College vegans learn to adapt

The thought permeated her mind. How would she tell them?

Alison Dilfer looked around at… The thought permeated her mind. How would she tell them?

Alison Dilfer looked around at her peers sleeping in the cramped seats. How could she sleep?

Every mile of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was another sentence, another explanation, another careful turn of phrase. By the time the bus pulled into the station in Philadelphia, there were 300 arrangements of words circulating in her head.

Finally, she walked through the front door of her home and was surrounded by the warmth of the stuffed turkey roasting in the oven, smothered by the creamy taste of mashed potatoes dripping with gravy and suffocated by the sweet smell of chocolate cake.

The words stumbled from her lips.

“Mom, Dad – I’m vegan.”

Her parents were shocked.

“Some people freak out because it is a total 180,” Dilfer said.

About a year ago, Dilfer decided to go vegan. That decision for her meant giving up meat, dairy, eggs, honey and all products derived or even tested on animals, thereby aligning her with about 1 percent of Americans.

“I cannot see myself ever eating omnivorously again,” she said.

Dilfer is sitting at her desk in her double room in Holland Hall. Centered above her desk is a vivid depiction of the Virgin Mary with a dragon lurking about her feet. More artwork decorates her desk. Some of the pieces she painted herself, others she found at art exhibitions and gallery crawls. A tall and twisting stack of CDs stands on the very corner of the desk. At the top of the stack is Gogol Bordello, one of her favorite gypsy punk artists.

“I’m kind of a food nerd,” Dilfer, who is majoring in art history and anthropology, said.

She points to her French coffee press, a birthday gift from her brother, and to her collection of vegan cookbooks – Christmas presents from her parents.

There is one cookbook – complete with discolorations and wrinkled pages – that’s clearly one of Dilfer’s favorites.

“‘Vegan with a Vengeance’ showed me how easy it was to make the switch,” she said.

Tattered bookmarks are deeply wedged within its pages: Coconut Heaven Cupcakes, Brooklyn Pad Thai and Mashed Potatoes with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy.

After spending the summer cooking, Dilfer has had to adjust to her Pitt meal plan.

“Sometimes it sucks,” she said. “But, it’s livable.”

Dilfer seizes the opportunity to cook whenever Free the Planet, an environmental club at Pitt, hosts events or vegetarian potlucks. The club usually meets in a member’s kitchen and spends hours bonding over their love for food.

It was at one of these vegetarian potlucks last fall that the thought of switching over to a vegan lifestyle first enticed her.

When Dilfer came to college, she knew that she wanted to do something worthwhile. After joining Free the Planet she became more and more involved in the club and became more aware of the environmental and social issues impacting the world.

“Free the Planet was a kick in my ass,” she said.

Dilfer wanted to make a change on a personal level.

It took about a week of transition to switch over to the vegan lifestyle. During that week, Dilfer figured out which foods she could eat in the cafeterias and inspected labels for hidden, usually unpronounceable, ingredients. Although she kept the non-vegan things she already owned, such as her down comforter and her collection of scarves, she would eventually replace them with vegan versions.

“I am a huge conglomerate of most of the reasons why people go vegan,” she said.

Not only is health a major motive for many vegans, it is one of the reasons people stick with it. Cutting out fatty meats and replacing them with lighter plant proteins has been proven to have significant effects on health and well-being.

Many choose a vegan lifestyle as a personal contribution to the respect for and preservation of the ecosystem and the conservation of natural resources. The breeding and slaughtering of animals, which vegans view as cruel, and the subsequent processing and packaging of the meat, demand much of the planet’s land, water, energy and raw materials.

Similarly, some aspire to the ideal of eating vegan simply so that everyone may eat. The logic? Land is capable of supplying food for nearly 14 times as many people when it is used to grow food for people, rather than crops to feed livestock, explained nutritionist and author Gary Null in his “Vegetarian Handbook.”

“I don’t see any excuse not to be vegan, with so many food options in an urban environment,” Null said. “Unless you’re allergic to everything but meat.”

It is a commonly held belief among omnivores, as Dilfer calls them, that meat is the only source of protein. This myth is false.

Soy products like tofu and tempeh contain high amounts of protein. In addition, almost all grains and legumes and certain combinations of non-animal products, such as rice and beans, not only provide protein that is more efficient, but they also provide as much protein as animal products.

“I don’t worry about protein too much,” Dilfer said. “It comes easily, if you eat a variety of foods.”

But vitamin B-12 is a biggie. Since microorganisms manufacture it, B-12 is not normally found in fruits and vegetables. Dilfer supplements her diet with a vitamin and mineral drink from Trader Joe’s that contains 420 percent of the required daily intake of vitamin B-12.

“Being vegan has opened me up to so many possibilities,” she said. “It has forced me to cook and exposed me to different foods.”

Living on a limited budget like many college students, Dilfer searches the Internet for resourceful recipes and fresh ideas. Through food blogs and forums for vegans, she finds recipes, events and can connect with other vegans in Pittsburgh.

Last Saturday night, she joined a few other vegan friends at a vegan dessert festival she discovered online. The festival was held at a North Side cafe and the cover charge was $5 for a night of delicious pies, cakes, cupcakes and cookies – all vegan.

There are some things, however, that Dilfer regrets.

“I wish I had tried French cheese souffle,” she said wistfully.