Veganism

Sanjeev posted this in Definitions on February 17th, 2009

The word Vegan was coined by “The Vegan Society” in its Memorandum of Association when it was founded in United Kingdom by Donald Watson on November 1, 1944. In the Memorandum the word “veganism” denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

  

Thus Vegans do not ever use animals –directly or indirectly – for food, clothing or shelter. The criteria for Vegan shopping are that it must, as far as is possible and practical, be entirely free from animal involvement. What this means is that vegetable, mineral or plant/mineral-derived synthetic forms of the substances are acceptable, as are microbiologically-fermented substances of plant origin.  There should be no animal ingredient in a substance consumed by Vegans. It means that the manufacture and/or development of the product, and where applicable its ingredients, must not involve, or have involved, the use of any animal product, by-product or derivatives. The list of exclusion includes:

  • Animal Fibers

·    Animal Milks

·    Animal Milk Derivatives

·    Bee Products

·    Dairy Products and By-Products

·    Eggs

·   Human-Derived Substances

·   Items obtained directly from the slaughter of

·   Marine Animal Products

·   Slaughter By-Products

·   No Animal Testing

The motivation for becoming a Vegan could be varied and involve one or more of the following concerns:

·         Violation of Animal rights, their factory farming and testing.

·       Environment including intensive use of land and natural resources required for animal farming.

·        Human health

·        Spiritual

One of the subsets of vegans is called ‘Raw Vegans’ who only consume uncooked and unprocessed vegan foods.  They do not cook their food above 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) because it is believed that cooking above this temperature would destroy nutritional value of the food. A raw vegan diet includes raw vegetables and fruits, nuts and nut pastes, grain and legume sprouts, seeds, plant oils, sea vegetables, herbs, and fresh juices. Sometimes the definition of a raw vegan diet is loosened to include vegan diets with at least 75% raw foods.

 

Raw Vegans too has a few subsets:

 

  • Fruitarians – They primarily or exclusively eat fruits.
  • Sproutarians  -  They primarily or exclusively eat sprouted foods
  • Juicearians – They process their raw plant foods into juice for consumption

The motivation for becoming a Raw Vegan involves one or more of the following concerns:

  • Health Concerns – Raw Vegan believe that cooking food beyond 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) destroys its nutritional value. It is believed that enzymes that aid in digestion, vitamins, minerals and proteins are destroyed by cooking the food.
  • Environmental Concerns – In most parts of the world cooking of food involves burning of fossil fuel or wood and thus increases global warming. Use of wood also increases deforestation and hence harms the environment.

November 1, the founding day of The Vegan Society, is also celebrated annually as the World Vegan Day.

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I am a Vegetarian by Choice

Sanjeev posted this in My Story on February 13th, 2009

 

I am a Vegetarian – By choice. Are You?

 

That is right. I am a VEGETARIAN. The kind of vegetarian that you have in India – a Lacto Vegetarian – one who does not eat meat and eggs in any form but also one who has no qualms about consuming dairy products.

 

I became a vegetarian because I fell in love with a vegetarian lady! That was 15 years ago. I continue to be a vegetarian even now because:

 

  1. I still love and live with the same lady, and
  2. More importantly, I am convinced that we humans should be vegetarians. Why? I will talk about the reasons later.

 

I would first like to go back to why I became a vegetarian.

 

I could say that I was born a half-vegetarian. The reason I say that is because while my dad ate non-vegetarian food, my mother was a vegetarian. However, sometime after I was born, my father tricked my mother into eating a non-vegetarian dish (men will always be like that!). I don’t know if she liked the taste or was in any way compelled to give in to her Lord’s wishes, she started cooking meat at home (though she herself, never ate meat after that, purely for religious reasons). The end result of this was that I grew up being a non-vegetarian.

 

I remember that up to the time I was 15 years old, I used to eat meat at home as my mother would cook it. Also, both my younger brother (who was one year junior to me) and myself knew enough cooking to be able to rustle up an omelet for ourselves, if required. It was during one such day, when my brother was making an omelet for himself that he broke an egg and saw something red. The color affected him so much that he gave up consuming everything of animal origin from that day. His conversion gave my mother the reason to rebel against meat cooking at home and that brought an end to eating meat at home, both for me and my father.

 

Once I went to college and started staying in hostel, I had all the freedom to eat what I pleased, when I pleased and in quantities that pleased me. I remember, my mother had told me that if I ate meat it would be tantamount to eating her flesh, but I told myself that it was a blackmailing tactic and it should not stop me from enjoying what I liked to eat. In hostel, I experimented with all kind of meats and ate beef for the first time – a sacrilege for someone with my background. I also ate pork, fish, rabbit and what have you during the six year stay in hostel (four for engineering and two for management). In those six years, I ate more meat than I had in the first 18 years of my life. When I had joined the hostel, I was a tall and lanky young man. When I left hostel to start work, I was a tall and round young man.

 

As a member of the workforce, I did not get enough time to cook at home and thus had to rely on eating food in restaurants most of the time. I remember that in the beginning of the month, I used to eat meat every day but towards the second half of the month, my frequency of eating vegetables increased because of the lack of money. For the first time in my life I realized that meat eating was not cheap and one of the benefits of vegetarian diet was increased savings. However, I still, liked non-vegetarian food far more than the prospect of saving money for some distant rainy day. And so the cycle continued.

 

Then one day, I met a woman I wanted to marry. The only problem was that she was a vegetarian. She could not stand watching anyone eat meat. She did not enter a restaurant that served meat because she was not sure if they used separate pans for vegetarian and meat dishes. On top of all that she was lactose allergic and hence could not consume dairy products. If I wanted to marry her, I knew that I would have to make a dramatic change in my eating habits. So what did I do? Who did I give up – meat or her?

 

If you are as intelligent as I think you are, I am sure the headline of this post would have told you that I gave up meat.

 

Many a times, love makes you do all kinds of silly things. Sometimes love also makes you do the right thing – a lot of content on this site will deal with why being a vegetarian is the right thing.

 

And I think I did the right thing when I gave up eating birds, animals and fish altogether – by choice.

 

That’s why I call myself a Vegetarian by choice. And that is also the name of the website.

 

What are your reasons for giving up on meat?

 

And what are your reasons for continuing to be a vegetarian?

 

I will be happy to know all that. So do tell…..

 

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