Forgive my Vegan Moment in Current Events

My country just introduced a new food guide. I’m not a patriot but I am quit proud to be Canadian for this:
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Industries were kept out of that process and the result is stunning. Click Here if want to learn more about it. I might be biased because that plate looks a lot like mine. The little images of meat could be replaced with meat subsitutes and viola, it’s the vegan food guide. I was raised a carnist so I know exactly the level of cognitive dissonance I would have felt if I saw this just three years ago. I would have been angry and I would have lashed out because nobody would feel good to hear that their beliefs could be wrong. Somebody, sponsored by the pork industry, would tell me that pork is good for me and I would have taken his word for it because that is what I was raised to believe. Bacon is a group 1 carcinogen. So are cigarettes. It is not an extremist belief that a group 1 carcinogen can cause cancer. A lobbyist would say that anything is healthy in moderation and people are free to believe them. We are allowed to make our own choices, so far, and I just like to be able to make informed ones. I was a smoker for 10 years, we have disgusting warning labels on the cartons so if a doctor ever tells me that I have lung cancer… I’ll feel like a victim for a moment because I’m only human but I’ll have to accept that it is because I made some choices in my life.
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My mother and her boyfriend just buried his father the other day. He died from heart disease. Heart disease is a preventable disease in a lot of cases. Did he know that? Probably not. Last year, I figured out what I want to be when I grow up and that is a dietitian. I want to help people heal their bodies by positively influencing their dietary/lifestyle choices. I won’t even be closed minded and only recommend plants. I just want people to heal and have a better quality of life.
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My boy Gaz Oakely doesn’t say much. He has a YouTube channel where all he does he make gorgeous food. He was an aspiring chef before he went Vegan and his recipes are actually phenomenal. He finally posted his “coming out” story on his channel yesterday. I’m not one to leave comments but I absolutely had to.

. Overnight it got all the attention. I wrote it because just like him, it was one video that changed everything overnight for me. I couldn’t bring myself to eat meat or dairy for a couple weeks. I was so lost when I remembered something a motivational speaker once said. “Somebody has already done the work for you! Go online and see how they did it and learn from it!” I literally googled how to quit dairy. Veganism kept coming up and as a carnist I believed Veganism to be what I saw in news clips. A group of radical extremists who resort to terrorism by throwing flour on Kim K on the red carpet for wearing fur. Luckily I came across a little YouTube channel that proved me wrong. This woman was so calm and informative and not at all judgemental. Also, she is Canadian and my inspiration to wanting to become a dietitian.

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Usually, I do not like to share my opinions. We’re not all going to agree on everything and who needs the stress of somebody clapping back because they do not know how to be offended. I didn’t know that my comment on Gaz Oakely’s video was going to be the one that got all the replies. Once I saw that I knew that it was going to be the comment that got all the arguing. That is what democracy looks like but I do not have to involve myself any further in that narrative. Yes some of it offends me but I do not have to carry that opinion with me. If I am offending you, you do not have to carry my opinions with you either.

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Last updated January 30, 2019