Stand-Up Comic Adam Sank Goes Vegan for the Animals

Comedian/radio host Adam Sank appeared in a new video for animal-rights organization Their Turn to explain his recent transition to veganism. “About three years ago, I was making arroz con pollo, chicken and rice, which is one of my favorite dishes that my ex-boyfriend’s Cuban grandmother taught me how to make from scratch,” Sank explained. “You cook the whole chicken in the pot, and when it’s boiling hot, you put on rubber gloves, and you pull out all the bones … I’m doing this, and I just got so sickened by the process … I [realized that] I am disemboweling this animal.” After this incident, and with insight he gained from Gillian Flynn’s novel Sharp Objects (which details the mistreatment of hogs on farms), Sank decided to go vegetarian. In August, Sank watched documentary What the Health and realized the connection between consuming animal products and disease. “It was the final push over the cliff from vegetarianism to veganism,” Sank revealed, “because for the first time, not only did I hear the ethical arguments but I heard the health arguments loud and clear.” Sank—who was diagnosed with HIV in 2004—learned from his friends that alternatives to animal products exist and says his friends he are thriving on plant-based diets. “I am putting poison into my body by eating eggs, by eating dairy, by eating all of these animal products that we have been told since birth were really healthy and essential for us by this food industry that has no interest in health, that is just there to make money.” Sank ended the clip by preparing a vegan Thai meal for a friend, a method of activism he believes is effective in showing people that living without animal products is not difficult.