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Emilia Drogaris Vegan Since:05/02/2023
Vegan Since :
06/11/1998
My Vegan Story :
I turned vegetarian at age 16. I became a monk at age 19 and remained a celibate renunciate until I was 33. In 1995, I founded and directed a charity called Food for Life Global, which was already the world's largest vegetarian food relief www.ffl.org. I grew this project over the next 30 years to 65 countries. Soon after founding this charity, I became aware of the horrors of the dairy industry and became vegan at age 35 in 1998. Soon after, I made an official policy that the only affiliate projects that Food for Life Global would support would have to be vegan. In 2013, I released a book called FOOD YOGA – Nourishing Body, Mind, and Soul. In 2024, we rebranded the charity as Food Yoga International to highlight the food philosophy of the charity and our mission to unite the world with pure food.
Vegan Since :
03/01/2011
My Vegan Story :
I became vegan in 2011 after watching "Best Speech Ever" by Gary Yourofsky! Right before I went vegan I had my blood work done and my total cholesterol was high, 168. I was also getting sick like allergies twice a year. It was causing drainage accompanied with weazing and infections which was why I got my blood work done.
6 years after going vegan I had to know my bloodwork. It was down to 125! I wasn't sick that entire time. And I had only removed animals and their secretions. I did nothing else.
For that first 6 years I only knew what not to eat but really didn't know how to eat until 2017. I started studying nutrition a little and learned about a whole-food, plant based diet and how it's the healthiest.
When I realized no one needed to eat animals at all (unless they're in extreme desperate circumstances of course) I also realized it was likely hurting everyone; the slaughterhouse worker, the consumer, the health care system, zoonotic disease, on and on….
I became very intrigued by nutrition most notably. If the healthiest way to be is vegan then why kill animals at all?
So, now I have devoted my entire life to learning what I can about nutrition, advocating, and capturing other people's vegan stories for vegan linked. ❤
6 years after going vegan I had to know my bloodwork. It was down to 125! I wasn't sick that entire time. And I had only removed animals and their secretions. I did nothing else.
For that first 6 years I only knew what not to eat but really didn't know how to eat until 2017. I started studying nutrition a little and learned about a whole-food, plant based diet and how it's the healthiest.
When I realized no one needed to eat animals at all (unless they're in extreme desperate circumstances of course) I also realized it was likely hurting everyone; the slaughterhouse worker, the consumer, the health care system, zoonotic disease, on and on….
I became very intrigued by nutrition most notably. If the healthiest way to be is vegan then why kill animals at all?
So, now I have devoted my entire life to learning what I can about nutrition, advocating, and capturing other people's vegan stories for vegan linked. ❤