Ultimately, common excuses like “there are bigger problems in the world” or “human lives are worth more to me than animal lives” are not the real reasons people consume animal products. A person may truly hold those opinions and beliefs, but they’re not actually what motivates them to consume something that isn’t vegan over something that is.

Why is it hard to go vegan for so many people, really?

When you peel back all the layers, the answer is as simple as four little words:

• Taste
• Habit
• Convenience
• Tradition

Let’s examine each of them.

Taste

Yes. Meat, dairy, and eggs taste good.

Now that we’ve gotten that obvious statement out of the way, we’re free to look at other things that taste good too.

That’s because so many of the flavors we enjoy actually come from ingredients that are naturally vegan. Herbs and spices — the building blocks of any good dish — are plants. Lots of the sauces, dressings, and marinades we regularly use are already vegan or can easily be made vegan. Various cooking techniques like grilling or smoking instill their own flavors into foods and are totally vegan.

Sure, some vegan foods aren’t very good at all, but the same can be said about some non-vegan foods as well. Delicious vegan foods do exist. It’s simply a matter of having fun exploring and learning what tastes good to you and what doesn’t.

But what if I don’t like the taste of vegetables or other plant foods?

I’ve got good news for you: You can train and develop your palate to crave different flavors.

I know it seems impossible right now because you’ve gone so long liking what you’ve been liking, but you actually have a lot more control over what your body craves than you may think.

Just like people can develop an acquired taste for wine, beer, scotch whiskey, dark chocolate, and coffee, you can develop a taste for vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and lots of other vegan foods.

In this way, going vegan doesn’t limit a person’s choice of flavors — it actually expands them.

Habit

Humans are creatures of habit.

Studies show that approximately 40% of our daily activities are habitual.

Yes, our brains are powerful, but lazy. The human brain loves cutting corners. That’s because it’s trying to be efficient, but it doesn’t always succeed in doing so.

We learn a way to do something that works and we keep doing things that way because it’s harder to learn a new (potentially more beneficial) way to do things than it is to keep doing things the way we’re already familiar with.

And so, habits are formed. And, just like the gradual wearing down of a path, the more we do them, the more ingrained those habits become.

This is every bit as true for our diet and lifestyle habits as it is for any other habits we may have. In fact, the foods we eat are dictated more by habit than anything else. We have our familiar watering-holes, favorite restaurants, regular grocery shopping list, favorite recipes, and more.

Thankfully, we can change these things if we want to. We can form new habits that replace the old habits. We can find new watering-holes, new favorite restaurants, create a new regular grocery shopping list, and so on.

All it takes is the willingness to change and to take on that task one day at a time.

Let’s say I hypothetically chose to go vegan. How hard would it be to break my current habits?

Habits can be tough to break, and a lifelong habit can be much tougher.

The good news is it takes about 21 days to create a new habit or to kick an old one, though it can take anywhere between 2 months to a year for that new habit to feel completely automatic.

Breaking the deeply ingrained habit of eating animal products means relearning how to cook, how to shop, and in many ways, how to interact with the world — things you’ve already spent your entire life up to this point learning about your non-vegan diet (whether you realized it or not).

You’ll have to learn the same things all over again, except vegan this time.

It’s going to feel like a crash course. It’s going to feel overwhelming. You’re going to feel like quitting and you’re going to mess up — and that’s okay. Those feelings fade away more and more with time. Soon enough, you’ll have newer, better habits that will feel every bit as natural to you as the ones you spent your entire life developing before you chose to go vegan.

There are also plenty of resources to help new vegans or anyone who’s curious about reducing their reliance on animal products.

Convenience

I won’t lie to you and say that being vegan is more convenient than simply not caring at all about what you eat, wear, etc.

In the short term, not caring about something will always be more convenient than caring about something, regardless what that something is.

That being said, it has never been more convenient to be vegan than it is right this very moment, and it’s only getting more convenient each year.

Vegan foods are literally in every grocery store produce section (hooray for fruits and veggies) and vegan meat, dairy, and egg products are constantly being added to grocery stores and restaurant menus at an increasing rate.

You also get better at skimming ingredient lists to the point where it takes only a few seconds to determine whether something is vegan (thanks to your newly acquired vegan powers), and once you learn which products are vegan, it becomes just as easy to shop for them as it is has been to shop for non-vegan products.

