Vegan as Fuck

By : Richard Deboo

Posted on Vegetarian Friend By Debbiedeboo

The image, a logo if you like, that accompanies this note represents an ethical philosophy made manifest in the visual form, and is something newly made from a design on a t-shirt promoted by a pop band way back in the day, way back in the late 1980s.  That design pictured a cow with the slogan above it reading “cool as f**k”.  At the time, people thought that it was a cool t-shirt, lots of people liked it, and lots and lots of people were wearing that t-shirt way back in those days.

This image creates something new from that design.  It is a “readymade”, in the conception of Monsieur M Duchamp, which is why I have “signed” it R Nott, because we (the collective “I”) are not “copying” something, but creating something new; this is transformative, emblematic of the power of art to convert by subversion one thing into something else; it is new because I say it is.

And this image is created to be deliberately provocative.  It can be seen as being quite offensive, casually swearing like that.  So why do it, and what on earth does “vegan as f**k” mean anyway?

It is for both vegans and non-vegans to see.  But let’s deal firstly with the non-vegans.

It’s a deliberately challenging statement, it’s supposed to be a bit in-your-face, and in a very real way, I really do not mind if it is seen to be offensive, I am content to offend non-vegans with it.

Why?  Well, it’s only words, it’s just a phrase, it’s merely a logo, simply an image, and if people can be offended by that, then why are they not offended by all of the cruelty, bloodshed and killing done to non-human animals in their name every moment of every day of every year?

If someone is not a vegan (and the desperate truth alas is that the sheer, overwhelming majority in society are not vegans), then these people are the consumers of the products that I despise so much, they are the supporters of the practices that make my blood boil so intensely, and it is they who provide profit to those companies and individuals who directly commit the acts that shatter my sensibilities so comprehensively.

If someone is not a vegan then that person is for the violence in the slaughterhouses, for the brutality of the dairy industry, for the horrors of the poultry industry, for the ferocious violence of the factory farms,for the devastation of the seas and the emptying of the oceans, they are for the destruction of the rainforests, for the filthing and pollution of the land and marine environments and they are for the appalling waste of scarce water and food when a billion people are profoundly parched and malnourished, on the brink of starvation… and, finally, they are for the vicious killing of billions upon billions of suffering, pained and fearful individuals year after year.

Now that is something that I find offensive.

When I walk down the aisle of a supermarket and I see the serried rows of freshly packed sliced dead flesh, knowing full well the horror and the misery, the fear and the pain endured by those animals in their deliberately foreshortened lives and violent deaths, and I see people absent-mindedly browsing the tidy packaging, casually, indifferently, selecting their cuts of “meat”, then I find that offensive.

When I go to my local tube station on the London Underground first thing in the morning on my way to work and I see the local shop selling sandwiches listed as ham, cheese, ham and cheese, chicken, turkey, and prawn, and the bored commuters lazily making their casual purchases of bits of the dead and their drained fluids, then I find that offensive.

When I read in the morning paper that all of this damned nation’s five favourite sandwiches contain “chicken” as an ingredient, then I find that offensive.

And because I have allowed myself to know the staggering cruelty behind all of these simply packaged products, so ubiquitous, so easily and readily accessible and available, with their names (“ham”, “pork”, “cheese”, “lamb”, “beef”, “veal”) and pictures so nonchalantly displayed everywhere I turn, everywhere I look, shops, newspapers, television, and I see and I watch so many buying into it, perpetuating – by their very and every purchase – that shattering cruelty against those defenseless animals, then I find that offensive.

So really, I’m quite happy to go on the “offensive”, and to be deliberately provocative; I really do not mind if non-vegans are offended by the wording on this image… I am tired of having to tip-toe oh so delicately around the issues, to be all quiet and meek and mild about why I am a vegan and must instead be careful to protect and not offend the soft sensibilities of the meat-eater; and I am tired of having to be apologetic about it, a “mistake” of mine, apparently, a bit “weird”, this being a vegan.  But I’m having none of it.  No more.  The abuse, torture and killing of billions of non-human animals is a horror of searing proportions; it’s disgusting, it’s sickening, and I’m frankly appalled that so many people can be so damned casual about it, can act like it’s no big deal at all, and don’t seem to be offended by it, at all, not a bit of it, at all.

