My Journey to Healing and Wellness
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (2004-2024)
I used to hate vegetables! Whenever my mother cooked a vegetable dish, I protested like an activist bravely challenging a dictatorship for human rights (though I hadn’t yet learned about animal rights). I adored her sinigang na manok sa sampalok (chicken in tamarind broth), adobo, bopis (pig's internal organs), fried chicken, shrimp crispies, and her 101 ways of cooking bangus (milkfish) and tilapia. Why should she force me to eat vegetables? It seemed so undemocratic!
Eating out meant gorging on grilled pork, sisig, dinuguan, beef kare-kare, isaw, chicken liver, gizzards, chicharon bulaklak, and, of course, more fried chicken with a bottle or two of Coke! Why would I waste money on vegetables?
We raised our own chickens and pigs in our backyard, and I helped my mother slaughter the chickens to either sell them or prepare a sumptuous meal. I loved cooking chicken and pork adobo, rich with fat!
My father worked for an ice cream company, and he filled our refrigerator with ice cream, milk, cheese, and butter! Since he enjoyed his ice cream at the factory where he maintained the freezing plant, we got to keep all those treats for ourselves. Birthdays weren’t marked by lavish parties, but we always had an ice cream cake. We also looked forward to days when my mother made milky iced candies to test a freezer she’d received for repair from one of my father’s clients. When he worked overseas, he sent us boxes of chocolates and cans of butter, which my mother complemented with processed meats and loads of cheese.
No wonder I was almost always sick! I lost track of so many doctor’s appointments, dextrose bottles, and blood tests. When I moved out to work for NGOs, I applied for social welfare cards in several hospitals to cut consultation and hospitalization costs. I was in and out of hospitals with severe illnesses that caused me immense pain. During those episodes, I often wished I could just die. One time, after an antibiotic injection near my wrist, the pain was so excruciating that the entire hospital heard me scream as it traveled up to my underarm. My husband was worried, but I was delirious with a high fever, unable to speak. This happened just a few days after our church wedding, and that’s how we spent our honeymoon.
In May 1985, I volunteered as a lay missionary for peasants living in poverty. It was a time of passion for “Serving the People” during the Marcos era. It was also during this time that my boyfriend introduced me to his parents—100% Ilocanos who loved meat but regularly had vegetable dishes on the table. Meal times at peasants’ homes or with my future in-laws gave me the perfect opportunity to practice my acting skills, which I studied in college. I tried my best to hide my disgust when they served local vegetable dishes like dinengdeng and pinakbet, which, to me, looked like pig’s food. I pretended to smile and eat with gusto.
In December 1987, I became pregnant, and instinctively, I craved more fruits and vegetables. Instead of avoiding them, I found myself longing for them. I also stopped drinking coffee, soft drinks, sweets, and other processed foods. That’s when I discovered another benefit of a plant-based diet. I only had one bout of morning sickness and gave birth without experiencing any pain, no thanks to anesthesia. Pregnancy and childbirth were a breeze!
I learned to cook more nutritious meals for my child when she began eating solids. While breastfeeding, I enjoyed bowls of vegetable soups prepared by my mother-in-law. With all these healthy practices, my daughter didn’t experience any serious illnesses and was never hospitalized while growing up! She recovered quickly from fevers, coughs, or colds, usually after attending children's parties where she was exposed to non-vegan food.
In May 1991, I worked for an international NGO in Baguio City, which funded farmers’ organic farming projects. These farmers sold their produce to our office at reasonable prices, and their fruits and vegetables tasted so much sweeter than what was sold at the public market.
It was also during this time that I met a vegetarian who encouraged me to avoid meat but assured me that cheese and dairy products were good sources of protein and calcium. I followed her advice, incorporating organic fruits and vegetables into my meals, and began cooking and frying vegetarian meat. I still ate dairy products, but not in the excessive quantities I had grown up with. Instead of cow’s milk, I started making soy milk at home.
In 1993, I suffered another painful attack from my scoliosis, and an office mate encouraged me to see a doctor who promoted indigenous food. While advocating for fruits and vegetables, this doctor also suggested eating organically grown animals and fresh seafood. Rather than returning to eating animals, I became a vegan.
Later, I realized that being vegan also helps protect the environment! Even the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization have recognized this. In fact, the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines acknowledged that “a dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is more health-promoting and associated with a lesser environmental impact than the current average US diet.” Harvard School of Public Health even recommends consuming 8-13 servings of fruits and vegetables daily!
