Why We Went Vegan

Growing up I never did eat all to healthy, I always knew that. When I turned 18 I moved out and started living with my now fiancee. She was always concerned about our health and diet, especially when my weight started being an issue. There were times where we talked about cutting out meat from our diets, so we began researching. We took a lot of different factors into our consideration, nutrition, health benefits, what to eat in place of, protein sources etc. During our research we stumbled upon a book titled “Skinny Bitch”, while the title was less than appealing, it made for an interesting read.

We discovered not only about the treatment of animals intended for slaughtering, but as well as livestock used for milk, eggs and other sources of animal based food. We learnt about the treatment of these animals, the lives they lead, and more importantly about the animals themselves. A pig is often referred to as a dumb animal that rolls around in the mud all day, however they typically have the mental capacity of a 3 year old human child.

On top of the ethical reason, the book also covered the ecological reasons, while I will not cite sources as the book does a spectacular job at this, it does make mention to the possibility of solving world hunger surprisingly. The book references to research done over the amount of grain and feed consumed by livestock, and if the meat industry were to stop mass breading livestock, the feed alone would be enough to feed over 7 billion people, more than enough to feed the entire planet. On top of this is also makes a comparison in the amount of energy needed to produce 1 calorie of meat vs 1 calorie of plant, stating that it takes roughly 27 times as much energy.

Now the book makes a lot of claims, of which seem reasonable and have much support to each one. We decided it was worth considering, and the day after Thanksgiving, 2008, we started the transition to a vegan diet. At first we started with a lot of frozen and processed vegan meals, however we discovered those were not an entirely healthy substitute. It did not take long until we found ourselves doing much vegan cooking ourselves. Since we have started our vegan lifestyle, I personally can report that I have lost to this day, 41lbs, most health issues I experienced are gone and my cholesterol and blood pressure are near perfect.

The decision to go vegan was made after a great deal of research, this was to ensure that we experienced no deficiencies in our transition, which has thus far been more than successful. On top of everything, this decision has altered our lifestyle greatly, and brought much enjoyment into our lives. We now appreciate a broader variety of healthy foods, spend much time cooking together as a couple and enjoy the benefits of good health that we experience from this. On one last note to those who are probably wondering, we have also managed to lower our monthly food budget by roughly $300 a month by this transition, and our fridge is always stocked.

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