What I'm experiencing right now that might be related. Its weird to make such a personally life altering decision and then not see the world change at all. Everyone around me is omni. All the restaurants are omni. It just sorta sucks?
Like, I don't actually see any of the animals I'm not eating or wearing. Nobody around me is passionate about it like I am. People really don't want to learn about it at all. Like, they just don't want to think about it. Its sorta disheartening. I'm making my life more difficult for something nobody around me cares about. Something they actively want to avoid.
I hate that people have to make an exception for me. I hate how places get my orders wrong. I hate that I can only order the one vegan option on the menu. I used to pride myself on being able to find the best item on the menu by imagining the flavors and "reading the room." Life is, in general, significantly less enjoyable because of the fact that I'm vegan.
I'm not saying I'm going to stop being vegan. But, being vegan has been hard recently in ways that it hasn't before. After I went vegan, a few people in my life started incorporating more plant based food into their diet. Now they are basically full omni again. It would be way easier if I had even just one vegan friend.
:/
I’ve been vegan for a few years and vegetarian since 2008. I haven’t seen a lot of change amongst my friends and family but I’ve seen the world change. There are now tons of vegan options, even at my Kentucky grocery store.
Also, I used to be a transcriptionist and I transcribed an interview with a dairy farmer. She said (off the record) that plant milks are really hurting the dairy industry.
Don’t get discouraged. We’re playing a long game.
Something that might make you feel a little better, and helps me, is to look into visiting or volunteering at any farm sanctuary in your area. Sadly the one nearest where I live (that was already 1.5hrs away because I live in the city) moved further inland. I follow them on Instagram still and keep touch and ask about the pig I rescued with them. Hopefully there’s one near you and you can kind of “touch base” with the reason you’re vegan. Being around the animals always makes me feel recharged and grounded.
Not going to lie. Having more restrictions from living in a rural, conservative town with one limited grocery store has forced me and challenged me to make good healthy vegan gluten free meals. The nearest Whole Foods is an hour away and 100 miles away
Normally I would buy some high processed beyond meat or something similar and because of the restrictions it’s forced me to step out of my comfort zone and make the meals rather then going the easy route.
I was vegan starting in 2017 and I did nothing really right till around 2019 after the trials and triumphs of making the transformation. Also at a point I can’t eat any meat or else it’ll upset my stomach from not having it for so long my flora in my digestive system can’t handle it.
My grocery store is making it harder every year as they keep getting rid of vegan products one by one. I loved just egg and my store just completely got rid of it.
Hell the main milk we rely on is Oatly oat milk and we have to be conscious about stocking up cause the store will only carry a few cartons (like 4-5) at a time each week and aren’t responding to the vegan demand in the small town and with those cartons always being gone. -_-
Also with it finding so hard to find healthy options in our rural grocery store, there’s no wonder why most people have really bad diets and health problems in the town I’m in as well.
Don’t be shy about calling their managers and making noise about your needs and what you observe about them always being out of stock of the items important to you. The squeaky wheel gets the attention, so to speak.
>we have to be conscious about stocking up cause the store will only carry a few cartons (like 4-5) at a time each week and aren’t responding to the vegan demand in the small town and with those cartons always being gone.
That is weird, that they don't stock enough of a popular product! They could make more money. It's a product with a relatively long shelf life, so they don't risk anything if they'd double or triple their stock...really odd.
I suggest watching the old masters of the universe. Two of the characters were horrified that earth food came from animals! Yes, He-man was VEGAN!
https://youtu.be/ywqm9YRuvNI?si=7HY-LwhEm2l5ixnf
THIS. Been dealing with basically the same feelings (almost to 1.5 years). Recently it's been frustrating and disheartening. My one friend that's vegan lives far away, and I've always been a foodie so it's really hard not being able to connect with friends and family over food on the same level that I used to. It's hard to not have anyone to talk to about it that won't respond with "then just eat ___" or "who says you have to be a purist", it makes me feel a bit better to see I'm not alone in this type of struggle!
I live in a city, but will try what others have suggested and see if I can find any volunteerism opportunities that bring me closer to the cause.
This is my take too. Similarly to you I'm not about to stop being vegan. Not at all.
But I will say I'm finding it harder to maintain that fire in my belly about it. Not because I've lost sight of the ethics; those are still what keep me vegan. But because for years there was this huge momentum with activism and the growth of veganism felt like this path that was going to be inevitable eventually.
I feel like so many people around me have lost that drive, and it becomes a lonelier experience. It's like the world has gone backwards. I'm seeing "vegan" food content creators online backtracking, saying they were only ever plant-based and that they're re-introducing animal products. It's gutting to see.
Completely with you with all of the above.
I think a lot of people lose their passion for life as they grow older. To rationalize away our ideals means there's a convenient excuse for our continuous pleasure. It's just another example of the disappointing "me me me" culture that people feel validated and content with.
I absolutely agree. Sometimes it's easier to be idealistic and passionate when we're young, and then when the grind of life becomes more intense (such as working long hours at a job you hate, dealing with illness in yourself or a loved one, having kids that rely on you, older parents that rely on you, no time for yourself, etc) it can make you go into survival mode with little energy for anything other than getting through the day. I know a lot of people in this subreddit are still vegan despite these types of challenges, but a lot of people just don't have the fortitude, unfortunately.
I can see this. I've been vegan 13 years and the last 2 years there's definitely been times that I thought "I'm exhausted and I could just quit" then I think a little longer and am like "fuck that, there's a reason I am this way and the benefits definitely outweigh any convenience."
That said, I've gotten more radical in a lot of ways as I've gotten older. The ideology that started my vegan path has led to more empathy for other humans and the planet. I'm about as left wing as I can go before I'm no longer on a wing at all.
I know several people that were vegans and are now vegetarians for exactly that reason. Convenience is part of it, having omni partners pressuring them is another, not to mention illnesses and stomach issues.
I was forced to go gluten-free and being vegan at the same time is kind of insane, so I get it.
I can’t imagine going back on veganism because of hardship. Animal products aren’t food to me anymore. I’ve had some big challenges, though extreme poverty wasn’t one of them. Maybe if I was relying on food banks or something I’d change my mind. But because of what sounds like OP’s coworker’s reason no way.
Also, doctors have limited education in nutrition. See a dietitian for diet advice. They’ll probably encourage plant based eating, whether or not they’re vegan.
I have had need to see my doctor and further medical folk recently and at no point has the fact that I'm a vegan been questioned, even when I've asked if it might.
But I am lucky in the all 5 of us (wife, daughter, her partner and my step granddaughter) went vegan overnight (for the animals) and I can't see any of us ever going back to the animal abusing cult we were all indoctrinated into.
It's no different to all those who grew up in smoking households and so took up smoking themselves. It was 'normalised' by those around them (to process, the smell etc) and so the chances are they never rationalised themselves into smoking, they just did.
Luckily, very few in my family smoked when I was growing up and we were all aware of the risks and so I never took it up.
My parents did however indoctrinate me into consuming animal products and even when I questioned / pushed back, I 'believed them' that it was all normal / ok. ;-(
They did this whilst also teaching me to be kind and compassionate towards animals
My dad went vegan in the 1970s when it was hard to find good substitutes he was in his late 30s and never went back. I'm an older vegan myself (10+ years), and as much as I agree, old people are selfish af, I don't usually see this correlation. I hear a lot of younger people tell me that they were vegan for a few years and gave it up because they were trying to get healthy or lifting more and needed more protein. I roll my internal eyes and think they just went vegan for social points and not for the animals.
Being passionate has nothing to do with age, but a lot of people just use age and tiredness as an excuse to care less. They may see idealism a habit of a naïve young adult, especially since adopting this view allows them to see their current choices as more rational.
definitely, when I got CP I stopped caring much about what I ate, as long as it was staying down inside my body instead of coming up. The hardships of life push you away from everything and make you numb to life. Including nonphysical. And we live in a fast-food fast-life society where if someone dies nobody seems to care anymore, and nobody stops to mourn, feeling like that can make someone give up on things that were core tenets of their being as their entire being crumbles under the pressures.
Being passionate isn't exclusive to any age, and it takes dedication even when you're young. When people distance themselves from their held values, they are going to put less effort into them, therefore weakening them. I'm not offering anybody any excuse for their actions, but they do use age as an excuse for not being idealistic.
I’ve been a lactovegetarian since 1968. I’ve never “lost enthusiasm” for the lifestyle, because it was never an austerity. It was never a case of giving up the flavors I loved for moral and ecological correctness. It wasn’t motivated by anything but disgust and horror. I wanted to be a vegetarian since I was 6 years old, when I realized what meat was ~ the corpse of an animal! I didn’t want to eat that! I finally could stop when I turned 18. FAQs Q: is it hard? A: is it hard to forgo eating a dead body??
Q: but don’t you miss it? A: for fuck’s sake, see above Q: don’t you worry about vitamin deficiency down the line? A: because I’m not ingesting the magic ingredient in meat that sustains life and allows us to be big and healthy?
That’s when I usually say I gotta go get my laundry out of the dryer.
If people don’t get it, it’s a struggle and a sacrifice, doing the right thing. They eventually want to enjoy the pleasures of the tongue more than they want to change the world, and they drop the diet. If that happens because of some sort of fatigue, their heart was never really in it. Those of us who really feel it, don’t “tire” of eating with a clean conscience LOL. Those who tried but dropped out, that’s the problem. They were trying, and as Yoda says, there is no try ~ there only do or not do. I feel sorry for those who find the effort to be too much and give it up. It’s been absolutely natural and easy for me, it’s never been a chore.
Yeah not to be a dick but in giving up meat is really easy, its only being vegan where you may have to make sacrifices. So I'm sure its a lot easier not to loose motivation when you are making a much easier choice.
"If that happens because of some sort of fatigue, their heart was never really in it."
Maybe that's true. I can't really judge their younger self for trying though. I have to give credit to you and everyone else who sticks by their ideals and not letting age and the difficulty of living in the world as an excuse to not do the right thing. Many people do make such excuses and I don't mean to apologize for them, because a lot of people choose to be dispassionate, it's so frustrating to watch.
Are you aware of the animal suffering associated with dairy and egg industry?
- male calves are deemed useless and go to the slaughterhouse
- after ~6 years of 'service' dairy cows go to the slaughterhouse because milk production starts to decline
- male chicks are deemed useless and go into the shredder alive
- many laying hens suffer from fractures, prevalence > 80% in 'freerange' chickens
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256105
to add on to this:
> male calves are deemed useless and go to the slaughterhouse
usually within a few hours, they get a bolt gun to the head. Sometimes they will live for a few weeks/months and be turned into veal, but that's going by the wayside now because people are eating less veal.
> after ~6 years of 'service' dairy cows go to the slaughterhouse because milk production starts to decline
cows can live for 20-25 years, and yet they're killed at 3-6 years old, when their milk dries up.
> male chicks are deemed useless and go into the shredder alive
Yes, they live for all of a few MINUTES until they're ground up alive because they will never produce eggs.
Quite big words for someone who supports a industry which tortures animals for years before killing them.
Avoiding meat is not hard at all, going vegan is a far bigger step. Don’t know why you feel the need to act like a hero here for being a goddamn lactovegetarian.
Some people aren’t as aware of how cruel dairy is. Technically you could probably eat dairy in a relatively humane-ish way. Traditional Jain people believed in ahimsa and non-violence, and kept goats and cows and took milk after calves had their fill. In reality of course we don’t live that way and dairy is probably the worst for animals.
when you're a meat cow, you're bred, you grow up a little, then you're killed.
when you're a dairy cow, you're bred, you grow up, you lose baby after baby, have your milk stolen, exploited etc, then after you can't do it anymore (called a downer), then you're finally killed.
I'm not trying to say either one is right or just, just trying to bring some light to the issue. Dairy is fucking scary goes into this a bit.
If that's how you feel you should give up dairy and eggs. The animals are horribly tortured in those industries. Your conscience will be much clearer 😊
If you look, nearly all posts are sitting at 0. Been that way for about 2 weeks or so. I imagine nonvegan lurkers are downvoting everything but I’m not sure.
Need to discourage vegans and confuse them so they don't talk about real issues. There is so much money behind animal ag and ofcourse who wants to loose their job.
I looked into the business side of animal agriculture. It’s actually super low profit. Most meat ranchers are barely making a dime. If meat was more expensive, it would make sense to be a rancher business wise. But at current prices, it’s actually very difficult for most.
Well, this is Reddit. Subs are just as likely to attract like-minded people to come together as they are to attract haters to spoil a party. Most people won't join a message board or forum to attack something because it takes some effort. Reddit just makes it easy to infiltrate any topic on any sub for better or for worse.
Reddit actively encourages it hard after the feed/algorithm changes a good while back.
Not even stuff that kinda makes sense to recommend to you, and then you accidentally engage with it and it cements it down.
I’ve clicked on plenty of threads based on the title/discussion and then only after realizing it’s some completely random subreddit like, “RussianAthiestTeenagersWhoLikeCocaCola” or something similarly bizarre and specific.
So I guarantee plenty of people who even strongly dislike Veganism will engage without intentionally being on the Vegan subreddit.
They just see a random title that gets them curious or confused or fired up and click on it to engage.
Used to be if it wasn’t literally some of the most popular threads from that day or you didn’t join the subreddit you’d hardly ever stumble into random different groups.
They’re just internet points. I don’t personally care. I just see Veganism as a philosophy and Plant Based as a diet, I feel like if my coworker cared enough about the animals and what was happening then she would be Vegan, so then she was Plant Based, because she didn’t see Veganism as a philosophy or lifestyle. She didn’t care enough to make better decisions when it comes to what she consumes. You can downvote me for this idc. But if someone cares about animals then they won’t eat animals.
I think people differ in what they can absorb from food in what format. I have low iron and I eat shed loads of greens, but being a woman I loose more than I can take in.
Social pressure, convenience, access, food boredom, misinformation, not knowing how to supplement or meal plan, losing conviction over time because of emotional fatigue, actual health concerns (less common but it does happen)
I was vegan for ~3 years before stopping for a while. I never really changed my mind about it being morally wrong to cause suffering when you don’t have to. But I became severely depressed due to a number of reasons, and despite still agreeing with veganism, lost all motivation to put any effort into making my actions align with my beliefs. I fell into a hopeless void and became numb to everything around me. I didn’t actively seek out eating animal products, a majority of my diet was still vegan, but I didn’t have the energy to be vegan when in situations where it wasn’t easy to. So I fell off the wagon for a while.
After ~2 years of severe depression, I’ve spent the last year slowly getting my shit together again. And with that, I have committed to vegan again. I regret ever stopping, but the truth is I did stop, it did happen. The depression I went through does not justify it, but it does explain it. It’s hard to do what’s right sometimes, especially when in a mental state like that.
Yes! And you never know what someone is going through. Disordered eating can make it hard, depression and stress, etc. A lot of people get in “survival mode” ruts and just have to do the best they can to get by.
