Hopefully everyone enjoyed their debaucherous Halloweens yesterday. I was a lazy bones and didn’t dress up this year. So, let’s just say I dressed up and pretend that last year’s costume, pictured on the right, is from this year. Sweet. (You can see a bit of Mr. Gnome’s ”Joe the Plumber” get-up from last year.)

Today is also cause for more celebration-it’s World Vegan Day!

So those of you maybe feeling a bit hungover from the alcohol and/or the sugar, I send you my sympathies. Go have a nice “couch day”. Don’t want to make you queasy or anything.

Also know that while I’m super passionate about veganism,  I don’t believe in pushing beliefs down people’s throats, regardless of what they are: drinking vs. non-drinking (props to my girl Candice for this article ), vegetarian vs. non-vegetarian, religious vs. non-religious).

Given the disclaimer above, feel free to read or not read the reasons why being a vegetarian/vegan rocks:

Environmental aspect:

1. According to the EPA, that icky runoff from factory farms pollutes our rivers and lakes more than all industrial pollution sources combined.
2. More than 1/3 of all the raw sources and fossil fuels we use in the US are utilized to raise animals for food.
3. It takes about 300 gallons of water a day to produce a vegetarian-based diet. It takes about 4,000 gallons of water a day to produce a typical meat-based diet.
4. As you’ve maybe read before on this blog, the United Nations found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined.

Animal rights:

As the old adage goes “out of sight, out of mind”…I won’t get into all the unpleasant details, but animals raised for food are generally treated atrociously. For me, learning about the meat industry was perhaps the biggest reason for turning veg. I feel like I help raise the positive vibes in the world by doing something to alleviate some of the omnipresent suffering. And I don’t think that statement is as idealistic as it seems. I truly believe we all are interconnected. An honest smile towards someone has the ability to slightly better hundreds, thousands, and millions of people’s lives. One meal, day, week, year, or lifetime without meat impacts the world significantly.

 Health:

The book, “The China Study”  best promotes the healthiness of a vegan diet. The project surveyed the death rates for 12 different kinds of cancer in 2400 counties and 880 million of their citizens over the course of twenty years. The study, conducted jointly by Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, was spearheaded by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D, who, himself, grew up eating a heavy meat-based diet on a dairy farm in the South.

After the twenty years of research, Cambell was surprised by the results, finding that: 

1. Health is primarily based on the foods we eat and that “there are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants”.
2. A plant-based diet can substantially control the adverse effects of noxious chemicals, play a critical role in determining which genes, good and bad, are expressed, prevent disease in its early stages and halt or reverse it in its later stages, and create health in all areas of our existence. (The fact that a vegan diet can reverse disease blew my mind.)

Taste:

Vegan cuisine has come a long way. Nowadays, there is a vegan alternative for almost any kind of food. Even my little North Carolina town has a pizza place  that serves wood-fired vegan cheese pizza. I am addicted to big ole’ chocolate chip cookies by the Alternative Baking Company , and I can still eat my comfort food: Bagels with (soy) cream cheese.

There is even a vegan foodie culture starting to develop. (Did anyone else see last week’s Top Chef  where Natalie Portman asked the chefs to create veg dishes?) 

Tal Ronnen, a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute and teacher at Le Cordon Bleu, is a converted vegan who just released a cookbook: “The Conscious Chef”.  I love that top-notch chefs are creating gourmet vegan food. Here’s a little of his bio:

“Chef Tal Ronnen is one of the most celebrated vegan chefs working today. In the spring of 2008, he became known nationwide as the chef who prepared vegan meals for Oprah Winfrey’s 21-day vegan cleanse. He has since catapulted to fame, catering Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi’s vegan wedding, Arianna Huffington’s party at the Democratic National Convention, and the first vegan dinner at the U.S. Senate.”

Alicia Silverstone also has a new cookbook out called “The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet” . Now, I didn’t know Alicia Silverstone was a cook, but who cares. Loved her in Clueless. 

Hopefully this gives us all a little food for thought. (Teehee-pun intended). I find that, as a more recent convert to veganism, it helps me a lot to read literature like this and renew my reasons for doing what I’m doing. Happy World Vegan Day!

I would love to hear from you guys. Have you considered going vegetarian/vegan? Are you already veg? Never will be veg?

text/photo: Nancy Harder

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