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Damn, reading this is like reading my mind when I when vegan. I was so angry as well about being taught that meat and taking from animals was normal and alright. I felt like I had been brainwashed my entire life, and in truth, I had. I also used to be someone who made fun of vegans. How stupid I was being.


But the biggest thing that struck a chord with me is that I feel the same way about thinking of myself as a caring, compassionate, and empathetic person. I though I always tried to do the right thing. Somehow I just completely missed farmed animals.


I've been thinking lately, and we really are brainwashed into not caring about farm animals or even thinking of them as animals. We are taught that they are stupid, dirty, hard-headed, and common. We are taught that they are not worth saving or even caring about. We care about endangered animals but couldn't give two shits for pigs. It's depressing as fuck when you realize it.


I just want to say thank you for coming here and letting us know your thoughts and feelings. It's immensely important to me to read about other people learning and changing their behavior. It gives us all hope and it's another person standing up for the animals.


I appreciate you showing the posts that made you think. That's cool too.


Anyway, tips on becoming vegan- just know that it's actually a lot easier than you think it will be. And you don't have to be a health nut to be vegan either. There are tons of awesome vegan junk foods that will help you get through the change.


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Some of my tips:

1. Spend as much time in vegan online communities as you can. You learn a lot about nutrition, how to handle questions from non-vegans, tips on cooking, humor, commiseration, and other very important things. I prefer this very reddit sub r/vegan, but some people join facebook groups as well. Check out facebook or meetup.com to find other vegans in your area. I dig the facebook group ‘what broke vegans eat’ for meal ideas on the cheap.
   
   
   
   
2. Use cronometer.com- it's a free website that lets you track your food and it shows you how much of each macro and micronutrient you're getting. It's based on your height and weight, it calculates your RDI (recommended dietary intake) from that, and most foods are pre-loaded with nutrition info, though you can enter new ones that aren't found- you just need the nutrition facts section from the box. It really helps to know what your RDI are, even if you don't feel like using cronometer, though I suggest using it for the first 4 weeks of being vegan- honestly, lots of new vegans simply don't eat enough calories. I still use it, have been off and on since being vegan, almost 12 months ago.
   
   
   
   
3. Along the same line, if you don't really want to use cronometer, at least look up your RDI here. It helps to know your targets for calories, protein, etc. It is also a helpful aid when non-vegans give you shit about protein, you can ask them, "How much protein do you need in a day, in grams?" They won't have a clue most of the time.
   
   
   
   
4. One last nutrition tip: You'll probably want to start taking a B12 vitamin. There are tons of vegan B12 vitamins on the market, in pills, sprays, etc. It's the one nutrient that doctors agree on is not available on a vegan plant-based diet (although it’s actually from bacteria, and lots of livestock are given B12 shots anyway). I started off with one I got at Whole Foods, by Garden of Life which is a mouth spray and I also bought a D3 one while I was there because I had read somewhere that it was a good idea. They last a long time, I still have them. But I recently decided that I didn’t need to prove that I needed very few supplements just because I was vegan (which is true), but I don’t always eat a perfectly balanced meal 3 times a day, so I grabbed a vegan multivitamin and take that now.
   
   
   
   
5. Recommended reading: The China Study by Dr. Colin Campbell, How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
   
   
   
   
6. Recommended viewing: Dr. Michael Greger's Nutritionfacts.org videos, especially this one. This one is a long one, but extremely worth it and a good preview of what you’ll learn when you read his book, How Not to Die. But his nonprofit website has tons of amazing videos on youtube. There is a short version of the first one I linked but I can’t find it right now. Anyone want to help me out? Dr. Melanie Joy's video on the psychology of eating meat. This one in particular will make you feel a lot better about how you’ve been able to think you’re a good, compassionate person and still eat meat. Seriously, it’s 14 minutes, give it a watch! Good documentaries: Cowspiracy (on Netflix- environmental impact of eating meat), Veducated and Forks Over Knives (both on Netflix- health aspects of veganism), and most people suggest Earthlings for the ethical/moral aspects. I… would only recommend this when you’re craving meat. I also highly recommend this Gary Yourofsky vid though some vegans find his attitude distasteful and off-putting. Hell, I think it’s an excellent video.
   
   
   
   
7. You might want to look into joining the Veganuary campaign, it's going on right now and has access to lots of helpful info/resources, as well as daily emails of support if you want them. Another helpful website is ChooseVeg.com as they have tips, recipes, free guides, meal plans, etc.
   
   
   
   
8. You will possibly experience some extra gas during the first two weeks of eating more fiber and beans, but that’ll ameliorate itself soon as your gut flora change. Also, you will probably crave cheese more than anything else. Some good vegan cheeses: Daiya Cheezy Mac which I get at Kroger in the ‘health food’ section, Follow Your Heart Mozzarella shreds, and Chao slices by Field Roast (both of which I get at Whole Foods or the local co-op. Beware that ‘Go Veggie’ is apparently not really a vegan cheese.
   
   
   
   
9. Get yourself a pinterest account if you wish to find lots of awesome vegan recipes, but if you don’t feel like searching through a ton, I recommend the following websites: Minimalist Baker , Reddit r/VeganFood , r/VeganFoodPorn, r/ShittyVeganFoodPorn, It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken , Where You Get Your Protein , and The Edgy Veg .
   
   
   
   
10. Check out Happy Cow to find vegan restaurants in different cities. There’s also an app. And if you want to order, you can easily get vegan food at pizza places , taco bell , and other fast food restaurant chains.
    

Yeah, I was atheist for ~ 4-5 years during college. I'm 23 now and consider myself a nonaffiliated theist.

I grew up vaguely Christian. My father and mother had, respectively, been raised in Protestant and Catholic churches and had had issues with their practices. My brother and I were never raised in any church, but were told that God exists.

I also had a number of "spooky" experiences growing up. Ghosts. A dead great-aunt maybe visiting me before family deaths. These mainly occurred during my high school years. They make me strongly believe in some sort of afterlife. I describe them here.

In college, I grew skeptical of God -- Problem of Evil, the incompatibility of free will and "a divine plan", and whatnot. I adopted a materialistic worldview, and my spooky past experiences were essentially ignored because they couldn't be reconciled. But they humbled me and made me a bit skeptical of my own worldview.

I graduated this year in March with a BA in philosophy. I needed some sort of direction/purpose, but, after reading Change of Heart and Predictably Irrational I grew skeptical of human reasoning. And of course our senses and memories are flawed. Of all the animals in the world, from worms to cows, with all their limited perceptions of the world, why do we humans assume that we have a correct perception of the world?

I concluded that we can't have a firm, certain grasp on anything. And so my endeavor to live the best life was impossible. And my reliance on science and reasoning were shattered because humans and their reasoning are flawed.

• Note that science is built upon theories/principles of knowledge founded in empiricism, a school of metaphysics. Science uses metaphysical and epistemological principles and applies them to the world. But science isn't capable of looking at its foundational principles. That's a job for philosophers.
  
  
• And science makes only objective observations, not normative ones. Science can't make moral claims. It can inform morality, but it can't arrive at moral conclusions alone.
  
  
• On top of that, we have no fucking clue what consciousness is or how it arises. The Problem of Other Minds reminds us that we can't be sure of who or what is also conscious. We just do our best to make sense of how something acts and how much its anatomy resembles ours (because I know that at least I'm conscious.)
  
  On top of that, as a graduate, I no longer had college professors telling me what to do. I had no clear goals in life to work towards. And so now, post-college, all the responsibility was on my shoulders to choose what to do and pursue with my life. That's a big responsibility. But how do I make decisions if I have no certain grasp on anything? I spiraled into depression.
  
  So I sought wisdom.
  
  I talked to friends and family about wisdom. I looked at the Greek philosophers who spoke of wisdom and virtue.
  
  I looked at all the major religions to see what wisdom they might hold. I looked for patterns between them in hopes of finding something universal that they all described.
  
  I also became increasingly focused on immediate sensory and intuitive knowledge as opposed to the theory and abstract nature of science and philosophy. I started reading from NDERF's archives of self-reported near-death experiences to look for patterns.
  
  -----
  
  ....
  
  Anywho, I've arrived at the conclusion that everyone does their best to make sense of the world. I try not to judge others. Even if they're Mormons or Scientologists or Wiccans. I have my spooky history. I've come to believe that an afterlife exists. I see what others think about the supernatural, and I see if it appeals to me. I think Sikhism is pretty reasonable and beautiful, and I think my attachment to the afterlife belief almost obligates me to believe in a higher power. Sikhs seek to create and maintain chardi kala, a happiness in life by being content and thankful, which greatly appeals to me. But Sikhism does have a fair bit of ritual (albeit with legitimate purpose) and some guru praise which, given my history, seems a bit too much of a commitment.
  
  What I can say with some certainty is that it's good to live a life of virtue. It is good and feels good to help others. It's good to enjoy life and not take it for granted. Everyday, I consciously make an effort to be virtuous and to be thankful for my blessings. Veganism and activism are obvious applications of virtue and helping others. If God exists, I thank It everyday for all the good I experience. I thank it for the beauty in the world. As flawed as the world is, it's certainly more wonderful than horrible.

Good for you for making that connection! It's not an easy thing to accept, but once you do, you're kinda stuck this way.

1. A non-vegan can live happily in a vegan household. My SO is non-vegan but, I do all the cooking for us so we have a vegan kitchen. I would be uncomfortable cooking and paying for animal products at this point and he knows better than to ask that of me. I would bet that you're a fantastic chef and will have no problem keeping your husband full and satisfied.
   
   
2. If you're comfortable using it then do so. But I warn you that it may desensitize you to eating/preparing animal products again or it'll make you feel disgusted. If possible, I would donate it to a local food bank or a friend.
   
   
3. Clearly, you care about your son so I don't think you will harm him. Keep a watchful eye and maybe contact your pediatrician for advice, there are plenty that are veg-friendly. I would also recommend following some vegan parent blogs.
   
   
4. Like all other weightloss or weight maintenance, if you're keeping an eye on your calories then you should be fine. You can easily keep carbs under 50%, but you may find that the volume of food you're consuming will increase quite a bit. Most people lose weight when going vegan so don't be surprised if that happens (just maybe don't add tahini to every meal like I did).
   
   
5. My best friend has IBS and it improved drastically after severely cutting down on her meat intake. I imagine that there will be an adjustment period (I had like 4 BMs a day and was cramping due to bloat for a couple weeks), but cutting out animal products could really help your IBS as well.. Only time will tell.
   
   
6. Yes, you can! I haven't frozen seitan for quite that long but it would be interesting to see how it goes. I imagine it would be fine though. Also this recipe for tofu nuggets looks really, really good. Cultured vegan cheeses will last quite a while and continually age in the fridge, Miyoko Schinner says they typically last about 100 days. But yes, you can freeze them if you don't use it in time.
   
   
7. Yess this is my jam right here. I read cookbooks like people read novels. It sounds like you would enjoy Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I absolutely love her book Isa Does It and I recommend it to everyone. Her other stuff is also wonderful (I'm sure amazon will show you the rest of her books in their recommendations)! Another one that I think you would enjoy is Miyoko Schinner's The Homemade Vegan Pantry and Artisan Vegan Cheese. After hearing her speak at VegFest it sounds like she has similar style: doing a lot of prep work beforehand so that doing the everyday meal making is simple. Lastly, I will recommend Plum Bistro's Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes. The restaurant is absolutely fantastic and while I haven't made anything in this book since I got it (because I am a little intimidated tbh), I have no doubt that you could get a lot of use from this with your culinary skills.
   
   I hope this was at least a tiny bit helpful! Good luck! :)

Meat, eggs and dairy are the major restrictions. Most meat dishes I've found are pretty easy to rework with tofu or other proteins because it's usually the spices and sauces you're really craving, anyhow. What you use in place of eggs varies, but baking is easy to rework. I was never a big "egg" person (scrambled eggs omelettes etc) but tofu scrambles are a wonderful thing. Dairy is also pretty easy -- soy/nut milks fill the void pretty happily and a few coffee places carry them, just takes some trial and error to find the types and brands you like. Coconut ice cream etc. is a thing. If you end up missing cheese I've heard nut cheeses are pretty great, but I haven't missed cheese enough to seek them out. There's a book "Artisan Vegan Cheeses" about making them yourself. There are also vegan cheeses like Daiya that can work very well on e.g. pizza. Honey is generally not considered vegan. Harder to empathize with bees, but swapping for agave nectar etc. is easy enough that I haven't looked back. There are a few small nonvegan ingredients you have to watch out for like l-cysteine (duck feathers) and fortified vitamin D3 (usually wool, though there are vegan ways to produce it), but you become familiar with them over time and avoiding them isn't very hard. Is It Vegan is pretty helpful when you're uncertain about something. It helps to get a good cookbook. Honestly seeing all the cool recipes in the Veganomicon is what made me realize that this whole vegan thing is actually pretty fun and painless!

re: Celiac, my diet's been mostly gluten-free just on account of living with my aunt who has Celiac's. It shouldn't be an issue at all. Just avoid seitan which is made from vital wheat gluten. I'm not as informed about the restrictions that come with Type 1 diabetes, but being vegan with type 1 diabetes is definitely a thing. Probably someone with more knowledge of diabetes will come around to give you some information. :)

One problem that many new vegans seem to make is only thinking about veganism in terms of what they "can't have". So the first (really large) chunk of this comment is going to be about changing that mentality, not about your specific food dislikes (but we'll get to that).

> My motivation is purely ethical, the health benefits aren't really a factor for my decision

If that's why you're tying this, when you shift your thinking from focusing on how veganism is "restricting" your life, to thinking about the situation as being about "I get to make a choice today that gives me a little control over what happens in the world, that shows who I am and what I stand for", it can give you motivation to try to weather some of the obstacles or setbacks that might come up.

Now, that said, "motivation" is not necessarily the same thing as "practical life skills". You often need a bit of both to make attempted changes to your life sustainable and stick in the long term. We don't just want to you "weathering the storm"

> I've tried going meat free and made it about a week or two and gave up because I was just starving

for the rest of your life and doing this through some sort of great expenditure of willpower; it's important to try to make it as easy as possible to do, as well.

So how do you do this? You change the focus of your thinking from one of "This is restrictive. I miss X, Y, and Z, (animal product) foods. I'm hungry and I really miss ." to "There's really an abundance and diversity of plant foods out there. I'm hungry and I really miss , but there are so many fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, etc., I can try, why don't I try something new?"

(Another note is that, even when there are situations or things that feel like restrictions, it can seem really counter-intuitive, but sometimes placing "limits" on what you use can do the opposite of what you think: it can open up a world of things you never considered, because it "forces" you to think in more creative ways.)

The world of vegan food is astounding: it's already immense and continues to expand. The substitutions or tricks that some vegan chefs have come up with are mind-blowingly creative. Everything from flaked hearts of palm crab cakes to sous vide tomato sashimi to besan omelettes: there's a vegan version of so many things.

