Philosophical Vegan Forum

I've always wondered if meat itself was needed for a living creature, but a herbavore does just fine without such intake. I know there is a guide to becoming a Vegan but I wanted to know, at least. If I can't get myself into a Vegan habit, how I could encourage others? It's hard being 17 and living with your parents and cutting out meat when you live in Louisiana (a bunch of rednecks who LOVE to hunt Deer, rabbit, ect. I do not hunt, I say it's pretty much abusing the ecosystem) and live with such people.

I work at a fast food place, Sonic. I already made them seperate friers based on what is being dropped such as fries and tots as well as other non-meat portions, then have a whole other set-up opposite in which is made for specifically meat such as Fish, Crab, Chicken ect. (They make me filter the grease considering they don't care and end up mixing it when filtering, I go to lengths to label the grease traps and storage so that I know what bucket is used for where when filtering), so I do it to make sure those who are vegan and such. Can enjoy fast fast once in a while without worrying if they taste Chicken in their tater tots.

It's amazing to hear that you're open to the possibility of going vegan

There are different reasons for going vegan: ethics, health and environment.
There are billions upon billions of farmed animals right now, and hundreds of billions are slaughtered every year.
Animals are sentient, while plants are not - so it's only logical to harm plants instead of animals; it inherently causes less harm.
On top of this, the meat&dairy industry causes a lot of damage to the environment - top one in global warming for the emissions of greenhouse gasses. It's an unsustainable way for the future.
By going vegan, it's one of the most effective ways to make positive change - in average, because one went vegan, 200 animals per year are not going to be bred into existence and be slaughtered.

CryoVirus wrote:I've always wondered if meat itself was needed for a living creature,

It depends.
If an animal is carnivore it's needed, if it's not then it's not necessary - we're omnivores, and we can have all the nutrients we need with an appropriate vegan diet.
Everyone can have a vegan diet, as stated by the American Diet Association http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19562864

It's generally healthier - if you don't eat too much junk food. One should generally avoid junk food and fried food as much as possible.
A vegan diet settles the problem of high blood pressure and heavily reduces the risk of heart desease and cancer - this is mainly due to the fact that a vegan diet has no cholesterol and very low saturated fats. You also don't have the problem of bioaccumulation.
This is a great Youtube channel regarding health issues https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCddn8d ... 3Qr5mjADtA - I highly recommend to watch his most viewed video, it explains how a vegan diet avoids the leading causes of death.

Regarding supplements, the necessary one is B12. You can either get enough of this through foods that are supplemented with B12, or get a supplement - the second option is the easiest and more secure one.
As a supplement, 250 mcg of cyanocobalim (B12) daily is the recommended dose.
There's also Vitamin D3 - but you should take this regardless of the diet, unless you take gnough sun, of course.
Vegan or meat-eater, the recommended daily dose is 1000 UI.

CryoVirus wrote:how I could encourage others?

A good way is to spread awareness. Most people are ignorant of what animal farming means: billions of sentient beings being harmed and environmental damage. Some people don't even know what veganism is, or why one should be vegan.
Another way is to cook exceptional vegan food for your guests, and present tasty recipes - most people think that by going vegan they'll lose the possibility of having tasty options in their diet.
Also present them to fake products (vegan products that have similar shape and taste to animal products) - fake meat, fake cheese and alternatives to milk are of great help to change. There's a huge list of 'fake' animal products - be it steak, b.acon, or butter.
These are some examples http://www.peta.org/living/food/favorite-products/
And also explain to them that there's health improvement in going vegan.

There are different ways to go vegan.
You can change fast - the best option if you can, but you might recede because of cravings.
Or you can take it easier - eliminate one animal product at a time from your diet e.g. this month you take out dairy milk, next month eggs, next month pig, etc.; this is the best way if you feel like changing in one day or in a short period of time is too much.
There are also other options, such as flexi-veganism or just reduction in animal products consumption - it's not the most ideal option, but it's better than eating animal products without restraint.

To deal with your family, even if they're not going to follow you, I suggest to explain your position, and show how important it is for you that you go vegan.

If you want more information, there are already guides and tips on this forum on how to become vegan.
The threads are http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=88 and http://theveganatheist.com/forum/viewto ... ?f=7&t=159


I realise these are lots of informations at once. If you want me to clarify something - supplements, reasons, diet - , or if I didn't answer something you wanted to know, please feel free to ask.

Well it's a lot of information at once, I have to thank you once again. Always jumping on my posts to help me out. I wrote down the links (I'm on a school computer at the moment so most are blocked for unknown reasons) I don't drink normal milk right now, I only drink Almond milk. Which I think is delicious thus why I drink it, I don't care for sweets or fast food (although I work at a fast food joint) I think explaining to my parents I want to go Vegan would be difficult (again, they are rednecks, not the most intellectual humans on the planet.) but I'd like more for the supplement side, I'v taken Health Education and know the different needed Vitamans to maintain the correct body structure and to maintain health but I don't know as far as going Vegan, what is cut out of the diet (You explained what is needed but more info woulod be best since it does have a very...very..slight fatality risk. also, a few recipes you'd like to reccomend so I can get myself started. I usually get home late now with school, so I could get away with cooking the meals for myself and without much fuss.

CryoVirus wrote:but I'd like more for the supplement side, I'v taken Health Education and know the different needed Vitamans to maintain the correct body structure and to maintain health but I don't know as far as going Vegan, what is cut out of the diet (You explained what is needed but more info woulod be best since it does have a very...very..slight fatality risk. also, a few recipes you'd like to reccomend so I can get myself started. I usually get home late now with school, so I could get away with cooking the meals for myself and without much fuss.

Like I said, but I'll repeat to enphasize how good it is, this channel is fantastic regarding health issues and vegan health https://www.youtube.com/user/NutritionFactsOrg

There are many supplements you can take if you want to. You can check this thread http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?t=163
If you have a healty vegan diet - enough Omega3, iodine, vitamin A, C, B2, B6, B9, protein, iron, zinc, calcium etc. - you only need to supplement with B12 and vitamin D3 (and, unless you take enough sun everyday, you should supplement the latter one in every diet).
It's actually pretty easy to reach the requirements for those nutrients - dark leafy greens and seeds are an amazing source for most of these e.g. spinach, broccoli and collard greens.
My diet is mainly composed by pasta, rice, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts. Eating a variety of foods is usually the best idea.

For what's the best type of B12 and why vitamin D3 is better than D2, check the same thread http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?t=163 (post number 6).

For every nutrient, you can make a quick research on Google to check the best vegan foods for it.
http://www.veganhealth.org is by far the best site to check why nutrients are needed, how much of them are needed daily, and what are the best vegan foods for them; I highly recommend to check there.
There's too much stuff to say to cover all the nutrients; if you want to know more about it, there are always books:
http://www.theveganrd.com/vegan-for-lif ... -life-book

Regarding recipes... well, I'm certainly no expert in this field.
A great site for vegan recipes is http://myvega.com/vega-life/recipe-center/
And if you want, there's a section in the 'Vegan Forums' just for food - plenty of recipes and advices.

Thanks once again. Big help to me on multiple occassions, I'll check these sites out as well as the forum posts. I really do want to change from eating meat, I've never really found it tasty, I see food as food so what IO eat doesn't exactly matter. It's the way of living my family holds that is the problem. but really. Thanks a TON.