Your stories
Here are just a few of your stories about how transitioning to a vegan diet improved your health. We’d love to expand this section so please send us your story to health@viva.org.uk!
Leslie
I’ve been vegan since 1990 and was a founder member of Viva! in 1994. I haven’t had an overnight stay in a hospital bed for over 60 years. Furthermore, I either never had covid or had it asymptomatically. Although I have a far from ideal vegan diet – I eat a good deal of vegan junk food – I do however, eat raw fruit and vegetables and drink vegetable juice.
Keith
I’m Keith Muggleton, a 66-year-old triathlete. My journey in triathlons began in 1984, and I’ve stuck with it ever since, finding immense joy in the sport. When I married Dawn, also a triathlete and vegetarian, in 1992, my meat intake ceased. Over time, we swapped cow’s milk for plant-based alternatives and gradually cut out cheese and eggs, fully transitioning to a vegan diet by January 2019.
For years, I loved the sport but never stood out. However, as I aged, I noticed I wasn’t slowing down like my peers. It hit me that perhaps it was my diet that made the difference! By my late fifties, I started performing well in my age group, occasionally securing wins at local events. In May 2019, at 61 and four months into my vegan journey, I surprised myself by securing second place in a World championship qualifying event in Wales. Despite the pandemic disrupting plans, I finally competed in the World championships in Abu Dhabi in 2022, placing fifth in the super sprint triathlon and fourth in the Aquabike events for the 65-69 age group.
This year, I tackled notable events like the ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ triathlon, clinching second place in the 65-69 age group. Another highlight was the World triathlon sprint championships in Hamburg, where I secured the 14th spot among 73 participants in the 65-69 age group. Qualifying for the 2024 World triathlon championships in both Olympic and sprint distances, at 66, I’m determined to maintain this fitness level for years to come. I credit my diet change for improved performances and quicker recovery after races and tough training sessions.
Transitioning to a vegan lifestyle was the best decision I’ve made, providing my body with the right fuel and contributing to animal welfare and the environment.
Caspian
I went vegan when I was 14 years old and my intense migraines stopped overnight. They had started when I was around 12, I was missing lots of school as I would get visual aura and lose my vision, suffer an awful headache, tingling, numbness, disorientation, neck pain and vomiting.
I was averaging two a week and it was making me really miserable, I began considering a food allergy and decided to start by eliminating dairy and animal products.
I immediately felt better and as time passed without another migraine, realised that I had found the issue. That was years ago now and I no longer suffer with migraines.
My Dad also went vegan after me, as he had the same issue in the past and feels much healthier now too.
Kate
I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis 20 years ago. It’s an autoimmune disease that causes joints to become swollen and painful and can become progressively worse. I had to leave my teaching job as I was in so much pain I could hardly move. For the next 13 years, I took heavy immunosuppressant medication, also used to treat cancer, risking some very unpleasant side effects. I found that red meat, eggs, cheese and stone fruits had a negative impact on me. I’ve always loved animals and have a keen interest in the natural world and decided that I no longer wanted to eat animals. This is when I became an ethical vegan. I began following a diet centred on fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, pulses, nuts and seeds.
I started feeling really well and was able to reduce my medication, bit by bit, until I was able to stop it altogether. I joined Vegan Runners and took part in a 10k race. At my next and last rheumatology appointment, I showed my doctor my medal as well as lots of research into plant-based health and told him I was off my medication entirely. He slumped back in his chair with a look of surprise on his face. I am now five years free of medication and completely in remission. Going from all that pain and suffering to becoming someone who is not only able to run, but finds such joy in it, fills me with so much happiness. I’m now nearly 60 and still getting faster; I recently ran a marathon and the amazing people I have met through running and veganism supported me all the way.
Read Kate’s full story here.
Nick
My right knee was heavily swollen after various operations, after watching The Game Changers I went plant-based and saw the swelling fully disappear. Then going to Camp Out and listening to Juliet Gellatley and watching Hogwood was enough for me to become vegan.