But being vegan is expensive, isn’t it? That’s not very convenient.

Veganism can certainly be expensive. But veganism can be cheap too.

Look at it like this:

You’re going to pay a premium for a high quality steak in the same way you’re going to pay a premium for high quality organic produce or vegan meats.

Similarly, you’re going to pay next to nothing when shopping on the McDonald’s dollar menu in the same way you’re going to pay next to nothing when shopping in bulk for beans, lentils, rice, and more.

The difference is that being a cheap vegan is much healthier than being a cheap non-vegan, which conveniently means fewer medical bills down the road. How convenient is that?

Tradition

Traditions are important. They ground us in the memories of our family and connect us to the history of our culture.

Traditions are often based around the telling and remembering of stories, which humans have been doing since long before recorded history. They’re not only a vital part of our evolution as a species, they also play an important part in shaping our identity as individuals.

We need to follow traditions strictly, because that’s how traditions work, right?

Chances are, the traditions you may follow have already been altered throughout history anyway.

The original Thanksgiving feast may not have included turkey, cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie at all.

Studying the history of the origins of Christmas reveals that the now Christian holiday likely started as a pagan holiday which was hijacked in a sense, in an effort to bring pagans to the church by adopting and absorbing the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. The Christmas tree hadn’t even become a thing until 1,600 years after Jesus walked the earth (or um… water).

Some traditions weren’t so jolly. Foot binding was a painful ancient Chinese tradition that stretched back almost a thousand years and only stopped in the 1930s.

The point is, traditions are historically much more fluid and flexible than we have been taught to believe. Some traditions even stop completely as society grows and evolves to become more civil and ethical toward its various members.

But what if I enjoy celebrating my traditions?

Don’t worry. No one is telling you to stop celebrating your heritage or to stop honoring your past. That would be wrong on a variety of levels.

But because traditions are fluid, you can actually make new traditions, and your new traditions can be ethical traditions.

For instance, some orthodox Jews celebrate their New Year (called Yom Kippur) by performing Kapparot, an ancient ritual in which a rabbi says a prayer while waving a chicken over a person’s head. This is supposed to transfer that person’s sins from the previous year onto the chicken, who is then sacrificed, supposedly enabling the person receiving the prayer to enter the new year with a clean slate. A newer, more ethical tradition that many Jews now use is donating money to charitable causes as a way to cleanse their sins from the prior year.

Traditions can and do change for the better. The key is to stay true to the spirit of the tradition.

We don’t have to do things exactly the way previous generations did. In fact, improving our society requires us to do things differently. But we can still observe traditions by focusing on the meaning behind those traditions.

Let’s make a new tradition of compassion for all humans and animals.

The post The 4 Things Stopping You From Going Vegan appeared first on Vegan Rabbit.

We need to see the connection between villains using their power to harm humans, and humans using our power to harm animals.  The following are eight similarities between animal rights activists and superheroes and how you can help save the world by adopting a vegan lifestyle and becoming an animal rights activist.

1. Superheroes use their power for good

With great power comes great responsibility.

~ Voltaire (and later, Uncle Ben from Spiderman)

The most basic difference between superheroes and villains is that superheroes use their power for good, while villains use their power for evil.  Superheroes believe in truth, justice and compassion while villains believe in chaos, violence and greed.  Though certain villains may believe they are fighting for truth and justice, their version of justice and their means of obtaining it are twisted and immoral.

Superheroes believe in standing up for the underdog and use their power to speak on behalf of those without power.  Unlike villains, they don’t view those without power as inferior beings and they don’t use their power as a reason to inflict pain to others just because they can’t fight back.

While a villain sees people without powers as a massive herd to dominate and rule over, a superhero sees people without powers as individuals to protect and care for.

Animal rights activists remove themselves from all avoidable acts of cruelty done to other sentient creatures on their behalf.  When they learn of injustices to animals, they empathize, inform others and fight for justice.  Animal rights activists are compassionate to all sentient life forms because they believe that treating others with respect is simply the right thing to do.

I decided early that I would never take a life. Right around the time I decided that I wanted to live. It wasn’t an arbitrary decision and it was more than moral. It’s about identity. As long as you can choose that, choose who you are in the world… you can choose to call yourself sane.

