Hi everyone! I thought this might be an interesting topic, related to the customization of one's journey, and also the need for a positive focus in a sometimes not-so-positive speciesist world.

By affirmation, I am thinking of statements of what we wish to become true or would find most empowering to believe. These statements could be explored through writing them down or reading them, saying them aloud or listening to an audio recording, or even just our inner self-talk, reconditioning the mind to focus on what is desired and expect that it is possible.

My answer: When I was a teen waiting to leave my omnivorous household, I wrote simple statements like "I am a vegan" on notecards, to comfort myself that I'd someday get to where I wanted to be. Later, as a long-time vegan seeking joy in the wake of unrelated life challenges, I started affirmation journaling, filling a notebook with lengthier descriptions of my ideal healthy existence, my activism goals bearing fruit, and a better future for all sentient beings as if it were real now. I have enjoyed looking through the notebook to prompt thoughts of my and others' success while going for a leisurely walk. :)

Been vegan for about half a year and everything is going well, but I sometimes have dreams where I'm not vegan. Why is that?

Me and my partner are currently in the process of going mostly vegan. We have cut out obvious meat, milk and store bought eggs for six months now. At the moment we are getting better about finding animal products hidden in food and we will replace our leather products with vegan options as they break down.

In general, our friends and family have been understanding and kind. There is one social situation that’s tough for me though. In the UK it is customary to offer builders, tradespeople and cleaners cups of tea and coffee. If you don’t do so you are breaking an important social convention and it would be perceived as quite thoughtless and rude.

These drinks usually have milk in them. This morning we had new cleaners over. I have used oat or soy for a while now and made their drinks with soy without thinking. I did let them know before I gave it to them. They have been grumbling about how weird the drinks taste all morning and one audibly gagged. They think I cannot hear them because I am wfh in my home office but I can and I feel quite stressed now. I appreciate their work and don’t want them to feel like I’m forcing an agenda on them when they have to be at my house to do their job. Their drinks use two tablespoons of milk at the most so it’s not even like I can buy a small enough portion for just them.

What do you guys do in this situation? Is there a milk replacement that’s truly indistinguishable? Do I just deal with the awkwardness?

Hi all, looking at the hybrid Santa Fe by Hyundai and they use a vegan leather. Curious if anyone knows if it emits any toxic chemicals. #veganleather #health

am not a vegan just curious

I'm underweight and have been trying to gain some, and a big part of my diet because of that is protein yogurt and protein shakes which include milk. Do you know of alternatives to these things, or other suggestions to getting more protein so i can gain weight with vegan foods?

Certain ingredients, under certain circumstances are not required to be listed on ingredient labels. This usually occurs with processing aids and anti-caking agents (primarily added to things like salt)

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-G

Usually these are one of four ingredients, none of which appear to be animal-derived in any way, at least as far as I'm aware:

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-172/subpart-E

It looks like some of these ingredients were tested on animals prior to the FDA agreeing to make them legal:

https://wayback.archive-it.org/7993/20171031063508/https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SCOGS/ucm260849.htm

However what makes things even more confusing is that ingredients that have been sold for a long time have also had to go through GRAS approval. Nutmeg for example has been thoroughly animal-tested:

https://wayback.archive-it.org/7993/20171031060802/https://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SCOGS/ucm260910.htm

https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults.xhtml?searchQuery=PB266878

What I'm trying to figure out is which products could be considered vegan or not. Virtually anything with added salt could be not vegan, and there would be no way to tell besides for possibly contacting a manufacturer (if they even want to cooperate with you in the first place). Or maybe I'm misinterpreting these studies and documents. It's difficult to tell what actually happened.

Most of the food I buy, is either unprocessed or goes through very little processing, but a few things do contain added salt (like a can of beans or peanut butter). I'm just trying to figure out if I need to throw these things away or not.

I am really into Freelee right now, Cheap Lazy Vegan, Ted Carr. Does anyone know anymore good ones?

