Whenever you are new to something or confused, questions arise. Read the top vegan questions answered!
Whether you are new to veganism or you are just looking for an article to send to someone else, in this post we have the top vegan questions answered.
Veganism is more than a diet, it’s a lifestyle. That means that it doesn’t just cover what you eat, but what you put on your body, what you wear, what organizations you support, where you will eat, what household purchases you will make, and so much more.
Most people, however, especially in the beginning, focus on the most obvious. Food.
And once you start telling people that you are vegan or plant based, ohhhh how the questions come. Honestly, these may be some of the same questions that you had years prior to being a vegan or if you are a new vegan, you may be wondering these questions yourself.
We’d also encourage you to check out our Top 10 Tips for Going Vegan.
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Top Vegan Questions Answered
But where do you get your protein?
We’re just going to start off with the #1 question that gets asks over and over and over again.
Some of the strongest animals eat only plants – ox, gorillas, elephants, rhinos. That means that humans can too adequately.
Protein comes from nuts, tempeh, beans, tofu, seitan, and more. In fact, many plants themselves have plenty of protein. There are numerous ways for humans to get enough protein that it’s really not a concern at all as long as you eat a balanced diet.
Is it hard to be vegan?
You may look at a list of things you are giving up – milk, dairy, eggs, meat, cheese, ice cream and think that it would be way to hard. Most people who are now vegan also once said that to themselves.
But what do you eat?
Everything. We eat the exact same things, just made with plants instead of animals. There are over a dozen plant based milk alternatives now, and the market is constantly churning out new plant based burgers, cheeses, ice creams, and more.
There is literally a vegan alternative for just about every non-vegan food out there.
See our Top 10 Tips for Going Vegan.
Vegan food seems more expensive. Is it?
Vegan eating on a budget is a real thing. Not only that, but vegan food doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, our own family of four budgets just about $100 a week for 3 meals a day plus snacks eating on a vegan diet.
That being said, it can be expensive and pricey, especially if you are eating a lot of processed vegan foods and packaged replacements.
It’s best to try to stick with whole foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, and making as much as you can yourself.
What do you eat on a vegan diet?
Again, we eat everything. It’s just made without animal products.
Every culture has vegan food from Mexican to Indian to Chinese and more; but we also eat all the American classics. Vegans tend to be insanely creative and have found ways to make so many things with just plants.
Check out our site for vegan burgers, pizzas, pasta, ice cream and so much more.
Why do you want to eat foods with animal names, like vegan chicken, vegan milk, if you don’t want to eat meat and other animal products?
(For most of us), we never said that we didn’t like meat, both the taste and texture; however, there are other factors – animal cruelty, environmental factors, health conditions, and more that make us no longer want to consumer those things.
Not only that but it’s also just easier to say the word “vegan” and then whatever we are having as an alternative. For example, vegan burgers or vegan chicken.
That’s because no one would know what the heck we were talking about if we said “wheat gluten nuggets” or “soy round patty”. But you understand if we say “vegan nuggets” or “vegan burgers’.
What’s wrong with eggs, milk and cheese? No animals die.
Let’s take this line by line. Eggs first.
Eggs are laid by chickens. Chickens, years ago, naturally laid 10-15 eggs in a year. They have been bred and farmed to now low over 300 eggs in one year. That’s almost 1 egg per day, instead of 1 egg per month, similar to a female human.
Not only is this new way of breeding inhumane and leads to horrible life conditions, but also any male chicken that is born during this process is immediately killed and female chickens are killed immediately once they stop producing as many eggs (about 50% of their life expectancy). 200 million chickens are killed every year. Think about that.
Moving onto milk and cheese.
Unless you have your own cow that you are milking, you are getting milk and cheese from factory farmed animals. Just like male chickens are unwanted, so are male cows as they cannot be milked. They are almost all immediately killed for veal.
Female cows are artificially inseminated in order to impregnate her to continue producing milk. The baby cow is then immediately taken and raised so she too can become pregnant to produce milk.
Cows only need to be milked because their baby was taken away from them, otherwise the milk would be for the baby cow (hence a human woman only produces breastmilk when she has a baby).
If everyone went vegan, there would be too many animals on the planet, right?
Nope! Animals reproduce at natural levels and if we learned to live with them instead of seeing them as an inconvenience, then they would be allowed to roam in natural habitats as well.
The thing is that many of the animals on the planet are due to factory farming which reproduces unnaturally a ridiculous amount of animals in order to keep up with demand. If the land that factory farms were allowed to return to natural habitats for the correct amount of animals, then there would be no issues.
But plants are alive too, so aren’t you killing them?
Many people may say this in a joking way, but some may also be serious. Either way it’s quite annoying after you hear it for the 50th time.
Plants do not have a central nervous system, pain receptors, or nerve endings, therefore, they do not feel pain.
Also, for every pound of meat produced, you need 16 pounds of grain in order to feed the animal to produced that meat. So if plants are your concern, you should probably stop eating meat still.
I love the taste of meat too much to be vegan. Are there alternatives?
Our first answer to this is always, really? is it meat you love the taste of or plants?
Think about it. Meat itself really doesn’t possess that much flavor. Usually, it is how the meat is seasoned that you love. Fortunately, all seasonings are from, well plants.
Therefore you just need a neutral base, like tofu or seitan and then you can season it the exact same way that you season animal meat products and you will be just as happy.
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