Don‘t know if I’ve got anything to add, but I‘m in the club. I usually say I’m vego because it‘s Australia and that’s what we do to words, but also because I know I‘m not vegan no matter how much I’m trying to be. It kind of feels like the whole “no ethical consumption under capitalism” thing to me. I don't eat meat or buy milk/eggs, and I try to orient my decision making to be cruelty free (my biggest driver).
This is just my own insecurity I guess - I'm not about to be tried in vegan court and literally no-one has ever asked me to explain myself.
I‘ve plenty to say, but I’m tired of saying it only to be beaten down. I went raw vegan for several years, been growing and eating sprouts since I was 13, full blown health nut over here. though there‘s been times I’ve purposefully reverse engineered the diet to see what happens. also you could say I'm truly a freegan. Been dumpster diving just as long, and if nana puts a plate of home made fried chicken in front of me, well, lord, I apologize.
It's not an oath, it's my health, my body my choice. I will never pay money for meat, so I'm also voting with my dollar. If I overdo it though, meat will make me sick.
Partner and I have been vegan for going on 10 years. I've gotten less and less involved with local groups for many of the reasons others have mentioned here. This in turn has made me hesitant to use the label despite its usefulness in many situations.
Glad to see the IC community continuing to be cool, even around this topic which I've seen explode in other spaces.
@coffeentacos Yeah, whenever the topic comes up, I feel like I end up sandwiched between other vegans who think I‘m not vegan enough because I eat sugar (and even non-vegans who want to ’catch‘ me in some kind of gotcha like ’oh, so you eat bacteria and yeast, curious… I guess they‘re not living creatures… to you’) and non-vegans who feel like they have to defend their meat‘s honour to me. The truth is, I don’t really care what other people do. I'd much rather they take some kind of concrete action to help marginalized humans instead.
@coffeentacos I have been wanting to find a recipe for this so thank you for sharing it!
No problem! I ate a great vegan version of it in Tokyo back in 2013 or so and I've been craving something like it for a while!
@coffeentacos Glad to see the IC community continuing to be cool, even around this topic which I’ve seen explode in other spaces.
Hey - non-vegan/vegetarian here. Wanted to chime in and say that I think this is a cultural change and it will take time, but I do think that over the arc of time, humans will eat less and less animal-based protein and I think that's a good thing. It's good for sustainability, it's good for ethics, it's good for all of the reasons listed.
My family has been heading in this direction for various reasons but also hasn't eliminated all meat proteins or animal products for some of the reasons listed above too.
Anyone have any suggestions for proteins? I'm a very active cyclist and need to have protein dense foods in my diet. One of my kids has a nut allergy and another has an egg allergy (yes, I'm aware not vegan) and those were easy things for me to have around. We've substituted flax eggs in all our baking which works completely fine as a binder, but they don't have the protein content which is what I'm actually looking for.
Anyway, thanks for being a chill and understanding community. I do think it's a journey society is on like several of you have already observed.
@antillese That is largely my thinking on it. Yes it‘d be great if it were to happen now but realistically, that won’t happen overnight haha. It's great to see people more open to alternatives and those alternatives have been getting better all the time.
Legumes of all kinds will likely you serve you well for protein. Seitan and tofu as well. I believe for egg replacements, things like just egg or the [vegan egg](https://followyourheart.com/products/veganegg/) will have a higher protein content. FWIW I've had better results baking with the vegan egg than with flax as a binder.
I live in the United States, 100% not interested in discussing social or whatever aspects of this. But if anyone needs advice I am here. I will say, there is way too much emphasis on “protein” and it’s all lobbying from the meat industry. There is more protein per lb in algae than in Steak. Meat is a ton of fat. Calling it “protein” is a misnomer. Fish is nearly all fat. (and yeah, fat is good and important but not animal fat, lol) Apes get protein from fruit and they are ripped. The biggest hurdle is your own mind and culture and society and body.
My dad is old school vegan, studied with hypocrites health institute, and has eaten sprouted lentils for pretty much every meal for 30 years at this point. We make kimchi in our vans. I used to make Kombucha in my van too lol. I grow probiotics in my van.
I know all the old school recipes and ancient peasant food staples. I can make practically anything with EV olive oil and nutritional yeast.
I live in a city where the same peasant food I make in my van is sold for $25 a plate at resturaunts that gentrify the neighborhood. Erewon is a total racket.
It is an anti-cancer diet. Cafe Gratitude is another exmaple of the type of place hocking the same shit I grow for pennies on the pound. There's a place up the street that sells "gourmet rice balls" (which are wrapped in the same splastic as convenience stores) for $5 each... meanwhile I've got 50 lbs of rice and enough toasted nori sheets to make rice balls for a week.
