What are the benefits of being Vegan?

[RWattier]

I am curious as to why people become Vegetarians?? I know there are all different kinds of Vegans, but in generaly why do people switch to this type of lifestyle??

I have always been interested in how doing this would benefit my health??

P.S. When I was really young I thought it was the cool thing to be - that was when I was about 12 years old.......funny how you remember things like that!

 

[materialsgirl]

Vegans are vegetarians who do not consume ANY animal products - meats, dairy, eggs, cheese, honey, etc. Then you have your lacto-ovo vegetarians who don't eat meat, but will eat dairy and eggs. And your pesco-vegetarians who don't eat meat, but will eat fish. The list goes on and on...

There are number of reasons for becoming a vegetarian, and everyone's reasons are different. I am veggie for mainly health reasons, but also because I care about animal welfare and about the environment.

A good resource, if you are interested in becoming vegetarian, is vegsource.com. Also, you may want to read the book Eat To Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. That book is the reason I became a vegetarian. It was truly life-altering for me.

 

[Mckmain]

Reba for me personally...I read a book called "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins and to realize how in the last 10-15 years in the US The treatment of the animals they use for slaughter besides all the Growth Hormones and Anitibiotics injected in them (mostly in the beef)is awful and I don't want to put that crap in my body. It wasn't like that 20 years ago and growing your own beef now is the way to go. I beleive it could very well have to do with causing some diseases and certain cancers. I also think animal fat is a major contributor to obesity and high cholesterol. If you want some info there are many sites out there. This is an intereseting site of the last book I read about a cattle rancher gone vegan www.howardlyman.com I feel much better being vegan than I ever had eating any other way......Carole

edited for typos...

 

[pink_fortitude]

How funny! I just posted that question in the "hey, you vegetarians" thread.

For me, I fell in love with piglets at the fair. They were so adorable! Then we walked out of the barn and straiht ahead was a pork stand. My stomach felt queezy and my heart was broken! I could not eat those cute little babies! so I didn't eat meat again. Until I got pregnant. Then I was eating steaks with my bare hands!

Now I want to become a vegetarian because it is so healthy. Like Carol said, that put a bunch of junk in the animals. Plus, I was very disturbed upon watching an episode of Oprah. There was a doctor on who said the way that meat gets digested in your body is that it ROTS. Ugh. I haven't eaten beef or pork in several days, but still eat fish and chicken. I am weening myself from chicken.

Missy

 

[SRP]

As I said in another post, I did it for reasons of ethics and animal rights. Ever driven through upper Texas along I-40 and smelled that feedlot? Or maybe driven by a Tyson processing plant in northern Arkansas? Good grief, the smell! That alone would be enough to turn me off of meat! But really - I think that the way we handle meat production is very wasteful and often cruel to animals. Also, I think I am a healthier person for not eating meat. It makes me concentrate more on vegetables, which I didn't eat much of way back when I did eat meat.

Just a note - you can be quite unhealthy on a vegetarian diet - vegan, ovo-lacto or whatever. It's easy to become unbalanced, and I know some people who fill up on junk food (just like anybody!)But most vegetarian people I know also are interested in health and so make sure they get all the nutrients they need.

 

[prfitness]

Hi Reba

I was bought up veggie by veggie parents. When I went to college, I started eating a bit of meat and liked it. But then I became involved with animal rescue work and switched back to being veggie although I couldn't give up drinking milk.

I did switch back to eating meat for a while when I was recovering from anorexia and the weight gain was freaking me out. Someone told me that eating fish and chicken would stop me from binging and make me feel full and keep me trim. It didn't work for me. I craved sweets even more, felt like I was eating either fish or chicken breasts all the time (even though I was only eating it three times a week) and generally felt a bit moody. I also work with animals and animal lovers and I always felt guilty when I heard them advocating for the humane treatment of livestock.

