It has become apparent to me that there are some very clear misunderstandings around veganism and whole-food plant based lifestyles. So I thought I would offer some posts to help correct that. Firstly there are three main strands to why people choose a vegan lifestyle - personal health, animal welfare and global warming.
Here on this forum there are many people who devoutly consider their meat-dairy-fish based diet to be healthy, all based on personal experience mixed with often considerable research to find good information out there on the web. The exact same stance is true of people who follow a vegan lifestyle. How can this be the case? How can it be that often seemingly opposites come up with the similar conclusions. Well that's a debate for other threads perhaps. Here let is be clearly stated that people who adopt a vegan lifestyle find not only their initial health goals being achieved but also ancillary health issues being addressed time and time again. So for example someone might wish to lose weight and that is so very easily done on a vegan lifestyle, in fact it is almost impossible to not achieve. Besides that time and time again people with high blood pressure find it reducing, often within weeks. And when high-blood pressure is associated with most aspects of early death then that is a big thing.
(There are people who do not do well on a vegan lifestyle, and that may be my next post.)
The whole-food plant-based approach is a second-stage of veganism that many migrate towards. It is a cheaper and easier lifestyle once you get into the swing. But the primary reason for going to this second stage is undoubtedly health reasons. People realise they have particular health challenges and find that the "basic" vegan lifestyle does not comprehensively address it.
My own third stage of going low-fat and other dimensions is to address hard to beat chronic illnesses. These third stages diverge into fully-raw, fruitarians and more.
And now to the second reason - animal welfare. This is a hot debate philosophical debate even within the vegan community. The debate is around whether becoming a vegan means asking whether animal welfare or health reasons are uppermost in ones thoughts. This debate goes right to the core, and believe me it is an unstoppable passionate one that started long before the term "vegan" was even coined. Riding on the back of that is the common misuse of the term vegetarian to sometimes mean vegan. As an example the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii is totally a vegan society.
There is a very important point on animal welfare that I would like to add. According to the vegan society, the goal of a vegan is to reduce animal suffering where possible. So as an example every bottle of orange juice is said to contain an insect or two, does that make commercial orange juice non-vegan? There are many other debates, the biggest is probably around honey. And that leads to another dimension of veganism. It is about a journey of awakening. Most vegans today were once devout meat eaters themselves, probably from being babies. They feel they have had their eyes opened, however that happened. And their eyes (and my eyes) are being opened further as each day passes. As knowledge increases decisions about what is and is not vegan is a personal decision based on what is possible, sensible and founded in knowledge.
For myself, my skill set is in health and that's where I focus my thoughts. But animal welfare, or lack thereof can never be far behind. I won't go into details on animal welfare, or lack thereof here because once it starts there is no end. Let me just state that sales of animal food stuffs are beginning to slow down. A news article yesterday reported that Sweden has had its largest drop in meat consumption for 30 years. However Belgium leads the drop across the EU with a 15% reduction in sales. Interestingly neither of these drops are considered related to the rise of veganism but more reduction in meat consumption of omnivores.
And finally to the environment. If you are inside the vegan bubble the claim is that commercial animal farming causes up to 51% of global warming. I have even seen claims of up to 70%. To reach these heady figures taken into account are things like rainforest deforestation which is done to provide land for grass-fed beef, the vast soy crops of which nearly 90% is consumed by animals. Companies like Burger King have been shown to be at the forefront of this with drone footage in Brazil that just goes on and on. This month is due a new "vegan" documentary Dominion which I expect and hope to go into this in very graphic detail.
Obviously some people go vegan for other reasons but without a doubt these are the main three that are oft cited.
Written by
andyswarbs
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I hope you're enjoying the weekend so far. I just wanted to say that I always appreciate reading posts regarding the reasons people choose particular healthy eating paths, and I find your post interesting, so thanks - and I do read the various papers that people share too - because it is all helpful to discussing healthy eating.
I've been rushing around this morning, so not had much change to do any reading, but just wanted to say that I appreciate this forum and the fact people share their experiences.
Thank you zest. Last night's dinner party started with an exotic fresh salad papaya, mango, avocado, raspberries etc. Others added a dressing and gorgonzola cheese. Our main course was a biryani based on swede, carrots, courgettes and cauliflower with that biryani hallmark of cardamom pods. I could not believe when I read the recipe and it called for butter, 1/2 pint olive oil and coconut butter. Since I was doing the cooking none of those ingredients went in. However three hot chillies did make there way as well as ginger and cayenne pepper.
One thing I have learnt through trial and error is the benefits of adding herbs along with the spices, so this curry also had marjoram and basil, even though not listed on any recipe I have ever seen. Adding herbs leads to more rounded flavours.
I really like the sound of your meals - and how you're using the delicious herbs and spices - I love your addition of the Ginger and Cayenne Pepper. I hope very much that you can share a recipe sometime - if you want to - because I feel sure it would be extremely tasty and would inspire some people to try a very delicious dish.
Left over banana, cacao and date chocolate pudding drive.google.com/open?id=1h.... One of our guests is a diabetic (meat eating, low carb). She felt able to eat this because there was no added sugar. The flecks of light in the pudding are bits of banana.
left over curry drive.google.com/open?id=1M.... I had been worried about using swede rather than potatoes but a whole swede went in an worked very well. Added a nice yellow colour. I also added a small amount of lentils and quinoa which added body.