And so.  By mixing the word vegan with the word f**k, I want to shock people, I want to shake them out of their slumbering complacency, to rouse them from their idle docility.

I know that for people to be so unmoved by the intense horror, savagery and waste of the so-called “animal product industry” should not surprise me and it does not surprise me; too often too many have behaved in this way.  In a very different situation, but for very similar reasons, Wilfred Owen, the great poet of the first World War, was compelled to write:

“But cursed are dullards whom no cannon stuns,
That they should be as stones.
Wretched are they, and mean
With paucity that never was simplicity.
By choice they made themselves immune
To pity and whatever mourns in man”

(Wilfred Owen, Insensibility, 1918)

He was compelled to write that because he was shocked and deeply morally affronted that people “back home” in the UK were utterly unmoved by the carnage, the horror, and the waste of the war on the Western Front… this jarring fact that many were left untroubled, untouched and indifferent to the torment, the violence, and the hell endured by men in those trenches was for Mr. Owen nothing less than the complete debasement of humanity.

And now, in a very different situation but for a very similar reason must I state the stark, bloody fact that, by choice, the non-vegans in our society have made themselves immune to all of the extreme, vile violence done daily to millions of non-humans in the name of profit, of pleasure (“I love a bit of steak!”) and the alleged pursuit of knowledge (in the barbarity of our “bio-medical research” institutions).  To satisfy the desire for a bite to eat, for a new pair of shoes or a coat, or a new version of an old pill, people choose to remain as dullards, as stones, in the face of the cry of agony – they have no pity.

I do not understand the value systems of those who remain immune to the suffering of the innocent, the defenseless, those animals who are utterly at our mercy and are shown no mercy but instead get a kick in the face and a knife in the throat.  I do not understand how those people can sanction and be satisfied with such horror.  So: if anyone were to see this image and be offended, I seriously could care less.

But this is also there for vegans to see too.  What message does it convey to vegans?

What I hope is that it serves as to signify who vegans are, and what we can and do represent.  For too long the media image of the vegan, and the stereotype that most carry around in their heads, is of someone who’s a bit scatty, possibly terribly middle class or a tad “alt” with black clothes and dyed hair, someone with too much time on their hands so that they meddle their minds and fiddle their fingers with twee little things like a thousand and one recipes for lentil soup.

As far as society in general is concerned, vegans are bit daft; a bit weird, best left alone, too odd and dull for company, people who spend too much time thinking about little fluffy rabbits, who would be tedious killjoys at parties and would drink only carrot or orange juice whilst stood in the corner flowering the wall, smiling weakly and dreaming wistfully of hemp clothing.

But they’ve got it all wrong.  We’re cooler than that.  We’re far, far cooler than that.

We don’t go around supporting and lapping up the spilling of blood on a global scale, the violent confinement and beating, punching and kicking of the innocent, we don’t accept and nod our heads at the slashing and stabbing of throats, the boiling and grinding up alive of conscious, sentient, pain-sensitive beings.  We’re too cool to go along with crap like that.

We don’t sit back and let ourselves be pacified by a foul pack of lies about how farming is now so good for animals, or swallow wholesale the mind-vomit alleging that organic farming is so welfare-centered and the animals are so happy; we’re not taken in by corporate lies and the lies of food industry lobbyists about how we should all be eating so much fish or other “meats”, and drinking so much milk and gobble up so many eggs, because it’s all apparently so good for us, whilst those who tell us to do so line their pockets with money as people line their hearts with cholesterol.  We don’t fall for a word of it because we’re not that stupid.

We don’t stuff our faces and over-fill our bellies with the foods that we know are the single biggest cause of climate change and are the number one reason why we’re tearing down the rainforests and burning them and all who live within them into oblivion; we don’t obsess at the desire to rip up the ocean floor to grab every living thing that swims and crawls below the waves, leaving only a desert bereft utterly of the abundance and magnificence of life that once thrived there and survives no more either there or anywhere.  We’re far too smart to trash the only planet that we have.

