Food For Thought: The Joys And Benefits Of Living Vegan

Whether you care about human rights, food safety, wild animals, the environment, world hunger, farmed animals, or your own health, just a cursory look at these issues demonstrates how intricately linked they are to our consumption of animal-based meat, dairy, and eggs. So, pick a reason — any reason — and it alone would be reason enough to justify eating an animal-free diet. Which reason do you choose? FOOD FOR THOUGHT IS A LISTENER SUPPORTED PODCAST. Please become a supporter today! 

Being animals ourselves, it makes sense that we share many of the same diseases as our non-human cousins. We aren’t – after all – plants. We aren’t at risk for catching aphids or sooty mold or downy mildew. In fact, many of the major killer pandemics we’ve been plagued with were acquired from non-human animals, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, believed to have been first transmitted to humans through the butchering and consumption of infected chimpanzees. It is our very consumption of animals and their products that has bestowed upon us what Guns, Germs, and Steel author Jared Diamond calls the “lethal gifts of livestock.” Our abuse of nature comes full-circle and at a heavy price for both the consumer and the consumed. Take a listen. 

“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how,” wrote Viktor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning. The question isn't "how can I be happy in my life?" but rather "how can I create meaning and purpose in my life?" When we seek meaning, happiness follows. Here is a list of 50 ways to create a meaningful, purposeful life that have worked for me. May it be a guide for you.  FOOD FOR THOUGHT IS A LISTENER SUPPORTED PODCAST. Please become a supporter today!

In other words, if someone is vegan in every other way, but they eat the eggs of their rescued hens (who live in their backyard or at an animal sanctuary):  Is that unethical / problematic / perpetuating animal cruelty AND  Can that person call themselves vegan? Is there such a thing as an egg-eating vegan? That's what we explore on today's episode of Food for Thought with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Thanks for listening and supporting this podcast!  

I love books. My love of reading goes back to my childhood, I have fond memories of the annual Scholastic Book Fair at my grammar school, I worked in bookstores (where I met my husband!), studied English Literature in undergraduate and graduate school, and became an author myself. I don't love books for their own sake but for how they deepen my understanding of the world around me as well as my commitment to living a meaningful life. I'm not a particularly FAST reader, but I am a PICKY reader and have developed a very strong relationship with certain books that have shaped the way I think, work, and live. In today's episode, I share WHAT those books are and WHY they are life-changing.

How do you love someone and let them go? How do you make sure the good intentions you have lead to good results? How do we help the scores of rescued animals who are looking for forever homes? In today's (LONG) episode, I recount my experiences — both stressful and successful — fostering cats. While cats have their own particular needs, my hope is that even if you're looking to foster dogs, rabbits, or hamsters you'll glean some inspiration and guidance. Take a listen, and let me know what you think. As always, thank you to the listener supporters! Become one today at patreon.com/colleenpatrickgoudreau

Once you decide to make zero-waste, plastic-free, low- or no-packaging a priority in your life, you learn very quickly you have to make some changes when it comes to what you buy, how you shop, what you eat, and how you cook. Some might find this an inconvenience. I find it an adventure. Journey with me as I share some reflections on favorite foods and how my relationship with them has changed since "becoming zero-waste."  Oh right, and I'll also share with you WHY BABY CARROTS ARE EVIL from this joyful vegan's point of view. 

When is a banana not simply a banana? Which food (on my least-favorite food list) is an animalogy? How many ways can you eat cauliflower? Which olive was my "gateway olive" to loving olives? How (strangely) do I eat popcorn? Answers to these and many more questions, particularly, "what are your favorite foods?" can be found within. Grab some popcorn balls and take a listen, then let me know your food favorites and food quirks! Thank you to supporters for making this a 100% listener-supported podcast. Become a supporter at patreon.com/colleenpatrickgoudreau!  

This end-of-year episode is based on my motto that life is made up of a series of lessons and gifts, an appropriate topic as we reflect on the lessons of the past year, create plans for the next, and offer gifts to one another. This episode is about creating meaningful holidays (and lives) and includes a list of 25 Meaningful Zero-Waste, Ethical Gifts we can give during the holidays or anytime of year. Thank you, listeners and supporters.

Every year as Thanksgiving approaches, it seems there isn’t a magazine, newspaper, or website that doesn’t feature recipes for every means and method of stuffing, brining, and roasting turkeys. And every year, vegetarians, vegans, and animal advocates urge the public (and their family members) to leave the turkey off the menu in favor of plant-based sides and mains. The problem is that by the time these well-intentioned campaigns begin, it’s already too late.  Not only do most people not want to forego their butter-basted bird, by October 45 million turkeys will have already been brought into this world, confined, detoed, slaughtered, eviscerated, trussed, and frozen. Let's try this instead. (The Food for Thought Podcast is brought to you by listeners. Become a listener supporter at Patreon.com/ColleenPatrickGoudreau!)

