Food for thought

Dilating on the powerful relationship between food and good health,
British expat Sarah Tavola tells Anand Holla, ‘it’s easy to just eat
whatever you enjoy without giving too much thought to how it might
be beneficial or harmful. So I would urge people to put their health first’
With November being World Vegan Month, Community caught up with British expat Sarah Tavola, a resolute vegan. The London School of Economics graduate is an avid writer, blogger, and mother of six adorable children Ruby (15), Lyla (13), Mia (11), Ivy (8), and twins Oscar and Arlo (5). Just a month away from celebrating the 17th wedding anniversary with husband George, Tavola seems at peace and ease. And much of that calm, she believes, has to do with her vegan lifestyle. Excerpts from a chat:

What does being vegan mean to you?
For me, being vegan is an ethical, environmental and health-centred decision to eliminate animal products from my diet and embrace a plant-based approach to food. I like to think that I make my life decisions based on an attitude of kindness and compassion, and a vegan diet naturally lends itself to that outlook. I have six children so I feel an immense level of responsibility to be the healthiest version of myself in order to be the best mother that I can be, and also serve up nutritionally dense dishes for my family. I further hope that by giving serious thought to our food and where it comes from, I’m encouraging my children to be conscientious while adopting a healthy respect for their own health and wellbeing.

Briefly tell us why did you decide to go vegan?
I gave up meat when I was a teenager. This was mostly out of concern for animal welfare. Modern, intensive factory farming is so far removed from what people imagine when they think about a traditional farm. Animals are often severely confined and live very stressful lives. I didn’t want to play any part in that process as a consumer. Over the years, I swung back and forth between being a pescatarian (a person who excludes all meat products except fish) and a vegetarian (a person who excludes meat products but consumes dairy products). After my third child was born, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in my hands. It’s a condition that runs in my family. However, I noticed that the pain was much worse after I’d eaten food with dairy products in it, like pizza or ice cream. So I eliminated dairy products from my diet and, thankfully, the arthritis went into remission. After doing lots of research, it seems to me that many other people have had the same experience. It wasn’t just the pain in my hands that improved though; I felt a lot more energised in general. It opened my eyes to the powerful relationship between food and good health; you really are what you eat.  A few years later, I decided to altogether ditch animal products and become completely vegan.

How do you feel about turning vegan?
It’s a good feeling knowing that I’m fuelling my body in the most efficient way and making every mouthful count nutritionally. A vegan diet gives you the best chance of having a robust immune system and lowers your risk of a whole host of ailments, from heart disease and cancer to type 2 diabetes. I also feel happy that my diet isn’t responsible for any animal suffering and is a better choice for the environment; rearing animals for the meat industry requires vast amounts of deforested land, water, and fuel — it has a higher carbon footprint than all transport industries combined — plus it’s a significant contributor to climate change. Following a vegan diet has also given me a renewed passion for cooking and finding inventive ways to serve up lots of healthy dishes. Far from limiting my repertoire, it has opened up a whole new vista of endless possibilities and I love experimenting with fresh ideas. I have a vegan cooking blog on my website www.mamaschoices.com where I enjoy sharing all my favourite recipes. I also run two Facebook pages to better engage with the community: ‘Mama’s Choices - Lifestyle Picks by a Mama of Six’, which has around 21,000 followers, and ‘Vegetarians in Doha’.

Since becoming vegan, how do you feel internally?
When I initially gave up dairy products, it was a shock to realise how much more invigorated I felt. Animal products take much longer to digest than fruits and vegetables and I think my body felt sluggish trying to process them. I also notice that I suffer a lot less from common ailments like coughs and colds. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had a single cold since I became vegan. I have lost weight, I feel less tired, and I generally feel a lot stronger, healthier, and happier. It’s little wonder that so many elite athletes are increasingly adopting a vegan diet in order to be at their physical best.

Is everybody in your family vegan? Do the kids like it, or do they have trouble adjusting to it?
Out of my six children, my eldest is a vegan, one of them is a vegetarian and the other four choose to eat fish, so they are pescatarian. However, most family meals I serve at home are vegan so they are suitable for everyone and it saves me from cooking three separate meals every night! My children have never really known anything different so it’s no big deal to them. I always serve up food that they love and it quickly gets devoured. So I think that’s a good sign. However, I’m very mindful of the nutritional needs of growing children and I put a lot of thought into their diets. Every day after school, I make them a smoothie loaded with fruits and raw vegetables, which they love. It’s reassuring to know that, whatever else they may or may not eat in a day, they are at least getting a good dose of nutrients from this.
Tell us a little about the smoothie and the other foods you eat.
A typical smoothie will include coconut milk, broccoli, bananas, strawberries, mangoes, apples, and beetroot powder to make it an appetising pink colour. For main meals, I always ensure that I incorporate lots of beans, nuts, and seeds, into our dishes in order to meet our protein requirements. We tend to get through a vast amount of chickpeas, cashew nuts and quinoa. I also serve up lots of lentil-based dishes and leafy, green vegetables to address our iron needs. If you visit our house, you can be guaranteed that there will always be a bowl of homemade hummus in the fridge and a large pot of lentil soup on the stove, so that there’s always a healthy, tasty snack available to fill hungry bellies! My husband George has recently adopted a vegan diet after years of being a pescatarian, and feels so much better about it. My sister is a vegan and my father is a vegetarian. Other friends and family who do eat meat are very open-minded and supportive. When we visited my husband’s family in Fiji in the summer, they conjured up several delicious vegan feasts for us to enjoy, so we are very lucky. Thankfully, our favourite Middle-Eastern dishes are also vegan; falafel, hummus and tabouleh, to name but a few. So we like to make the most of the local cuisine.

What is your message to the people of Qatar during this ongoing Vegan Month?
I think it’s the same for people the world over… it’s easy to just eat whatever you enjoy without giving too much thought to how it might be beneficial or harmful. So I would urge people to put their health first. You only get one body; it’s a good idea to look after it. I would encourage everyone to question where their food comes from and how it’s grown. So much meat nowadays is pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones. Processed meat is also loaded with nitrates, which are detrimental to human health. I think it’s clear that we need to get back to basics; ditch fast food, avoid processed food, try to ensure that meals are made from scratch using raw ingredients, incorporate a wide range of fresh fruit, vegetables and legumes into dishes and opt for organic food as much as possible. Even if you wouldn’t consider becoming vegetarian or vegan, I would suggest limiting your consumption of animal products and perhaps consider a couple of meat-free days a week. I would also like to encourage people to support pioneers in the local community who are encouraging people to reassess what they eat. There are so
many inspirational people out there. Ghanim al-Sulaiti, for instance, is a vegan Qatari entrepreneur who is passionate about encouraging children to eat healthy food. He’s recently opened a vegan restaurant, Evergreen Organics, at The Pearl, and I can assure you the food there is totally delicious.