Vegan food that doesn't try to replicate animal products is also diverse in its own right, because plants are diverse, flavorful, and interesting. There are thousands of edible plants; there are only a few animal we use for food in comparison.

One of the simplest substitutions to start with are plant milks: there are dozens of them now, which you may be able to find or make. Compared to the number of animal milks you can commonly get (likely only one, maybe two) there's more diversity in vegan food (and this makes sense, because plants are so much more efficient producers of calories than animals, wherever there's arable land, it's often going to be the case that we can grow a wider variety of plants than we can raise animals).

Spices and herbs are all vegan (they all come from plants, right?), and are so strong tasting that we use a tiny amount to flavor other food (even many animal products) with them.

You may have always known the things I just listed (and other things like it), but you're just not going to pay attention to them in these terms unless you "force" yourself to a little, by purposefully embracing and seeing in a positive light (or a shifted perspective) all the plant-based or nearly plant-based ingredients and dishes that do surround you already.

You don't have to use these exact recipes, especially with such specific food dislikes and when just starting out, but it can be helpful anyway just to see what's out there (and you may also be able to adapt some cooking techniques or dish constructions to ingredients that you do like). So take a quick look at some vegan cooking shows to give you more ideas (these tend toward the more gourmet side, if you're curious in trying to see this in a different way):

• Hot for Food
  
• The Happy Pear
  
• Peaceful Cuisine
  
• Good Eatings
  
  So don't just "restrict your diet" and resign yourself to never eating out again: look up some vegan restaurants! Don't just "restrict your diet" and try to "overcome" any cravings you get through willpower alone: learn some vegan substitutions:
  
  
• Beef, sausage: seitan, commercial vegan meat substitutes
  
• Bacon: Coconut bacon or Bac'n bits
  
• Heavy Cream: Cashew Cream
  
• Butter: Vegan Butter, margarine, or vegetable oil.
  
• Cheese: blended up nuts or other things with flavorings or gelling agents, different for different ones. Mozzarella, Ricotta, Feta, Parmesan, Fancy Cookbooks: 1, 2
  
• Eggs: For straight eggs. For baking with eggs, a bunch of different things depending on what you're making.
  
• Crab cakes: hearts of palm
  
• Tuna salad: mashed chickpeas
  
• Merangues: aquafaba
  
  Do you have to become the world's greatest gourmet vegan chef? No! I'm just listing these things to show some idea of what's out there. I'm just saying veganism doesn't have to be as restrictive as "I'm going to cut out these 10 things from my life, and that's it".
  
  You should be thinking: "I'm going to cut out these 10 things from my life because I disagree with them, but I'm going to add 10 things to my life I agree with. Heck, I'm going to add 100 things to my life that I agree with and want to support."
  
  Even just using google can be really helpful here. If you have a specific dish you want to make, don't just think "Okay I can't have Italian sausage any more, ever". Instead, google "simple vegan recipe" or "vegan substitute". Putting Italian sausage, or whatever else, in for the blanks.
  
  ------
  
  My comment has focused a lot on home cooking (even though it's definitely not the only way to get food), because it's particularly relevant to someone who has specific food aversions. When you cook your own food, you get to more carefully decide what goes in it and what doesn't, so it may be the route for you to go. Again, this doesn't necessarily have to mean gourmet home cooked food, there are some pretty simple vegan recipes out there.
  
  
• https://itslivb.com/category/recipes/
  
• http://thevegan8.com/
  
• https://minimalistbaker.com/
  
• http://www.thevegancorner.com/
  
• /r/vegangifrecipes
  
  The Vegetable Problem:
  
  Many people have trouble eating certain foods, especially some kinds of vegetables.
  
  > There are so many things I can't bring myself to eat, like onions, tomatoes, most peppers
  
  You can slowly introduce vegetables into your diet in a number of ways. You may want to start with ones that aren't green (carrots, sweet potatoes) and slowly move your way into the mild green ones (cucumber, celery, iceberg or romaine lettuce, snap peas, bunches of herbs like parsley, basil, dill) and only lastly move into the dark greens or particularly strong tasting ones (mushrooms, bok choy, broccoli, kale, spinach, beets). You can prepare them in many different ways besides boiling them, to change how they taste (try roasting, for example). If you really can't stand them, you can try methods to outright hide their taste or texture altogether, primarily through blending.
  
  Keep in mind also, that you don't necessarily have to eat absolutely every single vegetable in existence, to be a healthy person. You may be able to get away perfectly fine with never eating a handful if you really can't find a way to integrate them into your diet. All you have to do, is make sure you're getting complete nutrition from other sources (other foods, or supplements). It's a different topic (though it's one you'll want to set aside some time to learn about if you do go vegan), but here is a quick guide to vegan nutrition, and you can use an app or website like https://cronometer.com/ (or ask a doctor for a blood test) to track nutrition in the beginning.
  
  (More below)

I had some time, I hope this helps, sorry that it made me pretty mad the farther in I got =)

>A vegan diet never sustained any traditional culture

This is an extremely selective take on the source material. Weston Price reported that several healthy groups of people who were lacto-vegetarian or pisco-vegan. At most this would be an argument for vegetarianism, not the omnivore diet that the author is now advocating. More importantly, the logic is terrible, even setting aside whether or not we should be taking Weston Price and his legacy foundation seriously.

There is no necessary connection between the supposed fact that no ancestral diets were vegan and the idea that a vegan diet is unhealthy. Just as there is no necessary connection between the fact that no traditional culture had a lifespan over 60 years and the fact none of them listened to the radio. Without a solid argument of why a vegan diet is unhealthy this claim only lends the appearance of providing evidence when, in fact, it relies on subsequent claims that should be accepted or dismissed on their own merit. So this ought to be dismissed entirely until the claims are established independently and then only accepted as a tenuously possible interesting explanation of other known facts.

> Vegan diets do not provide fat-soluble vitamins A and D

So she readily admits that you can get enough vitamin A by eating vegan foods, but tries to dismiss this as difficult and undone by various disorders. Well, vegan sources worked for impoverished children in Mozambique well enough. Vitamin A can also be supplemented easy enough, like for these children in Venezuela. As for the disorders, sure, lots of disorders can interfere with proper nutrition. That is why we should all go to the doctor regularly for checkups and tests, regardless of our diet. Personally, I've never even heard of a vegan being deficient in vitamin A, but anything can happen.

As for vitamin D, this is actually more important. Yes, it should concern vegans. However, it should in fact concern most everyone because tons of people in northern climates or who work indoors are deficient. It is extremely easy to supplement with vegan sources and can be readily obtained just by spending enough time in the sun. The "useable" vitamin D bit is a canard. Yes D3 has been shown by some studies to be better absorbed than vegan D2, but D2 is definitely absorbed and the solution when necessary is simply to supplement at a slightly higher level for vegans who are deficient. As above, I recommend visiting a doctor for this, they can test your blood for D levels and give a recommendation based on their findings.

>Vegan diets often rely heavily on soy

Sure, so if you have any problem with it don't eat it. There are a ton of complete sources of protein out there. I'm actually surprised that she mentioned soy protein powder and bars, because other than a couple athletes, none of the vegans I know rely on these to get enough protein.

On the other hand, if you have no problems with soy whatsoever, (and most people do not) then this is another non-issue. The last person I talked to who was having problems with soy was drinking ~2 gallons of soymilk a day. That is probably way to much, don't consume that much.

>Vegan diets do not provide vitamin K2

As someone else pointed out in this thread, the Japanese traditional food natto does provide K2 derived from its creation process. Still, having lived in Japan I wouldn't personally want to eat natto on a regular basis, or ever again. However, from what I've read this also isn't a problem for most vegans, human gut bacteria produces K2 on its own. As the blog linked to above notes, if this were a problem for vegans it would show up in the studies comparing clotting rates, but it doesn't.

> Ethical omnivorism supports a healthy planet

I can't even begin to get into how inane this argument is, which seems focused on this weak claim, "vegan diets ten[d] to demand a higher quantity of cereal grains and soy."

Once we get to the point where 70% of US grain is not going to feed livestock and all the major fisheries are not in the process of being entirely wiped out, then we can talk about the fantasy world in which bison roam freely through the towns of Kansas and all the meat we eat comes from free-range goats locally sourced in New Zealand.

I can't even tell you the number of times I hear this argument from people who I later find eating a hamburger at a local restaurant without a second thought as to where it came from, or putting a picture of sizzling bacon they got from the grocery store on their blog. The simple fact is that eliminating meat from human diet would be such a titanic reduction in environmental carrying cost to the planet that whatever fractional gain might theoretically be had from occasionally supplementing with seasonal and local free range meat to avoid complete reliance on plant matter is quite insignificant in comparison.

> Real Food > Fake Food

This isn't even an argument. It is just superstition and cultural bias wrapped up in the shell of an argument. Who cares what humans have been doing for thousands of years? Are we to bring back slavery cause it was functional much longer than the industrial wage system? For that matter, what the heck makes imprisoning cows, artificially inseminating them, machine milking them, homogenizing the milk, then churning the product until it hardens into a semi-solid state more "natural" than combining a bunch of plant based material to produce something that looks and tastes similar? If she is so worried about this "natural vs artificial" false dichotomy, she can go eat an apple (genetically modified by humans for millenia) and avoid both forms of processed food altogether.

> Vegan isn’t the answer to autoimmune disease

Right... if I only had a nickel for every time someone told me a story of two separate phenomena which they have linked as essentially causal in their mind, but which we don't even have the data yet to establish so much as a correlative link, then I wouldn't have much money cause nickels aren't worthy much. Still, this is seriously going off the deep end. She actually links to a book that claims you can treat Autism and Dyslexia by managing the gut bacteria. I don't even know for a fact that these claims are false, only that no scientist on the planet yet knows that they are true.

> You must take life to have life

Wow. Yes, field mice are killed in harvesting grain. If she is so concerned about this, why doesn't she advocate for methods of driving field mice out of their burrows before harvesting, rather than simply accepting their death? Or no longer ever feeding a single grain to cattle whose conversation to the protein that winds up for dinner is so inefficient that it requires the death of an order of magnitude more mice?

The fact is that veganism isn't about no living thing dying. My skin cells and the bacteria in my stomach are dying as we speak. Who cares? I don't believe in magical plant and amoeba souls that are somehow more important than or equivalent to the thinking, feeling, caring, sentient creatures that meat eaters kill, maim and imprison for luxury food.

Also, just to be clear, plant communication has nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence. They don't have nervous systems, they don't have brains, they don't have anything with which to cognate. The "communication" being referred to by the sourced she cites is an intentional misreading of a scientific term meant to indicate transmission of chemicals. Then again, maybe they think the Earth is intelligent because there is communication between the mantle and the core.

> Vegan diets are deficient in vitamin B12 and iron

Getting bored with her at this point. Yes, these are two vitamins of which vegans should be aware. Both can be tested, both can be supplemented if found short. You almost get the impression from this article that most meat eaters are not deficient in various nutrients. Heck, since less than 1% of people in the US are vegan and B12 is a problem specific to vegans, why are 20% of people over 50 borderline deficient in B12?

> Animal fats offer unique nutrients

Omega 3, yet another nutrient that is low for almost everybody. This is the same argument over again. Everyone in my family takes an Ovega-3 to avoid this EPA and DHA issue altogether. I'm not remotely convinced that it is necessary, the studies certainly are not conclusive. Most likely, bodily conversion of flax seed will do you fine as well as chia seeds, beans, cabbage, mangoes, wild rice, etc.

The whole "saturated fat is great" bit is still a fad not established by science. Yes, there have been a couple exploratory studies suggesting the possibility, but credible institutions like Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical and the American Heart Association still advise against it. And the bit about cholesterol is purposefully obtuse, the human body manufactures more than enough cholesterol on its own. The idea that dietary cholesterol is a "key part of wellness" is based on nothing but hot air.

haha i don't know if you would say it's 'open' as such, i'm certainly no spiritual guru by any means but what I would say is that going vegan made me more conscious of the world around me and helped me become more compassionate in aspects which i wasn't aware of previously!

We're all on a journey and at different stages, but what I can say is that veganism certainly won't bring you any negatives as long as you do it right.

If you're also interesting in healing your pineal gland you should also stop and completely avoid products with flouride in them; toothpaste and mouthwash (if you use mouthwash) are the primary culprits of flouride. If you're from the UK this toothpaste is great and I would recommend getting this one or any flouride free fennel toothpaste as it tastes the best (imo); http://www.naturalcollection.com/shop/fluoride-free-fennel-toothpaste-by-kingfisher/?PCode=DSGPESS15&gclid=CjwKEAjwwOvABRC08aedoZ_lnTMSJACs_cbu4oHygX2JziWoQffp5AviI1caU8_RekW3ieZeIHp_3xoCwwvw_wcB

ALSO TAKE A B12 SUPPLEMENT; this is my one of choice as it's easy to use and tastes pretty decent https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Life-Organics-Methylcobalamin-Raspberry/dp/B00K5NEPJY

Some good ideas for things like smoothies to incorporate spirulina into your diet could go like;

2-3 bananas

Some almond or whatever nut milk you come to enjoy or water

1/2 tablespoon of spirulina or wheatgrass powder

1 tablespoon of hemp/flax/chia seeds

cup of frozen berries of your choice.

Some good breakfasts could be
2 cups or 40 grams of oats, almond or nut milk of choice with banana and/or brown sugar.

avocado and marmite on toast.

fruit platter; watermelon, bananas, apples etc

Lunch time
Sandwich with avocado, carrot, watercress, tomato, cucumber onions whatever you feel like chucking in there.

Dinners;

Curries; rice, sweet potato/normal potato, portabella mushrooms, broccoli, courgette and corn with vegan curry sauces (if you're from the UK sainsbury's have the best variety)

Noodles; soba, rice, udon or wholewheat noodles with mushrooms, kale, courgette, broccoli and corn, accompanied with a good sauce you can find.

There are so many recipes and options available I don't really know where to start to be honest haha, but just look around this subreddit, youtube and the internet there's so much info and interesting food recipes.

Not OP, but I can tell you that all of those dishes are super easy to "veganify." Start buying different veggie burger patties, check out Beyond Meat products (they make burgers, ground beef, and chicken type meat currently - honestly I've been meat free for so long that it's all a little too meaty for me, but I wish the Beyond brand had been available when I first stopped eating meat). There are a ton of other veggie patties out there. Check out your nearest vegan restaurant if there are any around you. If you're a milk drinker, I honestly prefer plant-based milk, pea milk, oat milk, almond, flax, soy... all so good. When my husband first went vegan we went and bought a whole bunch of different plant-based kinds of milk to do a taste test b/c he's very picky about the creamer in his coffee. He ended up choosing the pea milk - it's got a good creamy feel to it in coffee. Chao Cheese is delicious (a lot of vegan cheeses aren't so great but that one is).

Easy snacks: almond butter and banana, or avocado and hummus sandwiches, soup and bread is easy, something about coconut oil on toast tastes EXACTLY like butter to me, but there are vegan butters available that mimic the real thing very well also... there's a lot of vegan junk food out there like chips, Oreos, cookies, and ice-cream too to get that fix. Ben and Jerry's dairy-free ice cream is unreal. I didn't even know it was vegan when I used to eat it as a vegetarian.