We don’t slop and slurp at the lactation fluid of ruminants, salivating over milk designed for a new-born whilst that new born is slashed and slaughtered for cheap meat and the grieving mother is impregnated yet again in an unending cycle of reproductive misery that all too quickly crushes the life from her, done to death for the sake of a splash of liquid in a bowl of cereal or a cup of tea.  We don’t do that because we’re just not that heartless and cruel – to steal the life-food of infants and tear the young from their mothers, and the mothers from their new-born young.

We don’t believe for one minute the outrageous untruths peddled by the medical and pharmaceutical industries, who’ve got billions of pounds in profits riding on perpetuating the old lies about how useful to human health are those millions of animal experiments whilst at the same time, despite those millions of animal experiments, the fourth biggest killer in the country is people dying from popping animal-tested pills.  Sorry, but no: we’ve read the research, we’ve analyzed the data, we’ve counted the staggering number of animal and human corpses, and we can work out the truth for ourselves.

We’re too smart, too independently minded, too aware, too ethical, too moral, too caring, too compassionate, too decent, too radical, too revolutionary, too damned cool to be suckered into any of that crap.  We’re vegan, and we’re vegan for literally bloody good reasons.  We’re vegan and we’re vegan as fuck.

Veganism: Moral and Political Commitment to Abolition and Nonviolence

"Veganism is not merely a matter of diet; it is a moral and political commitment to abolition on the individual level and extends not only to matters of food, but to clothing, other products, and other personal actions and choices. Becoming a vegan is the one thing that we can all do today—right now—to help animals. It does not require an expensive campaign, the involvement of a large organization, legislation, or anything other than our recognition that if "animal rights" means anything, it means that we cannot justify consuming or using meat, fish, dairy, eggs, or other animal products.

Veganism reduces animal suffering and death by decreasing demand. It represents a rejection of the commodity status of nonhumans and recognition of their inherent value. Veganism is also a commitment to nonviolence and the animal rights movement should be a movement of peace and should reject violence against all animals—nonhuman and human"

The Most Cruel Animal Abuse Video Ever!

Warning! This video contains explicit content which might not be suitable for children and young adult!

This is the reality of the China Fur trade which the United States is the end consumer. If you are an animal rights advocate please help stop this abuse.

Please speak for those who aren’t able to speak for themselves!

Share this video with people who buy Fur & Leather!

If Pigs Could Speak

By Andrew Kirschner

I am a pig.
I am a happy and affectionate animal by nature.
I like to play in the grass and nurture my young.
In the wild, I eat leaves, roots, grass, flowers, and fruits.
I have a terrific sense of smell and I am highly intelligent.

I am a pig.
I can learn tasks as quickly as chimpanzees and faster than dogs.
I wallow in mud to cool down
but I am a very clean animal
and don't excrete anywhere near where I live.

I speak my own language that you cannot understand.
I am often loved as a house mate.
I like being in groups and live a long natural life in the wild or a safe home.
I enjoy interacting with people and I am very gentle.

I wish I could do and be all of those things
but I was born on a factory farm like billions of other pigs
and so I experience none of them.

I am a pig.
If I could speak
I would tell you that I spend my life
in a crowded and filthy warehouse
in a tiny metal crate.
The owners call it a farm so you won't feel bad for me.
It's not a farm.

My life is miserable from the day I'm born until the day I die.
In many cases, I live my entire life in a gestation crate
where I can't even turn around.
I try to escape but can't.
I suffer severe emotional and physical ailments
as a result of my confinement.
I have bruises all over my head and face
from trying to get out of my cage.
I bang my head against the bars.
It is analogous to living in a coffin.

I am a pig.
If I could speak I would tell you that
I don't ever feel the warmth of another pig.
I only feel the cold metal bars of my cage
and the feces that I am forced to sleep in.
I don't see daylight until a trucker drives me to a slaughterhouse.

I am a pig.
I am beaten often by ruthless factory farmers 
who take pleasure in hearing me squeal.
I am constantly impregnated
and do not have any interaction with my piglets.
My feet are tied together so I am forced to stand all day.
When I was born, I was separated from my mother.
In the wild, I would have stayed with her for five months.
Now I am forced to have 25 piglets a year through artificial insemination
as opposed to six per year I would have in the wild.
Overcrowding and the smell of being covered in raw sewage
causes many of us to go insane
and bite each other through our cages.
Sometimes we kill each other.
It's not our nature.

