The enlightened diet

My path to a meat free diet has been long. I grew up on a farm where we raised much of our own food, including beef and chicken. Ours was a hobby farm that my Grandfather bought in the 1940’s (probably to relive his overly romanticized childhood) and was not our main source of income. However, it was still a working dairy farm and my playground as a kid and animal lover.

Our farm animals were both treated well and well loved. For that reason, I never gave much thought to modern day farming until I became pregnant with my daughter and began to obsess about what I would allow into my body, and the bodies of family.

As I educated myself I switched to organic and free-range. For me it was a slow leaning toward vegetarianism, slowly cutting out meat strictly for health reasons. At that time I was still under the delusion that all farms were like ours. I had no moral motivation.

At a certain point in my personal development I intensely desired a big leap in my growth. I wanted to take myself to a new higher level, mentally, physically, and spiritually. It was Kathy Freston’s book Quantum Wellness that was the tipping point for me.

She clearly outlines three compelling reasons for not eating meat:

1.     Physical health – I read about the adverse health effects of sugar, caffeine, gluten, alcohol, and last but not least, animal products.

2.     Environmental impact – I read compelling facts about the amount of grain and water needed to produce even small amounts of edible meat. Grain and water that would be better allocated to starving people in the developing world. Additionally the greenhouse gas produced from so much farming, “A UN report says that almost a fifth of emissions that contribute to global warming come from livestock, including chickens, pigs and sheep, in addition to cattle”. (Quantum Wellness p. 114)

3.     And finally, I read about the absolute horrors of modern day factory farming. We’ve all heard of mad cow disease, which is the result of feeding herbivores a diet of animal byproducts, (disgusting!) and hopefully we’ve all heard about the incredibly abusive ways in which chickens and other animals are raised for our consumption.

A happy vegan

I have tried being a vegetarian a couple of times (I am 11 years old) but it only lasted a week or so each time. I have always loved animals and never wanted to hurt them. I realized that I was taking an animal’s life away just so I could eat meat. I know that I can have a healthy diet without eating meat. Now I am fully committed to being a vegan!

My mom is also vegan, so she helps support me in many ways. We love to cook meals together. I have lots of fun cooking meals myself too. At first there were some foods that were hard to give up, such as ice cream, chicken burritos, eggs, greek yogurt and cinnamon bread. Since I have found vegan alternatives for most of these things, I don’t miss them as much.

I am very happy being vegan and I feel better physically. I know I am making a difference in the world by not eating meat. I am also helping the environment. I am glad I have made the decision to stop eating animals. They should be treated equally with love and care.

Destiny, Los Angeles, CA

my favorite vegan things:

Purely Decadent vanilla ice cream bars

Alternative Baking Company outrageous oatmeal raisin cookie

Luna bars - iced oatmeal raisin and peanut butter cookie

Daiya cheese (great for pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches)

Morning Star Farms vegan veggie burgers

Living in integrity

The first time I stopped eating meat was around the age of nine. I grew up on a farm in Northern California. I have always loved animals and would beg my parents to take in every stray dog or cat I found or that wandered onto our property. So when they brought home baby bunnies, I assumed they were our new pets. I spent time everyday holding them and petting them. Then one day I came home from school to find them being killed for us to eat. I was devastated. I refused to eat any meat that might be my precious bunnies. That was the start of my vegetarian journey.

After a while, I did eventually eat meat again. I wasn’t a big meat eater, but I would eat chicken or fish once in a while. For me the tipping point towards vegetarianism was becoming aware of how the animals are treated, the horrible conditions in which they live and how they are slaughtered. The first time I watched a video showing these conditions, I couldn’t stop crying. I decided then that I would never eat meat again.

After several years of being vegetarian, I made the commitment to become vegan. For the most part I was vegan, but I would eat eggs once in a while, thinking I needed the protein. I also loved cheese and couldn’t imagine not having it. I told myself it was okay to eat those things because the animal didn’t die. But my conscience kept guiding me towards my truth. I became aware of the conditions that factory farm egg laying hens and milking cows live in, and couldn’t deny this truth any longer.

The transition to being vegan has been fairly easy. I just had to find substitutes for the products I ate which had egg or dairy in them. To my surprise, I didn’t miss cheese like I thought I would and I have found some great substitutes.

