Time to become a vegan?

Time to become a vegan?

Well, my daughter came home the other day saying: “ Mum, just to let you know I will be a vegan now.” My face probably did not look very cheerful as she quickly said:” Don’t worry,  I will eat the food you cook now except no dairy.” As she is headstrong I knew the decision has been made and there is no way of going back. But would I ask her to?

I grew up in a society where the ‘real’ food was meat. Meat had to be served for lunch and dinner and sometimes for breakfast, too. At least that was at school, at friend’s house, at auntie’s. At home we kept it as meatless as possible. The main reason was that my father was brought up as an vegetarian. Those days it was a real oddity. You was either a child of some hippies or not very clever person who must suffer with protein deficiencies for sure. Thanks God those days are over. I became a vegetarian in my twenties because my husband is a vegetarian and it made sense. I did not like to deal with meat in my kitchen knowing that my husband does not like it for humanitarian reasons. I knew I could survive on the vegetarian diet with no problem. Food for me was not a biggie. So kids also grew up as vegetarians, I kept on checking their iron levels and there well-being but did not see any difference when I compared them with their meat eating friends. I felt peaceful as I knew that eggs, milk, cheeses will be enough in terms of protein, calcium and vitamin D needs. So cutting this group out made me worried. Moreover, I did see the statistics showing that most vegan do not have enough B12 and need to take supplement. That is something I do not need to do. To be honest I do not like supplements of any kind and I do believe we should be able to get everything we need from food. I do have few other arguments against veganism but it does not matter now. I do have to respect my daughter’s decision and just go with it. Fortunately, thanks to internet I have discovered plenty of vegan recipes that are worth to try. At the moment I am filling up my pantry because there are some ingredients I have never used. For example: nutritional yeast, almond butter, tapioca flour, flaxseed – the list is long. The journey will be long, too I assume. But so be it…

Update: 2019 – my daughter is still vegan. Few weeks ago she had a blood test which came back with glowing results. The only supplement she need to take is Vitamin D. Apparently most people are deficient in Vitamin D nowadays. Even my mum was asked to supplement Vitamin D. I myself prefer vegan food although I am not vegan. I don’t like to be labeled as anything but I do think that vegan diet is the most caring to animals and the environment.