Though I've been saying that to myself for months if not years. It's hard to give up on choices, especially in this American culture of abundance and mass entertainment.
I've had my best friend argue if it's worth it to be restricted this much, and to stress and have to contemplate restaurant orders becuase I can't eat certain dishes if it has the wrong ingredient. "Is that worth it if it adds only 5 years to your life? 10?" I think it would be. But not just for adding years but for adding healthy years of life. Life without disease. The education is spreading that a vegan (and as close to raw, whole foods as possible) is the healthiest diet; it's even facilitating people to easily get off their prescription medications as demonstrated in a recent and powerful health documentary from this year What the Health - But I saw these kind of documentaries years ago showing the same thing. I was just ahead of the curve. Watching 1,000's of hours of youtube testimonials and doctor presentations, reading dozens of books and many pages of online articles too.
But, the first reason I wanted to go vegetarian and vegan was for my health even before I was so majorly convinced of just how incredibly health it is! Later, in more recent times, I have focused on why, if we don't need to eat any animal products whatsoever and still live just as long if not much longer than average, are people still supporting the meat industry, buying the products and continuing the factory farm and slaughterhouses that raise billions of beings just to die each year? The only explanation is long-term tradition and slow spread of knowledge/information. Looking into conspiracy theories years ago I would often hear the phrase "a lie can run around the world several times while the truth is just getting it's shoes on". Or something to that effect. It makes a lot of sense, a lot of lies are sensational, exciting, or extreme on one end of reality like a black and white depiction of what's real: Russia is Bad, Trump is a bafoon.
Animal products being safe to eat is just appealing to what most people want to hear. They don't want to realize they've been harming their bodies for literally decades on choices they could have avoided. People don't like to be proven wrong. They have a strong aversion to it. I personally am usually fine with being wrong a lot of the time. At least I learned something.
One day I do hope there's no animal product choices out there from mainstream restaurants and grocery stores. Then eating it would seem bizarre and savage. I do not however want the government forcing people what to do. Information awareness is already causing the vegan trend to accelerate and it is happening with more and more people who want to be healthy, cure a disease especially if life threatening, and to even fit in once enough of their friends & family ARE vegan. Heck, this fairly large guy from a local business I got to talk to for a good while was supporting whole food plant based diet. Still, right now it's the vegans that have to try to fit in and convince everyone else. It's not a cakewalk to try to restrict your diet as an American around people who are likely to make fun of you, question your manhood and virility and more. Sad on both ends where you know they're hurting their bodies, lowering their lifespan etc and you're just wanting to help them and the world, animals, and environment. Maybe it is lofty goals, but they're doable. Each person can choose to stop eating meat as a first step. There's a lot of money backing the meat and dairy industries so that's why we have to fight nonsense arguments like Plants can hear themselves being eaten catering to the lowest common denominator of food consumer to keep them in the dark.
If I can continue to restrict myself properly I'm going to use 4th of July 2017 as a key date to my shift, in slight protest to all the hot dogs and garbage food people eat to celebrate our country's independence.
In my opinion, a vegan is someone who strives to live without harming animals in any way. So continuing to wear leather shoes until they wear out, well they already existed so you're not re-harming an animal just by keeping them in fact you're conserving vital environmental resources by recycling an old item. Being vegan is a choice you make in your head, some definitions will vary, but the thought, intent and action are what make you vegan. You don't have to be 100% successful in restriction, examining and self control to continue to belong to a philosophy of less harm is better.
