Why should I go VEGAN??

naschulze

That question has been rolling around in my head lately (for various reasons) and this post is for those people that really want to know why some choose to go vegan. I have just made the decision to go vegan, for not only my health but the health of animals and the health of the world. Before judging my decision, think about why you eat meat in the first place. Protein can be found in all sorts of vegan foods and humans can live perfectly well off a vegan diet with no unhealthy side effects (on the contrary the side effects are healthier).

So WHY eat it? the only reason is because we like to and we always have. And those are perfectly good reasons, but the meat and dairy industries are no longer what they used to be. Demand for meat is so high that animals are treated like non-living things, put through so much pain and torture its excruciating. The world is suffering from the animal wastes and the methane/CO2 they release into the air (in fact switching to a vegan diet has more a more positive effect on the environment than switching to an electric car). Our health is also suffering from eating these unhealthy (steroid filled) animals. In fact, most people who go vegan see a significant lowering of their blood pressure, cholesterol and weight without exercise.

I just want people to THINK before they eat, especially people on here that are trying to make dieting decisions for the better. Today it's even easier to go vegan because there's a vegan substitution for almost every kind of meat and dairy product available.
I feel strongly that the more people that go vegan (or at least eat less meat) the lower the demand will be for meat, less animals will have to die (or be bred to die) and the healthier we'll all be.

To (at the very least) be more educated, watch the movie Vegucated (on Netflix). It's an interesting documentary that gives some great detail on the 'whys' and 'hows' of becoming vegan. Trust me when I say most people don't really know the real reasons that people become vegans until they watch this movie. It's worth it.

I welcome thoughts from vegans and meat eaters alike

BurtHuttz

Not taking the bait.

Unknown

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TexanThom

Simple....To save all the meat for the rest of us!!!

Softrbreeze

You said it well! I went vegan last June and I've seen tremendous improvements in my health AND in my mood. SO glad I made the switch! I just saw my doctor a few days ago and fully expected him to give me a hard time about my alternative diet, the way he has about some of my alternative health practices in the past- instead he told me to "Keep it up!" Made my day!

LishieFruit89

I get where you're coming from and I've thought about it myself.

But those vegan substitutes are so processed, I'd rather eat chicken.
Can the average person pronounce all of the ingredients in those fake meat crumbles or the fake cheese?
Some of the additives are pretty bad...

blueday617

I'm a vegetarian, but I've thought about going vegan before. I'll have to see that documentary.

Evachiquita

For me it started with HEALTH. My family has a history of every modern disease (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis, etc.) I was determined not to get these diseases, which I think are largely preventable, and I decided to cut out meat. For a few years I would eat meat a few times a year. Then people say something along the lines of "Ok, but you could eat meat every now and then and still be healthy and disease free". And to some extent I believe that. As I did more research I decided it was not good to rely on dairy that much either so I gradually cut my reliance on dairy products.

Second for me it is about ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS. That has been addressed and I am not going to explain it further here. I think the planet would be better off if people ate no, or less, meat and animal products.

Then it became more about how I FEEL, physically. I feel so much better when I am not eating animal products. Over the past year I have had fish a few times and one bite of chicken and that was it. I was also eating eggs (from a coworker's chickens) on a regular basis. I still felt OK after eating those things. I haven't consumed milk in years, but I eat cheese on occasion. I can definitely tell when I eat dairy items that I do not feel that great afterwords. I'll just throw it out there that I avoid gluten, except beer, but sometimes I will eat a few crackers, a wrap, or pizza. And I definitely pay for it afterwords in how I feel. Unless I injure myself I never have headaches or muscle or joint pain. I also do not get sick. I think that now how I feel is the most important reason to continue eating the way I do.

Last for me is ANIMAL RIGHTS and ETHICS/MORALS. I do think it is important and it is definitely a factor in my choices now. I am still VERY conflicted over this though. I would feel okay eating my coworker's chicken eggs. I would feel okay about eating a fish that I caught, filleted, and cooked. I would also feel okay eating meat from an animal that was killed, dressed, cooked, by someone that I know. I would feel okay eating honey from a farmer/bee keeper that I knew. On the other hand, the few times I ate purchased fish I felt like I received no benefit from it, I did not really enjoy eating it, and I actually felt guilty for eating it. I felt like I did not NEED to eat it to survive. I know that I could survive without all of these things, I just don't know how important it is to me to keep them out of my diet all together.

