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WHY VEGAN? My Personal Journey to Optimal Health
I have been on a lifelong (or so it seems) journey to attain optimal health. As a baby boomer, I grew up in a culture where convenience foods were emerging as the modern way, and the use of chemicals was considered science at its best. My parents were instrumental in shaping my healthy lifestyle. My mother’s cooking typically included whole foods, Becoming Vegetarian I considered myself vegetarian for most of my adult life, although my concept of vegetarianism changed over the years. At first, I abstained from eating the flesh of mammals, but for some unknown reason, birds and sea animals were acceptable to me, as well as the secretions from animals (namely milk and eggs). After several years, I stopped eating poultry, but continued to eat fish, eggs and dairy. After all, isn’t fish supposed to be a health food? Isn’t the egg the perfect food? And who didn’t grow up with the Dairy Council’s propaganda extolling the benefits of drinking milk? It wasn’t until the 90s that I started to consider becoming vegan. I was learning the principles of Buddhism, and the phrase, “Harm None” particularly resonated with me. I continued to eat my version of a vegetarian diet (no land animals, but dairy and sea animals were OK), but several years later, I found myself horrified while watching a scene in The Perfect Storm, where a swordfish struggled to breathe after being hauled onto the ship. That was the night I decided to stop eating fish, but my dairy habit persisted. Shortly after that I learned that animal protein creates an acid environment in the blood, leaching calcium from the bones, and that the best way to improve bone density would be to adopt a vegan diet. As I researched this theory, I ended up at the PETA website where I became painfully aware of the suffering dairy cows endure, but I was so addicted to cheese, I did my best to remain in denial, justifying my food choices by the fact that the animals are not killed for their milk or eggs. Taking the Next Step: Supporting the Life Force Every day, we make choices that can be beneficial or detrimental to life and/or nature. The choice to adopt a vegan 1. THE ENVIRONMENT I consider myself an environmentalist. The most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint is to reduce your consumption of animals. According to the comprehensive UN report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, “livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.” Raising animals for food contributes more to global warming than all the cars and trucks in the world. For more information, visit http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm. 2. HEALTH I always wanted to be healthy. Research supports the benefits of plant-based diets in reversing and/or preventing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Raw plant-based foods have the added benefit of retaining the life force of the plants, along with the enzymes necessary for digestion and overall health. Our bodies have the power to heal when the immune system is properly nourished. Instead of assaulting our bodies with poisons (in the form of chemotherapy and drugs) and mutilation (aka surgery), a plant-based diet consisting of raw, whole foods has proven to be the most effective way to reverse and cure disease. http://www.tcolincampbell.org/ http://www.heartattackproof.com/ and http://www.drmcdougall.com. 3. COMPASSION All animals, including humans, are worthy of love, respect and compassion. Slaughterhouse workers – often exploited immigrants – have the highest illness and injury rate of all manufacturing employees. It’s no wonder, considering the conditions and stress they are subjected to. Many consumers prefer to remain in a state of denial rather than face the cruelty animals endure throughout their lives. After one visit to a factory farm or dairy, or worse, a slaughterhouse (if you’re even allowed in), most humans would swear off animal products forever. Ghandi said, “One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.” For more information, visit www.goveg.com/ or, if you dare, www.peta.org/ The choice is yours. Make it an informed one.
Marilyn Chiarello founder of A Taste of Light, is a certified raw vegan chef, educator, and health coach. She offers a variety of classes, dinner parties, and catering & consultation services. For more information, visit www.aTasteofLight.org. Contact info - email: aTasteofLight@gmail.com, phone: 516 671-7037.
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homemade soups, meats cut to order by the local butcher, and fresh fish from the fish market. It was rare that we had dessert, and soda was reserved for company and holidays. My father introduced us to natural supplements that included such ingredients as enzymes, fiber, kelp, bentonite and psyllium. When I was in junior high school (we didn’t have middle schools back then), my father gave me Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring to read, and I became a budding environmentalist, developing an understanding of the interrelatedness of life and a reverence for nature’s way. So it was with a foundation based in natural foods and environmental awareness that I entered adulthood.