Vegan for a Week

By Sena Balbach

I remember the first time I heard the word “vegan”. I was about 16, watching one of those doctor talk shows on TV with my mom and there was this man who was talking about how he lost 11 pounds in one week being vegan. I had no idea what vegan was but I was intrigued, so I Googled it and found out it was a diet where no animal products are consumed.

      I remember telling my mom that we should try it because we could lose a bunch of weight. Since then veganism has exploded in popularity and in that time I’ve learned a lot more about the benefits a plant based diet can have on not only our bodies but on the planet as well. At 16 losing 11 pounds in one week was a good enough reason for me to consider going vegan, but now at 21 knowing the environmental impacts of a plant based diet make it even more appealing.
      In this class, Sociology 285W: Animals and Society, we discussed human relationships with other animals which caused me to look at my everyday life and the world around me in a new way. The more I learned about the lack of animal welfare in factory farming and how animal agriculture is the number one source of greenhouse gases leading to climate change the guiltier I felt for every burger I’d ever eaten. All semester I had been toying with the idea of going vegan (and even went vegetarian for a week early on in the semester) but decided the perfect time to go for it was for our final project, where we got to choose what we wanted to investigate and then write about. So here is my experience of going vegan for a week. My biggest takeaways were how easy it was to find substitutions for products with animal derived ingredients, how much more conscious I was about what I was putting into my body, and how I felt by the end of the week.

     Being vegan means not just avoiding meat but all ingredients derived from animals like dairy and eggs.  Animal products are added to a lot of foods, so grocery shopping wasn’t the mindless task it used to be. I wasn’t able to simply wander up and down the aisles, lost in thought; I had to inspect ingredients lists to make sure products were vegan-friendly. To expedite this process I downloaded an app on my phone called “Is It Vegan?”that tells me whether or not a product is vegan or not by analyzing the ingredients. The majority of foods on my grocery list were already vegan, but it surprised me how easy it was to find vegan alternatives for products and ingredients. There was nothing on the grocery list that I had to skip because I couldn’t find a vegan substitute for it.
     
​     In regards to cooking and eating, this week was easy. My family and I already eat a lot of produce and none of us are picky eaters, so the meals like black bean burgers and mushroom pasta went over well. Not everything I ate had to be prepared though; there were plenty of foods that required little or no cooking or preparation like cereal with almond milk and apples with almond butter. These became my go-to snacks and lunches this week and both happen to be things I eat regularly even before this week of being vegan. I dislike the taste of regular milk, so using almond milk for everything is something I’ve been doing for years.

     Becoming more aware of the ingredients in products and making vegan meals that taste just as good as their non-vegan counterparts made me a lot more conscious about what I eat and really opened my eyes to how many animal products I can cut out of my diet. I also had to make sure I was getting a lot of protein every day because I’m recovering from a serious injury and my surgeon advised a diet with plenty of protein and calories to encourage healing. So I had to be mindful and deliberate about what I was eating at every meal to make sure I was getting enough. This part was tricky for me because I’m not used to keeping track of what I eat or how much I eat.

        The last thing I noticed was how good I felt by the end of the week. Physically I felt great. My body felt lighter, not necessarily like I’d lost weight, but less bloated and I felt like I had more energy. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to put the extra energy to any use because of my injury, but I felt like going for a run or a long walk with my dogs. Vegan diets are known to have many health benefits fromlowering body massand blood pressureto reducing one’s risk for major health problems like type 2 diabetesand some types of cancers. I also noticed some minor mental changes. I’m not sure if it was the lack of guilt from not eating other animals or a side effect of my body feeling so good, but my mood seemed to get gradually better as the week went by. I’d never felt guilty about eating meat until I started learning abouthow those animals are treated in factory farms as well as the devastating environmental impact animal agriculture has on the planet. I began to become aware of every time I ate meat and even though I really enjoy the taste of meat couldn’t help but feel selfish and guilty when I ate it. So even though I had crazy cravings for meat during my vegan week, it was a good feeling to not have that guilt nagging at me during every meal. My generally boosted mood could also have been because of how good I felt physically and all the extra energy I had. There are studies that show decreasing consumption of meat can improve one’s mood, there are a few theories as to why this is but more research needs to be done to pinpoint a cause.

     One week of eating a vegan diet left me with an allover sense of physical and mental wellbeing and a new appreciation for being mindful about how I shop and eat. I don’t know if I could ever go full vegan or even vegetarian, because some of my favorite foods are meat, but knowing of the environmental impacts of animal agriculture has definitely made me cut back. I’ve already started to decrease my consumption of meat and other animal products, especially after learning how easy it is to find vegan alternatives to otherwise non-vegan products. Overall my one week of eating vegan was a positive experience.

---

References
Alexander, S., Ostfeld, R. J., Allen, K., & Williams, K. A. (2017). A plant-based diet and hypertension. Link
American Institute for Cancer Research. (n.d.). Recommendations for Cancer Prevention. Link
Andersen, K., & Kuhn, K. (2014). Facts and Sources. Link
Burggraf, C. (2015). Is It Vegan? Link
ASPCA. (n.d.). Farm Animal Welfare. Link
Beezhold, B. L., & Johnston, C. S. (2012). Restriction of meat, fish, and poultry in omnivores improves mood: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Link 
Spencer, E. A., Appleby, P. N., Davey, G. K., & Key, T. J. (2003). Diet and body mass index in 38000 EPIC-Oxford meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. Link
Tonstad, S., Butler, T., Yan, R., & Fraser, G. E. (2009). Type of Vegetarian Diet, Body Weight, and Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes. Link
Valentine, J. (2012). Infographic: Veganism and The Environment. Link

---

Author Bio

Sena Balbach is a junior at Minnesota State University, Mankato majoring in Pre-Veterinary Medicine. Animals have always been her passion and she has always surrounded herself with animals and nature. An avid camper, Sena spends her summers in the north woods of Minnesota and in the BWCAW with her best friend Milo; a seven year old yellow lab.