Why become a Vegan? How do you get the right nutrition?

Question

What kinds of things do you eat?
Do you think becoming a vegan helps you lose weight?
Enlighten me please.

If you were a person that ate meat and then became a vegan, don't you ever just crave a nice juicy steak or a succulent piece of chicken?
How do you get over the want of normal food?

Answer 1

A 1994 Roper Poll estimated the number of vegans in the U.S. at 500,000 and growing. This booklet explains the reasons why more and more people are choosing to follow a vegan lifestyle which embraces compassion for all living beings. Because animals feel pain and desire to live, vegans strive to live without contributing to their suffering. This goal affects vegans' choices of food, household products, and entertainment.

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

- Gandhi, The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism

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Animals experience many of the same emotions as do humans. When confronted with a bellowing cow, meat industry consultant and Professor of Animal Sciences, Dr. Temple Grandin noted, "That's one sad, unhappy, upset cow. She wants her baby. Bellowing for it, hunting for it. It's like grieving, mourning - not much written about it. People don't like to allow them thoughts or feelings." (An Anthropologist on Mars , 1995)

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Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution.

Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.

- Thomas Edison, Harpers Magazine

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According to veterinarian Dr. Michael Fox, "As for the chemistry of the central nervous and endocrine systems, we know that there is no difference in kind between humans and other animals. The biochemistry of physiological and emotional states (of stress and anxiety, for example) differ little between mice and men." (Returning to Eden, 1989)

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It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.

-Albert Einstein, letter to Vegetarian Watch-Tower

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While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts,

how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?

- George Bernard Shaw

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The Transformation of Animals into Food

Obviously, animals are killed to produce meat. To produce eggs and dairy products, the male animals are killed shortly after birth, and the female animals are slaughtered after their production rate drops (after only ~25% of their normal life span). This killing alone is reason enough for vegans not to support these industries.

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If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.

- Voltaire

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Institutionalized Cruelty

There are a multitude of abusive practices which occur in today's livestock industry. These practices are not in the public eye, but neither are they kept secret. Anyone who doubts they occur on a large scale needs only to glance through farm industry journals to see that abusive practices are promoted by the industry and even defended as being necessary for the production of low-cost meat.

The vast majority of animals do not live like those one might see while driving along a country road. Rather, billions of animals are raised each year on farms owned or controlled by large corporations. Corporations promote intensive rearing systems where animals are treated more like objects in a factory than living beings; which is why they are often called factory farms. The animals are kept in cages or pens with little room to move, often in windowless buildings. They must breathe the ammonia and stench created from the waste of thousands of other animals living in the same building, burning their sinuses and causing respiratory disease. They are often handled and slaughtered brutally.

In order to keep the animals alive, antibiotics are mixed with their feed; over 50% of all antibiotics used in this country are fed to livestock (a practice which leads to drug-resistant bacteria). Despite this, a significant proportion of the animals die of illness.

Hormones are administered and lighting and feeding schedules are manipulated to make the animals grow larger. This oversizing causes pain in their joints, which is aggravated by the fact that the animals spend their entire lives on concrete, slatted metal, or wire mesh floors.


Industry Attitudes

In a letter to the journal Farmer and Stockbreeder, a veterinarian wrote, "I hope many of my colleagues will join me in saying that we are already tolerating systems of husbandry which, to say the least of it, are downright cruel. Cost effectiveness and conversion ratios are all very well in a robot state; but if this is the future, then the sooner I give up both farming and farm veterinary work as well the better."

Farm animal handlers often react to the animals with impatience, callousness, and even blatant, overt cruelty. In the trade magazine Meat and Poultry, livestock consultant Dr. Temple Grandin reported numerous cases of "deliberate cruelty," including workers who "enjoy killing and ... torment animals on purpose," taking "sadistic pleasure from shooting the eyes out of cattle," striking them in the head, and electrically shocking animals in sensitive areas of their bodies.


If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls...

Animals in slaughterhouses can hear those ahead of them being shackled and killed, can smell the stench, and can sometimes see the slaughter. All animals fight for their lives and struggle with their remaining strength to get away.

Dr. Grandin says, "[It is] easier to maintain a good attitude in [slaughterhouse] plants with a slower line speed. The constant pressure to keep up with the line leads to abuse." Despite this, the average U.S. slaughterhouse line accelerated 22% during the 1980s.

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The vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have

at heart the realization of God's kingdom upon Earth.

