I became a vegan

English | 日本語

I'm allergic.

I don't know if it's congenital or acquired.

Asthma, hay fever, UV rays, etc.

It was before I was 40 years old that I wanted to improve my allergies.

Naturally, I researched a lot of things to improve my constitution.

At that time, mad cow disease and other diseases were all over the world. Therefore, I also researched the situation of food production.

I came to the conclusion that I should not eat protein from mammals that were close to humans.

At that time, I still had a lot of doubts about food, such as, "It's OK if I couldn't eat steak and pork cutlet," "The Japanese can't do without sushi," and "I can't miss Yakitori". I was also attracted to the macrobiotic diet of brown rice and cereals, so I changed my diet.

This is how I became a "semi-vegetarian".

What I found out here is that in Japan, just saying "no mammals" severely restricts my diet. Food bought at supermarkets and convenience stores, eating out. If I'm not careful, there's usually something in it. Of course, when I talk to people, they are surprised and ask me why I eat the way I do. It made me realize that this is a country with a remarkable lack of diversity.

How has been my health?

Neither hay fever nor sun allergies have been cured, but the symptoms have lessened.

Most noticeable is "bowel movements". My bowel movements are fluffier and the amount of bowel movements has increased. I don't have hemorrhoids anymore, which I used to worry about many times a year because of my sedentary job for a long time. I don't have any abnormal results in my health checkup. Isn't that wonderful?

And now I'm in my mid-50s. My wife suffers from high blood pressure. So I decided to change my and her diet again to improve our constitution. But this time, mainly it's not about me.

As I did some research, I found that the information on vegetarianism has certainly been updated from more than a decade ago. Population growth, food problems, and environmental problems on the planet are serious. This is a problem for my children and grandchildren and beyond. I knew about "veganism" but that's when I did my research. Finally, I decided to change my life again.

I became a vegan.

This is a big deal in Japan. It means I have to reject most modern Japanese food. But as long as I choose the ingredients and cook them myself, it's not a problem. Fortunately, it's easy to get my own food. However, while eating out became almost impossible, I also learned that if I stopped eating out, I wouldn't have to.

I also experienced what the differences in eating habits would be like if I went out of the country. It varies from country to country, but the fact that Japan has such a low diversity of values became even more apparent to me.

How has my health improved? I am approaching 60 years old and am in excellent health. The checkups don't find any vital problems. My allergies may not go away, but they don't get any worse. My wife's high blood pressure has not worsened, but has improved slightly due to my eating habits. Vegan life as a personal health is not bad.

A change in food changes my outlook on life.

However, it would take a very long time to talk about it, so I'll just tell you how I became a Vegan today.