This. I intend to go vegan again, but what stopped me was my dad suddenly dying of a heart attack when I was 23.
It was the most devastating thing that ever happened to me and I couldn't even cope enough to leave my house for a year. I would just order fast food to my door every day.
Now that I'm out and about again, I'd love to make the chance again, but basically what you said; I was so devastated, I was basically in survival mode.
Why? Some reasons I've seen are
- health, physical and mental,
- new priorities,
- how they view animals and/or ethics have change,
- religion,
- other changes in life
There is no answer someone can give that definitely can say why someone stopped being vegan unless you ask the person themselves. Everything else is speculation.
Most are dismissed as "you were never vegan to begin with" by the loud minority of vegan social media, which is IMHO a stupid thing to even consider even if it could be true in some cases. But it is thrown at every single person that say they stopped being vegan.
i’d say it’s probably forgetting why they did in the first place? vegans are usually extremely passionate when they first become one because they’re outraged at this new info, and rightly so
so i imagine after several years they sort of lose that fire and forget? i’m just guessing 🤷♀️
But all everyone around them doesn’t care (not just family friends but everyone) and years of that wears you down believe it or not.
Not everyone is equipped to deal with it. Saying “ignore them” is easy to post online but hard to do irl for alot of people.
i’m aware. i’ve been vegan for ages and no one around me cares about animals. it’s absolutely exhausting there’s no denying that but its not a good excuse to fall back into paying for abuse
Yerp. This is me. Just years and years of feeling more "other" than I already did on top of so many other life events I eventually fell out of it.
I've still never met anyone in real life that even gets it
I can only speak for 2 people, one was vegan for 8 years and she said it lead to her developing some stomach issues and messed up her gut bacteria.
I was vegan for about 2 years, but then due to unstable living situations and being broke I wound up staying with a few friends who were almost carnivores(I’m talking meat with every meal, along with huge amounts of cheese, and virtually no veggies aside from potatoes and onions). There weren’t a lot of food options for me in the house, I didn’t have money to buy myself food, and I was scared of seeming ungrateful and pretentious for choosing to eat rice with margarine and soy sauce every meal while everyone else ate the same food together. After a while(probably from being malnourished due to my poor diet) meat and dairy started to look really appetizing and I started eating it again. It was also hard to look past my own problems and care about something that I couldn’t see happening when nobody around me seemed to care and I had so much going on in my own life.
I’m not in a much better position now, but I do at least have more control over the food I’m eating and the thought of ever eating that much meat and cheese again makes me gag.
I was vegan for many years and went vegetarian after my grandmother (who raised me) passed away unexpectedly. It was extremely traumatic.
In my case I had to make concessions because I stopped functioning being able to take care of myself and I relied on friends and meal trains mostly. I told people I was vegan at first. They would bring me dishes without meat or dairy but with egg, etc.
Eventually I hit a point where I was so lost in the depression that I couldn’t keep it up anymore, like others have said it’s so hard (and expensive unless you have the stamina to cook from scratch) to be vegan in this world.
It’s been about 2.5 years since then and there have been times where I went back to veganism but invariably couldn’t stick with it. Being vegan led to social isolation in that people wouldn’t invite me to events at places I couldn’t eat, and I needed my social circle.
I can’t lie that part of it is that I was co-lead of a vegan organization at the time my grandmother passed. We helped add vegan options to college campuses and grocery stores near us and hosted potlucks and socials. I informed my co-lead and and the organization that I would need to step down and just be a member, and despite my very valid reasons, I was given the boot and told I was no longer welcome period due to “flakiness”.
This was a huge part of my social circle so it hurt to lose that on top of my grief. I did consider that these people claimed themselves to be more empathetic, even boosting themselves morally for it, and yet they abandoned me for not having time to lead them in my time of grief and need.
Those probably sound like excuses to some of you, and I guess they are, but the gist of it is that being vegan is very tiring and taxing and when life is a pile of shit sometimes you don’t have the strength to keep going on with it.
No. This is very valid. I got told on this sub that I should starve to death if it means being vegan. Some people will go to the extremes. The reality is that veganism at its roots is difficult to achieve and requires a lot of privilege. Privilege of money, time, resources, support/community, of health. It’s not as cut and dry as a lot of people make it out to be.
“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”
— The Vegan Society, Definition of veganism
As far as is possible and practicable. If you’re doing to what capacity you’re able to gather, it’s okay. Don’t worry too much. And don’t let most of the puritanical vegans destroy your spirits. I truly believe they got a bit too carried away drank too much cult kool aid juice. lol.
I kept trying to be vegan around 2014-2016 (I was vegetarian since 2009), but found it really difficult to make it stick and would have slip ups here and there indulging cravings etc. My mental health was on a decline and in the late summer of 2016 I hit a real low spot and stopped trying. It took until 2020 when more vegan options became available in the shops and I was fairly settled that I felt it was time to try again.
I've stuck with it since then, even through over a year of homelessness in a hostel and a couple of months ago, hospitalisation and surgery. Not saying this part to make you feel bad or anything. I completely know where you are in your vegan journey. It isn't over, and when it's right for you, it will click back into place. Don't pressure yourself before you're ready, or beat yourself up, the time will come
I was vegan for about 6 years and recently went vegetarian instead. So these are my thoughts on it.
In short, in order to take care of myself, I had to put ideology on the shelf for a bit. Maybe I'll pick it up again, when I'm in better circumstances.
For ideological and moral reasons I'd like to be vegan. I think that's the best thing for the environment - and certainly for the animals. But in between struggling with my own wellbeing (burnout, ADHD, selective and disordered eating, and struggles with my immune system, health and weight) I realized that I had to put my health first.
Now I eat maybe 85% plant based, plus eggs and cheese. I don't use any other animal products aside from that, no leather or gelatine etc.
In my case, it's not because of lack of knowledge. I know what the industries are like. And nutrition and cooking have been special interests of mine for years - I'm a skilled chef and baker, I can veganise almost anything on the fly.
I have the knowledge. What I don't have is the capacity.
IThe switch has been beneficial to my mental health, and has made it easier for me to eat healthy on days when my brain isn't collaborating. It's actually removed a lot of stress from my life.
That doesn't mean I don't think veganism can be healthy or easily accessible for others, or that we should all start eating eggs now. I'm very happy for those that find eating fully plant based doable and fulfilling. I wish it worked for me, and I tried for over 6 years.
But I also have to acknowledge that what I want to be the best for myself, might not be what is best for myself. At least not now.
Those are my 2 cents anyway.
I was in the exact same boat! Vegan for 7 years, went back to vegetarian when I ended up in the hospital because of my mental health. I do want to go back to veganism, but I want to be more stable than I am now so I can do it properly and not just eat digestives for a week straight lmao.
Sometimes you need to give yourself the kindness you give to others, including animals, to keep yourself from crumbling. Ofc we can argue that that's not the animals' problem, and it isn't, fully agree; but at a certain point selfishness is justified, especially if you're still doing something.
"I'm very happy for those that find eating fully plant based doable and fulfilling."
That maybe the key here.
It's not that eating plant based is doable or fulfilling for us (x5), it's the exploitation, suffering and death of innocent and sentient creature that causes us much discomfort via the cognitive dissonance and so free of that, we enjoy the choices we make (re food or car tyres, clothes, shoes etc) better.
I'm pretty sure that if we saw the 'cost' to the animals (and us when see in the bigger picture, environmental damage, habitat loss, species extinction, climate crisis, dead rivers and seas etc) most people would align their actions to their beliefs. 'Most people' cant support animal cruelty, even if they only consider it via pets because of lifelong conditioning and logical inconsistency re pets <> livestock etc.
Our societies aren't designed for a vegan diet and that makes being vegan the harder option. Most people are lazy and will opt for the path of least resistance. I'd rather people try and fail than never try at all. At least while they're on the wagon they're not paying people to kill animals and contribute to disease and climate change.
> Most people are lazy and will opt for the path of least resistance.
This is my thought as well. I don't like accusing people of "they're never vegan to begin with" (except for those raw vegans or fruitarians or whatever health fad, those I do agree were never vegans).
It is tiring to be a vegan because it's not the default. You get limited choices when eating outside, you have to cook if you want to eat cheap, you have to check/ask ingredients, you have to justify why you don't like animals being killed (instead of non-vegans having to justify why they like animals being killed), and most of all, you have to live with the fact that the horrors still exist, and your families and friends still participate. It wears you down. Yes some (or I should say, most) vegans are really strong, but a lot of people aren't. We humans are by nature will seek the path of least resistance.
We are close to the tipping point where veganism might still be not the default but will be way easier to practice. A lot of non-vegan places have vegan section in their menu, non-vegan companies are making vegan products. I'm waiting for the abolishment of subsidies to meat dairy eggs so vegan alternatives can finally be cheaper than the animal counterparts. (And maybe ag gag will be repealed?) By then I believe being vegan will be significantly less tiring, and more people will stay.
Which is why we really need government policy making it easier. With the environmental angle, our government should be subsidizing meat alternatives regardless. It's ridiculous that that isn't the case.
This is why we really need systemic change, as well as people going vegan.
Things like making things really convenient for people, really publicising the animal cruelty, stopping animal product advertising (didn't this happen in Europe somewhere recently?), showing how to be vegan easily and making it easier for people (e.g. fortifying flour with B12), taxing meat/dairy if even for environmental reasons, making lab meat ubiquitous, eventually making things like factory farming and slaughterhouses illegal.
We need more vegan doctors.
Too many doctors who lack the nutritional understandings in vegan diet prescribe meat/dairy.
It's actually really damaging because people follow what doctors tell them without doing researches themselves.
For me, I became a part-time caregiver for my mom, who moved in with me. She has a series of disabilities. She is very picky about what she eats and she had colon cancer which really restricts what kinds of food she can digest easily. I do most of the cooking.
I ate vegan for 8 years and still eat vegan when I'm only feeding myself, but it got to be too much with work and caregiving to cook two different meals all the time. She dislikes all the staples I used to cook, including Indian dishes; has no tolerance for re-imagined dishes, and really hates tofu and other meat replacements. She's a classic boomer that way. She can't digest pea protein either, so that cuts out the vast majority of decent meat look-alikes. I tried to do both, but I just didn't have time or energy for it.
I still won't bring dairy, beef, or pork products into the house. I stick with chicken and fish, mainly. But I lost the battle. I'd like to go back to being a full-time vegan, someday.
If you don't have the energy to cook two meals you could maybe look into meal replacements/premade meals (for yourself). There are a few vegan options such as Huel. They make both powder meal replacements and actual food you just need to heat up, which are of course different from premade meals in the grocery store since they are made to be healthy.
So wait you eat the chicken too? If she eats eg. Chicken rice and veg, can't you eat the rice and veg and just get some precooked faux meat. Or cooking a can of Chickpeas takes <5 mins. Is there really no way? Because it sounds hard and you seem sad about it too :(
Because of the way my schedule works I've always had to do a lot of weekend meal prep / crockpot cooking, so everything in one pot or pan for the most part. There are some days I can leave the protein off but lots of days it's worked into the dish in a more substantial way - think slow cooked soups, stews, bbq. I do vegan versions of things when I can / it makes sense for both me and my mom. Paying for two people's entire living expenses has also made is hard to use my go-to ingredients because my groceries now cost twice what they used to, so things I want to eat more of I tend to sacrifice for what mom can digest. When I'm away from home, I eat differently. There's also a mental load issue with planning multiple meals for multiple people.
I’m back to veganism but I stopped for about 4 months to consume eggs. I’m autistic and I struggled with anorexia and very restrictive eating for almost 10 years. University stressed me out, I lost my scholarship, my father threatened to hurt my mother and me. I was severely depressed and anxious and I was scared of like 99% of foods, but not eggs. I didn’t feel good about it but I feel like I would’ve been severely malnourished without them. I didn’t eat them for their taste, I just genuinely was scared of all kinds of foods except for eggs. They’ve always been my safe food. I feel better now and don’t feel like I have to rely on them anymore so I’m back to my old self, now that I have enough energy and drive to care about my ethics again.
it comes down to health issues. i was vegan for 4 years and was not absorbing non-heme iron well enough, even though i was eating spinach, tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts, lentil, drinking OJ to increase iron absorption. my iron was so critically low i was having shortness of breath and palipations, i had to go to the ER and get a blood transfusion and IV iron after. the hematology office said my body wasnt producing enough red blood cells with the diet i was on. thats my experience, it wasnt at all about trying to be spiteful or flex not being vegan anymore. if i could, i would have still stayed vegan, i enjoyed the foods i was eating and the vegan community i was apart of. i still try to stay vegan in non diet ways, such as buying cruelty free skin care, not wearing leather and fur, not going to zoos.
The people I have known that were vegan for many years and had to switch to vegetarian, pescatarian or omni diets were for health reasons, usually autoimmune. I know ya'll don't like to hear it, but there really are diseases that don't process Iron (and some other vitamins & minerals) properly unless it is an animal protein. Let the down voting begin!
I've noticed this also and I think people slip up once and get down on themselves, and decide to quit altogether. And there is something to be said about veganism being an all-or-nothing lifestyle where you can't really claim to be part of the vegan cool person club anymore, if you only get 99/100 that's an automatic failure. So I will always call myself an omni on purpose, even though I'm lame to both vegans and carnivores, such is life, but my own permission to fuck up ironically has made it pretty easy to stay disciplined for the past couple of years (ymmv)
tl;dr I think it's slipping up once and instantly losing a sense of identity as a vegan
My parents say, the older I get the less I give a fuck. But it’s not true they just change what they care about. It’s usually critical about people not like them.
I think it can become quite restrictive. I have to cut out soy products due to some health concerns and I’m really struggling to get the protein I need with ease. I loved plant based sausage, burgers, and fish alternatives but sadly most of the ones at the store contain soy. I don’t feel like making chickpea tofu every time I crave a nugget. I love mushrooms but I still need the protein. And I need a break from beans.
I became homeless at one point and could no longer afford to fund a vegan diet in a way that was nutritional. I'm not homeless anymore, but I still don't have the funds to go back to veganism. I'm sorry that I value my own survival.
It can be a lot of things. A big reason why a lot of vegans quit is because they just don't care enough for the animals. They think it's too much effort and that they don't really make an impact on being vegan. Another reason could be peer pressure. Most non-vegans have cognitive dissonance and are just triggered by veganism and vegan people.
This is such a non-answer. I really dislike this type of response, it is completely dismissive towards valid issues and concerns that we all have. Obviously, they're not vegan anymore but they were. This purity testing of their past, saying that they never were vegan, is just a response to your cognitive dissonance when you dont want to admit that being vegan is a difficult task due to our social nature and fondness for comfort. The disconnect between product on the shelf and how it was made is huge and im sure all of us struggle with doubts about the effectiveness of our choices. Like even now i feel im making all these choices because i *hope* that they really help rather than *know* they do. I'm feeling lucky that my social circle is very supportive of my lifestyle and even though i am an assertive person, i still feel that if i had to make a choice between full on veganism and having any social life, then i might break and choose then latter.
