Final Blog

1. I believe I have an ethical mind. I ponder on the nature of one's work and the needs and desires of the society. In my blog I gave my opinion on how people could be healthier individual if they stopped eating dead, unhealthy animals. I believe this method would improve the world we live in.

2. In my blog I exhibited curiosity, I experimented with new ideas, and read with awareness of others. I'm very curious with how other people feel towards veganism. People usually have strong opions with this topic whether they disagree or agree on it. I made this blog to tell my opion and hear others. Veganism is not a popular topic for highschool students to talk about. I think it was a unique topic. I enjoyed reading and commenting on other's blogs. It's interesting what people chose to write about above all other topics.

3. After developing my blog, I feel I refreshed old ideas and facts I have already learned but forgotton before. It gave me a new perspective and a new eagerness to stay away from all animal products. It was nice to see how supportive most of my classmates were on this topic.

Cruelty Part 2

All of these conditions that surround these "food animals" are consumed by us. How are we to be healthy people when we are consuming unhealthy animals? Many people have asked me why I have chosen to be a vegetarian. After hearing all the gruesome stories told from actual people who work at slaughterhouses I don't understand how anyone would stand to eat an animal.

Plants don't squak, squeal, or moan when you kill them....

At the slaughterhouses, terrified "food animals" are kicked, beaten with canes, and shocked with electric prods to herd them to the kill box. Standard slaughter practices, results in mass abuse, horrific pain and suffering for millions of animals. Thousands of "food animals" are dismembered or dropped into a scalding tank while they are still conscious. Many of the "food animals" are hung upside-down, their throats are slit, and then they are skinned... sometimes while they are still squealing and/or moaning.

Many of the smaller "food animals" live in filthy warehouses,confined in small cages or crates, preventing them from turning around or even stretching their limbs. The larger "food animals" spend the last several months of their lives in overcrowded holding pens loaded with feces and urine.

"Food animals" not only experience immense pain and suffering when they are mutilated, mistreated, tortured, injured, or ill; new research suggests they also become agonizing stressed and frustrated when forced to live under these dreadful conditions before they are slaughtered.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. -- Genesis 1:29

I Kill Vegatables

Slaughter House

Dairy

This information comes from The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
1. Osteoporosis


Milk is touted for preventing osteoporosis, yet clinical research shows otherwise. The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study,1 which followed more than 75,000 women for 12 years, showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. In fact, increased intake of calcium from dairy products was associated with a higher fracture risk. An Australian study2 showed the same results. Additionally, other studies3,4 have also found no protective effect of dairy calcium on bone. You can decrease your risk of osteoporosis by reducing sodium and animal protein intake in the diet,5-7 increasing intake of fruits and vegetables,8 exercising,9 and ensuring adequate calcium intake from plant foods such as leafy green vegetables and beans, as well as calcium-fortified products such as breakfast cereals and juices.


2. Cardiovascular Disease


Dairy products—including cheese, ice cream, milk, butter, and yogurt—contribute significant amounts of cholesterol and fat to the diet.10 Diets high in fat and saturated fat can increase the risk of several chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease. A low-fat vegetarian diet that eliminates dairy products, in combination with exercise, smoking cessation, and stress management, can not only prevent heart disease, but may also reverse it.11 Non-fat dairy products are available, however, they pose other health risks as noted below.


3. Cancer


Several cancers, such as ovarian cancer, have been linked to the consumption of dairy products. The milk sugar lactose is broken down in the body into another sugar, galactose. In turn, galactose is broken down further by enzymes. According to a study by Daniel Cramer, M.D., and his colleagues at Harvard,12 when dairy product consumption exceeds the enzymes’ capacity to break down galactose, it can build up in the blood and may affect a woman’s ovaries. Some women have particularly low levels of these enzymes, and when they consume dairy products on a regular basis, their risk of ovarian cancer can be triple that of other women.


