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| Our Voices |
| P.O. Box 126 * Negaunee, MI 49866 * (906) 236-1279 * info@northernvegans.com |
| This page is designed to showcase the personal journeys of Northern Vegans members as they made the transition to a plant-based diet. |
Natasha, 31
I declared myself a vegetarian at age 14. I gave up shrimp a year later. The
primary reason that I became a vegetarian was for the animals. I loved
animals and couldn’t justify eating them. It just didn’t seem right to raise
something simply to take its life, especially when a person is able to live just
fine without meat in his/her diet. Aside from staying away from meat and
obvious animal ingredients like gelatin (in marshmallows and jello) I really
didn’t put much thought into what I ate. I don’t mean that I ate only junk food. I
just mean that I pretty much ate the Standard American Diet (SAD) only without
the meat. Instead of eating meat, I relied on dairy products to fill the void. I
especially liked cheese.
All through high school, college and into my mid twenties I suffered from facial
acne. Although I am not nervous or shy in any social setting, it got to the point
where my acne was hurting my self image. As a last ditch effort, I went to a
dermatologist who put me on a drug that destroyed the good bacteria in my
gut. Everything I ate went straight through me. I was getting little or no
nutritional value from the foods I was eating because my body was not
absorbing the nutrients. During this whole time we (my husband, David and I)
had been making dietary improvements…eating more organic, whole foods.
However, I was still eating lots of yogurt, cheese and other dairy products. By
the summer of 2001 things had reached a breaking point. I was tired,
irritable, achy, and had no energy. Did I have Fibromyalgia, Lupus, or perhaps
one of the many other autoimmune diseases? I had symptoms that matched
just about all of them, but never quite fit the true diagnosis for any one
specifically.
No one could figure out what was wrong with me. I was eating a diet that
most would consider healthy. I was happy. But things still weren’t right. After
reaching a point where I thought I would never feel good again, I visited a
clinic that specialized in diagnosing and treating food sensitivities among
other things. They told me that basically my body was rejecting just about
everything. They put me on an elimination diet to get my body to balance
itself. This meant that I had to cut out all the foods that I was sensitive to and
reintroduce them one at a time over the course of many months. The few
foods I could tolerate had to be eaten on a three day rotation so that my body
wouldn’t start building up a sensitivity to them as well. Over the course of
following this highly restrictive diet I came to two conclusions. The first was
that I felt ever so much better once I eliminated the foods that were causing
me problems. The second conclusion was that without me or the clinic even
knowing it, I was eating a vegan diet. After completing the dietary regime
prescribed by the clinic, I tentatively went back to eating my previous
vegetarian diet making sure not to rely too heavily on any one food.
About this same time, unbeknownst to us, a local man had teamed up with
outside corporate investors to erect a 4,000 head hog factory (Confined
Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO) less than a mile and a half from our
almost completed dream home. It was through our experiences fighting this
CAFO that David and I learned first hand the devastation that industrialized
agriculture causes to our health, animal welfare, the environment and the
moral fabric of our society. I had always been of the mind that eating eggs
and dairy products was OK because you didn’t hurt the animals to get the
food. I soon realized how wrong I really was. Vast amounts of research,
hearing personal accounts from people living next to CAFOs and seeing the
inside of a dairy CAFO for myself helped me come to the realization that my
choice to eat dairy products was in fact contributing to an industry that causes
much suffering and harm.
That summer, David and I took a vacation to the East Coast. It was at a vegan
bed and breakfast called the Sweet Onion Inn in Vermont that we met three
other vegan couples who inspired us to really think about our justifications for
eating dairy products. Upon returning home from that vacation, we both made
the move to a vegan diet. Once I made the decision, I never looked back. I
feel great, my acne is under control, my conscience is free and I have a
greater awareness of how much power lies in my food choices. There is
absolutely no question in my mind that vegan is the healthiest and most
sustainable diet for Planet Earth. Since making the decision to “Go Vegan,” I
have worked to educate others on the many benefits of this lifestyle.
