Living a healthy, joyful life is what we all desire. When our bodies are in balance and in optimal condition, our minds and spirits soar and our lives improve. Friendly viewers, on today’s Healthy Living, we’ll look at a wonderful way of life that offers these benefits and more: the cruelty-free lifestyle.

Following a cruelty-free or vegan lifestyle simply means living without inflicting pain and suffering on other beings, which extends to our food choices, as well as the cosmetics, personal care products, clothing and footwear we use. Cruelty-free living also means avoiding activities that exploit animals such as circuses and horse races. Jessica Bailey is founder and owner of the Cruelty Free Shop in Sydney, Australia, a 100% vegan business, meaning that all its products are animal-free.

The Cruelty Free Shop is a business that I started up about seven years ago. Initially, I started up to promote products that haven’t been tested on animals and make them more accessible. I spent a lot of time going around shops with my little preferred products list from Choose Cruelty Free. I am trying to find all the right brands and do the right thing by not buying products that have been tested on animals. So I figure that other people must have the same problem and decided that I wanted to make it easier.

Over the years the shop’s expanded. As I became vegan the shop became vegan. And I introduced some vegan food into the range about three, four years ago. And that obviously was popular because it took off and vegan food is now about 80% of my business. And the shop’s gone through, since I started working on it full-time about three years ago, a really huge growth path, which is fantastic. And hopefully that means because there are more vegans around.

Why is it important to refrain from animal-based products? Just like humans, animals are intelligent, sensitive beings, with countless studies showing that they have deep emotions and complex thoughts. From tiny ants to huge, awe-inspiring whales, our fascinating co-inhabitants demonstrate exceptional cognitive and problem-solving skills, with many living in tightly knit families and having loving relations with their kin and other members of their species.

These incredible beings are our brothers and sisters, who co-exist with us on this magnificent planet and have specific duties and roles in helping sustain and balance our shared ecosphere. Thus, not consuming animal products, the cornerstone of the vegan lifestyle, is our duty and responsibility.

Everyone should be vegan. There’s just no option unless you are prepared to acknowledge that you personally are responsible for animals being hideously tortured. Then you can’t not be vegan.

I got involved with Animal Liberation New South Wales and started doing some campaigning with them, and once you start learning more about animal rights, you really can’t not be vegan. As soon as you start reading about the dairy industry and the egg production industry, there’s no choice, you can’t go back.

Livestock raising is not only cruel and inhumane, it also produces the bulk of human-induced global greenhouse gas emissions and is the number one source of the highly dangerous greenhouse gas methane. Factory farms also utterly destroy the water and land. It has been estimated that globally, factory farmed animals produce more waste in one day (16.6 billion tons) than the entire human population of the US produces in 3.5 years.

According to the US-based conservation group the Natural Resource Defense Council, animal waste contains disease-causing pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli and Cryptosporidium, which can be 10 to 100 times more concentrated than in human waste. Animal manure pollutes the groundwater, rivers and streams, causing water to become unfit to drink and spreading waterborne diseases. Following a diet free of animal products also brings a host of health benefits.

By eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, one becomes more energized, uplifted and mentally alert. Furthermore, living a vegan lifestyle helps prevent a host of chronic ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and strokes. It has been estimated that such conditions cost the US economy US$1 trillion a year in terms of treatment costs and lost productivity.

Only meat, dairy and eggs contain cholesterol, which leads to hardening of the arteries, the main cause of heart attacks. Cholesterol is not present in fruits, vegetables and grains. Saturated fats, found mainly in animal products, cause cancers of the prostrate, breast and colon. So-called “superfoods” such as goji berries, pomegranate and spirulina prevent various illnesses, are rich in essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and help flush toxins from the body, further contributing to good health.

The transition to a vegan lifestyle is easy, as nowadays many online resources are available that feature step by step guides to preparing nutritious, tasty vegan meals. You can also contact your local vegan society for support and advice. Jessica has these thoughts on eliminating dairy products from one’s diet.

For some people, at first they don’t know what they can eat and where they can get products replacing dairy. So one of the big things we do is dairy replacers like soy cream or soy cheese, and replacers for all the traditional dairy foods, which means that that transition is easier.

When Healthy Living returns, we’ll have more tips on following a cruelty-free lifestyle. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

If each person does one more thing for the animals in their lives then we’ve achieved something.

I wanted to do something that I believed could help make a difference. So I came up with the concept of The Cruelty Free Shop and made it into an online business.

I just get the most amazing emails and comments from people who said that I’ve helped them make the transition to veganism easier and that it’s made it easier for them to stay vegan, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve.

