Strengths And Weaknesses Of Vegans

“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.” -Charles Darwin. Veganism is a way of leaving which seeks to exclude all forms of exploration and cruelty to animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. In terms of diet, it omits any intake of animal produce, including meat, eggs and dairy. There are many benefits that come from a vegan lifestyle, some people want healthier skin or to loose weight. Others see the truth behind animal farms and slaughterhouses, the inhumane way they end the lives of thousands of animals.

A person that consumes vegetarian foods is protecting the planet from harm. According to the article “Eating Green,” it is estimated that a vegetarian diet reduces pollution, greenhouse gasses, and fossil fuels which are harming the planet.

The world has a need for meat, and it is almost obsessive. Most cultures typically consume some sort of domesticated animal in agriculture. Whether it is cows, chicken, lamb, deer, turkey, or fish, many people are not educated to the fact that the alternative diets are better for their health. There are different animal products for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hundreds if not thousands of diverse chain restaurants dedicated to meat consumption.There are also many different holidays around the world such as Thanksgiving and Christmas where meat is consumed. With affordable prices and an acquired taste, it is likely to be a lifelong habit. There are vast miles of subsidized agricultural land dedicated to the cultivation of animals. According to Amir Khan, staff writer for U.S.News, reporting on the American Meat Institute, Americans consume, “57 pounds more meat than they were in the 1950s”(Khan).

Like the majority of teenagers today, I was just browsing YouTube when I stumbled upon a video that has since changed my life. “Earthlings.” The documentary revealed how millions of animals are mercilessly slaughtered in factory farms. Just watching such brutality- void of any type of humanity- was immobilizing. Somehow I made it to the end and came across copious recommended videos, including “Forks Over Knives” and “Cowspiracy.” While they weren’t as graphic as the first, they were definitely informative. After watching these documentaries, I decided to go vegan. This decision wasn’t made lightly, and it wasn’t just for myself. Veganism has long been disputed over, but animal rights activists, environmentalists,

Harvard Medical School defines a vegan as a person who does, “not eat meat, poultry, fish, or any products derived from animals, including eggs, dairy products, and gelatin.” (p.1). With veganism gaining more and more popularity in the media and in the western culture, debates have sprung up about whether or not this diet and lifestyle proves to be healthy. Countless studies and experiments have been conducted, and the results have shown that a vegan diet can prove to be a more beneficial diet then the standard American Diet. But, with large food corporations and drug companies in the way, Americans find it harder to switch to the plant-based diet. The vegan diet time and time again shows its outstanding power in reducing

Agriculture for meat and beef, eggs and dairy products are responsible for eighteen percent of all the greenhouse gas emission per year, which is more than the emissions of cars, planes, and trains together. And livestock and their byproducts are responsible for fifty-one percent of the greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and for up to ninety percent of water consumption in the U.S.. Thousands of gallons of water are used to produce beef, eggs and dairy products. More than half of the oceans are fished and two acres of the rainforest get destroyed every second for food production. Switching to a vegan lifestyle can decrease all these factors and make the world we live in now exist longer.

Being vegan can reduce/slow the rise in climate change and help the environment become a better place. The production of meat and other animal by-products​ affect the environment; from the crops and water required to feed the animals, to the transportation and process it takes in order to prepare the animals for human gormandizing. To produce one pound of meat it takes about 2,400 gallons of water. All this water consumption goes to waste, just for humans to consume the little piece of meat for their own short-lived entertainment. However, it takes about 25 gallons to grow one pound of wheat. As you can see, we are wasting water in order to have meat on our plates. This is not good for people to do, because we need water to survive in this

Donald Watson, on 1944 had a meeting with non-dairy vegetarian, Elsie Shrigley, to talk about the lifestyle and diet of non-dairy vegetarian diets. These pioneers were the first people to discover a new movement – although resistant. They felt that they needed a new name, something more brief than “non-dairy vegetarians”. “vitan”, “dairyban”, and “benevore” were some of the rejected words. They settled on “vegan”, because it had the first 3 and the last 2 letters of “vegetarian”. In Donald Watson’s words, it marked “the beginning and end of vegetarian”.

One would think, if the whole United States went vegan we would be killing more plants, because we are consuming more of them…but it is just the opposite. With production mainly being from grains; which in turn are so much better for your health, than a piece of steak. In addition, the percentage of greenhouse gases would decrease a hefty amount; almost ¼

The key to a healthy, nutritionally sound vegan diet is variety. A healthy vegan diet consists of fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, whole grains, seeds, and legumes

Veganism isn't as good as speculated by other websites. Nutriciously.com says veganism can put people in a "bad state of health." The bad state is caused by the body adapting to new eating habits. Enpoweredsustenance.com says that vegan foods "don't provide fat-soluble vitamins A and D." That is evidence of the bad side in veganism

Veganism has been a popular topic in the media in the past few years. Veganism is abstaining from consuming or using products made from animals or products that harm and exploit animals. A common argument for veganism is common human ethics. These ethics say that it is wrong to harm a being that cannot protect itself. This creates a problem because of the violence it causes all over the world from protestors starting fights or bystanders starting conflicts with the protestors. I believe that the vegans are right when it comes to the ethics that change their lifestyle. Treating animals and testing products on them, which are not meant for them, is wrong. Especially because the animals cannot defend themselves.

But, what is vegetarianism? Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood and the flesh of any other animal), and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism can be

Veganism is a food lifestyle based on diet of vegetables, grains, seeds, nuts and fruits. People are being vegetarian because they think it is healthier to only eat vegetables without eating meet or chicken, and they think that they will get a perfect body shape, free of diseases. As in vegetarian, where they feed on foods that do not fit into animal flesh, whether from wild or marine animals. They also don’t eat food that comes directly from the animal, such as: egg that’s comes from the hen, milk that comes from cows, goats and honey that comes from bees. In India, Ethiopia and Jamaica there are a lot of vegetarian people, because they don’t have enough food to feed themselves, so they decided to eat vegetable. This paper argues that veganism is a harmful lifestyle for three major reasons.

Some would not be able to live without eating any animal products in their diets, such as, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, and honey. For vegans, however, this is a normal way of life. Vegans are frequently misunderstood as either people who have eating disorders, or an unnatural passion for animal rights. It is time for people to realize that veganism, a challenging yet rewarding lifestyle, goes way beyond being skinny or caring for animals. In reality, veganism can be extremely advantageous to anyone who adapts it as a way of life and has many different benefits that come along with it.