Becoming vegan???

Question

hi ok i have been vegetarian for about 3-4 years now.

and i am seriously thinking about becoming vegan.

but there are a ton of things with milk and eggs.

so what subsitutions are there.

like i have soy products like veggie nigget and stuff.

but they have milk and eggs in them.

i am 14.

and i need cheaper subsitutions that are vegan.

and just more informatiuon about being vegan.

and i dont need people coming here saying dont do it .its not healthy.so either answer my questions or just leave.

thnx so much.

Answer 1

I'm 15 and just went vegan 2 weeks ago (YAY! lol). Its kind of difficult, there's alot of label reading required. : ( I go to the health food store to get tofutti cheese which is like a vegan cheese substitute. They also make ice cream and stuff.

The best thing u can do is go to peta2.com.

http://www.peta2.com/STUFF/s-accvegan.as...

thats a list of 'accidentally vegan' stuff. It SOOOOOO helpful. its all stuff u can get at the grocery store. Its really useful, since i'm so young (like u) it was hard to convince my parents to buy vegan stuff for me cause they thought it was gonna cost a lot more money. But this list is really good cause u don't have to worry about making special trips to the store or not being able to find anything to eat. The peta2 websites really helpful. Theres also lists of where you can eat out and stuff. I wouldn't have been able to do it w/out these lists! LOL. U should also find a list of hidden animal ingredients.

Its not that bad, and i'm quickly getting used to it.

I would make sure you take a B12, iron and calcium supplement so that you don't get weak or thrown off balance. I've also asked alot of ?'s about this subject. So feel free to click on my profile and see my ?'s. : ) GOOD LUCK!

Answer 2

I'm all for vegetarianism but I don't think being vegan is worth it.  It's difficult and isn't very healthy. My friends who tried it all suffered and gave up.

Answer 3

Being a vegan can be very difficult, and you have to realize there will probably be times you wont stick to it perfectly. You may think it's just not eating cheese and eggs, but it's more complex. Bread, chips, cake, crackers, almost everything has dairy. The most tricky thing to look out for is whey, almost everything has that, and it's nearly impossible to be a vegan without paying triple for groceries. Also, forget about eating out, you can't do it unless you only want dry salad with no croutons. Good luck if you decide to do it, but it's a bigger commitment than anyone ever realizes. You can't even eat food in the cafeteria at school.

Answer 4

you should wait until your older to do this as you are growing and

need nutrients /etc to grow healthy (for development; meaning height and so on)

however if you are determined to go this way please consult an adult you live with (like mom) so that you do not end up eating too little and starving, or eat the wrong things and eat too much bad stuff (meaning cholesterol not junk food)

Answer 5

im a bit older- 17 and im thinking about this too, ive asked some questions- you might find the answers helpful...:

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...

Answer 6

I've found the trick to being vegan is that you have to prepare most of your  meals yourself.  At first it seems like a HUGE pain because we are so used to convenience foods, but after you get used to it it's really not that bad.  It takes some planning, that's for sure.  However, there are plenty of recipes on the internet and there are a variety of great vegan cookbooks out there (look on Amazon.com).  It's true that many processed foods contain dairy and egg ingredients, but processed foods aren't good for you anyway, so that's another benefit to cooking your own meals.  And I disagree that there is "nothing" you can eat when you eat out.  Check the internet, there are sites that list vegan options and several restaurants.  Asian and mexican restaurants often have many things that can be made vegan.  You just have to do your homework and plan plan plan.  Even if you can't be 100% vegan, just eat vegan when you can and eat vegetarian at times it might be impossible.  

Also, if you really can't give up the processed foods, go to http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/ for a list of popular processed foods and snacks that are already vegan :)

Hope this helped!

Answer 7

Hey, its great to hear your becoming a vegan, i turned vegan a while ago, and im also 14 =]

Il give you some information that i found very useful as i became a vegan, and also so some tasty food brand and supermarket products that are vegan.

Vegans enjoy all kinds of plant foods - like fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes (beans, lentils and split peas) - and fungi (mushrooms, yeasts), and food made from these. Vegans choose not to eat any foods derived from living or dead animals - no meat of any kind (no red meat, poultry, white meat, fish etc.), no animal milks (no cow's dairy products, nor sheep, goats etc.), no eggs, no honey, nor any other animal products (no gelatin, cochineal, shellac etc.)

