- I'd have ate squirrel and, (laughs)
turtle and (laughs) Jesus,
I would eat possum,
oh Lord don't judge me, okay?
Hey y'all, I'm Tabitha Brown,
I am an actress,
and I'm a vegan food influencer.
I've been vegan for two and a half years.
On a personal note,
veganism means a healthier life,
a happier life,
a cruelty-free life.
I used to think of veganism,
when I would hear about it I was like,
oh people who do that,
honest to God truth, I thought only white people did it,
I was like, I had never met another black vegan,
when I was younger I would hear about it and be like.
I think as I got a little bit older,
I used to think, oh it's for hardcore animal activists.
As I got more well-traveled,
I started thinking,
oh veganism, that's for the cool kids.
But then I also would think it's kinda judgy.
Sometime a little bit afraid of it to be honest.
So, how did I eat growing up?
Well, I'm originally from Eden, North Carolina.
I'm a small town, country girl,
and, babe, i ate everything.
When I think about what I ate with my grandad,
and my great grandad,
I'd be like, Lord how in the world am I still here?
So, my dad instilled in me and my sister
that you eat what is there, okay?
'Cause this is what we have.
So, honey, I ate whatever was in front of me.
So, child, we ate pork, beef, whatever,
but I was always very open with food,
I would try anything.
I'd have ate squirrel and, (laughs)
turtle and, (laughs) Jesus,
I would eat possum,
and, oh Lord, don't judge me, okay?
But that's how I grew up
'cause my great grandaddy would hunt,
and then I would go to his house, and you know,
he would take me to farms and stuff,
and I would eat whatever.
That's how I grew up.
Comfort food to me is whatever feels good going in,
and while it's in, it still feels good,
like you still feel full,
and you have a good feeling about yourself.
Macaroni and cheese is a good comfort food.
Favorite non-vegan meals, baby, seafood,
a good old crab leg,
oh a lobster tail.
Come on shrimp, dip it in the butter,
dip it in the butter.
Oh and garlic, (laughs)
that's my guilty pleasure,
that good old seafood, just (chewing).
That's how I have to eat it now.
But I found lobster mushrooms,
and, baby, seasoned right,
oh they do the trick.
What made me decide to go vegan was,
I was very sick for a year and seven months,
I had this resting headache.
I had woke up one morning
with this pain in the back of my neck.
The pain in the back of my neck
was normal to me,
because I had a car accident when I was in high school.
I would have sometime,
what they call a crook in your neck,
when you can't move, you know,
your neck's stuck to one side.
I would have that so often.
But this particular morning
it was in the back of my neck,
and pain moved up into the back of my head,
and it rested there for one year and seven months.
That headache became almost debilitating on some days,
where I could not walk well,
my vision would become blurred,
I just started having chronic pain throughout my body,
all my lady parts started to shut down.
It was just a very bizarre time,
and I had chronic fatigue.
I would lay in my bed all day long,
after I would get up enough strength
to take my kids to school in the morning,
and I would come back home and I would lay back down
until it was time to pick 'em up.
I was just exhausted all the time.
I was sad, and I was depressed,
and I had major panic attacks, and anxiety.
As the days went on,
I just felt like I was getting sicker and sicker.
I would go to the doctors and tell them my symptoms,
they could not figure it out.
I felt like I was dying.
I gotta make sure I look like I'm feeling all right,
'cause I don't want my kids and my husband aware of it.
So I would still post pictures,
and try to do videos,
and even maybe show up to a short film,
or try to go and do a little work or something
if I could,
and be, literally, in so much pain
that it was just very hard.
A year and seven months of that,
and my daughter came home from school one day,
and she said, mum we saw this documentary at school,
I think you should watch it.
And it was "What The Health",
and my husband and I,
we all sat down together, we watched it,
and I was like, oh wow, this is very interesting.
What got me,
is that when they were talking about diseases
and our hereditaries,
they would eat the same thing, causing the same disease.
And for me, my mum died at 51,
and she had ALS,
and my dad is 68,
he's the oldest male to live in the family,
and a lot of my aunts and uncles and family members
died very young of heart attacks,
and strokes, and rare sicknesses.
To me, meat was the common denominator,
and I thought to myself,
well, I haven't tried that, right?
And they were talking about plant-based eating,
on "What The Health".
And so I told my husband,
well I've tried all the dummy drugs,
all the guinea pig drugs
that the doctors have given me
over this last year and a half,
and nothing has worked.
If I've tried all that stuff,
honey, I can at least try to do this vegan thing
for 30 days,
and see if it make me feel better.
And so we decided as a family,
to do a 30-day vegan challenge,
and on day 10 my headaches went away.
I remember I was walking through my kitchen
and I was like, my head ain't hurting.
