If you have been following our last two blog posts regarding why nutrition is important to us, specifically for "black" people, this will be the final installment for this series regarding why veganism is not suitable or sustainable for any human being. I have noticed a trend that has slowly but surely started to take over quite a few minds in the black community regarding diet and how the way that our ancestors ate and what they ate was now wrong and that we now have the holy grail to eating the "right" way. Because of social media, we have access to a plethora of different information that we didn't have access to before. As I started on this journey, I discovered why nutrition was very important to me, my children and for generations to come. I am exposing the truth about veganism via my own experience and health issues that I have seen in myself and others.
Let us begin....................................
ism: a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement.
Veganism to me is a new artistic movement of religious practices and laws. I wonder, who is behind this new movement? After tons of research, I have concluded that eating less than what your body requires is because people are trying to lose weight, or they lack the funds to buy food that is filling and nutritious. Eating a diet high in carbs and less meat always meant poverty, or at least where I come from. I can recall the days after a hard work week and receiving my bi-weekly salary, I would always treat myself to a thick, juicy steak, a meal that I rarely ate during the week and that was not eaten often. It surely was a treat! After having children and wanting the very best for them, I set out on a journey to provide them the very best in everything, especially food because I wanted to give them a great health start.
After going vegan for about 21/2 years, I developed low iron and low vitamin D. I noticed that I was always tired and also my teeth suffered as well. I didn't link feeling this way to my diet because my initial goal was to lose weight and be "healthy". Now when I think about it, weight is not an indicator of good health but just that you look "better in your clothes" depending on who you ask. I have struggled with the idea of how, I should look to others versus how I feel. When I was at my heaviest or healthiest weight, my hair thrived, my skin glowed and I honestly felt better overall. It was then I realized that weight loss did not equate good health, but usually a sign of sickness or malnutrition, unless you are exchanging the fat loss with muscle gain. I was still very active and athletic during this time.
I'm not here to get people to agree or disagree, this is MY assessment, and I stick by it.
I remember how good I would feel after doing a 3-day juice fast, in the beginning, but around that third day, my energy would tank! I felt so tired and down and just always told myself, "Those are the toxins leaving the body, stick with it, to get to your goal", I didn't realize how delusional this thought process was. I had a weight goal and was sticking to it. I tried everything to take away that hunger, but nothing helped, but sleep, because I was no longer thinking about food. That was how I would keep myself from wanting to eat, I went to bed early.
Considering I had a family, this was an incredible feat especially with a husband and young children. Long story short, I tried 'The Starch Solution which I thought if I made more potatoes and rice, it would fill me up and I wouldn't be so hungry in the long run.......THAT WAS A LIE, LOL!!!!! I was even hungrier!! I would go back for seconds, thirds.......and since I'm being honest, fourths and fifths! I couldn't figure out why my body was still craving food after eating delicious slow roasted veggies with brown rice AND potatoes. I realized my body craved nutrition...... meat, eggs, sardines, fresh raw milk and creamy yogurt! My teeth were sensitive during this time. I used to have this recurring dream that my teeth were falling out of my mouth. I was so terrified that I woke up praying to not allow me to lose my teeth. The dreams did not stop until I started to drink raw milk. My prayers started to be about finding the solution to a problem before it became an even bigger problem. I found a local farm that care about their animals, what they are fed and regeneration of the land.
Now, unfortunately we don't live in a world that gives us the total truth about what we consume or call food. It's more about money and how to keep making more and more of it at the cost of degeneration of the soil and the food that comes from it. I'm glad, I took the time to figure out what my body not only wants but needs, as well as my children because we only get one body suit and it is high time, we start treating it like we are grateful to have and what it does for us, especially when we give it what it needs.
I know people say, "well, some people can be vegan, or vegetarian and it works for them". Are you sure that it's working for them, because I have learned and observed that, "black" vegans usually start to decline mentally before the physical decline. The teeth will start to rot or become sensitive, anemia or low iron will become an issue, or low B12, which can also be a sign of mental decline, but we never equate it to the diet or lack thereof. I am a firm believer in people having the choice to choose what they want to do or what religion to follow but when it comes to children who are still growing and REQUIRE the necessary vitamins and minerals to make their bones, teeth and body healthy, I think it is a CRIME to deprive your children of what their little growing bodies need to be healthy and strong, mentally and physically.