The health benefits are amazing and doing the least amount of harm to fellow creatures is a great feeling.
Sue
I’ve been on a vegan journey for seven to eight years, occasionally having a bleep for chocolate. I’m now turning 60 and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, I don’t want to eat meat or eggs or anything from animals, I don’t even buy the funny looking vegan meat because I don’t have the desire to eat anything that resembles an animal, that’s my choice.
I value all animals’ lives and mine and helping the planet, so it’s the best journey I’m on.
I love fruit and veg, it’s hard for some people to understand what I don’t eat but that’s OK, I can live simply and feel happy knowing that I am sticking to what I believe in and that makes me happy.
Kathryn
I decided to switch from being vegetarian to vegan to see if it would improve my health. I was struggling with depression, anxiety, obesity, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.
Initially, I was eating a lot of vegan junk food and I only noticed an improvement in my anxiety levels. Once I got used to eating a plant-based diet and had a good variety of healthy recipes to use, I largely ditched the highly processed foods and that’s when I started to lose weight, experience reduced levels of pain, increased energy and improved mood. I did also stop drinking alcohol, which I sure helped.
I’m now a healthy weight and my health issues are managed without any medications. A vegan diet may not always be a silver bullet, but I do think it can make a big difference. Perhaps part of it is that when you care enough about yourself to put mainly good, natural food in your body, then you’re likely to look after yourself better in other ways too.
I am very happy to live without eggs and dairy in exchange for greatly improved health.
April
Dad became a vegetarian aged 15 for religious and health reasons – horrifying his schoolmasters who thought his health would suffer. It didn’t – he lived to age 92 and died of a hospital infection. His Mum was already veggie, for humanitarian reasons, and an early member of the Anti-Vivisection League. She lived to 98. My Mum’s Dad was at times a butcher in the family shop… she became veggie perforce when she married Dad! Mum lived to 96, and died of kidney failure – she chose not to have dialysis.
My sister and I were therefore born into a veggie family, which increased its knowledge and quality of food as the years went by. I never even wanted to eat meat – I too loved animals too much and our church – Seventh-day Adventist – strongly recommends a plant-based diet, and has done since the late 1800’s, when they were much scoffed at! Not many scoff today, now the public see the health benefits on the news and in the media all the time. We are now in our 70’s. When the Government set up culling badgers, I went vegan to boycott dairy (although we were already nearly there, after Dad got prostate cancer and gave up dairy).
Since I became vegan, winter health has been better – I can’t recall when I last had a full cold or flu. The odd sore throat – but home remedies clear that up. Being with Viva! means I now KNOW WHY I am vegan in a lot more factual detail! Thanks, Viva!
David
In 2016, I was remarkably unlucky to contract infective endocarditis, which only one in 50,000 people contract. I needed lifesaving surgery to fit a mechanical mitral heart valve after bacteria destroyed my own.
Vegan food in the hospital was impossible! However, the medics told me that my vegan lifestyle greatly contributed to my survival and strong recovery. The medication I take means I can’t eat soya products anymore. However, with lots of research by my supportive wife I have, against all predictions by the hospital dietitians and doctors, returned to a healthy vegan lifestyle.
My story shows that with conviction and compassion driving you, the saying holds true, “Where there’s a will there’s a way”!
Jennifer
I have been vegan for only one and a half months but I already have noticed positive changes. I have always suffered from anxiety and depression but since becoming vegan I feel much calmer and more content. I also sleep very deeply now, whereas before changing to a vegan diet I would wake up in the night sweating and often wouldn’t sleep very well. Having read an article by Dr Elizabeth Blackburn about changes that can happen after three months of a vegan diet, I hope that further positive changes may happen for me and I hope that this is only the start of an improvement in my health and wellbeing.
Frank
10 years ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. A year after having my prostate removed, the cancer came back. Compelled to find an answer to the ‘why’ behind the unhealthy cellular growth, and a more holistic response, my wife Lisa and I dove into the medical research. After hundreds of hours of reading, we came out the other end convinced of the power of plants, and we began a slow transition to a plant-based diet.