- Leo Tolstoy (author of War and Peac e), News Review

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No Charlotte's Web

Over 80% of pigs in the U.S. are intensively confined. These overcrowded conditions can cause fighting and tail biting. The industry's response is to cut off the piglets' tails without using anesthesia.

Breeding sows are constrained for much of their 16-week pregnancies in a gestation crate barely larger than their bodies. Once their piglets are born, the sows are kept in a farrowing stall until weaning. This stall often does not allow the mother to stand or turn around.

When pigs arrive at the slaughterhouse, they sense what lies ahead and must be forced off the truck with blows and electric shocks. Some pigs regain consciousness after being stunned.

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Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory.

- Hog Farm Management

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Bessie Doesn't Live Here

Over half of dairy cows in the U.S. are intensively confined. They are repeatedly impregnated to continue their milk production, and their calves are taken from them within hours after birth to prevent the calf from drinking milk.

In 1960, an average cow produced 2.5 tons of milk per year; in 1990 she produced 7 tons. In 1993, the U.S. government approved Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH/BST), which causes cows to produce even more milk. This increases the incidence of infection/inflammation of the udder and the subsequent use of more antibiotics.

Although they can live 25 years under normal conditions, modern dairy cows are slaughtered when their output goes down after about five years of constant production.

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But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time they had been born to enjoy.

- Plutarch, Moralia

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"Live like Kings"

The demand for milk products creates the veal market because the male calves of dairy cows cannot produce milk and are not of the right stock to be raised for beef. To keep their flesh tender, most veal calves live their 14 to 22 week life confined within tiny stalls without bedding or room to move or turn around. They live in a windowless shed where the lights are turned on only when the calves are given their anemia-producing, quick-grow formula. The veal industry's Farm Animal Welfare Council nonetheless claims that veal calves "live like kings."


Chicken Out

Over 95% of poultry hens in the U.S. are intensively confined. Anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of birds live in one building with little room to walk around.

The stress from cramped conditions leads the birds to attack one another. To combat this, the farmers cut off a portion of their beaks, and sometimes portions of their toes, without anesthesia. In debeaking, delicate tissues are severed by a hot knife, which veterinarians claim causes severe pain. The shock of debeaking can kill.

Factory farmed animals can be subjected to weather extremes. For example, 300,000 chickens died from heat stress on June 9, 1993, in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

Typically, four or five egg-laying hens live in a cage with a wire floor area about the size of a folded newspaper. Often, these cages are stacked one on top of another, allowing excrement to drop onto birds below. The hens are at the mercy of automated feeding and watering systems, which sometimes malfunction.

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[W]e have discovered chickens literally grown fast to the cage

... the flesh of the toes grew completely around the wire.

- Poultry Tribune

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Egg-laying hatcheries don't have any use for male chicks. These birds are discarded and die from suffocation, gassing, drowning, or being ground up alive.

Many birds are killed while fully conscious; others are shocked with electricity at 12.5 mA, which paralyzes them and allows for easier feather release. However, it would take 120 mA to render them unconscious. The birds are hung upside down from a conveyor belt and their throats are cut (by a human or a machine). Occasionally, a bird will break free and be left to die thrashing in pools of blood on the floor. Birds who do not bleed to death before they reach the scalding tank are boiled alive.

The National Turkey Federation opposes humane poultry slaughter legislation because "it would subject turkey processors to a potentially expensive new set of regulations." The Animal Welfare Committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association says that laying hens' "low economic value makes it difficult to justify costly new slaughter techniques."


No Home on the Range


Cattle spend half their lives in crowded feedlots. Many are branded with hot irons and castrated and dehorned without anesthesia. The two most common methods of slaughter are:

Stunning - Trying to shoot a terrified, struggling animal with a captive bolt pistol is difficult, and the bolt often misses the mark, injuring the animal without rendering them unconscious. They are often shackled by one leg, hoisted upside down (which can break bones and dislocate joints), and then their throats are cut. Some stunned cattle regain consciousness before bleeding to death.

Kosher - This method requires the animals to be fully conscious when their throats are cut and while they bleed to death. Meat does not have to be labeled "Kosher" to have come from an animal killed in this manner, as various parts of the animal's body cannot be sold as Kosher.


