Not the same person, but I’m in a similar position, just further along. Getting meat out of my diet was actually really trivial. Cheese is the big problem.
Fully vegan when I cook at home, but vegan options in restaurants and fast food are non-existent where I live, so I have cheese whenever I eat out. I’ve also come to terms with the fact I can never be fully vegan because I have 2 cats who need their cat food.
Dairy contains a morphine-like substance so baby calves are drawn to it. Cheese is literally addictive.
While many scientists believe cats to be obligate carnivores, one study attempted to show that many of the studies conducted in plant-based diets to not show any detrimental effects, when the test wasn’t conducted poorly or there was already a selection bias in place.
I’m aware, but I don’t eat cheese out of choice. The times I do eat cheese are because I’m in a restaurant with family/friends and my options are being hungry the whole night, eating meat, or eating a salad with cheese in it. With those options, I take the cheese. Again, I don’t eat cheese at home.
This doesn’t cement veganism for domestic felines, but it does show that better studies need to be conducted
Fair enough. I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m immediately skeptical because unlike us humans, cats are naturally carnivorous.
Honestly, I’ve stopped chasing substitutes a while ago. Giving up meat and dairy is going to be a lifestyle change, that’s why people struggle so much with it. You can’t expect to just sub in imitations and keep eating the same foods. They’re not close enough to fool anyone, and they’re usually expensive and unhealthy.
The best way eat vegan is to fill your diet with minimally processed legumes, grains, fruits, and vegetables. Learn to cook a few staple meals from cultural cuisines where animal products are expensive (most cultures outside US/Canada and Western Europe) and you’ll realize how much great food you can make with a few simple ingredients and one or two pots. A huge number of them fall into the same basic formula, so if you learn one, you can easily make them all. Plus, it’s much, much cheaper than eating meat.
I’m not vegan but I do eat 95% vegan because my wife is and I agreed to buy and cook solely vegan in the house. I come from a culture with plenty of (accidentally) vegan home cooking already, so it wasn’t hard at all. But those substitutes are gross to me. Apologies to those who like them.
Well milk is easy. Just get soy milk or almond milk as a drop-in replacement. There’s even weird ones like cashew milk. Depending on where you are at though that might be too expensive compared to dairy milk.
I’m working my way towards it! Did a one month trial run, now I am back to my previous diet but increasing my vegan meals and decreasing my meals with animal products.
Not who you replied to originally, but since you said you welcome tips:
Learn to cook tofu. There’s different levels of firmness, and an infinite number of ways to prepare and cook it. Try them all. Not everyone’s texture preference is the same. So the way I cook it and the way you cook it can vary drastically.
I hated tofu for ages until I found a way to cook it that yielded the outcome I liked.
Once you figure out the best way to achieve the texture you’re after, you can start worrying about seasoning it. Then you’re golden.
Yep. I’m a vegetarian for environmental reasons. There’s a huge amount of will behind ending humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, but very few care about ending our reliance on meat, the most inefficient source of food.
I haven’t gone full vegetarian or vegan. I should for the health of our world though. I have however cut my meat consumption down to about 1# a week, usually chicken. For whatever that’s worth.
I didn’t realize I was straight up addicted to meat in my diet till I tried cutting it out. I think that’s why people get angry with vegans, cause then they gotta look inward, and then that’s gonna be this whole other thing. Oofta
I wonder how bad eggs are for the environment though?
To be fair there was a large amount of time (2010s at least) where vegans weren’t even trying to be appealling. It was either. Stereotypical vegan dishes but even more limited or extremely bad vegetarian meat. Vegetarian meat has improved a lot and more importantly vegan food is represented as less one note.
Don’t think I’m strong enough to give up dairy but respect to those who can do so without being elitist
I didn’t care for the “beyond meat” so much. I don’t mind the old school bocca burgers. Throw it on a bun and dress tf outta that burger you’ll be alright. I’ve been big into beans. Making hummus. Bean salads. Enchiladas. They really are the magical fruit. Cheese is tough I hear ya.