Best of all, a vegan diet is cruelty-free. After watching videos on the treatment of animals in industrial farms and their reactions to the prospect of death, I felt at peace knowing that no animal had to suffer for me to satisfy my palate. I also stopped buying products made from animal skin, leather, or supporting companies that conduct animal testing.
Over the years that I’ve adhered to a plant-based, sugar- and dairy-free diet (and avoided chemical food additives), I’ve noticed that I’ve conquered the severe, chronic illnesses that once plagued me:
As for my husband, he has conquered his malaria, rheumatic heart disease, gout, high blood pressure, bloody stools, and migraines with a plant-based, sugar-free diet. He even stopped smoking two packs of cigarettes a day! Although he had two bouts of Transient Ischemic Attacks (2001 and 2015), which were triggered by eating salty vegan food, he is now living healthier, with no need for maintenance drugs.
I wish all vegan dishes were inherently healthy, but that’s not always the case. It’s tempting to indulge in delicious yet unhealthy vegan food, and believe me, I enjoy eating as much as anyone else! I love cracking jokes (even if they’re corny) and don’t want to spoil the fun. But now, I choose to eat healthily to avoid getting hospitalized like I used to, or worse, dying like my best friend from elementary school who loved sisig, dinuguan, chicharon bulaklak, and ice cream. She suffered a stroke at age 45.
I hope this helps explain why I sometimes post health warnings about certain vegan foods. As a lactation consultant, I need to advise mothers with babies, as well as friends over 50, about healthy eating—especially those who were severely ill like I was.
Being vegan is ethical, but it’s important to practice it in a healthy, evidence-based way. I wouldn’t recommend unhealthy vegan food to anyone, because if someone gets sick, they might wrongly blame the vegan lifestyle instead of the unhealthy vegan food they consumed. That could tarnish the image of the vegan movement.
Yes, it’s vegan, but we must also ask: Is this food healthy? As a vegan, I believe it’s my responsibility to keep my body healthy. We don’t need to get sick or die in order to avoid eating animals. We need to live healthy lives to protect animals and inspire others to follow our example.
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (2004-2024)
I used to hate vegetables! Whenever my mother cooked a vegetable dish, I protested like an activist bravely challenging a dictatorship for human rights (though I hadn’t yet learned about animal rights). I adored her sinigang na manok sa sampalok (chicken in tamarind broth), adobo, bopis (pig's internal organs), fried chicken, shrimp crispies, and her 101 ways of cooking bangus (milkfish) and tilapia. Why should she force me to eat vegetables? It seemed so undemocratic!
Eating out meant gorging on grilled pork, sisig, dinuguan, beef kare-kare, isaw, chicken liver, gizzards, chicharon bulaklak, and, of course, more fried chicken with a bottle or two of Coke! Why would I waste money on vegetables?
We raised our own chickens and pigs in our backyard, and I helped my mother slaughter the chickens to either sell them or prepare a sumptuous meal. I loved cooking chicken and pork adobo, rich with fat!
My father worked for an ice cream company, and he filled our refrigerator with ice cream, milk, cheese, and butter! Since he enjoyed his ice cream at the factory where he maintained the freezing plant, we got to keep all those treats for ourselves. Birthdays weren’t marked by lavish parties, but we always had an ice cream cake. We also looked forward to days when my mother made milky iced candies to test a freezer she’d received for repair from one of my father’s clients. When he worked overseas, he sent us boxes of chocolates and cans of butter, which my mother complemented with processed meats and loads of cheese.
No wonder I was almost always sick! I lost track of so many doctor’s appointments, dextrose bottles, and blood tests. When I moved out to work for NGOs, I applied for social welfare cards in several hospitals to cut consultation and hospitalization costs. I was in and out of hospitals with severe illnesses that caused me immense pain. During those episodes, I often wished I could just die. One time, after an antibiotic injection near my wrist, the pain was so excruciating that the entire hospital heard me scream as it traveled up to my underarm. My husband was worried, but I was delirious with a high fever, unable to speak. This happened just a few days after our church wedding, and that’s how we spent our honeymoon.
In May 1985, I volunteered as a lay missionary for peasants living in poverty. It was a time of passion for “Serving the People” during the Marcos era. It was also during this time that my boyfriend introduced me to his parents—100% Ilocanos who loved meat but regularly had vegetable dishes on the table. Meal times at peasants’ homes or with my future in-laws gave me the perfect opportunity to practice my acting skills, which I studied in college. I tried my best to hide my disgust when they served local vegetable dishes like dinengdeng and pinakbet, which, to me, looked like pig’s food. I pretended to smile and eat with gusto.
