(This post was written by a human without the aid of AI, by the way)
Let’s just clear up some terminology about the difference between Plant-Based VS Vegan…
The word vegan has been used inaccurately to describe a whole food plant-based diet.
“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”
When people calling themselves vegan sauddenly return to eating meat they say they are “no longer vegan”.
But the word vegan implies an ethical consideration of animal welfare. You don’t just suddenly stop caring about animal welfare and return to harming animals.
The term vegan is often loosely and sloppily used by people who are eating a whole foods plant-based diet for many reasons:
- Health reasons
- Spiritual reasons
- Climate change or environmental reasons
These people may or may not have animal welfare in mind. But their main reason for eating a plant-based diet is for their own benefit.
Ethical Veganism is different from eating a plant-based diet
Ethical Veganism is a lifestyle that tries to remove harm by stopping the use of products that come from animals.
Ethical veganism is not only about what we eat but we are trying our best to avoid clothing, shoes, belts, sports devices that contain feathers like badminton birds, animal gut used for stringed instruments, quill pens, and other products that exploit animals for human benefit.
Being an ethical vegan doesn’t mean you’re perfect. Ethical veganism is a lifestyle that does its best to avoid subjugation and harm of other non-human beings by being less harmful.
Raw foodists who call themselves vegans
The word “vegan” is used to describe many types of raw food diets. People like Durianrider, Freeley the Banana girl, Doug Graham with the 80 10 10 diet etc. often use the term “raw vegan diet” when what they are actually concerned with is eating a 100 percent uncooked raw plant diet for health reasons, weight loss, and athletic performance.
Gabriel Cousins is another famous raw foodist who does this diet mostly for spiritual and health benefits and not for animal welfare.
People with eating disorders who use the term vegan to obsess over eating a clean diet
The term vegan is sometimes used by people who are orthorexic meaning overly concerned with eating the perfect clean diet.
They might eat only 3 or 4 raw vegan foods or a few steamed veggie items. They might believe in consuming only vegan smoothies or who will only drink raw freshly pressed plant juices, or who water fast more than is necesary for health.
Often people are attracted to the idea of cutting out animal products to have to a very pure unprocessed diet. It can become an obsession when taken too far.
Sadly, extremely limited diet behavior while calling oneself vegan gives veganism a bad name.
In reality, a vegan diet can be a safe healthy diet with the right supplementation and a wide enough variety of foods.
Some people become extremely skinny and malnourished from not eating a wide enough variety of foods and they call themselves vegan. But these are not necessarily vegan people who have changed their behavior because they care about animal rights.
Some vegans do happen to eat a whole foods plant-based diet
Part of the confusion is that some vegans are also whole-food plant-based eaters. They avoid processed foods for health reasons and they are also ethical vegans.
Some vegans have eating disorders just as some non-vegans do
Some vegans also happen to be orthorexic or anorexic or have other eating disorders just like some people who eat animal products do. So then people assume that veganism is an unhealthy diet that causes these disorders.
Junk food vegans
Some ethical vegans eat a very processed diet just like some people who eat animal products. They simply substitute vegan versions of hotdogs, burgers and greasy fish and chips and are very unhealthy and/or overweight. These vegans are not eating a plant-based diet for health reasons but for animal welfare reasons.
The vegan diet can overlap with a whole food plant-based diet and be extremely healthy or it can be just like the standard American diet and be very unhealthy .
Fad plant-based purists who are not really vegans
A lot of influencers have been calling themselves “vegan” when they go on a plant-based diet to lose weight gain alertness or heal illnesses. Perhaps some celebs see it as a status symbol or some kind of “woke” thingy.
Later, these influencers decide they no longer want to eat a super-healthy-spiritually-enlightened-plant-based-woo-woo diet and proclaim they are “no longer vegan.”
They were never vegan to begin with if they are suddenly “no longer vegan”
In reality they were never vegan to begin with because they had no understanding of what being vegan means.
It does not mean taking animal products out of your diet for health reasons.
Vegan means abstaining from exploiting animals as much as is humanly possible in all ways including not eating their flesh, secretions or ovum.
They feel better now that they added animal products and animals were created by God for us to eat
Influencers often switch from fake-vegan to a paleo/keto diet, or whatever version of animal food diet they take up. Then proclaim that they feel much better now that they have added some meat eggs or dairy back into their diet.
Then they proclaim that this “paleo diet” is natural, and that god intended humans to eat animals. Then they state that the animals like being killed by us and are there to serve humans or some other nonsense to justify what they are up to.
But the fact is that these influencers who are “no longer vegan” were never vegan in the first place. They were confusing the word “vegan” with the term “plant-based diet”.
These famous people who tried a plant-based diet for health reasons for a while had no moral awakening about animal rights.
They didn’t suddenly realize we shouldn’t cause unnecessary suffering to others.
