What made you go vegan?
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I was vegetarian for about 9 years before I finally went vegan - the cheese was the hardest part for me. When I went vegetarian, all I had to do was see a video of a cow being led to slaughter, and he/she fought for their life, and something in me snapped. I went vegetarian overnight. Something similar happened when I went vegan, I found a video of baby boy calves being shot in the head because they weren't profitable, and that was it. I gave up. 3 and a half years later, I don't even miss cheese!4
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I'm now doing the daily dozen and loving it! Thanks!2
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ladyzherra wrote: »I have spent a majority of my life adhering to a Nourishing Traditions lifestyle, investing in meat-heavy diet from local, humanely-raised animals. I was into lacto-fermenting and soaking grains, as well, which is part of the lifestyle.
Jenn
I have the book too. It shaped the meals I made for my family for a decade+. It is still on the shelf. The lesson in the first 90pages is still pertinent if read as a treatise against modern processed food. Going back to whole foods just needs a different companion volume.1 -
@lpina2mi I hear you. The Nourishing Traditions book is very insightful and I keep it in mind with a vegan mindset because it emphasizes living from the land in *some* ways, and I found that using traditional approaches to preparing foods is useful, although I do not advocate their emphasis on meat.0
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I live in China, and I became concerned about food safety. I felt like there were a lot of sanitation and health issues. Then I watched a documentary on PETA s website about animal treatment. Life changing! I couldn't look back. I'm doing it for my health and compassion for animals abused by factory farms.3
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Hi @daciasil. I hear you about food safety. It is a big concern here in America, absolutely, and I can imagine that it is surely a concern in China. Production meat is suspect. Most Americans consume production meat rather than local, humanely-raised meat from farmers that they know.
When I did eat meat, I would go directly to local farms and see the animals myself. This was a huge undertaking, requiring lots of driving to buy meat, which I tried to do every month. It would take a whole day just to drive from farm to farm.
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I watched a documentary called Game Changers about vegan athletes, I decided to try veganism to see if it would increase my athletic ability as I am a triathlete3
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@krissenior
How long have you been vegan? Have you experienced any marked changes in your training and performance as a triathlete?0 -
I became a vegetarian after getting involved with a rescue group who saves dogs in Asia from the dog meat farms, when it became clear to me that dogs were absolutely no different to cows, pigs, chicken, fish etc. Took me about a few months to realize I could no longer justify eating dairy and eggs. One week vegan and I feel great! I've actually lost close to 8lbs this week alone, which makes it even better.
Everything we were taught as kids was a lie, and slowly but surely every single day we are getting closer to a world where eating animal meat and proteins will be frowned upon. I'm just sorry I didn't do this sooner.
Looking forward to amazing new recipes, substitutes, and culinary magic from all the vegan chefs out there.
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That is a good story, and I see your points about realizing that all animals are like dogs in some ways, or even the human animal.
I never lost weight being vegan. In fact, I have gained weight. I do not eat junky vegan food. Being vegan has been great for my health, though. I have not been sick in two years, and had been extremly sickly since I was a child.0 -
My wife has been vegan since age 10 and I only recently have converted after watching some documentaries and reading The Starch Solution by John McDougall. For me, it started out being for health reasons but now I understand more about the compassion for animals aspect and think that's wonderful... the book and documentaries have shed light in areas about the food industry I had just never really thought about before unfortunately.4
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I've never been a big animal product/meat eater, ever since I was 3 years old and refused to eat a hamburger. All through my life, from child to teen and adult, I rarely ate meat, but would have processed lunch meat and cheese sandwiches and egg products with no issues. I sat down in August 2015 and watched a documentary we all know called Forks over Knives, and I made the plunge that day. Having grown sick of how I was feeling after turning vegan, due to having my diet being based on "replacement" type of foods, I'm not WFPB commited (Dr Fuhrman/ETL) and after only two months I have abounding energy, less joint pain and I've slowly lost 8 pounds. I'm very much so looking forward to all the health benefits this lifestyle will give me in the coming months and years.