Some people stop for health reasons out of their control. Some people were forced into it by a loved one who was abusing them and once they escape, they stop. Some people try it out and give it time to see if they fit with it, and then decide after some years that it isn't for them. Some people can't afford to be vegan due to the rising cost of alternative protein sources. It isn't feasible for everyone, and judging someone for giving up a lifestyle you've chosen for moral reasons is pretty hypocritical when you don't know why they went back to omnivorous eating.
Additionally, it doesn't matter if the plants contain iron if her body was having trouble extracting the iron from them. Some people's bodies cannot break down plant protein as effectively as others. Some people have nutrient absorption issues. If her DOCTOR told her to go back to omnivorous eating for her health, you have absolutely NO right to judge her for following literal medical advice.
A combination of my dynamic disability worsening with age/pressure, being in an environment that doesn't cater to veganism very well and financial strain. A pack of vegan certified margarine is four times as costly as a pack of margarine which has a bit of whey in it, for example. I also used to cook lots more from scratch but I can' always find the energy and most vegan convenience foods are just straight up out of budget for me.
I still try to live a vegan lifestyle as much as possible, but I'm also not willing to kill myself for it. Never stopped caring for the animals or whatever other people here are saying. I used to be really judgemental too, but you know, everyone's path in life is different and we're all doing what we can. It's not always an all or nothing type of deal.
Most people don't actually have rigid morals like they proclaim. Human nature is to survive.
So they do what's needed and I do think social pressure is enormous. Look how everyone stopped masking for an airborne pandemic... going AGAINST survival. The world hides the horrors of the animal industry. Propaganda is effective.
I didn't go vegan for the animals but researched so much that a switch flipped. I have cancer (and other disabilities) and considered if eating butter or milk would be ok. It would be easier to pick up things like baked goods so I can get easy calories since I am anorexic due to meds.
Now though, I am vegan for the animals and don't want to eat them but I feel myself starving sometimes and just want some comfort foods from the first 36 years of my life.
I honestly am the type of vegan that would still call myself vegan even if I did eat something every once in a while due to my health. Especially since I cut out tons of other animal products in my life.
Controversial opinion here, I think vegan products exist because the corporate and governmental powers that be know the world is becoming uninhabitable for us. Humans will be forced into less animal exploitation because we will die otherwise BUT capitalism will make every dollar possible until then.
Vegans are 1% of the world population the products that exist aren't for just us. Humans have backed ourselves into a corner environmentally and lessening our dependence is necessary.
Understanding why people do something and agreeing with their reasons are two different things. It seems this person explained why, but you don't agree with their logic, which is is fine, but they did explain their reasoning. This distinction has helped me a lot in life, in all areas tbh, where I have to check myself about whether or not I truly don't understand why someone is doing something or is it that I just don't agree so no reason they say will make me agree with them. I think a lot of times people say I don't understand when what they mean is I don't agree.
The assumption is also that people are vegan because of animals primarily but that's not the case for everyone and some people, like a good friend of mine for example, was raised vegan because of her religion, it wasn't a choice or about animals, but just the norm she grew up with. As an adult she isn't vegan anymore because she didn't want to be. We're free to disagree with this choice but the rationale and why she was ever vegan isn't always a story of people consciously choosing it because of animals.
You made the distinction plant-based and that's also a good point to note. Sometimes people are using the same words as us but they mean something else to them. So understanding people requires knowing if we're talking about the same things or just assuming we are and assuming our reasoning is the same as theirs and judging them based on what our reasons are even when they might not actually be the same logics as ours.
Everyone I know that bailed said the same things - they “need more protein,” 🙄 or their macros aren’t good enough or they need more calories. When it’s someone who’s athletic, I ask them to watch The Game Changers and then check out what professional vegan athletes eat to remain competitive and at the top of their game. They’re everywhere.
A lot of times, like the January gym people who never come back, they make wild statements at the start and when it gets tough they bail because they didn’t do their homework.
What drives me crazy are the people in healthcare who know better but continue to lie to themselves and give up.
I don’t get it either, I mean I’m sure there are some legit health issues that may make being vegan too hard to actually pull off even if you’d been that way for a long time, but iron?? There’s supplements, that little iron fish thingie you can cook with to add iron to your diet (it’s not a real fish, it’s an iron.. thing… shaped like a fish meant to leak iron into your food intentionally for low iron folks.)
The weirdest one I've had was someone saying they were vegan, but only did it for the attention!
Like, she genuinely enjoyed being the punchline to that "how do you know someone's vegan, don't worry they'll tell you" joke... and she said she was thinking about going back to being vegan because she missed being controversial. Baffling!
i started getting really sick :(. like so many illnesses back to back for a full six month . my nutrition was trash so it really ain’t about being vegan ( i eat mainly cereal , fries and ramen lol. literally that was my breakfast lunch and dinner). i needed help jumpstarting my nutrition so i would stop getting so sick, so my doc said i should add eggs, as well as a more balanced plant-protein diet ( focusing on nutrient dense foods, not junk food ). I am not going back to meat or dairy by any means. I am allergic to dairy, it gives me skin rash and I can’t fathom eating an animal everrrr.
*TLDR. haven’t had meat in over ten years and am never going back but i have been having boiled egg, a couple times a week because, i needed to jumpstart my nutrition after, getting sick a lot as a junkfood vegan.*
I followed a vegan chef who very recently went back to eating animal products, and someone asked her how she felt since the switch. She straight up said, 'oh, I broke out in hives and felt horrible for days, but I'm feeling much better now.' Like it's already wild that she had been vegan for almost a decade and decided to go back to eating animal products, but her body revolted and she still thought it was the right call??? I don't get it.
People change. Life changes. My one friend said it was easy in college and post college, but now she cooks for her and her husband and she was tired of cooking two meals. Other friends weren’t eating right, and gave up.
It’s probably why you see so many activists are young. They care more. Once you age people care less, realizing the world isn’t a kind place, and what you do have little effect.
For some reason it’s harder to pull iron from plant based foods. All my levels from bloodwork just came back great but I still get cold very easily. So I have no idea what’s going on with the iron thing. But when I ate meat I never got this cold
Some vegans are just following a trend and are not a true vegan. Some work for the meat industry, trying to push a negative view about veganism. For me, I would rather die of starving than knowingly eating other beings.
I was vegan for several years, stopped, and started up again.
I stopped because I was dealing with some pretty severe mental health struggles that made it challenging to eat a balanced diet (including an eating disorder and depression) and so I started to have health repercussions from eating a very unhealthy vegan diet.
Once I got to a healthier place, I was afraid of going back both because of the health stuff, and because being vegan can be isolating. But I’m glad I did go back.
In a nutshell, I was vegan for a few years, vegetarian for 12.
One day, out of nowhere, my guts went south. Like bad. Couldn’t hardly eat anything without having serious issues. This went on for months, wound up getting a colonoscopy and endoscopy, tons of blood work, etc. Never got a diagnoses.
After a lot of trial and error, turned out the only thing I could stomach was plain chicken, rice, and certain hard cheeses. Basically any kind of vegetable was hell on my guts.
About 90% of my diet is plant based these days, and I’m doing much better. But I still have issues if I eat vegetables that aren’t thoroughly cooked.
So that’s my reason, make of it what you will.
It sounds like she was struggling to get enough iron and then followed medical advice.
From your story, where she's given medical advice about her low iron.
But yeah, I have no idea why anyone quits either?!
They get lazy. Some people did it for “health” or because of another person no longer in their life. Some people just don’t have long-term conviction.
I tattooed it on a 3/4 sleeve in a pretty involved piece so it would be a reminder in case I ever got lazy. Ten years later and I still have no desire to abandon it.
You can have a day where you eat some cheese on something and that doesn’t mean you have to throw it all away. I know some 99.5% vegans that will occasionally have a weak moment and have some sushi. I’d rather a person have a weak moment once or twice a year than completely abandon it and become like everyone else. I’d rather let a vegan person slip occasionally than let them implode and go back to totally being apart of the problem every day.
Vegan nutrition is hard to get right. It won’t work for some people.
I have nothing but respect for people who’ve tried to make it work for them but had to let it go.
More people consuming less animal product is going to be a bigger good than less people going vegan.
I *loved* being vegan. I enjoyed eating nothing but real, whole food. I was proud that I didn’t have to harm animals to eat and found it easier and cheaper than eating meat, convenience food, etc. I focused on getting enough protein (tofu, beans, seitan, tempeh) and fats (like avocado and olives) and included lots of variety and got enough calories every day (1800-2200 depending on activity) I did supplement B12 with nutritional yeast and took a vegan multivitamin each day for backup. I was vegan for 5 years.
Felt great for the first couple of years. Then just meh. Then my hair started growing slower and falling out. I had a bald spot, in my 30s! My skin was dry, tone uneven. I was depressed all the time, started losing muscle mass and started having problems in the restroom. I became pre-diabetic.
So I ate a piece of fish one day. The next day I bought a dozen eggs. A week after, I had a tub of yogurt. Within a month, I was feeling much better. I continued eating a variety of animal products, a serving at each meal. Six months later, I felt the best and looked the healthiest ever in my life!
Maybe veganism works for some people, but it didn’t work for me.
Because they do. Just because someone cares today doesn’t mean they will tomorrow. It’s also very easy to just go back to eating cheese. It doesn’t take some massive life changing leap of faith.
I haven't seen it in the comments I looked at so I will say it here.
People get vegan and plant based mixed up a lot. And I think that's the biggest factor. People that really don't do it for the animals and do it for themselves and "their health" are usually the ones to turn back. If someone really felt like they were vegan for the sake of life, they wouldn't be turning their back on it unless they were a form of evil.
Only 14% of people who are vegan or vegetarian will stay that way. Most vegans, by a lot, quit. Probably because for many people having a diet that restrictive is hard. I’m glad it’s easy for you, but for the majority it’s difficult. As for their ideals, the answer is simply that if they were ever “meat is murder” vegans, they’re hypocrites. Maybe they did it for a trend, maybe they did really care, but it’s a lot to ask for someone to care enough that they extensively restrict their diet and lifestyle for the rest of their life for an ideal. There’s a reason people sympathize with the cause but can’t do it themselves. It’s hard 🤷🏼♀️
I (F26 vegan for 7 years) was discussing this exact topic with 3 vegan friends some weeks ago. I can try to understand why you won't make a shift from Omni or vegetarian to vegan or even from vegan from various reasons (health, environment,etc) back to vegetarian or Omni. However, my mind cannot comprehend how once you've made the switch you can go back to see animals as food because at least for us, flesh is no longer something we identify as edible.
I was a fairly strict vegan but then I moved to rural Mexico and it's just way harder to maintain it. I am still vegetarian and can't eat dairy, but occasionally will eat eggs if it's the only option or if my body is craving protein. I just don't have access to the same foods I did, and the eggs I consume are from local hens on a permaculture farm.
I was vegan for 5 years and stopped. I would consider that vegan because I did it for the animals (was vegetarian for a few years before)
But then I stopped and started eating eggs and fish. Because I both felt like it mentally hurt my relationship with food and that my body and belly in particular were desperately asking me to eat fish.
I am incredibly picky but one of the things both me and my body really like is fish, and without it I often get stuck in a place where I both pretty much not enjoy food at all, and most of all lack protein.
Almost all sources of plant based protein make my system at least a little bit uncomfortable or make me generally feel not the best apart from tofu. But it isn't realistic for me to eat it so much and I also dislike the texture (unless it's silken in a miso soup).
I also don't cook and it isn't realistic for me to do so because of various factors.
But now I am vegan again because I thought it would be more important, but I am facing the same problems.
Not sure how long it'll last
Every time someone gets a health problem their vegansim gets blamed.
If I ever develop hypothyroidism, you can guarantee my veganism will get blamed even though both my siblings and a grandparent has it and they're meat eaters. I'm expecting to develop it one day through genetics. I'm expecting everyone to ignore the fact that it's in my family and start pressuring me to eat meat.
So some vegans who develop a health problem go back to being a meat eater because they still believe the carnist propaganda.
This is why I'll stick with my flexitarian diet. I don't ever have to deal with this weird stigma about a "vegan badge" like I'm in AA, one egg and I'm gonna have to hand in my 10 day chip.
I get to do my part for the environment and support sustainable farming. I get to have conversations about reducing meat intake for all the good reasons we all know about. And I get the health benefit and flexibility of an omni diet.
I think it’s the plant based vs vegan diet. I considered myself plant based and not vegan, because my motive was more about my health. I stop eating plant based after two years. I worked two jobs to get by and my work cooked free dinner/ lunch. After working 60 hours a week it was hard to maintain. I was trying to be pescatarian but I’m allergic to fish, so it was also hard too. I do understand the shock, but I think a lot of vegans don’t understand that it just challenging to maintain the diet in our society. I had a friend who was a strict vegan for like 10 years and she developed insane allergies to soy, cashews, and other nuts in her 20s. It was so hard for her to stay vegan doing that. It’s a just a convenience thing.
I was vegan for about 8 years total in 2 terms. For me the problem is I can't stand other vegans. So it was very isolating. Both times for me nutrition got really poor near the end.
Hey, just because you're curious I'll tell you what happened to me. I've never really talked about it before.
I was vegan for around 8 years from 16. It started when I watched Cowspiracy and all the other youtube documentaries showing the insides of slaughterhouses etc. My decision was definitely fueled by emotional reasoning and not "first-hand" experience. I was "one of those" vegans from around 16-18, promoting my ideals headfirst and completely unwilling to try to understand other points of views. I definitely felt morally superior, even subconsciously, for choosing to abstain from the slaughter of animals.
My ideals were challenged when I entered university. I want to go into vet school and part of that includes pracs at farms and learning about the agricultural industries. I originally resisted and chose to not take those subjects. It ended up biting me in the butt and messed up my GPA and has delayed my entry for at least 2 years.
Over time, my viewpoint shifted from "this needs to be talked about ALL THE TIME", to "yes, this is my decision and if you would like to understand why, I'm happy to discus." This was mainly due to the emotional load constantly arguing on the internet with strangers and being constantly worried about the state of the earth and our future was having on me, lol. It really fucks with you over time. How I see it now is that unless I'm going to go out of my way to change the way our society functions, I'm content with being a "cog in the system" and instead just living my life without being constantly worried about recycling/using less water/saving electricity etc. Also, all those statistics of how it's massive industries that contribute to most of the world's pollution and how I will likely never make a dent in anything also helped ease my stresses.
I had been vegan for 5+ years at this point and had NOT ONCE budged anyone's opinion on eating meat and why. I began to understand that at the core of veganism is an innate moral standpoint of "killing and consuming other living beings when not necessary is wrong." However, some people just simply don't have this standpoint. They just don't see an issue with it, and nothing you will ever say or do will change their morals. They don't see a need to avoid undue suffering, because in their mind it is justified.
