Why Become a Vegan ?

There are many, many reasons to become a Vegan , but it all boils down to one big goal : A Happy Healthy Life for ourselves and others. Many people already believe that a Vegan diet is the best for overall health. What many don’t realize is that a vegan diet is the best way to save our planet from global warming too.

As this forum progresses , there are 3 main goals. First is to support the above with scientific studies presented in a reader friendly format. Second is to answer readers questions about diet and health*. Then last but not least , healthy and tasty recipes and cooking demonstrations to help people get started on their way to a better life.

Before progressing further into the interesting and amazing benefits of the diet we will be discussing, I want to clarify the meaning of some terms as I will be using them.

Vegan - the usual definition is a diet consisting only of plant based foods with no animal products. This means no dairy including no eggs and no meat. I will be using it slightly differently unless otherwise specified. I am going to use it as a synonym for a Whole Food Plant Based diet. This would really be a subset of Vegan. It is a diet consisting primarily of starches like rice, beans, corn, potatoes , peas, lentils and whole grains as 70 % of the calories. Then the other calories come from 20 % as green and yellow vegetables and 10 % from fruits. 

Microbiome - this will be the bacteria that live in our gut and change with our diet and they can do amazing things to help or hurt us.

Epigenetics - How our environment, including diet can affect what genes in our body are turned on or off. 

Diet - this seems self explanatory, but we are so accustomed in today’s society to think of diet as a term for a way to lose weight. Although most people will find that they lose weight on a Vegan diet, that is not the main focus of this lifestyle change. So when I use diet it will be referring to what we eat . Individuals should find that they can eat healthy , flavorful food without being hungry . 

Starch - is a complex carbohydrate consisting of long chains of sugar in the form of amylose or amylopectin. ie: rice, beans, corn, potatoes, peas, lentils and whole grains. 

Finally , we need to explain why people are wrong when they say it is too late for me to change as I have already damaged my body or that I eat a typical American diet and I ‘m healthy and not sick, so why should I switch . Both of these statements have the same answer, it is the amazing human body. Our bodies are constantly working to repair damage that we cause from diet and other bad habits. Our bodies can be successful for a long time, but eventually it wears down. The good news is that for those who have already seen the damaging results of a lifetime of a bad diet, our body will be more than happy to repair many things when we switch to a Vegan lifestyle. Also a recent study reported that switching to a whole food plant based diet could add 13 years to your life in your 20’s, 10 years in your 60’s and even 4 more years in your 80’s.