Why did you become vegan?!
Why did you become vegan?
I am a vegetarian and I understand our reasoning for not eating meat, but why become vegan? If cows aren't milked they can get very sick, chicken's lay eggs naturally plus their eggs have no chance of life (at least not the ones you get in the store), and bees are not harmed when honey is gathered. I'm just curious why vegans choose that lifestyle.
Thanks.
6 months ago
I know I left out some of the foods that vegans do not eat, but I not going to list all of them.
Answers:
6 months ago
I know I left out some of the foods that vegans do not eat, but I not going to list all of them.
Vegans object against the way dairy cows are exploited to give us milk. It;s not true that they're unharmed. A dairy cow is forced to remain continouely pregnant to keep producting babies (cows can only produce milk when they are pregnant - same as humans). Imagine if someone kept making you pregnant so they could drink your milk? Not only that, if a dairy cow has a male calf it is taken away to be slaughtered by the veal industry, as male calves can't produce milk and therefore are no use to the dairy industry. Dairy cows often die with exhaustion and they are slaughtered when they get too old to produce more milk, so they too end up on our plates. For more into see www. milkmyths.org.uk
Laying hens are kept in appauling conditions and when they have stopped laying eggs they are taken away to be slaughtered. This is true whether hens are free range or not. Also, what happens to all the male chickens that are born? The egg industry has no use for them so they are slaughtered.
Vegans feel that by eating eggs and dairy products is wrong and is supporting the meat industry, as they are closely linked. I hope this has answered your question.
haha well i think vegans might think differently than what we vegetarians and nonvegetarians think about milk, eggs, honey and all other "veganisms". maybe they want to find more reasons to continue being a vegan? im not too sure but i hope this kinda helps....
I'm not sure, not being a vegan myself, but I think it has something to do with Star-Trek. Actually, its something in their psyche that they need to be different. Eggs, milk or honey perhaps should be eliminated from an individuals diet, but the elimination of all three makes no sense to me.
I’m not vegan; I’m an aspiring vegetarian. (It’s my new years’ resolution) I might go vegan if I’m sure my health wouldn’t suffer from it. You’re totally right, though. I don’t see any reason to not use milk and eggs; it’s not healthy for the cows as you mentioned and chickens lay eggs naturally. It’d be a waste to not use those products. But I, however, need to cut back on my cholesterol intake so I’m trying to eat minimal amounts of that stuff for the time being.
I don’t eat eggs anyway; don’t like ‘em. You can have mine.
I am becoming vegetarian in the interest of my health and as a way of rebelling against the norm; it’s a nice, non-harmful way to rebel.
I'm a chef and quite frankly I get very confused on why vegetarians are vegetarians, vegetarians and not vegans. But it is about choice, which is probably why there are so many categories of vegetarians out there and only 2 for vegans. Some people are vegans because of religious beliefs. Some people are vegans because of the cruelty to animal factor and the harm that comes to animals when they are farmed. Other reasons are for health. You bring up the chicken and the egg. Good point, but the eggs don't come from wild chickens. They come from farmed chicken, which are usually fed hormones and steroids to produce larger eggs and eggs more frequently. The conditions are cramped and small. Free range chickens are still farmed and while they are advertised as being completely organic and have no hormones, more times than not the farm is small and they are not treated well. But once again, we revisit choice.
If cows aren't milked they can get very sick-The point is mute, because vegans don't make their choice based on the cow. It's an animal, in a farm, bread for the sole purpose for humans. When a cow can't produce milk, they are slaughtered.
I became vegan because I did not want to hurt animals. At first I was OK with being a vegetarian, then I found some things out. Like the calves who are born to keep the dairy cow giving milk are taken away from their mothers. The males are sometimes made into veal. Egg laying hens are crowded either in cages or in barns. Bees are harmed when honey is gathered.
Anyway, vegan is more healthier because there is no fat or cholesterol from meat or eggs.
Cows wouldn't need to be milked if they weren't artificially impregnated by factory farmers.They are supposed to be milked by their offspring,not a suction cup.Since male chicks and cows don't produce milk or eggs,they are thrown away.You are causing alot of harm to animals if you buy milk and eggs and you are supporting factory farming.If you became a vegetarian because you care about animals,then you should be vegan,but if you just don't like the taste of meat then being a vegetarian is fine.Vegans don't eat honey because it causes the "exploitation" of a living being.and vegans don't wear leather because the animal has to be skinned for it and don't buy cosmetics with animal by-products or cosmetics that are tested on animals.Being vegan is about being as "cuelty free" as possible.
In the words of John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, a dairy cow living in today's modern milk factory "is bred, fed, medicated, inseminated and manipulated to a single purpose--maximum milk production at minimum cost." She lives with an unnaturally swelled up and sensitive udder, is likely to be kept inside a stall her entire life, is milked up to 3 times a day, and is kept pregnant nearly all of her life with her young taken from her almost immediately after birth. "Contented" is the characteristic most often attributed to the cow. However, cows in today's factories have to be fed tranquilizers to calm their nerves.
