Some Reasons for Veganism

Since yesterday I have been feeling a little down with regard to the topic of animal cruelty because it saddens me how we continue to treat these innocent beings like that. How we continue to turn on each other when we come from the same species and we could be working together and helping each other instead. How we could all be turning our attention to bigger problems like hunger, destruction of our environment, habitat loss, ecosystem damage, etc. I feel like I am a little speck of sand in an ocean and I feel so helpless. That I sit here while millions of animals get slaughtered and I can’t do much about it and instead I get attacked for my choices when I am only trying to be kind to nature and mother earth. But I need to understand that it is all about small steps. That it might be taking long but a small step still counts. It took hundreds of years to eradicate slavery. I read a positive comment on youtube that made me smile. Someone said that in the next 100 years a very large percentage of the population will be moving towards a vegan/vegetarian diet. I would love to see that day come J

Today I shared (argued) more views with my parents about the reason I am choosing to remove animal-based foods from my diet. Of course they attacked me and said they are worried I won’t get enough nutrition. That I will be sick in no time. That it is VERY extreme going vegan. One thing is meat, another is fish, another is eggs and milk. I told them how the dairy industry is worse than the meat industry. How I am doing it to lower my footprint on the environment. How I am doing it to avoid getting high cholesterol levels that can lead to all the main diseases facing humanity nowadays. And so much more. I told them I look forward to this step I am taking because it is exciting for me to try new recipes. My dad said I just removed a very rich and extensive nutritional section of gastronomy from my life. I told him that I just incorporated a richer even more nutritionally beneficial section to replace it. That we can still sit down as a family and that I will be responsible to adapt to family meals so no one has to make any effort because I don’t want my mum to make even more effort to cook for me. She told me to wait until I get to university but I told her I am not waiting any more, I have made up my mind. I am sticking to it. Rant over J

On another note, here are some HIGHLY RECOMMENDED links on the subject in no particular order. 
Earthlings is definitely the most graphic and challenging to watch out of all of them so maybe the speeches are a bit better to start with as well as 'Vegucated' (this one follows three New Yorkers and highlights their challenges in their efforts to embrace a vegan lifestyle). 

- The Best Speech Ever (speech)
- 101 Reasons to be Vegan (speech)
- Earthlings (documentary)
- Vegucated (documentary)