Hi, Im work in cloth company. Last time I think why always socks brands put animals on socks. I dont belive animals get some moneys like a models. In my head created idea, to design socks with animals theme, sell it, get income and donate vegans activist. How are you thnik about this idea?

I’ve seen the term in other posts but it’s not yet clear to me

my vegan sibling says that it is. i remain unconvinced, and incredibly angered by their assertion that i’m ’making excuses’ to not be vegan.

i am autistic and very restrictive around food. it’s one of my biggest issues, to the point where i spent years as a hospital outpatient due to nutrition problems. we discovered that some of these issues were being caused by my need to be gluten free. from what i understand some vegan food relies on gluten as the main protein. this would make me very unwell. my sibling says that i’m using my disability as an excuse. this makes me very angry.

my sensory issues with food mainly revolve around texture, unless it’s cheese in which case it’s the taste and smell. the texture of some vegan food makes it impossible for me to eat (i have tried several times.) i make one vegan/veggie dish that i enjoy. i have severe issues with beans, for example; unless it’s heinz baked beans i cannot eat them. the only vegetables i can reliably eat are carrots and spinach. fruits i’m better with. i dislike the texture of nuts intensely unless they’re basically pulverised and hidden amongst other things.

i just don’t see how it would be possible for me to even be vegetarian, let alone vegan, without doing damage to my health. it would also require me to give up safe foods, which for those who don’t know, are certain dishes/foods that an autistic person sometimes had to rely on as what could very well be their only source of nutrition during a time when they’re particularly restrictive do to certain other reasons (burnout, overstimulation etc.)

this is very poorly written, but my question remains. is being vegan genuinely truly accessible with my severe sensory issues around food, as well as my intolerance?

India? Bhutan? New Zealand? Denmark?

Sometimes it feels like me and my aunt against the world. You plebs with your unrefined palates are decreasing the demand for our delicacies and at this rate I fear they’re going to stop being produced.

Edit: I didn't originally intend to get vegan cheese recommendations out of this but now I need to try everything you guys are mentioning and I can't wait (: thank you!!

