The Sparitarian lifestyle can have a more positive impact on the environment, the animal kingdom, and personal health than the Vegan lifestyle!

 

WHAT???

 

A vegan lifestyle can be good for the environment, can lessen the impact on the animal kingdom, and can result in better personal health!  However, it is TOUGH to be a Vegan!

 

According to various surveys, the total number of vegetarians and vegans is estimated to be around 8% of the total world population.  In the United States, the estimates range from 5-7% for Vegetarians and 3-5% saying they are Vegans.  Given all of the benefits, why is the number so low?

Because is it hard to follow a 100% plant-based lifestyle.

 

People are hesitant to adopt or stay with the 100% plant-based lifestyle for various reasons, including:

• Concerns about getting enough protein

• Worried that it may not be completely healthy, i.e. need to supplement with B12

• A fear that they will miss the taste of some of their favorite foods and meals

• A feeling that buying all plant-based foods and items will be more costly

• A belief that it will be more difficult to consistently find plant-based meals, especially when traveling

• Not sure they will have the drive or will to keep it up

 

But what if we could convince people to become a 70%, 80%, or 90% Vegan?  Or in other words, a Sparitarian - a person and lifestyle with heart, that adheres to a plant-based diet that incorporates meat and dairy sparingly.

 

REALLY???

 

Yes, really!!  Choosing to be a Sparitarian sidesteps most, if not all, of the concerns listed above.

 

“Okay, I will give you that”, some will say, “but how can a Sparitarian lifestyle have a more significant positive impact on the environment, the animal kingdom, and personal health than the Vegan lifestyle?”

 

LARGER NUMBERS!

 

Following a Sparitarian lifestyle is easier!  It is still a focused lifestyle with a plant-based foundation, but because it provides for flexibility, more people can be confident in their ability to follow the Sparitarian lifestyle.

 

Assuming a Sparitarian follows a plant-based diet 80% of the time, then it would take 1.25 Sparitarians to equal 1 Vegan (1/.8 = 1.25).  Now let’s conjecture that given the less restrictive lifestyle, you can get 5 people to become Sparitarians for every person that will agree to be a Vegan.  That means that for every new Vegan you could recruit 4 times the number to the Sparitarian lifestyle!!

 

Just like a person following a Vegan lifestyle is good, having greater numbers of people following a mostly plant-based lifestyle, a Sparitarian lifestyle, can be better.

 

And it may be possible to have even better multipliers than 5 times.  You could get 10 or maybe even 15 people to become Sparitarians for every 1 that would commit to being Vegan.

 

THAT IS HUGE!!

 

With a 10 times multiplier you could get 8 Sparitarians for every 1 Vegan, and with a 15 times that grows to 12!  That means that the same effort to recruit 100,000 Vegans could result in 1.2 million Sparitarians!

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And that is why the Sparitarian lifestyle can have a more positive impact – there can be more of them!

 

For example, one study states that for every new Vegan lifestyle, 200 fewer animals are consumed.  This means that 800 fewer animals would be consumed based on the equivalent 4 Sparitarians (assuming a 5x multiplier).

 

According to a study published in PNAS: “Transitioning toward more plant-based diets that are in line with standard dietary guidelines could reduce global mortality by 6–10% and food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 29–70% compared with a reference scenario in 2050.” 

(https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2016/03/16/1523119113.full.pdf)

 

These results are not from a complete shift to a vegan diet, but from a shift from meat-based to plant-based consumptions.  The study indicates that “The diets investigated in these studies include diets with a prorata reduction in animal products (ruminant meat, total meat, dairy), specific dietary patterns that include reduced or no meat (such as Mediterranean, “pescatarian,” and vegetarian

diets), and diets based on recommendations about healthy eating.”

 

So the case for the Sparitarian, being a mostly plant-based lifestyle, is that a larger percentage of the world population can be encouraged to become Sparitarians than would adopt a 100% Vegan lifestyle and thus the Sparitarians can have a more significant positive impact on the environment, on overall health, and on the animal kingdom!

 

ARE YOU CONVINCED?