Both growing up in Italian families, a diet of rich meats and cheeses was part of our heritage; but faced with the stark reality of the cancer diagnosis, we were willing to make a drastic change. Our journey began slowly; first vegetarian, then digging deeper and transitioning to a whole food, plant-based diet. In addition to feeling better, all of my test markers confirmed that my cancer growth had halted and we were achieving better health by nearly every metric.
The key for me was the highly concentrated source of sulforaphane that microgreens offer. Numerous research studies show that sulforaphane inhibits growth pathways in breast, bladder and prostate cancer. We started growing our own and have become such advocates of their value that we started our own business to provide education and resources for others to harness the power of fresh seeds and sprouts from their own windows.
Emma
I have suffered from two main health problems during my life, rheumatoid arthritis and being overweight. The first, rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed at just 18 months. I have spent much of my life taking drugs, attending physiotherapy and hydrotherapy just to stay mobile. During ‘flare-up’ periods I needed help even to get out of bed and yet at quiet periods I was able to walk reasonable distances and even take part in aerobics classes.
My other health problem was being overweight, this was partially due to restrictions in mobility but also poor nutrition. I became a vegetarian aged thirteen but replaced meat with cheese. Later on in my life, having my daughter made me really ‘look’ at our diet and change it to include plenty of fruit and vegetables. Going vegan was not as difficult as we thought it would be. We learned to cook new things and found replacements for our favourite foods. A major benefit for me and totally unexpected has been the considerable reduction in pain from my arthritis, so much so that I no longer need any medication. It’s fantastic but I can’t help but feel annoyed that despite all medical evidence no doctor or specialist ever passed this information on to either myself or my parents. I had a happy childhood but there were things I missed out on – climbing trees, riding a bike – and I’m left with deformed joints. I can’t help but wonder, would it have been a different story if I’d stopped having dairy as a child?
Jay
In my late thirties, I began to get wheezy and chesty. I also had a near-constant cold. I was prescribed a brown ‘preventer’ inhaler and a blue ‘reliever’ inhaler, both of which I used regularly.
I always considered myself to be fit; I had run regularly during my twenties, a few injuries and niggles meant that I slowed down in my thirties but I still hiked, walked the dogs, etc., and so thought I was quite active. My wife and I had been vegetarian for years then but she made the decision to go vegan. I’ll admit that I wasn’t very supportive initially, I didn’t understand veganism and why she wanted to do something so ‘extreme’.
She didn’t try to influence me, knowing that it would likely have the opposite effect, but I ate all of the meals she cooked and so my dairy intake naturally decreased. I also glanced at the odd Viva!life magazine strategically placed around the house. I then came across a series of books about long-distance running Born To Run by Christopher McDougall, Eat & Run by Scott Jurek and Finding Ultra by Rich Roll. Suddenly a vegan diet wouldn’t just allow me to run; it would help me to run.
Everything quickly came together – an understanding of the animal ethics, an understanding of the environmental impact I was still having, the happy realisation that far from having a restricted diet we were eating better food than we had in years, and the knowledge that this could all support me to get back to running. That was three years ago. I started slow, one mile – three miles – five miles, a 10k. After a year I was doing half marathon distances. In April this year I ran the Paris marathon with my wife (her first marathon and she couldn’t run a mile the previous year), in May I ran the Classic Quarter in Cornwall – 44 miles around the hilly coastal path. I have just signed up for the Transvulcania ultramarathon – a 74km run with a 8,028m accumulated elevation. My goal is to eventually run the 170km Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc.
I haven’t used my inhalers at all since around six months after becoming vegan! I don’t consider myself to have asthma anymore.
Peter
After being diagnosed with diabetes, I became a typical example – fat around the middle, high BMI, high cholesterol and high blood sugar. I had no energy, would cough a lot despite not smoking and didn’t sleep well.
But then I heard about the vegan diet. After just four weeks on the diet, my blood pressure started to fall toward normal levels. All my blood readings were approaching or within normal ranges. After eight weeks on a vegan diet, I lost 1.7 stone.
