Are you vegan?

[Blondi]

Personally , I'm vegan what about you?

 

[WoAiGou]

Have been for 5ish years, best thing I've ever done.

 

[Sherri]

I love animals, therefor I wish I was. But I'm not. There is a saying that goes like this, if you go into a animal slaughter factory or farm, you will stop eating meat.

 

[stilldreaming]

I do often think that increasing everyone's empathy would solve a great deal of problems in the world. Because you can't others when their pain is your own.

I recognize that most people have very limited empathy, though it is something that can curiously expand and shrink depending on emotions and life experience. That said, I know my excessive empathy (according to a couple therapists) is really nothing more than a quirk in brain chemistry.

So many problems are helped by veganism. The nightmare of animal agriculture; destruction of habitats / mass extinction; antibiotic resistance; climate change. Not to mention, but just in my observation even people who go vegan for eg their health / the climate (and so, not the animals) later care more and more about the animals, so perhaps it does increase empathy as well.

I hate thinking about their pain and suffering though, and how it's going on every moment. It's odd to me too how people focus on the slaughterhouses / method of execution while ignoring the many long months of cramped and horrifying existence. (tho that said "humanely-raised" animals are worse for the environment, as they take up more space / use more water and resources.......it's a dilly of a pickle, I tell you)

 

[xrosex]

Used to be a while ago for about 4 years but now eat all sorts and gone unhealthy. Like at moment it's that time a month for me and my lower back is soooo painful, I think cos I gained weight too it's having a negative impact so I would like to try be healthier and be vegan again. When I was my body was feeling very good and I even tried being raw vegan for a couple months and seriously it was beautiful like made me more aware of my body and it's hard to explain but yeah that was lovely

 

[settheory]

excessive empathy (according to a couple therapists)

"Excessive empathy"? The hell is that? I think it is just some thing they made up to push their ideology of brainless conformity by trying to sound sciencey, helpful, and neutral. That "abnormal" people are "inferior" (or as they put it, having something they think "excessive"). Not denying psychology here, but one must take it with a great caution. A lot of a therapist's ideology can creep in without a notice.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

Vegan between meals.

But fo' realz, I don't eat that much meat during periods of not lifting. It's dat cheap protein, I can't eating ten kgs of rice n beans, youknowwhatimsayn? One chimken bob, many proteins... Cheap and ez, and if they treat animals humanely it's almost ok 4 me. Hell, the animals have better lives than me (not the ones in cages and stuff). Life is shit in the wild, too. It's all unsalvageable garbage. If I was smaller and didn't need protein to try to grab at the only small aspect of masculinity that's available to me, then I'd prob go plant-BASED, . It's very doable 2 get good nurtiemts from grass/fruit/roots/stars/sand/etc, but it's 2 much work 4 me and not tasty, imo. Hard 4 me 2 even get enough food when all options are available, sheesh.

 

[_Minsk]

I can't believe that a meat burger costs like 1 while the vegan variant costs 3-5, i hope this will change soon. The living and perceiving consciousness behind humans doesn't differ much to animals in terms of perceiving pain and suffering i think

 

[Foresight]

Yes

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

No and I don't think I ever could be. Food just tastes so much better when something had to die to nourish me. My favorite kind of meat to eat is fish though because it's usually the safest to eat raw.

 

[FuneralCry]

No, but I do not eat much meat. I do not particularly like the taste of it.

 

[DisillusionedDragon]

Yes, I am vegan. The reason can basically be boiled down to three premises.

1. Suffering is bad
2. Bad things should be reduced/avoided as far as possible
3. Consumption of animal products causes much more suffering than only eating plants

--> Therefore one should be vegan​

 

[stilldreaming]

"Excessive empathy"? The hell is that? I think it is just some thing they made up to push their ideology of brainless conformity by trying to sound sciencey, helpful, and neutral. That "abnormal" people are "inferior" (or as they put it, having something they think "excessive"). Not denying psychology here, but one must take it with a great caution. A lot of a therapist's ideology can creep in without a notice.

ooh haha tbf 'excessive empathy' I guess is my term, what my first two therapists (and several other people) have said simply is that just have "too much empathy". (one lady who said that to me, surprised me, because I was just feeling bad for her because she was describing her pain from having broken her back years ago)

I suppose they would say I have "too much empathy" as is it interferes with my quality of life or sumfing. Certainly, as a vegan, by society it would be said I am too empathetic since we're not 'supposed' to be bothered by their pain sigh.

But yeah, therapists - not all are created equal, sadly. Just as with teachers, therapists need to have their training massively overhauled methinks.

