If you’re here, you want to hear a second opinion from a fellow vegan on the annoying things that come unwarranted with our vegan lifestyles.
There’s too many things to fit in one post so we’re going to cover 10 annoying things that come with being vegan; from everyday experiences, annoying questions from people, or having to adapt to a restricted world.
Having to always check ingredients
One of the first skills you’ve got to learn when going vegan is how to accurately skim read ingredients. There’s always those few packs of pasta, or cookie with traces of some type of milk or egg.
Vegans always have to check ingredients/confirm ingredients in a meal all the time, giving us the infamous “telling everyone we’re vegan” nonsense. Nevertheless, the western world consumes a lot of animal products, it’s how it is.
However you’ll soon know your accidentally vegan go to’s, and familiarise yourself with vegan-exclusive brands.
Being referred to as “the vegan”
Becoming a new vegan can be annoying because suddenly now everybody cares about your diet. There’s always questions, or assumptions made about you, many of which are simply misconceptions people make about vegans.
Other than that, you’re expected to be the go-to vegan expert, or the example, when in reality we’re simply vegan; Noone really minds if someone doesn’t eat seafood or red meat, so why would they fret about whether you eat more vegetables or not?
Being asked all the vegan questions
Whether you like it or not, as the vegan of the group you’re also the expert of all things vegan.
Be prepared for questions about your b12, overall nutrition, and most importantly; where do you get your vegan protein from?
You may also have a few debates with people that love meat about the food chain, their personal love for cheese and the occasional discussion of what you now can and can’t eat.
People assuming you’re healthy just cause you’re vegan
A strange thing to say is annoying, is when people assume you’re healthy just because you’re vegan. Sometimes people just like the idea of not eating animals, we literally have junk food vegans who coined their own term due to how unhealthy some vegans choose to live.
The main reason it’s annoying for me is that people tend to avoid the vegan option because they assume it’s healthy, although you’d think it a good thing it actually pushes people away somehow.
Having cravings that can’t be fulfilled
When you first go vegan (coming from an ex meat eater), there are a lot of things you simply have to move on from. Some examples can be eggs, chicken wings, steak, stringy cheese, all of which have alternatives, but are not quite hitting.
To be fair, cheese is literally as addictive as some drugs, and those other few foods are really only enjoyable because of the amount of fat and salt in them… Either way, an annoying thing about being vegan is not being able to satisfy certain cravings, especially when surrounded by people eating them constantly.
Learning a whole new world of food
As exciting as it can be, it can also be very annoying to have to completely relearn food. In my early days as a vegan I had no clue and had to figure out which beans I liked, change how I built my plates altogether and overall, it took a lot of effort.
One of the biggest challenges was finding my ideal alternatives and knowing how to balance whole foods and processed vegan foods without overdoing it.
Not being invited to gatherings/parties
Another annoying part of the average vegan nomad is being left out fo parties/gatherings. A lot of the time as vegans worldwide know, is the lack of options in most restaurants.
That being said, some people choose not to invite you to events due to this, and the extra effort/disappointment you might have while they just wanna eat.
It happens to the best of us, from both family and friends sadly. Then again, if you arrange for your loved ones to all go to a vegan restaurant they won’t always be opposed to it.
Just remember most of the time it isn’t personal – Took me a while to not take it that way, thankfully there’s more and more vegan options every day and people do take note of it if they’re close enough to you.
Not being catered for in events
Similarly to the above, this goes for wedding dinners, parties, gatherings, anything of the such. I once got invited to a birthday gathering with my cousin (a birthday twin) and they only had salad and ready salted/vinegar crisps available for me to eat.
They had the cheek to ask for half for the expenses, yes this is a true story.
Having to get salad and chips
One thing I vaguely miss about not being vegan is not having to worry about where to eat. If you eat meat and dairy, most places will have something at least OK to eat.
So many occasions I’ve had to make a meal of sides and frankly it’s tiring. Which is why I’m now very selective and only eat out at places I’ve researched beforehand, or am sure that they have a proper option.
Finding which substitutes work for you
When I first started transitioning to a vegan diet I first started out by trying to find substitutes, as well as eat more whole foods.
One of the first things I tried was a vegan hot dog, before the good ones started rolling out, it was absolutely vile. Don’t even get me started on vegan cheese, I tried a mozzarella alternative the other day that looked and felt like mozzarella but tasted like wet paper.
Finding the substitutes for you is a key part of going vegan. For example, I tried a vegan Camembert that genuinely tasted like camembert, and vegan chicken chunks that I have in my weekly rotation, but it takes patience and experimentation.
Hope you enjoyed this post on the annoying things about becoming a vegan, feel free to drop your two cents on this below!
