Interview with Founder of Vegan Con Fa

Interview discussion through question and answer session with Fathima Torres on benefits and entrepreneurial inspiration of promoting responsible and healthy lifestyle through vegan cuisine.

Can you give us a little background behind your decision to go 100% vegan? I was not looking to become vegan, it was the last thing on my mind. As a matter of fact, I had friends who were vegan before I became one and I was one of those to critique their choice of being vegan. At first, I became vegan because of health reasons. After a fasting of 21 days doing the Daniel Fasting, I became very ill due to a piece of meat that I ate and that was the beginning of everything. After the doctor confirmed that I was sick because of the chicken breast I ate after my system was cleaned, I decided not to eat meat ever again. It has been 6 years since then. I took about 2 years to make a full transition into veganism.

What are some of the changes you experienced while following a vegan diet? It is important to clarify that being vegan is a philosophy that you adopt as your lifestyle, it is not a diet. At first, I did not know which changes I was going to experience, I did realize that I was feeling my best because I was eating cleaner and then I noticed my weight going down, I have lost 65 pounds since I became vegan; my skin is cleaner; I sleep better; my cholesterol is the lowest in about 20 years, I don’t suffer from migraines any more; I don’t have to take medicine for depression, as a matter of fact, my depression is fully gone. Those are some of the changes that I have experienced since I became vegan.

What is the difference between vegan and vegetarian diets?

Veganism is the abstention of consuming products in any form of animal based foods such as clothes, makeup, cleaning product, personal care items, etc. So if you want to focus on the “diet” side of the lifestyle the difference is that a vegan person doesn’t consume anything that is animal based for example eggs, animal based milk (“regular” milk); meat, fish, seafood. Whereas, the vegetarian does consume some animal-based products. Vegetarians do eat eggs while refusing to eat meat, do eat fish and seafood; those are some of the basic differences.

Can you tell us about your latest endeavor Vegan con Fa? Cooking has always been a passion of mine. I love the opportunity that I have in the kitchen to create through spices, produce while creating some fantastic items that are so simple. When I became vegan, I opened my account on Instagram and my sister Paola gave me the idea of the name Vegan with Fa and that was the original name of the account. Soon I realized that while there was information in English about it, there were not as many in Spanish. Furthermore, back home (Dominican Republic) the concept of veganism was just being introduced, however, the information available was close to none and so that’s when the idea of creating a Spanish channel came to life.

But, Vegan con Fa is more than an Instagram account. I offer workshops, speak at conferences, offer vegan cooking classes to the Latin community across Latin America. My goal is to offer a healthier option for people to consider. It is not my intention to force the lifestyle because those are personal decisions. My intention is to present you fun options, easy and attractive enough that you would like to try making the dishes at home.

How can you advise others who may want to transition to a vegan diet but may feel reluctant to the taste and texture of certain foods?Unless you don’t try it, you won’t know how good, tasting and wonderful vegan food is. I host a monthly tasting in New York City and most of the attendees are non-vegan. At first they were kind of skeptical to try the food and now they are the most faithful attendees to the gatherings. My advice is, try one dish at a time and do not rush to try everything at once. This is not a competition. Food is supposed to be fun. Ask your vegan friends to prepare something for you; 1 week try something for breakfast, then another week a vegan lunch then another week a vegan dinner…

Take your time to transition if you are considering transitioning to veganism. For example, cook 1 vegan meal a week then try 1 vegan meal a week. Take your time, meet yourself where you are in this journey of trying veganism.

Would you be able to provide some simple steps and guidelines for those who are interested in following a vegan lifestyle?

Educate yourself, that is important. Once you let your network know that you are moving to veganism, everyone would like to give you their opinions. Make the transition because you want to, that’s what
matters. Some non-vegans are concerned with protein. We consume about 70% more of the protein that we are supposed to consume on a daily basis. So this should not be a concern for anyone. Other simple steps in educating yourself is to look at eating with a different lens… you only have 1 life, 1 body, treat both well and with respect.

Do not make unrealistic changes. For example, some people tend to make all the transition at once and in less than a year they are back to square one. Be realistic, stick to your plan and as I mentioned before, transition by changing 1 meal at a time. See // www.instagram.com/veganconfa/