Vegan.

So I've been vegan for a little over half a year now, and I always love sharing my experience, talking about veganism and how it has made me a better human being.

Many people question me about my vegan diet, and some are even concerned about my heatlh, and I try my best to answer their questions and concerns, but usually its very brief and short. And so I wanted to talk about more in detail, so thats what I will do.

After some attempts I finally went fully vegetarian when I met Dustin. He answered a lot of questions and concerns that I had myself back then. But I didn't feel as strongly about it then as I did later, and I certainly did not think about being vegan, ew I tried some vegan food that Dustin's brother Jon had in the fridge and it was just not good (at the time). Ok so I went on eating vegetarian and being completely satisfied, only craving some meats that I ate when i was little in lithuania (something that I would be hard to find in US anyways). Then I started seeing more and more new vegetarian food items in the store, and tried them all to find the ones that I liked the best. And yes most restaurant menus were reduced in half but there were still plenty of choices. So I was happy being veg. then why did I decide to go vegan ? well one day I was online watching some youtube videos, and reading vegan articles and realized that there are alot more vegans than I thought, and there are so many options and so many foods, and these vegan seemed so happy to be vegan. Then I researched the dairy industry and thought about how unnatural and weird it is to drink other species' milk and eat their embryos (eggs). Humans are herbivores naturally, like cows and elephants and gazelles, and horses, we have the flat teeth for grinding vegetation. We don't posses any characteristics of carnivores. We have to cook our meat so we wouldn't get sick from the bacteria of raw meat. But the long term effect of even cooked meat is bad for us. People have been eating meat for a long time now, but we have not evolved to eat it, so many people die from heart problems, strokes or other diseases that involve eating meat. We evolved from herbivores and have been thinking this whole time that meat makes us stronger and that it is essential to survive, we were smart enough to make tools to kill animals and smart enough to figure out that we need a fire to cook the meat. So basically our intelligence in this case is ruining us. Vegetarians live longer and survive better, so of course I know that in the future everyone will be vegetarian or vegan, because of evolution. Im just saying, we can speed up the process (my personal hypothesis.) And I am glad i live in the time where I can see it happening. So i guess I can say that thats one reason why I don't eat meat. As for the dairy, there has been a lot of studies done, but not enough yet to see the dangerous effects of it. I know it is unnatural and weird to be drinking other species milk, I mean when do other animals drink our milk? I understand that if I lost my mother as a baby and a monkey took me and raised me, then I would be drinking its milk, but I would't do it just for fun. And a monkey is a close cousin of mine, a cow is way distant. But all that is a scientific point of few of why I don't eat meat or dairy. Of course then there is a philosophical point of view. I respect our planet, life on this planet and I don't think of myself as a master of any other animal and treat them as equals. Yes there are obvious differences between us and chickens, but it doesn't give us a right to slaughter them to satisfy our taste buds, pluck them to wear their feathers for fashion, or pump them up with steroids and shove them in cages where they never see light. Now I am not sure if i would still drink milk or eat eggs, if the animals were free in the wild or my back yard. I don't think so, probably just because it wouldn't be necessary. And now what about if i was stranded on an island, or if dissecting an animal helps us find cures for life-threatening diseases. Then I agree that something needs to be done and, in those cases if nothing other than killing an animal or exploiting an animal for survival is the only thing that can be done then so be it. But thats not how things work, animals are dissected in middle schools and high schools which I completely disagree with, no kid takes it serious nor learns anything from it. Probably 1 out of 300 students that dissect in middle school will become doctors who need that experience, so when they do, they can dissect in medical school. But thats a different topic that I drifted to. so back to me watching videos on youtube and reading articles... I started feeling really good about trying out veganism. Other vegans have inspired me and moved me. They were truly happy and free of cruelty and I wanted to be part of it, I wanted to feel like they did. Seeing dairy cows suffer so badly, and egg laying chickens packed in cages where they can only move an inch each direction their whole lives. Pigs with their throats slit only half way so they are still conscious while they are hanging by one foot upside down, bleeding to death. Thats not something I want to be part of. I want my grandchildren's children's children to be proud of me and see me the way I see people who have helped jews hide and housed them, or someone who helped free slaves. I want to be associated with those people.

And now the environmental point of view. I am passionate about our planet, since it is the only one that i know of that has life on it, it is very extraordinary and i would like to preserve it. Meat production is the leading cause of global warming. It wastes so much water. A vegan can leave their shower running for a whole year day and night and it still wouldn't equal out to how much water a meat eater wastes. People starve all over the world, while we waste the grains to feed animals for our greedy consumption. If everyone on the planet ate meat , it is estimated that the earth would only be able to support 2 billion people on this diet. On a vegan diet everyone on earth today would be satisfied (68 billion.) Fishing has caused many fish to go extinct and it kills not only fish that people eat but seals, dolphins and other beautiful creatures. Many trees are being cut down to produce paper, but even more trees are cut down to clear land for animal farming, something you cant recycle... i don't want to live in this cruelty polluted air and I don't want to eat a cute animal, or a once suffocating fish. I don't want to stress the dairy cow that has been ripped away from her baby. I don't want to show everybody that I am wearing someone else's skin. I don't want to feel high class by eating caviar...

Going vegan has been one of the greatest decisions I have ever made. I love the taste of plants and grains, I learned to love vegenaise better than mayonnaise, and tofu scramble better than egg scramble. There are many alternatives out there, I have found a great replacement for everything, I even found great vegan cheese. I feel good everyday, I can eat all I want without having to worry about cholesterol or gaining weight. I feel light and free and fresh. So, I hope that I stirred something up inside your mind, and if not then just know that it is bound to happen one day, sooner or later.