I started feeling better from that day,
I started getting my energy back,
I started just feeling like myself again.
On day 29 I told my husband, I said,
I think this is my path,
I'm going vegan.
He looked at me and said,
and I think tomorrow Imma need a piece of chicken,
I was like (laughs).
It's been two and a half years,
I have never felt better in my life,
I'm so very thankful that I made that decision for myself,
and I never try to force it on anybody else.
I always tell people, whatever you decide,
whether you tryna go vegan,
or pescatarian, or you just tryna make better choices,
what is your why?
And if your why is true to you,
if it really means something to you,
you stick with it.
Some facts I would like everybody to know
about going vegan is,
it's not expensive.
I used to think that too,
but I'll tell you what is expensive,
the processed foods,
like fake foods, fake meats, and stuff like that,
that can get expensive.
But, if you are buying whole-food ingredients,
your mushrooms, your potatoes,
your rice, your beans, your carrots, your greens,
things like that, it's cheap.
Honey, you get a big bag of rice for two dollars,
okay, you get a big bag of potatoes for three.
Real plants, real fruits, real grains,
real seeds, real nuts, it's not expensive.
Another fact, it's gotta be a personal decision,
you make it for yourself,
whatever that reason is,
and don't force it on anyone else,
just let it be personal.
A lot of times, people don't do that,
and it kind of pulls people away from being vegan.
There has been a lot of judgment,
and we need to judge less, and love more.
After the 30 days of me going vegan,
I was so excited about it because I was feeling good,
and I understand that I had a different experience
than most people,
because I had been sick for so long,
and I finally found something that was working for me.
So, I never looked at it like a challenge,
I never looked at it like it was hard,
I looked at it like, oh my God,
this thing is saving my life.
So, I remember thinking of all my favorite non-vegan foods,
and thinking, oh, how can I make those things vegan?
And it became fun for me,
and I was excited to try new recipes,
and figure things out,
it was just discovering a new me.
I had this whole new joy,
and those things started happening
in the first couple months,
and it still happens now.
At two and half years, I still say I'm a new vegan,
two and a half years is like a toddler
who's just starting to get a personality,
I'm still discovering, honey, new mushrooms,
honey, new herbs and spices,
'cause I ain't a chef.
But, I do love to cook.
First couple months,
they were like an adventure.
I think if you are going to make a choice for yourself
to be vegan,
then make your choice,
but I always tell people, don't be hard on yourself,
make sure you know your why.
If your why is true to you,
it keeps you focused,
it keeps you going.
But if you happen to slip up,
don't beat yourself up over it, relax,
it's okay, honey, it's day by day.
I don't judge anybody else that say,
oh great, I messed around and ate a piece of chicken,
or, oh, I ate some real butter.
Honey, that's your business,
as long as you can admit it,
and be real with yourself,
and know that you had a moment,
but you back on track,
have your moment and get back on track.
I think the worst thing in the world
is for somebody to admit what they did,
and for you to attack 'em for doing it,
what good is that gonna do?
Help them come back over by encouraging them.
Do I think that being vegan
is a reasonable diet for everyone?
I don't know.
I know it worked for me, okay?
I know I have thousands of people who follow me,
who have transformed their lives.
I know I have hundreds,
if not thousands,
of success stories in my inbox
of people who were diabetic,
who are no longer diabetic after going vegan.
People who had high blood pressure,
who no longer have high blood pressure.
People who had all different types of ailments in their body
who no longer have those things
after they went vegan, or plant-based,
or whatever you wanna call it.
So, I know that it works,
is it for everybody?
Maybe not.
But does it work?
Absolutely.
I always tell people, listen to your body,
whatever feels right for you, you do that,
that's your business.
It feels right for me,
so I'll continue to do it for me.
That's all I can really say about that.
If you're interested in a plant-based diet,
I say, try it for 30 days,
give it your all for 30 days,
and see how it works for you.
I took a 30-day challenge,
that changed my life,
it changed my health, and my wealth (laughs).
'Cause I didn't work for over a year,
it literally changed my entire life for the better,
and people who are completely against it,
I can't tell you nothing,
I can only say, don't judge a book by the cover.
If you're looking at a book,
and it looks crazy, the cover looks crazy,
honey, it might just be the wrong author,
honey, sometime you gotta become the author
of your own book.
And then try it out,
and see if the pages turn a little bit different.
But, don't judge,
you can be against it,
but just don't be judgmental.
And let us just all live and love,
in perfect harmony, together.
That's all I got,
I'm Tabitha Brown,
and I absolutely love you.
Thank you, thank you, for listening to my story.
Now, you go about your business,
honey, have the most amazing day,
but even if you can't have a good one,
don't you dare go messing up nobody else's.
Love y'all, bye.
(upbeat music)