Vegans Before It Was Cool: Growing Up With the Seventh-Day Adventists

“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

My mother and her hippie-commune-mates in the ’70s. Photos courtesy of Beth Carpenter

I grew up ensconced in the world of the Seventh-Day Adventist church, a safe space from jewelry, dancing, and animal products. As in other churches with their own school systems, their own schedules, their own unique lifestyle rules, and even their own diet, it was insular, cocooned. Neighbor kids were the only non-Adventists I knew. I was homeschooled. And the symbol of my isolation was tofu.

Me (left) and my family, around 1998.

“Normal kids” in the United States did not eat tofu. They probably wouldn’t have even known what was food in my kitchen. Bragg’s. Brewer’s yeast. Stevia. Vegesalt. Even the things you might recognize were subtly off: hot dogs you could eat straight from the can and cheese that might look like cheese but tasted subtly nutty and wouldn’t melt. And, in the refrigerator, blocks and blocks of something resembling feta, but very different: tofu.

In my mother’s world of food, tofu was cheese, eggs, meat, thickener, panacea, and protein guarantor. Soy products, tofu included, were the foundation of our cuisine, the chicken in our refrigerator.