Should I be a Vegan?

Question

I'm already a Vegetarian, but I'm thinking about Veganism.
Is there enough products on the market?

Answer 1

Yes if your in the UK there are lots of vegan foods available in health food shops and most large supermarkets.


Ignore the people saying eggs and milk products are not cruel. Egg-laying hens are forced to lay constantly and never allowed to hatch and rear their chicks,this causes calcium deprivation and they die young and end up as cheap chicken in supermarkets.

Dairy foods are cruel as dairy cows are kept constantly in milk by being kept pregnant.Their calves are taken away at a few days old which causes huge distress to both cow and calf. Female calves are reared for milk but most males are killed as they will never be much good for beef as the dairy breeds never get as bulky as the beef breeds. The cows are killed at 6 or 7 when they would naturally live far longer.Their milk producing ability goes as they get older.

And honey is not fair on the bees.It is stored by them as winter food not to feed greedy humans.

Answer 2

Should you be vegan...well I don't know...should you? That is more a personal decision you'll have to make based on your own reasons for wanting to go vegan. Are there enough products on the market...totally! Now, depending on where you live it might make it a little inconvenient to just run down to the local Whole Foods or Wild Oats for something but the internet has so many online stores to buy all your vegan cooking and living needs from detergent to marshmallows.

As for some of the other answers about how hard it is to be vegan...it's really not that hard. I've been vegan for over 7 years now and it just gets easier and easier. Now as health consciousness spreads and this whole obesity problem gets worse-you see more and more products out there to appeal to the person looking to make themself more healthy. Bigger corporate chain markets like Ralphs, Vons, etc are stocking meat alternative products which prior to the last couple years never would have been seen on their shelves.

Your palette will adjust in time to what you feed it, not to mention your body will lose the ability to process certain foods. Case in point, depending on how long you've been vegetarian, if you were to eat a steak or hamburger-you most likely would not feel very well and might even vomit the stuff out. Your body no longer has the ability to break down animal proteins found in beef.
Another thing to factor in is really your health...honestly you either eat meat or you don't. Being in between isn't necessarily better than not eating meat. Eggs and dairy and cheese are really not that healthy and as for the reasoning that it's the protein...yes you get protein but how about some cholesterol as well. I know many very unhealthy vegetarians who live off cheese and eggs and are no better off health wise than a meat eater. This is not to say that all vegetarians are unhealthy nor is it to say that you can't be vegetarian and healthy...it is simply an observation and from personal experience. Depending on your vegetarian diet, it is possible to actually be more unhealthy than those who eat chicken or fish and even beef.

Overall, do some thinking...why did you become vegetarian...was it for health, religious, animal rights, etc? Then figure out the pros and cons...and go for whatever it is you choose. But know that either way-you'll have plenty of options to choose from to survive.

Answer 3

Provding you can get to a reasonable size supermarket, you should find everything you need there, soya milk and deserts, beans and lentils, etc. If you have a health food store nearby you might have more variety of 'treats'.
I think being vegan is more about the time commitment- to reading ingredients- many items contain lactose and other milk by products, and to cooking from scratch most of the time as many items contain milk by products.
If your unsure, why not just give it a go, if you find it difficult, yo ucan always give it up for a while it's not a life time commitment.
My main problem is that it's not easy just to go for lunch with friends on the spur of the moment etc, yo uhave to drag them round many places until you find somewhere you can eat something, adn even then it's often something boring. And not having a slice of someone else's birthday cake, I just felt like a party pooper.
I eat very few dairy products, but I don't refuse all now mainly on the basis of sociability, none of my friends are even veggie

Answer 4

It can be a difficult transition. I suggest taking steps. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, and if you are not properly knowledgeable on how to shop and what is out there, you can be left thinking you have no food.

If you are in it for animal cruelty, then veganism should be a goal for you. Milk is tied into the meat industry. Dairy cows live their lives in constant pain and torture. They are constantly forced to be pregnant, and their babies are taken from them at birth and chained down to make veal. The babies never get their mother's milk, but are instead fed a pureed, cannibal diet of the dead cows that are not allowed to be fed to people.

How we get eggs is abhorrent and disgusting as well.

I personally in the process of changing my house into a vegan household. When I am outside of my house, I may have some dairy, and I do not eat any kind of eggs. You have a long life, and many people are vegetarians for over a decade before they fully make the switch.

So feel proud of your accomplishments thus far and take out another product as you feel comfortable doing so.