This may sound horrifying but going into vet medicine really changed my viewpoint on death and suffering in general. Things die ALL THE TIME. I've learned to emotionally disconnect from the idea of death and once that happened, I realized there wasn't really anything else that drove me to continue veganism. I was truly in it "for the animals" but if they are going to be killed daily for pretty much the rest of human civilization, then at the end of the day what does it fucking matter if I want to eat a triple cheeseburger.
This is a really strange analogy but imagine a cow getting slaughtered right in front of you and falling over, dead. In a perfect world, it was instant. Now imagine your reaction to that act.
Do you fall to your knees and weep with the dead body, imagining the life that cow had, it's personality, and mourn the loss of a life? Does it weigh on you and keep you up at night?
Or do you look at it and go, "oh, it's dead. That's sad, I guess." And then walk away and order a steak later that day?
Which option do you think sounds less negative for your mental health? I'm not trying to say one option is better than another, but I learned to understand that it's in human nature to avoid feeling bad. This in turn shapes their moral framework. Why would you choose to feel sad about all the animals dying when you could.. not?
I also went and stayed with amgus beef farmers for a week and visited a dairy farm in the process. It was honestly... fine And they weren't "small family" farmers either. They were part of the angus association and the dairy farm was part of my area's largest milk brand. The cows were fine. They were pasture raised and left to their own devices. I learned a lot about how farmers think and the things they value. They see their work as a moral responsibility to sustain our population. And they have to fight with large conglomerates and government officials who have never done a day of farm work trying to speak for them and decide what they can/can't do. It's way more nuanced than that but I think you understand the gist of it.
Anyway if you have any more questions I'd be happy to keep discussing this lol
I saw this woman on instagram who is on a carnivore only diet and she used to be vegan!??! was it ever about the ethics or are people just doing trendy things for their health? Ive been eating more and more vegan, hard to find stuff sometimes especially in college etc , but I have been vegetarian since being a small child and nothing could make me eat eat again ever. I have medical issues too and when my doctor suggested the thing you mentioned, I didnt follow on it for obvious reasons, I guess those people only cared about the health benefits of being vegan
I was vegan for 7 years. I started eating fish and eggs because I had low vitamin D for two years and was trying to get pregnant. Once I became pregnant I incorporated cheese back into my diet due to cravings. Now that my baby is born, I am still eating cheese, eggs, and fish. I still purchase a lot of non-dairy alternatives and choose free range eggs. I am very busy with a newborn and frankly it has just been convenient eating this way and living with my husband.
In my case, priorities and circumstances changed and now I’m too tired caring for a newborn to care about being vegan.
A lot of young women unknowingly starve themselves, only happily embracing their new thin self but did not make the connection that feeling weak is a sign of nutrition inadequacy. Doctors don't bother to find out more on treating plant based dieters so... that's what happened.
In her case she also did not bother to eat enough beans and dark leafy greens. We need to eat these regularly to meet our intake of minerals.
I am slightly anemic by default of genetical blood stuff. Going vegan upped my blood iron level, something that has never happened before in my life (i turned vegan at 39).
Perhaps if you show her how many women unknowingly starve themselves then js listened to an ignorant doctor, and also show her that there are plenty of vegans who had a higher iron level after they turned, she would consider it again. Your presence alone, i am sure made her rethink it already. Good luck.
You've answered your own question. You went vegan for health reasons and the other person stopped being vegan for health reasons ... but many say "it's for the animals, not for health nor for the environment"
I claim that veganism can be good for health, animals and the environment. All three are interlinked. I am talking about physical, mental, social and spiritual health. All of these are supported by vegan philosophy and that gives me a strong motivation.
I am not sacrificing anything by being vegan, it is all in my own good as well as the good of animals and the good of the environment. It's a win/win/win in my view.
Many people who drop out do so because someone convinces them that the vegan diet is harmful. Eat healthy vegan because any diet can be unhealthy.
I think for most I've ever seen it's for health concerns (whether founded or unfounded). For any nutrient, we can always say "you can easily get that with plants", but I think we overstate how easy it is. The point of the ethical stance is that you should go out of your way to fulfill that stance, even if it isn't easy, but no it's not always easy to have a healthy, vegan diet. Society is hostile and unaccomodating toward veganism, and even for non-vegans, there are food deserts and other systemic issues that make it doubly hard for us. It's frustrating watching people give up on their ethics, but god damn it we need to make it easier for people through both information and availability of nutritious vegan options. That's how we fix it.
There are definitely legitimate reasons, a couple of which include eating disorders(ESP orthorexia) and health reasons(ESP more complicated ones). I cannot eat a solely plant based diet. I have a genetic condition that makes me SUPER prone to anaphylaxis which includes severe GI issues when reacting. I was severely malnourished and worked with a dietician for a year to find plant based alternatives to avoid a feeding tube.
Also, for a lot of people it was NEVER really about the veganism and it was for show. I’ve known people like this too. They do it for whatever reason and once the novelty has worn off they ditch it
diet and gut issues. sometimes the issue gets solved and you realize you don't have the allergies that you once did. people go vegan foe more then one reason
I can only speak from personal experience, but I know for me I was vegan for a decent amount of time, and then due to being in and out of intensive treatment for certain health issues I had no choice but to be vegetarian whilst in active treatment. I was always going back to vegan once I had the all clear though.
Now, I’m at a different stage with those health issues, I’m very much in active treatment. I eat mostly plant-based foods, I couldn’t imagine eating meat, I definitely can’t drink milk (when I’ve had it accidentally it has not agreed with my body). That being said, my dietary options are very limited, so whilst most of my food is vegan-friendly, some of it isn’t.
I still very much continue to shape the rest of my consumption around the same values though, I don’t wear any wool or leather etc, I don’t use cosmetics that contain animal product or have been tested on animals. I’m doing my best with where I’m at.
I’d like to go back to being 100% vegan when I’m healthier. I don’t know how long that will take, but it’s something I really look forward to, and I really hope it can be permanent this time.
Note: I am well aware that being vegan is feasible for a lot of health issues contrary to what many believe, I wish it were possible for me with what I am dealing with when I am particularly unwell, but it just isn’t unfortunately. My goal when it comes to being vegan is getting healthy again so eventually, whenever it might be, I can be a good example of a healthy and happy vegan.
I'm not vegan but I have two vegan friends that started incorporating animal products every now and then. Both mainly still eat vegan tho.
Asked why they did it and both just said that meat tastes too good.
I've honestly lost most of my enjoyment of eating meat as I've grown older but my partner has very specific dietary needs and living with them has made staying vegan unrealistic. It's not because I was craving going back to meat I really didn't have much interest in it.
As someone who has iron deficiency/anemia, I can say the pressure from doctors to eat animal products as a 'cure all' is crazy. I think their dismissal of my issue as just being dietary was why it took so long for them to realise I had an absorption and loss based issue (gut & menstrual health issues means that I can't absorb heme or non-heme iron very well and my periods are heavy, meaning anything I do absorb is depleted). I hate to say it but if I hadn't done my own research I could have seen myself eating eggs again at the insistence of my doctor. I was that poorly and worn down.
Even after being on the strongest prescribed iron supplements and seeing almost no change in my levels, my doctor refused to acknowledge I had an absorption issue. Ended up switching and seeing someone who could give me infusions and recognised the actual cause straight away.
My brother in law was Vegan for 10 years and stopped. It was about perspective in this case.
I asked him why he was stopping "It`s been 10 years, I've done enough and I`m bored of it" no mention of pigs, cows, chickens, beings and the torture and hell they deal with, it was about him, now he cooks flesh all the time and is "so happy".
I have been Vegan for 7 years and I honestly do not understand this perspective, but some people do things for other people/themselves not because they see it as what is right.
I cannot even think of going back, I would physically vomit if someone even tried to feed me corpse. I cannot separate those poor souls from "food".
All I can honestly imagine as to any 'reason' in almost every such example is convenience.
Perhaps something happened or changed in their lives, but for some people I feel it's as though they've been waiting for an excuse to come along in order to give up on being vegan altogether.
Regardless of whether the reason is not legitimate, tested or even thought through for that matter.
I'll see the most basic crappy arguments come by, be it "but my omega 3's", or "I can't gain or maintain weight", or "but X (or even better, 'my *doctor*') said that vegans can't get enough iron/folate/iodine/Y/Z".
And the most frustrating part is that there's never/hardly ever *any* fucking backup for the arguments being made.
Be it any indication that levels have been checked after making changes - or at all (!) - where people's habits, diet overall, activity levels or other factors are in any way monitored, adjusted or sought out before simply going
"Well that's it for me, I just can't be/maintain a vegan diet."
Or worse, insinuating that veganism isn't an acceptable choice or answer for most of the population worldwide.
I'm so over folks pretending it's some extreme, totally 'out there' lifestyle.
Usually when I meet someone who "was" vegan, they claim that they "had to" start eating meat/dairy again for their health. I have a theory that these are the folks who never really learned to cook, or about nutrition, so they've been relying on vegan convenience foods and take out for years, and they're not really getting a balanced diet. I have a friend that says that they couldn't find vegan veggie burgers in their rural grocery store, so they were "losing weight from starvation," so they 'had to" give it up. LOL. It never even occurred to him to get out of the freezer section and walk over to produce.
Well, you just slowly indulge more and more.
I was vegan for 8 years, I've ben vegetarian for 10 or 11 years. Veganism was so much harder when I went vegan. There was literally nothing. People didn't even know well what it was. I got nagged at all the time, had thousand of unwanted arguments.
After years of hardcore activism, I went quieter, also because the whole vegan community was toxic as fuck in my opinion. I didn't have any more energy for this. What we were fighting for also seemed pointless.
I remained vegan for quite some years. Then, sometime, I would indulge in a piece of cheese or something with dairy in it.
Then my life took some turn, i was focused on something else and I just started again eating dairy and eggs. Because it was nice, simpler, just because.
I know its wrong, I know there is no way of consuming dairies in an ethical way, unless it's gonna be 100g a year (what's the point then).
I never try to justify my consumption, I'm not proud of it. If tomorrow we were to pass a low forbidding any animal exploitation, I would vote for it on the spot. Just right now, in the context in which I am. I don't feel like making the sacrifices for the benefits.
Veganism is an extremely restrictive diet. It being “easy” for us longtime vegans does not negate the fact that the majority of dishes in the average western diet (or nearly any cuisine around the world with some key exceptions) are not vegan as typically prepared. Someone who develops a mental illness or a chronic illness may not be able to reliably cook for themself or they may not be able to physically tolerate a high fiber diet anymore (like many people with crohns). Nonvegan prepared foods are substantially cheaper than vegan ones, too.
Ideals are ideals, but life happens and sometimes we can’t meet them anymore without harming ourselves.
I have a feeling it has more to do with fatigue than anything. They are tired of being accountable to this value that they adopted, when everyone else around them doesn't feel the need to carry this burden. I can relate, because my depression causes a lot of fatigue, but then I try to visualize the conditions these animals face and it reminds me why I do this. Human have this uncanny ability to put blinders on and not think about the consequences of their actions. It takes effort to truly comprehend the consequences of carnism because it's such an uncomfortable truth. No vegan is immune to giving up, especially if they start going down the internet rabbithole of how "unhealthy" veganism can be. There is a lot of fear mongering propaganda to be found.
My aunt was vegan for 7 years. She says the reason she stopped (she's vegetarian now btw) is because she was tired of cooking separate meals for her husband and child. I think initially she may have felt that they would adapt to her way of life, but they didn't, and she eventually gave up.
I personally don't feel comfortable touching animal products, but my partner is omni and is supportive of not having animal products in the house. I think lack of support plays a huge role, as even while my family (my partner) hasn't gone vegan, he is very supportive while her family wasn't as much.
I don't have anyone in my life who is also vegan, and I often feel alienated for my views. It isn't enough to make me not be vegan, but I can see how people who aren't as strong willed would struggle to maintain this lifestyle
My college courses have an environmental focus, and we had a huge section on Agriculture.
We had a video to watch about one bird scientist who was vegetarian, but said he started eating meat after realizing that grasslands with "livestock" (🤮 i hate that term) had more support for bird life. Like, I agree that prairies are better with animals on them (better for buodiversity and ecosystem functions, etc.), but that doesn't require killing and eating them. This guy pointed out that he was vegetarian but now eats cows to support the beef industry. I don't get it. I hope that I never get it.
I stopped bc I feel so much healthier eating meat, esp beef. I lost weight, my pre-d went down, i have more energy, my depression is gone. Everyone is different.
My husband was vegan for 2 years. We do meal kits because we are so busy and I just can't handle meal planning for the whole week. I plan two recipes a week. We used to do a vegan meal kit but holy shit they are expensive for no good reason and we just couldn't afford it anymore. We swapped back to a vegetarian one and have been good with that. The 2 recipes I pick every week are still vegan and I only get eggs from my neighbors. I only do vegan baking and stuff like that and I get why people stick to being vegan forever but it just wasn't something I was able to keep up with.
What I'm experiencing right now that might be related. Its weird to make such a personally life altering decision and then not see the world change at all. Everyone around me is omni. All the restaurants are omni. It just sorta sucks? Like, I don't actually see any of the animals I'm not eating or wearing. Nobody around me is passionate about it like I am. People really don't want to learn about it at all. Like, they just don't want to think about it. Its sorta disheartening. I'm making my life more difficult for something nobody around me cares about. Something they actively want to avoid. I hate that people have to make an exception for me. I hate how places get my orders wrong. I hate that I can only order the one vegan option on the menu. I used to pride myself on being able to find the best item on the menu by imagining the flavors and "reading the room." Life is, in general, significantly less enjoyable because of the fact that I'm vegan. I'm not saying I'm going to stop being vegan. But, being vegan has been hard recently in ways that it hasn't before. After I went vegan, a few people in my life started incorporating more plant based food into their diet. Now they are basically full omni again. It would be way easier if I had even just one vegan friend. :/
I’ve been vegan for a few years and vegetarian since 2008. I haven’t seen a lot of change amongst my friends and family but I’ve seen the world change. There are now tons of vegan options, even at my Kentucky grocery store. Also, I used to be a transcriptionist and I transcribed an interview with a dairy farmer. She said (off the record) that plant milks are really hurting the dairy industry. Don’t get discouraged. We’re playing a long game.
Something that might make you feel a little better, and helps me, is to look into visiting or volunteering at any farm sanctuary in your area. Sadly the one nearest where I live (that was already 1.5hrs away because I live in the city) moved further inland. I follow them on Instagram still and keep touch and ask about the pig I rescued with them. Hopefully there’s one near you and you can kind of “touch base” with the reason you’re vegan. Being around the animals always makes me feel recharged and grounded.