How do people become truly vegan?
Vegans often come to an understanding gradually. They start to realize that our culture treats animals in a cruel way unnecessarily.
They often start out as vegetarians think that this will cause less animal suffering. They start to educate themselves about protein sources and vegan calcium sources and realize they can thrive without any animal foods.
Then they realize that consuming cows milk means female cows have to be impregnated many times and have thier calves removed immedietly so they will not drink the milk.
These female cows are kept alive for many years and live in terrible conditions before being killed and ground up into dog food or whatever products they become.
It dawns on vegetarians or “pregans” that every cow pregnancy produces veal, which is baby male cows, or yet another a female cow that iwill also put through the same cruelty as her mother.
Then pregans realize other things like the making of leather, and the use of animals for entertainment and animal testing on cosmetics are also barbaric and cruel.
What is a whole food plant-based diet?
A whole food plant-based diet as originated by a group of scientists and medical doctors who were disillusioned with the medical sickness care system. They include:
- Dr Gregar
- Dr. Dean Ornish
- Dr. Esselstyn,
- Dr. Mc Dougall
- Dr. Joel Fuhrman
- and many other medical doctors and nutrition experts.
A whole foods unproccessed diet is based on the scientific research over many decades on the optimal diet for human health, using unprocessed plant based foods. a whole foods diet also includes limiting or omitting oil, sugar, salt, flour, processed foods and reducing or removing animal products.
Many studies have been done over the past 60 years showing that cardiovascular health, diabetes, cancers, gut microbiome, and many lifestyle diseases etc. are all reduced by limiting animal products and reducing processed foods and eating a whole foods diet rich in variety, natural starches like whole grains such as quinoa, potatoes, squashes, brown rice, legumes, raw leafy greens, root vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
The goal of a whole foods-plant-based diet is to improve human health and reverse chronic diseases.
Many cardiologists are now treating their patients with a lifestyle diet to prevent or reverse disease or to maintain health after surgeries. But this is not necessarily a vegan diet.
Most people who are eating a whole-food plant-based diet do not care all that much about animal welfare and are not predominantly eating this way to boycott the factory farming system.
What is a vegan lifestyle?
A vegan lifestyle includes abstaining from all animal products for dietary usage. But it goes a lot farther than what we eat.
Vegans attempting to abstain from harming or abusing animals in any way. Vegans avoid the use of leather, cosmetics made with animal products, using animals for entertainment, breeding animals as pets/chattel, riding on animals for exercise or recreation, or anything that might cause animals misery or pain or that uses them against their will.
Veganism is a philosophy that emphasizes the morality of kindness
One key idea of veganism is that we do not have to be cruel or support cruel barbaric food systems and other industries that are inhuman and barbaric.
With the advent of vitamin B12 and other supplements and meat substitutes, humans in the industrialized world can eat a vegan diet and be perfectly healthy. In rural areas people often have to hunt and fish because they have no other choice. But in industrialized areas being vegan is fairly easy.
Being a vegan is a way to boycott businesses that harm animals.
Other benefits to a vegan diet
Being vegan is also a major way to suppor the environment because a plant based diet is more benificial to the climate then diets that support factory farmed animals, and is a sustainable way to feed the ever growing human population.
Veganism is a way to end starvation for many humans by providing adiquite healthy diet to all humans.
Veganism also saves water and allows for more access to potable water for humans and animals to drink. the factory farming system uses much more water than growing the same caloric and protein from plants.
Stop saying you’re no longer vegan: instead say you stopped eating a plant-based diet
Reversing veganism is impossible and illogical
It’s illogical that celebs are saying they are “no longer vegan”.
You can’t have gone through a realization about mindless cruelty to animals and then just reverse that idea.
Not being vegan anymore would mean that you went through an awakening process and found yourself unable to continue supporting a food industry and cosmetic industry that hurts animals in the most horrific ways possible.
But then one day you would have to reverse that stance and decide it’s suddenly alright once again to hurt animals needlessly in the most horrific ways possible.
Not being vegan anymore would be like suddenly realizing pedophilia is wrong even though you happen to live in a culture where child marriage is condoned, allowed, and encouraged.
You must not have been all that horrified by adult men marrying little girls under the age of 12 and having sex with them in the first place. day, You can’t just turn right around and it’s ok to rape children again. Once you realize the truth you cannot go back.
Not being vegan anymore would be like suddenly waking up and realizing human trafficking is wrong in a culture where it is all around you. You stopped working for the crime lord that is running the system only to turn around and say “Meh, selling humans as slaves is ok after all. Besides, I need the money.”
It just isn’t possible to be a former vegan. People who say that they are former vegans never really cared about animal welfare all that much.
Learn more about plant based diets and veganism
- Plant Based News
- Forks Over Knives easy delicious recipies
- Climate Healers building a vegan world for all science, recipes and more
