Opinion: Committing to living authentically means finding the courage to be disliked

In this opinion piece for our wellbeing & veganism research series, RAC member, Dr. Caroline Gordon reflects on if committing to living authentically may mean finding the courage to be disliked.[1]

I’ve never written a blog before, and while writing this I have gone back and forth a million and one times, never liking what I’ve produced. There are so many things I could tell you about plant-based eating and a vegan lifestyle (and I will tell you some of them). It’s no secret that the topic of veganism is so divisive and attracts a lot of debate and criticism. So, I am going to share with you what I have learned and how I transformed from being a meat-and dairy-eater who dismissed veganism outright to a passionate advocate of this lifestyle. I will also share with you how it taught me one of the most powerful and important lessons humans can learn – that is, self-acceptance, living authentically, and gaining the courage to be disliked.

The beginning

In short, I spent 20 or so years feeling physically rubbish. When I was 17, you could find me shivering against the radiator even though it was spring, having nose bleeds and mouth ulcers, and I was always asleep. It turned out I had glandular fever, the result, I think, of the chronic stress of acute and persistent bullying. After the main symptoms of the illness lessened, I was never really, well … quite right. I remained constantly tired, feeling like my eyes were only ever half-open. The problem was, I just didn’t know how to make myself feel better. I didn’t know anything about post-viral syndrome, the gut microbiome or what the most optimal diet was. Like most people, I wouldn’t have dreamed of cutting out all animal products because I unquestionably believed that humans are designed to eat meat for protein (because of those deadly carnivorous teeth we have) and, of course, dairy for calcium. So, the upshot was that I tried everything to get rid of the chronic fatigue I was experiencing on a daily basis – from Chinese herbs, to acupuncture, to cutting out ‘evil’ gluten, to creative visualisation, to kinesiology, to no chemical shower gel, to pretending I wasn’t tired (to trick my brain or something), to matchsticks to … well, it just goes on and on. Eyes would roll whenever I was on my latest venture, but I was always convinced this was going to be the thing to reset me. In fairness, I don’t think anyone realised just how tired I actually was. Aside from anything else, I felt embarrassed, like I was being perceived as lazy. I suspect that’s a common feeling for anyone suffering with a lot of fatigue.

It wasn’t until I was 37 that I started to get wind of this ‘plant-based thing’ going on. I was actually trying to help my mum overcome a health issue and thought I would give this plant-based thing a try myself. I’ll be honest now. I really huffed and rolled my eyes when I realised that what I would be doing was essentially adopting a vegan diet. Granted, there are differences – a vegan diet doesn’t necessarily have to be full of healthy and nutritious plants and it’s often referred to as a lifestyle – for example, avoiding all animal products not just in relation to food. But whatever. I was going to become one of them. I howled with laughter when my husband said he wanted to give it a go too – my husband, vegan?! Why did I find the prospect of my family and I going vegan as embarrassing, even amusing? It’s not like I knew anything about the subject … what do vegans eat, I wondered. Where do they get their protein? Their calcium? I mean, why do they have to be so awkward? I reasoned we’d just keep it on the low because, you know, it’s embarrassing being vegan, we might get this wrong and get all thin and pale and then that would be even more embarrassing. No. Best to try and disguise my latest eccentric venture and I wasn’t going to be awkward or anything. I’d still have a bit of milk in my tea and I wouldn’t make any special dietary requests if invited to someone’s house for dinner. No, not me.

Fast forward four years

Today, I signed a Statement of Truth for an expert witness statement I wrote in support of a legal case against the UK Government to ban the intensive farming practices that are now widespread across the UK. Although I didn’t know it at the time, four years ago marked a turning point in my life. As a criminologist, I started to learn about a whole new world – a nightmare one at that – for both animals and humans. The curtain revealing the worst kind of animal abuse imaginable had been pulled open, completely exposed for me to see. Forever. Because once you see it, you can never unsee it. My jaw on the floor, I wondered what was this and how did I not know this. ‘This’ refers to the routine animal abuse that goes on in the name of a ‘healthy’ diet. The tail-docking and teeth-clipping of piglets[2] and the beak-trimming, desnooding, dewinging and toe-cutting of turkeys[3]. And why would this ‘need’ to happen? Well, because the intensive rearing of animals, also commonly referred to as ‘factory farming’, means that so many animals are housed together and deprived of engaging in their natural behaviours that they become bored, frustrated and cannibalistic. The medical procedures (performed without anaesthetic) are supposed to prevent injury and death to the animals that are crammed together. There have been plenty of undercover investigations, particularly by the vegan charity Viva!, revealing what some of these factory farms are like.

