I don't think they taste much like Mars Bars - but, they do taste absolutely delicious, so who cares? Not me! :D
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I don't think they taste much like Mars Bars - but, they do taste absolutely delicious, so who cares? Not me! :D
Bravo Lifted! :cool:Quote:
Liftednevermore
for me, it all started 4 years ago when my family was travelling up to north carolina driving on a highway late at night when we spotted a chicken truck. it was the most depressing thing my sister and i had ever seen in our lives, it felt like witnessing a concentration camp, they were packed in tiny cages all stacked up with the wind blowing all of their feathers off and it was sickening. being the idiot that i was, i continued to eat chicken, but i did feel extremely guilty whenever i did. then one day i was at the grocery store with my sis and she told me the shocking truth about how animals are raised because someone had sent her an email and then she watched the meet your meat peta video. i was horrified and after this i had no desire at all to eat it and it made me feel soo much better to not support it. so she became a vegetarian too and so did one of my bros and then my friend. still being the idiot that i was, i continued to drink milk thinking that dairy cows dont suffer and that probably not all of them sell the male calves to veal. and i ate free range eggs because i thought that they didnt suffer much either. then about 3 months ago, i heard this kid in my class say that he was vegan (i later found out that he wasnt because he drank a milk shake but who knows it might have been a transitional binge thing) and i was impressed because id never actually met a vegan and i was like if he can do it i can too. so i did about 4 weeks ago and i love it. thanks for reading my very long incredibly boring story.
I'll go ahead and fill in my bit because I don't know if I have before.
I was raised vegetarian, by a mother who had good intentions, but never talked to me about why she did. I just thought we were deprived of meat and were different. She wasn't too commited to it, because when I turned ten, she started eating meat again. Later I asked my dad for a Big Mac. I got one, and ate meat for the next eight years.
Flash forward to living in a tiny apartment, up late at night and nothing to do (which is why I'm writing this right now). I was so bored, I went online to every site I knew. Every now and then I would check out PETA's website because I cared about animals, but only in the normal "they shouldn't be treated too horribly" way. My boyfriend was on the other side of the room playing games. I had nothing else to look through, so I clicked a vegetarian link. Page after page, I read more and more about how animals are treated. More and more I thought about the ethics of animal exploitation. Every time I found a new tidbit I read it out to my boyfriend and we were both equally horrified. After 45 minutes of solid astonished reading, I turned to him and said "uh....Colin? I really think I want to go vegan." He said "Yeah". Over the next few days, Colin finished off most of the cheese in the fridge (it was hard for him to give up because he was an addict) but alot of it got thrown away with alot of other things. I couldn't even touch anything, though. We set a date to not possess any more animal products (the next Monday) and we haven't looked back.
Yay for boredom!
hi hi,
i thought i would add my piece... its really not that awe inspiring as some of your stories are.
i was raised organic vegetarian by my mother, who taught me that animals are all the same.... you, me, your cat, or that cow over there. (moo).
i am vegan now. (mooooo). :D
Well said to your mummy, did she go vegan too?
I was raised in a village of around 200 people (if that) in the ruralest areas in Eastern Europe. My family had a few pigs, chickens and ducks. I remember being 4 or 5, and watching a pig being slaughtered. I can still remember the shriek and the smell. It terrified me. Being 5 and not having much control over what I ate, hindered my progress.
Around 13 or so, (a few years after immigrating to Canada) I started eating less and less meat. (The meat that I did eat was overly processed). Slowly, I eliminated pork, beef, chicken, eggs, and fish. I was actually told of vegetarianism, for I thought I was an anomoly. You can imagine how my family took it. Not being aware that there were other like me, I ate whatever I could, mostly dairy. This lasted until about 2 years ago, when I was highly advised to get a flu shot. Having a "DUH" moment, it did not click in my fragile little mind that the vaccine was incubated in eggs. (Shudder) I became really ill. I have never been as sick as I was for the 4 months that my doctors, nutritionists and other crazed medical personelle ran numerous tests on me. Long story short, I became lactose intollerant due to the flu shot. I was sooo devastated. I lived on cheese for the past 10 years. Despite my attachs, I still ate cheese from time to time (organic, veggie of course, 90% of the time). Then, slowly, as my vegetarianisn, I craved it less and less. So, I am a Vegan, but by default.
I read some leaflets at a friends house when I was 14 and didn't go about becoming vegetarian very well- I simply refused to eat the meat my Mum had made for dinner. Pretty unfair and selfish of me, especially if I had just spoken to her she would have been fine with it, which is what I did. I guess springing this on someone whos been surrounded by meat all their lives, you do think theres nothing else. A couple years later my sister went vegi too.
