EARTHLING ED

Ed Winters, famously known as Earthling Ed, is a renowned vegan Youtuber, content creator, public speaker, and activist. He is most famously known for his debates and public speeches, where he challenges arguments against veganism and delivers educated addresses. Earthling Ed is author of the best-selling This is Vegan Propaganda (and other lies the meat industry tells you). He is also founder of Surge Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary for rescued animals that’s spread across eighteen acres in England, and Unity Diner, a not-for-profit restaurant in London where all proceeds are donated to helping animals.

His passion for educating and activism led to the growth of his career, and the growth of the vegan community. Earthling Ed’s website is home to a wide scope of vegan information, education, and resources. You can watch Ed’s debates, read his free ebook, and most of all find answers to the question ‘‘why vegan?’’ His impact on the vegan community has been grand, and he continues to produce content created to continue the community's growth.

Let's go back to May 2014. This is when the first kind of main thing triggered in my head about veganism. I came across this story basically. It was about this truck full of chickens on the way to the slaughterhouse. It crashed on the motorway. It was in BBC News. I was reading about it and the journalist was saying that, I think it was like fifteen hundred of these animals, had died on impact of the crash. And there were hundreds more that were mutilated. They had broken wings, broken bones, they were dying on the side of the road. And even more so what disturbed me was, there were some running for freedom, running into nearby fields and even running into oncoming traffic.

It really disturbed me and shook me. And I remember thinking how horrible it must be for these animals. They must be suffering terribly and the ones that are alive must be so scared and so full of fear. But I realized that, well, actually in my fridge, just over there, there's some dead chickens. And the only reason they were in that truck is because I was paying for them to be there. And it was hypocritical of me to feel sorry for these animals when I was the one that sentenced them to that situation. If anything, the ones that had died in impact had a more pleasant death than the ones that would make it to the slaughterhouse because their death would've been instantaneous. But the ones that have been taken to the slaughterhouse had to fear as they've been hung upside down and dragged with the electric water before having their throats cut.

So I went vegetarian after that because… I couldn't sit comfortably with myself knowing that the animals that I ate had emotions like fear and pain and suffering. And it was interesting because it was the first time that I actually recognized that these animals did suffer. It's funny because it seems so obvious that, of course these animals are alive, they suffer, but we never think about it. I acknowledged very easily that dogs and cats felt pain and wanted to live and had a preference to live. But the animals on my plate, for some reason, I didn't think they had those same abilities or those same ones. So it forced me to reevaluate how I view the animals that I would normally see on my plate. I realized actually, these animals are just the same as me or the animals that I love and they want to live, and because they want to live, how do I justify taking their life? There was no justification because there isn't one. So that was what made me go veggie. And then my partner, this is about eight months later, she says we should watch Earthlings. I said to her no, I'm not going to watch that. I mean, I knew a little bit what it was about. I'm like, there's no way I'm going to watch that. I'm a vegetarian. Animals don't die for me. Right? That thought that many of us have had as vegetarians. There's no need for me to watch Earthlings. I even said veganism is extreme. I said that myself.

One day she put it on. I thought, okay, let's just watch it. So I watched it and it was after that I was like, oh, this is serious. This is far bigger than just meat. In fact, it's far bigger than just the animal products that we eat. This is everything. Clothing, cosmetics, animal testing, entertainment, the magnitude of it, it dawned on me in that moment. It’s so huge and so vast that simply being vegetarian didn't come close to being enough. So that was what triggered me then to look up the environment and the health and go vegan.

I was in secondary school in year eight, I don't know what that equals in the US. But I would've been about, I guess, twelve maybe. It was an English literature class, and I don't really remember why but for some reason the topic of vegetarianism came up, and we had a vegetarian. And I remember I raised my hand in the air and the teacher was like ‘‘Yes, Edward.’’ And I went, all vegetarians are weak, pale and skinny. And I remember this vegetarian girl in my class was so angry at me. She was furious at me. But in my head, I didn't understand why she'd be angry because I thought I was just stating the truth. It was kind of really ironic because I was pale, weak and skinny myself.

