If you’re here, you want to hear a second opinion from a fellow vegan on the annoying things that come unwarranted with our vegan lifestyles.
There’s too many things to fit in one post so we’re going to cover 10 annoying things that come with being vegan; from everyday experiences, annoying questions from people, or having to adapt to a restricted world.
Having to always check ingredients
One of the first skills you’ve got to learn when going vegan is how to accurately skim read ingredients. There’s always those few packs of pasta, or cookie with traces of some type of milk or egg.
Vegans always have to check ingredients/confirm ingredients in a meal all the time, giving us the infamous “telling everyone we’re vegan” nonsense. Nevertheless, the western world consumes a lot of animal products, it’s how it is.
However you’ll soon know your accidentally vegan go to’s, and familiarise yourself with vegan-exclusive brands.
Being referred to as “the vegan”
Becoming a new vegan can be annoying because suddenly now everybody cares about your diet. There’s always questions, or assumptions made about you, many of which are simply misconceptions people make about vegans.
Other than that, you’re expected to be the go-to vegan expert, or the example, when in reality we’re simply vegan; Noone really minds if someone doesn’t eat seafood or red meat, so why would they fret about whether you eat more vegetables or not?
Being asked all the vegan questions
Whether you like it or not, as the vegan of the group you’re also the expert of all things vegan.
Be prepared for questions about your b12, overall nutrition, and most importantly; where do you get your vegan protein from?
You may also have a few debates with people that love meat about the food chain, their personal love for cheese and the occasional discussion of what you now can and can’t eat.
People assuming you’re healthy just cause you’re vegan
Hey man, this isn’t the case. There are whole vegan junk food bars dedicated to fried stuff, vegan meats and cheeze. Not every vegan is “healthy”, which is a bit of a paradox in the first place, considering another percentage of people believe vegans are malnourished.
If you abide by a whole foods plant based diet, you’ll most likely be a healthy vegan, own that s****.
If you choose to binge as a vegan junk food vegan then educate them if you’d like, lol. Another annoying thing about being that vegan, I’m just trying to live bro…
Having cravings that can’t be fulfilled
I can recite this in seconds, my biggest cravings end up being Mac and cheese, eggs and chicken. Yeah we have substitutes but a lot of the time you must accept that you now got to develop new cravings.
When I was a new vegan (2 weeks at the time) my sister bought some chicken wings home and I had no dinner, I ended up trying them out of temptation.
I now distinctly remember them smelling amazing, but the taste was dead, just salt, oil and chicken meat, nothing special about it. If it makes you feel any better most of the time, you like the idea of the food more than the food.
The same can be said around how these cravings may just be parasites developed from eating these animal-based foods over time, you just need to develop new ones.
Learning a whole new world of food
I find this both to have been (past tense) an annoyance, but I grew to embrace it. The annoying parts were around how I should cook, what I should cook, how to feel full when eating.
I didn’t even know what types of foods I liked because I just used to eat meat all the time. I went from that to eating wraps, and varieties of pasta dishes, rice, curries, wraps, burgers, salads and more.
Now I eat lentil stew and quinoa on a regular basis, foods I haven’t even heard of before going vegan. It just takes time to get there, but we all have a lifetime anyways.
Not being invited to gatherings
Another annoying part about being vegan is how it can affect your social life. There were some days where I had friends go to restaurants without me, considering there wasn’t a vegan option.
It can be lonely as a new vegan, but don’t be upset about it. With time, you learn it gets easier when you find the abundance that comes with the restaurants that do cater to you.
In the past 5 years we’ve seen most restaurants in major cities catering to vegans, at least offering 1 vegan option.
Little progress is still very much progress.
Not being catered for in events
I’ve had situations where it was my birthday (and my cousin’s), they organised a party and lots of food; the only vegan stuff available was walkers ready salted and salt and vinegar crisps.
Oh yeah, they also made plain white rice, but everything else had some type of dairy or meat in it, so that was pretty annoying.
Another time I had this “dinner” with work where we had a set amount allotted to each person. I researched the menu and found a solid option and side with budget, with some drinks I could get during the night.
I said my option I wanted, but everyone decided it was a better idea to eat a bit of everything so we all got a bunch of appetisers, and one vegan one, with fries, and bread.
The rest was salad with cheese on it, fish and chicken stuff. I went home early that night cause I was hungry, so if that’s ever happened to you, don’t worry about it, it happens.
Having to get salad and chips
Similar to the above, sometimes you cater to your friends and end up going to the restaurant they love, so you’ve gotta get sides for dinner. Typically the only things that are vegan friendly are fries, salad, and maybe bread, so it’s not the best experience.
Again this is still up to you to change, you don’t have to eat at a non vegan restaurant, but then that could mean missing out on a gathering and being deemed antisocial.
Just make sure that your friends can be willing to eat at a vegan restaurant with you, I personally believe a proper friend would be open to.
Finding which substitutes work for you
In general, you have to figure out what you like and don’t like. Me personally, I learned I don’t like tempeh in curry, but I do in a wrap or salad. I don’t really like silken or regular firm tofu in meals, but I like textured tofu.
I like seitan sometimes, but I don’t like how it’s concentrated wheat gluten. I learned I love falafel wraps and mushroom hummus wraps more than chicken wraps, and I like vegan sushi. With all of this, the common denominator is that I had to experiment.
It’s all part of the journey
It takes years to learn what you like, I just try to make the process easier for you.
I hope you enjoyed this post on the most annoying things about being a vegan. Be sure to come back again for more on vegan topics and advice.
Thanks for the read, stay blessed.
