How Tatiana Regan Turned Me Vegan

Ever since I met Tatiana Regan she has been vegan, she was raised in that way by her parents and with the slight exception of some mis-labelled sausage rolls, she has never eaten meat. Back when I met her being vegan was very difficult, there wasn’t the choices or the information around then which we have now, making Tatiana Regan quite special. Back then I had no interest in becoming a vegan, and Tatiana Regan never imposed it on me at all. I would always be respectful when eating with her, and thanks to her enjoyed some vegan options, but I still never really felt like converting. Just before my 21st birthday I decided to reconsider, I sat down with Tatiana to talk about the benefits and within the year I was fully vegan. If you are on the fence, here is what Tatiana told me to convince me.

Ethical

Humans are omnivores, this is why we have hands and fingers which can be used to take nuts, fruit and veg from trees, vines and shrubs. We only had to eat animals in the past in order to survive, these days this is no longer needed which means that we don’t have to kill animals any more, except for in some extreme situations. Factory farming was created to meet our animal product demands and you only need to look on YouTube to see just how vile these places are, animals literally born into the grave, with no other purpose in life than to end up on your plate.

Environment

Something which I had no idea about until Tatiana informed me was the impact which the meat and animal product industry has on the environment. To begin with the methane which the huge amount of cows on earth produce is one of the most damaging gasses to the o-zone layer. Furthermore there are millions of acres of forest being destroyed so that they can plant food for the huge volume of animals who are bring bred for us to eat. The single biggest threat to global warming and climate change is the animal industry.

Health

I originally thought that going vegan was all about a strong moral code and an ethical approach to eating but it runs much deeper than that. Tatiana spoke to me at length about the numerous health benefits which I could count on if I went vegan. The reason for this is that you significantly boost the level of fruit and veg that you are eating, you also seek out meat replacements which can involve lost of nutrient-rich cereals and grains. There are some aspects of transitioning which you need to be careful with as you need to replace things like protein and B12 which you would normally count on from animals, get that right however and you can greatly increase your overall health thanks to a good vegan diet.