Please watch this clear and informative video, at the bottom of my post, narrated by Sir Paul McCartney called “If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls, Everyone Would Be Vegetarian” on the inhumane practices around the world to factory-farmed animals. He also touches on health and climate factors.
I adapted this from my fiance’s post but I have used my own personal experience in order to get my message out there prior to New Years Resolutions.
I have been a runner and yoga enthusiast for about 30 years, active for most of my life, practicing Cardio Muay Thai for the last 7 years and resistance training for 2 years. I too have a focused interest in performance, personal excellence and have been experimenting with diet and the effect thus on my body and energy.
I have had numerous influences on my diet such as Body for Life, Atkins, Wheat Belly, How Not to Die, Smart Medicine for Healthier Living and others, too many to mention all of them. Some of the theory still applies but needs to be fine-tuned with climate change and advances in nutritional science, the time has come to make improvements, increased application, and understanding. A paradigm shift is commencing and long overdue.
I have been practicing Intermittent Fasting (IF) now for about 2 years with various schedules. In 2016 Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel prize for describing the process of autophagy where IF can help with many functions including cellular repair and regeneration. IF has also been practiced for spiritual purposes for thousands of years. I have settled on a flexible schedule of 12-15 hour fasts three times per week, due to an inherent heart condition called Long QT. Long QT is an elongated period of time between the Q & T beat in the heart rhythm. It causes erratic heartbeats resulting in fainting, seizures and sudden death. I am in the BC Inherited Arrhythmia program at St. Paul’s and my cardiologist is aware of my IF, I am also on regular medication. I am not a candidate for Prolonged Fasting (PF) due to my condition. The practice was the arch to make other changes, which I feel are beneficial to me. I have found IF does compliment my thinking, consciousness, and more. On a basic level, IF has helped me enjoy food on a particular level than merely snarfing. I am more aware of what I eat, what toxic hunger is and what real hunger is. I would suggest, if you are interested in IF, to have a full checkup prior to engaging in IF.
I have turned to more of a whole food plant-based diet primarily for ethical reasons (please watch video link I’ve attached) however people turn to veganism for a combination of three reasons; their health, the health of the environment and ethical considerations. This has been a fascinating study and I am fortunate to have a fiance’ who also enjoys learning and improving a healthy lifestyle. Cooking together has been fun to learn, apply and get results. We have fun in the kitchen, we learn new recipes that taste incredible contrary to some negative propaganda that describes vegan dishes as boring or bland. We use so many spices now of which have numerous health benefits. My food does not lack taste! I have the onset of rheumatoid arthritis in my knees and this has lead me to consider that overuse and my diet likely contributed to excess inflammation and lack of healing. I was consuming copious amounts of dairy and factory-farmed meat products without any consideration for those years. I don’t miss meat, I do not miss dairy at all, there are so many vegan alternatives to dairy that taste good.
My fiance’ has become a prolific gardener and growing our families own fruits and vegetables. We just walk out the door and pick the food we would like to eat, it’s pretty cool! I have been vegan for about 6 months now and I feel satisfied, my energy has increased on a subtle but noticeable level. I may eat a piece of fish or a free-range organic egg in the future and I will not explode but it just so happens I have lost the desire for animal products. My energy is good and I feel veganism is extremely healthy. We have done plenty of research. We have studied the works of Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Michael Klapper, and Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and more. We eat whole foods rich in vitamins and minerals such as B12’s, Calcium, DHA’s to proteins, good fats and carbohydrates that are required for health. The vegan lifestyle is scientifically proven to reverse heart disease in a plethora of scientific studies, obviously not written by scientists hired by the meat and dairy industry. I am 48, turning 49 in February 2020. I am committed (God willing) 😉 to living at my maximum optimum physically, mentally and spiritually until 95 or something better!
Gamechanger, Forks Over Knives and Vegan 2019 are also good movies to help people learn. Gamechangers came forth with the concept that not only is veganism good for the environment and considerations of animals, but they have also put forth a very compelling argument that it is the most healthy alternative even for competitive athletes. I think people should take a look at that.
A whole food plant-based diet is something we Truly enjoy. It has been captivating and I enjoy learning about the advances in nutritional science. I encourage others to become conscious and learned about improving their own health, develop understanding of the positive environmental connection with veganism and evolve in compassion and discernment of the consequences for the factory-farmed animals. These are my opinions. If I can encourage someone to change gradually or rapidly, I am confident it will be a significant benefit.