By not eating meat you are already halfway there to a diet that is not only good for you & your fellow animals, but also the environment: paganism! By canceling out the consumption of things such as dairy, honey & eggs, you are making the transition from vegetarian to vegan, & also gaining a greater knowledge of what you’re really eating… Us humans over time have earned our spot at the top of the food chain, which in turn evolved our cultural nourishment regime into one revolving around animals as a whole, not Just their meat. Just about every part of every animal can be & is used for different purposes.
For instance, as an article by Discovery magazine states, “Cow feet and hooves are rendered for human and pet food, gelatin, glue, buttons, Manhandles, barbarians, cow-Lowell Jelly, bonehead, soaps, the foam in fire extinguishers, Dan fertilizers,” (Clinkering). Just to name one example. Essentially, by only avoiding meat, you can still intake countless animal parts- purposefully or not. A common concern with a vegan lifestyle is not receiving enough nutrition, or enough of the right foods. This issue can easily be prevented by finding assorted alternatives to the things that a vegan diet could lack (I. . , protein). There are alternatives sources for anything you could possibly be deficient of with a vegan diet. When followed erectly, a vegan diet can do incredible things for your well-being. According to The Vegan Society, a web organization devoted entirely to the idea of paganism & promoting such lifestyle, “Balanced vegan diets are often rich in vitamins, antioxidants and fiber and can decrease the chances of suffering from diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers,” (The Vegan Society).
Research has been done into the matter of whether or not diets high in animal proteins can be linked too higher risk for heart disease (see Fig. 1). Being a controversial topic, Colic & Thomas Campbell conducted research of their own into he matter in order to answer the question of what diet is best for human health & longevity. Their research found that there was in fact a correlation between higher animal-protein consumption & heart disease rate (Campbell). If health & well-being isn’t enough of a reason to make the modification, consider the environment.
The agriculture behind animal processing & such leaves a harsh imprint on the environment. Further research into the issue shows, as stated by the Vegan Action weapon, “The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has linked animal agriculture to a number of other environmental problems, including: intimidation of aquatic ecosystems, soil, and drinking water by manure, pesticides, and fertilizers; acid rain from ammonia emissions; greenhouse gas production; and depletion of aquifers for irrigation,” (For the Environment). Alas, deciding to eat vegan is often easier said than done.
I asked five people with different nutrition habits to follow a vegan diet for five days. All five were between the ages of 16-18, were moderately to very active, & in good health. After the five-day trial, the participants answered questions about the experiment such as what all they ate, owe difficult they felt it was, & whether or not they felt any benefits from the altered nutrition plan. As expected, the hardest transition, & the participant who struggled the most, was not a vegetarian nor did she follow any diet plan so-to-speak.
The two participants who followed a virtually healthy diet prior to the experiment encountered some struggle, while the prior vegetarian encountered only a slight difficulty transitioning. Three out of five of the participants answered that they in fact did feel benefits from following a vegan diet including boosted energy & even minor weight loss. Vegetarian to vegan, simple or not, is an attainable adjustment. Whether it’s for the animals, for the environment, or entirely for yourself, there are countless reasons to become a vegan.
Eating vegan almost guarantees a way to know exactly what you are putting into your body. Because after all, you are what you eat. Works Cited Campbell, Colic, and Thomas Campbell. Heart Disease Death Rates for Men Aged 55 to 59 Years and Animal Protein Consumption Across 20 Countries. Digital image. N. P. , n. D. Web. 23 Feb.. 2014. “For the Environment. ” Vegan Action. River City Give Camp, 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2014 Clinkering, Verily. Modicum, Andrea. “Cow Parts. ” Discover. Callback Publishing Co. , n. D. Web. 25 Feb.. 2014. The Vegan Society. N. P. , n. D. 23 Feb.. 2014.
REFLECTION Brought to you by Late Night Anna This paper came as a much bigger struggle than any before this. When I chose to research & write about paganism, I didn’t take time to consider how vast of a topic it was. Not to mention the fact that some people weren’t even sure what paganism was. My first draft was not good, I am fully aware. I wasn’t sure what all I wanted to cover or where I was going with anything. I wanted to be concise & avoid being vague, which was tough. My draft that I submitted for teacher review was quite possibly worse because I forgot to save what I had changed before submitting it…
Major apologies. Being myself, a person who overprints everything imaginable, I entirely over thought every aspect of this paper. I would be lying 100% if I said this paper was easy to construct. No aspect of is was easy. Getting people to go vegan, being concise, researching paganism: HARD. Half of the sites I visited while researching paganism were either super biased or an in-depth rant on why meat is necessary & paganism is tepid. One of the sources I used has caused me so much irritation. I know it’s a credible source because I did a TON of research into it, but I could not find the publisher or publishing date…
My Lana. My writing skills are still far from where I plan to get them. I’d like to think that I have decent word choice & voice (unintentional rhyme), but I don’t think I am a very smooth writer. I am super ambiguous at times & I often Jump from topic to topic without tying the two together. Even if this paper is deemed unsuccessful, I can at least come out of this with a much rater understanding of parenthetical citations-which I knew almost nothing about before-, how to properly cite a source, & also paganism.
