Veganism yay or nay?

Throughout this personal journey I discovered that theres a lot of factors that go into being a vegan. I wanted to see if anyone else experienced what I was feeling so I went on a quest to find if there was other people like me going on a journey, and I did. His name is David. David blogged himself for 30 days on his journey of going vegan. Davids Blog . 
I noticed we've had a lot of similarities going through this journey. Not only with health but a huge thing was how other people reacted. Most vegans don't go around yelling "I'm a vegan" but an important part of our culture is food so when going out people will notice what your NOT eating and as you "why"? For a long time i didn't have an answer to this question even when i was transitioning from vegetarian to vegan. Throughout researching this topic i was able to answer "because of my health". A lot of people shrug this response off but there is another group of people that seem genuinely intrigued as to how can this help your health. David noticed something I noticed as well, that restaurants aren't designed to cater to our needs. I have even noticed some waitresses and waiters take offense if i question the menu.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT?
Im not going to lie and say I was obsessed with the conservation of animals, but throughout this journey I did my research because I wanted to open and expand my mind. I found some interesting facts. Here are some jaw dropping facts  
If one person changed their diet to a vegan diet, they'll reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 tons per year. If every american dropped one serving of chicken per week in their diet, it would save the same amount of CO2 emissions as taking 500,000 cars on the road. Im going to be honest and say a majority of americans could care less about the environment but they should truly think to themselves abut the future we are setting up for next generations. A huge thing about being vegan is living a life of cruelty free not only for humans but for the animals. It took me a lot to truly understand this. For example, over a million male chickens are killed everyday simply because they can not lay eggs. 

This truly changed my outlook on not only being vegan but becoming a better person, not for myself but for the environment around me.

SO YOU MAKE THE DECISION, CAN BEING VEGAN REALLY IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH? 

The China Study

Since there is constant controversy about how true and false being vegan can benefit your health I went on the quest to see if there was ever a true study on wether being vegan can improve your health, and I found The China Study.

In the China Study, T Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M Campbell, MD study the connection between a persons diet and heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They took the study all the way to china where it is known that Chinese people have a tendency to eat little to no meat snd high carb and vegetable in take. 

It is no secret that the number one cause of death in America is heart disease and cancer but can the food we eat really affect our chances of contracting those diseases? The question is yes. In Dr. Campbells studies he makes a huge point in stating "we don't eat the same way we did back in the 18-1900s. Our bodies were not meant to break food down that we our "nourishing" it with today". He makes an extremely good point, back then we didn't have the processed foods and ample amount of meat and animal based products we do today. Cancer and heart disease wasn't killing us one hundred years ago so why is it killing us today?

During the China Study Dr. Campbell and his colleges went to all areas of china, some places had a higher intake of meat and animal based products than other parts of the region. Once all of the studies were conducted over the years Dr. Campbell and his team concluded that not only do you have a higher risk of heart disease and cancer if you consume animal based products but that you can completely avoid those two major diseases by simply eating a whole fruit and vegetable enriched diet. This was taken by the fact in areas of china where people consumed animal based products over the years most developed higher blood pressure and even cancer but the areas where only a whole based diet was consumed, there were no signs of debilitating health concerns. 

Here is a link to the study itself. http://nutritionstudies.org/china-study-references/

Controversy

I have a lot of people coming to me telling me there is no REAL health benefit you can gain by going vegan. Well, I did some research that absolutely blew my mind. I thought to myself, "yeah having a plant based diet will clean out you're system and keep it that way". What I found out is that longterm veganism can actually do a lot more for you. For example, being a long term vegan has been proven to prevent cardiovascular disease, cholesterol problems, and even said to be an easier diet to follow when battling type 2 diabetes. Studies have also shown that in countries where men and women eat less meat it reduces the risk of prostate and breasts cancer.

I personally went vegetarian not to long ago and I have personally noticed my energy levels have grown increasingly, and the chronic migraines that I had just finished taking medication  for have dramatically subsided. I don't want to forget to mention that I have extremely thin hair but by cutting out most processed foods but especially meat I have noticed my hair is slowly but surly thickening up.

If you look at the link I have inserted below you will find about 42 different health benefits that are proven by going vegan.
40 Health benefits of going vegan

I knew the second I started this blog I would get a tremendous back lash by a majority of the people whom have been told the only way to get protein is through meat. Well I found out through reading some of T Colin Campbells research paper that we as humans should only have a daily intake of 5% of protein, and that the daily average of meat and poultry consumed is nearly 20%. This is more than double what we need to survive. With consuming these large portions of proteins our bodies are actually suffering from eating poultry and meat. As a matter of fact, this is increasing heart problems, cardiovascular disease, and even type 2 diabetes. Huffington post article

Lately I've been noticing a vast majority of celebrities and even friends of mine take on the vegan lifestyle. When asking why they went vegan I got a multitude of answers. Some being it was simply to improve their health and live longer and others said because, "I don't want to contribute to the cruelty of animals." I can agree with most of this because I am currently vegetarian. Which is what prompt me to start this blog. I have questions of my own about transitioning to a vegan lifestyle like, "can this really affect my longevity in life", "how are animals truly treated even if labeled organic".

If your on this blog it could mean you have an interest in veganism or are curious about the lifestyle itself. My name is Jayna Jones and I'm answering the question of this generation, "Can being vegan actually improve your health and way of life?".