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As a vegan, does it matter to you if your partner also lives a vegan lifestyle? Those who choose to live a compassionate, vegan lifestyle have varying comfort levels in regards to their partner’s dietary habits. Some feel that their partner’s dietary habits are theirs to choose; they feel at peace with doing their own thing and allowing their partner to do the same. Others have different comfort levels, and may prefer or require their partner to be at least vegetarian. Still others draw the line at veganism, feeling that a compassionate diet and lifestyle is a non-negotiable value they want to share with their partner.
As a vegan who has been in relationships with vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters, and whom is happily partnered with a vegan, I have arrived at my personal conclusion that a vegan diet and lifestyle are choices I want to have in common with my partner. Why? Well, it’s not just about health, although I appreciate having a partner whose choices will more likely engender an energetic, long, disease-free life that I can share with them. To me, it’s about understanding a veganism’s implications on other people, animals, the environment, and our spiritual connectedness.
Vegan author Gabriel Cousens, M.D., who wrote Spiritual Nutrition and Depression-Free for Life, among others, shares the insight that eating a diet which ruins the environment and hoards resources (meat-eating and the eating of industrial dairy products) is not just about you. At this point in history, it’s not just about your freedom to choose what you want – your dietary and lifestyle choices affect everyone on the planet. Dr. Cousens uses the metaphor of a cruise ship to represent the earth, saying the choice of diet as a private, personal choice is like making a hole in the floor of your individual cabin and saying, “I have the right to make this hole; it’s my cabin.” Yes, it’s your cabin, but you’re helping to sink the whole ship. I believe that supporting the death and oppression of animals, the destruction of the environment, the hoarding of resources, and the myriad of other problems that an omnivorous lifestyle causes, is reflective of a person’s values and perspectives of life. Personally, the spilling of an animal’s blood for the sake of one’s dinner is out of alignment with a higher truth as a person.
As a person who prioritizes spirituality, as well as ethics and morals, I also value a partner whom I feel connected to on this same spiritual level, and diet and lifestyle choices are part of the depth of that spiritual connection. I don’t wish to take away from successful relationships where there are mixed dietary or lifestyle choices, such as with a vegan and an omnivore, or two people with differing religious views, but for me, both of us being vegan is essential.
Understanding and prioritizing a compassionate lifestyle is sexy. Caring about protecting the earth and all the beings living on it is a turn-on. Living and eating in a way that enhances spiritual connectedness is the best aphrodisiac there is. A mutual vegan love-life can help perpetuate compassion.
