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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 21, 2014 11:45:06 GMT -5
Is it a fad where you are?
Being vegan or at least trying it out seems to be "in" in Germany at the moment, largely due to the popularity of Attila Hildmann and his books "Vegan for fit", "Vegan for fun" and "Vegan for youth".
I have several friends who are not even vegetarian who have been eating vegan for a limited time.
I think it's positive from a health and environmental point of view that people are eating less meat (yes, this is Germany - there's still a fair amount of processed meat about but there's other stuff too!), but it also seems a bit gimmicky. I have no intention of going vegan, but I am trying to widen my range of dishes and cut down on meat during the week.
Edited to add: do we have any vegans here? I'd be interested to hear how you started this way of eating, since I assume very few people are brought up vegan...
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veganism
Aug 21, 2014 12:55:22 GMT -5
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Post by owlet on Aug 21, 2014 12:55:22 GMT -5
It's not a fad here, not yet anyway.
I'm a vegetarian, and although I have no plans on going vegan I can see how vegetarians take a step further. The whole concept of meat made me queezy and I just stopped. I try not to think about dairy or eggs too hard, because if I did, I might start avoiding them too, and being vegan is nigh impossible unless you only eat at home.
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Post by vinnyd on Aug 21, 2014 12:55:54 GMT -5
If you call something a fad, you expect that it will die away fairly soon, no? I think the number of vegans here has been growing steadily for thirty years or so, and I think most likely it will continue to grow. We'll see.
How do you mean, "gimmicky"?
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veganism
Aug 21, 2014 13:03:13 GMT -5
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Post by owlet on Aug 21, 2014 13:03:13 GMT -5
I gather the gimmick reference is towards fad diet campaigns, one day it's cabbage soup diet all the way, the next it's south beach, Atkins, etc ad nauseam, now it appears to be veganism where lillie is, if I read the op correctly.
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Post by princessofpenguins on Aug 21, 2014 13:17:07 GMT -5
I don´t know to what extent it is a fad, but I´ve known vegans who have since gone back to consuming animal products (eggs, dairy). It´s just not sustainable for most people...
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veganism
Aug 21, 2014 13:22:10 GMT -5
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Post by owlet on Aug 21, 2014 13:22:10 GMT -5
I don´t know to what extent it is a fad, but I´ve known vegans who have since gone back to consuming animal products (eggs, dairy). It´s just not sustainable for most people... Especially in some countries, Norway is harsh even for standard vegetarians if you're travelling. |
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Post by princessofpenguins on Aug 21, 2014 13:28:25 GMT -5
I don´t know to what extent it is a fad, but I´ve known vegans who have since gone back to consuming animal products (eggs, dairy). It´s just not sustainable for most people... Especially in some countries, Norway is harsh even for standard vegetarians if you're travelling. Yep. You´re fine in the bigger cities but once you get out in the boondocks your choices are extremely limited, if they even exist at all... |
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veganism
Aug 21, 2014 14:08:13 GMT -5
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Post by owlet on Aug 21, 2014 14:08:13 GMT -5
Especially in some countries, Norway is harsh even for standard vegetarians if you're travelling. Yep. You´re fine in the bigger cities but once you get out in the boondocks your choices are extremely limited, if they even exist at all... Definitely, I can attest to picking ham out of a fair amount of ham & cheese sandwiches --which, to be fair, we fully expected as most of our stops were in small towns way up north, same in Finland. |
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Post by Webs on Aug 21, 2014 14:42:40 GMT -5
It's not a fad here. It's a fully indoctrinated lifestyle.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 22, 2014 2:49:12 GMT -5
To clarify: for some people it is their permanent lifestyle and not a fad at all.
By "fad", I meant stuff like features in magazines, and people who do Hildmann's 30-day vegan challenge, for example. Nothing wrong with that really, it might introduce them to a new way of eating they want to continue with, or it might not, but there are books and stuff popping up all over the place.
My boss spent last week eating strictly vegan and the weekend taking some kind of legal high which is supposed to lead to "enlightenment" but just made her vomit.
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Post by Bastet on Aug 22, 2014 4:34:52 GMT -5
Here Paleo / LCHF seems more of a fad than vegan. Both are a strange set of obsessive a in my experience.
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Post by Tulipana on Aug 26, 2014 13:13:22 GMT -5
Total fad here.
But seriously, if people were supposed to eat wheatgrass all damn day long we'd have different teeth. More cow-like teeth.
Just my opinion.
Pass the steak please.
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Post by vinnyd on Aug 26, 2014 21:06:44 GMT -5
Yes, but as far as I know there is no one in the world who advocates eating wheatgrass (or anything else) all day long.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Aug 27, 2014 6:47:49 GMT -5
If God didn't want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them tasty. My two cents.  |
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Post by Tulipana on Aug 27, 2014 7:00:36 GMT -5
Agreed, bambi is yummy!
Beat that with freakin' wheatgrass and tofu.
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Post by owlet on Aug 27, 2014 13:35:13 GMT -5
I treat food a bit like religion. I don't really care what you do/like, as long as you're not infringing on my life with it and don't attempt to convert me.
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Post by vinnyd on Aug 28, 2014 6:51:33 GMT -5
Has anyone ever tried to convert you to veganism, pickychick?
