by marianna
lifestyle
Why I became Vegan
I refer to myself as being a passive
vegan because although I practice that way of life, I do it quietly
and choose not to preach about it. I only really took the plunge a
few months ago and as a former meat eater I have no right to judge or
try and convert others.
It all began for completely selfish
unethical reasons, you see, I’ve always been a bit of a health
freak. As well as having a desire to keep myself active by practising
yoga, going to the gym, riding a bike to work and walking the dog and
all the usual good habits we develop in mid life. In my quest outwit
time and age I had an inkling that the answer lay in nature. So
exceeding my five portions of fruits and vegetables a day for quite
some time I began to notice the negative effects on my well being
whenever I have had to forgo them due to being away from home.
Fatigue, minor depression and indigestion were but some.
Ever since I’ve had access to the
internet I research the health benefits of everything I eat. The
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates is my guru. “Let food be thy
medicine and medicine be thy food.” I am a firm believer. I am
sure nature holds the key to the prevention and cure of all ailments.
I even visited his tree in the Greek Island of Kos where he taught
students back in the day. Doctors now are quick to prescribe a pill
for everything including the negative side effects of other pills.
They are not highly trained in nutrition, that’s for the lesser
mortals like new age hippies or personal trainers. The medical
industry is raking in the cash yet the pills themselves are taking a
toll on our health and don’t get me started on anti biotics. We all
know that’s not going to end well.
As a meat eater, (because I thought we
had to eat meat to stay alive) I was careful not to include too much
processed food in my diet. I avoided packet mixes, cooking sauces,
and boxed cereals. I cooked everything as far as I could from scratch
but luckily for me cooking is playing. It’s fun it’s like
painting is to a child. You can’t do it wrong. If it doesn’t
work out quite the way you expect then you learn for next time. I
love the whole messy play thing in the kitchen because I learned it
from both my parents. My dad was Asian and he taught me how to use
spices and my mother was from a small village in Ireland where all
the produce was freshly grown in the garden but she loved to
experiment with food.
When my daughter Nadine, became vegan I
was intrigued. I began to cook some vegan meals for her and even
enjoyed some of them but I couldn’t get my head round not eating
meat. I was caught up in tradition and the illusion the food industry
liked to portray to us that we needed meat for protein. Then one
night she sat me down to watch the documentary “Cowspiracy” I
was of an open mind at the time but wasn’t prepared to change my
eating habits. The film opened my eyes to the huge impact that animal
agriculture was having on the planet, on famine and on humans. It
spelt doom and gloom, the end of the world, human greed and that type
of thing. Still I wasn’t going to commit. I am almost ashamed to
admit that now. However, I declared that I was going to make better
choices, most of the time.
Curiosity lead me to watch a
documentary called “Forks over Knives”. Now this was right up my
street because it highlighted the prevention and cure business of
eating right. Forks over knives was named so because using our forks
to eat correctly would help to avoid going under the knife for heart
surgery later on. This documentary looked at well researched
scientific study which highlighted the fact that many degenerative
diseases could be prevented, or even reversed through eating a whole
food plant based diet such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some
cancers, hypertension, and obesity.
Even after watching Forks over Knives I
wasn’t totally ready to eliminate meat from my diet. I liked the
way it tasted and I still thought it was necessary but may be in
smaller quantities. Evidence that the vegan diet was the way forward
kept showing up in my life in various forms.The fact that it made
for creative cooking was but one thing.
Then I watched “Earthlings”. It
showed me the horror of human cruelty to animals. Puppy mills, the
atrocities of the factory farm industry. That did it for me. Haunted
by the images of sheer violence, fear and sadness I now shudder when
I even walking down the meat aisle in the supermarket. That’s when
I officially turned vegan. So for the planet, my health and anti
violence I will no longer choose to be a part of the problem. Can I
make a difference? Not much of a dent in the industry. This is a
big one where actually being a passive vegan is probably not going to
save the planet. This is why activism and preaching is so important.
I am very small in this whole movement. I recommend Gary Yourofsky
for anyone who wishes to understand the whole vegan movement. In my
blog I hope to share simple recipes to help to you make the
transition if you so desire.
This is the blog of a mother & daughter duo, passionate about delicious, nutritious vegan food on a budget.
4 comments
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ReplyDeleteAnthony Constantinou | Anthony Constantinou CEO CWM FX says Well a vegetarian diet is not essentially a weight-loss diet but rather a lifestyle choice. However, It is true that people who follow this diet are generally leaner than non-vegetarians. This diet typically includes less saturated fat and emphasizes more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and plant-based proteins — foods that are more filling and less calorie dense and making changes in caloric balance such as burning more calories than you consume every day is the ideal way to weight loss.
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