Happy Halloween!

Hi, guys!

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays.  I mean, that's not overly surprising, given I'm an actor (so duh, I love dressing up), but ANYWAY... dressing up for Halloween is the best!  I love crafting, but almost never have time for it, so Halloween is the perfect excuse to get creative.  

So from my happy ghoulish heart straight to yours, 

The month of October has been pretty crazy for me, but Jason and I still made time for our second annual Autumn Date!  It's becoming a tradition for us to go pick out pumpkins, grab supplies, and carve them in a park, then have a fun photoshoot.  I hope we keep doing it every single year!

Here are a couple of the shots from the day (I worked hard on that kitten pumpkin!):

But on to the fun, creative, DIY part of Halloween.  The costumes!  Last year I was Jessica Rabbit:

I bought the dress at a vintage shop and cut off the straps, bought gloves and a wig, and had loads of fun with the makeup!  It all worked surprisingly well, especially the dress which I taped to myself with approximately 29 pieces of double sided tape!

The year before that I was a unicorn:

My favourite parts were my homemade horn out of rolled up foam paper glued to a headband and my tail made out of 3 pastel boas tied to a fanny pack!  Any excuse to wear a fanny pack and I'm there.

And the year before that I was Minnie Mouse:

I had the dress already from a dance costume, but painted the trim, added the bow and buttons, and sewed it up into a bustle over my tutu!  I also made my ears from foam attached to a headband.  Anyone sensing a trend?

What am I this year, you ask?  I've been dressing up for the past couple of weeks at work, since I work at a costume shop, and have been having lots of fun trying on the wigs especially!  

I LOVED this green one:

And I had fun with this little Miss Monroe cut:

But my very favourite costume was this one:

Here's the caption I wrote on Instagram for those of you who don't do the whole Insta thing!  Though you should.  Really.

"Spokescow to the rescue! Just casually being the voice for the voiceless today at work. 🐮 Cows are beautiful, loving, and intelligent animals, just like you and I. I want you to imagine that your neighbour, a woman you don't know well but seems nice, was forcefully artificially inseminated. Would that make you angry? What if, after nine long months, she gave birth, only to have her baby taken away from her forever so that machines could be hooked up to her breasts to extract the milk meant for her child. Would you be angrier still? And what if as soon as her milk dried up she was artificially inseminated again, and so on, until she was unable to conceive. I bet you'd be fuming. And what if, when she was finally unable to become pregnant, she was killed and her body parts used to make clothing and glue and other products. I bet you'd be disgusted. And what if you learned that her female children were subjected to the same fate, while her male children were killed to be eaten as a delicacy. I bet you'd stand up. I bet you wouldn't be able to stay silent. So how come when it happens to a female cow it's ok? What is it about a cow that makes us feel justified to systematically torture? The dairy industry is NOT blameless. Far from it. If this post makes you angry, as it did several customers at my store today, ask yourself why. Why should someone pointing out the obvious, that a cow's milk is meant for that cow's children, not for human consumption, make you so mad? Is it that you don't like thinking about it? Does it make you feel guilty? It's time to look inside yourself and decide if you can be responsible for the immense physical and emotional suffering that these beautiful creatures experience every single day of their lives. And you are responsible if you're consuming the result. It's not ME you're mad at. It's you."

But what am I going to be today, for the real Halloween?  You'll have to watch the video below to find out!  I wanted to take this opportunity to finally talk to you (out loud!)... in my first YouTube video in years!  Check it out below and don't forget to subscribe as I plan on uploading more videos for you in the very near future :)

Until next time,

Do you have a YouTube channel?  I'd love to subscribe!  Comment below and let me know a bit about you and leave your channel's name and I'll check it out :)  And subscribe to each other, too!  I want us all to get to know each other :)

Also, I REALLY want to see all of your Halloween costumes!! Tag me @elizabethturn on instagram and twitter and Plant Based Bride on Facebook!

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Oh, and also:

22 Things Not To Say To A Vegan

When people find out I'm a vegan they tend to have a lot of opinions. And questions.  And jokes.  Want to know a secret?  I've heard them all before.  (Really!)  Here's a list of 22 things not to say next time you're talking to a vegan.