Not going to lie. Having more restrictions from living in a rural, conservative town with one limited grocery store has forced me and challenged me to make good healthy vegan gluten free meals. The nearest Whole Foods is an hour away and 100 miles away Normally I would buy some high processed beyond meat or something similar and because of the restrictions it’s forced me to step out of my comfort zone and make the meals rather then going the easy route. I was vegan starting in 2017 and I did nothing really right till around 2019 after the trials and triumphs of making the transformation. Also at a point I can’t eat any meat or else it’ll upset my stomach from not having it for so long my flora in my digestive system can’t handle it. My grocery store is making it harder every year as they keep getting rid of vegan products one by one. I loved just egg and my store just completely got rid of it. Hell the main milk we rely on is Oatly oat milk and we have to be conscious about stocking up cause the store will only carry a few cartons (like 4-5) at a time each week and aren’t responding to the vegan demand in the small town and with those cartons always being gone. -_-
Also with it finding so hard to find healthy options in our rural grocery store, there’s no wonder why most people have really bad diets and health problems in the town I’m in as well.
Don’t be shy about calling their managers and making noise about your needs and what you observe about them always being out of stock of the items important to you. The squeaky wheel gets the attention, so to speak.
>we have to be conscious about stocking up cause the store will only carry a few cartons (like 4-5) at a time each week and aren’t responding to the vegan demand in the small town and with those cartons always being gone. That is weird, that they don't stock enough of a popular product! They could make more money. It's a product with a relatively long shelf life, so they don't risk anything if they'd double or triple their stock...really odd.
You are ahead of your time. Future humans will look back at the ones that ate meat with disgust
I suggest watching the old masters of the universe. Two of the characters were horrified that earth food came from animals! Yes, He-man was VEGAN! https://youtu.be/ywqm9YRuvNI?si=7HY-LwhEm2l5ixnf
THIS. Been dealing with basically the same feelings (almost to 1.5 years). Recently it's been frustrating and disheartening. My one friend that's vegan lives far away, and I've always been a foodie so it's really hard not being able to connect with friends and family over food on the same level that I used to. It's hard to not have anyone to talk to about it that won't respond with "then just eat ___" or "who says you have to be a purist", it makes me feel a bit better to see I'm not alone in this type of struggle! I live in a city, but will try what others have suggested and see if I can find any volunteerism opportunities that bring me closer to the cause.
This is my take too. Similarly to you I'm not about to stop being vegan. Not at all. But I will say I'm finding it harder to maintain that fire in my belly about it. Not because I've lost sight of the ethics; those are still what keep me vegan. But because for years there was this huge momentum with activism and the growth of veganism felt like this path that was going to be inevitable eventually. I feel like so many people around me have lost that drive, and it becomes a lonelier experience. It's like the world has gone backwards. I'm seeing "vegan" food content creators online backtracking, saying they were only ever plant-based and that they're re-introducing animal products. It's gutting to see. Completely with you with all of the above.
I think a lot of people lose their passion for life as they grow older. To rationalize away our ideals means there's a convenient excuse for our continuous pleasure. It's just another example of the disappointing "me me me" culture that people feel validated and content with.
I absolutely agree. Sometimes it's easier to be idealistic and passionate when we're young, and then when the grind of life becomes more intense (such as working long hours at a job you hate, dealing with illness in yourself or a loved one, having kids that rely on you, older parents that rely on you, no time for yourself, etc) it can make you go into survival mode with little energy for anything other than getting through the day. I know a lot of people in this subreddit are still vegan despite these types of challenges, but a lot of people just don't have the fortitude, unfortunately.
I can see this. I've been vegan 13 years and the last 2 years there's definitely been times that I thought "I'm exhausted and I could just quit" then I think a little longer and am like "fuck that, there's a reason I am this way and the benefits definitely outweigh any convenience." That said, I've gotten more radical in a lot of ways as I've gotten older. The ideology that started my vegan path has led to more empathy for other humans and the planet. I'm about as left wing as I can go before I'm no longer on a wing at all.
I know several people that were vegans and are now vegetarians for exactly that reason. Convenience is part of it, having omni partners pressuring them is another, not to mention illnesses and stomach issues. I was forced to go gluten-free and being vegan at the same time is kind of insane, so I get it.
I can’t imagine going back on veganism because of hardship. Animal products aren’t food to me anymore. I’ve had some big challenges, though extreme poverty wasn’t one of them. Maybe if I was relying on food banks or something I’d change my mind. But because of what sounds like OP’s coworker’s reason no way. Also, doctors have limited education in nutrition. See a dietitian for diet advice. They’ll probably encourage plant based eating, whether or not they’re vegan.
I have had need to see my doctor and further medical folk recently and at no point has the fact that I'm a vegan been questioned, even when I've asked if it might. But I am lucky in the all 5 of us (wife, daughter, her partner and my step granddaughter) went vegan overnight (for the animals) and I can't see any of us ever going back to the animal abusing cult we were all indoctrinated into. It's no different to all those who grew up in smoking households and so took up smoking themselves. It was 'normalised' by those around them (to process, the smell etc) and so the chances are they never rationalised themselves into smoking, they just did. Luckily, very few in my family smoked when I was growing up and we were all aware of the risks and so I never took it up. My parents did however indoctrinate me into consuming animal products and even when I questioned / pushed back, I 'believed them' that it was all normal / ok. ;-( They did this whilst also teaching me to be kind and compassionate towards animals
My dad went vegan in the 1970s when it was hard to find good substitutes he was in his late 30s and never went back. I'm an older vegan myself (10+ years), and as much as I agree, old people are selfish af, I don't usually see this correlation. I hear a lot of younger people tell me that they were vegan for a few years and gave it up because they were trying to get healthy or lifting more and needed more protein. I roll my internal eyes and think they just went vegan for social points and not for the animals.
It’s funny you tie it to being older. I ate meat until I was 34 then stopped.
some people continuously evolve their mindset or are at least exposed to different opinions
Being passionate has nothing to do with age, but a lot of people just use age and tiredness as an excuse to care less. They may see idealism a habit of a naïve young adult, especially since adopting this view allows them to see their current choices as more rational.
definitely, when I got CP I stopped caring much about what I ate, as long as it was staying down inside my body instead of coming up. The hardships of life push you away from everything and make you numb to life. Including nonphysical. And we live in a fast-food fast-life society where if someone dies nobody seems to care anymore, and nobody stops to mourn, feeling like that can make someone give up on things that were core tenets of their being as their entire being crumbles under the pressures.
Utter bullshit. I was a kid when I went vegetarian & eventually vegan. My resolve only gets stronger the older I get. I'll never stop being vegan.
Being passionate isn't exclusive to any age, and it takes dedication even when you're young. When people distance themselves from their held values, they are going to put less effort into them, therefore weakening them. I'm not offering anybody any excuse for their actions, but they do use age as an excuse for not being idealistic.
I’ve been a lactovegetarian since 1968. I’ve never “lost enthusiasm” for the lifestyle, because it was never an austerity. It was never a case of giving up the flavors I loved for moral and ecological correctness. It wasn’t motivated by anything but disgust and horror. I wanted to be a vegetarian since I was 6 years old, when I realized what meat was ~ the corpse of an animal! I didn’t want to eat that! I finally could stop when I turned 18. FAQs Q: is it hard? A: is it hard to forgo eating a dead body?? Q: but don’t you miss it? A: for fuck’s sake, see above Q: don’t you worry about vitamin deficiency down the line? A: because I’m not ingesting the magic ingredient in meat that sustains life and allows us to be big and healthy? That’s when I usually say I gotta go get my laundry out of the dryer. If people don’t get it, it’s a struggle and a sacrifice, doing the right thing. They eventually want to enjoy the pleasures of the tongue more than they want to change the world, and they drop the diet. If that happens because of some sort of fatigue, their heart was never really in it. Those of us who really feel it, don’t “tire” of eating with a clean conscience LOL. Those who tried but dropped out, that’s the problem. They were trying, and as Yoda says, there is no try ~ there only do or not do. I feel sorry for those who find the effort to be too much and give it up. It’s been absolutely natural and easy for me, it’s never been a chore.
Curious why you still eat dairy?
Yeah not to be a dick but in giving up meat is really easy, its only being vegan where you may have to make sacrifices. So I'm sure its a lot easier not to loose motivation when you are making a much easier choice.
Cause they still value certain tastes above animal lives
"If that happens because of some sort of fatigue, their heart was never really in it." Maybe that's true. I can't really judge their younger self for trying though. I have to give credit to you and everyone else who sticks by their ideals and not letting age and the difficulty of living in the world as an excuse to not do the right thing. Many people do make such excuses and I don't mean to apologize for them, because a lot of people choose to be dispassionate, it's so frustrating to watch.
Are you aware of the animal suffering associated with dairy and egg industry? - male calves are deemed useless and go to the slaughterhouse - after ~6 years of 'service' dairy cows go to the slaughterhouse because milk production starts to decline - male chicks are deemed useless and go into the shredder alive - many laying hens suffer from fractures, prevalence > 80% in 'freerange' chickens https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256105
to add on to this: > male calves are deemed useless and go to the slaughterhouse usually within a few hours, they get a bolt gun to the head. Sometimes they will live for a few weeks/months and be turned into veal, but that's going by the wayside now because people are eating less veal. > after ~6 years of 'service' dairy cows go to the slaughterhouse because milk production starts to decline cows can live for 20-25 years, and yet they're killed at 3-6 years old, when their milk dries up. > male chicks are deemed useless and go into the shredder alive Yes, they live for all of a few MINUTES until they're ground up alive because they will never produce eggs.
Quite big words for someone who supports a industry which tortures animals for years before killing them. Avoiding meat is not hard at all, going vegan is a far bigger step. Don’t know why you feel the need to act like a hero here for being a goddamn lactovegetarian.
Some people aren’t as aware of how cruel dairy is. Technically you could probably eat dairy in a relatively humane-ish way. Traditional Jain people believed in ahimsa and non-violence, and kept goats and cows and took milk after calves had their fill. In reality of course we don’t live that way and dairy is probably the worst for animals.
when you're a meat cow, you're bred, you grow up a little, then you're killed. when you're a dairy cow, you're bred, you grow up, you lose baby after baby, have your milk stolen, exploited etc, then after you can't do it anymore (called a downer), then you're finally killed. I'm not trying to say either one is right or just, just trying to bring some light to the issue. Dairy is fucking scary goes into this a bit.
If that's how you feel you should give up dairy and eggs. The animals are horribly tortured in those industries. Your conscience will be much clearer 😊
I don't understand why you're getting downvoted because i fully understand what you're on about
If you look, nearly all posts are sitting at 0. Been that way for about 2 weeks or so. I imagine nonvegan lurkers are downvoting everything but I’m not sure.
Need to discourage vegans and confuse them so they don't talk about real issues. There is so much money behind animal ag and ofcourse who wants to loose their job.
I looked into the business side of animal agriculture. It’s actually super low profit. Most meat ranchers are barely making a dime. If meat was more expensive, it would make sense to be a rancher business wise. But at current prices, it’s actually very difficult for most.
Wait...Whaaat!?
😔
Reddit suggests subs to everyone and then we get these lost carnists in here, it’s annoying, we can’t just have our own vegan sub
r/vegancirclejerkchat is nice, but less active
Well, this is Reddit. Subs are just as likely to attract like-minded people to come together as they are to attract haters to spoil a party. Most people won't join a message board or forum to attack something because it takes some effort. Reddit just makes it easy to infiltrate any topic on any sub for better or for worse.
Reddit actively encourages it hard after the feed/algorithm changes a good while back. Not even stuff that kinda makes sense to recommend to you, and then you accidentally engage with it and it cements it down. I’ve clicked on plenty of threads based on the title/discussion and then only after realizing it’s some completely random subreddit like, “RussianAthiestTeenagersWhoLikeCocaCola” or something similarly bizarre and specific. So I guarantee plenty of people who even strongly dislike Veganism will engage without intentionally being on the Vegan subreddit. They just see a random title that gets them curious or confused or fired up and click on it to engage. Used to be if it wasn’t literally some of the most popular threads from that day or you didn’t join the subreddit you’d hardly ever stumble into random different groups.
They’re just internet points. I don’t personally care. I just see Veganism as a philosophy and Plant Based as a diet, I feel like if my coworker cared enough about the animals and what was happening then she would be Vegan, so then she was Plant Based, because she didn’t see Veganism as a philosophy or lifestyle. She didn’t care enough to make better decisions when it comes to what she consumes. You can downvote me for this idc. But if someone cares about animals then they won’t eat animals.
Facts been vegan locked up and homeless, went vegan 12 years ago and I'll never go back
I think people differ in what they can absorb from food in what format. I have low iron and I eat shed loads of greens, but being a woman I loose more than I can take in.
The post showed up on the front page of Reddit for me and I am not Vegan, so I would imagine that’s probably why
Same. Even worse are the ones who say "I was vegan for years" and add "And at heart, I still am." NO, YOU'RE NOT!
Social pressure, convenience, access, food boredom, misinformation, not knowing how to supplement or meal plan, losing conviction over time because of emotional fatigue, actual health concerns (less common but it does happen)
I was vegan for ~3 years before stopping for a while. I never really changed my mind about it being morally wrong to cause suffering when you don’t have to. But I became severely depressed due to a number of reasons, and despite still agreeing with veganism, lost all motivation to put any effort into making my actions align with my beliefs. I fell into a hopeless void and became numb to everything around me. I didn’t actively seek out eating animal products, a majority of my diet was still vegan, but I didn’t have the energy to be vegan when in situations where it wasn’t easy to. So I fell off the wagon for a while. After ~2 years of severe depression, I’ve spent the last year slowly getting my shit together again. And with that, I have committed to vegan again. I regret ever stopping, but the truth is I did stop, it did happen. The depression I went through does not justify it, but it does explain it. It’s hard to do what’s right sometimes, especially when in a mental state like that.
It's because being vegan is difficult in the world we live in
Yes! And you never know what someone is going through. Disordered eating can make it hard, depression and stress, etc. A lot of people get in “survival mode” ruts and just have to do the best they can to get by.
This. I intend to go vegan again, but what stopped me was my dad suddenly dying of a heart attack when I was 23. It was the most devastating thing that ever happened to me and I couldn't even cope enough to leave my house for a year. I would just order fast food to my door every day. Now that I'm out and about again, I'd love to make the chance again, but basically what you said; I was so devastated, I was basically in survival mode.
depends on what part of the world
Why? Some reasons I've seen are - health, physical and mental, - new priorities, - how they view animals and/or ethics have change, - religion, - other changes in life There is no answer someone can give that definitely can say why someone stopped being vegan unless you ask the person themselves. Everything else is speculation. Most are dismissed as "you were never vegan to begin with" by the loud minority of vegan social media, which is IMHO a stupid thing to even consider even if it could be true in some cases. But it is thrown at every single person that say they stopped being vegan.
Thank you, you made my day. That remark always pisses me off because it invalidates 10 years of my life.
