“Fuck Vegans!”

“Fuck Vegans!” That’s right! "Fuck vegans!" This is what someone said to me the other day. The co-owner of a shop that sells mostly sugary dairy, oil-fried concoctions, some meat, and 1 or 2 vegan-friendly items. “Fuck vegans!” Because when they DO make vegan items, they don’t sell and go to waste. When I suggested that a shop filled with dairy and meat may not be the place vegans think to go for vegan food, I was told, “Oh yeah, Fuck Vegans!” He knew I'm vegan.

This is my lovely opinionated vegan rant. l.o.v.r. ;) oh.no.u.dint.

This came not too long after a day, a week or so ago, when 4 separate women told me how much they love meat within the span of an hour!

First up was a friendly aquaintance who, while we waiting for our sons to be dismissed from school, starting sharing with me about "the great deal", she got, "on the free ham", she was just gifted.

Apparently at such-and-such supermarket, if you spend a certain amount of money, they "gift" you a "FREE" turkey or ham! Yippie! So she chose the ham and rambled on a bit about the price of ham and blah blah blah while I, wide eyed tried not to say something rude. Before the start of this conversation she knew that I'm vegan, and even said, “Oh I know, not for you, but ha ha ha ha ham…oh it's sooo expensive! My 3 year old, he's such a carnivore! Hahaha, I'm sorry, but he really is!”

Five minutes later, I was crossing the street, heading to the playground with my kids after school. A woman I don't know her or her name, was walking about 10 feet behind me. She called out to me, “Oh! So I heard you are vegetarian!”

Turning towards her with a smile I replied, “Oh, I’m vegan actually.”

We got to the park and I asked her if she wanted to know something and she began to relate to me her history. How between ages 13 to 27 she became vegetarian and then was vegan for a while and even went raw for a bit. But Oh! She lost alllll her muscles and got soooo sick and so at 27 she started eating meat again. And that it took her TEN years to HEAL THE DAMAGE TO HER BODY FROM NOT EATING MEAT and now she is 37, been eating meat for the past 10, and she WILL NEVER GO VEGAN AGAIN.

Needless to say I wasn’t smiling anymore. More like a quizzical expression and said, “Well maybe you were not getting the proper balance of nutrients. I mean, just being vegan alone will not mean you’re healthy. I felt sick when I first went vegetarian too, but I learned more about nutrition.”  I mentioned that all plants have protein and that that's where animals get their nutrition. I said that getting protein or other nutrients from animal products is actually considered a "dirty source" of these things because it comes will all the other parts that cause health problems.

She made a face and said, “Well, I lost all my muscles.”

I responded by asking her, “Well, what about vegan athletes, bodybuilders, runners, Olympians?”

She contemptuously replied, “Oh yeah, I guess it was all my fault.”

A moment before this last bit, her friend, who is a mutual acquaintance of mine, had walked up to us in mid-conversation.

She had interjected by asking me, “What about honey?”

I explained my reasons for not using honey, about it being essentially bee vomit because they eat the pollen from the flowers, then throw that up into their hive, then they beat it with their little wings until it dries up the water. Then it becomes honey for them to survive the winter, when there are no flowers aka bee food. So honey is their life's work, which is also their life survival food, nourishment, and not made for us to take from them and consume.  The unnamed woman made a surprised expression and seemed to sincerely answer, “Oh, I never thought of it that way. That it’s theirs’ and not for us.” [insert eye-soul-roll]

I added that beekeepers also abuse bees and "smoke them out" and the friend quickly said that there is a new way of doing it now, that some bee farmers are using now, that doesn't hurt them. I replied that just the act of having a bee farm is a form of harm to them.

Moments later the unnamed woman was emphatically insisting that she, "will NEVER BE VEGAN AGAIN!"

She even had said, “ Oh yeah, I went vegan for the animals and the environment and all that, but,” with derision she waved her hand away, “I gave all that up.”

