What would it take for you to become vegan?

[Strivetobe]

A genuine question after a conversation some friends and I were having. They said that they'd become vegan if the ready meals and prepackaged vegan meals were cheaper. It got me thinking, are there any conditions under which you would consider veganism and if so, what are they?

@Oliversmumsarmy yes you're right. My brother brought a vegan cheese once .it was awful. Smelt like dd1s nappy after she has held back for a few days. Dd1 has sn and because she holds back a lot it's bad. Very. Very. Bad.

Only one we eat is I think called Vita Life.

We get the sliced cheese that is ok but their Greek white cheese which I have only ever got at Planet Organic is absolutely fantastic.

I love cheese but cheese doesn’t love me.

No never because you have to take supplements to actually be healthy.
I don't think it's a healthy lifestyle to promote if you need supplements. As unless I'm mistaken you cannor get iodine, nor vitamin b12 from a vegan diet.
Yes you can get protein but to build the correct amino acids from plant foods sources, you are meant to require multiple at one time - think a mix of pulses etc,. The iron in say green vegetables is much harder for our bodies to get so easier to get anaemic which as I suffer regularly from anyway I don't need it to be any worse.
Any diet that requires supplements cannot truly be healthy surely?

No never because you have to take supplements to actually be healthy

I have been vegetarian for 30+ years, I had to cut out dairy because I found I was allergic to the stuff about 7/8 years ago.

I am not fond of eggs snd probably eat 3 per month.

I have never had a supplement.

I had my iron and vitamin levels checked a couple of years ago and I am fine.

Only times I have had to have supplements was when I ate meat and got anaemia quite regularly

But vegetarian is different to vegan even with minimal actual dairy or eggs you surely must get it from other products say bread with milk etc in? Or your food is fortified with said vitamins? Nut milks with extra vitamins added?

We eat veggie a few times a week, but there's no way I could go vegan. I could not manage without cheese, milk, eggs and honey. There's at least one of those in every meat-free meal we have. Plus it would cost money that I don't have and I'd end up cooking 2 different meals every day because my DC would not eat vegan. And we all hate avocado!

As I said cannotmakemymindup I have an allergy to dairy that means I cannot eat anything that contains dairy and also have an allergy to wheat so things like bread isn’t something I would eat.

Iodine is found in green vegetables like courgettes etc and strawberries. Vitamin b12 is added to soya milk.

So no you don’t have to take supplements to be healthy.

I came on to say nothing but actually if I was so rich I never had to budget for food shopping and had an imaginative cook to do all the work then I would happily be vegan

This for me... More range and cheaper, taste very similar to current foods also (If I wasn't rich... Which I'm not)

I think the reply of your friends, OP, goes to the heart of something I feel about this issue, which is that even if you are vegan for animal rights reasons you have to look further than simply products that don't contain milk or eggs. You have, for example, to buy organic food - and preferably food that is grown without the use of pesticides altogether, which may mean growing things yourself. With climate change a major ecological threat (to animals as part of wider ecosystems), you have to try to reduce packaging (i.e. go zero waste) and food miles, which problematises things like jackfruit.

I imagine most vegans are really aware of this, but some are not. My local vegan group has some posters who combine an evangelical purity in their attention to ingredients lists with a complete cluelessness about the wider environmental impact of, for example, buying highly packaged vegan readymeals that contain jackfruit.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that veganism is therefore pointless. I think we all need to try as far as possible to reduce meat and dairy consumption. I've personally swapped milk for oat milk recently, which reduces the amount of dairy our household consumes by about 95%. I'm just saying that the wider issues are huge and complicated and that rather than worrying about labels and consumption, we need to be really attentive to production.

This made me go vegan: www.landofhopeandglory.org

The ready meals are ridiculously expensive, as are a lot of the substitutions. But I'm experimenting with pulses/beans, and a lot of supermarkets now do their own alternatives which are much nicer.

I cook a meal every night from scratch, takes around 30 minutes, and I make enough to take for lunch the next day too.

Cheese was hard for me, I loved it, so I've just stopped eating it, the replacements are awful and all taste the same!

It's far more the ethical side than dietary, but I also have IBD which is currently in remission (yay!). And I've felt a million times less tired since stopping milk and eggs.

