The vegan diet continues to gain popularity as time goes on. The lifestyle encourages healthy and ethical practices of eating by not consuming products that were made by the exploitation of animals or that cause direct effects on the environment.
Many who go vegan or plant-based have testimonials of the diet resulting in remarkable changes for their health. From illnesses like gout to chronic migraines. Health is wealth and if you aren’t treating your body like a temple it’s going to show tremendously in your health.
A perfect example is social media personality and vegan connoisseur Tabitha Brown. Brown’s testimony– “I was very sick for 1 year and 7 months and doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I had a resting headache in the back of my head every day for 1 year and 7 months, I had chronic pain, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, and honestly thought I was going to die. I watched “What the Health” on Netflix and decided to do a 30-day vegan challenge out of desperation to feel better! Within 10 days of the vegan challenge, my headache went away and I literally started feeling better every day after that, and I never went back to my old eating ways and stayed on my vegan journey.”
Brown isn’t the only one with a story like this. Brooklyn rapper Stic.man originally known as Clayton Gavin shared that he was living a careless lifestyle that resulted in him one day waking up with a swollen ankle and being diagnosed with gout. Since then Stic has been a vegan for 20 years.
A 2016 Pew Research Center survey found 3 percent of American adults overall identified as vegan and this percentage jumps to 8 among African American’s.
Also, a study done by Gallup on consumers’ meat-eating changes found that whites reported eating 10 percent less meat in the past 12 months while people of color reported eating 31 percent less.
This is important because minorities are more common to live in food deserts than whites and due to this their access is limited to establishments such as MDdonalds and Save A lot. Meanwhile, predominantly white communities have access to Publix and Chipotle etc.
The eating habits of the black community have been the leading cause of high rates of diabetes and cholesterol.
Veganism is also supported by major Black musicians like Jay-Z and Russell Simmons. So much that Jay-Z has invested millions in the plant-based company Impossible Burger.
If you want or need a change in your diet, then going plant-based could be your best option. You can explore cooking with lentils, pasta, and different grains like couscous. Veganism can be exciting and cost-efficient even though myths claim it to be expensive.
It’s beautiful to see such a rise in plant-based eating in the Black community as we break generational curses and take power back in our health.