My eyes rolled and my heals pivoted and I stepped away full of annoyance at being ambushed, commented, "Well, every single health organizations approves and considers plant based nutrition to be the healthy and healing."

To myself I wondered, "You gave up caring about animals and the environment?!"

Her friend followed in my direction and I found myself saying to her in a ruffled state, “That was awkward, I mean, uncomfortable! What was the point of that!?” Friend defended her saying, “Oh I think she was just curious.”

Where I explained that I never go up to people and start talking about being a vegan and I try to avoid the subject with people but that SHE asked ME about it Only to tell me that she would never be vegan again! What for?! Ugh I was annoyed.

Then friend started to tell me how she too had tried to be vegetarian and vegan but she, "felt sick", and she, "just had to eat meat and you know, everyone is different."

“Yeah, well that is not the information I have come across.”

I mentioned how I have learned that ALL animal products causes damage to our arteries. For EVERYONE! I pointed out that the studies did NOT find that SOME people get healthy eating meat and dairy while OTHERS get sick. NO. ALL people get ill from eating animal products of ANY kind and ALL people HEAL when they stop eating animal products and sugar and oils, even vegan oils. I mentioned the research I learned that shows eating any amount of animal products and oil will eventually lead to atherosclerosis, clogging and hardening of arteries with plaque formations. I told her how this happens in humans, and all other herbivores when they consume animal products, but it does NOT occur in any animal designed to eat meat. I then asked her, “If we were “meant” to eat meat, why would it make us unhealthy?” I also mentioned that eating plants for our nutrients was a "cleaner" way to get these things without adding the problematic animal products into our bodies.

Then she declared that “ghee” is some kind of magical product, despite being dairy from an animal, somehow magically only has healing properties and none of those artery clogging problems like I mentioned.

I asked her where she got this information from and she answered, “Thousands of years of research.”

That ended our conversation and I wandered away to find some peace.

That led me to another friendly face on the playground. A lovely woman, I have shared many nice conversations with. We chatted and the conversation flowed smoothly. She knew that I had been working for the acupuncturist awhile back and I shared that I wasn't anymore. We talked about how busy the kids keep you. We talked about homework and the PTA. I mentioned that I have been working on my blog in my few spare moments. Like today. My younger son had 2 days out of school yesterday and the day because he wasn't feeling well. Yesterday was an earlier closing for my older son too. And each week there is hardly a day it seems when I get several hours to myself to do much besides housework.

Like right now, I have dishes and laundry to tend to. I have food shopping and mopping to do. I need to take a shower and get dressed and I have less than 2 hours before I must go pick up the boys and have them to myself for the rest of the evening. If I want to take them to the park after school I need to get up and get my shopping done in less than an hour. Indeed there is very little time for blogging or any of the other many things I enjoy like dancing and painting!

Back to my conversation with the lovely lady, I mentioned how I have been getting into my blog and spending time when I can on it. She remarked that was great and offered that I send it to her. I emailed it to her right then and that sparked the topic that it was a vegan based blog.

I talked a bit about how much I enjoy learning about plant-based nutrition for me and my boys and that I want to learn as much as possible in order to have the optimally healthy diet. She smiled all through this exchange. Then she smilingly said, “Oh my family eats LOTS of meat!”

“Oh!” I said embarrassed. “Well thank you for listening so graciously to me go on and on!” 

I really am NOT looking to convert people who are not interested or to “push” my views on anyone. I am thrilled when anyone comes up to me or approaches me for suggestions or simply because they want information about eating a plant based diet. But I am not out to force my way on others. That is exactly why I can not imagine dating a non-vegan. Because I want harmonious love and peace and joy! Not a battle every day!

“Oh no problem, we should probably eat less meat.”, my friend said.

“Well, I am not trying to convert the whole world, I mean I would be really happy if the whole world were vegan, but, I am just happy to help people in any small way. Even if it’s only one meal or just adding more fruits and veggies to their diet.”

