I've done some research and have found many different reasons why I'm creating a healthier lifestyle for myself. For one, because I'm eating so many more vegetables and fruits, I'm getting a lot more fiber than I used to. And we all know what that means: HEALTHY POOP! And that's certainly a terrific thing, because having a healthy digestive system and a diet that's high in fiber can help prevent colon cancer.
Another pretty interesting thing I learned about being a vegan? Your body odor is better. Eating meats causes all kinds of bad body odors (stinky breath, smelly pits, and exceptionally unpleasant gas). When you're a vegan, you don't have those yucky smells. Sweet!
She must be a meat-eater because I'm pretty sure he thinks her pits stink.
I've suffered from migraines for close to twelve years, and in the last five they've been especially bad. But studies have shown that migraines are often caused by various foods, particularly MSG. MSG (monosodium glutamate) is found in almost every single processed food item available for consumption. Flavored snacks are full of MSG, like Doritos and flavored Pringles and Cheetos. All those boxed dinners like Hamburger Helper and Rice A Roni have tons of MSG, too. Well, when you're a vegan you usually don't eat a whole ton of processed foods like that, so my MSG intake has been limited. I've got my fingers crossed in hopes that maybe my migraines will start easing up because of this.
The big thing is my bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed at 19 and have had some pretty severe struggles with it, especially in the last several months. I've had some problems with excessive depression in particular. In the last two weeks, despite some kind of crappy things happening in my life (like problems at work, etc), I've been pretty damn cheerful. Anyone who knows me probably wouldn't describe me as a cheerful person. Funny, yes. But my outgoing personality can be confused as being cheerful. I've just never been a particularly outwardly happy person. I have felt so great emotionally in the past two weeks, and the best part is that people notice it. People who see me on a regular basis and have seen what kind of shitty moods I've been in the past few months have said that I seem so much happier.
The thing about this that's kind of odd to me is that in most of the research I've read, vegans and vegetarians often have issues with depression and other mental illnesses caused by a Vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 can only be found in meat and meat-derived products like milk and eggs; there are no known plant sources of this very important vitamin. But, the good news is that you can take Vitamin B12 supplements (which can be found at a drugstore). So as long as I'm getting enough of this particularly important vitamin, my mental health should stay in tip-top shape, too.
These are just very few benefits of being a vegan. I found a pretty sweet website - 57 Health Benefits of Going Vegan. It has a really informative list of ways that a vegan diet can improve a person's health dramatically. Very cool.
Another little update: My husband and I will be moving to Clearwater, Florida this fall, and I'm very excited about this because guess what they have there - WHOLE FOODS! I'm so unbelievably excited about this part of moving down there it's just ridiculous. I'm going to have access to all kinds of wonderful organic and vegan products that I can't get here in little old Ashland, Kentucky. WOO HOO!!!!!
