 Welcome to healthy planet everyone the show for people who care about their health and the health of the planet on think tech live streaming network series I'm your host Dr. Grace O'Neill joining me today in the studio are liza and denis On viewing of seven vegans hawaii today. We're going to talk about how they are raising their family vegan So let's get into it. Um, how did you guys become vegan? How long have you been vegan for? Um, we started off being while I was vegetarian before I met Dennis so and then I don't know we just decided Because it just hit us one day like oh Why why were eating animals? It's not good for us and whatnot and it was more for the animals in our health Yeah, we felt bad for the animals, but growing up that's all we saw because we're Filipino There was something different. So we got a lot of backlash We had kids husbands Everyone's like, okay. Are you going to continue with this so-called phase of your guys, you know But we continued with it. I know how we started. I know how we started Well, he knows the whole story maybe better than I do Go ahead Dennis. You go for it. Then you go for um Well, we we went vegetarian first, right? Um, I I think it hit me Especially first when uh, we had a dog, right? We bought Yeah, we had a puppy And you know, we would take our dog you know everywhere, you know, this is when it was you know, we were in the amyland And we would take our dog everywhere, right? We go outside that face to eat and we just have our dog with us And it was just weird because it's like, okay. We have an animal But we're eating animals So that's where it kind of hit me like oh a while, you know, like this kind of weird, you know Like I have a pet, you know that we love and we take care of And we're eating animals, you know, so like that was kind of weird. So I think that's when we started to become, you know, the vegetarian and then As you start to have a family and grow that we start to explore, you know, um being a vegan and By the time we had our third child That was when I went full vegan Yeah, so your third child and afterward Because you have five kids, right? They were all raised vegan from birth then um our Yes, our first two were raised in the vegetarian and then yeah when we had our third kid Yeah, we're all vegan And that's when we went that's when we actually Explore, you know to raise our kids Kind of being vegan because you know, we just like hey, you know, let's try to go full vegan and You know, that's where we started, you know, like changing our food, you know, completely meaning like no dairy at all. No butter No cheese and yeah, that was Yeah, that was quite a long time ago How many years has it been? Uh, but almost 10 years. Oh great. That's wonderful Yes, so how about the kids like the kids that were vegetarian? Were they vegetarian the older kids? Were they vegetarian from birth or Were they yeah, they were vegetarian from birth. So yeah Do they ever wonder what it's like to eat an animal? Do they ever have to try or? Oh, no, no, no, they they've never asked to try like definitely had dev never asked, you know, we we You know, we always you know, they show them a you know like Each time you eat, you know, let me this is what we do to the animal where you know, they're actually getting killed They're taking away the milk of a calf And so far so they so, you know, they're and like our kids are very Unpassionate about it, you know, they understand, you know, we don't shelter it from them at all about how you know Like the animal cruelty is, you know, we just show them I don't know how it is and and their kids themselves. So, you know so now, you know, they're I mean, sometimes we joke with them right when they get in trouble from us, you know, we're gonna give you this You know the animal product and they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no Oh, you know, but yeah, they're yeah, our kids are very compassionate about it. You know, they you understand You know, like what it is if you eat an animal or have animal byproducts, you know And we volunteered to allow a sanctuary as well. So they see the animals there. Yeah You have some pictures from that? Yeah, yeah Do you know what number slide is or is it Eric? It's in the beginning. There you go. Yeah That's gonna keep giving giving her, um, adjustment Uh-huh. Oh, wow. You give adjustments to animals too. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah My gosh, how often do you go to volunteer? Oh, it's been a while Yeah, but we went a few times. Uh, what was it? October for the holiday. Yeah. Yeah How long has it been that you guys have been going to the aloha animal sanctuary? Has it opened up? We were one of the first ones that helped open it up. Oh nice Yeah, that's great. That's a great experience for the kids. Yeah It's totally like volunteer And then we came on. Yeah Yeah, that's wonderful So how about at school? What do the kids eat at school? Do you pack their lunches? What kind of do they have anything available and like cafeteria at school for the kids? Oh, you know I shouldn't think so Um We have to um meal prep. So our meal prep is basically like cooking all their meals