i’D ProBaBly BE DEaD right now if I hadn’t gone vegetarian.
All right, maybe that’s being a little dramatic, but at the very least, my health would’ve been seriously compromised. Because of my diet, I had high cholesterol as a child. When I was 17 years old, I ate a bacon double cheeseburger from Burger King every day for lunch. And for breakfast, I had a fried egg, cheese, and Taylor ham sandwich—every day. Despite how poorly I ate, I wasn’t fat. (Don’t hold it against me.) So because I was young, stupid, and thin, I simply did not care about what I put into my body.
And I probably still wouldn’t, had I not gotten a magazine in the mail one fateful day. There was an article about factory farming and slaughterhouses, with pictures.
Two images still haunt me today. One was a picture of a cow. She and her calf had been brought to a livestock auction. When her calf was taken from her, the distressed cow started ramming herself against the stall door, and in doing so, broke her own neck. She was still alive, but was left lying there in a puddle of mud—her neck at an awful angle, her tongue sticking out, her eyes bulging grossly. Left to die.
The other picture was of day-old chicks stuffed into clear, plastic garbage bags, and piled into a big green dumpster. They, too, were alive, but because they were males, they were useless to the egg farmer. They were thrown away like trash.
Going vegetarian was literally the best decision I’ve made in my entire life. And going vegan ten years later was the second best decision
kelly camPbell COnTEnTS HELp
Freedman is
coauthor of
Skinny Bitch
and the
cookbook
Skinny Bitch
in the Kitch.
I ever made. (Vegetarians avoid eating meat; vegans abstain from all animal products, including eggs and dairy.) While my health was never a motivator for me, knowing how animals went from living, feeling beings to food was. But once I stopped eating meat, I noticed a big improvement in my overall health. And I actually developed an interest in nutrition. It didn’t happen overnight, but going vegan made me evolve into a healthy eater!
It’s been 14 years since I ate a rotting, decomposing piece of animal carcass. I now eat tons of fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, and legumes—all the good stuff I should’ve been eating all along! And I’m healthier, more energetic, positive, and compassionate (and enthusiastic about food) than ever before.
The third best decision I made in my life was to write Skinny Bitch, a book about the benefits of going veg. Every single day, I receive emails from people who have read the book and are compelled to change their diets. Going vegetarian likely saved my life. And in turn, it gave me a life better than I ever dreamed of— one in which I get to be of service to others.
For your health, for the animals,
References:
Archives