Vegan cooking blogs:

[Minimalist Baker] (https://minimalistbaker.com/) - she has a good shepherds pie.

[Hot for Food] (https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/welcome) has a lot of good comfort food

[Thug Kitchen] (https://www.thugkitchen.com/)

[Here's a list of the Top 50 vegan food blogs] (https://www.culinarynutrition.com/top-50-vegan-blogs/)

Reading ["Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer] (https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884) was really instrumental in helping me make the shift as well. Foer is a fiction author who went vegan irl and the book is autobiographical of his decision making, so it's very approachable and not guilt-trippy at all.

Welcome to the right side of history! Also, I didn't feel different at all going from meat-eater to vegetarian, when I went from vegetarian to vegan, however, I felt a world of difference in terms of improved mood and energy and getting to poop like three times a day ha.

And, like someone else said, you don't have to do it all at once. Maybe try cutting out one animal group at a time. If I had to do it over, I would start with dairy, then chicken, fish, pork, beef... Dairy is really just awful in terms of cruelty and health impact.

Okay now I'm rambling. Take care!

Edit: formatting wall of text.

Regarding your question about helping the environment: http://thevegancalculator.com/ <-- Go here and put in "1 year" into the calculator. Just one year, you're saving almost half a million gallons of fresh water, 15 THOUSAND pounds of grain, 11 THOUSAND square feet of forest and 7 THOUSAND pounds of carbon dioxide (compared to a typical animal-including diet). The calculator is supported by sources. Just by changing a few minor things about your lifestyle, you can have an incredibly drastic impact on the world.

​

TL;DR regarding expense and difficulty - if you live in a very rural area in the USA, it can take some difficulty to find a good source of cheap bulk beans / lentils / vegetables / bulk (by weight) dried veggies. But they're sooooooo cheap; normally you can eat for $1-2 a day, plus B12 vitamin expenses ($5 a month).

​

Longer explanation regarding expensive/difficult: Expense is very low; I pay much less now for food than before going vegan. Difficulty may vary depending on where you live. I happen to live in Denver, and it's very easy for me to find pretty much any substitute/vegetable I want. If you cook your own meals, there's really nothing different about cooking vegan - just use vegetable oil/avocado oil instead of butter, and buy veggies instead of meat. That's about it. Just make sure you eat a lot of beans or lentils or tofu.

​

When I first became vegan, I was hit with the reality of vitamin/protein differences - I needed to purchase some vitamin supplements. Here's the list I have:

• Vitamin B12 (vegan source) - $5 a month - https://www.amazon.com/Deva-Vegan-Vitamin-Dissolve-Lozenges/dp/B001GAOHTS
  
• Protein Powder - $22 a month - https://www.amazon.com/Orgain-Organic-Protein-Chocolate-Packaging/dp/B00J074W94
  
  ​
  
  These two made a big difference in my life. About 3 months after going vegan I started having some troubles related to protein (I work out a lot and my body wasn't used to the lower intake). I try to hit about 90g of protein a day (I am a reasonably athletic 6' male). I think a lot of vegans downplay the issues involved with protein - it's the source of a TON of jokes in the vegan community - but the truth is a lot of vegans simply don't get enough protein. And then they fall back into eating meat because they didn't know better. Which is really pretty silly because it's incredibly easy to supplement if you can't get it in your diet.
  
  ​
  
  Other than what I've mentioned above, here's some things to consider (this list is HEAVILY biased towards a lazy, no-cook approach. If you have any cooking skill, just cook your own veggie meals, they're awesome, cheaper and fresher than anything listed below, but this is for the lazy days):
  
  
• If you like cheese, vegan cheese substitutes cost about the same as dairy cheese
  
• If you like milk, vegan milk (ANY type) is typically cheaper, better for you, and better for the environment than dairy milk
  
• Most oils, spices, salts, flavorings - are already vegan. There's no real change needed here. Butter costs more than vegetable oil anyway.
  
• Most BBQ sauce, buffalo sauce, spicy sauce, etc - all vegan generally.
  
• Most chips and junk food is already vegan. Except for the "flavored" sour cream/cheese type chips.
  
• If you like easy food/frozen food, Target sells a whole boatload of vegan microwave stuff (Gardein and others). "Chicken" nuggets, Fried "fish" sticks, "Chicken" wings, etc. Even Ben & Jerry's has a bunch of dairy-free vegan ice cream.
  
• Speaking of dessert, vegan desserts are cheaper and easier to make (and safer!! you can lick the spoon - no eggs!). And they taste way better.
  
• If you like burgers/hot dogs, check out Beyond the Meat. It's now cheaper than beef and is freaking amazing. They even sell it at Target now.
  
• Most bread is already vegan (just check the label). Vegan bread is generally cheaper than non-vegan.
  
• Most cereal is already vegan (just check the label).
  
• Most restaurants in the US charge less for veggie-based items. Although it is VERY true that you'll have a much more restricted menu choice.
  
• Fries are generally vegan, except for a few places (McDonalds, Buffalo Wild Wings, Smash Burger are the only ones around here that don't have vegan fries)
  
  ​
  
  Finally, there are a few things I'd like to point out in MY PERSONAL OPINION that might turn you "off" of vegan foods if you try them off the bat (a lot of people buy terrible choices and then say "vegan alternatives are bad". No, they are just poor choices lol)
  
  
• Avoid buying Daiya products if you want a realistic cheese/dairy alternative. They are the lowest common denominator. They are readily available everywhere for cheap, but they don't taste very good. Try to find Miyoko's or Follow Your Heart instead.
  
• Some substitute items are coconut based, or cashew based, or oat based, or whatever-based. There is a reason that 50 alternatives exist. Some people like some, some people like others. You know how you go to the store, and there are 50 different BBQ sauces, and the ONE you like is sold out, and you're super bummed? Yeah, same thing for vegan items - brand differences, tastes, and preferences exist - just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's any different than other products. Too many people say "vegan food" when really that lump-category doesn't exist.
  
  ​
  
  The best advice I can give is to JUST TRY IT. Just go a few days making vegan food. You don't need to say "I'M GOING VEGAN", you don't need to have some public moment - you can just privately try it out. It's pretty fun!

I worry about what it is going to be like being pregnant and vegan all the time, since I figure it's going to happen sooner than I think! So, I tend to remember some of the resources that I come across.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist, doctor, or medical professional, so these are suggestions for further resources, not scholarly advice.

When you say your diet is "pretty simple," does that mean simple as in a lot of "whole" foods where most of the preparation is done at home? If this is the case, eating a varied, calorically-sufficient diet will do a lot of good--that "well-planned" diet thing. Of course, processed isn't necessarily a bad thing--remember that basics like fortified nondairy milk, tofu, and even seitan are "processed." However, each of these can still be healthy (especially because baked tofu, rice, and veggies is easy and healthy for those nights you/your wife won't want to cook).

As far as supplements, B12 is of course the big one. For a complete look at general vegan nutrition, and some discussion both of vegan pregnancy/raising vegan kids, take a look at Vegan for Life, which is an accessible but science-based look at how to manage macro and micronutrient consumption while being vegan (including a look at supplements.)

You may want to take omega-3, but consult your doctor; I think research is pretty clear these days that they're good for you, but YMMV, especially during pregnancy. Ovega-3 has both DHA and EPA from algae sources; the conversion rate of ALA omega-3s, found in plants, is pretty low and not well understood, so flaxseed oil (while great) is probably not going to suffice.

Colleen Patrick Goudreau discusses supplementation and makes some suggestions for resources.

Pocket reference! The Vegan Guide to Pregnancy is pretty well-reviewed, from what I know, and I hear it recommended. Also, poking around Amazon from there will help you find some additional references. Probably worth it to have a few books on hand, as well as the internet.

Other thoughts:

• Find a supportive doctor! (This you'll probably have to Google.) While I/Reddit/the rest of the internet may kind of know what's going on, a doctor who knows you and your wife and isn't sneering at your diet will be invaluable. Veganism has become (somewhat more) mainstream lately, so you may be able to find resources for that.
  
  
• The people telling you/your wife that the baby needs eggs, milk and dairy probably (at least sort of) mean well, and everybody has a way they did it when they were pregnant, and just look at their little angel--it must be the best way! But most of them probably just don't know any better. So try not to get too upset with them (though if they carry on in such a way for the duration of the pregnancy, no one would blame you.) You can tell them that your doctor disagrees, your wife is in good health, the baby is fine, or something along these lines, and if they continue to harangue you, end the conversation. Arguing about it probably won't end well.
  
  
• Final note: The American Dietetic Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), which is a large network of qualified medical professionals, publicly takes the position that a well-planned vegan or vegetarian diet is appropriate for all people in all stages of life, including pregnancy and infancy. The full statement is here. Long story short? The science/research is on your side here. Do your due diligence and get good prenatal care, and you, your wife, and baby will be fine.
  
  
  Good luck, and congratulations!

Looks like you got a jump on the basics but depending on how much you've researched the ethical topics below are some great resources to help keep you motivated. And once you understand the ethical necessity of a vegan lifestyle you'll find it is really a breeze!

earthlings - very graphic film but helpful to remove any doubts one might have regarding how we treat animals

eat like you care - a short and concise framing of the logic behind the ethical rational for veganism

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows - another relatively easy read which lays out a bit broader argument

There are loads of other great books and films out there and I really suggest taking the time to educate yourself about the way we use animals as it will make the transition so much easier.

Good luck and welcome!

My staple dishes are curries, Indian and Thai most recently. I love some curry! You can use tofu, chickpeas, beans, lentils, etc. It's a great way to use up the rest of your veggies and clean the fridge. Curries are so flavorful and easy to make. There are even premade sauces if you don't want to make them from scratch.

• Patak's
  
  
• Archer Farms Curry Sauces
  
  
• Kitchens of India
  
  
• Thai Kitchens Curry Pastes
  
  My favorite cookbooks have been:
  
  
• Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like you Give a F*ck
  
  
• Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook Her blog is really great as well: http://www.veganricha.com/
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen
  
  Some other blogs/youtubers I would recommend highly are:
  
  
• Hot for Food Lauren Toyota also has a blog: http://www.hotforfoodblog.com/ (My favorite recipe youtuber)
  
  
• Edgy Veg
  
  
• Mary's Test Kitchen
  
  
• So You're Dating a Vegan
  
  
• Sweet Potato Soul
  
  
• Show Me the Curry
  
  I am always branching out to new foods, Ethiopian is great for vegan cooking as is Indian, Thai, Italian, and Vietnamese. Soon you will take recipes you love and veganize them. Google search recipes you love and just preface it with vegan, the possibilities are endless.
  
  Build up your spice rack! Amazon is great for this, a great suggestion made to me was buy 1 new thing each time you grocery shop to expand your recipes and cooking.
  
  Thanks for your compassionate choice to join us and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

I have a 5-year old son who has been breast fed/vegan since the womb. You are in some sense lucky it's an allergy, because the social aspects are the hardest. Being able to say "I'm Allergic" is MUCH easier than "I'm vegan".

Some things my son likes:

• Anything made with seitan (Stir fry typically): Fry some seitan in olive oil (Iron pan adds some more taste), then mix with veggies such as bok Choy, Kale, etc., as well as tamari or soy sauce. Once cooked, add toasted sesame oil.
  
• Chinese food in general. Other than egg, if it's vegetarian, it's typically vegan.
  
• Peanut butter and jelly (Though we rotate through various nut butters such as Almond, Hazelnut, Walnut, etc.)
  
• My son loves pancakes and waffles. I have found one way to help make it a little healthier is to substitute flax oil for butter when serving (but NOT when cooking, since flax goes rancid instantly when cooked!)
  
• Easy French Toast: Put bread in toaster - Serve with Earth Balance, Flax oil, nut butters, and maple syrup. Amazingly, my son likes this just as much as something that takes forever to prepare.
  
• Tofu scramble is a hit, and easy. Basically add some oil to a pan, dump in some tofu, pour in about a teaspoon of garlic salt, and another teaspoon of turmeric and you have the base. Add veggies or soysauge, mushrooms, potatoes, etc. to customize to your kids taste.
  
• Baked Sweet Potato - AKA "Spiderman Food".
  
• Amy's Rice Macaroni mixed with hash browns is awesome. By it'self it's pretty good macaroni, but mixed is 100x better. Add some soysauge to add even more flavor.
  
  If you are doing a birthday party, or otherwise need desserts, let me HIGHLY recommend the book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. You will absolutely not miss dairy from this book, I promise!
  
  

• • Off topic stuff below - -
    
    I didn't pay attention to the OP's question before I started to make a list of non-fresh items. But since I already did so, below are some of my kids favorites anyway:
    
    

• Amy's soups in general are mostly vegan and tasty, and conveniently say "Vegan" in the ingredients making it easy to shop.
  
• Daiya cheese - especially the wedges. Nonvegans even like this cheese.
  
• Gimme Lean Sausage is a hit.
  
• ZenSoy Soy Pudding is another favorite
  
• Hemp Milk - especially vanilla and chocolate is a staple. The Brand Tempt is our favorite, though Manitoba Harvest is also excellent, but maybe harder to find (though you can buy online.)
  
• Tempt also has some awesome ice-cream bars.
  
  Hope this helps.
  

Firstly: Good luck! You're doing well already, and you'll get to where you want to be in time.

Have you got any vegan recipe books? Easy Vegan and 500 Vegan Dishes both have fairly simple but tasty dishes. I don't think they tend to need very exotic ingredients.

Easy Vegan:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cookery-Ryland-Peters-Small/dp/1845979583

500 Vegan Dishes:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/500-Vegan-Dishes-Deborah-Gray/dp/1845434161

And do you feel that vegan meat alternatives aren't as easy to buy, or maybe aren't as good, as the vegetarian ones? You say that you eat the Linda McCartney pies, so I guess you've seen other products in that range too. But Fry's Vegetarian is great, and I've recently heard really good things about Vegusto meat alternatives - their Farmhouse sausages in particular, but also their burgers (you'll probably have to order off their website though).

Fry's Vegetarian:
http://www.frysvegetarian.co.uk/

Vegusto:
http://vegusto.co.uk/

I guess you probably know about Holland and Barrett stores? They're good for getting some of the more exotic ingredients, but they also have meat alternatives and such. Also, they have a few microwaveable meals - pasties and that sort of thing - which are quite nice. You can also often get microwaveable burritos, and probably other similar things, in the frozen section.

Also here are a couple of easy meals I like:

(1) Buy refried beans (http://www.oldelpaso.co.uk/products/refried-beans/975cedfc-f177-4eda-a689-192c4ec346af/) and put it in tacos (along with corn, lettuce, tomato, and whatever else you like). (The refried beans are seriously good.)

(2) You can make falafel easily (http://www.alfez.com/moroccan_lebanese_cuisine/products/all-products/falafel.html) and eat it with houmous, because everyone likes houmous.

