How do you become a VEGAN!>?

Question

I really want to be vegan but i just dont know where to start. none of my family are vegans. im only 15 so i really dont have controll over what food is around, should i get a nutritionist ? if so HOW?

Answer 1

Library.  Read.  Books.

I became vegan through self education.

Education of one's parents is a totally different matter though.  They rarely want to listen.  So, be prepared to put up a fight for yourself.  You'll spend 100times as much energy convincing your parents than you will convincing yourself.  You'll have to show them that you won't die, they will have millions of ridiculous questions, moronic statements, they might even try to make fun of you or put you down, and surprisingly things can get pretty nasty.  You'd never expect that parents could act in such a way to their own children, but story after story proves this to be true.  The ones that turn out to be very helpful and understanding and supportive are very rare.

There's a book called "Becoming Vegan".  Buy it or request it at your local library look on www.abebooks.com and you can find used ones and can search for one near where you live to avoid postage fees.

Answer 2

It will help if you have the definition of "vegan" from the original founders of the word.

vegan - http://www.vegansociety.com/newsroom/ind...

Bread, pasta, cereal, rice, beans, peas, lentil, nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies can easily offer everything that you need except B12.

http://www.veganhealth.org/sh

http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo

All vegetarians should take a B12 supplement regularly since most people eat meat, dairy AND fortified cereals yet still have a B12 status that is lower than recommended.

http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/b12

It may help you if you see proof that vegetarians have the same potential as anyone else.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sto...

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/phpBB2/...

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/phpBB2/...

http://www.macdanzig.net/bio.php

http://www.scottjurek.com/career.php

If you need meat or dairy during any stage of your life or to live any certain lifestyle, why does the American Dietetic Association say otherwise?

http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada...

Answer 3

You don't need a nutrionist. I was the only vegetarian in my fam for 10 years before becoming vegan, and my family would improvise for me. Fresh veggies and soymilk are easy to get (and ask your parents for) and lots of tofu. You will have to make a lot of things yourself since buying vegan is tricky. Steamed veggies, meat substitutes (whole foods, trader joes) Veganism is really a commitment, no sugar (only raw sugar),  etc.. Peta has a really bad list of vegan foods so don't use it. I used Peta for years before realizing a lot of their stuff listed is NOT vegan. White sugar for instance is processed with bone char and therefore not vegan, but most of the food they list as vegan contains white sugar. :) The internet is a great help for lists of non vegan ingredients to look out for. Good luck!

Answer 4

Go to the library and get a few books on the matter. It will do you more good than getting limited info here. Good Luck.

Answer 5

I started when I was 12 now I'm 14 so it's never too early to start I don't know if you mean vegan or vegetarian but vegetarians eat animal by products vegans don't but this is how you become vegan just stop eating meat and animal by products [ dairy, honey, eggs] that's what I did here are some tips ''Gelatin'' is meat and it is in lots of things like starburst, skittles, frosted mine wheat's, pop tarts, many many things and ''Carmine'' was a living thing so I consider it meat too it is in some things that are red it's red food coloring and one thing I ate with it was pink tic tacs so look at all the labels read all the ingredients and there is no such thing as a vegan that eats fish and shell fish so don't eat fish and shell fish are meat just in case you didn't know [ I didn't ]  http://www.peta.com/ is great and http://www.goveg.com/ is good the first month is hard because you don't really know what to eat but just try not to eat meat even if you have to eat an egg, dairy, or honey every now and then and what I did was if there was some veggies with meat I would pick the veggies out and not eat the meat but I don't say to do that because even though it's not meat it was with meat and the meat juice soaked into the veggie but if you have to eat food that is not vegan then just pick the good stuff out okay good luck =^..^= be a bunny's honey don't eat meat or wear fur    

Answer 6

vegans only eat like veggies and stuff

they dont eat anything that comes from an animal

not even cheese or milk

i mean nothing from an animal

Answer 7

cut meat out of your diet and start eating stuff like vegetarian lasagna to help you repell from liking meat so much. its a start lol.

answer mine ? > http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...

Answer 8

When you intend to become almost Vegetarian very strictly, you may encounter the fact that you may be lack of vitamin B12. We Japanese have been almost fish vegetarian for so long time. So most of the traditional Japanese recipe are Meat Free, Egg Free, Milk Free, Lactose Free with some exception. We japanese have been taking vitamin B12 from Miso, Natto,Tsukemono pickles and so on. We had not have to take meat in order to take vitamin B12 as the fish vegetarian for so long time. Please try enjoying if you can accept Japanese Foods.

Answer 9

Being the only vegan in the family can definitely be overwhelming sometimes. Kudos to you!!

You could start by giving up a different item every week, for instance, beef or pork.

Then the next week, chicken.

Then eventually eggs and dairy products.

Then every animal product all together.

But if you're like me and you'd rather just go "cold turkey"- no pun intended :) - make sure you have recipe books and lots of go-to foods so you won't be laying around starving, like people seem to think vegans do.

Go to the grocery store, get lots of whole wheat pastas, spaghetti sauce, frozen food, cereal, soymilk, vegan pizza, veggies, rice, beans, peanut butter, ect...

And don't forget some fun stuff.

Oreos are vegan ;)

Yum!

Look up the vegan food triangle- it will help you so much in giving you an idea of what to eat.

And if you slip up don't beat yourself up, whether you can't resist ice cream one night or whether you find out that you've been eating hidden animal ingredients- just think of the difference you're making and don't give up!!

Good luck!!!