What made you become Vegan/Vegetarian?

[mummarichardson]

I have recently become vegetarian and very seriously considering vegan but being married to a whole hearted meat eater who took my recent diet change quite hard am really just working up to it. I became vegetarian after watching forks over knives, cowspiricy and vegucated on Netflix. Once I had seen all three I knew I could never consume a piece of meat again.

So I am intrigued why and when did you give up meat and all things animal and if anyone has any stories around getting their very much meat loving partner on board?

[Neolara]

I've been veggie for 26 years. Never very keen on meat as a child. I find the whole idea of eating dead flesh repellent. I don't want to feel responsible for killing animals. I do however eat dairy and so appreciate Im not following through my argument properly. If I thought about eggs and dairy too much, I would probably feel equally repulsed and want to become vegan. So I don't.

[sweetkitty]

Never liked the taste of meat so giving it up was easy been veggie for years. Discovered how cruel the dairy and egg industries are and decided to go vegan haven't found it that difficult either TBH.

[Wishiwasmoiradingle2017]

When I was a teenager I had an older friend who was an animal rights activist. . Made me watch awful videos. . Not eaten meat for 30 years. .
My friend keeps chickens and I eat eggs. Not sure I could be vegan unless Cadbury make vegan chocolate tbh though!

[Boooooom]

Hello fellow veggies!
Veggie here, have been for 25 years. My husband became veggie about 4 years ago and we are raising our kids as veggie.
(Your son is a vegetaaaaarian?! He looks so well?!? )
We eat mainly vegan at home and have our own chickens for eggs. Wish I didn't love cheese so much . I was vegan for 5 years but was working away a lot with catering and basically couldn't survive anymore on bread and pasta...
Watched a show on chicken farming when I was a kid, was then served chicken for dinner, joined the dots and have up eating meat.

[TunaStubbs]

26 years ago at school when I was 17 my parents separated, mum got ill, I failed my highers and was a general state.

A girl in the year below me, a strong willed ardent feminist, into bands I'd never heard of lat the time ike The Smiths, The Wonderstuff, The Pixies and The Throwing Muses took me under her wing and we became great friends for years after.

She was veggie and I just wanted to be like her.

I haven't eaten meat since I first met her.

[lastqueenofscotland]

I as a small child found the idea of eating flesh utter vile.

As I've got older I find the huge environmental cost and awful farming practices more and more abhorrent, fucks me right off when people are just like nah bacons nice though as an argument against it

[OrangeIsTheNewPop]

I've recently become vegsn after reading about dairy farming etc.

[SuffolkBumkin]

Went for a walk in the country as a 4yr old with family, saw lots of beautiful lambs jumping around with their mums. Then went home to a lamb dinner. I was hysterical. The whole family became vegetarian with me there and then. My children are vegetarian, though I'm now vegan. Watership down,animal farm and Bambi would have pushed me over the edge anyway.

[frogsgoladidahdidah]

I turned vegetarian aged 11. Moved to France when I was 16, and was served mainly pasta with cheese or a plate of boiled vegetables. Slowly started eating meat again and am now married to an absolute carnivore (our DD is like DH too). DS1, will only eat processed meat (pancetta, hams, mince).

Have been debating about going vegetarian recently for health reasons but could not go vegan as I just love cheese soooooo much.

[lljkk]

I read Diet for a Small Plant & it felt like the environmentally best thing to do.
I saw a freshly killed beautiful marlin & never wanted to eat fish again.

Shall I list the many strong reasons why I stopped being veggie after 17 yrs? No regrets! :)

[TheScottishPlay]

Vegetarian/dairy free for a few years now. I just don't like the idea of eating the flesh of living, feeling animals. The idea of drinking another animal's milk utterly repulses me.
I live in lush NE Scotland just 'over the field' from a dairy farm where the cows are free range and have calves at foot. They are, however, bred yearly to keep on producing milk which should be for their young not us. The male calves are processed for veal. They are beautiful animals which should not be for our use.
We get eggs from the genuine free rangers from the farm we live on too so they are as high welfare as can be. Each egg contains a membrane and that is a life which we have no right to take.
I use 'leaping bunny' make up, toiletries and cleaning items because no animal should suffer to benefit human vanity.
However, my son is alive and healthy due to drug advances produced by animal experiments. I am grateful for this. (I'm looking at our 2 beautiful rescue bunnies playing as I type this).
It saddens me when I read things like bacon is 'scrummy'. It's an indication of the arrogant and ignorant society we have become.

[catscurledupbythefire]

An abbatoir

[hhorvath]

I turned vegan last year after being vegetarian for 10 years. The longer you do it, the easier it is.

I have never understood people who insist that they'd miss bacon etc. because once you look at bacon and see it for what it is, the flesh of a murdered pig, why would you want it?

Ethical vegetarianism is easy. Veganism is harder because there are so many products that contain a bit of egg or dairy. And restaurants often cater poorly for it, so every time you're out socially you get asked "Why are you only having x?" and then the whole meal becomes a debate about veganism. Mostly with people saying "but we have molars to eat meat!" and other tedious shite.

[JanetheVegan]

Hi,

I'm new here and since I'm Vegan (as you can probably tell from my nickname) I thought it would be suitable to post my first message here.
My decision to become vegan was maturing for quite a while. At first I just stopped eating meat - it just didn't feel right to kill another being in order to eat it if I have so many possibilities to cook. And then I became aware of the conditions that animals are kept and bred in. I thought that if I want to do anything in that matter, I should just start with myself. And so I became vegan. Luckily, my husband share my views, so we converted ourselves together. We've been Vegan for at least 7 years and I couldn't imagine another lifestyle for us.

If anyone is interested in some cooking inspirations or tips on how to become vegan and stay healthy, I'd be happy to help!

[ExplodedCloud]

Rabbit stew was the final straw.

[busymummy0411]

I turned vegetarian at the age of 10 when my parents killed our chickens to eat as they had stopped laying. I had got too used to thinking of them as pets as they were so tame and couldn't bear the thought of eating any meat after that, once I had really thought about killing animals. Turned vegan after watching Earthlings. Similar story really. I miss milky lattes but don't want animals to suffer for my selfish desires. Rude Health milks froth up nicely so are a fairly good substitute.

My husband isn't vegetarian or vegan but eats vegan at home as I cook, he will sometimes choose a meat option when we eat out but cleans his teeth before I will kiss him afterwards! He knows that if he cooked meat at home the smell would bother me for days afterwards and doesn't care about it enough to want to upset me over it.

We have two children, the teen is mostly vegetarian (again eats vegan at home, will occasionally have a tuna panini at school), the other is vegan at home and vegetarian when out (she'll have ice cream when her grand mother buys her one!).

As a family we think of ourselves as 'plant-based' rather than vegan so the emphasis is on healthy eating.

[mummarichardson]

Really interesting replies thank you. I am for now going to feed myself vegan food and for ease stick to being vegetarian with others. Where it's so new being vegetarian everyone is still asking me every 5 minutes why and then they all like to have a good debate about how they don't understand why anyone could possibly want to be one and then lists all the reasons they won't ever be one even though I never once asked why or tried to impose my views on them. I have now just started saying 'do you honestly really care because I have found that once this conversation starts then it can go on for quite a while' or 'if you get a chance watch the following docs, they explain it far more eloquently then I ever could'.