Am I vegan enough? Lately it seems that eschewing animal foods and buying cruelty-free foods isn't enough to satisfy the food police when it comes to veganism.
Am I Vegan Enough?
I have a confession to make. I don’t like kombucha. At all. And while I’m sharing secrets, I should probably let you know that I’ve fallen off the green smoothie wagon. I don’t drink very many green juices, and while I do love kale, I probably only eat it once a week or so. And this may shock you, but I ate a bagel for breakfast this morning. It had fried tofu, vegan cheese and a soy sausage on it. I had a cup of caffeinated black tea with it too.
Also, last night I drank a glass of wine and ate some chocolate. And since we’re getting personal, I should let you know that sometimes I shop at Old Navy and Target. And even Kmart. (Kmart just happens to be next to Whole Foods less than a mile away from my house.) Oh - and I can't remember the last time I did yoga.
Okay, now that I have all of that off my chest, it would probably be good to backtrack and tell you a little bit more about me. I’ve been eating meatless for well over half my life. I went vegan for ethical reasons, and when I did, a few lifelong health problems cleared up. People began asking me for health advice and others started asking for help going vegan. Since people were coming to me for information, I decided to answer their call and I became a holistic health coach and then later a vegan lifestyle coach.
I live a fairly healthy lifestyle, and I help others go vegan and clean up their health too. I exercise every morning, eat huge salads for lunch, and I’m addicted to nutritional yeast. To the mainstream world I probably look like a “health nut”, but I probably look like an imposter to some of those in the health world. Which leaves me wondering, “Am I healthy enough? Am I vegan enough?”
Vegan is not a synonym for Healthy
Somehow over the years, people have begun to confuse the words “vegan” and “healthy”. They are not synonyms. Vegans can be healthy, and I do advocate for a healthy vegan diet. I also believe in being practical and living life outside the kitchen. I believe in being healthy so that I can enjoy life, not being healthy for the sake of being healthy. Also, I believe that not every speck of food that passes through one’s lips needs to be categorized health food in order to maintain health.
I eat tons of vegetables every day, so if I feel like having a peanut butter cup after dinner, I’m going to have that peanut butter cup. And it’ll be okay. It is possible to be healthy and eat bagels and chocolate. And it is possible to be healthy and eat soy meats and vegan cheeses. If that’s all a person eats, it is a problem, but that’s a subject for a different post. I’m all for a diet that’s based in whole, plant-based foods, with some indulgences here and there. That’s the way I live and that’s what I help my clients to achieve.
I do enjoy juices and smoothies, but I don’t enjoy cleaning my juicer, and I think that it’s too cold in November to drink smoothies made with frozen fruits that aren’t in season. This may make me very unpopular, but I don’t think that it’s necessary to guzzle down juices and smoothies all day to be healthy. They can help, but they’re not necessary. Was everyone unhealthy before Vitamix came along? How did people survive before Breville started making juicers?
The Definition of Vegan
Now that we’ve gotten the health part of the out way, I want address the topic of veganism. Donald Watson coined the term “vegan” in 1944. According to Miriam Webster, the definition of vegan is, “a person who does not eat any food that comes from animals and who often also does not use animal products (such as leather).” Note that it doesn’t say “a person who drinks green smoothies, doesn’t eat gluten and only shops at certified fair trade stores”.
Vegan Factions
With people becoming more health conscious and veganism moving into the mainstream, factions have started to form. There are soy-hating vegans, anti-gluten vegans, organic vegans, sugar-free vegans, constantly-on-a-juice-cleanse vegans. The list goes on. And that’s okay – if we were all the same, life would be boring. But if someone doesn’t fall into your category, that doesn’t mean that they’re not vegan, (and it also doesn’t mean that they’re not healthy), it just means that they don’t eat the same way you do.
If a person isn’t eating animals and animal products, harming animals or wearing animals that person is considered a vegan, even if he or she eats nothing but seitan on white bread, GMO corn that’s been cooked in canola oil, potato chips, dark chocolate and soy milk ice cream. (Although of course, he or she is probably not very healthy.) The vegan factions are beginning to confuse the omnivore world, and I’ve met people who think that gluten, soy and corn are not vegan foods, even though they clearly don’t contain any animal products.
What's Vegan and What Isn't?
Someone recently sent me a rather incoherent message on Facebook saying that after she liked my page “hidden advertisements from my page started showing up on her page” and that was “like, non-vegan style.” Let’s just ignore the fact that hidden things can’t be seen unless you’re looking for them and that I don’t actually have any ads on Facebook (nor do I control how Facebook functions), and discuss the last part of the message for a minute. How is advertising non-vegan? Is gelatin somehow involved in advertising? Is a piglet killed every time someone places an ad? Are vegans just on the planet to make the world a better place? Is everything we do supposed to be pro bono? Are we supposed to live in the woods and survive on nuts and berries? (Most omnivores think we do that anyway.)
People with vegan businesses rely on those businesses to support themselves and their families, and therefore they need to charge money for their services. And to get the word out, advertising is usually necessary. Unless an animal is harmed or consumed, how is a behavior considered vegan or non-vegan?
