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11 Facts About Vegan Living

Vegan
  1. Veganism is a way of life that alters diet, clothing, and other purchase decisions with the goal of ending exploitation of animals.
     
  2. Vegan foods are free of all animal products such as meat, eggs, fish, and dairy.
     
  3. Ethical vegans also avoid the use of animal products like skin (leather or fur), feathers, and other things that cause animal suffering during production.
     
  4. According to a 2012 study from the Vegetarian Times, 1 million Americans are vegan.
     
  5. Vegan living often reduces the intake of saturated fat, animal hormones, and cholesterol and increases the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. The result of this diet change reduces the risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
     
  6. The average cholesterol level of an American meat-eater is 210, while the average cholesterol of a vegan is 133.
     
  7. Vegans get their protein from products like lentils, black beans, veggie burgers, tofu, nuts, peanut butter, and soy milk.
     
  8. Because vegans don’t consume dairy products like milk and cheese, they intake calcium with foods like broccoli, almonds, mustard greens, soybeans and soy yogurt, kale, and orange juice.
     
  9. Vegans do not consume vitamin D by way of their food diet, so they expose themselves to natural sunlight to receive this nutrient.
     
  10. A study by Loma Linda University reported that vegans have lower rates of cancer than meat-eaters and vegetarians. For example, vegan women had 34 percent lower rates of female-specific cancers like breast, cervical, and ovarian cancer. Similar results were found in men for prostate cancer.
     
  11. Research done by Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that a vegan diet caused more than 500 genes to change in three months, turning on genes that prevent disease and turning off genes that cause cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses.

Check out tips to shop for animal-free clothing. GO [1]

- Teresa Roca is a NYC writer who is obsessed with celebrities, sports and movies. Her favorite cause is bullying and violence.

Sources: Live Vegan [2], Vegetarianism Times [3], PETA [4], Nutrition Facts [5], National Institutes of Health [6]

 

Animals [7]
Animal Cruelty [8]
Factory Farms [9]
Environment [10]
Organic Food [11]
Physical and Mental Health [12]
Healthy Living [13]
Source URL: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-vegan-living

Links:
[1] http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/actionguide/action-tips-shop-animal-free-clothes
[2] http://www.livevegan.org/index.php/welcome2
[3] http://www.vegetariantimes.com/article/vegetarianism-in-america/
[4] http://www.peta.org/features/vegan-diet-infographic.aspx
[5] http://nutritionfacts.org/video/vegetarians-versus-healthy-omnivores/
[6] http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/337301
[7] http://www.dosomething.org/cause/animals
[8] http://www.dosomething.org/issues/animal-cruelty
[9] http://www.dosomething.org/issues/factory-farms
[10] http://www.dosomething.org/cause/environment
[11] http://www.dosomething.org/issues/organic-food
[12] http://www.dosomething.org/cause/physical-and-mental-health
[13] http://www.dosomething.org/issues/healthy-living