During 2026, ’Lay it on the Line’, a collaboration of seven international writers, explores the theme ‘Rethinking Our Relationship With The Natural World’.
We write a letter to each other via Substack and each month one of us responds to the previous letter and passes the conversation forward.
Here, I respond to Stacy Boone and address my letter to Donna Fisher.
Dear Donna
It’s spring here in Scotland and everything is growing like crazy. We’ve had the perfect mix of rain and sun. A few months back we installed a polytunnel to get a head start on vegetable production—I’ve sown lots of seeds.
The season will be different in eastern Australia, your part of the world. And, although we’ve never met, I feel the warmth of your friendship which has grown since we started writing together in our collaboration ‘Lay it on the Line’. This year’s project—this circular letter, from me to you, from you to Bee, and so it goes round, then back to Julia who started us off—is a creative high-point in my writing calendar.
In March, in Letter #1, Julia wrote to Stacy from Sweden and focused her thoughts on seeds and seed banks. And when, in April, Letter #2 came to me from Stacy it felt like I was being invited to her homestead in rural Vermont, USA, and to the inner recesses of her mind as she took the idea of propagation and related it to the impact we humans have on nature and earth’s resources.
Now it’s my turn.
Gathering my thoughts on our chosen theme, ‘Rethinking Our Relationship With The Natural World’, I’m prompted by Stacy’s reference to growing her own food, to be specific and particular, and write about something personal. I’ve been thinking about how my body connects to the natural world; the most obvious way it does this is through diet. ‘We are what we eat’ is a common phrase and I do believe that diet affects our health and wellbeing.
I was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in 2020. It had metastasised and my consultant said surgery was the best route. He wielded his knife and we hoped for the best. At the time, medical data suggested that I had a 50:50 chance of survival.
Was there anything I could do for myself, to ensure I was the healthiest version of me? The doctors had nothing to offer other than, ‘go live your life’. They didn’t know if the surgery would be successful so perhaps this was good advice.
However, everything I read about diet pointed me towards change. If you’d asked me about plant-based eating pre-cancer I would have said it wasn’t for me, but the more I focused on my health and what I put into my body and the more I read research papers on carcinogens and hormones, the more I realised that a plant-based diet was absolutely the right thing to do. Not only would I personally benefit, the planet would too.
But could I totally give up all consumption of meat, dairy, and fish? Could I manage without butter? Cheese? Cake? The thought of never eating a cream gateau, or frying up bacon and eggs for a breakfast sandwich, made me anxious. Then I read more research and weighed up the options. If changing my diet could help me avoid the cancer coming back I’d be willing to forego such foodie delights.
I learned a lot from the dieticians at Monash University in Australia, Donna, and from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in the USA, but I won’t bore you with data, I know you’re well-versed, and there’s plenty available for anyone who wants to find out about plant-based eating. I studied the subject, and over the course of a few months, made my decision.
I would change from being a carnivore to eating a 100% whole food plant-based diet.
The biggest question I had was, ‘How do I ensure I get sufficient protein and the right mix of vitamins if I’m only eating plants?’
It turns out that it’s quite easy to get all the nutrients you need but you have to incorporate lots of beans, eating them daily, taking in a variety of legumes along with green leafy vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
My ‘go-to’ quick meals used to be scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast, and cheese and tomato sandwiches for lunch, so I had to rethink these meal breaks and find alternatives. Nowadays I enjoy porridge made from oats and soya milk with berries and nuts for breakfast, or a slice of seeded sourdough toast and jam. And for lunch I often eat a salad or make a hot snack meal with potatoes or mushrooms and a fine dollop of mustard or ketchup. Dinners are easy—lots of veggies cooked different ways. I love a good curry so I eat that at least once a week.
The only supplement required is vitamin B12. I hadn’t heard much about B12 before, but it’s important. Because we tend to wash our vegetables clean of all dirt it means we don’t get the necessary microorganisms we need from the soil. People who eat meat get their B12 mainly because animals pick it up in their diet and it filters through. I’ll be pulling carrots from the garden this year so I might get some B12 along with beta-carotene, but supermarkets are where most of us get our veggies and we expect them to be pre-packed and perfectly scrubbed.
It took about three months to change my habits and make sure I was buying a wide variety of foods—variety is recommended. And it took about six weeks to get used to eating more beans than before. The flatulence was real. But my body adjusted. Now there’s no problem at all. In fact, my digestive system seems to be quite content. I never have that over-full feeling after eating. Never have the need to lie down after a meal. Quite the opposite. I feel energised and want to get up and do things after food.
Plants agree with me. The extra fibre I’m getting means all the bodily functions run smooth. My skin and hair and nails are good. The blood tests I have at the doctors show excellent results. And although I haven’t lost any weight I don’t have to worry about over eating or counting calories. If you keep away from the vegan processed foods and keep the oil intake low, it’s quite possible to eat as much as you like without adding pounds to the waistline.
And, most significantly, the cancer hasn’t come back. Is this due to my diet? I will never know.