This is a video game forum, in my experience gamers aren't the ones I wanna discuss my food with, lol. All anybody ever wants to do is argue, just let me live, please.
@antillese I mean you can go for wheat gluten, or okara or other types of dried proteins that you can turn into patties or etc? I eat a lot of black beans and brown rice as well, which is easy as heck. I find just combining a few things that have some protein in them works for me. But I'm not as high density protein as you seem to be! Seems like you might just wanna get powder/shakes, no?
It is pleasant to hear when the hosts of the show say they’re vegetarian!
On a less frugal note, if you have $$$ and it’s available near you, there’s beginning to be vegan jerky on the market, and, while it’s way overpriced for what it is and would be simple to make, that shit is gewdd. I don’t care which brand, so long as it hasn’t been on the shelf too long. Louisville jerky is just TVP (textured vegetable protein) so has basically 0 nutrition value but is so addictive. The mushroom jerkies have 100% more health benefits.
I recommend everyone try making your own kimchi it’s really easy & frugal
Also I’m addicted to these as a treat because they taste good cooked or uncooked and I don’t always wanna cook em: All field roast sausage & weenie products.
Fake meats are a guilty pleasure. They’re stupid expensive but oh so yummy.
I recommend the author Brian Clement, Hippocrates health institute guy. I started reading his stuff in 2009 by recommendation of my pa. I went raw vegan cold turkey, & my health improved. My dad is 52 and deadlifts 250+lbs, can raise a barn in a day, rode a 10ft tall bicycle etc etc and his body didn’t start wearing down until last year. He’s like a Superman.
P.S. Every vegetarian (is it not vegan, I am not sure) on here should get nutritional yeast. Put it on your food because it tastes good and has protein and all kinds of nonsense in it
@treefroggy yeah, I mostly discarded the stuff I paid attention to but a lot of it was just absorbed into my body because I ate brown rice with nutritional yeast and soy sauce for breakfast every morning growing up.
@exodus You‘ve verified that that is vegetarian right? Just asking because it says 牛汁味: BEEF JUICE FLAVOR in big letters in the corner. I know that a lot of the beef flavorings are probably completely artificial, but I always get worried when I see it. this is a big problem for me with instant noodles. there’s probably a whole bunch of brands of them that I could eat that I'm too paranoid to.
Edit: on that note I'd like to hear instant noodles that other people have vetted? I am very familiar with how to eat vegetarian healthily and cheaply, but sometimes I want to eat unhealthily (though still cheaply). I have like three flavors of noodles that I get, and I want more
@saddleblasters I’d like to hear instant noodles that other people have vetted?
I really like IndoMie mi goreng flavour noodles! All the standard disclaimers apply: extremely salty and oily, definitely not healthy food, but I love them (when I can find them).
Boy @exodus that jerky looks incredible! I had tons of this kind of thing when I visited Taipei, although there was an equal amount of the kind that's made with mushrooms (which my stomach doesn't enjoy at all, even though it tastes really good).
I will also attest to nutritional yeast's excellence! I put it in almost everything I make that isn't sweet!
As another aside, got this incredible 'Detroit style' pizza (this is dubious, I know, but it's vegan deep dish pizza, I don't care what they call it) from my local vegan pizza place that was having a special event last night. It's pierogi pizza, important because Edmonton has an enormous Ukrainian population and pierogis are everywhere (sadly mostly not vegan).
substitute a neutral oil for animal fat in the dough, then make saurkraut and mushroom filling and you're doing reasonably ok for vegan pierogi. A fruit filling would be vegan too
@yeso Oh, absolutely! My partner and I have made vegan pierogi for ourselves for years! It‘s a real favourite of mine– I was just mentioning that most restaurants here don’t have a vegan version on the menu (although a few do) even though they're practically ubiquitous.
asian markets are your friend, that's just about the only place you'll find meat alternatives that aren't totally overpriced for US market.. That and *grocery outlet bargain market*. Whenever I leave LA and go north of the bay.... The grocery outlets have allll the epic hippie foods for super cheap. canned dulmas 1.50, 99 cent boxed hemp milk (that shit is anywhere from 4-9 bucks in west LA, total racket)
You know how meatless nuggets usually come in boxes and are like.... $8 for 8 nuggets?
well, sometimes at grocery outlet I've found 2lb bags of quorn nuggets for $6.... they contain egg whites and mycoprotein (shrooms) and while not vegan, it's just good to see something meatless, prepared and not 4 to a box, haha