every day I'm packing it up for them. Yeah. It must take hours. I mean five kids um I mean, it helps to plan ahead. You know to know what we're gonna make for them Or yeah Or we give them like a heads up. Hey, you know, we're gonna have pasta for lunch Yeah, and croissants in the morning. So we kind of just plan it You know, that way there's no like, okay. Now we're out five o'clock in the morning. What are we gonna feed them? You know, yeah Yeah Oh, yeah, we um, you know, let's make sure that they have food for them and snacks for them as well Oh, we don't feel like that's out You know, like we bake them cookies or brownies Wow What kind of dishes I mean besides, you know, the desserts like what kind of stuff Would they bring say for lunch today or yesterday, you know, what kind of things do they commonly do? You have like a rotating schedule of the things that you have them eat or what are common things that You know, just so people who might be wanting to You know, we do like today they had spaghetti What is that? Oh, nice Then we do the spam musubi You know, burgers nugget. Oh nice Kind of like kid food. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah kid food. Yeah veggies and the sky is kind of thing Yeah, exactly. Is that how your business started from feeding your kids? So you decided to Yes Exactly because it was so hard to like feed all of us And we want they want the kids to feel left out So we just basically like Veganized a lot of the foods that we couldn't eat that wasn't very readily available Right Dennis. Yeah So, um, you have some pictures right of some of the food that you guys make. Yeah There you go. What's this one? What's this one? Is that kitchen kawali and the foodie kaki um salmon? Nice. Yeah What do you make the salmon from? I'm curious Whole food It looks realistic, right? It does it does Yeah, yeah, because yeah, we should like eating salmon Before, you know, we went completely vegan and vegetarian. So Yeah, so we'd always have Something like that. Yeah But that one is that shrimp That's like that was inspired by Giovanni and all the shrimp trucks here That's the um garlic Garlic shrimp. Yeah garlic shrimp. Oh nice And did you make that shrimp yourself or where did you get this shrimp? A vegco Yeah, that's great Yeah, so yeah, so yeah, like there's a lot of food that's available Mm-hmm. You know to make whatever you kind of like, you know, like in the past, you know Now, um Dennis, you're a chiropractor, correct? Yes So do you incorporate Your, you know, plant-based philosophy, you know into your practice at all? Yeah, I try to um I should do I I should You know people because it's like a lot of people who come to my office If you can't have joint pains and whenever and when they have joint pain, you know, um eating meat products does the accelerate joint pains gal You know the arthritis so I so I can you know if if you want the pain Be so fast or away faster try to minimize your you know animal intake or eat less meat, so I don't So I won't try to push on them, but I try to kind of like make you think about it that way. If it's animal products Your joint pains will become less And that should help out the adjustment hold her less longer. Yeah, so they try to let me understand it and you know Must say oh yeah, I eat this thing now And my am I buying for the whole lot better, you know, I feel lighter Have less knee pain, so you know You know that way, you know, I kind of if you really introduce The other side of not just eating just animals is actually you know again in the Filipino culture Everything is made with meat Yeah And and you tend to forget about the vegetables, you know, yeah, even though like Filipino foods have a lot of vegetables It's also like a very big Yeah, like lechon Yeah So how when you tell patients about that, is there some kind of resistance from them? Do you find they're resistant to it? Do you? um they It it kind of depends I guess, um It's more of the age Like younger people kind of tend to be more like thoughtful or yeah the resistant and then they'll they'll think about it and then They'll they'll you might come back. So yeah, you know, I've been doing that more I've kind of taking your advice but the older people they're actually more Open to it. I guess. Oh really? Yeah, from my spirit. Yeah Yeah from my experience So, um, yeah, I think You know, I don't try to push on them, but I kind of just had to mention it and I thought hey if you want the adjustments to hold longer and last longer Less ammo You know products that always better for your body and in the long run, you know Yeah, I don't want to tell them. Hey, if you keep eating meat, you're gonna get a heart attack You know, I don't ask you to look at you know, I want to just be Yeah, yeah, I kind of want to slowly introduce it and then when they want to talk more about it then Yeah, you know, I'll come back and I'll start to talk more about Okay, you know, okay. Yeah, that's But yeah, I don't try to push it like heavy Yeah, I think um, you know, why don't you tell everybody where you're located and where um Liza also runs the pop-up from southern beacons hawaii That way people know Yeah, well