Beware of Fake Anti-Vegan News

    If you’ve seen an uptick in news stories warning about the many “dangers” of going vegan, there’s a high probability that it’s provably false information. Much of the propaganda is covertly being pumped out by the meat and dairy industries. Recently they’ve turned up the notch with fake stories, conspiracy theories and warnings, even going as far as recruiting content creators to join the disinformation ranks. It doesn’t matter the industry or topic, segments of media will protect corporate agendas at all costs, and they will lie to us. Consequently, as vegan popularity keeps growing, fraudulent anti-vegan rhetoric is pouring out all over social media simultaneously, and this is to be expected.

    Moodie, Alison. “Before You Read Another Health Study, Check Who's Funding the Research.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com

    This is in no way preaching to anyone to go vegan. Do what you want. However, let’s just state the facts regarding some of these stories erupting into the blogosphere. No matter what is served up on the internet, it is a fact that a plant-based diet is superior to a meat-eating diet. There’s no need to argue, it is fact that all can research for themselves. In addition to this, most people are lactose intolerant, so milk doesn’t really do a body good as falsely advertised. We have been living our lives under very false information. We are learning now the obvious, which is that eating less meat and more fruits and vegetables is proven to improve health all across the board. Again, this is all irrefutable fact. That is perhaps why there has been a huge and steady surge in plant-based living.  And this is also unfortunately why there is an information counter attack.

    The Reasons for Going Vegan

    The number of people choosing a plant-based lifestyle keeps growing. Below are a few of the most common reasons why.

    • Health Improvement

    Perhaps most commonly, some people are becoming vegan strictly for health reasons. Again, it’s not an opinion so it needs to be repeated until it registers; it is a fact that going vegan improves health immensely and puts people less at risk for cancers and other diseases. 

    Van Hare, Holly. “Vegan Diets Are Healthiest, According to New Study.” MSN.com, 9 Apr. 2019, www.msn.com
    • Ethics/Animal Suffering

    Some are becoming vegan for ethical reasons because the food industry is barbaric. The drugging and savage treatment of the animals is a dirty little secret they try to keep under a bushel.  Regardless, because of our cultural over-consumption of meat, the animals are treated terribly. They are also drugged up to grow abnormally large and drugged up even more to mask how sick and diseased they really are. And then people eat them as if there is no health consequence. To some degree we ingest the disease and trauma. People becoming more aware of the treatment of animals and how it directly affects us in the long run is happening fast.

    • The Environment

    Our over-consumption of meat is affecting the environment as well. Some people are becoming vegan because doing so is better for the environment as the meat industry is ravishing the planet’s resources and is releasing methane pollution into the atmosphere. Meat lovers routinely make weak arguments using false equivalencies to deflect from what the meat and dairy industries are doing to the planet. To deflect and make a false equivalency some bring up soy farming. First of all, all vegans do not eat soy. Nor can the entire soybean industry be pinned on vegans. Especially since according to Michigan State University Extension 98% of soy is used for animal feed and only about 1% for human consumption, so right back to cattle farming we go. Cattle farming is bar far the biggest culprit in devastating the earth’s resources, wildlife and the environment.

    • Spiritual Wellness

    Some are becoming vegan for spiritual reasons. Countless spiritual communities from Buddhist monks to Rastafarians have long known the secrets about energy foods versus dead flesh. Spiritual communities eat food that raises vibrations. Eating dead flesh is low prana and lowers the human vibration. It also makes us sick in the long run. In order to tap into higher vibrational abilities, spiritual communities avoid consuming meat, blood, fish or anything with a heart.

    Geniuses like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Nikola Tesla, to name a few, also chose not to eat animals and knew the benefits of avoiding meat and eating high prana energy foods instead. So as pockets of people are becoming more spiritually knowledgeable, growing interest in veganism came along with the paradigm shift.

    • All of the Above

    Some people are becoming vegan because after all things considered it seems like a logical choice. If the lifestyle is proven to improve health and quality of life, and the decision also positively affects all of these other things simultaneously, then it’s a no-brainer for some. The only hurdle is the transition away from meat and dairy.

    Ironically, however, this is also why veganism is hated so much. As people feel great for going vegan while simultaneously making a positive impact, people who choose not to may sometimes feel inadequate and threatened by veganism’s growing popularity. Especially when more outspoken vegan activists put the pressure on. And so naturally, a demographic for anti-vegan news is wide open.  

