By Yael Stark
When I tell people that there are many 'Junk Food Vegans', they look at me puzzled ...How can vegan food be considered junk? I guess that the confusion stems from the incorrect notion that all vegans consume celery sticks.
Well...on my journey, I have found that there are two major groups of vegans, each placed on the extreme side of the continuum; those who adopt the Raw Vegan lifestyle for Health and Well- Being reasons, and those who adopt the Vegan lifestyle for Moral and Ethical reasons.
Raw Vegans normally consume food that keeps the food’s enzymes, minerals and vitamins intact by cooking, if at all, their food at no higher than 40c- 42c. Raw Vegans consume foods like nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, seaweeds, wild edibles, sprouts etc. in the form of juices, smoothies and salads. You can find many more recipes online. This food, they say, keeps their body young, healthy and vital.
The second group chooses to lead a Vegan lifestyle for moral and ethical reasons. They treasure animals’ lives and are appalled by the way the meat, dairy and egg industries kill and torture animals in order to produce their products. They hold the view that animals feel pain, fear and happiness just as humans do.
Vegans, therefore, don't consume animals, dairy or eggs, and many don’t stop there; they buy products that are not tested on animals (e.g. toiletries, cleaning products) and they won't use animal products (e.g. leather goods). Animal rights activists, some more provocative than others, pose a simple question- if one, indeed, loves animals, why does one eat them?
So you might ask; "If they don't consume animals, dairy or eggs, what do they eat?" I have found that they eat highly- processed vegan burgers (I have tasted a burger that was so divine, I really questioned the need to have a meat burger) and vegan sausages, pizza, fishless fishcakes, chips, dairy- free cheese, butter like spread, yogurt and ice cream, pastries and so much more… In fact you could easily classify this food as Junk Food Vegan' (JFV).
And of course there are some vegans who balance their healthy food and junk food consumption with 60% healthy salads, smoothies and juices and 40% JFV, and some who balance it with 80% healthy and 20% JFV. At the end of the day, we all have a choice.
In light of this article, I will leave you with a question: Do you still think that animals need to be slaughtered and tortured in order for us to eat?....
Yael Stark
Passionate about shedding a light on the congruency between Physical, Mental and Emotional Health, is the creator of Think Healthy Act Healthy Be Healthy.
