Alot of us don’t have the money to take a university class on how the body works and why Veganism is great for our health. Luckily with the internet there are ways to get free education, all you need to do is put in the time. This is my personal list of sites I use to educate myself more about Veganism and Science in general, completely for free.
Youtube
This one is a bit obvious but often overlooked learning tool. By searching for a generic term like “vegan diet benefits” you will get a long list of great information. Because it is in video format it is really easy to digest and can be a relaxing activity done while eating a vegan meal or preparing for bed.
If you don’t know what to search for don’t worry, Youtube will show suggestions in the side bar of each video you are currently watching. The suggestions uses an amazing algorithm and you will find out about all kinds of new topics that you have probably never even heard of. This gets especially interesting if you are looking for fun recipes, you never know what tasty dish will pop up next.
All in all this a great learning tool that can replace most university courses if used properly. And hey if you like watching Vegan videos don’t be shy, go try and make some content of your own!
Follow Health & Wellness Bloggers
You can find a whole bunch of vegan bloggers out there that will help give you guides on nutrition and lifestyle. Each blogger has their own personality and unique voice that comes across in their writing. Here are 5 of my favorite vegan blogs and some of their posts:
https://ohsheglows.com/ and her post about vegan cookies
The website khan academy has subjects on just about every topic under the sun. From math, to finance, to science, and yes even veganism! Under the biology course there is an entire lesson about how veganism can extend the life span of the average person by many years. In addition I learned about some of the chemicals and compounds in meat and how they are much harder on our liver than a plant based diet is.
The courses also have a points and experience system that is really fun to use. As soon as you master a course your khan academy pet grows in size and you can buy little trinkets to decorate it with.
Study Island For Math
If you need to brush up on some high school skills you can use sites like Study Island to do a quick refresher. They have subjects like algebra, geometry, and calculus. The best part is how it is gamified learning that hooks you in so you just want to keeping answering the questions, even for fun. They have different themes about pirates and other adventure backgrounds. At the end of each section there are quizzes and tests that you need to pass to progress. Some sections i was already familiar with so i used Study Island answers to skip through them and save a bit of time.
I started using it recently for pre-calculus and was able to skip an entire semester of courses at school by taking the entrance exam. So if you are planning on going back to school using a tool like this can help you save some money and time on classes you don’t need. They also have other subjects like biology, chemistry, history, social studies, and writing.
The basic premise of veganism is an ethic of compassion to minimise suffering in the world. Any sentient being is capable of feeling pain. We vegans try to minimise harm to all sentient beings. Just about all products originating from nonhuman animals cause harm and a vegan avoids them all: flesh from slaughtered animals, dairy products from enslaved dairy cows, eggs from battery hens living in situations resembling concentration camps and more.
Another bonus for vegans is that on a low-fat vegan diet you are far less likely to suffer from major ‘diseases of civilisation’ such as heart attacks, strokes and cancer.
A diet of plant-based foods is good for the Earth. Vegan foods require the least amount of land, water and energy to produce. Vegan foods also cause the least amount of soil erosion and pollution.
Most of the food crops that are grown in developed countries go towards feeding animals for the meat, dairy and egg industries, not for feeding humans. If we cut out our consumption of animal foods, we can live on a fraction of the cost to the Earth: costs in pesticides, fossil fuel input, arable land used, water used, water pollution and soil erosion. The Earth as well as the animals will thank you for turning vegan.
Millions of people around the world are questioning their dietary habits. The typical high fat, high cholesterol, high protein, low fibre, largely refined diet has been increasingly indicted as the prime contributing cause of heart disease, strokes, circulatory ailments; diabetes; various types of cancer and numerous other serious health problems. The addition of fibers from fruits and vegetables also helps to keep your vagina tighter as you age and keep you sexually healthy. Public attention is also being drawn to the injustice and cruelty of preventing animals from living their own natural lives in glaring contrast to the brutal realities of the appalling conditions in which our slave ‘food-animals’ are usually raised and slaughtered.
Another major source of urgent concern is that the greatest waste of natural resources, the worst producer of desert and famine, a prime motive for the despoiling of vitally needed tropical rain-forest and the most wasteful use and pollution of precious water supplies, all involve the raising, feeding and slaughtering of livestock for food. The terrible ecological results of this human short-sightedness and callousness may in many areas be passing the point of irreversibility.
