Vegan article (draft)

Vegan article

Many people become vegan for a wide variety of reasons. These consist of helping the environment, fighting for animal’s freedom and rights and for the huge health benefits that come with being vegan.

Vegans are strongly in favor of animal equality. Being vegan is about living a lifestyle that does not cause suffering, harm or death to animals. Other animals are sentient beings like us, with their own needs and freedom to life. Over 56 billion farmed animals are killed every year by humans, more than 3,000 die every second in slaughterhouses around the world. To ensure they show their support towards stopping the killings of these innocent animals they wont purchase anything that has been created from animals and tested upon animals. This involves foods, clothes, perfumes, household products and home furnishings. Vegans avoid the use of wearing clothes that have been made with the skin, hair, or feathers of an animal. This also includes fur, leather, wool and silk. As a substitute vegans can wear plant based fabrics such as cotton, linen, hemp, handmade materials such as polyester, acrylic and nylon. The vegan society’s trademark sunflower symbol can be found upon a wide range of products, guaranteeing that these products do not contain animal products, nor have been tested on animals. This isn’t the only way vegans show respect to animals. Avoiding environments where animals are kept for entertainment is a must. These places consist of circuses with the use of animals, zoos, hunting, safari parks, aquariums, horseraces and much more (all places animals are kept for human profit). There are many other practical ways to help show your support towards animal equality, such as, organized street demonstrations, information stalls, giving talks at events, and much more.

Cutting out foods that have come from animal isn’t only supporting animal’s rights but is hugely benefiting the environment. Animals are mass-produced all around the world and this places a huge burden on the environment. A large amount of crops and water are being used for the production of these animals. Not only this but rainforests around the world are being destroyed so that animals can be mass-produced only to be sent the slaughterhouse (1 Lb. beef = 200 square meters of rainforest destroyed). Eating a steak for a family of four is the equivalent, energy-wise, of driving around in an SUV for three hours while leaving the light on at home. Not only this but a large amount of emissions are generated throughout the use of clearing land for animals to be stored, keeping the animals alive, slaughtering them and then the transportation involved in the process. The major sources of pollution are from animal wastes, antibiotics, and chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feed crops. All these sources pollute over eight percent of global human water use. Whereas a vegan diet requires a third of the water and a third of the land to produce a vegan based diet than it would to produce an animal based diet. Vegans are working to re-wild pastureland and allow forests to regenerate; this would provide homes for millions of wildlife animals. Becoming vegan will allow for this land to be used to provide plant-based food for the growing population of 870 million people suffering from hunger and malnutrition.

Many people will become vegan for the large health benefits that come with cutting out foods that come from animals. The plant-based sources of these nutrients tend to be low in saturated fats, high in fibre and packed with antioxidants, helping mitigate some of the modern worlds biggest health issues like obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Whole gains, vegetables, and fruits contain no cholesterol and are low in fat. If you follow a vegan diet you can still look after your heart by eating at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. A recent study indicated that the average vegan diet is higher in vitamin C and fibre than one containing meat, leading to vegans to have a lower BMI than meat eaters. Switching to a plant-based diet can still provide you with the essential nutrients, proteins, omega 3 fatty acids, iron and calcium as someone who eats meat and dairy products; the only thing you lose is the essential vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is usually accessed through meats. Vitamin B12 deficiency can be caused from a lack of the vitamin. The deficiency can lead to side effects such as anemia, nerve damage, heart disease and more, so it’s very important to still get this vitamin even on a vegan diet. Vegans can gain supplements of B12 through foods such as plant milks, yeast extracts, whole grain bread and more. Vegans find that the benefits of getting your vitamin B12 through these substitute foods means you are more likely to maintain a healthy blood and nervous system than to someone gaining the vitamin through meat. There many nutritional benefits guaranteed when becoming vegan.