As I sit here writing this, it’s hard to believe that the year is almost over. And what a challenging year it has been! But November is very special because we celebrate ‘World Vegan Month’ which allows vegans to reflect on how they are helping the Vegan movement and to see whether there is anything else they can do to encourage others to adopt a more plant-based lifestyle. It also gives omnivores a chance to try new vegan recipes and challenge their previous preconceptions when it comes to food.
The month of November is also very special to me because it was a year ago that I watched The Game Changers and decided to give veganism a try (after years of feeling like it was an impossible diet choice!) I continue to be astounded by how easy it was (and is) to replace animals with plants and how good it makes me feel physically and morally. There are challenges to eating a vegan diet full-time especially if you’re travelling (ah, remember that?!) and that is why my motto in life is ‘near enough is good enough.’ You should never berate yourself for not eating vegan from time to time, whether that be lack of convenience or a craving for a certain food. My husband Nick will still eat steak, eggs and fish occasionally as well as invest in the odd block of fruit and nut dairy milk chocolate (his fav!) This does not cancel out the vegan diet he follows 95% of the time.
What’s in a Name?
It’s also important to not feel like you have to put a label on what you eat. I think so many people are intimidated by the term ‘vegan’ as they think that it encompasses a whole way of life. They feel trapped and restricted; assuming they can never buy a leather bag again or that they have to solve the world’s problems single-handedly. There are also misconceptions about what it is to be vegan and people don’t realise that it’s a sliding scale because living a 100% vegan life is practically unattainable. Animals are connected to us in many more ways than food. For example, did you know that most electricity is produced using animal slurry? Or that generally, wine isn’t vegan? It is up to each individual to decide what is manageable for them, and this will also depend on the reasons that they are becoming vegan in the first place. Is it for health? Combating climate change and deforestation? Or because they are against animal cruelty?
People should never assume that just because someone identifies with being vegan means that they abstain from all animal products 100% of the time, attend protest marches and get on their soapbox for all to hear! Yes, there are many passionate vegan activists and we need these people in the world to put pressure on governments and corporations to facilitate change. However, what we need even more, are people making small changes in their lives who can then talk about these changes to their friends and family. We need those who aren’t afraid to take a delicious vegan dish to a potluck party, or make a vegan chocolate cake for a charity bake sale or recommend an informative documentary such as Forks over Knives or What the Health to their friends. Sharing our experiences and information in an approachable and inclusive way is how we will inspire long-term change in our behaviour.
Because at the end of the day, I am a firm believer in human beings doing good. I am convinced that the choices people make come down to habits and lack of information. For example, I have eaten eggs my entire life not only because they are tasty and a good source of protein but I always assumed that chickens regularly laid eggs so why couldn’t we eat them? It wasn’t until I stepped onto the vegan path that I decided to research why it was unethical to eat eggs. Not only did I uncover horrendous statistics related to factory farming and the cruelty that it entails, but more importantly I learnt that chickens take 24 hours to produce a single egg and that in the wild they then eat this egg to replace the vitamins, minerals and calcium that their bodies need. By taking that egg away, not only are we depriving them of those important nutrients, but we force them into panic mode and they feel compelled to make another egg. This is why chickens in the wild produce 12-20 eggs a year and yet farmed chickens can lay 200-300! (Read more about eggs here).
My point is, if I wasn’t aware of this before becoming vegan, how many other people are equally not aware? My hairdresser for one! She asked me about eggs last time I was getting my colour done and was genuinely shocked and saddened when I shared this information with her. Who knows? She may not give up eggs entirely but perhaps it will make her think twice before making that omelette for breakfast, especially now that we know of so many tasty nutritious alternatives such as scrambled tofu!
And that’s what it comes down to; a transference of knowledge and a sharing of experiences. If everybody knew where their food came from and what impact it had on the environment, the planet, animals and on the human body, people could make well-informed decisions. I doubt everyone would suddenly jump on the V train but I do believe it would inspire more people to make changes. It doesn’t help that the animal agriculture industry is big business and so it’s little wonder that we have been constantly fed information about milk being essential for calcium, beef for iron and eggs for protein. These ‘facts’ have since been disproven but unfortunately, human beings tend to believe and remember what they are first told and if the rhetoric is repeated enough, it becomes a mantra to live by. (For more info on this refer to my post The Meat Conspiracy.