Breast and prostate cancers have also been linked to consumption of dairy products, presumably related, at least in part, to increases in a compound called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I).13-15 IGF-I is found in cow’s milk and has been shown to occur in increased levels in the blood by individuals consuming dairy products on a regular basis.16 Other nutrients that increase IGF-I are also found in cow’s milk. A recent study showed that men who had the highest levels of IGF-I had more than four times the risk of prostate cancer compared with those who had the lowest levels.14


4. Diabetes


Insulin-dependent diabetes (Type I or childhood-onset) is linked to consumption of dairy products. Epidemiological studies of various countries show a strong correlation between the use of dairy products and the incidence of insulin-dependent diabetes.17,18 Researchers in 199218 found that a specific dairy protein sparks an auto-immune reaction, which is believed to be what destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.


5. Lactose Intolerance


Lactose intolerance is common among many populations, affecting approximately 95 percent of Asian Americans, 74 percent of Native Americans, 70 percent of African Americans, 53 percent of Mexican Americans, and 15 percent of Caucasians.19 Symptoms, which include gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, and flatulence, occur because these individuals do not have the enzymes that digest the milk sugar lactose. Additionally, along with unwanted symptoms, milk-drinkers are also putting themselves at risk for development of other chronic diseases and ailments.


6. Vitamin D Toxicity


Consumption of milk may not provide a consistent and reliable source of vitamin D in the diet. Samplings of milk have found significant variation in vitamin D content, with some samplings having had as much as 500 times the indicated level, while others had little or none at all.20,21 Too much vitamin D can be toxic and may result in excess calcium levels in the blood and urine, increased aluminum absorption in the body, and calcium deposits in soft tissue.


7. Contaminants


Synthetic hormones such as recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) are commonly used in dairy cows to increase the production of milk.13 Because the cows are producing quantities of milk nature never intended, the end result is mastitis, or inflammation of the mammary glands. The treatment requires the use of antibiotics, and traces of these and hormones have been found in samples of milk and other dairy products. Pesticides and other drugs are also frequent contaminants of dairy products.


8. Health Concerns of Infants and Children


Milk proteins, milk sugar, fat, and saturated fat in dairy products may pose health risks for children and lead to the development of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and formation of athersclerotic plaques that can lead to heart disease.


The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants below one year of age not be given whole cow’s milk, as iron deficiency is more likely on a dairy-rich diet. Cow’s milk products are very low in iron. If they become a major part of one’s diet, iron deficiency is more likely.10 Colic is an additional concern with milk consumption. One out of every five babies suffers from colic. Pediatricians learned long ago that cows’ milk was often the reason. We now know that breastfeeding mothers can have colicky babies if the mothers are consuming cow’s milk. The cows’ antibodies can pass through the mother’s bloodstream into her breast milk and to the baby.22 Additionally, food allergies appear to be common results of milk consumption, particularly in children. A recent study23 also linked cow’s milk consumption to chronic constipation in children. Researchers suggest that milk consumption resulted in perianal sores and severe pain on defecation, leading to constipation.

How do vegans get nutrients?

A common question I have been asked when people discover I am a vegetarian is, "How do you get enough protein?" It is simple.Protein is amino acids, and your body cannot tell the difference between amino acids whether it comes from a cow or a potato or a laboratory. Here is a list of how vegans can contain nutrients without consuming animal products.
Complex carbohydrates: Found almost exclusively in plant foods. Whole grains, beans, legumes, and vegetables

Protein: Beans, legumes, seeds, grains (especially quinoa and amaranth), leafy green vegetables, lentils, tofu, nuts, tempeh, miso, and peas
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Fat: Avocados, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds

Micro nutrients

Vitamin A: Green leafy vegetables, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, wheat grass juice

Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): Whole grains, nori, wakame, legumes (especially peanuts)

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Green vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, nutritional yeast, hiziki

Vitamin B3 (Niacin): Whole grains (especially brown, black and red rice), posole, masa, nori, wakame, peanuts, nutritional yeast

Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid): whole grains, beans, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, nutritional yeast

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine): Whole grains, leafy green vegetables, dulse, nori, nutritional yeast, carrots, peas, sunflower seeds, walnuts

Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin): Nutritional Yeast, fortified cereals, fortified soy products such as soy milk, tempeh, and miso.

Biotin: Soybeans, nutritional yeast, whole grains

Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid): Citrus fruits, bell peppers, chilies, amaranth, berries, cabbage, parsley, sprouts, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts

Chlorine: Soybeans, whole grains, legumes

Co-Enzyme Q10: Peanuts, spinach

Vitamin D: Sunflower sprouts, fortified soymilk, fortified vegan cereal, sunshine.

