Environmental reasons...so much rainforest land and water used for meat and dairy consumption. After that, I looked into how animals were treated and that added another reason. Finally, I researched how healthy it can be.
I turned vegetarian at the age of 10 and at that age was when I kind of understood I was eating an animal. I always had so much love and compassion for animals I couldn’t eat them. I stayed vegetarian until mid 30s. Over the past 5 or so years it also turned into a concern for the planet and really understanding that even dairy wasn’t good for health and environmental reasons and finally switched to vegan. I have to say it’s now a lot easier to be vegan as there weren’t many choices for me as a younger person.
Since I was young, I had problems eating flesh- I've heard some vegan documentary or another say that modern children are taught to consume flesh in the guise of our happy meals and other kids meals- where the flesh takes on shapes that don't look like recognizable body parts- a burger is a disc, nuggets are just that, and tenders and sticks are just long nuggets, and sometimes those animal flesh parts became so disassociated from actually being an animal that they seemed to become a toy themselves. That being said- I was 14/15 when I started the transition to vegetarianism (mostly due to PETA's Meet Your Meat and COK) and I was completely veggie by New Year's when I was 15, and then my goal when I turned 18 was to go completely vegan, and that was in 2013, so I've been veggie since 2010 and vegan since 2013.:)
I watched one video of cows in a slaughter house, cried my eyes out and then went vegetarian the next day (New Years day 2016). By April 2016, I eliminated all animal products from my diet!
It’s been a process over the years, but I’ll share one recent moment in particular that really cemented the decision. A good friend of mine runs a non-profit called “Magic Marble Foundation” (found on IG) that focuses on (among other things) veganism, and one day she shared a post that said “every mother hopes the world will be kind to her children” with an image of a human child and various animals being nursed. Maaaaaan…that pulled on my heart strings *hard* for some reason and made me really think about veganism, sustainability, all of it.
I read Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet and then many other books like China Study and just felt so guilty eating meat, then fish, eggs, diary and so on - but it was very gradual over 10 years of actually stopping meat first. 😊
At 66 Medicare kicked in. They began working me like their new cash cow! The list was very very long and the ‘system’ thought they had a typical fool. Well, I fooled them! After open heart surgery I went WFPB, SOS free. With lab results to prove the case, I got off all medications and reversed every diagnosis I’d been given.
Although there is much left to perfect, I am certainly not standing at death’s door, much to the chagrin of my handlers!
I cried about eating meat a few times when pregnant and kind of shrugged it off as hormones but then after I had my baby I had a panic attack while eating sushi freaking out about how gross and sad it was to eat something else’s body so I threw it all away and have been vegan ever since!
Environmental reasons for me as well. I study and work in the field and this was simply the morally aligned choice. And the best one I made, adding so many ways of reducing my harm on the planet and its beautiful creatures who deserve to be treated with love and live a happy life.
The sheer weight of realizing that the human race can be so much better than eating animal corpses from commercialized COMPANYS that "produce" animals like items.😟
At some point a few years ago my body became aware that I was eating the flesh of another being. And I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. And so I stopped. It was remarkably easy.
Environmental reasons...so much rainforest land and water used for meat and dairy consumption. After that, I looked into how animals were treated and that added another reason. Finally, I researched how healthy it can be.
Looking into the eyes of a cow, and seeing it look back at me, just like my dog does
Started for health, stayed for the animals!
I turned vegetarian at the age of 10 and at that age was when I kind of understood I was eating an animal. I always had so much love and compassion for animals I couldn’t eat them. I stayed vegetarian until mid 30s. Over the past 5 or so years it also turned into a concern for the planet and really understanding that even dairy wasn’t good for health and environmental reasons and finally switched to vegan. I have to say it’s now a lot easier to be vegan as there weren’t many choices for me as a younger person.
It was being told one of my coronary arteries had a 95% blockage. My cardiologist called it a “widow maker.” That got my attention.
Since I was young, I had problems eating flesh- I've heard some vegan documentary or another say that modern children are taught to consume flesh in the guise of our happy meals and other kids meals- where the flesh takes on shapes that don't look like recognizable body parts- a burger is a disc, nuggets are just that, and tenders and sticks are just long nuggets, and sometimes those animal flesh parts became so disassociated from actually being an animal that they seemed to become a toy themselves. That being said- I was 14/15 when I started the transition to vegetarianism (mostly due to PETA's Meet Your Meat and COK) and I was completely veggie by New Year's when I was 15, and then my goal when I turned 18 was to go completely vegan, and that was in 2013, so I've been veggie since 2010 and vegan since 2013.:)
I watched one video of cows in a slaughter house, cried my eyes out and then went vegetarian the next day (New Years day 2016). By April 2016, I eliminated all animal products from my diet!
It’s been a process over the years, but I’ll share one recent moment in particular that really cemented the decision. A good friend of mine runs a non-profit called “Magic Marble Foundation” (found on IG) that focuses on (among other things) veganism, and one day she shared a post that said “every mother hopes the world will be kind to her children” with an image of a human child and various animals being nursed. Maaaaaan…that pulled on my heart strings *hard* for some reason and made me really think about veganism, sustainability, all of it.
I read Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet and then many other books like China Study and just felt so guilty eating meat, then fish, eggs, diary and so on - but it was very gradual over 10 years of actually stopping meat first. 😊
I read The China Study.
At 66 Medicare kicked in. They began working me like their new cash cow! The list was very very long and the ‘system’ thought they had a typical fool. Well, I fooled them! After open heart surgery I went WFPB, SOS free. With lab results to prove the case, I got off all medications and reversed every diagnosis I’d been given.
Although there is much left to perfect, I am certainly not standing at death’s door, much to the chagrin of my handlers!
I cried about eating meat a few times when pregnant and kind of shrugged it off as hormones but then after I had my baby I had a panic attack while eating sushi freaking out about how gross and sad it was to eat something else’s body so I threw it all away and have been vegan ever since!
Environmental and health reasons
Environmental reasons for me as well. I study and work in the field and this was simply the morally aligned choice. And the best one I made, adding so many ways of reducing my harm on the planet and its beautiful creatures who deserve to be treated with love and live a happy life.
The sheer weight of realizing that the human race can be so much better than eating animal corpses from commercialized COMPANYS that "produce" animals like items.😟
At some point a few years ago my body became aware that I was eating the flesh of another being. And I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. And so I stopped. It was remarkably easy.
Yup! It's repulsing to see people address an animals body as a throw away item/food.