What is Veganism?

Veganism is the most effective choice a person can make to help reduce animal suffering, help the environment and improve personal health. More and more people are choosing to adopt this way of eating for 3 main reasons: health, the environment and animal welfare.

Studies have shown that over the past 10 years there has been a 350% increase in vegans in the UK.

Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. Vegans, in addition to being vegetarian, do not use other animal products and by-products such as eggs, dairy products, honey, leather, fur, silk, wool, cosmetics, and any products from make-up and haircare down to household cleaners derived from animal testing.

“If you don’t like seeing pictures of violence towards animalsbeing posted, you need to help stop the violence,

not the pictures.” – Johnny Depp

So what do vegans eat and what are the health benefits?

To all you people who are wondering “What on earth can they eat?”, there are lots of different products to choose from: mock meats, made from plant protein, come in a wide range of textures, shapes, and styles: burgers, hot dogs, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ground meat, meatballs, deli slices, ’unchicken` salad, and more.

Opposing cruelty can be easy. So get yourself into trying some of the many delicious and convenient vegan products that are available, I promise you’ll be amazed.

Dairy alternatives, made from soy, rice, nuts, seeds, and plant starches,

include milks, cheeses, butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurts, frozen desserts.

From these alternatives to meat and dairy vegans typically have lower cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower rates of Type 2 diabetes, lower body mass indexes, a lower risk of death from heart disease, and lower overall cancer rates.

The vegan Makeup guide

It’s becoming easier every day to find cruelty-free vegan beauty products that will allow you to still wear make-up but in a compassionate way. There is no reason to buy products that have been tested on animals or to support companies that are exploiting animals to turn a profit as there are other brands that are cruelty-free.

Some vegan brands include: the very popular Urban Decay, Tarte, Beauty without cruelty, 100% pure, and of course, Lush.

It is a quite difficult task to find make-up products that not only haven’t been tested on animals, but that also don’t use any animal product like bees wax for example, which is quite commonly used.

What is it doing for the environment?

More than 70 percent of the earth’s fresh water is used in agriculture of plants and animals. It takes 100 to 200 times more water to produce a pound of beef than it does to grow a pound of plant foods!

As I’m sure you all are aware is aware it is no secret that we have an energy crisis on our hands—oil prices are skyrocketing and the world is scrambling to find a more peaceful method to power our homes and cars.

Meanwhile, people are urged to conserve energy, and one of the best ways of doing so is by skipping out on meat and dairy, which is definitely not the first way you’d think of to save energy!

Our Animals

Vegans do not believe in the breeding of domesticated animals such as horses, dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, birds or fishes. Domestication is not in the animals' best interests, as they are dependent on humans for everything that is important to them in their lives. 'Pets' may bring us pleasure, but the animals themselves belong in their world, not ours, with the freedom to live as they choose.

Vegans do rescue and adopt abandoned animals however, seeing them as refugees deserving of care while they are in this world, but they do not perpetuate the institution of 'pet' ownership.

Vegans also do not buy cosmetics or household products that have been tested on animals, instead choosing cruelty-free and vegan products. They also try to minimise their use of medicines which may have been tested on animals wherever possible.

Animal testing

• 92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work.

• Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in US labs every year – this is one of the main reasons for vegans becoming vegan.

“There is no doubt that the best species for humans are humans. It is not possible to extrapolate animal data directly to humans due

to interspecies variation in anatomy, physiology and biochemistry.”