Four months later, I’m no longer obese and my blood results show I’m no longer diabetic. I feel fitter, I sleep well, I wake up more quickly even without coffee and I’ve stopped coughing, probably because I stopped drinking milk.
I continue to enjoy the diet and my new way of life. Thank you again, Viva!, for your work and your help.
Maria
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in January 2016 after months of pain, fatigue and toilet issues let’s say, amongst many other debilitating symptoms, then was later diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a widespread pain condition, and my life was turned upside down by the prospect of these life-long incurable diseases. I had always had a ‘normal’ and typical ‘healthy, balanced’ diet and was informed that it is believed that a wide range of factors can possibly cause the diseases; viruses, trauma, genetics, and I was told I had actually developed Crohn’s a few years previous. I was shocked that I had been living with a life-altering disease for years and had just ignored my body, as many people do. I eventually quit my job, spent months in bed and on the toilet, as well as in hospital waiting rooms, and I was scared of what my future held.
I immediately stopped eating red meat after my diagnosis because of my higher risk of colon cancer and because it became an excuse to actually start aligning my morals and love for animals with my actions – and I noticed a change in some of my symptoms, which caused me to look further into nutrition and then started my journey into veganism. Crohn’s is a difficult disease to manage, as being a disease of the gut, I couldn’t initially eat lots of fruit or vegetables because they wreaked havoc in my extremely inflamed body. I gradually removed all the known inflammatory foods, basically meat, dairy and processed sugar, and as my inflammation levels reduced I gradually started introducing more and more plant-based wholefoods and was able to refuse steroids and other prescription pain medication that I was due to be given.
Two years on, I have by no means ‘cured’ my disease (yet); it still exists within my body and some days I am reminded of that. However, I have gone from someone who was scared to leave the house and in tremendous daily constant pain, to someone who sometimes forgets that I have a chronic condition; from someone who, as a meat-eater, had severe vitamin deficiencies such as B12, vitamin C and vitamin D to someone who occasionally takes supplements but seems to be able to absorb everything I need from my diet; and most importantly from someone who was scared of my future to someone with renewed hope. From all that I have learned from science and personal experience, I am desperate to share the joys of plant-based living with those with illnesses and those who have not yet developed any, and I often wonder how well and strong my body could have been if I had never been conditioned to eat meat.
Mark
Late teens is an important time in social development when dating is the done thing but in my case irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) made me feel really uncomfortable and embarrassed in social settings. When I started work, I had to ask to be excused more than is reasonable. On a night out to the pub, I’d constantly be running to the toilet for no reason but IBS. That was my life day in day out.
I became vegetarian at around the age of twenty for moral reasons. The situation remained the same with regard to IBS. I did not receive any medical advice to rectify the problem. My diet was varied – anything as long as it was vegetarian suitable. The constant discomfort made me ask myself what could be the cause? Was it the drink? No, IBS persisted even when I avoided alcohol. Could it be due to stress? I was prone to anxiety, but when I was completely contented in life, IBS still persisted. Resignedly, it was something I just had to live with…
…until, at about age 28, I took the logical step for a vegetarian and became vegan. I hadn’t reckoned on there being a bonus health benefit in store. However, when I became vegan the irritable bowel syndrome was cured, it stopped completely! There was no regime before as nothing seemed to improve the situation. I still don’t have a regime except that I am vegan. I can only conclude therefore, that eliminating dairy from my diet solved the problem of my IBS.
I am 37 now and since the day I became vegan approximately ten years ago I have not experienced an irritable bowel, which looking back is quite remarkable.
Adrian
I went vegetarian in 1972 and vegan in 2000. Since those early days, I have noticed my health improving to an astonishing level of fitness.
I am 73 years young and cycle between eight and 16 miles a day, depending on the weather and time available as I grow flowers for the bees in my front garden and organic vegetables in my back garden.
I do two sessions of intermediate yoga each week for one and a quarter hours each time. I do energetic ceroc dancing three evenings a week and dance almost continuously for two hours.