The Incredible Journey

During transport, animals are usually not fed or given water, sometimes for days. They are packed tightly together to minimize costs, living in each other's excrement, and are exposed to extreme weather conditions in the open trucks and rail cars. Pigs have arrived at the slaughterhouse frozen to the side of the truck. Shipping fever, which can be fatal, is common in cattle transported long distances to the feedlot, then to the stockyards, and then to the slaughterhouse.

The trauma caused by factory farms and transport can result in downers - animals too sick or weak to walk, even when beaten or shocked with electric prods. They are often dragged by chains to the "dead pile," where they are abandoned to die.

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I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race

in its gradual development to leave off the eating of animals.

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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The Future of Injustice

Today's factory-farmed animals are already pushed well beyond normal limits through feed additives, growth hormones, and environmental manipulation. Yet researchers at the USDA are predicting the development of biotech broiler chickens that grow twice as fast as present birds, layer hens that pump out twice as many eggs per year, and cows that produce twice as much milk.

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People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.

- Issac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Laureate


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What about Fish?

Overwhelming neurological and physiological evidence indicates that fish feel pain when they are hooked and suffocate. In addition, the driftnets used by commercial fisheries can be up to 35 miles long, catching everything in their path. Dolphins, whales, birds, and sea turtles drown when they swim in the paths of these nets. Many fisheries have been stripped clean and closed due to overfishing.

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Environmental Impacts

Many people are concerned about the environment but do not realize the destructiveness of an animal-based diet. In order for people to eat meat, eggs, or dairy products, livestock must be fed and housed and the products refrigerated, which requires a tremendous amount of resources.

A report issued by the U.S. Depart-ments of Commerce and Interior says that 1/3 of all raw materials consumed in the U.S. are involved in the production of our animal-based foods, as is over half of the water. A vegan can be fed using 90% less water than a meat-eater. Wastes from animal agriculture create three times more organic water pollution than all other industrial sources combined. The intensive farming techniques required to produce an animal-based diet have led to the loss of much of the original topsoil in the U.S.


Where Did All the Food Go?

Approximately 90% of oats, 85% of corn, and 80% of soybeans grown in the U.S. are fed to livestock. According to the Presi-dent's Science Advisory Committee, 15 vegetarians can be fed on the amount of land needed to produce a meat-centered diet for one person. The food that could be saved if humans consumed plant foods directly would be enough to feed the starving people of the world many times over.

Many developing countries have expanded their animal production for export while their people go hungry. For example, in Guatemala, over half the children under five are starving, yet their country exports tens of millions of pounds of meat each year to the U.S.


Wildlife

Besides the animals raised and killed for food, other animals die in the process of raising livestock. Wolves are shot and trapped to prevent them from killing livestock, deer are shot to prevent them from eating crops grown for animal feed, and buffalo are shot because they threaten to spread disease to cattle.

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Health and the Vegan Diet


Many people follow a vegan diet (no animal products) for health reasons only.

In the words of nutritional expert Michael Klaper, M.D., "Your body has absolutely no nutritional requirement for the flesh or milk of other animals." All requirements can be obtained through non-animal sources.

The idea that animal products are wholesome and necessary has been promoted by the meat and dairy industries, instigators of The Four Food Groups (recently replaced by the Food Pyramid). Most of the nutritional information in schools comes from groups, such as McDonalds and the USDA, who promote animal products. As a result, most people grow up believing it is healthier for humans to eat animal products.

The sight of a live or recently-slaughtered animal does not get our digestive juices flowing. Rather, seeing an animal slaughtered is repulsive, even nauseating to most people. But who is repulsed by seeing an apple picked from a tree or a carrot taken from the ground?

As for milk being "natural" (as the dairy ads claim), humans have become the only species which has members who drink milk past infancy or of another species.

Prevalent diseases in western societies are diseases of excess, rather than of deficiency. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians have a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes milletus, obesity, kidney stones, gallstones, and hypertension. Research suggests that vegetarians are also at a decreased risk for breast cancer.


A Diet with Heart

Heart disease is strongly correlated with elevated levels of cholesterol, which is found only in animal products. Dean Ornish, M.D., has shown that a low-fat vegetarian diet can actually reverse heart disease, as discussed in his book Program for Reversing Heart Disease (1990).


Into the Bowels

Colon cancer is the number two cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Natural carnivores have short digestive tracts, conducive to expelling the toxins contained in animal flesh, while humans have long digestive tracts for absorbing the essential amino acids. Meat-eating and a lack of dietary fiber are linked to colon cancer. Only plant foods contain fiber.


