I’m going to start off with a disclaimer: I’m not vegan by choice and I often “cheat” on my veganism. However, I think it's a great lifestyle. I decided to go vegetarian the summer before my junior year of high school. I didn’t have a reason, I just wanted to try it out. It was actually pretty difficult, especially since I travel a lot. I stopped after a year because I was tired of eating salads all the time. As I learned more about eating right, I stopped eating as much meat. While it’s not too bad for your health to eat meat, I realized most of my meat intake was McDonald’s hamburgers. Not very healthy. I decided to cut out meat altogether at the beginning of the summer. I spent the time to plan out healthy meals and I found out how much variety there is for vegetarians outside of eating salads. Then the worst thing I thought possible happened; I found out I was lactose intolerant. I had always had stomach problems and, in finding out what was causing it, I decided to give up dairy for two weeks. Much to my dismay, that was the cause. I still eat eggs and a few other dairy products, but being vegan has so many good qualities. It’s actually really helpful for your health, the animals, and the environment.

Vegans are healthier people

Plant-based diets are high in protein, iron, calcium, and plenty of other essential vitamins and minerals. Veganism is a fighter against certain types of cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. Most vegans have lower BMIs, much more energy, healthier skin, and longer lives. If you’re like me and you get killer allergies every time the weather changes, cutting out meat and dairy will help out. Many vegans have fewer symptoms of runny noses and congestion problems. Eliminating dairy from your diet also alleviates the symptoms of PMS, something many of us can agree is a good reason. Cutting out animal products also lessens the chance of getting some nasty diseases from animal products like salmonella or E. coli. As a vegan, you aren’t consuming all the hormones and other chemicals the meat industry is pumping our food with that can mess with your natural balance of hormones.

All animals have a right to live

If you’ve never seen Food Inc., go open Netflix right now and watch it. The meat industry is terrible. I’ve had people tell me that it’s okay to factory farm because the animals don’t know any better, but I know better. That’s no way for an animal to live. Most livestock live in terrible conditions where they are open to malnutrition, injury, and disease. While animals in nature are still open to these things, they often have better ways of coping with them and are much more able to overcome those hardships. Male calves and chicks aren’t even given a chance to live most of the time; they are often killed after a few days since they cannot produce milk or lay eggs. The same goes for older animals or livestock that aren’t producing enough milk or eggs.

Eating meat kills the environment

I’m sure you’ve heard the thing about cow farts creating the hole in the ozone layer, and while that is a somewhat true fact, climate change and other environmental factors are caused by so much more. Livestock consumes more protein, water, and calories than they produce. This means that eating meat is a huge waste of resources. With water shortages around the globe, why are we giving more water to animals that we don’t need to eat than to people who are dying of thirst? The amount of space used for farming for grains to feed livestock alone is responsible for a heavy amount of deforestation. A vegan diet uses about a third the amount of land that a meat-filled diet does. Again, why are we using the land to feed animals that we don’t need to eat when over 800 million people do not have enough food to feed themselves?

While giving up meat and other animal products can be tough, the benefits of being vegan are endless. If you’re planning on becoming vegan but aren’t quite ready to give up meat, try going one day a week without eating any meat or dairy. As time goes on, it’ll get easier!