Any vegans here?

[NickiM]

Right now I am a vegitarian and eat dairy and eggs but no meat. I have been a vegitarian for 3 years now and really want to give vegan a try because I cant stand the thought of hurting animals. If anyone here has personal experience or could share there opinion it would be greatly appreciated. I am only 15 and am curious if anyone had parents against it. Also how do you eat in restaurants?, at friends house?, with family even? Also how to not seem rude while declining food? How to make others understand? How to tell parents you want to go vegan? anything to replace the things I wont be able to eat? As you can see I have many questions so thanks a bunch for reading this whole long thing

[LoveChaCha]

Well, my dad went vegeterian because he gets gout (a form of arthritis) and he makes a lot of soups. He still eats chicken, but it is extremely rare and has not had a gout flare up in months.

My dad would have no issue with me turning vegan or vegeterian.

Are there any vegan restaurants in your area?

Be sure to get anough vitamin B12 I know B12 is in meat, milk, eggs, etc. So I would suggest a vitamin supplement.

I have searched for you how to tell your friends and family:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5221236_tell-friends-family-vegetarian.html

I hope it works!

[Monkeybun]

at 15 you need alot of vitamins and such, so if you do go vegan, definitely get supplements. When i was your age, i had a severe b12 deficiency, and I wasn’t even vegetarian. I had to get daily injections of b12. So make sure you stay healthy! Good luck

[LizzieKnittyBun]

I’m not vegan, but I have a couple of friends who are. I like to think that, depending on where you live, people have become more accepting of it and shouldn’t get irritated or offended (unless they’re a little intolerant…). Just like religion or political beliefs, I think you won’t have many problems with people as long as you don’t try to convince them to become vegan too.

Thankfully, food is getting more and more attention in our society. More stores and restaurants are offering gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options for people who either choose an animal-free diet or are allergic to certain foods. I’m hoping we keep going in that direction!

Like Brittany and MB said, the thing you need to concentrate on, if you do decide to become vegan, is making sure your body gets enough of the vitamins and minerals that it needs to be healthy. I imagine there are some great articles out there in the web that provide advice on how to do that. Supplements can be wonderful, but you have to make sure you’re taking them the right way so that your body can absorb them. For instance, the body can only absorb calcium if it has enough Vitamin D, so if you’re not getting enough Vitamin D then a calcium supplement won’t do much good.

Let us know what you decide. I’m interested in it!

[cainan]

I used to be a vegan – years ago I participated in a study to see if veganism would help w/asthma. I’m not going to lie, it was hard to do at first – and I was cooking for myself. Ultimately I had no problems with it until I started craving eggs.

But what everyone else out here has said is correct – make sure you get your proper nutrients. If you’re eating your fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds (and legumes) rather than just pasta and bread (the downfall of many veggies I know!) you’re most of the way there.

I worked for a vitamin company for 7 years (granted I was in IT, but still…) and I recommend taking a sublingual B12 as opposed to a pill or liquid. It’s better absorbed by your body. And yes on the Vitamin D (for everyone!)

Good luck – I may still have some resources available (recipes, etc.) if you want any advice. You might also want to research things like macrobiotics and ayuveda. You’ll find a lot of things that have dairy in them, but they’re really good resource for veggie recipes.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m a long time vegetarian. I want to go vegan too…when I get vegetarian right. I need to concentrate on eating much more healthy before tackling veganism. I don’t eat cheese and only eat eggs if they are in something, like cookies.

I want to go vegan because the milk and poultry industry are just as bad as the meat industry. “Where do you thing them chickens and cows end up?”-is my reason for wanting to go vegan, not to mention the tormented lives those animals live to give us eggs and milk to eat. I think eating eggs is just gross anyways. I also don’t wear leather because wearing it is no better than eating it. I just have to quit milk, that’s the big one. Giving up cheese was hard enough, there is cheese in almost everything. I chose to give up cheese because most cheese is manufactured with an ingredient called “Rennet” which is an enzyme taken from the stomach of a calf; which is just really disgusting.