Last year I started thinking less about myself and more about where my food comes from- not just animal, but in terms of organic and health benefits. I think I'd sort of buried my head in the sand when it came to the cruelty of dairy etc, but doing more research made me realise that if you care enough to be vegi, you have to care enough to be vegan.
I spent a while looking at nutrition and substitutes, and talking to vegan friends, and even went through a phase of deciding I couldn't do it.
But eventually I just went for it- that was... almost 4 months ago and I love being vegan!!
Makes me really proud of myself in a strange way...!
I went vegan 2 years ago now....it was weird....sort of gradual but sudden at the same time. Gradual because having been raised in a meat-eating family, I had lowered my intake of meat, being really disgusted by it, but still having the odd bit of chicken. I just couldn't help thinking about what I was eating....the flesh of something that was once alive. Then at 16 I too started having eating problems.....I had an obsession with my weight (something which still creeps up on me sometimes) and went through a two year period of starving, binging and vomiting. It was really unhealthy.....I am sure I did terrible damage to my body.
Anyway then I decided I wanted to be healthier and also I wanted to be able to say to myself that nothing I ate caused an animal pain or agonising death. I probably sound like I'm raving....but it's how I feel. So then I thought meat but also eggs and dairy products, except milk, should go. To be honest everytime I had milk I was disgusted.....but I wasn't aware enough at that point about calcium enriched alternatives......then eventually I cut it all out...and I feel much better. Not deprived at all. And everyone says I am a brilliant cook!
Now I live with 3 pescatarians (one who eats chicken and fish) and a meat eater. They are all great friends, but I can't wait for the day when I can look into my own fridge and not see a single animal product there.....instead of a partially eaten chicken carcass grossing me out....
sorry this was reaaaaaaally long I got a bit too into it.....must do some uni work now!
Well it's easy and I can narrate it with a few words: first it was by my health, now is by the health of the chickens (as Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote).
I do not have to say nothing else. It's thus simply.
I should also add that the booklet that came with Moby's "Play" album went a long way in raising my awareness.
Right before Thanksgiving this year, very suddenly, meat just didn't appeal to me, i just couldn't eat it.
I have alwasy loved animals, and hate the thought of mindless suffering and I trully despise consumerism. My mom wouldn't accept my vegetarian efforts when I was a child and teen, kept putting meat in front of me, taking me to nutritionaists. She really hated it when I would pick up the parts of dead chicken on my plate and"animate" them, demonstrating how the joints moved, and explaining about the living creature that was now dead.
Milk has always tasted like blood to me, and I cannot tolerate it.
Then this year, meat left my palate. Eggs left shortly thereafter. Cheese after that.
I guess deep down, i was always a vegan, i just needed time to figure it out.
I can't afford the fancy meat-imitaions or vegan cheeses, so i do without. i live a Asian diet. Rice, beans, veggies, and fruit.
I am also a pagan, and my love and respect for nature and the earth helped my decision considerably. I believe ALL life is sacred, and connected. I am working hard to clear my conscience of my past mistakes. None of these are easy, I feel guilt and shame and I feel Karma is being merciful, at the moment. I hope that I can change all that and make a difference.
Thanks for listening.
I am a spiritual person and I believe animals have souls. I didnt always apply my beliefs to my way of life though. Although I was never a red-meat eater I did on occassion eat white meat. That makes me a hypocrit, this i know now. When I had my daughter it was more important than it ever had been for me to establish rules and guidelines for the way I would live the rest of my life. Making the healthy choice to become Vegan and raise my child Vegan was the best choice I have ever made. My husband is still in the transition stage of becoming a vegitarian. I read to him everynight about the myths of protein and the selfish infliction of pain on animals by meat-eaters. He was actually the one who introduced me to a lot of the natural remedies I now use. There are still a few adjustments I have to make to my home and life. Its hard to find stores that support Vegans. Shoes and clothing for myself and my child are the hardest to come by. Of course I am new to the Greenwood area so that doesnt help. For me my transition was easy but as most of us know there are always going to be hurdles to jump in our lives until everyone becomes aware of the truth in the lifestyle we have chosen.
I was 12 years old and was swimming with a friend. She accidently kicked me in the mouth and I started bleeding. When I tasted the blood in my mouth, I had a sort of epiphany about meat and what it was. I haven't had meat since then.
Surprisingly, I managed to spend the following 14 years without learning about the horrors of the dairy industry. I was the only vegetarian I knew, and I never really did any research on the meat or dairy industry. Then about a year ago I got the "Why Vegan" pamphlet. That helped, and actually an article in my ex-boyfriend's daughter's PETA kids magazine featured a quote from a vegan guy from a popular band (I forget the band). He said something like, "If you know what's going on in the dairy industry, you have no excuse to keep eating dairy." That did it. The ex and I went vegan around that time.