Welcome back to today’s Healthy Living, where we’re examining what it means to follow the noble, cruelty-free or vegan lifestyle, which involves eating, drinking, wearing and using only those products that do not involve the suffering or slaughter of sentient beings. Previously we looked at food choices and the reasons for following a vegan diet. Next we’ll examine clothing.

Cruelty is neither fashionable nor beautiful, and leather, silk, wool, fur and other materials of animal origin are the products of cruelty. Typically, you can determine the material an item is made of by looking at its label.

I think a lot of people are becoming more aware of how the things that they are doing affect the world and the environment, the animals, things like that. So, I mean we used to think that only vegans maybe would shop with us or at least seek us out, but I think a lot more people are just trying to make more conscious choices, and even people who are not necessarily vegan or vegetarian actually are looking for more leather alternatives because we even have things like faux fur.

What we’re really trying to do is show that you can shop cruelty-free, and there are alternatives for just about everything and you don’t have to wear animals to still be fashionable and stylish, have really cute things, and be trendy.

Leather is commonly found in jackets, wallets, belts, purses, hats, gloves, furniture and footwear. With shoes you can look under the tongue to see if terms like “manmade leather,” “all-manmade materials,” “pleather” or “synthetic” appear, meaning that no leather was used in their production. If the composition of an item is unclear, you can call, write or email the manufacturer to see if the product is vegan. Sometimes a company will have this information on its website.

Silk, made by killing silk worms, and wool, taken from sheep that are abused their entire lives and then sent to slaughter, are found in sweaters, scarves, ties, blouses, suits, blankets and other items. Watch out for pashmina, angora, cashmere, shearling, camel hair and mohair, all of which are animal-derived products. Fur is often used for coats and other clothing and accessories. Wonderful alternative materials to choose instead include rayon, tencel, polyester fleece, acrylic, satin and cotton.

Many beauty and personal care products on the market have been tested on animals or contain animal-derived ingredients. The fact is that animals are vastly different from humans with respect to anatomy, physiology, psychology, biochemistry and metabolism, so experiments conducted on animals are not valid for humans.

The European Union has already enacted a ban on animal testing of cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients and even more stringent rules come into effect in 2013 that will end the only exception now permitted.

Unlike foods and fashions, where reading the label often informs one immediately if a product is vegan, due to the varied sourcing of materials and numerous ingredients used in cosmetics, merely reading the label on a cosmetic item often does not clarify whether it is animal-free. It is best to check with the manufacturer to determine if their products have been tested on animals or have animal-derived ingredients.

Better yet, choose to purchase from companies that sell exclusively cruelty-free beauty supplies and cosmetics. Many animal welfare organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals publish lists of compassionate companies that sell everything from baby care items to hair care products.

My feeling is that there are more. There are more vegan businesses popping up, which is a good sign. My sales are going up. And I can’t say for sure because there’s no way of finding out the figures, but I feel that there are more vegans. And I think that’s just a growing awareness in the community of animal rights issues.

I am always seeing major supermarkets phasing out caged eggs, and the public outcries when factory farming places are exposed. So, I think that’s just a growing awareness in the community of animal rights issues, and as people progress along their journey, at some point some of them get to the point where they just can’t support (cruelty) anymore and become vegans. So, maybe more and more people are getting to that point now.

What’s the best decision you can make to have a healthy, loving life? Be cruelty-free! Living a cruelty-free life is fun and rewarding. Think of how many animals you save each time you purchase a cruelty-free item. Smile at yourself in the mirror when you wake up in the morning knowing that the cream you put on your face the night before was cruelty-free. Wrap yourself in a light, warm synthetic fiber scarf and remind yourself that somewhere a sheep is grazing happily in its own wool coat as a result of your choice to avoid wearing wool.

In closing, we’d like to thank Jennifer Bailey and others like her who provide vegans with many wonderful, compassionate products. May Heaven bless all those companies that produce cruelty free items that help keep us healthy, preserve animals’ lives and make our world a greener place.

For more details on the Cruelty Free Shop, please visit CrueltyFreeShop.com.au

Thank you, wise viewers, for joining us on today’s Healthy Living. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News. May humans and animals live together in harmony and peace.

Trisha McCagh is an extraordinary animal telepathic communicator, teacher and author from Australia who has the ability to speak to all different types of species, from insects to sea life.

When I’ve connected with the whales and asked them why, they’re beaching, they’re trying to show us what we’re doing to our planet. So what we’re doing to them is, in effect, what we are doing to us. In our destroying their environment, we’re also destroying ours.

Join us for “Through the Eyes of the Pure: Trisha McCagh, Animal Telepathic Communicator” this Thursday and Friday, February 25 and 26 on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants.