Facebook contact

the following is a copy of a message i sent to someone on Facebook, who has expressed interest in becomign vegan.

Hi


I have been vegetarian all my life, all 54 years, and have not had any ill effects that I am aware of!




Being vegetarian means not eating anything which has been killed for food, so no meat, (including chicken which people sometimes forget!) fish, and avoiding products which contain the by-products of meat, like gelatine in jelly and loads of things, rennet in many, particuarly hard, cheeses.



Becoming vegan is a much bigger step, but logical when you consider what happens to animals to make dairy products etc - eg, the female cattle needing to have a calf once a year to keep milking her, the calf is then either 'wastage' and killed or used for veal, thus further supporiting the meat industry. Mother cows bellow for their young once they have been removed, often for many days. Male chicks are also a 'waste' product in the egg industry. They are just crushed or gassed, in vaste bowls or heaps. It is all kept hidden, try reading 'why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows', a briliant book by Melanie Joy, published in US last year. It is probably kinder to the animals to eat beef than it is to use milk, but still hideous.



It was watching a short video on FB about a cow, no idea for beef or dairy, waiting in line in a metal runway thing to go into the killing shed, trying to turn around, that made me go vegan, instantly. It was heart rending, and must happen literally thousands of times a day. There are estimated to be 56 billion animals a year killed for meat etc., and that does not include fish, an estimated further 90 billion.



There are really two aspects to being vegan. There is the dietary componenet and the lifestyle part. I am not there on the lifestyle one yet, it will take a lot longer, maybe I will never get there. the dietary part is easier - no products of animals at all, eg no milk, cheese, cream, eggs, honey, or things with them in, so lots of checking of labels!



The lifestyle part is more complicated and happens gradually for msot people. No leather, eg shoes - I still have leather shoes I bought in the past or from charity shops - no silk, wool. then, household products, no animal ingredients and not tested on animals. We have the Co-op here, which has a lot of its products labelled clearly as nto tested or with animal ingredients, so that helps, but it is a complicated business! We do not live in a vegan world as yet, so we have to compromise, or life would be unbearable, we would be intolerable to live near etc!



I did not go vegan for my health. I initially put on weight, i think I overcompensated with chips and chocolate! But that has settled now and I think i am even losing a little weight. However, i did find, by chance, a major health benefit. A few months before becoming vegan, after a year or two of pain, I was diagnosed with arthritis in my hip. I was even considering surgery. However, when I became vegan, the pain left, almost entirely. I can now walk longish distances again, and rarely experience any pain from it. The problem is obviously still there, and I triggered it once by being 'naughty' and having some stilton cheese, a blue and delicious cheese, and was in agony the next day, but fine again the folloiwng day. I am not saying that dairy is a problem for everyone with arthritis, but I do know that most nutrititionists I have encountered take people off dairy pronto, for all sorts of problems. it is necessary to take vitamin B12 as a supplement or in fortified foods, as this is only found in the soil, we tend to clean things a lot nowadays and so it is usually found now in animal products where it has been digested from the soil. There is plenty of protein in vegan food, most people eat far too much protein and there is protein in all foods, even fruit and vegetables, obviously in nuts and grains and pulses etc.



If you plan to go vegan, fantastic, but take it gradually, do not be hard on yourself if you get it 'wrong', make mistakes, eat something you crave etc. Do not give up, i thought of it day by day for ages, if I fancied something non vegan i told myself I could have it tomorrow if I wanted, now it feels quite normal and I rarely have wobbly moments! Some people go vegetarian first, just as a step towards beicoming vegan, that might be easier, with a plan to move to vegan after a while. Or, you could just eat less meat initially, that is a great help. What does your family think? I am in the happy position of beign supported by my husband, who is mainly vegan, and having lovely vegan guests to stay at our guest house often. i have found much support on here, eg the Vegan Society page, which is brilliant, and have lots of FB friends who I am friends with specifically because they are vegan, round the world. But, I do get sent a lot of gruelling pictures and posts which I can do nothing about, so that is sometimes a bit depressing. There are also loads of links to vegan blogs, recipe pages etc.



