07/03/2016
Today I have the great pleasure of introducing you to the amazing Samuels family that reside in sunny Cape Town. By using food to improve their health and reeducating themselves on what real food is they have been able to reverse life threatening illnesses. Adding two daughters to the mix they are teaching them the life lessons they have learnt to breed a new generation of conscious eating children. I hope you enjoy their story and it might just inspire you.
In their own words here are Roscoe and Lutfiah Samuels.
Question 1
Tell us about yourselves and where you come from?
We are Roscoe (30) and Lutfiah (29) Samuels, with 2 beautiful daughters, Qowlayah (6) and Sarah (2), From Kensington, Cape Town.
Roscoe is currently Store Manager to the Wellness Warehouse Gardens Centre store in Cape Town and has recently also been assigned as one of the Directors/Buyers for an upcoming Online store dealing with Natural health and household products, he also assists myself (Lutfiah) in his spare time with our Vegan food catering company called “The Yummy Vegan”. I (Lutfiah) also work for the Wellness Warehouse store Paddocks center as a Health Assistant when I’m not cooking up a storm.
We have been living a very successful Vegetarian/Vegan (Vegetarian first) lifestyle for the past 6 years, we as a family enjoy the outdoor lifestyle, doing things like Hiking, Camping, Going to the beach and eating good food majority of the time!
Question 2
Did you meet each other when you were both vegan
No, the decision to change our lifestyle over to Vegan came about just after the birth of our first daughter (6 years ago), it was Roscoe that made the first move an initiated a better lifestyle for his loved ones (as a Father should), it started with watching many “behind the scene” animal cruelty documentaries, such as “Farm to Fridge”, “Earthlings”, “Food inc” to name a few.
Roscoe was also VERY close to 150kg, suffering with health issues like Eczema, Psoriasis, Chronic heart and Cholesterol issues, we watched some more documentaries on health like “Fat, Sick and Nearly dead” and things just started making sense, the puzzle was slowly being put together, a soul calling was being answered.
Our transition was slow but we did it, the more we researched the more we understood so the more we could do. We went Vegetarian for approximately 1 year, which didn’t make much difference in the health scene because we lived on Cheese, Eggs and Milk (Not very healthy) and needless to say we weren’t doing much good for the animals either. Our Next step was to the “Extreme”, very drastic as I like to call it, Monday we were Vegetarian and by Tuesday we sold our Microwave and Stove and invested in a Dehydrator, Juicer and Blender, We went Raw! For 6 Months we did a Raw diet, living on Juice, Smoothies and Salad, by the end of the 6months, Roscoe had lost a total of 66kg (Yes 66kg In 6months!), his eczema and Psoriasis GONE, Chronic meds for his heart was never touched, we didn’t even bother to collect his prescription!
I had always been very slender and what people thought to be under-nourished or Anorexic, I always (as a teenager) suffered with Fibrositis (inflammation in the cartilage of my ribs, due to my weight, or so I was told by doctors), I was also Diagnosed with stage 1 Ovarian cancer just after Qowlayah was born, Needless to say 3 weeks of juicing, cancer cells had disappeared (Yes my Gyneacologist was in dis-belief too) likewise for the Fibrositis and all other health issues we had.
We had never felt better in our live, we felt alive, we felt like we were actually Living for the first time and It just felt AMAZING, we never looked back. We slowly transitioned back into eating cooked meals, for the sake of the kids (well not really but was not an easy road trying to explain to the rest of the family, especially the Grandparents why their Grand Children had a better chance at life being off Meat, Dairy, Fish etc. and because we both worked 6 days a week we depended on them to look after our girls for us), it was an on-going battle and till today sometimes still is! Our Girls are un-vaccinated ( Sarah completely and Qowlayah only received her 1st 2 vaccines after birth and before us doing more extensive research on it), none of us has seen the inside of a Doctors surgery in the last 3-4 years, we believe in the saying “Let your food be thy medicine and your medicine thy food” and we are living proof thereof.
Question 3
Being parents raising vegan children how do you handle non vegan events with non-vegan kids?
We often avoid it if and where we can, for the mere fact that unfortunately the world we live in today, being Vegan you get looked at as being “different” and not necessarily a good kind of different, I don’t want our girls ever feeling “out of place”. When we do attend any of these, I would ask the Parents of the party what they’re having as snacks, treats or food and then make the Vegan version of it. Its hasn’t always been fun having to explain to a 5 year old why they can’t have the “party packet” filled with all the “Nice” things. Qowlayah, at her age now is very understanding and would often tell kids at parties or school that they’re going to get sick if they eat all that MSG (haha), she knows we do it because we Love her and that mommy and daddy would never do anything to harm her in any way so she trusts us, without question (most times there are questions though, but questions are necessary because that’s how they grow)
Question 4
Having a Vegan business what are the positives to this market and what are some of the strangest food requests you get?
The way in which our world is moving, the way people are awaking to the needs of themselves, one another and our planet it is more evident now than ever before that living / embracing this type of lifestyle can and will only bring positive change, through our food we bring people together, we bring understanding and we bring Love..something our world is in dire need of.
There hasn’t been any particular strange requests for food, however there was one lady needed Vegan food made but could not eat a variety of things, she was, Gluten free, sugar free, nut free, soy free, oil free, corn free and could not eat spices such as pepper, cayenne, paprika... the list went on… so with all of that a meal for her was quite a challenge to put together.
Question 5
What have your kids taught you about being vegan?
Vegan means Love, Compassion, being kind, being thoughtful, being aware of your actions, not only towards yourself but to every living being around you. These are the basics we enlighten our children with, having them understand that this way of life is an act of Love stemming from deeper than just these physical bodies we are in, it comes from the Soul and if everybody lived from the Soul the world as we know it would be a better place.
I’d just like to mention that we have started a hash tag on our fb page where we’d like people to tell us what being vegan means to them, it’s a way of changing the “negative” connotation which veganism as a whole has attached to it. Vegans are often seen as opinionated individuals who enforce their lifestyles very negatively upon every person they meet and if you’re a “meat eater” we will not look at you. Which is infact very far from the truth; Vegans are kind hearted individuals who actually care enough about themselves and others to live this lifestyle.
Question 6
Which three locally produced products can’t your family live without?
This is a tricky one to answer, because we’re “Wholefoodist”, A lot of our foods are imported, due to the nature of the products. Things like our Superfood powders are a daily need and we simply CANNOT live without it, they include Powders such as Green Vibrance (which is 77 ingredient formula which you could literally live off), Maca, Baobab, Spirullina, H**p etc
Cold-pressed Virgin coconut oil, Avocado’s and Banana’s MUST haves in our home daily.
Question 7
What can parents at home do today to teach their children about veganism?
Depending on the age of the child, you can start with things like, making sure you get them to eat “correctly” it’s important to start this at an early age as you’re literally programming their little bodies into recognizing what “food” is. Kids who have not eaten a lot of greens for example as a child find it harder to adapt to tastes of “natural” foods and parents often struggle at a later age should they want to introduce this lifestyle.
For the older kids, explain to them what Veganism is actually about, Love and Do no harm, to yourself or others, I’ve never met any child who enjoyed seeing pain inflicted upon any animal. Show them what these animals go through on our farms, a lot of parents will not agree with this, but at the end of the day it’s the reality of it and there are subtle ways to do it in.
Question 8
Where can we find you?
Find us at The Old Biscuit Mill - Neighbourgoods Market every Saturday between 9am - 2pm
You can also contact us on our page - The Yummy Vegan or email [email protected] for any orders or special catering requests you may have.
