What I loved about volunteering at Veg Fest: I had a great time volunteering at the No Meat Athlete booth for a few hours on Sunday at Boston Veg Fest! It was nice to sell shirts and picture those people wearing them in the future, quietly advertising a better, healthier, more peaceful way of living. I loved that.

It was also refreshing and hopeful to be surrounded by so many people who have embraced veganism. It takes knowledge, courage, and determination to eat and live counter to our carnist culture. I had to learn to cook differently, my restaurant and take-out options plummeted, and I make a lot of our own food arrangements when attending gatherings.

It’s even harder to walk around with hours and hours of education about how much a whole foods, vegan diet can impact our health, our planet, and cruelty to animals. It’s a heavy burden to carry  in a non-vegan world. I am forever trying to keep myself from giving unsolicited advice, and trying to shake the sadness I feel when others eat animal products in my presence. To be in a room filled with others who feel similarly was comforting.

I love the health side of veganism: My favorite speakers this weekend were the speakers about vegan health. It’s exciting, optimistic, and wonderful to hear about how a whole foods, plant-based diet can prevent and eliminate heart disease, drastically reduce your risk of cancer, and increase your vitality and longevity. The data is staggering; and you can watch the same presentation that Greg and I saw at Vegetarian Food Festival, because it’s online! Check out what plant-based eating can do for your health, and feel inspired: http://nutritionfacts.org/video/food-as-medicine.

Learning two years ago that a vegan diet was not just healthy, but the healthiest diet on the planet opened my mind so I could understand that animal suffering was not only unnecessary for me to feed myself and my family, but harmful to our health.  

Before I understood that a whole foods, plant-based diet was the healthiest way of living, some sub-conscious sense of self-preservation kept me from learning much about animal suffering. I did not want to cause suffering, but if we needed to in order to survive and feed our children, I didn’t want to learn much about it. Realizing that I could likely prevent my children from ever suffering from heart disease, type II diabetes or cancer (to name a few) by feeding them a whole foods vegan diet made it possible for me to start learning about animal suffering, because I knew I did not have to choose between health and a cruelty-free diet.

The animal cruelty side is hard: I found Jane Velez-Mitchell’s presentation on animal rights activism very painful. She showed videos of animal cruelty, of animal rights activists getting spit on and almost run over by meat trucks, and of vegan activists reaching into filthy, over-crowded trucks to pat pigs on their way to be slaughtered. The animal rights activists were audibly sobbing and apologizing to the pigs. I was sitting in the front row in between two women in their sixties who were both crying. I was tearing up. It was not easy.

Part of me knows that sharing these images is important; people should be aware of the suffering of animals used for livestock, because those images can be a powerful motivator when you’re facing the inconvenience of searching for vegan food options at restaurants or learning to cook differently for yourself. However, I worry that sharing any of these videos and images will alienate my blog readers, friends and family and prevent me from having any influence at all… not to mention jeopardizing my social connections.

Because I enjoy the nutrition and environmental side of plant-based eating, it’ll continue to be an intermittent focus of this blog; though I am very strongly motivated by animal welfare.

Animal suffering keeps me from wanting unhealthy foods: If I were vegan just for health reasons, I might be less careful at restaurants, and eat the naan even though it has milk in it, or not bother to check if the restaurant can leave fish sauce off the pad thai. After all, my cholesterol levels and blood pressure are fabulous. The occasional convenience would not impact my health drastically. But I’ve seen too much. I have too many images in my brain of animals suffering. I’ve enjoyed so many vegan meals, and I love the peace and joy I feel eating food that has not caused harm or suffering. I cannot see honey without thinking of the bees that die from the smoke they use to calm the hive before harvesting the honey. I cannot see dairy products without seeing cows being artificially impregnated so they can keep producing milk, their calves dragged away immediately after birth to become veal. I cannot want to eat any animal products ever again. I cannot want to wear them.

Every meal helps: If you’ve been avoiding veganism because you’re not sure you’re ready to change, it’s important to remember that every meal helps. If everyone in the world ate vegan 50% of the time, that’d do as much good as 50% becoming vegan 100% of the time… and it’s much more likely to happen. Reduce the amount of meat on your plate. Be careful not to waste it. Meal plan. Practice meatless Monday, then add a few more days a week. Get in the habit of leaving the meat off your burrito. Every. Little. Bit. Helps.

There’s hope: I know that people can change, because our family did. Greg and I saw Forks Over Knives and Vegucated and made the decision to change. It’s taken time, and the inconvenience is still frustrating at times. But it’s worth it. When I look at the data and realize that I’m not just preventing animals from suffering, I’m slashing my risk of suffering from dementia, alzheimers, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, etc… it’s worth every inconvenience I’ve encountered.

So head over to Oh She Glows, or Happy Healthy Life and grab a free vegan recipe to try from their blogs. Head to Amazon and order a copy of the 30-Day Vegan Challenge which will walk you through the transition to veganism answering the most common questions, and providing recipes and support for the transition. Check out my vegan cookbook and blog compilation.

Please don’t hesitate to comment or email me with your questions – I’m happy to be a resource, and can quickly point you to articles, recipes, videos, etc. to answer your questions whether it’s calcium, protein, B-12, or how to order your Chinese food. I’ve been there, and I’m here to help.

Remember that food matters, and you matter. Do it for yourself. Do it for the environment. Do it for the animals. Do it for all three… the point is, you CAN find recipes you LOVE that taste great, and every recipe you add to your repertoire improves your health and reduces suffering and environmental destruction.

That. Is. Delicious.

The below images are not.