Last July I attended the 50+ Show at Olympia and in the six hours I was there I climbed their nine-metre [28 feet] climbing tower 115 times. The only reason I stopped was that they kicked us out at 4:30 pm. I hope to beat my record this year.
Not bad for a senile citizen eh?!
Barbara
At the age of just 19, my son was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. His whole colon was inflamed. He was usually in agony and we had to work out what foods suited him best. With our choice of food, health drinks and milk powder shakes, recommended by his GP, he managed to live a reasonably healthy life. But he suffered frequent attacks. Stress affected him badly and if he was stressed, his visits to his GP became very frequent. At work, it was remarked on how often he needed to visit the toilet and when eating out, at the end of the meal he would often disappear to the toilet. It was very upsetting to see that he could not lead a normal life and he was so young. He often said he felt he would need surgery, as it would be better than all the pain he was suffering.
Ten years later he became interested in vegetarianism and watched a video a vegetarian at work had recommended. That changed his whole way of thinking and he went vegetarian. However, very shortly after that he realised the whole scale of things and became vegan. He has now been vegan for a year and has never been healthier. He never feels overfull or bloated, is a good weight, feels healthy and has more energy, but most importantly and amazingly, the colitis seems to have disappeared. He takes no medication, no supplement drinks or powders and follows a wholefood plant-based diet.
I would recommend anyone suffering with ulcerative colitis to try a vegan diet and see if they can see the benefits as my son did. It is such a horrible and debilitating illness to live with and very little help or advice is given regarding food.
Elsa
Rewind a couple of years, and you would see me not leave my bedroom without a thick layer of makeup on because of very bad acne.
Every day a new volcanic, puss-filled spot would be on my face which I would proceed to cover in foundation and powder just to leave bumps on my face – but at least the redness was gone, right? The tension they caused left me in a lot of pain, leaving me taking days off college.
Along with the acne, I’ve always had relatively bad eczema; my arms and legs sometimes covered in dry skin and scabs. You can only imagine how self-conscious this leaves a 17-year-old who is trying to fit in! When I moved to university and consequently out of the family home, I started cooking all my own food and was finally able to go vegan. I saw an instant change. My chronic acne left and was replaced by the occasional small pimple. My eczema, which I’d been dealing with since I was born, stopped.
I was finally able to wear skirts without thick black tights and go out bare-faced. Going vegan gave me freedom. Although acne and eczema aren’t life-threatening, they made me isolated and different to other people. Doctors have given me so many different potential ‘remedies’ for my skin issues, and they barely had any effect.
Not one of the healthcare professionals had even mentioned trying a different diet of any sort, and all of a sudden this relatively simple change had improved everything. I went vegan for animals and the environment, but the improvement to my skin is a huge bonus.
Frank
In 1981, I was a 33-year-old mature student at Imperial College, South Kensington. I attended an animal rights meeting in one of the university’s lecture theatres and it inspired me to go vegetarian. I was going to convert to vegetarianism in stages: processed meat, then red meat, then white meat, then fish. But I did it in one fell swoop. I was living in Ealing, West London, at that time, and discovered a health food shop that stocked meat substitutes. At the same time that I gave up meat and fish, I decided to try to cut down on dairy because I knew that there was just as much cruelty in this industry as there is in livestock production. My children, who were born in 1988 and 1992, were brought up as vegetarians (their mother was also vegetarian).
In 2014, I finally gave up on cheese and eggs. I believe that the tipping point for my decision was seeing hundreds of horrific images of animal cruelty on Facebook. I just knew that I wanted no further part in the abuse of so-called “farm animals”. In my opinion, one of the driving forces behind the recent growth of veganism is the information that people can obtain from social media websites. It’s impossible to ignore the truth when it’s there right in front of your eyes.
One of the personal benefits to me of going vegan three years ago is that I have lost two and a half stone in weight. It happened without me making any effort. The upshot of the weight loss is that (a) I no longer need medication for type 2 diabetes and my blood test results (blood glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, HbA1c, etc) are all back in the normal range and (b) I no longer suffer with heartburn or acid reflux!
