A Young Voice
veganism, environment, animal rights, health and fitness
Famous Vegans!!
There are a lot of inspiring people in the world. For me, famous vegans are on the top of the list! Some of the people in this list are very surprising, others you might already know about. Take a moment to browse these articles about famous vegans.
Either way, each and every one of these amazing people share a strong passion for health, environment, animals, etc. and I hope that you are just as inspired as I am! Some of the most recognizable ones are:
From top to bottom, left to right; Venus Williams (pro-tennis), Billie Eilish (singer, songwriter), Scott Jurek (ultra marathon record holder), Jason Mraz (singer), Ariana Grande (singer), Sadie Sink (actor), Kyrie Irving (pro basketball), James Cameron (movie director) , and Joaquin Phoenix (actor).
There are so many more amazing people who have chosen to be vegan. These are just a few examples that I think about when people ask what famous people are vegan.
Advertising
INTRO
The Earth dying, people dying, animals dying, forests dying, the ocean dying…. why are people not informed that the animal industries are giant contributors to each and every one of those stated? I’ll give you one word for that answer….Advertising. Ok, two words. Advertising and Money.
After learning all the facts about veganism, I was absolutely bewildered! I just couldn’t understand why the heck I had never even heard these things before. Then I watched What the Health. I learned that the meat, dairy and egg industries are all owned by the government. Why is this important you ask? Wellllll, think about it, the government is very powerful (obviously), so basically they will do anything to keep negative words from spreading from person to person, and preventing disruption in the industry. (After all it is worth around 1.5 trillion dollars.)
Money
In one year alone, this industry (I am saying industry a lot, I know) spends 557 MILLION dollars promoting meat and dairy. In schools, 50 million dollars is spent promoting milk products to kids so they will essentially be consumers for life. In fact, (this is shaaddyyy) some of your tax money, whether you are consumer or not, goes straight to the industry so that the prices can be lowered, so more people will buy it.
Tobacco or Meat?
This enormous industry uses basically the same exact advertising as the tobacco industry. Think about it…. cigarettes were advertised using athletes; meat is also advertised using athletes and sports saying things like its “what a MAN eats.” Also, neither were/are said to be unhealthy, which in both cases is completely wrong. (Don’t get me wrong, meat does have protein but… just read my Health section.) It is just a mirror image of the tobacco advertisements. (Come on people!!)
Disruption of Profits.
Let’s get into the even more maddening stuff. Such is the fact that vegan activists can be charged with a criminal record for terrorism, just by disrupting the profit of the meat, dairy and egg industries (peacefully might I say) https://plantbasednews.org/news/9-vegan-activists-arrested-waitrose-animal-rights-protest/. In fact, hundreds of activists have been put in prison because of exposing this information, and some have actually been killed.
Is this why there is a breast cancer ribbon on my yogurt?!
The answer to that question is Y-E-S!! It is because of…. you can guess, advertising. Also, a new for you…. sponsorship. If you want to really know exactly why there is a pink ribbon on your sugary yogurt it is because, The American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, and and the American Heart Association’s biggest sponsors are all meat, dairy and egg producers. For example, the American Cancer Society is sponsored by Yoplait yogurt hence the pink ribbons, even though dairy is one of the leading causes of breast cancer. (Ironic, right?)
On their websites there are many foods, that correlate to the causation of Cancer, Diabetes, Heart disease etc. For Pete’s sake, on the healthy food list there is bacon wrapped shrimp!!! Not promoting things like this could result in them losing thousands of dollars from sponsors (and people who get their disease from eating their suggested foods).
Conclusion
Hopefully after that long article, you probably at least know a little more about why you have been left in the dark about these issues. I know how hard it sometimes is to believe a lot of things that correlate to veganism, and I hope some of those facts are a little easier to believe now that you know the dark truth of advertising. Thank you so much for reading, it does mean a lot. 😁 To learn more, watch https://www.whatthehealthfilm.com/, the amazing documentary that I got basically all of these facts from.
Health
Disease Concerns
Diabetes…. Obesity…. Heart disease…. Cancer….all health issues that are very common, especially in America. Like health professionals say, these are all food-related issues (some cancers are, some aren’t). Many scientists have discovered that many of these common diseases are largely created from animal products — not sugar, as we used to think.
According to Dr. Kim Williams, “When you eat animal products, you start to form plaques in coronary arteries, which can block the blood flow leading to heart disease.” Enough with the fancy doctor words, all that Dr. Williams is saying is this: when you are consuming your Big Mac or even just yogurt or eggs, you are starting to form plaque in your arteries which can lead to heart attacks or other heart disease. By just not eating any animal products (a plant-based diet), you reduce the risk of heart disease by 55%.