Remember when households only used lard or animal fat to cook its food and milk was served at dinner time? But there was a certain doctor named Ancel Keys who was paid to demonize saturated fat so a lard substitute, such as Crisco could make its theatrical debut. Pigs raised on pasture with their proper diet have a higher vitamin D content. According to the NIH, sun exposure in pigs increased the vitamin D nutritional quality in pork, and according to the study, the experiment was for only one hour of sun and there was a significant increase in vitamin D after sun exposure Sun exposure in pigs increases the vitamin D nutritional quality of pork - PMC
Do you know that demonizing pork was all in the plan to eventually demonize all meat in general. Don't take my word for it though.
I know vegetarians feel they are better than vegans since they do at least eat eggs and drink milk but according to Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride she concluded that,
"Vitamin B deficiency is very common amongst plant eating people, because this vitamin comes exclusively from animal foods. It is one of the most essential substances for our bodies to function properly. Your brain, the rest of your nervous system, your immune system and all other organs in the body require this vitamin. Our blood composition is particularly vulnerable to deficiency in vitamin B12 which leads to pernicious anemia. People can take supplements of this vitamin, but in order to process it properly the body requires protein. Good quality protein only comes from animal foods, so the bodies of vegetarians are unable to use vitamin B12 from supplements".
So, if this is the case with vegetarians then where do you think the vegans lie.
Since studies are so popular amongst people nowadays, here is a study from the NIH regarding vegetarian mothers and stunting wasting of their children Stunting and Wasting Among Indian Preschoolers have Moderate but Significant Associations with the Vegetarian Status of their Mothers - PMC
And again, this is comparing to vegetarians, I ask again, where does the vegan lie in all of this.......
People with kidney problems are told to limit their protein intake, but I don't think that all protein is considered equal. Protein in a powder or manufactured is not the same as protein from a natural source.
I do know that our bodies require certain vitamins and minerals for healthy bones, skin, teeth, and organs. We can say certain evidence is anecdotal or "there is no evidence to suggest", but if science already informed us of what a baby needs to grow, thrive, and be healthy then the same applies to us as adults, or so I thought. No, I don't subscribe to carnivore either. I feel that in life things must have a balance and that your body will benefit from fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy and eggs.
I do feel that veganism is a scam and is all in the plan to remove animal products to make us weaker, mentally and physically, just like your carbon footprint. Do you not realize that we produce carbon in everything that we do and the carbon footprint that they want to remove is you.
I also feel that veganism plays on your psyche, which actually does not allow you to make an informed choice. Think about all of the documentaries that promote veganism, most of them is about shock value and grossing you out of eating animals or their products. When you have someone that is vegan and they see you eating meat or drinking milk, they make it their business to let you know about how the meat and milk are full of hormones and how there is pus in the milk, blah, blah, blah, I have heard it all but nothing will keep me from enjoying a delicious glass of raw milk! Hey, I fell for it too and had to become mentally strong to journey through the all the bs so that I could understand that animals were made for me and that is why I support my local farms that love their animals enough to raise them naturally and treat them well.
Yes, I thought being vegan for the short time that I was, was going to make me healthier, and it did make my health do a complete 180.......with low iron, low vitamin D and low thyroid.
1951, The Vegan Society was established with the goal of ending the exploitation of animals by humans.
I know what works for me and my family and the difference it has made in our health in general. I am grateful for the sacrifice the animals give and the farmers that take the time to love their animals enough to raise them in a healthy environment, so that the meat produced from those sacrifices are nutritious and delicious! I am grateful that they give their lives so that we can have better lives, such as the zebra to the alligator, the antelope to the cheetah, even to the insect to the frog and the fly to the Venus fly trap.
"Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which has God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. 1 Timothy 4:3