Natalie Bowkett

Can you tell us about your­self?

I work as a struc­tu­ral en­gi­neer, it’s a de­mand­ing job but very re­ward­ing. To bal­ance my work pres­sures I love to keep fit – touch rug­by and run­n­ing be­ing my main out­lets. I love to ex­pe­ri­ence new things all the time, whether it’s trav­elling to new coun­tries, meet­ing new peo­ple, find­ing cool new bars or ex­per­i­ment­ing with new foods! I have a pas­sion for peo­ple, an­i­mals and the won­der­ful plan­et we all share. My friends mean ev­ery­thing to me and are the fam­i­ly I choose. My friends will al­so tell you I am a par­ty girl at heart and I have been known to dance on ta­bles in bars till the wee hours of the morn­ing!

How and why did you go ve­g­an?

I be­came ve­g­an 3 years ago af­ter be­com­ing in­volved in some an­i­mal char­i­ties. I had been veg­e­tarian for 13 years but had nev­er made the con­nec­tion be­tween milk and eg­gs and an­i­mal cru­el­ty. Another ve­g­an very gent­ly and ra­tio­n­al­ly point­ed this out to me and I was shocked. I re­alised I had sub­con­s­cious­ly been de­lud­ing my­self for so long and want­ed to make the switch. My friend Gar­ry al­so want­ed to be­come ve­g­an so we made a pact. The rest is his­to­ry! It was the best de­ci­sion I have ev­er made and the most life chang­ing one in so many pos­i­tive ways!

Did you en­­coun­ter any dif­­fi­cul­ties? If so what were they and how have you dealt with them?

The on­ly dif­fi­cul­ties I re­al­ly faced were from other peo­ple’s mis­guid­ed and naive com­ments. Ac­tu­al­ly switch­ing to a ve­g­an di­et was so much easi­er than I ev­er had ex­pect­ed. Ini­tial­ly it took a lit­tle bit of ex­tra ef­fort and thought but now it’s just se­cond na­ture. I used to get very an­gry and de­fen­sive about other peo­ples com­ments but now I just let it go, it serves no pur­pose. I re­alise it’s not their fault as they have been brain­washed for so long by the meat and dairy in­dus­tries. I ac­tu­al­ly feel very priv­i­leged to have been made aware of the many ben­e­fits of be­ing ve­g­an and feel like th­ese peo­ple are miss­ing out!

How have your fam­i­­ly and friends re­ac­t­ed to your ve­g­an­ism?

Ini­tial­ly they were a bit shocked. Ve­g­an­ism isn’t as main­stream and ac­cept­ed as veg­e­tarian­ism. A lot of peo­ple don’t even know what it is or have er­ro­neous ideas about what it en­tails. There are a lot of neg­a­tive mis­con­cep­tions about a ve­g­an lifestyle too (large­ly pro­p­a­gat­ed by the meat and dairy in­dus­tries), so it’s un­der­s­tand­able. But with time they have all come to ac­cept my de­ci­sion and some have even made changes in their own lifestyle as a re­sult.

Is there any­one who has par­tic­u­lar­­ly in­­spired or helped you? Have you in­flu­enced any­one else to go ve­g­an?

There are many won­der­ful ve­g­ans and peo­ple in the an­i­mal rights move­ment world wide who are so in­spi­ra­tio­n­al! Phil Wollen is prob­a­b­ly my main one! He is a ve­g­an and phi­lan­thropist who tire­less­ly runs and funds sev­er­al hun­dred an­i­mal, en­vi­ron­men­tal and hu­mani­tarian char­i­ties world wide. He ex­ists on about four hours sleep a night but is al­ways pos­i­tive, en­er­get­ic and fo­cused! Above all he is a gen­tle, beau­ti­ful soul! Another amaz­ing lady is Ruth Hei­drich. She is a re­cov­ered can­cer pa­tient, a raw food ve­g­an, in her late six­ties and runs marathons, ul­tra marathons and triathlons. She is a ve­g­an su­per­wo­m­an!

I have in­flu­enced many peo­ple to be­come aware of what they are eat­ing and some have be­come meat re­duc­ers, cut dairy or made other changes to their lifestyle. But this has come not from preach­ing but lead­ing by ex­am­ple. They see how hap­py and healthy I am and they all want a piece of it!!! And yes I have in­flu­enced a cou­ple of peo­ple to go ve­g­an and it’s a won­der­ful feel­ing! It’s very exc­it­ing help­ing them along their ve­g­an path!

How do you feel switch­ing to ve­g­an­ism has im­­pac­t­ed your health?

In so many pos­i­tive ways! I have more en­er­gy then I ev­er had be­fore. I am bright and alert and my body feels clean­er and pur­er. And whilst this is large­ly due to my di­et there is al­so a strong psy­cho­log­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al as­pect to it. It puts you at so much more peace know­ing you can en­joy a meal with­out that sub­con­s­cious thought that another be­ing suf­fered for your food. Ve­g­an­ism is not just a di­et it’s a whole way of life!

Can you de­scribe some of your favou­rite meals, take­­away or home cooked?

Cur­rent­ly I am in love with Raw Le­mon Cheese­cake, made with al­mond cheese and agave syrup in­stead of con­ven­tio­n­al cheese and su­gar. It’s guilt free and to die for! There are so many won­der­ful ve­g­an foods! I love cur­ries, chil­lies, pas­tas, stir fries. My favou­rite is a stir fry veg­gies with to­fu and cashew nuts. Just fry onions, chil­li, gar­lic, gin­ger and any other spices in se­same oil or co­conut oil, chuck in your favou­rite veg, some to­fu, and some ta­mari (or soy sauce), then top with fried cashew and se­same seeds. Serve with rice or qui­noa. It’s quick, nu­tri­tious and very tas­ty! For eat­ing out food my favou­rite place in Lon­don is Vanil­la Black in Chancery Lane. Its amaz­ing! Its veg­e­tarian and ve­g­an. I al­so like Pek­ing Palace, Mil­dreds and Tib­bits.

Have you en­­coun­tered any ab­­surd stere­o­­types, com­­ments or neg­a­­tive at­ti­­tudes?

Ev­ery sin­gle day! It’s fun­ny as peo­ple’s mis­con­cep­tions are very strong but so of­ten not guid­ed by log­ic. For ex­am­ple peo­ple will tell me to my face how un­healthy my lifestyle is and yet are blind­ed by how ob­vi­ous­ly fit and healthy I am! My skin glows, my eyes spark­le, I am full of en­er­gy and pos­i­tiv­i­ty, and al­most nev­er get sick! Peo­ple al­so like to taunt you which is a way to mask their own dis­com­fort at the cru­el­ty in­volved in their lifestyle. And of course the old pro­tein myth! Look at ele­phants, the largest land mam­mal. They are pure­ly veg­e­tarian! And they have loads of strength and en­er­gy!

What do you think are the most ef­fec­­tive ways of help­ing ve­g­an­ism to be­­come more main­stream?

I think the best way to pro­mote ve­g­an­ism is live by ex­am­ple. Be a walk­ing ad­vert. To quote Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi, be the change you wish to see in the world! By open­ly pro­mot­ing to the peo­ple around you the won­der­ful ben­e­fits of a ve­g­an lifestyle (and there are just no neg­a­tives), peo­ple will even­tu­al­ly see what pos­i­tive and amaz­ing thing be­ing ve­g­an is, for the an­i­mals, for the plan­et and for you!