It
took me just a week of watching Vegans on YouTube (mostly spent my time
watching Bonny Rebecca) sharing their experiences with veganism, what they ate,
their views towards society and basically how happy they were on a Vegan
diet Vegan lifestyle, to get me hooked onto the idea of going Vegan. Then
one Wednesday evening about 4 months back, I watched a documentary, Cowspiracy, and I became Vegan
overnight! No cravings, no regrets, all I gained out of this was pure
satisfaction and I am proud to say that I would be vegan for all of my life.
One goes Vegan for variety of reasons but I would say the main 3 are –
Moral, Environmental and Health. Personally, what first got me interested in
going vegan was actually to be genuinely happy. Don’t get me wrong, I am a very
happy and positive person, I am so grateful for the fortunate life that I live
– but I just never had a 100% happy relationship with food and I’m sure this is
so common amongst all human beings out there. I wasn’t an extremely clean
person when it came to eating, I generally am a healthy eater but I would still
have cakes, cupcakes, ice cream, fried foods, chips and all that yummy
deliciousness that geniuses had created and brought into this world. But I
could never eat them without constantly stressing about it at the back of my
mind I’m going to get fat, my thighs are
going to be bigger, my face is going to get rounder, I’m just going to get fat,
and then I would just go to the gym and workout and feel better afterwards (I
do enjoy working out, not just to burn off calories, I love feeling fit and “ I
regretted that workout” said no one ever). So any who, I was introduced to a general vegan diet where you can feed and nourish your body with as
much whole foods – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tubers, legumes, as you
want till you feel properly full after every meal, and not have to worry about
it! I wouldn’t say that I am the healthiest vegan because they practically
drown everything in oil here in the cafeteria and so I don’t really have a
choice, but that’s why I am so excited to be cooking my own food in Year 2 so I
can properly nourish my body with all the necessary nutrients, carbs (carbs are
not the enemy!! Our bodies live on carbohydrates!!) and healthy fats and
knowing exactly what it is that I’m putting into my body!
Now, moving on to moral reasons for being vegan.
Humans naturally desire whole foods and we are biologically plant eaters.
Just take a look at our teeth, we don’t have canines like Wolves and Lions to
be ripping and tearing out huge chunks of raw meat, we have to cook out meat
and make them soft enough for consumption. If a live chicken and a mango were
presented to us, we’d naturally choose the mango to eat and not go “ Ooh, I’ll
love to kill that chicken and have it for lunch!”. Moreover, you don’t have to
season fruits or vegetables to make them taste good whereas you’d have to put some
form of seasoning on all meats before consumption.
Society has told us that it is ok to kill one animal and to save another.
Why?? Just because a dog is cuter than a chicken, is that a good enough reason
to kill the chicken? No it is not! We’ve subjected these innocent animals to these
torture chambers where they are brought up in the worst conditions and brutally
killed for human consumption and even if they were grown organically in a
free-range farm (which the majority of them aren't), can you imagine living your life knowing that your fate had
already been chosen for you? How can you look an animal in the eye and tell it
that your appetite is more important than its life? We should be treating all
life equally, man and animal, and who says that humans are superior, that we
get to decide who lives and who doesn’t? We look at Hitler and call him a
murderer, evil and sadistic for the holocaust, but only because what he killed
were humans. There is mass murder happening right here, right now, with more than
6 million animals being killed for food every hour. This has to stop.
Now, as for environmental impacts – Animal agriculture is an
ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER. Water scarcity is a pressing issue in today’s world and
the wars that we will fight in the future would be over water. Producing 1
hamburger takes 660 gallons of water and this is equivalent to 2 months of
showering. It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce 1lbs of beef, 900 gallons
of water for 1lbs of cheese, 477 gallons of water for 1lbs of eggs and 1000 gallons
of water for 1litre of milk. Shocking, right?? Livestock and their by products
accounts for 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions with methane having
a global warming power 56 times that of carbon dioxide. We are clearing forests
at an unprecedented rate for animal grazing and animal agriculture accounts for
136 acres of rainforest destruction while palm oil plantation only causes 26
million. Oceans are under siege like never before and we will be looking at
fishless oceans by 2048. For every pound of fish caught, there are 5 pounds of
by-products such as turtles, sharks and dolphins.
We are currently growing enough food to feed 10 billion people, yet we
still can’t end world hunger because worldwide, 50% or more grain is fed to
livestock. 82% of starving children live in countries where food is fed to
animals, which are eaten in western countries. We could end world hunger today
if we stop the breeding!
I am not forcing or even trying to make everyone go vegan, but if
everyone just took small steps towards reducing the demand of meat, the results
would be incredible! The changes don’t have to be drastic; you could just cut
out meat from 1 or 3 of your meals a day and slowly increase this amount as you
get more comfortable with it.
I probably sound a little angry especially when talking about moral
reasons for being vegan but it just makes me so emotional. Yes, I have enjoyed
meat for the past 18 years of my life - I love beef, chicken, sushi, seafood
and I wouldn’t deny that they taste good, but after educating myself on all the
detrimental impacts of animal agriculture, I can now fully stand up for the
rights of animals!
Just to share what helped me in making my decision about going vegan
1.
The documentary Cowspiracy, which is on Netflix
but you can just find it online as I did. Here’s a fact sheet for the
summarized findings in the documentary.
It is
currently 1:25 pm and I have yet to start on work today, but I have no regrets
in spending my time writing up this post because I'd like to share more about
Veganism and hopefully try to encourage others to just do a little to make the
world a better place
xx Have a great weekend everyone! xx
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