Why I am Vegan

I am always asked to justify my decision to become Vegan, so I have decided to write this essay to go over the reasons why. When people hear I am Vegan, the reaction they usually have is one of anger, dismission, or condescension. I’m not very good at arguing in person, especially when people already have their minds made up, so from now on I will point them to this post. Here are my reasons, the facts and ideas behind them, and the effect being Vegan has had on me.

All of my facts will come from books, but there are probably books out there that have the opposite facts. The world is full of information that may or may not be true. I have based my decisions on sources that I trust or were recommended by sources I trust. But I also based my decisions on how my body and mind have reacted to living the different lifestyles, as well as some pure common sense.

All I ask while you read this is to keep an open mind and not automatically dismiss the idea because it is so different than what everyone believes. In return, I will speak plainly. I want this article to be informative, and not to be another piece of propaganda that some people would hold up to condemn those who don’t share the same lifestyle. I am not trying to convince anyone of anything. I am just explaining a personal choice, and I would love to entertain a civilized anger-free discussion. If there is one thing that is definitely true its that being Vegan does no harm to anyone else. There is no need for inflammatory dialog.

That was a long preamble, but my experience with talking and reading about this subject makes me think that is very necessary to explain. Now that the groundwork is set, I give you my essay.

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The word “Vegan” was taken from the beginning and end of the word “Vegetarian”. It was used by Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson when they founded the UK Vegan Society in 1944. The official definition is:

“Veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude - as far as is possible and practical - all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”

To simplify things, I will talk about my three main reasons for being Vegan: Cruelty to animals, environmental concerns, and health.

Cruelty to animals is probably the easiest to understand. It is hard to argue that killing and eating animals isn’t cruel. The issue lies in the fact that most people, even knowing the life a livestock animal leads until they die, think that being our food is the reason for their existence. We are human, and animals are not. Therefore they don’t have feelings and killing and eating them is okay. Still, most people would never be able to kill a living cow or a chicken that is in front of them, but when it is packaged in a faceless mass of meat then ignorance is bliss.

I believed that for a while, but then it dawned on me that in reality, a cow is no different than a cat or dog. I could never bring myself to kill or harm my pet cat or dog. I couldn’t even bring myself to harm a nameless chicken in a slaughterhouse. To have someone do it for me is just as bad as doing it myself.

I don’t think I will get much argument about that, but what about dairy and eggs? A lot of people think that this doesn’t harm the animals. All it takes is a little research into the practices involved to show that dairy and egg-farming is indeed harmful to the animals involved. Cows naturally produce about 16 pounds of milk a day. Genetic manipulation and hormone injections have increased this to over 50 pounds a day. The side-effect of this treatment is increased birth-defects and disease.

A cow also needs to be kept constantly pregnant (artificial insemination) in order to keep producing milk. The babies are taken from the mother when born, and the lack of mothering causes severe depression which leads to other diseases. This causes their bodies to take a toll far beyond what it natural. When their milk production can’t maintain that high level because of this, they are then sent to the slaughterhouse.

The pain and discomfort is the same for egg-laying chickens. They live their life in a small cage, constantly impregnated. Their beaks are removed so that they don’t peck and kill other chickens out of frustration. Also, there is an abundance of male chickens born in this industry. Because they don’t lay eggs, and aren’t bred to have enough flesh to be eaten, they are killed at birth.

Honey is also an issue. Bees create honey for food. It is taken from them and replaced with corn syrup or other substitutes. This dramatically decreases their lifespan, and causes many conditions that wouldn’t have occurred in the wild.

The second reason for me being Vegan is to help the environment. Raising animals for food costs more money, uses more water, more land, and more energy then using that same land for vegetables. The amount of land used to produce one year of food-supply for the average person is 3.25 acres. The amount of land used to produce food for the average vegetarian is 1/6 of an acre.

When you think about it, it makes sense. We grow food to feed the animals, which in turn we eat. When you stop eating the animals, you are essentially cutting out the middle man by going straight to the vegetables. The resources used to keep these animals alive will go straight to you, without the excess waste involved in slaughterhouses and dairy farms.

