Four months ago I became a vegan. I thought eating animal products was perfectly fine, I just gave them up in order to start eating a plant based whole foods diet. My motivation was simply to clear my skin and improve my energy and clarity of mind for school.
Since then, I have learned so much about the poison Americans are being fed through the food system in general. There are so many things that are not spoken about. For the purpose of writing this post I will focus on meat, eggs and dairy products alone.
My mind about the consumption of meat started to change when I learned of the cruel, brutal, torturous conditions in the meat factories (they are not farms like they advertise in all the commercials and food packages - these are NOT happy cows). The fact that shook me up was learning that in many factories they use a tazer that is supposed to kill the cow before being processed, but only 30% of the cows are actually killed. The rest have been caught on the security tapes being skinned alive and kicking desperately for their lives while having their legs chopped off.
Treatment of dairy cows, chickens, pigs and the likes is not any better. These are truly torture chambers.
For anyone who has ever loved an animal, who has ever had a pet, it's heart breaking to think the question, "why is it okay to do this to these animals and not this one that I love?"
Scientists have known for years that meat, eggs and dairy products, contrary to what is advertised everywhere, are not good for our health and actually cause many sicknesses. Some of them being obesity, cancer and heart disease. Part of this is a result of the pharmaceuticals and hormones that the animals consume, and we consume when we eat the animal products. Scientists have showed that it is not the drugs alone that are making us sick. The animal products themselves are not good for us. The meat protein harms our bodies.
To hear two prominent scientists clearly show the relationship between animal product consumption and disease, I would highly recommend watching the movie "Forks Over Knives".
To find movie times near you click the link below:
Not only are animal products detrimental to the health of our bodies, but also to the health of our planet. One-third of the worlds land mass has been bulldozed for pastures and factory farming. This has had a terrible impact on global warming. Not only are all of those tree's missing that are not absorbing CO2, the cattle are emitting toxins into the air; from the eight million of tons of CO2 they exhale into the atmosphere to the the nitrous oxide and methane gas emitted from their manure and the animals themselves.
Meat and dairy farming is destroying our planet, while it is known that organic plant based farming uses far less energy and feeds many more people. If just a portion of the grain that goes to feeding the cattle was given to people, world hunger would no longer exist.
Below is a link to Lisa Bloom, a prominent attorney and life long vegetarian, speaking about the brutal treatment of animals in the meat factories and the impact of these factories on our planet.
My mind has been totally changed when it comes to the consumption of animal products, and it has been changed on so many levels. The cruel treatment of the animals, the diseases that come hand in hand with meat consumption, and the destroying of this planet.
When I first started on this path of being vegan I had no idea that the consumption of meat had such a wide range of negative side effects.
Though it is shocking to start learning about, it is actually good news. It is good news because these things are happening whether we know about it or not. Once we know what is going on, and the terrible impact of the meat, egg and dairy industry, we can spread the information and take steps towards change
Every time we shop, every time we sit down for a meal, we are voting for what things will be sold in the stores, we are voting for what industries will thrive. It is in our hands to make changes: to vote for a healthy organic plant based way of eating that only benefits everyone from the producers to the consumers rather than an animal based way of eating that tortures innocent beings and harms the consumer.
For those who are not moved by learning the information above, they might be interested for the same reason I originally was. Over the past four months my skin has become increasingly clear, and my energy level and clarity of mind have increased ten fold. Those two things alone would have been motivation enough for me to continue living a vegan lifestyle.
God Bless you and yours
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