Following my post here on unexpected benefits of going vegan, I started thinking about the things that people told me would happen and didn't. Those things you hear all the time as a vegetarian or vegan, like protein, B12 blah blah blah.
You'll never get enough protein
Nobody ever cares about how much protein you are getting until they learn you are vegan. I get plenty of protein in my diet, and can supplement it if I need to. Protein is in so many more things than meat and dairy anyway.
Food will be really boring/Doesn't vegan food just consist of lettuce?
There are thousands of plants, spices, carbs and pulses we can eat. Why does cutting out meat and dairy mean that I will not have any variety? My diet the last couple of months has been more varied and interesting in some ways. In other ways I can still eat everything I could before, like pizza, burgers, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sandwiches, chilli, roast dinner etc etc etc.
I could never go vegan/vegan food is gross
Well you could go vegan, you just don't want to. No need to insult my food just because you don't want to eat like me. People often tell me they don't like vegan food, or they could never eat vegan food. What you've never eaten fruit? Or oreos? or a salad?
What about B12?
Yes B12 is hard to get from a plant based diet, but lots of things are fortified with it and I take a vitamin daily. There are lots of vitamins not found in meat too you know.
It'll be so expensive you won't be able to keep it up.
Vegetables are cheaper than beef in my experience, I can buy a whole bag of vegetables for the same price as a few steaks. With that I can feed myself for dinners for a week. Yes some vegan stuff is expensive, but in the same way some meat or dairy foods are expensive, It's all down to taste and budget.
But bacon!
But pigs. Also by this time I usually know the person I'm talking to is either:
A: An idiot.
B: Completely out of valid points so is just bringing up one food that I don't eat.
C: Actually feeling very defensive so just trying to end the conversation.
But chocolate!
I can eat chocolate, just not milk chocolate. I can have oreos and bourbon biscuits, and chocolate almond milk, and hot chocolate, I had an advent calendar and regularly make chocolate cupcakes.
What if you were on a desert island and the only thing there is a pig? Or some cheese?
OK who put the cheese there and why is it not completely gone off? Also what is the pig eating? Also why am I on a desert island? Also WHY do people KEEP asking this GODDAMN question?? If I were to be stranded on a desert island I would eat coconut as they populate most islands, if not yucca, if not then fucking grass or something. I would probably not even have tools with me to kill the pig as I tend not to travel with weapons, and wouldn't have any idea how to even go about hunting and killing it anyway so even IF I tried to I would probably fail miserably. I would be more concerned about how the fuck I ended up on the mystical island with only a pig or a glass of milk for company. Seriously people stop asking this question it makes you look moronic.
NB for those sick of hearing this the best response I ever heard was 'what if you lived in a civilisation with an abundance of plant based food and drinks? Would you still continue to torture and kill animals for no good reason?'
But vegans don't save any animals really, you're just one person.
Actually going vegan saves a lot more than animals, it saves water, pollution, deforestation, my carbon footprint and many many more things. Yes I am just one person, but it was just one person who started a lot of things. Just one wierdo started drinking cows milk in olden times, and now you think it's completely normal.
Milk is good for you!
No it's not. I get plenty of calcuim elsewhere, we were not built to drink breast milk all our lives. ESPECIALLY that of another animal.
But cheese!
But pus, but baby cows taken from their mums, but farmers being forced to sell milk at a loss, but the forest cleared for animal grazing, but PUS.
What do you even eat?
Uh loads. Literally I never stop eating.
Ugh but tofu is so gross.
Me - Really how did you cook it?
Meat eater - Um actually I've never really tried it.
That's the conversation most times, I mean at least I know what I've given up eating. If cooked properly tofu is great, I agree raw it is gross but then so is chicken...
If we stopped eating meat and dairy then cows would go extinct.
omg no. We aren't all going to stop eating dairy and meat as a species overnight, so it's not like there will be billions of cows left in abandoned farms. Cows are not a man made species they used to be wild.
What about if you had kids? Surely that wouldn't be fair to them?
What? Unfair to give these completely hypothetical children a healthy, well thought out diet that is well balanced and nutritious? Yeah poor kids. What about your kids? How many times do they have fatty processed meat a day, a week? None of my business? Yeah, none of yours either.
Vegans only care about animals, what about starving children?
Why can't I care about both? Also I'll just leave these here...
