With all the drama hitting the vegan community lately, with high-profile vegan influencers quitting being vegan, let me just make it clear. Vegan is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle deeply rooted in animal compassion and ethics. It goes beyond one’s way of eating, it’s a lifestyle overhaul: unlearning what you have learned with sincerest desire to cause the least harm to animals. Hence, you don’t eat, buy, use and support anything that supports animal cruelty.
With that said, vegan does not automatically translate to healthy because you can be vegan and eat junk food or processed food all the time. You can be vegan and follow trends that promote starvation and restriction which has no medical claim nor study to boot. Vegan is different from whole food plant-based which is centered on health, mainly, chronic disease prevention and reversal via consumption of vegetables and fruits which by the way, have tons upon tons of clinical studies to back up plant nutrition.
So can you be vegan and whole food plant-based? Absolutely! I am vegan for the animals and the planet and whole food plant based for my health.
Labels. They are there for us to understand and imbibe. You can call yourself anything, but don’t circumvent the definition to fit your own want.
If you want proper health guidance, there are thousands of whole food plant-based and vegan healthcare professionals who can provide sound advice, especially if your health is at stake. Not a YouTuber who has zero medical degree or knowledge on health management. Not an influencer who’s all about looking thin and skinny. Health is not about that at all.
Whole food plant-based is not an extreme way of eating. It’s not all about a bowl of salad every single day. There are thousands of palatable recipes you can google or watch on YouTube (I share easy recipes here and on Instagram).
Veganism is not an extreme lifestyle, there are thousands of options out there, and being vegan now, at this day and age, is hundred times easier than it was years prior. Everything can be veganized (ha, even Gordon Ramsay has vegan options now in his restaurant). If you can’t stand to watch how meat is prepared before it reaches your table, then maybe it’s time for you to re-evaluate your choices. Watch Earthlings and Dominion documentaries, these will help you transition.
Veganism is a journey (read my story). Whole-food plant based is a journey. Enjoy the ride. Don’t allow the negatives affect your ray of light.
Be kind to every kind.
PS: I am healthcare professional by trade (RN). Our medical clinic has plant-based lifestyle program to our patients where I share practical tips and recipes (doctor handles the clinical side). Aside from my own personal experience, I have witnessed patients and other people reversed and managed their chronic disease after switching to vegan whole-food plant based, my husband is one of the success stories. He completely reversed his hypertension and high cholesterol by simply switching to this healthy lifestyle. No medications needed.
I really love your approach on veganism. You do what’s good for you, you educate and share but never make me feel bad for my own choices which include meats. With that said, I do like the recipes you put out there!
Thanks so much. I’m not pushy with my lifestyle choice. I have friends that are not vegans and going out/eating out is never a problem with us as long as that place has something for me.
Love how you ended this post. It’s all about being kind to all kinds 💗
Thank you! xo
It’s hard to be vegan in food unless you are really in love with the diet which you are. It’s wonderful to be vegan with lifestyle products though and
I hope more and more people start understanding that.
Very good post. I have known a few vegans who also happened to hate vegetables, which is often a disaster waiting to happen. They eventually had to decide which they hated more; vegetables or animal cruelty.
I used to associate veganism eaters as primarily salad eaters until I came across a few that despise vegetables. It’s good to be healthy, and ultimately we can only make the best decisions for ourselves.
Yes. We are what we eat.
I know that when I tried eating vegan I could not do it easily and I was not able to find a way to be healthy and do it because of my health issues and food allergies. That said, I commend anyone who can. I love the whole harm reductionist mindset.
Great post! Vegan isn’t healthy if you’re going to gorge on greasy or deep-fried food, but it automatically becomes super-healthy if you eschew processed food in favour of nutrient-dense plant-based food. This doesn’t equal raw veggies 4x a day either! I got an air-fryer recently for when I want something nice and crunchy without oil, and it works a treat. WFPB has helped me knock off my post-acne-depression weight gain, and control my allergies (wheat, mostly, so I’m a gluten-free WFPB eater, though there are people around me who tend to “prank” me into wheat exposure, and learn only when I end up in the ER with anaphylaxis and urticaria), and acne to a large extent. I’m never going back!
I’m glad to read this Renu. Nature is the best medicine! Let’s continue to be the proof of whole food plant based lifestyle. Been on this journey 12 years and counting. We are what we eat