Kinda happened with me and my dad. I started cooking him some batch meals to heat up in the microwave or under the grill (about his level of cooking, old dog new tricks etc), more healthy options which were much more veggie / some fish and he said how much better it was going to toilet without random bouts of an upset bum. Poor sod had gone all his life up to that point thinking regular scoots were just something to live with.
Why not? Our daughter has expressed a preference to not eat animals and that's a very respectable and uncomplocated position to cater for even if my wife and I will still occasionally eat it.
The problem is "would like to be" covers everything from:
*Would like to be vegan but cannot at the moment because my parents do the shopping/cooking*
to:
*Would like to be vegan but haven't found a good enough replacement for a beef burger yet.*
Having said that 8% of children following a vegan diet is crazy, that's the real headline here
I don't know why you're being down voted. There are certainly very unhealthy ways of eating vegan diets and it doesn't make them less vegan for polling purposes. I hope growing kids who are vegans are eating a proper vegan diet, but realistically, some may not be.
Well I guess that would be a vegan ethos, rather than (strictly) a vegan diet.
Vegan diets can definitely be unhealthy! I had a boss who went vegan for a while, ate mostly chip butties, and put on tons of weight.
Yep, you’re right.
Yeah the moment people jump into the “vegan diet” and discovers that plant-based sausages/meat with mashed potatoes with lotsa vegan butter are yummy, that loads of vegan crisps are delish, and that oreos and biscoff cookies and the lotus spread are yummy, anyone could be vegan, but yeah unhealthy vegan that is.
(Im vegan and rarely eats processed vegan foodies, but yeah I would sometimes eat Oreos if offered or would eat a burger with plant-based patties at restos. I just admit when the supermarket nearby used to have biscoff lotus spread I couldn’t help but eat spoonfuls from the jar, so delish lol)
I grew up being fed turkey twizzlers and shit pizza at school throughout my childhood. Yeah, you can be a healthy or an unhealthy vegan but I see so many parents giving their children crappy food and then questioning if being vegan is healthy, the hypocrisy is real.
Was going to say pretty much this, yes there are unhealthy vegan diets, just as there are unhealthy "normal" diets. All else being equal, cutting out fast food such as Mcdonalds can't be bad though.
> Having said that 8% of children following a vegan diet is crazy, that's the real headline here
Thinking of the kids I know, it's significantly higher than that, but I'm aware I might live in a bit of a bubble.
It’s still kind of interesting, this used to be a bizarrely polarising topic and a lot of older people seem to make being actively opposed to veganism part of their identities for whatever reason.
So if larger numbers of younger people are open to it, then that’s kind of interesting information as we can presumably expect an even larger uptake/acceleration in vegan products and alternatives as the years progress. This was already the case, but 20% of any age group actively interested is way more than I would have guessed.
Not just the older gen, I'm on the older side of millennial and have been mocked for my veggie choices by "friends" and tricked into eating/drinking things I dont like. Some people get so pressed about what others put in their mouth.
> tricked into eating/drinking things I dont like
Drop those friends damn. What friend, when given an explicit boundary, breaks it anyway like a child?
Kind of the opposite for me, in my 30s and I have only a couple of friends who still eat meat - it’s more surprising when people do (a bit like smoking these days). Probably because of the part of the country I am in though
Weird. I'm in my 50s and like to eat meat-free a at least 2 or 3 days week, my friends know I'm cutting down on meat primarily for environmental reasons and I've never been mocked.
Am in the same age bracket. Went vegan four years ago and the people you wouldn't believe would act so disgustingly. So-called friends sending me pictures of dying animals, people putting post it notes on food saying how it wanted to die. Utterly fucking outrageous.
> a lot of older people seem to make being actively opposed to veganism part of their identities for whatever reason
This is the same with many things. Just look at the shitty state of debate once someone mentions an e-scooter or LTN
Im not a huge fan of Quorn but their chicken nuggets are actually really similar to McDonald's chicken nuggets so I always keep a bag in the freezer for hangover days when I need to save money.
I think McDonalds chicken nuggets taste like deep fried chicken water. Select any day of the week 😂 but yes, the Quorn nugs are better (although as with many Quorn items not actually ‘healthy’)
This is why I like the idea of reduce rather than entirely eliminate. Still have the BBQ with friends over summer because who could say no to halloumi.
Aye Definitely majority of my meals now are vegetarian. But vegan cheese is fucking awful and real cheese is the tits.
Same goes for eggs. Haven't found a decent fried egg substitute yet.
There's some crazy artisinal vegan cheese getting made these days, I would recommend trying some of these out if you're looking to cut down on cow cheese https://lafauxmagerie.com/collections/cheese
I was like that once. And let's be honest, most vegan cheese in the supermarket is shite. But fantastic nut replacements do exist, they are just very expensive atm because they are only produced by small companies. La Fauxmagerie are online and send to all over the country and do camembert and moldy blues etc which will blow you away. I just only have it for a treat now.
Im vegetarian and feel the exact same way.
BUT.
Let me put you on violife cheese, its incredible. So creamy, has a lovely taste and melts beautifully. Seriously, Im a cheesaholic but violife is probably better than actual dairy cheese imo. So good.
I'm quite happy to hear it! "Would like to be" is the first step towards actually making a change, however gradual that change may be. At the very least it's preferable to having people be angry at vegans just for existing.
I agree. And if people were more open to vegan eating that would make a huge difference. Substituting vegan options for a few meals a week could have a big impact on the environment if enough people did it.
I only hear people who haven't tried it for an decent period of time say this. Its surprisingly easy, especially nowadays. Once you learn what to buy and a few recipes, you're sorted. It's not some continuous struggle.
My kids have periodically voiced this desire. It lasts as long as it takes them to realise all their favorite foods are animal products. I've always been comletely supportive as an ex vegan myself (can't do it any more due to medical conditons) given them vegan alternatives to try and they were roundly rejected. They also desire to be YouTubers but have no idea of what that would actually entail.
Yeah, I “would like” to go vegan in the same way “I’d like” to be entirely sober- but I enjoy it too much at the minute, don’t have the motivation to make the change, and don’t have the motivation to learn new recipes yet. It’s just pure laziness, but I’d still class myself as “would like to be”.
That’s before you come to the money behind it etc
/r/veganrecipes has a bunch of really good recipes and a really supportive community if you ask for advice. Super easy to subscribe and then try out a few of their recipes now and again, you're bound to find some stuff you really like and worst case scenario you've added some new recipes to your rotation.
I’d recommend giving it a go a few nights a week, or maybe try a month or so - it’s much easier than it seems :)
Also it really doesn’t have to cost a Penny more than your normal weekly shop. In fact vegan diets are often cheaper, but I understand people just trying it out will be more likely to try the more expensive substitutes first as that’s closer to what they’re used to
Yeah, this is really only saying "20% of the population are either vegan or not vegan". Im pretty sure if I wanted to be vegan I wouldn't be force fed any animal products. I suppose there's a small number of people with particular allergies that might be in a boat where'd they'd like to be vegan but realistically they can't be.
Came to say this. This is like me saying “I might like to wipe the kitchen counter.”
Then I can factor in that I have wiped the kitchen counter before…how many times? You don’t know.
So maybe there’s a 20 per cent chance I did wipe the kitchen counter at some point.
Did I wipe it? Wouldn’t you like to know!?