I'm gobsmacked by the number of people who think traveling while vegan is difficult or who tell me they just accept "good enough" because they don't want to put anyone out. If you're staying at a hotel, eating in a restaurant, or booking a room at a bed and breakfast, you are engaging with someone in the service industry, and as such...they want to make you happy. Enjoy this episode about how I found happiness on Vancouver Island.  This episode is brought to you by listeners! Become a supporter today at Patreon.com/ColleenPatrickGoudreau.

What does it take to become (and stay) a joyful vegan? The answer is in ... The Joyful Vegan. Listen to today's podcast episode. JoyfulVegan.com

One of my goals has always been to take the word "vegan" out of the box called "vegan." My goal is constantly thwarted by *the overuse of the word vegan *the use of "vegan" to refer to people as well as food *the attempt by some vegans to narrow the definition and make the word "vegan" refer to every social problem that exists in the world If you call yourself vegan or have ever been told you can't call yourself vegan, this episode is for you.  JoyfulVegan.com  

There has been such a proliferation of such terms as "eco-tourism," "wildlife tourism," and "sustainable tourism" that one wonders what is legitimate and what is just greenwashing. But is there such a thing as wildlife tourism; i.e. paying to see wild animals in their homes, without contributing to exploitation, such as going on a safari in Botswana or a mountain gorilla trek in Rwanda? Today's episode answers that question. Thank you to listener-supporters. Become a listener supporter at Patreon.com/ColleenPatrickGoudreau 

Remember when Lisa Simpson proudly declared to her eco-warrior idol that she was vegetarian? He poo-pooed her. When she said she was thinking of becoming vegan, he haughtily responded that he "doesn't eat anything that casts a shadow" and declared that he was a "Level 5 Vegan." When she said she started an organic compost pile at home, he said, "Just at home? You mean you don't pocket-mulch??" While at one time I was able to identify with poor Lisa, I now fear I've crossed the line. Hear my confession, and take from it what you will.

"When creatures don't have an extraordinary beauty, it's because the person in contact with them is not seeing it," said pulitzer-prize winning poet Galway Kinnell, whose poem about pigs ends this episode. It's not an easy episode, but nothing worth talking about ever is.  From Original Broadcast:  Today’s episode is dedicated to pigs – how wonderful they are, how we misrepresent them, and what affect our perception of them has on our treatment of them. Pigs are exploited and used by humans in a variety of ways: as research tools, as “food animals,” in high school science classes, as entertainment in a blood sport called “hog-baiting” or “hog dogging,” as victims of hunting and the cycle of violence inherent in slaughterhouses. Even our language about them contributes to our abuse of them. Take a listen, share, and let me know what you think.  Today's episode, like all episodes, is brought to you by listeners like you. Become a supporter today at patreon.com/colleenpatrickgoudreau.

Just coming up for air as I finish re-writes and edits on The Joyful Vegan: How to Stay Vegan in a World That Wants You to Eat Meat, Dairy, and Eggs. Here are some updates with light at the end of the tunnel.  RECEIVE SPECIAL RECOGNITION IN THE BOOK! Become a patron at $20/month or more, and your name will be printed in The Joyful Vegan as my thanks to you!

Being animals ourselves, it makes sense that we share many of the same diseases as our non-human cousins. We aren’t – after all – plants. We aren’t at risk for catching aphids or sooty mold or downy mildew. In fact, many of the major killer pandemics we’ve been plagued with were acquired from non-human animals. Here are just a few: we got tuberculosis from cattle, influenza from pigs and birds, whooping cough from pigs and dogs, smallpox from cattle, and of course cowpox from cows. Even HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is believed to have been first transmitted to humans through the butchering and consumption of infected chimpanzees. It is our very consumption of animals and their products that has bestowed upon us what Guns, Germs, and Steel author Jared Diamond calls the “lethal gifts of livestock.” Our abuse of nature comes full-circle and at a heavy price for both the consumer and the consumed. Listen. 

There’s a presumption among some vegans that if you’re vegan, you’re also liberal, socialist, atheist, feminist, intersectionalist, progressive, and leftist, that you’re pro-choice, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO’s — and that if you’re not any or all of these things and everything that they entail, you’re unwelcome — or at least you don’t belong. Or that you’re an imposter. Or that you welcome oppression.  We are living in a time when group loyalty and identity politics are valued more than reason, critical thinking, tolerance for another point of view, and compassion. And it scares the bejesus out of me. Today's episode is (yet another) call for compassion. Listen to Food for Thought Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or JoyfulVegan.com⁣⠀

Though we tend to forget, cattle (cows, bulls, and steers) did exist first as wild animals before humans began domesticating them for our own purposes. Before we got our hands on them and turned them into a commodity for human gain, what was their history? What was their background? What is their ancestry? Today I explore the answers to these questions, trace their fateful encounter with humans (leading to the extinction of their ancestors), document our use of them as instruments of cruel entertainment, and draw the connections between our contact with cattle and the many deadly diseases that continue to plague humans today. Listeners make this podcast possible: Patreon.com/ColleenPatrickGoudreau