Unless animal torture is involved, behavior can’t really be classified as “vegan” or “non-vegan”. A person can be cranky and argumentative and shop solely at Walmart and still be vegan as long as he or she is abstaining from animal products, just as a person can be kind and caring and only buy free-trade products and yet eat meat, making him or her non-vegan. Of course, activities such as betting on dog fighting, working in a slaughter house and testing cosmetics on animals are non-vegan, even if the person doing them abstains from eating meat. An argument could probably be made that trolling the Internet to tell people what they’re doing is wrong isn’t vegan, because it’s not compassionate behavior.
Here’s a short list of things that aren’t vegan:
- Flesh that comes from an animal, including chicken, beef, turkey, fish and pork
- Milk that comes from an animal, such as cows’ milk or goat milk
- Cheese made from milk of an animal
- Yogurt made from milk of an animal
- Butter
- Eggs
- Honey
- Bone-char sugar
- Gelatin
- Silk
- Bones
- Shells
- Leather
- Wool
- Down
- Feathers
- Butcher shops
- Health, beauty and home care products that contain animal products and are tested on animals
Here’s a short list of things that are vegan:
- Soy
- Gluten
- Corn
- Wheat
- Seitan
- Tofu
- Tempeh
- Meat made from soy and gluten
- Milk made from almonds, soy, rice, coconut, etc.
- Cheese made from soy, tapioca, cashews, etc.
- Yogurt made from soy, almonds, coconut, etc.
- Olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, etc.
- Salt
- Agave nectar
- Non-bone char sugar
- Organic produce
- Conventionally grown produce
- GMOs (sorry, but they are)
- Caffeine
- Satin and polyester
- Cotton
- Plastic
- Paper
- Stores that aren’t butcher shops
- Health, beauty and home care products that don’t contain animal ingredients and aren’t tested on animals
- Everything else that doesn’t contain animal ingredients and wasn’t tested on animals
Things are usually vegan, but aren’t necessary to be a vegan:
- Kombucha
- Green smoothies
- Green juice
- Kale
- Juice cleanses
- Detox programs
- Fair trade products
- Yoga
Of Course I'm Vegan Enough!
So am I vegan enough? Yes, of course I am. I don’t eat meat, dairy products, eggs, honey or anything that contains animal by-products. I don’t wear leather, wool, feathers, silk or anything made with bones or shells. And I don’t buy products that have been tested on animals, and I check my health and beauty products to make sure they don’t contain ingredients that came from animals. I also practice compassion for other living beings, and I hold my tongue if someone’s behavior doesn’t align with my own beliefs.
Practicing yoga, shopping at fair trade stores, drinking green smoothies, avoiding GMOs, buying organic and cooking without oil are all great and I applaud people who do all of them, but they have nothing to do with veganism.
In order for the vegan movement to survive, we need to remember what being vegan means. Making up arbitrary rules for what is and isn’t vegan just confuses mainstream society and makes a vegan lifestyle look impossible to achieve and unpleasant to live. In the words of Donald Watson, veganism is "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals."
And while I'm on a rant, I think it's time to take retire the food police and take back the word vegan!
Tiana
Thank you for articulating exactly how I feel. I struggle with the "healthy" vs. vegan mindset daily. ("GASP! YOU EAT GLUTEN?!?") While it's fantastic that veganism is much more commonplace now, there seems to be an arbitrary hierarchy, with the pinnacle being the soy, gluten and sugar-free 100% organic raw vegan. I like my soy. I like my vegan junk food. And frankly, I am too lazy to make smoothies daily. But I make the compassionate choice every time, and, for me, that is enough.
Kristy
Amen! I love you, Dianne!
Esther at A,B,C,Vegan
I love it! I would like to add (and need to write about myself 😀 ) though the idea that for me, being vegan includes being compassionate to *people*. Meeting people where they are, as JL said to me recently. Sometimes I get concerned that we overlook that in our quest for taking care of the animals - taking care of our own species too. 🙂
kaye
I don't like kombucha either lol
Kimberly L
Well said. We are all in different places. Take us as we are with no judgements or legalism. We are a work in progress. Love us for taking steps in the right direction, don't hate us for not acheiving perfection according to others "Standards" of Veganism. You win people over more by loving than condeming....
Sincerely from "Not Perfect but a Perfect Work in Progress"...Kimberly
Thank you again. Dianne
Kristina
you rock my socks.
about surviving on nuts and berries, and that is the perception many have about vegans - many ALSO have the perception that veganism is DIFFICULT. that veganism is about JUDGEMENT. that is is about SHAMING. the term "vegan police" exists for a reason - there is far too much judgement and definition about just this thing, being vegan enough. it is exhausting, and there are people who do not like to use the term vegan because of this.
I could go on and on, but you have said some great things here! thank you!
Ashley
A-men! Thank you for this. I am so tired of arguing with people over such things.
Richa
thank you for putting this into words Dianne.
