There is a difference between veganism and a plant-based diet.
According to an article in the Huffington Post:
Vegans abstain from eating any animal products. According to The Vegan Society, “Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.”
A whole foods plant-based diet, on the other hand, emphasizes eating whole fruits and vegetables, consuming lots of whole grains, and staying away from (or at least minimizing) the intake of animal products and processed foods for health reasons.
The following knowledge and perspectives were gathered to help you take your life into your own hands and consider living a plant-based vegan lifestyle. Food in relation to physical and mental health are the main points discussed in this article along with a few ethical considerations. The information and opinions from huge agribusiness that strives to debunk the motivation for living a vegan lifestyle are abundant and can’t all be addressed, yet scientific studies and industry research discussed here will show that this lifestyle can bring about significant benefits to your health, vitality, and livelihood. Typically, unhealthy practices come from the choices that we make because we have been poorly educated or uninformed. Unwell behavior comes from the regular choices we make. Frequently paying attention to our everyday behaviors and how they make us feel can give us insights into where in our lives we are sabotaging or harming ourselves and how those behaviors affect others.
What Are You Losing?
Meat
Dairy
Animal tested products
Hunting activities
Visiting zoos and the circus
Heart disease
Digestive problems,
Emotional issues
Brain damage
Diabetes
Just to name a few. We are taught to love and depend on meat and dairy for proper nutrition and that is it necessary to be a healthy person. Attending the zoo or the circus has been a form of entertainment from a very young age, yet being totally unaware that these animals are in captivity. When you adopt a plant-based diet, you increase your opportunity to eliminate over-the-counter and prescription medicines that claim bring you “relief” from conditions such as heartburn or sadness and anxiety. There are thousands of cases of people who have healed and prevented ailments through a change in the way they’ve decided to live their lives. Below, is a brief discussion on the loss of some specific health issues plaguing Western society right now, material items you may find end up detaching from, and other the loss of other dependencies we’ve come accustomed to.
Loss: Diabetes and the Risk of It
The American Diabetes Association(ADA) conducted a study to determine whether a low-fat plant-based diet will improve blood sugar control and heart and blood vessel risk in individuals already suffering from type 2 diabetes. They compared this study to the diet recommended by their own guidelines.
Their results found that both diets reduced the intake of diabetes medications and body weight. These are positive results, but even better, these results showed that these reductions were improved by approximately 50% more in those participating in the low-fat plant-based diet.
Those are significant benefits for someone looking to eliminate diabetes naturally. The exact numbers are shown in the chart below.
Results For Type 2 Diabetes Individuals on a Low Fat Plant-Based Diet vs. the American Diabetes Association Diet
ADA Group
Plant-Based Group
Diabetes Medications
26% (13 of 50)
43% (21 of 49)
Body Weight Reduction
3.1kg
6.5kg
LDL Cholesterol
10.7%
21.2%
Protein in Urine
10.9mg
15.9mg
Loss: Digestive Problems
If you experience constipation, excess gas, chronic diarrhea, acne, or bad breath on a regular basis, this can be related to your food selection. Research done by the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene in Germany with several other medical institutes compared a plant-based and vegetarian diets to meat-eating diets and its effects on the bacterial environment in the colon. This study found that a strict vegan diet rich in fiber for a prolonged period of time reduced regular stool acidity.
Digestive imbalance causes a string of other issues that continue to affect different parts of the body until it is balanced. Bacteria thrive in a highly acidic environment. Based on this research, by following a plant-based diet, the colon becomes less acidic resulting in you being less prone to developing digestive discomfort regularly.
Loss: Your Leather Handbags, Down Coats, Cashmere Sweaters, Snake Skin Wallets, and Other Animal Derived Fashion Merchandise
A vegan lifestyle goes beyond just what is eaten. It’s about causing minimal harm to all animals and the environment. It is well documented that animals used for fashion often live harsh lives in cramped cages, intolerable cold temperatures, are parasite ridden, starved, suffer loneliness, are de-horned, ear-notched, and castrated without anesthesia of some sort, etc. Consuming animals through diet, fashion, grooming and other means are excluded in a vegan lifestyle.
