Why Meatless???

I probably never would have known the ethical reasons for going vegan if I hadn't taken up a plant-based diet due to GERD. Because a lot of 'normal' foods give me a painful throat and chest, my diet is pretty much limited to non-inflammatory foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. I stay away from oils as much as I can and I don't use too many spices. Eating like this was really boring at first, but that's how I got creative with cooking.

Because of my diet, I often bought products labeled as "vegan" even though I really didn't know what veganism as an ideology was.

Even before that, I did find it weird that most soaps contain tallow, milk powder is an ingredient in most condoms, and that white sugar is only made by filtering the raw sugar through charred cattle bones. But back in the day, I could find a way to ignore all that as just being a little gross.

Aside from seeing what a diet heavy in meat and dairy did to my own health, when I took the time to research veganism and examine my choices, I realized that eating a cat or a dog is no different from eating a cow or sheep. Our imaginary distinction between "food" and "companion" animals doesn't mean anything, especially since what you consider to be your pet might have been your meal if you were born in another culture. For example, I keep guinea pigs as pets, but in Peru, they are an everyday food just as normal to eat as pork or chicken.

So if you really want to know the reasons for being vegan, below are some sites and books that pushed me from being a plant based dieter to actually being vegan.