YDV Presents: Stories of Vegan Evolution – Franklin Morris

By Franklin Morris, Guest Contributor

From the womb I have been part of America’s longest living community according to National Geographic, CNN, Good Morning America, Oprah, and BBC News. If you do a careful study on health, you will run into this group. This blue zone eats less meat than the average American population and emphasizes a healthy lifestyle.  Some people in this circle are vegetarian or vegan. When we eat together on Saturday, we typically don’t bring meat to the table although some of us will bring dairy products.

My mother became part of this community before I was born and raised my brother and me vegetarian. Until I went to community college, I brought my lunch bag with me to school. During those years, I probably ate from the cafeteria 3 or 4 times. It’s hard for me to relate to people who ate a typical school lunch on a regular basis. Once when I was in elementary school, my mother mistakenly used the wrong sauce for my spaghetti. I tasted one bite, and it was awful! I couldn’t force myself to eat it. Although I didn’t know it was meat sauce at the time, I knew my body couldn’t handle it. Don’t get me wrong, I indulged in guilty pleasures like Edy’s ice cream and Pizza Hut pizza, but my worldview growing up was definitely bent towards being health conscious.

When I was 19, I enrolled in a school that advocates a healthy lifestyle to combat disease through eight simple and free laws of health: nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, air, rest, and trust in God (NEWSTART). It even has a lifestyle center where people with chronic diseases live for 10 or 18 days. It address the root cause of their problem, which is lifestyle. This place is reminiscent of John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was a health spot that Henry Ford, Amelia Earhart, and Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln, visited. Dr. Kellogg himself was for some time too an early pioneer in America’s longest living community.

As I took nutrition classes and ate at my school’s vegan cafeteria, I was convicted that this was the diet I wanted to have for the rest of my life. It just made sense. Why would I want to have a higher risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes when I could just go veg? Also, according to ancient writings, I learned that man’s original diet was totally plant based. Not only does eating this vegan food help me physically, but it also helps clear my mind so I can communicate more effectively with God.

Six years later I still am vegan, and I’m loving it. As you can see from these recent pictures from my school’s vegan cafeteria below, there is so much variety for me to choose from. You can see photos on OpenSourceVegan.com’s Facebook page.

I am a believer in vegan food, and I want to share this healthy alternative with stanch meat eaters.