Die kuh

I announced my vegetarianism at recess in the fourth grade after writing a love poem about cows in German class. It was the year 2000 on Valentine's Day and Frau Fuchs assigned us to write a poem about someone we love. The only thing I wished to declare my love for was the cow, or die Kuh.

My friend, Julia, joked that if I loved cows so much, I shouldn't eat them. I completely agreed. So Julia and I both decided to make the switch from steak to soy, bacon to beans, turf to tofu! After the first week or so, I was feeling great. Why I hadn't attempted this earlier is beyond me. It came so natural, so easy. I had never enjoyed eating meat and I was glad to never eat it again. It's been ten years since then and I haven't touched meat since. (Julia didn't last long. She was quickly eating meat again.)

My mom stocked up on Boca burgers and other effortless microwavables for my newfound eating habits. For a while, I was living on grilled cheese and sugary breakfast cereals. Admittedly, not the healthiest. But I was a 10 year-old novice, living with hardcore meat lovers. Eventually, I began eating fruits and salads. When I grew tall enough to reach the stove and old enough to handle fire, I added an occasional home-cooked tempeh or tofu dish, grilled vegetables, soups, stews, potatoes.

I decided to take it further and stop drinking milk. I have tried the milk alternatives and they are much tastier that cow's milk. Even further I found delicious soy yogurts that I mix with fruit and granola. Then I made my way to the butter, mayonnaise, ice cream, sour cream, egg and even honey alternatives.

But I was about to face a challenge that I still struggle with today: cheese. Oh, how could I ever give you up, Cheese?! Every now and then I indulge in some animal produced cheese. One day I'll have my own cows and goats so I can make my own cheese without guilt. Until then I've got to keep trying. Better to keep striving than give up.

A quiet vegetarian

Always being a supportive yet concerned parent, my mother made an appointment with my pediatrician when I suddenly declared myself a vegetarian at age 11 in 1984. I felt victorious when I heard my doctor respond, “Well, she’ll be healthier than the rest of your family.” On the way home, my mother stopped by the local bookstore and purchased Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. Despite my physician’s professional opinion, she was terrified that my new diet would be gaping with nutritional holes.

Admittedly, my self-imposed dietary restrictions meant I would subsist on Morningstar Farm’s “Grillers” (the original veggie burger) and cheddar cheese—lots and lots of cheddar cheese—which wasn’t the best way to eat. But I was swearing off meat because I couldn’t stand the thought of eating anyone, not because it was a healthier diet.

It came easily to me. I found that all I had to do was think a little bit harder about what I was putting into my mouth. I started reading food labels and navigating restaurant menus and that was that—I never looked back. However, I quickly discovered that no matter how comfortable I was with my dietary decision, others around me were not. In fact, I was regularly interrogated and challenged by anyone who discovered I was a vegetarian, despite the fact that I was a quiet one.

Most responded as if I had attacked them personally, as if my taking advantage of meat-free food options was a direct comment on their carnivorism, despite the fact that I never (ever!) broached the subject without invitation. I suspect the judgment they were feeling was from within; and if I could make even one person stop and consider the way they were eating, I was willing to have that uncomfortable conversation.

I am still a vegetarian, but I have evolved beyond Grillers and cheddar cheese. It has been a process, a natural progression. I stopped eating animals when I was a kid because I love animals. I have recently stopped eating animal products because I could no longer talk myself into believing that nobody has to die in exchange for a glass of milk and that eggs could never become chickens because they are not fertilized. The health factor is still an added benefit for me, a freebie.

Life.Is.Beautiful

When I turned vegan, my whole life changed. I had been vegetarian for a few years already. That decision was based on a desire to protect animals, and I had heard snippets about veganism from various sources for a long time. I wasn’t able to go all the way until one day my best friend asked me to accompany her to Red Mango (a frozen yogurt chain). I went with her and we sat down and then I looked at the yogurt she had ordered: fully realizing now what it was, where it came from, and the animals that were harmed in getting it to her plate. That, coupled with a horrendous visit I had to an animal market in Ecuador a few months before, absolutely sealed the deal. I was done.

Then, I was better. In every single way.

