Vegan/vegetarians

I have been a veggie all my life, raised one :) I wouldn't eat mean ever though.
I wanna try and become vegan as well. See how that turns out :)

I am vegetarian because eating the flesh of innocent animals is inconciderate.

I'm a vegetarian and I'm proud of it.
I could never become a vegan though. It'd be too difficult!

I've been a vegetarian for about two years and I'm trying to go vegan. I've given up eggs in September and so far it hasn't been too bad, but I'm giving up dairy the week after next week and I think it'll test both my determination and my cooking skills since I don't really like dairy substitutes, but my current diet is very cheeses-and-yogurt-based.

^ What have you tried in terms of dairy substitutes? IIRC you're in the UK, so I don't know to what extent the same things are available to us, but around here there's substitutes I personally like for basically every dairy product except hard white cheeses. Soy cheddar is definitely an acquired taste, though.

vaginasaurus:

^ What have you tried in terms of dairy substitutes? IIRC you're in the UK, so I don't know to what extent the same things are available to us, but around here there's substitutes I personally like for basically every dairy product except hard white cheeses. Soy cheddar is definitely an acquired taste, though.

I've tried soy soft cheese, soy mozzarella and several kinds of soy milk, but I didn't like them, I probably should have tried harder. It's mainly the alien smell that I don't like, especially with the milk. The taste's okay, but I need to put some sort of strong spice in it to mask the soy smell to be able to drink it.

^ You might try different kinds of plant milk, too -- almond, coconut and rice are the most common besides soy in the US, I don't know whether that's true in the UK. I've also heard rumors that oat milk is available in some places, although I've never seen it.

When I was first going off dairy several years ago, the only soymilk brands I could tolerate were Silk and 8th Continent, and it still took me a few months to get used to the aftertaste enough to drink it out of a glass as opposed to just having it with cereal. And I *hated* soy mozzarella the last time I tried it -- you're definitely not alone there XD

Silk also makes soy yogurt -- I like the strawberry kind best -- and there's coconut milk yogurt available from several companies in the US. Have you tried Tofutti cream cheese? I like it a lot -- I prefer Vegan Gourmet, but only slightly, and I'm not sure that's available in the UK.

vaginasaurus:

^ You might try different kinds of plant milk, too -- almond, coconut and rice are the most common besides soy in the US, I don't know whether that's true in the UK. I've also heard rumors that oat milk is available in some places, although I've never seen it.

When I was first going off dairy several years ago, the only soymilk brands I could tolerate were Silk and 8th Continent, and it still took me a few months to get used to the aftertaste enough to drink it out of a glass as opposed to just having it with cereal. And I *hated* soy mozzarella the last time I tried it -- you're definitely not alone there XD

Silk also makes soy yogurt -- I like the strawberry kind best -- and there's coconut milk yogurt available from several companies in the US. Have you tried Tofutti cream cheese? I like it a lot -- I prefer Vegan Gourmet, but only slightly, and I'm not sure that's available in the UK.

Ohh I've had coconut milk and it's really nice, I just never thought of it as not a special dessert. I want to try almond milk and oat milk (which I've seen in shops here) too, though my main problem is that I need a milk with fortified calcium which I really like because I have a bit of a mineral deficiency issue and I'm supposed to be drinking/eating at least two glasses of milk or yogurt a day. That's my reasoning for leaning towards soy too since it's been proven that soy's great at getting calcium to stay in your system.

I don't live that close to massive supermarkets, so I don't have easy access to a huge variety of vegan products, but I've found out that there's a nice very vegan-friendly organic food shop near where I will and I'll try there.

I've been a vegetarian for a year and a half now and I've attempted going vegan on and off throughout the year.
It got to be a little tough and I ended up giving up on going completely vegan.
I still rarely drink milk, due to slight lactose-intolerance and my love of vanilla almond milk, and I only eat eggs on occasion. But cheese is my one love and it's been ridiculously hard to give up.
The day I can give up cheese will be the day I can go completely vegan.