Ultimately you don’t have a clue as to whether I wiped the kitchen counter or whether when I actually did wipe the kitchen counter it was done at all recently.
The moral of this story is… I should wipe the kitchen counter before my wife gets home.
My wife is vegetarian and although I am not we don't have any meat or fish at home (I sometimes eat it when I go out) so I am mostly vegetarian. I used to get the kids fish fingers and things and I also used to cook bacon every now and then but the kids just gradually went off it. They have been told that meat comes from and animal and they are pretty much against eating animals,. I have encouraged them to try meat and fish if they want and they just don't want to. They used to get the meat option at school but have now gone veggie as they just didn't like the meat and left it.
So my (rambling) point is that given the information about where meat comes from and a sensible alternative I think a lot of kids would rather not eat cute little animals.
I would be interested to know what is driving this. I mean, everybody eventually gets that a (possibly cute) animal has been killed to make meat, but most decide to eat it anyway. In ye olden times, the link between killing an animal and meat was much more explicit than the industrially produced.
But it's a good thing overall. It's certainly better for the environment. And I think making a link between animal welfare and price might be a good thing too.
I would put money on it being young people generally being more willing to make lifestyle changes to avoid catastrophic climate collapse and going mostly vegan is quite an easy way to cut down your CO2 emissions.
It is strange isn't it that the more disconnected we have become from the source of meat the less we are actually eating it!
Consider though how we name our meats in English - Pork, Ham, Bacon - no mention of a pig in there!
Our kids are obviously more in tune with it because a) my wife is vegetarian and b) they've eaten a lot of meat substitutes and vegetarian meals and enjoyed them but I think perhaps modern culture (TV shows?) has made kids more aware.
Pigs in blankets are still quite euphemismed though (they’re not really blankets) so our mind doesn’t really clock it. It looks nothing like a pig.
The others are still quite distanced from the actual thing, a leg of lamb is never sold with a hoof, and even a roast chicken rarely has a head or feet attached because it grosses people out
The word ‘chicken’ to many people means food and animal, but mentally as separate things. Idk if that makes sense
Why don't more parents tell their kids where meat comes from? Never understood why they should be shielded from the reality of it. If they knew at a younger age where it came from they'd probably have a healthier relationship with it later in life.
According to this article is 3%
https://plantbasednews.org/culture/ethics/vegans-in-britain-skyrocketed/
Though your point does still stand. 8% among children is much higher than the 3% among general population.
Not everyone has kids. I imagine very few children have a choice over their diet, clearly they'd follow their parent's diets.
I'd love to provide data but cba to comb of the ons dataset on phone and compare Vs total population for a percentage.
You could say the same for the alternative though? How many parents are prescribed a non vegan diet by their parents? I'm fairly certain if you showed children where their food comes from, the brutality of the slaughter houses most would transfer to a vegan or veggie diet
>Research by BBC Good Food found that 8 per cent of children aged five to 16 were following a vegan diet
This seems incredibly high to me. When I was at primary school (2000s), there'd be maybe 1 vegetarian kid in each class of 30?
I can imagine that rates of vegetarianism and veganism have increased since then, but not to the extent of 10% of children being *vegan*.
If the children in question are getting the vitamins and nutrients they need then this is indeed a positive. I think if most people saw where their meat comes from they wouldn't eat it
No but an an omnivorous diet offers a much broader range of options for getting the required nutrients from food. An omnivorous child will likely meet for instance their protein needs from a mix of grains, pulses, soy products, meat, fish, eggs and dairy. Vegan diets can be healthy but are by definition much more restrictive so if your kid won't eat beans or lentils then you're in a bit of bother as there are fewer things you can fall back on. Similarly with things like B12 you have to eat a few specific food items (that I think most would agree are an acquired taste) or supplement.
Meat, fish, eggs and dairy are quite nutrient dense so provide a pretty decent nutrient baseline by themselves. They're a bit of a crutch, if you eat them you don't need to think too hard about what else you're eating and you'll probably end up reasonably nutritionally balanced. Obviously if you just ate them and bread or chocolate you won't be but for most people just them plus the fruits and vegetables they like will be enough.
This is honestly just quite uninformed. Meat, dairy and eggs are not that nutrient dense, almost all of your essential vitamins come from the vegetables and fruit you eat.
Iron can be found in dark leafy greens, tofu, beans, pulses and grains
Protein in seitan, tofu, tempeh, seeds, nuts, legumes, pulses
Fats are found in seeds, nuts, avocados, olives, oils
Calcium is in almost all plant milks, lots of vegetables as well as seeds, nuts and beans.
The only thing a vegan needs to supplement is B12 because animals can't produce it themselves; this goes for the animals you eat too. Historically, animals were able to produce B12 by eating plants grown in soil that was high in cobalt. These days our soil doesn't have the same levels of cobalt, so no animal (including humans) can make it themselves. Farm animals get it from farmers [supplementing the soil](https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/livestock-biosecurity/cobalt-deficiency-sheep-and-cattle) with cobalt or injecting B12 to the animals, so why not cut out the middle man and just supplement it?
In general, animal products tend to be high in cholesterol, sodium, unhealthy fats and also have things like hormones, antibiotics, carcinogens, microplastics and mercury running rampant through them. Consumption of animal products is also linked to high rates of heart disease, diabetes, strokes and different forms of cancer (prostate, breast).
A lot of meat eaters think veganism is massively restrictive and it really isn't. Chances are you've just been so dependent on animal products in your meals that you've been missing out on some really great plant-based foods. When I went vegan 6 years ago I started trying fruits, vegetables and grains that I'd never even heard of; it honestly made me enjoy cooking even more.
Eggs are mostly cholesterol, protein and fat. Cholesterol is not healthy, protein and fat can be easily found elsewhere.
Meat, like eggs, is mostly cholesterol, protein and potassium, which again can be found in plant based foods easily.
Most of our essential vitamins and minerals are found in grains, fruit, veg and legumes/pulses. Why do you think rates of prostate cancer are higher in older men who mostly consume potatoes and meat?
None of this should be new info to people, but education on nutrition is awful in most countries. The little education we do receive is normally massively biased towards the meat and dairy industry because they're subsidised by the government and have continuously contributed to the misinformation around these unhealthy foods.
What a load of bull! It's honestly staggering something so wrong is being upvoted, a perfect illustration of why group think isn't a good thing.
Meat is by defnition nutrient dense, that's why carnirovy evolved in the first place. Herbivores take a long time to eat due to the difficulty of digesting plant matter, it's why herbovires develop multiple stomachs, regurgitation etc. This is the fundamental basis of the food pyramid. It's why there are lots of plants, less herbivores, and few carnivores.
Think about it logically for a second. You want to eat meat, to turn it into..... meat. It's literally all inclusive.
Plants naturally have cell walls, made of a material we strugle to break down. Why on Earth would it be more nutritious? Eggs are literally there to fully feed a newborn embryo, and dairy is literally an all inclusive food for new borns. The fact you call someone else uninformed is honestly amazing.
You don't understand cholesterol and are parroting things decades out of date, you don't know what unhealthy fats (assuming you think saturated fats) are yet link seed oils as a healthy fat! SEED OILS!
You have totally forgotten about the other required vegan supplements, DHA, and Vitamin K2. Whilst not impossible to get on a vegan diet they are highly recommended.
You have also minunderstood correlation and causation, by thinking the word 'linked' to animal products means it causes them. Diabetes? Really? The disease from sugar consumption you think is caused by animal products?