If you're mainly looking for sweeter things:
Co-operative custard donuts and jam donuts are both apparently vegan (and delicious). You can buy vegan ice cream in the frozen section of Holland and Barrett (and maybe at Tesco or other supermarkets) - Swedish Glace is pretty incredible, and most people say it's as good as ordinary ice cream. You can also get vegan cheesecake in Holland and Barrett, again in the frozen section. Also buy Lotus Caramelised Biscuit Spread and put it on Tesco Oaties (well, that's a combination I like, but I guess you could mix it up...).

Or if you wanted to bake, these are three really good books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Pie-Sky-Out-This-World/dp/0738212741

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegan-Cookies-Invade-Your-Cookie/dp/160094048X

(The cookie book is by far the easiest, and uses the least exotic ingredients. On the other end of the spectrum is the pie book, which uses things like coconut oil and agar agar - the first of which you can get at Holland and Barrett but the second of which you'd have to order online.)

Also, just by the way: 'What Fat Vegans Eat', a facebook page, gives you a constant stream of delicious-looking vegan food.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/194567900666819/?fref=nf

Yes, much advice!

First, the initial 6mo-1 year is really hard, you're changing your lifestyle and not getting a lot of support for it. Feeling depressed happens, however just because it happens doesn't mean it shouldn't be looked into. Please be mindful to check you're getting enough to eat, plenty of water, and allow yourself some time to sleep, rest and recharge. Plus, a little bit of this it's a great way to get b12. Also, go out and make some vegan friends. If you don't have anyone where you live then get a pen pal! The lonely vegan is a reality and I'm here to support anyone going through it because I know how much it sucks.

Simply put, I've got your back!

Now onto food

If you want to be healthy you have to prepare your own food. Now a lot of great meals take less than 20 minutes, you just need to know what you're looking for. From what you posted it sounds like cheese was your flavor of choice, so lets break out the nooch Here are three recipes which get that flavor and are easy to put together.

Vegan Nacho Cheese I recommend also throwing in 1/4 to 1/2 of an Anaheim pepper.

Tofu popcorn chick'n

Recipe number three: try sprinkling nutritional yeast on a small portion of whatever your eating to see if you like it as an addition. Yeah ok this isn't a recipe, but you'll discover a lot of great uses that are too many for me to even pretend to name.

Umami is a flavor that really helps those who have cut out cheese. Things with that flavor profile include:

Soy Sauce, Tamari sauce, mushrooms, cumin, paprika, rosemary, thyme... in fact here's an entire article. Easy recipes that I find really capture this are:

Marinated mushrooms**** Very highly recommend this one

Veggie stir fry's: fry up any veggies you like to eat with some garlic, ginger and douse on the tamari (or soy sauce). Serve with rice of your choice.

Roasted veggies are always a classic albeit they can take a while to cook.

Really though start out simple. Figure out two days a week where you can try something new. Search for recipes that only take 20 minutes to make and use foods you know you like already. Only buy a couple of new things a week. Like pick up one new spice each week or every other week. From your comments your spice profile is probably something your mouth is really bored with, give it something new. Start with the recipes I recommended, and if you like them hit me up and I can share some of my other easy go to's.

Remember you're learning a new way to cook so keep an open mind and try new ways of enjoying your food. Going vegan took my already awesome cooking skills onto a level that fucking blows people's minds now. You only have up to go from here, you just gotta put in the time.

The Vegan Activist's "Complete Guide To Vegan Food" should be really helpful. For recipes, his "Top 3 Vegan Recipe Channels" video is pretty good. TheVeganZombie, and CheapLazyVegan both have relatively simple recipes on their channels as well. It's not needed, but the cookbook "But I Could Never Go Vegan!" is definitely worth getting as well. It talks about some of the different ingredients vegans use, how to prepare things like nut butter, veggie broth, cashew cream, etc., and has 125 different recipes.

I personally don't usually go too crazy with recipes, most of the stuff I eat is super simple.

For breakfast, I always have some sort of nutrient shake. I'm currently trying naturade's vanilla VeganSmart powder, it tastes like a bannana milk shake when blended with a banana and almond milk (I dilute the almond milk with water to save $). Sometimes I'll also eat hash browns, oat meal, or cereal as well.

My go-to dinner is just a bag of mixed vegetables that comes with sauce packets, and a box of new orleans-style long grain & wild rice. Rice goes in a rice cooker with water, veggies are steamed in a pan with water and the sauce packet. If I'm feeling a little crazy, I'll add some more mushrooms, siracha, and soy sauce. Rice and veggies are done in about 20 mins, low effort, and tastes great. The rice takes longer to cook than the veggies, so start cooking the rice sooner if you want them done at the same time. Also feel free to cook the rice on the stove if you don't have a rice cooker, there really isn't too much of a difference.

I also typically eat a lot of gardein products, you can find their stuff everywhere. it's relatively cheap, and tastes great. Other than their gravy, I've loved everything I've tried from them. Their beefless ground/meatballs taste almost exactly like real beef, and their chick'n tastes spot on when cooked right. I'll literally just fry up their Crispy Chick'n in oil, use the sauce it comes with for dipping, and call it a meal. Unhealthy, simple, and tasty :).

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck. Stick around and ask any questions if you need help, I know it isn't easy being vegan in a non-vegan world, especially when you're new.

It was hard, until all of a sudden it was easy. My method? I learned as much as I could about the issues with animal agriculture. At first I continued to eat eggs and dairy (I'd already been a vegetarian for several years), but I'd feel conflicted and guilty afterward. Still, convenience or cravings would keep me coming back. But I kept reading everything I could find on the subject and one day, suddenly, no amount of tastiness or convenience could justify my continuing to support those practices.

Two of the main sources that informed my decision were the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and Colleen Patrick Goudreau's Food for Thought podcast.

Eating Animals is an extremely well-written and comprehensive overview of the ethical, environmental, and health effects of animal agriculture. Food for Thought touches a lot on the "why" of veganism, but where Colleen's work has really been helpful to me is in the "how." She explains, among other things, how to make sure you're properly nourished, how to stave off cravings for old foods, how to respond to questions and confrontations, and how to really take joy and pleasure in your new lifestyle.

As far as specific advice, here are a few tidbits.

1. Learn to cook. Fake meats are fine when you're just getting started, but you're going to find yourself bored and dissatisfied with your diet really quickly if you continue to rely on them. Experiment with new cuisines and vegetables, don't let yourself get into a food rut.
   
   
2. Research nutrition. Vegan Health is a good place to start. You can be healthy and thrive on a vegan diet, but it does have different strengths and weaknesses than an omnivorous diet. As long as you eat a wide variety of unprocessed fruits and vegetables and get enough calories for your size and level of activity, you should get most of the nutrients you need in abundance. There are some things that you should consider supplementing: B-12 (absolutely essential!), omega-3s (recommended), calcium and vitamin D (better to obtain through diet, but can supplement if needed). Don't even worry about protein.
   
   
3. Don't avoid talking about your veganism, but in general it's better if other people initiate the conversation. Keep any dialogue brief and matter of fact unless people seem genuinely interested in learning more. Many people will become defensive because your behavior is making them examine their own more than they are comfortable with. Talk about your experience and your reasons, and avoid telling other people what they should do. Be happy and eat delicious food, and people will come around in time.
   
   
4. Build a support network. Ask questions and share experiences here or on other vegan forums. Join a vegan MeetUp group in your area. Volunteer with relevant organizations. It can seem intimidating to make different consumption choices than those around you, but do whatever you can to remind yourself that you're not alone and that you are making a difference :-)

It helps to tell others that you were one like them, so you understand their lifestyle, however, having become aware of the ethical problems with eating meat and animal products you made a shift to more plant based way of living.

This helps to promote a more understanding approach and less of a "us against them."

Don't be afraid to give them resources where they can look for themselves. You need to make people feel like they came to conlusions on their own (based on psychology studies) and to do that, you sometimes have to simply offer the info and walk away to let them think about it. I hand out vegan outreach pamphlets, and I think it's a great way to advocate without being so confrontational and argumentative with people. Undoubtedly you can still get into arguments with people, but the key is to make THEM think about their actions, not simply tell that that they're wrong.

A famous method used by Socartes was to get people to realize that they already believe what he does, they just aren't acting on it. Most people already don't want to harm animals (or at least they don't want to be seen as a person that would, but their actions support that, and connecting them to that fact is vital)

A book you might like is "Why We love Dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows." by Melanie Joy it explains why we view different animals the way we do and how hard it can be to change people's perceptions.

A good follow up to this book is "change of heart: The psychology of spreading social change." where you can then apply psychological study implications to real world situations. The writer focuses on animal rights concerns a lot and how to get the most people engaged in this more ethical way of living. A good tip from this book is to realize that people make up rationalizations to justify their actions, rather than as we would normally think that many people make u a rational reason for doing something and then do it. If we can simply encourage more people to take the first step into eating more veg meals and it becomes more natural for them, they'd take to the reasons more heartedly.

It takes time. At one point I was like you, down, frustrated, and irritable. But when you seek for knowledge on how to become a better advocate for animals, you may get some happiness once more and more people come to you telling you they eat more veg meals or have gone vegetarian. When leafletting at my college, one girl told us that she had gotten a pamphlet last semester and then went vegan. Some people DO get it, but you have to be the connecting thread between people and the animals.

Tips for animal advocacy from Animal rights conference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c6886_GXyg

I love being vegan, but I definitely didn't experience most of the health benefits you're seeing... it took me a while to adjust to the diet. Good for you nonetheless. Congrats on becoming vegan!

2) There are lots of good protein sources, and they'll add up throughout your day. Some major protein sources for me are beans, oatmeal, quinoa, peanut butter, peanuts and almonds, and soy milk. Veggies have some protein too. Also, I absolutely love Clif Builder Bars. They're vegan and have 20g of protein per bar. Perfect for when you can't cook.

3) When I was a few months into being vegan, I picked up Vegan for Life from the library. This book is amazing and gives you lots of meal ideas and solid nutritional advice for being a vegan in every stage of life. It told me a lot of things I wish I had known earlier, like getting omega-3s from flax and canola oil and where to get all my vitamins.

4) If you check the packaging first, there are many "accidentally vegan" snacks out there. Twizzlers, Wheat Thins and Triscuits, pretzels, Fritos, non-butter popcorn, lots of chips, Oreos, granola bars, Swedish Fish... the list goes on. Google "accidentally vegan" and look through some lists, I'm sure you'll find things you like. Not to mention you can find ways to veganize almost any baked good.

If you ever feel adventurous try this book for cheese otherwise the Daiya blocks are tasty. Cashew cheese is easy to make and super tasty

Quick foods:

Rice, beans, potatoes. These things can be eaten cold even, and are super easy to prep in bulk.I'm cooking 2 cups of brown rice as I type this, and when I leave for work I'll start a crock pot of black beans. I regularly bring potatoes with salt on long bike rides, and eat them cold. You can put anything inside a tortilla and it'll taste good. Beans, seitan, tofu, rice avocado, spinach, etc.

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches, agave, jelly, really whatever.

Green veggie and fruit smoothies are an easy portable, and nutritious breakfast.

Fruit, carrots, nuts are all easy snacks.

Chickpea "tuna" is delicious and easy to prep.

Oatmeal is filling, cheap and easy.

Pasta is easy. Start with whole grain, or a hardy gluten free pasta. I have some chickpea protein pasta right now for instance. Red sauce, maybe throw some textured vegetable protein in there.

Frozen vegetables are easy to prep.

The cheapest, dry shelf stable foods are generally vegan. They are also normally available anywhere.

If there's a specialty vegan item that you want there's always amazon. I bought chickpea flour there awhile ago.
Peas and franks red hot is actually pretty delicious.

If you're into faux turkey, my faves (in order): Match, Field Roast (uhh the en croute whatever ones), Gardein, Tofurky. Match (everything they make) is juicy and perfectly flavored. The Field Roast en croute turkey thing was amazing (I loove the crusty part). Gardein is mostly boring because they're my go-to faux meat brand so I'm used to the flavor. Also their stuffing has raisins and weird colorful rice in it. Ew. Tofurky's pretty basic, but they were what I always had before vegan turkey selection exploded, so I might just have nostalgia for them.

This green bean casserole recipe.

Mashed potatoes you make the normal way. Just through whatever vegan butter and milk in them with salt and pepper.

I use a pumpkin pie recipe from a cookbook and I feel weird about posting things like that, so PM me if you're interested?

I don't know how Canadians roll on holidays, and my family's pretty boring anyways (the only difference between what I eat and what they eat besides mine being vegan is they usually microwave a can of corn also) so I can't think of much else thanksgiving-y. Repeat for xmas and easter. Seitan might also be a good idea. If you don't have wheat gluten on hand, I've heard of people making it with regular flour (I think they let it sit longer so gluten bonds can form). I've never made it for holidays, but there's a lentil soup(ish thing) in Veganomicon that would probably be delicious/amazing with whatever you're having. From where I can see, you can see the recipe if you do the "Look Inside" thing on amazon, so that's why I linked it. Just scroll down through the table of contents, it's under soups ("French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme") and on page 141.

I tried to think of holiday food that didn't involve faux whatever, but I'm definitely not one of those vegans that scoffs at imitation meats and cheeses and whatnot. I eat them all the damn time.

I keep trying to end this and I keep failing: I've never had homemade shephard's pie, and actually never had it before going vegan (I'd never heard of it) but that sound like a delicious holiday thing. Since I've only ever had this premade microwaveable one, I'm linking because I imagine if you combined those ingredients with some yummy spices you would have positive results.

I'm really done this time D:

I've only seen one part (which I thought was sort of bullshit) but I've heard it's for the most part a good advocate for a plant-based diet. Have you seen either Cowspiracy or Earthlings? The former covers the environmental impacts of the livestock industry, and the latter covers the ethics. I would whole-heartedly recommend both, with a warning attached to Earthlings because it can be genuinely shocking and/or traumatizing to watch. Cowspiracy can be found on Netflix, and Earthlings is free to watch here. If you want some ideas for how to execute the actual transition, I found this page to be a useful resource. IMO a whole foods diet is the way to go, it's made me feel so much better physically. But always remember there's plenty of junk food like chips, frozen veggie nuggets, and ice cream you can buy at the store if you want to have an unhealthy day. If you want a crap-ton of fancier, more complex recipes and good guides on substitutes and such, try a cookbook like this one or this one. Both are great resources, and if you want to make the switch I would definitely recommend getting one of them. Lastly, check out www.happycow.net! You can find what restaurants in your area are either fully vegan or have vegan options. Makes it a lot easier to eat out with friends and such. Anyway, hope I haven't rambled on too long or overwhelmed you with information! Hopefully some of that helps you come to a decision on this. It really is up to you, but like I said, make sure to watch those documentaries! And don't shy away from researching them afterwards to learn more about how destructive the livestock industry is.