I can't believe that a meat burger costs like 1 while the vegan variant costs 3-5, i hope this will change soon. The living and perceiving consciousness behind humans doesn't differ much to animals in terms of perceiving pain and suffering i think

*costs like $1....to the consumer when purchasing ;)

It's obviously muchmuch cheaper to grow and process plants, then to grow (huge amounts of) plants and also animals, but thanks to government subsidies and preferential taxation laws, animal products are (absurdly) cheaper.

Animal products use the majority of subsidies; make subsidies equitable (and change certain tax laws) and then we'll see which is 'cheaper'...

 

[MelancholyMagic]

I find it interesting there are so many vegans here in relation to the general population. I'm vegan myself and don't really know of any vegans in real life. But that may just be because of where I live.
If anyone wants to learn more about reasons for veganism, this person is my recommended source: https://www.youtube.com/c/GaryLFrancioneVegan/videos
All the stuff from him I've seen I've liked. For a particular video, I watched this video a few months back. It's great. A little on the long side, but I do recommend watching if you have a chance:

I feel guilty about not advocating for veganism in person (or online, really). Does anyone else feel this way? For one, I'm worried about messing things up and setting a bad example. Also, my energy levels are finicky, among other things.

 

[stilldreaming]

I find it interesting there are so many vegans here in relation to the general population. I'm vegan myself and don't really know of any vegans in real life. But that may just be because of where I live.
If anyone wants to learn more about reasons for veganism, this person is my recommended source: https://www.youtube.com/c/GaryLFrancioneVegan/videos
All the stuff from him I've seen I've liked. For a particular video, I watched this video a few months back. It's great. A little on the long side, but I do recommend watching if you have a chance:

I feel guilty about not advocating for veganism in person (or online, really). Does anyone else feel this way? For one, I'm worried about messing things up and setting a bad example. Also, my energy levels are finicky, among other things.

oh woah randomly clicked to about 14min and he's talking about euthanasia and when it's appropriate ie to end suffering (not for animals that simply no one wants to adopt)...rather appropriate, I thought, for this site :P

But hm yeah, I'm not too surprised really if there's more vegans than average here, I've seen two different studies that say: 1) vegans have better than average mental health and 2) have worse than average mental health. (There's a study to prove everything right...)

But yeah, I imagine very healthy plant-based (unprocessed/whole foods/cook-from-scratch) type people to be very happy and healthy, whereas a lot of people who go vegan for the animals are going to be more sensitive and so potentially sad. I mean, we force billions of creatures to go through the hell of animal agriculture (then to a slaughterhouse), it's happening every moment of the day, and the only thing we can do is just try not to think about it.

A vegan friend of mine once posted on facebook a meme I later tried to find again, it was like: "When you first go vegan" [shows a person looking strong and happy, with captions like "plant strong!!"]

The next square, something like: "Six months later: depressed from how little people care, and fat from vegan junk food" [and shows the same person morosely watching tv with indeed a bit of protruding belly]

And it was just like toooooooooooo relatable!

 

[settheory]

2) have worse than average mental health.

I wouldn't be surprised. On top of realisation of an absurdly large amount of human-inflicted suffering, many live or lived in abusive households where they were abused for wanting to become vegan, by parents, spouses, and so on. Or outside households. And so much vile shit toward vegans on the internet and IRL. But this forum seems relatively fine so far to me.

 

[stilldreaming]

I wouldn't be surprised. On top of realisation of an absurdly large amount of human-inflicted suffering, many live or lived in abusive households where they were abused for wanting to become vegan, by parents, spouses, and so on. Or outside households. And so much vile shit toward vegans on the internet and IRL. But this forum seems relatively fine so far to me.

yeah, people who would say without hesitation "stereotyping is wrong" also won't hesitate to say "[all] vegans do xyz". It's just so......exhausting and depressing, really. I mean, on the one hand, it does feel like a whole my lady doth protest too much type thing, because these are lefties who ofc hate the right for being bigots, and so see themselves as morally superior. Until a vegan comes along, and then suddenly they are defensive/attacking and projecting and stereotyping all the live long day.

One of the best lines I've heard is, "Would being vegan bring you more in line with your morals?" They don't want to ponder that, but instead rationalize what they do, and as part of that attack the person / movement that reminds them they could be making different choices. Or something I dunno. I know a lot of people just genuinely don't care about animal suffering. But even as a kid, I always thought animal babies were so cute, I remember in second grade a teacher saying aren't bald eagle chicks ugly?! And I wanted to say defensively, but human babies are even uglier!! It would be many years before I understood that the overwhelming majority of people genuinely find human babies cute, I just didn't get the memo I guess!