When I bake, however, I still try and do it the vegan way. I find the baking tastes better and lots of the recipes are jammed with lots of healthy, yummy things that you don't always find in normal baking.

I would still love to go vegan one day, I felt amazing the month and a half I tried it, but I'll probably wait until I move out of my house.

I do not understand how quorn chicken nuggets taste EXACTLY like real ones. The texture and everything, it's crazy. They're a recent discovery of mine, and they're so tasty. Very handy when I can't be bothered to cook properly too. :3

I tried going vegan for a week once, and it just didn't happen. It would be easier to try now I'm living out of home, because I could buy substitutes, but I'm not sure if I could handle it... I love my milk, and it would be virtually impossible to eat out anywhere, and I'd just feel terribly awkward.

About nine months ago when I first decided to go Veg, my mom laughed so hard she fell out of her seat.

I've been one since- so, ha, jokes on her.

pulmonary archery.:

I do not understand how quorn chicken nuggets taste EXACTLY like real ones. The texture and everything, it's crazy. They're a recent discovery of mine, and they're so tasty. Very handy when I can't be bothered to cook properly too. :3

I tried going vegan for a week once, and it just didn't happen. It would be easier to try now I'm living out of home, because I could buy substitutes, but I'm not sure if I could handle it... I love my milk, and it would be virtually impossible to eat out anywhere, and I'd just feel terribly awkward.

Yeah, the eating out is what gets me as far as being legitimately vegan. And bread. I'll never give up bread, I enjoy it too much.

Kurtni Klaus:

Yeah, the eating out is what gets me as far as being legitimately vegan. And bread. I'll never give up bread, I enjoy it too much.

Why would you have to give up bread to be vegan? I know some kinds of bread have milk, butter or animal fat in them, but not all.

kafka.:

Why would you have to give up bread to be vegan? I know some kinds of bread have milk, butter or animal fat in them, but not all.

Yeast is a living organism so some people (admittedly they're always non-vegans, I've never actually heard of a vegan who was all 'omg think of the yeast') think bread-production is immoral/against vegan values because the yeast dies in the process. But I always thought the point of veganism was eschewing animal products and I wouldn't consider yeast an animal.

Matt Smith:

kafka.:

Why would you have to give up bread to be vegan? I know some kinds of bread have milk, butter or animal fat in them, but not all.

Yeast is a living organism so some people (admittedly they're always non-vegans, I've never actually heard of a vegan who was all 'omg think of the yeast') think bread-production is immoral/against vegan values because the yeast dies in the process. But I always thought the point of veganism was eschewing animal products and I wouldn't consider yeast an animal.

That's so weird. Mushrooms are among my absolute favourite foods, but since although they're different from plants, they're most definitely not animals and can't feel pain not eating them never crossed my mind.

kafka.:

That's so weird. Mushrooms are among my absolute favourite foods, but since although they're different from plants, they're most definitely not animals and can't feel pain not eating them never crossed my mind.

I'd say anything from the kingdom animalia counts as something a vegan can't eat.

Seeing as neither mushrooms nor yeast are in kingdom animalia, they're probably safe to eat.

fool's paradise:

I'd say anything from the kingdom animalia counts as something a vegan can't eat.

Seeing as neither mushrooms nor yeast are in kingdom animalia, they're probably safe to eat.

Mushrooms

I don't know, I guess it depends on if you consider vegans to not eat/use any animal products or to only use plants. I've just always seen yeast brought up (evidently it's not as common of a belief as I thought), but in terms of animal products it really doesn't make sense to include.

I know being vegan affects what you can eat, but does it affect anything else?
I mean like the cosmetics you can use and that kind of thing.

^ Vegan's don't use any animal bi-products like leather, and most, if not all, avoid anything that involves animal testing, so it does effect other every day things like clothes, cosmetics, and even medications.

I've been a vegetarian for 11 years now :) x