If you do decide to go Vegan, especially since you’re young, I suggest talking to a doctor about it. That way there you can get blood tests to monitor your iron, B12, etc to make sure you are eating healthy enough.

I got a great book a couple of years ago called Peta’s College Vegan Guide. It’s got lots of easy, healthy, cheap recipes for young people to make. Most of them just require a microwave. Another great one is Skinny Bitch. It’s based around how living vegan is great for your body, inside and out and offers lots of info that will make you think twice about eating any animal products. Lots of nutrition info in it too.

A great site I go on a lot for recipes is Vegweb.com. You can set up a profile and save recipes to your recipe box. Goveg.com is another good one for info on healthyl eating.

[NickiM]

Thanks you all SO much!! Your responses really mean a lot to me. PETA is what sparked my curiosity about becoming vegan and I just started reading the book Diet For A New America. I had no idea how badly the animals were treated besides the meat industry and can’t believe I was so ignorant. I’m definitely going to try and become vegan now and plan on telling my parents of my decision today. I will let you all know how it goes.

[Moonlight_Wolf]

NOTE: *This is not meant to be offensive in anyway, you just asked whose parents were against it.*
My dad thinks all vegans are whakos, I always defend everyone I know who is a vegan, but my dad seems to be very against them. In fact he is against anything radical, he hates radical republicans, radical democrats, radical Catholics and ‘radical vegetarians’ (vegans).

Personally I don’t see a problem with being a vegan (I wouldn’t be one myself though), but I would caution you against becoming a vegan at such a young age. Firstly just for nutritional reasons, I know many many people who had to stop being a vegan because they were not getting proper nutrition. Secondly, since you are completely reliant on your parents now, they may be less than happy to have to give you a different meal because you are a vegan (this depends on the parents though).
That’s just my two cents! Maybe you can raise your own cow and make sure you get milk from it in such a way that it is not harmed LOL! JK.

[Monkeybun]

That’s a good point. When living with your parents, its kind of a “My house, My rules” thing. If your parents say No, just go with it until such a time that you can make your own meal rules, aka when you get your own place.

[LittlePuffyTail]

My parents were really supportive of my decision to go vegetarian as I was in high school when I gave meat the ol’ heave ho. They made it clear, however, that they were not going to make me special meals. They figured if I was old enough to change my way of eating I could cook for myself. And that’s usually what I did. If it was lasagna night, I would help Mom and make one with meat and one without. Maybe if your parents know that you going vegan is not going to be a burden on them, since I’m sure they are already plenty busy, that may help whether they are supportive or not.

With regards to eating at restaurants, there are always alternatives: sometimes you just have to ask the waiter if they can accommodate you. You have to be creative as well. Going for pizza? Get it without cheese with plain salad instead of ceasar. You can ask for pasta with marinara sauce and a lot of indian dishes are vegan.

I’m suggesting start small however. Giving up all at once is often a recipe for disaster. I would suggest cutting out cheese first, then eggs and eventually milk. Don’t forget their is gelatin (a nasty slaughter house floor product) in lots of candy and desserts so you really have to read ingredients before eating anything.

Feel free to pm me if you want to discuss anything else. Good luck!

[NickiM]

So my parents were really skeptical at first but after I explained my reasons they were more open to it but very concerned about my health. My mom even said she would become vegetarian if I didn’t go vegan but we settled on me starting off being vegan all through the week and on weekends eating some dairy and egg products. They were much more supportive than I thought and I know are just concerned just thought I would keep you guys updated! Also just wondering if certain brands of bread are vegan. Thanks

[hooty22]