In order to make animal skins usable, they are washed down with toxic chemicals so that they don’t rot or decay. These chemicals are extremely toxic to humans. Even more so to those who are ‘treating’ the skins to make them wearable.
If you’ve ever owned a pet, it is very apparent that animals show gratitude, grief, pain, and pleasure. They are reactive, aware, and have feelings.
Animals in the food and fashion industry are treated cruelly and carelessly. Living, responsive, and reactive beings treated this way and then turned into products is not luxury or quality. Vegans choose to consume alternative options that do not derive from animal cruelty and are just as stylish such as cotton, linen, nylon, polyester, and many other materials.
Loss: Convenience
In Western society, it is really easy to purchase and quickly consume animal products like food, clothing, and beauty products. Many of the things we use every day are of some form of animal by-product. We have the luxury of someone making our food, clothing, and cleaning products for us. Restaurants and drive-thrus, clothing stores of all kinds and convenient products of every kind are available in abundance for all to easily purchase. In a busy world of convenience, most of us buy these things without the thought or question of what it’s made of or is it harmful to us.
Being a vegan pushes you to become more conscious of where and how your conveniences are being made. If you find that animals or harsh dangerous ingredients were used to produce a product you attempted to buy, you are impelled to go about getting that item in a different way.
It may take some time getting used to in the beginning but you’ll soon notice that you are developing more creativity by learning how to cook differently and shop differently. This can bring about feelings of freedom, resourcefulness, and even artistry. Life becomes an awareness and awakening that makes you feel a little more self-sufficient.
What Are You Gaining?
Gain: Security
You’re less susceptible to danger or threat of disease in regards to your health because food-related illnesses are preventative.
Plant-based eatersare 63% less likely to suffer from hypertension, the number one contributor to heart attacks.
Plant-based eaters have a 15% lower incidence of all types of cancer.
34% lower risk of female-specific cancer.
22% lower risk of colon cancer(livekindly.co).
Make a plant-based diet an intention that reflects an awareness of duty and responsibility to yourself by avoiding foods that cause harm to yourself.
Gain: Growth and Development
By becoming a more resourceful and creative person through veganism, you begin to align your real self with your ideal self. If you dream of seeing yourself as healthy, energetic, and fit, you have to become someone who is driven by mental, intellectual and emotional growth through changes in attitudes, motives, identity. Your actions must merge with the standards that reflect your hopes, wishes, and aspirations.
Gain: Clarity of Mind
There is a link between nutrition and mental illness. The Indian Journal of Psychiatry published that poor appetite, skipping meals, and a dominant desire for sweet foods are some food patterns that play a key role in conditions like depression. Also, everything is energy and this includes the food we eat. Some energy vibrates at a lower frequency and some energy vibrates higher. When we eat dense (low vibration) foods in excess, we gain body weight and all the physical illnesses that come with it, but we also gain a ‘heavier’ mind. A heavy mind causes cloudy thinking and negative thoughts.
Food is also information and what you feed your body gives information to your cells and your DNA. Logically feeding it with animals that suffered correlates with your own suffering. This can present itself in any number of mental diseases, for example, anxiety. High vibration foods (whole fruits and vegetables) are not only healing to the physical body, but also to your mental state.
As with any change in lifestyle and habits, there are pros and cons. There are learning curves, frustrations, and setbacks. As long as you maintain an ambition and vision of who you want to become on this journey, you will eventually catch up to that vision. If you find it difficult to eat plant-based, I suggest you look online for your favorite dishes in its plant-based version. Everything can be “veganized.”
What else are you losing by going vegan? Do the cons outweigh the pros?
Camille Thomas is the founder/writer at DiligentCopy.com, a freelance video transcription company specializing in turning videos into blog posts or ebooks in the natural health and wellness industry. She helps wellness entrepreneurs reach their goals with transcribed, creative content (Blogs, whitepapers, ghostwriting, etc.) about alternative medicine and healing, spirituality, veganism, ethical fashion, and more.