Standing Tall

Osteoporosis (loss of bone calcium) has been linked to excessive protein intake. A study by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. of Cornell University has shown that people in the U.S. have twice the incidence of osteoporosis than people in China, despite consuming twice the calcium. The Chinese obtain most of their calcium from plants and eat only 6% of the animal protein of the average American.


Contamination

Residues of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, herbicides, and other toxins from the environment accumulate in animal fat. Bacterial contamination of animal products often causes illness and death. According to Time, "The conservative estimate is that bad chicken kills at least 1,000 people each year and costs several billion dollars annually in medical costs and lost productivity" (Oct. 17, 1994).

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And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat.

- Genesis 1:29

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What Do Vegans Eat?

Vegans eat a variety of grains, pastas, breads, potatoes, beans, rice, nut butters, seeds, fresh and dried fruit, vegetables, seitan, tofu, and tempeh. Check at natural food stores for a wide range of vegetarian cookbooks, as well as vegan products that replace meat, milk, cheese, and ice cream.

Vegan entrees can be obtained at most Mexican, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Indian restaurants. Many fast-food restaurants now serve vegan entrees (e.g., Taco Bell, Subway). Pizza without cheese is also popular. With a little experience, a vegan cook can create meals indistinguishable in look and taste from the traditional animal-based meals, as well as discover a wealth of new meals.

Quick vegan foods include peanut butter & jelly, burritos, spaghetti, baked potatoes, and chips & beans.


Vegan Nutrition


Protein Because they believe protein to be the superior nutrient, people in the U.S. consume over 2.5 times the amount of protein necessary. There are 22 amino acids, the building blocks of protein, and the human body can make all but eight of these. Vegans do not have to combine foods to get complete protein. Dr. Michael Klaper says, "The concept of vegetable protein being 'incomplete' is a myth. All grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts, and seeds have all the essential amino acids."

According to the U.S. RDA, people should get 8-10% of their daily calories from protein; the World Health Organization's estimate is lower. Most plant foods greatly exceed this amount: potatoes have 11% of calories from protein, wheat 15%, tomatoes 20%, beans 20-30%, and broccoli 45%. If someone in this society consumes adequate calories, it is virtually impossible not to get enough protein.


Other nutrients can also be easily obtained from a vegan diet, including:

Calcium - seeds, green vegetables, and oats

Iron - dried fruit (esp. figs & raisins), spinach, cucumber, and legumes

Vitamin D - produced by sunshine on bare skin

Vitamin B-12 - found on the surface of raw, organic vegetables, and produced by bacteria living in the mouth, throat, and intestines

A balanced vegan diet can be met by eating from the following food groups on a daily basis. (Recommendations by Michael Klaper, M.D.)


Serving Food Group Examples

4 oz (2-4) whole grain/starch brown rice, corn, oats, wheat, potatoes

4 oz (1-2) legumes beans, green peas, soy products, peanuts

4 oz (1-2) green vegetable broccoli, spinach, romaine

4 oz (1-2) yellow vegetable carrots, squash, sweet potatoes

1 oz (1-3) nuts & seeds sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, tahini

(3-6) fruit oranges, apples, melons, bananas, juice

3/week minerals carrots, beets, radishes, mushrooms, sea vegetables

3/week Vitamin B-12 nutritional yeast, fortified foods, or supplements*

*Vegans rarely show clinical symptoms of Vitamin B-12 deficiency.


Special needs can be met with fortified foods and supplements.


Product Testing


Over 500 companies do not test their personal care or household products on animals. Instead, these products are verified to be safe via computer models, in vitro (test-tube) testing, cloned human skin, or by using ingredients already listed on the FDA's Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) register.

Other companies continue to use inhumane and ineffective animal tests, such as the Draize eye irritancy test (substances dripped into rabbit's eyes for three to 21 days, typically causing bleeding ulcerations), the Lethal Dose test (substances force-fed to a group of animals until a certain percentage die), and the dermal abrasion test (substances applied to the animal's shaved skin). Every year, approximately five million animals are killed testing household cleaners and personal care products. Rats, rabbits, primates, dogs, cats, pigs, mice, and guinea pigs are common victims.

Given that so many companies provide safe and effective products without torturing and killing, tests on animals cannot be considered necessary. Here is what some doctors say:


Current safety testing procedures are not only out-of-date and extremely cruel, but they are also inadequate to protect consumers from unsafe products.

