CHANGE! WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO GO VEGAN?

“You will not cook separate meals for this family,” her husband told her defiantly! “You will eat the regular food we buy and not just vegetables and fruits. Just take your medicine like you always have.”   

 Believe it or not, I actually read that on a vegan based page I follow on Facebook this morning. How can anyone be that ignorant? What possibly could make a husband who loves his wife tell her that?  

 Let me explain in a little more detail.  The woman who posted this, let’s call her Mary. Mary was obese, prediabetic, and had high blood pressure.  Her doctor had recommended a plant based diet for help and treatment for all her health issues.   

So, like most people in her shoes confronted with multiple health issues, she did a little research of her own and came to the conclusion that her doctor’s professional advice made sense.  Obviously, her current regime wasn’t working and her body had been giving her warning signals for a very long time.  She wasn’t comfortable.  She tired easily. She was out of breath constantly.  Bottom line, she just hadn’t felt well in a long time; too long. The time to finally do something about her health had come.

She went to talk to her husband about her doctor’s visit and his professional advice.  Her husband immediately shouted those above words and ordered her to basically defy her doctor’s positive recommendations.  Why would anyone tell the one’s that they love to go against logic, scientific evidence, and their own doctor’s healthy direction? 

She was devastated at his reaction. Who wouldn’t be?

She posted on this vegan health site relaying her story and literally not knowing what to do.  She was looking for advice. She sounded desperate.

Many of the vegan followers jumped on the “get rid of your husband” bandwagon, but some broke through the nonsense to try and reach her (and her family) before she stayed with the bad habits and uneducated and misinformed husband that would ultimately kill her with her failing health and lack of support. 

 What should she do in that situation? What would you do in that situation?

Like many of us vegans, we get chastised and ridiculed often by non-vegans. Why?  And why are so many people adverse to change, to thinking outside the box of what they’ve always known?

My parents ate (and died) this way, by God, we will eat (and die) this way too. Grandpa Tom has his weekly barbeques after church on Sunday. We would offend him if we didn’t eat his famous ribs or grilled steak.  What about Aunt Mary’s Christmas ham or my mother’s annual Thanksgiving turkey? The kids, OMG, the kids! Will they get the nutrition they need without hot dogs?  The following panic reactions seem to occur.

• This is the way it’s always been done.
• Everyone eats animals.
• This is all I know.
• I don’t have time to do the research for this lifestyle change.
• What am I going to buy in the grocery stores?
• Veganism is just not normal!
• I don’t even know any other vegans.
• What am I going to order at a restaurant?
• Won’t other people think I’m being rude or fussy if I don’t eat what they cooked?
• People will laugh at me.
• Where will I get my protein?
• The government even says meat, dairy, and eggs are healthy!

 Most of this list is endless with fallacies, misnomers, and outright lies. Just because this is the way it’s always been done, doesn’t make it right. Think slavery, religion, and women’s rights.

 Everyone doesn’t eat animals. Sadly, many people still do, but that number is dwindling every day thanks to data, research, cell phone photography capabilities, social media, animal rights groups, and the continual spread of the truth.

 You don’t have the time to NOT research the vegan lifestyle.  Your health, the animals, and Mother Earth depend on us. Yes, you can be an unhealthy vegan, but eating more plants and less animals is a win win for everyone.

  What aren’t you going to buy in the grocery stores? Fresh, canned, dried, and frozen fruits and vegetables are packed into your local supermarkets. Vegan meat, dairy, and egg alternative products are everywhere now and it’s a growing industry with no stop in sight. Now is never a better time to take the positive leap to veganism.

 How could compassion for animals, eating plants, and wanting a thriving Earth be weird? Eating cut up animal corpses, drinking another species milk, and wearing an animal skin as fashion is much weirder than that.  You may not know any vegans yet, but that will change as more and more people are identifying as vegan.  That number is only expected to increase.

 Restaurants and their chefs are not only offering plant-based vegan options to their customers, but many new strictly vegan restaurants are opening all over the world.  In the mood for pizza? How about a cheeseburger? Maybe some nachos? Lasagna? Steak? Lunch meat? There are vegan solutions for all your food cravings. Any food can be, has been, and is made vegan nowadays.

  If anyone thinks you’re rude because you pass on their meatloaf or shredded pork sandwiches because of your health, the animals, or our fragile Earth, then they really just don’t understand what being a vegan is all about. That’s ok.  Remember, change is hard, but not impossible. This may open the door for a great conversation and understanding of the vegan lifestyle.

  If people laugh at you for eating plants, keep in mind that this is their guilty conscience talking.  Change? It’s easier to ridicule what you don’t know or understand.

  You will have plenty of opportunities to get your protein. In fact, there are tons of vegan protein options like beans, nuts, seeds, and vegetables. Bonus, vegan protein options have no cholesterol. Vegan meat and dairy alternatives are packed with healthy protein.

  The world governments are owned by the Animal Agriculture Industry.  They are subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars every year. Milk doesn’t do a body good. Beef is not for dinner. Pork is not the other white meat. Free range, cage free, and other seemingly better options are just smoke screens by the industry. These are just tricks to encourage the world to eat more animals. Don’t worry, Big Pharm is hand in hand with the animal agriculture industry.  They will give you the perfect pill to fix all what ails you when the “food” you eat starts to kill you.

   People are waking up to the health benefits of veganism, animal cruelty reality, and the suffering of our planet.  The time is now to take action to save all, but why the push to resist?

People are afraid of change; afraid of what they don’t know.  People resist even if they know the truth and safety and power comes in numbers.

My advice for this overweight, unhealthy woman is simple.

Don’t push the issue with the husband.  He’s afraid of change. Most of us were at first.

Keep up the research.  Find some great new plant-based recipes and go for it.

Check out all the latest vegan meat, dairy, and egg alternatives and go shopping.   Even the most hardcore omnivores will have a hard time telling the difference in taste. Find some good documentaries on the lies we’ve been told about where our food comes from and what it’s done to our bodies and planet Earth.  

Take it one day at a time and enjoy the fact that you are not only helping yourself, the animals, and the planet, but you are making a huge difference in the life of your family.