Three years ago when I (Jake) was completing my divemaster in Honduras I learnt a fact that changed my life forever. During a theory lesson about the declining state of coral reefs I learnt that the greatest cause of ocean dead zones was pollution from factory farms producing beef. All of a sudden my mind made a connection ‘if I am paying for and eating beef, I am paying for the destruction of my favourite place, the ocean’
Making this connection kicked off a whirlwind of learning and discovery. I started researching, reading articles, scouring through studies, watching documentaries. The information I was processing blew my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking ‘how did I not know this’. The impact our diet had on the environment, the cruelty our dollars were supporting, the implications our western diet had on our health. It all started to sink in!
Having all this knowledge meant I couldn’t keep my head in the sand anymore. I knew that saying I loved animals and eating them was a complete contradiction. I knew that caring for the environment but choosing to eat the products that caused the most destruction made no sense.
It became clear to me that no taste, no pleasure, no personal satisfaction would ever be worth the devastation and cruelty that comes attached to all animal products. Now I know for certain after 2.5 years of aligning my actions with my beliefs and only eating whole plant based food, not only do humans survive on a plant based diet, we THRIVE! The pleasure, taste and personal satisfaction I now receive through my food choices far outweighs anything I had previously experienced before. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that I will never go back.
MARIE'S JOURNEY TO PLANT BASED LIVING
When we first met, Jake was already plant-based. It wasn’t really something we talked about a lot initially. It definitely wasn’t something Jake tried to force onto me. I was curious as to why this hairy Aussie guy wouldn’t eat meat.
The more we talked about it and the more I learnt through documentaries and books, the more I started to become aware of the negative side effects animal products have on our health and the environment. I started making connections in my own life, I realised that neglecting proper nutrition had caused so much pain and suffering for myself and my family. My father had a long battle with cancer. I never considered that maybe it wasn’t genetics, or just bad luck that caused my Father’s cancer. The link between diet and disease is something that most people don’t give enough thought and I decided I wasn’t going to be one of those people anymore. I decided to commit to learning more about plant based nutrition and i’ve never looked back.
WHY DO WE DO IT?
What you put in your body over your lifetime will have a far greater impact on your physical and mental health than anything else you do in this life. It is crazy to think that in all 1st world countries, most of the major causes of death are related to lifestyle diseases! We are eating ourselves to death while people in 3rd world countries are starving to death.
We don’t mean to shock you by saying this, we just want you to understand that learning and uncovering the truth about your food choices (in particular the negative effects animal products have on your health) could literally save your life, or the lives of those people you love the most.
The human body has no need for animal products and no need for processed food. There are many societies around the world that are living proof of this fact. Now disease and sickness has become something we just accept. Heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, depression and obesity are becoming so common that every single one of us has been effected either directly or indirectly by at least one of these diseases.
It’s easier to imagine that it’s just luck, or its bad genetics. Its harder to accept that some of your favourite foods have become some of your worst addictions and the only way to becoming a more energetic, youthful and healthier version of yourself is to give them up.
Once we had learned that a plant based diet was not only healthy, but the healthiest way to eat. We made a realisation that the choice to eat the food that caused the most destruction and suffering, was a choice of conditioning and pleasure rather than a choice of necessity. We didn’t need animal products to be healthy.
So then it became a choice for us, was pleasuring our taste buds more important than an animals life or more important than keeping our world healthy for future generations. The answer for us was No, it might be yes for some of you. Whatever you believe right now, it is important to think consciously about your choices. Does the end result of your choices truly reflect what you believe?
