I've also been thinking on this subject for quite a long time. But first of all, soy milk is not exactly healthier (concerning calcium and protein). Secondly, the soy products are so damn expensive, as are all the bio and fair trade products, which means that a poor student is in the obligation of eating junk filled with genes and hormones and pesticides. Besides, start to think of it - there is milk inside chocolate and inside ice cream, sauces and many bakery products, inside body cream and shampoo etc etc etc. And it's even worse with the eggs - almost anything we eat containts "traces of egg" (that's what they write on the packages). So putting in a lot of money and effort it is possible to exchange our usual milk products with the soy products. There is even vegan ice cream and vegan shampoo out there. It's obviously not in our normal supermarket just around the corner, but still possible to find. But how to replace, or even just avoid the eggs? That one I haven't figured out yet...
It is a different problem with meat: in general it's too expensive to buy, so that solves the problem. But if I'm eating out it is absolutely impossible to find something that wouldn't contain meat or at least chicken or fish. And if I decide to be the false-vegetarian/vegan who's afraid of missing on some vital substances and therefore continues eating fish.. well, it's impossible to find a tuna sanwich without mayonnaise and/or eggs...
Being vegetarian (and I'm not even mentioning vegan) is quite harmful for your social life as well. Because it rules out eating out with friends ("hey, want to grab a kebab?" - "um, no") or at a friend's place - unless the inviting person is vegetarian, they will not even once consider asking about special diets of people (once again, poor students who do what they can)... And if you are strong enough to pass the evening watching others eat (and without grabbing any of those aperitif chips - they too contain traces of egg!) then good for you, but it is extremely antisocial and makes you feel weird or bad, as well as your friends.
These are more or less the problems and the questions that arise when I consider becoming vegan or even just part-time vegetarian. If someone can share their experience on the subject, I would be more than happy to hear about it. And I hope that one day I will be able to stick the black & green star full-time to my front and vote against the massive and torturing production of meat, eggs and milk by not eating them...
2 comments:
It's true soy products don't contain calcium like milk products unless artificially inserted (it often is). Also, raw soy products contain estrogen (or was it testosterone?) which a grown up organism can tolerate but a child's one can suffer from. It shouldn't be so with rice milk though.
And if a friend calls you out for a Döner you can say "no" but add "I'll have a falafel in stead". There are always veggie alternatives when it comes to eating out. Even McDonalds, the king of all burger-munchers serves salads with vegetable oil dressing. And if you're going to a BBQ just bring your own salad as a gift. They probably won't mind you eating the most of it.
Being vegan is something I wouldn't consider myself. I'll just buy my eggs from free keeping chicken farms.
I'd rather try my best being a vegetarian than not try at all excusing my self with "it's almost impossible".
Most of my meat-concerned wining was a result of a dinner at a friend's house. One of the guests was a really nice guy who happens to be muslim, so he only eats halal meat and doesn't drink any alcohol. The host should have known this, but she obviously didn't, so the guy ended up eating salad the whole evening while we were devouring the Cyprus culinary wonders. Plus, he had to drink plain water because the host just hadn't imagined that anyone would want to drink something non-alcoholic. As we all did at some point obviously, so there was not much water left for him either.
It's a stupid story but if I had been the host I would feel terrible. And I actually did, it was one of the worst dinnerpartys i've seen. I can't even imagine how the guy must have felt...
But obviously there is nothing more simple than to warn your friends in advance about your eating preferences and also bring along a nice cruelty-free snack to share with all the carnivores..
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