#explaining veganism

[theonlinevegan]

[theonlinevegan]

[shitmeateaterssay-blog]

I need help convincing my grandma that I can be a healthy vegan. She claims that she had healthy friends who tried going vegan but had terrible health complications. I need facts and research done about the health and safety of a vegan diet!

Step number one: do lots of research! Seriously, every little bit of information that you learn will not only help your grandmother see that veganism isn’t inherently unhealthy, but you will also learn how to be the healthiest vegan that you can be. Some good places to start: http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/19/ and health section posts on PETA. But seriously, there are heaps of sources out there about why and how a vegan diet actually reduces the risk of health complications, not increases them. You can gather a lot of info by researching and talking to other vegans :)

But here’s the thing. There’s a psychological phenomenon called availability heuristic. Basically it means that when someone hears something (especially from a source they trust/know well, such as friends), they’ll look to that as truth because it’s the knowledge that’s easiest to access. So even if you present to your grandmother a metric fuckton of evidence that veganism is healthier, the opinions and stories from her friends are going to take precedence over removed research in her mind. So that sucks. And it can be really frustrating. So talking to your grandmother, being polite, explaining why veganism is important to you personally is going to be very effective, perhaps even more so than the empirical evidence you give to her. Find the reasons why veganism is important to you, and why you feel healthier, the changes that you’ve seen in your life, and present that to her passionately, letting facts back it up. I think that’s your most effective tool!

Good luck! Any more questions feel free to ask xx