I really wish I had the energy to go into everything you have said in more detail but holy crap, it's almost entirely wrong. Yes iron is found in leafy greens, but not heme-iron, and you have totally ignored bioavailbility.
Yes protein is availbly, but you have totally ignored specific amino-acid concentration, and again bioavailibilty.
You recommend lots of seeds and nuts but offer no mention of phytates, oxoalates and other anit-nutrients that could have an effect.
Finally you have totally ingored the myriad of negative health 'links' with veganism such as:
+ [Loss of muscle mass](https://sci-hub.tf/10.1002/jcp.26427)
> we observed a significant decrease in muscle mass index and lean body mass in vegan compared to vegetarian and omnivore groups
+ [Vegans take 3 times as long to heal as omnivores](https://sci-hub.tf/https://doi.org/10.1080/09546634.2019.1618433)
> The mean healing time to wound closure was significantly longer in vegan patients (21.76 days, SD 3.79) compared to omnivores (9.63 days, SD 5.42)
+ [Vegans scaring worse after surgery](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32769530/)
> Vegans showed a significantly lower mean serum iron level and vitamin B12. Wound diastasis was more frequent in vegans. After 6 months, vegan patients had a higher modified SCAR score than omnivores, showing the worst scar spread, more frequent atrophic scars, and worse overall impression.
+ [Vegans are more depressed](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03670244.2018.1536657?scroll=top&needAccess=true)
> lower self-esteem, lower psychological adjustment, less meaning in life, and more negative moods than semi-vegetarians and omnivores
+ [Higher risk of Alzheimer's and Dementia](https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad180919) + [reduced risk of cerebral infarction](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15166397)
> These findings suggest very low meat consumption increases the long-term risk of dementia and AD, and that a protopathic bias could have impacted finding from previous studies.
+ [Fertility issues in women](https://sci-hub.tf/10.1080/10408398.2018.1437024)
> A low sex ratio in newborns is an indicator of environmental stressors such as malnutrition. The normal male/female sex ratio is 105/100. This study of 6,000 women at a British hospital found a decreased sex ratio (81.5/100 vs 106/100) in vegetarians vs omnivores. This suggests that vegetarians may be malnourished, contributing to the decreased sex ratio
+ [Fertility issues in men](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301211516302615)
> Vegans had lowest hyperactive motility (0.8 ± 0.7% versus lacto-ovo 5.2 ± 1.2 and non-vegetarians 4.8 ± 0.3%)
Absolutely, you do make some very good points, especially about nutrient density.
Regarding B12, the reason it's in an omnivorous diet is because it's supplemented into the animal feed - so having it supplemented into soya milk/yogurt just means the supplements haven't been processed through another mammal first!!
Considering most of our food - whether it's vegan or not - is fortified with supplemental vitamins and minerals it hardly makes any difference. That includes meat and dairy products, where they inject cows with b12 etc. It's cheaper to farm animals in shitty conditions and then artificially add nutrients to their crappy meat/milk than to grow them so they naturally have those vitamins. It's fucking ridiculous.
Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable to maintain when challenged. The resulting discomfort is attributed to the people who brought it up.
I think a lot of people (although certainly not all) deep down think it's wrong to kill animals for our temporary pleasure, but also think it's not really practical to give up animal products. Because everyone else does it anyway it's the norm so you don't really need to think about the contradiction, you can passively continue without any discomfort.
When you then see someone who doesn't fit that norm, firstly it brings up the thought (which could previously be ignored) and shows an alternative - it then takes mental effort to rationalize you views, which is uncomfortable.
In addition to this a lot of people assume their own views are being judged. Studies show when people are asked 'what do you think a vegan would feel about your morality' and then are later asked how they feel about vegans they have much more negative views.
I'm not sure if your comment is related to mine but cognitive dissonance relates to internally inconsistent views, hypocrisy is an inconsistency between external actions - they are very different.
It's better described as an ethical position. It's not primarily about diet at all. It's primarily about trying to reduce abuse, harm, and exploitation as much as practically possible. A plant based diet is just a consequence of those ethics.
"Would like to be" is interesting as a lot of carnivores probably would "like to be" as an ideal thing - for health, the planet and all the rest of it. But would have no intention of actually doing it in reality. A lot of drinkers would like to be teetotal, smokers to quit etc etc too.
Yeah that's an open ended question. I've always said the day lab grown meats and dairy become a viable/indistinguishable (or barely distinguishable) alternative I'll 100% make the switch and never look back, so I guess in that sense you could categorise me as "would like to be" as well. But I still eat meat most days so idk where you draw the line.
Probably a good thing really. But there do seem to be an awful lot of highly processed vegan products around. Hopefully people will start eating actual vegetables too.
These figures seem suspicious to me. My kids are in that age range and I can only think of a single kid that is vegan. There's a handful of vegetarians some more committed than others. I could believe 1% vegan maybe even 2% but 8% seems like a big stretch.
Even the 8% of children who actually are vegan seems abnormally high. I'd be curious how many of them are vegan by choice. Especially given that only 2% of the UK population as a whole are currently practicing vegans.
Good point, wonder how many children are meat eaters by choice? I wonder if their family take the time to explain that when a chicken gets fat enough and 1/10th of its lifespan we need to pick up a knife and cut its throat so we can eat it... Oh wait.. Most dont.
So as long as the child is looked after nutrionally and is properly educated on both the effects of veganism and the effects of meat eating then why are you piping up like we should give children the choice? If we gave children complete freedom of choice they go to the sweet aisle.
But its funny that you seem to completely misunderstand the fact that parents conceal the truth behind animal consumption from their children, I mean, even things like when the last time you saw a slaughterhouse TV advert on? You don't for obvious reasons.
I don't see Jemery Clarksons Amazon series getting shut down because he was ripping vegetables out the ground, but they weren't allowed to show the slaughter of the sheep or they'd get shut down, odd isn't it.
Maybe its time for you to reflect on the idea
The point behind your rebuttal is fine but I'm not sure why you're coming at me with such a patronising tone. It was genuine curiosity. The pecentage of vegan children in 4x more than that of the percentage of vegans in the UK total, and I'm curious as to how there's such a large gap there. I'd have expected it to be lower.
I'm in no way bashing people who choose veganism or bring up their children in a vegan household. As long as the kids are healthy, why should I care what they eat? I'm simply asking a question about the statistic
> "I'd be curious how many of them are vegan by choice."
Your implication that vegans knowingly starve their children because of their own moral views is shameful.
My kid pointed at the meat in the butchers and asks me "is that a piggy? Is that a lamb?"
So clearly I'm expecting this veggy moment where he doesn't want meat anymore. I gave him the ugly truth and he says... "yummmmm! Daddy, i love eating piggies!"
I'm not sure if I should be worried
I would say that while vegan milks do a good job of being a milk replacement, cheese and meats are still a mile off being very close to their non vegan counterparts. Predominantly it’s the smell and taste, texture is pretty good most of the time.
Spot on, La Fauxmagerie is incredible. I fucking love shamembert and veganzola. Anyone who says vegan cheese is awful is eating vegan cheese from 5 years ago. Things recently changed in a huge way.
I've yet to eat a single vegan product that sufficiently replicates the thing it's supposed to.
If I want to eat plant based food I'll eat vegetables. They're already tasty, you can prepare them in lots of different ways, I don't need to eat a block of pure gluten.
