gründe vegan leben

Why choose a vegan life?

Several studies (e.g. the China Study) exist that show a diet without animal products is extremely beneficial to health and well-being. Civilization diseases such as diabetes, obesity, strokes and even cancer are associated with the consumption of animal proteins.

As a positive side effect avoiding meat and dairy also helps you loose a lot of weight easily.Correlations between diet and health are also shown vividly and in great detail in the movie Forks over Knives.

Vegan variation

To the contrary of popular belief, “you can’t eat anything, anymore” vegans feed themselves with splendor, often much more varied and diverse than omnivores. Precisely because they pay deliberate attention to their food and ingredients, their conscious way of eating prevents malnutrition. The only substance that apparently cannot be provided by plants in sufficient quantity is vitamin B12. But it is easy to integrate an appropriate dietary supplement into a balanced  nutrition. (For more information on vegetable sources of vital substances, click here)

And in contrast to the many drugs that may be needed due to a meat and dairy-based diet, that’s by far the smaller evil, spiked with far less side effects, don’t you agree?

Gründe vegane Ernährung

Animal Welfare

Animal welfare is of course the most obvious argument for a plant-based diet. And as worn out as this subject may seem, it is not to be dismissed that the current handling of creatures represents an unprecedented industrialized and commercialized cruelty. If we would really make an effort to come to grips with what goes on behind the doors of dairy farms, breeding establishment and slaughterhouses, we would be a good deal further ahead. But we are masters of repression. The film by Dr. Melanie Joy illustrates this very clearly.

Environmental Protection

A more careful and conscious use of our flora and fauna would also have an incredibly positive impact on our environment. The majority of  water shortage is caused by raising livestock for the meat industry, deep-sea fishing is destroying the oceans, soybeans for feed production (not Tofu for the vegans and vegetarians!) destroy big chunks of rainforest. (nicely summarized in this video)

All this has a massive impact on our environment, and the following environmental disasters are especially tough on the poorest of the poor.

gründe vegane Ernährung
vegane Ernährung gründe

Hope for all

The way we eat and live today in the Western world leads to many humanitarian disasters and above all to the world hunger problem.

According to the UN’s World Food Programme more than 3 million (!) children die from hunger every year! 3 Million! Keeping in mind our wealth and abundance, that seems quite unimaginable. But therein lies the reason.

In the globalized food industry today even people in countries like Brazil, a major agricultural exporter, are starving. Vast areas of former rainforest land are cultivated for soya to foot our western feed production. Thus, the country has little arable land for their own needs.  A deadly cycle, continually fueled by food speculating GM monopolists like Monsanto and unfair trading conditions.

But there is also cause for hope. Because if you approach one problem, the whole cycle begins to dissolve. “Vegan” alone is not enough, though. But when you add “organic” and “fair”, you create a powerful trio that can really make a difference. Hope for all & We feed the world are two great documentaries explaining these global relationships.

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