Even if the first two reasons are easy to understand, a lot of people get hung up on my third reason: Health. For years and years we have been taught that meat, milk and eggs are part of a healthy diet. There was no reason to challenge this notion. But just as thirty years ago we started to challenge cigarettes as a healthy past-time, we can challenge the way we think of meat and dairy today. Our knowledge base has changed and so we should redefine what that means to our lives.

The meat and dairy industry is a huge billion dollar industry. Like cigarettes, it will take years and years of facts for anyone to start saying that what they have been telling us could be wrong. That is just something to think about. I would trust what the dairy industry says about milk about as much as I trust what the cigarette industry said about cigarettes.

The truth is that recent studies have linking a Vegan lifestyle to a decrease in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, cholesterol, saturated fat, psoriases, macular degeneration, cataracts, etc. One of the largest and most comprehensive nutritional studies in the world, The China Study, determined that the healthiest nutritional diet is a Vegan diet. Due to the amount of vegetables eaten, Vegans regularly eat more vitamins, fiber, antioxidants, and other essential nutrients and don’t get the unhealthy effects of eating animals products.

Meat, milk and eggs contain high amounts of fat, cholesterol, blood and pus. Diseases and other harmful microbes are more easily and efficiently transported through the tissue and byproducts of animals. How many times have you eaten a piece of meat that has made you sick? I have done that many times. What about lactose-intolerance? Human bodies are not meant to handle milk after a certain age, and the high incidence of lactose-intolerance in the population is a good indication of that.

Most people think that I have a lack of protein from my Vegan diet. In fact, there are plenty of places to get protein being a vegan. From beans, nuts, rice, potatoes and other natural sources. The same with Calcium. Milk isn’t the only place to get calcium. In fact, its more effective to get your calcium from spinach and broccoli then milk. All I have to do is make sure I eat the right amount of the nutrients my body needs. Watching my food intake is not an issue for me, and in fact, I think its a very important thing to do.

I started researching the health aspects of a Vegan lifestyle after noticing the success of some vegan athletes. Particularly Scott Jurek. He is considered one of the best ultra-marathoners in the world, and regularly wins running races of over 100 miles long. After hearing about some of his feats, I looked him up and found out he was Vegan. How is that possible? I thought.

I then started researching and found that being Vegan doesn’t mean you will become a malnourished un-athletic weakling. I won’t lie and say that it is easy for me to put on muscle. But a more important and healthier side-effect was that I started to lose fat immediately. I dropped almost 20 pounds of fat and easily put on some muscle through regular exercise. Of course, a lot of people don’t want to weigh 150 pounds like I do. But the good news is that if you want to be 200 pounds of solid muscle and be Vegan, you can. It will just take some work watching what you eat. Just look at Mike Mahler, a premier athletic-strength trainer who advocates a Vegan diet. Staying in shape and building muscle takes work, Vegan or not.

Besides the easy weight-loss, being Vegan has brought me other benefits. I have boundless energy during the day, I sleep well at night, my bowels work great, and I just feel much better than I did years ago.

The main benefit, however, is how little I get sick. I have been vegetarian for six years. I haven’t thrown up since that time. I haven’t had diarrhea for 4 years. I have been a Vegan for six months, and I haven’t had a stomach ache or a head cold for that whole time. The last time I can remember being sick (a bad stomach ache) was four years ago, and that day I still managed to run a race.

When the cold or flu goes around my family and my coworkers, the worst I get is a runny nose. Besides that time four years ago, I can’t remember the last time I was sick. In fact, I am on a four year streak of never taking a sick day off of work.

I’m not saying I’m superman (far from it), but being Vegetarian and especially being Vegan has made me feel much healthier than I ever have. For me, that is real tangible proof.

When it comes down to it, I don’t need animals for food. I don’t need to eat the meat and I don’t need to drink milk from their teats, or eat eggs from their oviducts. Its harmful to the animals and its harmful to the environment. To me, it’s an antiquated life-style that may have been necessary hundreds of years ago but no longer is. It was because of this thought that I explored other options. Through research and experience, I know that being Vegan is the right personal choice for me. Mentally and physically it has changed me for the better, and I don’t need much more proof than that.