yes, my hippy percentage is getting greater and greater, I made the decision yesterday to change to a vegan diet. It was something that had been weighing heavily on my mind for a long time, and my decision had always been to wait until I lived in NZ again to make the change. However, i met a lot of vegans last night at the Seoul Veggie Club dinner, and realised it is completely doable to be vegan here, and that I had just been making excuses.
of course, my main reason is so that I am no longer supporting a cruel industry. I just read a chapter on chicken farms and had sat here bawling my eyes out. i don't know why i ever thought it was okay to eat eggs. its not. at least not for me. but i do think you ought to be informed about what you are eating, and many many people are not. i am sure that if you visited an abattoir or chicken farm, your attitudes would change.
but its not only for those reasons: the evidence has for a long time shown that animal-free diets are positively linked with low cholesterol and therefore low heart disease. In fact, patients who had had heart attacks due to clogged arteries from cholesterol have recovered fully due to the change to a vegan lifestyle. thats pretty amazing: to reverse heart disease. now say what you want about hippy food, 'rabbit food' etc etc, but you can't argue about the health benefits. also, by following a vegan diet, your cancer risks are significantly lower. isn't that enough of a reason? google "the china study" , its quite interesting reading.
here is the link to the book I have been reading. the book looks at the vegan lifestyle from 3 perspectives:
1) your health
2) animal cruelty
3) world hunger
now, i know that many of you are apathetic about animal rights, or perhaps you don't know a lot about what goes on there. fine, whatever, I'm not going to make you feel guilty or push my beliefs onto you.
but do yourself a favour, and read the section on health. what have you got to lose? the book is actually free to download:
http://www.vegan.com/vegandownload.php
in fact, i challenge you to read the health section, and to then come up with a reason for why you should eat meat and dairy.
and yes, I'll take supplements. I've already had the lecture from 2 people today. hey, here's the question, why are you concerned about my health? i should be the one concerned about your health!
update: so sometimes I am not the brightest. guess what flavour soy milk i bought? honey! honey comes from bees and is therefore NOT vegan-friendly. I am a dumb-ass.
5 comments:
Have fun. Behold, you are now The Most Irritating Houseguest Ever! :)
Seriously though, am proud of your convictions. x Nic
did you read the section on health? the bits about how we have been mislead about milk are quite interesting. I learned a lot.
At the moment i'm a pretty strict vegetarian, all free range all the way, so i confess i didn't read the section on health. I'm all about the soy :)
I didn't think that vegans cut out honey? It's an animal by product, yes, but the bees do it anyway, and it doesn't hurt them, does it? I will investigate. x
yeah, honey is a tough one. i'm going to finish the jar of honey in my fridge, and then see what alternatives are available here. apparently, you can buy 'agave sticks' or something like that , as a replacement. but probably not in Korea! speaking of which, i am madly jealous about all the yummy flavoured soy milk you can get in Aus. here its just the yucky plain stuff.
me too. I wouldn't have thought about honey, particularly if you get wild honey. I've become pretty strict with the vegetarianism - I bought my last ever pair of leather shoes in March (I'm trying not to feel too guilty - at least a sympathetic person bought them) and I've completely switched to free range everything but I do love my free trade coffee (not soy).
Besides, I believe that we were meant to be omnivore - but only if we have the guts to kill things ourselves (harmonising some kind of american indian / little house on the prairie view) - but miss ingrid - we should talk soon. Maybe I'll be converted
Liss XX
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