Hi backtoplant! I don't have a vegan weight loss story to share, but I wanted to recommend checking out some books on vegan nutrition. When I first switched to veganism, I read Vegan for Life by Ginny Messina & Jack Norris. I highly recommend it--it's easy to read and full of information, including what your nutritional needs are and how to meet them as a vegan. It includes some meal plans and some recipes. Both of the authors are respected vegan nutritionists. I know your goal is weight loss, but the book talks specifically about overall health and could help you feel less fearful of certain food groups and more confident that you are planning healthful meals that fuel your body properly! I know it helped me a ton.

Also, I think you hit on something very important when you asked about vegans maintaining their eating habits for 10+ years. When I was in my teens, I went from a women's size 14 to a size 4. It's been about 10 years since then and I have maintained my weight loss. I wasn't vegan when I lost the weight, but hands down the most important thing was teaching myself how to eat right for the long term (not just how to lose weight quickly!). I've only been vegan for 2 years, but I truly believe a healthy diet is easy and sustainable as a vegan. You can definitely lose weight at a satisfying-but-healthy rate as a vegan as well, but I'll let others with more experience cover that!

Either way, good luck with your goals! :)

Hey, that's awesome!

First and foremost, educate yourself about nutrition. Seriously, nobody wants to further affirm the stereotype of the malnourished vegan, especially as an athlete or with somewhat athletic ambitions.

For nutritional information I would recommend the following resources:

Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet: A book with a lot of nutritional information.

Veganhealth: Website that has all the information about nutrients that need attention in a vegan diet and more. (Especially read up about B12 and take a supplement! I take the one I linked, because it's super cheap and vegan.)

Learn about complete proteins.

 

There are websites aimed at vegan athletes like these:

Tips from a Vegan Athlete plus meal recommendations

Meal Plan, information and a real life vegan bodybuilder

Some possible problems and their solution


 

Other stuff:
List of vegan athletes: Great as an inspiration and for that moment when people will try to tell you that it's impossible to build muscle on a vegan diet.

I love tofu, which has a lot of (complete) protein and I especially like this recipe.

Eat tofu, seitan and for the cheapest option rice with beans, lentils, chickpeas etc. Also plant milks, bananas, spinach, oatmeal, nut butters...


 

As a new vegan, you might find some of the things useful I posted yesterday. Skip the text at the beginning and especially take a look at the things about nutrition. I like to recommend the accidentally vegan foods as well.

Good luck! If you have any questions feel free to ask :)

I could slap your beautiful face right now. But it's okay, because I know some kick ass cook books that will show you how to make yummy vegan food. Betty goes Vegan is a cookbook that vegan-izes classic american dishes. Also the Veganomicon might as well be the vegan bible when it comes to cooking. Every recipe I've tried in this one has been delicious. Personally recommend the Spiced Sweet Potatoes and the Herbed Scalloped Potatoes because they are pretty easy to make.

Also The Sweetest Vegan is a fantastic food blog that also has amazing food on it. It's another one where everything I've tried has been amazing. I haven't tried out anything on Vegan Dad but I know a bunch of vegans who love his stuff. He also has a cook book out but many of the recipes are online. The Vegan Stoner is good because he/she makes recipes that are cheap and fast. Another one that I haven't tried out too many on but I know is popular.

For raw eating I would head over to Fully Raw Kristina I buy food from her fully organic co-op and she is a huge sweetheart. She has several recipes and tips on her youtube page and she also has her own website with some other information. Also if you can't find the answer to a question you have about eating raw you can easily contact her via email.

This Melanie Joy lecture should be essential viewing for all activists.

There are a lot of different philosophies to vegan activism. read up on them from Animal Liberation Front to open rescues to Gary Francione's pacifism and his loathing of single issue campaigns to Nick Cooney's psychology-informed approach. There's a lot more, and don't feel like you have to be a professor in it or 'pick a side' before you do anything, but you'll find a lot of food for thought.

Also, of course, keep learning the facts about how animals are used, the philosophies of animal rights, how the environment is affected, etc. so you can speak with confidence and answer people's questions.

Podcasts are a great way to get insights to what other activists are doing and why they are doing it. I'm currently following The Bearded Vegans, Which Side, Vegan Warrior Princesses Attack, Not Your Milk, and Our Hen House.

The best thing to do is keep looking for others, facebook is a good resource. If there's not a group started, see if you can find other vegans to start one with.

There are small things you can do, like order business cards with positive messages and links to resources to stick under the sleeves of meat packaging or in egg cartons in supermarkets.

If you can't find others around you, it's possible that if you take a strong, uncompromising stance people will come and join you. See how Anita Kranjc started the Toronto Pig Save, she would persist often standing alone or with just a couple of others, and now there are hundreds that attend. However, you must be aware of how emotionally draining (but also rewarding!) being an activist can be, even when you are surrounded by a support network. So if you go down that road, be kind and look after yourself and remember that even if you do not have support where you are, around the world there are lots of us who admire you just for taking the steps you have taken so far.

Congratulations! My wife is 7 weeks pregnant (woohoo!) so we are in the same boat, and we have tried to do our homework, well beforehand, and making sure we're doing well right now too.

Here is a great book for vegan pregnancies and infants http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everything-Healthy-Plant-Based/dp/0738214930

But really, there isn't much to it, and you can learn from online free resources
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl/jan/pregnancy.pdf

The healthiest way to eat for you and your baby is to eat a whole food plant based diet with a variety of whole grains, sweet potatoes, beans, vegetables, and fruits. It doesn't change when you are pregnant. But to many people, it's the one time they want to make absolutely sure they're doing it right :)

Keep in mind, a lot of women just eat whatever they can keep down during the first trimester. The body stores a ton of nutrients, and if you're feeling sick and can only eat a few things, just eat those things and trust that your body can provide other essentials like every other pregnant woman who can't stomach much. Eat well when you can, and if you are not able to consume everything every day, don't sweat it. My wife finds that she feels best when she eats small amounts throughout the day. Her morning sickness is kept down best that way.

Supplements: I do not suggest a mutli-vitamin. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it will have positives and negatives. Vitamins are concentrated isolated substances that in general overload receptors in the body and are not well-handled out of the context of real food. There are a few exceptions to take though: Take B12 (about 2500 mcg once per week) and iodine (150 mcg/day). And vitamin D (2000 IU daily) if you are not getting regular sun and live below 30 degrees latitude in the winter.

Despite what the whole world tells you, Folic acid is not a good substitute for actual folate in humans. Eat beans and leafy greens, which are great sources of actual folate. http://nutritionfacts.org/video/can-folic-acid-be-harmful/

Other than that, just eat a variety of whole foods, with lots of whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes and potatoes, and as much of vegetables and fruit as you can. That is the best thing you can do for your growing baby.

Also, keep your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio down by not consuming a lot of nuts, and If I were you I would totally avoid oils. Ground up flax is a great source of omega-3 if you aren't eating a lot of vegetables, fruits, and beans. (you can absolutely get all you need from those) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4TNhU3HR3o&index=1&list=PLchGiszWnMPjdtf47Bs4XIeE7gQptbX0q. If you still want to eat a lot of nuts and oil, you will need to bypass trying to get that ratio right (because no amount of flax will fix eating that much oil etc), take a DHA/EPA supplement http://nutritionfacts.org/video/algae-based-dha-vs-flax-2/

Your post inspired me to put up this awesome five ingredient tofu recipe over on r/veganrecipes. I'm calling it LPT: Life Pro Tofu as it's the best tofu recipe I've ever seen. The recipe comes from Miyoko Schinner's book and combines tofu with flax seed gel. The results are amazing; for me, truly mind-blowing. Thinking back, it's amazing how far I've come with good tools and recipes. Here's hoping you might gain some inspiration!

Congrats on the incoming munchkin!

Now, I don't have any first hand experience myself, but I've researched this issue for family members before.

The prenatal vitamin you'll probably want is this: http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Light-Prenatal-Multivitamin-150-Count/dp/B00115BJ30

It's food-based so it should sit well with your tummy, and it's totally vegan. Best to take it during meals. Personally I'd recommend splitting each tablet in half, take one of the halves(The larger one if you cut unevenly) at breakfast, and the other half at dinnertime. Otherwise probably just in the morning.

You definitely want to avoid Fish Oil, the mercury content does more damage than the Omega 3's can do good. I recommend this instead: http://www.amazon.com/Ovega-3-Vegetarian-Softgels-500-Count/dp/B004LL7AXE/

Direct source of DHA sourced from golden algae(Which is where a lot of fish get it from in the first place!), grown in algae factories so there should be no fear of mercury contamination. Since you're pregnant I'd probably say take one at breakfast time, and another at dinner time, as their content isn't quite as high as Fish Oil pills.

Finally, definitely want to make sure you're getting enough B12, so I wouldn't rely on the multivitamin for that. I'd say get this: http://www.amazon.com/Aerobic-Life-AdvantageTM-Methylcobalamin-500mcg/dp/B0014JOBXS

Take a spray once per day in the morning with breakfast(You can even spray it into your drink/food). Little bit overkill, but with B12 that's not a problem, and since you're nomming for two, it can only help!

Good luck parenting! :D

Welcome! The peace of mind and heart that goes along with it is a wonderful feeling. Let us know if we can help you in any way!

Our favorites from TJs:

Nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds (I buy all 3 - raw, roasted and unsalted, roasted and salted), marinated vegetables, grilled artichokes in oil, hearts of palm, firm tofu (we buy 8 at a time!), sourdough bread, pumpernickel bread, peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower oil, arugula (if whole foods doesn't have it, I get most of my produce from aldi and whole foods), cashew yogurt, animal crackers, fried rice, japanese fried rice, black bean & corn enchiladas, multigrain crackers, rice crackers (I try to stay away from buying too many junky carbs but sometimes the kids come with lol and sometimes we'll get the soy ice cream), popcorn kernels, umami mushroom seasoning...there are quite a few other vegan things.

My friend loves the soy creamer (I just use unsweetened almond milk in my coffee).

Consider taking a b12 Methylcobalamin sublingual. You don't need a huge amount a day unless you're very low. https://www.amazon.com/Deva-Vegan-Vitamin-Dissolve-Lozenges/dp/B001GAOHTS/ref=sr_1_20?keywords=vegan+b12&qid=1569115000&s=hpc&sr=1-20

If you haven't watched any Earthling Ed https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVRrGAcUc7cblUzOhI1KfFg, he is our favorite right now to watch. Also Humane Hancock https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf_M41aNZ0tDeyP-32aPEIw

Feel free to message me anytime :D

Seitan is gonna look something like this: https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/baked-seitan-log-448521

The basic idea is to get the balance of wet and dry ingredients. obviously your wheat gluten is core, but you can decide to add yeast if you'd like. If it's too wet, like you put in a bit too much water, or if it's not wet enough, you'll end up with either something too squishy/soggy or too dry and hard. It takes some practice haha! But mainly it's mixing your seitan with your dry ingredients, getting your wet ingredients (veg broth, soy sauce, oil), mixing them up and creating a little log that you wrap tightly in foil. It usually takes 1hr and 30 min to cook thouroughly at around 325 degrees.

If you want tofu with firmness and bite you need to not only buy extra firm tofu but also get yourself a tofu press https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Tofu-Press-Removes-Texture/dp/B007LLGMG2/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_79_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y4MPDVBB53D9KYQQDGYS . Some people also freeze the tofu after pressing to get the desired firmness but I have never tried it. But usually you take the block out and press it for maybe 15 min, every 5 mins or so coming back and tightening the clamp more until you get most of the water out. If you try and press it down all at once, you will end up breaking the block. Only after getting the water out do you cut it up. At this point you can choose to freeze it but I just eat it this way and it's usually fine for me.


For TVP you don't make it but you buy it. It's just vegetable protein that you can buy in a bag. Bob's red mill and other companies make it but the best experience I've had is with this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XP68NLH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . It's a lot of tvp so beware. I usually use this for spaghetti balognese or making meatballs and maybe burgers. Just use it how you would use ground beef in any of your favorite recipes.


I don't have "real" recipes because I usually just use basic store bought pasta sauce or asian sauces. I get pretty simple with my cooking because it's hard enough as it is to eat healthy and I don't like spending more time than I need to. Hope this helps!

I made a vegan gift basket for a friend and her boyfriend this last Christmas and it contained:

• The Homemade Vegan Pantry cookbook Essential.
  
  
• Dickinson’s Purely Fruit spread The blackberry one is my favorite.
  
  
• Bee Free Honee So good in a mug of hot green tea.
  
  
• Carrington Farms coconut oil Good for cooking, body care, or a silky and sexy massage!
  
  
• Some pretzels, fresh sourdough bread, and a banana loaf made with this recipe.
  
  
• Also some mason jars filled with chia seeds, hemp seeds, and flax meal.
  
  
• A few cute little strawberry shaped reusable bags.
  
  

That’s awesome. Glad you have a good solution, sounds like a rad store! Sort of related- If you haven’t ever made your own yogurt, I strongly recommend it, it blows the store bought stuff away. I usually use Westsoy Original soy milk, normally I like unsweetened but the fermentation cultures like the sugar so I get the original. One of these days very soon, I will try the feta recipe from that book...

You may eventually want to check out Miyoko’s “Homemade Vegan Pantry” cookbook. it came out pretty recently and the recipes seem a little updated, not as many in depth recipes on specific types of cheese but the recipes I’ve used out of there have been stellar and I find that I reach for it more often than the Artisan Cheese book. It really depends on what you’re into making. She includes the recipe for her cultured butter and the ice cream recipe is also perfect.

The way we make change with veganism is by taking our money away from people who exploit animals and by raising awareness, so if I have an accident, and if fixing it wouldn't take back the money or improve people's regard for veganism, I just forgive myself and let it go. If I dispose of the non-vegan thing instead of consuming it, it's mostly just because I feel icky about it.

I recently went vegan after being vegetarian for a few years. It was hard at first to think of what to eat, but the breakthrough that made me feel better about it was reminding myself that I can still eat whatever I'm craving in some form or another. I try to imagine exactly what I would want for dinner if I weren't even vegetarian/vegan and then I google "easy vegan ___." This has led to some great things like vegan eggs benedict (yum). You're working to help animals, so you've got to make it fun and treat yourself.

I also take a vegan multivitamin and B12 supplement so that I can eat whatever I feel like without worrying so much about whether I'm killing myself.

I just checked out Minimalist Baker's cookbook and the Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A Fuck Minimalist Baker was meh, but Thug Kitchen is amazing. A lot of the recipes use cheap, simple ingredients and the dishes are pure deliciousness. I'm currently borrowing these books from the library, but I think I definitely need to add Thug Kitchen to my collection.

I also have the Seitanic Spellbook by the Vegan Black Metal Chef. It's ok for some basic stuff, but I don't care for how it's organized. Also, he doesn't use measurements in any of his recipes, which is ok if you like to improvise a lot, but it kinda leaves me in the dark if I'm trying a new recipe.

Then there's Happy, Healthy Vegan Kitchen by Kathy Patalsky which is ok if you can get past her narratives and obscure ingredients. Like, bitch, I'm not getting six different unicorn salts to put on my toast.