The irony was totally lost to me, but I'm saying that vegetarians are pale, weak and skinny. I ate meat and I was also pale, weak and skinny. It was kind of funny, but I didn't understand why she was angry at me. And I think that's what kind of thought went through my head. ‘‘Well, am I not just stating facts?’’

Now see vegetarianism, the only time it was ever brought up in my family was when it was being mocked and when it was being judged. And for whatever reason, my family wasn't very tolerant to the concept of vegetarians. It was a joke, and I think that societal conditioning had been so installed in my head that it was just an automatic reaction for me to say that that's what vegetarians were like. I didn't even register whether it was a good thing to say or a bad thing to say, I just blurted it out because that's what I've been told.

Her being angry at me caused this reaction which made me think, well actually, why is she angry at me? And I looked at her and I thought, well, she's not pale. And she's certainly stronger than I am. So maybe there's something about this vegetarianism. But obviously I went home and continued to eat animal products without ever questioning it. But I think that was a little bit of the moment. And then I came to university, so now I'm eighteen, and I actually became friends with a lot of vegetarians and they would obviously make a point of being vegetarian. And by that, I mean, when we ordered food, it was always vegetarian. They never cheated on it or anything like that. And I think being around those people influenced me a lot and kind of taught me a lot about being vegetarian and what it was. Now, I didn't know a single vegan. And when I went vegan with my partner, we had never met a vegan in our life. To be honest, I was a bit of a reluctant vegan. I was like, I'm doing it for the animals, but I don't enjoy it. It's like, I want to eat those animal products. And that's kind of how it was at the beginning. I really missed it, and I missed eating things like Halloumi and getting Domino's pizza and stuff.

I think what we often portray ourselves is going vegan and then that's it, we're straight in there. But, it's not quite as true as that. For me, when I first went vegan, I did miss those products. I mean, there was no denying that. And I did crave them and I did want them. And that kind of evolution of my veganism is quite apparent to see that it took me several months before I really felt comfortable with it and I fully understood it. And I thought actually, you know what, now I get it. Now I feel it. And this is something that I'm going to do for life.

Because when I first went vegan, I'd said stuff like one day I'll have a burger again. Or I'll have a fried egg or whatever it was that would keep me going at that time. I'll have Halloumi again.

It was kind of like a way of making myself feel better about it because I was really scared that I'm never going to eat those things again. People are going to judge me. I've never met a vegan before. I'm going to go into uni and everyone's going to be like, what are you thinking? So my little get out of jail clause was one day I'll eat Halloumi again or whatever it was. And that kind of stuck with me for the first eight weeks or so. And then I felt, no, now I get it. This is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it. I'm never going to go back. It all clicked into place kind of rather suddenly. A little bit off topic [into what you asked], but I can see in my head this progression of how I am today. And it really just feels like these stages of my life.

And I don't know if maybe you feel the same or if anyone [who's listening] feels the same. But I look back on who I was before I was vegan and I just don't recognize myself. And I think who was this person that enjoyed these things and who was this person who loved bacon, and loved chicken flesh, and loved all these things. I don't know who that person was. It doesn't feel like it was ever me. It feels like a different person and those memories have somehow got installed in my head by mistake. It's a funny thing, but I don't know, to see that progression makes me really pleased because I know that it is a journey and the beauty of veganism, the journey never ends. And I know where I'm going to be next year. I'm going to look back on who I am now and go, who was I back then? This is a different person to the person I am now.

And that's the beauty of it, it's such a journey. And then we meet more people on that journey. We meet more activists, we meet more vegans. The community grows. It gets easier and more accessible to society, and it's a beautiful thing. We're living in a very exciting time. And there's such a massive change, a radical change happening, particularly where I am in the UK and [where you guys are] in the US. There's such a fundamental shift going on that I cannot wait to see where we are in five years’ time, and to see this progression continue.