~ Batman

2. Superheroes dare to dream

I wouldn’t have it any other way. Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul I swear… until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share… I’ll never stop fighting. Ever.

~ Superman

Superheroes aren’t afraid to dream of a better world.  While others are content to accept things as they are, superheroes dream of something better.  Villains dream as well, but they don’t dream of a better world the way superheroes do.   Villains’ twisted dreams of a better world are ones in which they are the ruler of a slave race (the human race) or even suicidal dreams of total annihilation of the universe and apocalyptic destruction causing the death of all life, including even themselves.

Superheroes are idealists and dreamers, but they are not delusional.  They understand perfectly well the hard work, the sleepless nights, and the shed tears it will take to make their dream a reality.  But they understand that some of the biggest ethical leaps forward society has taken throughout history at first didn’t seem possible.  They all started with that one person who thought “but what if it is?”

3. Superheroes lead by example

It’s not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest.  It’s about what you do… It’s about action.

~ Superman

Superheroes practice what they preach.  They understand that actions speak louder than words.  They don’t pay lip service to the worlds problems — they do something about it.

Animal rights activists have many ways to lead by example ranging from vegan outreach on the street and educating others about animal rights, to shooting undercover video exposing the cruelty in animal industries and direct action liberation.

Both superheroes and animal rights activists reject oppression and cruelty and both embrace lifestyles in the service of others.  Living a vegan lifestyle is simply putting the philosophy of compassion into action.

4. Superheroes never give up

People think it’s an obsession. A compulsion. As if there were an irresistible impulse to act. It’s never been like that. I chose this life. I know what I’m doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however, isn’t that day. And tomorrow won’t be either.

~ Batman

Superheroes and animal rights activists are tenacious because:

• Lives depend on their success
• They are fighting for something bigger than themselves
• Their mindset is “If not me, who?  If not now, when?”

5. Superheroes put others before themselves

We live in a society that values the individual over the group; a society that worships the rich and famous; a society that encourages us to look out for #1.  We live in a “me first” society.  If we want something, we feel entitled to it and we will claw our way to the top and step on as many people as we have to in order to get it.  Our entire lives are one giant pointless competition for who has more than who.

Giant corporations pulling the strings of our politicians have brainwashed us from an early age to be thoughtless consumers in a futile competition with the rest of the world for who can consume the most.  We are told not to worry about the future and not to learn from the past, but to focus only on our present fleeting satisfaction, as we gorge ourselves on excess.

We are adult toddlers, wandering through life with eyes closed and mouths and arms open screaming “give me!”, “mine!”, and “I want it now!”.  Toddlers are easier to control than adults.  You can mold a toddler’s mind so they will want what you want them to want, believe what you want them to believe and do what you want them to do.  The amazing thing is they will never question whether you are right or wrong, but will accept everything you have to say simply because you are an adult and they aren’t grown up enough to realize they have a choice.

Clark Kent is how Superman views us.  And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent?  He’s weak.  He’s unsure of himself.  He’s a coward.  Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race.

~ Bill (Kill Bill: Volume 2)

Superheroes do not believe that in order for one person to succeed that others must fail.  They recognize the power of teamwork and camaraderie and use it to their advantage to become stronger than their foes.

Animal rights activists share this philosophy of brother and sisterhood; that we are all one family who should work together toward a better tomorrow; that we will reach the finish line faster holding hands than trying to trip each other up.

Animal rights activists understand that an animals’ life is more important than the momentary and fleeting palatable pleasure of their flesh.  They recognize the inherent value in all sentient life and do not value their own temporary gustatory cravings for death over an animal’s intrinsic craving for life.

6. Superheroes stand up for what’s right, even if they must stand alone

Doesn’t matter what the press says.  Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say.  Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right.  This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences.  When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world: ‘No, you move.’

~ Captain America

What is it called to do the right thing when no one else will?  Courage.  And what is the word for doing the right thing even when the world tells you not to?  Integrity.  Superheroes and animal rights activists possess both of these valuable heroic attributes.  When you combine courage with integrity you are presented with a force that is unstoppable: the courage of your convictions.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

~ C.S. Lewis

Superheroes and animal rights activists use the courage of their convictions to fight against oppression and injustice.  If they see someone doing wrong they don’t wait around for someone to stop it, they realize that they are that someone and take charge.  They understand that allowing injustice to continue by maintaining silence or neutrality only works against those who are oppressed.

