Veganuary

“If you go to the Vegan website and read the extreme cruelty in dairy, meat poultry egg and fish production it becomes much harder to literally swallow them.”

Do you not think that the Vegan Society have an agenda? Of course they’ll say anything related to animal products is cruel and awful. Many many farmers nurture their animals and look after them extremely well. Yes, the killing process is awful, if only there could be a better way to slaughter what we choose to to eat, I’m sure all us meat eaters would strongly support this.

It’s the “guilt” and finger pointing that many of us meat eaters object to, please remember what we eat is a personal choice, and many farmers and meat eaters care about the environment and animal welfare.

Veganism is a passing fad for a minority and the chattering journalists.

Allsorts

Would not consider going vegan, I like a balanced diet with a few treats, but each to their own. Life is too short to deprive yourself, no cake tastes as good as one made with butter, no artificial milk tastes as good all of them have a tang and a sweetness about them and I don’t take sugar. No doubt it saves a lot of cash though. I will try to walk more though.

You haven’t tried my vegan beetroot and chocolate cake! Best cake I’ve ever tasted.

I am trying to eat a vegan diet. I’ve been mostly vegetarian for many years.
I have tried all of the cheese substitutes and they are pretty grim. As are the meat substitutes.
Instead of trying to replicate real meat fish eggs etc I’ve just stopped. I’m enjoying other delicious things and having a lot of fun experimenting.

If you go to the Vegan website and read the extreme cruelty in dairy, meat poultry egg and fish production it becomes much harder to literally swallow them.

Apart from the gruesome cruelty there is also the environmental impact.

It takes a few weeks to change any habit.

A side effect for me is that I am gradually and effortlessly loosing the weight I haven’t managed to shift for ages.

For cheese lovers Waitrose has a range of vegan cheese by Fauxmagerie. The Balham Blue is as good as any Roquefort. Expensive though so an occasional treat.

We definitely will NOT be trying it. We are happy enough to have meat free meals some days, or entire meat free days. But we enjoy meat, and animal products and raw feed our dogs.

We try hard to buy free range and use our local butcher whenever we can.

Very interesting MOnica, I have always, since childhood, hates butter, milk, bland, soft cheeses, and the days of free milk at school when it had been sitting in the sun all morning were a nightmare for me. But, I love strong, hard cheese.

Well put Amalegra at 12:10 today.

Yes ... I'm going to stay on the Vegan diet as its easy and I cant face the smell of cooking animals !!!!

No Veganuary for me thanks! I am quite happy for anyone to eat any way they want to but very much dislike the subtle- and not so subtle- bullying that this trend speaks of to me! Not to mention the virtue signalling! I think to be vegan one has to make an informed choice, which includes knowing the nutrients which are certainly lacking in a vegan diet and planning accordingly, something I do not choose to do. It’s not just a question of substituting vegan alternatives to milk, cheese, butter etc, many of which are highly processed and, as in the case of some milk substitutes, have been shown to be less than environmentally friendly. We are often told at length about vegetarian/vegan belief systems. Well I have my own beliefs too which is that as a society we tend to eat far too much (hence the dreadful obesity figures) and I try to follow a simple unprocessed (as far as possible) omnivorous diet, light on meat and fats and with plenty of vegetables, good carbs and variety! Helps that I don’t drink too, I suppose! So far so good but nothing guarantees you perfect health throughout your life, does it? And I certainly think that, for me, a vegan diet would do nothing but try my tastebuds and my temper!

Research into the genetic basis of diet, weight gain/loss, food intolerances etc has been going on for decades. I have heard several programmes on R4 discussing this research, may be as long as 5 years ago.

It has long been known that the previous simplistic belief that calories in can be equated to calories out plus weight gain and its reverse that eating less will infallably lead to weight loss is wrong, scientists now are beginning to unravel the way our genes can affect our eating patterns. Tim Spector's recent research into the human biome is another contributor to the unravelling of the complexities with the way the body processes the food we eat. We have long known that certain ethnic groups have difficulty metabolising cetain foods and 90% of Japanese people are lactose intolerant.

We also now know that there a levels of food intolerances. All my life fresh milk and lightly processed dairy products like yoghourt have made me nauseous, if not sick, yet I love and can eat as, much hard cheese, as I like. Recently an article in the New Scientist said that it has been recognised that there is a large group of people like me and the cause is a mild lactose intolerance, that fades the more processing the milk has had.

As to who pays for the research, it is like any other research, funding comes from a variety of sotces, chaariyable foundations, special disease interest societies, individula donors, government departments and from industry itself.

All reputableacademic journals ensure that all articles they accept have been peer-reviewed by other experts in the field that the editor chooses, not the researcher, and while errors do ocur, connsidering the amount of peer-reviewed journal articles published each year, the fraud and error rate is very low.