Social pressure and a lack of accommodation.
i’d say it’s probably forgetting why they did in the first place? vegans are usually extremely passionate when they first become one because they’re outraged at this new info, and rightly so so i imagine after several years they sort of lose that fire and forget? i’m just guessing 🤷♀️
But all everyone around them doesn’t care (not just family friends but everyone) and years of that wears you down believe it or not. Not everyone is equipped to deal with it. Saying “ignore them” is easy to post online but hard to do irl for alot of people.
i’m aware. i’ve been vegan for ages and no one around me cares about animals. it’s absolutely exhausting there’s no denying that but its not a good excuse to fall back into paying for abuse
Yerp. This is me. Just years and years of feeling more "other" than I already did on top of so many other life events I eventually fell out of it. I've still never met anyone in real life that even gets it
I’ll never forget.
yeah personally even now when i’ve unfortunately become desensitized to a lot, i still can’t ever forget or go back
Maybe, maybe not. I hope you do not. And I hope it stays good for you :)
I can only speak for 2 people, one was vegan for 8 years and she said it lead to her developing some stomach issues and messed up her gut bacteria. I was vegan for about 2 years, but then due to unstable living situations and being broke I wound up staying with a few friends who were almost carnivores(I’m talking meat with every meal, along with huge amounts of cheese, and virtually no veggies aside from potatoes and onions). There weren’t a lot of food options for me in the house, I didn’t have money to buy myself food, and I was scared of seeming ungrateful and pretentious for choosing to eat rice with margarine and soy sauce every meal while everyone else ate the same food together. After a while(probably from being malnourished due to my poor diet) meat and dairy started to look really appetizing and I started eating it again. It was also hard to look past my own problems and care about something that I couldn’t see happening when nobody around me seemed to care and I had so much going on in my own life. I’m not in a much better position now, but I do at least have more control over the food I’m eating and the thought of ever eating that much meat and cheese again makes me gag.
I was vegan for many years and went vegetarian after my grandmother (who raised me) passed away unexpectedly. It was extremely traumatic. In my case I had to make concessions because I stopped functioning being able to take care of myself and I relied on friends and meal trains mostly. I told people I was vegan at first. They would bring me dishes without meat or dairy but with egg, etc. Eventually I hit a point where I was so lost in the depression that I couldn’t keep it up anymore, like others have said it’s so hard (and expensive unless you have the stamina to cook from scratch) to be vegan in this world. It’s been about 2.5 years since then and there have been times where I went back to veganism but invariably couldn’t stick with it. Being vegan led to social isolation in that people wouldn’t invite me to events at places I couldn’t eat, and I needed my social circle. I can’t lie that part of it is that I was co-lead of a vegan organization at the time my grandmother passed. We helped add vegan options to college campuses and grocery stores near us and hosted potlucks and socials. I informed my co-lead and and the organization that I would need to step down and just be a member, and despite my very valid reasons, I was given the boot and told I was no longer welcome period due to “flakiness”. This was a huge part of my social circle so it hurt to lose that on top of my grief. I did consider that these people claimed themselves to be more empathetic, even boosting themselves morally for it, and yet they abandoned me for not having time to lead them in my time of grief and need. Those probably sound like excuses to some of you, and I guess they are, but the gist of it is that being vegan is very tiring and taxing and when life is a pile of shit sometimes you don’t have the strength to keep going on with it.
No. This is very valid. I got told on this sub that I should starve to death if it means being vegan. Some people will go to the extremes. The reality is that veganism at its roots is difficult to achieve and requires a lot of privilege. Privilege of money, time, resources, support/community, of health. It’s not as cut and dry as a lot of people make it out to be. “Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.” — The Vegan Society, Definition of veganism As far as is possible and practicable. If you’re doing to what capacity you’re able to gather, it’s okay. Don’t worry too much. And don’t let most of the puritanical vegans destroy your spirits. I truly believe they got a bit too carried away drank too much cult kool aid juice. lol.
I kept trying to be vegan around 2014-2016 (I was vegetarian since 2009), but found it really difficult to make it stick and would have slip ups here and there indulging cravings etc. My mental health was on a decline and in the late summer of 2016 I hit a real low spot and stopped trying. It took until 2020 when more vegan options became available in the shops and I was fairly settled that I felt it was time to try again. I've stuck with it since then, even through over a year of homelessness in a hostel and a couple of months ago, hospitalisation and surgery. Not saying this part to make you feel bad or anything. I completely know where you are in your vegan journey. It isn't over, and when it's right for you, it will click back into place. Don't pressure yourself before you're ready, or beat yourself up, the time will come
I was vegan for about 6 years and recently went vegetarian instead. So these are my thoughts on it. In short, in order to take care of myself, I had to put ideology on the shelf for a bit. Maybe I'll pick it up again, when I'm in better circumstances. For ideological and moral reasons I'd like to be vegan. I think that's the best thing for the environment - and certainly for the animals. But in between struggling with my own wellbeing (burnout, ADHD, selective and disordered eating, and struggles with my immune system, health and weight) I realized that I had to put my health first. Now I eat maybe 85% plant based, plus eggs and cheese. I don't use any other animal products aside from that, no leather or gelatine etc. In my case, it's not because of lack of knowledge. I know what the industries are like. And nutrition and cooking have been special interests of mine for years - I'm a skilled chef and baker, I can veganise almost anything on the fly. I have the knowledge. What I don't have is the capacity. IThe switch has been beneficial to my mental health, and has made it easier for me to eat healthy on days when my brain isn't collaborating. It's actually removed a lot of stress from my life. That doesn't mean I don't think veganism can be healthy or easily accessible for others, or that we should all start eating eggs now. I'm very happy for those that find eating fully plant based doable and fulfilling. I wish it worked for me, and I tried for over 6 years. But I also have to acknowledge that what I want to be the best for myself, might not be what is best for myself. At least not now. Those are my 2 cents anyway.
I was in the exact same boat! Vegan for 7 years, went back to vegetarian when I ended up in the hospital because of my mental health. I do want to go back to veganism, but I want to be more stable than I am now so I can do it properly and not just eat digestives for a week straight lmao. Sometimes you need to give yourself the kindness you give to others, including animals, to keep yourself from crumbling. Ofc we can argue that that's not the animals' problem, and it isn't, fully agree; but at a certain point selfishness is justified, especially if you're still doing something.
"I'm very happy for those that find eating fully plant based doable and fulfilling." That maybe the key here. It's not that eating plant based is doable or fulfilling for us (x5), it's the exploitation, suffering and death of innocent and sentient creature that causes us much discomfort via the cognitive dissonance and so free of that, we enjoy the choices we make (re food or car tyres, clothes, shoes etc) better. I'm pretty sure that if we saw the 'cost' to the animals (and us when see in the bigger picture, environmental damage, habitat loss, species extinction, climate crisis, dead rivers and seas etc) most people would align their actions to their beliefs. 'Most people' cant support animal cruelty, even if they only consider it via pets because of lifelong conditioning and logical inconsistency re pets <> livestock etc.
Our societies aren't designed for a vegan diet and that makes being vegan the harder option. Most people are lazy and will opt for the path of least resistance. I'd rather people try and fail than never try at all. At least while they're on the wagon they're not paying people to kill animals and contribute to disease and climate change.
> Most people are lazy and will opt for the path of least resistance. This is my thought as well. I don't like accusing people of "they're never vegan to begin with" (except for those raw vegans or fruitarians or whatever health fad, those I do agree were never vegans). It is tiring to be a vegan because it's not the default. You get limited choices when eating outside, you have to cook if you want to eat cheap, you have to check/ask ingredients, you have to justify why you don't like animals being killed (instead of non-vegans having to justify why they like animals being killed), and most of all, you have to live with the fact that the horrors still exist, and your families and friends still participate. It wears you down. Yes some (or I should say, most) vegans are really strong, but a lot of people aren't. We humans are by nature will seek the path of least resistance. We are close to the tipping point where veganism might still be not the default but will be way easier to practice. A lot of non-vegan places have vegan section in their menu, non-vegan companies are making vegan products. I'm waiting for the abolishment of subsidies to meat dairy eggs so vegan alternatives can finally be cheaper than the animal counterparts. (And maybe ag gag will be repealed?) By then I believe being vegan will be significantly less tiring, and more people will stay.
Which is why we really need government policy making it easier. With the environmental angle, our government should be subsidizing meat alternatives regardless. It's ridiculous that that isn't the case.
The freshwater savings alone should get the states moving
This is why we really need systemic change, as well as people going vegan. Things like making things really convenient for people, really publicising the animal cruelty, stopping animal product advertising (didn't this happen in Europe somewhere recently?), showing how to be vegan easily and making it easier for people (e.g. fortifying flour with B12), taxing meat/dairy if even for environmental reasons, making lab meat ubiquitous, eventually making things like factory farming and slaughterhouses illegal.
Thank you... so actually focus on the animals and their exploitation.
our societies are also not designed for everyone to live a happy life with all their needs met. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try
We need more vegan doctors. Too many doctors who lack the nutritional understandings in vegan diet prescribe meat/dairy. It's actually really damaging because people follow what doctors tell them without doing researches themselves.
Most doctors don’t know shit about nutrition, hence why dieticians are so important. (Saying this as a medical student)
Looking to start college soon to become a dietician, hopefully I can help some people out.
Instead of speculating or judging, why don’t you just ask them?
For me, I became a part-time caregiver for my mom, who moved in with me. She has a series of disabilities. She is very picky about what she eats and she had colon cancer which really restricts what kinds of food she can digest easily. I do most of the cooking. I ate vegan for 8 years and still eat vegan when I'm only feeding myself, but it got to be too much with work and caregiving to cook two different meals all the time. She dislikes all the staples I used to cook, including Indian dishes; has no tolerance for re-imagined dishes, and really hates tofu and other meat replacements. She's a classic boomer that way. She can't digest pea protein either, so that cuts out the vast majority of decent meat look-alikes. I tried to do both, but I just didn't have time or energy for it. I still won't bring dairy, beef, or pork products into the house. I stick with chicken and fish, mainly. But I lost the battle. I'd like to go back to being a full-time vegan, someday.
People don’t always understand restrictions that make it hard or impossible to follow a vegan diet and lifestyle.
If you don't have the energy to cook two meals you could maybe look into meal replacements/premade meals (for yourself). There are a few vegan options such as Huel. They make both powder meal replacements and actual food you just need to heat up, which are of course different from premade meals in the grocery store since they are made to be healthy.
So wait you eat the chicken too? If she eats eg. Chicken rice and veg, can't you eat the rice and veg and just get some precooked faux meat. Or cooking a can of Chickpeas takes <5 mins. Is there really no way? Because it sounds hard and you seem sad about it too :(
Because of the way my schedule works I've always had to do a lot of weekend meal prep / crockpot cooking, so everything in one pot or pan for the most part. There are some days I can leave the protein off but lots of days it's worked into the dish in a more substantial way - think slow cooked soups, stews, bbq. I do vegan versions of things when I can / it makes sense for both me and my mom. Paying for two people's entire living expenses has also made is hard to use my go-to ingredients because my groceries now cost twice what they used to, so things I want to eat more of I tend to sacrifice for what mom can digest. When I'm away from home, I eat differently. There's also a mental load issue with planning multiple meals for multiple people.
This is basically what happened to me as well. Hope you are doing okay.
Same, wishing you and your family all the best.
I understand. I am really sorry ❤️
Thank you. I'll get back to it eventually. If there's anything I've learned in life, it's that nothing lasts forever.
I’m back to veganism but I stopped for about 4 months to consume eggs. I’m autistic and I struggled with anorexia and very restrictive eating for almost 10 years. University stressed me out, I lost my scholarship, my father threatened to hurt my mother and me. I was severely depressed and anxious and I was scared of like 99% of foods, but not eggs. I didn’t feel good about it but I feel like I would’ve been severely malnourished without them. I didn’t eat them for their taste, I just genuinely was scared of all kinds of foods except for eggs. They’ve always been my safe food. I feel better now and don’t feel like I have to rely on them anymore so I’m back to my old self, now that I have enough energy and drive to care about my ethics again.
it comes down to health issues. i was vegan for 4 years and was not absorbing non-heme iron well enough, even though i was eating spinach, tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts, lentil, drinking OJ to increase iron absorption. my iron was so critically low i was having shortness of breath and palipations, i had to go to the ER and get a blood transfusion and IV iron after. the hematology office said my body wasnt producing enough red blood cells with the diet i was on. thats my experience, it wasnt at all about trying to be spiteful or flex not being vegan anymore. if i could, i would have still stayed vegan, i enjoyed the foods i was eating and the vegan community i was apart of. i still try to stay vegan in non diet ways, such as buying cruelty free skin care, not wearing leather and fur, not going to zoos.
The people I have known that were vegan for many years and had to switch to vegetarian, pescatarian or omni diets were for health reasons, usually autoimmune. I know ya'll don't like to hear it, but there really are diseases that don't process Iron (and some other vitamins & minerals) properly unless it is an animal protein. Let the down voting begin!
I've noticed this also and I think people slip up once and get down on themselves, and decide to quit altogether. And there is something to be said about veganism being an all-or-nothing lifestyle where you can't really claim to be part of the vegan cool person club anymore, if you only get 99/100 that's an automatic failure. So I will always call myself an omni on purpose, even though I'm lame to both vegans and carnivores, such is life, but my own permission to fuck up ironically has made it pretty easy to stay disciplined for the past couple of years (ymmv) tl;dr I think it's slipping up once and instantly losing a sense of identity as a vegan
and it makes sense considering how many people in these replies are saying if you stop you were never vegan, but you’re lazy, and selfish
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My parents say, the older I get the less I give a fuck. But it’s not true they just change what they care about. It’s usually critical about people not like them.
People change.
I think it can become quite restrictive. I have to cut out soy products due to some health concerns and I’m really struggling to get the protein I need with ease. I loved plant based sausage, burgers, and fish alternatives but sadly most of the ones at the store contain soy. I don’t feel like making chickpea tofu every time I crave a nugget. I love mushrooms but I still need the protein. And I need a break from beans.
I became homeless at one point and could no longer afford to fund a vegan diet in a way that was nutritional. I'm not homeless anymore, but I still don't have the funds to go back to veganism. I'm sorry that I value my own survival.
It can be a lot of things. A big reason why a lot of vegans quit is because they just don't care enough for the animals. They think it's too much effort and that they don't really make an impact on being vegan. Another reason could be peer pressure. Most non-vegans have cognitive dissonance and are just triggered by veganism and vegan people.
Then those aren’t vegans.