My home smells of ammonia.
I sleep on concrete.
I am tied up so I can't even roll over.
My food is loaded with fat and antibiotics
so my owners can make more money off my size.
I am never able to forage for food as I do by instinct in the wild.

I am a pig.
I am bored and have nothing to do
so I bite my tail and the tails of others
so the factory farmers cut off our tails
without any pain killers.
It is excruciating and causes infection.

When it is time for us to be killed,
We are supposed to be stunned to death with a bolt gun
until we can't feel pain
but often the gun is not properly charged or the stunner misses,
or we're too big for it
and it fails to work properly.
Sometimes we go through the slaughter process
sticking, skinning, dismembering, and eviscerating --
alive,
conscious,
and kicking.

I am a pig.
If I could speak
I would tell you we suffer horribly.
Our death is slow and violent torture.
It can last as long as 20 minutes.
If you saw it happen,
you would probably never eat an animal
ever again.
That's why what happens inside factory farms
is the best kept secret
in the world.

I am a pig.
You can dismiss me as a worthless animal.
Call me filthy even though I am clean by nature.
Say I don't matter because I taste good to eat.
Be indifferent to my suffering.
But now you know,
I feel pain, sadness, and fear.
I suffer.

Watch videos of me squealing on the slaughter line
and see factory farmers beat me for the sake of it.
Even though I will be killed
and deprived of a humane and natural life
You now know it is wrong
and if you continue eating animals like me
when you don't need to eat them to survive
it will be on your conscience
and you bear responsibility for the cruelty
because you're funding it by purchasing meat
99% of which comes from factory farms

unless...
you make a decision
to live a cruelty-free life
and go vegan.
It's much easier than you think
and it is a very fulfilling lifestyle --
healthier for you,
better for the environment,
and most of all,
does not contribute to the abuse of animals.

Please give it some thought.
I am no more meant to be eaten by you
than you are meant to be eaten by me.
The idea of eating me is a human creation for profit
not a divine one
or one born of necessity but rather choice.
If you could choose not to abuse an animal, would you?
If the choice of ending animal cruelty
meant making some simple changes in your life,
would you make them?
Forget about cultural norms.
Do what you know is right.
Align your compassionate heart and mind
with your actions.
Please stop eating pork, ham, bacon, sausage
and buying other products made from pig body parts such as leather.

I am a pig.
I'm begging you to develop the same respect for me
that you have for your dog or cat.
During the time it took you to read this message,
approximately 26,000 pigs were brutally slaughtered on factory farms.
Simply because you didn't see it happen
doesn't mean it didn't happen.
It did.

I am a pig.
I had only one life on this earth.
It's too late for me
but it is not too late for you to make a change
like millions of other people
and save other animals from the life I lived.
I hope animals' lives will begin to mean more to you now --
now that you know.
I was a pig.

Humane? Ask the Animals.

By LIGHT, CO-FOUNDER OF GENTLE WORLD

Like many people, I used to consider animal welfare reform a positive step on the road to animal rights. After all, it would be better if animals weren’t confined to cramped cages, or subjected to torture, while awaiting their slaughter.

The irony, however, didn’t elude me, and I often thought that advocating for such half-measures was like suggesting that the prisoners at Auschwitz should be given mattresses to sleep on; an improvement no doubt, but certainly not an adequate way to deal with the problem. Neither the size of the animals’ cages, nor the mattresses on the prisoners’ beds was the real issue.

Nevertheless, I still felt that better conditions had to be better, so I couldn’t argue against efforts to improve conditions. But recently, something new has developed, which has led me to re-evaluate my thinking.

A few decades ago, the truth of the horrific conditions that exist for ‘food animals’ began to surface in the mainstream media. Shows such as Frontline, Dateline, and 60 Minutes began to show undercover footage of the reality of the animal industry. The horrors of overcrowded conditions, intensive confinement, inadequate stunning procedures and other forms of blatant cruelty began to make people feel less comfortable about animal food. This, in turn, was making things even more uncomfortable for the animal food suppliers.

In light of these developments, it didn’t take long before the animal industry realized that a new strategy was required, in order to assuage the concerns of a consuming public now suddenly aware of the brutality that had previously been hidden behind closed doors.