Then there are animal products like eggs and milk. When I looked at those products before, I saw food. Simple. I had never looked at an egg and seen it for what it for what it is – the reproductive product of a hen. I had never seen the images of one-day-old male chicks being gassed because of their uselessness – nothing more than a by-product of the egg industry[4]. I now can’t look at bottles of milk as food. All I see now is the cow who produced it – the cow who had to be impregnated to produce the milk and then go through the distressing experience of having her calf forcibly removed from her at not even one-day old. I have heard many people declare they would never eat veal. Why? Because veal is the meat of a male calf. So, what sense then, does it make to drink milk? For once the cow gives birth to a male calf, he typically meets one of two fates: shot in the head or sent off to be prepped for those with a penchant for veal[5]. Which is the worse fate? The sausage that someone greedily devours at a BBQ is the pig whose desperate squeals and gasps for air can be heard outside the gas chamber before he or she is slaughtered[6].

And that’s only a snapshot. It’s quite straightforward to make sense of why this type of animal abuse happens. Look no further than the fact that, at any one time, 85% of the UK’s farmed land animals are intensively reared to see that there is money to be made. In fact, there’s quite a bit of research to suggest that economic disadvantages get in the way of farmers implementing appropriate welfare standards (see [7][8][9][10][11]). Animals must be ‘processed’ in the shortest amount of time while using as little land as possible so that the public’s appetite for meat and animal products can be met. Slaughter might come as a relief for these animals, although not really for many of them – the Food Standards Agency reported that between July 2019 and June 2020, there were 414 welfare breaches affecting 18,725 animals during the slaughter process[12].

Back to health

To answer any questions you may have about whether a plant-based diet improved my health, the answer is yes – my physical health and wellbeing was enriched beyond anything I could have imagined. I flooded my body with fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, beans and legumes, and water and stayed away from processed stuff, sugar and alcohol. After three months the fog lifted and I no longer had that afternoon zombie feeling. That really is it. A plant-based diet became my yellow brick road and along the way I collected some research and reading about the topic and got pretty obsessed. I read The China Study – the most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted – and was astonished to learn that the consumption of animal protein is highly correlated with cancer, heart disease and diabetes[13]. Again, like most people, I was resolute in my belief that meat and dairy were the key staples for maintaining health because of their protein and calcium content. I never questioned it. I never knew of the research demonstrating the link between meat and dairy and lung, breast and ovarian cancers[14], prostate cancer[15], and Parkinson’s disease[16]. The World Health Organization classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning that there is convincing evidence it causes cancer, particularly colorectal, breast and prostate cancers. I thought that cancer was probably a disease that is inherited, but, for the most part, it isn’t – less than 10% of cases are genetic[17]. Processed meats contain nitrites and nitrates[18] and, in short, mutations can occur in cancer-causing genes[19].

There’s some good research to show that vegans have a reduced risk of developing all cancers[20] [21]. A large study in France found that a plant-based diet is associated with an overall reduction in cancers, including digestive and lung cancers[22]. There’s also research that tells us which types of food help to reduce our risk of some types of cancer – for example, fibre (colorectal cancer)[23], soya beans (lung cancer)[24], beans and legumes (prostate cancer)[25], and fruits and vegetables (overall cancer)[26].

Other facts to blow your mind

So, what am I trying to say here? There are plenty of reasons to adopt a plant-based diet and vegan lifestyle. But they’re not just reasons – they are first-class reasons. Yet, even in light of all the information about the harm caused by eating meat and dairy products to animals, humans and our planet, us vegans are still in the minority and the topic remains divisive.

Why?

Committing to living authentically means finding the courage to be disliked

Despite the ever-increasing and convincing evidence of why we should, and need, to avoid animal-based products, I’ve been verbally attacked, criticised and ridiculed for being vegan. Then there’s a misconception about the limited diet of vegans and, believe me, I’ve received many jibes about eating grass. I’m no expert on grass, but Google tells me humans can’t digest it and eating it could therefore lead to diarrhoea and vomiting (defo not for me as I have a phobia of vomiting).

It can get lonely – I don’t tend to accept dinner invitations and there’s a general disconnect with people, who, all around me, are carrying on as though there’s nothing wrong at all with consuming animals and their secretions. Going against the status quo means standing up alone a lot of the time and finding yourself disliked (sometimes quite strongly and unexpectedly too). It means that there will be times when you stand on the battlefield dishevelled and bleeding (and if you’re anything like me, bawling your eyes out too), wondering why you don’t just make life easier for yourself, stop being so awkward and join the other side, who have a much stronger, powerful and resourceful army. Plus, a lot of those troops on the other side are pretty good people, so surely it wouldn’t be that bad?

When you go against the grain you can easily become the scapegoat – constructed and used by the opposition to enable them to think their beliefs are healthier than they are, so it’s a difficult battle to win. After all, social psychology research tells us how important our social connections are to our self-esteem and our desire to maintain these relationships is incredibly powerful and universal. But, despite all of that, being in harmony with our core values and living authentically provides us with a greater sense of meaning and purpose[32]. The beginning of my plant-based diet was a portal to better physical, mental and spiritual health. To live inauthentically puts you at risk of another kind of disconnect – a worse one – a disconnect from yourself. So, you must stand there even if it’s alone because there are victories to be had from standing there long enough. But the biggest victory is the one you have with yourself – gaining the courage to be disliked.