Common mistakes

After seeing all the posts around on the internet, I would just like to point out that not all vegans are assholes. I am sorry that some are rude and unforgiving, but many more of us are decent human beings. I wish these stubborn people could find better ways to reason and present their argument, but they fail in that perspective and turn away listeners. Because of this, I want to step in place and do this in a civilized manner.

This means I would like to point out a few of misconceptions people have about veganism because there are so many things people either need more clarification on, or so many lies that people are being fed (after all, if more people stopped eating animals the businesses that thrive off of animals will lose money, so why would they not have reason to feed lies about vegans/vegetarians? It is how big businesses work, after all). I feel that these need to be said. No, I don’t think that you’re an awful person for eating meat and I won’t ever call you names, which is why I’m going to speak to you like the adult I know you are.
So here we go:

1.       Veganism is about more than what you eat/don’t eat. Veganism goes hand in hand with animal rights. Vegans believe that no animal should be enslaved and have their bodies used. This includes the type of products we use. Soaps, shoes, toothpaste— sadly a large list of items contains animal ingredients. So not only do we try to lessen our impact on the environment/animals by refraining from eating animal products, but we watch which products we consume also, and hope to lessen the suffering of animals that way too.

2. As I said before, yes, you will have the assholes/extremists of any group, and I’m sorry for the way they treat other people but if someone has a stand, or is giving out brochures, or would like to discuss their reasons to go vegan/having gone vegan with you, and they do it without getting angry and calling you names, please listen. Speaking is our only way of getting the word out to people around us.

3. Which leads me to this— PETA is a HORRIBLE group when it comes to getting the word out and they stopped caring about animal rights long ago. Seriously, don’t take anything that comes from this group seriously. Most vegans flinch at the mention of PETA so it would be wonderful if we stopped being associated with them. They’re the type that single out someone else just to make their point seem more impressive and this only hurts people (and animals). This group has harmed our efforts more than helped them.

4. No, we are not malnourished. This is one thing that really gets on my nerves. I have lost count on the number of times I’ve been called anorexic and being told that I’m hurting my body (the body I have worked very hard to get to a point where I stopped hating it) so I feel most strongly about this.
These are a few of the important reasons why we are not malnourished:
a) Did you know that over 60% of the Australian population is malnourished? Surely, not all of that 60% are vegans/vegetarians, when only about 1-2% of the population is vegan/vegetarian.
-b) Another thing to consider is that almost everything has protein, including a heaping amount of plant products. Another thing they don’t teach you about protein is that your body already makes its own protein. However, it is the 9 essential amino acids that your body can’t produce on its own, hence why you do need to eat protein. Did you also know that broccoli has more protein than steak?

      -c) Iron, however, is important but so are omega fatty acids. Luckily, plants contain both. Any dark, leafy green vegetable contains iron. Spinach actually pales in comparison to vegetables like Kale (a hearty cabbage that is native to cold climates) but it still contains iron. Even dried fruits contain iron. Whole grains of any sort contain iron. Pastas and rice, even the bleached, refined ones, contain iron.