5 Reasons for Choosing a Vegan Diet | World Vegan Day
5 Reasons for Choosing a Vegan Diet
Today is the 1st of November which is World Vegan Day and November is also National Vegan Month. With the help of Marlene Watson-Tara, author of Go Vegan (read my review here and see a recipe from the book here), I’m looking at different reasons for choosing a vegan diet.
The vegan lifestyle and diet are of personal interest to me. I’ve been a vegetarian for 20 years and for some of those years I was vegan too and I still eat vegan food a lot of the time.
So, why do people choose a vegan diet and lifestyle?
Below are 5 popular reasons:
- For the animals:
For many, ending the exploitation of animals is part of the reason why they’ve chosen to go vegan. By avoiding animal products, you take a stand against animal cruelty and animal exploitation.
- For the environment:
A vegan diet is better for the environment compared to meat-based diets that use more resources, including land, water, and energy to produce food. A meat-based diet also creates twice as many greenhouse gas emissions than the production of plant-based foods.
- For health and fitness reasons:
There are many health benefits of eating a vegan diet full of wholegrain, beans, vegetables from land and sea, fruits, nuts and seeds. Most of these foods offer fibre, antioxidants, and several essential nutrients. By consuming fewer animal-based products, you decrease your intake of saturated and trans-fats, which can contribute to heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Some people worry about the protein available in a vegan diet. Our bodies need amino acids to build and repair muscle. You don’t need to worry, there’s plenty of protein in vegan food as all plants contain protein. Plus, plant-based protein sources contain fibre and complex carbohydrates which make them a more powerful fuel for the body.
Plants can also help to improve cardiovascular health, overall endurance and muscle growth, while also providing more energy and reducing recovery time after physical exercise, making a vegan diet great for people into physical fitness.
- For mental well-being:
What we eat can also affect our mental health and is an important factor in many neurological diseases. It has been discovered that gut bacteria play a significant role in psychology and behaviour as well as digestion.
Did you know that the human gut contains almost 95% of the body’s serotonin? Serotonin is the body’s “happy chemical” neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, social behaviour, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and a lack of serotonin is an important factor in depression.
The production of this essential chemical depends on the micro-organisms in the gut that are nourished by our diet. Our physical health can help us manage our mental well-being or exacerbate problems and make us feel worse.
The key might be inflammation, and this is something that we can reduce with our diet. Processed foods cause a lot of inflammation – simple sugars, fructose, dairy foods, eggs, alcohol, meat, hydrogenated fats and palm oil, but also some fruits and vegetables such as tomato and pineapple.
By eating a diverse and balanced plant-based diet rich in antioxidants, you can change your gut biome within days and improve your mental well-being and reduce stress levels.
- For weight loss:
Choosing a wholefoods plant-based vegan diet is a healthy and sustainable way to lose weight if you’re overweight and improve your overall health. Grains are a great source of energy, protein, vitamins and minerals and studies show that cultures that base their diets on grains, beans and vegetables have no weight issues until westernising their diet.
About Marlene:
Thank you, Marlene for sharing your expertise! More about Marlene below:
Marlene Watson-Tara has been expounding the benefits of a vegan way of life for decades. Her recent book Go Vegan is packed with nutritional advice and tasty recipes, and she and husband Bill have launched the online MACROVegan Health Coach Course, focused on providing a learning experience for everyone who wants to contribute to a healthy world. Unlike other similar courses on plant-based nutrition, this course delves deeply into the ancient history of this approach to understand the impact it has on our world today.
Read more:
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About The Author
A Mum Reviews
This blog is edited by a mid-30s mum with over 15 years of professional childcare experience. Now 10 years into motherhood and enthusiastic about finding great products and helpful solutions for busy families to make life more fun and easier too.
