Soy Free, Gluten Free, Vegan Blog and Met an Ex-Vegan from that Hippie Commune

Here's a link to a Soy Free, Gluten Free, Vegan Blog.

Today, I met a woman at the market who lived on "The Farm", that vegan hippie commune in Summertown, TN. She was there for 20 years. She was there when I was there, but I don't remember her. I can only remember the names of 4 people then and she knew them all. I was stoned most of the entire time I lived there. Each house was given a huge bag of pot, and my brother and his friend stole the house stash. Just the three of us would sit at the swimming hole and smoke so much pot. My memory of that time is very, very spotty. I remember the soy creamery, that was awesome!

I asked her a bunch of questions about her health and whether or not many people stayed vegan or vegetarian. She said that she felt like she was sick all the time, like the flu or cold, dragging until she started eating flesh food. She's friends with the farmers here in Sonoma County and gets her meat that way. She actually would be a vegetarian if she felt okay on it. Both her children are vegetarian, mostly, and they are healthy. She said her daughter will eat vegetarian and some fish once in a while, but when she's invited out or over to some one's home, she eats the meat they serve.

Most of the talk with me was about how evil TVP was, which I didn't know. Since I'm going low carb and also trying to lay off the grains and gluten (for the most part), TVP is on my radar again. I use it now and then and eat the non-gmo boca burgers. She was okay about tofu, but not TVP. At her urging I put back the boca burgers and got the Amy's soy free, gluten free, vegan burger. I ate two to get 10 g of protein (still not enough for me). I felt tired, like I needed a nap, right after. More carbs than I want.

She told me there are many ex-hippie commune residents in the Santa Rosa and Sonoma area. One of them is the brother of my friend I used to play dress up with. I remember him when he was 3 or 5 years old. I just looked up his profile at the hospital he has privileges at and he's a vegetarian. This woman said that some ex farm residents stayed with the vegetarian or vegan diet but others were not healthy on it. Before the anti-TVP information she said that her philosophy is not to give diet advice except to tell people to eat what makes them feel heathy, each person is different.

And that was an interesting day at the market.