I will admit it. Vegans are obsessed with themselves. All of the jokes where vegans declare they are a vegan during any and all conversations are warranted. We cannot shut up about ourselves. It makes no sense to a non-vegan -- not even vegetarians. See, to us, being vegan is much more than a dietary and product restriction; it is a lifestyle, and for many, an identity.
I loved food. A good bacon cheeseburger could have me raving for weeks, a pulled pork sandwich made by my best friend's parents was better than crack, and cheese and crackers would do me dirty almost every day after school. No friend of mine was even a vegetarian, let alone a vegan. The only thing better than food was watching documentaries as I ate this food. I love a good documentary but love researching and discrediting documentaries even more. Maybe my love of food got in the way of my athletic abilities, but I am still one of the most competitive people I know. Proving documentaries wrong is my way of throwing a few elbows on the basketball court while the ref isn't looking. Although, it would be a lie if I said I never had.
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Ironically, my love for food and documentaries is what led to my drastic change in diet and ultimately my lifestyle. Over the summer of 2016, I stumbled upon a documentary called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead," which follows Joe Cross as he follows a juice fast and travels across the United States for 60 days under the care of Dr. Joel Fuhrman. An obsession grew, and soon I was watching tons of documentaries on food: "Fed Up," "Forks Over Knives," "Food Chains," "Plant Pure Nation," "Food Inc.," and "Vegucated." Then I watched "Cowspiracy" and that was the final straw. Filmmakers Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn address the effects of cattle on the environment. It is absolutely atrocious.
After more research, I found an Oxford University study, published in the journal Climatic Change, which shows that meat-eaters are responsible for almost twice as many dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day as vegetarians, and about two and a half times as many as vegans. Researchers at Loma Linda University in California found that vegans have the smallest carbon footprint, generating a 41.7 percent smaller volume of greenhouse gases than meat-eaters do. When scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden calculated ways to combat climate change, they found that cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation and energy use alone isn’t enough to curb climate change.
Dr. Fredrik Hedenus, the lead scientist of the study, said that “reducing meat and dairy consumption is key to bringing agricultural climate pollution down to safe levels.”Similarly, Ilmi Granoff from the Overseas Development Institute in the U.K. has urged officials to forget about coal and cars, because the "fastest way to address climate change would be to dramatically reduce the amount of meat people eat.” As someone who drives a hybrid, takes ridiculously fast showers and recycles and composts, veganism seemed like the next logical step in order to fight climate change.
Of course, there are also health reasons to go vegan. For instance, on average, vegans live seven years longer than non-vegetarians. The average BMI of a vegan is much lower than that of a non-vegetarian. For this reason, vegans have a lower chance of heart disease, cancer and stroke.
The most common assumption that non-vegans have about vegans is they chose this lifestyle for ethical reasons. Obviously, by not eating animals, you are not killing animals. You are also not contributing to the horrific way some animals are treated on mass farms like the Foster Chicken farms. If this interests you, watch "Food Inc." on Netflix.
As obnoxious as we are, vegans are extremely proud of what we are doing. I saw something that bothered me and completely changed my lifestyle around in order to make a difference. Next time a vegan talks about their lifestyle, recognize that this is quite possibly the most important thing in their life and they act on it every single day. When was the last time you were that committed to something? Refrain from rolling your eyes or grunting, because we refrain every time you eat a cheese stick. Feel free to keep the vegan jokes coming, though, because let's be real, they are hilarious.
