Becoming Vegan
Update: After three months of veganism, for the ease of dining out with family and friends I have now scaled back to plain old lacto-ovo vegetarian.
A while back I went to the doctor for a routine checkup, blood work, and so on. I had been feeling a little off and gone the wayside on my blood pressure meds, ignoring the giant sticker on the bottle stating that if I stopped taking them without consulting a doctor I would immediately drop dead, or something like that.
Anyway, the doctor scolded me for not taking the meds and for not changing my lifestyle after the last time we talked, which was about two years before that. I of course agreed, thinking in the back of my mind that it didn’t matter what they say, I am just not capable of changing. To an extent I was right, but when they presented me with my blood work results and I saw how close I was to becoming a diabetic just waiting for my heart to give up against the struggle to pump my sugar thickened blood through cholesterol hardened arteries, something clicked. I realized I had to do something about this. I know myself pretty well, and I knew that the one place where I could make a real change and stick to it was food. Not a diet, but a real lifestyle change that I had actually been thinking about for a while. I decided to go vegan, at least for a while, and see what it is like to live without ever ingesting an animal or animal product.
A true vegan goes further than food, cutting out all products that are tested on animals or were processed with or contain any trace of animal products. I agree that this is a good place to get to, but it’ll take me some time. I still drink wine and beer without knowing if isinglass or egg albumen were used to clarify it. I just don’t have the will yet to go and research every product I use, though I do consider myself more environmentally conscious than your average joe. I drive a Prius and my wife hates it when I go shopping without her because I do stuff like get the thin, scratchy recycled paper towels instead of Bounty.
Which brings up a good point - the link between veganism and environmentalism. While the production and transportation of many fruits and vegetables is without a doubt environmentally unsound, almost all animal products are scores more detrimental. I became a vegan for health reasons, and I am feeling great in that respect, but it did not take long for me to start seeing the opportunity to participate in a greater good.
While researching my new lifestyle I came across a lot of shocking information, most of which I already knew at some level but chose to ignore when a craving for hamburger struck. I don’t need to go into all of it here, and I don’t like to preach or guilt people about it, but there is a ton of information out there on animal cruelty, environmental strain caused by livestock and animal feed, and the fact that people still starve to death while more grain is used to feed the animals we eat than most of the earth’s human population could consume. The fact that poultry in the US has to be given a chlorine bath before it reaches your table because the inhumane conditions in which the chickens are kept breeds salmonella is enough to keep me away from McNuggets. Everything is connected, and every simple choice we make affects many other things. Anyway, I don’t want this post to be preachy, but to truly understand why I decided to stick with this change, I had to bring it up.
In short, I’ve been vegan for over two months now, and it is really working for me. I feel great, am enjoying a variety of wonderful foods, and feel like I’m doing my small part to help preserve this planet for my son and future generations.
If you’d like to know more about veganism, environmental issues, and meat production, well, then look it up. I’d provide links here, but these are things that you either want to know about or you don’t. If you do then you’ll be able to find it.
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