Did you find it hard to turn Vegan?!
Answers: Hi, I've been vegetarian for 20 years and have been toying with the idea of becoming Vegan for a while now. Mainly for ethical reasons (there's something freeky about humans drinking cows milk and eatings chicken's eggs!) but also because I've discovered I'm lactose intolerant. However, I am a bit of a chocoholic and have a very sweet tooth (love cakes and biscuits). Does anyone have any practical tips for turning Vegan - how did you do it?
I was also vegetarian for 20 years before going vegan. Veganism was my goal in the beginning, but I really did believe that it would be much harder than going vegetarian was. In some ways, I might have even been right as there were fewer vegan restaurants and vegan convenience food options in the 80s than there are now. Anyway, I thought it would be hard and I loooved cheese, so I put it out of my mind until last summer, when I decided that it had to be done. I simply couldn't consider myself an ethical vegetarian any longer while continuing to support the dairy and egg industries.
The short answer (which I'm obviously not giving you!) is no, I didn't find it hard at all. I had built it up to be a major undertaking, but it was surprisingly easy. I think what really made it easy was cooking. I had read a lot of books convincing me that vegan was the *right thing to do* but it was a cookbook that convinced me that it was *doable.* I can't recommend Isa Chandra Moskowitz's cookbooks highly enough. "Vegan with a Vengeance" was the one that convinced me that I could eat easily, cheaply and deliciously as a vegan, but in the meantime she's come out with "Veganomicon" which is equally fabulous. My tactic was to try as many new recipes as possible in the first months so that I wouldn't feel like I was missing out, and it worked. I've now been vegan for 6 months and I don't miss cheese even the tiniest bit. There are lots of recipes for delectable baked goods in both books, also, so there's no reason you chocolate craving and your sweet tooth can't be satisfied as a vegan. There are lots of quality dark chocolates on the market with no milk added and rice milk chocolate available for when you want milk chocolate.
Another book I recommend is "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesano Melina. It's like the bible of vegan nutrition and indispensable.
As far as practical tips, I don't know. I just knew I had to, so I did it. Like I said, it was surprisingly easy. If you're looking for some support, visit the forums at http://www.theppk.com. While most of the members are vegan, there are a lot of vegetarians and people in transition. You'll find a lot of answers and advice there, whether it's just food-related or you're looking for a good vegan mascara.
hi, found it really easy being veggie, didn't miss meat all, but going vegan was harder, like you i love chocolate and cakes and it was pretty hard to find vegan ones!
try this link for mouthwatering cakes and theres a few chocolate ones as well!
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/re... find the cake link on the right hand column!
your right ivan plamil chocolate is lush!
just go half way keep chocolate and cakes ,
Hello,
(ANS) Well I became Vegan immediately after I left the parental nest in my late teens & early 20's & I managed it for about a year.
On reflection I went about going Vegan in totally the wrong way, I did it far far to fast & it was a shock to the body & so became sick as a result. After which I became an ordinary vegetarian /semi vegan. (I've now been vegetarian semi vegan for well over 30years now & in 2000 went gluten free).
To become Vegan, I think you have a head start by already being vegetarian for 20 years, making that step change to vegan-ism shouldn't be done quickly but slowly over several months so the body can adapt and change.
**YES! agree totally about cows milk & eggs, quite weird really. Especially factory produced eggs and cows that live in concrete enclosures (which is not what I grew up with, i.e. cows in green pastures). Chickens that ran free.
**I use Soya milk as a dairy replacement (Alprosoy) and I now prefer Soya milk to cows milk any day.
**Eggs I dont like I've gone off them totally. I use Organ "NoEgg" egg substitute in cooking if I require a binder especially in baking.
**You can get "lactose free" chocolate if you look, I seem to recall Plamil used to make a nice chocolate bar. Its made from soya milk?
**Just because you go Vegan doesn't mean you cannot have sweet things nor does it mean you cannot have cakes or biscuits etc. Although many of the commercial products can be quite costly for anything thats half decent in terms of taste & quality. I found making my own cakes & biscuits the best approach because that way I could ensure they really were truly vegan in origin.
Take care, kind regards Ivan
Hi there,
I decided to go vegan a few months back. The main thing I found difficult to give up was cheese and cakes. Now I do all my own vegan baking on the week end and save all the cakes for when I have a sweet tooth throughout the week. There are lots of vegan choccies at health food stores or online. Or you could try dark chocolate.
