Today is World Vegan Day! I thought it would be appropriate to blog about how and why I turned vegan. Veganism isn't just about diet and the food we eat (or don't), it's also a way of life, having an impact on the clothes we wear, the toiletries/cosmetics that we use, cleaning products, furniture, basically everything!
As this is a food blog, and I mainly went vegan due to food reasons, my post is mainly about food aspects of veganism.
(I apologise in advance about the length of this post!) I turned vegan back in April 2006. I was 19 at the time. Its sort of a very long winded story about why I turned vegan when I did. I had been aware of veganism from an early age, my sister turned vegan for a short time (about 2 years) when I was in late Primary, early Secondary school. I wasn't fully aware of the cruelty to animals and the (mostly negative) health effects a non-vegan diet produced, I was just happy to eat my milky ways in ignorance.
My next real encounter was when I went to Lourdes in 2005. I remember being on the Eurostar in first class (fancy.....not) with my very extended family. I was sat with my dad's cousin's wife (extended!....I'll just call her my aunt for ease) and her son and another 2nd cousin who was also young. We were given a meal and the choices were either salmon or sausage*. My dad, who was at a different table and a vegetarian for about 20ish years was given a cheese sandwich because the travel agency had messed up his meal order. I remember saying to my aunt that it was shocking and if Michael (another of my dad's cousin's partners) was with us he'd only be able to have the bread as hes vegan. My aunt's reply was sort of weird. She said something along the lines of "yes but being a vegan is very unhealthy.....especially for women". I remember being a bit surprised, what did she mean especially for women? I then thought it couldn't really be true as my sister had been vegan for over 2 years and was very healthy in that time; and although I didn't know Michael very well, he always seemed healthy to me.
Once I was home from Lourdes I looked up veganism on the internet and thought about it a lot. I went to Leeds Festival later that summer, and never being a fan of burger vans I decided to try and be vegan for that weekend**. I remember going to a vegan burger stall and having THE BEST BURGER EVER. I basically lived off their food, sadly I don't remember the name of the stall, but I would remember the sign if I saw it. They had amazing houmous with their burger too, I used to think I hated houmous, so thank you!
Once I got home I looked into veganism even more.
If I'm honest I probably would have turned vegan a lot sooner if I had had enough self-confidence. Growing up I was very shy and always really bad with confrontation, so I thought it would be easier to stay as I was, and learn more about the health benefits and other arguments for veganism, rather than face the questions and remarks such as "what do you eat?!", "why?!", "you're so unhealthy!!"***
In 2006, while researching veganism even more, I came across Earthlings. I remember staying up late to watch the video on google. I was horrified. I decided to go vegan, but to ease myself into it, I told myself I'd give myself a week before announcing to all. If that week proved to be too hard and I went back to my old eating habits, at least I'd not look like a failure! To be honest the week was really easy. I couldn't eat anything for about 2 days after the film as I was just so disgusted.
In the mean time my dad got a bad bug and had to stay in bed for 3 days. This was significant at the time because he was a smoker. Once he was well enough to get out of bed he realised he didn't need to smoke. I remember saying to my dad that if he gave up smoking I would turn vegan (as long as he turned vegan with me). He agreed and we've been vegan ever since!
As my dad was vegetarian for ages before turning vegan I think he struggled with cheese at first. I went from a meat eater to a vegan literally overnight, so I didn't struggle with cheese****. I found it so easy to make the switch! Granted I wasn't really a big meat eater, I've never even had a steak before, but I didn't really miss anything. I didn't even get much hostility from people when I told them I was vegan.
Yeah some family think we're crazy, but they've mainly accepted it now*****.
I do still get the odd "oh so you just live on lettuce" remark, but I know how to handle it.
The best book I have read with advice on how to reply to the questions and negative remarks is 'Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World' by Bob and Jenna Torres. The majority of their food references were things you probably couldn't get anywhere other than America/Canada, but that's probably changed a lot now as veganism has become more global and is a much bigger community in the 5 years I've been involved in it.
To be honest, the main reason why I turned vegan was for the health benefits. There are many books, websites and so on, listing the benefits (my favourite being The China Studyok when my prescriptions were free (due to being a child), but once I turned 19 and had to pay I knew I'd never be able to afford it. I started searching ways to improve my asthma. They all said give up dairy. Since turning vegan I dropped the 4 different inhales down to zero in less than a year. To be honest it was probably quicker, but I was obviously a bit nervous in case it was a fluke.
The more research I've done the more I've discovered that dairy is not healthy for humans - and why would it be, it's made for baby cows! I remember finding the change in my health amazing at the time. The only time I had milk was a little bit on my cereal. I never drank tea or coffee, so never had milk then. I never ate cheese. Obviously milk products are in so many foods we don't realise. But the fact is one drop of cow's milk is too much.
Even though I turned vegan mainly due to health benefits, I can't see any reason not to be vegan. It's helping to end cruelty to animals - which in my opinion is needless suffering. It's healthier. It's cheaper. It's better for the environment. Theres' a lovely worldwide community.
If you would like to know more about veganism, please check out The Vegan Society. You can also comment if you would like any help or advice with turning vegan - I'd be more than happy to help you if I can :)
Happy world vegan day!
*I chose the sausage in case anyone wanted to know.
**Only with stall bought food, as I had brought along cereal bars which had milk in.
***My sister faced all of these and more on a lot of occasions.
****I hated cheese, but weirdly I now love vegan cheese (except Sheese, I'm sorry but I don't like you).
*****My Grandma does ask us "are you still doing that diet", as if we're going to stop, but that's ok tbh.