On a personal note, my dad, a healthy, happy, amazing guy, who took his health very seriously and exercised every day, died of a heart attack with sudden cardiac arrest when I was 11. I never thought something like that could happen to him, until of course it did. I looked into what caused heart attacks. Most causes, I found, were food related issues. I didn’t understand how my dad, a healthy eater could have this terrible thing happen to him. My theory? My dad, thinking it was healthy, thanks to all the advertising in the industry, (read my article on Advertising to find out more) ate 2 hard boiled eggs every day for breakfast. A study performed and documented in the movie What the Health shows that eating just one egg a day can be as bad to your health as smoking 5 cigarettes!!!
Knowing this broke my heart a little. Ok, a lot. I was so angry at the fact that most everyone for as long as we can remember has been told that eggs and other animal products are good for you. In a study of having a plant-based diet for just two weeks, the cholesterol of the participants dropped an average of 21 points, some with a drop of more than 100, and the average weight loss was 6.12 pounds. 14 days — how simple is that? Imagine how much a lifetime of eating plant based could affect you.
People who get their protein from animal products have a 75% increased risk of death from all causes and a 40-50% increase in death from cancer and type 2 diabetes. This is hard to wrap your head around, but true nonetheless (watch The Game Changers and What the Health). In fact, processed meat is in the Group 1 carcinogen, which is the same ranking as a cigarette! Processed meat includes ham, sausage, hot dogs, pepperoni, beef jerky, most deli meats, and more. Just one serving of meat per day increases your risk of diabetes by 51%. Getting diabetes can take up to 19 years off your lifespan.
False Assumptions
To start off, most people think vegans do not get enough protein, and are scrawny and weak. Well to prove you wrong, vegans and most vegetarians, get up to 70% more protein than they need. Also, plant eaters get more fiber than they need, whereas meat eaters often times do not get enough. When you eat extra protein in place of carbs, you actually end up having a glycogen depletion, which can lead to chronic fatigue, loss of stamina, etc. One cup of lentils, or one peanut butter sandwich has the same amount of protein as three eggs or 3 ounces of beef.
With that, plants have 64 times the antioxidant level of meat (antioxidants are substances that protect cells) which is super important for the body. Every single plant has all the essential amino acids that are needed to be healthy without the saturated fat, cholesterol , etc, plus all the vitamins that we need.
For My Athletes Out There
In just 3 weeks on a plant based diet, you will reduce inflammation by an average of 29%. Trust me, this is very, very true because after I started being vegan, I started working out harder, without getting sore. When I do get sore though, it is not bad at all!! This is because the endothelium (tissue that helps regulate blood flow) is impaired after eating animal protein due to the neuSGc endotoxins, and does not allow blood flow to maximize, making it hard to perform your best. When the endothelium is impaired , it cannot open up and allow extra blood to flow to the muscle needing it.
Also, the soy in plants do NOT increase estrogen levels! Guys, do not be afraid that being vegan will prevent you from having big muscles — it is a complete lie (look up famous vegan athletes). In fact, a single glass of cow’s milk can raise a man’s estrogen levels by 26% and drop their testosterone levels by 18%. So, what you thought was good for strong bones, could be your problem with the whole estrogen thing.
For me, as a devoted athlete, this switch was truly a game changer for me!! I am like a machine when it comes to my workouts, and I am not ever even sore the next day. I truly think it is because I am not eating like I used to. I also feel more energetic, less tired, and more willing to work. If you are striving to become a better athlete, or just healthier overall, I would definitely recommend a plant-based diet.
One more thing….for the guys….
Coming from a 14-year-old girl this is probably pretty awkward, but is very important anyway, so here we go….. Dr. Aaron Spits conducted research that proves, the more a man eats meat, the quicker he loses his fertility. So…guys… maybe eating a salad or bean burrito is not so bad after all. Also, eating a plant based diet has scientifically been proven to increase erections, which are normal and healthy for men.
There you go. (You’re welcome).
Conclusion
Hopefully, you have learned something about what animal products can do to your health. All of the facts written are from either the documentaries: The Game Changers and What the Health.* You can watch these absolutely amazing documentaries on Netflix to lean more about this topic, as well as explore the websites from the links above for tools/menus/information to begin your journey to better health.
Also, please read my article on vegan athletes for more inspiration!
Thank you so much for reading — it means a lot!
–Ava 🙂
*watch those documentaries because they are AMAZING!!!
Environment
CLIMATE CHANGE
Believe it or not, climate change is a HUGE issue in our world right now, and we need to start doing something about it. Most people are concerned about the emissions from cars, planes, boats and trains but I’ve learned that, surprisingly, the meat and dairy industry pollutes MORE than the entire transportation system combined!!
When people think of the things we should do everyday to help the planet, they think of taking quicker showers, turning off lights, and biking more instead of driving. Yes, these are very adequate and important steps to help keep the earth healthy. But what about something that pollutes more, by far, than the entire transportation sector combined? The very industry that provides the food on our plate every single day…. THE MEAT AND DAIRY INDUSTRY.
