The second question I frequently have people ask me is, "What do vegans eat?" For that one there is a quick answer: "Anything without a face." Or I just show them a picture like this, my dinner tonight:
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| Raw vegan zucchini and carrot noodles with raw marinara |
Anyway, back to why I eat a vegan diet. First I have to admit that I am an almost full time vegan. There are still the occasional moments when I falter and eat ice cream. Sure, there's So Delicious coconut milk ice cream, but it just isn't the same as Mitchell's. I'm working on that. It doesn't happen too often.
I dropped meat after reading Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals. If I back up a little, I can say that I started considering a vegan diet when I noticed that nearly every yoga instructor I had ate a vegan diet, and that there must be a reason for it within the yogi lifestyle. Ends up there is, but I will get to that. So back to Foer's book. In addition to Jillian Michaels' book Master Your Metabolism and the documentary film Food, Inc., Eating Animals really made me stop and think about where my food is coming from. Not only did I not like where my food was coming from, but I didn't like what I was reading about the way animals were being treated in factory farms. I realize that not all meat manufacturers are equal, but it came down to spending a boatload of money tracking down grass fed, free range, organic animal products or just not eating animals at all. Since my research indicated that I couldn't even trust labels like "free range" or "natural," I decided to just drop everything. And if I had it my way, the whole family would have dropped animal products with me, but I have a husband with a mind of his own it seems. Bummer.
So I won't get into the details of the above texts--I encourage you to look into them yourself--but I think I can think of three major reasons why I decided to follow a vegan diet.
1. Scientific research is increasingly showing that a plant based diet is the most healthy diet a person can follow. Seriously. You don't have to worry about cholesterol anymore (vegan foods have none), your blood pressure will probably drop, you'll feel like you have more energy, even your skin will look nicer. I have found that I have far less trouble with mucus congestion--this is from a girl who used to be addicted to nasal spray. As long as you don't spend all day drinking olive oil, eating nut butters out of the jar, or baking vegan cupcakes, you probably will not have to worry about gaining weight, either, but that's more relative than you'd think. There are a lot of vegan foods that are high in fat and calories, so people still need to make wise decisions.
2. I feel better knowing that I am not contributing to the harm of other sentient beings. This is where the yoga part comes in. It is essential to living a life of peace that we not harm others. This includes even the milk cows (that are typically fed an improper diet and kept cooped up in a little stall and etc...). I feel that it would be hypocritical for me to claim to live a yoga lifestyle and still cause harm to animals.
3. The meat industry is bad for the environment. Anyone who is truly concerned about carbon emissions needs to stop eating meat. The U.S. cattle industry creates more carbon dioxide emissions than all of the automobiles combined. I learned that at a local science museum, so if you'd rather believe the cattle industry than science, you go right ahead.
Now as far as do vegans get enough protein (nuts, seeds, beans and legumes, leafy greens), do they get enough calcium (those orange juice cartons aren't lying about their calcium content), and can they build muscle (there are many, many vegan athletes out there), the answer is "YES" for all of the above provided that one does a couple of simple things: (1.) Eat a balanced diet (good advice for anyone) and (2.) Exercise (again, good advice for anyone). So you can stop worrying about your vegan friends now. Your worry is really only your way of telling your vegan loved ones that you don't trust them to make sound decisions themselves. ;)
So why did I go vegan? I guess that is the best and quickest way I can sum it all up. But if you ever want to have a conversation about it, I do love talking about food. And eating it. Come over and we'll do dinner.