I also have The Joys of Vegan Baking (meh), and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (haven't tried it yet).

EDIT: damn amazon links

It's true! She really made me feel positive and hopeful about advocacy. This talk gives you a bunch of simple tools that you can use to start making a big difference.

You can probably write to her through her website here. Or on her facebook page here. She seems super approachable and I'll bet she'd love to hear from you. She seems to be on a lecture tour...maybe she's coming to a city near you.

She has also written a book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.

And if you search for Melanie Joy on youtube, you can watch a few more of her presentations and interviews.

I think what you are planning to say is pretty good. Be aware that you aren't going to be able to use a one size fits all answer for every situation you encounter (but there are probably less than a dozen answers that will fit 90% of your encounters with omnivores).

I want to correct your use of the term "door-in-the-face". The Door-in-the-face technique is a tactic for getting someone to agree to a moderate request by first asking them for something significantly larger that they are unlikely to agree to. An example of this would be asking someone to go entirely vegan right away and then when they reject that request asking if they'd at least be willing to eat no meat on Mondays. Using this strategy is often much more effective for getting people to avoid meat on Mondays than simply asking them if they'd be willing to do that.

Your use of the foot-in-the-door technique is also a bit off. This is a strategy for getting someone to agree to a large request by first asking them for something small that they would be much more likely to agree to. For example you could ask people to put up a small sticker in their window that says "I support animal rights" then return a month later and ask them to give up meat. They'd be much more likely to give up meat using this strategy than had you asked them upfront.

The book Change of Heart by Nick Cooney (the founder of the Humane League) discusses many more strategies like this for being an effective activist. Another excellent book that I read on the subject of compliance tactics is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion although this one isn't specifically about animal rights activism.

I'm a picky eater too and a new vegan. I feel like 90% of my diet is soy at the moment haha. I find that making alternatives of the foods I liked helps a lot. This book has been amazing the past few weeks. I like it because it shows you how to make staples to use in your diet instead of these crazy recipes that are overwhelming. I made the nuggets in the book the other day and they're super nice and I'm making some of my own mozzarella now!

Also train your taste buds and try new things. We are picky normally because of a mental block that causes us to be repulsed by certain foods and it helps to slowly break it down as much as possible. I personally have made a lot of progress with new foods in the last couple of years.

I hope this helps a little :)

The sausage food is a hard seitan, which is a vegan protein made out of wheat gluten. It was fantastic, but one of the harder seitan recipes I've made, so I wouldn't start with this one if you don't have experience. The cheeses are cultured cashew cheeses from this cookbook, and I've posted some recipes above.

If you want any help with your transition, feel free to reach out! I've helped a lot of my friends and even a few internet strangers with their transition to veganism, and am happy to answer questions; tailor shopping and recipe lists to your budget, tastes, and cooking experience; provide resources; or just shat about anything related to veganism and animal rights. Letting go of those last few things is easier than you think!

Eating Animals was a great expose of the meat industry but Foer isn't vegan, which irked me. He is more of an apologist, who advocates for welfarism. I'm more in the "total liberation" camp. Singer is good, but he argues that animal testing is necessary. (It's not)

I also recommend this one for understanding to the psychology of speciesism: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, PhD.

She has great TED Talks, too.

1. I read Eating Animals, by Jonathan Saffron Foer and could not find a rational argument against veganism as the ethical choice given my access to alternatives to animal products. I was reading a whole lot of books on all sort of food-related topics, had no intention of going vegan or even vegetarian, but that was that. Went vegan the following day (July 4, 2011)
   
2. My spouse is working on decreasing animal product use. He kind of tapered - he was avoiding red meat, then lacto-ovo-veg, now he's closer to 80% vegan with occasional LOV meals. He also found meat substitutes he likes so he can do burgers, tacos, and other foods that are comfort food to him. I don't really have much practical advice, I guess, except that meat substitutes / analogues are a perfectly reasonable option if those flavors/textures are significant to you.
   
3. I'm boring. On a typical day I have oatmeal and coffee with soy milk for breakfast, some kind of grain plus frozen veggies and either beans of chopped up baked tofu for lunch (I make a big batch, portion it out, and freeze it ahead of time for the week), and tofu and some veggies for dinner. All boring, all easy, all tasty and inexpensive. For good recipes, I recommend checking out the post punk kitchen. Two of my favorite cookbooks are [http://smile.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Vegan-Kitchen-Donna-Klein/dp/1557883599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415407055&sr=8-1&keywords=mediterranean+vegan](The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen) and The Oh She Glows Cookbook.

I don't think you will have to worry about getting sick! Hopefully you start to feel more energy and less allergies if you stick to a plant based diet, which I definitely would recommend. Those substitutes might help you with your transition though, so don't rule them out completely if you feel like you are going to eat non-vegan to fulfill a craving.

I definitely recommend getting a good cookbook though or finding a good website, and teaching yourself to cook. Once you do that it is habit, and you won't think of cooking any other way. Check out this website:
http://www.theppk.com/

And I always recommend this book for newbies. It really helped me when I became a vegan!
http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-The-Ultimate-Vegan-Cookbook/dp/156924264X

I had the same problem when I became a vegan a few years ago so I went searching for vegan cheese recipes. I was actually surprised by how easy many soy and nut based vegan cheeses are to make, and I ended up putting together three ebooks with recipes from vegan cheese dips and sauces, to spreadables, cheesballs, to hard vegan cheeses for melting and slicing. I recommend people start with a cheddar dipping sauce - super quick and easy to make and delish over veggies or with pasta. You can find the collection at Plateaterbooks.com and I just went ahead and created a coupon code that will get Reddit readers a 20% discount. Just use the code "GetItReddit123" at check out, and do let me know your favorite recipe if you do. (You can also find them at Amazon, but no discount there).

I would also highly recommend Miyoko Schinner's Artisan Vegan Cheese cookbook. Her recipes are more on the gourmet side of cooking, more advanced cooking/complicated, but she has some amazing recipes!: http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Vegan-Cheese-Miyoko-Schinner/dp/1570672830
Enjoy!

For B12, I pop one of these every few days. I've never heard of it being affected by alcohol/marijuana use. It might also do you some good to also take a vegan vitamin D supplement, since most people are deficient anyways.

The nausea is not likely to be related to any specific nutrient deficiencies (a B12 deficiency usually takes years to manifest in any noticeable symptoms), but it is very possible that since you're probably eating different foods now than you did as an omni your stomach hasn't quite adjusted yet.

I'd highly recommend this book as a guide for healthy long term vegan nutrition. It's full of reliable science and teaches you how to be healthy as a vegan as opposed to some resources that try to convince people that a vegan diet is a silver bullet for anything and everything.

At this point, your blood results will be more likely to reflect your previous diet than they are your new vegan diet, so anything you see next Tuesday don't go 'OMG veganism is making me anemic/deficient/etc' based on those results. Also if you do have any deficiencies there are vegan solutions for all of them, so feel free to come on back and ask for more advice :]

This is amazing, I am so glad you are starting your journey to becoming vegan. My best suggestion is using cronometer.com to track your food for a good portion of time in order for you to get a handle on what foods have what properties and nutrients you need from them. Vegan diets can easily cover all your nutrients, I get all of the FDA's recommended doses of micronutrients daily and almost double their recommended protein amount. Here is a quick rundown of nutrients and vegan foods that are abundant in them

Macronutrients:

• Fat- Avocado, coconut, oils, nuts, seeds, and soybeans (tofu, tempeh, edamame)
  
  
• Carbohydrates- Fruit, Legumes, Grains, Vegetables
  
  
• Protein- Beans, Lentils, Faux meats, Green Vegetables, Grains
  
  

• amino acids are all present in all food just at different rations so eat a variety.
  
  You will meet all your macro-nutrient needs eating 2100 calories of any variety of foods. (eat and don't eat only fruit or drink oil for your calories, super easy)
  
  Micronutrients: (These are only the ones some lack on a vegan diet, take in consideration that less then 1% of the world eats all of their proper micro-nutrients and eating more vegetables and beans almost always makes people get more)
  
  

• Omega 3- Ground Flax Seed, Chia Seeds, and, Dark Green Vegetables (roughly 10% per serving of dark green veggies)
  Omega 3's are the most challenging to get at the start of a vegan diet, basically you add in a tablespoon of chia seeds or flax seeds to your diet daily and it covers you or you take an algae based supplement. Omega 3 is not a necessary nutrient but it does greatly help you.
  
  
• B12- Supplement this, here's a great article on it with recommended supplements www.veganhealth.org/articles/vitaminb12 you likely are already getting it from meat that got it from being heavily supplemented with b12, its a bacteria and we eat less bacteria now then throughout evolution so it's not exactly a vegan issue.
  
  
• Vitamin D- The sun, supplements, or mushrooms left in the sun. I take this in the winter and in the summer I use the sun. Here's an article about it
  
  
• Calcium- Nut Milk, Vegetables (Dark green especially), Chia seeds, Fruit, and Nuts.
  
  
• Vitamin E- (which is less of a problem for vegans but still not easy) Nut Milks, Almonds, Vegetables.
  
  
• Iron- It is a misconception that this is challenging I actually get more now then over, anyway Green veggies, Beans, Lentils, Grains
  
  
• Selenium- Only an issue if you don't get a few servings of grains especially whole wheat, or eat one brazil nut, or 400 kiwis
  
  
• Zinc- Beans, Grains, Nuts and Seeds. This is one most people don't expect.
  
  In short eat a few servings of grains, beans, fruit, green veg, nut milk, nuts, and seeds and you got it covered. Two servings of each daily will likely cover all your nutritional needs.
  
  Edit: I suck at formatting
  
  Ps. Also when doing your method I highly suggest doing the simple things on top of the x number of days a week you are vegan. By this I mean using plant milk instead of normal, and trying to have almost identical vegan products like chao instead of cheddar, and gardein and beyond beef instead of meats. The products I mentioned are best known for their phenomenal ability to replicate the original.

Yeah 100%, i'm at work now but i'll scan in a bunch of recipes from the book tonight.

It's this book, which on kindle or paperback is super cheap and super worth it. All the recipes I have tried have been amazing and it does everything.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/But-Could-Never-Go-Vegan/dp/1615192107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526462459&sr=8-1&keywords=but+i+could+never+go+vegan

The PPK (Post-Punk Kitchen, http://www.theppk.com/ ) is an awesome resource for tasty recipes, and the forum there is very welcoming. It's run by Isa, who was one of the co-authors of The Veganomican.

Vegan for Life ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738214930/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0738214930&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwtheppkcom-20 ) is a wonderful resource for vegan nutrition and health in an easy to read package.

Aside from that you can go as cookbook crazy as you like. I strongly recommend all of Isa's cookbooks. They're entertaining to read (something I never thought I'd say about a cookbook) and full of tasty tasty food.

Find a good vegan cookbook. Heck, find three or four of them. I like the Veganomicon, which is a great general reference, but you can find one for everything, from pies to soul food to sandwiches.

Cookbooks will do two things for you. First, they'll provide a resource if you start to feel cravings for food you used to rely on: if you get desperate for burgers, or chicken parmesan, or mousakka, you'll find a great alternative that scratches that itch. Second, they'll provide an excellent resource to browse through and find recipes you'd never have thought of on your own. Expanding your palate is a surefire way to improve your diet.

Good question that needs several books to answer. As /u/Soycrates points out in a different comment, there is an important distinction between activism and advocacy. I have only ever tried activism once and it went really poorly. I now advocate on reddit and that's the extent to which I do anything. I do not believe that I can be an effective activist until I am able to give a better answer to your question.

I can share two things that have helped me to advocate, though. They are PETA's guide to effective advocacy and this quote:

>A long time environmentalist was speaking to an enthusiastic group of young environmentalists at a rally. He warned of the precarious situation the environment was in, the toll that corporate greed had taken on forests, and the dire consequences that lay ahead if serious changes were not made.

>He then shouted out to the crowd, “Are you ready to get out there and fight for the environment?”

>To which they answered an enthusiastic, “Yeah!”

>“Are you ready to get arrested and go to jail for the environment?”

>“Yeah!!”

>“Are you ready to give your life for the environment?”

>“Yeah!!!”

>“Are you willing to cut your hair and put on a suit for the environment?”

>The crowd fell silent.

>Whether this is a true story or a colorful fable, the lesson is one we should all take to heart.

I'd recommend she get Isa Moskowitz's vegan cook book "Isa Does It." She teaches people everything they need to know in that book, and she makes it SO easy. Like how to make things seem creamy, or cheesy using cashews... Plus, she emphasizes meals being easy and affordable. I've never had any meal from that book that wasn't delicious!

She has other cookbooks that require more time, but Isa Does It is a full on education for vegan dummies.

Oh, and her desserts are great too! Best homemade chocolate pudding pie, scones, etc. and all vegan.

https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902

I got these two books (Frugal Vegan and Thug Kitchen)as a gift and they have really helped me get better. I was a decent cook beforehand but these have given me tips on making tofu taste better, good sauces to make, etc. I like the combo of these two books because Frugal Vegan is a lot simpler, generally not too many ingredients, and usually not some weird thing you've never heard of while Thug Kitchen can get a bit more elaborate which can also be fun.

there are many vegan cheeses that are fantastic - see Miyoko brand and follow your heart. Nut based ones are better in that they are less oily and processed. You can easily make gourmet vegan cheeses that will impress any omnivore w/ her book.

https://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Vegan-Cheese-Miyoko-Schinner/dp/1570672830

There is a product called Vegg - they have an egg replacer and one that is a yolk replacer. Both are excellent. You can make french toast that is insanely egg-like w/ the yolk product.

My [crockpot chili recipe] (http://www.voxpopnj.com/2010/12/512/) is as hearty as meat based chili and loved by vegans & omnivores alike! Simple, cheap, and a good way to ease into vegan eating, or serve when hosting people with a variety of dietary habits.

Also, highly recommend Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero - filled with great traditional dishes made vegan including an incredible version of mac-n-cheese called "Mac Daddy".

Sounds like you might find these four books useful:

Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change
by Nick Cooney

How to Create a Vegan World: A Pragmatic Approach by Tobias Leenaert


Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters
by Melanie Joy PhD

Motivational Methods for Vegan Advocacy: A Clinical Psychology Perspective
by Casey T. Taft

I have an artisan vegan cheesemaking book by a woman named Miyoko Schinner. She has a good line of vegan cheeses in stores. She actually cultures her cheeses and has several aged cheese recipes as well.

I bring this up since you mentioned cheese making is a passion of yours. It might be fun for you to play with artisan vegan cheese making, and your background would allow you to easily tweak recipes to make cheeses you actually enjoy.

Miyoko has published 2 books with cheese recipes in them. I bought both books and got them signed AND tried many of the cheeses at her book signing party in NYC a couple months ago.

Artisan Vegan Cheese

The Homemade Vegan Pantry

Many/most of the cheese recipes are made from cashews and other nuts, and require some ingredients most of us have never heard of. I went through and found the recipes I want to try (all of them!) and rounded up all the ingredients (amazon for the obscure stuff).