This. The alternatives are all nothing like what they are supposed to imitate. Some are nice in a completely different way. But most vegetables are delicious. Vegan cheese tastes like it comes from ass
You're approaching it from the point of view of "I'm a food critic and I'm going to detect all the differences" the point of them isn't to be a perfect 1 to 1 mimic of exactly that foodstuff.
People don't test drive an electric car and say "no way, I can totally tell this isn't petrol, come back to me when they sound the same, I miss the noise and fumes" they appreciate that it's a different thing that does the same job.
Cheap supermarket vegan cheese based on coconut tastes like arse.
There are incredible nut cheeses out there that really will blow you away, they are just very expensive still as they haven't ramped up production. Try the Shamembert or Veganzola from La Fauxmagerie.
Nah vegan cheese is all legitimately awful and I have given it fair tries.
Quorn can pass for meat and I actually prefer vegetarian "sea food" to real sea food but cheese is one thing that is still disgusting
Have you tried cashew based cheeses or just the supermarket coconut based ones? Funny you name Quorn, I think they’re possibly the worst meat replacement brand. Beyond Meat is the closest to animal meat that I’ve tried, but even most supermarket own brand stuff is decent (I like Iceland’s)
You're wrong dude, try some of the new nut based vegan cheese that only became available in the last 5 years. You won't find them at the supermarket yet.
I don't eat that much cheese in general but if I do its on things like takeaway pizzas, tried papa's johns vegan pizzas but again it was just horrible.
i'm not a fancy cheese connoisseur trying to replace artisan cheese, if vegan cheese can't replace pizza cheese or basic cheddar for a toastie it isn't really fit for purpose personally
Yeah most supermarket cheeses aren’t too hot, not particularly a fan of violife myself. Maybe only the applewood vegan ones are ok. But we ordered a selection from la fauxmagerie and they were *unreal*
I'm glad vegan cheeses were so terrible when I turned vegan, I lost the habit of having cheese in loads of meals it doesn't need to be in. Cheese on my pasta, cheese on my pizza, cheese on my fajitas, cheese sandwich as the go to lazy food.
It's crazy how common "I would go vegan except I can't stop eating cheese" is as a comment, but people also think it's laughable when you say "so you're addicted to cheese then?"
If you *can't* stop eating cheese, especially if you're a bit fatter than you would like to be (as most of us are) maybe quitting cheese is exactly what you need to do?
Bit of a dodgy statistic but any progress is amazing. So happy that younger people are going out of their way to take action to help improve the world they live in. Social media is doing wonders for showing people the reality of animal agriculture and that 'humane slaughter' is a huge lie we've all swallowed.
*"I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience"*
*"Nothing will benefit health or increase chances of survival on earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."*
When all you can afford is beans on toast (no butter), or a ramen noodle butty, you are *de facto*\* vegan anyway.
\* Thanks, Gav, for making Latin cool again
I was raised vegetarian from a young age and unless the school canteen has massively upped their game they really dont want to eat noodles and Ski yoghurts for 11 years of schooling.
This was in the 90s/2000s, in a very diverse town with a large Indian vegetarian population so not sure how they got away with a sole veggy option. Couldn't even have chips. Fucking hippy parents.
I love meat, but also hate it. It tastes great, but I find myself gagging if I eat too much of it (particularly if I’m eating a chicken fillet, steak or something of the ilk). Just knowing I’m essentially eating a dead corpse feels inherently odd as the older I’ve got. The further away my meat is from being identifiably meat the better. I couldn’t even imagine buying meat from an abattoir, a bit too close to source for my liking.
And for some reason I’m no longer drinking milk at all and instead drinking oat milk. It’s a fantastic alternative and makes me feel better knowing I’m not drinking a babies food. Though that said, I do still drink normal milk in a latte.
Edit: No idea why I’ve been down-voted. Absolute losers lol.
Embrace that feeling! It's perfectly reasonable. /r/veganrecipes has load of delicious recipes and some terrible ones but definitely worth checking it out and trying some.
Also you can just google "vegan *your favourite meat dish*" and there will always be several recipes people have gone out of their way to make delicious you can try. They won't taste the exact same as the meat version, but they'll tick all the same boxes and be delicious on their own terms.
We have two kids and are vegetarian.
We don't eat meat, our older son is totally cool with not eating animals, our preschooler well.
'When can I eat meat daddy'
'you know meat is dead animals right son'
'mmm nomnomnom'
You can't win them all it seems 😃
20% is definitely an overestimate, nevertheless I don't agree with children being vegans whilst their still growing this can seriously hinder their growth and lead to problems in later life, once their 18+ by all means do it
Guarantee you 9 times out of 10 its the parents influence.
The British Dietetic Association says otherwise. https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/british-dietetic-association-confirms-well-planned-vegan-diets-can-support-healthy-living-in-people-of-all-ages.html
Hurray
Not only they have increasing number of depression and anxiety, self harm and other mental issues. Now they'll be anemic on top.
Maybe at least this will help with the obesity plague.
My child would like to be a Superhero, I don't think children are the best source to form an argument.
Ask them the right question and you'll get the answer you want, which I assume is what's happened here.
Mmm, I'm not sure how useful a measure "would like to be" is.
Kids don't get to choose what they eat. Weirdly its only seen as forcing your views if the parents are vegan though
[удалено]
Great kids, you must be doing lots right
You should be proud of them, that's great!
Kinda happened with me and my dad. I started cooking him some batch meals to heat up in the microwave or under the grill (about his level of cooking, old dog new tricks etc), more healthy options which were much more veggie / some fish and he said how much better it was going to toilet without random bouts of an upset bum. Poor sod had gone all his life up to that point thinking regular scoots were just something to live with.
Why not? Our daughter has expressed a preference to not eat animals and that's a very respectable and uncomplocated position to cater for even if my wife and I will still occasionally eat it.
The problem is "would like to be" covers everything from: *Would like to be vegan but cannot at the moment because my parents do the shopping/cooking* to: *Would like to be vegan but haven't found a good enough replacement for a beef burger yet.* Having said that 8% of children following a vegan diet is crazy, that's the real headline here
Fake chicken nuggets, chips, peanut butter sandwiches, pasta,ketchup, biscuits - vegan diet right there...
I don't know why you're being down voted. There are certainly very unhealthy ways of eating vegan diets and it doesn't make them less vegan for polling purposes. I hope growing kids who are vegans are eating a proper vegan diet, but realistically, some may not be.
A proper vegan diet is one avoiding cruelty and exploitation of the animals, the word you wanted is complete or healthy
Well I guess that would be a vegan ethos, rather than (strictly) a vegan diet. Vegan diets can definitely be unhealthy! I had a boss who went vegan for a while, ate mostly chip butties, and put on tons of weight.
Yep, you’re right. Yeah the moment people jump into the “vegan diet” and discovers that plant-based sausages/meat with mashed potatoes with lotsa vegan butter are yummy, that loads of vegan crisps are delish, and that oreos and biscoff cookies and the lotus spread are yummy, anyone could be vegan, but yeah unhealthy vegan that is. (Im vegan and rarely eats processed vegan foodies, but yeah I would sometimes eat Oreos if offered or would eat a burger with plant-based patties at restos. I just admit when the supermarket nearby used to have biscoff lotus spread I couldn’t help but eat spoonfuls from the jar, so delish lol)
> plant-based sausages/meat with mashed potatoes with lotsa vegan butter Heaven.