1. Where do you get your protein?  Plants.
2. Just have a little of this (non-vegan food), I won't tell anyone!  No, thank you.  I'm not vegan for my "image", I'm vegan because I believe deeply in living compassionately and saving the planet.  I'm not going to cheat on my fundamental beliefs, and I'd appreciate it if you'd respect that.
3. I just love a rare steak.  I prefer it still mooing!  Really?  You would rather bite into a living cow?  You want to eat warm, uncooked, flesh?  Are you sure about that?
4. God wants us to eat animals.  It says so in the Bible.  Well, kind of.  Jesus did state that eating meat was not an unclean act (Mark 7:19), but nowhere in the bible does it demand, command, or ask you to eat it.  It does, however, state that no one should look down on or condemn someone who eats/does not eat everything (Romans 14:2-3).  So, make your own dietary choice, but take responsibility for it rather than blaming it on God.
5. How can you live without bacon??  Easily and happily, thanks for asking!
6. You don't make friends with salad.  Weird, I'm pretty sure I've made new friends since going vegan...
7. Don't you care about people?  What about the immigrants that harvest your fruit and vegetables? Or are animals more important than humans?  Because you ONLY eat animal products and no vegetables or fruit or grains...  And the animals you eat also don't consume any plant foods...  So vegans are really the cruel ones in this scenario...  Right.
8. How do you know someone's a vegan?  Oh, they'll tell you.  Maybe we wouldn't have to bring it up if you didn't push dead animals in our faces within 5 minutes of meeting us.
9. Human beings were MEANT to eat meat.  It's the circle of life!  Yeah, we're just like the lions in the wild who catch antelope and keep them in captivity for their entire lives in horrific conditions and then slaughter and eat them while keeping giraffes pregnant all their lives, taking their babies away, and making their cubs drink the milk meant for the giraffe babies.  That's nature, for you.
10. Just a taste!  I made it especially for you.  I'd really rather not.  Usually when someone makes something especially for someone else they take their beliefs and preferences into account.
11. You must be great at yoga.  There's no law forcing vegans to do yoga.  But yes, I am.
12. Is breastfeeding vegan?  Of course.  Because feeding my babies is literally the only reason I produce milk.  Just like cows produce milk to feed THEIR babies, and only their babies.
13. Do you swallow?  I'm not sure why you think this is an appropriate question for casual conversation with a stranger.
14. So... what do you eat?  A rich diet made up of a variety of delicious, whole, plant foods in incredibly satisfying quantities.
15. Vegan.  Is that the same as gluten-free?  ...no, it's not.
16. What would happen to all the animals if we stopped eating them?  They'd get to live.  How horrible, right?
17. Aren't you worried you'll get osteoporosis?  No.
18. You would rather waste good food than eat animal products?  First world problems, much?  If you eat animal products with the sole intention of not wasting it, you're good intentions are misguided.  All you're doing is sending a message to the establishment selling the food that animal products are in demand, initiating a chain reaction causing more animals to be held in captivity and slaughtered.
19. Plants can scream and feel pain, too, you know.  At least they aren't systematically tortured and the largest cause of global warming and environmental destruction.  I will continue to live my life in the way I feel is the most compassionate, ethical, and environmentally responsible.
20. You don't smell as bad as I expected.  Um, thanks?  I do still practice personal hygiene...
21. You're vegan?  I'm basically a vegan.  I only eat chicken, fish, turkey, ham, red meat when I go to restaurants, eggs, and dairy.  Right.  Our diets are so very similar.
22. Animals have the perfect complement of amino acids for us.  Why would I eat plants, even if they DO have protein?  Fine.  If you're eating meat because you feel it has the most optimal amino acid profile for your muscles, I can understand that.  But if that really is the reason you eat meat, shouldn't you be eating human flesh instead of that of a cow or pig?  It is arguably the perfect proportion of amino acids for our uses...

Now that I've listed 22 things NOT to say, here are a couple that many vegans would welcome (and be happy to answer!):

1. Why did you go vegan?
2. What do you like most about being vegan?
3. How long have you been vegan?
4. What are your favourite meals and/or restaurants?
5. Have you noticed any changes in yourself since going vegan?

