There’s a lot going on with me at the minute and perhaps it’s just the product of eating poorly and not being in my usual routine that has me thinking this way. However, It’s not a rash decision or even a hard one for me to make.

For months, getting on for almost a year I’ve been really toying with the idea of turning vegan. It seems to be more, now than ever, in the press and online about how important our health is and the impact we’re having on the earth by the mistreatment of animals, and ourselves! Animal welfare is such a huge thing for me and I don’t really know why I haven’t made the switch sooner.

I wrote an article a few months back Meat vs Meat-free which caused some Meat vs Meat-free which caused somecontroversy (as all good articles do). I didn’t write it to upset either side, I just want people to know their choices and feel the best about them. The fact is, how you eat is entirely up to you, if it does you good and makes you feel good then eat that way, but for me, animal products just make me feel tired and sick and that’s just one of my reasons..

Reasons for the switch;

• It’s so much healthier to eat a plant based diet
• I already don’t eat;
  Any dairy products, other than butter, eggs and milk (in very small quantities).
  Certain meats; Pork; Gammon,belly draft or thick sliced hams. Game and Turkey.
• Animal products make me feel lathargic, bloated, sick and I can’t eat as much!
• I enjoy a varied diet and learning new ways of cooking.
• The thought of hurting animals upsets me (and so it should!)
• It saves the planet, reducing carbon emissions, pollution and environment and animal changes throughout the planet.

It’s healthier to eat a plant based diet

Well, again, it depends on your body type. I wrote about this briefly in the meat vs meat-free debate. Some bodies can’t digest meat, some can’t digest certain plant-based foods. I am one such person. I can’t digest red meats very well and I can’t digest certain legumes and pulses (lucky me, eh?). That’s not the only thing though.

Eating a plant rich diet lowers cholesterol, because they don’t have cholesterol, lowers fat and reduces risks of diseases and overall just gives a better quality of living. I’m not here to preech about the benefits but as a health blogger I do find I need to talk more about the health advantages a bit more than I do the other reasons for this change. If you want more information on the health benefits go to this Youtube Couple (they’re amazing).

Eating a plant rich diet not only improves the quality of your metabolism, enabling your body to digest and store your food (energy) better. It also works to improve your circulatory system, eye sight, bowels, skin, teeth etc etc etc.. the list really is endless. As long as you’re cooking fresh, no nasty chemicals and processes!

I already don’t eat certain animal products or certain food types

I’m sensitive to lactose, eggs don’t taste nice unless they’re cooked with other ingredients to mask their flavour and pork and turkey and several other animal products just aren’t for me. I have to be honest, I love the taste of a well-cooked steak but I feel miserable after eating one. Both psychologically and physically, my body aches and I just feel like an awful person. I think it’s because our bodies aren’t made to digest meat, once agriculture came in we started to farm livestock but that doesn’t mean our bodies have adapted properly.

I think it’s important when starting a new diet (or anything really) to really be looking forward to it. To be excited and want to go into it as a new and exciting experience. I love learning new styles and methods of cooking and for as long as I can remember I’ve always picked up new diets and tried to make changes in my style of cooking. For me it helps me to create meals from just a few ingredients and it has really helped me to adapt to any changes I need to make.

The thought of hurting animals upsets me.

It’s a no brainer really, doesn’t everyone hate to see an animal in pain or hurting? apparently not. We all seem to turn a blind eye (myself included) to the disgusting things we do to animals, not just at the end of their lives but from birth to death. I’m sorry, I don’t want to be one of those people that’s preachy but it really hurts me, I avoid hurting any animals, from flies to snails, I avoid it..yet I’m still apart of it. It really bothers me to think what’s gone in to making my animal product based foods.
Not to mention the fact that I stepped on a baby bird yesterday, an actual dead baby bird..in the middle of the road. I almost threw up and cried out at the same time, it was definitely a turning point for me. Since then I haven’t eaten any animal products (well, honestly, I’ve had powdered milk in a sachet coffee). I felt so nauseous and hurt by it, yet I wasn’t the cause of it. Think about it for a second, a lesser being unable to ask for help or control its surroundings, and we’re abusing our powers over it. It doesn’t sound right, does it?

–

Why is Vegan ‘unusual’ or ‘strange’? Why is it something I felt needed to be written about?
Because when talking about it people see it as out of the ordinary, we’ve become so detatched to the world for giving us food that we have forgotten that most animals eat plants. We chose to add meat into our diets, when we started farming animals. We didn’t chose to remove plants from our diets, because we know how important they are ,so going back and eating plants is not the ‘strange’ thing to do. We’ve been doing it for far longer than eating meat, I’m just going back to the ‘normal’ way of eating.

Those are just my reasons, I have several other points to make but I don’t want to drone on. At this moment in time I am now making the transition and for me, I know it will be hard. Not because I don’t care but because it’s hard wired into me and has been for such a long time I know that habit will keep milk in my drinks, I think that’ll be the biggest step for me. Anyway, I’m happy to return to writting again and I hope this hasn’t droned on too much. 

Love as always, stay healthy!