Ah, sorry to hear you have food sensitivities. It looks like you have to carefully research everything you eat, and that probably makes more attuned to the ethics of what you're choosing since you know where it comes from and have a lot of limits. It's good that you're feeling healthier these days and managing to find food that doesn't make you sick, though.
I admittedly don't know much about skin care, but I do know about the konjac sponge because I'm kind of a nerd about Japanese culture. It seems like some Japanese people use them a lot where we would use a plastic loofah. Supposedly they're really good for removing blackheads.
Yeah, I was a vegetarian for year and years before I became a vegan, and I really only switched because I tried vegan milk one day, loved it, and then realised it solved most of my IBS issues too, so I was lactose intolerant.
It’s like I had this huge instinctive need to be a vegetarian when I was 9, even before that, but I was 9 when my Mum gave in and said, ‘ok, she’s a vegetarian.’ And then I will be really honest and say, that not eating meat became so normal to me, and I didn’t even have to think about it, and I didn’t think much about animal welfare or the reason why, I just didn’t eat meat.
In that respect, I think I can understand people’s reluctance to stop eating meat, because a huge part of it will just be the convenience, the conditioning that normalises it. It’s a habit and food is something most people don’t think about. And then you’ve got the corporate companies selling lies about free-range, organic and humane slaughter’s, to help keep you locked in this delusion, even though every single animal is still either stabbed in the throat, shot in the head or gassed to death, whether they lived for a short time in a factory or a field or not.
It was only during my ‘renaissance,’ that I actually began to open my eyes to the hidden world of animal cruelty that holds up our way of living. It never even dawned on me about ‘cruelty-free’ products or makeup, and now, it is something I am keenly aware of. I find genuinely upsetting to think of all those monkeys kidnapped from their natural habitats, or the poor Beagle puppies, cats, rabbits, horses, that are experimented on, and I find it really difficult to even begin to understand how an animal copes with that kind of life.
But, again, it was a process for me. Even as a vegetarian since 9, it took me a good year of being a vegan food-wise, to begin to look at my other choices. Most of my food is organic, I buy cruelty free only products. And even buying jeans - most jeans have a leather label on them in the back, and only certain companies don’t.
The latest thing I have been making changes with, is I am going to begin to buy organic cotton or bamboo clothing. Most high street fashion is made from polyester, which is a fabric made from plastic that takes years to disintegrate. But, the only reason why I started thinking about that, is because I have started to get panic attacks when I am outside, and wearing breathable clothing is just one more thing to help with that.
Anyway, the point is, it’s normal to feel disconnected from the cruelty that exists. It’s a process. I guess the main message that I want to get across to people on this thread, that if you are against animal cruelty, then you are already a Vegan by nature, and it’s just about taking that first step.
To answer your question, it has definitely been a mixture of caring about animals, but also my particular set of circumstances, that led me to feel strongly about veganism. We are all victims of the hidden dystopia that crops up our world. The motivation would initially be a compassion for animal welfare and a desire to think outside of the box, so that our morals align with our actions. It’s a process.
www.sciencealert.com
www.dailymail.co.uk