Yes, you do need to be very careful that you get enough good calories, vitamins and minerals. I was vegetarian for over a year when I was 15. I looked like death and was so tired. I just wasn’t getting enough of what I needed, plus I was growing SOOOO fast.
I’m now a pescetarian who rarely eats fish, but I’ve found a good balance in my diet with a women’s multivitamin. You just have to be prepared that a lot of people aren’t going to understand your choice. My boyfriend, who has been a vegetarian for 7 years, and myself have found that if you don’t try to influence people to follow your path and just tell them your personal reasons why you chose to do it they are a bit more accepting.
Also, especially if you live in a smaller town, be completely prepared to basically having NO choice of food at restaurants. Lots of things have eggs and dairy in them and most of the time, the server doesn’t know the ingredients in the menu items.
You also need to be careful of your soy intake as too much unfermented soy can affect your estrogen levels.

[MayaConsuelo]

I’m a longtime vegetarian (17 years) and have done sporadic bouts of veganism. I found it terribly difficult to do, maybe my body type is different, I was starving all the time no matter how much I ate. I do exercise quite a bit but I know bodybuilders and marathon runners who are vegan. I think it depends on the person.

One thing you can do, if you’re going to eat eggs and dairy, is to buy from small local farms (farmer’s market in the summer, co-ops in the winter.) They treat their animals better in general. Domesticated animals can’t be released into the wild after all, the best possible life for domesticated farm animals is to live on a farm where they have room to run around and are properly cared for. The products are more expenive but they taste much better. It is difficult to be 100% free of animal products, even the glue used to assemble furniture has animal products in it. But it’s good to try to cut out as much as possible.

You do have to be careful of vitamin and mineral deficiencies as people mentioned already. Over the summer I had a severe iron deficiency (first time that happened) which women in general are prone to anyway. If you don’t feel good on your diet, go to the doctor and get your blood tested. Taking a multivitamin with iron may be enough though.

Also, I know many overweight and unhealthy vegans. When I was younger they were referred to as “candy vegans.” It is possible to be vegan and live on a junk food diet (many breads and high-carb foods, french fries, potato chips, sodas, candies, etc. are all technically vegan.) I’ve gone through phases myself where I live on the “pizza and beer” vegetarian diet. Oops. Not the best.

Good luck!

[Cassi&Charlie]

Hey 🙂 I’m a long term vegetarian and sometimes failed vegan (although I still continue to try).

Being vegetarian while living with non-vegetarians is a commitment because you’ll have to cook yourself food every night and convince your parents to buy you special ingrediants for food. My parents were dead set against helping me, which led to a severe vitamin B12 deficieny…and that led to depression (yes B12 deficieny can cause depression in some people…probably worse when you’re 15!) Even when I moved back in with them recently, they still tormented me and made mean remarks to me all the time. You get used to it eventually but it gets annoying.

Anyway, go for it, it is worth the effort if you get it right. I do occasionally succumb to non-dairy stuff (croissants are my weakness) but for the most part I’ve never been healthier in my life. I have the balance right, have enough iron to be able to regularly donate blood, I do a lot of sport and cycling, and yes, I eat a lot of tofu 🙂 Getting the balance right is the tricky bit though. You’ll have to embrace chickpeas and lentals, mock meats, and home-made everything.

Some things I’ve learnt along the way. Tofutti make amazing vegan chocolate icecream, cream cheese and cheese. Their American style cheese tastes like the one you get on MacDonalds Cheeseburgers and when you make it with a lentil hamburger, tomato, some lettuce and fake cheese, it tastes divine!

Mock meats are really good for those recipes you love like pot roast and duck with plum sauce. Baked beans and scrambled tofu are so yummy for breakfast and really healthy.

Look at some good vegan websites like The Post Punk Kitchen and in my area (Melbourne,, Australia) there are tons of places for vegans to eat.

Good luck!

