came beautifully together during Berlin Vegan Summerfest!
Day 1: inspiring lecture, AFTW and burger time
Being our first vegan festival outside of Estonia, where we attended the Tallinn Vegan Fair in October of 2015 and July 2019 at Tallinn Vegfest, it was a welcomed third experience. Berlin Vegan Summerfest was booming with countless conscious organizations spreading awareness. I have to mention Pro Veg, who organized the festival. The annual festival was full of businesses selling countless vegan products, from cheese, never-ending handouts of Made with LUVE ice-cream bars, and Palmyra, Nature’s Delights which offers the freshest and best dates in town (dates better than Tinder dates!) and of course we can’t forget about the RESTAURANTS! We were constantly salivating!
Inspired by That Vegan Couple
On Saturday afternoon, we scurried out in time to catch the last of the English lectures, the last being by That Vegan Couple. They are Australian activists whose videos I’ve seen on YouTube. At the end of their lecture, they said that Anonymous for the Voiceless is holding their demonstration in an hour. Imagine a group of wonderful vegan activists with the goal to educate the public at a vegan fair!
As we waited for the much anticipated demonstration, we approached one half of That Vegan Couple for a chat. She shared that they are on a vegan activism tour, and even visited Toronto! Unfortuntely, they gave a similar lecture in my home-city, but it was not received there with the same energy as it was Berlin. My excuse was that awareness in Toronto is already strong. Check out our stories on Instagram to hear a snippet of the lecture, which was impactful.
Anonymous for the Voiceless – our new calling
In our mind, these are local celebrities for justice from AFTW, giving voice to many issues that to us contribute to the Can’t Human Properly feeling that founded this site. To my surprise, Anonymous were just ordinary people who had joined the movement. Their shirts presented proudly ”vegan, environment, and health” division. After seeing them in action, we wanted to become part of them.
Pep talk to anonymous participants:
Outreach should be positive. Your role is to leave people with a good impression, and inspiration to research more about the price of participation in animal agriculture and cruelty. Don’t loose your cool as the person will go home and recall the negative interaction. People will think badly of vegnism or the cause because it was lost on drama and ego. Oh, and if you are holding a laptop depicting animals in slaughter house, and a child approaches without an adult, put your hand up so we can help the child find their guardian. It’s not that we don’t want the child to see the truth, but not without their guardian around, who may choose to share with them or not.
Paraphrase of the part of the pep talk that I heard.
As you can see, it was an insightful time before they finally organized to form a cube. Some clever signs with slogans and others held a laptop playing slaughterhouse scenes. All had the classic white Anonymous masks, with black facial hair, a smile, and pink rosy cheeks, though some rosier than others.
We had a glimpse of the screens but did not watch the videos in full. As we are already vegans, it is not necessarily for us. As That Vegan Couple characterized it, it is meant for ‘not yet vegans’. Besides, I don’t do well when I expose myself to terror and horror. Kerly only needed a few seconds of the Earthlings trailers three years ago to shift from vegetarianism to veganism. Some hearts are open to veganism with glimpses of slaughter houses.
Trying some amazing vegan food
After all the free samples, there was not much room, but we set our eyes on Réger Burger food truck. We ordered two burgers, a classic for Kerly, and a Cheezy for me. All patties were black bean and seitan based, and although the texture was good, the patty was nothing without the delicious toppings. Sadly the cheese was unimpressive, as it was a bright yellow sauce that wasn’t so memorable. Still, we enjoyed it, topping off mouthfuls with swigs of cold Shanghai matte tea, which we were told by a passerby were geschenkt! (given for free).
As we ate and I chatted in Twi with a Ghanaian mother we had met in line, we started a conversation with two vegan girls sitting beside us, both German, but one is half American. The girls were so cool! We exchanged information, and honestly, meeting them changed the whole game of this weekend! We learned so much, which I’ll share in the next part of our weekend at Berlin Vegan Summerfest.
Day 2: The Official Animal Rights March 2019 Berlin
The second day was not planned. In fact, it wasn’t supposed to even happen! And yet, it had to, because it is was the best part of the whole Berlin Vegan Summerfest!!!! We were inspired to come to The Official Animal Rights March Berlin, because of our new two friends we met at the festival.
After getting to bed past 2 AM, we woke up at 10 AM. When my eyes opened, I knew that we had to go to the march. I don’t know how my mindset shifted so fast. The day before, I was still stuck on the idea that perhaps I shouldn’t join this march. I thought if people are fighting against something, then by universal law it is drawn to us. But actually, I found that attending this march was critical. We have reached a crisis point where our actions or inaction will destroy our species, countless others, and the planet whose skin we live on. I felt nothing but positive energy and bliss at the march, and I know that it came from a higher place. It was like it was meant to be, and was supported by the universe.
Joining the march!
