My first couple of weeks of being a vegeterian and how I feel about it!

[su_quote] "Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." Albert Einstein[/su_quote]

About six weeks ago I stopped eating meat (I stopped eating fish over a year ago). There are several reasons why Gülsah and I decided not to eat it anymore. I want to summarize a few of them:

• I know almost nobody considers this anymore BUT ANIMALS ARE INDIVIDUALS! They are full of life, fear and joy. How come, we - as the
• (probably) most intelligent species on earth - allow ourselves to enslave just about everything we feel like? We find our pets cute, but do you think there is a difference between a lamb, a small rabbit, a little pig or a puppy shortly before they are being slaughtered? The answer is NO - they are scared, in panic and it just drives me nuts that so little people care! Just imagine, there would be a new species coming on earth, superior in technology and brain power and they´d like the taste of humans. Do I think that´s evolution? Do I think it´s fair? NO!

• By eating meat I support a mostly cruel and heartless industry that is to a big part only aiming for the highest profit. In South America huge areas are being freed from anything and everything on it in order to produce millions of tons of grain for animal food! The meat industry is a wasting one. In terms of calories way more are being used than generated. You need a hell of a lot of water and food to produce one kilogram of meat. Wouldn´t it be smarter to use all this food fed to the animals to feed people? Wouldn´t it be one major step towards a world with less starving people?

• Don´t eat what you love. This is as simple as it reads. I love animals so so much, that I do not want to eat them. I wouldn´t eat a person either, even though it´s "meat". Nowadays and especially in industrial countries like Germany people have no idea, they just walk into the supermarket, buy a whole lot of salami, minced meat etc. and do not associate animals with that. Not one single thought is spent on that. Isn´t that weird?

• Producing meat is one of the major greenhouse gas emitting industries of them all. As funny as it sounds: all the cows farting produce a lot of methane, a contributing gas causing the so called greenhouse effect and trapping heat 21 times better than carbon dioxid!

• Live a healthier life! Vegetarians are one third as likely to be obese than meat eaters. There´s a lot of research being done about how healthy being a vegetarian (or vegan) really is and how much less likely these people are to suffer from cancer, heart diseases and strokes. Anyway, I´d say there´s nothing we could do wrong, as long as you know how to eat good (without missing important minerals, vitamins, etc..).

So how am I feeling now?

 I am feeling great! I am feeling fit, I am sleeping well because I know, at least there are no animals slaughtered for my short-while pleasure of eating and my diet is way better than before! I changed it to a lot of fruits and vegetables. We eat salad with a lot of fresh stuff to almost every meal, at least twice a day.We are trying out a lot of new recipes and it tastes better and better. Am I missing meat? Honestly, I am not.

Watch your nutrient input!

Around three weeks ago I was feeling exhausted, fatigue and powerless without any apparent reason. I thought most probably my B12 and iron had to be far too low, as I wasn´t really replacing them on a constant basis. Both of them contribute to the oxygen supply in different tissues. I got some supplements and not even 48 hours later I felt fit again. There´s a lot of iron in a lot of stuff (brokkoli,nuts ..) but it is in a different chemical form than the iron in meat and is therefore harder to absorb. You can help your body by drinking a glass of orange juice (vitamin C) to your meal. We also need Vitamin B12, which is in meat but can be replaced by supplements, fortified foods and juices. Carboyhydrates are not difficult to cover and proteins are always consumed more than enough with your normal diet (of course, everyone that lifts knows better here and will take his/her supplements ;-). There are a couple of other nutrients that are really important to us and our well-being, but I´ll write an own post about that.

For me the right way to go!

All in all it really feels good...and right. There´s a lot of people and industries out there trying to tell you how important meat is and how much "life power" a piece of meat contains. The truth is that this is all bullshit. Only marketing strategies to keep the industry running and producing. Only a fast and effective factory will generate a lot of money. And as we all know money drives a lot of people very crazy and makes people forget about all environmental or ethical issues.

Take six minutes of your precious time and watch this video: without saying a single word this film tells a shocking and sad story.. Think about it ..

                           [su_vimeo url="http://vimeo.com/73234721"]