Ex-Vegan (1 Year): Veganism = Voluntary Starvation

Watch on YouTube · 2018-09-03 · 32 min

0:00 Okay, if you're ready then just start from the beginning and talk about how you got into veganism and when you started and just go from there.

[video] 0:08 Yeah? Okay. So, my name is Marina, I'm 24 years old and I'm from Brazil. I started being vegan, I was vegan between July 2017 until July 2018, last month. So,

[video] 0:29 how it started. Well, I never liked veganism before 2017. I always think that's kind of idiot, you know, stupid. You're going to go against your nature and start eating all these fruits and vegetables and forget about meat and protein. I always think that was crazy. I never wanted to be vegan. But I have eczema, I have this all my life, and it runs in my family, my sister has it, my father, my grandparents, and in Brazil we treat eczema in kind of, the doctors do this, you go to them and they say, oh, here is some steroid cream, use it forever, you know, and send it away, they have like permission to prescribe a medication forever, non-stop,

[video] 1:29 So it's not periods of treatment, they just send you home with the steroid cream forever. And they don't always work. I went to like nine different doctors in the last five years and used all kinds of products and they didn't work with me. So, that being said, I had this really terrible eczema back in January 2017, it was like horrible. And my YouTube channel was showing me these suggestions of vegan YouTubers, you know? I don't know why, because I never researched this, but it was popping on the screen. And one of them was Rob Stewart. I don't know if you know him.

[video] 2:20 He is like, cure your eczema by eating whole food diets and going vegan and water fasting. That shit, you know? Like, do this and you're going to be fine for the rest of your life. So, I remember, I clicked in one of these videos that he had, where he showed some before and after pictures. And everyone was looking fine, you know? They were vegan, they had become vegan and was getting better. The eczema was vanishing. So, I thought, well, I should try this because perhaps it can solve it, you know, my problem. So that's when I decided that I was going to try.

[video] 3:13 But I went to a nutritionist before I do this because I don't believe, I didn't believe that veganism was healthy. Now I'm sure there is not. Back then I didn't believe that that was good. So I went to the nutritionist and he said, well, you can be okay on a vegan diet, but you will have to take some pills, some supplements to go through with this. So then he prescribed me this. There is vitamin B12.

[video] 3:52 He said, you should take one of these a day and take a lot of Sun because of the vitamin D and if you want to you should take also zinc magnesium and yeah I believe that's it zinc and magnesium pills also but I didn't buy them back then I just took this vitamin b12 so I became vegan from night to from one day to another like straight vegan and I always ate meat like

[video] 4:25 every other brazilian folk you know we eat a lot of meat my country is like the meat country we almost don't have factory farming here it's mostly these huge farms with grass-fed beans you know it's like so important for us as our barbecues it's quite different they are quite different from american barbecues you know in america you guys have burgers and hot dogs. Here we have giant pieces of steak, almost raw cooked, and that's how we like it. Here we also eat a lot of chicken heart. I don't think any other country eats chicken heart, just here.

[video] 5:15 And livers and other organs, it's completely normal to us, you know?

[video] 5:23 That was quite hard for me, because I had to quit all of that good stuff and start eating these shitty plants. But, okay. So, I never followed any specific vegan diet, you know, because they didn't make a lot of sense to me, honestly. For example, raw vegan. Vegan food is not quite appealing. And you're gonna eat it raw? Everything. I didn't think that I could go through with that for a long time. So, never was raw vegan. Fruit anionism was even more absurd to me, you know? Because I think... I don't know a lot about nutrition. I'm a math teacher. I'm not a nutritionist, but fruits contain a high amount of sugar, right? It's like

[video] 6:23 Common sense, everyone knows it. And these guys are only eating fruits all day. So I also didn't go with this because I was worried about protein. You know, I didn't think that if I eat 10 bananas in the morning, a huge smoothie, they're going to give me the protein I needed. So I ate a variety of fruits as long as they were vegan. And I ate rice, beans, legumes, green leaves, three to four, maximum four fruits a day. Some nuts, some peanut butter, which I believe made my eczema go worse. Because, I don't know, all this peanuts, this stuff, only make it worse. And whole wheat bread, that was like my, the stuff I was eating.

