EXPENSIVE, COMPLICATED AND UNNATURAL – PREJUDICES AGAINST VEGANISM

Many people still see veganism as just a silly trend.

A heated discussion about my eating behaviour as a vegan, in which everyone suddenly becomes the undisputed expert and evolution theorist, is often pre-programmed.

There are always sayings and myths being served up that are simply not true.

What prejudices I often encounter and how you can refute them, I’ll tell you now 

Our nutritional needs can only be met with animal products

When you begin to nourish yourself as a vegan, it often exposes you to an army of nutritional experts. Friends, who accompanied me before, happily after parties to go to Fast-Food Restaurants, worry suddenly now about my nutrition 

Pulses, whole grain and soy products, green vegetables, nuts, seeds and kernels, if you take advantage of the full range of plant foods, you don’t have to worry about deficiencies.

Protein, minerals and vitamins – every need can be met with vegan food. Exception: Vitamin B12, which everyone should supplement, by the way, just like vitamin D.

Vegan foods all get far too little protein

Apparently, most people think that proteins are only found in chicken breasts and eggs. My last post shows you foods that contain many delicious vegetable proteins.

Top athletic performances are not possible with a vegan diet

A poorly cared for body can of course not perform at its best 

The internationally successful strength athlete Patrik Baboumian, Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier, the ultra long distance runner Sanna Almstedt and many more have been living vegan for years and are thus counterproofs to theory.

As a vegan you can hardly eat anything anymore

If you are worried that only lettuce leaves and grains are left over, you should first look into this form of nutrition. New culinary worlds are opening up at  Vegetable spreads, chia pudding, Seitan steak and much more.

For every food I have removed from my diet, two new ones have been added. At least.

It’s all so complicated

There’s a little truth in this myth. “Eating out, whether privately or for business, is sometimes difficult, especially for vegans (if you don’t live in metropolises like Berlin, Hamburg or Munich).

In most restaurants, you can’t avoid a question-and-answer game with the waitress. In your own four walls, however, vegan cooking is completely uncomplicated. You just need a little time.

Nowadays there are so many books and websites as sources of information, and so many vegan products on the market, that the new diet becomes normal faster than initially thought 

To eat vegan is terribly expensive

Most basic foods of the vegetable kitchen are super cheap. For oat flakes, rice, pasta, pulses, seasonal fruit and vegetables, nobody has to give up their shirts 

On the other hand, high-quality food naturally has its price and quite rightly so. Vegan food can therefore be just as cheap or expensive as non-vegan food.

Veganism is unnatural

“The lion eats other animals, too” – I get it. And dogs sniff each other’s butts to greet each other. But we are neither lions nor dogs and can therefore make our own decisions.

Nowadays in most areas, nobody is dependent any longer on taking animal products and can live perfenctly fine without them 

Plants are also living beings

Correct. And very few vegans enjoy trampling flowers or burning trees.

According to the current state of science, plants, unlike animals, have neither a central nervous system nor a brain or other system that would enable conscious pain sensation.

Even if it were so that plants could feel similar suffering as animals, vegans would still reduce it, because they consume many times less plants than a meat eater, since e.g. approx. 16 kg of grain are needed to produce 1 kg of beef.

Cows must be milked

…or their udders will hurt. True, but the cow only produces milk because she calves. The natural life expectancy of a cow is about 15-20 years. Dairy cows are usually so exhausted after about 5 to 6 years that they are killed due to lack of “profitability”.

No animals die for eggs

In Germany alone, around 40 million male chicks lose their lives every year because they are neither suitable for egg production nor for broiler chickens. Unlike their fellow chickens bred for chicken meat production, they would not prepare meat quickly enough.

As soon as they have hatched, the baby cocks are usually shredded or gassed.

Vegans and vegetarians eat soy and therefore destroy rainforests

The cultivation of soy grows and grows and especially in South America tropical rain forests and savannahs are destroyed. The main cause, however, is not the increasing demand for tofu sausages, but the growing consumption of meat.

Approximately 80 percent of the world’s soybean harvest is processed into animal feed for slaughter and other livestock.

As time goes by, you bounce more and more off yourself and can only smile at all the arguments. Believe me, it’ll be easier 

Do you have any reservations about the vegetarian or vegan diet yourself? What experiences did you have when you became a vegetarian or vegan?

Love, Nathalie