I grew up an only child isolated on a farm and I only really had the animals to play with. The animals were my friends, my brothers and sisters. One day several of the older calves, my 2 favorites were killed in front of me (shot) with the belief it would toughen me up. I was 5 years old. I was hysterical with grief and inconsolable for what felt like an eternity. Similar events occured intermitantly, but my parents became more careful due to my distress. I couldn't eat meat when I connected where it came from.
Later on I lived with a 'monster' for 9 years who thought it was funny to threaten me with a gun, amongst other horrors. He would buy dogs as pets and when he grew tired of them would call me outside and shoot them in front of me.
I can't bear to think of anything so innocent as an beautiful creature being torchured for greed.
I used to think I was a freak for feeling like this. Now I know it's not me who's the freak and I'm proud of my lifestyle.
I became vegetarian last year sometime in April. My younger sister stopped eating meat months before me and wouldn't shut up about how they hurt animals and eating meat is wrong. Well I guess she got to me, so I started reading things on the Peta site about how they kill the animals, and was totally turned off from eating meat so I just stopped eating meat one day. It wasn't hard for me to just stop eating meat cold turkey---haha, I was never to big into meat to start with.
Months and months later I decided to try to be vegan. I tried two differcent times and both times failed after about 4 days. I started reading more things on the peta site about what vegans can eat and why to be vegan, and I tried again early Dec and success!( I just needed to be more educated on what I could eat) Being vegan was a lot easier then I thought. I did it for the animals, my health and the enivorment.
I am speechless, treehugga. :( :( :(Quote:
treehugga
I'm ok now. I turned it all around, became a social worker and vegan and now I try to help others living with distress. Sometimes we live hard lessons in order to find our way :)Quote:
Seaside
Yes, and when we survive, we do come out the stronger. I admire your strength and attitude! :)
i became veggie at 15 years of age after watching babe, it was the icing on the cake because i longed to be veggie for years but didn't have the social backing
i became vegan 5 months ago, after 6 years of being vegetarian. i heard about veganism increasingly through animal rights leaflets, veggie mags etc and realised i am a hypocrite? how can i say i love animals and eat eggs, milk etc
i've never looked back, and despite nastiness from friends, family and random ppl who meet me, i'm sticking to it :p
Good for you Skajen!
But it is a shame some ppl in your life have been mean and wouldn't it be even better to have some more veggie and vegan friends in real life too? Who needs non-veg friends who are nasty about your veganism?
Are you with a local veggie and vegan group at all for support? Might be worth getting involved in your nearest one.
I'm near the northern border of Surrey (Hampton) and apart from the little group we have here, there is a very good one in the Guildford area, so let me know if you are interested in meeting local vegans let me know, there might be a group near you.
Lesley
I became a vegetarian some time ago when I learned about the horrors of animal testing. In attempt to learn more about this practice, I was naturally exposed to vegetarianism. Strangely, I didn't really learn about veganism for sometime after that.
Recently, I spent a day with my sister's friend and her baby. She has a wonderful vegan family and cooked a delicious dinner for me. When her partner came home, he made some amazing vegan cookies.
Seeing how practical, healthy, and (most importantly) animal-friendly the lifestyle is really gave me the kick in the pants I needed. I had been flirting with the idea for some time now and my only regret is not doing it sooner.
for me it was a slow process... i always despised milk, the smell and taste of it... and my skin would go bad if i had any dairy products, so i cut out dairy milk in my diet from a very early age on ( without 'replacing milk')... i never particular liked the taste of eggs either... when i moved to britain and learned more about vegetarianism and being able to buy a lot of vegan products in supermarkets- it made me more aware of my lifestyle and the way animals are treated... so in the end it was no big deal to leave out meat and to change my cosmetic products and clothes to animal-free ones...
bbb
xxx
For me it was one of my brother's who first suggested going vegetarian,I never gave it much thought before then or even had heard of it (18 years). It struck a chord with me and instinctively knew it was a good thing to do, it wasn't until a good few years later that I heard of the vegetarian society and then veganisn. Now I even want as many species as possible to embrace veganism..what a crazy world we live in:D
I'd always hated eating meat but I just continued...for some unexplainable reason. My brother went vegetarian when I was 12. I think it was due to picking up a KFC Cruelty brochure and stickers at a punk festival. After a few months, I went vegetarian too. Purely due to my love of animals and I can't justify cruel and taumenting death and entrapment of animals, or even just death, to satisfy our hunger. There are so many alternatives, being healthier, somewhat cheaper and most importantly cruelty free, why should we have the right to eat animals? Ahh I just don't understand it anymore. I'd considered going vegan for a while but I guess I never really had anything that made it decisive. Then I met John Feldman from Goldfinger and he gave me a Why Vegan brochure and that really just pushed me and made it final, I would go vegan gradually over a period of a few months. That booklet made me cry! I went vegan about 3 months ago, I'm 15 now. And it's cool, people at school think I'm even weirder, but I get to talk to them about and they tend to end up justifying it.