As PP have said though, it goes further than what you eat, which can be a challenge, but worth it in my mind.

I am a believer though in each to their own, so I don't judge other peoples choices (As long as they don't judge mine!)

The only circumstances in which I'd become vegan is if eggs and cheese were no longer available.

I don't eat much meat, and often eat vegan meals, but it's utterly unthinkable for me not to eat eggs or cheese ever, they are some of my favourite foods, in fact eggs are number one. And the thought of not eating proper home made cake once in a while is unbearable. I really don't care if I'd feel healthier or more virtuous, or live six months longer by not eating those foods, the misery would outweigh any benefit.

Plus cutting out entire food groups unless you have an allergy or are properly intolerant is just too faddy for me. I believe in everything in moderation.

@oliversmumsarmy Sorry lots of people say allergic then will often say oh yeah I eat a/b/c because they actually can tolerate small anounts.

Your answer about the soya milk though whilst you are not ingesting extra supplements in the form of tablets, it is there in your soya milk added. Which was my point. One way or another the natural vitamins found in meat, dairy etc,. have to be added to make up for the loss. Obviously as well not all alternative 'milks' are fortified which the necessary vitamins. Plus the air miles for lots of them.

I will double check about Iodine however.

For me allergic means I could scratch the skin off my face if I eat anything that contains wheat or dairy.

I wonder about the amount of miles meat travels.
The cow in the next field doesn’t end up in packets in Tesco. Last time I looked down the meat aisle there was labels declaring British beef, (so could have been brought from some northern Scottish island down to Cornwall) Irish beef, Argentinian steaks.

Transporting a packet of soya milk isn’t exactly huge compared to the impact cattle farming has on the environment.

Vegetarian no worries at all. Vegan, no thanks.

This is really interesting...
www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health/nutrients/iodine

If a Dr told me I was going to certainly die from eating a non vegan diet in my children's lifetime I might go vegan, apart from that, no. Cheese is life.

Whilst that is true it could come from Scotland it doesn't worry me. Plus when I want to there is a local butchers on a farm who supply meat direct from their farm to customers. Talking 20 miles away. I would much prefer that to something either in a shipping container or flown from a hot country able to grow soya.
Obviously something like oat milk I know can be local to this country.

Sorry your allergy is so bad. That must be tricky.

Transporting a packet of soya milk isn’t exactly huge compared to the impact cattle farming has on the environment.

But your soya milk still has to be produced ... somehow the beans have to be processed... than packed. And they do not grow in the UK, while I can easily buy local, British beef in my local farm shop.
It really is never as black and white as you think!

I love plant based food but I hate all the additives that are often put into vegan food. I also worry about a diet where you need to take extra supplements e.g. B12 and iodine because these nutrients can't be provided through a wholly plant based diet.

The dire health consequences of becoming vegan means pretty much nothing would make me go vegan, I want to live a long and healthy life without supplements wherever possible.

I think vegetarianism is great though I should add!

Dairy milk alternatives would need to be more easily available, cheaper, & last longer once opened. I can't tolerate much soy (it triggers migraines if I have very much), & I've tried oat & nut milks previously, both ok in different things. Oatly barista is ok in coffee but very pricey. I don't really drink tea, which is good as most non-dairy milk is too strong flavoured for it.

Chocolate, I'd be ok with. I like the really dark stuff anyway - I wouldn't have a problem with it being produced in the same factory as milk chocolate, which is the reason why most dark chocolate says it may contain traces of dairy. The powder / droplets can theoretically float about in the atmosphere, or be transferred on a factory worker's clothing.

I was vegan, for about 5-6 months, many years ago. Cheese was my downfall. I do think it would be again... I like cheese. A lot.

Dire health consequences? Isn’t that what meat does

I have read two articles today one of which talks about how veganism is not going to save the planet and the other one about a toddler who was severely malnourished precisely because they were being fed a vegan diet.

Upshot is that we are not supposed to be vegan. As human beings we are designed to be omnivorous, and any diet which includes the need for supplements is not a healthy diet.

We are not built to be vegan. I'm passionate about animal welfare so as a Compromise I only buy meat from local farm shops where the farmer can tell me the name of the beast and I know it's had a good life. I also eat wild venison that my gamekeeper friend has culled and pheasants that I have shot and dressed myself.