    The Reason for Anti-Vegan Propaganda

    So why are people going hard against veganism anyway? The main reason is because many people don’t want to feel guilt or change anything about what they do. And so, people want reassurances backed by science that eating meat is good, and people will support that narrative despite evidences to the contrary. And when popular opinion is on code, truth is smothered to oblivion. People will enthusiastically choose to believe we are innately carnivores, when we aren’t. Rather, through the years we have culturally developed a love for eating meat regularly and people in the majority will reflexively defend it. And so, people are knowingly or unwittingly doing the bidding of corporate industries by sharing the false information supporting meat consumption.  

    The reason these industries have no problem brainwashing the masses with false information is because veganism is bad for business. Period. As vegan products are on the rise, the meat and dairy industries have taken a huge hit.

    In addition to those huge industries, Big Pharma isn’t a fan of veganism either. Good health is not good for business in the pharmaceutical industry either, sickness is. The documentary “What the Health” exposed the fact that even The American Heart Association had foods well known to be carcinogenic featured as healthy foods to eat on their website. Unbeknownst to most, there are powerful industries and corporate entities that do not want veganism to thrive. That’s why “news” attacking plant-based eating needs to be questioned and looked at very carefully.

    Cardello, Hank. “Why The Beef And Dairy Industries Are On A Cow Path to Oblivion.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2 Oct. 2019, www.forbes.com. 

    These anti-vegan rebuttal videos and memes are not made to expose us to some unknown truth. People would rather naively believe these corporate industries are here for us with our best interest in mind, but unfortunately, they aren’t. They are not putting out information to make us healthier, they put out information to support meat consumption to save the industries. And because they know people can be gullible, especially when made to be afraid, they bankroll these fear-mongering propaganda machines. They already know that they cannot compete with the average knowledgeable vegan, or tell someone who is already thriving as a vegan that what they are doing is somehow unhealthy. So, they have been strategically putting out disinformation campaigns to propagandize and dissuade all the people on the fence.

    Are Vegan Products Bad?

    Some of the scare tactics include exposing potentially harmful vegan products on the market. Other platforms scare people into believing chemicals are being put into vegan products as part of a covert NWO agenda.  

    So, are vegan products bad? Well, it depends. All processed foods are, and yes, that includes many vegan products. When any corporation makes anything, their goal is to sell it. Public health is secondary. At any rate, processed food, vegan or not, is not optimal.

    And as for the conspiracy theories about the elites wanting everyone to go vegan so they can put chemicals in vegan products, seriously, why would they need to make people vegan to do this and what makes people think these chemicals can only be put into vegan products? And what is making these people think they aren’t already ingesting harmful chemicals in their non-vegan products? People are already standing in lines to eat cloned chicken meat full of hormones with secret flavorings and chemicals. People are already voluntarily drinking fluoride, doubling their vaccine shots, and buying a large percentage of their food in cans and boxes. People are already using condiments in restaurants, bars and public eating places while not even knowing half the ingredients in them. Why would the elites need to choose death by veganism? The ease in which corporations can dupe the gullible is astounding.

    In truth, there are many products on the market vegan or not, that aren’t good for us. And this is the angle some of these propaganda machines are playing because they know most won’t be able to see through the scheme. All processed foods have health risks. And many are made with chemicals and preservatives that aren’t good for us. So disinformation campaigns have been put into fruition to exaggerate the dangers of veganism and vegan products, while not explaining that many of the products people are already eating are far worse. People will eat carcinogenic processed meat cold cuts, chips, fast food, and canned goods on a regular basis, and still pass around an article about “dangerous” vegan products. The societal confusion and hypocrisy is astonishing.

    When people preach against veganism using vegan food products as one of the reasons, they are deceiving you. For starters, none of that is even remotely what veganism is about. It’s straw man tactics. First, they carefully narrow down what veganism is and limit it to eating processed soy or plant-based products all day. Wrong. Eating vegan products doesn’t make one vegan. Avoiding dead animal flesh, blood or animal secretions in everything you eat does.  So, if a person is vegan and eating raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, pasta, rice, beans, peas, and foods without animal flesh or secretions in it, they are perfectly fine. In fact, healthwise they are in a better place than most. However, limiting veganism to the consumption of vegan products is a disingenuous straw man argument. There are dangerous foods being advertised and waived at you no matter what your diet is. We have to be mindful of what we eat regardless what our dietary restrictions or convictions are. Don’t be deceived by lies; veganism and plant-based eating is one thing, vegan products, however, is entirely another.

