Since a remarkably long time, a certain segment of our society, known as the “Vegans” has been remonstrating against the myths about veganism and disproving the already unsettling claims as to why animal exploitation needed to exist.
It’s never been about Vegans vs. Non- Vegans, but rather, us, as a society vs. environmental challenges, speciesism, myriad diseases, and health concerns.
“ Social change has never been comfortable, especially when confronted with such a massive truth that you’ve been lied to your entire life. “
– Tash Peterson
Embracing Veganism is the most powerful step you can take to supporting animal rights and bettering the planet and your body.
Whether you’re at the cusp of a changeover to Veganism or you’re simply reviewing this lifestyle choice, here are the top 3 reasons to go vegan –
FOR ANIMALS –
The assumption that the human species is superior to members of another species is the kind of thinking that needs immediate reconditioning.
When you empathize that all animals (even the ones you don’t have as pets) are like us, and experience love, grief, fear, and pain, you’ll start to see how their inability to verbalize their emotions is used against them to turn them into mere objects.
For them, freedom is an unrequited dream, with their life being lead in confined spaces, either caged or chained and climatically slaughtered.
Remember, they don’t have a choice, but you do. Choose Vegan.
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT –
Animal agriculture is the top contributor to climate change, deforestation and is responsible for the majority of species extinction and water consumption.
Think about the number of animals that are slaughtered every day to fulfill supermarkets’ stock requirements. Now think about how all of those animals have to be fed, watered, and housed before slaughtering. More than two-thirds of all the fresh water in the world is used exclusively for animal agriculture.
One hamburger requires 660 gallons of water.
This means even if you simply go vegetarian, if not vegan, you reduce your water footprint use by almost 60 percent.
Almost half of the earth (45% of the planet’s land to be precise) is covered with livestock.
With the steep rise in deforestation that is caused by making room for cattle, it is safe to say that we will start to require a lot more land in the near future. Consequently, the tearing down of trees results in the loss of insurmountable plant species of which most of them are vital to the world’s oxygen supply.
Animal agriculture is also a serious source of air pollution as it emits 18 percent of greenhouse gases into the air each year.
0ne of the most effective things an individual can do to lower their carbon footprint is to avoid all animal products.
FOR YOUR HEALTH –
Humans eat animals that eat plants. Ergo, you don’t have to eat animals to get the nutrients of plants.
All plant food contains all the essential amino acids –the building block of protein.
A plant-based diet :
Both of these conditions are totally man-made and are amongst the most common chronic diseases in the western world.
The hormones naturally found in animal products can cause cancer development, gynecomastia, and obesity. Meals containing meat, poultry, or dairy products contain known bacteria, antibiotics, hormones, dioxins, and a host of other toxins that can cause serious health problems in humans.
Animal products rich in cholesterol majorly contribute to both heart diseases and diabetes.
On average, Vegans have lower cholesterol levels, blood pressure, a reduced rate of type 2 diabetes, and a reduced risk of cancer.
To conclude –
Veganism is not hard and being a vegan isn’t that different other than just a matter of making some adjustments to how you cook, shop, and order at a restaurant.
It takes different reasons for different people to decide to go vegan. But once you educate yourself about how animal exploitation is not part of the human food chain and is most certainly not “the circle of life”, and acknowledge that every lifestyle choice of yours has a role to play in building the future for the planet, it’s people and animals, you’ll realize that making conscious ethical and ecological choices isn’t actually that much work and is absolutely not a sacrifice.
Besides, when you go vegan, what you get is far more than what you give up.
