Veganism Is The Future
Veganism Is The Future
Article By: Nicholas
Alexander
If you were to take a
poll of all of your friends and family, most of them would say that meat and
dairy are healthy food choices. The majority of those people would also tell
you the reason they believe this is that the protein in the meat, and the calcium
in the dairy are essential for survival. If you were to ask these same people
why they believe this, and where they go their information from, they wont
specifically be able to tell you. It has been my experience that most people
believe that ignorance is bliss, and if I do not know what is going on, then I
will not be forced to do anything about it. Main stream American society has
created a meat culture that permeates every aspect of our social fabric.
If you would have asked
me these same questions 2 years ago, we would have given you the same response.
Tyler and I ate dairy with every meal, and ate what most would consider a
"meat and potato diet." I occasionally might have a side salad, or I
would eat some steamed broccoli, but vegetables and fruits were never my first
priority. My priority was food that was delicious, quick and convenient. I
never put too much thought into processed foods, GMOs, and I generally trusted
that if something was sold in a grocery store that the product must be safe to eat.
This mentality is not
unique, and it certainly is not unintentional. Our eating habits are formed at
a very young age, and socially we nurture these behaviors as we get older. We
consume the products we see on television and at the grocery store, and we do
this without contemplating why.
On January 1st, 2013 we
had the day off work, and Tyler and I decided to binge watch Netflix. We
randomly clicked on a film called "Forks Over Knives." Watching this
film had me in total shock. I could not believe the information I was hearing,
I was upset that this was the first time I had ever heard it, and I was longing
to do more research to find out if it was true. This film led us to watch 6
more documentaries that day on the topic of Veganism. At the end of the day,
Tyler and I looked at each other and we both knew that from that point forward
we were going to try to be Vegan.
Once I had this wealth of
knowledge, it made it near impossible for me to ignore it and go back to eating
the way I used to. I spent most of the year asking myself so many questions.
Why did I not learn this in nutrition class? Why did I not learn this in
college? Why am I 29 years old and just hearing of this for the first time?
This is what began our journey of education and self discovery over the past 2
years.
I began to question everything I had
ever known of been told about food. We watched Ted Talks, more documentaries,
and eventually read a brilliant book called The China Study. The China Study is a book by T. Colin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor
Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. It is the most comprehensive nutritional study ever completed,
and the conclusions that were drawn from their research were that the protein
we consume in meat and dairy, and at such high volumes, were the leading cause
for most of the illnesses and deaths in our society.
How can this be true? How can
everyone believe that meat and dairy are healthy, when they are actually the
leading cause for most types of cancers, heart disease, hypertension, high
cholesterol, alzheimer's, auto-immune disorders, brain
disorders and diabetes? Over the past two years, we have watched over 50 films,
red countless peer reviewed scientific journals, and listened to the most
brilliant people in the world discuss this topic on Ted Talks. The conclusion we came to was that not only is Veganism the
single healthiest lifestyle choice a person can make, I predict it is also the
future of our modern civilization.
There were a few facts that led me to
this conclusion that I will share with you below.
- Nutrients from animal-based foods increased tumor
development while nutrients from plant-based foods decreased tumor
development.
- In studies conducted over the past 20+ years, The China
Study concluded that once the animals met or exceeded the amount of
dietary protein of 12%, disease onset began.
- Casein, the protein that is found in all milk and dairy
products, is the most relevant cancer
promoter ever discovered. Consuming
this protein has been proven to literally turn on the cancer cells in your
body, and is disastrous to your overall health.
- Every vegan saves more than 100 animals a
year.
- Meat is not green. Consuming meat is actually one of the
worst things that you can do for the Earth. It is wasteful and causes
enormous amounts of pollution, and the meat industry is also one of the
biggest causes of climate change. Adopting a vegan diet is more effective
than switching to a “greener” car in the fight against climate change.
- 58 BILLION land animals,
and 20 BILLION sea animals are
killed annually worldwide to sustain our never ending appetite for meat.
- Female cows are kept constantly pregnant and trapped in a
metal cage for their entire life, simply to keep them producing milk. The calves are taken
away from the mothers moments after birth, and they will never meet again.
The female cows are then immediately inseminated to get them pregnant again,
and this process continues until the cow is deemed to not be producing
enough milk and is sent to the slaughter house.
- According to the United Nations, raising animals for food
(including land used for grazing and land used to grow feed crops) now uses a staggering 30 percent of the Earth’s land
mass. More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared
to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals.
- The average American eats over 30% more meat today when
compared to the 1950's.