It now appears that, with the help of public relations experts, the animal food industry executives figured out how to appeal to the specific sector of society who had been moved by these exposés. Recognizing that most people didn’t want to stop eating animal products, but just didn’t want to feel guilty about doing so, they proceeded to set about convincing the public that the companies in question were willing to replace such vile practices with more ‘humane’ methods, albeit one tiny step at a time.

It seems as though part of their strategy was to adopt the very language of animal advocacy. Using words such as ‘humane’, ‘compassionate’ and ‘cruelty-free’, they set out to convince those concerned that the most egregious abuses would be abolished. Free-range eggs, uncrated veal, grass-fed beef… these ‘new and improved’ product lines became the promises they gave to assure the public that the products they were consuming came from animals who were raised and slaughtered ‘humanely’.

These highly-paid public relations firms offered such convincing propaganda, that even those sincerely concerned with the plight of animals were deceived. They too, began to buy into the idea that the issue to focus on was ‘improved treatment’. Playing right into the hands of the exploiters, animal advocates have actually helped to promote the idea that an industry that is inherently cruel could ever become humane.

I believe the meat and dairy industry actually got more than they had intended. Not only did the mainstream public happily accept the manufactured pacification of their guilt, but even former vegetarians have back-pedaled and begun to eat – and even sell – what they refer to as ‘humane meat’. Terms such as free-range, grass-fed, and humanely-raised have not only taken over the dialogue around the animal use debate, but have come to symbolize “it’s okay – you can eat me now”. In a sad twist of irony, many ‘animal people’ themselves have become pawns in the multi-billion-dollar game of animal exploitation.

Some of the most prominent individuals and largest organizations known for speaking on behalf of animals further the acceptance of this lie, even praising the efforts of companies that sell free-range, cage-free or pasture-raised animal products. These supposed friends of animals have publicly congratulated and even awarded those who sell the body parts of slaughtered animals, giving these products their public stamp of approval.

It’s tragic indeed, but the strategy appears to have worked, at least so far. The public has been pacified, and the movement to abolish the exploitation of animals has been fractured into those who continue to work for their freedom and those who work to make the animals more comfortable in their slavery.

The animals with whom we empathize are unceasingly pleading with us. They are not pleading for improved conditions; they are pleading for their lives. It is not the treatment of these animals that is the issue, as horrific as it is. Let us never forget, that as long as these industries continue to exist, the real issue is their unnecessary, systematic and brutal murder.

Source : Gentle World

Egg Industry Broken Wide Open

If anyone still believes that "organic" eggs are a humane choice, please look at these gut-wrenching photos from the Organic Valley farm in Wisconsin: They show birds in stinking, stifling, windowless warehouses, crammed so tightly together that they're barely able to move—much less spread their wings, scratch in the dirt, or interact normally in any way.

The heartbreaking photos were released by a farm-policy research group called The Cornucopia Institute in a report called "Scrambled Eggs," which details the entrenched abuse in industrial-scale egg factories.

Like many other facilities that raise pullets (young birds), this house in
Southwest Wisconsin confines the animals, granting no outdoor access
whatsoever, and provides virtually no natural light in the building. 
Photo by The Cornucopia Institute.

36,000 birds in an aviary system in Wisconsin, supplying Chino Valley Ranchers.
The hens also have access to an outdoor run. Photo by The Cornucopia Institute.

As the pictures attest, "organic" doesn't mean that birds are allowed to be free. Cage-free does not mean free range, of course, and so the chickens can still be crammed into sheds and forced to suffer through having a part of their beak cut off, just like birds on factory farms. But "organic" does mean that the chickens aren't fed antibiotics—leaving them all the more susceptible to illness in the filthy, poorly ventilated, crowded conditions.

The outside view of a 60,000 bird “organic” henhouse in Pennsylvania.
The other side of the building has a small grassy porch as “outdoor access.”
Photo by The Cornucopia Institute.

A two-story henhouse with tens of thousands of organic hens inside.
The small, enclosed porch on the first floor provides “outdoor access” for the
chickens on the second floor as well—it is accessible via a ramp that leads
chickens down, single-file.
Photo by The Cornucopia Institute.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

Source : The PETA Files

The Difference Between Human and Animal Rights

A video describing how exactly rights relate to animals, pointing out that humans only have rights because they ARE animals - and that the label and vocal language the humanity is the only thing standing in the way of animals claiming the rights they should already possess.