My vegan story was told on our Vegan Radio podcast. My former partner and now friend and co-host Megan and I went vegan together 10 years ago. Over the holidays we went back to our hometowns (Syracuse & Rochester NY) and interviewed some old friends and influences to see where they are at now, and relive memories of our times with the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society and The Animal Defense League. The show is in two parts and is more about people being vegan over 10 years than just about us, how their lives change as they grow and have children and move forward in their lives.
The epiphany was while camping with family in the California chaparral age 11: coyotes howling nearby in the fading sunset, I look down at my salami sandwich and see it for what it is.
I go veggie at 14 after a summer at deer-huntin' friend's family. Was only one I knew and very uncool. Progressed to 'pure vegetarian' and sugar/additive free and socially trapped thru school.
'82 looked down at my breakfast eggs after a miscarriage and knew they had to go. Eighties mostly travelled, lapsed onto dairy drugs drink and bad relationships. met first AR activists in Israel '86 and discovered Peta in'93 while in Bavaria and met other veggies (Brits) and since then living happily animal-free which sure made me a freak in Bavaria! No sweat here in the UK. My 4 year old daughter will have her own battles to face but has seen animals and understands their plight from living in China S Africa Australia US and UK. She is anyone's 'proof of the pudding' that this lifestyle is right.
Ok well my story
I'll realized I didn't like to eat flesh of any kind at about 3 years old 9 yes i know it can be hard to believe) my parents didn't believe in vegetarians especially her own son unless they where 'Hippys' so life carried on with me being very sick every time I ate, by the time I was 14 my mum decided it was time to cut out trying to force me to eat meat (was forced to eat all that time and rushing to the toilet to be sick after) so I became vegetarian with a big problem to flesh of any kind (taste, smell, look makes me vomit) I still had dairy products and eggs but could not and would not eat any animal flesh including sweets and jellys etc. Now by my own choice I've been vegan for the last 3 months (yes it's taken me a long time but I'm here now). I've lost 1 1/2 stone in 3 months which is good but on top of that I feel better in myself I'm at easy now for the first time ever. Can't think of any more to put for now so hope you like my brief story of my life. :)
Kevin
ps. hope I haven't bored you or annoyed you
Of course not. Listening to each others stories is really interesting.:)
When I was 2 I used to go to the fish market with my Grandma every day, and I was eyelevel with the fish, so I realised fish is dead fish and was horrified and stopped eating it.
I'd watched Alice in Wonderland so I knew shellfish were living creatures so I wouldn't eat shellfish.
When I was 4 I would help my Grandpa in the garden - plant seeds and bulbs and then water them. Then when they grew into vegetables, he would want me to pull them up - and I couldn't do it, I was very upset. So from then on I realised vegetables were dead plants and I refused to eat them.
I would refuse the vegetables in horror then sit and eat a plate of mince and mash because I didn't realise that mash is a plant and mince is a cow.
When I was 10 I went to a dinner party where venison was the main course. Before dinner people teased me about eating bambi, and they talked about a 12 year old boy who had just shot his first stag, and done the ceremony with the blood on the forehead.
There was no way I was going to eat deer! When the plate arrived it looked exactly like every other red meat I'd ever eaten and I realised that meat is a dead animal. I've never eaten meat since.
I stopped wearing leather and silk and wouldn't eat anything containing anything from a dead animal.
You don't have to kill a cow to drink its milk or kill a hen to eat the eggs so I didn't think there was anything wrong with doing so. I thought vegans refused to eat them because it was stealing and I respected that but didn't have a problem with eating them myself.
When I was 11 I realised eggs are chicken embroys so I stopped eating them.
When I was 12 I received some vegan campaign literature through the post, with all the gory details of milk and egg production together with photos - I had had no idea how barbarically the animals are treated or that the calves are killed.
So I stopped having milk and became vegan!
When I was 13 I found out that when grains are harvested they massacre millions of little field mice and voles and things. At first I carried on eating grains but every time I looked at a bowl of pasta or cereal, or a loaf of bread, I would see blood and dead mice and fields of golden grain with a combine harvester going round chewing up mice. So I only lasted a couple of months and then I stopped eating grains.
