My Vegan Why…
Firstly, I’ll admit that I used to be your typical meat eating male - mornings consisted of eating eggs and every dinner meal consisted of some sort of animal meat. I very rarely used any legumes and I had honestly NEVER attempted cooking with tofu. I think this is generally pretty standard for the typical Western diet - we are generally pretty lazy cooks.
Fast forward to 2017 to the birth of our second child.
Our second child (Fletcher)
My wife and I struggled incredibly with our second child. Our first was an absolute angle - he slept well, he feed well and his routine was mostly predictable. Unfortunately, our second had issues with breast feeding, which meant we looked to alternative options by using formulas.
Quickly in our second child’s life, we noticed his increasing development of eczema across his body. Some people get eczema, but our second child got severe eczema that was truly traumatic for him, and us. It covered his entire body, his clothes would literally stick to him and eczema wounds would often weep or bleed.
We went to our local GP to find solutions and we had tried a variety of typical eczema creams to relief his pain. Thankfully these did assist, but only for short periods and it would quickly flare up and be more intense.
This is where my wife and I begun to research the connection between dairy and eczema. It was astounding to look at the strong link between dairy and its ability to inflame the body quite intensely. This is where our vegan journey initially begun…
The extent of Fletcher’s eczema was a large concern for us
Our love for our children comes first and foremost before anything else, and to know that we could potentially help our son’s life, it was honestly a no-brainer to ditch dairy. We researched not only the impacts on our health from consuming dairy, but also other animal based products and their ability to increase preventable diseases and increase your risk of others.
We did intensive research for a few weeks, ensuring that cutting out animal products was actually realistic, consuming a variety of articles that we came across and a documentary called ‘What the Health’ and others.
The decision after the research was pretty simple - to ensure the best possible health for our children and ourselves was to cut out animal based products.
We made a very quick transition to cut out animal products, literally cutting it all out in a manner of days. After a few weeks we also noticed that our son’s eczema was clearing up, and eventually no longer existed! It sometimes still flares up 4 years on, and this is generally when he accidentally consumes dairy from childcare or other situations - showing that he still suffers from an on-going dairy intolerance.
My wife and I quickly begun to notice the health impacts of our own, with my wife loosing 18kgs and myself loosing almost 10kgs. I begun to feel less bloated over time, and honestly my energy levels have never been better.
Our health as a family was our biggest motivator adopting a diet that included no animal products, but it quickly developed into much more. The connection between the planet’s health, and the welfare of animals, only further cemented our decision to adopt a vegan diet and lifestyle.
I feel since becoming a parent you just want to ensure that you are doing your absolute best to ensure you are providing your children with the best possible life, for the now and the future. This is why, for us, that veganism has truly spoken volumes to us.