[video] 7:23 Also, I don't know if you have this elsewhere, but here we have this stuff that is like soy protein. You see? Texturized soy protein. We have it in a lot of different sizes. This is the small size, you know? And there's like the larger ones. And it is common here that once you go Vegetarian or vegan you start eating this almost every day in like two three times a day It's like for replacing the protein, you know Men don't eat this because of the phytoestrogens It's mostly women eat this a lot. It tastes like a nightmare It's horrible so

[video] 8:19 but you basically put hot water on it, and it goes smooshy and soft, and then you squeeze it for the remaining water to go, and if you want to put spices on it, you can put whatever you want, it's still gonna taste bad. And we have this. So I ate that for quite some time, and ate what I told you on that, and That was okay for a while. I wasn't noticing my eczema getting better. But I also wasn't getting sick anymore. You know, there was like six months where I was not getting sick. Never. And I think, that should be nice. Probably I'm doing something right.

[video] 9:15 But now I believe that can be my immune system shutting down for a while, you know? I think that could be it. But then my eczema was not getting better. It was already six months through it and not getting better. So I continued to watch some vegan YouTubers, you know? Anna Fisher, Rob Stewart, Raw Vegan Cristina I didn't watch a lot because I kind of didn't like the raw food, you know, so... But then I see these videos from Ralph Stewart in which he said, oh, you're not getting better, you need to water fast, you know. And I remember thinking, there actually are people who go through this.

[video] 10:11 this is nonsense, you go like four straight days only drinking water, you're going to die, you know, or your hormone levels, how are they going to get, you know, I don't know, these people survive, they are okay, so he does it, but I remember I tried water fasting like two days, and by the end of the first day, I was like, feeling horrible, extremely dizzy and my stomach was in extreme pain and all this water I was taking was making me feel like shit, you know? So I thought, I don't believe I will water fest this. Never. I don't want to do this again. This is terrible. This is, you know, crazy shit. So I watched a lot of the vegan

[video] 11:11 films that they're making.

[video] 11:15 Forks Over Knives, Conspiracy, What the Hell. And also, I never really agree with a lot of the stuff that they tell them in these documentaries. You know, for example, there's What the Hell that says, if you eat one egg a day, it's like the same that if you had smoke and light cigarettes. This is stupid, you know? These people actually believe this? What is the science behind this? It's like too extreme, you know? So, I was like 7 months, 8 months into veganism and still hoping to get my eczema better, but I was not a vegan activist, you know?

[video] 12:05 Veganism is so unpopular here in Brazil. You wouldn't know. It's like people don't even know what it is. You tell them, oh, I'm a vegan. It's like, what? What is vegan? It's like vegetarian. But not even vegetarianism is well understood here. You know? Like, most people think that vegetarians eat fish. So they are, like, confused about this new vegan stuff. So it's like, not even, if there is I don't know 40,000 people in Brazil that are vegan is like tops maximum 40,000 so I was not a vegan activist because it's not even strong here and I didn't want to to tell people go vegan because I didn't know if that was going to be good for me yet you know I was only experiencing only experimenting so

[video] 13:06 I continued with this, my eczema was not getting better, but then I started to feel terrible, you know, like the last month or so.

[video] 13:21 First, when you go vegan, I don't know if you experienced this, but you are always hungry, always hungry, how can you work and go through your day and do your stuff when you're always hungry, you're always thinking about food, you know? And I was always hungry and I was starting to get tired of being hungry all the time. I was feeling weak and my mind was foggy and I was like, I can't do this anymore. And I think I became addicted to sugar.

[video] 14:02 somehow you know I always wanted the sweet vegan stuff like sweetened sweetened peanut butter and acai you have acai there it's like an ice cream stuff but without the milk okay so acai and peanut butter with sugar I was drinking lots of coffee with a lot of sugar just to go through with my day you know I was like always hungry, always tired, and I believe that I became this.

[video] 14:39 I developed this sugar addiction throughout the time. But I still persisted with this, you know. I believe we don't think straight when you are vegan, honestly. It's like your mind goes to another state, you are not feeling yourself. I don't know why I speak with this for a whole year, you know? I could have quit this a long time ago. But I stay vegan and hoping to get my eczema better, you know? I remember I just have decided I will go one year vegan only. If that does not work, then I'm quitting, you know? But then I started to get a lot of... My health started to get a lot worse.

[video] 15:37 First, it was the constant hunger and feeling kind of nauseated. But then I started to get my skin all yellow. Like a Simpsons character. Really yellow, you know? And kind of almost orange around my face. And I know that's not a good sign. You know, I know that means... Something is wrong with you. And then, after that, I started to have this horrible stomach pain. And these cramps, horrible, horrible cramps. Almost. So, I was thinking, probably I should accept that supplement now, you know, the one that the nutritionist wanted to give me at first. But I hate taking supplements, you know? I don't like taking medication, I don't like taking supplements, I don't think they are natural, it's against my beliefs, you know?