In December 1987, I became pregnant, and instinctively, I craved more fruits and vegetables. Instead of avoiding them, I found myself longing for them. I also stopped drinking coffee, soft drinks, sweets, and other processed foods. That’s when I discovered another benefit of a plant-based diet. I only had one bout of morning sickness and gave birth without experiencing any pain, no thanks to anesthesia. Pregnancy and childbirth were a breeze!
I learned to cook more nutritious meals for my child when she began eating solids. While breastfeeding, I enjoyed bowls of vegetable soups prepared by my mother-in-law. With all these healthy practices, my daughter didn’t experience any serious illnesses and was never hospitalized while growing up! She recovered quickly from fevers, coughs, or colds, usually after attending children's parties where she was exposed to non-vegan food.
In May 1991, I worked for an international NGO in Baguio City, which funded farmers’ organic farming projects. These farmers sold their produce to our office at reasonable prices, and their fruits and vegetables tasted so much sweeter than what was sold at the public market.
It was also during this time that I met a vegetarian who encouraged me to avoid meat but assured me that cheese and dairy products were good sources of protein and calcium. I followed her advice, incorporating organic fruits and vegetables into my meals, and began cooking and frying vegetarian meat. I still ate dairy products, but not in the excessive quantities I had grown up with. Instead of cow’s milk, I started making soy milk at home.
In 1993, I suffered another painful attack from my scoliosis, and an office mate encouraged me to see a doctor who promoted indigenous food. While advocating for fruits and vegetables, this doctor also suggested eating organically grown animals and fresh seafood. Rather than returning to eating animals, I became a vegan.
Later, I realized that being vegan also helps protect the environment! Even the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization have recognized this. In fact, the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines acknowledged that “a dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is more health-promoting and associated with a lesser environmental impact than the current average US diet.” Harvard School of Public Health even recommends consuming 8-13 servings of fruits and vegetables daily!
Best of all, a vegan diet is cruelty-free. After watching videos on the treatment of animals in industrial farms and their reactions to the prospect of death, I felt at peace knowing that no animal had to suffer for me to satisfy my palate. I also stopped buying products made from animal skin, leather, or supporting companies that conduct animal testing.
Over the years that I’ve adhered to a plant-based, sugar- and dairy-free diet (and avoided chemical food additives), I’ve noticed that I’ve conquered the severe, chronic illnesses that once plagued me:
- Annual Malaria attacks (1985-1987)
- Episodes of Uterine Bleeding (1997, triggered by accidental seafood/organic yogurt/egg consumption)
- Scoliosis (painful since childhood, pain magically disappeared in 1983 when I went vegan and sugar-free)
- Chronic Nose Bleeding (since childhood)
- Chronic Respiratory Tract Infections (with one episode of Primary Complex)
- Kidney Infection (thanks to salty junk food like Chippy and Coca-Cola)
- Perennial Urinary Tract Infections
- Hepatitis A
- Hypotension
- Palpitations and Tremors (from several cups of coffee with excessive sugar)
- Headaches
- Stiff Neck and Shoulders
- Cramps
- Perennial Constipation
- Allergies (Rhinitis and Eczema)
As for my husband, he has conquered his malaria, rheumatic heart disease, gout, high blood pressure, bloody stools, and migraines with a plant-based, sugar-free diet. He even stopped smoking two packs of cigarettes a day! Although he had two bouts of Transient Ischemic Attacks (2001 and 2015), which were triggered by eating salty vegan food, he is now living healthier, with no need for maintenance drugs.
I wish all vegan dishes were inherently healthy, but that’s not always the case. It’s tempting to indulge in delicious yet unhealthy vegan food, and believe me, I enjoy eating as much as anyone else! I love cracking jokes (even if they’re corny) and don’t want to spoil the fun. But now, I choose to eat healthily to avoid getting hospitalized like I used to, or worse, dying like my best friend from elementary school who loved sisig, dinuguan, chicharon bulaklak, and ice cream. She suffered a stroke at age 45.
I hope this helps explain why I sometimes post health warnings about certain vegan foods. As a lactation consultant, I need to advise mothers with babies, as well as friends over 50, about healthy eating—especially those who were severely ill like I was.
Being vegan is ethical, but it’s important to practice it in a healthy, evidence-based way. I wouldn’t recommend unhealthy vegan food to anyone, because if someone gets sick, they might wrongly blame the vegan lifestyle instead of the unhealthy vegan food they consumed. That could tarnish the image of the vegan movement.
Yes, it’s vegan, but we must also ask: Is this food healthy? As a vegan, I believe it’s my responsibility to keep my body healthy. We don’t need to get sick or die in order to avoid eating animals. We need to live healthy lives to protect animals and inspire others to follow our example.