Vitamin E: Nuts, seeds, wheat, oats, quinoa, brown, red and black rice, broccoli, cauliflower, dandelion greens, sprouts, asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, wheat germ oil

Folic acid: Microalgae, sprouts, leafy green vegetables, whole grains, nutritional yeast, dates, beans, legumes, mushrooms, oranges, beets, fenugreek and root vegetables

Inositol: Whole grains, nutritional yeast, beans and legumes, especially soybeans)

Vitamin K: Alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, hemp seed, blackstrap molasses, dark leafy green vegetables, green tea, kelp, soybeans, oats, rye, wheat

Vitamin P (bioflavonoids): Peppers, buckwheat, black currants

Vitamin U: Green cabbage


Minerals

Boron: Seaweed, alfalfa, unrefined sea salt, nuts, carrots, leafy green vegetables, apples, pears

Calcium: leafy green vegetables, broccoli almonds, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds, figs, dandelion greens, wakame, hiziki, kelp, kombu, amaranth, quinoa, oats, beans, legumes, microalgae, fortified soymilk.
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Chromium: Seaweed (especially kelp and alaria), whole grains, mushrooms, beets, nutritional yeast, beans, legumes

Copper: Seaweed, whole grains, raisins, apricots, garlic, mushrooms, beets, nuts, leafy green vegetables

Flourine: Seaweed, rye, brown rice, parsley, avocados, cabbage

Germanium: Seaweed, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, aloe vera, ginseng, onions

Iodine: Seaweed and unrefined sea salt

Iron: Seaweed, molasses, whole grains, nuts, beets, sesame, seeds, beans, legumes, prunes, raisins, dates, dried apricots, almonds (taken with a vitamin c source will boost the iron absorption) cashews, tomato juice, rice, tofu, lentils, and garbanzo beans (chick peas)
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Magnesium: Seaweed, whole grains, microalgae, amaranth, beans, legumes, leafy green vegetables

Manganese: Seaweed, whole grains, nuts and seeds, dark green leafy vegetables, avocados

Phosphorous: Seaweed, whole grains, beans, legumes, dried fruit, garlic, nuts, seeds

Potassium: Kelp, dulse, carrot juice, whole grains, beans, legumes, bananas

Selenium: Seaweed, whole grains, beans, legumes, garlic, mushrooms

Silicon: Seaweed, whole grains, bib lettuce, parsnips, dandelion greens, strawberries, celery, cucumbers, apricots, carrots

Sodium: Seaweed, celery, unrefined sea salt

Sulfur: Seaweed, cabbages, beans, legumes, onions, garlic, nettles, soybeans

Vanadium: Seaweed, whole grains, vegetable oils, dill, radishes, green beans

Zinc: Seaweed, legumes, beans, seeds, mushrooms, nettles, soybeans,whole grains (especially the germ and bran of the grain), nuts, tofu, leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach, and cabbage), and root vegetables (onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, and radishes)

Is a Vegan Diet a Healthy Diet?

In 1996, the American Dietetic Association reported,vegan and vegetarian diets can significantly reduce one's risk of contracting heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other debilitating conditions". A cow's milk provides the sufficient amount of fat and protein for a young calf during it's most progressive growth span. That is far too much for humans to consume. Eggs contain more cholesterol than any other food. Many people think without eating animal products, one can not consume enough nutrients. This idea is very false. Vegans can get all the protein they need from legumes (e.g., beans, tofu, peanuts) and grains (e.g., rice, corn, whole wheat breads and pastas); calcium from broccoli, kale, collard greens, tofu, fortified juices and soymilks; iron from chickpeas, spinach, pinto beans, and soy products; and B12 from fortified foods or supplements.
Check here for more information:http://www.vegan.org/FAQs/index.html

Abbout Me

First of all, I would like to explain the reason why I have chosen to write a blog on veganism. I have been a vegetarian for over a year and I am working towards veganism. Everywhere I go, people like to criticize my eating habits. My grandmother has been a vegetarian for over twenty years. She is extremely active and the healthiest person I know. She is my role model and has helped me along the journey towards veganism.I would like to share the reasons why I have chosen to be a vegetarian and the reasons why I want to be a vegan.