The rice is all gone. My general technique for cooking rice is, using my smaller le crueset pan to put the rice in (in this case 8oz) add water and make sure it covers the rice. On goes the lid, the low hob heat and check it 20 - 30 mins later. If most of the liquid is gone and getting close to rice being cooked then turn heat off and put the lid back on. In this instance I had to add some extra water for other ingredients.
Photos look fabulous, Andy. I used to go to the local vegan cafe for daily lunch. They did use soya mince, though. Sounds like you got a very happy wife and guests who had a great feast.
Thanks for your lengthy comment, can I please come to dinner! I have been on WFPB way of eating for over two years for health reasons. Amazing the amount of info and recipes on the web now, quite a lot from ForksoverKnives web page and now their Facebook members. As my Indian dentist tells me their vegan diet is not necessarily healthy.
Off topic really, but I was in pret-a-manger today and noticed they now have a special symbol for their vegan products in addition to the vegetarian ones - so the demand is growing!
Hi andyswarbs, this is well written and makes your position clear and is interesting, so thanks for sharing this.
I admire ethical people and ethical foodies so good for you and good for you that it works for you.
Hi Andyswarb, thank you for such an inspiring post.
I would like to share a story of my daughter Caitlyn. When she was being introduced to solids when she was a baby. She made it clear that she didn't like meat in any shape or form. My ex husband would be in a frenzy trying to make her to eat meat. She would not have it. She finally came to talking stage and I asked 'what is the reason why you don't like meat, baby doll? She looked up with her big brown eyes and said 'mom, I don't like how it tastes or feels and when I grew older and found out it was an animal i cried'
I never forced her to eat anything she didn't like.
There are definitely some people who are 'natural vegetarians'. They just don't LIKE meat. I know a few people with kids who refused from their early years to eat meat; they all respect their kids' choices.
There's an anecdote in Gandhi's autobiography in which he describes sneaking off with a few friends to try goat meat, as teenagers might sneak off to try alcohol or cigarettes. He just wasn't impressed by the taste or the texture and never felt the need to eat it again.
I'm one of those, probably something to do with autoimmune/arthritis. We are a sensitive bunch with a temperamental gut. I had juvenile arthritis as a child.
As you may well know, our gut isn't the same as those without inflammatory conditions. I don't think my jaws are meant to be chewing the red meat much. I'm not even too crazy about the "look" of the raw red meat stacked in supermarket shelves (no offence to people who love red meats). There's a scientific claim that the red meat prevents vascular dementia in older people, who are already in care homes because eating red meat will help strengthen the connective tissues in the cerebral vessels. I discovered my gut no longer digest cooked pork (bought at the supermarket) in the past 12-24 months. I am on beafy medications which may be interfering with the gut.
I hate to say this, but people who have arthritis or any other types of autoimmune diseases may already have some compromised vascular systems. I'm pretty stymied on that front. It's essential that we do eat what may/might help us in a long run rather than help accelerating further damage on, be it, our gut lining, vessels, eyes, brain/connective tissues.
On the animal welfare issue, there's no doubt that the meat industry is FUBAR, but I think it's a great pity that vegetarians, vegans and meat-eaters can't find some common ground here. Broadly speaking, meat-eaters fall into one of four groups:
1) They really don't care what happens to the animals and swallow the official line that factory farming is "necessary".
2) They block out the reality of what goes on in the meat industry and pretend that meat is just something that arrives in polystyrene packets in the supermarket. Again, they tend to swallow the government line that There Is No Alterative.
3) They are appalled at what goes on in the meat industry but - again - are fully convinced by the government line on the subject, and so continue to eat meat (because they like it) with a big dose of guilt.
4) They buy only meat, eggs and milk from animals which are raised in a manner which allows them to express their natural behaviours, for a reasonable lifespan.
With the exception of group (1), all of these people could potentially present a united front, opposing cruelty, waste, and inefficiency in the raising and slaughtering of animals. They'd be a formidable force against the offensive behavior of Big Ag and their enablers in government if they could all agree that - for example - the routine killing of insects with broad-spectrum poisons has nothing to recommend it. It doesn't matter than vegans object to the killing itself while others might object to environmental damage. Stopping pesticide use would solve a whole bunch of known problems, and might end up fixing some unknown ones (for example, we literally don't know how many modern diseases are caused by or exacerbated by pesticides in the environment).
I live just around the corner from the slaughter place. They seem to be "at it" at night as well. I'm often amazed by the number of lorries (packed with sheep) going up and down the road. To be honest, I do not particularly like it, personally. (No offence to anyone)
I'd happily eat insects as the eco solution, but currently, they are (as always) packaged in a funky plastic bag/container and it tends to cost a fortune for a very small amount of insects, which will not give me enough to go on living. As Sir DA says, correctly, we are probably the biggest vermin on the planet. People will happily recycle items/anything if the council allows it/if there's a facility. The local council stopped food recycling some time ago due to funding cuts. I try not to buy anything packaged to limit any unrecyclable waste. I agree that the supermarket should do more as they are very market savvy and could formulate better solutions than the state possibly could. As for the mass, mindless use of pesticide, it would only take a wise 5-6 years old to know DNA damages in humans could also be possible, not just killing 'bugs' on veggies. After all, we are also part of the Eco system, not above it. Throwing grenade at any part of nature is also indirectly killing us, too.
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