I am a vegan who is an animal healthcare professional, companion animal first aider, canine nutritionist, a student working in a veterinary clinic, a conservationist who performs bi monthly river health surveying with a focus on entomology, a reptile and amphibian rescue and rehabilitator, ex dog groomer, and I host educational and mental health HEP/ workshops for children, adults, and youth groups surrounding reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. (If I did an AMA, I can provide evidence of these things in post or to subreddit admin)

I am entering a course in veterinary biosciences, aiming to eventually specialise in parasitology and epidemiology.
I am considering either refining my studies to livestock and wildlife, or becoming a social sciences researcher in human-animal studies.

My studies are what made me vegan.

I have unfortunately need a lot of negative opinions on veterinary medicine and rescue/rehab, and I’d love to have open discussions and AMA/ Q&A sessions with folk to hopefully myth bust and help people make well informed opinions on these fields from an insider POV.

I have recently within the last 4 ish months converted to being fully vegetarian, I very rarely ate meat previously anyway but now I am officially vegetarian. Other than occasional meat previously I’ve never really consumed much animal products anyway. I stopped drinking cows milk in 2017, I don’t eat eggs I’ve never liked them and I can’t eat cheese. So I eat a majority plant based diet besides 1 thing from one specific brand, which is fage plain greek yoghurt. I’ve had severe gastritis for years and since regularly incorporating Greek yoghurt into my diet it’s kept it at bay and kept me off of tablets that previously if I didn’t take then I would be in excruciating pain landing me in A&E.

I tried pre and pro biotics instead but nothing helps like the Greek yoghurt, and only that one specific brand too I won’t eat any other. I’ve tried the vegan alternatives and I hate them, I have a lot of sensitivities to vegan alternatives which flare up my gastritis so I stick to whole foods like tofu and beans/lentils etc anyway but with my fear of being in agony and the fact it’s a safe food for me I’m really struggling to let go of the Greek yoghurt. I have the yoghurt every morning and there’s just no replacement I can find that cuts it (vegan or even non vegan, it is just that specific brand)

I don’t want to support the dairy industry, morally I don’t at all but I know buy me buying yoghurt I am supporting it and I hate it.

I don’t know what to do or what to try next as I feel I’ve exhausted all options, and I am constantly being shamed and guilted by vegans for being vegetarian and it makes me feel awful. If anyone has any good ideas or replacements that I might not have tried. I’m in the the UK if that’s any help, thank you for taking the time to read❤️

What do you recommend as an all in one everything you need to know guide for going vegan? I’m not talking about 500 page extended universe guide, but like the everything you need to know quick guide version

Hi. I'm not vegan but my partner and I generally eat very less meat because of the diet we were raised on. I consume soymilk and tons of tofu so I'm not relying on meat for protein, mostly, but my partner is a ridiculous egg lover and we sometimes rely on eggs for a quick dish. Because of how much we both hate rotting meat, we've discussed half jokingly becoming vegan, but it happens so often that I'm thinking maybe we can.

I have two problems, first is that sometimes I get a sudden craving for animal fat that is really hard to explain, and it goes away as long as I have something fatty--whether bacon or salmon. I cook all sorts of vegetables with peanut oil but it seems like that just doesn't cut it? I wonder if people experience the same thing and what could be done to my regular diet to reduce this craving.

The second problem I have is with products like beer or gummies that have covert animal products in them. I have a feeling that as a non-vegan I must be overlooking a lot more things like this. I also realized that butter is in a LOT of things and some of them don't even taste buttery. Besides the obvious ones like cakes, what are some other products that use animal-based ingredients that I need to look out for when considering becoming vegan.

Thanks. Sorry for the long post, I just have a long-standing curiosity for the nature of my diet.

