Live long and prosper.

I'm a newly minted vegan.   All shiny and smiling!  I said it, I'm a VEGAN.  And after researching it I can't understand why everyone else is not.  It's this guys fault; Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I challenge anyone with health or weight issues to read his book Eat to Live or watch his video and not at least question their eating habits. 

For me, it's not a moral choice it's a selfish choice.  I want to live a better, longer healthier life.  I don't care about saving animals, plants are alive too after all.  I an just interested in optimum health.  And I don't know why it took me so long to care about myself.
What is it about taking care of ones self that is odd?  The whole thing is counter-intitutive.  I am "normal" when I engage in behaviour that is self destructive and self defeating.  "Normal" is eating the worst things possible.  "Weird" is caring about what you eat.  "Just shut up and eat your cancer burger already; why? 'cause it tastes good Damn't!"

Tasting good is not good enought anymore.  I'ts got to be good for me too.  So I'm going vegan for health reasons.  Not to say there isn't a case for eating animals being sick and wrong.  Lets take fried chicken, a Southern staple, for example.

Take an animal, kill it, pluck it, cut it up into peices.  Then take the eggs of that same animal and whip the eggs into a batter with the milk of another animal.  Then dip the severed peices of the amimal in its own whipped up eggs, coat in breading and fry it in oil.  Thats some Edgar Allen Poe/Rob Zombie shit right there.  And this is not even taking into account the horrific conditions the average processed chicken is subjected too on the way from hatching to slaughter.

Years ago, in college I worked at Adams The Place For Ribs in Edgewater, MD (Annapolis area) I was a bartender and often had to walk through the kitchen for various supplies. One night, a Friday, the place was packed, 3 deep at the bar, 2 hour wait for a table, we were slammed.

I walked thru and looked at the grill, it was full of racks of ribs and 1/2 chickens.  Usually cooked animals don't look like live animals.  Burgers and grilled salmon steak don't look like cows and fish. 

But that night at Adam's, the ribs and chickens, all spread out on the grill, well it looked like animals.  Rib cages side by side and whole chickens split in half, smoking and sizzling on the flame.  It was overwhelmingly awful.  That image stuck with me 30 years. 

I'm no shrinking violet, the question for me is not "Is eating animals morally wrong?"  The question for me is "Does NOT eating animal products make me healthier?  And the answer is YES. 

So yeah, eating animals can be gross. But heart disease and stroke are grosser.

A vegan diet will reverse ALL my health issues and extend my life.   And I can still kill chickens for sport if the urge strikes.