Am I Vegan?

Photo by Jannis Brandt on Unsplash

 Ok, I know I might have triggered a few people with this title but I really hope you just hear me out before the judgments.

Here's the thing. I know Veganism has been pretty popular these days, almost like a trend.  To be honest, I didn't know the difference between a Vegan diet and and a Vegetarian diet until a few years ago. My family just never talked about it, and I was pretty ignorant. And honestly, I just put the people who said they were Vegan in a stereotype box.

Recently, probably in the last two years, I started noticing, or maybe just becoming more aware of the fact that, Veganism was becoming more and more popular. I was seeing it all over YouTube, blogs, Netflix, and it was popping up on the sides of food packages in the store.  So I decided to see what all the hype was about. I read articles, on the pros and cons, read books, talked with my parents, and watched documentaries.  The first one I saw was Forks Over Knives, and was intrigued, but not impressed enough to make the jump. I think I was mostly just scared. I mean, I love my cheese and bread! Then I read more books, and watched What the Health, and that's when I couldn't wait to start, but I knew I'd have to make the change slowly, because until then, my family ate your typical Western diet, of meats, cheeses, oil, and milk every day. None of us were overweight, and we tried to eat "healthier", but we'd never even considered eating Vegetarian or Vegan. Watching What the Health made me more comfortable because they called it a whole foods plant based diet, versus Vegan. And the reason I call myself Plant-based, and NOT Vegan, is because of my motivation behind my decision. I try eating whole foods and plants because I want to nourish my body with the freshest and best foods, and I've seen positive results. My skin has cleared up, by digestive and immune system have never been better, and I feel great! (And to address the elephant in the room: I'm not doing it to lose weight, and I'm not doing it to save animals.) 

Being plant based vs. vegan is a huge difference. Here's a great article that explains the main difference.

I'll be sharing more about this in the future, so if you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll try to answer them in a later post.

Thanks for stopping by!

--Mariana