I Got a Pamplet on Animal Cruelty

by Katherine
(Chicago, IL)

I was walking in downtown Chicago with a few friends when I saw a group of people handing out what seemed to be just some random paper. I wasn't going to take it but the person who offered it to me looked very sincere. So I took it and just stuck it my pocket.

Two days later I was clearing my coat and I found a pamphlet with information on farm animal cruelty and where my "food" came from: (I can say that it brought tears to my eyes. This was last Tuesday and I've been thinking over and over about it and am determined that I want nothing to do with meat or animal based products.

I wanted to know though, how fast should I make the change. I read how you did it progressively but I just don't feel confortable consuming anything as such. I've been surviving on veggies and fruits for this pass week but I wanted to see if it was healthy to just cut off all of it right away or should I take things a bit more slowly?

I would really apreciate your response... thank you for your website; it was been very helpful so far:)

Answer:

I'm so glad to hear that you read through the handout, and I'm not at all surprised to hear that it brought you to tears. I still have trouble reading about the explicit abuse to animals from factory farms.

To answer your question, you can go vegan as quickly as you want. Many people are just like you; they get their hands on the information and simply refuse to eat animal products anymore. And, you can definitely do it healthily. You will probably see right away that your body feels great without animal products. Many people say they feel incredibly energetic and light.

If you are going to stop eating all non-vegan food right now, make sure to look over the vegan food pyramid to ensure you are eating the proper foods. Many people go vegan, but replace all their old food with vegan junk food and meat replacements, and I don't recommend that diet. Those people are typically the ones who later say, "I just didn't feel good on a vegan diet, so I went back to eating meat."

I recommend that you eat a good variety of fruits and vegetables (aim for eating ever color of the rainbow, every day, and eat plenty of dark, leafy greens), whole grains, beans, and nuts as a snack. If you feel nostalgic for some of the old animal products you used to love, you can check out our pages on vegan foods for recommendations on the best tasting products.

I hope that helps! Congratulations! I firmly believe that it's incredibly hard to learn the truth about our food industry and to simply keep eating the way we all were raised. You just can't turn your back on the information (at least not with pride!)