Veganism: How a Vegan Lifestyle Is Beneficial to Human's and the Environment

 Veganism: How a Vegan Lifestyle Is Beneficial to Humans and the Environment

By: Kyanna Gonzalez

Vegans: Are They Right? By Gimlet

Veganism is a controversial dietary lifestyle choice that strives to eliminate animal products from human consumption. Animal products can be considered dairy, meat, or any products such as honey that were made by animals. Some vegans choose to make the switch in their lifestyle due to feeling morally wrong for consuming products made by animals kept in inhumane, mass-production farms. While some individuals simply make the switch to veganism to limit their environmental footprint as meat and dairy production on a mass scale requires a lot of resources and contributes to negative environmental impacts. Using information from the podcast Science Versus titled Vegans: Are They Right?, the question being considered in this blog post includes: Is veganism better for the environment and human health? 

In terms of greenhouse gas pollution, a vegan diet is better for the environment. In regards to environmental concerns, “consuming a vegan diet can be beneficial to the environment (when compared to a diet that consumes meat) as vegan products require less land to produce and produces fewer greenhouse gases (Gimlet 2022). Furthermore, research studies described in the podcast conclude that living a vegan lifestyle can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to seventy percent (Gimlet 2022). To note, in terms of water consumption, a vegan diet might not be more beneficial to the environment when compared to a herbivore diet due to the high amounts of water needed to produce nuts and seeds as a substitute for protein (Gimlet 2022). 

Although many believe that consuming milk can produce stronger bones due to the high amounts of calcium that resides in milk, there is no direct correlation between the two. Societal misconceived ideas about the importance of milk consumption brainwash the general public into believing that milk is good for you and your bones even as an adult. In reality, research has shown that individuals and communities that do not consume milk still contain healthy strong bones (Gimlet 2022). While human bones do need amounts of calcium to maintain healthy bones, calcium is not just found in milk but can be found in other foods like vegetables. Furthermore, a correlation between calcium intake and healthy bones can be found but a correlation between milk consumption and healthy bones can not be found. 

Some driving factors that influence consumers to buy and consume milk would be the dairy industry, a multi-million dollar industry that advertises heavy consumption of dairy products as a ploy to gain profit from consumers. Derived from the podcast, dairy is a political issue and an economic issue that drives the input of biased research, published by dairy companies, to overall promote dairy consumption (Gimlet 2022). While multiple studies suggest that dairy consumption does not support the growth of healthy bones, a newly published generational research experiment on vegans contradicts these past studies on vegan bone strength versus non-vegan bone strength by concluding that vegans are most likely to break bones than non-vegans. As these studies provided contradictory evidence, the question of whether consuming milk is beneficial to human bones still needs to be asked. 

In the context of human evolutionary history, humans evolved away from primates, or apes. Apes, monkeys, and most primates consume a diet that is mostly fruits and vegetables thus indicating that human ancestors primarily ate a vegan diet (Gimlet 2022). With this said, our ancestors still consumed meat on a routine basis. As described in the podcast, eliminating meat from a human diet altogether, does not affect protein levels within the body but could potentially affect levels of vitamin B-12. Vitamin B-12 is derived solely from animal products like beef, pork, poultry, and dairy (Gimlet 2022). Furthermore, a vegan’s diet is missing an essential vitamin needed for the human sustainability of the body and thus is more likely to develop a vitamin B-12 deficiency. Taking supplements over the counter or getting prescribed B-12 shots is one way vegans can combat and avoid B-12 deficiency (Gimlet 2022). On the bright side, an individual that maintains a vegan diet is less likely to develop health concerns like type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and cancer making vegans live longer lives than non-vegan counterparts. 

To conclude, veganism can be beneficial to an individual's health and survival while also benefiting the environment through less meat and dairy consumption that plagues the environment and its resources. Being made aware problems of with certain diets and lifestyle choices can be beneficial to a community and allow the mass to better understand the life history of humans and its impact on the environment.