I just add extra sauce on my vegan pizza's or make an avocado n tomato toastie instead of a cheese n tomato toastie. I guess it's all about substitution and experimenting with ingredients.
If you've been veg for 20 years I'm sure you can take the plunge & become vegan. Remember your only an (etari) away from being vegan. LOL
Good luck. =)
it was easy its just the matter of being strong and having good will power and be determined has you have been a vegetarian that's good just be strong and go for it.they say vegans and vegetarians are the most healthiest folk going.
I find hard to turn flesh-eating.
For your sweet tooth; Get the book "Vegan Cupcakes take Over the World" Amazing!
If that alone isn't a reason to turn vegan, I don't know what is ;)
I was veggie for a year before turning vegan and found it easier than I thought. If you think of the reasoning behind your choices (eg the misery cows/chickens endure just to pump out 'food' for us) then you should be ok. If I ever felt like eating dairy, eggs etc I just never let myself think about it... to want something so much to let it occupy my thoughts made me feel guilty. Here I was feeling sorry for myself just because I couldn't indulge myself... some people have no choice in what they can eat, even if they have anything to eat at all and millions of animals are suffering and are killed just because of human indulgence. Feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't eat a block of cheese or a chocolate bar seemed so ridiculous to me that I didn't allow myself to even think about it. I also thought my reasoning for turning vegetarian would be totally undermined if I didn't turn vegan. I decided to give up meat because I didn't want to gain pleasure from something else's pain. When I learned of the cruelty involved in the milk and dairy industry I realized it was just as bad if not worse than the meat industry so there was no point in me giving up meat while consuming eggs and dairy at the same time. For me, it was either all or nothing.
There are great vegan chocolates on the market... sure they may not be what you're used to but they're great once you get used to them. I used to love milk chocolate and hated dark but now I've gradually trained myself to get used to vegan and dark chocolate. I also never used to bake but now I love it. I bake cookies and cakes once or twice a week so always have something nice to snack on. Some store bought biscuits are vegan too... just check the ingredients. Tescos own brand have a few.
Good luck.
EDIT:
I have to agree with the post below. Vegan with a vengeance is a great book. I can't recommend getting into cooking enough... I was the laziest cook in my meat-eating and even my vegetarain days but turning vegan has sparked my interest. I now have a recipe folder which is like a diary to everything I've cooked... I print out recipes from the internet and photocopy pages from books I've borrowed. I also find great recipes in vegetarian books and just replace the milk for soymilk, eggs with orgran's no egg (egg replacer) and dairy cheese with soy cheese (redwood's is best). If you aren't already a member, I would join viva! because you get discounts to some veg friendly places and also it can help fuel and support your reasons for going vegan.
When i went Vegan i just did it within a day. I saw some videos of horrible things online and i told myself that , this was it the next day i was going to start and the next day i did and ive been vegan ever since. There are lots of substitutes for things like cookies, cakes and candy. You wont have any trouble finding these things or making them your self.
It was the easiest choice I ever made! I did it when I was 15: my main concern was custard and chocolate. I didn't discover substitutes for either for months later :3
There are some really sweet tasting vegan chocolates out there - I like soy, but white rice milk chocolate and almond-milk chocolate are good too - I like the variety, compared to just "dairy milk".
You'll probably resort to baking all your favourite treats yourself - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World has some delicious recipes for vegan cakes.
To go vegan, cut down slowly, bit by bit... Don't rush it, & best of luck :3
I went from omni to vegan overnight, and it wasn't difficult at all. I bought myself a book on veganism, I bought a vegan cookbook, and that's all there was to it.
I had no "shock" and I didn't become ill - in fact it was quite the opposite. I felt like a clean new person almost immediately.
Veganism isn't hard. Just stop eating meat, eggs, and dairy. Get yourself some knowledge about vegan nutrition (Becoming Vegan by Davis & Melina is the vegan nutrition bible), get some vegan cookbooks (anything by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is awesome, as well as Dreena Burton), and just GO!
Best of luck!
You can still eat chocolate as a vegan! Lindt dark is fine(70% cocoa mass, yum!), as are many Green and Black's varieties.
You'll find many vegan and lactose free brands, and some gluten-free biscuits are free of animal run-off. Just read the back of the labels! You'd be pleasantly suprised by some of the "mainstream" goodies that past muster!
Generally, Jelly beans and licorice, yes, gummi bears and "snakes", no. Unless you go to a kosher retailer. Some jellybeans contain beeswax.