To eat cheese as a vegan?

[Sparksi]

I’ve been vegan for 5 years. I’m 8 weeks pregnant and craving cheese triangles. There isn’t a vegan equivalent anywhere. Vegan cheese is not the same. I haven’t had any dairy for years and read somewhere you can develop a bit of an intolerance to it if you’ve not had it for a while - if this is true it would be silly to succumb to the craving if it’s only going to upset my stomach.

I do feel a bit icky if I think about the morals as to why I have been vegan for so long, and definitely wouldn’t be making any permanent changes. I am wondering if it’s my body telling me I need something, though!

WIBU to have it or should I find something else?

Why don't you eat it to satisfy your craving, then go back to being vegan? I disagree that eating cheese as a one-off makes you vegetarian. You'll be a vegan who ate cheese once.

You must be short of calcium or something. As a fairly new vegetarian years ago, I craved chicken so badly when newly pregnant.

This is what I was thinking, sometimes the body craves what it needs.

I wouldn’t judge someone for eating what they want. It’s a decision only you can make though.

I have a friend who was full on vegan for 15 years or so. Possibly more.

Then for various reasons stopped and started eating a full range of dairy and meat. No intolerance or reaction at all.
(reversed a pre-diabetic status due to eating more fats and proteins and fewer carbs for calories)

Your body is obviously needing the calcium, have the cheese.

YES! Agreed

Enjoy the cheese.

Don't do what I did and say to a vegetarian of under two years that I had been craving roast chicken since I'd been discharged from hospital for the third time with hyperemesis - the enraged stream of accusations and disgust at what I was daring to think of doing, to contaminate the foetus with suffering and death scared me having it.

My Hb was 4.2 when I went in to have the baby and I felt horrendous for years afterwards.

Baby 2 came along, I ate everything.

Your body is needing calcium. Do what is best for your baby.

Most vegan cheese is vile. If you/baby want cheese, eat the cheese. Just simply blame the need to get more calcium and vit D for baby and enjoy the cheesy goodness.

I broke vegetarianism after 13 years as I had terrible tuna cravings, I dreamt about tuna, it was weird as I hadn't eaten fish since I was a toddler. But I decided it was my body's way of telling me it desperately needed something that the fish could offer, probably protein and went with it.

So long as you're only eating it as a vegan, that's OK.

Call yourself a vegetarian, or call yourself a fallible lapsed vegan who eats cheese.

Or do what I did and blame the baby. Or you could eat stealth cheese and not tell any intolerant, pedantic arses who haven’t got a clue. As I said, whatever makes you happy.

I hadn’t had any dairy or gluten for years before being pregnant with DD1. Not strictly vegan, just a healthy eater. My DM was nagging at me to eat more protein… and food in general, so she made me a cheese sandwich one day 😂 OP you may never go back is all I can say! I can still remember how good that tasted sixteen years on! I think when we’re pregnant it’s okay to listen to our bodies and eat what we like …

100% this😁

I was dairy free for a few years. Cheese was actually OK when I tried dairy again unlike milk

🤭🤭🤭🤭

I was vegan 6 years then fell pregnant and started eating dairy as was worried she could get a dairy intolerance and didn’t want her to be put off dairy because she was an intolerance. I was absolutely fine eating cheese again. Baby is here now and I’m back being vegan.

There's a Laughing Cow vegan cheese triangle.

I was vegan for about a year before getting pregnant. The only thing I could stomach my entire pregnancy was watermelon, mango and Big Macs. I'm no longer vegan, or even vegetarian anymore, not saying it's okay necessarily but I understand the cravings and gave in and I don't regret it at all.

As a vegetarian but not vegan for 35 years. I would eat cheese while having pregnancy cravings, then revert to veganism after birth. I would say the same if you craved meat. We are omnivores, that's just a fact.

I was vegan for 5 years, through a pregnancy and 2 years of breastfeeding, and then vegetarian through another pregnancy. Both times, I had non vegan cravings that I didn't give into (salmon and eggs first time, roast chicken the second). I tried all the alternatives and they repulsed me! I'm now pregnant for a 3rd time and I've learnt that my body knows best and I eat all my cravings, and feel much better for it. Unfortunately a lot of veggie/vegan alternatives just don't have the same nutritional profile or trace elements, and your body will know the difference! I've been where you are and really resisted, but it did me a huge disservice in the long term and I feel like it's only recently that my body is re-balancing. Some people thrive on a vegan diet, and some people unfortunately don't. I'm glad I tried it for as long as I did, but being a fertile woman and growing & nourishing babies is hard work and we need all the support we can get physically. Trust your body, enjoy the food, don't beat yourself up, and I think you'll find that when you've got what you need from the cheese, you won't crave it any more. Best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

Honestly tasty, fauxmangerie and julienne Bruno all make genuinely nice vegan cheese if any of those might address your craving without making you sick?
It's hard when your body wants something so specific. Are you on a calcium supplement? Congratulations and I wish you a healthy happy pregnancy x

All I can think of is Friends, when Phoebe was pregnant and craved meat so joey gave up meat to equal out the meat consumption.

Omg eat the blinking cheese!

Oh yes me too!

Do you have a Joey in your life that can become vegan for the duration of the pregnancy to offset any potential cravings?