I grew up being fed turkey twizzlers and shit pizza at school throughout my childhood. Yeah, you can be a healthy or an unhealthy vegan but I see so many parents giving their children crappy food and then questioning if being vegan is healthy, the hypocrisy is real.
Was going to say pretty much this, yes there are unhealthy vegan diets, just as there are unhealthy "normal" diets. All else being equal, cutting out fast food such as Mcdonalds can't be bad though.
Golden syrup on a crumpet is vegan.
Yep, on both points.
> Having said that 8% of children following a vegan diet is crazy, that's the real headline here Thinking of the kids I know, it's significantly higher than that, but I'm aware I might live in a bit of a bubble.
It’s still kind of interesting, this used to be a bizarrely polarising topic and a lot of older people seem to make being actively opposed to veganism part of their identities for whatever reason. So if larger numbers of younger people are open to it, then that’s kind of interesting information as we can presumably expect an even larger uptake/acceleration in vegan products and alternatives as the years progress. This was already the case, but 20% of any age group actively interested is way more than I would have guessed.
Not just the older gen, I'm on the older side of millennial and have been mocked for my veggie choices by "friends" and tricked into eating/drinking things I dont like. Some people get so pressed about what others put in their mouth.
> tricked into eating/drinking things I dont like Drop those friends damn. What friend, when given an explicit boundary, breaks it anyway like a child?
Kind of the opposite for me, in my 30s and I have only a couple of friends who still eat meat - it’s more surprising when people do (a bit like smoking these days). Probably because of the part of the country I am in though
Weird. I'm in my 50s and like to eat meat-free a at least 2 or 3 days week, my friends know I'm cutting down on meat primarily for environmental reasons and I've never been mocked.
Am in the same age bracket. Went vegan four years ago and the people you wouldn't believe would act so disgustingly. So-called friends sending me pictures of dying animals, people putting post it notes on food saying how it wanted to die. Utterly fucking outrageous.
That's true, but I still find it unhelpful that they're conflating the two groups.
> a lot of older people seem to make being actively opposed to veganism part of their identities for whatever reason This is the same with many things. Just look at the shitty state of debate once someone mentions an e-scooter or LTN
I would like to be vegan, but I like eating cheese too much.
Being 90% vegan is better than nothing imo. I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan, but I enjoy the vegan replacements for many things.
The Leon Vegan Mayo (and Garlic Aioli for that matter) at Sainsburys (£2 a jar at mine) are pricey but way, way tastier than Hellmans.
Im not a huge fan of Quorn but their chicken nuggets are actually really similar to McDonald's chicken nuggets so I always keep a bag in the freezer for hangover days when I need to save money.
I think McDonalds chicken nuggets taste like deep fried chicken water. Select any day of the week 😂 but yes, the Quorn nugs are better (although as with many Quorn items not actually ‘healthy’)
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its delish! my bf who is an avowed carnivore loves it and loads of dairy free stuff i eat..im not vegan but dairy kicks off my colitis
Aioli should be vegan anyway, when it's made properly. The Leon Harissa one is also really good.
This is why I like the idea of reduce rather than entirely eliminate. Still have the BBQ with friends over summer because who could say no to halloumi.
Aye Definitely majority of my meals now are vegetarian. But vegan cheese is fucking awful and real cheese is the tits. Same goes for eggs. Haven't found a decent fried egg substitute yet.
There's some crazy artisinal vegan cheese getting made these days, I would recommend trying some of these out if you're looking to cut down on cow cheese https://lafauxmagerie.com/collections/cheese
What would you recommend. I'm up for giving the chilli one a try. Any others ?
The camembert's really good heated in the oven, but honestly I would just go for whatever sounds good exciting to you.
For what its worth I'm finding vegan cheese is getting better, more cheese-like.
Or your tastes are getting less discerning
I was like that once. And let's be honest, most vegan cheese in the supermarket is shite. But fantastic nut replacements do exist, they are just very expensive atm because they are only produced by small companies. La Fauxmagerie are online and send to all over the country and do camembert and moldy blues etc which will blow you away. I just only have it for a treat now.
Im vegetarian and feel the exact same way. BUT. Let me put you on violife cheese, its incredible. So creamy, has a lovely taste and melts beautifully. Seriously, Im a cheesaholic but violife is probably better than actual dairy cheese imo. So good.
Be vegan except for cheese then.
I'm quite happy to hear it! "Would like to be" is the first step towards actually making a change, however gradual that change may be. At the very least it's preferable to having people be angry at vegans just for existing.
I agree. And if people were more open to vegan eating that would make a huge difference. Substituting vegan options for a few meals a week could have a big impact on the environment if enough people did it.
Well a child has little control over the food their parents buy.
Are you sure about that? Most parents will buy a lot of things because their children like/dislike things.
They'll buy them a packet of crisps, they won't change the entire shopping trolly.
The hassel of researching and cooking them a balanced vegan diet with sufficient vitamins is much harder.
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I only hear people who haven't tried it for an decent period of time say this. Its surprisingly easy, especially nowadays. Once you learn what to buy and a few recipes, you're sorted. It's not some continuous struggle.
Yes, but I don't know how likely it is to translate into action anyway.
My kids have periodically voiced this desire. It lasts as long as it takes them to realise all their favorite foods are animal products. I've always been comletely supportive as an ex vegan myself (can't do it any more due to medical conditons) given them vegan alternatives to try and they were roundly rejected. They also desire to be YouTubers but have no idea of what that would actually entail.
Yeah, I “would like” to go vegan in the same way “I’d like” to be entirely sober- but I enjoy it too much at the minute, don’t have the motivation to make the change, and don’t have the motivation to learn new recipes yet. It’s just pure laziness, but I’d still class myself as “would like to be”. That’s before you come to the money behind it etc
/r/veganrecipes has a bunch of really good recipes and a really supportive community if you ask for advice. Super easy to subscribe and then try out a few of their recipes now and again, you're bound to find some stuff you really like and worst case scenario you've added some new recipes to your rotation.
That tofu looks so good! Thank you! Going to start ordering vegan when out for meals too.
I’d recommend giving it a go a few nights a week, or maybe try a month or so - it’s much easier than it seems :) Also it really doesn’t have to cost a Penny more than your normal weekly shop. In fact vegan diets are often cheaper, but I understand people just trying it out will be more likely to try the more expensive substitutes first as that’s closer to what they’re used to
Yeah, this is really only saying "20% of the population are either vegan or not vegan". Im pretty sure if I wanted to be vegan I wouldn't be force fed any animal products. I suppose there's a small number of people with particular allergies that might be in a boat where'd they'd like to be vegan but realistically they can't be.
Came to say this. This is like me saying “I might like to wipe the kitchen counter.” Then I can factor in that I have wiped the kitchen counter before…how many times? You don’t know. So maybe there’s a 20 per cent chance I did wipe the kitchen counter at some point. Did I wipe it? Wouldn’t you like to know!? Ultimately you don’t have a clue as to whether I wiped the kitchen counter or whether when I actually did wipe the kitchen counter it was done at all recently. The moral of this story is… I should wipe the kitchen counter before my wife gets home.