But having the courage of your convictions comes with a price.  It is isolating being ahead of your time.  It is lonely feeling like you are the only one who cares.  But day after day, both superheroes and animal rights activists get up and do it again because they know in their hearts it’s simply the right and just thing to do.

If anyone knows what it’s like to be on the outside, I do. Sometimes I feel like I’m out there fighting all alone. Sometimes I feel like giving up. But, then I remember that what I stand for is more important than anything else.

~ Superman

7. Superheroes are not flawless

Troubled pasts, personality traits and weaknesses help to shape superheroes and villains into what they are.  But while superheroes overcome these obstacles and use them so others will never have to experience such hardship, villains wallow in their self-pity and use them so other’s will feel the pain they do.

Troubled pasts

Both superheroes and villains do not usually have happy childhoods.  Personal histories play a major role in shaping the way a superhero fights for what they believe.  But while villains use their troubled past as an excuse to do wrong, superheroes use their troubled past as a reason to make things right.  We can’t control things that happened to us in our past but we can control what we choose to learn from them.

Personality traits

The real world is not polarized into things which are purely “good” and purely “evil” and the same is true of superheroes and villains.  Both vegans and non-vegans can have hero-like and villainous personality traits without being entirely good or evil.  No one single person, real or fictional, can be construed into a black or white oversimplification of 100% good or 100% evil.  Even Charles Manson had some charming, endearing qualities about him.  Though Gandhi did great things, he was not perfect.  But while people themselves are not simply good or evil, their actions can be.

Weaknesses

Superheroes may have weaknesses, but they never use those flaws as a crutch to excuse themselves from doing what is right.  Convenience, social pressure, and cravings are just a few of the obstacles animal rights activists must overcome on their quest to eliminate their involvement with villainous actions.  Like superheroes, animal rights activists do not allow these weaknesses to become more important than their moral and ethical obligations to respect, cherish and protect all sentient life.  Both superheroes and animal rights activists don’t see weaknesses as flaws or roadblocks, but as areas of opportunity to improve and grow.

8. Superheroes inspire those around them

If the prospect of living in a world where trying to respect the basic rights of those around you–and valuing each other simply because we exist–are such daunting, impossible tasks that only a super-hero born of royalty can address them…then what sort of world are we left with? And what sort of world do you want to live in?

~ Wonder Woman

Finally, both superheroes and animal rights activists inspire those around them to do better — to be better.  Not only do they believe in a better world, but they also believe in a better you.  They believe that deep down there is a glimmer of hope within each person to be kind, compassionate and loving to one another.  They believe in the innate power of goodness within you even when you don’t.

Despite their flaws and weaknesses, superheroes and animal rights activists tenaciously work toward their dream of a better tomorrow by using the courage of their convictions to put others before themselves, lead by example and use their power for the good of the planet and it’s inhabitants, not their destruction.

The superhero matters as a protest, he is a cry that a single individual still matters — can still shift the world on its axis.

~ Steven Lloyd Wilson

In conclusion, superheroes represent what we as humans wish we could be.  They are a model for how we should treat others.  They stand as an example for how we should live our lives every day.

You don’t need super powers to be a hero in our world — all you need to do is believe in yourself.  Your life breaks down into a series of choices.  You have the power to choose compassion over cruelty at every meal and on every shopping trip.  You have the power to change the world by getting involved in animal rights activism and advocating on behalf of animals rather than being silent and allowing injustice to continue.  Please choose to use that power for good.

In the eyes of animals, are you a superhero or a villain?

I can see this, I suppose you could call it, aura of colors that words can’t describe around living things.  And when something dies the aura fades leaving something that’s not easy to look at.  It appears empty in a way that makes you feel empty too.

~ Superman

The post Go Vegan, Save the World: 8 Similarities Between Animal Rights Activists and Superheroes appeared first on Vegan Rabbit.

1. Plants are not truly sentient

Though certain scientific studies have shown that plants can react to stimuli, these reactions do not point to sentience because they lack three basic qualifications for requiring sentience:

• Sensory organs — Plants don’t have organs which enable them to see, hear, taste, etc. like animals do.
• Variability of response — Animals have a conscious perception which acts as an intermediary between their environment and their many different behavioral responses to it.  Plants lack this variability in that they will react in the same manner regardless of different scenarios (ex.: growing toward the sun).
• Appetite and locomotion — Nature has enabled animals to be sentient because they have the ability to move around.  As I discussed briefly in my post about “ethical meat”, pain exists to teach sentient creatures what stimuli to avoid in the same way that pleasure exists to teach sentient creatures what stimuli to seek.

