This blog was started back in the day to share insights and thoughts on how to become vegan and how to make the transition to veganism easier and healthy.
Before we get started on comparing the vegan diet to the standard American diet, I want to take a moment to talk about some of the reasons why this blog exists.
I started this blog because I’m an ethical vegan. Being vegan, really, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere is about ethics. The dietary part is just a small part of vegan living. Vegan living is a lifestyle choice focused around doing the least amount of harm to the greater environment as is humanly possible.
Of course, the focus, is in eliminating as much harm and suffering caused to sentient animals (Animalia here as a kingdom or taxonomic rank). And animals include land, sea and air animals as we commonly know them.
However, I think that veganism is a deeper ecological lifestyle choice that is about protecting and nurturing life generally. So a vegan is want to enhance life; not to damage plants unnecessarily, to recycle appropriately, to consume no more than is needed etc, etc.
But there can be an issue with the health of vegans when looked at through the actual lifestyle ramifications of what veganism really entails.
Now, many, nay, I would say a large majority of vegans having become vegan and thus focused on kindness and compassion and non-violence (or ahimsa) treat their own physical bodies with the sam kindness and compassion they extend to animals and Mother Nature.
But there are those vegans amongst us who’s only concern is animal rights and ending the suffering of sentient beings. I applaud this and I feel ya’, but you can eat unhealthily as a vegan and potentially harm your health.
We’ve all heard about the Coke drinking and French fries eating vegan. That’s about as unhealthy as it gets. But in all honesty I’ve never met a vegan who eats that badly. Though there are those who eat less optimally. And I take up a good chunk of this blog on how to be a healthy vegan by mentioned vitamin B12 and vegan weight loss amongst sharing recipes.
I do this, because I don’t want to lose any veteran vegans or soon to be vegans. Knowledge is power and living in a powerful vegan body means you can do more good, more consistently for both furry, feathered, scaled and naked animals (humans). We lose enough vegans each year because they aren’t eating right that it harms, even ever so slightly, the ability of veganism to prove its way as the best lifestyle choice for both man and animals.
So please, if you are vegan or becoming vegan, make sure you eat well and take vitamin B12. Everything else becomes easier.
And now on to the topic of this post which is about whether the vegan diet is healthier than all other diets. The short answer is yes it is.
But I’m talking about eating a healthy vegan diet. So what does this mean? What is a healthy vegan diet? A quick and easy explanation will suffice. A healthy vegan diet is a diet centered around starches, like legumes, grains, potatoes, winter squashes and the like.
Make about half of your plate whole, unprocessed grains, like barely, rice, potatoes etc. The other half is made up of vegetables or all colors and fruits. You might also like to sparingly add some nuts and seeds if you like.
A good place to start is with exploring the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s Power Plate.
Examples of healthy meals include brown rice with vegetables. Wholewheat pasta with tomato sauce. Wholewheat bread with vegetables and avocado. There are plenty of great recipes out there, including on this blog. The only other thing you’ll need to concern yourself with is vitamin B12.
I take a weekly vitamin B12 like this one and in the winter months I take a vitamin D supplement a few times a week like this one which is a vegan vitamin D. Learn more about vitamin D here.
I also take an omega 3 supplement when I remember like this one. You get a similar amount of DHA and EPA omega 3 fats that you do in fatty fish, without the cruelty, heavy metals and other toxins found in fish, and it doesn’t have the fish aftertaste either. You’re also getting the omega 3s where the fish get them from – algae.
These supplements combined shouldn’t cost you more than a few bucks a month for ultimate good vegan health alongside a great natural plant based diet.
And if you are eating like that, you are eating way healthier than anyone else. You are eating the healthiest diet known to humanity… the vegan diet.
Why is it healthier? There are a number of reasons, the best perhaps is that eating a vegan diet is the ONLY way to become naturally heart attack proof. And when you consider that heart disease is still the number one leading cause of death for men and women, this becomes important to not only living a long life, but also a healthy long life.
Vegans are also skinnier on average than folks on any other types of diets and we have less chance of cancers too. I’ve also written about how vegan men have more testosterone than omnivorous men and if you’re worried about your penis size, then eating chicken will give you a weeny wiener and greater chance of penile cancer too.
But more importantly, living a healthy vegan lifestyle with a plant strong vegan diet will be your key to longevity as 108 year old Loreen suggests as do other studies.
Now as time goes by, more and more studies will begin to show the health benefits of the vegan diet and I hope that more and more people will embrace it. It is inevitable in my opinion if for no other reason that it is a much more efficient use of crops and for feeding the ever growing human population.
However, even now, we can all agree that a health plant based, vegan diet is at least as healthy as an omnivorous diet. Even the American Dietetic Association has said as much.
So the only question is why continue to eat meat? There can be only one answer and that is because we like the way it tastes. But this is no excuse to cause and contribute to the violent suffering of sentient beings. It is unethical and immoral to cause another injury just for the physical pleasure of the flesh. Please think about that.
I know it might be difficult to consider becoming vegan. But it has never been easier. There is all sorts of free information on the net to help you and if you’d like to read a few books to help you get started then I would suggest you start with these: Vegan for Life, World Peace Diet, Vegan Bite by Bite and the classic Diet for a New America which should be required reading for all parties interested in a vegan diet and lifestyle. It may be old but the arguments are still sound as is the information and science.
Some will argue that a pure plant based diet is not natural, and they’re probably right. But what is a natural diet? There is no consensus. Rather it is much better to ask ourselves what is best? For our health and for the planet and all it’s abundant creatures.
The Paleo diet is not natural either, neither is living in climate controlled homes and wearing clothes. But we do these things because they help us. The vegan diet is a huge help too and the healthiest diet you could eat.
Live long and vegan.