Going Vegan

Many might think I am mad (since I have only been a full veggie since the new year) but I've made the choice to go fully Vegan. It is partly for health but my reasons are mainly ethical.

I started eating more Quorn and less meat a while back now, for health reasons to start with. However, the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that I would never be able to actually hurt or kill an animal myself and so it was hypocritical of me to eat them. It is very easy to distance oneself from it when you shop in a supermarket but last year when I was training for the London marathon I kept running in the countryside here in Cambridge, past cows and sheep and pigs and thought more and more about how much I like animals and didn't want to be responsible for hurting them (how can I eat bacon and burger when I would never eat most other animals?) and so I started cutting down more and more on animal products but I was never able to completely stop altogether. I'd be eating a veggie diet for most of the week and then doing something like a bacon sandwich when I was out. I kept wanting to take the next step but the smell of a cooked burger or bacon always was too tempting. It was the same when I tried going veggie once before, back when I was about 12 or 13.

With the new year I decided it was time that I stop being hypocritical and just do it, so I committed to going fully veggie, or at least lacto-ovo veggie (I've still been eating milk and dairy recently). As I had already largely removed meat from my diet it has not been too hard so far and my training has not suffered at all. There are many vegetarian sportsmen and women from sprinters to weightlifters and I once met a veggie farrier who was built like a tank so you can clearly do very well on such a diet if you are careful.

At first I didn't really think about milk and eggs though, I thought they did not really cause animal suffering but I was curious as to why Vegans don't eat them so I looked it up and when you read about it, well it turns out they do. If you have a dairy cow and you want to milk it then it has to get pregnant but you don't want the calf taking the milk so you get the cow pregnant and then mostly kill the calf (especially if it's male) for veal as you have no other use for it (you don't raise dairy cows for meat and you only really need one male per herd (if that). So, the calf suffers and the cow may also suffer as you've taken her baby away (I'm not sure if you can prove that though). Dairy cows apparently spend a lot of their time pregnant or lactating, don't live as long as normal and are often killed once they stop producing milk. So even if you are as nice as possible to the cows while you do all this you still have to cause some suffering. I understand that it's a cruel world out there and that that is just how it is but I hope you can at least see where I am coming from?

With eggs (even free range), although the hen lays them (mostly un-fertilised) anyway, if you are a farmer you need to have some of the eggs fertilised so as to get more hens to maintain the flock. However, of those you let be fertilised, about half will be male and these are no use to you and so are killed off. In this way, eating milk and eggs does contribute to animal suffering. You also can't tell where the eggs in things in cakes and biscuits have come from many are just the cheapest you can get so are battery farmed, even Quorn used to use battery eggs and so was avoided by many vegetarians.

I've only been Vegan for a week but so far it is going well. The more I thought about the above the more I thought it was something I really wanted to do. It seems hypocritical of me to eat some animal products when I won't eat meat, if you see what I mean? So I've been experimenting with using soy, rice, oat and almond milk and cutting out eggs and honey etc. It has actually not been too hard so far (e.g all the big coffee chains will so Soy milk latte's etc) and I've actually been forced to be a lot more innovative in my cooking which has been great as I now have a much more varied diet. I also feel better since cutting down on the dairy. I have also tried vegan soy yoghurt (lots of this in Sainbury's) and vegan cheese and other non-quorn based meat substitutes like tofu, tempeh and bean curd (you can't eat Quorn as a vegan as it has eggs in it). Many of the supermarkets are very good about labelling things that are Vegan so I have been able to adjust my purchasing habits as well and reading the labels to double check everything has helped me balance the nutrient content out. There are also several excellent health food shops in Cambridge where I can buy lots of Vegan stuff. You can also get vegan chocolate quite easily, a lot of dark chocolate is OK anyway but even milk chocolate can be made with soy milk etc. (you can get this in Sainbury's in their "Free from" range)

I was also worried about running and getting enough iron etc but books like "Becoming Vegan" and websites like http://www.veganrunners.makessense.co.uk/index.html have shown me you can do it. While you do have to be careful to get enough iron and vitamin B12 you don't necessarily need to take supplements as long as you eat enough of the right foods. If you are sensible about it (and I plan to be) then it is perfectly OK.

Of course you could argue that all forms of life are equally valid and since plants are alive it can't be any better to eat them than to eat animals. Either way it is ending of a life that is not yours to control. However, having worked on and taught plant physiology and biochemistry I am convinced they cannot feel pain or suffering as some animals do. I am therefore happier eating them than I am eating animals.

I'm not trying to force my opinions on anybody else and I don't think meat eaters are evil or anything like that. What you eat is a personal choice for you and nobody should judge you for it. All I know is that this is something I want to do.

I also plan to buy things like vegan shoes (http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/) as my old stuff runs out.

I almost came a cropper on the first morning when I discovered that Sainbury's own brand muesli is not vegan as it contains milk protein? and their own brand porridge is also not guaranteed vegan as there is a note on saying it's "not suitable for milk allergy sufferers due to the production process". Bit annoying as I had a half full box of muesli and an almost new box of porridge (both of which I quite like). Kellogg's all-Bran is also not vegan as the vitamin D comes from an animal source. At least Sainbury's are Vegan friendly and make an effort to label everything that is vegan and/or veggie friendly unless it is really obvious that it is (e.g. nuts) and at least it should not be hard to find vegan versions. I did find a very nice vegan cheese recently though it's called sheeze and is made in Scotland, it's much more like cheese than the other one I've been eating though it doesn't melt very well.