Becoming a Vegan?

Depending on one's level of commitment this canhas been linked to heart disease, colon and lung
include not using certain medicines because they arecancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease,
tested for safety on animals. A Vegan will not buy orhypertension, obesity, and a number of other
use animal products whether that's a steak, an egg,debilitating conditions. Cows' milk contains ideal
bread with milk in it or leather shoes. The overall goalamounts of fat and protein for young calves, but far
of veganism is to reduce animal suffering,too much for humans. According to Gill Langley, a
environmental damage, hunger in the developingPh.D. in biology and author of Vegan Nutrition, "it is
world and risks to our own health. Veganism takes allclear from the example of many thousands of
those advantages just a little further. For very manyvegans worldwide that a varied plant-based diet not
people concerned about any or all of these problems,only supports health and well-being but, additionally,
it seems the natural step to take from vegetarianism.can have positive health benefits" (Langley 1995). A
Why do people choose to become Vegan?vegan diet is protective against such major killers as
Animal Welfare - Despite the common belief thatheart disease and cancer.
drinking milk or eating eggs does not kill animals,Eating fewer animal products is a good choice for the
commercially raised dairy cows and egg-layingenvironment and your conscious. Animal agriculture
chickens, whether factory-farmed or 'free range,' areproduces surprisingly large amounts of air and water
slaughtered when their production rates decline, notpollution, and causes 80 percent of the world's annual
to mention the appalling conditions to which they aredeforestation. It also requires large amounts of
kept. There is an ongoing debate on the finer pointswater, and livestock worldwide consumes half the
of what constitutes an animal product; The Veganworld's total grain harvest.
Society and most vegans include insect productsHow Do I Know it's Vegan?
such as honey in their definition as well.When shopping, look out for the vegan society logo.
The environment - Animal agriculture takes aIt appears on thousands of animal free products that
devastating toll on the earth. It is an inefficient wayhave been registered with The Vegan Society.
of producing food, since feed for farm animalsYou will need to examine the packaging and labelling
requires land, water, fertilizer, and other resourcescarefully of all non registered products to ensure that
that could otherwise have been used directly foryou avoid animal by-products such as gelatin and
producing human food.rennet which can be found in everyday items such as
Health - The consumption of animal fats and proteinschildren's sweets.