[video] 16:38 That was kind of getting into me, it was like, I need to take supplements, how can this be? You know, vegans say that we don't have B12 because B12 was on the dirt that we ate with the fruits and the vegetables long time ago, and now we have to take the supplement, you know?

17:04 That's a religious belief. They have zero proof for it. Nonsense.

[video] 17:10 I always thought that was stupid, you know? Like, what kind of history is this? Because humans evolved through history, through history, being carnivores, right? We don't have, like, don't eat like lettuce and got here you know but then I was resisting to take the supplements and I remember I was I am going to a gym now and I was not getting my my muscle mass improved you know and I remember the the professor at the gym talked to me like, Marina, I'm eating enough chicken and beef because you're not building muscle mass. You are losing weight, but not building muscle mass. And I was like, oh shit, man, I'm not getting enough protein.

[video] 18:10 I knew it. They say that if you eat enough calories, you're logically getting enough protein, right? But don't believe this you know I was like a vegan but I didn't believe any of the veganism thinking but so then it became worse you know I was having even worse and worse symptoms my period was getting late and I

[video] 18:47 taking longer and longer to come and was lasting like one or two days only and I know that's not how my body works so something was wrong my skin was like yellowish by the time I'm not even completely normal right now you know I'm still kind of odd my skin tone is still kind of odd and I was feeling like shit you know I couldn't concentrate I was completely angry all the time. I started to hate people in general, you know. From your other interviews, I see that people mostly have this, you know, like this hateful for humanity, but not because they are not vegan, but you're just angry, angry and nervous and confused all the time.

[video] 19:47 Ah, my hair also, I have lots of hair, as you can see, my hair is like really thick, but some parts of it became too, they get really thin, you know, like here, it starts to break, and gets weird, and it was like missing some pieces, and that's when I know, now, I am 100% sure that I am some vitamin deficiency, you know? That I had some vitamin deficiency. So... And in Brazil we don't have a lot of vegan foods and vegan places to go, you know? Like, we have steak houses and burgers and... Oh, it's like meat everywhere. You would love here, you and your girlfriend.

20:44 I've been to a Brazilian steakhouse, yeah, it's great.

[video] 20:51 And when I go out, I never had anything to eat, you know, just like fries. And that doesn't, that is not healthy, you know. And so I sit in like this terrible state all the time, all this pain and this skin tone that was odd. And I still didn't want to go to a doctor because I don't like going to doctors, but that's me, you know? And I stick with this for a life. And then I got to the point where I was craving stuff. You know, like the last couple of months, I was like craving beef and I wanted to eat beef raw, you know? bleeding, and I never had eaten raw meat before, so I started to have these cravings.

[video] 21:49 It was like I wanted to drink blood, you know, straight from the vein if possible, because I was feeling so bad, I don't know, probably anemia, I probably had this, I don't know. And I wanted to drink blood, I wanted to eat these raw steaks, and I was missing all of the food, you know, that I grew up eating it.

[video] 22:15 And then it became quite hard to go through with this diet because...

[video] 22:24 But I consider myself like a persistent person, you know? So I still think, no, I'm going to stick with this for a year to make sure that I try it and that didn't help my eczema. Okay, so... But then, like the last month, my eczema got extremely worse. You know, extremely. I had it on my hands and a little bit on this part of my arm. It was like, just showing up in different places and I was feeling terrible. Also, I started having this acne. I never had acne before. And then I was like, man, I can't believe I'm going to have acne now. I'm like 24 and now I'm going to have acne. And so these vegan YouTubers, they have an explanation for everything.

[video] 23:23 You know, like, no, this is your body cleansing itself. You know, this acne is completely normal. Oh, your skin is kind of yellow. There's even a video, I hope you see this, oh God, it's from Mick the Vegan, when he says that yellow skin is more attractive. Have you seen this shit? It's worth it. Watch it, it's great. And he tries, look at this guy's thought process. He says, when you go vegan, your skin gets a little bit more yellow, but scientifically, that's more attractive to people, you know? It's like, where did he get this from?

