Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Veganism is known, in the non-vegan world, as a subculture of vegetarianism – “extreme vegetarianism” – people who don’t even eat dairy or eggs, or people who won’t eat anything to do with animals. At one time few people knew what veganism was – and even today a lot of people are unclear. Although it’s true that veganism has a lot to do with what you eat, as anyone who identifies as vegan knows, there is A LOT more to making the lifestyle complete and truly embracing all the ways it can enrich your life.
When you are new to veganism this realization may come slowly – and when it does come it can be overwhelming. I like to think of veganism as having three major pillars – health, compassion for animals, and concern for the environment. As we have been discussing in recent articles on the Vegan Mainstream Blog, although many people are coming to the vegan lifestyle through the “health pillar,” once they start investigating the lifestyle and learning more about it, often they adopt the other two pillars as well.
But the pillar people first find isn’t always the health one. For me the magnet was the compassion pillar. I was in university when I started to learn about factory farming and animal testing. It started me down a road that I will forever be grateful for walking. At the time I cared little for my health – I was angry, shocked and passionate about the cruelty I was discovering was implicit in the production of everything from shampoo to hot chocolate. I didn’t yet understand the cruelty behind dairy products, and my way of coping with feeding myself was to eliminate the meat portion of my diet and replace it with cheese. I ended up in hospital after less than a year with kidney problems.
My compassion for animals encouraged me to learn how to become a healthy vegetarian, and fortunately for me my older sister was also becoming vegetarian – for health reasons – at the same time. She passed on her resources, and I learned how to cook beans and realized that greens were going to become my best friend. Coincidentally my younger sister was also becoming vegetarian at the time – for environmental reasons. And so my education continued and my introduction to the three pillars was complete.
Fifteen years later I live a healthy, vegan lifestyle that is good for my body, my heart, and my soul, recognizing the three pillars of veganism as equally important. If you go vegan for ethical reasons and don’t take care of your health, you are not taking advantage of one of the healthiest human diets that exists. If you go vegan for health reasons and don’t extend your concern to the planet or other animals, you will be missing out on a valuable opportunity to become a gentler person who is more in touch with the world around him/her.
Are you new to veganism? Here are some resources that might open up another pillar you have not yet explored:
Health
Compassion for Animals
Concern for the Environment
Which pillar attracted you to the lifestyle? Tell us about your transition!
Vegan Newbie is a new series on Vegan Mainstream! These weekly articles are geared toward BRAND NEW VEGANS and vegetarians, and they deal with issues and topics that will help newbies find their way through the transition from an omnivorous lifestyle to a compassionate one. If we’re going to make Vegan mainstream, we need to reach out to people at ALL stages in the transition, and that is what this series is about. We hope you find these articles thought provoking and interesting. If you do, or if you know of someone who might, please SHARE them. With the power of the internet, our voices can be heard far and wide. If you are a vegan newbie, and there’s something particular you want to read about, email us and let us know at editor@veganmainstream.com.