And they’re not all elitists. Some are just really good environmentalists who maybe aren’t so good at communicating and have maybe been burned in the past. But ya some just like the smell of their own farts.
I agree with you to an extent, but, like, what about my local farm that pasture raised pigs and cows and, yes, eventually slaughters them, how do they compare to what I think everyone agrees are terrible, the meat processing plants of the Midwest?
At least for the public at large such methods aren’t practical (not enough space to raise enough meat) and not able to produce meat at a cost the general public could afford.
It’s also still horrible to butcher the animals, I don’t consider any such killing to be humane. They are also killed at a rather young age, barely even adult just max size. You also have the forced pregnancy of the animals and odds are the pigs are still crated after giving birth, the cow calves separated from their mothers, etc.
Nothing is black and white, of course, but slaughtering animals for consumption is animal exploitation and worse for the environment. The impact is much smaller, but still fundamentsl.
Ultimately, it comes down to how we see animals, life, and the environment.
Carnivores have just as much right to live as their prey, as unfortunate as the cost of life is.
We, as humans, are in a rather unique position, being omnivores with many of us in the developed world having easy access to food. And those of us can make a choice to not cause the death of other sentient beings in order to have food.
Vegans are correct, people just don’t want to change their lifestyle. I am not a vegan (yet) for what it’s worth, but they are definitely correct.
Would you like to go vegan and need advice?
Not the same person, but I’m in a similar position, just further along. Getting meat out of my diet was actually really trivial. Cheese is the big problem.
Fully vegan when I cook at home, but vegan options in restaurants and fast food are non-existent where I live, so I have cheese whenever I eat out. I’ve also come to terms with the fact I can never be fully vegan because I have 2 cats who need their cat food.
That’s still a big improvement. Even if you don’t go full vegan, cutting out meat has massive benefits
Dairy contains a morphine-like substance so baby calves are drawn to it. Cheese is literally addictive.
While many scientists believe cats to be obligate carnivores, one study attempted to show that many of the studies conducted in plant-based diets to not show any detrimental effects, when the test wasn’t conducted poorly or there was already a selection bias in place.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860667/
Just something to consider. This doesn’t cement veganism for domestic felines, but it does show that better studies need to be conducted.
I’m aware, but I don’t eat cheese out of choice. The times I do eat cheese are because I’m in a restaurant with family/friends and my options are being hungry the whole night, eating meat, or eating a salad with cheese in it. With those options, I take the cheese. Again, I don’t eat cheese at home.
Fair enough. I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m immediately skeptical because unlike us humans, cats are naturally carnivorous.
If you’re offering, im always looking for good cheese, yogurt or dairy substitutes
Honestly, I’ve stopped chasing substitutes a while ago. Giving up meat and dairy is going to be a lifestyle change, that’s why people struggle so much with it. You can’t expect to just sub in imitations and keep eating the same foods. They’re not close enough to fool anyone, and they’re usually expensive and unhealthy.
The best way eat vegan is to fill your diet with minimally processed legumes, grains, fruits, and vegetables. Learn to cook a few staple meals from cultural cuisines where animal products are expensive (most cultures outside US/Canada and Western Europe) and you’ll realize how much great food you can make with a few simple ingredients and one or two pots. A huge number of them fall into the same basic formula, so if you learn one, you can easily make them all. Plus, it’s much, much cheaper than eating meat.
I’m not vegan but I do eat 95% vegan because my wife is and I agreed to buy and cook solely vegan in the house. I come from a culture with plenty of (accidentally) vegan home cooking already, so it wasn’t hard at all. But those substitutes are gross to me. Apologies to those who like them.
Well milk is easy. Just get soy milk or almond milk as a drop-in replacement. There’s even weird ones like cashew milk. Depending on where you are at though that might be too expensive compared to dairy milk.