There’s Murder in Every Glass of Milk

By Ashley Hopkins

Last post I touched on how dairy comes from raped, abused and exploited mothers. Now image you are her newborn baby.

Having spent your entire life so far inside the warmth of your mother’s womb, the rush of her blood bringing comfort and the movement of her body rocking you to sleep, suddenly, you are thrust out into the strange, cold world. Confused, disoriented, feeling the weight of your own body after having spent your entire life thus far in a liquid suspension – you know your mother’s smell, the sound of her voice. You cry out for her, looking to be soothed by the same one who been their for you all the while.

In nature, as soon as your wet, slippery newborn body hit the ground, your mother would turn around and immediately start kissing and licking your stinky coat, an act that helps stimulate breathing and bring comfort. As you struggled to get steady on your stick-thin legs, she’d be there, her warm breathe brushing your matted coat, ready and waiting with an udder full of warm, nutrient-rich milk. Born with the natural instinct to seek your mother’s teat, the simple act soothes and reassures you: “It’s okay. Mama’s right here. I’m safe”.

This whole natural process is completely interrupted on commercial factory farms. In the Farm Sanctuary video “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way”, a newborn calf, steam curling of his freshly born body, is seen being dragged through a mud and feces filled lot immediately after having passed through the birth canal. A careless farm hand drags him by a leg through the filth as his poor mother desperately runs after him, helpless, desperate.

If you are born a male, a dairy “by-product” (not genetically bred to grow grotesquely large and unable to produce milk), this is your fate. No mother to comfort you and no human around who thinks you’re more than just a veal production unit, you are thrown into a dark, wood slate crate – no bedding, no straw. A chain, just shy of a foot long, pinches your neck, securing you into this place that will be your home for the next 6 months until you are trucked off to slaughter, too weak from muscle atrophy to even walk. You are deprived of your mother’s milk and kept stationary so that your flesh stays nice and tender, just what veal connoisseurs are after. Some heartless farm hands take advantage of your desperate need to suckle what ever is put in your mouth – you know no better, you just want your mama.

Even if your tail hadn’t been hacked off for “sanitary” reasons (one less thing to get covered in your chronic, nutrient-deprived diarrhea), you’d never wag it. You have nothing that makes you even remotely happy. Six months of no sun, no grass, no breeze blowing through your fur, no mother, no love, no kisses. Six months of “why, why, why?!” You are living in a hellhole that is worse than the fate that fell upon many at Auschwitz. You are another number, another forgotten victim of our modern day holocaust.

Female calves suffer an ill existence as well. They are forced into the same slavery their mother’s suffer. Endless cycles of rape, being robbed of their child, and having their milk forcibly removed, with no compensation for their lives of servitude.

The one thing mother cows and their babies, be they boy or girl, have in common is their final fate: slaughter. Even on “organic, grass-fed” farms, cows are offered no retirement to a lush green field where they can chew cud till their last breath. No pat on the back or “atta girl”. Mother and child will all, at one point, get shoved into an over crowded cattle car and trucked off to slaughter. Having their life taken away so that a man could profit, they are forced to “sacrifice” their body – their only true belonging – so that Burger King can have a dollar value menu.

This is the face of dairy. This is where the cheese on your veggie pizza came from. This is where the half-n-half in your grande mocha latte came from. This is where the cow’s milk in your cereal came from. Is THIS worth it when there are humane, compassionate vegan alternatives to every dairy product in existence?

Do the right thing. Dump meat. Dump dairy. No mother deserves to be robbed of her child and a life that even remotely resembles a natural existence so that humans can eat what her breasts secrete. No food has or ever will be worth that price.

Source : Vegan Campus

11 Reasons to Stop Eating Dairy

Milk and dairy products are not the health foods we’ve been told they are.  Here are 11 reasons to stop consuming them:

1. Cow’s milk is intended for baby cows.  We’re the only species (other than those we are domesticating) that drinks milk after infancy.  And, we’re definitely the only ones drinking the milk of a different species.

