How did the idea pop in to my head?
When I grew up my
mum and dad always served me dishes that included dairy products or/and meat
products. I loved it! There is even an image of me eating ribs with my whole
face. Not a joke. Very seldom did I eat that much green. If I look back at my
life, I don’t think I had one meal without at least one animal product growing
up. I was born and raised in Sweden where it is very common to eat fish,
chicken, cow and pork. It is also very common to drink milk or eat cheese from
cows or goats. And what about eggs? Well, I used to love them! And yes, on top
of the eggs I always had a pink thick string of caviar from the Swedish brand
“Svennes” or “Kalles” before I took a huge bite. That was my life until the
beginning of autumn 2017 – I was then 27 years old.
Me and my
boyfriend Sam – who is way more into food than I am – started watching
documentaries about the meat industry around the world but also about vegan
communities. It didn’t take long for both of us to have uncomfortable feelings
about eating animal products. Sam was the one who got me more and more
interested in eating more plant-based food and not too long after we cut out
meat from our diet, I had trouble eating the cheese as well. Something just
happened in me. I used to love cheese so much and I always told Sam that it
would probably be most difficult to cut out the cheese and the chocolate. I was
wrong. Cutting out meat, cheese and chocolate turned out to be very easy. My
tastebuds had changed. The thought or idea of eating meat today is almost
scary, I just don’t want it anymore. Also, thanks to Sam’s interest in vegan
food, I think I had it easier than others to make the transition from a meat
diet to a vegan diet.
What was the biggest reasons for me to turn animal products down?
First it was
about my health. The more I got to learn, the more I understood that the
processed food we are stuffing ourselves with today can harm us. Many people
who get horrible diseases like cancer, lupus or diabetes can feel much better
after eating a plant-based diet for example. Listen, I’m not an expert on these
things but I can clearly see that the processed and stressed meat we are eating
is doing more harm than good. The second reason for eating less animal products
is because of the animals. Not only are we mass breeding/producing animals so
we can eat them, we treat them horribly. We don’t respect or see these
creatures as living earthlings, we just see them as food. This industry is
ice-cold and people only have money in their heads. I do not want to support
that. Eating animals is not an necessity in today’s society, it’s more a luxury.
We get all that we need from the plant-based diet and we can produce more than
enough for everyone on earth. The third reason why I choose to have a
plant-based diet is because of the environment. The more animals we breed the
more land is being used. The math is simple even for me, somebody who hated
math in school.
Am I fully vegan now?
It is not that
easy. Our society is not build for vegans. I do eat cheese in a sandwich or
salad sometimes just because I’m hungry and there is nothing else to buy that
could fill my stomach. That’s the truth. I try to always take the vegan option
if it is there but I don’t always have that luxury. It’s getting better and
better in Sweden though, more restaurants and supermarkets are starting to pick
up the trend of eating greener which is good. The biggest problems are to get
people around you to understand your new choice of lifestyle. My mum and dad
still want to feed me some animal products because that’s all they know. They
are open to learn and they are trying, so I love them for that. In different
cultures, it can be even harder because it is often seen as very manly to eat
meat. I guess that can be a whole new discussion – the philosophy of men being
from Mars and women from Venus – but let’s pretend we know better.
So, there it is.
This is how it started for me and I’m not saying it’s the best way of life but
right now this is my way of life. I don’t judge people around me who eat meat
but if they ask me about my diet, I’ll tell them what works for me and what
doesn’t work for me.
In the future, if
you want, I can tell you what I think about roadkill diet and people having
their own farm where they eat everything they grow and breed there.
Thanks to my new diet I have started to eat a lot more different food that I didn't do before. Now I love hummus, broccoli, different salads and mushrooms – food I didn't even like before.
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