It is not unusual in today's factory henhouse for 4 or 5 hens to be squeezed into a 12" x 18" cage. It is standard for poultry producers to de-beak chicks with hot-knife machines--not a painless procedure. De-beaking is industry's solution to birds, driven to crazed pecking, inflicting harm upon the fellow "product."
Harvey Diamond, co-author of the Fit for Life books, writes, "the list of ailments that can be linked to dairy products is so extensive there is hardly a problem it doesn't at least contribute to." Consumption of cow's milk is linked to colitis, dysfunctions of the thyroid gland, and headaches--even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Lou Gehrig's disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Parent advisor Dr. Benjamin Spock has said that cow's milk, "causes internal blood loss, allergies and indigestion, and contributes to some cases of childhood diabetes." Dr. Spock even linked milk to the risk for anemia in babies. The common cold, as well as allergies to dust, cats and pollen, are more likely to go away when cow's milk is taken out of the diet.
About 98% of all milk in the US is produced using factory methods. Part of factory life for a cow includes dangerous levels of drugs administered to boost milk output. Due to selective breeding, cows already produce at least two and a half times the amount of milk of yesterday's pastured counterpart. Then, as of February, 1994, farmers were given the go-ahead to use the genetically engineered hormone Bovine Somatotropin (BST) on their herds. Designed to boost milk output by an additional 15 percent, milk per cow statistics are already showing the effects nationwide. A cow naturally has at least a 20-year lifespan; today's stressed out cows, however, become hamburger in less than 4 years, as a cow's ability to give milk quickly diminishes under modern conditions.
In today's factory henhouse, certain lighting schedules will be employed to maintain an illusion of eternal spring--a technique that keeps egg production up to speed. When production drops off, the birds may be put through a brutal forced molt, induced by days of starvation and darkness. Some, and often many, of the birds will inevitably die in the process.
In egg factories all over the country, male chicks are weeded out and disposed of by "chick-pullers." Over half a million chicks a day are stuffed en masse into plastic bags where they are crushed and suffocated. Or they may be ground up while still alive to be fed to livestock or used as fertilizer.
At least 95% of all toxic chemical residues in the American diet come from meat, fish, dairy products and eggs. This is because such residues are stored in fat. Each step up the food chain serves to amplify the consumption of toxins. Fish, especially, have very long food chains. Avoiding fish to avoid toxic residue may not be a sufficient preventative measure, however, as one third of the world's fish catch is fed to livestock. Due to the excessive use of pesticides, insecticides and petrochemical fertilizers on cropland, the injection of hormones and antibiotics into farm animals, and the abundance of PCBs and mercury in our oceans, there is toxicity in the flesh of all animals people eat. More than ever, it is wise to eat "low on the food chain," with plant food being the lowest and safest.
A male calf born to a cow--what does the farmer do with this useless by-product of the dairy industry? After the calf's birth, if he is not immediately slaughtered, more than likely he'll be taken to a veal factory. There, he will be locked up in a stall and chained by his head to prevent him from turning around for his entire life. He'll be fed a special diet without iron or roughage. He will be injected with antibiotics and hormones to keep him alive and to make him grow. He will be kept in darkness except for feeding time. The result? A nearly full-grown animal with flesh as tender and milky white as a newborn's. The beauty of the system from the standpoint of the veal industry is that meat from today's so called "crate" veal will still fetch the premium price it always did when such flesh came only from a baby calf, just a lot more of it.
Food originating from animal sources, including milk, unlike most foods derived from plants, makes the blood acidic. When this happens, the body withdraws calcium from the bones to make the blood more alkaline. This process balances the pH of the blood, but consequently becomes one of the factors which leads to osteoporosis.
It is deceptive to measure fat as the percentage of physical weight of foods as the milk industry does. Since milk is mostly just water, by weight the fat comes to only 3% to 3.7%. Fat content by calories, however, is 50%!
Though milk gives temporary relief to ulcer sufferers because of the calcium content, acid production in the stomach eventually results and the stomach lining is eroded even more.
The treatment of human disease with antibiotics is showing signs of being hampered by the flagrant overuse of antibiotics fed and injected into the animals people eat. Meat-eaters are exacerbating the trend toward human immunity to medicinal drugs just by eating cow's milk, hamburgers and chicken. This ultimately affects everyone, vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.
I do use honey. I believe we were not made to eat meat/flesh of a living creatures. I think 99.9% of our illness is caused by eating animals.
http://www.hacres.com/home/home.asp...
Cow's milk is for baby cows. Also what we are getting it is very unhealthy & it is abusive to the animals to fill our comsumption needs. If you want milk, cheese etc. At least go Organic for your health's sake & the animals quality of life.
http://www.notmilk.com/
Same with any animal products.. If you choose to eat them go Organic; don't let the new Natural label fool you either.
http://factoryfarm.org/
Educate yourself & you will be healthier for it.
Slainté (to your health)