2.  Hormones. Not only are the naturally-present hormones in cow’s milk stronger than human hormones, the animals are routinely given steroids and other hormones to plump them up and increase milk production.  These hormones can negatively impact humans’ delicate hormonal balance.

3.  Most cows are fed inappropriate food.  Commercial feed for cows contains all sorts of ingredients that include:  genetically-modified (GM) corn, GM soy, animal products, chicken manure, cottonseed, pesticides, and antibiotics.

4.  Dairy products, when metabolized, are acid-forming.  Our bodies are constantly striving for biochemical balance to keep our blood at 7.365 pH.  Eating excessive acid-forming products can cause our bodies to overuse some of its acid-balancing mechanisms, one of which is the bones.  Alkaline calcium is stored in the bones and released to combat excessive acidity in the body.  Over time, bones can become fragile.

5.  Research shows that the countries whose citizens consume the most dairy products have the HIGHEST incidence of osteoporosis.

6.  Most dairy cows live in confined, inhumane conditions, never seeing the pastures of green grass they were intended to eat.

7. Most dairy products are pasteurized to kill potentially-harmful bacteria.  During the pasteurization process, vitamins, proteins, and enzymes are destroyed.  Enzymes assist with the digestion process.  When they are destroyed through pasteurization, milk becomes harder to digest, therefore putting a strain on our bodies’ enzyme systems.

8.  Dairy products are mucous-forming. They can contribute to respiratory disorders.  When I remove dairy and sugar from the diets of my clients, they stop experiencing hay fever and seasonal allergies.

9.  Research links dairy products with arthritis. In one study on rabbits, scientist Richard Panush was able to PRODUCE inflamed joints in the animals by switching their water to milk.  In another study, scientists observed more than a 50% reduction in the pain and swelling of arthritis when participants eliminated milk and dairy products from their diet.

10  Most milk is homogenized, which denatures the milk’s proteins, making it harder to digest.  Many peoples’ bodies react to these proteins as though they are “foreign invaders” causing their immune systems to overreact.  Research also links homogenized milk to heart disease.

11.  Pesticides in cow feed find their way into milk and dairy products that we consume.

Check out my Dairy-Free Soft Cheese recipe for a delicious alternative to dairy cheese.

Source : Care2

Food INC

Everyone should watch the movie FOOD INC. It’s very informative and will change the way you think of food! People really need to be educated about where their food comes from!

Buy the DVD of Food INC here!

Top 10 Reasons to Go Vegan in the New Year

Many people's New Year's resolutions often include losing weight, eating better, getting healthier, and doing more to make the world a better place. You can accomplish all these goals by switching to a vegan diet, and you'll enjoy delicious, satisfying meals as well. Here are our top 10 reasons to go vegan this year:

1. SLIM DOWN AND BECOME ENERGIZED
Is shedding some extra pounds first on your list of goals for the new year? Vegans are, on average, up to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters. And unlike unhealthy fad diets, which leave you feeling tired (and usually result in gaining all the weight back eventually), going vegan is the healthy way to keep the excess fat off for good while feeling full of energy.

2. IT'S THE BEST WAY TO HELP ANIMALS
Every vegan saves more than 100 animals a year from horrible abuse. There is simply no easier way to help so many animals and prevent so much suffering than by choosing vegan foods over meat, eggs, and dairy products.

3. A HEALTHIER, HAPPIER YOU
A vegan diet is great for your health! According to the American Dietetic Association, vegans are less likely to develop heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or high blood pressure than meat-eaters are. Vegans get all the nutrients they need to be healthy (e.g., plant protein, fiber, minerals, etc.) without all the nasty stuff in meat that slows you down and makes you sick, such as cholesterol and saturated animal fat.

4. VEGAN FOOD IS DELICIOUS
So you're worried that if you go vegan, you'll have to give up hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and ice cream? You won't. As the demand for vegan food skyrockets, companies are coming out with more and more delicious meat and dairy product alternatives that taste like the real thing but are much healthier and don't hurt any animals. Plus, we have a list of some of our favorite products and thousands of tasty kitchen-tested recipes to help you get started!

5. MEAT IS GROSS
It's disgusting but true: Meat is often contaminated with feces, blood, and other bodily fluids—all of which make animal products the top source of food poisoning in the United States. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health tested supermarket chicken flesh and found that 96 percent of Tyson chicken was contaminated with campylobacter, a dangerous bacteria that causes 2.4 million cases of food poisoning each year, resulting in diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever.