Of course, we were a little too late to join the march, as we slept in and it took us an hour to get closer to the march’s start location. Luckily we had our new friends there on time and they shared their location on WhatsApp. So we were able to see in real-time, where they were and we caught the tail of the march in no time after exiting at Eberswalder station in Mitte.
At U Rosenthaler Platz, we all stopped in the center of the wide street, and participated in a mass ‘dying’, to signify the death of the many animals at the hands of slaughterhouses. We literally dropped down on the hot street and laid down on it. It was powerful! The sad drum beat made Kerly cry, while she was thinking of the animals. Of those who have lost their lives, who are in a bad situation or who are abused for human needs at the moment. I and some others wanted to document it, so sat down, but almost all catalysts laid there. Timelessness swept us, and finally, we stopped up and cheered so loudly that we probably woke up she of those
Some of the striking slogans at the march were:
Shout: THERE’S NO EXCUSE
Reply Shout: FOR ANIMAL ABUSE!
Shout: WHAT DO WE WANT?
Reply Shout: ANIMAL LIBERATION
Shout: WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
Reply shout: NOWWWWW!
&
GO VEGAN, GO VEGAN, GO!
We ended each chant with the cheering of course! So glad that the march took place at the same time when Berlin Vegan Summerfest – joining more people for the cause!
Did I say it was hot? Cos the sun of ablaze on us, and we realized on the way home that we had not once felt the need to empty the ol’ bladder all day, till 9 PM when we reached home! Meanwhile, we had had a few liters of liquid.
We weren’t left to entertain ourselves with just our sweet voice, because there was live music, including drums. The march came to a nice halt behind Alexanderplatz, then the speeches began. The one I was totally there for, not that I wasn’t there for the other, but because it was in English, was by That Vegan Couple. They sounded like the day before but on STEROIDS, it was so POWERFUL! I realize now that the high energy of the march made the speech that much more impactful, and it gave me chills/goosebumps in the 32 C sun!
Important realizations this weekend
Vegans must do more form of direct action to read awareness. People are needed on the front lines and in supporting roles!
It is not enough to be vegan, otherwise, people trivialize it to mean simply what you eat.
Veganism is not a trend.
Veganism is not a personal choice #veganismisnotapersonalchoice
Connecting with other vegans is crucial because when you feel down about the journey, they will lift you up!
Find your vegan friends
After the march, we drank liters of water, indulged inf Made with LUVE ice-creams. Yeah, it was a hot day, so we both had about 10 sticks. The best surprise was a Taiwanese Vegan Street Food in the culinary section, which filled us fully. Though the portions looked small, they were filling and besides vegan, also gluten-free.
As we said earlier our two new friends from Nuremberg were really helpful for informing us about the cool things happening at the festival. One thing they pointed out was Speed Friendling. Which was basically speed dating, but for vegans and for friends. We had never participated in such an event, so we and other 14 people tried it out and it was fun! 45 minutes of talking and asking questions, definitely left our throat sore. But also, in the end, we had 10 people, who kind of stayed around waiting for something to happen.
Something really happened! We can now say that we have a group of vegan friends, and we have a WhatsApp group to prove it! We hope they stick around on the journey to awakening the planet! Trust that we will discuss our passion of giving voice to animals, the environment, and oppressions, over delicious vegan, thus cruelty-free food!
In the end, this is all you need some entertainment, good food, wonderful people and a cause, which makes you move. We found all that in Berlin Vegan Summerfest and we can soon start calling ourselves vegan activists!
Can’t Human Properly Launch!
Hey human!
We are Evelyn and Kerly, founders of Can’t Human Properly.
First off, thank you for visiting our humble website. It means a lot to us that you are reading these words now as it indicates that we are officially live! We are grateful for the opportunity to create content that hopefully resonate with you here on Can’t Human Properly.
It is our intention to build a fearless community of those who just can’t human properly and refuse to do so, according to societal norms, as we dare to wake up! [Work it tagline!]
We’ll write about four main areas:
- Vegan ( We’re vegan now, after a decade-plus as vegetarians)
- Low-Impact–– We’re on a mission to lower our carbon footprint by using as little energy as we can. For instance, we opt for used items and plastic/package-free items.
- Financial Freedom (We have been debt-free for just over a year, and are working toward financial freedom ).
- Personal Growth (Being the best version of yourself is important to us, it’s the only way we can change the world– starts with YOU!)
Why Can’t Human Properly?
It is recognizing that we are spiritual beings in flesh suits for the time being, and we don’t need to limit ourselves to being helpless humans. We may have a hard time dealing with the material world until we wake up to the spiritual aspect of us. Can’t wait to grow together, and expand our consciousness and be more of who we were before we got here.
Thanks for visiting us, and we hope you join the Can’t Human Properly aka CHP community!
Read more ABOUT US.
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