Okay, I'll admit it. I'm excited about the attention that Oprah's Tuesday show is bringing to veganism, a lifestyle to which I'm passionately committed. And I'm equally excited to do my part to support anyone eager to consider making this life-affirming, health-affirming, planet-saving change! So here, in no particular order, are six things you need to know about veganism.
1. Help is everywhere you turn! There's a whole web-based world eager to thank you and to hold your hand on this exciting journey! If you're inclined to begin at the beginning and learn what we're doing to the animals, I heartily recommend these books: Eating Animals, Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy, and The Food Revolution. There are countless others. Do your own Google search. Rather watch a film? Try: Death on a Factory Farm, Glass Walls, or Earthlings. Want to bypass the suffering and instead see cows, pigs, and chickens (and a host of other critters) for who they truly are? Check out my books: Where the Blind Horse Sings and the newly-released Animal Camp: Lessons in Love and Hope From Rescued Farm Animals. Don't think it's possible to love a pig? You've got some surprises coming!
2. You can treat your tastebuds! At least once a month for the last dozen years, my dad calls and asks, "Whatcha havin' for dinner tonight? Sticks and leaves?" Ladies, let's dispel the myth that veggie cuisine is bland! For general info and advice about nutrition, try the Vegetarian Resource Group, Savvy Vegetarian, VegSource, or The North American Vegetarian Society. To bypass the BS and get right down to cookin', try these recipe databases: VegWeb, International Vegetarian Union, and VegFamily. Finally, check the Catskill Animal Sanctuary website, for regular updates from Chef Kevin Archer, director of Compassionate Cuisine. Far as we know, Catskill Animal Sanctuary is the only sanctuary in the world to offer a vegan cooking program. Join us, either onsite or via podcast, coming in February!
3. You can date without committing! Not sure you're ready to strip the fridge bare? There's nothing wrong with dating before you commit. Try choosing vegetarian restaurants to discover how varied and delicious veggie diets can be! Happy Cow is a database of vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants around the world. Just plug in your city or zip code and the distance radius you wish to search. If you're a New Yorker, you'll love SuperVegan's "The Amazing Instant New York City Vegan Restaurant Finder".
My advice? Choose the vegetarian and vegan restaurants rather those that have "vegan options." You'll find that restaurants truly committed to the lifestyle offer far more inventive, satisfying meals. Go ahead: tantalize your tastebuds! Check out the menus from my favorite local restaurants: Garden Café in Woodstock, Luna 61 in Tivoli, and Karma Road in New Paltz.
4. A word of caution: Vegan does not equal healthy. There's a lot of processed vegan crap out there filled with ingredients I can't pronounce (and I ain't stupid!). If you want to use this opportunity to take charge of your health, focus on simple, whole foods. Want some great advice? Grab a copy of my pal Kris Carr's just-released, New York Times-bestselling Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!
5. A new, better you awaits! I may not know you, but I know this about you: You're a good person who values kindness, and who likely works hard to ensure that your actions embody this highly-cherished value. Just for a moment, let in the uncomfortable notion that every time you eat an animal, you're subjecting an innocent sentient being -- an animal who, when you get right down to it, is very much like us in ways that count -- to a level of suffering you wouldn't wish upon a child molester or rapist. Acknowledge your role in the suffering, and when you choose to go vegan, celebrate your choice to honor not only the animals, but also, and most importantly, yourself, for in embracing veganism, you'll be aligning your lifestyle with the values you prize most deeply. And that feels good.
6. It's okay to stumble. Let's face it, change is challenging! Even vegan poster girl Alicia Silverstone has stumbled a few times -- and that's OK! As someone who took several years to go vegan, I know what the resistance is about: habit, convenience, concern about family members' reactions, lack of knowledge about what else to cook. If you decide to take the plunge, or even just to dip your toe in the water, be prepared to encounter resistance, even if it's just from, well, your own noggin. Be kind to yourself in your heroic effort to be kind to all beings and to the fragile planet we inhabit...
The vegan train's pullin' out of the station, ladies! Grab a seat for the ride of your life, and be sure to tell us about your journey.
Follow Kathy Stevens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/casanctuary
I was quite sure I might become malnourished, or be scorned by my family, or never enjoy food again - but the exact opposite of all of those things happened. It was the best decision I could have ever made because peace of mind is precious. So precious.
So in short, its definitely not an ego thing, but it is a well-being thing for me in that I don't think that I could have continued down the path I was going without denying something very essential to my sense of integrity or personal humanity.
Many vegetarians have come to me with weight problems and some have had outright nutritional deficiencies without realizing it.
Our species is capable of surviving extreme conditions, but it isn't necessarily the best thing for us.
Yes, we have survived "extreme conditions," to borrow your term. The Standard American Diet is one of the worst. We're among the fattest, sickest nations in the world with an alarmingly high rate of heart disease, obesity, and diet-related cancers.
Thanks for the interesting article. I really like your emphasis on not beating yourself up for stumbling. I think sometimes in our zeal, we can get overly focused on personal purity while losing sight of the larger issues. For example, say you order an Indian curry with naan bread on the side and you forget to tell them - "no butter". How exactly is any poor factory-farmed dairy cow being helped by you throwing the bread in the trash rather than eating it?
