I was always told that if wanted big muscles I was gonna eat meat, if i wanted strong bones i was gonna eat dairy, and if i wanted healthy eyes i was gonna eat fish. I also knew that I should watch what I eat so that I don’t gain too much weight. That’s about all I was taught about nutrition. It wasn’t really until late high school that I started to try vegetables that weren’t just green beans and cooked tomatoes. I later experimented with all sorts of diets - keto, high protein, you name it. Anything that would help me become stronger and leaner. I started to take up an interest in nutrition.
Fast forward to 2012. I decided that I was going to fast for 40 days before lent but it’s not the lent that you may be thinking about. As a Greek Orthodox, it is strictly prohibited to eat any animal products or even olive oil and wine in some cases. I had never fasted for the whole 40 days before and was determined to do it this time. I had also just watched a film called Forks Over Knives so the timing was perfect for me to give it a try. All of my family had lamb on Easter Day but I just stayed on lent and ate all the plant based foods. Forks Over Knives had such a huge impact on me that I couldn’t just turn away from all of the science that pointed to preventing and reversing heart disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer by eating a plant based diet. Around that time, I was losing family members to those disease and I knew that if I did nothing about it, I could easily be following their footsteps.
A little further down my journey, I started to learn about the impact that my dietary choices have on farm animals. I watched a documentary called Earthlings and learned about the importance of adopting pets instead of buying them from pet stores, I learned about how the dairy and egg industry is not considered ethical even though it can be harvested without killing the animal but let me tell you, most dairy and egg farms still send there animals to slaughter. But even if the animals aren’t hurt at all, just the mere fact of taking a baby cow’s milk away from it so that I could consume it kills me. This documentary was one of the most horrifying experiences that I had to sit through. Earthlings is a powerful documentary. Animals have just as much of a desire to love and live as much as we do. My personal philosophy is, if I can’t do the hunting myself, then I probably shouldn’t be eating the animal.
Lastly, I just want to say a word about the impact that animal agriculture has on our environment. Animal agriculture contributes to deforestation it and run off of waste that flows into our rivers. And I realize that the topic of global warming can be very politicized but wether it’s actually true or not, because I’m not a climatologist, but what seems to be the consensus is that animal agriculture, mostly cattle, contributes to global greenhouse gases. But there is no doubt that whatever food that you eat has a certain amount of impact on the environment and felt that switching to a whole food, plant based diet was a positive for the environment. This is why I say that veganism is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.
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Hello there! My name is Tino but some call me Bananiac ;) I'm an RD2BE, KZfaq content creator, and athlete. I have a bachelor's degree in dietetics, a master's degree in nutrition, and currently doing my dietetic internship to become a registered dietitian. My mission is to inspire you to live a healthy, active, and passionate lifestyle! DO IT WITH HEART! Subscribe to my channel for weekly videos about plant-based nutrition, vegan lifestyle vlogs, podcast interviews, and fitness inspo! 🅥 #vegan #RD2BE #bananiac