[bunnyjames]

I would recomend talking with a nutritionist, your doctor could refer you to one. We dont eat eggs or any dairy products in my house or meat BUT i grew up with this kind of lifestlye. I do have to say though that my mom always provided me with all the proper and necessary vitamins, I rarely took supplements. Since this is how I was raised, my 3 yr old also follows the same nutrition, I wouldnt be against her eating meat though. Ive actually tried giving her meat and she doesnt like it, I dont either I dont like the taste of it. When a recepie calls for eggs in it like cake or cookies I will substitute it with something else. My daughter though was a bit under weight so her doctor referred me to a nutritionist and she gave me a list of food that might carry the same nutritional value as the food you are taking away from your diet, so i would highly recomend to talk to a nutrionist. Let me just say though im not vegan because i think its cruel to eat anything that comes from an animal, I grew up eating the way I do and didnt know my diet was any different from anyone else until a friend invited me to dinner over her house, I was about 11 and saw what they ate. I just ate around the meat and just ate the rice and veggies on my plate. My friend and her mom were totally cool about it and just offered me a second serving of vegies and rice.

[angie-la]

like everyone has said, you definitely need to make sure to get your nutrients! at your age you’re still growing and nutrients are vital for your health in the long run. well, for a vegan of any age it would be important to make sure you get all your vitamins and what not.. anywho.

as for your question on eating out, as a restaurant owner and server on the floor I have to admit I get annoyed by vegan customers sometimes =X haha. but it’s nothing personal and I definitely commend you on your decision! but, it can be difficult for restaurants to cater to your diet [and I’m in Berkeley, land of vegans and vegetarians lol]. being vegan means you have to examine each thing–for example, white granulated sugar is not vegan because there’s some sort of gelatin involved in the process. but that’s for super fussy vegans, I’m not sure how far you are trying to take this whole thing. if you’re willing to be a bit lenient then eating at restaurants shouldn’t be much of a problem, plus there are tons of vegan products out there now since this lifestyle is becoming more popular. soy chorizo is amazing and tastes exactly the same! to my knowledge, most restaurant food is cooked in oil rather than butter, but you can always ask them beforehand just to make sure. if you want to branch out and try other cultures and cuisines, most asian food has a lot of vegan options for you. good luck!

[lwayne]

So I’ve been vegetarian for 14 years and the last 4 of those I’ve been vegan.  Yes I still lived with my parents when I decided to become a vegetarian.  They didn’t like the idea and thought it was a phase (it took my Dad 12 years to realize I was vegetarian).  The ‘agreement’ we had was that  would learn all I could about it, make the transition slowly (ended up being over 5 years), and learn how to cook.  So you have to develop a love for cooking (for me it was trying to ‘veganize’ regular recipes). 

 My transition to veganism was also quite slow, over a several year period.  I don’t take vitamins, but make sure I get enough B12 and calcium. (I think I’m pretty healthy, I’m very athletic, go to the doctors every year, and maintain the same weight). The soymilk/ricemilk I buy has those vvits/minerals added.  Nutritional yeast is also very high in vit B12 and other vit Bs, and makes a great cheese subsitute (here’s a recipe: http://veganyumyum.com/2009/09/hurry-up-alfredo-vyy-cookbook/  I add peas and make “mac and peas”). 

I currently live in a very small town in the middle of nowhere, where people don’t even know what vegetarianism is let a lone veganism.  Over the years my friends and coworkers have gotten the hang of me being vegan, but it has taken time.  (When we do pizza parties at work, I they order me my own veggie -no cheese- pizza!).  So for eating out, I mostly say no cheese, no meat, no mayo, and don’t think too much about the rest.  (Not much you can do if they bread they use on their boca burger has milk in it).

So its doable, you just have to want to learn to cook and be willing to sit out those office/school donuts. 

On to recipes:

some of my favorite cookbooks/blogs are http://www.theppk.com cookbooks: vegan cupcakes take over the world, and veganomicon

http://www.vegandad.blogspot.com

and the veganyumyum cookbook

 

Please let me know if you want more info or encouragement.

