Vegan Definition – What it is, Meaning and Concept

A vegan is a subject that do not eat food products of animal origin. Like the vegetarian, vegans they don’t eat meat of any kind (pork, beef, lamb, fish, chicken, etc.) but, unlike ovolacteovegetarians, they also do not consume eggs, dairy or honey.

Veganism, therefore, is part of vegetarianism, which is a larger whole. A person who does not eat meat but does consume cheese, to name one possibility, is vegetarian but not vegan. Instead, all vegans are vegetarians.

Origins of the concept of vegan

It is interesting to know that the term veganism dates from the 1940s. And it was in 1944 when it was coined by the British Donald Watson, who also proceeded to found the Vegan Society. It is about a man who made the aforementioned veganism his philosophy of life from an early age, when he decided that he was not going to take anything that had animal origin, since he had been raised on a farm.

There are many approaches or reasons that can lead a person to become vegan. Specifically, you can do it because you have health problems such as allergies to certain foods; for an ethical question, not wanting animals to suffer for anything in the world; and even for environmental reasons. With the latter, we mean that you adopt that position because you consider that eating animals can lead, due to different circumstances, to causing serious damage to nature.

The role of the nutritionist

It is important to note that, to become vegan, it is advisable to have the advice of a nutritionist so that the diet includes all the vitamins and minerals necessary to stay healthy.

With good planning, a vegan diet can be rich in vitamins C, D, and E, magnesium, calcium, iron, and zinc. In fact, there are those who argue that veganism helps reduce the risk of certain diseases. Among the foods that have more prominence in the diet of vegans we find the following: legumes, nuts, cereals, tofu, soy milk …

How a vegan should take care of health

When it comes to being able to carry out a vegan diet without endangering health, a series of guidelines are established that must be followed, such as these:

• You have to provide the body with omega 3 through the consumption of flax seeds.
• The products that should be a priority are fruits, vegetables and legumes.
• You have to eat in a varied way.
• It is important to bet on ingesting a vitamin B12 food supplement.

Respect for animals

There are vegans who not only abstain from the intake of products derived from animals: they also reject the use of any object or article derived from the exploitation of an animal. In this way, they condemn bullfighting, they do not wear leather clothing or use aesthetic products that contain substances from animals.

Vegans, in general, also reject that animals are used for scientific experiments or tests of laboratory. Beyond food, veganism can become a life philosophy that is sustained by ethical criteria.

Vegan, in another sense, is the individual from The Vega (a Province of the Dominican Republic).