Ask questions from a positive, genuinely interested place and anyone is much more likely to be open with you.  I know that I love to have honest conversations about veganism, just so long as I don't feel attacked or judged by the person who is asking my help to inform them!  I love educating people about the positive impact of veganism on health, the animals, and our planet, but some people don't.  And that's ok!  Not everyone wants to be a spokesperson for their lifestyle, and it's not their responsibility to be.  If you really want to learn about what veganism is all about, feel free to do research on your own and then ask your vegan friends for clarification or further details when you feel you need to!  (You can start on my resources page for tons of books, films, and podcasts to get educated!)  I hope you enjoyed this list!

Until next time,

Have you asked a vegan any of these questions before?  Or, if you are a vegan, which do you hear most often?  Let me know in the comments!

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10 Reasons to Go Vegan!

Are you sitting on the fence, unsure about taking the leap into veganism?  I understand.  It took me 8 months of debating and researching after going vegetarian before I made the change.  Now I wish that I'd gone vegan years earlier!  As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.  Perhaps you'll benefit from my experience by checking out my top 10 reasons to go vegan! (This post contains some affiliate links.)

1. Improve Your Health - Cutting out animal products is good for you!  Meat and dairy products are full of hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol, and acidify the body.  (Check out this post for a brief explanation of body pH).  With a diet consisting of whole plant foods you are all but guaranteed to get sufficient amounts of the nutrients you need, as long as you get a wide variety.  (There is a debate on how available B12 is in a vegan diet, so I make sure to take a supplement.)  Eating a diet high in fibre, low in fat, and full of vitamins and minerals will lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's, and a whole host of cancers.  So ditch the animal products and eat your vegetables!  

Want to know more about the health benefits of going plant based?  Check out some of my favourite books on the topic:

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell

Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition by Joel Fuhrman

2. Lose Weight - Have a goal to drop a couple of pounds?  Consider going vegan!  Vegans are 10-20 lbs lighter than meat eaters, on average, and have lower rates of obesity.  Eating foods that are lower on the caloric density scale (like fruits and vegetables) more often can lead to almost effortless weight loss.  

Interested in how to lose weight on a vegan diet?  Rip Esselstyn's book is a great one to check out:

The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds by Rip Esselstyn

3. Save Animals' Lives - Are you an animal lover?  Then why discriminate between species?  Did you know that pigs can learn to play video games and are smarter than dogs?  Did you know that the intelligence of chickens has been compared to that of monkeys?  Did you know that cows have best friends and get stressed when they are separated from them?  One vegan saves more than 100 animals a year.  You'll love the feeling you get knowing that you no longer contribute to the killing of any sentient beings for your nourishment!

Want to learn more about the animals commonly killed for your food?  Check out this article about the emotional lives of cows, this one about the intelligence of chickens, and this one about pigs showing how incredibly smart and adorable they are.

4. Stop Animal Cruelty - Factory farms are horrible places.  Animals are stuffed into wire cages and metal crates within windowless, filthy, buildings to live out their short, unhappy lives.  They never get to raise their offspring, build complex social relationships, or interact with their natural environment.  Many will never feel the warmth of the sun or breathe fresh air.  Factory farms are run as a business dealing in a commodity, not living creatures.  Their goal is increasing profit, not the quality of life of their captives.  The more animals they can squeeze in, the more money they can make; even with the increased death toll from disease and infection.  And if the plight of animals doesn't move you, think about yourself.  Did you know that the meat you eat is often contaminated with feces, blood, and other bodily fluids; causing many cases of food poisoning around the world?  Or that the antibiotics pumped into animals to prevent excessive death from their subpar living conditions is having a negative impact on your health when you consume their flesh?

It's time to open your eyes to what animal agriculture has become.  Ready to learn the truth about where your food comes from?  Check out the documentary Earthlings or read the book that made me go vegan:

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

5. Help People - Factory farming doesn't just hurt animals, it also has a negative impact on the workers and the people who live in close proximity to their facilities.  The large amounts of feces sprayed into the air by these farms have resulted in huge increases in human respiratory problems, and the new, resistant, bacterial strains developed due to the overuse of antibiotics in animals are a serious threat to human health all around the world.  Poor sanitation and waste management can lead to E.coli and salmonella contamination in our food supply, causing millions to become sick each year, and even die.  Zoonotic diseases, those that can be transmitted from animals of other species to humans, like swine flu, are caused by overcrowding and poor waste management on factory farms and result in many human deaths.

