HELLO FROM NYC...i'm very curious!!!
Well i would like to introduce myself as a college student struggling to maintain my vegan lifestyle. I have been a vegetarian for my entire life, but I have been a vegan for only about a year. I love the recipes on this website and now that I have some free time, I am trying to be a bit more active and maybe meet some other members. :)
I feel that there are so many reasons to promote vegetarianism/veganism. I was raised as a vegetarian for religious purposes and grew attracted to the idea of veganism for the health benefits. I learned so much from reading Skinny Bitch. The more i study veganism, the more I appreciate my ability to prevent animal cruelty.
I do have some question for you all....
What brought you to being a vegan or vegetarian? Why do you feel that many medical professionals do not recognize the various health benefits of a vegan/vegetarian diet?
Thank You!
Welcome!
I was ovo-lacto vegetarian for a long time and enjoyed the health benefits. (I slipped and went off that band wagon for a couple of years during that time, but went back to it). I transitioned to veganism because of the animal cruelty.
I think the medical establishment does recognize the value and benefits of a veg*n diet because the research is solid. However, they are not good at promoting it, probably because they are not veg*n themselves, and are victims of an establishment that promotes meat eating. Many in the medical establishment don't have faith in the public and don't like to tell them what they don't want to hear. I'm happy that they are at least promoting that people eat more fruits and vegetables.
Hello and welcome.
What prompted me to become vegan was actually my teacher, Mr. Crow. I dont know if he was veg*n or anything but he taught my enviromental sience class. Every 3 weeks in that class we had to do a project that would benifit the environment (cleaning beaches, volunteering at a recycling center, build bat houses, ect) well after I had done all of the ones that seemed interesting to me he suggested for my next project I become vegetarian and research and promote the idea to others.
It only took about 2 weeks of being vegetarian to decide I wanted to stay one, it was so much easier then trying to force myself to finish the meat dishes my mother used to place in front of me (and here I just thought I was a picky eater lol). After about a month I went vegan. It'll be 2 years this november.
As for your other question I feel its because the meat and dairy industries are so powerful and have influence (money) in so many differnt companies. That and doctors get maybe about one credit hour worth of nutritional classes in their 8 years of medical school. Most doctors are more concerned with finding solutions (medicines and surgeries) to problems rather then stopping them in the first place (I.e Proper diet/nutrition). Im not bashing doctors or anything, I'm just saying that the JOB of a doctor is finding solutions instead of preventing the problem in the first place.
Hi - welcome!
Most MD's don't get a huge amount of nutrition training, from my understanding, outside of pathological concerns such as the clinical presentation of various vitamin deficiencies, etc; bigPharm funds most research/ medical seminars now,and rewards docs for prescribing whatever with cash/ travel/ perks, which healthy diets do not; and I think most MDs come into it with the expectation that people are NOT going to change their habits, and would rather have a pill (too often, of course, they're right). Then again, the doc population is bound to echo the population of the broader culture; and purely-planteaters are fairly rare (something like 1% of the general pop of US, per vrg.org)... so a lot of docs (like a lot of people in general) just don't know much about a vegan diet, and so may be uneasy with it... I think it may be changing, with continued research supporting the reduced risk of cancer/ heart disease/ stroke/ diabetes/ etc; but many med articles I've come across seem to assume that people won't DO it, so it's not worth too much attention...
Silly.
Maybe changing, though, however slowly?! time will tell.
Anyhow -- glad you're here!
:)
:)
Welcome lovelyvegan! To be vegan in NYC! Total dream come true... it is a vegan mecca!
Sorry, I just love the food there, I got off topic. I became vegan after reading John Robbin's "Diet For a New America", it totally changed my life. That, along with Robbin's "Food Revolution", really spoke to me. I hope that Jonathan Safran-Foer's "Eating Animals" does that for the next generation, such powerful books. As far as medical professionals, I think a lot of it has to do with not receiving that much education in nutrition in medical school, they really just don't know very much. The best thing to do when seeking out nutrition advice is to go to a vegan friendly nutritionist or dietician. My two cents!
Have fun on VegWeb, and if you ever have any questions, concerns or just want to chat, I'm here!
Best,
WebMistress Laura
WebMistress Laura,
Thanks for your feedback! I'm going to look for those books. And yes, being a vegan in nyc is great. There are so many opportunities!
I lived on a completely self sufficient farm for a while, we had to take turns slaughtering dinner, i decided then that if i wasn't willing to kill it myself, i wasn't willing to eat it either some time after that i read a book on veganism that set me on the path i am now