my practice is in IAL and IH drive You know, there's an IAL medical building. That's where I practice And I've been there for about since 2008. I've been practicing for a while there in the same building And yeah, I've seen like a lot of patients come by come off this And uh Liza, why don't you talk about the pop-ups that you do and You know how they can find you on instagram and everything Our pop-ups are basically out of our chiropractic office as well To find us on instagram it's seven seven vegans underscore hi And I normally post our pop-ups like two days two three days in advance I mean, I I love the way I mean she's she's so flexible. I'll tell you that um, you know, because I'm So, um, it's great, you know, um, I really like the she makes little They're kind of like fried chicken from um, what did you make them from again? They were from If I open in a blossoms, that's right. Yeah, and they were delicious. Yes, I highly recommend Find something like that I'll say the tiramisu is very very good though. I don't think it's gluten-free, but it's very good Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can make the gluten-free also. Oh, you can. Oh, okay Yeah, yeah, just change the flour. Yeah. Yeah, it's very good. Um, and she'll just take everything too Yeah, we do all our cakes our cakes to be made gluten free as well Yeah, and just ice cream cakes, which is great because I mean, I haven't had an ice cream cake You know, I hadn't had one. I ordered one from her. I hadn't had one since I was a kid and we went to carvel I just remember those memories. Obviously, I don't want to have ice cream again It gives me massive diarrhea because I'm lactose intolerant. So, you know, I'm not going to be eating that anymore But right to have another option, you know So, uh, yeah Anyway, um, I didn't want to ask. I think a lot of People I I'm wondering if you ever get flak for raising your kids vegan from the community Like how could you do that, you know, or people saying like, you know, the kids, you know, aren't getting good nutrition or something like that I mean, they're obviously Misinformed people, but how do you respond to something like that? um We used to get flak for it But not anymore or or maybe I just choose to ignore what people say Yeah, but, you know, um, yeah, I think we get flak from our like our parents Yeah, but, you know, we just I was the worst one Yeah, we just choose our kids vegan Yeah, but you know, yeah, but they don't give us flak anymore anymore Because they see that they're healthy and they're thriving and they're smart They're excelling in school and all their activities and they hardly get sick and pray to Other non-vegan kids Yeah, I mean, how are they compared to like their cousins and everything? um I don't know because um They don't get sick as much. Well, I mean probably what understand or know that they don't get as sick as They do I think yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and the kids in school probably too, you know, yeah How about the kids in school? I mean, what do they how do they react to your kids being vegan? Like What do your kids say? Other kids they actually don't get any, um, they don't got teeth or anything. They're very open to it We're lucky the teachers and all the staff members. They're very open Yeah, they ask us if they have snacks for them. They ask us beforehand like, oh, could they have this If there's a lot of like accidental commercial brands too Yeah, they ask us like, oh, could they have this or I'm gonna go get them something at down to earth for them So they're very accommodating Oh, that's great. Yeah. So yeah, yeah for kids. I think it's not a problem for them So like they're not being bullied like about their dietary habits at all. So Yeah, um, and sometimes, you know, we actually give like their classmates snacks or cookies or cupcakes And and they actually like it Of course they do I mean they they can't even tell that it is or not Yeah, no, of course not. Yeah Yeah, that's great. I mean, I think I wish more people would be willing to their children be it. I think it's helpful that you're doing that Really special especially five children. My gosh Did you both grow up here in Hawaii? I did I did not I grew up in california. Oh, okay. How did you guys meet? Dennis? Yeah, apparently he knew how we turned Vegas. So let's see how he knows how we met That's your story. No, see we're waiting Maybe for another day Okay, make it short Dennis Um, well, we met a long time ago Because our parents like they I know each other they're friends So when I was here, I was going to college They they came to Hawaii for a visit with her with her whole family and We met and yeah Yeah, we met like a long time ago when our parents introduced us to each other and Yeah, I guess the rest is history Yeah I guess he got partial Our moms went to high school together back in the Philippines That's cool. And they had a class reunion in 1997 So we have so they reunited they were they didn't keep in touch. They only reunited back when it was 1997 After they graduated from high school, which is I don't know when what year he graduated But they met again in 