Being vegan is considered healthy and ideal for aiming a healthy body and mind, and beneficial for the environment, totally a win-win. However, it is not completely easy going for a normal carnivore to switch to full-time vegan for the sake of environment, religion, or simply for wellness.
What does Part-time Vegan Mean?
While a full-time vegan’s meal is to cut off any animal products, no meat, dairy products, and emphasize raw, fresh, unprocessed fruits, veggies, and nuts, part-time vegans combine both veggies and a little amount of meat to their meal habit. They avoid junk food, consume high-quality food, and prefer home-cooked food. This is also regarded as a plant-based diet, increasing veggies and fruits in your meal, whereas reducing meat is your preference.
Health Benefits
Part-time vegan has some health benefits, such as reducing blood sugar, lower cholesterol, better sleep, and weight loss (Butler). Moreover, cutting half the amount of meat in your meal regularly can help you avoid type 2 diabetes and reduction in heart disease (O’Malley, 2018). For my experience, I tried to consume meat 2 times a week and maintain this habit for a month. Afterward, I see the result happen on my face, acne-free, easy to digest, and my body feels light from consuming less meat. Sometimes, I still indulge myself to eat meat and yes, combine meat with veggies!
Arguments Between Full-time Vegan and Part-time Vegan
There are some parts of vegan people who only believe that vegan is “all or nothing”, one is you only consume veggies, and two, you are not vegan. This gives vegan a vulnerable superiority and lack of deep evidence to find out where our food truly comes from.
For instance, sugar is commonly known as made from sugarcane, which is apparently vegan. However, in the U.S., some sugar sources are extracted from animal bones and businesses may not want their consumers knowing this. And it turns out that some people consider themselves full-time vegan, criticize flexitarian (another name of part-time vegan), still purchasing sugar without knowing its source (Jenni, 2020).
While full-time vegan would say no to 100% animal products, part-time vegan considers what type of food they eat and the nutrition, whether it is vegan or not.
They acknowledge the importance of every food they consume to look for the source of food they buy, is it healthy to eat? Is it process ethically and responsibly? Etc. They consume meat moderately and occasionally as an indulgence happens maybe two times bi-weekly or a month as their choice. Meat has its benefits at some point, and knowledge of using it at a certain amount can have a positive effect on the human body. Red meat like beef and seafood offers a rich source of zinc, which benefits blood circulation. And consuming chicken is ideal for people going to the gym to build up their muscles effectively.
Overall, there is a wide spectrum about going vegan (including full-time and part-time vegan) and there should not be any judgment towards any concept. Full-time vegan has its reason being and part-time vegan, vice versa. I know nothing is perfect; it is completely difficult for me to go full-time vegan while I hope one day, I would be able to cut off animal products completely with the aim of a better environment in the future. Therefore, I choose to be a part-time one a.k.a “conscious eater”, to take seriously what food I eat, reducing meat products as much as I can, learn to cook plant-based and choose ethically processed food products.
Sources:
Butler, S. (n.d.). Flexitarianism: The Benefits of Being a Part-Time Vegan. Retrieved from The Joint Chiropractic: https://www.thejoint.com/missouri/sunset-hills/sunset-hills-24002/191810-flexitarianism-benefits-being-part-time-vegan
Jenni. (2020, August 9). Can you be a part-time vegan? Retrieved from Choose Veganism: https://www.chooseveganism.org/can-you-be-a-part-time-vegan/
O’Malley, M. (2018, July 10). Why Matt Bittman wants you to be part-time vegan. Retrieved from NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/why-mark-bittman-wants-you-be-part-time-vegan-ncna889916
