We’ve adopted a total-vegetarian-aspiring-toward-vegan lifestyle after discovering information that we had previously never encountered, or had chosen to ignore. It includes research on health, nutrition and anatomy; a range of environmental concerns; economics and human rights; and animal rights. (See links below.) Because producing nutritionally equivalent or superior plant-based foods is much more efficient than raising and killing other animals for this purpose (energy, water, and other resources), veganism even addresses many concerns regarding food and energy security.
These are just a few questions that motivated my own behavioral changes:
-Developing the ability to process and consume high-calorie, animal-based food sources, via using our intelligence to design hunting tools and cook, may have helped humans to survive a broader range of settings. However, a range of public health data (see resources below) suggests that our bodies are far from being fully evolved to accommodate the eating habits that the majority of us practice today. Are we clinging to survival mechanisms that are unnecessary with modern technology, and potentially harmful as well?
-If we are indeed intended to drink milk through adulthood, why don’t our mothers continue to lactate until we’re fully grown? Why are so many adults lactose intolerant? And, is the same food that’s consumed at the ultra-high growth rate infancy phase also sensible for an adult – let alone an adult of a separate species? Why did John Robbins walk away from his family’s multi-million-dollar Baskin Robbins enterprise, instead writing about the damaging impacts of animal products through books like Diet for a New America?
The questions above are merely intended to provoke thought. Anyone interested in such a lifestyle change must ultimately do their own homework, but I suggest a few links as a starting point:
- Site for The China Study, the largest human nutrition study ever conducted (The product of a 20-year partnership between Cornell, Oxford and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine)
- Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, information on the protein myth
- Cleveland Clinic Foundation cardiologist Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., MD, research on preventing heart attacks
- Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, information on vegetarian and vegan diets
- Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary
- Brenda Davis, how to avoid common nutritional stumbling blocks when transitioning to vegetarianism or veganism. Dina Aronson, George Eisman, and Vesanto Melina are also vegans with formal training in diet and/or nutrition.
- ChooseVeg.com information on making the switch
- Godairyfree.org information source on dairy-free living
- “The Meatrix” (Educational cartoon on factory farming, environmental and public health impacts, and animal rights issues)
- “Meat Your Meat” (Video focused primarily on animal rights issues)
- Article on how concentrated animal farming adds to the threat of species jumping viruses.
Even in light of compelling information, the pressure to maintain the status quo can be great, as eating is at the core of many social rituals. Exchanging food is how we often express love and friendship. So when we attempt to alter current societal norms in this area, it’s easy for others to misinterpret it as a rejection of their affection or a judgment of them. Additionally, many “food myths” continue to circulate, such as the belief that obtaining adequate protein from plant-based sources is difficult. Those who care about us may thus react out of fear and concern that we will harm ourselves. Indeed, I spent three decades of my own life believing that most vegetarians and vegans were a bit crazy. And my own deeply-ingrained opinions and attitudes certainly didn’t change overnight.
Granted, there are a range of other diet and lifestyle actions we can also take to benefit the world, e.g., purchasing local, organic, and fair trade versions of products whenever possible. Regardless, vegetarianism and veganism remain significant actions one can take toward creating a healthy, sustainable, and just world. Again, it’s not about being or appearing perfect, but about doing what we can as we increase our awareness.