Finding vegan food is easier than it's ever been. You can now buy vegan cheese, vegan chocolate, vegan ice-cream, vegan mayonnaise, vegan sausages, vegan yoghurt, vegan haggis...the choices are endless.

A few of my favorite vegan brands are:

http://www.plamilfoods.co.uk/chocolate.h... - 100% vegan chocolate, comes in alot of different flavors.

http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/PRO... - Raw vegan bars and rasins, they have a vegan cocoa brownie which i just love to be honest =].

http://www.alprosoya.co.uk/alpro/UK_en/i... - Chocolate milk, yogurts and loads more tasty vegan products.

If you like cooking, which i do, its very easy to cook your own vegan meal, as there are lots of vegan alternatives today, you can make, vegan lasgne, vegan chicken curry, vegan sasuage and mash, vegan burgers, vegan chilli con carne and loads more. Heres some recipe pages you might like:

http://www.vegsoc.org/cordonvert/recipes...

http://www.veganvillage.co.uk/recipes.ht...

http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/

Animal ingredients to AVOID: http://www.vegansociety.com/food/criteri...

NUTRITION

Healthy choices

Decades of experience, culminating in more than a million vegans today, have shown that appropriate vegan diets support good health at all stages of life and reduce the risk of heart disease. This has been confirmed by independent scientific studies.

Vegan Sources of Iron

Good plant sources of iron include dried fruits, whole grains (including wholemeal bread), nuts, green leafy vegetables, seeds and pulses. Other foods rich in iron but which are usually eaten in smaller amounts include soya flour, parsley, watercress, black molasses and edible seaweeds. The use of ironware when cooking foods also contributes to dietary intake.

Examples of amounts of foods providing 2mg iron

Type of food Quantity (g)

Pistachios 14

Cashews (roasted) 32

Whole lentils  57

Chick peas (boiled)  95

Wholemeal bread  74

Sesame seeds or tahini 19

Black molasses 22

Apricots (dried) 59

Spinach (boiled) 125

Vegan Sources of Protein

The foods which commonly supply the most protein in a vegan diet are pulses (peas, beans, lentils, soya products), grains (wheat, oats, rice, barley, buckwheat, millet, pasta, bread), nuts (brazils, hazels, almonds, cashews) and seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame).

Examples of amounts of foods providing 10g of protein

Type of food Quantity providing 10g protein (g)

Soya flour 24

Peanuts 39

Pumpkin seeds 41

Almonds 47

Brazil Nuts 50

Sunflower seeds 51

Sesame seeds 55

Hazel Nuts 71

Wholemeal bread 95

Whole lentils dried & boiled 114

Chickpeas dried & boiled 119

Kidney beans dried & boiled 119

Wholemeal spaghetti boiled 213

Brown rice boiled 385

More information here: http://www.vegansociety.com/food/nutriti...

Supermarket vegan product lists:

http://www.cookingforvegans.co.uk/shoppi...

As a vegan, i love to cook, and there are loads of alternatives i can have instead of animal products, i go to holland and barrett alot or fodder (health stores)... if you have a local health store like holland and barrett near you, they will likely have vegan burgers, chocolate etc.

Super markets also do alot of vegan products, alot of them are in the "free from" section, but they always have a good selection of other tasty vegan products, sainsburys and co-op label which of their products are vegetarian and vegan.

I tend to use soya milk on my cerial, but theres lots of other plant milks like almond, oat and rice as well.

Some more vegan websites you might find helpful:

http://www.vegansociety.com/home.php

http://www.veganstore.co.uk/

http://www.happycow.net/

http://www.nutrispeak.com/vegan_food_gui...

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/ve...

Hope this helps you, and good luck.

Answer 8

Hi!  If you don't already, start reading labels.  There are plenty of analogues out there that are vegan.  Trader Joe's makes a soy nugget that's vegan.  Amy's has lots of vegan items.  Gardenburger has a handful of vegan varieties.

For information, you can check www.vrg.org.

Newman's Own makes a number of treats that are vegan, including Newman O's.  Or you can just buy Oreos; those are "accidentally vegan."  

Check out the items in your local natural foods store.

For recipes and more information, go to www.vegweb.com