Even as a child, I was never very fond of meat. Eggs and dairy were an important part of my diet, and so was fish, mainly because my father comes from a region in northern Spain where fish and seafood are fundamental and fishing is a big business (Galicia).
When I was about 14, red meat started to make me sick, and I decided to give it up. I still had some chicken or turkey breast occasionally, though. Veggies and fruit slowly became the base of my diet, as I began to grow some awareness of the benefits of eating well (dropping 30 kilos as a result).
My diet remained unaltered until I turned 21. Then I discovered yoga and found out about ahimsa, the law of non-violence (one of the yamas or codes of behaviour towards other beings and the world). During the following months, I started a transition to veganism, and by my 22nd birthday (that's December 2005) I was already a vegan.
Quitting meat was quite simple, mainly because the resemblance that human flesh bears to animal (I'm studying to become a doctor). Saying goodbye to fish and dairy wasn't hard, either. However, I must admit it took some time for me to get used to cooking (and, particulary, baking). Fortunately, I've come across wonderful recipes and don't miss them at all.
When I turned 17, I realized I was having problems controlling my weight (it crashed suddenly) so I turned vegetarian. After a month or so I went back to the omni lifestyle because my high school was vegetarian unfriendly (the only option was disgusting pizza and salad) and I had no other options. When that school year ended I decided to go back to vegetarianism (I was already heading my high schools ecology club and was very aware of the heavy toll ranching was having on our planet). It was a lot easier because I found a health store nearby and discovered gardenburger, morningstar etc. I've always hated seafood and most meats (except chicken and turkey) so it was a pretty easy transition. I tried going vegan several times and failed because I got a substantial amount of my daily calories from dairy. About 3 months ago I went to a University meeting of the People Against Cruelty to Animals and realized not only the many options that are available but the cruelty suffered by these poor creatures so I went fully vegan. Right now I'm in the painful transition state hoping to be 100% cruelty free by this summer (I still have a couple of old leather items that refuse to give out).
I was raised on a farm and was brought up seeing the slaughter of all kinds of animals from fish to pigs to cows to rabbits. I was also taught from a young age that this was the natural order of things and completely natural. My family owned a small farm where the animals were completely free-range and just roamed around in large pasture areas. I've been an animal lover for as long as I can remember so I would go out and visit the animals every day. I made friends with them and would start to really care about them. One day I became old enough to realize that I was being fed my friends. I had a problem with this but when I tried to tell my family, I was just given the lecture on how it was all a part of the food chain and completely natural. So I just stopped making friends with the farm animals (which makes me so sad now that I didn't fight harder but I was very young). Once I grew up and discovered that there were people who chose not to eat animals at all (I grew up right outside a very small southern town so there were no vegetarians around at all), I decided to become one of them. Once I became vegetarian it only took a couple of years for me to become educated about factory farms which is when I made the transition to veganism.
Thankfully my family has now converted the farm pasture into horse pasture. Now they buy abused and dying horses, nurse them back to health and find good, responsible owners to sell them to. You wouldn't believe how many people there are out there who buy their kid a horse in the summer, then when winter comes they just leave it in a dying pasture and let it starve. They're able to save about 80% of them but some of them are just too far gone by the time they get them. It also pisses me off that they have to buy most of the horses from their bad owners but it's the quickest and easiest way to get them and start nursing them back.
My family are still all meat eaters but at least 1. they don't deal in murder anymore and 2. they completely respect my choices and even make sure to cook me and my husband special vegan food for holidays and family gatherings (which is more than my husband's family does).
In a nutshell, I read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. Life-changing and life-saving.
When my mum was pregnant with me she couldn't walk into a butchers without feeling so sick she couldn't stay inside. When I was wee I was really fussy and wasn't all that keen on meat. When I was 10 I stopped eating red meat due to being fussy and not liking the taste.
When I was 11 I went vegetarian after picking up a copy of "The Teenage Vegetarian Survival Guide" and the more pages I turned the more horrified I got. I finished it in one night and was a vegetarian by the time I was halfway through the book.
When I was 14/15 I went vegan because I was reading more and more and becoming increasingly distressed about the treatment of animals within the dairy industry. There was a stand in Glasgow where I used to pick up animal rights leaflets and give donations and one of them handed me a copy of the Vegan magazine, after reading that I felt fairly confident about going vegan.
When I was 20, I'm not sure why now, possibly convenience and just getting lazy, I went back to being a vegetarian and a year later I started eating meat again. There are plenty reasons for that the main one being I allowed a bully of a boyfriend who I lived with convince me that I should be eating meat and I was depressed as hell, I didn't care about me never mind care about the animals. I now refer to it as my year of meat but even then I was still totally squicked out by meat, I couldn't touch it without gloves and couldn't eat it if it wasn't smothered in some kind of sauce. I remember the boyfriend making me this big slab of steak and taking one look at it and running off to the toilet to puke. I think I made the worst meat eater ever. But even so, going completely omnivore again opened up a range of foods that I hadn't eaten in about 10 years like sweets with gelatin and more junk.
