A lot of people celebrate the anniversary or realise how much of their life they have been vegan – for me I honestly can’t remember.
I know there was a point when I was just a (rather awkward) gluten-free and dairy-free vegetarian yet I still ate a bit of fish, so I didn’t even know if there was an official name for that. I don’t remember the point where prior to that, I said I wouldn’t eat meat.
I know that there was a point when I was pregnant that I ate a bit of dairy because for ease and for cravings it did kind of help. And I know when I gave birth, the first thing I wanted to eat was mussels because I hadn’t eaten seafood for so long and seafood was still the food I missed the most – in fact it’s the only thing I miss, being a vegan.
I used to say you can keep your bacon sandwiches but now the new bacon alternatives are pretty darned good, so I do have ‘fak-on’ in the fridge. Similarly I never missed a big burger or chunk of meat but again the new alternatives are pretty darned good, and I often have a Beyond Meat burger or use vegan meats in stir-fries, curries, stews or wrapped in pastry. Having not originally been a fan of substitutes (with the logic that if you don’t want to eat meat then it felt wrong to try and replace it) I realised that embracing and discovering new alternatives opened up a wealth of meat recipes that could be easily adapted to be vegan.
I still however feel awkward. Awkward and putting people out of they’re having me over for dinner (imaginging that ‘oh no, what do we do for the vegan’ moan): awkward if we attend an event and there is a buffet; awkward so much so that my daughter is only classed as a vegetarian rather than vegan, at school because I don’t want her access to food to be a hassle.
It’s hard not to feel fully accepted nor be able to never have to think about what I’ll be able to eat, where or how, but it is getting easier. The vegan market has exploded in the last three or four years with now the number of new vegans increasingly rapidly, year after year.
~ 7.2 million British adults currently follow a meat free diet
~ 13 million Brits will be meat-free by the end of the year
~ The number of vegans in the UK has increased by 445,428 people (40%) over the past 12 months
~ Vegans and vegetarians look set to make up a quarter of the British population in 2025
(from ‘Truly Blog Beyond Ordinary’ Jan 2022)
We now live in a world where more people are realising the consequences of their eating and shopping habits, considering animal welfare and food production. People may not fully cut out meat anytime soon but its a step in the right direction that more are invested in meat free options, cutting down their meat and animal products as well as being more conscious of the food chain and where their food comes from – and at what cost.
THE LOCAL VEGAN 