Should we all be Vegan?
Believe it or not, I don’t necessarily advocate for a completely vegan world. Whilst I am happy eating a plant-based diet I do not have a problem with others consuming animal products and I believe that the planet can survive and thrive with animal agriculture. But there is no denying that changes in the level of consumption need to happen if we want to reverse the effects of climate change and prevent more widespread pandemics. In essence, if we want to save ourselves we must first change our eating habits. And Sir David Attenborough agrees. If you haven’t watched it already, his latest documentary A Life On Our Planet is deeply moving and incredibly enlightening. While it’s devastating coming face to face with the destruction that has occurred throughout the last 60 years to our planet, it’s also hopeful as he shows us that with a few intelligent changes it isn’t too late for us to save our precious home. He suggests eating a predominantly plant-based diet but insists that with the right farming methods there will be more than enough food for all of us (and that includes meat and other animal products).
Never too late to Change
We just have to press the reset button and return to a time when eating meat was a treat; preparing a roast chicken on a Sunday, eating eggs only on the weekend, baking with oil instead of butter and not grating cheese into every single dish to ‘add flavour.’ This isn’t that impossible, is it? I know so many people who have switched to plant-based milk (including my entire family) and as I’ve said many times, this is the easiest starting point for veganism. Speaking of family, I am incredibly proud of mine as we are a living example of how you can change lifelong habits if you want to regardless of your situation. This is because my family also watched The Game Changers this time last year resulting in my sixty-year-old parents switching from a typical Western diet to pescatarian, my sister and her husband also switching to a pescatarian diet, my brother to vegetarian and my youngest brother became a Veggan (a vegan who eats eggs!)
So when people use excuses like ‘it’s too difficult and time-consuming to change my diet’ I think of my sis, running around after two small boys, working a highly stressful job and still finding the time to prepare new, tasty, vegetarian recipes for herself and her meat-loving husband (while often making a separate meal for her kids!) When people say ‘I’ve eaten meat my whole life so why change now?’ I think of my parents who loved bacon and BBQ’s and yet don’t even crave meat anymore. When people say ‘I can’t afford it’ I think of my brother who spends all of his money supporting his two kids and yet who still manages a nourishing green smoothie every morning and plenty of veggie meals. When people say ‘I don’t think it’s healthy to cut animal products out as we need them for protein and essential vitamins’ I think of my youngest brother who not only advocated for this change to begin with but who has been a type 1 diabetic since he was 10 years old. He spends his life carefully monitoring his food and injecting himself with insulin and yet is thriving on a plant-based diet.
At the end of the day, they are all just excuses. A good friend of mine often talks about the primitive brain and how it is so hard-wired in human beings that it’s difficult to experience a mental shift and even more challenging to act on it. But as soon as you realise that your diet is an addiction you can choose to break it. There really is no easy place to start but to simply decide one day and then go through with it. Quitting cigarettes is hard, quitting alcohol is hard, quitting sugar is hard and choosing to live a vegan lifestyle is hard. But only at the beginning! Like anything, once the new habits have taken root and you see the benefits of the nutritious food you’re putting into your body you think ‘why did I ever think that would be such a big deal?’ And that’s why vegans are often thought of as ‘preachy.’ I think it’s because after making such a difficult choice we are astounded by how un-difficult it turns out to be and we want to shout it from the rooftops!
What springs to mind is a clear image, an analogy that I think explains it perfectly. I imagine a long road in front of me and in the distance, I can see a mountain. I think to myself ‘gosh that mountain looks so high, I can never climb that’ but I choose to keep walking towards it anyway because I feel compelled to; the path feels nice beneath my feet. As I walk, the mountain gradually becomes smaller and smaller. Eventually, it turns out to be a grassy mound, something I can easily step over and I think ‘Why was I so worried?’
Well, there’s no way of knowing if you really can do something until you do it. The question is, do you have the courage and motivation to walk towards that mountain? As the great Theodore Roosevelt once said: ‘Nothing worth having comes easy.’ It’s up to you and you alone as to whether you take that first step. But what have you got to lose? It might be the best journey you have ever been on. 😀🌱
Feeling inspired to make a change? Check out some of my previous blog posts that will guide you in the right direction!
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