In that year I put on masses of weight and developed digestion problems, I got food poisoning more times than I care to remember. I developed lots of spots on my forehead and my skin and scalp became greasy. My asthma was worse than ever and I had no energy at all.
After I split with that b/f I decided when I was 22 that my new years resolution for 2005 was to go vegetarian and I did and I started to feel lots better. Slowly throughout the year I started to revert back to veganism I wasn't drinking milk or eating eggs and cheese was only eaten if I ate out. I lost about a stone in weight which was good but still got loads to go.
Now I'm 23 and in the past few weeks I decided to go vegan mainly because I want to achieve a healthier and thinner lifestyle but I decided to do it slowly and re-educate myself about veganism. The more I have read about it my concern for the animals has returned ten fold, initially I was going to just be a dietary vegan but I have decided that everything is going vegan from food to shoes to make up and I'm feeling incredibly positive about this.
The last time I did this I went vegan overnight but I decided to do it in stages and wean myself off certain foods, for example I had developed huge chocolate cravings and was eating a bar of milk chocolate every day but I weaned myself off that using dark chocolate suitable for vegans and now I don't bother at all. If I want something chocolatey I make some vegan cocoa with soya milk and that's all I need now.
My diet is about 95% vegan at the moment and I'm going to either throw out, give away or sell on ebay any of the leather items I have accumulated over the past 2 years. I am now using entirely vegan toiletries but have yet to get some vegan make up so that's the next purchase. My official going vegan date is now the 29th of May lol. So I'm not entirely there yet but I will be.
These days the way I see it, it is so easy to be vegan now there is really no excuse not to be any more.
hurray, you will never let yourself be bullied again! ...alot of us can relate.
i was raised vegetarian. i tried meat once, when i was 8 or 9. it disagreed with my stomach, and came right back up. milk has always made me unwell. the tmi part- after eating milk/cheese/ice cream/etc, i'd always wind up painfully on the toilet... i was about 15 when i made the connection, and the only times since that i've been tempted to try something with milk products in it since, have landed me in the same place. i have to be careful with lactose based meds, too. at the same age i went off eggs. maybe something to do with starting my period at that age?
anyway, i've been vegan since. with only a couple minor lapses, not all on purpose. i got depressed once and went on a binge of ice cream and eggy things like grillers (morningstar vegetarian burgers). i got soooo sick.
anyway, that's basically it. i woke up one day, and i was vegan instead of vegetarian.
i'm raising my daughter vegan, and hope that she embraces the lifestyle. i have a secret hope that my husband will stop eating cheese and milk chocolate, and milky coffee and chai... we'll just have to see what time brings. i don't mind his milk and cheese-- he buys small farm organic, but the milk chocolate is an addiction. he doesn't like factory farming, but still he eats big brand chocolate...
i'd love to have a totally vegan home.
lovely daughter! ....email hubbie some links to pcrm.org pages about dairy's link to prostate cancer. That is close to a man's, err, heart.
My personal vegan story is pretty bland, but I need to admit a few things.
First, the normal American diet has always made me sick. I would eat food, and get the worst flatulence possible along with painful stomach cramps as well. But, like most Americans, I loved eating and kept on doing it. Sadly enough, if you look at the antacid business, you'll notice people's normal diet makes most of them sick. "Pop pop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!" Why do people contine to eat food when they have to take digestive aids and pain relievers? I was fortunate that I loved sports, so I spent a lot of time exercising and was pretty slim considering how much I ate. I ate 7 full plates of food when I was at a Las Vegas buffet at age 19 and weighed 135 pounds.
Even though I ate the normal meals, I did not eat like everyone else. I don't like mayonnaise, gravy, dressings, etc. Usually, butter was about all I would use. I did enjoy the taste of natural foods. Generally, I only ate the really bad stuff as a treat. Most of the time, I preferred subway and the healthier meals, which kept my stomach happy.
I dated a vegetarian when I was 19. She was healthy and beautiful. I did not think of becoming a vegetarian at the point.
I met people, around age 24, who read books about the horrors of the meat industry and became vegetarians. They explained to me how it all worked. One of them even let me taste Smart Dogs, which tasted good, too. She was healthy and beautiful, too. I still didn't convert.