In the cheese book there are 2 different Mozz recipes, one is meant to be for a fresh mozz type cheese (tried this one at the party, was just like the original and so delicious), and the other is more for melting like on pizza.

So far from the pantry book I have made Squeeze Bottle Yellow Mustard (perfect, but strong!) and the Oil Free Eggless Vegan Mayo. 2/2 both are great.

I had to change my plan about trying one of the mozz recipes today; still have some store bought cheezes I'm trying to use up, also have too much other stuff to do.

My favorites are the Veganomicon and The Homemade Vegan Pantry

Depending on your frame of reference neither is super cheap but I highly recommend them.

I've picked up a few free ebooks but I've never made anything from one. I guess my favorite free vegan cookbook is googling any item + vegan then making that.

From cookbook linked, which I highly recommend!

Shiitake mushrooms make a great substitute for clams in this dish, the perfect texture.

Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316221902/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_p6rHzbPV4TDS4

I really strongly recommend reading Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Ginny Messina. They're both registered dietitians and take nutrition seriously.

This book will answer the questions you posted and more. You're much better off getting nutrition advice from professionals than from a bunch of random people on Reddit (except for me ;).

For mock meat, I really like Gardein products. Their beefless tips are great for stir fries, the chicken breasts work great for all sorts of cooking, and they have a several different breaded nuggets/strips that are really good.

Yeah, I'm really quite disheartened. They aren't pretty (I guess just like real ribs) but they are really tasty. They are from Miyoko Schinner's Homemade Vegan Pantry, but if you can't get the cookbook it is pretty much just a complicated seitan recipe. Make seitan, slice it into steak sized pieces and sear them on each side. Bake them like you normally would for seitan covered with watered down BBQ sauce. Cut into rib-sized pieces, sear on each side again, then toss with more BBQ sauce! The cookbook also notes that they get even better if you let them sit in the sauce for a day or two in the fridge, and thats whats happening in the photo.

I should note that this is one of my all time favourite cookbooks and I really recommend it :)

So for vitamins and supplements.

https://www.amazon.com/Deva-Vegan-Vitamins-Multivitamin-Supplement/dp/B001GAOHVG/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=vegan%20multivitamin&qid=1483833460&ref_=mp_s_a_1_1_a_it&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0001VUQ0M/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1483833552&sr=8-1&keywords=vegan+b+complex

And then for eggs and brands it's pretty easy and skim through. Many brands say "contains eggs and milk" So, you can skim through and read what each has.

Some people take a shot of b12 but, many foods such as cereal and non dairy milks are fortified too!

You can easily find vegan cookies such as Oreos and others. It really depends on where you are located as well.

I would drink daily soy milk to keep up calcium but, you can eat greens which contain iron and calcium. Actually most multi Vitamins that are vegan contain iron. So, you won't need really a separate iron supplement.

Anything else just ask me! 😊

I've not used any recipes yet, but the books by Thug Kitchen look awesome. Really good design and high quality photos. I think even omnis would appreciate the recipes (and humour) in there.

• [Eat Like you give a fuck][1]
  
• [Party grub for social motherfuckers][2]
  
• Fast as fuck
  
  [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586
  [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Party-Grub-Motherf/dp/1623366321
  

It's from this book, I have it digitally on Google Play. It's very good and goes into a lot of detail on a lot of diseases and the foods that correspond to a lower chance of the disease or make the disease have less of an effect (spoiler: it's plant food well over 99% of the time).

All profits from the book go to charity, so I can't recommend it enough.

If you can't afford it, let me know, I'll try to fetch you some parts you might want. Most of the information is just condensed from his website where he condenses a lot of journal papers about nutrition. There's also a talk he did that you can watch that has some of the more interesting parts of the book, as well as an app that reminds you to eat the foods that are most common in reducing the chance and effects of many diseases (Daily Dozen, iOS, Android)

Congrats! I went vegetarian when I was 18 and taught myself to cook over the next few years (and I'm still learning, 9 years later). I would recommend picking up a beginner vegan cookbook (for example). I second retirethecow's recommendation of my all-time favorite the Veganomicon, which has a range of simple to more complicated (and DELICIOUS) recipes and tips for preparing veggies in a basic, every-day way.

Remember: The key to a truly healthful vegan diet is eating a pile of veggies every day. Get to know the produce department and impress your friends by knowing the difference between a turnip and parsnip.

Write a polite letter to the manager of your grocery store and ask if they'll order some Daiya blocks (NOT shreds... the shreds are weird) and Chao slices. Daiya flavors I've tried are cheddar and smoked gouda... both very good. Also, check out Miyoko Schinner's online cheese store. She also has some great cookbooks every vegan should have... The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples and Artisan Vegan Cheese. I know you specifically mentioned store bought but here is a great recipe for vegan parmesan I make all the time. Making some today as a matter of fact. Helpful hint: make your own coconut cream (way cheaper) and use a rotary or electric grater on the finished product instead of grating it by hand... otherwise the coconut oil/cream will make it melt from the warmth of your hands.

Also I'd recommend the "Eat Like You Give a Fuck" cookbook. It's awesome for beginners on a budget, and it's awesome for inspiration if you want to customize recipes to fit how picky you are
.

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck (Thug Kitchen Cookbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_unoWCbMZBV38K

Summary

I got the dough making technique from a book called The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner (https://www.amazon.com/Homemade-Vegan-Pantry-Making-Staples/dp/1607746778)

If you are interested in some hardcore vegan cooking, I STRONGLY recommend that book. It's worth the $15. I also used it to culture my own cheddar, and sweet Jesus... just... just trust me on this one.

You do need a pizza stone and a pizza peel for this recipe to work.

The pizza on the right used a sauce I improvised with two cans of tomatoes, two tablespoons of tomato paste, 7 cloves of garlic, half a white onion, a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, a tsp of salt, and a tbps of raw sugar. I just put them in a food processor.

I got the pesto on the left from this recipe here: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/artichoke-and-spinach-pesto-pizza/

Toppings included sliced white mushrooms, marinated artichoke, vegan sausage, fresh basil, and Daiya mozzarella (not much, just a sprinkle). The pesto is so rich, it doesn't need the cheese IMO.

The trick is not to let the dough rise until it hits the oven. What you need to do is put a pizza stone in, and let it warm up with the oven at 500F. After an hour, you can transfer the pizza onto the stone with a pizza peel and leave it in the oven for just 10 minutes.

You might really like a tool like Cronometer. It breaks down the daily micronutrients pretty well. You can log multivitamins on there too. I take half of one of these every day and come pretty close to most of the recommended daily values https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001GAOHVG

If you are interested in learning about eating well from a nutritional standpoint, I cannot recommend highly enough Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina:

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everything-Healthy-Plant-Based/dp/0738214930

A friend who gets an Abel and Cole veg box gave me a spare copy of the Veg Box Companion. While not strictly vegan, all the recipes are based around seasonal vegetables and provide very straightforward ideas for preparing vegetables in tasty ways, with pics, and all the recipes are easy to veganise with a substitution or two, so I use this book all the time:

https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/abel-cole-veg-box-companion

The Veganomicon is very good. It doesnt have pictures and the recipes are a little USA-centric (not all the ingredients are widely available where I live), but has some great vegan recipes and some good advice about stocking a vegan storecupboard:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1059680.Veganomicon

Since we are all a little lazy... Here are links to all of the books in my stack:
Betty Goes Vegan (my mom got this one for my boyfriend - so not strictly mine - in hopes that he would cook for me. I am pressing the tofu right now at his request, so far so good)

Vegan Eats World

Eat Drink & Be Vegan

The 30 Minute Vegan

Thug Kitchen

The Lusty Vegan (my sister bought this one for me)

One-Dish Vegan

Fresh From the Vegan Slow Cooker

Vegan Brunch (second most used, the muffin recipes in here are crazy easy to customize)

Vegan Yum Yum

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups (not blatantly vegan, but almost entirely so)

The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (My most used, and longest owned, the best of all. All super simple ingredients, only non-vegan ingredient mentioned is honey on occasion)

Why not read what vegan nutritionists have to say on the subject? I have read Vegan for life and there's a chapter on pregnancy there. In short, yes, a healthy vegan pregnancy can easily meet the nutritional needs of both the mother and the growing baby.

However, don't take my word for it, buy vegan nutrition books and become informed on what you need to eat and do in order to ensure a healthy vegan pregnancy. In the beginning reading these nutritional books might be overwhelming as the nutritional requirements for humans (omnivores and vegans alike) is quite complex, but after a while you'll actually be grateful you delved into the subject as you'll be confident in your choice for being vegan.

There's no better time to be vegan than now. There are so many products easily available that weren't even five years ago. The transition will get even easier the longer you stick with it. Really, it seems like you need something to get you fully committed. Watch some vegan documentaries like Cowspiracy and Earthlings. It'll give you the willpower you need to move on from your old diet. Eventually it won't matter what others think or say.

If you're looking for a cheese replacement, try this https://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Vegan-Cheese-Miyoko-Schinner/dp/1570672830/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=miyoko+cheese&qid=1566034413&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I've had the store bought cheese Miyoko's makes and it's incredible.

For half and half, do you use it for coffee? I recommend Silk creamer, the others I've tried aren't as creamy.

I love to make soups; black bean, split pea, chili, tomato, lentil, etc., and serve them with a big salad topped with avocado, and sometimes baked squash. Root veggies, avocado, and beans are my go to "fill me up" items.

I also like to grill a ton of different veggies and then mix them into the soups when I serve. Sort of like a vegan stew.

I can't stress enough how important the Veganomicon cookbook is for new Vegans. It is worth every penny.

Here are some great cooking sites and videos:

http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/easy-vegan-pho?

http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/39-last-minute-vegan-thanksgiving-recipes?

http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/50-cozy-vegan-fall-stews?

http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/butternut-squash-kale-chickpea-massaman-curry

https://minimalistbaker.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/veganrecipes/

http://veganfoodlover.com/

http://ohsheglows.com/

http://www.isachandra.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF-ACPYNN0oXD4ihS5mbbmw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudzojQxnLAI7uQPVYJy_oQ

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr1PC384fLPw5PxyXecQDTw

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer might interest you. Almost seven years old now, but still interesting.

Maybe you would like something written by the animal rights philosopher Tom Regan. His Empty Cages are a great read, and he has written a very readable introduction to moral philosophy on ~150 pages: Animal Rights, Human Wrongs

If you like to cook, and are concerned with the environmental and ethical problems of the meat industry, I'd recommend picking up a copy of one of the Thug Kitchen books. Really funny to read, pretty simple recipes, and they are really good.

Only 9 bucks for a used copy!

https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586

Welcome! I am so happy you made this decision!!!

If you're interested, do some reading up like Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals.

Browse blogs for recipes. My favorites are Oh She Glows and Post Punk Kitchen.

Enjoy the vegan life :D

You need the Veganomicon. It has been the best for helping me learn cooking techniques, stock my pantry, and find foods I enjoy that are healthy. http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-The-Ultimate-Vegan-Cookbook/dp/156924264X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334275750&sr=8-1

Also, I keep track of my food intake and activities here: http://www.fitday.com
It has helped so much.

Welcome to the fold. :)

No problem! It can feel very overwhelming at first, but it gets easier once you have a few go-to recipes. As an addendum to the kickstarter (or the advice in this thread in general), make sure you are supplementing your diet with B12. The simplest way to do so is probably to just take a vegan multivitamin daily, or just a B12 supplement if you feel that your other nutritional needs are being met. Good luck!

For books I recommend Becoming Vegan and Vegan for Life. These are both U.S. based but the information should be okay for U.K. readers.

For websites I'd recommend checking out the nutritional websites from the sidebar: http://veganhealth.org/, http://jacknorrisrd.com/, http://www.theveganrd.com/food-guide-for-vegans. http://www.vegankit.com/eat is also a great resource.

http://www.veganfitness.net/home/ might be helpful for weight loss questions. It has a forum and it's full of athletic veggies.

That's the first time I've heard that reason to eat vegan. You must be adventurous!

Many current vegans started off for reasons other than animal rights (myself included). But it seems that once one stops eating animals (for whatever reason), your mind is able to open up to the idea that animals are not ingredients, but rather living beings. It seems strange to me that most people do not view farm animals as living things; then again, I once held that same view myself. Logically, it is clear that animals are alive and can feel pain. But when you eat them, there is a stubborn mental block that prevents this realization.

I'm glad for any reason that people eat less animals. Hopefully when your month is over, you can think about extending your time being kinder to animals and the planet!

If you want a great cookbook, get Veganomicon.

Whole Foods is a life saver if you have one around. I like to buy bulk lentils, Quinoa, beans, rice, nuts, grains etc. You can even find that (most of the time) organic veggies are easy to come by. I think a whole foods vegan diet is a lot cheaper than one that uses substitutes and replacements, that's where you get the more pricey stuff. It's junk food anyway.

For example, for lunch at least once a week I make some quinoa, steamed radishes, carrots and whatever other veggies I have, steam a bit of kale at the last minute and lightly throw on a tahini-lemon-dill sauce. It's just the little things. Get a copy of Veganomicon


Best of luck! After the first 2 months or so (for me) the desire to eat cheese was gone. I mean, it's expired baby animal food if you really think about it. YUCK!

Here are some vegan baking tips from Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Pink Kitchen: Vegan baking 101 from PPK.

Another good vegan baking primer from the Kitchn.

I'd say Isa and her co-author Terry Hope Romero are the authorities on vegan baking. Check out their baking cookbooks on cupcakes, cookies, and pies.

For a 1-volume comprehensive vegan baking cookbook and traditional recipes, check out Colleen Patrick Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking.

For a vegan baking cookbook with unique and creative flavors, try the Cheers to Vegan Sweets cookbook.

Hope this helped! Happy baking!

Hi! If you want more science on this issue these two books might be interesting 1, 2. Diabetes 2 should be completely reversible. Make sure you get enough omega-3 (lowers cholestrol dramatically, found in flaxseeds which are very easy to work with) and B12 (because you won't get the B12 the animals were supplemented with). Have a great day :)!

1. If you're both great at going cold turkey when it comes to big changes, great. Otherwise, I suggest removing things from the diet slowly. I've found the social aspect can sometimes be the most challenging - what to eat when you eat out, choosing the next restaurant to eat at with omnivore friends, what you tell people or say in front of people to the waiter when you make sure there's no dairy/eggs, what to bring to social gatherings, how to find out what food is being offered, etc. and doing all of that without causing any tension to arise.
   
   
2. Vegan cooking can be so much fun. So many ingredients can be used in unexpected ways. Using nuts to make cream bases, quinoa/rice/tempeh to replace meaty textures, vinegar and soy milk in bread/cake recipes, etc. You can ferment seeds to make rejuvelac, a drink in its own right OR the basis for your own handmade cheeses.
   Here's a list from serious eats with plenty of interesting recipes.
   
   
3. Same as avoiding processed foods in a SAD diet. Vegetables are vegetables, processed foods are processed foods.
   
   
4. Like the others said. If you consume any fortified products like nutritional yeast, soy milk. etc,. though you should be fine when it comes to B12. But essentially the same as an omnivore diet.

