How to become vegan if you enjoy dairy and a bit of meat but want to give them up on principle?

[malificent7]

I used to be vegan 25 years ago before it became trendy. Unfortunately it was tough back then , i gad no support from family/ friends/ society and I was tunnel vision resulting in an eating disorder.
I would like to ve vegan again due to climate change and I genuinely like my veg but i don't want to become they typical vegan bore again and i like meat and dairy. Sounds a bit stupid but id like to give it another go...any tips?

Don't become vegan

I would enjoy eating meat or dairy but then I just think about the suffering that has to happen for them to end up on my plate and that keeps me vegan, personally. But yes there are so many more products out there nowadays. I tried vegan feta today and it was really convincing!

Faux meat and dairy products. Anything you usually cook, veganise. Been vegan seventeen years and counting and it’s never been easier or more fun!

Don’t bother with vegan cheese

Agree most are rank. The smell of some us so horrendous that if it has been bought to try out we have to put ot in the outside bin because it really stinks.

Having said that I do like Violife Greek Cheese

Watch Earthlings.
Then What The Health.
Then Conspiracy.

Join vegan groups on social media.

Follow Nutrition Facts:
nutritionfacts.org

Vegan Campout is this weekend.

Also H&B do a huge bag of dried soya mince for £1.99 which lasts for a few meals

It is good sprinkled in Spag Bol type meals

I have always been vegetarian since childhood and have been vegan for a couple of years. It's so much easier than it used to be and there is much more decent vegan food available now.

The only thing I really miss is a cup of tea with cravendale milk. We use oatly barista as that's about the best in hot drinks (and cashew milk for cereals) but it's not the same as a nice cup of tea.

Just make small changes & reductions . Don't need to go all the way and remove all joy from eating

@HasaDigaEebowai

If you’re vegetarian (buying local seasonal produce) and use plant milks and goats cheeses then you’re significantly reducing your carbon footprint already if going vegan is a step too far. Going vegan is generally more about animal welfare issues than environmental issues.

Actually nut based mills are terrible for the environment ...

@stevalnamechanger they are better than cow’s milk but not as good as oat milk blog.datawrapper.de/cow-milk-and-vegan-milk-alternatives/

To add to the vegan cheeses which are good - vegan applewood and mozzarisella are really nice. Most of them are nicer melted than ‘raw’ but you have to melt them more slowly.

See what product shifts you can make without the family noticing. I have some fantastic vegan muffins and cookie recipes. Vegan ice creams and choc are good too.

Focus on very well-made high-flavour meals you can make with small amounts of meat protein (or zero) for your family - so, curries from all the various countries, vegetarian chilli con carne, soups, risotto, pasta with vegetable sauce.

Introduce nuts for snack times.

Once a month, cook a high-welfare organic roast chicken for the family. Eat a slice each for dinner, bulking out the meal with stuffing balls and bread sauce, you can try different stuffing recipes with nuts and different herbs. Make that chicken last! Take every shred of meat off it, and freeze in small portions, use the small portions Boil the carcass for stock, and add vegetables to make soup.use small amounts of the frozen chicken to throw into your family's portion of a vegetarian meal eg a risotto, a salad, you get the idea.

Also, climate-wise: There is no point cutting out ham, if you then have an oh-so-fabulous salad made with avocado and imported products. You have to buy local, seasonal food if you want to make a difference. Shop at a local Saturday food market to reduce food miles etc.

Look at the rest of your lifestyle. Are you doing everything you can to save the climate elsewhere? 2 minute showers, second hand clothes, growing flowers in your garden to help pollinators, switching to an ethical pension, no flights to go on holiday, reducing overall consumption of stuff.

If you have had an eating disorder, then you should absolutely not be on a restrictive diet. EVER.

You can, however, introduce more vegan options in your diet - ie, not "no meat" but "more plant based options".

I went vegan back in January, initially thought I’d try it for a month or so but haven’t looked back and now can’t stomach the idea of meat/eggs/dairy.
I did it for health/sport benefits (Gamechangers is worth a watch) and environmental concerns, more so than ‘for the animals’. I do tend to avoid meat substitutes, and buy as local as possible, no avocados or almond milk for example, as some have referenced above.
The thing that made it stick for me I think was getting a few really good vegan cook books/magazines and making a long list of all the things a wanted to try, made it interesting and exciting.

I’ve been vegetarian for 25 years and it’s so so much easier now thanks to all the vegans! It’s like a totally different experience.

As it would be a lifestyle choice (and not health related) why give it a label and make it an all-or-nothing decision? Cut out things you are comfortable living without as even small changes make a difference but your well-being is more important than anything else. Some vegans can be the most boring, self-righteous people on this planet and then you find out theirs is not a life of nuts and berries but heavily-processed ready meals made of gunk that look and taste like shite. Choose your food thoughtfully but listen to your body.