Not only does going vegan reduce these negative effects, but it can have a wonderful, global, impact on feeding the hungry.  It is estimated that almost a billion humans are suffering from hunger, and almost 900 million of malnutrition.  Every year, starvation is the cause of death for over 2.5 million children under the age of five.  But we are producing enough food to feed every single human being on earth!  So where is all of that food going?  A study in 2013 from scientists at the Institute on the Environment and the University of Minnesota demonstrated that if all food crops grown on earth were fed directly to humans, rather than to our livestock, approximately 70% more food would become available for human consumption, feeding 4 billion additional people. This surplus would not only feed the billion hungry people on earth, but an additional 3 billion people, an important fact when studies of human population growth estimate an increase of 3 billion people in less than 100 years.

Still not convinced?  Let me break it down further.  Cows are not very efficient at turning the food they eat into muscle.  This is clear when you look at the numbers:  one pound of beef (cow muscle) requires 13-20 pounds of grain to be produced.  Put another way, 13-20 times more people could be fed if the grains were eaten directly, rather than to the cow.  While pigs and chickens are slightly more efficient, it still requires 7 pounds of grain to produce one pound of pork and 4.5 pounds of grain to produce one pound of chicken.  Why are any of the people passionately speaking out about world hunger continuing to eat meat?

Read more about feeding the hungry with plants here and for further information about the negative impact of factory farms on people, see here.

6. Save The Planet - There is  no other human action with a greater negative impact on the environment than the raising of livestock for human consumption: the meat industry contributes as much as 51% of man-made pollution, more than all forms of transportation combined (sitting at around 13%).  Not only that, but methane gas from livestock is 25-100 times more destructive to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide from vehicles.  Did you know that even if we stopped all use of gas, oil, or fuel from today onwards, we would still exceed our maximum carbon equivalent greenhouse gas emissions (565 gigatons) by 2030, exclusively from the raising and eating of livestock?  Reducing methane emissions makes an almost immediate (within decades) impact on methane levels in the atmosphere, while reducing CO2 emissions doesn't have a significant effect for as long as 100 years.

One calorie of beef requires 160 times more land to produce than one calorie of potatoes or rice, and causes 11 times more greenhouse gas emissions.  Overspilled manure from farm land increases the phosphorus and nitrogen levels in the water supply, reducing oxygen levels and killing aquatic life.  Deforestation for the use of livestock farming and agriculture of feed crops (the cause of 91% of the destruction of the planet's rainforests) emits approximately 2.4 billion tons of CO2 yearly.  A quatre pound hamburger takes over 660 gallons of water to produce (the equivalent of showering for 2 months straight).  116,000 pounds of excrement is produced every second in the United States alone from farmed animals.  Animal agriculture uses 1/3 of the world's fresh water and 45% of the earth's land.  Going vegan is the absolute best way to reduce your impact on the environment and do your part to  save our planet.

Want to learn more about the environmental impact of animal agriculture?  Watch Cowspiracy, an incredible documentary on the subject.

7. Plant Based Food Is Delicious - And I don't just mean meat and dairy substitutes or desserts.  After a couple of weeks on a vegan diet you will notice your taste buds change and will be able to distinguish and appreciate the subtly delicious tastes of plant foods in their natural state!  (Although, coconut ice cream is to die for.)  I dare you to go to a vegan restaurant in your city and not find something delicious!

Want examples of mouth-watering vegan dishes?  Look no further than these instagram accounts.

8. Live Longer - Thrive on a vegan diet for years longer than your meat eating  friends.  Vegans have been shown to live as many as 9 years longer than omnivores due to reduced deaths from illnesses like cancer and heart disease and increased health and vitality from an abundance of nutrients.  What could you accomplish in an extra decade of life?  Why not find out!

9. Join The Ranks - Did you know that Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Kristen Bell, Natalie Portman, Kate and Rooney Mara, Jessica Chastain, Emily Deschanel, Ellen Page, Jared Leto, Michelle Pfeiffer, Carrie Underwood, and Alicia Silverstone are all vegan?  The movement isn't just full of celebrities.  Many incredible athletes have made the switch: Brendan Brazier, Robert Cheeke, Rich Roll, Robert Hazely, Georges Laraque, Carl Lewis, Jack Lindquist, Mike Mahler, Patrick J Neshek, Fiona Oakes, Amanda Reister, Jim Morris, and so many more!