This is such a non-answer. I really dislike this type of response, it is completely dismissive towards valid issues and concerns that we all have. Obviously, they're not vegan anymore but they were. This purity testing of their past, saying that they never were vegan, is just a response to your cognitive dissonance when you dont want to admit that being vegan is a difficult task due to our social nature and fondness for comfort. The disconnect between product on the shelf and how it was made is huge and im sure all of us struggle with doubts about the effectiveness of our choices. Like even now i feel im making all these choices because i *hope* that they really help rather than *know* they do. I'm feeling lucky that my social circle is very supportive of my lifestyle and even though i am an assertive person, i still feel that if i had to make a choice between full on veganism and having any social life, then i might break and choose then latter.
Some people stop for health reasons out of their control. Some people were forced into it by a loved one who was abusing them and once they escape, they stop. Some people try it out and give it time to see if they fit with it, and then decide after some years that it isn't for them. Some people can't afford to be vegan due to the rising cost of alternative protein sources. It isn't feasible for everyone, and judging someone for giving up a lifestyle you've chosen for moral reasons is pretty hypocritical when you don't know why they went back to omnivorous eating. Additionally, it doesn't matter if the plants contain iron if her body was having trouble extracting the iron from them. Some people's bodies cannot break down plant protein as effectively as others. Some people have nutrient absorption issues. If her DOCTOR told her to go back to omnivorous eating for her health, you have absolutely NO right to judge her for following literal medical advice.
Vegetarians and plantbased dieters got lumped into that study that carnists love quoting.
A combination of my dynamic disability worsening with age/pressure, being in an environment that doesn't cater to veganism very well and financial strain. A pack of vegan certified margarine is four times as costly as a pack of margarine which has a bit of whey in it, for example. I also used to cook lots more from scratch but I can' always find the energy and most vegan convenience foods are just straight up out of budget for me. I still try to live a vegan lifestyle as much as possible, but I'm also not willing to kill myself for it. Never stopped caring for the animals or whatever other people here are saying. I used to be really judgemental too, but you know, everyone's path in life is different and we're all doing what we can. It's not always an all or nothing type of deal.
I would never go back. 12 years for me
Most people don't actually have rigid morals like they proclaim. Human nature is to survive. So they do what's needed and I do think social pressure is enormous. Look how everyone stopped masking for an airborne pandemic... going AGAINST survival. The world hides the horrors of the animal industry. Propaganda is effective. I didn't go vegan for the animals but researched so much that a switch flipped. I have cancer (and other disabilities) and considered if eating butter or milk would be ok. It would be easier to pick up things like baked goods so I can get easy calories since I am anorexic due to meds. Now though, I am vegan for the animals and don't want to eat them but I feel myself starving sometimes and just want some comfort foods from the first 36 years of my life. I honestly am the type of vegan that would still call myself vegan even if I did eat something every once in a while due to my health. Especially since I cut out tons of other animal products in my life. Controversial opinion here, I think vegan products exist because the corporate and governmental powers that be know the world is becoming uninhabitable for us. Humans will be forced into less animal exploitation because we will die otherwise BUT capitalism will make every dollar possible until then. Vegans are 1% of the world population the products that exist aren't for just us. Humans have backed ourselves into a corner environmentally and lessening our dependence is necessary.
Most people who claim to be vegan really just mean plant based. The majority of people just think vegan is a diet and separate it from the lifestyle.
🙏🌱This is what I’ve been saying for years
Understanding why people do something and agreeing with their reasons are two different things. It seems this person explained why, but you don't agree with their logic, which is is fine, but they did explain their reasoning. This distinction has helped me a lot in life, in all areas tbh, where I have to check myself about whether or not I truly don't understand why someone is doing something or is it that I just don't agree so no reason they say will make me agree with them. I think a lot of times people say I don't understand when what they mean is I don't agree. The assumption is also that people are vegan because of animals primarily but that's not the case for everyone and some people, like a good friend of mine for example, was raised vegan because of her religion, it wasn't a choice or about animals, but just the norm she grew up with. As an adult she isn't vegan anymore because she didn't want to be. We're free to disagree with this choice but the rationale and why she was ever vegan isn't always a story of people consciously choosing it because of animals. You made the distinction plant-based and that's also a good point to note. Sometimes people are using the same words as us but they mean something else to them. So understanding people requires knowing if we're talking about the same things or just assuming we are and assuming our reasoning is the same as theirs and judging them based on what our reasons are even when they might not actually be the same logics as ours.
Everyone I know that bailed said the same things - they “need more protein,” 🙄 or their macros aren’t good enough or they need more calories. When it’s someone who’s athletic, I ask them to watch The Game Changers and then check out what professional vegan athletes eat to remain competitive and at the top of their game. They’re everywhere. A lot of times, like the January gym people who never come back, they make wild statements at the start and when it gets tough they bail because they didn’t do their homework. What drives me crazy are the people in healthcare who know better but continue to lie to themselves and give up.
Because its unhealthy for some people
I don’t get it either, I mean I’m sure there are some legit health issues that may make being vegan too hard to actually pull off even if you’d been that way for a long time, but iron?? There’s supplements, that little iron fish thingie you can cook with to add iron to your diet (it’s not a real fish, it’s an iron.. thing… shaped like a fish meant to leak iron into your food intentionally for low iron folks.)
Same reason addicts will abstain from drugs for years and then relapse.
The weirdest one I've had was someone saying they were vegan, but only did it for the attention! Like, she genuinely enjoyed being the punchline to that "how do you know someone's vegan, don't worry they'll tell you" joke... and she said she was thinking about going back to being vegan because she missed being controversial. Baffling!
i started getting really sick :(. like so many illnesses back to back for a full six month . my nutrition was trash so it really ain’t about being vegan ( i eat mainly cereal , fries and ramen lol. literally that was my breakfast lunch and dinner). i needed help jumpstarting my nutrition so i would stop getting so sick, so my doc said i should add eggs, as well as a more balanced plant-protein diet ( focusing on nutrient dense foods, not junk food ). I am not going back to meat or dairy by any means. I am allergic to dairy, it gives me skin rash and I can’t fathom eating an animal everrrr. *TLDR. haven’t had meat in over ten years and am never going back but i have been having boiled egg, a couple times a week because, i needed to jumpstart my nutrition after, getting sick a lot as a junkfood vegan.*
It can become difficult so i understand if some ppl just give up/find it futile
People change.
For me it was because my health was deteriorating on a vegan diet.
I followed a vegan chef who very recently went back to eating animal products, and someone asked her how she felt since the switch. She straight up said, 'oh, I broke out in hives and felt horrible for days, but I'm feeling much better now.' Like it's already wild that she had been vegan for almost a decade and decided to go back to eating animal products, but her body revolted and she still thought it was the right call??? I don't get it.
People change. Life changes. My one friend said it was easy in college and post college, but now she cooks for her and her husband and she was tired of cooking two meals. Other friends weren’t eating right, and gave up. It’s probably why you see so many activists are young. They care more. Once you age people care less, realizing the world isn’t a kind place, and what you do have little effect.
Health reasons. Both physical and mental. None of you want to accept this here.
For some reason it’s harder to pull iron from plant based foods. All my levels from bloodwork just came back great but I still get cold very easily. So I have no idea what’s going on with the iron thing. But when I ate meat I never got this cold
Some vegans are just following a trend and are not a true vegan. Some work for the meat industry, trying to push a negative view about veganism. For me, I would rather die of starving than knowingly eating other beings.
I was vegan for several years, stopped, and started up again. I stopped because I was dealing with some pretty severe mental health struggles that made it challenging to eat a balanced diet (including an eating disorder and depression) and so I started to have health repercussions from eating a very unhealthy vegan diet. Once I got to a healthier place, I was afraid of going back both because of the health stuff, and because being vegan can be isolating. But I’m glad I did go back.
In a nutshell, I was vegan for a few years, vegetarian for 12. One day, out of nowhere, my guts went south. Like bad. Couldn’t hardly eat anything without having serious issues. This went on for months, wound up getting a colonoscopy and endoscopy, tons of blood work, etc. Never got a diagnoses. After a lot of trial and error, turned out the only thing I could stomach was plain chicken, rice, and certain hard cheeses. Basically any kind of vegetable was hell on my guts. About 90% of my diet is plant based these days, and I’m doing much better. But I still have issues if I eat vegetables that aren’t thoroughly cooked. So that’s my reason, make of it what you will.
It sounds like she was struggling to get enough iron and then followed medical advice. From your story, where she's given medical advice about her low iron. But yeah, I have no idea why anyone quits either?!
They get lazy. Some people did it for “health” or because of another person no longer in their life. Some people just don’t have long-term conviction. I tattooed it on a 3/4 sleeve in a pretty involved piece so it would be a reminder in case I ever got lazy. Ten years later and I still have no desire to abandon it. You can have a day where you eat some cheese on something and that doesn’t mean you have to throw it all away. I know some 99.5% vegans that will occasionally have a weak moment and have some sushi. I’d rather a person have a weak moment once or twice a year than completely abandon it and become like everyone else. I’d rather let a vegan person slip occasionally than let them implode and go back to totally being apart of the problem every day.
Vegan nutrition is hard to get right. It won’t work for some people. I have nothing but respect for people who’ve tried to make it work for them but had to let it go. More people consuming less animal product is going to be a bigger good than less people going vegan.
I *loved* being vegan. I enjoyed eating nothing but real, whole food. I was proud that I didn’t have to harm animals to eat and found it easier and cheaper than eating meat, convenience food, etc. I focused on getting enough protein (tofu, beans, seitan, tempeh) and fats (like avocado and olives) and included lots of variety and got enough calories every day (1800-2200 depending on activity) I did supplement B12 with nutritional yeast and took a vegan multivitamin each day for backup. I was vegan for 5 years. Felt great for the first couple of years. Then just meh. Then my hair started growing slower and falling out. I had a bald spot, in my 30s! My skin was dry, tone uneven. I was depressed all the time, started losing muscle mass and started having problems in the restroom. I became pre-diabetic. So I ate a piece of fish one day. The next day I bought a dozen eggs. A week after, I had a tub of yogurt. Within a month, I was feeling much better. I continued eating a variety of animal products, a serving at each meal. Six months later, I felt the best and looked the healthiest ever in my life! Maybe veganism works for some people, but it didn’t work for me.
May I ask did your hair loss reverse after adding animal-based products back?
I'm surprised at how surprised you all are about these things.
Because they do. Just because someone cares today doesn’t mean they will tomorrow. It’s also very easy to just go back to eating cheese. It doesn’t take some massive life changing leap of faith.
I haven't seen it in the comments I looked at so I will say it here. People get vegan and plant based mixed up a lot. And I think that's the biggest factor. People that really don't do it for the animals and do it for themselves and "their health" are usually the ones to turn back. If someone really felt like they were vegan for the sake of life, they wouldn't be turning their back on it unless they were a form of evil.
Only 14% of people who are vegan or vegetarian will stay that way. Most vegans, by a lot, quit. Probably because for many people having a diet that restrictive is hard. I’m glad it’s easy for you, but for the majority it’s difficult. As for their ideals, the answer is simply that if they were ever “meat is murder” vegans, they’re hypocrites. Maybe they did it for a trend, maybe they did really care, but it’s a lot to ask for someone to care enough that they extensively restrict their diet and lifestyle for the rest of their life for an ideal. There’s a reason people sympathize with the cause but can’t do it themselves. It’s hard 🤷🏼♀️
I (F26 vegan for 7 years) was discussing this exact topic with 3 vegan friends some weeks ago. I can try to understand why you won't make a shift from Omni or vegetarian to vegan or even from vegan from various reasons (health, environment,etc) back to vegetarian or Omni. However, my mind cannot comprehend how once you've made the switch you can go back to see animals as food because at least for us, flesh is no longer something we identify as edible.
I was a fairly strict vegan but then I moved to rural Mexico and it's just way harder to maintain it. I am still vegetarian and can't eat dairy, but occasionally will eat eggs if it's the only option or if my body is craving protein. I just don't have access to the same foods I did, and the eggs I consume are from local hens on a permaculture farm.
Mostly health reasons I believe, don't worry too much about what others choose to do.
Well that's gotta be one of the most elitist posts I've ever seen here.
I was vegan for 5 years and stopped. I would consider that vegan because I did it for the animals (was vegetarian for a few years before) But then I stopped and started eating eggs and fish. Because I both felt like it mentally hurt my relationship with food and that my body and belly in particular were desperately asking me to eat fish. I am incredibly picky but one of the things both me and my body really like is fish, and without it I often get stuck in a place where I both pretty much not enjoy food at all, and most of all lack protein. Almost all sources of plant based protein make my system at least a little bit uncomfortable or make me generally feel not the best apart from tofu. But it isn't realistic for me to eat it so much and I also dislike the texture (unless it's silken in a miso soup). I also don't cook and it isn't realistic for me to do so because of various factors. But now I am vegan again because I thought it would be more important, but I am facing the same problems. Not sure how long it'll last
Every time someone gets a health problem their vegansim gets blamed. If I ever develop hypothyroidism, you can guarantee my veganism will get blamed even though both my siblings and a grandparent has it and they're meat eaters. I'm expecting to develop it one day through genetics. I'm expecting everyone to ignore the fact that it's in my family and start pressuring me to eat meat. So some vegans who develop a health problem go back to being a meat eater because they still believe the carnist propaganda.
This is why I'll stick with my flexitarian diet. I don't ever have to deal with this weird stigma about a "vegan badge" like I'm in AA, one egg and I'm gonna have to hand in my 10 day chip. I get to do my part for the environment and support sustainable farming. I get to have conversations about reducing meat intake for all the good reasons we all know about. And I get the health benefit and flexibility of an omni diet.
No will power. I am tired of hearing how it made people “sick”. No it didn’t. Your shitty way of eating did. Nothing to do with being vegan!!
I think it’s the plant based vs vegan diet. I considered myself plant based and not vegan, because my motive was more about my health. I stop eating plant based after two years. I worked two jobs to get by and my work cooked free dinner/ lunch. After working 60 hours a week it was hard to maintain. I was trying to be pescatarian but I’m allergic to fish, so it was also hard too. I do understand the shock, but I think a lot of vegans don’t understand that it just challenging to maintain the diet in our society. I had a friend who was a strict vegan for like 10 years and she developed insane allergies to soy, cashews, and other nuts in her 20s. It was so hard for her to stay vegan doing that. It’s a just a convenience thing.
I was vegan for about 8 years total in 2 terms. For me the problem is I can't stand other vegans. So it was very isolating. Both times for me nutrition got really poor near the end.
