How to Live a Healthy and Happy Vegan Lifestyle

   For the full story on the UK Vegan Society, Donald Watson, and the original and various definitions of "vegan" of that particular organization, see http://vegansociety.today

   The Vegan Society of the UK was featured in a documentary series called Open Door in 1976. The film is full of information most will be disappointed to learn was not new in the 70's - however the fact that it was packaged in this very formal manner may be part of the reason it was yet to become mainstream...

QUESTION: What is the history of veganism? Here, briefly, is the history of veganism starting with the coining of the word in 1944, but it must be added that the ideology that is veganism has been around for thousands of years. The earliest record of vegetarianism dates back to 500 BCE in India.  The ancient religion of Jainism promotes a meat-free diet. Jain vegetarianism is one of the most strict and rigorous religiously motivated diets on the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism and Buddhism also incorporate a vegetarian diet and originate in approximately 1500 BCE and the 5th century, respectively. In August 1944, a few members of the UK's Vegetarian Society asked that part of its newsletter be set aside for non-dairy vegetarianism. When the request was rejected, Donald Watson , secretary of the Leicester branch, set up a new quarterly newsletter in November 1944. He called it: * The Vegan News . The word 'vegan' was invented by Watson and Dorothy Morgan, who he would la

  Plant-based diets have been around for ages - literally. In ancient Greece, philosophers questioned the morality of eating meat. In the age of enlightenment, Leonardo Da Vinci introduced the concept of speciesism - the false assumption that humans are superior to animals.  Famed inventor Benjamin Franklin gave up meat in his youth, while others like Einstein, Edison, and Newton gave it up later in life. Nikola Tesla spoke out against animal cruelty and rarely ate meat. Social justice reformers also abstained from eating meat. Rosa Parks and Mohandas Gandhi were vegetarians. Susan B. Anthony supported the animal rights movement and the first American Vegetarian Society.  Watch the video to find out more!