People sometimes hand out pro-vegetarian pamphlets (and religious tracts) here, They don't force them on you. I have no problem with that. If I thought that killing animals for human pleasure (whether for food, in bullfights, in cockfights, whatever) was a serious moral wrong, I would probably try to persuade people to stop doing it too. I think I would recognize that talking to people who didn't want to hear about it would not be a good use of my time, but as I say no vegetarian, vegan, Mormon missionary, or Jehovah's Witness has ever done that to me.
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Post by owlet on Aug 28, 2014 7:26:05 GMT -5
Vinny-- I don't think anyone's tried to convert me to veganism, but then again I'm not sure I know any (not a topic that comes up that often).
I don't get that much preaching (meat eaters usually don't to be fair) but I do get comments along the lines of "why won't you eat meat" "people should eat meat you know" and various other forms of letting me know I'm a bit odd or why what they eat is better... i don't particularly find it a topic that needs to be discussed every time it crops up and it gets a bit annoying in the long run.
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Post by vinnyd on Aug 28, 2014 13:21:52 GMT -5
Right. I didn't realize you were a vegetarian.
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veganism
Aug 28, 2014 13:54:58 GMT -5
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Post by owlet on Aug 28, 2014 13:54:58 GMT -5
I'm confused now.. not sure what you were asking before then?
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Post by lizby1 on Sept 4, 2014 13:40:34 GMT -5
I have recently heard a couple of diety vegan things . One was called vegan before dinner I think - you eat vegan for breakfast and lunch but not for dinner.
In the UK it all seems to be about paleo and low carb still.
I've been eating vegan for three days a week. I felt like I was eating too much meat and dairy and found that was the easiest way to cut down. The days I eat vegan I also don't eat as much junk and overall calorie wise I eat less. I still like ALL food and eat meat and cheese on other days.
There don't seem to be many recipe books or much in the media about veganism in the UK - or not that I know of.
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Post by sprite on Sept 16, 2014 20:03:32 GMT -5
truenic is vegan and she plays ice hockey.
one of my cousins is vegan, and sometimes puts up fb posts about how great it is to be vegan, but then hey, lots of people put up posts praising bacon. whatever.
i did ask my cousin, as she's in a northern country, how she balances the food miles demands of her diet against her belief that it's better for animals. her reply was that it all worked out because food-animals created, directly or indirectly, more carbon than the fruit flown around the world to scotland.
personally, i'm not keen on fad diets. but i do think we consume far too much in our cultures, so anything that gets us to think about what we're eating, where it comes from, and how it affects our bodies... surely that's helpful?
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Post by mei on Sept 17, 2014 5:24:38 GMT -5
tagging on from sprite, I read an interesting article the other of a former strict vegetarian turned local farmer raising her own cattle. In it, she explained why it's more sustainable to eat locally - also meat - especially in climates where growing vegetables to maintain a healthy vegetarian/vegan diet is difficult. no luck finding it again yet.
i agree we generally consume too much. I don't think veganism is the way though. I struggle to be vegetarian as much as I'd like. but yeah, the food fads/diets annoy me. I see quite a bit of paleo diets mentioned here too.
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Post by sprite on Sept 17, 2014 10:26:06 GMT -5
i read that one too--we really cannot avoid hurting other creatures in our daily lives, we sort of have to choose which ones we'll hurt.
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Post by mei on Sept 17, 2014 11:59:30 GMT -5
ah yes, that was the other pretty relevant point in her post.
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Post by lizby1 on Sept 18, 2014 1:17:59 GMT -5
I've been cutting out dairy and meat for three days a week for 3 or 4 weeks now. I'm finding my diet is more varied and I enjoy the fish/meat/cheese I do eat on the other days a lot more. I don't think I could ever deny myself any particular food group, but it does make me think more and eat less junk to go vegan for three days. I'm naturally tending to eat less meat, even on the non vegan days.
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Post by lillielangtry on Sept 18, 2014 1:32:10 GMT -5
That sounds like a really good idea, lizby. I am trying not to eat meat Monday to Friday, but I do still eat dairy on those days (though not always).
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Post by tzarine on Sept 18, 2014 22:27:58 GMT -5
there's a vegan cooking school opening in our super faddy hood
it was a bakery,but i guess cupcakes aren't as big as before
& i was invited to another vegan cooking class
& the pricy health food stores have the vegan buffet
lizby agree about not denying any group
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Post by brodiebruce on Sept 19, 2014 5:53:12 GMT -5
it was a bakery,but i guess cupcakes aren't as big as before Ahhh, cupcakes. Now that was a fad...... Back to the OP. Every time I hear vegan I can't help but think of Anthony Bourdain's comment in Kitchen Confidential.....was veggie for years but now meat is well and truly back on the agenda. |
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Post by brodiebruce on Sept 19, 2014 5:56:14 GMT -5
Being vegan or at least trying it out seems to be "in" in Germany at the moment, largely due to the popularity of Attila Hildmann and his books "Vegan for fit", "Vegan for fun" and "Vegan for youth". Hmmm. It doesn't sound like fun. Although I'm also equally ready to smack the next person who extols the virtues of a paleo diet to me too. |
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