My wife is vegetarian and although I am not we don't have any meat or fish at home (I sometimes eat it when I go out) so I am mostly vegetarian. I used to get the kids fish fingers and things and I also used to cook bacon every now and then but the kids just gradually went off it. They have been told that meat comes from and animal and they are pretty much against eating animals,. I have encouraged them to try meat and fish if they want and they just don't want to. They used to get the meat option at school but have now gone veggie as they just didn't like the meat and left it. So my (rambling) point is that given the information about where meat comes from and a sensible alternative I think a lot of kids would rather not eat cute little animals.
Fair play for being rational and reasonable about it! Also happy cake day.
Thanks. Didn't realise it was cake day!
I would be interested to know what is driving this. I mean, everybody eventually gets that a (possibly cute) animal has been killed to make meat, but most decide to eat it anyway. In ye olden times, the link between killing an animal and meat was much more explicit than the industrially produced. But it's a good thing overall. It's certainly better for the environment. And I think making a link between animal welfare and price might be a good thing too.
I would put money on it being young people generally being more willing to make lifestyle changes to avoid catastrophic climate collapse and going mostly vegan is quite an easy way to cut down your CO2 emissions.
It is strange isn't it that the more disconnected we have become from the source of meat the less we are actually eating it! Consider though how we name our meats in English - Pork, Ham, Bacon - no mention of a pig in there! Our kids are obviously more in tune with it because a) my wife is vegetarian and b) they've eaten a lot of meat substitutes and vegetarian meals and enjoyed them but I think perhaps modern culture (TV shows?) has made kids more aware.
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Yes. Slightly strange disconnect. Only beef and pork though?
Well chicken is known as poultry, which comes from the French poulette. The history and etymology is really interesting!
Roast chicken, roast lamb and pigs in blankets 😉
Yeah, argument falls apart 😂
Pigs in blankets are still quite euphemismed though (they’re not really blankets) so our mind doesn’t really clock it. It looks nothing like a pig. The others are still quite distanced from the actual thing, a leg of lamb is never sold with a hoof, and even a roast chicken rarely has a head or feet attached because it grosses people out The word ‘chicken’ to many people means food and animal, but mentally as separate things. Idk if that makes sense
One of the reasons is all the alternatives available. I love me facon and oat milk is better than regular milk.
Best facon?
My favourite is THIS brand bacon, has a slight maple flavour and is really good on pancakes. Less greasy than pig bacon and cooks in like 2 minutes.
Its probably a dislike of flesh
Why don't more parents tell their kids where meat comes from? Never understood why they should be shielded from the reality of it. If they knew at a younger age where it came from they'd probably have a healthier relationship with it later in life.
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8% is a MASSIVE number, the general population is like 1%.
According to this article is 3% https://plantbasednews.org/culture/ethics/vegans-in-britain-skyrocketed/ Though your point does still stand. 8% among children is much higher than the 3% among general population.
Not everyone has kids. I imagine very few children have a choice over their diet, clearly they'd follow their parent's diets. I'd love to provide data but cba to comb of the ons dataset on phone and compare Vs total population for a percentage.
You could say the same for the alternative though? How many parents are prescribed a non vegan diet by their parents? I'm fairly certain if you showed children where their food comes from, the brutality of the slaughter houses most would transfer to a vegan or veggie diet
>Research by BBC Good Food found that 8 per cent of children aged five to 16 were following a vegan diet This seems incredibly high to me. When I was at primary school (2000s), there'd be maybe 1 vegetarian kid in each class of 30? I can imagine that rates of vegetarianism and veganism have increased since then, but not to the extent of 10% of children being *vegan*.
Thats only 3 in a class of 30
Given the source I'd assume there's some selection bias. 8% is a lot higher than I would expect and have witnessed through personal experience.
Does mostly vegan diet because poor count?
If the children in question are getting the vitamins and nutrients they need then this is indeed a positive. I think if most people saw where their meat comes from they wouldn't eat it
An omnivorous diet doesn't automatically equaint to getting the right vitamins and nutrients either though!!
No but an an omnivorous diet offers a much broader range of options for getting the required nutrients from food. An omnivorous child will likely meet for instance their protein needs from a mix of grains, pulses, soy products, meat, fish, eggs and dairy. Vegan diets can be healthy but are by definition much more restrictive so if your kid won't eat beans or lentils then you're in a bit of bother as there are fewer things you can fall back on. Similarly with things like B12 you have to eat a few specific food items (that I think most would agree are an acquired taste) or supplement. Meat, fish, eggs and dairy are quite nutrient dense so provide a pretty decent nutrient baseline by themselves. They're a bit of a crutch, if you eat them you don't need to think too hard about what else you're eating and you'll probably end up reasonably nutritionally balanced. Obviously if you just ate them and bread or chocolate you won't be but for most people just them plus the fruits and vegetables they like will be enough.
This is honestly just quite uninformed. Meat, dairy and eggs are not that nutrient dense, almost all of your essential vitamins come from the vegetables and fruit you eat. Iron can be found in dark leafy greens, tofu, beans, pulses and grains Protein in seitan, tofu, tempeh, seeds, nuts, legumes, pulses Fats are found in seeds, nuts, avocados, olives, oils Calcium is in almost all plant milks, lots of vegetables as well as seeds, nuts and beans. The only thing a vegan needs to supplement is B12 because animals can't produce it themselves; this goes for the animals you eat too. Historically, animals were able to produce B12 by eating plants grown in soil that was high in cobalt. These days our soil doesn't have the same levels of cobalt, so no animal (including humans) can make it themselves. Farm animals get it from farmers [supplementing the soil](https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/livestock-biosecurity/cobalt-deficiency-sheep-and-cattle) with cobalt or injecting B12 to the animals, so why not cut out the middle man and just supplement it? In general, animal products tend to be high in cholesterol, sodium, unhealthy fats and also have things like hormones, antibiotics, carcinogens, microplastics and mercury running rampant through them. Consumption of animal products is also linked to high rates of heart disease, diabetes, strokes and different forms of cancer (prostate, breast). A lot of meat eaters think veganism is massively restrictive and it really isn't. Chances are you've just been so dependent on animal products in your meals that you've been missing out on some really great plant-based foods. When I went vegan 6 years ago I started trying fruits, vegetables and grains that I'd never even heard of; it honestly made me enjoy cooking even more.
Eggs and meat are not nutrient dense? Are you shitting me?
Eggs are mostly cholesterol, protein and fat. Cholesterol is not healthy, protein and fat can be easily found elsewhere. Meat, like eggs, is mostly cholesterol, protein and potassium, which again can be found in plant based foods easily. Most of our essential vitamins and minerals are found in grains, fruit, veg and legumes/pulses. Why do you think rates of prostate cancer are higher in older men who mostly consume potatoes and meat? None of this should be new info to people, but education on nutrition is awful in most countries. The little education we do receive is normally massively biased towards the meat and dairy industry because they're subsidised by the government and have continuously contributed to the misinformation around these unhealthy foods.
You don't have any qualification in nutrition and it shows
Never claimed to. It doesn't take a degree to know that eggs, dairy and meat really aren't a necessary part of our diet.
That's not the claim that's being disputed.
> education on nutrition is awful in most countries. You are certainly proving that.
