AIBU to ask what vegans actually eat?!

[Bearseatbeets]

A few of my friends have become vegan and keep evangelising to me about the health benefits. And I believe them. But whenever I ask what they actually eat for meals they get very defensive and won’t actually answer me. One of them answered with stir fry as an example and when I asked what protein they have in it, she told me ‘protein is a myth!’

I’m genuinely not trying to attack vegans, i’m interested and want to figure out what I could eat if I were to adopt it. I’m a bit of a foodie so I want exciting tasty food and it is just such a departure from how I eat now, I need some examples so I can work out if it’s feasible

Curry
Lasagna
Bolognsise,
Chillstew
Soups
Sandwiches
Cake
Chocolate
More curry
most things are veganable

I am sure there are lots of vegans who eat a carb heavy diet but the same is true of vegetarians and omnivores! Pasta, potatoes, rice and bread all feature heavily in omnivorous diets in my experience.

Eating a healthy diet is distinct from eating a vegetarian or vegan diet. You can eat healthily whatever your choices about meat - but I just don’t think it’s true that eating meat automatically means you reduce your carbohydrate intake.

It’s also worth remembering that when your carbohydrates come from vegetables, it’s offset by fibre!

I'm not vegan, but I am really confused by people that ask the question 'what do vegans eat'.

See the stuff you eat? That, but without the meat and dairy.

The might eat more of some ingredients than you would, and there might be things that you choose not to eat that they do (like tofu and vegan quorn maybe).

Its a daft question, and comes across at best ignorant and at worst goady. I'm not saying you are either of these things, but why ask the question?

If you asked 'what are some of your favourite vegan meals/recipes?' it comes across as interested. Asking 'what do vegans actually eat' however, comes across badly.

I had to cook a vegan meal today. It was quite a challenge. I have plenty of ideas but I can’t eat chickpeas, lentils or beans... I also hadn’t realised just how many things that one has in aren’t vegan. I did it, but I had to think a lot. I guess it’s just learning the substitutes and brands and switches though - though I think without chickpeas etc it would be pretty difficult.

It's just a question of ignorance about nutrition. No vegan would ask a meat eater what they actually eat.

Vegans in my family and vegan friends eat a huge variety of food, healthy and sometimes not so healthy. It's so easy now, much better than 20 or 30 years ago.

Well I’m currently eating Pringles.

Oh and I definitely do eat figs.

carby curries...And endless bloody chickpeas.

There's carbs and carbs, though. Pulses and beans are slower-release energy than e.g. white pasta.

My curries and stews often feature a lot of pulses and beans but also a variety of veg – onion/celery/fennel/carrots in the base, sweet potato, beetroot, green beans, broccoli, leafy greens...

I'm not vegan, BTW, just like veg and like cooking curries, many of which happen to be free of animal-derived ingredients.

I’m currently eating jelly dinosaurs. Also suck a lot of cock to make sure I’m getting the right animal-based nutrients.

Oscha - so my understanding of figs is that a wasp is required to pollinate the fig, and that this process kills the wasp, but a proportion of the time enables the wasp to lay its eggs in the fig.

Would the cultivation of figs not be exploitation of wasps in the same way that honey production is believed to be the exploitation of bees?

@tallwivglasses oh that poem’s great

@takingsmallsteps I was raised vegetarian too and have subsequently gone vegan 8 years ago. I’ve not had any nutritional difficulties either. I’m taking prenatals just now but before that I didn’t really bother with vitamins just had fortified foods.

Something many people who go on about supplements either don’t know about or don’t think about is that many standard foods are fortified anyway I.e. bread often fortified with iron, sometimes also calcium and b vitamins, most cereals are fortified, cow’s milk commonly has vitamin D added, animals killed for food are often given b12 injections etc. Also look at the vitamin industry- it’s not being propped up by vegans. All over 50s are recommended to take a b12 supplement whatever their diet. It’s most definitely not just vegans who use supplements and fortified foods.

@blueyacht oh my

This says the fig completely digests the wasp, plus it's only some figs that might be affected. Refusing to eat figs would be like refusing to eat anything that had might have an overlooked aphid leg trapped in it.

Many cultivated foods, especially fruit, rely on artificially introduced live pollinators. Are all such foods off limits to vegans? Nuts, greenbeans, cashews...

Am not vegan but have a predominately plant based diet and it is a lot of risottos and soups, lots of salads and beans and pies. It can be very varied.
I don’t like meat substitutes like tofu and Quorn at all.
My biggest problem and the reason I wouldn’t go vegan is vitamin b12. It is extremely easy to become deficient on a vegetarian and certainly on a vegan diet and the symptoms are awful and insidious.

What do vegans eat?

bfy.tw/VGh

maZ - I think it is all of those varieties that need it, but that’s a good point commercially produced figs are not wasp requiring - my mistake.

Tinobeans, I am virtually vegan apart from the eggs. Me and DH eat lots of eggs - poached, scrambled, boiled with soldiers (yum), hard boiled with salad.

Also two of our absolutely favourite meals are egg and lentil curry and shakshuka.

I would miss them too much and just can't think of giving them up.

We eats lots and lots of chickpeas too! We love them

I cook a lot of vegan recipes as ds has CMPA and is also intolerant to eggs. So I take the vegan recipe and either have as is, or if it's supposed to use tofu, I sub in meat as he's also intolerant of soya.

Honestly, the range and flavours, it's fantastic. I was no even vegetarian before but I don't think going completely vegan would be too hard in future - except for bacon sandwiches.

I like Thug Kitchen and BOSH as good starter vegan books.

I'm an almost lifelong vegetarian and currently eat a vegan diet thanks to breastfed dds milk and egg allergies.
Before I got pregnant again our diet consisted of a lot of curries, noodles, risottos, stews, pies, etc. It does take extra preparation and effort but it's not too bad.

At the moment I'm existing on rice cakes, smash, butter beans, marmite and plain soups looking forward to the first trimester to be over again!

I'm vegan, and if somebody asks what I eat I'm often stumped because it is such a bloody stupid question. I eat thousands of different foods, every fruit, vegetable, legume, nut, seed that you can think of. I just don't eat meat, eggs & dairy. Most people would never know as I each such a variety of food. Over the past year, I've been keeping an album on my phone of the meals that I eat and when I get asked I just hand over my phone. The ohs and ahs and oh my goodness what a variety of food you eat seems to shut them up. I don't give a toss what other people eat why do they think because I'm vegan they need to know every bite that crosses my lips.

Elaina, I appreciate what you’re saying,
And yes thanks to all the condescending google comments, of course I can google it, but I don’t want vegan recipes, I want to know what vegans ACTUALLY eat...hence the question

What do you ACTUALLY eat?

Oh the dreaded question "What do you ACTUALLY eat?" and the huff at "why did they think this was patronising?" And yes I know some vegans are too much, especially the plonkers at PETA who STILL link autism to dairy - the F***s. Most of us are much nicer. Must admit I have been told my food looks inedible or like poo far more times I have ever said that to a meat eater ( I never have, not polite).

Would meat eaters be happy to list the animal species and parts plus benefits and nutrients thereof they eat during every meal for the last week? Just to prove they eat a healthy diet to someone...