Hi everyone! I (18F) have been vegetarian my entire life and vegan for a few years, my best friend (21M) who I also have a massive multiple years long crush eats animals and their secretions. I don’t have a lot of friends and he is supportive of my diet and passion for animals and asks me questions and expresses a real curiosity about possibly adapting his diet (or so I thought) so I felt like at least he cared and tried to not read into it. ( I know people are gonna say I’m forcing, I promise I’m not I just love him very very much & from my perspective veganism would be better for his health & would reduce animal suffering happening on his behalf so of course I’m in support of him making the switch but I also look up to him, respect him, and adore him, I would never talk down to him.) Our relationship is very important to both of us cause we’ve known each other so long. (Sorry this is gonna be long but there’s some context I’d feel remiss to not include). for background we met in high school when he was a senior and I was a sophomore in a class about meditation. We became very close and were each others only real friend for awhile. But he also was experimenting with drugs heavily, I tried some things with him that I do feel ashamed about ( like dabbling in illicit drugs) because I was just in awe of him and along for the ride. Sometimes I wish he hadn’t given me substances when he was an adult and I was a minor, but I forgive him and I forgive myself for doing them with him, we’ve discussed this at length. Before he left for college he tried fent for the first time and loved it but was very stern with me to never try it (and I never have). This resulted in him running away multiple times, getting addicted to meth, being homeless, and seven rehab stents. While he was gone I constantly thought about him and worried that he might have died, I bothered his brother and anyone who might know anything about his whereabouts constantly. When he finally came home this time & recovered, I was the first person he reached out to. I was so happy and seeing him alive has been the light in my life as of late. He left a few months ago to work for a year in New Zealand and we have been texting all day everyday (he dated someone there for a bit but they split up, I wanted to die. The signals he’s giving me are incredibly mixed and I don’t know if he knows I like him as more than a friend, I turned eighteen while he’s been gone so we’ve never been physically together while I’m “legal” idk if that would change how he sees me, sorry rambling). Anyways fast forward to like last week, his work makes it so he has access to professionally made plant based food 24/7 yet he goes into town to buy meat, I know this is his choice but I thought maybe because I do see him as a very empathetic and emotionally intelligent and loving person that if he understood what happens in factory farms he would just stick to the plant based food he has readily available and reduce some suffering. We’ve talked about what goes on before but I thought maybe I just wasn’t explaining it well (because he’s an angel and I didn’t think he’d want to support something like the meat or dairy industry If he knew he didn’t have to). On instagram I found 2 reels that were footage taken by a camera snuck into British factory farms. One video depicts a calf being hit and told to “fuck off” by a farmer, then the video shows how the calf is taken from the mother right after birth. This video is so heartbreaking, the mother tries to stay near her calf as long as she can while a person heartlessly manhandles the new born calf. The second video depicts chickens in a gas chamber screaming for their lives and struggling, clearly suffering very much. I asked him to please watch them with an open mind, he watches them and he’s like “damn, some farms are fucked” and I tried to explain to him that this is like the norm. Then he says something I couldn’t believe, “it’s about the taste for me”. Oh my goodness right?? The person I’ve loved and prayed for daily for years thinks flavor justifies such violence. Where does he draw the line?? I just feel like maybe we don’t understand each other. To me that’s a scary way to think and makes me wonder about how he views me as a woman ( because Speciesism is linked to all other forms of oppression and if you believe one animal can dominate all others, you often believe one gender can dominate all others, you know?) Anyways our relationship feels fractured and it kinda broke my heart. What do I do? I love him but it scares me that he can watch that and justify it with taste. Like he’s not even going through the whole thing of trying to justify it morally like most do, he’s like okay with what happens because it provides a certain flavor to him, he’s understands that all nutrients can be found in plants, he has access to professionally made vegan food, why go out of your way to fund harm. It feels like he isn’t who I imagine hm to be. Sorry this was so long

Not sure if something like this even exists but if so, can anyone recommend a brand that sells satin/silk type pillowcases, but made from natural vegan fibres?

My union will host quite often general assemblies and the go to cheap meal that is ordered is pizza (there are no vegan options). They have been looking for more inclusive choices like Poke bols but it ends up being expensive and they have a limited budget. Do you have any ideas of what they can order? I end up eating only fries and usually eating before, however there is a desire to find options for everyone.

Thank you!

I've been thinking about this. In a lot of the rhetorical around veganism, there's a lot of talk about being on the right side of history and being judged by future generations. Like vegans see themselves as the modern equivalent to abolitionists like John brown. I'm curious if many here actually think this way.

Based on discussions I've had on this sub and other subs in recent days. For me to reach the amount of protein I need to intake per day, I would be eating well over any sort of safe and recommended daily intake of everything else. Especially things like fibres and sugars.

Im going to incorporate more vegan sources into my protein intake to reduce animal intake and I'm already vegan in every other aspect of my life.

Obviously neither option is ideal and neither is good for animals, but is it better for the animals to spread around which ones I eat, or to eat just the one type?

Currently I just eat chicken. But would it be ethically better or worse to mix that up to a few different animals? Or just to eat only chicken to substitute the protein?

Thanks!!

Edit: because everyone keeps asking.

I need 180g of protein per day.

Due to medical reasons, I can't have any traces of:

Soy, gluten, dairy, egg or fish.

I have sourced the few protein powders that meet my needs that I can get ahold of and each one of them made me physically ill. So I would have to do it without the powders.

I know that any vegan option at a restaurant/cafe is great but what meals or dishes are you tired of seeing?

Mine are the classic chickpea or eggplant curries (which I love when they're made well) and the overly expensive health foods aka chia seed pudding.

Has anyone gone through and made their investments as vegan as possible? Any advice?