Since January of this year, I decided to change my life and stop eating meat. After eating meat my entire life, I assumed that it would be difficult to abstain from meat however, it was quite the contrary. After a few days, my body began to cleanse itself of the poisonous meat that had been consumed and I felt lighter, healthier, and happy. Having a plant-based diet was challenging in college because my fellow vegan and vegetarians had three options that were not doused in grease or meat. I am glad that I turned vegetarian because it has allowed me to maintain my plant based diet post- graduation, but the most challenging aspect is living in a community where being healthy isn't a top priority.
I live in the Bronx; a place that is often overwhelming at times with crime levels, hot headed individuals, and in a positive way, its abundance of culture. This cornucopia of people hailing from the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Central America etc. also brings their delicious food which at times I often miss consuming.
However, being vegetarian or vegan is challenging when there are several pizza shops on every corner, Spanish restaurants, Chinese restaurants, fried chicken spots, and fast food chains within your reach. The problem is that due to high Hispanic and Black population, although gentrification threatens to alter our community permanently, food choices cater to cheap unhealthy food that leads to childhood obesity, and numerous health problems that are inherited genetically. It is also difficult when your family has a culture where fried foods are consumed on a regular sometimes daily basis. There is often little support from family members who believe that a vegetarian lifestyle is extreme and as my friends family often say "You can't believe everything you see on television."
Let's suppose someone who lives in this community is vegetarian/vegan what can they purchase in the supermarket that isn't an animal product? The answer is if you live in a poor, unrepresented neighborhood such as mine, there isn't much that you can buy other than Almond milk. There are no veggie burgers, non-dairy yogurt, vegan/vegetarian frozen dinners, no vegan soup, etc. I was excited upon returning from college and seeing vegetarian yogurt, and after only a few weeks it never returned.
Supermarkets cater to what the majority of people eat as a whole, which is garbage because they cannot afford or do not want to eat healthy. This lifestyle is expensive and it often can deter someone who is living in poverty from being healthy because it is easier and cheaper to get a chicken dinner than vegetables, which is sad. I have to travel great distances to appease my diet, and it is a shame when an individual has to get excited when a healthy item is sold at the supermarket.
My vegetarian/vegan community is few in number and often times judged based upon our food choices. Comments don't phase me because I would rather lower my risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and mental illness that is prevalent in my community and my family. Along with healthy eating, exercise is important. I began to exercise in college and often got lazy despite having a gym feet away from my dorm. Now the responsibility rests upon my shoulders to exercise daily despite being exposed to second-hand smoke from my neighbor and idleness from an overall unhealthy community.
I hope that this article raises awareness of the issues facing inner-city communities particularly in the areas of health and wellness. I also hope that people will choose to implement vegetables and baked foods into their diet, as opposed to fried processed foods that lead to health issues. No one is imposing Vegetarianism upon anyone, but if you want to live a long life, changing one's eating habits is key.