Or you go to the store and pick up some veggie "Chick'n" nuggets thinking they're vegan, and after cooking them, you notice upon closer inspection of the package that they contain milk and egg ingredients. Who is being helped by you not eating the food? The deed is done, and you'll know better next time.
Naturally, I'm not advocating that vegans purposely eat non-vegan foods. And I realize that, with all the confusion about terms, we want to be perfectly clear about what veganism is and what it isn't. But I don't think effective advocacy for animals includes giving others the impression that veganism is impossibly demanding, wasteful, spartan, and anti-social.
As they say at Vegan Outreach, when you're talking to someone who has no problem chowing down on an actual chicken leg, you're not going to have a very sympathetic audience when you start obsessing over microscopic quantities of casein or non-vegetable-derived mono- and diglycerides in an otherwise vegan product.
http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/20648045/reload=0;jsessionid=1A822DD988DFD5B229E5FB2FEB9CB1B7.jvm1
http://www.ajcn.org/content/78/1/3.full
I thank you again for a great article!
Not sure if you saw the Oprah show, but she used the term "veganish." I'll be blasted by plenty of animal rights folks here, but if "veganish" or "almost always vegan" or "try my damndest to be vegan but occasionally slip up and would like to forgive myself when I do" is as much as you can do right now, then thank you for trying so hard! Your honesty will be both encouraging and cathartic to plenty of other good people who are trying just as hard as you are.
Veal parmigiana used to be my favorite restaurant dish until I saw a TV program about the horrible treatment of veal calves. That was 1974, and I stopped eating veal that very same night. As much as I loved veal, there was no way that I could ever enjoy it again....to this day, I have never again eaten veal, not even a taste.
I bought 4 vegan books/cookbooks this week, including "Veganist," and I surprised myself when I realized how much vegan food I already use. Abbie Rogers introduced me to seitan and tempeh in 2008. I've been a tofu enthusiast for years. I like my Boca burgers and eat beans 4 or 5 times a week. I switched to whole grains about 7 or 8 years ago, and even my junk food has to have some redeeming qualities (high fiber, low carb, low fat) or I don't buy it. I may occasionally allow myself some non-vegan food but it will definitely be a conscious decision, not one fraught with guilt afterward.
See you at the Sanctuary as soon as the weather breaks a bit. You're a real model for humanity and sanity in a crazy world!
Donna Celeiro
Biological designed to eat meat is debatable.
http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/the-comparative-anatomy-of-eating.html
(Happy to have not eaten an animal in 30 yrs.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1352393/Real-men-eat-meat-say-women-turn-noses-vegetarians.html?ITO=1490
The very best crops for enhancing good soil structure are forage crops-perennial grasses,clovers and alfalfa,which of course we can't eat directly,but ruminant animals(cows,sheep,goats) can eat. The poorest crops for soil structure are beans and lentils. They have very weak root systems and low biomass. These are the main protein sources for vegan diets. They certainly have a place in crop rotations,but forage crops are essential to long term soil sustainability. When the plains were grazed by bison,soils were deep and stable. Since being ploughed and put into continuous grain crops,topsoil has been lost or degraded considerably.
Native peoples ate an omnivorous diet for eons. The Inuit in the arctic live almost exclusively on meat. Others live mainly on plants,but with some meat.
By all means avoid factory farm produced animal protein. Seek out protein from humanely raised animals.
This is not abuse and death is not "bad". Everything eats everything else.
I was a vegetarian myself for 10 years because I have always felt complete love and empathy for animal kind. There is nothing wrong with eating meat! We are never going to gain momentum in this movement if we try to convince people that eating meat is inherently WRONG, because it's NOT. What we need to focus on is the care and respect for animals. A farm animal raised for meat can live a wonderful life! I mean, if it died of natural causes, the bacteria or bugs or some other animal would eat it!
We need to take the GUILT out of eating meat and teach people how to live compassionate lives without changing their inherent nature! Which means eliminating factory farming practices and strictly enforcing animal welfare legislation and supporting LOCAL FARMS!
I really love your #3 suggestion, "you can date without committing," and also Kathy Freston's "leaning in approach," because that is so doable for anyone.
Personally, I chose "this trains leaving, so hop on board," and eventually my whole family hopped on, as well as many friends and community members over the years!
Thanks for your great article and dedication, Kathy.
I couldn't disagree more about #5 being offensive. Whether you've been on a factory farm or not, the unnecessary death of an animal for our collective tastebuds is a sad reality. And April, I don't know what factory farm you've been on, but I've seen plenty of footage of factory farms all across the country of different sizes and purposes, and they are all scary, abusive places. The workers day in and day out are having to execute torture upon these animals (such as debeaking, castrating without medication, ripping baby cows away from their lactating mothers, artificially inseminating female pigs and cows using their bare, hands, and many other atrocities), and I feel just as bad for them as I do the animals. I'm just glad I woke up to it three years ago and stumbled my way upon a vegan diet in 2008!
Thank you Kathy for a beautiful, honest, and compelling article. I'm a huge fan!