{"id":131168,"date":"2024-02-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/?p=131168"},"modified":"2024-04-03T11:44:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T15:44:41","slug":"why-i-am-vegan-and-how-to-make-it-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yorbestlife.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/why-i-am-vegan-and-how-to-make-it-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Am Vegan (and how to make it easy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leo Babauta<\/a><\/h4>\n

My wife Eva and I have been vegan for over 11 years now, and we love it. I don\u2019t talk about veganism a lot on Zen Habits, but today I\u2019d love to share a little about it, if you\u2019ll indulge me.<\/p>\n

Let me start by talking about why I\u2019m vegan, and then I\u2019ll share a few tips on how to make becoming vegan as easy as possible, in case you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n

So the first thing is that veganism, for me, is about compassion. Yes, it has a huge environmental impact \u2014 probably bigger than anything else you can do, including ditching a car or going electric vehicle. Yes, switching to eating plants can often have a huge health impact, if you\u2019ve been eating a lot of junk and not a lot of veggies. But for me, the reason is compassion.<\/p>\n

Animals are fellow living beings, and even if they aren\u2019t human, I feel they deserve our compassion. Anyone who has a dog or a cat as a loved one knows what I\u2019m talking about, but all of us have looked into the eyes of an animal and felt a heart connection. I believe they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, not as objects for our pleasure. If you agree with that, then I hope you\u2019ll consider learning more about how they\u2019re treated if they\u2019re raised for food or clothing.<\/p>\n

I grew up thinking that meat and dairy and eggs were simply food items \u2014 in the back of my mind, I knew that they came from animals, but I\u2019d been protected from the reality of that. The animal agriculture industry is invested in us not looking more deeply than what we see in the grocery store. But it\u2019s all horrors, if we bother to look.<\/p>\n

So when I found the courage to face this and educate myself, I couldn\u2019t close my eyes any more. I had to decide whether I was willing to ignore these horrors, just so I could have the pleasures of meat, cheese, eggs that I\u2019d grown accustomed to.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re being honest, these foods are for our pleasure. We no longer need to eat animal products to survive, nor thrive. I have been living a very healthy life for over a decade \u2014 I\u2019m strong, not underweight, not anemic, not deficient on any vitamins or minerals. And it hasn\u2019t been hard at all. It doesn\u2019t require a ton of careful planning, nor does it feel like deprivation or sacrifice.<\/p>\n

I love eating vegan food! I eat mostly whole plant food \u2014 lentils, greens, fruits, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, avocados, nuts and seeds make up the majority of my diet lately. But in recent weeks I\u2019ve also had vegan pizza, burgers, fries, cookies, banana bread, donuts, pad Thai, and more. I indulge, and it\u2019s all vegan, and all delicious.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a healthy vegan because:<\/p>\n