Whether you’re a long-time meat eater or a full-on vegetarian, it’s time to start thinking about what’s really happening to your body, the environment, and the animals.
My Experience
After growing up on an “animal heavy” diet, I never thought I’d fully transition into eating plant-based. At the start of 2017, I made a change to my diet and cut out dairy after doing some research on how a dairy-free diet can help improve your skin. Five months into a dairy-free life, I noticed so many improvements in not only my skin but also the way I felt. Don’t get me wrong, cutting out dairy was hard work, and I never thought I could cut out meat as well. I mean, what would I eat?
Because a dairy-free diet was so life-changing for me, I decided to do some research on veganism. Not only did I learn about all of the awesome benefits of going plant-based, but my eyes also widened to the scope of animal cruelty and factory farming and I began to feel sick to my stomach. It is because veganism has such a positive impact on our health, the environment, and the animals, that I knew that I needed to adopt this lifestyle going forward, and on July 18th, 2017, I did just that.
Veganism is a lifestyle and it’s a choice to do good for not only yourself but the world around you. I’ve been vegan for over a year now and it is the best decision I have made. I feel awesome every day, not only because I am making a positive impact, but also because I am putting good things in my body!
Much of the world is trending towards plant-based eating, and you can too! Now, there are so many plant-based items that are easily accessible at most of your local grocery stores. This global shift makes it easy to transition and try new, whole plant foods that are good for your health and the environment!
One thing I love most about becoming vegan is that it has pushed me to live a more cruelty-free and waste-free life. I have almost 100% reduced my use of single-use plastics by purchasing stasher bags, silicone baking mats, to-go silverware, reusable straws, and more!
Did you know?
One of the most effective things an individual can do to lower their carbon footprint is to avoid all animal products.
A plant-based diet requires only one-third of the land needed to support a meat and dairy diet.
Being a vegan can save 200 animals, 1.3 million gallons of water, and 1.5 tons of carbon emissions per year.
4 Benefits of Going Vegan
1. Improve Your Health
There are many different ways that eating a plant-based diet can help improve your health. Most importantly, it increases the amount of nutrient-rich, whole plant foods in your diet.
Adding whole plant foods are beneficial to your diet because the consumption of animal fats and proteins has been linked to heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other conditions. Vegan foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans, are all low in fat, rich in fiber and nutrients, and contain no cholesterol.
Worried about protein and essential vitamins and nutrients? Vegans can get all the protein they need from legumes like beans, tofu, and peanuts, and grains like rice, corn, whole wheat bread, and pasta. There is plenty of calcium in broccoli, kale, tofu, fresh juices, and plant-based milk, and a ton of iron in chickpeas, spinach, pinto beans, soy, and more. The one thing you may need to supplement as a vegan is vitamin B12.
2. Save the Animals
Factory farming is one of the most devastating things to witness and over 95% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms. Factory farms focus on profit, rather than the well-being of animals. Vegans can save up to 200 animals a year by eating plant-based foods!
You might be thinking…but won’t there be too many farm animals? The answer is no. There is not going to be an abundance of cows running rampant over your town because you are no longer eating them. In fact, animals are typically only bred for human consumption, and nearly 10 billion farm animals raised each year in the U.S. suffer in conditions that consumers would not accept if they could see them. In order to combat the unsanitary conditions on these farms, animals are pumped with antibiotics, which creates the potential for dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria to develop and spread among people and animals.
Did You Know?
Factory farmers deem it as “unprofitable” to keep cows alive once their milk production declines, which means they are usually slaughtered at 5 years of age. This means that a cow’s normal lifespan of 25 years is cut 20 years short just to cut costs and maximize production. Cow’s milk contains ideal amounts of fat and protein for young calves, but far too much for humans because it is produced for young calves and young calves ONLY.
Both male cows and male chicks are also deemed as “unprofitable” after birth. Male cows are usually taken from their mothers and put into small boxes to be raised for veal and slaughtered as calves. Male chicks are ground up alive while females are raised for their eggs.
Learn more by following activists and rescuers like Elizabeth Jones.
3. Save the Environment
Animal agriculture takes a devastating toll on the earth.
Did you know animal agriculture is responsible for up to 91% of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest? Feed for farm animals requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resources that could otherwise have been used directly for producing human food. In fact, livestock and livestock feed cover a total of about one-third of the Earth’s ice-free land, which can be used for other things.
In addition, more than 70% of the earth’s fresh water is used in agriculture (for both plants and animals), and it takes 100-200 times more water to produce a pound of beef than it does to grow a pound of plant foods. The United Nations has also reported that the livestock sector is most likely the largest source of water pollution, further damaging the environment.
Agriculture and land use is responsible for nearly a quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions (4 times as much global greenhouse gas emissions than all of transportation combined). Factory farmed animals are also responsible for the enormous amounts of methane. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has shown that animal agriculture is globally the single largest source of methane emissions, which is causing serious modern-day pollution problems. These emissions are actually projected to increase by 80% by 2050.
With all of these stats, it is clear that plant-based foods are far more sustainable and environmentally friendly than those derived from animals!
4. Help End World Hunger
Farmed animals eat 70 percent of the grains grown in the U.S. and those grains have to be watered to grow! That being said, the amount of water, feed, and land used for farm animals can actually be used to fight world hunger! Did you know that there are ~800 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life?
You see, you can live a more conscious and cruelty-free life by introducing whole plant foods into your diet! Nourishing your body with plant-based foods can lead to a healthier life and reduce your carbon footprint by 50%! Bonuses of a plant-based diet include weight loss and mental clarity.
Check out The Vegan Calculator — a website that estimates how many gallons of water, square feet of forest, pounds of CO2, pounds of grain and animal lives that you save over a certain period of time on a vegan diet! I have been vegan for 1 year and 3 months and so far I have saved 500,500 gallons of water, 13,650 sq. ft of forest, 9,100 lbs of CO2, 18,200 lbs of grain, and 455 animal lives!
Infographic sourced from cowspiracy.com and created by Luke Jones of herohealthroom.com.