I finished college late in life and my last class was environmental science. This book explained the environmental impacts of meat eating and the ethical problems with raising animals to eat. It is really taxing on resources (water, transportation, etc.) to raise a cow just for food. You could raise more grains and feed that to more people instead. I learned at that point how selfish eating me is. I still didn't convert. The book generalized that 2000 lbs of grain feed one cow, but you could give ten people 20 lbs of grain to eat instead.
Sometime after I left home at age 18, I began to notice that the quality of food seemed to really suck. I used to love the Hershey bar. It tastes like chocolate flavored wax to me in my young teens. I used to love chips ahoy cookies, but they tasted like sugary paste, with no texture. It seems as if the food industry is starting to push low grade, high sugar, high fat synthetic junk on us all. It doesn't seem like real food. I began a slow descent into disliking the quality of the food we commonly find on the market. I also began to resent the food producers for selling me so much crap.
Also, I developed GERD/GEORD in my mid twenties. I didn't like any of the medications. So I began cutting back on the bad things and picking what I thought was healthier alternatives. My reflux got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore; I was refluxing lightly acidic water. The stuff wasn't working.
Lastly, I was sick of the food poising from meat. I used to dine out at least once per week and would get food poisinging at least once a month. I switched to grilling my own meats and that saved me for a slight while. Within the last two years, I was getting sick from the meat I cooked myself. I had figured the restaurants were just not cleaning very well, but I handled the meat well and was still sick. So, I began suspecting the meat producing industry.
I am in my mid thirties now. I watch alternative media (Freespeach TV) and they usually run the same arguments about being vegetarian. I watched the PETA videos about animal cruelty over the last few years, and still didn't convert. I had been considering veganism over the last 3 - 4 years.
The really sad thing about veganism is that I defended vegetarianism/veganism ever since I took that environmental science class on the basis that humanity would be better served by skipping meat. Sadly enough, I agreed with vegans, but didn't convert.
Finally, I just couldn't stand the awful sick feeling food was giving me. I began eating at the salad restaurant in the final weeks before going vegan. I had seen Supersize Me, read Fast Food Nation, and still did not switch. But, armed with all that data helped set off a light. I watched the PETA video Meet Your Meat. A light finally went off about why food was making me sick. The food industry is cruel, and they are serving sickend animals to everyone. It is no wonder why so many reports keep coming out about food poising and how much E coli and other bacteria are still left in meat.
Following that, I still didn't swear off meat. I first switched to soy milk about a month ago. My acid reflux disappeared the first day. My acne cleared up after a week, but I still had mild reflux and stomach pain. Milk was really the big problem with my diet. I then tried some meat analog products about 2 weeks later. That helped push my stomach problems to near oblivion and my feeble mind truly realized humans should not consume animal products. I still had some minor reflux and was curious to know if I could eliminate it all. I had suspected my final bits of reflux were due to the non-organic chemicals in the foods I was eating. I began shopping for vegan and organic food products. That did the trick. I am healthy again.
I apologized in my intro message for never seeing the picture sooner. I did plenty of research on the Internet and read how humans have a hard time digesting meat and can get all nutrition entirely from plants. Today, I am sickened when I see meat and finally I am genuinely saddened about the sensless slaughter. I am still upset with myself for needing my own personal health problems to help me see the light. I became antiwar after leaving the military because I didn't like the thought of people suffering, but it took way too long to feel that way about all life forms. There was an episode of Star Trek where the Betazoid lost her power, and Picard truly didn't want to harm the lifeform dragging the Enterprise to danger, just to save his own self. That is they way humanity needs to be.
Many people feel bummed after becoming vegan because, as I have, they realize the senseless slaughter should end. However, I feel veganism will become the next resource revolution since meat eating is not sustainable. We have hybrid cars, energy efficient bulbs, alternative energy sources, etc. Efficiency in food will become mandatory as water/land and other resources become scarcer due to the world trying to satisfy the bloodlust of the omnivores. A vegan world is the next logical step for mankind.
One final note: I have discovered the organic cookies and soy/rice creams in Wild Oats and they are friggin' delicious!! I can now enjoy cookies and ice cream again.My personal vegan story is pretty bland, but I need to admit a few things.
First, the normal American diet has always made me sick. I would eat food, and get the worst flatulence possible along with painful stomach cramps as well. But, like most Americans, I loved eating and kept on doing it. Sadly enough, if you look at the antacid business, you'll notice people's normal diet makes most of them sick. "Pop pop fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!" Why do people contine to eat food when they have to take digestive aids and pain relievers? I was fortunate that I loved sports, so I spent a lot of time exercising and was pretty slim considering how much I ate. I ate 7 full plates of food when I was at a Las Vegas buffet at age 19 and weighed 135 pounds.