[video] 24:13 So, everything that I was experiencing, they had explanations, you know? Like, oh, your period is going, is lasting less days, no problem, because it probably will go away, and that would be good, because period, the situation is not normal." And I was like, what? The situation is not normal, how are we going to have kids in the future, you know? But they have this crazy explanation. And I remember I was quite mad at Rob Stewart at that point, you know, like, this guy said that I was going to be okay, and I tried this,

[video] 25:02 But then he goes like, oh, I have received a lot of messages from people that haven't been any better, but don't worry, it's because you're not water fasting. It's like, ah, man, I can't take this anymore. So I was at college last month, and I went to this restaurant where they have a vegan option in my college. because there are a lot of vegan people there, and steak, so it was like this horrible carrot stuff, or a giant piece of steak, that is almost rare, and I was like, I'm going to eat that steak today, I'm done with this, enough is enough, I'm not feeling well, I'm feeling horrible, so I ate it, and I was like, ugh,

[video] 26:03 the best feeling ever, you know? And I was like so full, I couldn't even eat anything, anything around the steak, you know? I only ate the steak. And I feel like awesome, you know? And from then on, I am anti-vegan now, you know? All the time when I see some vegan people in college, and they ask me something about How are you? How are you doing? Because they know that I was vegan. I say, I'm doing that because I'm not vegan anymore. You know, you shouldn't do this stuff. You are going to die.

26:44 What do they say then? Do they get mad?

[video] 26:47 They get really mad. Yeah. But I understand. They are hungry. You know, that's why they are always mad.

26:58 Did you have any contact with other vegans when you were vegan?

[video] 27:02 Well, actually, I didn't meet a lot of vegan people, because they are extremely rare here, but in college I met a few, like six or seven people, because I live in the capital, so there's more vegan people. And there was this vegan farmer's market, kind of, that I went to once, and completely hated it.

[video] 27:38 It's like they have a lot of conviction on veganism, but I feel like most vegans don't respect other ways of living. I was never that kind of vegan. say, go vegan with me, no, come on, join this vegan vote, no! I didn't know if that was going to be good for me, so I didn't want to make other people go through with it, you know, but all the vegan people that I met, I didn't like, because they were very radical, they were, they were even quite mad at me when I was a vegan, because I was not a vegan activist, you know, They have this here in Brazil, they have this time of the year where they organize these manifestations. You know, like, oh, let's go to a steakhouse and scream at people saying, this is murder.

[video] 28:37 And, you know, and they go like, some women go naked. And, like, it's like a crazy event. So, everyone that was vegan that I met, I didn't like. I wasn't feeling like I belong, you know, amongst these people. I didn't have the same thought process that they had. So, I was like an outsider. And that was it, you know, I quit this job.

29:12 What do you think is the future of veganism? What's going to happen?

[video] 29:17 Well, actually, Well, when I was at college in my last semester, I had to do this research, you know, create a math model for something, something, anything. And I actually, since I was a vegan, I created a mathematical, a math model to predict how many vegans are going to be in Brazil in the next years. and sadly, a lot. So I believe veganism is going to grow mostly in America, Canada, the places where there is more propaganda. But here in Brazil it's going to grow like 250% a year. That was my math model.

[video] 30:19 That was like my estimate. So, I was sad to hear this because I didn't wish anyone to go through with this, you know? Like, it's terrible.

30:35 Don't you think that people are going to wake up if they get sick?

[video] 30:40 I hope so. But actually, from the people that I've met, they look sick, but they don't realize it, you know? Either they are extremely skinny or extremely fat, because I actually gained weight while on the vegan diet, because of all the sugar I was eating, and I was not even eating all the fruits, you know? But they look sick, their skin is kind of yellow, they have these wrinkles on the corner of their eyes, and they are young, you know, like 20, 25.

[video] 31:19 So they look too old, they look sick, they have this confused mind, and I don't know if they are even seeing that they are getting sick, you know? I believe they are going to realize it kind of too late. Yeah. Yeah, that makes me sad.

31:42 Yeah. Anything else you want to add? Any experience, anything you want to say to vegans who are watching?

[video] 31:52 Sure. To all the vegans that are watching.

[video] 31:58 Seek some information from elsewhere. Not only the vegan documentaries, the vegan YouTube channels. Seek information elsewhere, because it's not all true.

[video] 32:16 We can't deny that all this knowledge that we had before this veganism wave strike is wrong, because it's not. Scientists have proven that meat is good for us. So try to listen to reason. And if you can, if you became an ex-vegan, try to talk people out of being vegan before they get too sick, before they raise their kids vegan, and spread this nonsense.

[video] 32:51 You know?

32:52 Okay. Is that it? That's it. Yeah?

[video] 32:55 Is that it?

32:56 Thank you.

[video] 32:58 Thank you.