Carl
Going vegan helped me to lose over six stone of fat and get fitter and stronger than I have ever been in my life.
I’m so full of energy now! It’s led me on a life-changing path, from someone sitting on the sofa getting fatter and sicker, to a person that’s now training to become a Personal Trainer so he can help other people and will be entering his first Strongman competition later on in the year.
All of this is because I watched Cowspiracy on Netflix and went from there. The only thing I now regret is not going vegan sooner. It’s the best thing I ever did and it’s changed my life for the better.
Angela
I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis (an inflammatory, immune-driven condition) in 2013. I went from someone healthy and fit to being fatigued continually and not being able to hold a pen properly – it hurt too much. I had tw months sick from work.
The worst though was the fatigue – from the condition and from all the drugs and painkillers. I survived like this for two years, but kept reading to find out what I could do. I was on five different drugs including an injection one which dampened my immune system to the condition but I caught continual colds and had cold sores all of the time.
I had been vegetarian for the animals for some time but after research, realised that dairy was almost certainly contributing directly to my inflammatory arthritis. At this point, I decided to become vegan as a natural progression as much as for my health.
Soon after I felt confident enough to try herbal remedies and withdrew from my ‘conventional’ drugs and within a few months of becoming vegan I was off all drugs except for CBD oil and was practising yoga again. I was discharged from my rheumatology specialist in April 2016 and in May 2016 hiked 100k for charity in less than 24 hours.
I feel better than I ever did – I have so much energy and I no longer take two hours after waking up to mobilise my limbs, which would stiffen overnight. I have absolutely no doubt that becoming vegan was the missing piece to my health and I am told how well I look all the time from those who saw me at my most sick. Not causing suffering to others has stopped my own suffering –I feel that completes a circle of care.
Kerry
I was 21 years of age when I went vegan. I had been supporting various animal charities and campaign groups since 16 years of age and the more I learned the more I realised being vegetarian wasn’t enough, I needed to do it properly I needed to go vegan. It was potentially a difficult time, Easter was coming up, and at that time dairy-free Easter eggs didn’t exist! But I gently asked my family to buy me carob bars from the health food shop so I didn’t feel I was missing out.
The first benefit I noticed was my skin. My teenage and then adult acne cleared up despite plaguing me all through my later school years. I then lost weight and became the perfect weight for my height – I went from a size 14 down to a 12 fairly quickly despite not dieting, then fairly soon after that down to a size 10. I have been vegan for 20 years and stayed at a size 10 for a long time then gradually went down to an 8 and my weight stayed steady.
I experimented with food over the years, trying Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, raw, hummus, olives, pittas, different types of soups, vegan cheese, different salads and dressings, different desserts… the list was endless. Anything labelled vegan, I tried and found I liked it. There’s very little I found that I didn’t like. It opened up new horizons, not less. I can honestly say that I don’t miss anything and I enjoy trying new things. The market has increased steadily coming on in leaps and bounds and now there is literally a vegan version of everything. People are intrigued by it.
I’m always happy to talk to people about it and they seem genuinely interested. I never force it down their throats, I let them ask me. I have also bought things for people to try and they are pleasantly surprised how good vegan food can be. I’m so glad I did it. I originally became vegan for animal welfare reasons and it’s the number one reason still but I am grateful for the health benefits I know what I need and I balance out my diet, I never used to think about it before. I don’t like junk food so I don’t eat it. It’s great that more people are becoming aware and embracing it.
Anne
I suffered with terrible migraines since I was 10 years old and they made my life a misery at times. After endless trips to the doctor and some time in hospital for tests, I found a bit of relief with medication.
However, when I stopped eating meat, (at 27) I had no attacks for five years, even after I came off the medication. The migraines eventually did return, but are now very rare, maybe one or two attacks a year and they aren’t as debilitating as they once were.
I’ve heard of other people also getting relief and seen a few websites mentioning it. Unfortunately, it’s not a magic bullet, as I have lots of vegetarian and vegan friends who are still afflicted. However, a vegetarian or vegan diet provides great relief for some folks.
