Carry on Beautiful!

A little while a go I made a post about why, at that time, I was not vegan. Which means that now I am vegan I feel like I need to make a new post about why I am. At the time I was worried that veganism would make my eating issues I had as a teen come back, so thats the first thing I want to approach. Veganism has been great for my eating habits. I no longer have any guilt about eating because I know (usually) the things I’m eating are things that are good for my body.

So, veganism has helped my eating habits but why am I vegan? I think there are two reasons anyone goes vegan, for the animals and/or for health. Since What the Health was released on Netflix I’ve seen a lot of people say they’re going vegan because of it, and I totally get why but I was already vegan when I watched it! Health is a great reason to go vegan, its easier to avoid fat when not eating meat or dairy and there have been lots and lots of studies showing that eating a plant based diet can prevent and reverse a whole array of health issues.

As someone who is overweight and has family history of diabetes, heart disease and cancer (and plenty of other ailments) trying to prevent myself from being affected by those things is really important to me. I want to live a long and happy life and I feel that eating a plant based vegan diet is the best way for me to do that both physically and mentally.

Now we get to move on to the animals. I had been vegetarian for several years in my teens so I was already aware of how animals are treated when they’re only for food, but like I think a lot of us I thought their treatment was getting better. I was wrong and I’m sorry but if you think that so are you. Animals are still left to live in horrendous conditions and are treated horribly. I don’t want my money to go towards them being treated like that and I don’t want to eat someone that’s lived a sad life that was prematurely ended because I want to eat it. It sounds pretty fucked up when you see it like that doesn’t it?

It’s not only the animals that are eaten that are treated like that though. The more I looked into the way dairy cows and egg laying chickens are treated the more terrible I felt about eating the things that come from that. Every living thing deserves happiness and safety, they all deserve to roam free and feel the sun. I don’t know if any animal can or would truly feel happiness, but I know they can feel pain and fear and I don’t think they should have to feel those things and only those things because I as a human feel the need to drink another species breast milk or eat another living, breathing being.

There is basically a huge amount of suffering being caused by humans, being caused by the people working with the animals, the people buying those animal products and everyone in between and I want to contribute as little as possible towards that. I wouldn’t eat my cats, I do everything I can to ensure they’re happy and healthy, so why would I willingly cause pain and death to other animals? I won’t, not anymore and not ever again.

Now you know why I am vegan! I hope this post has made you think about the things you eat, or if you’re already vegan I hope its just been interesting!

-Dana