[MayaConsuelo]

Hey as long as this thread got reanimated I’ll put some more ideas out there. Turning vegetarian really opened a whole world of good food to me (I was raised on typical bland American fare, my mom can’t cook). I learned to cook and exposed myself to many different cuisines. As some other people here mentioned, I never liked the taste of any meat (although meat-eaters never believe me) so giving up meat was super-easy. So here are some of my tips:

1. Get a bunch of cookbooks (or go to the Food Network website where they have basically every recipe in the world.) You can make a lot of recipes that call for meat by modifying with mock meat (soups, stir-frys, etc.) http://www.foodnetwork.com/

2. If you’re into mock meat, try to find a Vietnamese market. The one I go to in Chicago has two whole freezers full of every kind of mock meat. Occasionally Chinese markets will have some of these as well. These will often have loads of sodium, MSG possibly, so watch out if you’re sensitive to that.

3. It’s hard to turn down food without appearing rude. If you’re going to eat over at someone’s house let them know of your dietary requirements far ahead of time, and offer to bring a dish.

4. Some ingredients that are vegan are really really rich and yummy. Some of my favorites are 1. Mushroom stock, which is far richer than regular vegetable stock, and you can find in any high-end grocery store. Use it for pasta, soups, cooking beans, whatever, it’s ridiculously rich. 2. My favorite fake meat is called Gimmee Lean sausage, which is vegan http://www.lightlife.com/product_de…eansausage You can put it on pizzas, fry it up for breakfast, add it to stir-frys, it tastes so much like sausage that meat-eaters don’t even notice it’s not meat. 3. Oils – You need good fat in your diet, so cook everything in olive oil. Adding a different oil towards the end of cooking will enrich the flavor, if doing an Asian dish add toasted sesame oil at the end, Western dishes will taste richer if you add some grapeseed oil or walnut oil at the end of cooking.

5. Dark leafy greens. Eat them! You can share with your rabbit, which is the best part. My favorite is to get a bunch of collard greens, mustard greens, or kale, boil for about 10 minutes, cool and chop, sautee in a pan with olive oil and loads of onion and garlic, dress with a bit of rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, and some grapeseed oil at the end. Obviously you pull out some leaves for the rabbit before you cook up your portion!

Wow I just wrote a book, guess I have nothing else to do

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I’m a long term ovo lacto vegetarian.

I would first caution against judginess either way-whereas the vegans and vegies may condescend on meat eaters and vice versa….MAKE sure you get your complete regimen…see a dietician at 15. I wish I had. I was supposed to be 6’1 and I’md 5’6 lol -maybe not the veggie diet, maybe the sleep problem (GH is made while you sleep) well it’s NOT a good idea to miss anything while you are a teen lol

I would also say if you can aviod being a bad veggie-you know who they are the ones who harp on meat eaters…it’s not fair…people make their own choices and all they do is make veggies look crazy…I’ve found that I’ve actually converted meaties into veggies by NOT trying to.

Remember it’s a personal choice and never judge, just as you do not want to be judged I find I pretend NOT to be a veggie because of what a BAD impression most have made…I avoid eating at work because I don’t want to hear the ‘why aren’t you having chickien’ followed by the dreadful ‘evil veggie’ stories…

I’d love to be a vegan but I guess I missed the ‘cooking ‘ train-no idea how …can’t figure it out. I eat pizza and frozen pasta dinners lol Love to be there with y’all but not happening soon. I’m trying to learn to cook-I even got two vegan recipes published in our cookbook at work but I’m still amateur

[hooty22]

Oh, and seitan and texturized veggie protein (TVP) are amazing. I’ve finally perfected my own seitan recipe to make buffalo wings. Super good. I also managed to put together a very believable salisbury steak.

Also for Christmas, the Tofurkey Roast with ‘Giblet’ gravy is very yummy and easy. I sometimes get a craving for those soul food homemade type meals. Everyone in my family growing up was a fabulous cook. Its still very hard for me to not just pick up the entire turkey and devour it when my grandma pulls it out of the over because it smells so good and there are so many good memories attached to those smells. So my family chows down my gram’s delish turkey and I am very pleasantly fulfilled with my Tofurkey.

