Re-evaluating My Vegetarian Lifestyle

As a couple we went vegetarian back in 1979.  Now that I have hit this road-block of chronic arthritis and seemingly the only way out is to head towards a vegan diet I am spending some time re-assessing the vegan lifestyle, and I am finding I am hit with some surprises.

Looking back I always knew there was serious cruelty to meat and dairy animals in the food industry, not matter what country you live in.  I kind of lived in a pleasant holier-than-thou state thinking that at least I was avoiding the worst by avoiding meat and fish.

What I hadn't realised was how the modern commercial dairy industry has increasingly mistreated cows and hens in the name of cheaper prices at the checkout, and this despite marketing phrases such as organic and free-range.

If you want a comprehensive overview then you could do a lot worse than watch Meat The Truth created by the Dutch political party to fight on a platform of keeping our planet alive by treating animals with the same care we provide to humans.
Over the years I had heard and read many statistics about negative effects of methane gas coming from cows. But I had not fully realised the over-arching effect on our planet's climate.  Specifically the full process of growing, managing, killing and eating cows and other animals has a bigger impact than the planet's cars put together.

But this is a health blog, isn't it?  Yes, and so my my particular perspective I realise the statistics about methane and other negative aspects of animal husbandry in the aim of providing meat on the plate are even more understated in the video than real-life.

The video, in measuring the negative effects of rearing animals for humans to eat the statisticians take into account such things like deforestation on Brazil's rain forest to allow space for growing soya crops and the transportation of harvested crops to Europe.

What the video does not, as yet, include in the equation are the negative health effects.  These include all the drugs made by pharmaceutical companies to make people better from eating meat.  Also to be included are all the hospital running costs to deal with people dying from heart attacks, often caused by meat diets.

Right now I am not trying to convert anyone.   I am just documenting my own awakening triggered by my own health problems.  I said to close friend a couple of weeks or so ago, that had I been a meat-eater for the last 40 years then it could have been quite likely that I would have been one of those heart-attack statistics, or should I say victim.

Instead I hope to enjoy many years in my retirement Arthritis-free, on a vegan diet.