6. HELP FEED THE WORLD
Eating meat doesn't just hurt animals—it hurts people too. It takes tons of crops and water to raise farmed animals. In fact, it takes up to 13 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of animal flesh! All that plant food could be used much more efficiently if it were fed directly to people. The more people who go vegan, the more we can feed the hungry.

7. SAVE THE PLANET
Eating meat is one of the worst things that you can do for the Earth. It's wasteful, it causes enormous amounts of pollution, and the meat industry is one of the biggest causes of climate change. Adopting a vegan diet is more important than switching to a "greener" car in the fight against climate change.

8. ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT
The list of stars who shun animal flesh is basically a "who's who" of today's hottest celebs. Joaquin Phoenix, Natalie Portman, Tobey McGuire, Shania Twain, Alicia Silverstone, Anthony Kiedis, Casey Affleck, Kristen Bell, INXS lead singer J.D. Fortune, Benji Madden, Alyssa Milano, Common, Joss Stone, Anne Hathaway, and Carrie Underwood are just a handful of famous vegans and vegetarians who regularly appear in People magazine.

9. LOOK SEXY AND BE SEXY
Vegans tend to be thinner than meat-eaters and have more energy, which is perfect for late-night romps with your special someone. (Guys: The cholesterol and saturated animal fat found in meat, eggs, and dairy products don't just clog the arteries to your heart. Over time, they impede blood flow to other vital organs as well.) Plus, what's sexier than someone who is not only mega-hot but also compassionate?

10.  PIGS ARE SMARTER THAN YOUR DOG
While most people are less familiar with pigs, chickens, fish, and cows than they are with dogs and cats, animals used for food are every bit as intelligent and able to suffer as the animals who share our homes are. Pigs can learn to play video games, and chickens are so smart that their intelligence has been compared by scientists to that of monkeys.

Source : PETA.org

Why Honey isn't Vegan

Many people with omnivorous eating habits understand the basics of vegan living, that most vegans don't eat or wear meat or animal products or by-products. Yet many of these same people are taken aback when a vegan explains that she won't eat honey. They don't understand why a vegan wouldn't eat honey. Here's why.

Vegans choose their particular lifestyle for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is to protect their health. Vegans have studied the findings of legitimate scientists and have discovered that eating animal protein is hazardous to one's health. Eating animal protein (whether it is found in meat, eggs, or dairy products) can be directly linked to multiple Western diseases (also known as "diseases of affluence"). Some of those diseases include cancer, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, and osteoporosis, to name a few. A great many vegans have chosen to eliminate all animal protein from their diets to gain these health benefits. Even vegetarians don't benefit from the health a vegan diet offers.

So where does honey fit in? Honey is an animal product, produced when bees digest nectar they have collected and then regurgitate it. It is an animal product, just like an egg or milk. Yes, a bee is an insect and not technically considered an animal by many people, but a bee's body changes the composition of what it ingests, just like other animals. According to Raw Food Explained.com, honey contains "animal ferments" as well as protein. If animal protein is harmful to one's health, then honey also falls under that category.

However, there is another reason vegans won't eat honey, and that is because it is harmful to another living creature. According to Daniel Hammer, bees do experience pain and suffering while they are being exploited for their products (not just honey but also beeswax, royal jelly, and more). There is simply no way beekeepers, humane or otherwise, can avoid harming or killing bees while they are extracting the bees' products. Many vegans choose their lifestyle because they wish to avoid harming any other creature, and so they choose not to eat honey.

Just as vegans won't eat honey, they also won't eat or use these products for the same reasons:

• Silk
• Other animal non-food products, such as leather and wool
• Fish oil (non-vegan omega 3 supplements)
• Other hidden animal products, such as gelatin
• Other foods processed with animal products, such as non-vegan sugar, processed using a bone char filter

Vegans will continue to educate their omnivorous friends and relatives, hoping to avoid awkward situations when dining together or when accepting gifts. Refusing to eat honey may seem confusing to non-vegans at first, but when they understand the rationale behind a vegan's choices, people should have a better idea of why vegans avoid bee products and other products derived from animals or insects.