anywho, I can say for certain, that vegan food rocks. Anyone wanna share some recipes?? eg easy go-tos to impress others?? I love this mac and cheese, ridiculously easy and if you like nootch you probably already have all the ingredients on hand: https://lovingitvegan.com/baked-vegan-mac-and-cheese/#recipe (I mix in tons of greens and chickpeas and broccoli too cuz why not, also add a touch of tumeric...also skip the baking part since I don't think the breaded crumbs make it anymore delicious)

And for dessert, these peanut butter blondies, they are always such a big hit: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/ryan-reynolds-blondies/

(Although I saw recently she has a chickpea version and I am curious to try it: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/chocolate-chip-blondies-and-theyre-good-for-you/)

 

[Foresight]

I'm going to make those blondies

 

[Rogue Proxy]

I've been vegan for over 12 years. Healthy vegan cooking is one of my major special interests. Oftentimes, I would be hyperfocused on recipes and culinary topics, writing new recipes, and improving them based on further research and testing them out.

Currently, I've been creating and fine-tuning recipes for lentil nut burgers, meatballs, and sausage patties on-and-off for the past two months. In these recipes, different types of nuts or seeds, different amounts of tamari sauce and mushroom powder; and (sometimes) different mushroom powders could correspond with certain varieties of meat. So far, I've found that dry-roasted sunflower seeds can substitute ground beef, dry-roasted hazelnuts work for ground lamb and fattier ground beef; raw pecans can replace pork sausage, and raw almonds can act as a regular ground pork alternative. I've also used dry-roasted sunflower seeds, dry-roasted hazelnuts, and raw pecans in gravy recipes. In the future, I'd like to try out raw cashews for ground veal, dry-roasted sunflower seeds for ground venison, and raw pecans for ground duck.

But even as a kid, I always thought animal babies were so cute, I remember in second grade a teacher saying aren't bald eagle chicks ugly?! And I wanted to say defensively, but human babies are even uglier!! It would be many years before I understood that the overwhelming majority of people genuinely find human babies cute, I just didn't get the memo I guess!

Baby animals have and will always win me over! Even the so-called "uncharismatic" species like vultures, spiders, snakes, opossums, wasps, toads, earthworms, sharks, nudibranchs, and centipedes captivate me. Humans of all ages tend to range from bland to repulsive.


Eaglets' response to that second grade (pr)eacher: "You think we're ugly?! Why don't you look in the mirror, if you can find one that
isn't broken?"

 

[stilldreaming]

I'm going to make those blondies

You won't regret it!!!!

Also these cookies are ridiculously easy and delicious:

Normal:

Double choc chip:

Oh I think it's in the description for the normal cookies, it says 1.5 cups flour but she says 1 3/4 cups, which is correct (as you'll see the dough's a bit too wet otherwise anyway). I swear they taste like the cookies from Whole Foods, and like I feel all vegan baking taste better the next day / after I dunno 8 hours of setting??

She also does a super yummy scalloped potato recipe (easy too if you have a mandolin :P)

Oh and something I got from vegan reddit last summer: just add hummus to pasta! Works for plain, but I also add it to pasta with tomato sauce. Plus kidney beans, and the usual handfuls of wilted greens and broccoli. So yummy and filling.

I've been vegan for over 12 years. Healthy vegan cooking is one of my major special interests. Oftentimes, I would be hyperfocused on recipes and culinary topics, writing new recipes, and improving them based on further research and testing them out.

This is my dream, I so wish I could have healthy vegan cooking be my hobby!! I love Dr Greger, and I'd love to cook his recipes and the recipes from the WFPB Cooking Show every day. Though since Thanksgiving and Christmas, I've been making every week some of those naughty recipes (stuffing etc).

I'd love to get comfortable doing eg date paste substitutions for sugar, that sort of thing. There's a cafe my husband and I would visit that was "allergen free" (no: dairy, eggs, nuts, gluten, refined sugar). Cakes were so phenomenal and delicious!

But yeah, otherwise my rule is usually: cooking for self = omit oil / salt, obscene amount of veggies and lentils / beans etc added. Cooking for others = uhhh extra naughty :P

I can usually enjoy cooking when I get into it (listening to music / podcasts) but otherwise it's a bit of a chore for me, unfortunately. And how willing I am to do it depends on how much I have to work. I have always envied people so much whose hobby is cooking, who find it relaxing to come home and cook.

Good luck on your future experiments!! Texture is so important for substitutions, and you are clearly very creative in the kitchen!!

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

No, I tried it for a couple of weeks, but I felt so weak and lightheaded I found myself fantasizing about cheeseburgers and chicken strips all the time. I like animals, but not enough to put up with that 24/7.

 

[stilldreaming]

No, I tried it for a couple of weeks, but I felt so weak and lightheaded I found myself fantasizing about cheeseburgers and chicken strips all the time. I like animals, but not enough to put up with that 24/7.