You would be surprised to hear that a single hamburger patty takes up to 660 gallons of water to produce. That is the equivalent of showering for for 2 months! Why? To feed the cows, you need grain, and to grow the grain you need water…. LOTS of water. An average cow eats 140-150 pounds of feed a day! Of course, the cow needs to drink water, 30-40 gallons of water per day to be specific.
Imagine for a minute: an Olympic sized swimming pool. It holds a little over 660,000 gallons of water. That is the equivalent water usage to 1,000 quarter pound hamburger patties. You may think that isn’t a lot, but when you put it next to the fact that around 75 burgers are sold per second…. it is an absolutely insane amount of water!
Animal agriculture uses 27% of the world’s fresh water and consumes around 34 trillion gallons of water each year! The livestock industry pollutes more than 50 times the amount of water than the human population does! It is just so hard to believe, but the facts (scientifically proven of course) are too important to ignore. Just one day of being vegan can save up to 1,100 gallons of water in a single day!
SAVING THE RAINFORESTS
Enough with the water consumption, let’s talk about nature. Did you know an acre of rain forest is destroyed every. single. second?! Think of a football field of beautiful trees and animals killed every time you blink. The leading cause of this happens to be…you guessed it… the livestock industry. If you can wrap your mind around this, this industry occupies 45% of earth’s land. Like WOW. So far, animal agriculture has destroyed more than 136 million acres of rain forest and caused more than 500 nitrogen floods in our oceans.
To feed a person on a full plant based diet for one year, you need 1/6 acre of land. For a person that eats everything, like most Americans, you need 18 times more land per person (around 3 acres), because of how much space raising cattle takes up. So, basically multiply 7.8 billion, the current population, by 3. That comes out to 23.4 billion acres, which is actually MORE land than the entire earth!! Meaning, if every single person was an omnivore, like most Americans, we would have absolutely no land to live on.
Now, you’re probably wondering how the livestock industry pollutes the air. Believe it or not, the amount of emission that comes from the meat and dairy industry is about the same as all the modes of transportation ever… combined! Imagine that! Everyone is worried about the pollution cars give, and while it is a huge contributor to climate change, the animal industry is even a bigger factor, but no one knows. Being vegan saves 1.9 tons of CO2 in just a year!
LET’S TALK POOP.
I know. It’s gross. But everyone does it. Everyone poops.
So let’s talk about the facts. Did you know 116,000 pounds of poop/animal waste is created in one single second in the United States alone??!! It is sooooo hard to believe but the facts are here and it is insane how much waste is really being put into our own oceans and cities. Have you ever thought about how much waste humans produce, like when we flush the toilet for what seems like thousands of times a year? Well, I will inform you that the agriculture industry produces 130 times more waste than the entire human population. Think about that. 130 TIMES.
SO….
Reading this, I hope you have learned a lot regarding how the livestock industry affects the environment. Some of those facts are probably hard to believe, because I know I had some trouble believing them too. It is devastating how naive we are about what this industry has been doing to our health, our homes, and our environment. You can learn more about this topic with the documentary Cowspiracy, where I learned most of my facts. I hope you are now more informed about what a single serving of these products can do to our only home, Planet Earth.
Have a wonderful rest of your day! Thank you for reading, it means a lot!
About Me and this Blog
Hi, my name is Ava, and I am a normal teenager with passion about environment, health, and animals. I have come across many documentaries and articles about this subject; on how animal products can affect your health, the environment, and of course the animals that we have sitting on our plate.
Since being vegan….
I have felt much better inside and out. As an athletic teen, I wanted to make sure I was getting all the nutrients that I needed to be successful in my many activities. What I found was that I felt 200% better than I did when I ate meat. My muscles have not gotten sore, even with the many hard workouts I do on a daily basis. My performance has been up in all my sports and my happiness level is soaring. It was the best decision I have made, probably in my life, and I hope to share this with you, so you can feel your best!
Also, I feel much better with myself knowing that in one day, any vegan saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forest land, 10 lbs of CO2 and 1+ animals’ life (sourced from the documentaries, The Game Changers and Cowspiracy). Each and every day the meat and dairy industry is polluting our environment and causing 51% of climate change! I know for sure that people my age want the earth to be happy and thriving when we are adults, but we are not on that track! I am happy knowing that I am not contributing to the demise of our Earth.
Also, If you love animals like me, you will not like to hear that around 200 million land animals are violently slaughtered every day for our food. Above that, the conditions in which they live are horrible, and the waste they produce is nauseating….
If you are at all interested in these subjects, I would be so happy if you would read some of the other articles I have on these topics! Also for even more information, you can watch, The Game Changers, Cowspiracy, What the Health, and Forks Over Knives which got me interested in this life changing topic!
Thanks for reading!
-Ava 🙂
A Young Voice 