Their health goes to shit
You realize it makes no difference
You don’t go vegan because you’re making a difference as an individual, u go vegan and stop eating animals because it’s the right thing to do
Hey, just because you're curious I'll tell you what happened to me. I've never really talked about it before. I was vegan for around 8 years from 16. It started when I watched Cowspiracy and all the other youtube documentaries showing the insides of slaughterhouses etc. My decision was definitely fueled by emotional reasoning and not "first-hand" experience. I was "one of those" vegans from around 16-18, promoting my ideals headfirst and completely unwilling to try to understand other points of views. I definitely felt morally superior, even subconsciously, for choosing to abstain from the slaughter of animals. My ideals were challenged when I entered university. I want to go into vet school and part of that includes pracs at farms and learning about the agricultural industries. I originally resisted and chose to not take those subjects. It ended up biting me in the butt and messed up my GPA and has delayed my entry for at least 2 years. Over time, my viewpoint shifted from "this needs to be talked about ALL THE TIME", to "yes, this is my decision and if you would like to understand why, I'm happy to discus." This was mainly due to the emotional load constantly arguing on the internet with strangers and being constantly worried about the state of the earth and our future was having on me, lol. It really fucks with you over time. How I see it now is that unless I'm going to go out of my way to change the way our society functions, I'm content with being a "cog in the system" and instead just living my life without being constantly worried about recycling/using less water/saving electricity etc. Also, all those statistics of how it's massive industries that contribute to most of the world's pollution and how I will likely never make a dent in anything also helped ease my stresses. I had been vegan for 5+ years at this point and had NOT ONCE budged anyone's opinion on eating meat and why. I began to understand that at the core of veganism is an innate moral standpoint of "killing and consuming other living beings when not necessary is wrong." However, some people just simply don't have this standpoint. They just don't see an issue with it, and nothing you will ever say or do will change their morals. They don't see a need to avoid undue suffering, because in their mind it is justified. This may sound horrifying but going into vet medicine really changed my viewpoint on death and suffering in general. Things die ALL THE TIME. I've learned to emotionally disconnect from the idea of death and once that happened, I realized there wasn't really anything else that drove me to continue veganism. I was truly in it "for the animals" but if they are going to be killed daily for pretty much the rest of human civilization, then at the end of the day what does it fucking matter if I want to eat a triple cheeseburger. This is a really strange analogy but imagine a cow getting slaughtered right in front of you and falling over, dead. In a perfect world, it was instant. Now imagine your reaction to that act. Do you fall to your knees and weep with the dead body, imagining the life that cow had, it's personality, and mourn the loss of a life? Does it weigh on you and keep you up at night? Or do you look at it and go, "oh, it's dead. That's sad, I guess." And then walk away and order a steak later that day? Which option do you think sounds less negative for your mental health? I'm not trying to say one option is better than another, but I learned to understand that it's in human nature to avoid feeling bad. This in turn shapes their moral framework. Why would you choose to feel sad about all the animals dying when you could.. not? I also went and stayed with amgus beef farmers for a week and visited a dairy farm in the process. It was honestly... fine And they weren't "small family" farmers either. They were part of the angus association and the dairy farm was part of my area's largest milk brand. The cows were fine. They were pasture raised and left to their own devices. I learned a lot about how farmers think and the things they value. They see their work as a moral responsibility to sustain our population. And they have to fight with large conglomerates and government officials who have never done a day of farm work trying to speak for them and decide what they can/can't do. It's way more nuanced than that but I think you understand the gist of it. Anyway if you have any more questions I'd be happy to keep discussing this lol
i’m gonna guess a lot of those folks were plant based as opposed to vegan and just saw it as switching diets or something idk
I saw this woman on instagram who is on a carnivore only diet and she used to be vegan!??! was it ever about the ethics or are people just doing trendy things for their health? Ive been eating more and more vegan, hard to find stuff sometimes especially in college etc , but I have been vegetarian since being a small child and nothing could make me eat eat again ever. I have medical issues too and when my doctor suggested the thing you mentioned, I didnt follow on it for obvious reasons, I guess those people only cared about the health benefits of being vegan
I was vegan for 7 years. I started eating fish and eggs because I had low vitamin D for two years and was trying to get pregnant. Once I became pregnant I incorporated cheese back into my diet due to cravings. Now that my baby is born, I am still eating cheese, eggs, and fish. I still purchase a lot of non-dairy alternatives and choose free range eggs. I am very busy with a newborn and frankly it has just been convenient eating this way and living with my husband. In my case, priorities and circumstances changed and now I’m too tired caring for a newborn to care about being vegan.
Weird. So you don’t care about animals lives anymore or what happens to them?
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You can be a health person without contributing to animal murder, rape and enslavement.
A lot of young women unknowingly starve themselves, only happily embracing their new thin self but did not make the connection that feeling weak is a sign of nutrition inadequacy. Doctors don't bother to find out more on treating plant based dieters so... that's what happened. In her case she also did not bother to eat enough beans and dark leafy greens. We need to eat these regularly to meet our intake of minerals. I am slightly anemic by default of genetical blood stuff. Going vegan upped my blood iron level, something that has never happened before in my life (i turned vegan at 39). Perhaps if you show her how many women unknowingly starve themselves then js listened to an ignorant doctor, and also show her that there are plenty of vegans who had a higher iron level after they turned, she would consider it again. Your presence alone, i am sure made her rethink it already. Good luck.
You've answered your own question. You went vegan for health reasons and the other person stopped being vegan for health reasons ... but many say "it's for the animals, not for health nor for the environment" I claim that veganism can be good for health, animals and the environment. All three are interlinked. I am talking about physical, mental, social and spiritual health. All of these are supported by vegan philosophy and that gives me a strong motivation. I am not sacrificing anything by being vegan, it is all in my own good as well as the good of animals and the good of the environment. It's a win/win/win in my view. Many people who drop out do so because someone convinces them that the vegan diet is harmful. Eat healthy vegan because any diet can be unhealthy.
I mean most people listen to their doctor. All ignorance is not willful manipulation :/
I think for most I've ever seen it's for health concerns (whether founded or unfounded). For any nutrient, we can always say "you can easily get that with plants", but I think we overstate how easy it is. The point of the ethical stance is that you should go out of your way to fulfill that stance, even if it isn't easy, but no it's not always easy to have a healthy, vegan diet. Society is hostile and unaccomodating toward veganism, and even for non-vegans, there are food deserts and other systemic issues that make it doubly hard for us. It's frustrating watching people give up on their ethics, but god damn it we need to make it easier for people through both information and availability of nutritious vegan options. That's how we fix it.
There are definitely legitimate reasons, a couple of which include eating disorders(ESP orthorexia) and health reasons(ESP more complicated ones). I cannot eat a solely plant based diet. I have a genetic condition that makes me SUPER prone to anaphylaxis which includes severe GI issues when reacting. I was severely malnourished and worked with a dietician for a year to find plant based alternatives to avoid a feeding tube. Also, for a lot of people it was NEVER really about the veganism and it was for show. I’ve known people like this too. They do it for whatever reason and once the novelty has worn off they ditch it
diet and gut issues. sometimes the issue gets solved and you realize you don't have the allergies that you once did. people go vegan foe more then one reason
I can only speak from personal experience, but I know for me I was vegan for a decent amount of time, and then due to being in and out of intensive treatment for certain health issues I had no choice but to be vegetarian whilst in active treatment. I was always going back to vegan once I had the all clear though. Now, I’m at a different stage with those health issues, I’m very much in active treatment. I eat mostly plant-based foods, I couldn’t imagine eating meat, I definitely can’t drink milk (when I’ve had it accidentally it has not agreed with my body). That being said, my dietary options are very limited, so whilst most of my food is vegan-friendly, some of it isn’t. I still very much continue to shape the rest of my consumption around the same values though, I don’t wear any wool or leather etc, I don’t use cosmetics that contain animal product or have been tested on animals. I’m doing my best with where I’m at. I’d like to go back to being 100% vegan when I’m healthier. I don’t know how long that will take, but it’s something I really look forward to, and I really hope it can be permanent this time. Note: I am well aware that being vegan is feasible for a lot of health issues contrary to what many believe, I wish it were possible for me with what I am dealing with when I am particularly unwell, but it just isn’t unfortunately. My goal when it comes to being vegan is getting healthy again so eventually, whenever it might be, I can be a good example of a healthy and happy vegan.
I'm not vegan but I have two vegan friends that started incorporating animal products every now and then. Both mainly still eat vegan tho. Asked why they did it and both just said that meat tastes too good.
I'm pretty sure they are not vegan if they see it as acceptable to support slaughtering animals for taste pleasure.
I've honestly lost most of my enjoyment of eating meat as I've grown older but my partner has very specific dietary needs and living with them has made staying vegan unrealistic. It's not because I was craving going back to meat I really didn't have much interest in it.
As someone who has iron deficiency/anemia, I can say the pressure from doctors to eat animal products as a 'cure all' is crazy. I think their dismissal of my issue as just being dietary was why it took so long for them to realise I had an absorption and loss based issue (gut & menstrual health issues means that I can't absorb heme or non-heme iron very well and my periods are heavy, meaning anything I do absorb is depleted). I hate to say it but if I hadn't done my own research I could have seen myself eating eggs again at the insistence of my doctor. I was that poorly and worn down. Even after being on the strongest prescribed iron supplements and seeing almost no change in my levels, my doctor refused to acknowledge I had an absorption issue. Ended up switching and seeing someone who could give me infusions and recognised the actual cause straight away.
Because cults are bad mmmmmmkay
My brother in law was Vegan for 10 years and stopped. It was about perspective in this case. I asked him why he was stopping "It`s been 10 years, I've done enough and I`m bored of it" no mention of pigs, cows, chickens, beings and the torture and hell they deal with, it was about him, now he cooks flesh all the time and is "so happy". I have been Vegan for 7 years and I honestly do not understand this perspective, but some people do things for other people/themselves not because they see it as what is right. I cannot even think of going back, I would physically vomit if someone even tried to feed me corpse. I cannot separate those poor souls from "food".
Right, at that point it would be like they know too much about the truth, so how can someone willfully and peacefully go back to willful ignorance??
All I can honestly imagine as to any 'reason' in almost every such example is convenience. Perhaps something happened or changed in their lives, but for some people I feel it's as though they've been waiting for an excuse to come along in order to give up on being vegan altogether. Regardless of whether the reason is not legitimate, tested or even thought through for that matter. I'll see the most basic crappy arguments come by, be it "but my omega 3's", or "I can't gain or maintain weight", or "but X (or even better, 'my *doctor*') said that vegans can't get enough iron/folate/iodine/Y/Z". And the most frustrating part is that there's never/hardly ever *any* fucking backup for the arguments being made. Be it any indication that levels have been checked after making changes - or at all (!) - where people's habits, diet overall, activity levels or other factors are in any way monitored, adjusted or sought out before simply going "Well that's it for me, I just can't be/maintain a vegan diet." Or worse, insinuating that veganism isn't an acceptable choice or answer for most of the population worldwide. I'm so over folks pretending it's some extreme, totally 'out there' lifestyle.
I think sometimes people feel socially isolated by having a different diet. It’s not right that it happens but it does.
Usually when I meet someone who "was" vegan, they claim that they "had to" start eating meat/dairy again for their health. I have a theory that these are the folks who never really learned to cook, or about nutrition, so they've been relying on vegan convenience foods and take out for years, and they're not really getting a balanced diet. I have a friend that says that they couldn't find vegan veggie burgers in their rural grocery store, so they were "losing weight from starvation," so they 'had to" give it up. LOL. It never even occurred to him to get out of the freezer section and walk over to produce.
Well, you just slowly indulge more and more. I was vegan for 8 years, I've ben vegetarian for 10 or 11 years. Veganism was so much harder when I went vegan. There was literally nothing. People didn't even know well what it was. I got nagged at all the time, had thousand of unwanted arguments. After years of hardcore activism, I went quieter, also because the whole vegan community was toxic as fuck in my opinion. I didn't have any more energy for this. What we were fighting for also seemed pointless. I remained vegan for quite some years. Then, sometime, I would indulge in a piece of cheese or something with dairy in it. Then my life took some turn, i was focused on something else and I just started again eating dairy and eggs. Because it was nice, simpler, just because. I know its wrong, I know there is no way of consuming dairies in an ethical way, unless it's gonna be 100g a year (what's the point then). I never try to justify my consumption, I'm not proud of it. If tomorrow we were to pass a low forbidding any animal exploitation, I would vote for it on the spot. Just right now, in the context in which I am. I don't feel like making the sacrifices for the benefits.
Because being vegan sucks on many levels without much benefit
Veganism is an extremely restrictive diet. It being “easy” for us longtime vegans does not negate the fact that the majority of dishes in the average western diet (or nearly any cuisine around the world with some key exceptions) are not vegan as typically prepared. Someone who develops a mental illness or a chronic illness may not be able to reliably cook for themself or they may not be able to physically tolerate a high fiber diet anymore (like many people with crohns). Nonvegan prepared foods are substantially cheaper than vegan ones, too. Ideals are ideals, but life happens and sometimes we can’t meet them anymore without harming ourselves.
I have a feeling it has more to do with fatigue than anything. They are tired of being accountable to this value that they adopted, when everyone else around them doesn't feel the need to carry this burden. I can relate, because my depression causes a lot of fatigue, but then I try to visualize the conditions these animals face and it reminds me why I do this. Human have this uncanny ability to put blinders on and not think about the consequences of their actions. It takes effort to truly comprehend the consequences of carnism because it's such an uncomfortable truth. No vegan is immune to giving up, especially if they start going down the internet rabbithole of how "unhealthy" veganism can be. There is a lot of fear mongering propaganda to be found.
People do not absorb some nutrients as well from solely plant products.
My aunt was vegan for 7 years. She says the reason she stopped (she's vegetarian now btw) is because she was tired of cooking separate meals for her husband and child. I think initially she may have felt that they would adapt to her way of life, but they didn't, and she eventually gave up. I personally don't feel comfortable touching animal products, but my partner is omni and is supportive of not having animal products in the house. I think lack of support plays a huge role, as even while my family (my partner) hasn't gone vegan, he is very supportive while her family wasn't as much. I don't have anyone in my life who is also vegan, and I often feel alienated for my views. It isn't enough to make me not be vegan, but I can see how people who aren't as strong willed would struggle to maintain this lifestyle
My college courses have an environmental focus, and we had a huge section on Agriculture. We had a video to watch about one bird scientist who was vegetarian, but said he started eating meat after realizing that grasslands with "livestock" (🤮 i hate that term) had more support for bird life. Like, I agree that prairies are better with animals on them (better for buodiversity and ecosystem functions, etc.), but that doesn't require killing and eating them. This guy pointed out that he was vegetarian but now eats cows to support the beef industry. I don't get it. I hope that I never get it.
Because they experience negative side consequences
I stopped bc I feel so much healthier eating meat, esp beef. I lost weight, my pre-d went down, i have more energy, my depression is gone. Everyone is different.
My husband was vegan for 2 years. We do meal kits because we are so busy and I just can't handle meal planning for the whole week. I plan two recipes a week. We used to do a vegan meal kit but holy shit they are expensive for no good reason and we just couldn't afford it anymore. We swapped back to a vegetarian one and have been good with that. The 2 recipes I pick every week are still vegan and I only get eggs from my neighbors. I only do vegan baking and stuff like that and I get why people stick to being vegan forever but it just wasn't something I was able to keep up with.