Alice was born in Seattle and grew up on Bainbridge Island. Growing up she was very active, rowing her way around Port Madison and eating hearty, meat-centered meals. Approaching her 60’s, Alice was told by her doctors that she had Type II Diabetes, along with hypertension, high cholesterol and high triglycerides, which meant a potential heart attack. She had had a scan of her carotid artery, the main artery in the neck that supplies blood to the brain, which showed significant signs of plaque build-up on the artery walls. This meant that she probably had clogged arteries in her heart also. She was concerned about her health and looking for answers.
Early in 2010, Alice was listening to PBS-TV (channel 9, Seattle area) and heard Dr Neal Barnard, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, speak about the need to change your diet to help reverse diabetes. She promptly bought his book, Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes, and began making changes to her diet that he suggested. Reversing Diabetes suggested giving up eating animal products and changing to a vegetarian diet.
The dietary changes recommended in Dr Barnard’s book were a major change for Alice as her meals had always focused on portions of meat. She used to wonder why anyone would ever choose a vegetarian pizza when they could have a meaty one. She realized after hearing Dr Barnard talk that helping her health would be one reason to make some changes. So she cut meat completely from her diet and became a vegetarian.
Two weeks after she’d started her new diet, she learned about Vegfest, an annual vegetarian food festival that happened to be scheduled for the upcoming weekend in Seattle. She was taking care of her mother full-time at that point and her children agreed to take over care of their grandmother for the weekend so she could attend. She planned to go to Vegfest and soak it all in. Many people go to Vegfest to taste the hundreds of different kinds of free food samples they offer. Alice focused on the speakers; mainly medical doctors giving talks on nutrition, and chefs giving cooking demonstrations throughout the weekend. She listened to as many as possible in the course of the weekend. She was ready for this new information, not yet realizing how much this new way of eating was going to help her. She found the talks and the sense of community at the event inspiring. Vegfest helped her explore and maintain her new way of eating.
Alice joined Vegetarians of Washington, and subsequently started attending their catered monthly dining events at the Mount Baker Club in Seattle. She loved the friendly atmosphere at these events, and found them to be a great way to learn additional supportive ideas, to become acquainted with restaurants offering vegetarian food in the Seattle area, but most of all to meet other people who were also in the process of changing their food habits. She was amazed to discover the wide range of ages, differing walks of life, and the diverse reasons that brought them to this point.
Many were not vegetarians but were curious about this way of eating. They were made comfortable by the tone that Vegetarians of Washington takes to encourage people looking into changing their diets to “proceed at your own pace.” Some were motivated by their health, some by the environment, others were motivated by the harm that producing meat causes the environment and its impact on global hunger. Many were also motivated by their love of animals. As Alice learned more about the conditions in which most factory-farm animals are kept and the impact these feeding lots have on the global environment, she found it easy to have compassion for the animals and to want to avoid eating meat. In return, this lifestyle helped her regain good health.
Since going vegetarian, Alice has found that her health has improved significantly. When she recently had another carotid artery scan, she was delighted to find that her blood vessels had returned to normal without sign of clogging. She’s also found that her memory is better, she’s lost weight, and the profile and shape of her body is constantly improving. This gives her a sense of well-being and a more positive outlook on life. She says there is more work to do. It takes time and care and information.
This year Dr Neal Barnard who inspired Alice will be speaking at Vegfest. She’ll be at his talk to thank him for his positive influence and to hear his new thoughts. One more thing Alice is looking forward to: Vegfest offers free health checks. She can get her glucose, insulin, blood pressure and cholesterol tested. A doctor is even offering free carotid artery scans, so she can find out how her continuing changes are helping prevent heart disease.
Alice will also be volunteering again at this year’s Vegfest. She had a wonderful experience last year at Vegetarians of Washington’s membership table. She loves being involved in the community, finding out about other people’s lives, and helping people work together to discover a better way of eating. This is a volunteer-run event and it takes over a thousand volunteers to run the event. If you can help for four hours or more as a volunteer, you’ll get free admission to Vegfest, a free t-shirt, and the opportunity to help others to discover how positive the vegetarian lifestyle can be. And you can meet Alice and compare your stories.
This year’s Vegfest is coming up on March 24th and 25th, 10am to 6pm at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. Admission is just $8 for a whole day of tasting free food samples, listening to informative talks, and learning how to prepare delicious vegetarian meals. To learn more, visit Vegfest2012.org or call 206-706-2635.