Also very confusing to me is not using wool, silk, leather, and down. I can see avoiding these things to some extent. But as an outdoor enthusiast I do love my down items (jacket, sleeping bag). As a knitter I love using wool. I know that some people with small scale fiber productions have rescue farms where their animals are treated very well, loved, and cared for like a member of the family. I can probably carry all the leather things I own in one arm, a few belts, a few pairs of shoes, a small wallet, and a bike seat. Hopefully these items will last a very long time, or forever, and I won't have to replace them. But is replacing durable leather goods or down goods with cheap petroleum based products really any better, especially from an environmental/reliance on (foreign) petroleum point of view? I don't know.

I'm still really struggling with the ethics part of being vegan and this is going to be one of the hardest parts for me as I embark on a full vegan lifestyle for a year. And that's the thing about ethics. I see ethics as a continuum, and people fall any place along that continuum. Some see no problem at all with eating and wearing animals, some people see problems with eating honey and wearing wool and will refuse those items. I think that we should all strive to live a more compassionate life. With compassion for yourself, your health, the health of others, the planet, the animals.

This is part of a post I wrote on VeganTalk.com. You should check out that website! Lots of good stuff/people on there. I decided to go full vegan at the beginning of the year! Not only diet (which is easy for me) but the whole lifestyle (I already bought wool ski socks :-/). Feel free to add me as a friend if you want. :-)

naschulze

REPLY to LishieFruit89: There are healthy brands you can get (just like anything else). I have seen rice cheese and the like that had no ingredients that I wasn't familiar with, but some things I only get at the organic health food stores and the like. Trust me, even if you occasionally eat the ones with more preservatives, in the end you'll still be healther than if you used regular meat. One thing that stuck out in that documentary as well was the fact that more people get injured at these animal slaughterhouses than in any other job. I wondered how well was that regulated? As filthy as these places look, what are the odds of someone bleeding on already bloody meat and no one realizing it?

PaleoPath4Lyfe

I get where you're coming from and I've thought about it myself.

But those vegan substitutes are so processed, I'd rather eat chicken.
Can the average person pronounce all of the ingredients in those fake meat crumbles or the fake cheese?
Some of the additives are pretty bad...

This is an agreeable statement.

Also, the amount of soy in tofu, and other soy products is not healthy............Before someone starts in on edamame or the soy that Asians eat.............it is far different than what Westerners eat and the stuff that is in America, especially is NOT healthy for us.

Also, there are ways of sourcing humanely treated animals for consumption and then you are supporting your local economy. Find a farm and visit.

OkieTink

Simple....To save all the meat for the rest of us!!!

+1

KANGOOJUMPS

hmm.

CUPCAKE2CARROTS

Excellent documentary that made me sick to my stomach.

I tried the Vegan/Raw route and it did not work for me the first time. I will be researching more and maybe giving it another shot. Right now I only eat meat/eggs that are certified humane and from local farms about two to three times a week. It’s very expensive but it makes me feel a whole lot better than just picking up meat that came from a feed lot.

Vegan/Vegetarianism is not for everyone but everyone has a choice on how and where they buy their food..

Just my own food for thought :happy:

Firefox7275

I could live without meat - indeed I did for a while when particularly broke and don't large servings nor daily now - but not without cheese or fish. Many vegan alternatives to meat/ fish/ eggs/ dairy are processed rubbish with lengthy ingredients lists and the diet NEEDS to be supplemented and/ or fortified, which is against my food ethos.

naschulze

Not taking the bait.

I'm not asking anyone to 'take the bait.' I just think people should be more aware. There's something to be gained by knowing what you need and don't need, knowing what's healthy and unhealthy, and knowing how products get from the source to your plate and what the effects of that process are.

I encourage you to watch the documentary and then take a definite stance, but don't just deny the information for the sake of wanting to stay ignorant.

naschulze

Excellent documentary that made me sick to my stomach.

