Innovation isn't just about creating cutting-edge technology, it is also about reinventing the ways we interact with out environment, nature, and how we expand our empathy not only to other humans, but also the animals that share this planet with us. This includes the causes we stand for, the food and water that we consume, the clothes that we weat, and the product and brands that we support.

This is exactly what my wife and I have done: we've innovated our diet, swithing to partial of full vegeterianism. The reason why I'm saying partial, and not full vegeterianism will be explored futher down in the article.

War, animal slaughter, and the first emergence of my vegeterian conviction

Growing up in the war-torn Yugoslavia, I've experienced the second-hand hardships of everyday survival from my very early childhood. Second-hand in a sense that the true, firts-hand, hardships were experienced by my parents.

Just as I was three years old, one of the worlds largest inflation rates hit our country. 116,545,906,563,330 percent to be exact. To put it in real, humanly understandable numbers, if you had the equivalent of 1 million dollars in Yugoslavian dinars, by the end of the year, you would have the equivalent purchasing power of $0.0000008 dollars. Yes, that is going from being a milionare to having nothing.

In such economic situation, the shelves in the stores are empty, because neither you nor the store owner is able to collect enough capital to purchase goods. Life becomes chaotic.

My family was lucky enough to live in a small city, where returning to an agrecultural way of life was realistic and achivable. We used the small land that we have in the garden to plant potatos, tomatos, peppers, and cabbages. While the back of our garden was converted to a place where we can keep animals. Chickens, rabbits, and a couple of pigs. Our home become a mini farm, in the middle of a small city. This transformation was necessary and a godsent oportunity for our family. We were not starving.

We lived on this mini farm for the next ten years, from my 3rd year, to my early teenager years where the economic situation improved. I tresure this part of my life, as it thought me to have a deeper respect for nature and animals than I would if I would grow up in the city sheltered from the realities of where our food comes from. The experience connected me with the land, made me understand and appriciate the cycle of life. It cultivated a deep respect for the animals we shared our space with, and whom we ultimately had to kill in order to have enough food on the table.

One thing I was never trully able to except was the killing and the slaughtering part. One day I was chasing a chicken out in the garden, the next day, I was helping my mother to chop off its had, collect and drip out the blood, pull out his legs, and take off its skin. I did it, countlessly many times, I even liked the taste of the chicken and the rabbits that we slaughtered. I know what I was doing was wrong, but at the same time, I know that I had to do it.

No one was vegeterian back than, neither was such an option discussed.

My first encounter with vegeterianism though Lisa Simpson

My first meaningfull encounter with vegeterianism came from an unexpected source: through the character of Lisa Simpson from the animated series The Simpsons. In this episode, titled "Lisa the Vegeterian", Lisa makes the decision to stop eating meat after she forms a bond with a lamb at a petting zoo.

This episode strongly resonated with me in my early teenage years. I felt the exact same hard to describe feeling of knowing what you and your cultere are doing is not ethically sound, but at the same time knowing that I am also just a product of my culture and environment, and that changing or defending such a choice would be an uphill battle with my friends, family, and the wider comunity.

This was the seed where my vegeterian yourney begin. I become concious of my everyday choices, and fully aware that something had to die for me to have a dinner.

In real life, outside of television, I still didn't know anyone who was a vegeterian. I only know peole who ridiculed them, or who spread various missconceptions about lack of proper and adequate nutrition. Growing up in this culture, I too completly accepted the fact that vegeterianism is a choice for the fringe of the society who are sacrifing their personal health for the benefit of animals. I might also contributed and spread this information furhter. My sources? My grandma told me.

Ethics of factory farming

For many, the reality of how we kill animals to create products is a known fact, but they are too far detached from the actual place where we are processing animals. From my 15th birthday, this is same situation for me as well. I'm no longer part of the process, I'm just a consumer visiting a grocery shop, aware of what is going on, but emotially and ethically disconnected from the process.

However, the reality of factory farming is even worse than what we did to them on our small farms. There is no place for them to have a meaningfull life, to see the sun, or to smell the grass. They are born slaves, and they killed even before they realize what is going on. Animals are ofter confined to limited space, subjected to extreme pain and anxiety, fed above their limits, and then sloughtered even before they reach adalthood.