1997. So my family and I became here for vacation and his family is from here So they said, oh, they met up, you know friends want over through unite and whatnot. Oh, I have a daughter I have a son. Let's try to put them together What So at first we were just like being stopped towards each other and What not so they're like, oh too bad it didn't work out But secretly we were writing to each other and calling each other behind your back They were found that's cool. That's wonderful. So you're kind of set up in a way um You call that Kind of but no, I mean like it wasn't pushed or anything. Yeah, I didn't think it was going to work out. It wasn't yeah Yeah, and we didn't grow up knowing each other. So yeah, I've never heard of her until I met her first time How'd you make the long distance work? um Letter writing oh cool and pals letter writing Nice, um time calls because only back then you only had line landline. Oh, no Don't be like, I'll call you on Friday at this time That's awesome Yeah, and on the top of that you actually had to adjust your hours. So if I see two o'clock here It's maybe five or four o'clock there. Yeah So it's not like a cell phone nowadays. Like, okay, I'm gonna call you now or text you now. Yeah So liza, when did you move to hawaii then like how how did you finally decide you're gonna make a move? um Our oldest actually when she was one years old we decided to move here to start his chiropractic office Practice. Yeah. Yeah So did you were was dent uh dentists living in california then? Yes. Yes Sorry, he went to california Like shortly after we met To his college career Yeah, yeah He went to college and chiropractic school in california where i was And then we after he graduated from chiropractic school, we got married like that same year Um, yes. Yeah. Yeah a few months later We got married and then we had our daughter a year later and a year later we decided to move to hawaii nice So did you uh when you you work in dentists's office? Is that correct liza and also do the business as well? Yes Yeah, and I went to school for um respiratory therapy and oh you did Yes, so I have a degree in that but um, we decided that that I take a break from that Help great, you know be there for the kids. Yeah. Yeah Especially five kids What when you um When you grew up in uh, did you grow up in la or where exactly? Um bay area Oh, okay northern california. Mm-hmm. What are your favorite vegan restaurants there? Just There weren't many when we were there, right? Yeah. Yeah, there was none. That's what there was, you know More like vegan options, but we went to trade shows a lot You know for sure because they were kind of starting to open up More options for the vegans Oh, there were no vegan restaurants back then. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah I mean things have really changed even. Oh, yeah, definitely. There's so many possibilities There's and there's you know these pop-ups like you guys have a pop-up and there's so many others too on the island I know what's it like this back then? Yeah, I know So, I mean it's just it's so easy being vegan now. I feel like it's it is it is I mean like back then like when first started You know, we we had our tofu's and okay, I'm gonna work with this. Yeah But now, you know, there's so much options for tofu's now Make it taste good Yeah, I know Were you swayed to become vegan by lisa or I'm definitely not really. Um, no, definitely not because okay when when I did meet her He was so mean Yeah, so when I did meet her she of course, I was a you know, vegan or vegetarian But she was vegetarian and I just was I don't know. I just was like Turned off and buy it I guess you know, so But But But years later, you know after you know, when I was graduating chiropractic school, I started to understand more about hell This benefit and how Eating good is is actually better for your body. And so that's where the journey kind of started, you know, that's wonderful. Yeah, how inspiring I was the type to make fun of vegans or vegetarians. He was mean Yeah, I was actually that type And you know, um, you know, I regret you know doing it but Yeah, I'm vegan myself now Almost 10 years Um, okay. Well, thank you guys so much. We're out of time and we'll have to wrap it up. Thank you I'm dr. Grace O'Neill. This is healthy planet on think tech live streaming network series We've been talking with lisa and denis from doing of seven vegans Hawaii about raising their family vegan Thanks to all of you for being here. Thanks to eric our broadcast engineer and the rest of the duet Think tech for hosting our show and thanks to you our listeners for listening. I'll see you on February 3rd for more of healthy planet on think tech the show for people who care about their health And the health of our planet our next show features guest dr Ruth hydra author of a race for life marathon or tri athlete well known for her appearance in forks overnight If you have ideas for the show, please contact me at healthy planet think tech at gmail.com Check out my website at grace in hawaii.com for more information On my projects including future show guests. I'm dr. Grace O'Neill. Aloha everyone