Whether you are toying with the idea of adopting a vegan lifestyle or have already taken the leap, this will be of interest to you, providing helpful information and inspiring rewards for changing your dietary habits. Going vegan may sound simple right? It's basically just eating clean and cutting out all animal products. However, while it is relatively straightforward, the wide range of benefits that come with this lifestyle makes it so appealing, some of which you might not have known.
Here we will dive into the benefits of adopting a vegan lifestyle and how this is one of the critical ways of transforming your life.
Transforming your life – Three primary ways veganism will impact you
Many opt to follow a vegan lifestyle for many reasons: religious, environmental, health issues, or even to do a 'detox' occasionally by eating clean, but by changing your diet permanently, you will reap the rewards in many ways. In addition, veganism is well known to be a method many use to reset their body or to combat allergies to certain foods, so why wouldn't you want to continue with these long-lasting effects?
Veganism is a term that is not new to us; in fact, this lifestyle has thrived in recent years, with many more options available in restaurants and supermarkets these days compared to in the past, making it appeal to many more people out there. So yes, going vegan is an incredibly healthy step to take in your life. While many other factors make it one of the most beneficial lifestyles out there, we have a few top reasons why this could be a transformational change for you.
Let's take a look at, and discuss three ways in which adopting a vegan lifestyle will transform your life in ways you didn't think were possible.
- Changing the world
At first, you may not think going vegan will make a difference to the world, but it does. As Mahatma Gandhi once said - 'Be the change you want to see in the world,' By switching to a plant-based diet, you will be amazed at the impact you are making. Not only will your new health-focused lifestyle benefit you and your body, but it will also help combat climate change since we all know that raising animals for human consumption is one of the leading causes of this huge environmental issue.
Take 'Meat Free Monday' for example; this was an initiative which was in association with the John Hopkins School of Public Health to encourage a meat-free day of the week, which not only promotes public health among us but shows us that our impact on the earth can be decreased if we all just take it upon ourselves to adopt this lifestyle just one day a week. Now imagine doing this full-time!!
YOU are changing the world, one meal at a time.
- Conscious eating habits
If you have not heard of conscious eating, let us shine a light on this excellent eating habit, one of the top ways a vegan lifestyle can transform your life. When you take the leap to become vegan, you begin to become more focused on the way you fuel your body; you become conscious of which foods hold which nutrients and which benefits, as well as becoming aware of where your food was grown, whether it was processed or not, who gave their time to harvest this food and so on. The steps of being intentional and purposeful with how you eat and what you eat mean that each meal enters your body with positivity, gratitude, and awareness. This can only encourage your body to thrive.
As well as this, conscious eating slows down your pace since you take the time to taste, smell and feel each ingredient and think about its journey to your plate. This alone is a huge reward for your digestive system and allows your body to take time digesting and allows you to have more control over how much you need to eat to become full rather than overeating at a rapid pace. Mindful eating is something that comes naturally with a vegan lifestyle, and this will, in turn, transform the way you eat.
- Taking control of your health
As we mentioned earlier, many people who have suffered from specific health issues or allergies have resorted to going vegan to eat clean, detoxify the body, and then reintroduce ingredients slowly back into their diet to help identify what their body is sensitive to. By eating clean and including more whole and plant-based foods into your diet, you are lowering your risks of cancer, diabetes, and many other health issues, which is a fantastic and healthy way to control what you sometimes might feel cannot be controlled.
Following a vegan lifestyle has many health benefits but is broader than that; it almost happens naturally without much effort. Once you become aware of the vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients you need for your body and the foods or supplements that provide them, you know that you are in complete control of your health – as best as you can be. This significantly impacts your life since you choose what to fuel your body with and the effects it will have in the long run – the power is in your hands.
The Benefits of Adopting a Vegan Lifestyle – The main reasons
A vegan lifestyle can appeal for many reasons, but truth be told, everyone has their main reason for choosing this way of life – at least at the beginning. As time goes on, your eyes open to the broad spectrum of excellent benefits that go far beyond what you initially thought. Some examples we have listed below include benefits regarding your health, the environment around us, and of course, the lives of innocent animals.
Let's delve into the benefits of adopting a vegan lifestyle:
Environmental Benefits
Studies have shown that just by adopting a vegan diet for merely 24 hours; we would:
- Save 100 billion gallons of water
- 4 billion pounds of crops which would otherwise be used to feed the livestock being raised for our consumption
- 70 million gallons of gas
- 3 million acres of land
- 33 tonnes of antibiotics
- 3 million tonnes of soil erosion
- 5 million tonnes of animal waste – this would, in turn, impact our effect on the environment, reducing the ammonia emissions by 7 tonnes which is a significant factor contributing to climate change
Imagine the impact you will have on your environment when permanently adopting a fully vegan lifestyle. The benefits are endless!
Check out the vegan calculator here to give you an idea of what impact you are personally making.
Health Benefits
- A vegan lifestyle dramatically decreases your risk of many diseases and health issues, including cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
- Reduced risk of depression and other mental health conditions. A vegan diet that is high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, etc., all of which tend to be rich in antioxidants, which are protective against depression. While a vegan lifestyle is not recommended as the only way to treat depression, it is a fantastic way to support your overall mental health.
- Weight Management: Following a vegan lifestyle is a great way to stay on track with your weight and shed any extra pounds that may be putting pressure on your joints and organs. Vegan diets are rich in vital nutrients, minerals, and vitamins while being very low in saturated fat and cholesterol, allowing your body to find its prime weight in the best way possible.
- Studies have shown that vegan diets, which are high in antioxidant-rich foods, may significantly decrease symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Animal Welfare
While many companies these days claim to raise and humanely slaughter animals, it doesn't hide the fact that these animals are sacrificing their lives regardless of how they have been raised. Let's look at it this way, animals are bred to suffer and die on farms because of our demand for meat, and by following a vegan lifestyle, the need lessens and lessens, which leaves no use for these methods.
One of the top reasons people choose to go vegan is purely because of animal welfare, or lack thereof. While a vegan lifestyle has many benefits, which we have mentioned earlier in terms of positively impacting the environment and your health, we cannot forget that this also has a significant impact on the lives of animals.
The connection between what we eat and where it comes from has become lost along the way, and gone are the days when each of us had to hunt for our survival food, instead these days, we can go to a butcher and pick up meat for dinner without having to think twice. But, when you stop to look at the methods and processes that went into preparing this meat, you regain that connection and begin to put things into perspective. That connection, that education is the way we take positive steps to improve the world around us, including the animals we share the world with.
Conclusion – What makes a vegan lifestyle so beneficial?
So, what have we learned about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle and how it can transform our lives? Of course, we realize that people become vegan for many reasons by breaking it down. Still, by following a vegan lifestyle, we can be proud that we are positively impacting the world around us without even realizing it.
We have the power to change the world, take control of our health, and stand up for animals and our environment by changing our eating habits, and if that is not a huge motivation to live vegan, we don't know what is.
'Be the change you want to see in the world' - Mahatma Gandhi