I tried the Vegan/Raw route and it did not work for me the first time. I will be researching more and maybe giving it another shot. Right now I only eat meat/eggs that are certified humane and from local farms about two to three times a week. It’s very expensive but it makes me feel a whole lot better than just picking up meat that came from a feed lot.

Vegan/Vegetarianism is not for everyone but everyone has a choice on how and where they buy their food..

Just my own food for thought :happy:

Yes I agree. My mom has to eat read meat as she has a disease that requires it, but even if everyone decided to eat LESS meat the world would benefit. We consume far more meat than we need to.

quirkytizzy

Not taking the bait.

I'm not asking anyone to 'take the bait.' I just think people should be more aware. There's something to be gained by knowing what you need and don't need. Knowing what's healthy and unhealthy, and knowing how products get from the source to your plate and what the effects of that process are.

I encourage you to watch the documentary and then take a definite stance, but don't just deny the information for the sake of wanting to stay ignorant.

Don't know if he was specifically calling you out as trying to bait anyone - it's just that the vegan/vegetarian lifestyles tend to draw the ire of a lot of people. Unjustifiably in my opinion, but it still remains that people like to eat what they eat. It's possible to eat a very healthy diet with meat. It's possible to eat a very healthy one without meat.

I hope you find the resources you need and are able to make your decision. I'm friends with a vegan here and she has one of the tastiest food diaries I've ever seen.

bmqbonnie

I'm not vegan and never will be, but to me it makes more sense from an animal rights/welfare perspective than being vegetarian. I graduated with a BS in animal science so I'm very familiar with the industries. Let's just say that if reincarnation is a thing, I would MUCH rather come back as a beef cow than a dairy cow or a meat chicken than a laying chicken. Beef cattle live most of their lives on pasture, dairy cows are confined and bottle fed as calves. Laying chickens are sometimes forced to molt, which involves starving them.

If you're interested in this kind of thing, I highly recommend reading books by Bernard Rollin. He wrote some of my texts in my ethics classes. I believe he himself is vegan, but he explains this stuff just how it is and shows both sides on issues from dairy calf raising to dehorning to whether anesthetic should be used for castration to branding with actual backup from peer reviewed studies. He knows his stuff. He usually leans to the animal rights side of things but does it without offending my ranch raised sensibilities.

Anyway, I feel eating meat is beneficial and is how things are meant to work (I wouldn't hold it against a shark for eating me, that is also how the world works) but I could probably stand to cut back on animal products a little so as to get away from saturated fats. I would also love to eventually raise my own chickens, rabbits, etc for my own meat so I know how they were treated.

Softrbreeze

I get where you're coming from and I've thought about it myself.

But those vegan substitutes are so processed, I'd rather eat chicken.
Can the average person pronounce all of the ingredients in those fake meat crumbles or the fake cheese?
Some of the additives are pretty bad...

You don't need the processed stuff to go vegan. In fact, it's best to stay away from any processed food and eat whole foods instead. The vegan meats and cheeses do make the transition a little easier for some, I think, because it is somewhat familiar and you don't want to bombard your taste buds with a lot of new flavors. Food and emotions go hand in hand and our minds can rebel if we present them with too much change at once.. Cutting out these animal foods slowly is the only way to make a successful transition for some people..

ninerbuff

I won't go vegan because no plant TASTES LIKE MEAT. Especially BACON.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

sleepytexan

Can't think of a reason.

DogTrainingGal

I am vegetarian and have been most of my life. I was vegan for about a year, but broke down and had a glass of chocolate cow's milk one day and have stuck with the cow's milk every since (also cheese). I am slowly returning to a vegan food plan (currently substituting chocolate soy milk for chocolate cow's milk). I HIGHLY recommend the book "Skinny *****" if you want an in-your-face fun way to read about the how's and why's of switching to a vegan/organic diet. For a more medical/scientific approach on reasons to go vegan, I recommend the documentary "Forks Over Knives." If you want more information on the horrors of factory farming, visit PETA's website. If you want horror stories with happy endings, I recommend you look at Farm Sanctuary's website, which tells of animals saved from factory farms. I hope to completely phase out the dairy products in short order, although I must admit, they are darn addicting (especially ice cream!)