So please don't take this the wrong way, but that you felt that way simply meant you weren't getting enough calories. Believe me, if people had to "put up with" feeling that way 24/7 veganism wouldn't be a growing movement.

This is common especially for guys who need more calories. One of the best boxers of all time, Bernard Hopkins, went vegan several years ago (also famous for being one of the greats to exit boxing soon enough with all of his marbles intact and not get "punch drunk" as they call it). When asked what he eats, he says he looks for foods that are "filling and fulfilling". He named chickpeas as one of favorite things to cook with. There are active boxers / athletes who are vegan as well, and trust me they don't "put up" with feeling weak or lightheaded.

We had to learn how to eat larger portions when we went vegan, took a few weeks to figure out but it isn't hard. The average American family rotates through 9 dishes to cook. So, finding how to make 9 easy and fulfilling vegan meals was what we did, and put it in a google doc. Have a section for breakfast / lunch / dinner / dessert.

People who've told me they have no problems eating two burgers at a go, have told me they've never been so painfully full as when they'd come over to our place to eat. As a female, I find it quite amusing how people exclaim over how much I eat but how thin I am. (Some try to say I'm "lucky" but no, I have a dead thyroid, it's just that anyone can eat a large amount of fairly healthy food and be slim)

 

[Deleted member 8975]

There are this many vegans here?

 

[Acon]

I am vegan and it's the best decision I ever made

 

[Manaaja]

Still a vegetarian.

 

[stilldreaming]

Still a vegetarian.

Many of us were at some point, unsurprisingly. I went vegetarian 20 years ago (vegan several years ago), I didn't even think of myself as one though because it was just so natural. For us, it was surprisingly easy to go vegan. It's really just a matter of finding a handful of easy, yummy, fulfilling meals that you add into your rotation. (we also watched at this time cowspiracy and felt just horrible...) But yeah, it was literally one day making French toast and thinking how I'd never be able to go vegan because of things like French toast and then the next day being like, so this is happening!

 

[xLosthopex]

Yes, vegan 7 years for the animals

I love animals, therefor I wish I was. But I'm not. There is a saying that goes like this, if you go into a animal slaughter factory or farm, you will stop eating meat.

I've been to many slaughterhouses and farms(I was involved in animal rights activism for years) and can confirm this is true. Never in a million years would I go back to eating(or exploiting for any other purpose) animals

 

[Rogue Proxy]

This is my dream, I so wish I could have healthy vegan cooking be my hobby!! I love Dr Greger, and I'd love to cook his recipes and the recipes from the WFPB Cooking Show every day. Though since Thanksgiving and Christmas, I've been making every week some of those naughty recipes (stuffing etc).

I'd love to get comfortable doing eg date paste substitutions for sugar, that sort of thing. There's a cafe my husband and I would visit that was "allergen free" (no: dairy, eggs, nuts, gluten, refined sugar). Cakes were so phenomenal and delicious!

But yeah, otherwise my rule is usually: cooking for self = omit oil / salt, obscene amount of veggies and lentils / beans etc added. Cooking for others = uhhh extra naughty :P

I can usually enjoy cooking when I get into it (listening to music / podcasts) but otherwise it's a bit of a chore for me, unfortunately. And how willing I am to do it depends on how much I have to work. I have always envied people so much whose hobby is cooking, who find it relaxing to come home and cook.

Good luck on your future experiments!! Texture is so important for substitutions, and you are clearly very creative in the kitchen!!

Thank you very much for your kind words!

I have been kicking around the idea of using date paste in some potential dessert recipes. I'm also considering coconut sugar, coconut nectar, and pure maple syrup as possible sweeteners.

The subject of healthy sweet fare reminds me of another set of culinary experiments I've been conducting for over a year: mashed roasted apples or mashed roasted bananas mixed with whole grain hot cereal and unsweetened soy milk; and seasoned with sweet spice combinations, sometimes pure vanilla extract, sometimes citrus zest, and/or occasionally pure rum extract. Occasionally, I'll use mashed roasted pears or mix some sweet potato puree with the roasted bananas. (For canned sweet potatoes, I highly recommend the Farmer's Market Organic Sweet Potato Puree. It tastes great and contains only sweet potatoes.) These hot cereal recipes are inspired by or based off of spiced desserts and spiced teas. I'd like to try out pureed, roasted sweet cherries, pineapple, and maybe peaches in a few new hot cereal recipes.

 

[Nightmare Painting]

I eat meat but I support veganism. If I had better life circumstances and wasn't guaranteed to kill myself I'd probably become one but lifestyle changes are a bit too late at this point.

Not eating meat is one of the most empathetic things you can do alongside not having children.

 

[completely-done]

Although I eat meat, I respect veganism.