Farmer Lexi Asks “Why Vegan?”

Note: This is just one farmer’s opinion – we here at Sweetwater support your right to have your own opinion!

         Hey everyone, Lexi here!  Just wanted to share with people interested in going vegan and people on the fence about going vegan why going vegan is awesome, easy, healthy, and yummy! Let me just list the basic reasons here first: super healthy, great for the environment, and animal cruelty-free!

         Now for a quick back story to me: I was not always vegan, I used to eat a pound of bacon every year on my birthday for breakfast and one of my favorite foods was macaroni and cheese.  I became vegan 4 years ago after my dad showed our whole family the Forks Over Knives documentary.  Then I began educating myself more, I watched Cowspiracy, Vegucated, The Engine 2 Diet, read The China Study book by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, and Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. just to list a few.  (I’ll give you my full list of recommendations at the bottom.) After some research and an open mind I decided to give it a try.  Now everyone has their own reasons for going vegan, I did it for my health and because I didn’t want to be responsible for any animals getting killed, I thought that was just cruel!  That was my “why” for going vegan and now I have expanded my “why” even more.  I now understand the negative impacts that eating animal products has on the environment.  Animal farts and burps, as silly as that may sound produce methane, and methane gas is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gases and greatly contributing to climate change!- https://nutritionfacts.org/video/diet-and-climate-change-cooking-up-a-storm/

Health:

         Eating a whole food plant-based vegan diet can prevent, reverse or even cure some of our top killers.  There is overwhelming evidence that heart disease can be prevented, reversed, and even cured by switching to a plant-based diet.  Cancer can even be prevented, reversed or even cured depending on which stage the cancer is in. Type 2 diabetes can be prevented, reversed and cured with a plant-based diet. Type 1 diabetes is not curable, but eating a plant-based diet can help people with this disease get off of some of their medications and feel better. Lower respiratory disease, Alzheimers, and kidney disease to name a few more that can be prevented, or reversed with a plant-based diet. No more blaming your condition on your genes. Only 3-6% of diseases can be attributed to genes.  That means you have the power to control your destiny.

         Not only can eating a plant-based diet help prevent or cure diseases, it can also help with skin conditions like acne and eczema.  It’s the ultimate guide to living a healthy life. Eating this way provides you with all of the essential nutrients your body needs: protein, beta-carotene, dietary fiber, vitamin C, folate, vitamin E, Iron, magnesium, calcium and more. So if you’re worried about not getting enough protein, now you know you will be getting more than enough because… all plant-based foods have over 6% calories from protein! People only need between 6-10% of calories from protein a day and if you eat meat you’re probably getting way too much, which can have negative side effects- I will get into that in a separate post. Plant-based proteins contain all 8 of the essential amino acids needed for health. Plants also mitigate free radicals, oxidative stress, slow down the aging process, and allow for a quick recovery after a workout because they are ant-inflammatory. If you’re an athlete eating the 4 major plant-based food groups: -Fruits, Veggies, Whole Grains, and Beans, you will be getting more protein than you need: 12-15% coming from plant friendly proteins.

         Because my blog is focused on the health and fitness benefits to going vegan I will share some educational videos with those of you that are interested in the environmental benefits as well as the animal cruelty-free aspects instead of getting into a long spiel about it.