Vegan • Page 6

I don't go as often since I moved to North Portland, but I'm closer to the new homegrown smoker so it's a fair tradeoff

 

ahh i just was talking about the new homegrown smoker today. i'm supposed to visit my mom in two weeks, that's def a first stop. i miss that mac and cheese.

 

yeah the cart fire was devastating, but they recovered pretty quickly and the expanded menu rules, there was a line out the door last time I went.

 

Gonna be keeping an eye on this thread - I've been toying with the idea of going vegetarian for a little while and the more I think about it, the more I realise I can't really justify eating meat any longer. Still haven't made the jump, but I feel it can't be far round the corner...

Never really considered full vegan until recently after reading a bit about the dairy industry, the cruelty of keeping dairy cows in a permanent state of lactation - i just hadn't ever thought about the fact that obviously a cow needs calves to continue to produce milk. So now knowing what I know, I feel guilty consuming dairy, but so many of my favourite foods contain milk/cheese/cream/butter etc, and the thought of giving that up is really tough.

Is there such a thing as ethical dairy farming? Is it possible to buy cruelty-free milk? And if not, should I be that scared of the alternatives?

Also considering cost - it seems dairy-free alternatives are generally more expensive than dairy, but is it really gonna make a huge difference to my grocery budget?

This turned in to a longer post than I anticipated, sorry for all the noob questions!

 

I was vegetarian for a very long time before becoming vegan because i too thought oh well i love milk, baking, cheese. Meat was easy to let go in my mind but animal byproduct wasnt. I had been thinking about vegan for a long time and so i set a goal of trying it for a month to monitor how it goes. Well that was 10 months ago. Just like anything, you become aware and habits form over time. If you can get through an initial bit it gets easier. I told my cousin the same advice cause she asked how i transitioned into veganism cause she had been thinking about it for months and i told her "do a month and see how it goes" and i think setting a small goal like that helps mentally.

Also if you want to ease in to it some, i had a professor that was vegan and she suggested started with the whole ingredients first. Youll learn reading labels and whats in stuff and what isnt over time. One of my fav sayings and ironic for a vegan is you eat an elephant one bite at a time so taking soemthing big and turn them into little steps and makes it attainable!

Idk about ethical dairy farms personally. As far as grocery budget. Its not expensive to be vegan until you get into processed foods imo. I mean learning to utilize fruits and veggies is the best way to go and in fact can be cheaper in some cases. If you buy vegan mac and cheese for instance, its def not as cheap as regular mac n cheese though. Its things like that. Thats how i feel about it price wise at least, maybe others feel differently and want to weigh in.

 

That's great, thanks for replying. That whole ingredients tip is a really good way of approaching things, I like that.

Generally I feel like doing things incrementally is easier to swallow. About 18 months ago I was dieting to lose a bit of weight, and I tackled that by just replacing one or two items in my diet at a time. Before i knew it my diet was transformed, i lost some good weight, and I barely noticed.

 

I definitely agree with the "take it one month at a time" mentality. I think with any lifestyle change, it's wise to set small goals and build up from there. You may even want to just try going a month without eating meat. If you do that and enjoy it, try going another month! That's kind of how I started, and to be honest even in the first few months I was missing fried chicken and bbq. I'm now a point where I don't miss those things at all and they're no longer appetizing at all to me.

Ethical dairy farming, eh I'm not so sure. I think that some people do make efforts to get their meat and dairy from farmer's markets, family farms, etc., to try and feel better about their consumption. While I think supporting a local farm would be better than supporting a factory farm, I also think it creates a problem in which you are still continuing to eat meat in the first place and thus you'll be more willing to compromise when you are out at a restaurant or at a friend's place where you have no idea where the food was sourced from. Like you might buy your own groceries from sources you respect but when you and your friends go out to eat, you have no idea where that meat came from.

Honestly as far as milk goes, there are so many dairy free options now! I prefer vanilla almond milk but there's soy, cashew, coconut, milk, the list goes on. Good stuff all around. Also, go and try some dairy free Ben & Jerry's and tell me it's not just as good. I dare you!

Pound for pound, plant-based protein is usually not as expensive as meat. Trips to Whole Foods can get expensive but you can also go to Target or Trader Joes and stock up on vegan meats, beans, high protein veggies, etc on the cheap.

 

Also a simple question that really changed my mindset: are my food cravings worth more than the life of the animal I would be eating? I decided the answer to that was no.

 

I would definitely like to try to do "whole ingredient vegan" someday. I'm the same way, giving up meat wasn't too difficult for me, but I can't imagine giving up eggs, dairy, cheese, etc. I feel like cheese is so much of my diet—so many vegetarian sandwiches are mozzarella & tomato, cheese pizza, etc.

 

They need to make chocolate flavoured Almond/Coconut milk in the UK - or if they already do I need to know where to find it. The taste of them regular (especially almond milk) is so gross to me I can't have it on cereal etc. I did used to have coconut milk in my protein shakes instead of water but that grossed me out after a while too and I would gag all the way through drinking it!!!

 

Yeah at the moment I feel like cheese would soften the blow of not eating meat initially. I think starting vegetarian is the way I'll go and take things from there.

Thanks for the advice y'all, it looks incredibly daunting on this side, but I'm sure it wont be as painful once ive given it a good chance.

 

I think some people definitely have an aversion to some coconut products. Chocolate almond milk rules!

 

for what it's worth, I've hated almond milk every time I've tried it but soy milk is pretty good. not sure if you've ever tried that.

 

Exactly yes. Being vegan in general makes you think about things before you eat them health-wise too.

 

The brand I use has a chocolate soy milk but for some reason I was reluctant to pick it up! I'm ok with coconut milk in all honestly, I just don't particularly enjoy drinking it as much as regular milk & find myself buying regular every once in a while when I am sick of the taste of coconut! Almond milk I will never have again though, just the smell is ughhh

 

Haha, I don't think I've ever noticed Almond Milk having a smell. Do you buy the refrigerated kind? I buy Simply Balanced from Target, usually.

I stopped drinking dairy milk a few years ago after it started giving me stomach aches

 

lol, I may just be thinking of the taste! It was refrigerated yeah, Alpro was the brand - they do sweetened and unsweetened Almond milk and I had the sweetened so maybe that was a factor. I love almonds and eat them every day though, just the milk is a no for me!

 

Honey - yay or nay?

 

It's a personal choice like everything else. Cut it if you want, or don't. I'm not super passionate about that item, but I've also never really bought honey ever. If something has it in there I don't really care.

 

I'm of the same sort of opinion, but i hear the honey industry is killing our bee friends so I avoid it

 

I probably have honey once or twice a year? Never buy it myself, but not anti-honey either.

 

Cool. Not that I'm there yet anyway, but I kinda feel that at least independently farmed honey seems fine, as far as I know? The bees are just doing what they do, I'm not aware of any part of the process that seems unnatural or cruel. But then I don't really know?

 

I do not eat honey. I do understand that some beekeepers aren't the most ethical when it comes to honey. There is a lot of stuff online that talks about this.

 

I should try that apple-based honey anyway