I thought before we properly kick off I should just explain what exactly a vegan is.
(I know most people reading this are probably already vegans like -_____-, but you never know?)
So, a vegan is basically someone who abstains from all animal associated products.
This includes:
FOODS: Meat, Poultry, Fish (yes, this is an animal), Crustaceans, Milk and all milk products like cheese, Eggs, Honey, Lanolin (from sheep wool) and basically all products that contain bits, parts or extracts of any sentient animal.
CLOTHES: All forms of wool, be it sheep, lamb, goat, rabbit, your mum's chest hair, you get the picture, Silk (derived from silk worm larvae), Leather, fur or any other skin or hair from an animal.
PERSONAL CARE: Any products that are tested on/or include animal ingredients within them (of which there are just too many to put on any list).
Pretty much all medicine is tested on animals and I think it's down to personal preference. I personally try to avoid everyday medicinal products that have been tested on animals (so I'm not popping paracetamol's all the time), but if it was life and death I would take the drugs like any sane human being. You can only do so much.
So you may be asking the question of WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?People are vegan for many different reasons but the most common one would be ethics. I could ramble on alllllll day about the ethics of veganism but I think that would just be totally boring so I suggest that you take a look at this:
Vegan Kit: Why Vegan?
It explains with pictures and videos all about why vegans are vegans and it's just fantastic!
I also encourage you to watch this video:
It's a presentation by a wonderful man called James from the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF), showing all aspects of the vegan ethos in a friendly informative way.
People are sometimes vegan for different reasons too! I'd say health reasons came in second place because there's a lots of evidence of a plant based diet being the best diet a person can eat for a healthy body and mind. Again you can find much more information than I can give you here:
Vegan Nutrition!
I thought this gave a good run down on how a vegan diet is a healthy one but if you want more sources I suggest you check out 'The China Study', which is a comprehensive study of nutrition by Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine which basically ends by saying that a plant-based whole foods diet is the best one to eat with loads of evidence to support this.
Finally some people are vegan for the environment. Livestock farming is a MASSIVE contributor to global warming, land use, energy use and environmental change on which you can find more info here:
ChooseVeg/Environment
Every vegan is different!
I personally choose vegan for all of these reasons and I'm sure that others do too. I thought I should just make veganism clear for anyone who isn't vegan or doesn't fully understand it. I hope this helped (:
Until next time (:
Thanks for reading ^-^
