Do most people think vegan food is utter shit? It's not!

[Ennuid]

And that we all just eat still eat pasta, salads and that vile tofu (yuk!) they used to make in the 90's?

I've been vegan for 15 years and let me tell you there isn't anything these days that you will miss in terms of taste or texture, the ''fake'' stuff is amazing and just as good, if not better than the real thing (not to mention much healthier). I mean meat, chicken, fish, cheese, melty cheese, ice cream, milk, yogurt, salami, pate, mayo, spreads, hot dogs, burgers, pizza, even eggs... literally anything you can imagine! Ask me anything you'd like to replace and I can come up with at least 2-3 great vegan alternatives.So may EU and US companies make really good stuff and the chinese fake meats are different but equally amazing. Every largish city will have at least a few veggie/vegan restaurants and stores (I have personal experience of Brighton, Edinburgh and Norwich).

The best thing you can do is visit one of the vegan fairs where you can get lots of free samples and see everything in one place. There seems to be a vegan fair just about everywhere in the UK nowadays (quite surreal since 5 years ago there were maybe 5 or so?) , here's a schedule for 2015: [edited by MN to remove possibly spammy address, we're sure MNers are smart enough to Google if needs be] .

There's even a new all vegan supermarket chain spreading all over Europe. Vegan is the new organic, baby!

You really are hilarious, are you Katie Hopkins?

You are so right, really you are, I've tried telling you this several times, but still you bounce back, comeback after comeback, like a ten year old that just has to get the last word.

It must be great in your mind, everything filled under 'I am correct'

Shame we never got the hide poster option.

Will settle for hiding the thread and avoiding you like the plague.

Please do. You're unable to grasp the simple difference between subjective opinion: whether a chair is comfortable say and objective truth: whether a chair is convincing as a gorilla.

Online forums are not for you. You're going to be far too confused to contribute at all.

I can't believe anyone can get so worked up over being told that a piece of a dead cow and a piece of washed and formed wheat powder are not very similar. I would have put this in the water is wet obviousness category, but whatever lights your candle.

I've yet to come across a meat alternative that doesn't taste vile tbh, perhaps it's due to the fact I actually want the meat product...
What would be the vegan alternative to a rare steak?

IMHO people should eat what they want to eat and not get rabid about what other people are eating.

Personally I don't care if you love bacon, tofu, mushrooms or cheese. Just eat whatever makes you happy.

(gluten free) (egg free) and (full fat)
(That should cover everyone )

I only eat real food so any substitute type product to me tastes horrible but I eat a fair bit of veg and fruit and that is delicious.
Proper vegans surely should just eat whole natural foods not fake rubbish pretending to be meat!

I sometimes eat meat from the supermarket. I try to go to the butchers and get free range meat, I always buy free range eggs, chicken and organic millk. I often cook vegetarian meals for my family. Like most people, I try my best. Sometimes I don't have enough money to buy free range meat. The only way I will go vegan is if I developed some sort of illness that required it of me. Maybe I just don't care enough to go vegan. Most people don't. The more people feel they have to justify their choices, the more entrenched they will become in their own views. People will only change their minds if they come to the conclusion themselves.

I have eaten vegan meals, enjoyed them, not a big meat eater, don't like the texture or tastes of most meats. I'm sorry to say no vegan substitute on this earth tastes as good as a chocolate sponge cake topped with chocolate and cream or a streaky bacon toasted sandwich with butter, washed down with a nice milky coffee.....nothing on this earth!!

I don't know why people have such a downer on vegetarian substitute items. There are enough options available that I think dismissing them all seems a little odd. If meat based recipes exist that have good combinations of taste and texture, why shouldn't they be adapted (and the meat ingredient substituted) to accommodate vegetarians? Does it really matter that the replacement ingredient is not a carbon copy? I think a lot of preferences are to do with habit and what you are used to. I would find the taste of cow's milk repulsive now - far too rich.

I think YABU.

I spent 3 years being on and off dairy and egg free due to BFing 2 DDs who had allergies (DD1 just dairy, DD2 dairy, egg, soya and wheat).

I must have tried every milk, cream, cheese alternative on the market. None were acceptable, the cheeses in particular were, IMO, vile.

In the end I used breastmilk in my tea, which was most acceptable alternative

The dairy free butters were ok, and I much admit I did feel generally healthier being dairy and egg free.

Thank goodness I could still have a nice juicy steak to keep me sane though.

I like meat. At lot.

I also like vegan food. A lot.

I don't mind fake meat products but no way can anyone say they are exactly the same as real meat!

fasc, it's just that I eat substitute nothing at all actually. So loads of vegan foods are part of how I eat but they are all real food. it's not that I think fake processed vegan junk is any worse than fake processed non vegan junk. I just think both taste dire and I am pretty sure the unprocessed foods are the ones that are best for most of us.