So I'm back to being veggie. I feel a lot better now. I like a lot of variety in my diet and eat loads of veggies, fruits, beans and wholegrains. I do eat a bit of veggie protein like tofu with every meal but not so much as I used to think I had to. Its quite a carb heavy diet but it keeps my moods stable and I feel healthier. I have a tendency to get depressed and I thinks lots of good carbs give my brain the seratonin it needs to stay positive. Atleast that is my own whacky theory. I also think I might get to my goal in terms of weight because I am not eating so many sweets or dreaming of bread any more.

For me being veggie just feels right and it seems to suit me. I haven't been able to give up my yogurt, cottage cheese and egg whites though. Hope this helps.

 

[lbeach]

Well i am not vegan, or vegetarian. I used to be a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and even now only eat meat very rarely. And when i do i buy free-range organic meat (no growth hormones). This can get very expensive very quickly though, which is part of the reason i rarely eat meat.

However, the difference in the way you feel when you don't eat meat is amazing. You will have so much more energy. Once you have gotten this feeling, its almost impossible to imagine eating meat more than once a day.

So i say give it a shot. After the first week or so you will feel an amazing difference!

Good luck!

 

[bubbles100]

Hi Reba -

I became a vegetarian after reading Joel Fuhrman's book, "Eat to Live." This was in November of last year. Then I became concerned about my protein intake because of how I work out, so I began eating fish. So I'm a pesco-vegetarian.

After losing 55 pounds on Atkins, I had alot more energy. When I became a vegetarian, my energy level increased even more! Simply stated, I think we vegetarians just feel better all around.

Margaret

 

[saia11]

Reba,
I was brought up veggie by veggie parents and ate meat for a few years in my teens (actually only chicken, fish, and turkey) then switched back b/c I was just too grossed out by cutting chicken one day.

I converted my husband while we were dating and his family are BIG meat eaters--which bothered them a lot!
But he felt so much better and noticed such a difference in his energy level, allergies, and ADD that he never wanted to go back. The few times he did eat me after that (to please his mother, ugh! that woman!) he felt so terrible that it wasn't worth it.
We've been working at becoming vegan (for health and environmental reasons) since about April and have never felt better. My husband actually lost about 40 pounds! Doing nothing except giving up animal products and cutting back on processed sugars. We both feel so much better with no dairy or eggs, and on the few occasions we've have (oh, pizza and ice cream!) we've paid for it intestinally!
I also read Dr. Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" which precipitated the change to veganism and confirmed what I had felt for years about vegetarianism.

We just feel so much better, have so much more energy, and love animals the environment and feel great about making this choice for those reasons.
Hope this helps,
Mattea

 

[kathryn]

I became a lacto/ovo vegetarian in 1976, after deciding that I had to put my compassion for animals into action and live a lifestyle that did the least harm possible. I happened to find a vegetarian food coop that year (my first year at college), and my desire to be a vegetarian (though I didn't know much about what it was before that) was able to become a reality because I had a support network.

After considering how all dairy products are linked to veal production, and how laying chickens are treated (and basically how "food" animals are treated not as living beings, but as products for our consumption), I quickly became primarily vegan in diet (eating some foods with egg whites or whey in), but still wore wool and leather. Then I decided to give up all animal products around 1990.

I think you will find that vegans are more apt to have become so for reasons of compassion for animals than for health, though a vegan diet can be very healthy (though as others have mentioned, being vegan or vegetarian doesn't automatically equate withh a healthy diet).

Veganism is a combination of choices made on a daily basis, and on knowledge (you'll find you learn more about nutrition than most people know!).

 

[RWattier]

Thanks everyone! I am going to check that book out by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.....I know I could never EVER give up my love of milk (fat free)bc I can easily go through a gallon myself in one week, but I have been wondering about how processed our meats are these days......interesting.

We (hubby and myself) were in Sioux City IA where they have a Tyson plant and the smell was horrific!!! My husband looked at me and we were both thinking the same thing!

We have given up eating red meat on a regular basis, but still get steaks every now and then. I live in Nebraska and with almost every meal you eat meat and red meat is the favorite choice around here..........go figure!