Stevalnamechanger when you’re comparing dairy and non-dairy milk as your comment suggests, do you mean with regard to land use, water use, or kilos of carbon dioxide produced per litre?

Not everyone does well health-wise on a vegan diet.

Also, as PPs pointed out, are you sure it's a good idea given the difficulties you've had with restrictive diets in the past?

@FightingtheFoo a plant based diet with imports is still better than a local diet with meat/ eggs/ dairy:

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es702969f

“buying local” could achieve, at maximum, around a 4−5% reduction in GHG emissions due to large sources of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions in the production of food. Shifting less than 1 day per week’s (i.e., 1/7 of total calories) consumption of red meat and/or dairy to other protein sources or a vegetable-based diet could have the same climate impact as buying all household food from local providers.”

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181023110627.htm

“A new study provides a more comprehensive accounting of the greenhouse gas emissions from EU diets. It shows that meat and dairy products are responsible for the lion's share of greenhouse emissions from the EU diet.”

“The study found that meat and dairy account for more than 75% of the impact from EU diets.”

“"People tend to think that consuming locally will be the solution to climate change, but it turns out that the type of product we eat is much more important for the overall impact," says IIASA researcher Hugo Valin, a study coauthor and Sandström's YSSP advisor. "Europeans are culturally attached to meat and dairy product consumption.”

Of course the best would be a plant based diet that is as local as possible. And of course most almonds and avocados are eaten by non vegans and neither are needed for a healthy plant based diet.

Actually nut based mills are terrible for the environment

This isn’t true. The OPs motivation is climate change and from a Co2e perspective, nut based milks are still far far better than cows milk. Particularly if you live somewhere where the air mileage isn’t a factor. Yes, almond production uses a lot of water but that is a different issue (its a bit like the quandary over plastic packaging, much of which is better for the environment than paper and cardboard packaging but clearly presents big disposal issues).

But anyway, I think most people are aware that oat milk is a much better option than almond milk now so when I said “plant based” I actually meant oat.

But in any event even almond milk uses far less water than cows milk so it’s still a win on all fronts.

@PennyWus most of the pigs in the U.K. are fed on imported products- www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2017-10/WWF_AppetiteForDestruction_Summary_Report_SignOff.pdf

“Today, protein-rich soy is such an important feed ingredient that the average European consumes approximately 61kg of soy per year, largely indirectly through the animal products that they eat like chicken, pork, salmon, cheese, milk and eggs. In 2010, the British livestock industry needed an area the size of Yorkshire to produce the soy used in feed. And if the global demand for animal products grows as anticipated, it’s estimated that soy production would need to increase by nearly 80% to feed all the animals destined for our plates.”

And most of that soya, unlike most of the soya used for human consumption (excepting that used in vegetable oil), comes from South America and is likely to contribute to the destruction of the rainforest. Due to feed conversion ratios, cutting out ham in favour of imported plants would actually still lower one’s climate impact.

A glass of alpro soya milk by contrast uses soya beans grown in Europe (most of it) or Canada.

@randomsabreuse actually the climate science shows that local is not better than plant based with some imports- see peer reviewed articles linked to above.

It’s a commonly held belief.

www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2021-04/Environmental%20Perils%20of%20Perception%202021_0.pdf

“Eating local does not necessarily mean eating greener, as switching to a vegetarian diet including some imported fruit and vegetables more effectively reduces an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

@FightingtheFoo

So many vegan/vegetarian foods are also contributing to climate change/environmental disaster - almonds and avocados to name two.

Really the only way to eat ethically is to grow your own or buy local. I don't do this btw, but I'm just saying going vegan isn't in and of itself going to help the environment.

Ok. Avocados aren’t “vegan food” they are food. Meat eaters eat them too And ALL kinds of plant milk have lower footprints in terms of carbon/water than meat And soy? The damage done to the Amazon is by the soy fed to animals that you eat. The area which would be required if people just ate the soy direct is miniscule

“Eating local does not necessarily mean eating greener, as switching to a vegetarian diet including some imported fruit and vegetables more effectively reduces an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

Thats letting perfection be the enemy of good though in this situation.

Flying and meat consumption are two massive problems for climate change. Cutting either is big progress. Imported fruit and veg is not always bad per se anyway. Food that is shipped in has a far lower carbon footprint. Bananas and citrus fruit are fine since they largely arrive by boat, air freighted asparagus is dreadful for the climate.

Yabu unreasonable to go vegan if you previously had an eating disorder. Est vegan most of the time if you want, you are putting yourself at risk.