25.10.2013

Vegan Lifestyle – Why and How?

What does it mean to be vegan?

Here is a short summary to give you a little impression of vegan lifestyle.

Vegans are not vegetarians. Vegan generally means that you decline any food by animals like eggs, milk, meat etc., whereas a vegetarian only abstains from meat and fish (some even eat fish). People often ask vegans why they live like this. I, being vegan myself, find this question really simple: I am vegan because of the animals. In my opinion we are literally robbing animals of their lives, which is not fair. Humans nowadays seem to think that they can just cage and then use them, acting like they rule the word and can do whatever they want to them. The other reason that I am vegan is because of the environment: The industry of production animals emits lots of greenhouse gases, which is very bad for our environment, something that you, most likely, already know.

Quelle: www.peta.de

What do vegans eat?

The most popular alternative to meat is soy. There are a whole lot of things made of soy, for example milk, steak, sausages, yogurt, ice cream and so much more. However, this is not the only alternative and it's not very healthy anyway. It can cause a lack of iron and problems with your digestion. I, for example, prefer to drink rice milk instead of soy milk. The other alternative I want to mention, is „quorn“, which is a mixture of mushrooms and egg white, which leads to the fact that this is rather an alternative for vegetarians than for vegans, just because of the egg white.

Quelle: wikimedia.org

As a vegan, it's important to vary a lot with your food. It's a common prejudice to say that a vegan lifestyle is boring or unhealthy. Of course you have to pay attention to your health a lot more than omnivores. We have to take a lot of pills to keep our body healthy, for example iron pills or pills containing vitamin D. Many people probably think it's stupid to live like this, but most of the vegans don’t mind making these sacrifices because they can't bear watching animals suffer and eat what they have produced.

Vegan food is on the advance. There is a large selection that you can choose from, even if you are in a regular supermarket, but the greatest selection, of course, can be found in health food shops. Additionally, book stores sell a lot of vegan cookbooks. There are cookbooks for baking, cooking, barbecueing and so on. It's really not easy to do without all those non-vegan things, like sweets, milk, cheese and yogurt, but the vegan options are getting better by and by and everyone can try to be vegan for one day. And if you like it, just choose one day of the week, where you'll just eat vegan, or at least do not eat meat, because your body will thank you for this. It's been proved that vegetarians are fitter and slimmer than people who eat meat, so it's not only good for the animals, but also good for you.

Finally, I want to tell you that it's not necessary to do completely without meat. People should just reduce their meat consumption and try alternatives from time to time.