When I told my friend at work that I am going to be switching over to a vegan, gluten free diet this coming new year, he had some interesting things to say.
"No. You're going to turn all hipster. Soon you'll think you know everything there is to know about art. You're going to get all pale--you already are pale. You'll get even paler. You'll hate it. The food is so gross. Have you ever had rice pasta? I have. It's gross. And you'll... become all hipster."
Haha well, I don't know about all that. And, in regards to me turning all 'hipster,' I retorted with the fact that I did just purchase some clothing from Anthropologie. He threw his hands in the air and said it was all over. I do believe I giggled.
I digress. I guess I don't care much for all these stigmas that go along with being vegan. Truth is, people, I've been living a constant battle with my own body since before I was ten years old. I've had surgeries, steroid shots, joint aspirations, medicinal concoctions, bone scans, MRIs, weekly injections, monthly blood tests. My mouth erupts in canker sores from inflammation in my mucosal tissue. I suffer from headaches nearly every day, also due to inflammation. It's all connected to the auto-immune disease Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Which, I have. A blood test confirmed the genetic marker for this disease when I was about twelve years old.
Inflammation in the body is the perfect set-up for cancers and lymphomas. And not only that, but the drug I received for years growing up as a weekly injection--methotrexate--has now been directly linked to certain lymphomas in patients.
This isn't some fad, some dire proclamation of animal rights. (Although, I do deeply support that issue, but that's a topic for another day). This is just a kid who is tired of being in pain. Tired of not being able to be the normal healthy college student I'd like to be, and tired of not being in control of my own body.
I want to do what I can to stay away from proven inflammatory triggers (dairy, beef, gluten, preservatives, etc) to better my quality of life...and if it makes me some pale, art enthused hipster in the process, so be it.
Anyway, I'm already pale. So this is me taking control!
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