With gluten, it’s not actually the *gluten* that I limit. I totally eat seitan, which is pure wheat protein (gluten). But I don’t eat bread, and I mostly don’t eat pasta (occasionally rice or quinoa pasta) and I definitely definitely don’t eat baked goods! It’s not a gluten thing so much as a blood sugar thing. I had actually eliminated most grains completely for a while, but I’ve worked to heal my gut and improve my digestion and I handle grains a lot better now. For the most part I can eat cooked quinoa, raw sprouted buckwheat, and a few others, without getting a blood sugar spike. But, say, if I have oatmeal first thing in the morning? No way. I’d be wrecked for the whole day. That’s just my physiology. So you’ll notice I don’t do refined carbohydrates at all, and I don’t do white rice, things like that. But take the protein out (the gluten) and I’m all over it! It’s funny considering everybody is all about gluten-free these days.

The other thing is that Waits reacts to wheat. He can eat other glutinous grains, like rye and stuff, but wheat gives him a big bum rash. So you don’t see a lot of it around for that reason, too. Although Damian is a total bread-head and would probably live on ciabatta dipped in olive oil, if he could. =)

Soy . . . that one’s complicated, but basically I’m uncomfortable with processed soy, and genetically modified soy (which is ALL non-organic soy, and probably even the organic has been compromised), and how soy isolates are in EVERYTHING, from bread to peanut butter to omni subs to everything else in the world. Especially being vegan, it’s really really easy to consume a LOT of soy if you’re not mindful about it.

There’s a lot of crap information out there about the “dangers of soy” and I don’t really buy into the hype. However, anything that is so incredibly processed, and is such a big part of the diet, is going to make me uncomfortable. That’s why I say to be mindful of the soy consumption – basically, choose the non-soy option whenever you can (like almond or coconut milk, seitan over tofu, daiya over soy cheese, etc), so that you don’t have to worry about it when there *isn’t* a choice. Like, in the latest WIAW post, I was totally fine with that soy latte because I was in a tiny town and was just stoked to find a dairy free iced latte, period! And since otherwise I eat almost no soy in my day-to-day, I didn’t even have to think twice about it.

But the one thing, for me personally, that concerns me most about soy is the goitrogenic effect. My mother had a thyroid disorder, and soy is linked (undeniably) to thyroid disruption. So for me, it’s just a “better safe than sorry” choice to avoid soy as much as possible. Damian has no family history of thyroid issues and so he eats a lot more tofu than I do, and I don’t worry about him. It just depends on your own physiology and history, but if anyone has hyper or hypo thyroidism in the family, I’d definitely say to watch the soy intake.

Whew! That was a long-winded answer! =D

@ Rachel – Not exact, but something like:

1 cup liquid (I used homemade kombucha, alt milk would also be good)
1 cup ice cubes
1 frozen banana, broken up
1 cup pitted fresh cherries
1 *heaping* (heap it because you deserve it!) tbsp raw cacao
stevia or other sweetener to taste

optional (I added these):
huge handful of greens
protein powder
green powder

anyways, just wanted to say congrats! and i’m really interested to see why you don’t eat soy or gluten (it seems). i’ve scanned some posts but haven’t seen anything addressing it. maybe i just missed something, but would generally love to hear your thoughts on this.

thanks for putting all this time in to write! -veronika