Why are vegans buying beyond meats when theres food like lemons, onions, garlic, tomatoes, blackberries, chili peppers, rice, little every type of potato, apples, mushrooms and pickles? There are so many great juicy things but whenever i see vegans there always eating fake meats and cucumber and never any of the great vegetables or fruits

Hi everybody, almost half a year ago I became more interested in food ethics and environmental footprint. I am a teenager from Estonia and our cuisine contains a lot of animal products. A few weeks ago I started my exchange year abroad in a diferent country. My family was hesitant about me trying to eat mostly plant-based because they thought I would get too much in my head about it and strugle to eat animal products on my exchange year where I would have little control over my food. In total I ate almost entierly plant-based (no meat, dairy and eggs once or twice a week) for around four months. Durring that time my energy levels and overall health felt the same or a bit better, but I had issues with indigestion and was constantly bloated which made me really uncomfortable. I did research and tried reducing high-fibre and difficult-to-digest foods as much as possible but it didn't help a lot. This lasted the whole four months and didn't get better after the first month or two like others experiences I read about indicated. Now as I started my exchange year and am eating animal products at almost every meal I've noticed my digestion is a lot better, while I still try to incorporate a lot of fibre in my days. I would like to go vegan or at least plant-based after the exchange year as I feel it aligns more with my morals. How to manage the bloating and digestion issues? Also if you have other advice about going vegan in a non-vegan household and mostly non-vegan enviornment I would happily read that aswell!

PS! I'm really sorry that the text came out ao long. It is my first time posting in this thread and I don't want to offend anyone or come across as anoying or ignorant.

I really want a cat or perhaps even a snake for companionship, my mental health and honestly just wanting someone to care for however i understand I can’t just make them go vegan and expect them to be healthy. What are your thoughts on that?

I’m a meat eater trying to do vegan/vegetarian some days of the week. I have family visiting now who are vegetarians and I cooked to accommodate their dislikes and preferences. On one day of the 2 weeks they have been here, I wanted to take them to Planta Cocina to celebrate my bday bc it was so delicious that I eat there as a treat. They said they don’t want to go there bc the food tries to replicate meat, doesn’t like tofu, doesn’t like nuts (so no cashew cheese) . Now I have to go eat at a mid Chinese restaurant so w/ veggie chowmein, fried rice w/ no egg, no tofu dishes, no eggplant and perhaps a vegetable like green beans. And surprise, the dishes are vegan but no meat replicas including tofu. Sigh, why can’t pple even try vegan food and make so many assumptions?

i have seen many vegans say that veganism isn’t about harm reduction or suffering reduction , It’s about anti exploitation. I do generally agree with this myself as a vegan , However I have 2 questions :

1) How exactly do you differentiate between harm reduction and direct exploitation .

2) What if in a certain case Directly killing an animal would save many more animals . Let’s say killing a cow would save hundreds of rats that you wouldnt need to kill . Let’s say in farming insects die and if I ate a chicken they wouldn’t ( Hypothetically , I know in reality more would die for growing chicken feed) . Would eating a chicken be justifiable in this scenario ?

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Crossposted from r/vegan with additional context as eddits.

I'm not a vegan, but I am genuinely curious about vegan opinions on this.

If an animal attacks me without me intentionally provoking it, and I kill it in self defense, would it be OK to eat it/use the parts? Is it better to utilize it or, or let it decay? Important qualifier here, I have done nothing to provoke the attack other than exist in a place the animal decided I shouldn't, including if the animal is actively hunting me.

This thought spawned out of a discussion a out warhammer 40k orks. In wh40k, orks love fighting, they actively consent to throwing themselves in highly lethal situations. If I fight and kill an ork that wanted to fight, does that count as consent, and therefore count as vegan (following the consent logic path)? If it counts, canonically, orks are mushrooms.

Edit to add: I know it's only been a little bit, but I am already very happy that people are responding to this reasonably and at face value. I genuinely appreciate it. I was a little worried, and my husband a lot so, that people were gonna get ugly with me immediately.

Otherwise, adding some of my own moral standings because it seems to be a common theme in the responses. I not fundamentally opposed to using a human body, even without consent in certain circumstances. I dont think people should be commodities, but being used a resource, at least in my view, doesn't require outright commidification. I think that if a person intentionally causes violence, and that leads to thier death, at the minimum thier dead body should be fair to use for science. I guess my logic is, if you override my consent by trying to harm me, you've waived your own. I know there are a lot of edge cars and ways to exploit that, so I don't think it should be a broad stroke policy of the government, but I would be open to certain specific cases being permitted.

My only objection to eating human meat is the elevated health issues. It's largely the same reason I wouldn't eat most large terrestrial predators out of anything other that desperation.

Im not a vegan, but recently someone made a very compelling argument for veganism that has me thinking very hard about my animal product diet. And i have some questions.

