To say exactly why I went vegan, isn't answered by one simple reason; It is an accumulation of my own personal knowledge about the world we live in, learning about the way in which our bodies work and seeing the mass consequence of day to day activities that effects the longevity of this planet. This has been contributed by watching documentaries, thousands of personal accounts on Veganism on Youtube (and yes, OTHER lifestyles (e.g. Paleo, Atkins) to educate myself on all aspects & biases on eating) and seeing the results speak for themselves within my own body.
Although I now have a thousand reasons to never want anything else but earth's food for my body, the reason was triggered by one occurring problem; feeling crap after eating, as in lethargic, having the urge to rest or sleep, feeling cranky and knowing I had a hormonal imbalance (acne & period pains). Going from a diet of eggs for breakfast, chicken toasted sandwich for lunch and mince bolognese pasta for dinner, I can see why I was so cranky and upset all the time - The amount of naturally occurring hormones, fat and steroids/ antibiotics in my food was astounding. And the worst thing is, I had no idea.
I had heard of Veganism before, but really had no idea what it was about, especially since I was so happy sitting in my own little bubble of "but I love my cheese and schnitzel/ lasagne/ sunday roast way too much". I have always loved fruit though, but still only had maybe a piece a day, and would never have even dreamed of making a meal of it. But still I knew, something wasn't right with my body, especially since my acne never went away. I knew this was my body's way of telling me something isn't right. However, instead of looking to diet and lifestyle for the fix of these problems originally, I was taken to a dermatologist at 19 and put on a drug, Roaccutane, which I highly regret (I'll go more into this maybe at a later time). Even after I finished the 12 month course of this toxic, quick fix drug, I still had acne and my body was feeling weak. The dermatologist recommended that I do a second course, and I turned it down knowing that I could heal my body naturally if I just did a bit of research.
Now below is just the smallest insight to my skin beforehand. While never was it horrendous, it was just flat out consistent, all month round. The worst I would have were the cystic acne bumps underneath my skin that would be tender and painful, which I had on my back as well unfortunately. Let me tell you creating a photo collage of your breakouts sans make up, was not fun, but I want to show how much my skin has changed and how well it has healed, especially since I had many deep scars and marks on my face from consistently having acne. Eating a current diet that not longer promotes hormone disruption or a high fat percentage, allowed my body to heal. But importantly, a Vegan lifestyle is super hydrating, including all the fresh fruit and veg which is mostly water; hydrating you from the inside out, not to mention the abundance of vitamins and minerals that support your body in healing and repairing itself.
It literally only took me two seconds to find out what I needed to find *Thank god I live in the era of the internet*. And thanks to few amazing people I've met along the way who have helped to open my eyes about importance of what we put in our bodies, with their own testimonies and importantly, popping that bubble of ignorance I carried around myself for so many years about the cruelty in the animal production industry.
I've never been a huge fan of milk anyway, but learning about how harmful milk/ dairy products are to your health, especially in the way that they contain a specific growth hormone (even in the most ORGANIC of milk), because that is the very purpose of milk; to nuture, feed and support the growth of young calf into fully grown 700kg cow. This growth hormone, known as Insulin-like Growth Factor (IGF-1), which is also present in human's milk also, is meant purely to be consumed by the infant, since most of the growing (in both species) happens in the first few years of its life. The continual consumption of cow's milk in adult humans, behaves as a cancer-accelerator (cancer referring to abnormal cell growth). Important to know as well, that this IGF-1 is not destroyed in the pasteurisation process nor during human digestion and is therefor biologically active in humans, being associated with breast, prostate and colon cancers. Due to the poor conditions of dairy farms as well, and since it is completely unnatural for the female cows to be hooked up to a suction pump all day, even the most minuscule of infections of the udder will mean there are puss cells going into the milk that you will drink. To combat this problem, farmers pump these cows full of antibiotics to heal them and, you guessed it, this ends up in the milk people drink too.
Milk and dairy products aren't the only animal products harmful to your health. I learnt as well, after thinking most of my life that meat was essential to health, to provide protein, iron and other nutrients (which it actually does provide, however comes with too many nasties to make it a positive contribution to your health). Even the most "leanest" of meat, still has a higher percentage of fat than you think, hidden in the muscle as intramuscular fat. This is important to know, as I started learning about what the human body actually runs on. The brain alone runs off of glucose which is processed from carbohydrates in the body.
