On Being Vegan

I have become a vegan. At least for this week, I’m a vegan. And I think I like veganhood.

 

You can stop laughing now. No, seriously. I wasn’t trying to be funny.

 

Okay. You done? As I was saying, I’ve been a vegan for over a week now, and I think I like it! The first couple of days were hard, but on about the third day, I noticed a few things. My food tasted different . . . without all the processed stuff in my body, a sweet potato tastes like a marshmallow! I’m serious. You should try it.

 

I also feel better. I have early onset osteoarthritis, which is just a fancy way of saying my bones are older than the rest of me. I’d read that animal products can aggravate that, and that an all plant-based diet can relieve some arthritis symptoms. Wowzer! I really do feel great.

 

And my pants are fitting looser! Which, when you’re me, is always a pleasant feeling.

 

Finally, my love for cooking has been awakened! I used to love cooking . . . but then I got in a funk of fixing the same things over and over, and it was boring. Now, I’m experimenting with all kinds of herbs and seasonings and exotic plants . . . like beets! I never in the world thought I’d enjoy eating a beet. But I do. I really do.

 

To be honest, before I started this experiment, I really didn’t know the difference between vegan and vegetarian, so I looked it up. A vegan eats only plant-based foods. That’s it. No animal products whatsoever. No meat, no dairy, no butter or cheese omelets or ice cream. It would be a sad existence, indeed, if there weren’t dairy-free options everywhere these days.

 

A vegetarian will eat animal products, but only if the animal wasn’t harmed during the process. For example, a vegetarian might eat eggs and drink milk, because hens can lay eggs and cows can produce milk without . . . . uhm . . . well, dying.

 

Then there are the subgroups. An ovo-vegetarian will eat eggs but not milk products. A lacto-vegetarian will eat dairy but not eggs.

 

There are pescatarians, who add fish and seafood to the plan.

 

And there are semi-vegetarians, who eat everything except red meat and pork.

 

Now that I’m an edutarian (get it? I’m educated about vegetarian . . . oh, never mind,) I find myself in a bit of a quandary. I don’t really fit in with the stereotypical treehugger, save-the-animals-withcute- faces vegan crowd. I love trees, and I love animals with cute faces, but I don’t have a problem with red-meat lovers. I even hunt for meat (gasp!) for my family, and I have a bunch of chickens laying fresh eggs in my back yard, every day.

 

So what’s a girl to do? All my meat-loving friends are gonna think I’m a freak. And any new vegan friends I make will dump me when they find out the truth: I’m a cute-face-animal killer.

 

I am my own subgroup. Population one.

 

It’s a lonely life.

 

But really, when I think of it, aren’t we all in singular little subgroups? Each one of us has a unique genetic code plus a unique life experience, and truly, there’s nobody else in the world who’s traveled our solo journeys. And that in itself connects us, as we reach out with compassion and the understanding that nobody can really understand. Except God, because He knows everything, and He promised never to leave us. So yeah, He gets us.

 

But as for the rest of us, we may not understand each other completely, but we can accept. We can love. And we can encourage those around us to live out their unique, God-designed purposes.

 

So there you have it. My desperate plea to NOT think I’m a freak because I walk to the beet of a different drummer. But I still have a question . . . can vegans eat animal crackers?

 

“Daniel then said to the guard . . . ‘Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.’” Daniel 1:12-13 NIV