You can find these pictures on my pinterest page with their sources
This is just for a bit of a laugh, so any meat eaters reading please don't be offended. I have truly been asked or told all of these things numerous times, by otherwise intelligent and normal people. I just wanted to make people think about the silly things they say to vegans and vegetarians. Let's all just get along :)
You'll never get enough protein
Nobody ever cares about how much protein you are getting until they learn you are vegan. I get plenty of protein in my diet, and can supplement it if I need to. Protein is in so many more things than meat and dairy anyway.
Food will be really boring/Doesn't vegan food just consist of lettuce?
There are thousands of plants, spices, carbs and pulses we can eat. Why does cutting out meat and dairy mean that I will not have any variety? My diet the last couple of months has been more varied and interesting in some ways. In other ways I can still eat everything I could before, like pizza, burgers, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sandwiches, chilli, roast dinner etc etc etc.
I could never go vegan/vegan food is gross
Well you could go vegan, you just don't want to. No need to insult my food just because you don't want to eat like me. People often tell me they don't like vegan food, or they could never eat vegan food. What you've never eaten fruit? Or oreos? or a salad?
What about B12?
Yes B12 is hard to get from a plant based diet, but lots of things are fortified with it and I take a vitamin daily. There are lots of vitamins not found in meat too you know.
It'll be so expensive you won't be able to keep it up.
Vegetables are cheaper than beef in my experience, I can buy a whole bag of vegetables for the same price as a few steaks. With that I can feed myself for dinners for a week. Yes some vegan stuff is expensive, but in the same way some meat or dairy foods are expensive, It's all down to taste and budget.
But bacon!
But pigs. Also by this time I usually know the person I'm talking to is either:
A: An idiot.
B: Completely out of valid points so is just bringing up one food that I don't eat.
C: Actually feeling very defensive so just trying to end the conversation.
But chocolate!
I can eat chocolate, just not milk chocolate. I can have oreos and bourbon biscuits, and chocolate almond milk, and hot chocolate, I had an advent calendar and regularly make chocolate cupcakes.
What if you were on a desert island and the only thing there is a pig? Or some cheese?
OK who put the cheese there and why is it not completely gone off? Also what is the pig eating? Also why am I on a desert island? Also WHY do people KEEP asking this GODDAMN question?? If I were to be stranded on a desert island I would eat coconut as they populate most islands, if not yucca, if not then fucking grass or something. I would probably not even have tools with me to kill the pig as I tend not to travel with weapons, and wouldn't have any idea how to even go about hunting and killing it anyway so even IF I tried to I would probably fail miserably. I would be more concerned about how the fuck I ended up on the mystical island with only a pig or a glass of milk for company. Seriously people stop asking this question it makes you look moronic.
NB for those sick of hearing this the best response I ever heard was 'what if you lived in a civilisation with an abundance of plant based food and drinks? Would you still continue to torture and kill animals for no good reason?'
But vegans don't save any animals really, you're just one person.
Actually going vegan saves a lot more than animals, it saves water, pollution, deforestation, my carbon footprint and many many more things. Yes I am just one person, but it was just one person who started a lot of things. Just one wierdo started drinking cows milk in olden times, and now you think it's completely normal.
Milk is good for you!
No it's not. I get plenty of calcuim elsewhere, we were not built to drink breast milk all our lives. ESPECIALLY that of another animal.
But cheese!
But pus, but baby cows taken from their mums, but farmers being forced to sell milk at a loss, but the forest cleared for animal grazing, but PUS.
What do you even eat?
Uh loads. Literally I never stop eating.
Ugh but tofu is so gross.
Me - Really how did you cook it?
Meat eater - Um actually I've never really tried it.
That's the conversation most times, I mean at least I know what I've given up eating. If cooked properly tofu is great, I agree raw it is gross but then so is chicken...
omg no. We aren't all going to stop eating dairy and meat as a species overnight, so it's not like there will be billions of cows left in abandoned farms. Cows are not a man made species they used to be wild.
What about if you had kids? Surely that wouldn't be fair to them?
What? Unfair to give these completely hypothetical children a healthy, well thought out diet that is well balanced and nutritious? Yeah poor kids. What about your kids? How many times do they have fatty processed meat a day, a week? None of my business? Yeah, none of yours either.
Vegans only care about animals, what about starving children?
Why can't I care about both? Also I'll just leave these here...
This is just for a bit of a laugh, so any meat eaters reading please don't be offended. I have truly been asked or told all of these things numerous times, by otherwise intelligent and normal people. I just wanted to make people think about the silly things they say to vegans and vegetarians. Let's all just get along :)
Comments
Post a Comment