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Being a college student is hard enough with our busy schedules pulling us from one thing to another. While running to and from class, many students are subconsciously eating things that not only have an effect on their bodies but also the environment surrounding them.

Veganism is an alternative lifestyle that brings these issues forward, causing its participants to take notice of what they are consuming. Similar to vegetarianism, vegans don’t eat meat or fish or any animal byproducts, such as milk and cheese.

Viewfinder staff members Kally Frisch and Meghan Gerke decided to test the vegan lifestyle for a week judging it on two different aspects. Kally focused in on the impact a vegan has on the environment, while Meghan looked into the weight loss and health benefits. Here are their stories.

Ecological Footprint: Kally’s Story

In 2006, it was reported that raising animals for food released more greenhouse gases into the air than all cars and trucks in the world combined. Thirty-seven percent of the total methane produced is from cows and sheep being raised for slaughter. The production of two pounds of beef requires 3,500 to 26,000 gallons of water. The amount of water used depends on how they are preparing the beef. These are a few of the reasons why I decided to go vegan for a week.

Going vegan is something I have always wanted to do but never been able to. My normal diet falls more on the vegetarian spectrum than vegan. I rarely eat meat unless I am out for dinner or when my mom cooks. I even went seventh months straight one time with absolutely no meat.

The curiosity for a meatless diet began when I started college. For the first time in my life, I had a choice on what to put in my body. My mom wasn’t at home after school or after practice with a meal waiting; it was completely up to me. This was also the time that I learned about the water waste that comes with beef production and took my first environmental science class.

On the very first day, we took a test. It asked you questions and measured your ecological footprint. I was astonished at how large mine was. I felt like I was single-handedly killing our environment. So when the professor told us “easy” ways to shrink that footprint, I took it literally; I almost completely stopped eating meat.

I didn’t personally see the positive effects of being vegetarian on the environment, but I subconsciously knew what I was doing. I knew that not eating meat was saving gallons upon gallons of water. It wasn’t until later (early this year) that I learned how much methane is produced by the livestock that we get our meat from. The methane is released into our ozone layer and absorbs the sun’s heat causing the atmosphere to warm; methane is one of the key factors in what is causing global warming.

After three years of on-and-off meatless diets, the idea was sprung to try veganism for a week. I have previously tried but never made it past a couple of days. This was my opportunity to really do it and have a reason to stay strong and finish a week of being completely vegan.

I knew it was going to be hard when I went through my cupboards at the time and threw away almost all the food I had. I didn’t realize that almost every packaged product I had contained some kind of milk product in it.

Going through that also helped me realize another benefit of going vegan: less trash. As Americans, we tend to go for cheap. Part of the reason so many Americans are obese is from the processed food in packages that are cheaper than the natural options. But, do people realize what they are doing to the environment when they throw all those processed food packages away?

All that waste produced goes into our landfills and releases gases into the ozone layer, again causing the atmosphere to warm. The trash that doesn’t go into our landfill goes into the ocean. According to a Greenpeace report, 10 percent of the plastic waste we produce ends up in our oceans. Because of all that trash, the oceans have five gyres: the largest one being twice the size of Texas. A gyre is simply an area in the ocean where the current collects trash. That trash pollutes the water and kills the wildlife living around it.

Two times the size of Texas is big. The problem is bigger than one person. I know that going vegan for a week didn’t take away one of those gyres, but I did notice a difference in the trash I produced. It was way less than normal. I bought almost all of my groceries in the produce section and when I went for a snack, I went for something natural and without a package. The less trash I produced, the less trash bags I went through. Again, I couldn’t see the gyres disappearing and I’m not sure how much of a difference one person can make, but I know I made a small impact.

Health and Weight loss: Meghan’s Story

I am someone who tends to watch what I eat and makes an effort to go to the gym at least three times a week, but I still struggle with my weight. I have tried many weight-loss trends such as juice cleanses and most recently Weight Watchers, but I still can’t seem to control my weight. However, I decided to dive into a new weight-loss trend, veganism.

So many people are turning to the Internet for the latest and greatest ways to lose weight. The trend that caught my eye was veganism. But what makes this diet so great? This was one of the main questions I asked myself when we first began to look into this topic.

There are many reasons for someone to turn to a vegan diet. These would include: lower cholesterol and blood pressure; decreased risk of type-2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer; and, of course, a healthier body weight.

But will a diet that eliminates many standard food groups finally be the one that does the trick for me, or will the feeling of being deprived from foods I have always eaten have me adding this diet to the list of failures?

In order to find this out, I had to first understand how this diet worked.

Veganism’s goal is to subtract the foods from your diet that your body is not naturally meant to digest and instead replace them with plant-based substitutions such as beans, mushrooms and soy-based products.