- Leslie Iffy, M.D.


As an emergency physician who has treated countless cases of accidental poisonings and exposures to dangerous products, I disagree with the contention that animal tests are necessary to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products. Animal tests do not protect consumers from unsafe products. In my 15 years as an emergency physician, I have never found the results of an animal test to be of any benefit in guiding the treatment of patients who have been poisoned.

- Daniel Hart, M.D. F.A.C.E.P.


Dr. Irwin D. Bross, former Director of Biostatistics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, says, "Among experienced public health officials, it is well-known that you can 'prove' anything with animal studies. This is because there are so many different animal model systems and each system gives different results. By selecting whatever results happen to support a particular position (and ignoring results to the contrary), one can come out with the desired 'conclusion.' In other words, if a company wants to prove their product "safe", for protection against possible lawsuits, they can do so through animal tests. As Dr. James Gallagher, former Director of Medical Research for Lederle Laboratories, wrote in the Journal of American Medical Association, "Animal studies are done for legal reasons and not for scientific reasons."

Many companies that once used animals have stopped. You can find biodegradable personal care and household products that are not tested on animals and that do not contain animal products at health and natural food stores.

Boycotting the companies that test on animals, and calling them to let them know of your decision, is the most effective way to protest this cruelty. Some of the companies that still test household products on animals are:

* Procter & Gamble (800-543-7270)

* Lever Brothers (800-451-6679)

* Colgate-Palmolive (800-221-4607)

* Johnson & Johnson (800-526-3967)

* Gillette (800-872-7202).

With the suffering out of sight, it may be easier simply to purchase what you have always used or the brand on sale. But buying products from companies that test on animals gives them financial support to continue killing more animals.


Some Companies that Don't Test on Animals

* Dial

* Bon-Ami

* Revlon

* Avon

* Benetton

* Esteé Lauder

* Amway

* Paul Mitchell

* Freeman Botanicals

* Tom's of Maine

* Sparkle (glass cleaner)

* St. Ives

* Nexxus

* The Body Shop

* General Nutrition Centers (GNC)

* Murphy's

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Animals in Society

Pet Industry There are already so many animals without homes that it is heartbreaking to breed more while millions are being killed, often painfully, in shelters throughout the country. Pets stores often buy from breeders and wild animal traffickers who partake in abusive and cruel practices in order to bring animals to the consumer.

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People who let their dogs and cats have litters in order to show their children the "miracle of birth" should come witness the "miracle of death" performed in the back rooms of animal shelters all over the country.

-Phyllis Wright, Humane Society of the U.S.


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If you want a companion, please share your home with animals from the local humane society. To reduce overpopulation, have your animal sterilized or spayed/neutered.

Zoos Confined animals suffer psychologically. Pacing and swaying are behaviors indicative of extreme mental stress. The rationalization of education and preservation do not justify forcing an individual animal to live in captivity. The main lesson taught is that animals are important only in their value to their captors.

Circuses Animals used in circuses suffer from confinement, boredom, and long periods of travel. Even trainers known for their kindness have been caught beating their animals.

Racing In 1992, 840 racehorses had fatal breakdowns, while 3,566 were badly injured on American racetracks.

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Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity.

- George Bernard Shaw, preface to Killing for Sport

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Slow racedogs are often killed, sometimes brutally. Kittens and rabbits are sometimes used as live bait during training and are thrown to the dogs to give them a taste for blood.

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Resources/References

Magazines

Vegetarian Times , monthly journal of recipes, issues, people, & news, 708/445-3407

How On Earth! national quarterly vegetarian magazine for and by students; covers animal, environmental, and social justice issues, 717/529-8638

Animals' Agenda , animal rights bi-monthly magazine, 410/675-4566

Animal People , animal issues monthly newspaper, 518/854-9436

Veggie Life , recipes & news, 510/671-9852

Vegetarian Journal (Vegetarian Resource Group), recipes & news, 410/366-8343

Veggie Social News , helping vegetarians meet, bi-monthly, 800/WIN-VEGI


Books from Vegan Outreach

Vegan Nutrition: Pure & Simple , Michael Klaper, M.D.