I learnt a lot from the book 80/10/10, which in its name describes how we should be eating. 80% of our calories for energy from carbohydrate foods (All fruit, grains, starches), 10% of calories from protein (Fruit naturally contains the perfection ratio of carbs/ protein/ fats -
funny that?), and 10% of calories from fat (avocados, nuts, chickpeas etc). One of my favourite fruits is the banana, literally nature's superfood; high in fiber, so low in fat and salt it barely counts plus is the most gentlest, digestible fruit (when ripe and spotty!) on the stomach. Of course, seeing as I love my graphic design; I thought I might start making nutrition information boards to help spread the message of health, Veganism and just encourage people to give it a go.
Documentaries I highly, HIGHLY recommend include Forks Over Knives, Blackfish, Earthlings, Food Inc and Super Size Me. I also follow and contribute a lot of the information I now know to awesome people in the vegan community such as Dr McDougall, Freelee the Banana Girl, FullyRaw Kristina, Loni Jane, Gary Yourovsky, Durian Rider and so so many more. So go look them up!
It is so important to start educating yourself about the world we live in and realise that everything is NOT as it seems. The meat and dairy industry work hand in hand with the pharmaceutical giants to create a cycle of sickness and "health". While I may not go into detail about everything I've learnt and know, it all starts with that curiosity and you musn't ignore it. More importantly, trust your gut and not your tastebuds because surely you know that animals don't willingly give their life to be your food? Neither is it all happy fun times in these
SLAUGHTERHOUSES or that eating all this pain, stress and despair can't be positive on your body, let alone your subconscious being. I've educated myself to a point where I don't need to see anymore footage of what happens in these industries; and any sane person who sees this footage knows it's not right. Images of baby piglets with their skulls smashed in, lying on their siblings in the bin; scenes of mother cows mourning for their calf, who is only a few days old, taken away to be slaughtered in only a couple of weeks for "veal", chickens turned cannibal on each other out of pure frustration being kept in the dark coops their whole lives, spring to mind.
It's not pretty. And neither should you keep pretending it is. Simply take the first leap into giving your body, mind and soul the best it can be, and just watch
THIS trailer.
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| Photography courtesy of @lonijane |
You might be curious now, what do I eat? Well interestingly now that I've been Vegan for almost a year and have been Vegetarian for longer, my palate has changed a lot. I crave simple foods, mostly fresh, but still cooked food too. For breakfast I always eat fruit, a 7 banana smoothie with water, ice, coconut sugar or a monomeal of half a watermelon, rockmelon, a bunch of mango's - whatever is in season! Somedays I might just crave avocado on toast with a fresh juice or I even had pasta the other day because it was cold, but it's full of those carbohydrates that your body needs for its everyday energy.
Lunch is easy too. Either more fruit, salad rolls, vegan burgers, baked potato or sweet potato with guacamole, cous cous salad, Vietnamese pho, Thai noodles, anything with a good base of starch, which thanks to Dr McDougall, I have learnt all about the necessities of that.
Dinner is similar, maybe a few servings of minestrone, mushroom risotto, vegetable pasta, pizza (you can make anything vegan!) or even a huge bowl of nice cream (a bunch of frozen bananas blended with ice) and with coconut sugar sprinkled on top. Basically fruit all day and night, some people do suggest to stop eating fruit after cooked meals because these digest quicker, but I don't seem to have a problem with it. It's all about listening to your body.
The best thing now is, I can literally eat as much as I want and 1) I have never felt sick or sleepy or gross after a meal, but instead, completely energised and happy. And you know why? Plant foods digest with the least required energy, and thus allowing you to ACTUALLY use that energy for your everyday tasks - pretty simple yeah? Those who eat at McDonald's or even just have a fatty meal, you will find you need to rest because your body wants to use that energy to help digest that food. You literally waste your energy back into digesting. Also 2) My iron levels and energy levels are higher than ever too. No headache's after meals, no grumpiness, no mood swings, no period pains and no acne. My body is almost on it's way to being fully balanced again.
It definitely helps having like-minded people around you, absolutely 100%. It wasn't easy at first for me in the beginning, but now I can see since I have stuck to my guns, the people I love have started to change for the better too. Even my
boyfriend, who is considered an athlete, eats 100% Vegan now and has noticed the difference. I'm beginning to see a ripple effect in my actions with others and that makes me absolutely ecstatic.
