I'm a vegan which means I eat no animal products. I'm not
supposed to wear animal products either but I still have some leather
boots, and a down comforter and a down
parka. The comforter is probably next in line for
replacement. I have to admit I still like the parka.
I started on the vegetarian direction for environmental reasons, which
I learned from reading "The
Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices" by the Union
of Concerned Scientists. Interestingly enough, I had read Fast
Food
Nation by Eric Schlosser a few years before that but that didn't
make me a vegetarian, despite the descriptions of meat
production. It just made me purchase organic beef from a local
farm. Compassion for animals wasn't part of
that decision. I had turned that off long ago. Back to
environmental reasons, I learned that meat
production is bad for the environment, using tremendous amounts of
water and land resources, and causing a lot of pollution. In
addition, your contributions to global warming from meat eating are
equivalent to driving a Hummer SUV 15,000 miles a year.
Interesting that Al Gore doesn't mention this in "Inconvenient Truth".
About this time, May 2005, one of my good friends turned vegetarian and
I met a real live vegan. I was influenced by both, and decided to
become a vegetarian. At the same time, I traveled in Mexico and
Sicily, and was avoiding dairy products because it was hot. About
3 weeks into it,
I noticed that my daily indigestion had disappeared. Wo,
was I lactose intolerant? So I experimented, and sure
enough, milk caused indigestion. I had been thinking that I had
acid reflux disease! I wonder how many people taking indigestion
medicine are just lactose intolerant. That made
it easy to transition into veganism along with some hints I was getting
that dairy and egg production are the most cruel (with pigs close
behind).
Once I became a vegan, I read several books and learned a lot about
nutrition and health. I was surprised to learn about the
tremendous benefits to your health from a vegan diet. Eating a
reasonably healthy vegan diet substantially reduces risk for most
chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, even rheumatoid
arthritis. And eating a low-fat vegan diet reduces your
chance of getting cancer. I noticed a great improvement in how I
felt after
becoming vegan. I became more energetic. I've never noticed
anything close to this effect from anything else I've ever done for my
health (which was just exercise up to that point). I also lost
some weight which contributed to making me
feel better.
Finally, I began to learn more about factory farms and animal
treatment, not to mention the less-than healthy aspects of our current
system of meat production (hormones, antibiotics, slaughter of sick
animals, yuck). The links below describe it better than I
would.
I recently heard what I thought was a good argument for becoming
vegan. People eat meat because it's enjoyable and it tastes
good. It's not necessary for your health; in fact, all the
evidence points to it being harmful. It's understandable why our
recent ancestors in northern latitudes ate meat and dairy, but now with
transportation of fresh fruits and vegetables to any location, it's not
necessary. Even
if animals weren't tortured as they most definitely are, you are still
raising and killing animals for the sole purpose of enjoying eating
them and their mammary secretions. To summarize, we kill animals
for the pleasure of eating them, which is not a good enough reason for
me. Here is where people come back
with, "Our ancestors did it." Well, they did
lots of other weird stuff I wouldn't want to do either.
Plus, according to this
article, our early ancestors ate mostly nuts and fruit, and were
more often prey
rather than hunters. This article
by Dan Piraro describes the physical characteristics of carnivores
and herbivores, and you probably can guess the punchline since I'm
linking to it. :)
Here are some websites, books, and podcasts with more information:
Animal treatment:
Dan Piraro, author of Bizarro comics, describes it pretty succinctly here.
Animal Rights: The
Abolitionist Approach, website by Gary Francione. I haven't
read his books, just heard him interviewed/debated on several
podcasts. It's the most thought-provoking stuff I've come across
and has opened my mind. He's going to have a podcast soon.
Meet your meat, a video about meat
production.
This is good too if you like cartoons: the meatrix.
This is a really cute and funny video called "Cows with Guns."
yuck: factoryfarming.org
Meat
Market: Animals, Ethics and Money, by Eric
Marcus. This provides convincing arguments for
veganism.
Vegan:
The New Ethics of Eating, also by Eric Marcus, and you can get it
for free here.
Environment:
An article from AlterNet
describing the environmental benefits of vegetarianism.
"The
Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices" a book by the
Union
of Concerned Scientists.
Health. The followings links are all to M.D.s or dieticians
(in the first case) who
both actively research the scientific literature and have published
studies in
the standard medical journals.