Please feel free to add me, I'd love to have more Vegan/WFPB friends to keep me going!0 -
krissenior wrote: »I watched a documentary called Game Changers about vegan athletes, I decided to try veganism to see if it would increase my athletic ability as I am a triathlete
That documentary - WOW! Reinvigorating, if you ask me! Even my meat-eating hubby has decided to dramatically reduce his animal intake and increase wonderful fruits, vegetables, beans and seeds! Exciting documentary, more like it. Bravo to you as well!2 -
krissenior wrote: »I watched a documentary called Game Changers about vegan athletes, I decided to try veganism to see if it would increase my athletic ability as I am a triathlete
My husband and I watched this documentary also and now we are trying to switch over to a vegan lifestyle. We are triathletes also and thought if we could make the switch during the winter (our off season) then maybe we will have the knowledge come spring on how to fuel for training. I love changes and hope this helps with my Cholesterol.
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Because I fight for those who have no voice to fight for themselves. The animals!3
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I joined the vegan community 3 weeks ago today, went pescatarian for a month first to try and scale back my meat intake, I ate a lot of beef, chicken and fish
The main reason was my health, I had a problem in August and still not sure what the problem is, i think it's stomach related, so food is the fuel we use, I change the fuel
I do also support animal welfare but am still pretty ignorant to the cruelty, which i apologise for and maybe one day will be more vocal on that, for now though, taking each week at a time with meal planning and ensuring i read the labels
This is quite difficult as i live in Denmark and the labels are never in English
The Danes are getting better at veganism but the choices are expensive and slim, so going wholefoods where possible and grabbing suppliments from the UK when i go back
I salute you all and am glad to be part of the vegangstas here doing their part for whatever reason they have, alll noble causes
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Health and Environmental Reasons. I watched What the Health and realized how corrupt society has led me to be deceived. I’ve been reading How Not To Die by Michael Greger and I’m really surprised by the science. I’m a Biology Major and I recently took Botany so I know plants have phenotypes and components which can benefit humans. I’ve grown up obese my whole life, surrounded by big food companies, and lied to by paid doctors / researchers for skewed science. As an adult, I will not allow myself to be lied so this is why I switched. I’ve grown up with overweight family members my whole life and it clicked that it has to be the diet we are all eating creating this. That instance occurred when a distant family member had a child (normal weight) who quickly gained weight to the point I was in shock. It was just culturally accepted at this point “kids just get fat because of our genes and will be fat as adults” but when I look at my ancestors, they are all normal weight so that was the biggest lie I had to overcome. In terms for the animals, I tell myself “If I was handed a gun and told to kill someone or an animal will you?” I personally can’t do that. When my dog died recently after an accident and she died in my arms I knew that animals truly do feel pain like humans. I do purchase Animal Free Tested products like toothpaste, deodorant, makeup.3
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Initially because of the animal cruelty. This is still most important to me.
After a while I realised all the health benefits there are.1 -
I had severe gout, and was looking for anecdotal evidence to reverse this pain. I swear, it's the worse pain ever. Most of the results came from plant based diet, and at the time, I thought it was impossible. So I went vegan for 2 years, but going in uneducated, I ate poorly. Mostly gardein products and gained weight. Out of the two years, I maybe had 4 gout attacks, (a couple were from running or jogging, which I later found out could trigger gout if dehydrated, and the other were from drinking beer).
I then went keto for about 6 months, and lost tons of weight, shredded and high energy, but the gout attacks were almost every other week and/or every month. I didn't care about the high cholesterol.
So i finally quit the keto and ate junk food, becuase of the disappointed in diets. I finally went back to the drawing board, Read, How not to die, Dr. Nearl Barnard books, Subscribed to all the plant base gurus, and I felt encouraged again. I'm going with the the recommend way, (which i never done) and that is a low fat plant based diet. So here i am.2 -
A parent with diabetes and several family members and friends with cancer - their struggles and courage inspired my husband and me to make changes before we received a diagnosis. We've eaten a whole-foods, plant based diet for eight years now, and are moving towards a fully vegan lifestyle.0