Anyone who tells me they suffer from migraines, I always recommend they try a plant-based diet.
Sharon
I have fibroids and they had been annoying for a couple of years but not big enough to operate on. I went meat-free last February and felt better in myself and lost a bit of weight but think I probably overcompensated with cheese through the summer. I went on holiday in September and the day I was travelling I was in agony, doubled up in pain trying to pack my case. Then, I was unable to even sit comfortably on the plane.
I had read about the link between oestrogen and flaring fibroids so thought I needed to ditch dairy. I had a bit of feta whilst in Greece but on returning I gave it up completely. I thought I’d give it eight weeks and see how it went. I can say I haven’t had pain since September and had plenty of comments on how well and how much slimmer I look. Also in the meantime, I’ve learned about animal agriculture and planet health. There’s no going back! I also feel my arthritic knees are benefiting but that could just be a result of weight loss.
Sophie
I was diagnosed with moderate asthma when I was 10. I first had the blue reliever inhaler and then needed the brown preventer inhaler later, as my symptoms got worse in the autumn and winter. I became a vegetarian when I was 15. I didn’t want to eat meat anymore because of the cruelty involved! Dairy and eggs for me, as that was OK, no one was killing the hens or cows…..were they?! Thirty years later I started to become more educated on the horrors of the dairy and egg industries. I had been buying free-range eggs and organic milk, I thought I was a saint! I then realised that these industries were just as cruel as the meat industry and I could no longer turn a blind eye to the horrors I was seeing online.
I became vegan on January the 1st 2015. I just changed overnight. Within a few months I noticed such a difference in my breathing and realised I wasn’t using my blue inhaler. I am no longer called to have an annual asthma review at my doctor’s every year, as there is no need. I don’t have asthma!
I wish I had realised earlier what an impact going vegan would have on my health but more importantly to me, the animals who are so abused. There is so much help and support about and wonderful recipes and ideas online. Like most vegans, my only regret is not going vegan sooner. I have never eaten such a wide variety of delicious and flavoursome foods. I am even having a go at making my own nut cheeses and chocolates!
I may not have entered the world as a vegan, but I will most certainly be leaving it as one!
Chris
I became a vegetarian because of my concern for animal welfare and doubts about the necessity to eat meat. It wasn’t a concern about health at that time because, like many others, I was ignorant about nutrition or alternatives to meat and dairy products.
Ultimately, I read books like The China Study, Reversing Heart Disease and Dr Neal Barnard’s Reversing Diabetes. Unfortunately, it was too late to prevent me from having a heart bypass six years ago, but early enough to prevent anything else occurring in the future. I also had type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis, so I began to study nutrition, gradually transitioning to a vegan diet.
My health improved, but I suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. After researching about a wholefood plant-based diet (WFPB) through various sources, namely PCRM and Viva! of which I have been a member for some years, I decided to go on a strict WFPB Diet. Six monthly diabetic checks later, my results were so encouraging that I asked my GP to eliminate some of my medication. To my doctor’s astonishment, I had improved so much that eventually, I was able to stop all my medication – cholesterol tablets, metformin, water tablets, aspirin and all my heart tablets. That was in August 2017 and it remains that way to date.
I had a borderline BMI of 25 for many years and am now a healthy 21.5 which I am maintaining.
I have reversed my diabetes, my cholesterol and blood pressure are at a healthy level and my energy levels have been consistently high. I exercise regularly and walk several miles daily.
The transition to a WFPB Diet from a vegetarian diet consisted of clearing away the junk food that seemed to have crept in, chips, occasional tinned fish, some crisps, cakes and pastries and cheese. Eliminating those foods made all the difference.
I am approaching my 76th birthday, free of all medication, just taking supplements, such as vitamin D and B12 and eating a wholefood plant-based diet. I believe this journey has transformed my life.
For references and more information, see The Incredible Vegan Health report or visit Nutrition News for latest studies on diet and health.
