Since my vegan anniversary is approaching, I got thinking about all of the amazing health benefits I have seen in my life now. Some of the physical benefits I have seen in my life are, increased energy, clear skin, a return to my natural body weight and lack of illness (no more stuffy nose or  sore throat etc). My decision to give up meat was an ethical one and something I decided to do as part of my spirituality and my beliefs. It just didn’t make sense to me to believe in love and  yet be taking part of killing and suffering every single day.

Becoming vegan soon  followed, as I did my research and discovered that much of the suffering and killing that takes place is not only for meat, but for eggs and dairy as well. This shocked me, as I didn’t even think that having milk, cheese and eggs could actually be so bad. I don’t want to get all preachy on my blog, but I do suggest that you take the time to do your own research, especially if you claim to be an animal lover, (cat, dog or otherwise) and don’t wish to be a slave to the whole industry that is only interested in your money and not your health.

What I don’t understand is why they key to health is kept so secret? There are thousands of books out on diets and they all say to be healthy is to cut back on meat and dairy and eat a diet that is low in cholesterol. What I don’t get is why people haven’t put it together by now that by eliminating all these harmful animal-laden foods, you eliminate all cholesterol and artery-clogging fats. Do people not know that we are the only species that drinks milk beyond infancy and we are also the only species to drink the milk of another species? Something is definitely up.

How can we be kept so in the dark about where our food comes from and be so easily convinced by advertising that we literally need cow’s milk or we will get sick or develop osteoporosis? Same goes for meat and protein, but have you ever heard of anyone with a protein deficiency in North America? In the world? We are kept so afraid to question anything because the National Dairy Council among other major corporations continue to push out billions of dollars in ad campaigns so that they can continue to make billions more.

What about ethics? What about beyond the calories, protein, fat, etc? What about the fact that we are taking apart of suffering, torture and cruelty, that we can not even imagine? We can’t even get in the factory to see the cruelty because the factory farm owners know that their sales would drop if we all really did know the truth. They know that if slaughterhouses had glass windows we would all be vegetarians. What keeps us so afraid and why is it that many people do not want to know the truth anyway?

I have made the decision to go vegan and raise my children vegan because I can not take the life of another living being, simply for the sake of my appetite. There is nothing that I can get from eating animals, that I can’t get from a plant-based diet, so I chose veganism as my way of life.

I never was comfortable with eating meat, but I belive that from childhood, we are deceived into eating animals in the first place. If you tell your kids what they are eating, naturally, they wouldn’t want to. I wonder why we should keep it such a secret from them and just tell then to “eat their meat” or “drink their milk” Why shouldn’t they know where their food comes from and be able to make that choice? Why shouldn’t we all?

I guess I am a very extreme person, so for me going vegan was simple. I have never looked back, even when in the beginning I knew nothing about what to eat and lived off cereal and peanut butter toast. This has always been something that I am very passionate about.

The end of October, marks one year of being vegan for myself and our family and it feels good. I feel good about the fact that I am not taking part of animal suffering, but sometimes I wonder if that is enough. I know that there is so much going on behind our food yet that I want to discover, which is why I am on a mission.

I know what I have experienced from switching to a vegan diet has drastically changed me, in a holistic way. I not only feel different physically, but mentally and most important to me, spiritually, but I wonder how much greater I could still feel and what other ways my vegan diet is still impacting the environment in negative ways?

There is so much environmental impact from a whole array of other foods too, like the soy replacements for everything. Not to mention the fact that there are so many genetically modified foods out there now too, most of them, we will never even know about. As man has discovered how to alter nature, to create more profit for himself, who knows what effects this form of greed will have on our health? Who are we to be messing with nature?

For me being vegan is not just about substituting animal foods with synthetic replacements. I want to know how to eat to leave as light a footprint as possible and to nourish my body, mind and spirit as best I can. I want to feel the energy that food should give and eat how I was meant to.

It makes me sad to think of how out of our element we all are. We are all just living in this material world, where nature is sparse, the air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted and most of the food we eat will never give our bodies what we truly need. How did life get like this?

I really, truly do believe that we are what we eat and that food really does matter. I am on a mission to find out how to be natural and healthy and have the greatest connection to spirit. How can we be in touch with who we really are when we just eat all these processed, unnatural, animal-laden, pesticide-ridden foods, constantly having our senses pulled externally and never giving any real thought to why we are here, or what we are doing?

I want to be mindful and I want to know what is being kept secret from me. I believe that we all have the right to be healthy and live our lives the way we were intended to. Not consuming foods that have been genetically modified, injected with growth hormones or sprayed with 40 different types of pesticides. We have the right to know what we are being made up of.

I think that it is up to us to do our own research and experiment with different ways of eating to see what works. Everybody is different and not one diet or way of eating fits all, but we do all deserve the best nutrition and to know the truth about what we are feeding our children.

Anyways, that is my mini-rant. It feels good to get this stuff out. I just can’t believe how deceived I was and I want to know what is best for the health of my family and to share what I have discovered with others.

I’m on a mission!