    Another trick is when they make poster people out of people who do veganism is wrong. The truth is everyone can eat wrong, or not enough. This isn’t exclusive to vegans, nor is it even prevalent. Regardless, a couple of extreme cases are always propped up to make people believe that vegans are unhealthy or suffering ailments when the vast majority of vegans aren’t. Conclusive evidence proves vegans are living longer healthier lives. Still you’ll see these strange random stories popping up about how people use to be vegan and died or were malnourished and needed to be hospitalized or whatever. Never will they disseminate the real statistics, just the rare and extreme cases of things gone wrong.

    Freston, Kathy. “Why Do Vegetarians Live Longer?” HuffPost, HuffPost, 26 Dec. 2012, www.huffpost.com. 

    How to Spot the Frauds

    Never trust people who say they used to be vegan but now they suddenly see the light. The BS meter is off the charts with these claims. There are articles all over the place with people making these claims.

    Let’s make this very clear; real vegans never stop being vegan. So let’s dispense with the “I used to be vegan…but” isms. However, yes of course there are people who attempted plant-based eating but stopped. People who tried veganism but go back to eating meat do so mainly because of their love of meat and find it too difficult to cut it out of their diet. That is perhaps the most common reason why people stop eating vegan. So really, they were never vegan to begin with. They are people who simply tried. No big deal. However, when people claim that they used to be vegan and start professing that veganism isn’t the way due to some new revelation, chances are they are lying, commissioned by one of the aforementioned industries, or looking for excuses to fall back, or they’re just delusional.  

    It’s actually very easy to see how these agents are lying. First of all, fake “ex-vegans” sometimes don’t understand the mindset of real vegans, so when they lie—it’s usually pretty obvious. For example, the ethical types who try veganism because of the treatment of animals or for the welfare of the environment aren’t going to suddenly drop these ideologies because they want to return to eating meat after being convinced meat is necessary in their diet. Chances are they will still believe as they do, but will eat meat again—quietly. It is very unlikely that these empathetic people concerned about the treatment of animals or the environment would return to eating animals, and suddenly start preaching that everyone else should keep eating animals too. People who discover that meat is causing disease, the animals are being tortured, and that the meat is loaded with drugs are never going to come to some sort of “awakening” that meat is good again and take the stance that veganism poses the real threat.

    There was an article floating around where a woman claimed to be vegetarian and now she is a butcher. These are the types of very suspicious news pieces used to bait people toward nonsense.

    Tammi Jonas from Australia, claimed to be a vegetarian for more than a decade but suddenly randomly craved a burger during her 3rd pregnancy. And eventually after her burger, she became a butcher. That must have been some hamburger. This story is so ridiculous it’s hard to find a place to begin unpacking it. Firstly, vegans and vegetarians that have been for decades usually don’t crave meat. Meat can definitely be a powerful temptation for new vegans still adjusting, but meat is actually repulsive to vegans and vegetarians who’ve been away from meat for that long. The smell alone could be nauseating. In fact, they might find themselves getting extremely sick if they did decide to suddenly scoff down meat. Despite the story sounding a bit bizarre, there’s a reason why stories like this are pushed forward and travel so far. They’re not meant to “unveganize”, if you will, the already vegan.  They’re strategically designed to keep the masses misinformed with the notion that meat eating is best. So in other words, don’t waste time making any changes, keep on buying up the meat.  

    The rhetoric about Jonas being anemic because of not eating meat and having this whole new venture as a butcher chopping up animals she supposedly once had sympathy for is more absurdity. At any rate, this is her business and livelihood now, and so she is committed to it. Her motivation is now encouraging people to choose meat from her farm because they are “humane” and “ethical” butchers. As she takes these weird smiling pictures eating meat and proudly holding bloody dead animal limbs, followed by messages proclaiming the joys and health benefits of eating meat—to seriously believe this woman was truly once a conscious vegetarian requires a lot of blind faith. She’s entitled to her own beliefs, but no she’s not some sort of knowledgeable convert. Reading a book turned her vegetarian, and then eating a hamburger took her out of it. These fraudulent “I used to be vegan…but” types are being propped up all over the place.

    Choosing the Truth

    So once again, this isn’t to preach to anyone to go vegan. This is about truth versus disinformation. We’re free to make any choices we like. However, we have to be more vigilant than ever these days because people with large platforms are spreading false information daily and with reckless abandon. When the conclusive science proves that plant-based living improves health across the board, as well as the environment, it’s safe to assume that there are few genuine enlightened “ex-vegans” waking you up to any real truth. There is an information war on all fronts from politics on down to things we choose to eat daily. And if you’re reading information to educate yourself about health, understand very well that for reasons that are not noble, there is an ongoing beef with veganism.

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