Chapter 3

DR. MICHAEL KLAPER

Michael Klaper, MD. graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and has been a practicing physician for over forty years. Dr. Klaper’s main goal is to help his clients reach their optimum health and wellness, and to do so through vegan, whole food plant-based eating. He witnessed firsthand within himself, and then with his patients, the positive effects that veganism has on the body and disease reversal. This is what guides him in his practice today, and what drives him to utilize plant-based clinical nutrition. In addition to being a physician, Dr. Klaper is an educator, author, and a speaker. He travels to medical schools to speak on the importance diet plays to overall health and wellness, and to promote plant-based nutrition to medical professionals. His Master Class Moving Medicine Forward is another way he teaches on the benefits of plant-based eating. He can also be seen in the documentaries What the Health, Cowspiracy, and Eat This!

Well, I'm a classically trained Western physician. I graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine back in the early '70s. For the first ten years of my medical career, I practiced regular blood and guts medicine in emergency rooms, operating rooms, and urgent care clinics. But nine years into my practice, I had my plant-based epiphany for a number of reasons. I adopted a whole food plant-based diet myself. Within twelve weeks, a twenty-pound spare tire of fat melted off my gut. My high blood pressure went to normal. My high cholesterol went to normal. I felt new waking up in a nice lean body every day. At that point I had left general practice, after a few years, from frustration of not being able to help my patients. At that point, I knew I wanted to go back to general practice and help my patients undergo the same wonderful benefits I had.

So I did that. I was a resident in anesthesiology. I went back to general practice, and for the past thirty-five years now I've been using plantbased nutrition, vegan nutrition, as the foundation of my medical practice. And my patients who follow a whole food, plant-based diet experienced the same wonderful changes now that I've experienced and it's really a remarkable thing to see. Within days of someone who walks in my office, obese and diabetic and hypertensive and clogged up and inflamed, within days of starting to run a food stream full of colorful salads and hardy vegetable soups and big plates of steamed, green, leafy vegetables, and tasty curries, and satisfying chilies based on beans not beef. It's remarkable what happens.

The transformation is just stunning. Within days, obesity starts to melt away. The waistline starts to get smaller. Their arteries relax and open up. The high blood pressures come down. The inflammation subsides. The sore joints get better. The insulin receptors clear out. Type two diabetes goes away. You can stop these people's insulin, and so many other things. Often the psoriasis clears up in the skin. Acne gets better. Asthmatic lungs stop wheezing when you stop the dairy protein, and migraine headaches get better. It's remarkable. They transform into these leaner, healthier people that don't need a bunch of pills and potions and procedures. And as a result, I'm the happiest doctor I know. My patients get healthy.

When I show pictures to the medical students of the before and after pictures of these ill, obese patients who transform into these lean disease-free patients, I ask the students, what more could you want from your patients? Why are you going into medicine? What greater gift could you help them achieve, help them earn than a healthy body with normal blood pressure and normal blood sugars that don't need the services of people like me. This has been the focus of my medical career for the past thirty-five years. But [as you're nice enough to imply...sorry, I'm rambling on here a bit] we know the power of plantbased nutrition. But, my noble profession totally ignores it.

We go through medical school and we practice medicine daily in the hospitals and clinics. What our patients are eating has no effect on these diseases. And, we ignore them immediately. I say pharmacosclerosis is set into my colleagues' brains, that drugs and surgery are the only treatment. And so immediately, to the operating room, get out the prescription pad when the truth is, doctor, it's the food your patients are eating. There's this gaping hole in medical education where we just blow past the effects of the patient's daily diet, especially the standard American diet version of the daily diet. What it really does to the body. And so I've been trying to close that hole. With your help and others, I've been going around to medical schools and giving students the lecture I wish someone had given me when I was a firstyear med student.