Why I became A Vegetarian
For about 8 months ago, I started reading a book called How Not to Die by Dr Michael Greger. It was an awesome book that pointing out that how the most common and top deadly diseases can be avoided or prevented by simply changing what we eat to a plant-based diets. It has simply inspired me to give the plant based diet a try.
This was my full review of the book:
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“How not to die may seem to you a strange title for a book. After all, everyone is going to die eventually. But it’s about how not to die prematurely.
If there is one takeaway message, it’s that you have tremendous power over you health destiny. The vast majority of premature death can be prevented with simple changes in what you eat and how you live. In other words, a long healthy life is a largely a matter of choice.”
That was taken from the book. And below is my review:
My oh my…I haven’t studied a book more religiously than this one since I left my high school. How I wish I found this book years ago! This book is the most comprehensive book on health and nutrients that you can get which covers everything that is wrong with our “modern days diet”. This book examines the top causes of premature death (Heart Disease, Lung Diseases, Brain Diseases, Various Cancers, Infections, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Liver Diseases, Blood Cancers, Kidney Disease, Suicidal Depression, Parkinson’s Disease, Iatrogenic Causes). Before I found this book, I have always wondered why do people get cancers and other kind of chronic diseases that eventually kill them. There were a few people that I know which life been taken because of these diseases and many other people out there that I often heard died prematurely. Not because of the old age and it’s time, but because of the diseases. And I always feel sorry and sad for them, and each day I hope that any of my family, friends, myself and any people that I know won’t have to end up like them.
And growing up with a father who’s having diabetes, I watch him taking pills after pills. And finally, by the age of 75 which is recently, he needed to take up to 4 doses of insulin every day. Having that experience, I know that I do not want to end up like that. So, I do try to eat as good as possible and try to avoid or at least minimise a list of foods that linked to cancer and other kind of chronic diseases. And I also avoided bad activities such as smoking and drinking. Often time, I got the list of these foods from some websites that I stumbled upon or some info that I just heard from someone, or from TV, radio etc. And I thought that if I minimise those obvious unhealthy foods such as fried foods etc, it would minimise my chances of getting cancers and other chronic diseases. But somehow, I also feel incomplete. I feel that simply by minimising consumption of these certain foods, are not enough. But I don’t know where to get more of this info, or even such info do exist. Because I have tried googling around for years and nothing much could be found.
But all my dilemma and questions were put to and end when I found this book by Dr Michael Greger. I really thank God that I bought this book after stumbled upon a video on youtube that summarising this book. At first, I thought this is just a typical book that will just give you obvious advice to eat healthy by avoiding fried foods, do more exercise etc. But oh boy, was I wrong. This book is so much more than that! It is like a bible for the healthy life! It pins point everything that is wrong with our diet today. It shows us why certain foods such as meat and poultry that we think safe all along, are actually the culprits behind many cancers and chronic diseases. The best thing is, he didn’t just write these things blindly. He did provide us with research and references by which he has taken the info from. Indeed, almost all points (if not all) is backed up with research. From small research to the biggest one. He provided and mentioned them all!
And the one big point that this book revolves around is the plant based diet. It was mentioned many and many many times in this book why plant based diets are the best diet to follow. It shows us many researches that have been proven to treat, prevent, and even reverse many chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes and cancer simply by switching to this kind of diet. Dr Michael Greger, his book and his site of Nutritionfacts.org have actually convinced me to switch to the plant based diet and becoming a vegetarian or vegan, soon.
I have just finished reading this book, but there are too many points that are important in this book (this is why I don’t have the summary points written down in this review like what I normally did with other books that I have read ). I feel that I need to jot down those points, organise them and then compile them all together to share with other people out there, especially my friends and family. I really really encourage you to buy this book in order to start living healthy to the max and prevent premature death. And if I need to choose one book to recommend to others, this is it. This is the book that I strongly feel, every single person on earth should read.
But just to let you know, in a near future, I will be writing a thorough summary of this book and you could contact me if you would like to get a copy. Or I will simply update this review instead, and paste the link to my summary soon 🙂
Fast forward 8 months later, in October 2017, I officially became a vegetarian. Not only that I became vegetarian for the whole health reasons, I’m now also a vegetarian because of the animal rights. I believe that all animals have right to live and they are all our friends and family on this earth. I’ve learnt about speciesism and we as a species, should discriminate against animals and other species. This includes treating them differently, abusively or looking them as food. Every species including animals should be treated as family, and be loved and treated equally.
I would love to become Vegan, which requires me to avoid consuming animal products completely. I already avoided most of them. For example, I’m now drinking plant-based milk such as soy milk and almond milk instead of cow’s milk. But I’m still having trouble to avoid dairy as a whole. I mean the ones that they put on cakes, ice cream, chocolates, cheese etc. That’s the only reason why I am vegetarian and not vegan. I would love to be one, one day, once I figured an ideal way for me to live the life that way. But for now, I believe that I am doing my part and will continue doing so and promote vegans and vegetarians around :))