Becoming
Vegan: The Complete Guide for Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet,
by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina. This an invaluable nutrition
guide that all vegans should read, so you learn how to get your
omega-3s (ground flax seed) and B-12 (supplements), and much much more!
DrFurhman.com,
M.D. His approach is to eat foods with the
maximum nutritional benefit, so a large component of his recommended
diet is leafy green vegetables. He recommends eating plenty of
fats from healthy sources like avocados and nuts and seeds, but not
from oils. Fats also help in nutrient absorption, so, for
example, it's good to include avocado and sunflower seeds in a salad
(yum).
McDougall Wellness Center,
another very informative website about the health benefits of a low-fat
vegan
diet. McDougall summarizes and responds to medical literature in
his newsletters.
Prevent
and Reverse Heart Disease with a low-fat vegan diet, by Caldwell B.
Esselstyn, Jr.,
M.D. This surprised me.
The
China Study, a book by Colin Campbell and Thomas Campbell II about
the cancer causing effects of animal protein. The main author
grew up on a dairy farm and thought he would spend his career
discovering the benefits of animal protein rather than the drawbacks.
There are similar books/research by Dean Ornish and Neal Barnard, also promoting
low-fat whole foods plant-based diets.
Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM), a website with many articles about the health
benefits of
veganism. This is a nonprofit organization and they have a good
online bookstore with a good assortment of cookbooks and health books
by PCRM authors and outsiders. Their mission is to promote a
healthy lifestyle, not only their own products. An example short
article from the PCRM describes the health concerns
about dairy products.
Athletics:
This is a great website for athletes. http://www.organicathlete.org/.
General information:
vegsource.com, lots of info.
Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a
Non-Vegan World, by Bob and Jenna Torres, a great book for
beginning vegans. They also have web forums and an entertaining
podcast.
Podcasts (I subscribe from iTunes rather than the links below):
compassionatecooks.com,
by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.
The podcasts are typically <30 minutes long and have very compelling
arguments to go vegan. Plus she answers those frequently asked
questions like "where do you get your protein? where do you get
your calcium?" These are very well-written and
well-spoken, therefore enjoyable to listen to. This is great if
you want a primer on veganism in short segments. If you become a
subscriber, you get a free recipe every so often. I highly
recommend the "gorgeous greens soup."
Vegan freak radio, by
Bob and Jenna Torres. These podcasts are often more than an hour
long and are
entertaining. These are meant to provide a community for vegans
where you don't feel like a freak for the hour that you are
listening. They have good interviews, and feedback from readers
via voicemail and email.
Vegan radio, a radio show
broadcasted from Northhampton, MA. It's fun and they have good
interviews too.
Animal voices, a radio show
from Toronto, that's more serious, but has good interviews.
Eriks Diner. Erik Marcus'
podcast: latest news and suggestions for activism.
Cooking:
Here are some of my favorite cookbooks at the moment:
fatfreevegan.com okay,
this isn't a cookbook, it's a website and is my main source of
recipes. It sounds horrible, vegan AND fatfree?
Actually, it's not fat-free, just mostly oil-free. I love beans
(legumes) and most cookbooks are deficient in this category but this
website is not.
The
Peaceful Palate, by Jennifer Raymond, easy, healthy recipes.
This is a great starter-book for the beginning vegan. This is my
second most used source for recipes, especially in winter because it
has good soup recipes.
Vive
Le Vegan, by Dreena Burton, easy, healthy, and interesting
recipes
Vegan
with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, really creative and
interesting recipes (chickpea and seaweed sandwich spread?!
delicious!)
The
Voluptuous Vegan, by Myra Kornfeld and George Minot, really
good recipes, good for weekend meals when you have more time to
prepare, though some of the soups are easy.
There are many, many more good cookbooks for all kinds of cooking
(quick, slow, gourmet, junk). Just do a search on
amazon.com.
I love food porn (though I haven't visited much lately):
FatFree Vegan Kitchen,
Susan Voison's blog, she also maintains the fatfreevegan site mentioned
above. She is from Louisiana and has the best gumbo and jambalaya
recipes I've come across. Plus lots of other recipes that
use the many fresh veggies we get in the summer from our CSA.
http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=29
http://vivelevegan.blogspot.com/
http://eatair.blogspot.com/
http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/
Online recipe lists:
vegweb.com
post-punk kitchen
Send feedback to bwhitney@chi-squared.org