Vegan for health
I’ve been reading a lot of pro-vegan websites recently, trying to decide if I want to make the move of eliminating eggs and milk from my diet. The vast majority of these sites seem to promote veganism primarily from an animal-rights point of view.
While I see the animal-rights aspect as one of the positives of going vegan, it alone is not enough to persuade me to make the jump from vegetarian to vegan. As selfish as it may sound, the primary reason why I am considering veganism is because it could be better for my health.
In addition to searching for scientific data about whether, in fact, going vegan is a healthy choice to make, I’ve been happy to come across a couple of blogs written by vegans who made their diet choice primarily for health reasons, as well. One vocal proponent of veganism for health is Steve Pavlina, who discusses his reasons for his diet choice in great detail in this blog entry .
I also recently found this post about one guy’s “overnight” transition from carnivore to vegan, spurred on by health-related findings. By his account, The China Study is an extremely persuasive epidemiological report which concludes that a vegan diet is the way to go. Sounds like it might be a good read - has anyone out there read it?
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POSTED IN: Becoming Vegetarian, Vegan Victories
5 opinions for Vegan for health
cindy
Dec 22, 2006 at 7:14 pm
I’ve heard about it, but have yet to read it. One of my main reasons for going vegan had to do with health and not wanting to put grap (sometimes literally) into my body. They have found that consumption of animal fat interferes with the absorption of calcium, so no, milk does not do a body good. Not to mention that most milk has puss in it from infected cow teets. Meat processing is just a horrible, tortuous process which introduces humans to stress hormones, unwanted antibiotics, steroids and feces. When cows are processed, often times there intestines get inadvertently ripped and then they are dropped in water to clean out the cavities, the same water that all the other cows are being dropped into, with no additional cleaning, which means that water becomes infested with feces from the intestines and then the meat is cut up, ground up and what have you. The FDA does have a cap on the allowable feces particles that are acceptable in your meat. These are just a few of the reasons why I decided that I was done with all animals products, including dairy (farmers take the babies from the mommas and sell them to veal distributors). It is okay to be selfish about your health and what you put in your body.
Vegans have been found again and again to be at least as healthy as omnis, with lower rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. All good reasons to go vegan. But it is an individual decision and when you are committed to your decision, you will find that it is not only “not” hard, but fun.
Zandria
Dec 24, 2006 at 5:52 am
Animal and health reasons…but you didn’t mention environmentalism. Meat and dairy eating/production has a huge impact on the environment. That’s my primary motivation.
Jul
Dec 24, 2006 at 11:54 pm
Thanks, Cindy, for lots of good reasons to drop dairy, too. Cow puss… not so appetizing!
Zandria - good point! The environmental benefits of vegetarianism are very appealing to me. I should learn more about the environmental benefits that come from making the jump from lacto-ovo-vegetarian to vegan.
Noelle
Dec 31, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Hi There. I love your blog. Yes I’ve actually read the China Study and it literally transformed over-night the way I looked at food. I decided after reading the book for a Nutrition Course, that I would try as hard as I could to become completely vegetarian, which I was close to anyway, but to also become completey Vegan. I have completely changed the foods in the house and the way the whole family eats. It is amazing to realize that the more you shop properly at the grocery store, the easier it gets. You don’t have to spend hours there anymore, you’re in and out! My family loves the food and my husband only eats meat once and a while! I highly recommend reading the book to anyone interested in their health! Plus I lost that last bit of baby weight that was hanging around! Bonus!
Jul
Jan 1, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Thanks, Noelle. Sounds like a powerful report, indeed, to change your diet so quickly and permanently. I will have to check it out. Congratulations on all the healthy diet changes you made for you and your family!
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