Veganism
What?
As illustrated in my values piece, I have a passion for equality. This means that I am driven to support and exercise equality for all sexes, sexual orientation, races, and religions. Another equality example that isn’t highlighted as often is equality for all species. I think that it is important to highlight that all animals, including humans, are all needed to run a cohesive and effective ecosystem. Besides the natural food chain, no species is more important or “superior” in the sense of importance than the next. No, I am not a hippy and I am not an extremest, I just tend to remind myself of the importance of all creatures regularly. So that is my value, but my passion and interest that derives from that value is veganism. Veganism is the act of eating a diet free for any animal derivatives. It is a step farther from vegetarianism, which is the act of eating a diet free from animals (meat). Animal derivatives include milk, eggs, gelatin, and other that include the previous items.
So What?
Veganism has shaped my view on the world and has led me to become passionate about the environment and preserving it and it’s containing species. I first became vegan after watching the documentary “Forks Over Knives”. This documentary highlights the absurdities associated with veganism and contradicts them with fact and reason. A common thought of veganism is that they don’t get enough protein to build muscle and become very thin and pasty. To counter that, the documentary interviews a buff firefighter who has lived on a plant-based diet for years. My path then took on the snow-ball effect. The more videos and research that I conducted, the more passionate I became about it. My mother gave me a grocery budget, and off of that I learned how to manage finances and plan ahead for the week as far as ingredients. I began to cook all of my own meals and manage my nutrition. This taught me independence and responsibility. As time went on I sought out YouTube as my source of community. I was the only vegan I had ever met and had feelings of isolation, but the vegan community of YouTube became incredibly inspiring. I even gained the confidence the challenge myself to eat raw vegan for an entire summer, which consists of eating only uncooked fruits, veggies, and nuts. I believe that veganisms captivates my interest because it has improve my health and I feel at peace with myself as far as society is concerned. I don’t feel as if I take advantage of the earth or my resources, but instead utilize what humans have learned in agriculture to gain full nutrition while causing no harm to others.
Now What?
Veganism has inspiring a couple goals of mine that I have yet to achieve or dive into. I hope to use my college years to further explore my goals and also set new goals along the way. My main goal is to focus on nutrition and begin to eat foods to gain natural vitamins to help my immune system, skin, and overall health. I want to incorporate some of the valuable skills I learned while eating raw and use my diet to achieve optimal mental and physical health. This is a challenging goal for college because the food court is limiting, as well as the surrounding places that don’t cater towards veganism. This also leads into my next goal which is to go around and meet the vegan communities within Cincinnati. I want to frequent the vegan restaurants downtown and support their cause while also shopping at the local farmer markets. I want to take some environmental course at the University of Cincinnati to gain a better understanding of the environment and how else I can support the environmental community as well. I also want to attend one of the national vegan conferences to gain a better sort of community and a higher level of inspiration.
As illustrated in my values piece, I have a passion for equality. This means that I am driven to support and exercise equality for all sexes, sexual orientation, races, and religions. Another equality example that isn’t highlighted as often is equality for all species. I think that it is important to highlight that all animals, including humans, are all needed to run a cohesive and effective ecosystem. Besides the natural food chain, no species is more important or “superior” in the sense of importance than the next. No, I am not a hippy and I am not an extremest, I just tend to remind myself of the importance of all creatures regularly. So that is my value, but my passion and interest that derives from that value is veganism. Veganism is the act of eating a diet free for any animal derivatives. It is a step farther from vegetarianism, which is the act of eating a diet free from animals (meat). Animal derivatives include milk, eggs, gelatin, and other that include the previous items.
So What?
Veganism has shaped my view on the world and has led me to become passionate about the environment and preserving it and it’s containing species. I first became vegan after watching the documentary “Forks Over Knives”. This documentary highlights the absurdities associated with veganism and contradicts them with fact and reason. A common thought of veganism is that they don’t get enough protein to build muscle and become very thin and pasty. To counter that, the documentary interviews a buff firefighter who has lived on a plant-based diet for years. My path then took on the snow-ball effect. The more videos and research that I conducted, the more passionate I became about it. My mother gave me a grocery budget, and off of that I learned how to manage finances and plan ahead for the week as far as ingredients. I began to cook all of my own meals and manage my nutrition. This taught me independence and responsibility. As time went on I sought out YouTube as my source of community. I was the only vegan I had ever met and had feelings of isolation, but the vegan community of YouTube became incredibly inspiring. I even gained the confidence the challenge myself to eat raw vegan for an entire summer, which consists of eating only uncooked fruits, veggies, and nuts. I believe that veganisms captivates my interest because it has improve my health and I feel at peace with myself as far as society is concerned. I don’t feel as if I take advantage of the earth or my resources, but instead utilize what humans have learned in agriculture to gain full nutrition while causing no harm to others.
Now What?
Veganism has inspiring a couple goals of mine that I have yet to achieve or dive into. I hope to use my college years to further explore my goals and also set new goals along the way. My main goal is to focus on nutrition and begin to eat foods to gain natural vitamins to help my immune system, skin, and overall health. I want to incorporate some of the valuable skills I learned while eating raw and use my diet to achieve optimal mental and physical health. This is a challenging goal for college because the food court is limiting, as well as the surrounding places that don’t cater towards veganism. This also leads into my next goal which is to go around and meet the vegan communities within Cincinnati. I want to frequent the vegan restaurants downtown and support their cause while also shopping at the local farmer markets. I want to take some environmental course at the University of Cincinnati to gain a better understanding of the environment and how else I can support the environmental community as well. I also want to attend one of the national vegan conferences to gain a better sort of community and a higher level of inspiration.