Thoughtful, caring people realise there has to be a better way and there is. Veganism is an ethical way of living without the use of animal products such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy foods. Vegans enjoy a plant based diet including wholefoods as basic sources, such as vegetables, grains, legumes, fruit, nuts, and seeds. A typical vegan cookbook lists wide varieties of delightful recipes for soups, entrees, salads, dressings, vegetable dishes, casseroles, sauces, ‘dairy substitutes’, breads, pasta, pizzas and deserts (icecreams, puddings, cakes, pies and biscuits) – all made without ingredients of animal origin. This is the time tested total vegetarian system that is nutritionally balanced, helpful and humane, ethically and scientifically sound, naturally rich in vitamins and minerals, high in fibre and complex carbohydrates, low fat and low sodium and contains no cholesterol.
Vegans also oppose the use of leather shoes, fur coats, woollen garments and other products of animal cruelty, suffering and death. Vegans realise that it makes no difference to the animal whether we kill her to eat her or wear her and that there is no ‘innocent-by-product’ of animal cruelty and exploitation.
The natural results of widespread veganism are not only better human health and happier circumstances for the animal nations but also a tremendous alleviation of the environmental burden place upon this planet. As it takes two or three acres to feed someone on the Standard Australian Diet, but only a fraction of an acre to feed a vegan, the land use of economy factor has a ratio of about 10:1. In terms of water used to grow food, it takes less than 1/3 as much to feed a lacto/ovo vegetarian (one who still consumes milk and eggs) but it takes less than 1/13 of the usual amount of water, to grow the food for a vegan.
There is a better way than perpetual animal slavery, suffering and slaughter, human hunger and malnutrition, waste of natural resources and pollution of our environment.
What’s wrong with dairy? The life of a dairy cow and her offspring are painfully hard. Just like humans, cows only give milk after the birth of a baby. This means that to continue to take milk from a cow, the farmer must repeatedly impregnate her on what are commonly called “rape racks”. The calves born by dairy cows become a “waste product” of the dairy industry. They are taken away from their mother shortly after birth, causing stress to both mother and baby. Many calves are sent straight to the slaugherhouse and killed when they are just a few days old. Others are confined in small crates for a few months until they are slaughtered and their flesh sold as “white” veal. Some of the female calves become dairy cows themselves. Because she has been bred to have an unnaturally large udder, she may suffer from mastitis, an inflamation of the mammary gland which causes severe pain and distress. She may also suffer from lameness, due to the distension of her huge udder, which causes her great pain, forcing her to lie down as much as possible. After 7 or 8 years she is “spent” and taken to slaughter. In the wild she could live to be 20 years old.
What about eggs? Under natural conditions, hens live about 10 years. But the life span of a hen used for egg production is about 18 months. She spends all of this time packed into a tiny cage stacked on top of each other in huge sheds. She never sees the sunlight and is constantly stressed. She is manipulated to lay an egg almost every day of her life, laying so many eggs that her bones snap from osteoporosis. The unwanted by-products, day-old male chicks, are killed by gassing, suffocation or crushing to death.
The cruelty of fishing: Pain begins when the hook pierces the mouth and the fish is reeled in. Many people remove the hook while the fish is still alive. Pain is further increased if large fish are landed with a gaff hook. The large hook on a handle rips into the flesh of the live fish to pull out of the water. Live baiting is another barbaric activity that increases pain. A live small fish is threaded up as bait for larger fish. The needle is passed through the front of the eyesocket of both eyes. The material is then pulled through so that the hook sits on the head of the baitfish. Remember the bait fish is alive and feels pain, just as a dog or cat (or indeed a human) would. See more atfishfeel.org.
“As long as human beings will go on shedding the blood of animals, there will never be any peace.”
– Isaac Bashevis Singer
At our recent meetup, politics came up, which it often does, but this time the topic was different. We talked about the new law passed by trump called FOSTA SESTA and how it was affecting american workers. Cara was very adamant about how on the surface the law looks good, but it has some serious drawbacks for the LGBTQI community. Rachel on the other hand, believed that collateral damage was worth it to protect children from sex trafficking. And finally there was Kaitie who just missed browsing through the missed connections section of craigslist for the good laughs it provided.
So what’s the deal anyways?
The new law passed in April banned all classified sites that allowed people to post ads for dates and sexual encounters. The site was used by sex workers who provided services like massages (and probably more), but the issue came because a small number of people were using the site to post ads for sex with minors, aka sex trafficking.
