First and foremost, my name is Hannah Feinsilber. I am fifteen years old, and I intern at Verve Bowls. I go to a big picture school called Gibson Ek High School located in Issaquah, Washington, and part of going to this school is participating in going to an internship every Tuesday and Thursday each week. When I first heard about Verve Bowls, I was so thrilled to learn that their love and compassion for healthy, plant-based, and sustainable food was their main focus, a main focus of mine as well. In the blink of an eye, I landed an internship with Verve, and from then on, it has been a roller coaster I have never wanted to end.

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I have been vegan for about three years now, and am so happy I get to share my ideas and passions with Verve. I chose to go vegan in 2015 for the animals, environment, but most importantly, my health. Ever since I was five years old, I had eczema, which is a medical condition where skin in certain areas become very dry and irritated. I tried over twenty medications and none of them seemed to improve my skin for a long period of time. As I got older, the frustration I had towards this led me to do my own research on how I could possibly treat my own eczema. Long story short, studies showing that dairy was the number one reason to many skin problems caused me to experiment with excluding dairy from my diet for a small period of time. After a couple of days from excluding dairy, my skin had increasingly cleared up, and my eczema was almost completely gone. I was extremely thrilled that dairy could have been the problem all along, but I wanted to make sure that dairy was the real issue. After a couple days of not eating dairy, I decided to eat dairy again for one day, and that exact night I ate the dairy, most of my eczema came back again. Since that day, I have never eaten dairy again, and my skin has never been better.

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Fast forward to a couple months later, I started to dive into nutrition more, and started to research the benefits of becoming a vegetarian. I was always curious about nutrition and always thought I ate a healthy diet, but I wanted to find out if what I was eating was actually healthy or intuitive with my body. After studying the health benefits of becoming a vegetarian, as well as the animal cruelty and economical resources you could save, I decided to give it a try, since I was never that into meat anyways, and it never gave me long lasting energy. After a couple weeks of not eating meat, my energy levels increased, and my nails, hair, and skin improved drastically. I felt more energized, satisfied, and alive throughout the day, instead of feeling tired and sluggish as I was sometimes feeling before.

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Through eating this way, I also realized how cruel the animal industries were, and how abusive they are to innocent animals deserving of a free life. From watching documentaries and videos about slaughterhouses, I knew I was never going to eat meat again, and that I was going to stand up for the animals who didn't have a voice. Even though these videos were and still are very difficult to watch, I believe people need to know the truth. For example, every hour in the United States, 500,000 animals are killed just for their meat. I believe animals should be treated the same way humans or pets are treated, and not seen as food for human consumption. After a couple months of eating a diet consisting of no meat or dairy, I started researching the benefits of veganism. Being vegan meant I had to eliminate any animal products from my diet, so I would also be eliminating eggs in addition to the meat and dairy I was excluding. Through my own research from plant-based doctors and watching documentaries, I realized that a plant-based diet was the healthiest diet on the planet, and that this change to become vegan would not only improve my health, but also help the environment and save millions of animal’s lives.

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Ever since turning vegan in 2015, I have never turned back, and have never felt more a vibrant and alive. Veganism has not only made me into a healthier person, both mentally and physically, but has transformed me into a more compassionate person with a deeper connection to the world around me. I believe that a plant-based diet can turn the world around, as well as heal and re-energize people in a way that is truly remarkable. My suggestion to you is to just try transforming your diet to a more plant-based one. If that means eating one vegan meal a day, or going vegan one day out of the week, do what works for you, and you will quickly start to feel the benefits. For example, skip meat, eggs and cheese one day a week with your family, and it would be the equivalent of taking your car off the road for seven weeks or reducing everyone’s daily showers by four minutes. Also, just by going vegan for one year, it saves 401,500 gallons of water, 10,950 square feet of forest, 14,600 pounds of grain, 7,300 pounds of water, and 365 animal lives. You may not think you can make a big impact or difference, but every person can immensely contribute to improving the environment and to saving the lives of millions of animals slaughtered and tortured every minute. To conclude, with over millions of accessible, abundant, and delicious plant-based options all over the world, there is no excuse not to try the vegan lifestyle out. Veganism is cheap, easy, extremely tasty, and will make you feel alive, energetic, and satisfied, without restricting your body of the energy it needs.

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Eating more plant-based whole foods will also lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and multiple types of cancer compared to any other type of diet on the planet. It is not about valuing animals more highly than humans or replacing compassion for people with other beings, but rather expanding the protection from cruelty granted to people to embrace other animals. It is about trying to live as far as it is possible without causing harm to the planet or other living creatures. Veganism has changed my life, and I can’t help but wonder if it will do the same for you.