Being Vegan: FAQs

A month ago, I went vegan (I know I told some of you guys that it was 3 weeks ago; it was an estimate that I told you). A lot of people have inquired as to why I have gone vegan, and how it is different from   a standard diet (omnivore). I have decided to write and post answers to your questions that have been more thought through and researched, and not what I can remember on a bus.

Let me start off with five general reasons to be vegan written by Lindsay S. Nixon, the author of Everyday Happy Herbivore.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT EXACT TEXT FROM HER BOOKS (EXCEPT 2), 4), AND 5)), IT HAS BEEN SLIGHTLY EDITED FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING WHILE MAINTAINING WHAT THE FIVE REASONS ARE

1) Health:
Vegan diets have no dietary cholesterol, meaning no chemicals that constrict arteries and increase blood pressure (Heart attack risk is dramatically cut down to natural heart attacks of old age). A low-fat vegan diet is low in calories and high in fiber. Some studies show that a low-fat vegan diet can prevent, cure, and reverse devastating diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and cancer; 15 of the leading causes of death can be reversed, cured, and prevented with a plant-based diet.

2) Wallet:
A vegan diet can be a bargain. Vegan staples like beans, rice, and non-dairy milks will cost you a fraction of the price of meats and dairy products. Plus, eating healthfully will save you health care products in the long run.

3) Animals:
Standard animal treatment is horrifyingly brutal psychologically and physically. The animal's life is usually filled with torture and ends long and painfully. The standard way of getting dairy is keeping a cow permanently pregnant in order to make it produce milk. The cows stand in fenced off areas and have their milk painfully pumped out. They are fed poorly and are treated almost exactly the same way Nazis treated Jewish prisoners at concentration camps. Once the cow dies from exhaustion, the body is thrown away and buried beneath landfills. Most of the cows that are milked last 4 years after they are able to be impregnated. As a consumer picking up the end product, it's easy to be oblivious rather than conscious.

4) Environment:
The vegan diet is the most eco-friendly and sustainable way we can eat.

5) Humanity:
It is said that if the world went vegetarian (Not even vegan), we would almost immediately end world hunger. One acre of land can either produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes, or a measly 165 pounds of meat.

Now, onto the FAQs.

1. Why don't vegans eat meat, and how do you get your protein if you don't eat meat?

To better understand why vegans don't eat meat, it's best to look at the health effects first.
Studies show that, health wise, veganism is a better option. Why? Well, for starters, let's have a look at nutrition. Protein is the first thing most people relate to meat and nutrition, as meat is dense with protein. Not heavily dense, just dense. However, the amount of usable protein is around 20% by weight. Meat protein isn't nutritionally dense either, inflicting a significant amount of calories along with the protein. Meat protein also tends to inhibit colon cancer. How much energy the body puts into processing the meat to get the protein and nutrients is also a drain on how much energy the body has left to use in other activities. Vegans generally have more energy than those of a standard omnivore diet, meaning more energy to put to the immune system, physical activity, brain activity, etc. Meat also has high levels of cholesterol; funnily enough countries that consume the most meat have "Heart Failure" as one of the leading causes of death. Just to add onto the negative health effects of eating meat, studies show that there are bacterial toxins present only in meat which cannot be killed by boiling, refrigeration, microwaving the meat, and other forms of preparing meat. This bacterial toxin is targeted by the human body (as the toxins inflammate the vascular system), but it takes a huge amount of energy for a body to fully remove all of the bacterial toxin from the system. By the time the human body starts to return to it's normal state of being, it's usually time for another meal which strains the body yet again. The process of irradication of the bacterial toxins from the system usually takes 5-6 hours. This process is made harder to complete to the human body as the animal fat increases absorption of the toxins into the blood stream. On top of this the immune system has to fight and kill every other germ in the air, as well as process the meat (Harder to process than plants), grow (unless you're an adult), and do it's normal routine. Also, above all else; as of last year the Health Guidelines updated stating that the recommended guidelines for blood pressure (on a planet where heart failure is a leading cause of death) were too high.

After the largest health study in human history, scientists have found that people on the Standard diet have more cancer cases than vegan diets, and vegan diets deal with cancer more efficiently. Upon studying the fastest growing tumours  such as lymphoma, are most likely to occur in those who live on the Standard Diet, and had an even higher risk for those who consume more poultry. Consuming half a chicken breast can triple your risk of getting lymphoma.
Moving on with cancer; a study by the Peritikin Research Foundation a few years ago decided to put two groups of people on different diets. One group was on a vegan diet while the other was on the Standard Diet. They then drew the blood from both groups and put both kinds of blood in petri-dishes with a cancer growth to test which kind of blood was the least hospitable to cancer and/or how much the blood suppressed cancer growth. The results of the study showed that while the Standard Diet suppressed the cancer by 9%, while those on a Vegan Diet had blood that suppressed cancer by 70%, meaning the test concluded that vegan blood was around 8 times as good as suppressing cancer.

