Gene Stone - 72 Reasons to Be Vegan: Why Plant-Based. Why Now.

H ello, and welcome to our book. We think its great that youre considering shifting from eating animals to eating plants, no matter how serious you are, and no matter what your timetable is.

Still, you might be thinking, This is so out of my comfort zone... I dont know if I can do it. Check that. Both of us were once there, too.

Dont worry about it. Seriously. Just read, think, absorb, and see how you feel. Theres no pressure. This is an exploration, and if youve got this book in your hands, youll come to the conclusion thats right for you.

Neither of us grew up vegan. We both ended up here later in life, perhaps wishing it had been earlier, but grateful we got here at all.

Hi, Im Kathy. Im a southerner. I grew up in the town of Doraville, Georgia, population a little over eight thousand. While I was growing up, there was a steady stream of chicken-fried steak and collards with ham hock. Dad threw a steak on the grill on Sundays, and Mom loved to make bacon and eggs for my brothers and me. When I was a teenager, my idea of a healthy smoothie was whole-fat milk, fruit, and a raw egg. My friends and I regularly met for pizza and chicken wings, and on the nights at home in front of the TV, we all dug into a big box of vanilla ice cream. My point is: I ate plenty of animal food and never thought twice about it.

Food is so much about family and community, so these BBQs and burgers were a large part of my social life and overall sense of belonging. As I got older, I paid more attention to the news and began watching videos online. I gradually realized that maybe I wasnt making the healthiest food choices. Then, about sixteen years ago, I was playing with my little dog and a light bulb went on in my brain: This animated ball of fur was no different from a pig, a goat, a chicken, or a cow. Theyre all playful and funny. If I loved my dog, Id probably love any animal I got to know. Suddenly, it felt weird and disgusting to think about eating animals.

Considering how much I loved eating meat and dairy, this was an inconvenient awakening. I did not make the move overnight. I explored different foods and recipes, menus and restaurants, and over the course of about a year I became vegan. I researched the health implications of animal-based foods and found that by avoiding them I would be doing my body a great service, and that my energy and health would greatly improve. (It did.) And as a bonus, the science suggested I could live up to a decade longer by eating a plant-based diet.

I still love community and food culture. But now Im all about tweaking traditional meals so that theyre kinder to the body and easier on the environment and animals. That means holiday meals with vegan sausages and a plant-based holiday loaf rather than turkey or ham; Beyond Meat or Impossible Burgers instead of meat from a cow; and quinoa and kale rather than fish. I love salads, but only if there are warm, tasty morsels tossed in, such as blackened corn, cannellini beans, or falafel. I follow in the footsteps of my parents, who enjoyed cheese and crackers every day for happy hour, but I opt for almond or cashew cheese and hummus or guacamole instead of dairy. And on Friday nights, I like a good martiniup, dry, extra cold, with ice, and olives on the side.

Im not a purist. I believe in progress rather than perfection. I believe in crowding out rather than cutting out so that the shift toward being healthy and kind is an easy one, rather than a white-knuckle effort. I believe that if were given good information and friendly advice on how to apply it to our lives, its our evolutionary impulse to move forward. Im hoping we can all do just that.

Hello. My name is Gene, and Im a meataholic. At least, I was. When I was growing up, I refused to eat vegetables. Ever. All I wanted was steak, burgers, and hot dogs. There was a small drawer in the kitchen table right in front of where I always sat for dinner. One night my mother smelled a strange odor and opened the drawer. To her horror, she found years of rotting vegetables that I had secretly slipped into the drawer so I could claim my plate was clean. I was immediately sent to my room and forced to eat spinach for the rest of my life. Well, the first part of that, yes. Not the second. I still refused to eat vegetables.

Veggies remained the bane of my existence until I started to live on my own, when I finally began adding carrots, broccoli, and even the occasional salad to my daily diet. They were cheaper and easier to cook than meat. Like Kathy, I became increasingly interested in health, and I read more and more about meat and its impact on health. I decided to start slow and become a pescatarianthat is, a person who avoids meat, but does eat fish. I thought Id miss steak, pork, and chicken, but that didnt happen. Then, I decided to take it a step further and became vegetarian. I thought Id miss fish, but that didnt happen. Finally, about a dozen years later, I met a vegan firefighter in Texas, Rip Esselstyn, with whom I eventually wrote three books. To write the first book, I figured it would make sense to at least try being vegan, even though I was still a total cheese-hound.

It stuck. (And although I missed cheese, I found out there were excellent nut cheeses on the market, and Ive become something of a connoisseur.) And as I became more and more interested in our environment, I read about how animal-based foods are among the worst contributors to greenhouse gases. That clinched it.

Going vegan probably worked for me because, being a rather lazy person, I found the transition much easier than my carnivorous comrades told me it would be. Id thought a plant-based diet would be dull and difficult. It wasnt. Every year more and more interesting non-animal-based products came on the market, more and more skilled chefs published cookbooks featuring plant-based meals, and eventually even some of those carnivores who told me theyd never give up meat became curious. Whats your reason for being vegan? theyd ask.

And thats why I wanted to write this book, because for me, there isnt a single reason. There are dozens and dozens of reasons. You will soon read many of them. Believe it or not, there are plenty more. (You can find these extras on our Facebook page. Visit us and tell us your reasons.) And there are plenty of ways of doing it, too, from going cold Tofurky to just slowly eating more and more fruits and vegetables, until youve pushed animals off your plate entirely.

In fact, one of the best parts of going vegan is that all of a sudden a whole new world of food is availablenot that it wasnt before, but like most nonvegans, I had limited my choices of plants to the basics: potatoes, spinach, apples, bananas, and so on. Now I have become fond of passion fruit, jackfruit, amaranth, artichokes, garlic scapes, and cherimoyas. I know the differences among white, green, and purple asparagus. I know how wonderful leeks can taste, I look forward to ramp season, and I even know what kohlrabi isand I love it. In other words, my food choices became exciting, eclectic, and delicious. Instead of limiting my diet, I grew it.