When someone finds out I’m vegan, I almost always get asked why.

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Here’s my story.

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In the early spring of 2020, I had the idea to cut red meat out of my diet.

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I don’t recall exactly why I had this idea in my head. The only thing I could think of is that there's a history of heart disease and diabetes on my dad’s side of the family.

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Red meat has been linked with an increase of type 2 diabetes risk according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The American Heart Association (AHA) has also linked red meat to an increase of heart disease risk.

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So, in May 2020, my no red meat journey began. Well, sorta.

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I was back home because of Covid and eating whatever my mom put in front of me. Including red meat.

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But after dinner one night, things changed.

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My mom and I sat down to watch a documentary that would change my life. As cliché as that sounds, it really did. It felt like a light bulb went off.

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That’s when I knew I had to go vegan.

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Plant-based Diet and Health

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The documentary we watched is called The Game Changers.

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The Game Changers showcases how athletes eat and live off a plant-based diet. It also highlights the science and effectiveness behind being vegan.

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Did you know Alex Morgan, Venus Williams, Novak Djokovic, Tia Blanco, Lewis Hamilton, and Chris Paul are vegan?

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Now I’m no professional athlete, but the science behind a plant-based diet was fascinating to me.

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I was already attempting to cut red meat. So why not go all in?

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I became vegan on Monday, June 1st, 2020. It’s very on brand for me to start something on the first of a month, especially since it was a Monday.

In case you didn't know, I love Mondays. They are the 2nd best day of the week.

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Anyways.

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I’m not the type of person to watch one documentary and take it as law. So, I watched another documentary.

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What the Health investigates the link between diet and disease, and how big businesses in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, and food industries have billions of dollars at stake.

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It was a great follow up to watch after The Game Changers because it looked at things from an economic and business standpoint.

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It was interesting to see how meat, dairy, and processed foods affect our health. But also how heavily involved big corporations are.

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For example, the beloved breast cancer organization, Susan G Koemen for the Cure, has partnered with KFC in the past. Seems a bit counterintuitive, right?

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Also, the page where the American Cancer Society encourages eating processed turkey and canned meats has been heavily revised since the release of “What the Health”.

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I invite you to explore the full list of mind boggling facts from the film here.

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Putting politics and investigative journalism aside, these documentaries taught me how certain foods affect your health and body in different ways.

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By watching these documentaries and reading case studies and research papers, I learned that you can reduce the likelihood of developing serious health issues like heart disease and cancer by adopting a plant-based diet.

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Given my family's history of diabetes and heart disease, I believe implementing a vegan diet will help lower my risk as I grow older.

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So, the first reason why I went vegan was to do what I thought was healthier for my body.

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But this was only the beginning.

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The Animals

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When you learn about a plant-based diet, you inevitably learn about animal cruelty and factory farms.

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Farm animals including chickens, cows, pigs, and sheep are locked in small cages with no room to move.

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Fish like salmon and trout swim in circles of their own urine and feces.

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There are also sadistic delicacies like shark fin soup in China.

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If Orwell was still alive, he would easily have a plot for a sequel to Animal Farm.

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We’re exploiting animals for our own personal gain, while ignoring the fact they are living, breathing creatures. Kind of like humans.

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The majority of the human population doesn’t need to kill and eat animals to survive.

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Animal cruelty is a real and significant problem that has been graphically highlighted in the documentaries Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy.

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If you haven’t figured it out yet, I love documentaries.

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Okay back to the point.

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Before you shamefully kill an animal, you have to feed it. That’s also a problem.

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If we stopped feeding nutritious grains to farm animals and instead focused on feeding humans, world hunger could nearly disappear. Fact check me. No really, do it.

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A journal in IOPScience states that, “growing food exclusively for direct human consumption could, in principle, increase available food calories by as much as 70%, which could feed an additional 4 billion people”

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That’s more than the projected 2–3 billion people we expect through population growth.

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We need more land for more people, right?

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How much American land do you think would be freed up if we ate half as much meat?

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Roughly a whole South Dakota!

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The US would need 47.3 million fewer acres to grow the same amount of protein if we replaced half of our animal protein supply with plant-based or alternative proteins, according to The Good Food Institute.

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Over 3/4 of the country’s cropland is used to feed animals. Not humans.

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Raising animals for food is inefficient. It not only takes a lot of land and water to grow their feed, but even more land and water to support them.

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Plus, cow burps are a major source of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas.

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The second reason I went vegan was to do my part in protecting animals from big businesses’ exploitation and massacre through factory farms.

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But the third reason is what really changed my whole life.

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Vegans Can Save The Planet

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In October of 2020, I started a new job at Poshmark. Poshmark is a marketplace where you can buy and sell secondhand fashion, home goods, electronics, and more.

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At this time, I was still learning about the impact of a vegan diet, how to read food labels, and what ingredients to avoid.

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My intrigue started to shift because Poshmark promotes a circular economy, where we eliminate waste and purchase things secondhand.

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The content I consumed became less about health or animal cruelty, and more about sustainability and climate change.

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The more I read (and the more documentaries I watched), the more I learned about the link between veganism and climate change.

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According to the United Nations, switching to a vegan diet can reduce an individual's annual carbon emissions by up to 2.1 tons.

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That’s the same emissions as an individual flying roughly 3 cross-country flights from NYC to LA.

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I believe the quickest way an individual can help reverse climate change is to adopt a plant-based diet.

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And apparently a study by scientists from Stanford and UC Berkeley backs me up.

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“The worldwide phase out of animal agriculture, combined with a global switch to a plant-based diet, would effectively halt the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases for 30 years and give humanity more time to end its reliance on fossil fuels.”

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By being vegan, you’re literally saving the planet. At least that is what I tell myself when I'm neck deep in a bowl of salad for the 5th time this week.

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Okay, all jokes aside, being vegan can significantly fight climate change.

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You’re not eating animals or drinking dairy which are responsible for large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide. The less cow farts and burps the better.

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A vegan diet also requires less land, water, and energy compared to raising animals for food. Which means slowing down deforestation and preserving biodiversity.

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I don’t know about you, but I prefer snow in winter, not heat waves.

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The third reason why I went vegan was to do my part in fighting climate change.

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What's It Like Being Vegan

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So you’re telling me going vegan is better for my body, animals, and the environment? Where do I sign?

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It’s been over 4 years since going vegan. I'm still pretty new to the game.

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But I’ve noticed increased energy levels, less bloating after meals, and a feeling of happiness knowing that I’m making a small but mighty difference in the world.

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It’s also pushed me to cook and try new foods. I’ve had delicious meals that were based on the traditional cuisines of Nigeria, Peru, Vietnam, France, Ethiopia, China, and more.

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And yes. They even have good ole vegan American comfort food.

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My dad, a non-vegan baby boomer, still rants about the West African food we had in LA. Shoutout Ubuntu.

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But on the flip side there are plenty of challenges.

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I have trust issues with restaurants that don’t list their ingredients or clearly label things vegan. And can we please settle on if V, VG, or VE means vegan?

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It can also be a tough experience trying to eat out with friends and family. You need to look at menus in advance and sometimes call the restaurant to see how they can accommodate you.

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There’s also a learning curve. You need a B12 supplement. You need to learn how to read food labels. You need to know what to avoid and what’s generally safe. You need to make sure your doctor orders the right blood work.

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But there’s so many resources out there that make it easy.

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And I’m here to be your resource if you feel compelled to go vegan or incorporate more plant-based meals into your diet.

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If you have any questions or comments, feel free to shoot me an email at alexsiminoff@gmail.com or message me on LinkedIn.

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