It gets so boring. I'm at the point were I actually roll my eyes when people ask these questions or make these statements. I can't even be polite about it anymore. What am I talking about? I'm talking about those tired things that people that aren't vegan say to people that aren't vegan? "Where do you get your protein?" They ask. I say, "Why are you bothered? You didn't care before I went vegan." You see, I can't even be polite anymore. Let's get into it.
What Do You Eat?
Food! I eat food! Oh, this to gets me, can you tell? What do they think I eat? Argh!
I think that people that aren't vegan forget how many things they eat that aren't animal based. Apples, bananas, broccoli, even popcorn - vegan. Cucumber, kidney beans, marmite - vegan. Rice, potatoes, chips! VEGAN! Sorry, I won't shout again, but, yeah, when people ask me what I eat I do tell them food, because that's the truth.
Where Do You Get Your Protein?
As I said earlier nobody cared before, so why care now? Don't try to prove a point by saying that vegans can't get enough protein, that we're wasting away. So often the people that are asking me these questions are people that should be worried about their own health, not mine, I feel great, my weight is healthy, my blood pressure is really good, my B12 levels are fine. Back to the question though, I get my protein mainly from beans, I absolutely love beans of all kinds and lentils make my tummy happy, but there is protein in all natural foods. 100g of lettuce has 1.4g of protein, 100g of brown rice contains 2.6g of protein, this stuff is everywhere, so as long as you're eating a little bit of everything you will get all of the protein that you need.
But Meat Taste Good
You know what? Meat tastes good because people put things on it. Herbs, spices, sauces, these are the things that make meat taste good, on it's own meat is really boring, so, no meat doesn't taste good, the BBQ sauce tastes good, you're just eating it with meat.
But Cheese...
Cheese is addictive and, therefore, very hard to give up, I thought that I wouldn't be able to stop eating it and go fully vegan, but I did it. Initially I swapped dairy cheese for vegan cheese then after a while I found that I didn't need any of it. I went cheese free. Side note, cheese is addictive because milk is addictive to make sure that the baby cows come back for more so that they grow well. When the milk is made into cheese the water is taken out so that there is even more of the addictive chemicals and they work on us in the same way that they work on the baby cows, they make us come back for more.
We Have Canines, We're Meant To Eat Meat
Animals that are meant to eat meat are also made to catch their own meat and to chew and digest their own meat, I'm going to write a separate post about this. Human canines are quite small, they're no good for tearing raw meat, they're not that good at breaking nuts or seeds either, like the huge canines that baboons have. Animals that naturally eat meat have jaws that only move up and down in a slicing motion, not in a sideways motion as ours do for grinding food. You can't eat meat by grinding it, you have to slice it. These animals also don't have molars, these flat teeth are not good for breaking down meat, they're made for plant foods, fruits and vegetables. Also, just look at the shape of a human canine, they're quite wide, not thin and pointy like a cat's or dogs, let alone a lion.
Don’t You Miss Bacon/Chicken/Whatever?
Nope
Animals Would Take Over The World If We Didn't Eat Them
Rubbish, how exactly are they meant to do that? Are they going to get together, have a meeting to plot world domination? First of all the world isn't going to go vegan over night so this isn't going to be a case of you wake up one day and no one is eating animals anymore, no more fried eggs, bacon sandwiches or cheese toasties. Cows, chickens and pigs are left to run free, causing chaos in the cities and fields alike. Not gonna happen. More and more people are reducing their meat intake as the health problems it causes are becoming better known by the public and no one is over-run by chickens. No, what will happen, and is happening now, is that people will eat less meat, farmers will breed less animals, less animals will be killed for food and farms will get smaller. Meat will also become more expensive as farmers will charge more to try and make enough money to live off of which will mean less people can afford to buy it.
You’d Only See A Chicken In The Zoo If We Didn't Eat Them
Not true. The chickens that people eat today, the chickens that you will find on farms, can't survive on their own, they have to be given food and water. This is because they have been made to grow so much muscle that their little legs can't hold them up, they will either plop down to the ground or their legs will break. The chickens can't walk around, it would be impossible for them to find their own food or water, by the time they are one month old they are so heavy that they can't move and without human help they'd die. Basically, the chickens that you find on farms don't exist naturally so, zoo or no zoo, you wouldn't see them. But, my question is, apart from in the supermarket, on a plate, in a cardboard box or "bucket" where do you see a chicken anyway? Most people don't see chickens, just running around, foraging in the grass at the side of the road, so what's the difference? I mean, when's the last time you saw a chicken just minding it's own business, doing it's thing?
Plants Feel Pain
I'm going to refer to PETA here,
"The simple answer is that, currently, no one is sure whether plants can feel pain. We do know that they can feel sensations. Studies show that plants can feel a touch as light as a caterpillar’s footsteps. But pain, specifically, is a defence mechanism. If something hurts humans, we react instinctually to it - “fight or flight" - as do other animals. But plants don’t have that ability - nor do they have nervous systems or brains - so they may have no biological need to feel pain. We just don’t know."
Plants do respond to what would be considered pain, but it seems that they don't feel pain in the same way that we do. The can respond to vibrations, to being cut, bitten or damaged, but these are all chemical responses, the plants can't fight back and they can uproot themselves and run away. Also, plants make themselves inviting to us. They produce tasty vibrant leaves and delicious fruit in gorgeous colours to catch our eye. They pop their seeds in their fruit so that when we poop them out we ferterlise them at the same time. It's a partnership, we need each other.
Milk Is Good For You
Take a look at my previous post about drinking milk for more info but the short answer is milk is not good for you.
You Need Fish Oils
You need fish oils in the same way that you need saturated fat. The oily fishes that people say you should eat are very high in fat and that is not healthy. Also, if you are eating the right foods, foods such as flaxseed (linseed), walnuts and chia seeds, foods with high levels of ALA your body can make its own omega oils that the fish contain without any of the bad bits.