Even though I ate the normal meals, I did not eat like everyone else. I don't like mayonnaise, gravy, dressings, etc. Usually, butter was about all I would use. I did enjoy the taste of natural foods. Generally, I only ate the really bad stuff as a treat. Most of the time, I preferred subway and the healthier meals, which kept my stomach happy.
I dated a vegetarian when I was 19. She was healthy and beautiful. I did not think of becoming a vegetarian at the point.
I met people, around age 24, who read books about the horrors of the meat industry and became vegetarians. They explained to me how it all worked. One of them even let me taste Smart Dogs, which tasted good, too. She was healthy and beautiful, too. I still didn't convert.
I finished college late in life and my last class was environmental science. This book explained the environmental impacts of meat eating and the ethical problems with raising animals to eat. It is really taxing on resources (water, transportation, etc.) to raise a cow just for food. You could raise more grains and feed that to more people instead. I learned at that point how selfish eating me is. I still didn't convert. The book generalized that 2000 lbs of grain feed one cow, but you could give ten people 20 lbs of grain to eat instead.
Sometime after I left home at age 18, I began to notice that the quality of food seemed to really suck. I used to love the Hershey bar. It tastes like chocolate flavored wax to me in my young teens. I used to love chips ahoy cookies, but they tasted like sugary paste, with no texture. It seems as if the food industry is starting to push low grade, high sugar, high fat synthetic junk on us all. It doesn't seem like real food. I began a slow descent into disliking the quality of the food we commonly find on the market. I also began to resent the food producers for selling me so much crap.
Also, I developed GERD/GEORD in my mid twenties. I didn't like any of the medications. So I began cutting back on the bad things and picking what I thought was healthier alternatives. My reflux got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore; I was refluxing lightly acidic water. The stuff wasn't working.
Lastly, I was sick of the food poising from meat. I used to dine out at least once per week and would get food poisinging at least once a month. I switched to grilling my own meats and that saved me for a slight while. Within the last two years, I was getting sick from the meat I cooked myself. I had figured the restaurants were just not cleaning very well, but I handled the meat well and was still sick. So, I began suspecting the meat producing industry.
I am in my mid thirties now. I watch alternative media (Freespeach TV) and they usually run the same arguments about being vegetarian. I watched the PETA videos about animal cruelty over the last few years, and still didn't convert. I had been considering veganism over the last 3 - 4 years.
The really sad thing about veganism is that I defended vegetarianism/veganism ever since I took that environmental science class on the basis that humanity would be better served by skipping meat. Sadly enough, I agreed with vegans, but didn't convert.
Finally, I just couldn't stand the awful sick feeling food was giving me. I began eating at the salad restaurant in the final weeks before going vegan. I had seen Supersize Me, read Fast Food Nation, and still did not switch. But, armed with all that data helped set off a light. I watched the PETA video Meet Your Meat. A light finally went off about why food was making me sick. The food industry is cruel, and they are serving sickend animals to everyone. It is no wonder why so many reports keep coming out about food poising and how much E coli and other bacteria are still left in meat.
Following that, I still didn't swear off meat. I first switched to soy milk about a month ago. My acid reflux disappeared the first day. My acne cleared up after a week, but I still had mild reflux and stomach pain. Milk was really the big problem with my diet. I then tried some meat analog products about 2 weeks later. That helped push my stomach problems to near oblivion and my feeble mind truly realized humans should not consume animal products. I still had some minor reflux and was curious to know if I could eliminate it all. I had suspected my final bits of reflux were due to the non-organic chemicals in the foods I was eating. I began shopping for vegan and organic food products. That did the trick. I am healthy again.
I apologized in my intro message for never seeing the picture sooner. I did plenty of research on the Internet and read how humans have a hard time digesting meat and can get all nutrition entirely from plants. Today, I am sickened when I see meat and finally I am genuinely saddened about the sensless slaughter. I am still upset with myself for needing my own personal health problems to help me see the light. I became antiwar after leaving the military because I didn't like the thought of people suffering, but it took way too long to feel that way about all life forms. There was an episode of Star Trek where the Betazoid lost her power, and Picard truly didn't want to harm the lifeform dragging the Enterprise to danger, just to save his own self. That is they way humanity needs to be.
Many people feel bummed after becoming vegan because, as I have, they realize the senseless slaughter should end. However, I feel veganism will become the next resource revolution since meat eating is not sustainable. We have hybrid cars, energy efficient bulbs, alternative energy sources, etc. Efficiency in food will become mandatory as water/land and other resources become scarcer due to the world trying to satisfy the bloodlust of the omnivores. A vegan world is the next logical step for mankind.
One final note: I have discovered the organic cookies and soy/rice creams in Wild Oats and they are friggin' delicious!! I can now enjoy cookies and ice cream again.
I watched the movie earthlings