few questions

[euphoric1dr]

hi guys, thanks for your encouraging words on my last post =) you're right - we can't beat ourselves up for mistakes; the most important thing is the intention to do good and live a vegan lifestyle, because we truly want to and believe i in these values. thanks again

Comments

[miss_bonzai]

1) Honey is not vegan because bees are animals, and vegans don't eat or use animals. Further, any system that seeks to exploit animals is immoral. And before we wonder if bees are really harmed, or if honey-taking exploits bees, let me just say that any system wherein one group with all the 'power' (that's humans) is making money off of another group with no choice in the matter (the bees), then that system is inherently exploitative. There can be NO humane/non-exploitive animal agriculture, because the system itself is always skewed in this way.

2) See above, as far as animal agriculture systems. On a much much much smaller scale, I have two hens who lay an egg a day each, and they have absolutely no interest in the egg once it's been layed. In my mind, it is not immoral for me to eat this discarded egg. But it is *certainly* NOT vegan. Does that difference make sense? (to apply my above scenario, it *would* be immoral for me to take that egg and then sell it)

3) Raw foods and veganism really have very little to do with each other. Not all raw diets are vegan (paleo comes to mind), and certainly most vegan diets are not raw.

Raw is exactly what it sounds like: they do not eat anything heated about ~118 degrees. They believe that important enzymes are denatured when heated, and that unheated foods - which they call 'living foods' - are much healthier for the body. They definitely eat plants! That's pretty much all they eat, haha. Here is a write-up of Raw Foodism that I did on my website, when I ate exclusively RAW for a 30-day trial: So, Why Raw?

Everything we eat is a like form, save for a very few minerals like salt. Animals are sentient with pain receptors and nervous systems, while plants and fungi are not. This is the key difference.

Hope that helps clear some stuff up! Good luck on your journey!