There are many benefits of living on a vegan diet. Not only is it good for your health, you also help giving the animals a voice and take care of the environment.
Sometimes it can be difficult to go against the mainstream, as you still do when you choose to live on a plant-based diet. Luckily, it wins more people over around the world, but there is still a long way to go.
Living on a plant-based diet you don’t put as much pressure on the planet, and you have taking an action in not wanting to support the meat and dairy industry. It is a really important step to take to move the world in a more sustainable direction.
Let’s take a look at which benefits there actually is by being a vegan.
1: Less risk of getting diseases
Meat, dairy and processed food can increase the risk of getting dangerous diseases. Meat contains a lot of saturated fat that is very unhealthy, and can raise the amount of cholesterol in the blood. A high level of cholesterol increases the risk of a stroke, or a heart disease. Switching to a plant-based diet, the cholesterol in the blood will decrease with up to 35%. The reason that the cholesterol level decreases, is that there is no cholesterol in a plant-based diet, and only a very low amount of saturated fat.
Another good reason to choose more vegetables in your diet over meat, cheese and other processed food, is that it makes small inflammations in your body. It is natural to get an inflammation, and the body is built to fight small, inflamed conditions. But having a consistent inflammation in your body can have fatal consequences, like atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and other sicknesses.
A plant-based diet has an anti-inflammatory effect, and therefore makes more balance in the body.
2: Better mood
Eating a plant-based diet can improve your mood, and make you feel better. Meat contains a lot of long chained fat acids and a lot of arachidonic acids, which is combined with symptoms of depression. A vegan diet is filled with more complex carbohydrates, which increases the hormone serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the feel-good hormone of the brain.
3: Natural ingredients in beauty products
A vegan exclude all animal products, which also means only using beauty products that are not tested on animals and are made with natural ingredients.
A lot of the beauty products that we use, absorbs in our skin and blood. That is why it is very important to use products that are healthier for our body.
Not all vegan products use natural ingredients, but many companies do, and those products have a lot of good benefits for your skin.
4: Healthier skin
Not only are a plant-based diet healthy and good for your body, it is also very good for your skin. You have less tendency to get acne, if you eat a vegan diet. Dairy increases skin problems, caused by its high number of hormones, which changes the body’s own hormone system. Therefore, if you want a nicer skin, go for a vegan diet.
5: Vegan fashion
Being a vegan is not only about what you eat, it’s a lifestyle. Therefore, vegans also choose clothes that are not made from any animals.
Leather is, besides it is the skin from cows, treated with many different chemicals like cyanide, arsenic, chrome and formaldehyde. Those chemicals have very bad consequences for the environment.
Vegan leather is just as good as leather from animals.
Wool is coming from sheep, and maybe seems harmless, because the sheep needs to be shaved anyway. Unfortunately, the collection of wool is combined with a very traumatic experience for the sheep, because they are handled very roughly.
Instead of wool, you can use hemp and bamboo.
Additionally, vegan fashion is mostly more sustainable, in the way it is produced, and the companies often uses recycled materials.
6: Good for our planet
Less CO2 emission
Meat and dairy production is one of the biggest sins due to climate changes. It is worse than all the traffic in the world, including flying, combined. It is very challenging for our planet to handle. More people should exclude meat and dairy from their diet, to get the climate back on track again.
Less use of water
A meat and dairy based diet has a big water use. It takes more than 3000 L to produce a bacon-cheese burger. It takes 75 to 95 % less water to produce a vegan burger, which is a huge different.
Less deforestation
It takes a lot of land to make space for animal breeding, their food and production. Therefore, there are a lot of deforestation to make the space. There are about 80.000 acres of rainforest cut down every day, and the primary cause is because of the meat industry. We need the forest to keep down the CO2 emission, and with less forest it is even harder.
Additionally, deforestation leads to many animals that lives in the forests, get homeless. Plant-based protein takes 36 times less space than meat.
7: Saving the seas
Not only are you as a vegan helping the animals on the earth, you are also helping our seas and the lives in it. Overfishing is a huge problem, and many unnecessary animals from the sea is getting caught in the fishing nets. Fishing nets also catch turtles, small sharks and other fish, that are getting hurt for no reason, and can lead to distinction. It is a huge problem for the biodiversity in our seas and the ecosystems that we have.
The climate changes also influence temperatures in the ocean. Many oceans will get warmer with 2 to 3.5 degrees in the future, which will influent the environment in the sea.
Additionally, the ocean is absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, which make them more acidified and less oxygen-containing.
I could definitely mention many more reasons, but let’s be honest. There are only good reasons to go vegan. It is good for the environment, the climate, the animals, and you. We can all make small adjustments in our life to make the situation better, and small steps are also important.
About the Author
Heidi Kirstine is a freelance writer and has been vegan for 4 years now and loves experimenting with new recipies. She finds peace and joy in cooking, and loves to show people how amazing plants can be, and how good a plant-based diet makes her feel.
