30 Day Challenge: Going Vegan

About a month ago, I was home sick from work for a couple of days. Any time I didn't spend sleeping I spent laying on the couch watching Netflix. As I scrolled through some of the documentaries, I decided to watch one called Vegucated. I referenced this movie a bit in my last blog, but just to recap, the film follows three meat eating New Yorkers on a 6 week challenge to adopt a vegan lifestyle. The film is directed and narrated by Marisa Miller Wolfson, a former meat eater who decided to become vegan. What I really like about the documentary is I find it to be as entertaining as it is informative. Marisa does a good job of mixing humor in with factual information, and I feel she also does a very good job of addressing the many reasons why a vegan lifestyle is good for your body, animals, and the environment.

This film really opened my eyes to many things I never gave a second thought to before, and it's been on my mind a lot these past few weeks. I've spent a good amount of time looking up vegan recipes, researching what nutrients you have to get, and reading about the treatment of farm animals. I have been giving a lot of thought to the idea of going vegan for 30 days during the month of April, and so today I decided to watch the film again to reinforce why this is something I want to do. If you have Netflix, I really recommend you watch this film - it's only an hour and 15 minutes long, so it won't take up much of your time. There are a ton of books, movies, and information on the Internet that you can review on the topic. For now, I will recap some of what the film discussed.

The Animals

As many of you know, one of the primary reasons someone would choose to be a vegan is because of the way the animals are treated. A vegan is someone who does not consume animals or animal products - so no meat, fish, dairy, or even honey. Most vegans also abstain from certain types of beer and wine, since many are refined using a product called isinglass, which comes from fish.

I used to think that animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens just really didn't serve much of a purpose on this Earth besides to be eaten. I know there are many more films out there that show a lot more horrific scenery of how these animals are treated, and I likely couldn't watch such films because the 10 minute segment of Vegucated was enough.

I won't get too detailed here, as you can look up information on the treatment of farm animals if you would like. I will say that both times I watched this film, I cried through the explanations of how cows, pigs, and chickens are treated. All undergo at least one type of procedure without any anesthesia. Chickens are kept in cages where they can barely move and have their beaks cut down with a heated blade so they won't peck their cage-mates to death. Some scenes from a typical slaughterhouse were also shown, and I watched cows and pigs dragged off the floor by one leg kicking and screaming. If anyone saw this happening to dogs or cats, they would be outraged. Why do we feel it doesn't matter when it's cows, pigs, or chickens? Is it because they don't live in our house with us? Is it because they're not furry and cuddly like cats and dogs? The fear, sadness, and pain that you can see in the eyes of these animals hurt me.

Brian was one of the three people in the film taking on the 6 week challenge to adopt a vegan lifestyle and "get vegucated" on what it's all about. After watching the film about the treatment of animals, he said, "How can you walk away from that and not re-evaluate some things?" That is precisely how I feel right now. I don't know if I'll ever really be a vegan, but I do know that I want to make some lifestyle changes because after what I've learned, it feels wrong not to do so.

The Environment

When it comes to meat and dairy production, I never thought about the number of people on this planet and how much meat and dairy has to be produced to sustain such a large population. When you consider the amount of energy and resources used to feed the animals, transport them to the slaughterhouse, slaughter them, prepare them for meat sale, etc., the impact on the environment is huge. Livestock farming produces huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. One study estimated that the farming of animals caused more emissions (18%) than the world’s entire transport system (13.5%). Also consider how much water these animals require. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to raise just one pound of beef. Newsweek once put it into perspective this way: the amount of water to raise a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer. A typical meat eater's diet requires up to 2.5 times the amount of land compared to a vegetarian diet and 5 times that of a vegan diet (source). Precious resources are being used to produce meat and dairy products. These should be treated as more of a luxury then a necessity, because the fact is you don't need to eat meat to survive. I'll explain that further in another blog.

Your Health

Vegetarians and vegans have a lower risk for heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cancer than those who regularly consume meat and dairy. The China Study, first published in 2005, examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and a variety of chronic illnesses including coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The China Study has been described as "the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted."

The study examined mortality rates from 48 forms of cancer and other chronic diseases from 1973 to 75 in 65 counties in China, and correlated them with 1983–84 dietary surveys and blood work from 6,500 people, 100 from each county. It concluded that counties with a high consumption of animal-based foods in 1983–84 were more likely to have had higher death rates from "Western" diseases as of 1973–75, while the opposite was true for counties that ate more plant foods in 1983–84. The study was conducted in those counties because they had genetically similar populations that tended, over generations, to live in the same way in the same place, and eat diets specific to those regions. 

The authors conclude that people who eat a plant-based/vegan diet — avoiding animal products such as beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates — will escape, reduce, or reverse the development of chronic diseases.

The Challenge

With all this information I've learned recently, I've decided to create a 30 Day Challenge for the month of April: I will adopt a vegan lifestyle for 30 days. Why April? It just seems like an ideal time to take on a challenge such as this one. There are no holidays in April to tempt me. There are a couple of friends and family member's birthdays, however, I can make other arrangements for those when it comes to food. It may also help me drop those last few pounds before summer arrives. 

In my opinion, this challenge will be as difficult or as easy as I make it out to be. Right now, I feel like I have a positive outlook on it. I am going about this as an experiment. Will I feel better physically? Will I try new recipes? Will I lose weight? Will I make better choices when it comes to healthy eating? Will I strengthen my willpower? These are all things I look forward to discovering. 

Those are the questions I am seeking answers to, but now I would like to know some of your questions. Of course you can turn to Google, but I would really like to know some of the questions and/or concerns people have about a vegan lifestyle so that I can address them in my blog. 

Looking forward to your feedback!