FAQs

I wanted to dedicate a page to those questions that I get frequently asked, or the criticism and challenges that I often receive, when people find out that I follow a vegan diet.

The main problem about any argument on this topic is that often people are trying to point out, with one criticism or another, that I am not perfect - and I will never be. They never say it like this, but most objections are trying to find incoherences in a vegan lifestyle, by pointing out, indirectly, that it is not perfect. Great!

However, trying to achieve perfection in this world is not possible. Therefore, what I am trying to do is just finding the right balance between living my life, whilst also being less selfish and more respectful of others and the world we live in.

It is an open debate and in constant evolution. But what leaves me quite sad about all of these arguments, is that I never manage to have a meaningful conversation. Most people criticise to start with, but then they don't want to carry on the conversation... Anyway, I hope my answers make sense!

Challenges to a vegan lifestyle

Like lions eat zebras, it's the same for humans: it is part of circle of life for some animals to eat other animals, and humans are just doing after all

It’s funny how we spent our whole existence as human beings trying to show to ourselves that we are different and superior to all other animals – we are far more intelligent and evolved, and this is true. But actually, when it comes to justifying habits, we don’t want to give up, all of a sudden we feel like lions..!

Anyways, there are two main answers to this criticism:

1. We are not lions, nor we were in previous phases of evolution. If fact, as we all know, our ancestors were monkeys, not lions or other predators. And monkeys are mainly herbivores. So comparing ourselves with lions or other predators makes no sense.

2. If we were meant, by nature, to eat other animals, our teeth would look much more like those of a predator (with huge canines), rather than those of a horse or other herbivores/omnivores. Similarly, our intestine is very long, like those of herbivores rather than those of predators, which have a much shorter intestine.

So overall, our anatomy shows that we are not meant to eat other animals, by nature. Then we obviously have evolved to be able to eat, digest and take some nutrients from the dead bodies of other animals, but that doesn't mean that it's part of "the circle of life" nor our nature as species.

I understand meat, but why also cheese?

Because cows don't just produce milk because that is what they are programmed to do. Cows, like all mammals, produce milk when they have a baby to feed. And what happens in the dairy industry is that cows get impregnated artifically so that their body produces milk that is meant to feed the baby. And when their baby is born, it gets taken away and fed artificial milk for a few months, until he/she gets killed for meat. And their mums get milked so that humans can drink their milk and eat cheese. Then after a year or so, they get impregnated again, and the whole thing starts again. For a few years. And then when these cows are not very productive anymore, they get killed for meat too. A cruel circle of death, an insult to life, to motherhood, and to the beauty of nature. That is why I don't eat cheese.

I understand meet, but why also eggs?

Similarly to the dairy industry, the egg industry is equally cruel. Male chicks get blended alive into a big machine with blades, just after being born, because they are not useful to produce eggs. This is changing now in some countries, thanks to the repeated requests of activists and some new laws that are coming in as a result - but by the time it will be effective in the industry, it will still take a few years. Additionally, hens that need to lay eggs every day are kept in horrendous conditions for their short miserable lives and for this infinte cruel circle of production and consumpion that we have enslaved them in.

Where to you get the protein?

Easy, in all plant-based food. If you mean "high protein" food, then I get it from legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils, peanuts...) and all soy-derivates (tempeh, tofu). Seeds and nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashew, pumpkin seeds...) are also quite high in protein, albeit higher in healthy unsaturated fats. And if you're not gluten-free, wheat has also got a decent amount of protein, albeit being much higher in carbs.

But plants also feel pain!

• First of all, we mainly eat the fruits or the seeds of the plants, rather than the plants themselves. We do also eat plants, but the plants' nervous system is different from animals (and humans). They don't have a brain and synapsis that register the problem/harm to the body, and therefore make us feel pain. There is no scientific evidence that plants consciously experience pain. They have a complex system to respond to physical damage - if they get cut for example - but in absence of a brain, they don't have a central system that translates damage into a sensory experience provoking sensations of pain like animals.
• Secondly, deciding not to eat animals or their products is not only down to pain - because you could sedate them before killing them, and they wouldn't feel any pain (although we know this doesn't happen, but let's assume it does). Not eating animals is about compassion, because they not only feel pain, they also feel emotions like us, and they emotionally connect between themselves and with us - like all of you with a cat or a dog would know..! So why being so cruel to kill them? Just to feel a bit of taste for a few seconds? It costs millions of lives, and it's just not worth it.
• Thirdly, this thing about plants feeling pain is a silly objection anyway, because we all must be eating something in order to survive. So telling me that also plants feel pain and so I shouldn't eat them, it's like telling me that I'd better die rather than try to be coherent with my life choice. Ultimately, seeking perfection and absolute coherence is impossible, and it's better to make choices to be more respectful of others and nature, then decide to do nothing at all, ever, because in any way it will be perfect.

