Lets talk about Veganism

Judgeneo · 12 Jan 2018 at 14:48

I've recently been persuaded by a friend to give veganism a go, and am currently cutting down on my animal products before going full no-turkey sometime later in the year. Has anyone else made the jump, any tips on cooking and eating out?

I don't really care about others who do choose to eat meat, its a personal choice for me that I'm making as over time I lost the argument with a close friend on the morality of eating animal products when so many modern alternatives available. Also I'm pretty sure the dietary arguments (for and against) are overblown, so I'm really only looking for great tasting and filling foods, rather than low calorie, low fat foods.

FrenchTart · 12 Jan 2018 at 16:04

If you're going full vegan (rather than vegetarian) then you definitely do need to be careful of your diet so I would recommend serious research on that front. At the very least ensure you're eating a mixture of protein sources ("complete" protein common in animal products is not at all common outside of them) and take vitamin B12 supplements. The supposed positive benefits are indeed overblown and often compare a decent vegan diet to a poor non-vegan one.

Eating out isn't as hard as it once was though you're still going to find that you have more limited options than your non-vegan dining companions. In most cities there's usually a handful of decent purely vegan places that are worth checking out too. Also be careful in non-vegan places because it's extremely likely that meals that don't explicitly state they're vegan have butter or something similar added. Then again, depending on your reasoning, you may decide that it really doesn't matter if you do accidentally consume a non-vegan product.

I personally find the arguments for veganism not at all compelling but to each their own

(sorry, couldn't resist at least mentioning that once...)

There's plenty of decent vegan recipes on SeriousEats. I quite like the look of the peanut curry/soup and blackbean burger recipes below:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...ed-vegan-peanut-sweet-potato-soup-recipe.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/the-best-black-bean-burger-recipe.html

If you're in Manchester sometime check out Greens for decent vegan food and VRev for vegan junk food (i.e. burgers, etc). Greens is by far a better choice but I was actually impressed by how good the vegan cheese they serve at VRev was.

Also, most important tip of all - steer clear of faux meat products. Nearly all of them are cack.

FrenchTart · 12 Jan 2018 at 16:08

Another pro-looking recipe:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/02/...mushroom-bacon-vegan-experience-food-lab.html

And BBQ pulled mushrooms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWMIpdhlVZY

Glaucus · 12 Jan 2018 at 16:56

as said you really need to do some research.
most natural forms of protein on a vegan diet are not complete. its why in south America beans are eaten with corn tortillas, this forms complete protein.
plant omega 3 has to be converted in the body and aren't nearly as efficient as fish oils.
B12
vitamin d deficiency is much higher in vegans.

amongst other things. modern research does not support the old studies, and find vegans less healthy overall.
sure you can do it, but it requires some knowledge and planing.
of course if you are comparing it to normal crap diet then you want have to do much off anything.

spicy bean burgers for the win, also look at recipes from places like india which are heavily vegetarian and many recipes could be easily modified.
l

Skillmister · 12 Jan 2018 at 17:39

I recently dated someone who, while not veggie/vegan, was both lactose and dairy intolerant. It really opened my eyes to how easy (albeit way more expensive!) it is to avoid certain foods. She could even eat in Pizza Express and it wasn't actually that bad..

Cleisthenes · 12 Jan 2018 at 17:45

Moses said:
She’s not worth the effort!

This tbh.

I could do vegetarianism but not the full vegan.

Judgeneo · 12 Jan 2018 at 21:32

Glaucus said:
as said you really need to do some research.
most natural forms of protein on a vegan diet are not complete. its why in south America beans are eaten with corn tortillas, this forms complete protein.
plant omega 3 has to be converted in the body and aren't nearly as efficient as fish oils.
B12
vitamin d deficiency is much higher in vegans.

amongst other things. modern research does not support the old studies, and find vegans less healthy overall.
sure you can do it, but it requires some knowledge and planing.
of course if you are comparing it to normal crap diet then you want have to do much off anything.

spicy bean burgers for the win, also look at recipes from places like india which are heavily vegetarian and many recipes could be easily modified.
l

FrenchTart said:
If you're going full vegan (rather than vegetarian) then you definitely do need to be careful of your diet so I would recommend serious research on that front. At the very least ensure you're eating a mixture of protein sources ("complete" protein common in animal products is not at all common outside of them) and take vitamin B12 supplements. The supposed positive benefits are indeed overblown and often compare a decent vegan diet to a poor non-vegan one.

Eating out isn't as hard as it once was though you're still going to find that you have more limited options than your non-vegan dining companions. In most cities there's usually a handful of decent purely vegan places that are worth checking out too. Also be careful in non-vegan places because it's extremely likely that meals that don't explicitly state they're vegan have butter or something similar added. Then again, depending on your reasoning, you may decide that it really doesn't matter if you do accidentally consume a non-vegan product.

I personally find the arguments for veganism not at all compelling but to each their own (sorry, couldn't resist at least mentioning that once...)

There's plenty of decent vegan recipes on SeriousEats. I quite like the look of the peanut curry/soup and blackbean burger recipes below:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...ed-vegan-peanut-sweet-potato-soup-recipe.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/the-best-black-bean-burger-recipe.html

If you're in Manchester sometime check out Greens for decent vegan food and VRev for vegan junk food (i.e. burgers, etc). Greens is by far a better choice but I was actually impressed by how good the vegan cheese they serve at VRev was.