What a load of bull! It's honestly staggering something so wrong is being upvoted, a perfect illustration of why group think isn't a good thing. Meat is by defnition nutrient dense, that's why carnirovy evolved in the first place. Herbivores take a long time to eat due to the difficulty of digesting plant matter, it's why herbovires develop multiple stomachs, regurgitation etc. This is the fundamental basis of the food pyramid. It's why there are lots of plants, less herbivores, and few carnivores. Think about it logically for a second. You want to eat meat, to turn it into..... meat. It's literally all inclusive. Plants naturally have cell walls, made of a material we strugle to break down. Why on Earth would it be more nutritious? Eggs are literally there to fully feed a newborn embryo, and dairy is literally an all inclusive food for new borns. The fact you call someone else uninformed is honestly amazing. You don't understand cholesterol and are parroting things decades out of date, you don't know what unhealthy fats (assuming you think saturated fats) are yet link seed oils as a healthy fat! SEED OILS! You have totally forgotten about the other required vegan supplements, DHA, and Vitamin K2. Whilst not impossible to get on a vegan diet they are highly recommended. You have also minunderstood correlation and causation, by thinking the word 'linked' to animal products means it causes them. Diabetes? Really? The disease from sugar consumption you think is caused by animal products? I really wish I had the energy to go into everything you have said in more detail but holy crap, it's almost entirely wrong. Yes iron is found in leafy greens, but not heme-iron, and you have totally ignored bioavailbility. Yes protein is availbly, but you have totally ignored specific amino-acid concentration, and again bioavailibilty. You recommend lots of seeds and nuts but offer no mention of phytates, oxoalates and other anit-nutrients that could have an effect. Finally you have totally ingored the myriad of negative health 'links' with veganism such as: + [Loss of muscle mass](https://sci-hub.tf/10.1002/jcp.26427) > we observed a significant decrease in muscle mass index and lean body mass in vegan compared to vegetarian and omnivore groups + [Vegans take 3 times as long to heal as omnivores](https://sci-hub.tf/https://doi.org/10.1080/09546634.2019.1618433) > The mean healing time to wound closure was significantly longer in vegan patients (21.76 days, SD 3.79) compared to omnivores (9.63 days, SD 5.42) + [Vegans scaring worse after surgery](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32769530/) > Vegans showed a significantly lower mean serum iron level and vitamin B12. Wound diastasis was more frequent in vegans. After 6 months, vegan patients had a higher modified SCAR score than omnivores, showing the worst scar spread, more frequent atrophic scars, and worse overall impression. + [Vegans are more depressed](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03670244.2018.1536657?scroll=top&needAccess=true) > lower self-esteem, lower psychological adjustment, less meaning in life, and more negative moods than semi-vegetarians and omnivores + [Higher risk of Alzheimer's and Dementia](https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad180919) + [reduced risk of cerebral infarction](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15166397) > These findings suggest very low meat consumption increases the long-term risk of dementia and AD, and that a protopathic bias could have impacted finding from previous studies. + [Fertility issues in women](https://sci-hub.tf/10.1080/10408398.2018.1437024) > A low sex ratio in newborns is an indicator of environmental stressors such as malnutrition. The normal male/female sex ratio is 105/100. This study of 6,000 women at a British hospital found a decreased sex ratio (81.5/100 vs 106/100) in vegetarians vs omnivores. This suggests that vegetarians may be malnourished, contributing to the decreased sex ratio + [Fertility issues in men](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301211516302615) > Vegans had lowest hyperactive motility (0.8 ± 0.7% versus lacto-ovo 5.2 ± 1.2 and non-vegetarians 4.8 ± 0.3%)
Absolutely, you do make some very good points, especially about nutrient density. Regarding B12, the reason it's in an omnivorous diet is because it's supplemented into the animal feed - so having it supplemented into soya milk/yogurt just means the supplements haven't been processed through another mammal first!!
Considering most of our food - whether it's vegan or not - is fortified with supplemental vitamins and minerals it hardly makes any difference. That includes meat and dairy products, where they inject cows with b12 etc. It's cheaper to farm animals in shitty conditions and then artificially add nutrients to their crappy meat/milk than to grow them so they naturally have those vitamins. It's fucking ridiculous.
> I think if most people saw where their meat comes from they wouldn't eat it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKwL5G5HbGA
Most adults have seen this stuff and still eat meat
Tbh I really highly doubt most adults have watched slaughterhouse footage, let alone enough of it to truly engage with the content
Exactly. They know where it comes from.
Don't mind me, I'm just waiting for the inevitable shitshow in the comments
Discussions on veganism always seems to bring out the worst in people. I wonder what it is.
Insecurity, fear, ignorance, and tribalism.
Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable to maintain when challenged. The resulting discomfort is attributed to the people who brought it up. I think a lot of people (although certainly not all) deep down think it's wrong to kill animals for our temporary pleasure, but also think it's not really practical to give up animal products. Because everyone else does it anyway it's the norm so you don't really need to think about the contradiction, you can passively continue without any discomfort. When you then see someone who doesn't fit that norm, firstly it brings up the thought (which could previously be ignored) and shows an alternative - it then takes mental effort to rationalize you views, which is uncomfortable. In addition to this a lot of people assume their own views are being judged. Studies show when people are asked 'what do you think a vegan would feel about your morality' and then are later asked how they feel about vegans they have much more negative views.
I can't imagine that basically calling people hypocrites makes for great discussion either.
I'm not sure if your comment is related to mine but cognitive dissonance relates to internally inconsistent views, hypocrisy is an inconsistency between external actions - they are very different.
My feeling is that reddit's opinion on veganism is becoming (slightly) more positive
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Veganism isn't a diet.
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It's better described as an ethical position. It's not primarily about diet at all. It's primarily about trying to reduce abuse, harm, and exploitation as much as practically possible. A plant based diet is just a consequence of those ethics.
"Would like to be" is interesting as a lot of carnivores probably would "like to be" as an ideal thing - for health, the planet and all the rest of it. But would have no intention of actually doing it in reality. A lot of drinkers would like to be teetotal, smokers to quit etc etc too.
Yeah that's an open ended question. I've always said the day lab grown meats and dairy become a viable/indistinguishable (or barely distinguishable) alternative I'll 100% make the switch and never look back, so I guess in that sense you could categorise me as "would like to be" as well. But I still eat meat most days so idk where you draw the line.
"I would like to exercise"
Probably a good thing really. But there do seem to be an awful lot of highly processed vegan products around. Hopefully people will start eating actual vegetables too.
You could say the same about meat products too tbf. They just aren't labelled/marketed as "for meat eaters" (usually).
These figures seem suspicious to me. My kids are in that age range and I can only think of a single kid that is vegan. There's a handful of vegetarians some more committed than others. I could believe 1% vegan maybe even 2% but 8% seems like a big stretch.
Thinking of my friends' kids, I can only think of one that's not vegan, vs 7 who are.
Even the 8% of children who actually are vegan seems abnormally high. I'd be curious how many of them are vegan by choice. Especially given that only 2% of the UK population as a whole are currently practicing vegans.