>But for someone like me who already eats healthy

I doubt you're eating healthy (or as healthy as a plant-based diet) if you're still consuming animal products. I used to believe the same thing because I was eating a lot of chicken and salmon. There's just an overwhelming amount of evidence that a whole-food, plant-based diet is superior. Check out the book How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger. He cites thousands of studies you can take a look at if you're interested.

> Insults, shame, aggressiveness are excellent tools for moving people closer to 100.

How I wish that were true! Nick Cooney, an esteemed animal rights advocate, wrote a whole book about what actually does work. It's called Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change.

Animal rights advocate and psychologist Melanie Joy has several YouTube videos about effective advocacy as well. This is a well-researched area. If we were planting seeds by being angry, insulting and shaming people, it would be a lot easier.

np! also, if you are someone who will miss cheese, I hear miyoko is the best:

• webstore
  
  
• vegan cheese cookbook
  
  field roast chao cheese is also excellent! really adds to sandwiches etc. try making some grilled cheese with it. coconut herb is my fave

Chao cheese slices make an amazing grilled cheese! I like Follow Your Heart slices too, but holy cow, Chao blows my mind.

I've also read good things about Miyoko's, but I haven't tried them yet.

There's of course lots of recipes for making your own cheese too, and recipes for making things like mac and cheese from scratch. Miyoko even has a book on the subject.

I love Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

As for cookbooks, this cookbook.

If you have an ice cream maker/plenty of free time, I love this for vegan ice cream

My News Year's resolution was to cook every recipe in this book and it's been a delicious new treat every week. The recipes also switch up on types of fat and egg replacers, so I'm finally learning how to expand on vegan baking without feeling intimidated.

It's been a very fun mad scientist journey. Enjoy!

Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook is a pretty effing sweet cookbook. There are a number of vegan "cheese" recipes in it. I love them, but acknowledge my tastes are different from an omnivore's. I don't think of them as a direct substitute for cheese but as something else entirely (similar to how you shouldn't think of tofu as mock chicken...it's tofu).

But I definitely encourage you to experiment. My favorite "cheese" recipe involves cashews, lemon juice + other spices, and tofu (all blended together) to make a mock ricotta. Does it taste exactly like ricotta? I don't know...pretty sure it doesn't. Is it tasty? Damn straight.

I'm assuming from the brands you mention that you're in the US, so I can't make specific recommendations for that. However, if you feel up to venturing into the exciting world of vegan cheese making, Miyoko Schinner has a great book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1570672830/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_XtXSDb6S6C0G8

It's not as hard as it sounds, and a home-made, air dried and matured cheese is thousands of times better than most of the commercially available vegan cheeses, as well as being a lot cheaper if you're eating lots of it.

I have made Isa's chocolate cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and it was fabulous. Really, you can't tell it's vegan because it's just delicious, with a very soft texture and a moist, fine crumb. Here's the recipe.

Now, I'm not sure this will make a sheet cake though. Can you try making cupcakes instead?

EDIT: Needless to say, the cocoa powder will be key in this recipe. I used Valrhona, and it was wonderful.

I take the spray linked below. Once a week under the tongue, my blood checks have always come back great. I notice a difference between the methyl- sourced and the cyclo- or whatever sourced. The methyl- sublingual ones I've always noticed benefits. Body stores what it needs, expels the rest. Gives you a boost, they put b12 in energy drinks, so I like to take it on Mondays.


Garden of Life B12 Vitamin - mykind Organic Whole Food B-12 for Metabolism and Energy, Raspberry, 2oz Liquid https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K5NEPJY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fAexCb55QVTJK

Check out the lemon curd/bar recipe in The Homemade Vegan Pantry! It's made with a base of cashew cream, which apparently thickens in the same way eggs do into that glossy, thick curd, without the worry of accidentally scrambling them. I wish I could find a blog post of something to link, it's seriously amazing. Minimalist Baker has some good lemon bars, too, that are cool and creamy - a little less true to a traditional lemon bar, but definitely worth an evening to bake!

I agree Chao, Daiya, and Follow Your Heart are good. Here is a book I've always wanted to try some recipes from. The author is like the queen of vegan cheese or something.

I make my own cheese now. I still buy some at the store because it takes time to make it and the convenience is something I like, but it seems like you may need to go the homemade route. Here are two cookbooks that I use for cheeses.

Easier - This Cheese Is Nuts

More Advanced - Miyoko's

are you good with recipes? maybe a beginer level cookbook would be your jam.

peta's always good for cookbooks.
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850

and veganomicon is quite popular as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416511134&sr=1-1&keywords=veganomicon

both are good starter level cookbooks.

i'd reccomend cooking in big batches and freezing stuff.

if this doesn't work, try your local asian or indian grocery store. they have a ton of instant meals for dirt ass cheap (like a buck or 2 each) many of which are vegan..


congrats on going vegan too, btw!

The quick, easy way is to blend raw cashews (soaked if your blender is not high powered), nooch, and whatever seasonings you want. I like to add a little white miso. A dash of lemon juice, vinegar, or hot sauce is good. Here is a good basic recipe: http://www.oneingredientchef.com/cashew-cheese/

You can make it thinner or thicker depending on whether you want to use it as a spread or sauce.

I have also used this one for pizza: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/melty-stretchy-gooey-vegan-mozarella/

If you Google "cashew cheese" you will get tons of ideas.

If you want to get serious and start making aged cheeses and stuff, Miyoko Schinner published a cheesemaking book. https://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Vegan-Cheese-Miyoko-Schinner/dp/1570672830

Green is the new Red Is a great book about animal rights activism.

Change of Heart Is a great book about the psychology of spreading social change.

Edit: I'd also recommend watching Cowspiracy and Specisism: The Movie.

When I don't have the cookbooks with me I've had great success just doing a google search since the book is popular. Also if you just go on the amazon page, click on the "Click to Look Inside" button, then search for the cupcakes, you should find them. It worked when I just tried it for the tiramisu ones.

https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902

Isa Does It. She's one of my favorite vegan chefs and this book has a good mix of recipes that span multiple cuisines. Good food takes time so there are some recipes that will take awhile, but not all of them. And she has a lot of great tips too.

Veganomicon is a good one: http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-The-Ultimate-Vegan-Cookbook/dp/156924264X

But, there's no perfect cookbook. I do the majority of my cooking by searching for a recipe online and adding the word "vegan". I highly recommend watching Earthlings -- it's more effective at ending meat cravings than any recipe book.

Yeah, artichokes are pretty much the filet mignon of vegetables. And what about mushrooms? Mushrooms are genetically more similar to animals than to plants, and have that glorious meaty taste and consistency. Not just portobellos, but the wealth of culinary mushrooms that everyone seems to forget about: oysters, maitakes, morels, cloud ear fungus...

Eggplants rock too, especially when slow-roasted or baked with a high-end vegan nut cheese (I like Miyoko's brand).

Pro tip: if you're a meat-loving vegan, this cookbook will change your life.

no not very expensive. usually <$10. The trick is to find some that are from a vegan source and don't contain gelatin. When you goto the grocery store look at their vitamin section. There is usually a small selection of vegetarian / organic vitamins. I get my local stores brand so I can't really recommend a specific vitamin. Amazon has [these.] (http://www.amazon.com/Deva-Vegan-Vitamins-Sublingual-Tablets/dp/B001GAOHTS/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_5)

Never tried them and maybe a tad expensive. Sometimes a multivitamin has a good vitamin B selection. Your doctor might be able to get you prescription vitamins as well. Depending on your insurance that might be a good deal.

theveganrd.com has lots of great information on vegan nutrition. i used this page to help me figure out what supplements i should take.

personally, i take one of these daily and i also take a calcium supplement (everyone needs calcium, but it's extra important for women; greens are a great vegan source of calcium but you have to eat a lot and i don't particularly like them anyway).

That’s not heartless, it’s actually quite common. If you’re interested in the reasons why learning about that sort of thing frequently doesn’t influence people to make a change I’d suggest reading Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows a book by Dr. Melanie Joy on the social phycology of meat consumption.

The long and short of it is that your experience is typical of most people when we learn about these things. We’re initially shocked and disgusted, sometimes we even vow to never eat meat again, or we have a difficult time doing so for a while. Then those feelings fade and we fall right back into our old habits. This is a result of a phenomenon called normalization. Meat consumption is so normalized in our culture that we don’t question it. It’s easy to justify because everyone is doing it.

I think that things like the environment or health are easier for people to relate to because they’re less normalized. The environment hasn’t been a concern for very long relative to human society, where animal consumption and use has been a part of our culture since the very beginning. Similarly, the idea of living in a health conscious way is a relatively new idea.

We all know that slaughter is a necessary part of the meat production process, but while many people agree that the suffering is unnecessary, far fewer actively believe that animals shouldn’t be slaughtered at all and that it’s wrong to do so. This is the “radical” part of ethical veganism. But when it’s viewed in the context of environmental or health concerns I think it’s a bit easier for people to understand. I think that avoiding animal products for ethical reasons feels more counter to our culture of meat consumption and animal use than avoiding them for health or environmental reasons.

Like /u/taimpeng mentioned, B12 is incredibly cheap, so why not start taking it now and reap those sweet neurological gains? You can buy the Deva multivitamin for $0.10 apiece, which has 1666% daily value of B12 as well as a smorgasbord of other key nutrients.

If you're into fitness, you might also check out /r/veganfitness. They can help you with concerns about higher protein needs.

If you're just looking for a high-level summary of a balanced vegan diet, you can check out http://www.chooseveg.com/foodplate.

If you want something more scientific, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' "Vegetarian Diets" position paper has a section talking about nutrients of concern specific to vegetarians, which might help address some of your concerns.

Do you have any vegan cookbooks? I think one of the things that made going vegan very accessible to me was just buying a vegan cookbook. I got "Thug Kitchen" based on my sister's recommendation, and have really enjoyed most everything I've made from it.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: one of these


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|




To help add charity links, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

Also check out Nick's other book, Veganomics. It is also very informative. Change of Heart is a bit broader in its focus on how activists with various causes can use psychology to better influence people, whereas Veganomics was written with the intention of giving animal advocates insight into what kind of people go vegan/vegetarian, why some people give up, etc., all with the larger goal of helping to formulate better messages and guides to help people cut back/cut out animal product consumption and maintain this for life.

Miyoko Schinner has a cook book out called "Artisan Vegan Cheese" which has a super easy and delicious cream cheese recipe. I can't find her cheese in stores in Canada yet, but her cheese recipes are very good.
http://www.amazon.ca/ARTISAN-VEGAN-CHEESE-Everyday-Gourmet/dp/1570672830

I just purchased doctors best D3, in the ingredients it says as Cholecalciferol / vitashine D3. I hope it's vegan lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E816ROU?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

From Thug Kitchen. I've tried all three and a few of my own concoctions and the Sweet Citrus Marinade is my favorite!

Ginger-Sesame Marinade:

• ¼ Cup Soy Sauce
  
• ¼ Cup Rice Vinegar
  
• 2 Tbsp Lime Juice
  
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
  
• 1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Ginger
  
• 2 Tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
  
• 2 Tsp Sriracha
  
• 2 Cloves Garlic
  
  Smoky Maple Marinade:
  
  
• ¼ Cup Soy Sauce
  
• ¼ Cup Vegetable Broth
  
• 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
  
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  
• 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
  
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
  
• 2 Cloves Garlic
  
  Sweet Citrus Marinade:
  
  
• ½ Cup Orange Juice (or 1 Juiced Orange)
  
• ¼ Cup Soy Sauce
  
• 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
  
• 1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Ginger
  
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
  
• 2 Tsp Sriracha
  
• 2 Cloves Garlic

> I want to go Vegan but I am nervous about how expensive it will be.

Watch this video right here, and make sure to watch it all (because if you watch only the first half, you'll get the wrong idea... I've read some of the comments)! It should demonstrate to you why some people think veganism is expensive, but at the same time, how potentially cheap it can be

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1qPgZFN24k

Also for books, I ain't read it yet, but "How Not To Die" by Michael Greger is supposed to be super informative: http://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp/1250066115

He also has a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NutritionFactsOrg

And in general, I would stay away from blogs if you're looking for nutritional advice (but recipes is a different story. Go crazy with blogs if you want). You may come across some good ones, and ain't nothing wrong with blogs in their essence, but lotta bloggers - vegans, paleos, whatever cause these tendencies don't discriminate, etc - ... are on some placebo-anecdotal shit you gotta watch out for. Key thing to look for is that they cite reliable sources for their claims. Good thing about Greger is, he always references scientific studies. That is how he gets his ideas for videos... he reads studies and reports on ones he finds interesting.

If you're into fitness: https://www.reddit.com/r/veganfitness

The only book I've read on the issue is Eating Animals, but I don't remember the ratio of facts vs storytelling.

I mostly read up on these issues online, on different animal rights sites. As long as they provide the sources to their claims, it doesn't have to be a (big) problem that the site has an agenda of its own. I think Vegan Outreach has some good info, and they have good advice regarding how to present the knowledge you have too. (How to be an effective animal advocate.)

As for the "humane meat" part, you might want to listen to someone like Gary Franscione to get some idea of what the philosophical arguments are: Do we have to find instances of suffering on "humane farms" to say that they are indeed not humane? Or is it sufficient to point that the animals are all eventually sent to slaughter? (Ie. isn't it immoral and inhumane to kill someone, ending their lives against their own will, regardless of how good their lives was up until that point?)

B-12 is the only vitamin that you cannot get by eating a plant based diet. Everything else you can.

The only reason B-12 is found in a meat eaters diet (in todays world) is because the factory farm cows/pigs/etc are force-fed B-12 supplements themselves. Then omnis get B-12 second hand through eating meat.

Vegans just get it first hand from taking the supplement themselves, instead of waiting to get it from a cow that took the supplement. You can get B-12 in pills, chewies, spray, weekly pill. You can also get it from B-12 fortified vegan milks (oat, flax, cashew, almond, coconut, soy, etc), nutritional yeast, fortified cereals and orange juices, and some fortified faux meats.

I have this one:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00K5NEPJY/ref=pe_3034960_233709270_TE_item


Also, everyone on the planet should take vitamin D. Everyone, because we all don't get enough sun. But that has nothing to do with veganism.

If that's what you think of vegan recipe books then you haven't been looking

https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586

https://www.amazon.com/Minimalist-Bakers-Everyday-Cooking-Plant-based/dp/0735210969

https://www.amazon.com/Fuss-Free-Vegan-Everyday-Favorites-Veganized/dp/0147530350

My omnivore friends, who do NOT sugar coat their opinions, unanimously love everything I've made from those cookbooks. It ain't just kind words. Two of them have approached me and asked me to teach them how to cook like that all the time

• Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism
  
• Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet
  

I'm a big fan of the recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They taste like classic Tollhouse cookies - definitely a good recipe to do the "surprise, it's vegan!" thing with.

Here's a link to the recipe.