Where I live, soy milk is less than half the price of cow boob milk. Perks of living in East Asia, I guess.
I bought a 936 mL (1/4 gallons) carton of soy milk today, and it was only about US$1.1 (NT$35). Very affordable.
Oat milk is really good too and is usually cheaper than almond milk, at least where I live.
I normally prefer soy for flavor, with oat as a close second.
For nutritional value, I think soy is the top, followed by pea, and oat way behind.
For environmental impact/needs, I think soy and oat are also among the best.
Soy milk is a miracle food and we should embrace it.
I’m working my way towards it! Did a one month trial run, now I am back to my previous diet but increasing my vegan meals and decreasing my meals with animal products.
I would welcome tips, though!
Not who you replied to originally, but since you said you welcome tips:
Learn to cook tofu. There’s different levels of firmness, and an infinite number of ways to prepare and cook it. Try them all. Not everyone’s texture preference is the same. So the way I cook it and the way you cook it can vary drastically.
I hated tofu for ages until I found a way to cook it that yielded the outcome I liked.
Once you figure out the best way to achieve the texture you’re after, you can start worrying about seasoning it. Then you’re golden.
Yep. I’m a vegetarian for environmental reasons. There’s a huge amount of will behind ending humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, but very few care about ending our reliance on meat, the most inefficient source of food.
What if eat meat and just don’t have kids? Sounds like I get to be selfish and think about the environment at the same time
Noooo you have to breed for the economy!!!
No, we will not make kids affordable.
Get back to work.
I haven’t gone full vegetarian or vegan. I should for the health of our world though. I have however cut my meat consumption down to about 1# a week, usually chicken. For whatever that’s worth.
I didn’t realize I was straight up addicted to meat in my diet till I tried cutting it out. I think that’s why people get angry with vegans, cause then they gotta look inward, and then that’s gonna be this whole other thing. Oofta
I wonder how bad eggs are for the environment though?
To be fair there was a large amount of time (2010s at least) where vegans weren’t even trying to be appealling. It was either. Stereotypical vegan dishes but even more limited or extremely bad vegetarian meat. Vegetarian meat has improved a lot and more importantly vegan food is represented as less one note.
Don’t think I’m strong enough to give up dairy but respect to those who can do so without being elitist
I didn’t care for the “beyond meat” so much. I don’t mind the old school bocca burgers. Throw it on a bun and dress tf outta that burger you’ll be alright. I’ve been big into beans. Making hummus. Bean salads. Enchiladas. They really are the magical fruit. Cheese is tough I hear ya.
And they’re not all elitists. Some are just really good environmentalists who maybe aren’t so good at communicating and have maybe been burned in the past. But ya some just like the smell of their own farts.
I agree with you to an extent, but, like, what about my local farm that pasture raised pigs and cows and, yes, eventually slaughters them, how do they compare to what I think everyone agrees are terrible, the meat processing plants of the Midwest?
At least for the public at large such methods aren’t practical (not enough space to raise enough meat) and not able to produce meat at a cost the general public could afford.
It’s also still horrible to butcher the animals, I don’t consider any such killing to be humane. They are also killed at a rather young age, barely even adult just max size. You also have the forced pregnancy of the animals and odds are the pigs are still crated after giving birth, the cow calves separated from their mothers, etc.
Nothing is black and white, of course, but slaughtering animals for consumption is animal exploitation and worse for the environment. The impact is much smaller, but still fundamentsl.
Ultimately, it comes down to how we see animals, life, and the environment.
You can show a lot of differences, but the end result is always the same: Sentient beings dead way before their natural expiration.
So all the carnivorous predators are also evil?
I’m not even trying to be a jerk about it, but I’ve never been given a single good answer on this.
Carnivores have just as much right to live as their prey, as unfortunate as the cost of life is.
We, as humans, are in a rather unique position, being omnivores with many of us in the developed world having easy access to food. And those of us can make a choice to not cause the death of other sentient beings in order to have food.