Before I start this (short, but very informative) paper, I want to stress the fact that my goal is NOT to shame anyone’s habits, change anyone’s opinion or force my views, because I believe that everyone has the right to form their own. The only thing I would like to achieve by spreading the word is only to do that exact thing – spread the word.
The good thing about the day and age we live in is the availability of information all around us. With internet, finding everything about…anything, is easier than ever. Unfortunately, we still face the problem of not questioning things enough. We don’t question things that we’ve been told enough that we actually try to do our research.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been told that drinking milk would make my bones strong, that eating meat and eggs would make me healthy. The exact words are probably somewhere along the lines of ‘’You can’t survive without ________ (insert names of food derived from animals)’’. Obviously, for almost twenty years, I never questioned any of that. That was normal. That was the only thing that made sense. Fortunately, about a year ago, I stumbled upon a video of a girl talking about how she became vegan and how it changed her life. Being me, I had to do A LOT of research before I agreed with anything she said. I watched documentaries, read articles, books, different data, talked to doctors, nutritionists, moms, dads… Here is a small recapitulation of the most important things I found out.
First off, to put it very blatantly, consuming animal products is plain cruel. We are used to it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t cruel. We don’t see them being tortured/killed/raped, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. [Watch the documentary Earthlings if you want to learn more]. It never seemed right to me that we choose some animals as our pets, but have no problem eating others. Also, we judge certain cultures for eating dogs or cats, and others for protecting animals like cows. What makes my dog better than a little piglet that is murdered for its flesh?
Second thing that came to my attention was information about human anatomy VS the anatomy of carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Imagine a human being trying to kill an animal with their own hands. Our teeth are broad and flattened (very different from omnivores’ and carnivores’ pointed teeth), our colon is long and complex (very different from omnivores’ and carnivores short and simple colon), our nails are flattened (you guessed it, very different from omnivores’ and carnivores’ sharp claws), our saliva has carbohydrate-digesting enzymes, while those two groups don’t share that quality with us. Plot twist, herbivores share every single one of those features with humans. Last but definitely not least, the length of the small intestine. While carnivores have a small intestine 3 - 6 times their body length, and omnivores 4 - 6 times, both of which have relatively smooth interior surface, humans and herbivores have a small intestine that is 10-12 times their body length and is also very fluted and striated. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, I’ll break it down very easily.
Having short and smooth intestines allows certain animals to digest rotting flesh, animal protein, trans fatty acids and cholesterol very quickly. That leaves them with unclogged arteries, unlike humans who get numerous diseases, in spite of constantly being told by many scientists that animal foods are killing them. Just think of it this way, carni and omnivores’ intestines are so short that the flesh they eat can just “go through” without causing damage, while ours’, which were created for fruits and vegetables, that take much less time to digest, are left with disgusting rotting flesh for hours, and that causes major health problems. And I’m not even going to mention all of the hormones, antibiotics, terrible food etc they put in the animals whose produce we later consume.
Dairy. Ugh. Don’t even get me started on that. (I know you didn’t, I just like being more dramatic). First off, it is disgustingly cruel. In order to produce milk, cows obviously have to get pregnant. That doesn’t happen magically, or romantically, nor gives any pleasure to the animals. Bye, bye sex; hello rape! It occurs once a year for each cow. They are either raped by a worker’s bare hand, or a long steel device that injects them with bull semen. They carry their babies for 9 and a half months (obviously in terrible conditions; illusions of happy cows on green pastures are, well, illusions), and when they finally give birth, their babies are stolen from them. Cows are very intelligent creatures. If you watch a video or two, you will be crushed by the excruciating sound of their screams when the calves are taken. Mother cows show panic-like behavior, you can see the terror in their eyes. Male calves are useless to the dairy industry, so they are imprisoned by the veal industry. That goes something like this: They are shoved into tiny crates, sometimes with ropes or chains tied around them, so they cannot move, because movement would cause their flesh to be less tender, which is the opposite of what people like their veal to be like; After a short amount of time, they are killed. As for their moms, they get machines hooked up to their udders several times a day to get as much milk as possible from them. Yum fact: That causes many infections in and outside of the udder, causing pus to get mixed with milk. Yes, pasteurization exists, but it only “cleans” the pus, it doesn’t remove it! The average bottle of milk contains around 350 million pus cells per liter!
Now that we’ve gotten through the “Milk isn’t that tasty anymore” part, we get to the real deal. Mammals make milk. Our moms made milk, we drank it. My puppy’s mom made milk, he drank it. Did I drink his mom’s milk? Spoiler alert, I didn’t. Why? Obviously, because dog’s milk is for dogs and human milk is for humans. Well, somehow humans got confused. They thought it was a good idea to take milk from a cow (What weird psychopath was the first one who did that?!). And I get it, a looooong time ago, humans needed different food sources to keep them very well fed and fat so they could survive winters. Well, it seems that now we have heating and warm clothes, and also enough science and technology to know what’s good for us and what’s not. The human body has NO NEED for cow milk. No other animal consumes other animals’ milk in the wilderness, so why would we? Cow milk is naturally filled with an enormous amount of hormones, lipids, proteins, sodium to make a baby calf grow 10 times its size as soon as possible. How does it seem right that I, a girl who weighs 55kg, or let alone a child who weighs 10, should drink the same fluid that an animal, which weighs about a tone, drinks. And we are surprised by the fact that the average person is getting more obese and that the average age for girls getting their period is dropping by the decade.
Also, dairy is actually bad for the bones. This might be mindblowing, it was for me too, but it’s true. Animal protein causes our blood and tissue to become acidic (which is the opposite of what you want; a cause of many diseases). When that happens, our body actually withdraws calcium phosphate from the bones and uses the alkaline mineral phosphate to keep Ph levels of blood and tissue balanced. The calcium then leaves our body through urine. Countries like the US that consume the largest amount of milk in a year, also have the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world.
I’ve already taken up a lot of your time, and this isn’t even the beginning, but I have to stop at some point. The only thing I will add is my personal experience.
I always thought I felt good. I was sick every once in a while, but got used to it and was convinced it was my “genetically bad immune system”. I did nap a lot during the day, and never had enough energy for any physical activity, but told myself I was just “too lazy”. I swear to God, the first week I changed my diet by eliminating meat, eggs and dairy, but at the same time keeping track of what I was eating (good carbohydrates, lots and lots of fruit, veggies, legumes, rice, potatoes, some nuts etc) and making sure I was consuming enough protein and vitamins, I saw a MASSIVE progress. I was waking up at 8 o’clock, no alarm. I didn’t take one nap during the day. I was more focused (our brain is fueled by carbs). I started running. I didn’t get sick. My allergies got a lot better. My period cramps stopped. After a while my acne got better.
Why is it that when my grandma got cancer, doctors told her to cut off any animal products and start consuming more alkaline based foods in her diet, but no one tells us that before we get sick? Why aren’t we told sooner? Because that doesn’t help the big guys earn money. The meat/egg/dairy industry earns MAD CASH by promoting their products. I never see commercials or billboards for bananas or rice, but I see ones for sausages and pašteta and burgers and milk and cheese all day long. They know they have to keep brainwashing us because otherwise we would naturally go back to eating good, healthy food. Also, notice how we have commercials for animal products, and also bunch of ads for different kinds of medication, usually a minute apart from each other. Would we need the latter without the former?
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