I’ve
only been vegan for a few years, and in those years I’ve grown so passionate
about this lifestyle that I can’t help but share it with others every chance I
get, especially because of the remarkable health benefits that I’ve gained from
it.
In my discussions with people, I've come to notice that a majority of the
general public get confused when you refer to being vegan as a lifestyle
because they assume that it’s a choice that only affects your diet.
What people often don’t understand is that adopting a plant-based vegan
or even vegetarian diet, comes as a part of a global set of behaviours and
beliefs about life that make up a lifestyle. For instance, being vegan to me
means eating fresh and healthy foods, enjoying a vigorous exercise regime, living
sustainably, contributing towards environmental revitalisation, promoting
compassion for animals and realising my body-mind’s highest potential.
So even
though being vegan is centred on a certain diet, it affects many other aspects
of one’s life.
To give you an idea of what being vegan truly means to
myself and a lot of other plant-based eaters out there, here are three of the
core beliefs which to me, make up a huge part of the vegan lifestyle and philosophy:
Compassion for animals
The guiding principle behind many a vegan’s
decision to adopt a plant based lifestyle is predicated on feelings of compassion
for the countless animals that are slaughtered and abused every day by the meat
and dairy industry.
Then there is the abusive treatment that animals face in
industrial farms, places where animals are raised in suffocating enclosures,
where they’re left to defecate on themselves, and even fed
growth-inducing steroids that cause uncomfortable and painful physical
deformities (See: Forks over Knives or Cow-spiracy for more).
All this and more
disturbing behaviour is perpetrated by human beings on other living beings,
which makes you wonder how evolved we really are as a species if a majority of
us still choose to turn a blind eye on such
clearly atrocious and cruel behaviour.
Nevertheless,
these and other realisations are what inspire the compassion in many that adopt a
vegan lifestyle. This compassion is expressed through a combination of active
protest against the industrial agriculture complex, and through more passive
resistance which is refraining from consuming animal products in any way.
The
latter includes making the decision to not consume anything that comes from
animals, including meat, dairy, fish, poultry, and even animal hides (see:
leather, fur, crocodile and snake skin etc.) Showing support for animals in
this way sends a powerful message to food corporations that their abhorrent behaviour towards animals will not be tolerated for much longer and that humankind
is slowly but surely moving towards the potential of a truly civilised world,
where the life of all sentient beings is respected.
Environmental Sustainability
According to a 2006
United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization report, “the livestock
sector, most of which are cows, generates more greenhouse gas emissions as
measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport.”
This means that the
livestock industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emission and
therefore, global warming. Another contributing factor to environmental
degradation which is also linked to large scale animal farming is land
depletion. That's because in most farms “land is used continuously and not given
proper rest. Crops are not rotated in a way that replenishes the soil. Manure
and chemical fertilizers are used to ‘feed’ the soil, but through
over-application these additives become a problem.” (sustainabletable.org)
The same soil that should be nourishing to the animals actually ends up
becoming a poisonous pollutant, and the
bigger the meat farming industry gets, the more soil gets depleted and
poisoned. That's why it’s so important to slow down and even eliminate this
industry by adopting a plant-based vegan diet that will contribute greatly
towards saving our environment, and this is especially important if the current
generation plans on leaving a better world for the coming generations.
1. Health and Vitality
People that are first starting out on a
vegan diet often experience a better quality of life with higher
energy levels, a stronger immune system and just feeling lighter and stronger in
general. Consuming a balanced vegan diet
can also help to protect one from diseases such as diabetes, hypertension,
obesity and cancer, to name just a few.
In fact, recent studies show that most diseases are the result of lifestyle and diet choices, and that
adopting a plant-based diet can lead to better health outcomes.
These and other factors are what make up the ethos of the vegan lifestyle from my perspective.
However, I’ve only just scratched the surface here with these points, because
veganism is a powerful world-sweeping movement that has the potential to shape
our world for the better.
The above are just some of the reasons which show that veganism is more than just a
diet. It’s a lifestyle, a movement and a consciousness shift.
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