Gemma
Fantastic post. As a dietitian, I hate this culture of not being "healthy" enough. So what if I had candy after dinner? Or if I didn't have enough vegetables at lunch? Honestly, having struggled with disordered eating and subsequently discovering intuitive eating and being at peace with my eating habits (mostly--there are still those days), I enjoy not having 50% of my brain space wondering if I'm being good or bad. And as long as it is vegan, I will consume whatever I want, whenever I want. The funny thing is, when your brain isn't dissecting your eating habits all the time, I think you naturally go for "healthier" foods more often. Thanks for the great post. - gemma
Tyme
I am an ETHICAL vegan. That means that no animal was harmed in the making of Me. NOT that no Oreo cookie was harmed. 😀
[Full disclosure, I am mindful of healthy choices, too.]
amy
and those nouveau raw food green smoothie yoginis living in bali, buying up balinese land and building detox resorts, pricing out and paying dirt-cheap wages to the local people, thinking they are kundalini shahkti goddess women won't stay vegan when they get back to their chicken salads in mill valley or eugene oregon. i'm a vegan elder. vegetarian since 1976 and vegan since 1999. longevity matters. these wanna-bees can talk to me ten years from now. xoxoxoxoxo
amy
p.s. a fat vegan animal rights activist who is OUT THERE doin' the work is much more impressive to me than some temporarily vegan yogini on a fad diet to be more anorexic. YOU ROCK. xoxoxo
Cecily
Great article!!! I am pretty sure that many vegans can relate to everything you say. 88
Jen @ Lita's World
AMEN!! Great article - thanks for writing it so I can share it helping to explain how I feel sometimes 😉
Caye
Fantastic article!
I've been a vegan for 11 years. I don't care for kale, don't drink green smoothies, and have no idea what kombucha is. I am crazy healthy though. I love my seitan so much that I make it myself (gluten is great). I've never even been in a proper Whole Foods Market and think the veggies, grains, etc. at other shops are just as good.
If you're not vegan enough then I'm probably not either. 😛
Theresa
Well said Diane! I've seen stuff like this happen when I was younger and in a different type of social circle and it's so unpleasant. There's no reason for people to be so judgmental of others.
Annie
YES!
Now where did I hide that chocolate bar...
Simone
Nicely written! I've seen vegans out there who are very unhealthy and I've received so much flack for identifying myself as a vegan and having people scrutinise everything I eat and do to the point that now I just say I follow a plant based diet. It is the same as being vegan of course but without the sometimes extreme and negative connotations. You are so right that being a vegan comes down to compassion for the animals we love and for then earth we live on- not how many green smoothies we have drunk! Thanks for writing this article.
Sandy
I love this post so much! Spreading it far and wide! I can be a tad *cough* perfectionist with myself. So much so that a friend told me to stop counting calories because I was stressing myself out- the opposite of healthy behavior. Despite my Twitter handle (instant vegan) I am a vegan-in-progress and while I expect to grow into the lifestyle, it is lovely to be reminedd that I can separate my veganism from other healthy choices that I may eventually have as habits. Vegan enough? You bet.
Vegan Newbie
As a very new vegan, I found the mindsets you wrote about to be some of the biggest turn offs when deciding to label myself as vegan. Non-vegans judge me more than vegans about my new veganism (WHY would you want to do THAT?!). It's such a big mess. Thanks for writing such an awesome post!! Ps-I had a bagel for breakfast too and it was delicious. :0)
Rachel
Thank you for this! Its so upsetting when great vegan businesses or cookbooks get terrible reviews from people because they use oil, sugar or white flour. Veganism is just about doing our best to avoid the use of animals, not rampant orthorexia.
The Vegan Cookie Fairy
Preach! So happy to read this article, I need to remind myself of these things sometimes.
Sharen Sammons
Fantastic article.
luminousvegans
Well said! I am also an ethical vegan. Like most human beings, I crave comfort foods sometimes. If I only ate strictly healthy 100% of the time, I think I would have a harder time convincing people that going vegan is a viable option for them. I don't think I would be a happy person either.
When I went vegan for the animals though I will say that I did get healthier overall because I started introducing new foods into my diet. Like kale, quinoa, etc. Pre-vegan I ate fast food on a scarily regular basis and though I was thin on the outside, I'm sure my insides were kinda gross.
James
I agree with this article, but I had stopped using added oils and sugars long before I had ever even imagined I'd become vegan.I went vegan for health reasons, but the moral, etc, things that come with being vegan are a massive bonus to me. I practice some of the non-vegan things mentioned in this article, but I don't practice these things thinking it's vegan, it's simply to be as healthy as I can be. In other words, I'm not some stuck-up vegan, I just made the decision that i want to stay away from certain unhealthy ingredients other than animal products. I never push my beliefs on others though; if they ask, I'll tell them how I eat and live., but other than that, live and let live is my philosophy.
Anonymous
Thank you :)This is the most candid article i've read on the topic.
Demetrius
Fantastico! Thanks Dianne
Jean Engstrand
You are a breath of fresh air. Thanks for your honesty.
Dianne
Thank you, Jean!