Becoming Vegan

by Deborah Taylor

Vegetarianism is a great lifestyle choice, but then you start thinking about what cow milk does to humans, and what happens to cows once they've stopped producing it. Debs tries out a vegan diet...

We drink milk because we think it's good for us. We also drink it because it tastes good and is nicer to pour over your cereal than salad cream. But mainly because it's good for us. It must be, it's full of calcium.

And then I was shown a book. It said we drink milk as babies to grow into big and healthy kids. Which is fine, if we're drinking our mother's milk.

Now baby cows, or calves to give them their scientific name, also drink their mother's milk-, to grow into big strong cows. And the calf grows much faster and much bigger than we do because cow milk is full of fat and proteins. More fat than we humans actually need. And the calf will stop drinking milk when it doesn't need it. We don't... we keep drinking.

We're the only species around that drinks milk from other animals. I mean, you don't often see an otter suckling on a stoat, though that is a very, very sweet image.

A cow will only be good for producing milk for around two, maybe three years. It would be nice to think that all those cows, and there's an awful lot of them to keep us all in milk, are retired into nice green fields, casually swatting flies off their sun-baked backs. But, unfortunately, that's not their fate. They go to the slaughterhouse and move from the milk industry into the beef industry.

Now for the important bit... how does this affect me? Well, I've decided to start living the vegan lifestyle. With a vegan diet.. And it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. I admit,

Vegan diet tips

• Vegans don't eat dairy - so cut out dairy products
• Soy is your friend - eat soy yogurts and drink soy milk
• Replace butter with olive oil - great on toast!
• Explore vegan recipes

I also seem to have cut down on wheat or gluten products, but that's another story.

Eggs are difficult to cut out, as they're used in a lot of vegetarian substitutes, but I'll get rid of them eventually too. As long as I can subsist on a diet of nuts, berries and seeds...

The only question I need answering now is...

Is rum vegan?

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