Click Here To Go Back to "Our Voices"
I declared myself a vegetarian at age 14. I gave up shrimp a year later. The
primary reason that I became a vegetarian was for the animals. I loved
animals and couldn’t justify eating them. It just didn’t seem right to raise
something simply to take its life, especially when a person is able to live just
fine without meat in his/her diet. Aside from staying away from meat and
obvious animal ingredients like gelatin (in marshmallows and jello) I really
didn’t put much thought into what I ate. I don’t mean that I ate only junk food. I
just mean that I pretty much ate the Standard American Diet (SAD) only without
the meat. Instead of eating meat, I relied on dairy products to fill the void. I
especially liked cheese.
All through high school, college and into my mid twenties I suffered from facial
acne. Although I am not nervous or shy in any social setting, it got to the point
where my acne was hurting my self image. As a last ditch effort, I went to a
dermatologist who put me on a drug that destroyed the good bacteria in my
gut. Everything I ate went straight through me. I was getting little or no
nutritional value from the foods I was eating because my body was not
absorbing the nutrients. During this whole time we (my husband, David and I)
had been making dietary improvements…eating more organic, whole foods.
However, I was still eating lots of yogurt, cheese and other dairy products. By
the summer of 2001 things had reached a breaking point. I was tired,
irritable, achy, and had no energy. Did I have Fibromyalgia, Lupus, or perhaps
one of the many other autoimmune diseases? I had symptoms that matched
just about all of them, but never quite fit the true diagnosis for any one
specifically.
No one could figure out what was wrong with me. I was eating a diet that
most would consider healthy. I was happy. But things still weren’t right. After
reaching a point where I thought I would never feel good again, I visited a
clinic that specialized in diagnosing and treating food sensitivities among
other things. They told me that basically my body was rejecting just about
everything. They put me on an elimination diet to get my body to balance
itself. This meant that I had to cut out all the foods that I was sensitive to and
reintroduce them one at a time over the course of many months. The few
foods I could tolerate had to be eaten on a three day rotation so that my body
wouldn’t start building up a sensitivity to them as well. Over the course of
following this highly restrictive diet I came to two conclusions. The first was
that I felt ever so much better once I eliminated the foods that were causing
me problems. The second conclusion was that without me or the clinic even
knowing it, I was eating a vegan diet. After completing the dietary regime
prescribed by the clinic, I tentatively went back to eating my previous
vegetarian diet making sure not to rely too heavily on any one food.
About this same time, unbeknownst to us, a local man had teamed up with
outside corporate investors to erect a 4,000 head hog factory (Confined
Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO) less than a mile and a half from our
almost completed dream home. It was through our experiences fighting this
CAFO that David and I learned first hand the devastation that industrialized
agriculture causes to our health, animal welfare, the environment and the
moral fabric of our society. I had always been of the mind that eating eggs
and dairy products was OK because you didn’t hurt the animals to get the
food. I soon realized how wrong I really was. Vast amounts of research,
hearing personal accounts from people living next to CAFOs and seeing the
inside of a dairy CAFO for myself helped me come to the realization that my
choice to eat dairy products was in fact contributing to an industry that causes
much suffering and harm.
That summer, David and I took a vacation to the East Coast. It was at a vegan
bed and breakfast called the Sweet Onion Inn in Vermont that we met three
other vegan couples who inspired us to really think about our justifications for
eating dairy products. Upon returning home from that vacation, we both made
the move to a vegan diet. Once I made the decision, I never looked back. I
feel great, my acne is under control, my conscience is free and I have a
greater awareness of how much power lies in my food choices. There is
absolutely no question in my mind that vegan is the healthiest and most
sustainable diet for Planet Earth. Since making the decision to “Go Vegan,” I
have worked to educate others on the many benefits of this lifestyle.
Click Here To Go Back to "Our Voices"