If celebrities under all of the pressures of Hollywood and athletes competing at international levels can thrive on a plant based diet, why can't you?

Related Blog Post: Vegans vs Protein

10. Be Happier - Go vegan for a healthy mind: you'll have lower incidences of anxiety and depression than meat eaters!  Magnesium, which is plentiful in plant foods and virtuality non-existent in animal products, is important for energy, improving sleep, and regulating your mood while reducing headaches.  

You'll also be happier knowing that every single day you're saving 1100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forest, 20 pounds of CO2, and one animal's life.  Every single day.  If you could make that kind of positive impact on the world, would you?

You can.  No other choice has such a profound impact on the health of the planet in every single aspect.

Make a change.  Go vegan!

Until next time,

Which reason resonates the most with you?  Why did you go vegan?  Let me know in the comments below!

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25 Surprising Non-Vegan Foods

It can be intimidating to go vegan.  Believe me, I know!  After 8 months as a vegetarian and researching veganism almost daily I thought I knew without a doubt what foods were and were not vegan.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  Over the past 2 and a half years eating a plant based diet I have come across many non-vegan foods that shocked me.  And while I was lucky enough to discover the majority of these foods before eating them, not everyone does.   Food companies love to include animal products in everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.  They even sneak them into "vegan" products!  Here is a list of 25 surprising non-vegan foods to avoid.

1. Beer... many brands use a membrane derived from the bladders of fish to filter their brews. Check out Barnivore to find out if your favourite beer (or wine, or liquor) is cruelty-free!
2. White Sugar... some brands process their sugar using bone char to give it its bright white colour (watch out for brown sugar too; it may be processed as white sugar and then have molasses added to make it brown).  Always buy beet sugar (not refined using bone char) or organic cane sugar (bone char is not considered organic).
3. Non-Dairy Creamer... can contain milk-derived ingredients such as caseinate.
4. Red Dye... a popular brand of red dye called Carmine (often listed as Natural Red #4 in ingredient lists) is coloured using the scales of tiny insects.
5. Jello... contains gelatin which is derived from animal bones, connective tissues, and organs.
6. Vitamin D Fortified Foods... the source of vitamin D may be lanolin, derived from sheep's wool.
7. Chewing Gum... often contains animal-derived glycerin.
8. Cake Mix... may contain beef fat (often listed as lard in the ingredients).
9. Worcestershire Sauce... traditionally contains anchovies.
10. Apple Juice... may be clarified with isinglass (obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish).  This one I find especially disturbing, having been a HUGE apple juice fan as a child.
11. Jam... may contain gelatin.
12. Tortillas... traditionally made with lard.
13. Marshmallows... often contain gelatin.
14. Margarine... may contain gelatin, casein (milk protein), or whey. 
15. Frosted Mini Wheats... contains gelatin.
16. BBQ Chips... may contain traces of milk or animal fat.
17. Vitamins and Supplements... often contain animal products.  Read the ingredients carefully!
18. Orange Juice... can be fortified with omega 3s derived from fish.
19. Refried Beans... traditionally made with lard.
20. Bagels... the enzyme L. Cysteine is used as a dough conditioner and is derived from poultry feathers.
21. Packaged Peanuts... may contain gelatin. 
22. Soy Cheese... may contain casein.  Just because a product's only purpose would seem to require its veganism does not mean it's animal product free!  Make sure to read the ingredients carefully, even on "vegetarian" and "vegan" products.
23. Altoids... contain gelatin.
24. Pad Thai... often contains fish sauce.  Be sure to ask!
25. French Fries... may be fried in animal fat.

You Might Also Like: 10 Reasons To Go Vegan!

Lucky for us many brands provide vegan options of these foods.  Make use of google and sites like Vegetarians in Paradise to investigate brands or products, and always read the ingredients!

Until next time,

Which food surprised you most?  Is there a surprisingly non-vegan food I missed?  Let me know in the comments below!

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