I must say that I've personally never seen a vegan with a healthy skin tone. The ones I have known/ do know have a slightly grey palour. Perhaps if is a coincidence. But cutting out huge swathes of needed nutrition isn't good for you. If you need to top up your diet with vitamins then your diet insn't adequate. I speak as someone who does take some supplements.( I eat everything, well nearly, obviously, try to eat healthily, but I don't always eat enough). I have no idea whether I need them and I don't feel better for it really, but I have stopped catching the bugs everyone else goes down with at school ( teacher)

I have. But some people with eating disorders use veganism to restrict their eating. Others are young people who don't know how to cook decent meals for themselves and end up not getting enough of the right nutrients.

But if you plan what you are eating, you can be healthy.

A vegan diet can be very healthy and it can also be very unhealthy, just as an omnivorous diet can be healthy or unhealthy. You just need to know what you are doing. As far as I know vitamin B12 is the only nutrient not found naturally in vegan food, which is why it may be necessary to have this as a supplement.

I like to keep an open mind about various diets. I like most food and eat meat based meals, vegetarian meals and vegan meals because I just enjoy my food.

A totally vegan diet is not for me because I would find it too restrictive. I can't imagine anything more depressing than going out for a meal and scanning the menu to find yet another mushroom or butternut squash risotto on offer as the only suitable option.

Eating vegan all the time would represent a life of deprivation and sacrifice for me so I will eat and enjoy vegan food, just not all the time.

The thing with stuff like vegan sausages and soya milk, is that there are so many different ones that taste so different, you just need to find the ones you like. Some soya milk is foul. But, having been vegan for 23 years, but now veggie, I much prefer the particular brand of soya milk I have, to cows milk in my tea or on my cereal. However, if I had to have another brand I might well be unable to eat it, as for tofu, people, it's no good just eating plain tofu! You have to marinate, or fry in garlic and oil. As for cheese, I'm sorry, but there is just no substitute! That said, I feel I should still be vegan, as its the only way that avoids the dreadful cruelty to farm animals. The dairy industry is probably worse in some ways than the beef industry. When I was vegan, I didn't use substitutes, just used good fresh veg, pulses and nuts, lots of Asian, Thai, Moroccan style cooking, lots of spices and good strong flavours.

I must say that I've personally never seen a vegan with a healthy skin tone

Some of the healthiest looking people I know are vegan. But they are vegan for health reasons more than ethical reasons and spend a lot of time planning their diets to make sure that they are getting the nutrition they need.

Eating avocado every day gives you beautiful skin. Some of my friends who are into Juice Feasting have skin that literally glows with health.

Ask me anything you'd like to replace and I can come up with at least 2-3 great vegan alternatives.

I like a nice soft boiled egg with toast for breakfast, what's the vegan alternative?

Yes, excatly. I eat an avocado every other day or so. I just ate 300g of beansprout salad. I had a gorgeous whole grape fruit earlier and I had bluberries at breakfast time. (I am not vegan). I am pretty sure I could eat well as vegan as I love nuts. In fact I really think there are only two main ways of eating - what mopst people at 0 mostly processed foods with lots of junk trash; and then everyone else and the everyone else might eat only veg/nuts/fruits or they might eat 100% animal fat/meat etc; or most of us a mixture.

So you can vegan eating loads of junk food or vegan eating in a nutritionally good way. They are totally different from each other.

bigbuttons
cutting out huge swathes of needed nutrition isn't good for you.

What 'huge swathes of needed nutrition' are you talking about?

If you need to top up your diet with vitamins then your diet insn't adequate.

I think it's somewhat arbitrary to judge a diet by the requirement to take some supplements/include fortified foods. Vitamin/mineral supplements aren't the preserve of vegans. And as a general point, nearly half the adult population regularly take prescription medication. Would that also constitute some sort of failure in your eyes?

It's a coincidence. I may be many things but I'm not grey. I am very pale and freckly but that's because I'm a Ginge. And I don't have to take supplements either because MARMITE. Yum.

Ooh I really want to give veganism a go, will look up a fair...didn't occur to me there would be one!

I have just come back from a retreat where the food was mainly Vegan. If I never see a green bean or Chard sp or cabbage or beans for the rest of my life it would still be too soon. The food was tasteless, there was no texture, it was boring and yes I did lose weight because I just ate less because there was no point.

I cooked chicken tonight and thought how lovely it was and realised my taste buds had reawakened. So please don't tell me Vegan is good. I remember sitting with Vegans thinking that they could serve up bits of plastic and they would rave about it.

The only vegan foods containing adequate amounts of Vitamin B12 are those that are fortified- ie have it as an additive. Including marmite.
You would need to eat 20g of marmite a day ( or 4 teaspoonfuls) to get the required 3 micrograms of vitamin B12. A challenge even for martmite lovers and would send your salt intake through the roof.
Or you could take B12 tablets as the Vegan society recommend.

YABU to spam your website here and not ask an AIBU question