Why Did I Choose Vegan?

Why did I choose vegan? I guess the question I’ve asked myself more often is “why didn’t I choose vegan?” For a long time I wanted to “go vegan” but didn’t. Of course there was the normal worry about protein deficiency and the fact that my friends all made fun of me already by calling me “hippie” and “healthy freak.” Well guess what?! Now I’m proud of those names. That means I’m fulfilling my goal and my passion and I’ve become the person I strive to be, which is healthy and being an example to those around me. There’s also the fact that I did not want to be associated with the cliche that everyone seems to think that vegans are. Freaks who are high and in love with animals. Well… let’s be honest. We do love animals! Lots of people (even non vegans) love animals. So why did I choose vegan?

I chose a plant based diet for my health. I noticed as I cut out meat that some of my health problems started to heal themselves. I think though, that my problem was that I pretended like I wasn’t doing it for the animals. Because I couldn’t bear the thought of a conversation going like this: “I invited Hanna over tonight.” “Wait, you mean the the tree hugger vegan chick? Will she freak out when she sees that we are having chicken for dinner?” Okay… So my brain might be a little bit ridiculous there. But, just because I decided to go vegan, does not mean that I am judging your food choices or going to run out of the room screaming that you’re a murderer. It just means that 1: meat does not sit well with my body or improve my well-being and 2: I strongly disagree with how horribly animals are treated for them to get to the point where we can eat them.

This part might really offend some of you or make some of you disagree with me. If you don’t want to get angry, please just skip this paragraph. I believe that God gave us animals to eat. It says so in the bible. I believe God loves all of his creatures and created them for a purpose. I believe that the way He shows His love is beautiful. It is not ugly, nor does it look like thousands and thousands of animals being tortured, pumped full of antibiotics, steroids and hormones and brutally killed so that we can eat them. They are HIS living creatures. There are humane ways to kill for food. On top of that, I believe that God’s original idea and gift of eating animals had nothing to do with factory farms and unnatural injections and animals literally living and dying in their own feces before we eat them. I really do. This is not to say that I have it all right and figured out and it’s my way or the highway. This is what my personal mindset and thoughts are.

For the times we are living in, it just makes sense to eat more earth. And yes, I am well aware of how some of our plant foods are grown and harvested. It’s not great. But do we have to eat from the farms that produce that? No. It makes sense that God created these plants to endlessly reproduce for us in a natural way. It’s not natural to take a 2 minute old calf away from it’s mother for the sole purpose of using the mother’s milk until she dies of infection. This doesn’t feel like the picture God originally created. In addition to this, our world, land, our earth is suffering from this by endless amounts of cheap crops being produced to feed all of the livestock that we are eating. When I learned that only 4% of oats are harvested and consumed by humans and the other 96% for the livestock I was honestly shocked. I guess I just hadn’t really thought about it before. And it made me sad for this world. And I even went through the phase of thinking that I’m only one person and no matter what I do or changes I make, it won’t make a difference. That’s not true. It does make a difference. I love inspiring others to make a change. And it works! Slowly. But it works. And I feel healthier, cleaner, better. And for my own peace of mind it helps. To know that I’m not “supporting” what I believe to be wrong.