First of all, what is a Vegan? A Vegan is someone who looks to abstain from all forms of abuse, cruelty, and oppression to animals. It is more known to be just a "diet" but it is actually a lifestyle choice that by principle must extend to your diet as well. Now that veganism is covered what is a whole food plant-based diet? A whole food plant-based diet is different then veganism. No principles attached to animals. Simply looking to exclude all animal products for health, athletic performance, and longevity. I had previously seen articles of pro athletes adopting a whole food plant-based diet such as Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Kyrie Irving, Venus Williams, Nate Diaz, Colin Kaepernick and many more people. They were explaining how it was life-changing in their sports performance, recovery, and the rest of their lives. But perhaps the most important athlete for me in my transformation was James Wilkes. He is a former UFC fighter that was injured and forced to find the quickest methods of recovery. He came across the powers of going plant-based and how it is the diet that humans are meant to eat after 7,000+ hours of research on the subject. He then produced the film Gamechangers which truly was a game-changer!It goes into great detail about the benefits of being plant-based with a great amount of research to back, including large, peer-reviewed studies by the largest health and nutrition organizations, long-time and newly switched plant-based doctors, and pro athlete testimonials.
I try to go for facts and if the claims support something new then I don't mind giving it a try to better myself. We can get all essential nutrients needed for optimal health in all stages of life on a well balanced whole food plant-based diet. So I decided to try for 21 days and see how I felt. I tracked all of my food intake via MyFitnessPal, my fitness, sleep, my overall energy, and feelings throughout the day. The first couple of days were challenging because I made it harder on myself by trying to go out to eat at the same restaurants to grab a bite to eat but just to choose a plant-based option. It heavily limited my options and didn't allow me to explore the full range of amazing vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, plant-milks, and plant-meats (which can be made at home with natural ingredients)! Once I decided to buy from local small businesses, healthier grocery stores, and plan properly, everything became very SIMPLE. My new daily routine is actually more simple than before because I go to the stores that have more of what I was looking for. No more than one week into stopping my consumption of animal products did I start to notice looking more shredded in my core. I began to see more veins and blood flow to my lower legs and calves that I hadn't seen before. I began to sleep more well-rested and saw a major improvement in my digestion. I was sold after these new findings and found that not only did I lose my taste for animals, but I find the smell slightly off-putting now. The last step of me completely switching to Veganism came via influencers such as Earthling Ed, Joey Carbstrong, and Gary Yourfosky who are animal rights activist that brought out the hypocrisy of me claiming to disagree with animal cruelty yet contribute to the meat and dairy industry that murders almost 80 BILLION land animals and 3 TRILLION marine animals yearly! If it is proven vegan diets are healthy for all stages of life is any of this necessary? NO!
Animal agriculture is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions resulting in over 50%! And to add fuel to the fire, meat and dairy products are proven to cause the leading 15 out of 16 causes of death to humans! Including coronary heart disease (#1, About 655,000 Americans die from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths), increased cancer risk, strokes, and most chronic diseases. To sum everything up, after learning (and continuing to learn) how meat and dairy affect our health, the environment, and the animals, it became a no-brainer for me to make this lifestyle change. I just had to trace the products we see in the store back to their origin and do some studying for the better. It's time to find justifications for the way we treat the environment, other animals, and ourselves. I will continue to encourage others to learn to better our world today and for generations to come!
This is a great video with facts about the leading reasons most people defend eating animals. I would find it hard to argue against veganism for people who know where they stand morally and are willing to align their actions with their beliefs.
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