Easy to Be Vegan

[Guest guest]

A post appeared recently called, " The Trials of Being Vegan " . It had

some great comments about the difficulties we all run into. It also

made me think of all the good things about being vegan, so I decided

to write them down and share with the group. Most of the items are

take-offs on the " trials " list.

Karen

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The advantages of being vegan

 

1. It's true that many people don't know what it is and can't

pronounce it. But I feel a great kinship with those who do, and

especially with those who live it.

 

2. Vegan restaurants are great, especially in the SF Bay Area.

Golden Lotus in Oakland is the best restaurant in the world, bar

none. And Millenium in San Francisco can put the best gourmet

restaurants to shame.

 

3. Vinyl shoes are cheaper than leather shoes.

 

4. Reading small print on ingredients lists is good exercise for

your eyes.

 

5. You get to meet lots of radical, tree-hugging peaceniks.

 

6. Since your family and in-laws think you're strange, they

don't come over as often.

 

7. Soy milk and rice milk are available in all the grocery

stores now, even in the cold case.

 

8. You have so many weight loss opportunities, dining at meat

eater's homes and restaurants.

 

9. Black China bakery makes great wedding cakes.

 

10. The carrot cake in Peaceful Palate and Joan's Grandmother's

Cake in the Compassionate Cook are better than any cake made with

eggs could possibly be.

 

11. Office parties are another weight loss opportunity.

 

12. Cotton is such a wonderful material, so much easier to care

for than silk or wool.

 

13. Cheeseless pizza doesn't have soggy crust.

 

14. Walking further to visit a store or restaurant that has food

you can eat is great exercise – another weight loss opportunity for

those who need it.

 

15. The people you see in places frequented by vegans are usually

friendly and upbeat. They don't talk about their constipation and

heart disease all the time.

 

16. If someone starts a conversation saying pork isn't cruel or

some other nonsense, you have every right to explain to them how it

is cruel.

 

17. When you are the only vegetarian in the group, you can be

proud of that. Many others admire you, even if they don't say it.

 

18. When others feel driven to point out that vegetables are

alive too, you have an opportunity to explain that vegetarians

destroy only a small percentage of plants as compared to meat eaters.

 

19. When some meat eater tells you, " But the cows would take over

the earth if we didn't eat them! " , you are now able to point out what

gentle creatures cows are, leading into how they, too, love their

young, and how cruel it is to take calves away from their mothers

after only one day, which is the common practice in the dairy

industry.

 

20. You can feel justified in spending so much time watching

football – you are working to get the NFL to switch to synthetic

footballs, and you'd lose your credibility if you weren't a certified

football fan.

 

21. You get to wear pleather.

 

22. After becoming vegan, you feel healthier; need less sleep,

and are able to tackle any challenge that comes your way

 

23. People always asking " Well, do you eat chicken/beef broth? "

provides the opportunity to educate them on what a vegetarian is and

what a vegan is.

 

24. Your best friend decides that your food choices are ALL ABOUT

HER, and announces that you've made it " too hard to eat with you " .

This gives you insight into the fact that this person is not really

your friend, and you can stop wasting time with her and start making

real friends.

 

25. People see you as wholesome without your having to actually

be that way.

 

26. Eating out with friends gives them a chance to think about

what is in the food THEY are eating.

 

27. Your grandmother's good intentions in trying to get you to

eat meat give you insight into other people's motivations, rather

than judging them by what you might first think they are trying to

do. You learn that everyone who tries to get you to eat meat isn't

necessarily evil; some people really want to help, they just don't

understand.

 

28. By treating people with respect and showing that you truly

care about them, you demonstrate that caring for animals doesn't mean

you don't care for humans.

 

29. Your carnivorous children will learn to respect your choice

one day when they think back about all the times you denied yourself

ice cream and cake because of the strengths of your beliefs. They

might even decide to be vegan themselves.

 

30. The comment, " Isn't it cruel not to milk the cows, though? "

provides you the opportunity to educate these people on why cows need

to be milked so frequently (hormones, BGH), and how milking must be

really painful when their udders are swollen and infected.

 

31. The Eggless Salad recipe in the Peaceful Palate tastes better

than any egg salad ever did.

 

32. Fast food is bad for you, so the fact that almost nothing

there is vegan helps you to remain in good health.

 

33. Knowing that many people will judge the healthfulness of a

vegan diet by you provides motivation for you to do the things you

know you need to do to be healthy, including exercising.

 

34. Being vegan gives you something in common with many famous

people who are or were vegetarians. If you memorize a few, you can

impress your friends. They'll learn that many very successful and

healthy people are vegan – Martina Navritilova to name just one.

 

35. Refusing to eat your employer's Chik-Fil-A catered lunch

shows your coworkers how committed you are to veganism.

 

36. More and more, there are actually restaurants that serve non-

dairy ice cream. And lots of the better stores have it, too. It

tastes great and doesn't even have 1 ppm of somatic material (pus and

blood) in it.

 

37. Many people in your churches mosques, and synagogues, really

believe that God told us to eat meat. But can they cite the chapter

and verse where it says to eat meat and not to be vegetarian? Didn't

God tell Adam and Eve to BE vegetarian?

 

38. There is so much great information on web sites such as

Dr.McDougall.com or PCRM to refute the idea that people who eat only

plant foods die!; also to make the case that meat-eating is a

contributing factor to most deaths in the USA.

 

39. Because vegans are healthier, we are hospitalized less

frequently than meat eaters. So we don't have to deal with

disgusting hospital food as often as they do.

 

40. If my mother said that vegans were extremists, I'd ask her if

she didn't think that continuing to eat meat after having heart

attacks or strokes wasn't even more extreme.

 

41. I'm proud to advertise my vegan lifestyle, regardless of what

others think.

 

42. It's great that some vegans carry a list of why they are

vegan to hand to people who ask questions about it. That's what I

call being prepared.

 

43. I sleep so well at night, knowing that what I ate that day

didn't cause any more animals to suffer and die.