Plants do not feel pain the way animals do because they have no reason for it.  If a plant had the means to get up and walk away from an area that was too dry, wet or cold, it would make sense for nature to enable the plant to feel pain.  Enabling a living organism to feel pain without the ability for that organism to alleviate that pain is not something done by nature unless by some sort of mutation (i.e.: a creature being born without limbs or with mental or physical disabilities).

For more information on the science and philosophy explaining why plants are not sentient, click here and here.

2. Logical fallacy: Tu Quoque

A person who uses the “plants have feelings too” argument is guilty of using the Tu Quoque (You Yourself Do It) logical fallacy.  This fallacy has to do with accusing your critic of being guilty of doing the same thing they accuse you of, even though the two situations being compared are not identical.  For example:

“If a vegan can kill plants, then I have the right to kill to animals.”

As I have illustrated above, plants are not sentient and comparing plant’s reactions to stimuli and animal’s proven sentience is not the same, and this renders your argument fallacious.

Taking the above into consideration, for the sake of argument I will ignore the fact that there are clear biological and ethical differences between killing a plant and killing an animal. Even if there was hypothetically no difference between the two, it still would not change the fact that two wrongs don’t make a right. For example, if I were to rob a convenience store would that somehow make it okay for you to steal someone’s car?

3. Non-vegans kill more plants than vegans do

Living a lifestyle which includes animal products kills more plants than living a vegan lifestyle because the animals used in these industries are almost exclusively herbivorous (plant-eaters), with many consuming huge amounts of grains, grasses and seeds to be converted into a much smaller amount of meat, dairy and eggs. Because of this, a non-vegan consumes more plants indirectly than a vegan does directly. In other words, vegans don’t filter their nutrients through someone else’s digestive system.

Furthermore, animal agriculture is not sustainable and is one of the leading causes of environmental damage, resource depletion, and ecological imbalance, which threatens all plant life, not just the ones consumed by humans.

• 70% of the crops grown in the US are grown to feed animals on feedlots [Plants, Genes, and Agriculture by  Jones and Bartlet]
• 7 football fields worth of forest land is bulldozed every 60 seconds to create more room for farmed animals and the crops that feed them [The Smithsonian Institution]
• 80% of all agricultural land in the US is used to raise animals for food and grow grain to feed them — that’s almost 50% of the total land mass of the continental US [Major Uses of Land in the United States by Marlow Vesterby and Kenneth S. Krupa]

If you really care about plants, you should go vegan.

4. The possibility of plant sentience does not minimize the reality of animal sentience

The improbable and unproven sentience of plants has no influence on the proven and blatantly obvious sentience of animals. Regardless of whether you believe that someone mowing the lawn is decapitating thousands of blades of grass, it doesn’t change the fact that animals suffer so long as you continue to consume them.

As discussed above, unlike plants, animals do have reasons to be sentient.

• Sensory organs, to feel and perceive the world around them (ex.: ears to listen for lurking predators, eyes to spy on prey, etc.)

• Variability of response, to respond differently in different situations (ex.: a wildebeest will have different reactions depending on whether a wildebeest or a lion is approaching the herd)
• Appetite and locomotion, to seek food through foraging or hunting, which requires the ability to move around. In order for animals to learn what to move toward and what to move away from, they require the ability to perceive pain and pleasure in relation to the objects around them.

In conclusion, because all living creatures must eat to survive, we must choose foods which cause the least amount of harm possible. Eating animal products causes an extreme amount of harm for not only animals, but for slaughterhouse workers, our planet, and our very own bodies.  And while eating plants can certainly contribute to the harm of laborers, field mice, and the plants themselves, we must remember that this harm happens on a far larger scale in the production of animal products.

Most importantly, we can’t forget that because animals are sentient and because they have the ability to suffer, we shouldn’t deny them their basic right to own their own life — to be free from the unnecessary harm that is inherent in all industries which exploit animals.  We must respect the rights of animals if we are indeed the ethical creatures we claim to be.