The Most Noble Diet: Food Choices and Ethics (and Recipes) , Eisman, Ball, & Green

$10 each / $18 for both (includes shipping)

Other Books

Diet For A New America , John Robbins, '87

Animal Factories , Jim Mason & Peter Singer, '90

Animal Liberation , Peter Singer, '92

The Uncheese Cookbook , Joanne Stepaniak, '94


Organizations


* Activism in your area:

FARM 301/530-1737

PETA 301/770-peta

* Nutrition and Medical Research:

Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) 202/686-2210

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The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans

any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

-Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple


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Speciesism

Characteristics such as intelligence, awareness, and altruism exist on a continuum, with some animals having more of these characteristics than some humans. There is no morally relevant characteristic that separates all human beings from all non-humans. Indeed, the continual search for a unique trait led psychologist Paul Chance to conclude that the only thing different about humans is that we are "the only creature on Earth that tries to prove that it is different from, and preferably superior to, other species."

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The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? But rather, Can they suffer?

Jeremy Bentham, 19th C Philosopher, Oxford University

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Like prejudices based on skin color or gender, animals are exploited because of speciesism - a prejudice against others because they belong to another species. Like humans enslaved, exploited, and exterminated throughout history, animals are victims of the philosophy "might makes right" in which the less powerful are used and killed.

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The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity.

Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.

- Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality

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Vegans are sometimes accused of being naive to the fact that "life is cruel" and that "animals kill each other." Regardless of whether life can be cruel for some, or whether others kill, each of us has the capacity for compassion and can choose not to contribute to the suffering of others.

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever does.

-Margaret Mead

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Vegan Outreach's philosophy is that each sentient animal has a right to his or her body and life. To that end, Vegan Outreach promotes the lifestyle of veganism - living so as to contribute to as little exploitation and death as possible. Vegan Outreach focuses on raising awareness with this booklet on veganism.

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Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out their conscience,

thus helping bring the collective conscience to life.

- Norman Cousins

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Contact Vegan Outreach if you would like to help us spread veganism. Donations are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

Vegan Outreach

10410 Forbes Rd

Pittsburgh, PA 15235

[e-mail]

http://www.envirolink.org/arrs/vo/ind ex.html

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To one whose mind is free, there is something even more intolerable in the suffering of animals than in the sufferings of men. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime. That alone is the justification of all that men may suffer. It cries vengeance upon all the human race. If God exists and tolerates it, it cries vengeance upon God.

- Romain Rolland (Nobel Laureate), Jean Christophe

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We are the lucky ones - we are not standing day after day in a tiny space,

breathing the stench of our own waste, waiting only to be slaughtered.

We must do everything possible for those suffering lives of pain and terror.

- Matt Ball, Vegan Outreach Co-founder

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We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.


THESE ARE POINT OF VIEWS OF OTHERS

Answer 2

There are so many reasons to become vegan and very few have to do with losing weight, though you will most likely lose weight on a vegan diet. The biggest reason to become vegan is because you are a compassionate caring person, who is concerned about the treatment and well-being of all creatures and not just humans. But if that is not enough of a reason, do it for your health. Meat is pretty disgusting. Most animals are raised on factory farms, where they are not given hardly any room to move around. They are kept in such conditions that they become sickly and are therefore pumped full of antibiotics, not to mention all of the hormones that are fed to these animals to make them bigger, quicker. The animals are then stunned and hopefully killed, though not all of them die from the stun gun. Butchers begin sawing away at the animals, sometimes before they are dead, which allows their bodies to flood with cortisone (stress hormone), which is passed to you in your meat. Once the inside cavaties have been removed, often times with intestines being ripped allowing crap to get inside the cavities, the animals are then placed in large baths of water. One animal after the others and of course the water that is used to clean them is full of feces. Kind of like washing the animals in a sewer. Then the are processed into different cuts of meat, hamburger, etc. Mmmm, sounds good. Milk isn't much better, full of puss and hormones, good stuff.

Answer 3

Why? It helps the world, your body and, mostly, the animals. Being a vegan is easy to get nutrition: You should get every vitamin and mineral except vitamin B12, which can be got from tofu. Yay! Being a vegan is completely healthy. If you like tofu, being a vegan is a cinch. If you don't, it still is a cinch. Yes, it does make you lose weight.