Anyway, good luck whatever you do, let me know how it goes. I am delighted you are thinking of this step.



love



Vanessa

getting there

today, after no further Terrible Incidents, My hip is beginning to feel better.  So, 24 hours to feel really bad after eaitng cheese, and a further 24 or more to start to improve. 

I am astounded!

Yesterday, I was very 'naughty', or this is how I choose to describe it.  I fell off the vegan wagon.  I was cooking with stilton.  I ate some.  No, I gorged on what I was not using in my recipe for guests.  I ate a lot.  I was choosing 'not to waste it', I was falling for the article I have just read about how 'addictive' cheese is, it was not my 'fault', i could not help it, blah, blah, excuses, excuses.

It was delicious.  I felt guilty.  My stomach was not pleased to receive it and sent it on it's way quite promptly.

But, exactly 24 hours later, and a few more non vegan morsels later, the arthritis symptoms I had before becoming vegan, are back with a vengeance.  I welcome them, they are clear proof, further proof if it was needed, of the connection between the discomfort of arthritis and dairy.  I did not wonder if I would get the pain, it is not psychosomatic.  It did not occur to me that it could be so instant, so directly connected.   It is extreme, I am limping, I am avoiding  walking between the kitchen and dining room.  It is OK now that I am sitting here and I doubt it will keep me awake.  I will be interested to see how soon it will subside, as I believe it will.

I am horrified that when I told the physios of my improvement after giving up dairy last year, they just dismissed it.  I wonder if there is much research of the topic, if not, there clearly needs to be a study.  Anecdotal evidence such as this will never be acceptable in the scientific world, but it is a powerful anecdote.

wonderful quote

Sele45 says "The main basis of my vegan life is to refrain from taking things that aren't mine. The word 'arrogant' comes from a word meaning 'to take for oneself.' It's supremely arrogant of humans to believe they have more of a right to the body and life of another being than the being itself."

so many quotes have become hackneyed and commonplace by overuse.  this is fresh to me, it really stands out.

animal psychic

A few weeks ago, Radio 2 had an animal psychic on the afternoon show.  What was said has haunted me since.  It was on the afternoon show, it was treated very lightly and with some underlying derision I felt.  This programme is not one to look at subjects in any depth or with a serious approach.

But, it could have been an opportunity to promote the vegan and vegetarian cause.  It was the opposite.  After some discussion about the lady's communication with people's pets (I do not know her name, and some Google searches and review of the radio 2 programme content at the time did not reveal it),  the subject of farm animals was raised.  She said something like 'oh, the vegetarian thing' and proceeded to say that farm animals live in the present, and should have good welfare.  With that she had let everyone who eats meat off the hook, dismissed any concern for animals other than people's 'pets' as unnecessary. 

A few days later someone was at the house doing a particular piece of work here, and made the same comment about animals living in the present.  I do not know if she had heard the programme, but if not it was a strange coincidence, so those 'wise' words had been heard.  Whether animals have a concept of the future I do not know, but that they remember events of the past there can be no doubt.  Even if they do live in the moment, being in the hell of the slaughter house in the moment is not justifiable, it is just as horrendous, and frequently involves hours of waiting, just to smell and see the animal ahead of you die before you do.

I do not know if people can communicate with animals in any special way, but, if they can, then this has to extend to all animals surely?  Otherwise it is just an extension of spciesism and humanocentric, communicating with animals for the benefit and reassurance of people only?

Why vegan?

I would like to turn this question around the next time I am asked it.  Why do you eat meat or animal products?  I don't know if I will, but I'd like to, without being aggressive, or defensive, or condescending or nervous.

the bees give us their honey, the hens give us their eggs

No, they don't, they make them for themselves, for their young, for their future, for their own needs, not out of the goodness of their hearts for us.