In comparison to the UK, Donna, I think food is quite expensive in Australia. How do you find it? Here, fruits and vegetables are reasonable, certainly not as expensive as meat and fish and cheese, so I’ve saved a lot of money on groceries. A bag of dried lentils or chickpeas or black beans will last me ages. And a bag of brown rice or pea pasta goes a long way. And they all store well so there’s no waste. I use the freezer when there’s a glut of vegetables reduced in price in the supermarket. And here in Scotland we have a patch of land to grow our own so I’m getting my hands dirtier these days, what with pricking out seedlings, and planting them into their growing positions. I get closer to nature every day, in every way…
It makes me think that if only everyone could adopt a plant-based diet then the world would be a better place. Livestock farming accounts for a good percentage of methane and CO₂ emissions and so much land is needed for the animals we slaughter for meat and for those we breed for milk and cheese production. Imagine if we could use this land to grow crops for humans to eat, wouldn’t that be more efficient? And we’d reduce the amount of water needed; I hear that producing 1kg of beef uses roughly 15,000 litres of water compared to around 1,800 litres for 1kg of wheat.
I have to admit that the benefits to the planet were not my main motivation in changing to a 100% plant-based diet, but knowing now that it has the lowest environmental footprint of all dietary patterns, I feel happy that I made this choice. And it is a choice. Sometimes in social situations it isn’t easy to get food without meat or fish or dairy, and since I’m not allergic or intolerant to any particular foods it would be easy to relent when I look at a restaurant menu and see vegetarians catered for but not vegans. In most cases, though, the chef will provide something for me.
As you know I moved to Scotland last year, and being vegan here is definitely more difficult than in England; I seem to be an oddity. Whenever I’m at the village hall for a social event, the kind volunteers who prepare coffee and cake have got to know me and make sure there’s something for me to eat while others enjoy scones with butter, cream and jam, or slices of rich chocolate cake.
A plate of chips (French fries) has always been a good stand-by for me but I’ve been surprised—in this part of Scotland they use animal fat to fry the potatoes instead of vegetable oil! In England they stopped using animal fat in restaurants and fish and chip shops a long time ago due to the detrimental effect on our health.
I also carry a supply of oat milk sachets so I can have a cup of tea with milk because not every coffee shop stocks plant milk. And I usually take a nut bar in my bag in case I cannot get a quick snack in town. Having said that, there are plenty of options in the supermarket for plant-based meals.
All veggies are delicious, my taste buds are turned on by them—I couldn’t go back to eating meat, I don’t think I could tolerate it. Occasionally, the vision of boiled eggs with buttered toast, or crackers spread thickly with goats cheese, comes to mind. Then, I think about the cancer and there’s really no contest. I go grab a juicy orange, or take a bar of dark chocolate from the fridge.
It’s nearly time for me to go and check the polytunnel. I need to water every day and cosset these vegetables. We’re growing tomatoes, chillies, carrots, cucumbers, courgettes (zucchini), lettuce and all sorts of salad leaves. It’s like being in the Mediterranean in there. It’s light and warm. I’ve set up a few chairs and a radio. When it’s blowy and cold outside I can still enjoy gardening. In the field we’ve planted potatoes, Calabrese, purple sprouted broccoli, onions, garlic, and parsnips. And we have a fruit orchard with apples and plums and lots of soft fruits. Harvest time is going to be wild! We’re already pulling rhubarb!
My relationship with the natural world has changed over the last six years. It is shaped by my personal circumstances—my health and the fact that we can grow our own food here.
As I bring this letter to a close I want to say ‘thank you’ to Stacy for her encouragement and her solid views about nature and the human influence, and ask you, Donna, for your thoughts. How is your diet shaped by where you live? How do you relate to the natural world?
Much love
Yasmin x
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Credits, Notes, and Links
Images above my own.
The ‘Lay it on the Line’ banner was designed by Bee Lilyjones.
Our year-long letter exchange is between seven writers: Julia Adzuki, Stacy Boone, Yasmin Chopin, Donna Fisher, Bee Lilyjones, Amanda C Sandos and Julie Snider.
Follow and subscribe to any or all of us and join the conversation. We welcome your contribution.
Read Letter #1 from Julia Adzuki to Stacy Boone: ‘Resisting a Rest or Going to Seed’.
Read Letter #2 from Stacy Boone to me: Dimming Light, Sowing Our Own Seeds.
See more of our collaborative work here: Lay it on the Line.
For ‘3 reasons to go vegan’ and lots of advice about eating a plant-based diet see PCRM. Also, the Exam Room podcast is an excellent source of information.
As always, I look forward to chatting in the comments.
How would you respond to this letter?
Thank you for the wonderful letter Yasmin and for sharing your journey. I’m so glad you found a path to wellness.
You’ve given me a great deal to think about, and certainly has made me notice a lot of differences in attitudes to food while I’m back in the UK visiting from Australia. 💚
Yasmin, what a wonderful letter you have written to Donna. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the LiotL collaboration is the slowness, the gentle wait for communication that feels like it is being sent the old way – in a bag on the side of the horse making its way across the country. Time elapses, and so much changes in the time of a month. Gardens are beyond the sowing and into the growth stretch. Temperatures are rising and water is being regulated.
You offer an option for how to change one’s relationship with the land through the choice of a plant-based diet. Plate choices that include vegetables and beans, and how those can be sufficient for all your necessary vitamins and minerals. The more time you spend in the garden the less your need for the B12 will be. A simple swipe across the face to wipe away sweat fills your mouth with soil. 🌱
I look forward to how you progress with the learning curve of growing foods in Scotland and how you are able to process those foods for later consumption.