Let's start with physically. I feel more comfortable in my own skin. My hair looks and feels so healthy. My nails are much stronger than they ever were when I was eating dairy. They don't break at all. And my skin! I still have scars from teenage acne and bruises, but my skin is glowing and healthy and not dry or rough, and I QUIT BREAKING OUT. How come no one ever told me getting rid of dairy would do that?! I don't need as much sleep. I have much more energy. I also just sort of "settled" at this perfect balance and harmony with my body physically to where it sort of knows what's good and what's not. If I spent a night eating lots of junk food and doing horrible things before, my body would have a meltdown. Now, it sort of just bounces back quickly to balance, as does my mind. Which leads me to....

Mentally. This is the biggest. I struggled a lot for the better part of my childhood and adolescence with depression and other issues. Everything seemed to be really hard. Now...stuff just...slips away. I feel lighter. I don't get mad as easily, or at all. I used to have a crazy hot temper, and now I just feel calm and peaceful. And happy. I know, if you aren't vegan, you are reading this and thinking, this girl is freaking nuts. Even if you are vegetarian, you don’t know yet how much of a huge impact cutting out dairy can have on your body and mind. But it's like a personality transformation...one that's here to stay because it's not based on drugs or anything artificial. I feel so happy, so grateful to be alive, and I think it's because my body isn't trying to process all the negative intake. Not to mention, the days that I eat macro or raw...I cannot stop smiling.

I don't care if the animal dies, I just can't metabolize it

My title comes from a Far Side cartoon - meat packing sign read 'we only kill depressed cows' and a picture of cows saying 'kill me, eat me'.

In 1987 my 15 year-old daughter became a vegetarian. I believed she did it only to inconvenience me. Ten years later she had the pleasure of hearing me say 'you were right'.

In February 1996 my doctor told me to just go home, dial 9-1 and wait for the stroke/heart attack to hit before I dialed that last 1. I was 47 years-old, 40 pounds overweight, and my cholesterol was 427. Serendipity rules, and at home I had a newly purchased book by Dr. Dean Ornish, HEART DISEASE REVERSAL in which he professed 'no meat, no fish, no chicken, no eggs, no oil, no cheese'. He recommended 'cold turkey' so to speak, as drastic steps bring drastic positive results so I went that route. I did miss meat and chicken for a year or so, but the immediate increase in energy, well being, and feeling clean were big payoffs.

I would never, could never, go back to eating meat, fish or chicken. I did not last long without eggs and cheese, but today I'm at a healthy weight and my cholesterol is (drum roll, please) 156.

One person can make a huge difference

I became vegan almost two years ago. I skipped the vegetarian bit (although I’d given up red meat some years earlier) and dived straight into the vegan pool, to realise I’m a strong swimmer. But to swim well, I’ve discovered, you need to have reasons for doing it. In my pool, there are plenty of sharks to keep me on task. The more reasons you have for becoming vegan, the less it feels like a diet. The more reasons, and being vegan simply becomes a fabulous way of life.


Growing up in a regional Australian town where the main industries were (and still are) meat and dairy, it was just a given that my parents would serve up animal products at every meal. Being allergic to dairy from birth still didn't stop me from eating ice cream and drinking chocolate milk. I constantly see-sawed between slim and chubby. Regardless of my weight, I felt I carried a toxic layer of fat around with me. Although I couldn't explain it back then. I just knew my body wasn't quite right. The real me was somehow hidden underneath a layer that wasn't meant to be there. No matter how much weight I'd lose, I just didn't feel right.


It wasn't until I moved to Los Angeles in early 2007 that I began to explore and immerse myself in the vegan culture there. I became vegan after completing my Reiki I certificate (an energetic healing modality). I turned vegan the very next day and gave up a two-year addiction to coffee.


Since leading a 100% vegan lifestyle for the past two years, it's not only my body that has changed shape. I'm mentally clear and find I don't have nearly as much mental chatter going on as I would have in my pre-vegan days. I feel more connected to source, or God, if you will. I have a life purpose that drives me like nothing has before. I also have a spiritual connection to the food I eat. Dinner is no longer just a meal to stop the hunger pains. It's a conscious action that affects my life in countless wonderful ways.