Hi I’m the Buddhist Chef 

Are you  looking for a New Year’s Resolution? Well, I’ve got a suggestion fpr you! 

Go vegan!

If you had told me 5 years ago that one day I would have quit eating meat, dairy, eggs and cheese I would probably burst out laughing and asked you if I would wear socks in my sandals, because at the time I was the one cooking meat in restaurants until the day  I was hired to  serve lamb to 400 people at a funeral home. 

That’s the day I made the connection between the animal and the plate.

I quit my job and now I’m proud to say that I don’t eat meat, eggs or dairy and that wearing sandals with socks is very comfortable!

Whenever I tell people I’m vegan,  I’m  always asked the same question:

Where do you get your proteins?

My answer: Where a  third of India’s population, 350 M people, get it: At the supermarket…

Beans, nuts, peas, lentils, and soy products are all great ways to get the right amount of protein in a vegan diet and are way healthier than red meat since there is no cholesterol in plants.

Of course, however,  there is a period of adaptation. But according to scientific research, it takes only 21 days to change a habit. Not so bad…

There are 3 main reasons why people go vegan: the environment , animal welfare and health.

Let’s talk about environment first:

-Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.

–A farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people. [vi]

Like Paul Mc Cartney said : “if slaughterhouses had glass walls everyone would be vegetarian”. Now, thanks to the internet, we can see what’s going on in there and we can’t turn a blind eye on it.

There are 200 good reasons to quit eating meat. According to PETA this is the number of animals you are going to save in 1 year if you go vegan.

(Scientists estimate as many as 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals are killed every year by fishing vessels.)

There was a time when humans  had to eat animal products in order to survive but now, in order to survive, we have to stop that.

Eating a healthy vegan diet has been shown to prevent a number of diseases. Type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, colon cancer, high blood pressure, countries where women eat very little meat and animal products have a much lower rate of breast cancer than those where women consume more animal products.

(Research suggests you can improve your odds of never getting cancer or improve your chances of recovering from it. Not with a drug or surgery, but through what you eat.)

To add to that, when following a healthy vegan diet, you will find your energy is much higher. You’ll have healthier skin, you’ll sleep better, your blood pressure will drop.

Start by eating vegan 1 day a week, then one day turns into  2 3 4 5 6…days and,  next thing you know: you are vegan!

Or start by one animal, for me it was pigs, I noticed that a pig looks a lot like my dog. A mouth, a nose, 2 eyes, 2 ears and a tail…

Now that you quit eating one animal you can extend your compassion to all animals , one animal at a time, like fish, for example…the difference between a fish and my dog … A mouth, a nose, 2 eyes, 2 ears and a tail… you get the idea..

Sure but aren’t  we meant to eat meat? 

Give an apple and a rabbit to your kid, if he plays with the apple and kills the rabbit, give me a call.

This year, take part in the revolution, live with compassion, being and feeling healthy and you’ll sleep better knowing that your food didn’t cause suffering.