And while we conversed I offered her a muffin I had made. I told her about my no oil diet. I told her I made it with oats, whole wheat flour, applesauce, a mashed banana, fresh strawberries and a few vegan chocolate chips on top. She took a bite before her son grabbed the rest from her. She chewed as if eating glue, mmm, mmm, mmmm, mmm. Then with a smile she said, “Well, considering what’s in it, what’s not in it, it’s pretty good. It’s moist.”

She called over to ask her son if he liked it and in a muffled muffin filled voice he mumbled, “No!” Before gobbling up the rest in 1 minute flat.

As we walked out of the park she said, "Well, we are all different. Our bodies have different needs." I guess I was on a roll that day because instead of just agreeing I said, "I think that is a very popular idea. But the things I have read and seen has shown that although people think that, when it comes to nutrition we are not so different." I mentioned Dr. T. Colin Campbell's research and book The China Study. I smiled and we parted ways.

And I know I might have come off as the cliché "vegan". Something that day wanted me to think about meat! I know most people believe in some kind of "them or me" mentality. They believe they NEED meat and dairy to BE HEALTHY so the animal becomes something like a carrot is to me. I do not feel that I am murdering the carrot. I do not feel that I am taking it's life prematurely.

I believe that fruits and veggies ARE Life here to nourish me and my kids. And most of the human and animal life on this planet. Some animals on earth are meant to eat other animals. But the kind of human that I am evolving into doesn't need nor want that. It's simple. Eating death and despair does not feel right, healthy, good or necessary. I accept that I am a very tiny minority of people. That scares me more than makes me angry because I know that nonviolence is not inherent in everyone. I think it is when you are born, but why so many people want to and do believe that it is natural to be a killer or a death eater or a controller and "God" among animals, that can buy, breed, and sell and use and abuse and exploit to their own needs and truly believe that these animals have no other purpose or sense for themselves in this life, on this earth? But to be used and abused as human produce?

No. I will stand here and be a minority of 0.5% of the population in the USA. 1 out of 1 million people who will not eat any animal products as best of my ability and knowledge. I will aim for 100% compliance in all that I consume and purchase because that feels like the correct way to be. Ya'll motherfuckers slip that shit in EVERYWHERE POSSIBLE so one must be diligent and sincere in this peace loving attitude. I don't mind being 1 out of 320 million! I am a rare creature indeed.

By and By I researched “ghee” and I found that it indeed clogs arteries just as any other animal product and oil will do.

Here is a world where, in a little shop filled with shelf after shelf and row after row of refined carbs mixed with eggs and milk and stuffed with cheeses and creams and sugar, fried in oil and slathered with even more sugary, dairy whipped into a cream, or even topped with bacon! Where every shelf is packed with these death filled treats and sweets and the 1 item that is healthy, the 1 thing they offer doesn't sell, must be tossed in the trash, and let’s toss all vegans in the trash and say fuck them all, “FUCK VEGANS!” It's like getting pissed that the salads don’t sell at McDonalds, or the one flavor of non-dairy ice cream doesn’t sell over the 10,001 other dairy flavors! So let’s disparage ALL vegans because in a world filled with addicts, the vegan options don’t sell. And it's the vegan's fault, of course.

Better to pump the world up with sugary crap filled with animal fat and flesh and stolen mother's milk and stolen mother's menstruations curdled and whipped and coated in sugar so they can coat your arteries and then go for a run and hope you don’t have a heart attack.

Oh, but at least you sold out!

While it might sound like I am judging and begrudging another's success, for me, if it causes harm, there is no success in it, no matter how much money and accolades one might earn. (See "Right Livelihood" here)

Your shelves are empty but my heart is full. Not full of plaque! Full of kindness.

Last note, Ghee is not approved on Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s program. Nor on Dr. John Mcdougall’s. Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s research team agree it is not healthy to consume. Other research backs this up. Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Michael Klaper.

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