The Unlikely Vegan: Marc and Kim from Chickpea and Bean

A couple that’s changing the world one recipe at a time while simultaneously instructing Food For Life classes and leading their own plant-based lives, Marc and Kim of Chickpea and Bean continue to inspire people from all walks of life to go vegan, while effectively guiding beginners through ‘how to be plant-based’. 

Marc and Kim of Chickpea and Bean

When becoming vegan over ten years ago, Marc noticed remarkable health improvements shortly after changing his eating habits. While Marc was able to lose weight and eliminate his medications for type 2 diabetes, Kim’s benefits ran deeper than physical health. Reflecting back on the first few months, Kim says, “The biggest health improvement I experienced was through emotional or mental health because I was really worried about Marc and what the future held for us.” After a few months of eating plant-based, Kim noticed her menstrual headaches that once interrupted her day now passed unnoticed, and that mole her doctor said looked suspicious disappeared. Marc and Kim soon became advocates for this lifestyle, and naturally began sharing their experience with friends and family. After realizing they wanted a more established platform, the couple created Chickpea and Bean. Their blog gave them the opportunity to respectfully help grow the vegan community in a more structured way. Kim tells us that even though the original goal of the diet was to save Marc, she believes she would have eventually become vegan by herself, since she was already familiar with animal advocacy and had her own experience with being vegetarian. Kim also felt motivated to create delicious vegan recipes in order to enjoy the journey together, and encourage Marc to continue taking care of himself.

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Marc's medications in 2011

Prior to adopting this new way of life, Marc faced some serious health challenges. Marc   suffered from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity, poor sleep, psoriasis, and frequent heartburn. Although many disregard junk food as an addiction, Marc admits every morning he would crave fast food, specifically the animal products responsible for his poor health like sausage, bacon, and eggs. In retrospect, Marc expresses “Addiction is very real and I don’t think it's any different from someone who’s addicted to drugs, alcohol, or nicotine.” 

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Marc playing football for the University of Michigan

In this case, we also see how Marc is a victim to his own childhood. Growing up in Southern Texas, meat and dairy played a prominent role in Marc’s diet. Although Marc's grandfather was a cotton, corn, and carrot farmer, they heavily consumed Mexican food made with animal products. Reflecting back on the environment he grew up in, Marc agrees that it is safe to say he is an ‘unlikely vegan’. “If you would have said to me ten years ago, ‘you’re not going to eat meat or dairy anymore,’ I would have thought you were crazy,” says Marc. The pressure to eat meat continued into Marc’s adult life when he played football for the University of Michigan. After speaking with Marc it is clear that the ‘protein myth’ is widely accepted by college athletic boards. When encouraging Marc to provide us with insight into how the college football community affected his eating habits, Marc says that he was fed and offered a lot of meat at the training table, "Coaches at all levels, junior high, high school and college, seemed to promote the idea that players needed to eat meat. " Unfortunately, when Marc’s physical activity plummeted after completing his football career, his health took a sharp turn too. Marc admits he was not surprised when his doctor disclosed his diagnoses. Marc has a long family history with issues like transplants, diabetes, heart attacks, blindness, and amputation, all from family members neglecting their health and creating poor habits. Although some may be quick to blame this devastating pattern on genetics, Marc defends his exceptional progress through a plant-based lifestyle saying, “The changes we saw in a matter of months, that’s not genes. Those changes are caused by lifestyle and the way we ate. The things we do everyday are responsible for our gene expression.” 
Marc and Kim continue to inspire people everyday through their appetizing recipes, moving classes, and successful stories shared through their website  Chickpea and Bean. We believe this generation and generations to come will be the next ‘likely vegans’. We are all capable of taking our health by the reins before we become a victim to previous generations, and before we start accepting the idea that it is normal to eat animal products. Marc and Kim come together to share, “If we can do it, anybody can. We are no more special than anybody seeing this, we are just people who decided to take part in this amazing journey.” 
   

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