- For most of human history, human civilization from all over
the world have sustained life by consuming mainly some sort of starch,
such as rice or corn. Meat was a eaten only in small amounts, and was
never the main ingredient in a meal. Our digestive
systems evolved to be able to process a plant based diet. Evidence of this can been seen
when comparing our digestive track to known carnivores in the animal
kingdom. Carnivore's digestive systems are short, to allow for quick
digestion and limit the amount of time the meat sits inside of the
intestine. Humans have long digestive systems, to allow for a complete
absorption of nutrients from a wide variety of plants, vegetables, fruits,
grains, beans and legumes that we consume. Our bodies were not evolved to eat the amount of meat we
are consuming today.
- More specifically, all dairy products are extremely difficult
for our bodies to process and digest because humans were not meant to be
consume such large amounts of milk from another animal. Dairy is a
processed food created by humans. Nearly 80% of
people have various degrees of lactose intolerance. After the age of 2-3 years old, after nursing milk from our
own mother, our body begins becoming lactose intolerant because our body
no longer requires milk as part of our diet. Lactose intolerance literally
means our body is rejecting the milk, much like an allergic reaction. Only
our bodies all react differently, and this causes everything from skin
issues, digestive problems, heart disease, auto-immune disorders, and most
importantly CANCER.
If you want to
eat bacon and eggs for breakfast and then take cholesterol-lowering medication,
that’s your right. But if you want to truly take charge of your health, read
The China Study, and do it soon! If you heed the counsel of this outstanding
guide, your body will thank you every day for the rest of your life.
Below is a list
of documentaries, books, and Ted Talks that has led me to these conclusions.
Stop waiting for society to give you the answers about health and wellness, and
challenge yourself to learn more about the food you consume each day. Everyone
is entitled to their own opinion, but we challenge you to watch these films,
and read these articles and not be just as shocked and disturbed as we were
with the information.
Documentaries: Most are available on
Netflix, or free to watch online or YouTube.
1.
Forks Over Knives
2.
Hungry For Change
3.
Food Inc,
4.
Food Fight
5.
Vegecated,
6.
Foodmatters
7.
Supersize me
8.
Earthlings -SO important to watch,
but viewer discretion is advised.
9.
Farmageddon
10. The Ethics of What We Eat
11. Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days
12. Ingredients
13. The Future of Food
14. The World According to Monsanto
15. Dying To Have Known
16. Fat Sick and Nearly Dead
17. Vanishing of The Bees
18. I AM
19. An Inconvenient Truth
20. With One Voice
21. Happy
22. Ethos
23. Tapped
24. Wal-Mart-The High Cost of Low Price
25. Addicted To Plastic
26. A Crude Awakening
27. The Human Experience
28. The Beautiful Truth
29. With One Voice
30. Blackfish
Ted Talks are available
online. Simply go to www.tedtalks.com. Below are a few links to the most
brilliant people in the world who specialize in health, medicine and nutrition.
- TEDxOttawa - Natasha Kyssa - Let Food Be Thy
Medicine
- Plant Based Nutrition: Julieanna Hever at
TEDxConejo 2012
- A vegan bodybuilding experiment: Joshua Knox at
TEDxFremont
- TEDxOKC - Matthew Kenney - "Are You Feeding
Your Body or Feeding Dis-ease?"
- Graham
Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian-
- William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?-
- Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk: Teach Every Child About Food
- Vegans
on top: Ori Shavit at TEDxHiriya-
One of the most important
things you can do to understand the research behind how a plant based diet can
change your health, is to read The China Study. The book is available
online on Amazon, at Whole Foods, or at Barnes and Noble. This book will answer
all of those questions you have about protein, nutrients, and how to make the
shift to a whole foods plant based diet.
Being a Vegan is more than just eating
plants. It is a conscious choice to be part of the change you wish to see in
the world. We can save the planet, save animals, and save your health simply by
educating ourselves and making different decisions about the food we consume.
Be an educated consumer, buy local,
read every ingredient, pay attention to nutrition labels, buy non-GMO foods and
organic when possible, stop shopping at large corporate grocery chains,
eliminate processed foods from your home, switch to all natural cleaning
products and hygiene products, support your local farmers market, educate
yourself about the treatment of animals, and if you must eat dairy and meat
consume it in small amounts and insist on grass fed, responsibly raised,
locally produced, organic, and non-pasteurized.
We can not change the world by sitting
back and doing nothing, or by expecting that someone else will do it for us.
The best way to change the system is to vote with our dollar. If we buy local,
organic, non-GMO foods then the demand will require an increase in production
and will eventually reduce the cost.
Thank you so much for taking the time
to read this. Be kind to yourself, and let us know if you have any questions.
Much
Love,
Nicholas
and Tyler Johnson
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