Hey everyone,
I just wanted to jump on here and reground myself because I'm sitting here.. at my kitchen table at three in the morning feeling like I failed.
I'm home from a "wine" night with 5 of my girlfriends… and with 6 girls in a room.. discussions hit.
It started out talking about the usual… sex. Then we transitioned to birth control… then to pregnancy… then pregnancy health. At that very moment, like a rabbit thrown into a wolf pen, everyone turned on me. They bombarded me with, "Being vegan is going to be so unhealthy for the baby!" and "thats so unfair to do to your child." and even "thats so bad for you!!" "your kid won't learn how to process meat as a fetus so your sabotaging it!"
It was 5 against one.
And I could barely get a single word in.
Then for about an hour it was a huge debate about how "you need meat!"
"Jackie you don't know what you're talking about."
"Jackie! Its 100% proven!"
"Jackie, I'm a neurologist! I know how the body works!"
"OMG Vegans are so unhealthy!"
….I even had my VEGETARIAN friend against me…..
And this whole time I fought as best as I could because I do 100% believe deep down this is not only saving billions of animal lives, but is also the best thing people could do for their own health….
but when everyone is so against you… looking at you like you're the biggest idiot on earth as you say fragment after fragment of incomplete counterclaims.. and you feel like you've lost such an important dispute… it just destroyed me.
I'm still new… and I'm still learning… but I could't give veganism the rebuttal it deserved…. and now 5 S.A.D. girls feel more satisfied than before I was involved… completely uninformed with the knowledge i was so fortunate to stumble upon….
And now I sit here… staring into the darkness of my living room… feeling completely, completely defeated.
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My 2 cents as some one whos been a vegan for 11 years... don't try to fight any battles. don't try to win any battles. don't try to convince anyone. don't exert any, any unnecessary effort.
I know for sure whenever I had it makes this lifestyle feel like too much effort and not worth it. All you have to do is focus on YOU. you want to feel good about the choices you are making and believe in what you are doing. you want to work so much on feeling good about what you are doing that it doesn't matter what 5 other people, even if they are close to you and talking over you think.
I could confidently say I could be in a room with 5 .. more.. any amount of people who were telling me they disagreed with my diet and not give a s**t. It's my path, my journey. If I were in that situation I'd honestly smile, say nothing, or laugh.
And if you are trying to convince them to understand you... believe me, facts or even speaking your experience very rarely convinces people. Unless they are seeking out the vegan diet themselves and want to learn more. The only thing that makes people interested in the vegan diet if they otherwise don't believe in it... is seeing you happy with your own life.
bullshit.. always speak the truth especially about peoples bad behaviour.. you don't have to keep trying to convince someone that keeps throwing sand over their head, but at least make sure they heard you and maybe someday it will ring through..
Ask that neurologist exactly how long they studied nutrition in med school rofl.
does it matter? they just get told what is "good" and that's what they worship.. they religiously believe what they get told in their education indoctrination. when you come to a doctor with an issue they just look it up and follow the protocol.
I hope the discouragement doesn't get to you anymore, it would be good to hear back later about how you're doing!
I know its crazy!! Thanks for being so passionate, I feel the same way about this!! But they actually believe everything they say...
two of them said "its proven that our intestines are too short to digest plant food."
I thought it was the opposite.. "no it's actually the complete opposite… our intestines, unlike carnivores, are way too long to digest meat. When we do eat meat and animal based foods it takes us so long to digest it literally ends up sitting and rotting in our bodies..."
Then the neurologist/biochemist dropped this one on me..
"Jackie! Our bodies can't absorb cellulose! Trust me I study this for a living!"
my reaction… i can't even describe. She lost me. I've never heard anything about cellulose absorption.
So you know what I did today?
No lie, I went to my college and I switched my major to something I'm really passionate about… (which i've been meaning to do for a while.) This really struck my cord last night.
…..
In about 3 years.. the raw vegan community will have a biomedical engineer fighting for the movement.
So we'll see friends...
See you in 3 years neurologist.
Our intestines are longer then carnivores and omnivores but shorter then herbivores, we're frugivores..
About the cellulose, i've heard about tha, we can't digest it but if you chew well enough or blend it the cellulose gets broken or something like that and also eating foods not that high in cellulose..
Hey, don't cave in. You are doing everything right & we are all here to support you!
that happened to me this summer while i was on a teen travel program, all the kids were saying veganism is so stupid and im not getting enough protein and milk and eggs doesnt hurt animals, and no matter what facts i threw back they wouldnt get it. there were 4 other vegetarians who were on the program and would insult me too, just because thats what everyone else was doing.
anyways, i know its tough and i definately know that 'defeated' feeling, but hang in there and remember that you really know whats best!!
THESE PEOPLE ARE EATING BLINDFOLDED!!!
THEY WON'T EVEN LOOK AT WHERE THE FOOD THEY ARE PUTTING IN THEIR MOUTHS COMES FROM!!!!!!
HOW COULD SOMEONE LIVING LIKE THAT GIVE ME ADVICE ABOUT WHAT TO EAT!!!!
THAT IS INSANE!!!!!!!!
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