eat much better with less environmental damage if we ditch the animals.
A vegan lifestyle isn’t just extremely good for the world, it’s personally good for your own body. For all the concerns about protein and other nutrients, a plant-based diet is a healthy one. You’ll do yourself a lot of good by saying good bye to meat and other animal products.
Cholesterol: We all know about cholesterol, a type of fat that is only found in animal products. Too much of it can lead to hardening arteries and heart disease. Since cholesterol doesn’t exist in the plant world, this is one health problem you won’t have to worry about.
Other forms of fat are pretty high in meat as well, though you can get high-fat vegan foods too (avocados are one example). Overall, you’ll find your fat intake drops considerably when you ditch the animal foods.
Antibiotics: These are unfortunately becoming a common “ingredient” in most meat and dairy products raised in factory conditions. Animals are given huge amounts of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick in their dirty living conditions, and those antibiotics are still present in the meat or dairy products once they hit the shelves. They are in the environment as well as your body, and it’s slowly but surely helping to create antibiotic resistant “superbugs,” or illnesses that cannot be treated because they have mutated to be unaffected by the drugs.
Hormones: Along with antibiotics, hormones are also being added to meat products which means you’re consuming them when you eat meat (or eggs or dairy). They’re used to force animals to grow larger or faster than what is natural, or to mature earlier. That makes livestock farming more profitable, even if it’s very unhealthy. When you eat meat or milk products, you’re consuming traces of these hormones which can lead to a disruption in your own body chemistry.
Vitamins, Fiber & Antioxidants: The health benefits of being vegan aren’t just from the things you’re avoiding, but also the increase in your intake of nutrients. The variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds that are part of a vegan diet offer much more for your body than meat products do. By filling up your plate with healthier plant-based food, you’re going to be getting more nutrition overall. If you’re still worried about protein, check out the section on vegan proteins. It’s not a problem.
By no means are we saying that you should make a major lifestyle choice because some movie star has done it. But sometimes it can be reassuring to see big names making the same choices you are, which can give you a sense of being connected to the larger vegan community.
Also, a list like this gives you the opportunity to support projects involving other vegans.
• Ariana Grande
• Carrie Underwood
• Kristen Bell
• Bryan Adams
• Tobey Maguire
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Jared Leto
• Samuel L. Jackson
• Eliza Dushku
• Ellen Page
• Jessica Chastain
• Joan Jett
• Laura Prepon
• Johnny Galecki
• Sarah Silverman
• Mayim Bialik
• Russell Brand
• Peter Dinklage
• Paul McCartney
Many celebrity vegans are quite outspoken about their lifestyle and often work towards animal welfare and environmental causes. This list is based on statements made by the celebrities, and is as accurate as possible. There is no way of knowing when or if they change their eating habits, or if they are being totally up front in the first place.
Once you start reading about the millions of animals being held in such poor conditions in the food industry, it can be overwhelming.
Well, one person cannot change the entire industry—that much is clear. But for every person who does, it’s one step closer. You’d be surprised how a single person’s lifestyle and diet can impact the lives of hundreds of animals.
To put it in perspective, here are some figures on what the “average” person consumes in a year:
• 189 pounds of liquid milk per year
(about 23 gallons)
• 31 pounds of cheese
• 200 pounds of pork, beef, and poultry
• 260 eggs
Granted, it’s not that easy to visualize the actual animals behind these figures, but you can still get the overall idea. For the 200 lbs of meat, that roughly represents 1 entire pig. So over a decade of vegan eating, you are “saving” the lives of 10 adult pigs. And that’s only regarding meat.
In just a year, that’s a lot of animal-based food you’re NOT eating. And don’t forget, these are just the obvious products that come directly from animals. By avoiding all the hidden ingredients as well as animal-based materials like leather, you are adding to your personal impact.