Cara argues that even though Craigslist Personals was taken down, sex traffickers will just use alternatives sites, read more, which will let them accomplish the same thing. At the same time, innocent sex workers, will also have a hard time finding safe work if they can’t post ads on sites like craigslist personals. Cara personally has friends in these positions, many of them are vegan and very nice people, sex work is a way for them to make extra money and make ends meet. Most of us were kind of surprised, weren’t her friends afraid of being attacked or harmed? “They are actually very selective”, Cara explained, “They only take clean clients that look nice and smell good, then form long-term relationships”. Well you learn something new everyday, instead of being called prostitutes, these workers prefer to be called escorts.
Rachel and Cara did most of the talking at the meeting, Rachel argued that if even one child is in danger, these sites should be held accountable. She’s really done the research and came armed with facts that left Cara taken aback. For one, an estimated 47 children enter into sex trafficking every day. Most of these children are brainwashed or threatened with violence if they do not carry out the work orders created by pimps. Cara softened a bit after this new knowledge, but she continued to argue that criminals were using craigslist personals in ways it wasn’t meant to be used (she’s also pro guns).
Kaitie had a bit different view on the situation. She neither used craigslist personals for hookups or dating, but she used it as a place for finding a good laugh. She said that in her spare time she would sometimes browse the missed connections and personals section for a quick laugh. “Many of these posts were are so ridiculous and scandalous, but in a funny way.” She recalled one M4M ad, meaning a male for male ad, something very popular on craigslist personals. In the ad one male was looking for a jogging partner, he had a pug dog that would join their runs, and after all the exercise he offered to help you ‘warm up’ *winky face*. We all got a good laugh out of that. After hearing Rachel’s argument though, Kaitie was on her side and said that she agreed the site is better off taken down, she’d get her laughs elsewhere.
All in all, it was a bit off topic and we didn’t discuss much about veganism like we usually do. We also discussed what meetup we’d do next and decided on some Vegan DIY arts and crafts. Sign up on our meetup page VeganSocietyNevada to get notifications of all the events. Right now were on a bi-monthly schedule, but may increase if we get more visitors! Leave a comment below to let us know what you thought of our craigslist personals chat, and what your opinion is.
Join the Vegan Society NSW and be part of an active group promoting veganism and encouraging others to move towards a cruelty-free life.
Each member receives our newsletter keeping you up-to-date with vegan news and events in NSW. You also have access to shopping discounts at a growing number of on-line and “real world” establishments and the knowledge that you are helping an organisation run by its members to encourage veganism in NSW (see the Aims and Objectives and the Constitution on the About us page).
You may join the Vegan Society NSW online by following the three steps below. Or, if you prefer not to join online, you may print the membership form (or as PDF) and post it to us. You will receive a newsletter with many of our interesting guides that dive into the benefits of a good diet and exercise.
Getting enough protein while trying to lose weight can be a challenge when you are on a vegan diet. Alot of people don’t realize that there are vegan protein powders just for weight loss.
I recommend you go to your local co-op to look for these rather than buy them online. That way you can talk to some of the employees and ask what they prefer.
When you are looking just keep an eye out for two main words: Vegan and Slim. You want to avoid powders that are not vegan friendly obviously, but some vegan protein powders add a lot of extra soy and nut fat to make the taste creamier– by looking for the word ‘slim’ you can avoid this.
The Best Tasting
Of all of these my favorites would have to be the vega berry protein powder which is perfectly fruity. The berry flavors is made from organic fruit juice sweetner and has completely natural ingredients. If you are more of a chocolate lover than a berry fan you can also try chocolate and vanilla flavors. You can read more vega berry protein powder reviews here.
Aside from vega the next best tasting is probably orgain. It comes in chocolate or vanilla, the chocolate is absolutely delightful and creamy. The only drawback is that it is not really the best for weightloss like some of the others.
When To Take Your Protein Powder
If you are craving a mid night snack this a great chance to have some of your slim vegan protein powder instead of a piece of cake or something too carby. A protein shake like this will fill you up and instead of storing the calories as fat, your body will feed your muscles instead. This is especially true if you did any weight lifting during the day which can further increase weight loss.
If you liked this post feel free to leave any comments and I will reply right away! Be sure to follow the main blog for more vegan information.
