Vegan lifestyle: take it from JIM

My boyfriend’s father is visiting this week. He is vegan. He is 65 years old.

5 years ago he weighed 220 lb and decided to change his lifestyle by becoming vegan. He now weighs 165 lb and feels great. He says that he never felt hungry on the vegan diet.

For those of you that don’t know, the vegan diet is entirely plant based. No animal products at all. No cheese. No eggs. No milk. No honey (this is only for the die-hard vegans)

He tells me that he used to be on a statin for elevated cholesterol and his MD said he was at risk for having a heart attack or stroke. After 2 years of vegan diet he returned to the doctor and was able to come off the statin. He has had his cholesterol checked multiple times since and it's "perfect", he says.

Me: “What made you want to go vegan?”

Jim: “I saw a move called Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. At that time I got in to juicing but still ate meat. Then I continued to watch different sensational health movies that contributed in part to my changing lifestyle. The film that specifically me experiment with stopping meat consumption was Forks over Knives. “

He said he considered the food industry’s impact on political corruption and environmental health as a high priority, but ultimately became vegan for his own health and the rest was just an added bonus

Jim says “ Everyone should do it.
Anyone who is interested in saving the planet should be vegan “

He goes on to say

“Beef and dairy production contribute more to greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined. “
and
“1/2 of the of the land on the continental US is used in animal food production. “

Well Jim, you’ve got my attention. I think I will try to switch to vegan and do my part for the planet earth. When I was in my early 20’s I tried being vegan for socio political reasons and I ended up getting really sick and actually stopped menstruating. I went to a alternative healer (since I was a hippy at the time ) and he said that I “needed blood” . He was a chinese herbalist and did his diagnosis by looking at my tongue, eyeballs, and ears. It was quite interesting really. Then he sent me home with some gross tasting herbal pills and told me to eat meat and stay out of the wind.

Sure enough with in a couple of months on the pills and diet I was feeling better again and started menstruating.

I’m willing to try it again. I do like vegetables. I’ll do the research and prepare myself for the transition and we’ll see what happens. Between giving up straws and giving up animal products I can actually make a small difference.