Here is list of accidentally vegan products. You should read the labels because this isn't always correct.
http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/

Answer 5

Well, first I have to say something to the first person who answered. Thre IS a problem with dairy cows and eating dairy. You say that it is not KILLING the cow, but what is worse dying fast or suffering a slow death. Because that is exactly what dairy cows experience! Try watching more documenteries on what they do to these pour animals. If the cow is female they take it and milk the sh*t out of it, then inpregnate it and take away it's babies. ( And the baby cows whine for their mother) Then when the cow is is diseesed and sick and not useful for milk anymore they send it straight to the slaughter house. Now for the male baby cows they either fatten them up and slaughter them OR they put the babies in tiny, (VERY tiny cages) so that the babies bones wont grow and leave it there for months and months untill the bones are soft enough to become veal.
Alot of people are ignorant to this knoledge but if you do enough research you'll find the REAL truth.
Now for the question, Thre are lots of beans, lentils, and nuts for protein sources and you vcan also get veggie meats which are sold everywhere, but htere are kore choices at health food stores.
Eat tons of fruits and vegatables. And get lots of protein sources.

Answer 6

Being a vegan is hard. Remember you can't eat anything with eggs, dairy, gelatin (and if you get real technical, honey) in it. As for there being enough products on the market, you can pretty much say goodbye to any kind of prepared food product you would get at the grocery store, as they can contain these products and unless you know how to read an ingredients label with all the technical gobbldeegook terms they use or it is specifically labled vegan, you'll have to stay away from these products and cook all your own whole foods from scratch.
A lot of "Natural Flavorings" in precessed foods are actually meat based, and even sugar is often times filtered through animal bones, so white and brown sugars are not even really vegetarian in some cases! Check out this website to see where meat and animal byproducts are actually used in foods you would think are vegetarian...http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/OtherInfo/Vegetarian-Food-Alert-Newsletter.htm
That means staying way from most restaurants as well.
Health-wise, you will have to be sure to take a vitamin B-12 supplement as well as calcium since these are things you can really only get from eating meat or animal byproducts, and a lot of vegans use brewer's yeast as a supplement as well.
It's a tough lifestyle that you have to be dedicated to, but good luck!

Answer 7

I completely agree with the people whom have rallied around the fact that cows that give milk (forced, that is), IS torture. If I had a choice, I'd rather be killed instantly, than slowly tortured, living in filthy, cramped quarters, cysts, no exercise, etc. That's absolutely disgusting and it makes me cry everytime I think of it. To assume that cows that are "just milked" or chickens that "just lay eggs" is OK and not harmful--is ludicrous, and obviously shows the ignorance of the person thinking such.

The History Channel will show unbiased footage of how meat is made, how eggs are pumped out of birds, etc. I get so angry at people whom assume that PETA embellishes how animals are treated. I find it sickenly funny that we refuse to face the actual selfishness and "profit over principle" behavior of us oh-so-smart and caring humans that we claim we are.

So, my retaliation back is for them to watch my taped shows from the History Channel, which has nothing to do with PETA (i.e., no supposed embellishment). They show what the real deal is (PETA does, too, but some people disagree), and this usually shuts the ignorant person up. I asked my mom if she'd like to see how bacon is made, and she refused to. I guess people would rather just believe in their fantasy world that the cute little colorful strips of floppy material came from some magical machine, and not an animal that screamed for its life and had its back stripped for the bacon...

The reality is we use and abuse animals for our selfish needs. We can easily thrive without hurting animals; we just choose not to. We're not living in the days of using muskets to blast a deer or buffalo and drag it home to the "wifey," so she can feed the "youngens." This is 2007--we've got plenty of information, access and variety/alternatives to live a vegan lifestyle.

Answer 8

I am vegetarian. I found a local dairy farm that has raw milk products from happy, pampered cows. They nurse their calves and the rest is sold as raw milk, I use raw butter, raw cream and raw cheese. Perhaps this might be a less restrictive option for you. I was vegan for awhile, but was really missing my dairy products. I am in a cow share program (I own part of the cow) My cows name is Abigail, and my 12 year old daughter and I consider her milk to be her gift to us-it is wonderful. We often go to the farm and pet her and thank her for providing us with more food choices. Other than that, we dont use any other animal by products or clothing or things made from harming animals.

Answer 9

It can be hard at first, but if you know how to cook - it's easy. You can make all kinds of "dairy" things that are vegan... mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, mac n' cheese... anything you want really. Just have a good stock of tofu and get yourself some nutrional yeast (health store). Here's a bunch of recipes:

http://vegweb.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=19cb5d0e47779ece171e6cd77c3c5bf9&action=recipes

For anything else like mayo or sour cream, just type in "recipe vegan sour cream" on google.

Answer 10

Yes..there are enough veggies, fruits, grains, nuts and legumes available to buy. If you are talking about prepared items, many natural food stores have replacements for almost everything. Boca has a vegan burger, whole wheat pasta is vegan, earth balance spread is vegan and so on.