Vegetarians are fairly common, but the vegan person is rarer as this means also giving up dairy products, something that is harder to do than giving up meats. For instance, the dairy industry constantly sponsors studies that promote milk, saying that it is a great source of calcium, but it will conveniently omit to tell you that commercially-run dairies routinely use hormones on cows to increase milk production. These hormones are extremely dangerous for your health. The hormone stays in the milk that you unknowingly feed to your children and drink yourself and plays havoc with your system.
The one benefit that you will soon discover when you give up milk and milk products is that you feel lighter and fitter without dairy products. Vegans quote excerpts from T Colin Campbell’s and Thomas M Campbell’s The China Study that was written based on almost four decades of research. The China Study showed how milk was connected to cancer and other diseases.
SE Asian countries like China, Malaysia, and Japan traditionally did not have milk as part of their diet and ghee and butter were not taken there either. However, when western countries saw the region as a major market for their milk produce and began introducing milk products there, lifestyle diseases too began making an appearance in the area.
A major dilemma for vegetarians is substituting milk with nut-based milks or soya milk and then getting used to the new taste. Many vegans, however, over time perfect the art of making nut-based milks with cashews or almonds and also learn to flavour it as usual with cardamoms and pistachios. There is a huge conditioning in people’s minds about the benefits of milk. Once you have read The China Study, these will quickly vanish.
You can also try making smoothies with such milk. You won’t really know the difference and soon, the new taste will be accepted by the palate. Getting into the flow of being vegan is the tough part, but once you learn to substitute your daily butter and cheese with healthier alternatives, you will feel lighter and fitter.
For more insight into the subject of veganism, watch John Mcdougall’s The Starch Solution video freely available on youtube. The facts that you will learn about your daily diet there will jolt you—and you will begin making those changes in your diet, voluntarily.
Besides the obvious health benefits of being a vegan, there are benefits to the planet as well and people who are champions of environmental causes also advocate veganism. The sheer resources that it takes to grow livestock makes the meat industry the most environmentally destructive industry on the planet. By turning vegan, you are also saving the planet.
Here is something to think about: People say they are animal lovers, then they go right out and eat an animal. Can that ever be right?
Reena Singh has more than 37 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent nine years.