The post People For the Ethical Treatment of Plants: 4 Reasons Why the “Plant Sentience” Argument Doesn’t Work appeared first on Vegan Rabbit.

You’re hopefully going vegan for the animals, but it sure is nice having some icing on that cake.  Vegans not only enjoy the satisfaction of living a lifestyle that is kind to animals, but they also enjoy improved health and peace of mind knowing that their diet does exponentially less harm to the environment than their animal-eating counterparts.

Veganism is healthy, but don’t just take my word for it.  Vegan diets are approved by many mainstream health organizations including The American Dietetic Association, The American Heart Association, and The American Diabetes Association.

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes.” ~ The American Dietetic Association

Veganism is even advocated by The United Nations as one of the most important measures the world can take to preserve our planet’s environment by effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater contamination, resource depletion, topsoil erosion, deforestation, endangered species extinction and even world hunger.

“A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to saving the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change.” ~ United Nations

A 2009 Vegetarian Times study showed that 0.5% of the American population identifies as ‘vegan’ (roughly 1,000,000 people).  According to The Vegan Society, there are at least 150,000 vegans in the United Kingdom.  In the Vegetarian Times study 53% of pollers reported to be following a vegetarian diet to improve their overall health.

Still not entirely convinced?  Feast on this:

Simple list of vegan nutrition, fitness and health basics:

Nutrition

1. You can easily get enough PROTEIN on a vegan diet
2. You can easily get enough CALCIUM on a vegan diet
3. You can easily get enough OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS on a vegan diet
4. You can easily get enough IRON on a vegan diet
5. You can easily get enough VITAMIN B12 on a vegan diet
6. You can easily get enough VITAMIN D on a vegan diet
7. You can easily get enough HEALTHY FATS on a vegan diet

Fitness

1. You can easily LOSE WEIGHT on a vegan diet
2. You can easily BUILD LEAN MUSCLE MASS on a vegan diet

Disease prevention and management

1. You can easily prevent and manage CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE with a vegan diet
2. You can easily prevent and manage TYPE 2 DIABETES with a vegan diet
3. You can easily prevent and manage OBESITY with a vegan diet
4. You can easily prevent and manage PREMATURE AGING with a vegan diet
5. You can easily prevent and manage ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION with a vegan diet
6. You can easily prevent and manage OSTEOPOROSIS with a vegan diet
7. You can easily prevent and manage ACNE with a vegan diet

Life

1. You can safely be PREGNANT on a vegan diet
2. You can safely raise CHILDREN on a vegan diet
3. You can safely feed certain COMPANION ANIMALS a vegan diet
4. You can safely maintain PERSONAL HYGIENE with a vegan lifestyle

In addition, there are heaps of informative websites and blogs out there about living a healthy vegan lifestyle, many authored by educated and trained professionals.  Many Doctors, Registered Dietitians, personal trainers and professional athletes tout a vegan diet as the healthiest and most significant lifestyle choice you can make to improve your overall health (along with exercise, of course).

Here are a few of my favorites:

• NutritionFacts.org — a site run, authored and narrated by Dr. Michael Greger, M.D., a vegan Medical Doctor.  This site contains lots of quick, to the point, informative clips that are only a few minutes long and delivered in plain English (minus much of the technical jargon).

• DrFuhrman.com — another site run by a Medical Doctor, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. (author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller: Eat to Live), with loads of informative articles about disease prevention and maintaining optimal health.

• VeganHealth.org — a site run by Jack Norris, a vegan Registered Dietitian who is also the President of Vegan Outreach.  (Registered dietitians are different from nutritionists in that they have specialized training in nutrition and a four-year degree to go along with it.  They must also re-certify every few years and take on-going courses in nutrition for as long as they practice.  They are more knowledgable than Medical Doctors about nutrition and diet planning because they are specialists in this field.)

• VeganBodyBuilding.com — a great site with testimonials from famous vegan athletes including Robert Cheeke, Derek Tresize and Mindy Collette (click the links for pics).

• VeganBodyBuilding.org — an in-depth guide on the basics of gaining and maintaining lean muscle mass on a vegan diet.

Don’t forget, a vegan diet is only one part of a vegan lifestyle.

The post Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Nutrition, Fitness and Health appeared first on Vegan Rabbit.