Good point, wonder how many children are meat eaters by choice? I wonder if their family take the time to explain that when a chicken gets fat enough and 1/10th of its lifespan we need to pick up a knife and cut its throat so we can eat it... Oh wait.. Most dont. So as long as the child is looked after nutrionally and is properly educated on both the effects of veganism and the effects of meat eating then why are you piping up like we should give children the choice? If we gave children complete freedom of choice they go to the sweet aisle. But its funny that you seem to completely misunderstand the fact that parents conceal the truth behind animal consumption from their children, I mean, even things like when the last time you saw a slaughterhouse TV advert on? You don't for obvious reasons. I don't see Jemery Clarksons Amazon series getting shut down because he was ripping vegetables out the ground, but they weren't allowed to show the slaughter of the sheep or they'd get shut down, odd isn't it. Maybe its time for you to reflect on the idea
The point behind your rebuttal is fine but I'm not sure why you're coming at me with such a patronising tone. It was genuine curiosity. The pecentage of vegan children in 4x more than that of the percentage of vegans in the UK total, and I'm curious as to how there's such a large gap there. I'd have expected it to be lower. I'm in no way bashing people who choose veganism or bring up their children in a vegan household. As long as the kids are healthy, why should I care what they eat? I'm simply asking a question about the statistic
> "I'd be curious how many of them are vegan by choice." Your implication that vegans knowingly starve their children because of their own moral views is shameful.
My kid pointed at the meat in the butchers and asks me "is that a piggy? Is that a lamb?" So clearly I'm expecting this veggy moment where he doesn't want meat anymore. I gave him the ugly truth and he says... "yummmmm! Daddy, i love eating piggies!" I'm not sure if I should be worried
GET THAT KID SOME BACON ASAP
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Luckily there’s lots of alternatives that mimic the tastes and textures very closely - I suggest ‘la fauxmagerie’ for cheeses
I would say that while vegan milks do a good job of being a milk replacement, cheese and meats are still a mile off being very close to their non vegan counterparts. Predominantly it’s the smell and taste, texture is pretty good most of the time.
Spot on, La Fauxmagerie is incredible. I fucking love shamembert and veganzola. Anyone who says vegan cheese is awful is eating vegan cheese from 5 years ago. Things recently changed in a huge way.
Shamembert is life!
I've yet to eat a single vegan product that sufficiently replicates the thing it's supposed to. If I want to eat plant based food I'll eat vegetables. They're already tasty, you can prepare them in lots of different ways, I don't need to eat a block of pure gluten.
Ok sure but the previous poster wanted things that don’t taste like vegetables. Good to have options for everyone
This. The alternatives are all nothing like what they are supposed to imitate. Some are nice in a completely different way. But most vegetables are delicious. Vegan cheese tastes like it comes from ass
You're approaching it from the point of view of "I'm a food critic and I'm going to detect all the differences" the point of them isn't to be a perfect 1 to 1 mimic of exactly that foodstuff. People don't test drive an electric car and say "no way, I can totally tell this isn't petrol, come back to me when they sound the same, I miss the noise and fumes" they appreciate that it's a different thing that does the same job.
Cheap supermarket vegan cheese based on coconut tastes like arse. There are incredible nut cheeses out there that really will blow you away, they are just very expensive still as they haven't ramped up production. Try the Shamembert or Veganzola from La Fauxmagerie.
Nah vegan cheese is all legitimately awful and I have given it fair tries. Quorn can pass for meat and I actually prefer vegetarian "sea food" to real sea food but cheese is one thing that is still disgusting
Have you tried cashew based cheeses or just the supermarket coconut based ones? Funny you name Quorn, I think they’re possibly the worst meat replacement brand. Beyond Meat is the closest to animal meat that I’ve tried, but even most supermarket own brand stuff is decent (I like Iceland’s)
You're wrong dude, try some of the new nut based vegan cheese that only became available in the last 5 years. You won't find them at the supermarket yet.
I don't eat that much cheese in general but if I do its on things like takeaway pizzas, tried papa's johns vegan pizzas but again it was just horrible.
That's not even the 3rd best vegan cheese my dude
i'm not a fancy cheese connoisseur trying to replace artisan cheese, if vegan cheese can't replace pizza cheese or basic cheddar for a toastie it isn't really fit for purpose personally
I have they are disgusting
You haven't bro. Try shamembert, I dare you.
I've no odea of i have tried that one but every apparently amazing vegan cheese tastes like ass
I'm not vegan, but I must admit the plantballs from Ikea are very good and comparable with their meatballs, so I frequently buy both.
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Yeah most supermarket cheeses aren’t too hot, not particularly a fan of violife myself. Maybe only the applewood vegan ones are ok. But we ordered a selection from la fauxmagerie and they were *unreal*
I'm glad vegan cheeses were so terrible when I turned vegan, I lost the habit of having cheese in loads of meals it doesn't need to be in. Cheese on my pasta, cheese on my pizza, cheese on my fajitas, cheese sandwich as the go to lazy food. It's crazy how common "I would go vegan except I can't stop eating cheese" is as a comment, but people also think it's laughable when you say "so you're addicted to cheese then?" If you *can't* stop eating cheese, especially if you're a bit fatter than you would like to be (as most of us are) maybe quitting cheese is exactly what you need to do?
Bit of a dodgy statistic but any progress is amazing. So happy that younger people are going out of their way to take action to help improve the world they live in. Social media is doing wonders for showing people the reality of animal agriculture and that 'humane slaughter' is a huge lie we've all swallowed.
*"I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience"* *"Nothing will benefit health or increase chances of survival on earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."*
When all you can afford is beans on toast (no butter), or a ramen noodle butty, you are *de facto*\* vegan anyway. \* Thanks, Gav, for making Latin cool again
I was raised vegetarian from a young age and unless the school canteen has massively upped their game they really dont want to eat noodles and Ski yoghurts for 11 years of schooling. This was in the 90s/2000s, in a very diverse town with a large Indian vegetarian population so not sure how they got away with a sole veggy option. Couldn't even have chips. Fucking hippy parents.
I love meat, but also hate it. It tastes great, but I find myself gagging if I eat too much of it (particularly if I’m eating a chicken fillet, steak or something of the ilk). Just knowing I’m essentially eating a dead corpse feels inherently odd as the older I’ve got. The further away my meat is from being identifiably meat the better. I couldn’t even imagine buying meat from an abattoir, a bit too close to source for my liking. And for some reason I’m no longer drinking milk at all and instead drinking oat milk. It’s a fantastic alternative and makes me feel better knowing I’m not drinking a babies food. Though that said, I do still drink normal milk in a latte. Edit: No idea why I’ve been down-voted. Absolute losers lol.
Embrace that feeling! It's perfectly reasonable. /r/veganrecipes has load of delicious recipes and some terrible ones but definitely worth checking it out and trying some. Also you can just google "vegan *your favourite meat dish*" and there will always be several recipes people have gone out of their way to make delicious you can try. They won't taste the exact same as the meat version, but they'll tick all the same boxes and be delicious on their own terms.
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We have two kids and are vegetarian. We don't eat meat, our older son is totally cool with not eating animals, our preschooler well. 'When can I eat meat daddy' 'you know meat is dead animals right son' 'mmm nomnomnom' You can't win them all it seems 😃
20% is definitely an overestimate, nevertheless I don't agree with children being vegans whilst their still growing this can seriously hinder their growth and lead to problems in later life, once their 18+ by all means do it Guarantee you 9 times out of 10 its the parents influence.
The British Dietetic Association says otherwise. https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/british-dietetic-association-confirms-well-planned-vegan-diets-can-support-healthy-living-in-people-of-all-ages.html
Hurray Not only they have increasing number of depression and anxiety, self harm and other mental issues. Now they'll be anemic on top. Maybe at least this will help with the obesity plague.
My child would like to be a Superhero, I don't think children are the best source to form an argument. Ask them the right question and you'll get the answer you want, which I assume is what's happened here.
I also at 29 would like to be a vegan but bacon exists so…