This detachment is a big problem. Most people would never be able to make the choice to directly hard to an animal, directly with their own hand. But, when I hold a sausage in my local grocery shop, it is hard to connect what needed to happen in order for me to have a conviniently packaged piece of meal.

The problem of factory farms was only put to the forefront of my thoughts in my early twenties. I joined a martial arts club, and this was probably the first time that I encountered a larger number of vegeterians in one place. They were not the pushy kind, I didn't even realize that they didn't eat meat until I started visiting multiday seminars with them, where we would use the evenings to go out and eat at local restaurants. As I bonded with them, I explored and probed them with mutliple questions about their diet choices, nutrition, and the reasons they choose this lifestyle. They had a profound impact on me which led me to introspect my personal choices in life.

A vegeterian diet, helps to reduce the demand for animal-based products, therefore reducing the support for such inhumane practices.

We are aware that the impact of an individual, or in our case, a married couple is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. However, if history has taught us anything, it's that change oftern begins with individual actions that inspire others to do the same. By following a vegeterian diet, we aim to set a positive example, inspiring our frieds, collegues, and anyone else who is open to hear our story.

The ripple effects of such decisions should not be underestimated. The more people who adopt a vegiterian diet, even partially, the greater the the reduction in the demand for animale-based products.

Mostly Vegeterians for more than a year

I was personally an on-and-off vegeterian in the last ten years. I had years where I didn't even touch any meat, and years where I was consuming meat on a regular basis. However, to achive consistency, it took a push from my wife to make a switch. We both switched at one point last May, practically overnight.

Some people describe the transition as a hard process with multiple compromises. However, for us it was effortless, we just stopped consuming meat, and never really looked back.

Now, there are multiple asterisks attached to the previous statements.

When it comes to diet, my wife is a complete vegeterian. I rarelly or never see her consume any meat based products. On the other side, I do still eat fish, and I do have a couple of occasions over the year that I consume meat, but these are the exceptions not the rule.

The reason for this is mostly pragmaticall. Our culture is far from being vegeterian friendly, and our choices are frequently limited in local stores. The combination of it beign easy to make, cheap to buy, and having good taste, is not always an existing choice that we can make. Lidl, is our best friend in this regard. It is one of the few stores that has regular supply of vegeterian food that fits all the above categories.

From Vegetarianism to Whole Foods Plant-Based Lifestyle

Despite having transitioned to a vegeterian diet, out journey towards optimal health is still very much a work in progress. Out current diet, while meat-free, heavily relies on processed foodsa, a variety of bakery goods, sweets and lots of sugar. While these items are vegeterian, many of them are high in saturad fats, sugars, preservatives and other substances that are known to have an adverse effect on health if consumed in excess.

One particular study has shaped our perspective. It is the then groundbraking study led by Ancel Keys involving seven countries, and around 13,000 middle aged man in Japan, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Finland, United States, and Yugoslavia.

Keys and his colegues discovered that individuals from Mediterranean regions, who adhered to a diet high in fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, and minimal consumption of red meat or processed foods, shoved significantly lowers levels of heart desise compared to their counterparts following a typical diet filled with meat and processed foods. This is a compeling study to me, particularly given the prevailing heart-releated health concerns within my family.

Further research indicates that a plant-based diet, expecially one low in processed foods and high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, can potentially delay the onset or decelarate the progression of Alzheimer's disease. This discovery holds significant implications for my wife, considering the presence of Alzheimer's occurance within her family.

Therefore, we are making a commited effort to not only adhere to a vegeterian diet but to gradually shift towards a more whole food, plant based diet. This dies emphesises the consumption of foods in their natural, least processed form, and minimizes the intake of oils, sugars, and artificial additives.

By taking this step, we aim to significantly lower our risk of heart disease and Alzheimer's, while benefiting from an overall improvement in our health and wellbeing. The connection between diet and health has never been clearer to us, and we're excited to continue on this path of nutritional enlightenment.

For those of you considering a shift in your diet toward a more vegetable based one: you need to know that the first step is the hardest after which the change becomes easier as you learn about the alternatives and as you learn how to deal with the social pressure about following a non-traditional diet.

Stay tuned,
Daniela and Igor