You’ve read about what being a vegan means and you’re ready to take the plunge. It can be a daunting process so here are the first few steps to help you get going.
Do Your Research: You’ve already done some reading, but do you really know what being vegan is all about? Obviously, this book is a fantastic step to introduce you to the ins and outs of veganism. You probably shouldn’t make a huge life change after reading just one book. Read a few, along with magazine articles and online blogs.
Take it Slow: Some people say that stopping all animal products in one fell swoop is the way to go (going cold turkey, if you’ll forgive the phrase). But it can be really hard when you consider the huge range of things you are suddenly going to have to cut out of your diet and your life.
A good first step is to get rid of meat. Once you’ve started to master cooking vegetarian meals, start to let go of eggs and dairy. After that, you can start to really examine labels and ferret out all the hidden animal ingredients in your food. Even if it takes months to get to a real vegan place, it will be worth it.
Learn to Cook: If you don’t already have great cooking skills, now’s the time to learn. So many conventional and processed foods are non-vegan that you’ll almost certainly have to start doing a lot more home-cooking to make it work.
Try New Foods: It’s not just about what you take out of your diet. Make up a batch of quinoa, do a stir fry with tempeh or grill up a black bean burger. Experimentation will open up so many new doors that you won’t even realize that some things are gone. Try at least one new food a week.
You’re Not Perfect: Once you start to notice all the animal products in so many things around you, it can be pretty overwhelming. Don’t throw your hands up and quit because you find your hand lotion has some glycerin in it. Being as vegan as possible is better than just giving up.
The specifics of how you get started aren’t that important. What matters is that you do it.
This isn’t really an easy question to answer because it’s not as cut and dry as you might think. It’s a mixture of new things you will want to buy, as well as some things you won’t be buying anymore. How that final equation balances out will be different for everyone.
According to NPR, the average American household spends around 21% of its food budget on meat, and then another 11% on dairy products. That means approximately one third of your grocery budget is going to animal products. Once you start a vegan diet, all that money then gets freed up to be used for other purchases. And since meat is considerably more expensive than fruits, grains, and vegetables to begin with, that means you can buy a lot more food while not changing your overall expenditures.
So buying that organic soy milk may seem like an added expense compared to the usual cow’s milk, but don’t forget that you won’t be buying any chicken breasts, pork tenderloin or roasting beef either. You have to look at the whole picture before you can really calculate the costs.
The trick is not to fall into the replacement trap. As a new vegan, you’ll quickly find that you spend most of your money on the meat, dairy and egg replacements. You have to shift your eating habits altogether to add more fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables to each meal rather than find some “fancy” alternative to the meat you are used to. That’s how you keep your budget under control.
The bottom line is that many vegan products can cost more than their conventional counterparts, but when you factor in all the meat and dairy you’re not eating, it isn’t as bad as you might think. With a little planning and effort, you probably can eat for less as a vegan, even with that organic soy milk or non-dairy cheese.
One way to speed up your shopping is to keep your eyes open for the vegan symbols on your food products. It sure is simpler than trying to read all the ingredients for yourself.
Unfortunately, there isn’t one single regulating body for a universal vegan logo. The most common symbol comes from the Vegan Society, which has been advocating for vegan living since 1944. In order to register for their trademark, a product has to:
• Contain or involve no animals, animal products, by- products or derivatives
• Have no involvement in animal testing during development or manufacture
• Contain no GMOs that have animal-derived genes. Plant-derived genes are acceptable but the products must be clearly labelled as GMO
• Cross-contamination with non-vegan materials is kept to a minimum
And to be clear, their definition of “animal” includes insects, invertebrates and any other beings that would be classed in the scientific Animalia kingdom (cite below).
You can find the Vegan Society logo on vegan products around the world. It’s a registered symbol in the USA, Canada, Australia, and across Europe covering more than 16,000 products.
When a product doesn’t have a vegan symbol, it doesn’t mean the food is automatically non-vegan. It just means the manufacturer hasn’t gotten themselves registered. Reading the ingredients can still be a fine way to determine what you’re eating. It just takes longer.
Interested in this whole veganism idea and want to know how it all started? Here’s a little history about the movement.
The best place to find the origins of veganism is with the early history of the Vegan Society, the first organized group of vegans. It was founded in 1944, meaning that modern vegans have been around for more than 70 years. It’s not quite as recent a “fad” as some people think.
The founders include Donald Watson, Elsie Shrigley, and other vegetarian friends. They were discussing the idea of being vegetarian while also eliminating all dairy products from their diet. The term “vegan” was coined, taking the first and last few letters from vegetarian. Donald Watson felt it represented the beginning and end of conventional vegetarianism.
By 1949, this little group had expanded and they officially declared their purpose to be more than about diet, but the complete freedom of animals from being used by man. They formed as a registered charity in 1979, and have been going strong ever since.