Also, most important tip of all - steer clear of faux meat products. Nearly all of them are cack.

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

I'm aware that vitamin supplements are a must for most vegans so I'll have to take some of them, which I don't see as a massive deal tbh. I don't mind accidentally consuming a bit of dairy or similar when out and about either, I don't think I could ever being a moral puritan about the whole thing.

Moses said:
She’s not worth the effort!

Haha, the friend is a she, but you're right shes not worth the effort, being a lezza and all

FrenchTart · 12 Jan 2018 at 22:14

I don't see the fact you have to be conscious about what you eat as a bad thing - lots of people could do with learning about it. Similar for supplements. I take lots of things that improve health so adding another one wouldn't be a big deal.

On that note: https://examine.com

Lartyconshayo · 13 Jan 2018 at 00:24

Nutritional yeast is good for flavour and b-vits

Tuppy_Glossop · 13 Jan 2018 at 07:14

Marmite, for all your B vit needs.

bloodiedathame · 13 Jan 2018 at 07:19

I do vegan/veggie diet during the week then back to normal at the weekend. It's not that tricky doing vegetarian meals but vegan is much more work (though my wife bought some delicious vegan ready meals home from Tesco last night).

flea.rider · 13 Jan 2018 at 07:37

with the huge drop in minerals and vitamins in our veg due to mass production are you sure you want to go down that path ?
then again with all the hormones and antibiotics there pumping into our meat I can see why ..
I try to eat organic even meat yes more expensive but def better value
btw your body is designed to eat small amounts of meat ..

TallPaul1878 · 13 Jan 2018 at 08:57

I met a joiner on site who was vegan. He was a cracking lad although a bit "out there" with his beliefs. But he convinced me to give vegan a go and so I did for 2 weeks.

I went online because I had no idea what a good vegan diet should be like and I hit up a website called All Plants. Anyway they do proper meals ready to go that you either pop in the microwave or bake in the oven. I enjoyed all of the meals and would definitely eat them all again, it was just very expensive for what it was and you couldn't go your whole life spending that kind of money.

The meals were all nutritionally balanced and the majority of proteins were provided by nuts and beans. I've never eaten so many different beans in one sitting.

I'd recommend them if only to get an idea of what a balanced vegan meal looks like, all the recipes were very tasty so if you're not a fussy eater then you'd likely enjoy them as I did.

I didn't stick to a vegan diet, I enjoy meat and dairy too much. But I do believe that we are all eating too much processed meat and dairy. If we cut back on that, eat much more fruits and vegetables, only eat better quality meats on the weekend say then we will all be a lot healthier for it.

bloodiedathame · 13 Jan 2018 at 09:52

TallPaul1878 said:
If we cut back on that, eat much more fruits and vegetables, only eat better quality meats on the weekend say then we will all be a lot healthier for it.

Never a truer word said, and a positive impact on the environment would be noticable too.

flea.rider · 13 Jan 2018 at 19:13

bloodiedathame said:
positive impact on the environment would be noticable too.

how so ?? you would need twice as much area to produce all the veg ? so down would come more trees ..you'd still need the cows for fertilizer ..organic a lot better than what there putting on at the moment ..
strange how people think that ..

Dunners · 13 Jan 2018 at 19:34

flea.rider said:
how so ?? you would need twice as much area to produce all the veg ? so down would come more trees ..you'd still need the cows for fertilizer ..organic a lot better than what there putting on at the moment ..
strange how people think that ..

You’d have loads of spare land - not having to grow stuff to feed all the animals you were no longer eating as many of.

bloodiedathame · 13 Jan 2018 at 22:02

flea.rider said:
how so ?? you would need twice as much area to produce all the veg ? so down would come more trees ..you'd still need the cows for fertilizer ..organic a lot better than what there putting on at the moment ..
strange how people think that ..

Something mad like 1/2 of all crops go to produce all the world's meat, and the meat is the equivalent in mass of 1/6 of all of crops. You basically waste 1/3 of all crops by feeding animals for human consumption. Then there's methane from cows, animal welfare issues etc etc.

flea.rider · 13 Jan 2018 at 23:00

https://qz.com/749443/being-vegan-isnt-as-environmentally-friendly-as-you-think/
https://www.fastcompany.com/3062238...ficient-for-the-planet-than-an-omnivorous-one

bloodiedathame · 14 Jan 2018 at 01:14

flea.rider said:
https://qz.com/749443/being-vegan-isnt-as-environmentally-friendly-as-you-think/
https://www.fastcompany.com/3062238...ficient-for-the-planet-than-an-omnivorous-one

Interesting, both reference the same study by Elementa. I'd probably put myself in the Omnivorous 20/40 at the moment. This is all based on land efficiency though and doesn't take into consideration animal waste etc.

Regy53 · 14 Jan 2018 at 16:54

Interesting thread in the last few years we have found ourselves eating less mean, and to be fair if we make a curry or fajitas at home i prefer vegetable ones.

I couldn't go complete, I do like my dairy also i am a bit of a burger enthusiast to no idea how that could work but I i think the idea of giving up meat etc in the week is a good one