Why is vegan diet meant to be more envirmentally-friendly, if it consumes so much soy-based products (e.g. tofu)? Soy production is hugely intensive for the soil and consumes huge amounts of water.

Yes that's true, soy production is intensive and draining for the environment. But by eating animals and animal products, people consume much more soy than with a plan-based diet. If you do an easy and quick online search on some of the leading website that store scientific research and data (e.g. "Would in data" or "Statista"), you will see that almost 80% of soy production wouldside is used for animal feed rather than direct human feed (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254608/soy-production-end-uses-worldwide/ / https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/soybean-production-and-use ). So that's why a vegan diet is more environmentally-friendly.

Is it not in our nature to eat other animals?

Similar to the "lions eat zebras" argument, this doesn't really have scientific ground. It is true that, from when we used to be monkeys (which are mainly herbivores), we, as humans, have evolved to be omnivores. However, that doesn't mean that it is in our nature to eat other animals. In addition to what I have explained in the "lions eat zebras" argument, there are a couple of other things to say here: 1. the fact that we have evolved to be able to eat and digest meat, does not mean that, therefore, we need meat. In fact, we don't, and people on a plant-based diet are a good example of that, getting all the nutrients they need (with exception of B12, which also carnivores nowadays lack anyway). This further demonstrates that it is not in our nature. For felines, for example, it is in their nature to eat other animals, they get nutrients and everything from other animals' flesh, and they need it. If they were on a vegan diet, they would die. Humans don't. 2. our body shows us that we are not predators by nature, also because heavily meat-based diets give us a lot of unhealthy side effects which, if it was in our nature to eat meat, surely we wouldn't get - for example, high colesterole, high blood pressure, higher risk of cancer, etc... Obviously nothing is black and white and our bodies all work slightly differently and some may have different dietary requirements and/or proneness to get certain deseases more or less than others. But since we are speaking generally here, science and nutrition have well demonstrated that we don't need meat to survive, and that meat-heavy diets are unhealthy.

It's in our instict to eat other animals

This is similar to the above, but some people talk about "instict" instead of "nature". But the story is similar. It's actually even easier to disagree with this because, if we had an instict to eat other animals, why don't we run to kill a duck, a dog, a fox, a sheep, or other animals around us when we see them? Cats do that, why don't we? And also, why would we need to rationalise something that we consider an instinct, which, by its own definition, shouldn't need to be explained rationally?

Would you eat meat if you know exactly how the animal was raised, what they ate, and had assurance they had a happy life?

No, I find repulsive and disgusting to eat the flesh of an dead animal. But I understand this is a good compromise for those people that don’t really empathise with animals as beings who have a personality and feel emotions, and that just want to be able to eat their bodies without them suffering. But personally, not for me anymore.

Would you eat cheese or eggs if you were at a farm and saw that the animals are treated well?

Probably yes, but it’s not really something that keeps me awake at night, or that I really go out of my way to find. I live easily and happily without these things.

What about clothes? Wool and other animal-made clothes are still the best, more long-lasting and better than the fast-fashion things in polyester and elastene, which are made of petrol and other harmful chemicals.

True, and it is hard to be perfect! I personally choose second-hand as a go-to, which I consider a sustainable choice. Then within this, sometimes I buy things in polyester, sometimes in wool. I never buy leather though. In general, I don't do much shopping at all, and the last time I bought something new and not second-hand was 2022. But if I had to buy something new now, I would probably try to buy natural materials like cotton, but it would depend on a number of factors (occasion, price, quality, urgency, etc...). As I said, it's hard to be perfect! But I recently bought a pair of Dr. Martens boots who were second-hand AND vegan. So life can be good sometimes, just need to keep searching and find the right occasion!

But I just like the taste of meat (or bacon, or prosciutto, or whatever!).

Well, what can I say? If you understand all the negatives of an animal-eating diet, and you just don't care about animal welfare, or the environment, or your health enough to give away a little trivial pleasure, then the only thing I can say is: have you thought about eating your dog? Maybe that’s tasty too! Ah whoops, that's illegal though, for some reason (?)

But eating vegan means eating a lot of ultra-processed meat-alternatives or cheese-alternatives, and it is not healthy.

The second part of this sentence is true, but the first part is not. Ultra-processed food is not healthy, but being vegan doesn't mean eating only fake cheese or fake meat. You can be vegan and eat whole natural food. Sometimes having something ready-to-make in the freezer is convenient for everyone, and even if that was meat or based on animal-product, it wouldn't be healthy anyway. But as a day-to-day, you don't need to eat processed and fake food to be vegan. Hopefully this website helps you get some inspirations!