CAUTION: THE NEXT PARAGRAPHS ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED AND FRANKLY NOT FOR  MOST AUDIENCES. VIEWER DISCRETION/PARENTAL GUIDANCE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

As of so far, you have read the health affects of Vegan vs. Standard diets. Now, let me answer another crucial part of this question: Where the meat comes from.
As you might have read in the 5 Reasons to Become Vegan, cows are mistreated for milk. However, I am answering the question of where the meat comes from, starting with the life of the cows.
The cows are constantly moving, being deprived of sleep. They are fed small amounts of cow feed and are even sometimes fed cow. The cows grow up being hit and whipped, leaving sores which are not ever treated. Since they are in a confined space, most cows slowly rub their skin off and bleed. This is not treated either. Some of the more aggressive cow handlers will electrocute the cow's head to make it move. If this does not work, they will break the cow's tail. After all this suffering, they put the cows into a large machine that completely encases the cow except for the head and neck. A cow handler will slice the cow's neck and wait for the machine to empty the cow. The machine usually slams a large metal plate against the cow's throat, and then throws the cow onto the floor next to it. The floor is always covered in blood and never cleaned. At this point, the cow writhes around in pain and attempts to call for others to help him like any animal would (instinct). This is usually replied with another cow being thrown onto the floor, just as helpless and also in immense pain; both cows cannot make much of a sound except for incredibly loud squealing. The dying cows will be one of millions to die, and what's left of the bodies will end up in a land fill.

Chickens are born into the mechanical world and left in a small pen with the other chicks. These chicks are soon put on a conveyer belt after they are all fluffy. At the end of the conveyer belt, workers grab the chicks and snip off the beak. This is done to all chickens. The de-beaker has a dull blade mostly and so most beaks will be fractured and imprecise. Since these beaks are still relatively sharp and/or pointy, they peck other chickens and end up causing large infected wounds. These wounds are then rubbed in by the sides of the cages the chickens grow in. They all grow in solitude, and can hear other chickens suffering. Once the chickens get older, they start to rub off their feathers on the edges of the battery cages and this causes irritance. Naturally, they try and stop the infection by pecking at it much like a human would do to a scab. This continuously infects the skin even more until the chicken dies or gets killed. By the way, the handlers simply put the chickens on a conveyer belt hanging by their feet and then they get their throat slit by a chainsaw. They die slowly bleeding from the neck.

Pigs are put under the same conditions as the cows and chickens: They grow up in a dirty filthy area, they unintentionally harm themselves opening their flesh to the bacteria in the air. Handlers hit the pigs repeatedly with a stick in order to make the pig do something. The pigs get an infected and inflamed area and suffer from it. They get impregnated and then the babies are taken away from the mother, which in any species gets the same reaction. The mother and father are then hung from a forklift by their necks and then get slit in the throat. They grunt and whimper until they die.

Meat consumption is energy straining, unhealthy to certain parts of the body, and also comes from horrifyingly brutal lives of animals, while veganism is just healthy, is used to prevent, reverse, and cure most if not all leading causes of death and a healthier lifestyle, and also gives you more energy.

Now, you can gain your protein and nutrients from meat and suffer the side effects and promote the suffering of animals across the globe, or get all your nutrients from plants with no negative side affects whatsoever and promote healthy eating. After all, it is your choice.

Next FAQ tomorrow...

The Age of The Earth/The Actual Year

NOTE: I do not mean to cause any distress/anger/conflict, I am simply conveying scientific findings.

We know that this year is the year 2012. This is based on the christian belief that the Earth is 5000 years old.  This was to explain the large idea when science wasn't that advanced. However, due to radiocarbon dating and other methods, scientists have found enough evidence to state that the Earth is actually in fact +4.5 billion years old. Having that in mind, I wondered: What would the date be if it was based on the actual age of the Earth?

The closest possible answer is 4,564,906,212, meaning that the year is currently (as of 2012) 4,564,906,212.

I got this answer from more sites than I can remember. The first two numbers were easy enough as several sites all stated the crust radiation patterns put the Earth to 4.5-4.7. I then got reinforcements of 4.5 billion when the oldest rock got radiocarbon dated to around 4.5 billion years old. The rest of the numbers were difficult. I got the number 64 million from the age of rare minuscule crystals off a meteorite impact, and fossils of the first life on Earth. 906 thousand years ago was around the time apes started evolving into humans. 212 was added onto the year as that was when modern humanoids and neanderthals existed, and the 12 thousand was around how long human history has lasted for now. I know it's not the most solid date, but it is the closest so far - Believe me, I searched for an hour. Please put your own "Real" Dates in the comments below.