I’ve been vegetarian for 12 years now. I was never a big meat eater anyway, so I really don’t miss it. I couldn’t give up eating eggs (bought locally from a good source)
or cheese, and I’ve tried the various milk alternatives, but I can’t get along with them in my coffee. I love hazelnut milk on cereal though. Mmm.

Not at all. I simply wonder who pays for research to find out why people don’t like certain foods. Research to find out why some foods make people ill e.g. gluten intolerant, allergic to peanuts is a better use if money, but that’s only IMO.
Sorry if you think the ‘likes’ research is fraudulent. I didn’t.

I wonder how much they got paid for that research.

isn't that an accusation of fraud? Suggesting that whoever did the research was paid to produce the results the institution or individual commisssioning it wanted.

Where did I suggest it was fraudulent?
I said I would have liked to be able to cite my genes as a reason for not liking certain foods.
Is that not what the research says?

As usual M0nica, you have expressed my feelings much more clearly than I can - especially the one yesterday at 09.18. Thank you.

Mollygo What makes you think this research is fraudulent?

The database for this reearch is the UK BioBank a research resource www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/ set up about 15 years ago with UK government funding. It recruited between half to one million people, from across the UK, including DH snd myself and continues to collect information on our health. Sending us questionnaires and occasionally inviting us to take part in screenings. They would not release data to any organisation that had not been fully checked, with both reaechers and funding checked too.

The research work was carried out by a reputable research organisation and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Do you know anything about academic publishing and research to be able to suggest this research is biassed or incorrect?

I think it's quite interesting that, in my experience, men seem to be more meat orientated than women. All the women I've ever known are quite happy with a vegetarian meal but men want their regular fix of steak pie or stew.

Admittedly I am talking about my generation of men so perhaps generation Z males are different.

I wonder how much they got paid for that research.
Nevertheless, if only my mum had known that my dislike of mince, pressed tongue, Christmas pudding, pineapple, marmalade and, butter beans and dates was down to my genes, not just being a fussy eater, life would have been easier.

Researchers have identified approximately 500 genes that dictate our dietary preferences. neurosciencenews.com/genetics-food-preference-23676/, so one persons ability to be happy with a vegan diet while others prefer an omnivore diet may well be geneticallydetermined.

Germanshepherdsmum

I could happily be vegetarian/pescatarian, but much as I admire the ethics of veganism I can’t imagine giving up eggs, cheese or butter. There’s no way on this earth that my husband would stop eating meat though, so hearty casseroles, cottage pie, roasts and the like will be consumed during the cold and miserable winter months.

I am the same! I haven't eaten meat for years now and don't miss it at all, but I do eat fish a couple of times a week. Although I admire a vegan diet, I would really miss eggs and cheese.

Good tip, thanks. We rarely have too many eggs, but it’s worth knowing that they can be frozen.

Doodledog On a less contentious note- I didn’t know you could freeze eggs. Do you beat them first and use them in omelettes or quiches, or is there another way?

There may be alternate ways, I just beat them up, 2 at a time and freeze in that portion - making them ready for biscuits, omelletes, breads, anything cooked needing both parts together (not angel cake).

I am not advocating a diet of UP foods😀. I am saying that people enjoying the convenience of burger shapes, or the flavour of bacon seems to me easy to understand. I don’t understand those who find this beyond their comprehension. If other people want to eat a vegan diet that’s up to them, and it is their choice as to whether they do this by supplementing fruit and vegetables with ‘vegan steak’ or not.

Preachy vegans are annoying, I agree; but so is anyone who thinks they have a right to comment on what other people eat.

The OP was just looking for support in her attempt at Veganuary, not lectures on ‘fake’ food.

On a less contentious note- I didn’t know you could freeze eggs. Do you beat them first and use them in omelettes or quiches, or is there another way?

Doodledog

Agreed, nightowl. Food is food - I don't see how it can be 'fake' unless it pretends to be something it's not, which vegan food doesn't. If it did, vegans wouldn't buy it ).

There must be items in shops with designation 'vegan' that are over processed foods nobody (omnivore or vegan) should be eating?

Crisps, store biscuits, and snacks!!

Jars of ready foods, tins of soups, packets of I've no idea, baked products with chemicals and enhancers. All easily avoided by shopping veg and fruit, pulses, flours, rices - unadulterated foods. I haven't the patience to look round at items I'm not preparing, oblivious, however on GN I've heard/read of 'fake vegan food' -- I just don't search for any.

We cook meat, several times a month, as we have daughters and families who eat animal products. I've a good butcher, easy to source decent meat apart from pork. Iberian pork seems to import only to city shops. I easily found lovely Norwegian salmon (for coulibiac) by calling round for wild not farmed.

I applaud you for giving a different eating plan a go watermeadow and I am sure you will last the month.

Can anyone who eats a pure or mostly vegetarian diet tell me if weight loss is an extra benefit as long as you keep to reasonable portions?
I would dearly miss fish so not sure I can give that up….