I also just came across and AMAZING cookbook. Although I’m not vegan, Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero is amazing. I just made her mole sauce and it was divine.

Oh, and you want to look for vegetarian vitamins. Most vitamins are made with gelatin.

[MayaConsuelo]

I do agree it’s best not to be strident when talking to other about vegetarianism. If anything I have the opposite problem, people hassling me for NOT eating meat, not believing that aside from the moral component I don’t even like the way it tasted, etc. I used to volunteer with a really good vegan group called Mercy for Animals. http://mercyforanimals.org/ Their focus is on education, and uncover investigations of cruelty towards farm animals. We’d hand out information and do protests but they were always very respectful. They used to be only local to Chicago and Ohio I believe but now are branching out across the country more.

[Monkeybun]

I can’t tell you how annoying it is when vegans and vegetarians get on my case for eating meat I just tell the annoying ones to quit starving my bunnie then, they keep eating all their food. lol

[LittlePuffyTail]

I don’t hassle people but I can’t help but state facts sometimes. Like if someone I know is going to eat at KFC I feel they should know about the utterly disgusting torture their chicken goes through. I feel if you can hear the facts and watch videos like “Meet your Meat” and still eat meat, then that’s fine, but if you can’t watch stuff like that but refuse to give meat up, it’s turning a blind eye and that’s what really bugs me.

[MayaConsuelo]

Ha ha, you just reminded me of another pet peeve of mine… people that claim to be vegetarian but still eat chicken or fish. You can say you’re mostly vegetarian or something like that, and it’s admirable to try to cut as much meat as possible out of your diet, but you can’t say you’re vegetarian. You might as well say, “oh I’m vegetarian but I still eat steak.” Huh? Even worse, I went to school with a girl who was somewhat overbearing about being super-healthy and claimed to be a vegan, but she still ate FISH. I can’t tell you how many times I tried to tell her she wasn’t a vegan and wasn’t even a vegetarian and she’d say “but I don’t eat dairy products.” Um yeah but fish are ANIMALS. I don’t understand how her brain allowed her to justify that one… LOL.

[Monkeybun]

I very very rarely wat any kind of fast food, and all the meat we get is local, so I vaguely know where it is coming from.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I don’t hassle people but I can’t help but state facts sometimes. Like if someone I know is going to eat at KFC I feel they should know about the utterly disgusting torture their chicken goes through. I feel if you can hear the facts and watch videos like “Meet your Meat” and still eat meat, then that’s fine, but if you can’t watch stuff like that but refuse to give meat up, it’s turning a blind eye and that’s what really bugs me.

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1765

I dropped the kfc thing when Peta won on Canada KFC. Before that-for my parents at least…I told them to boycott and I found a kfc thing in the fridge so I did do terrible things-put the kfc peta pics on their computer-so they would understand. But I believe anyone who knew what was up wouldn’t eat there as part of the boycott. But I think we won in Canada at least. And McDonalds, BK and WEndy’s have all increased standards of welfare for animals.

[LittlePuffyTail]

K&K- I am pleased with the fact that KFC (mostly to get PETA off their back but still,) now offer a veggie sandwich at most of their locations. McDonald’s really need a veggie burger. I hate fast food places that the only vegetarian options are a side salad or fries. A few weeks ago my bf really wanted A&W so I said okay and asked for a Mama Burger with no meat. They looked at me like I was an alien wearing a tutu! I said just make the bun up with the sauce, pickles, etc and leave the meat off. It turned out to be this gigantic deal. I kept saying I would pay the same price as if it had meat but they took like 15 minutes to find something cheaper they could charge me for with the people behind me clearly getting annoyed. You shouldn’t have to feel embarrassed asking for vegetarian options.

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