Going Vegan?

Question

I have being a vegetarian (no meat, fish etc) for 20yrs but would like to become vegan, but I love cheese, yogot eggs so I think I will find it very hard, has anyone on here gone from veggie to vegan and how did you cope, do you feel better for it ?

Answer 1

There are a number of vegan cheeses.Some are horrible but some are really nice so try a few and see if there's one you like.Some also melt like dairy cheese and can be used to make vegan pizzas etc.

Vegan yoghurts are pretty much impossible to tell from dairy ones-I couldn't taste much difference when I became vegan anyway.

Eggs are trickier.You can make an excellent alternative to scrambled eggs using soft tofu and there are vegan alternatives to using eggs in baking etc.However if you love boiled or fried eggs it is different-there are no vegan substitutes for them.

Your decision at the end of the day.

Answer 2

You sound alot like me. I've been veggie for 19 years and have wanted to become vegan for a while now. Today was my first day so it's a little too early to report if there are any benefits to how I feel. I did have some cravings but I managed to keep them at bay with some vegan substitutes (chocolate and cheese!!). You can get vegan versions of most dairy foods in health stores.

I think it's inevitable that choosing and buying food will be a little more difficult at first but I'm sure once you've been eating this way for a while, it'll become second nature, just like I'd imagine being veggie has.

Good luck in making the transition!

Answer 3

Cheese is a toughie--it keeps a lot of people from going vegan. I'm lucky I was never a cheese freak. Maybe it's why I went vegan just a few months after going vegetarian. Follow Your Heart is pretty good for melting on pizzas and in casseroles.

Whole Soy & Company makes great vegan yogurt; it's only 99 cents at my local Whole Foods and $1.19 at my local natural foods store. I wouldn't get the Stonyfield O'Soy, as it's not vegan; the label says it contains milk ingredients.

As for eggs, it depends on if you are using them for baking or for eating. If you bake, get yourself a box of Ener-G Egg Replacer, a mix of starches and leavening. For each egg, you use 1/2 tbsp of Replacer and 2 tbsp of water and mix very well before adding to the batter. If that isn't your cuppa, many vegan cookbooks will give you tips on replacing eggs. If you like scrambled eggs, you can make a tasty tofu scramble with turmeric and whatever other seasonings and veggies you like.

For ice cream, check out Turtle Island's Purely Decadent, So Delicious, and Soy Delicious; Temptation Soy Dairy (dedicated vegan machinery--yay!), Soy Dream, Rice Dream, and Tofutti. Tofutti, in fact, makes a lot of products that are "accidentally" vegan. They're geared toward the lactose intolerant, not vegans, so do check the labels.

In fact, check the labels for EVERYTHING.

Check out www.vegweb.com for recipes and tips and tricks.

Check out www.happycow.net and www.vegdining.com for restaurants in your area.

And for good reading, check out "Skinny B!tch" by Kim Barnouin and Rory Friedman. It's got some salty language, but in the back is a list of vegan packaged foods that just might make it easier for you.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I was also a cheese addict. I have started leaning more toward vegan at home in the past few years. When I go out to dinner, cheese and eggs are acceptable on the menu for me. At home, I purchase fake cheese, soy yogurt and soy dairy products. I occasionally purchase eggs, (free range or organic) but I often use either egg substitutes or eggs from people I know who raise egg chickens humanely.
Soy yogurt is hard. Silk is close, Stonyfield Farms soy yogurt tastes chalky. It's perhaps easier if you look for the sour milk smell and taste in dairy yogurt to loose your love for it, as well as calculating the saturated fat content. Cutting down is a great compromise until you are ready to let go. My personal journey so far is not to be vegan, but to be closer to vegan than not.

Answer 5

I was also lacto-ovo veg for 20 years before going vegan last month. I told myself for a looooong time that I just couldn't do without cheese but I'd done a lot of reading and I was really ready to do it. I have been eating so well this last month or so, and trying so many new recipes that I have had no reason to miss cheese at all. I don't really feel any different physically since I never had any problems digesting dairy, but I do feel good about my decision emotionally and spiritually. I recommend getting yourself a few good cookbooks and just making a goal of trying it out for 30 days to see how it suits you. "Vegan with a Vengeance" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is great - I haven't had one bad thing out of it and even my omnivore boyfriend is liking everything we've tried. "How it All Vegan!" by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer is good, too - they have lots of recipes for homemade vegan substitutes (mayo, feta, parmesan, etc...)

Answer 6

Just do it. I went full vegan after my 2nd year as a vegetarian I love it. Ya it will be hard for a little bit without cheese and stuff, but think of all the baby cows you'll save.
Good luck!

Answer 7

Had the same problem! Those chocolate and cheese cravings are a killer! =/
I tried it out for a week to see how I'd cope and I gotta admit, I cracked =[ You can by Vegan alternatives, for example; to curb the chocolate cravings you can get things like vegan muffins, cakes and chocolate mousses =D And they taste the same as the real thing! Unfortunately, twice the price so you might want to get this kind of stuff sparingly.
I've heard you can get alternatives for cheese and things as well although I've never seen these.
Anyways, to answer your question, it felt tons better! It's just so damn hard! =[

Answer 8

Or, you could go the other way and wean yourself back on to the human diet of meat.

Answer 9

If you're doing it for moral reasons, don't bother. Millions of animals are slaughtered every year due to the harvesting of grains and other crops.
http://web.archive.org/web/20041107084521/eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/news/food/vegan.html

Answer 10

well you really shouldn't give up your dairy so, read my mind and keep eating meat!


MEAT ROCKS!