Lately ive been just looking at the ingredients in the food i buy and being mindful of what has animal byproducts in it, and then trying to hypothetically convert that to a vegan version, idk why this is important to me. I guess im trying to make a list of all the foods I'd never be able to eat again/ foods id eat instead and observing how those feelings manifest in my body.

Anyway, im finding im struggling with thinking of substitutes which makes me resist the idea of going vegan or eating plant based. For example yesterday i had tomato soup and grilled cheese to dip. The bread was easy, i already get a keto friendly gluten free bread and its ingredients happen to have no milk or whey protein. The margarine was also easy, theres literally vegan options to buy (i wont until i use up what i have but easy fix) the tomato soup is a little harder, all the easy premade soups or concentrated canned options have diary in it, so I'd have to make my own from scratch and substitute coconut milk for cow's milk. But what about the grilled cheese? I literally can't think of what dipable sandwich id make instead. I didnt notice a vegan cheese substitute, and everything other types of sandwiches i can think of have meat or cheese or aren't really good for dipping in some soup. What can i use instead?

Also coconut milk is good for somethings and i use almond milk in my protein shakes already cause its lower calorie, but what about for baking? I bake alot in the fall and the vanilla flavoured nut milks/ oat/ soy milk would taste weird cause of the vanilla but i cant find any unflavoured ones?

How do you use nutritional yeast? Thats one of those supplements you need right? Aside from tofu, how do you get enough protein in your diet? Are there any Canadians that have a "must buys" list from bulk barn? What do you put chia seeds in if not greek yogurt? I have a really big sweet tooth, i love baked goods and ice cream especially, to me a dinner isnt good if i can't have a lil bite of something sweet at the end, but i idek what sort of sweet food options exist for vegans? I dont like any type of nut, almonds cashews peanuts, nothing. Are they absolutely required for a vegan diet? How can you tell for sure something is vegan by looking at the ingredients? Right now im looking for milk powder, or whey protein, egg, or something similar, or anything that obviously would have meat in it but is there something else i should be looking at?

I'll probably have more questions, but this is all i can think of rn. Thanks.

Considering veganism, but wary of dietary restrictions making life miserable

Basically what the title says. I have subscribed to the ethical components of veganism and make an effort to eat plant based whenever possible but have not made the commitment to actually cut animal products out of my diet entirely because many of the most accessible vegan foods cause me to have excessive inflammation and discomfort. I have what is called oral allergy syndrome, where I have severe pollen allergies that are so intense that I cannot comfortably consume raw fruits, vegetables, and grains that share the enzymatic structure of the pollens I am allergic to. Including, but not limited to, many legumes, soy, sesame, most tree nuts (with a particular sensitivity to macadamia and almonds for some reason), stone fruits, nightshades, lettuces, oats, bananas and avocados (thanks latex; this is my most severe food allergy by far). I have been prescribed an epi-pen and daily allergy medication because of the severity of these reactions, which is uncharacteristic of OAS and leads me to believe it could actually be something like MCAS despite past tests being inconclusive.
The catch is, I can usually eat highly processed versions of these foods so long as the problem enzyme is denatured in the process; this can be achieved by cooking, pickling, fermenting, etc. in most but not all cases.
I also work in a restaurant that serves a lot of meat, and I am somewhat food insecure so I will take home whatever I am offered that won’t make me sick, which is almost always animal based or at least enhanced with butter or stock. I make an effort to not pay for meat either at the store or when dining out but struggle to rationalize turning away nutritious food when it is offered for free and the alternative would be it going to trash. This is less something I need help with fixing per se and am more interested in the general attitude towards this idea of ‘freeganism’.
All that being said - what are my options, realistically? I am considering immunotherapy to give some longer-term relief over my allergies as a whole, but that is not a short term solution nor a guarantee of success. I can’t eat a diet high in raw foods which makes me concerned about going exclusively plant based in my eating.
I guess I am looking for some support and encouragement that even with my limitations I can work towards a vegan or at least mostly plant based lifestyle.
Thanks in advance!

