Forums: September 2010 Kickstart Forum Archive: Why are you vegan?
Created on: 09/17/10 11:48 PM Views: 1363 Replies: 5
HeidiD Joined: 09/16/10 Posts: 9	Why are you vegan? Posted Friday, September 17, 2010 at 11:48 PM The fantastic health benefits that many people expereience are just one of the great reasons to be vegan. But for me being vegan is much more than just a diet. It is living the principles of non violence. Try asking yourself these questions: do you agree that it is wrong to cause unecessary suffering for animals? Do you think it is wrong for animals to suffer for our enjoyment, pleasure or convenience? As almost all our animal use can only be classified as for our enjoyment (circuses, hunting etc), pleasure (taste, wearing leather and wool) or convenience (much animal testing, glues made from bones etc) then isn't almost all animal use morally wrong? After I had read about this on Proffesor Fracione's website it really helped me to realise that being vegan is actually the least that we owe our fellow animals. It helped me to discover that being vegan is not a diet that you might "cheat" on like any other diet, but a way of life that is free from violence. Check out the website http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/ to find out about the abolitionist approach to veganism, and what we all can do to end animal use. It's really easy - go vegan, and help others go vegan too! I think the 21 day kickstart is great and I wish everyone beginning their vegan journey the best. If you are not vegan, go vegan - it's easy! It's better for you, better for the planet and most importantly it's the morally right thing to do for animals.
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mollyhorn Joined: 03/03/10 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 582	RE: Why are you vegan? Posted Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 1:05 AM This podcast covers all my reasons for being vegan. I originally became vegan because I was an oceanic and marine life advocate, but soon that became all-encompassing, and I was moved to care for ALL animal life, not just those who swim beneath the waves. http://www.mediapeta.com/peta/audio/veganism_in_a_nutshell_07.mp3 Molly Horn
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mommyof2nc Joined: 12/31/09 Location: North Carolina Posts: 172	RE: Why are you vegan? Posted Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 7:23 AM I originally went vegan because everyone in my family is on cholesterol medication and my cholesterol numbers were starting to creep up and I didn't want to have to go on medication too. Since I went vegan, my total cholesterol is well within the normal range and I feel much healthier, so that helps me keep eating this way. I've never been a big fan of eating meat, anyway, so it wasn't that difficult for me to stop eating it. Cheese, surprisingly, wasn't hard to stop eating either, and I was a complete cheese-aholic before going vegan.
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pippin Joined: 09/07/10 Posts: 175	RE: Why are you vegan? Posted Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 8:10 AM I am not vegan, technically. I guess if lables are important, I am a vegetarian who eats as close to vegan as is possible, in an imperfect world. I chose to do this primarily for health reasons: To reduce pain from early-onset arthritis, to reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure, and to generally feel better. That being said, there is a healthy smack of ethics in my choice to eat vegetarian. I choose to not support factory farming of animals and I prefer to eat local and organic produce when available. In Minnesota, that's definitely challenging. I feel my choices are good for the planet, but mainly I do it because it is good for me.
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Oceandog Joined: 01/10/10 Location: California, USA Posts: 642	RE: Why are you vegan? Posted Monday, September 20, 2010 at 12:55 PM I have to agree with most of the answers here. I started out eliminating meats I didn't care for. Then I did a research project for college and it evolved from there. My primary reason is to not cause suffering and death to living beings for my own needs. Secondary are the health benefits. I feel calmer and more at peace with myself when I know my actions are not harmful. Always offer kindness and a soft word to the beings around you; You do not know their journey. Your words can be the hug they need or the shove that breaks them.
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Bugsmom Joined: 09/13/10 Posts: 2068	RE: Why are you vegan? Posted Monday, September 20, 2010 at 2:52 PM I'm with pippin - we started heading vegetarian for health reasons (particularly hubby's cholesterol and blood pressure). We started off with the DASH plan as far as hypertension - it encourages lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains, but still includes meat and dairy. Then we 'tweaked' that and eliminated meats since it seemed counterproductive to be adding cholesterol going in when we were trying to reduce it, KWIM? That just made logical sense. Over time it just became a habit to not eat meat and to keep an eye on dairy quantities. Along the way, eating local, seasonal, organic foods also made logical sense - eat the stuff that's cheapest (if it's local and seasonal it's likely less expensive than stuff that is transported from elsewhere at an off time of year). Along that trail, we just got away from the factory farmed stuff since they aren't so much in our area - small, family owned farms are way more common. The kinds of places that invite people to come visit the cows and chickens that produce the milk and eggs. We stopped drinking milk - son never really liked it to drink so that was pretty simple (and made sense on the cholesterol front), we tried a bunch of alternates and found that we agreed on almond milk for cereal, baking, etc. Cheese, yogurt, sour cream and eggs are still in our fridge and hubby and son are okay with that situation. I'm moving more toward vegan with this kickstart. This is for health reasons still - I saw Dr. Barndard on PBS talking about diabetes and got his book Reversing Diabetes. Made sense with other information I already had. While some are ethical vegans and health is a side effect, we're kind of the opposite - health is the main reason and the ethical concerns (factory farming etc) are a side effect. --Deb
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