Is being a vegan all about losing weight?

Being a vegan is a popular diet nowadays. For many they have found that the diet helps them lose weight, have more energy and have better skin. It’s a fast way to eliminate many carbohydrates, fats and sugars from your diet by replacing them with alternative with fewer percentages of those nutrients. However, is the main reason to becoming vegan all about weight lose?

For the vast majority it isn’t.

The main reason behind most people becoming vegan is to do with animal right. When looking into how meat is produced for us to eat you find that a lot of it is done with a lot of cruelty. The animals are kept in harsh conditions and are mass-produced to be killed instantly. And this is done with a vast majority of animals. Such as cows, chickens, sheep, rabbit, lamb, etc.

However, the vegans diet doesn’t just stop with the killing of the animals but how we get other animal based products. Products such as milk, eggs and honey. Due to these animals being kept in harsh conditions they are not only they’re to be killed for meat but are harshly kept to mass-produce what should be naturally made. The animals are fed chemicals to produce what should come naturally in time so that there are more and more to be sold. Sadly a lot of what is done is gone to waste as well.

However, what about the food production companies which have animal welfare? The farms that produce eggs without chemicals or harsh conditions for the chickens kept there. Would that make it okay for a vegan to eat? Is it all about the slaughter and harsh conditions for the animals, the cruelty behind it? Or is it about the freedom for the animals as well.

After doing some research into the ethics of being a vegan I found that many believe that the keeping of animals is cruel. For instance, if you have a pet, such as a dog, cat, fish, etc., you are being cruel in the eyes of a ‘true vegan’. This is because you are keeping the animals away from their natural habitats. We as owners are deciding what they eat, where they sleep, when we want to walk them, etc. The keeping of animals in any way is cruel because we are taking them away from instinct.

These extremist views, or what many people who are and aren’t vegan see as extremist views, are what give vegans a certain stenotypes. Vegans are seen usually as a subculture of people who are hippies who only eat fruits and vegetables, that they’re aggressive about their views and if anyone were to eat animal based products they are murders and cruel. The views on this diet steam from the attitudes and values depicted from it.

This is why when asked, ‘If animals eat other animals, why can’t we eat them?’ Veganuary.com answered this by saying that we can’t compare ourselves to wild animals. Humans have more of a moral standing than wild animals do so we can have much more an impact and responsibility behind what we eat.

Is it all really needed? Many studies and observations have shown that a lot of the vegan values and views aren’t exactly correct. The view on there needing to be less animal cruelty is something no one can deny but where is the line between cruelty and an animals way of life. Such as the argument of, ‘Is honey vegan?’ Does it count if it’s an insect? Vegans don’t where silk because silk worms make it, however many say that bees producing honey is a good thing because it helps the bees population and taking the honey doesn’t actually harm them because they’re constantly production nectar for honey.

However, many found that taking the honey from the bees is replaced with sugar supplements, which harm the bees due to the lack of nutrients from it. What are the morals of a ‘true vegan’ and what do they apply to? Do you need to be fully anti animal products of any kind to be a vegan? Is it just about cutting animal based products from your diet? Do you need to be aware of all animal rights?

Is it because of these unanswered questions that cause these stereotypes?

When looking into the vegan diet you find that there is much more to the reasoning’s behind it than losing weight. There are much more morals and values behind why many people are vegan. When people think of dieting you think of weight lose automatically so its natural people would think that for the vegan diet. However there is so much more depth to the diet due to vegans not wanting to harm animals and stop animal cruelty due to the condition in which they are kept. The morals of this diet are in the hope that more and more people will catch onto the diet and the animal based products production companies will end and the animals will not need to be kept in captivity in any way.

Overall the vegan diet is not all about losing weight but rather the animal rights behind it. However, the levels in which you take on the diet are based on a personal preference. Many people start as vegetarians and move on to being vegans in their diet and then gradually work it into their lifestyles.