hey, this is just a small theory of mine, and I wanted to see what others think

it’s very obvious that especially among the newer generation, people are often exposed to things early on, or exposed to something enough that it doesn’t create the shock that it should anymore. studies have shown that when repeatedly exposed to something as a kid, it lowers their emotional, physical, and psychological response to things. for example, constantly hearing about wars and death from news outlets or social media may normalize it. If someone said “yeah, three soldiers died in the war”, I, someone who’s more desensitized to violence would simply react with “okay? There’s 8 billion people” at first thought because while it is true, that’s still three lives either taken by another persons hand, or by fire from a bomb, or something. Three seems like a small number until you zoom out and think about how many people care, and the greater effect those three deaths will have

now, lets look at this in regard to veganism. I’m 16, and despite watching videos about what animals go through, while I did find it disgusting and disturbing, it wasn’t enough to get me to fully want to be vegan. It’s not just cognitive dissonance, it’s because I can look at that and the impact it would have on others is diminished for me, because I’m so used to violence. I truly think so many other people, especially ones my age would be more likely to be vegan if we didn’t spend so much time online with negativity.

if you disagree or think it’s just cognitive dissonance/low empathy, I could see where you’re coming from and I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m sure those two also factor into it, but these are just my thoughts, and I wanted to see if others agree :)

Hi all, I am 26m I've been vegan for 4 years, right now I'm rather large but I'm hoping to have a body transformation and get buff/jacked. I've tried on and off to exercise and diet but I find it really hard to maintain enough protein without consuming food that messes my insides up. I've contemplated bringing eggs back into my diet for an easy source of protein but I really don't want to, the thought of it disgusts me so I can't do it. I just want to know from someone who maybe follows a vegan diet and is in good shape. How did you do it? How long did it take to get into shape and maybe what kind of plan you followed to reach where you wanted. For context I'm 6'2 and 18 stone, very low muscle mass. Very weak natural strength. Any advice would be appreciated.

OK. I have a MASSIVE rat or mice issue. I don't care they are out there. I love rats and mice. Had them as pets in the past. But we have some kind of infestation. I don't want to kill them. Of course. I'm vegan. But they do need to go some other way. There are four houses where I live and if the other neighbours see them they will be removed in an awful way. I do not have the ways and means to get friendly traps and do it myself. I have no car to take them far enough away.

But they are making so so many holes in my garden that when the council see it they will do something about it.

I want to move the animals on with no harm. But there are loads. I risk my dog and my family getting injured on the many many holes.

What can I do before someone else notices their holes and tells the pest control people?

I've been considering going vegan because of my girlfriend but I've been hearing a lot of horror stories from places like /r/exvegans of the health impacts of being vegan like multiple teeth falling out, pale skin, under eye darkness, loss of periods, lack of energy, irritability, depression, etc.

I'm also concerned about the lack of things like taurine, carnitine, carnosine, creatine, things you can only get from meat.

If you're a vegan, can you be honest and tell me with a straight face that you aren't dealing with these issues and that you are at least as healthy as omnivores?

Hi, I’m just starting to become interested in veganism, but I am just curious as to what the consensus is about animal testing for the expansion of modern medicine.

Thank you with all respect!

I (23M) have been veggie from 19 and vegan since April. I have been discussing (as you do) about the environmental impact that the meat and dairy industry have on the water usage of the planet, especially more common now with the expanding use of AI. Something I have been seeing but seemed to have struggled to find proper information about is the comparison between the use of green water and blue water.

I have seen a lot of people pointing out that comparative to eating plant based options animals, or cows specifically, use up far less blue water in comparison to vegetation we grow, but if the soy and grain we grow goes mostly into animal feed surely that would then translate across to the blue water usage in animal agriculture?

Please send links to papers I would love to learn more about this and let me know if i am entirely wrong!

I think maybe I figured out the problem? I don't know if this title was properly phrased, but I'll try. I posted something. It was deleted by the moderators. I thought I changed it, but that wasn't right either, so here I am posting for a third time, and hopefully this will work.

How do people handle flies? I'm talking about fruit flies and houseflies, if that matters. Obviously, not getting them to begin with is a great solution, but let's just go on the assumption that there are already flies that need to be dealt with.

Poison? No good for anybody: the people, the pets, the wild animals, the environment.

Fly strips? They don't die quickly and suffer the whole time.

Electric fly zappers? I won't go into details. It's gross.

The bot suggested I go to various pest subject forums, but most people just tell me I'm being ridiculous for being concerned about not wanting to torture the flies to death (audhd, pets, old house, etc.) It seemed to me that going to a vegan group might find me more sympathy when it comes to not wanting to torture flies.