ItsCasey

I don't have a problem with vegans. I have a problem with vegans who assume that because I eat meat (lots of it, like at least 2 lbs per day), I am ignorant about where it comes from or its nutritive properties or how the animals are treated. I grew up on a beef cattle ranch. I raised orphan calves, pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats, etc., throughout my childhood, so give it a rest. My diet is perfectly healthy. I guess I'm just not virtuous enough to care that an animal has to die so that I can eat what I want. I bought a crap ton of steak yesterday for a great price, and I feel awesome about it. Every day, I am proud not to be vegan. Or a hypocrite. You say you care about animals ... well, stop eating all their food.

PapaverSomniferum

do you enjoy being made fun of by everyone, all the time?

that's a good reason to go vegan.

TheRealPDouble

Why should I go VEGAN??

Because you want to sacrifice your own personal needs so that people like me can eat more bacon...

Lecterman

the diet NEEDS to be supplemented and/ or fortified, which is against my food ethos.

Please explain

ldrosophila

I would go vegan for solely ethical reasons. I can garauntee without portion control and logging binges that I could still be an obese vegan.

healthysince2013

I get where you're coming from and I've thought about it myself.

But those vegan substitutes are so processed, I'd rather eat chicken.
Can the average person pronounce all of the ingredients in those fake meat crumbles or the fake cheese?
Some of the additives are pretty bad...

This is an agreeable statement.

Also, the amount of soy in tofu, and other soy products is not healthy............Before someone starts in on edamame or the soy that Asians eat.............it is far different than what Westerners eat and the stuff that is in America, especially is NOT healthy for us.

Also, there are ways of sourcing humanely treated animals for consumption and then you are supporting your local economy. Find a farm and visit.

Yes but how animals are raised does not change how they are killed. Find a slaughter house and visit. Even if you could find truly "ethical meat" there is no way that sort of production is sustainable for the amount of current animal consumption. Also you may want to research soy a little more. All tofu is simply edamame that has been cooked, curdled with calcium or nigari, and pressed...EXACTLY like in Asian. It has 2-3 ingredients if you count water.

Here's an example of a great product with "unpronounceable" ingredients. http://www.gardein.com/products.php?p=2 This one does have soy protein thought there are many that don't. I would love it if you could show us legitimate research (that has not been refuted) on why soy is not healthy for "us."

I'm vegan because I really care about my health, humanity, the environment, and animals. I have done TONS of research to make this decision. I haven't regretted it for over four years.

MyM0wM0w

I don't have a problem with vegans. I have a problem with vegans who assume that because I eat meat (lots of it, like at least 2 lbs per day), I am ignorant about where it comes from or its nutritive properties or how the animals are treated. I grew up on a beef cattle ranch. I raised orphan calves, pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats, etc., throughout my childhood, so give it a rest. My diet is perfectly healthy. I guess I'm just not virtuous enough to care that an animal has to die so that I can eat what I want. I bought a crap ton of steak yesterday for a great price, and I feel awesome about it. Every day, I am proud not to be vegan. Or a hypocrite. You say you care about animals ... well, stop eating all their food.

:flowerforyou:

olDave

Hmmmm...I don't recall anyplace in the Constitution that mentions "animal rights".

LishieFruit89

I get where you're coming from and I've thought about it myself.

But those vegan substitutes are so processed, I'd rather eat chicken.
Can the average person pronounce all of the ingredients in those fake meat crumbles or the fake cheese?
Some of the additives are pretty bad...

You don't need the processed stuff to go vegan. In fact, it's best to stay away from any processed food and eat whole foods instead. The vegan meats and cheeses do make the transition a little easier for some, I think, because it is somewhat familiar and you don't want to bombard your taste buds with a lot of new flavors. Food and emotions go hand in hand and our minds can rebel if we present them with too much change at once.. Cutting out these animal foods slowly is the only way to make a successful transition for some people..

I know whole foods is best, I think I do a pretty good job at avoiding the processed foods.
But beans, tofu & PB can only get your protein levels so high before you've hit your calorie goal.
What's a good protein source for someone who lifts weights but wants to be vegan?

I sometimes have issues hitting my goal since I don't eat pork or red meat.