One argument for veganism states that eating animals and their byproducts is bad for us, especially for our digestive systems. Many vegan-based websites, such as VeganCoach.com, use this claim as one of the main reasons one should consider going vegan. They point out that our body has a natural intolerance for these products, but over time, as we continue to consume them, we build up tolerance. This seems to be true with the dairy and egg portion of the diet. However, the reviews on the elimination of meat from our diets are slightly different.

I scanned multiple articles throughout my research and the results came out to be inconclusive for people in support of eating meat and those not in support of meat consumption. These arguments contained a large range of explanations, such as how much effort it takes our bodies to break down meat and that we, as a species, have evolved throughout time. However, there have been studies done, such as one by Harvard School of Public Health, that do show that the reduction of meat in one’s diet, especially red meat, does help lower the chances of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

That being said, when switching to a diet that doesn’t include meat, such as a vegan diet, a person has to make an extra effort to make sure that they are still getting the same amount of nutritional value from their replacement foods. This is easily manageable by paying attention to iron, protein, calcium and vitamin intake. Planning meals and reading labels are easy ways to keep track of this, but one can also opt to take supplements.

My biggest fear when starting this diet was not that I wouldn’t be getting the correct amount of nutrition but rather that I would find myself hungry more often, causing me to snack. Because of this, I turned to Pinterest to find meal ideas that would be both filling and yummy. I was completely surprised by the variety of meals that came up with one simple search. Many of them even contained things I consume on a regular basis. After a while, I found a few that looked appetizing and pinned them; it was time to go shopping.

This form of meal planning is not something I do often. As a college student, my schedule changes constantly, causing me to have to resort to the quickest and easiest option for meals. However, this was fairly easy to do because most of the meals I found had the same base foods such as beans, rice and mushrooms.

One of the meals I really enjoyed was Mexican rice-stuffed zucchini boats. Zucchini boats are something I have been making since the summer, so making the adjustments to make this vegan was not very hard. I also knew that this was a meal that was not only quick to make but would also fill me up.

Having base foods, such as vegetables and beans, ready to go in my fridge helped create a sense of ease after a few days. I was no longer worried about feeling satisfied but rather excited to see what I would make next. I even found myself mixing and matching vegetables to create my own recipes by the end of the week. Depending on how I seasoned them, they can go from Mexican to Asian cuisine.

Focusing on vegetables was nothing new for me; however, not having a meat option on my plate took some time to get used to. For the most part, every meal I had growing up centered around some kind of meat as the main dish and vegetables and grains acted as a side dish. Because of this, I found myself disguising my vegan protein options as things I would normally eat. Burgers were one of the easiest ways to do this because the bun and other toppings would hide my makeshift patty. I tried both black bean burgers and grilled portabella burgers; and both were delicious. By the end of the week, I didn’t even notice that I was missing meat on my plate.

The most unexpected change that I noticed was how dairy affected me. Before I began this diet I would have what I thought was between three and four servings of dairy products a day, which falls into the health guidelines. Even though I was staying within the recommended amount of dairy products a day, I was still finding my stomach to be upset after finishing a meal.

What I came to find out was that I was actually eating roughly two more servings of dairy a day just by the way I was preparing my food. For example, I would normally grease my pan with butter when sautéing vegetables, adding more dairy to my meal.

Cutting out this food group seemed to be a larger task than I initially expected. Along with watching how I was preparing food, I also had to really focus on reading every label. There were so many unexpected things that I normally ate that contained milk or other dairy products, once again adding more servings to my daily consumption.

Although it was a lot of work to cut these things out, I could tell I was feeling better. My stomach didn’t bloat as much after I finished a meal, and I was more energetic. I did notice that I was taking a few more bathroom breaks than normal because of my increased amount of fiber and water.

Along with the bathroom breaks, I did notice that my body was holding onto the water more than normal throughout the week. Because of this, my weight did go up in the first few days, which caused me to get frustrated. The water weight did not hang around for long. By the end of the week, I was down roughly two pounds. Although I did lose weight throughout the week, I feel like in order to keep these pounds off as well as lose a few more, I would have to continue with the strict diet.

Final Thoughts:

Although we both enjoyed certain aspects of veganism, we don’t think it is something we can incorporate into our everyday lives. Both of us plan on making small changes to our regular diets and strive to go vegan a couple days a week, but being completely vegan isn’t realistic in our current lifestyles.

Kally is going to continue to watch her waste and eat as many all-natural foods as possible that fall into her current college budget. She hopes to start with being vegan at least three days a week and will hopefully progressively increase that number until it is every day of the week.

Meghan is going to try substitutes for dairy. This will include reducing the amount of butter used with cooking and using almond milk creamer instead of dairy creamer. However, when she is craving a dairy product, such as a grilled cheese, she might choose to indulge.

Although this lifestyle might not be the right fit for everyone, we encourage everyone to at least give it a shot.