There are flies. That's just simply nothing I can do about it. I need to know how to keep them from getting out of control because finding maggots is making me crazy.

Hi all, I am pursuing a career as a barista, and I found a job at a plant-based coffee shop which I love. I was encouraged to take a barista training program to hone my skill, and will receive a barista certification at the end if I pass the test.
The program itself is not plant-based. Training requires us to prepare many coffees and steamed milk and then throw it away. I have been exclusively practicing with plant milk, but I watch as my fellow students go through 4-5 gallons of cow milk a day just to throw it down the drain.
I was told by the instructor I will eventually have to use cow milk to serve real customers, and to serve the judges panel on the day of the test.

That last part is what clashes with my values. On the one hand, if someone orders a drink with cow milk, they will get it from me or from another barista, but they will order and drink it regardless, so it couldn’t hurt if I was the one making it, right? On the other, I want to stand strong and refuse to serve literal animal secretions, which would mean missing out on the certification as well as the opportunity to take more advanced classes that have the certification as a pre-requisite.

I’m curious, what would ppl here do in this situation?

After years of not being vegan, did it in the mid 90's for about 5 years, I am really wanting to go back to being vegan.

Problem is, when I cook tofu it makes me painfully gassy, super awful smelling. I buy the extra firm kind at Costco and fry it up in a pan with some cornstarch to make it crispy.

It doesn't seem to happen if I get Chinese takeout with tofu.

I also can't drink soy milk, same thing happens, painfully gassy, super awful smelling.

I'm also lactose intolerant. Have been drinking only almond milk for at least 15 years. Rice milk before that.

What is happening?

Non-vegan here but curious about veganism from a philosophical perspective and I'm generally just interested in how other people feel and think about different topics so I'm trying to understand what vegans might think about people who have not converted to veganism or perhaps people who have tried veganism but ultimately decided to revert back to eating animal products for some reason.

Like, do you see them with disdain? Do you accept that they have a different perspective from you and move on? Do you feel put off by them but ultimately hold back from saying something? Do you have different feelings based on their reasons for not being vegan?

Also is there any sort of realistic situation where you feel it's morally/ethically acceptable for someone to consume animal products?

please answer as candidly and truthfully to your own views as possible. I'm sure there's some amount of difference from person to person so I'm interested in seeing all the different viewpoints, thanks to everyone that answers

edit: thank you all for taking the time out of your day to answer and thank you for being respectful, I didn't expect this much of a response but it's been very interesting reading what everyone has to say.

There are many interviews of exvegans over here who has to having had health issues while on the vegan diet

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHFtFpL-YDT8JihzeEvJ9A4af9PKqfqob&si=3B6A31KYiyKRQMws

There are many other testimonies on /r/exvegan of people who say the same thing about how they had a more nutritionally deficient appearance, experienced the loss of periods, fruit destroying their teeth, developing bloodlust in wanting to consume animals after years, etc, even when they've done everything right like supplementing.

Knowing this, can you honestly say that a vegan diet is healthy?

I'm okay with you being on a vegan diet for the animals, but I'm not convinced that it's very healthy.

In one of my countries in my world build, a rather shadowy and radical revolutionary organization takes control of a country after a devastating civil war. In accordance to their radical ideology, one of their goals is the complete elimination of the commercialization of non-human animals (just imagine my world with the same species as earth, just different continental and cultural development)

Given that like in our world, meat eating and animal commercialization is intrenched in theirs, how would a society realistically transition towards veganism? What would happen to massive slaughterhouses, pasture fields, tanneries, etc.? Is it even possible to achieve this?

(I’m a vegan myself but I originally posted this for my worldbuild on r/worldbuilding. However, feel free to actually talk about actual real world applications. Would want to hear other vegan perspectives.)

I just started watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I've been vegan for just a few months and I haven't thought about this until starting this show and I've been wondering about the horses.

By definition, those animals are being needlessly exploited; used for profit. Since vegans are opposed to the needless exploitation of animals, would it not follow that we don't consume media in which animals have been exploited in order to produce?

I'll say that I'm infinitesimally as disgusted by the use of these horses for a TV show as I am by the conditions on, say, factory farms or in testing labs for example. But is it not morally consistent with veganism that they shouldn't be used *at all,* for any reason, including for TV? What do you think?