Answer 4

i felt much healthier after going vegetarian. my immune system was strengthened, and i felt a little thinner and lighter. i have never missed meat. going vegetarian was easy.

so i decided to challenge myself by going vegan. veganism removes me from the animal industry altogether, and the animal industry is a very violent, chemical-filled, corrupt and morally disturbing industry, whether it's for meat, milk, fur, leather, gelatin, eggs, whey, etc...

going vegan has been much more difficult, and it has been harder to stay healthy. it's hard for vegans to get enough calcium and vitamin b12. i have to take vitamins and buy supplemented foods. my food choices are much more limited, and i still haven't been able to cut out chocolate completely. =P

many vegans do lose weight, since so many calories come from meat and dairy in our society. (ice cream, for example) i have not lost weight by being vegan, possibly because i use lots of avocados and olive oil, which have lots of fat (but the healthy kind of fat, unlike butter and cream). i am already at a healthy weight for my age, so losing weight is not my goal and would probably not be wise.

i eat things like pasta, veggies on rice, bean-based mexican foods, cereal with rice milk, peanut-butter sandwiches and sandwiches with meat substitutes, fruits, and nuts. there are some great vegan restaurants nearby, one chinese, one with sandwiches and coffee, and one that serves almost anything you can imagine: tacos, lasagna, pizza, etc. so when i need variety from my simple vegan recipes, i go out with friends and we have vegan food i wouldn't know how to make at home.

Answer 5

Well, I was a vegetarian for a few years before I went vegan. Then after 1 year on and off of veganism, and 3 full months of 100% veganism, I chose to transition into raw foodism. A raw food diet consists of uncooked and unprocessed, and often organic foods, although I don't buy organic for several reasons (different story). I'm 100% raw foodist, and it's fantastic. I always feel light in my stomach, never bloated, have a regular stool, pee a lot (good for releasing toxins) and I don't even drink extra water unless I'm working out since the raw food I eat has tons already. Many advocates say that a decrease of raw foods in our diet may cause an increase in the incidences of many forms of malaise and chronic disease, including asthma, allergies, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, learning disabilities, depression, candida, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and many other conditions. So not only is raw food extremely healthy for your health, it's also great for weight loss! It's nearly impossible to gain weight on a raw food diet-- unless maybe you eat pounds of bananas, raisins, avocados, and nuts everyday. I've personally met men and women who have lost over 20 lbs in only one month of following the raw food diet. Many have rid themselves of mental and physical conditions, such as depression, fatigue, chronic stomach pains, irregular bowel movements, sometimes even more serious things such as cancer, etc. Eating cooked food is eating dead food because cooking food kills all the enzymes, so the only thing the food is doing for you in your body is piling up, creating mucus, feces, and fat.

Quoting from Wikipedia.org:

"Those who follow this way of eating generally believe that:

Raw foods contain enzymes which act as catalysts to regulate the digestive process in the body.

Heating food degrades or destroys these enzymes in food.

Food without enzymes is thought to lead in the longer term to toxicity in the body, to excess consumption of food, and therefore to obesity and chronic disease.

Living and raw foods (particularly those that are organically grown) are thought to usually have much higher nutrient values than foods which have been cooked.

Raw foods contain bacteria and other micro-organisms that stimulate the immune system and enhance digestion by populating the digestive tract with beneficial flora.

A main idea behind raw food diets is that cooked food is supposedly toxic because cooking the food creates harmful chemicals. Another idea is that cooked food is less digestible than raw food because cooking destroys the enzymes contained in food. One source for this belief is the work of Artturi Virtanen, a biochemist."

There is also a documentary on a family of raw foodists, who live normally following the 100% raw food diet, with no supplements of any kind. Protein in the United States is overrated. Many Americans are protein obsessed, and believe you actually need more protein than in actuality.

Gandhi was a raw foodist the last 10 years of his life (to be exact, a fruitarian).

Also, to reply to your 'details' section... it's just a form of breaking habit. Of course in the beginning you'll crave meats and what not but you'll slowly start to see how well you feel without them and won't miss them at all. :) If you're looking to become a regular vegan you can always have tofu meats and soy cheeses. There are so many options on a regular vegan diet. I still say try raw foodism. ;)

Answer 6

I'm a vegetarian and I plan to become a vegan some time son. I juts think a vegetarian diest is more healtly. And being a vegetarain has allwed me to lose some weiht and feel more healthy.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

i became vegan just because im animal lover not for losing weight!

http://health.yahoo.com/topic/nutrition/overview/article/mayoclinic/89AFCCB3-E1F7-4541-9A90745760BAA899;_ylt=ArH0l.YF3NJxEGNk7ntB21xLvs8F

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/weightkoch/55/vegetarian-diets;_ylt=ApkMJD876VVcuwqnE0M89cxLvs8F