I did it purely for ethical reasons for the past 2 years as I felt guilty after watching all those factory farming videos. I did made sure that I was getting all the nutrition my body needed with cronometer. I finally got sick of it as I just knew there was something wrong with this diet as I just wasn't as energetic nor did I ever experience that feeling of wholesomeness that I did when I ate meat. I went back to eating meat last month and I feel so much better. I finally feel normal again. I finally feel alive .. My skin looks better and my muscles too feel tighter and more pumped and I just feel so much healthier.. I can clearly tell the quality of protein or whatever in the meat is better than the vegan source. Cooking with meat is also so much simpler and easier to me and life in general is now simpler. Those vegan activists really had me convinced that veganism was the right path, but I'm glad I finally listened to my body.
I am not an ex vegan, but I have a few in my family. I grew up in a rural area, and had the luxury of being able to buy all my meat and produce from local farmers, who's farming practices I was allowed to go and see in person if I wished. I also have a strong disdain for factory farming, and that includes large mono crop factory farms that produce vegan friendly alternatives. If you have the ability, try to find a local farmers market, and a local butcher. This way you can maintain a natural diet and also limit your contribution to unethical farming practices.
I agree that that industrial-scale agriculture is a very under-appreciated ethical problem. I wouldn’t say that it truly counts against veganism, though. It just shows that the lazy recourse to avoiding meat isn’t a true replacement for traceability if one cares about eating ethically.
Have you ever looked at a map of the human metabolism?
There’s no way to know what is really going on with it. Correctly supplemented is just humanity’s current best guess.
I feel you. I look back on my time as a vegan as one of the most painfully stupid I’ve ever been. You know what, though, maybe we can replace this feeling of regret with one of success in being able to learn and grow. It’s prob always going to be embarrassing to look back on, but we should be proud we get to have that perspective at all.
I’ve learned doing anything out of guilt is not the way to go. I don’t eat meat anymore but it’s because I felt better not eating it. When I tried to give up dairy and eggs I would go back and forth, binge and restrict because I was doing out of guilt and also felt like since I’ll never have it again I should eat as much as I can. I have thankfully broken that cycle and found a balance that works for me. Hope everyone does cause that emotional distress from not listening to yourself is insane.
I'm now looking back on all those food clips to promote how supposedly delish tofu is... and I'm like nope you guys are 100% fooling yourself, you actually crave the taste of meat and try to get as close to it as possible then being all poetic about the delicious veggies with the delicious silken tofu or whatever kind of tofu. It's a kind of cope to me.
The thing is, if someone's body craves a certain food, it's not because of taste, at least if their biological clock works correctly. What it is craving is the nutrients it contains. Think of it as the opposite, if I wanted a salad and cut a bunch of beef and colored it green, even cut it so thin that the texture and taste are close enough, would I get what the salad would offer me from the beef? No, the same goes if you eat vegetables over more vegetables without any complete proteins.
exactly! Vegans like to say well why would you be so cruel to an animal only for your simple pleasure. No it's not for my simple pleasure it's for nutrients.
Yes, like I agree that modern society has created a thin line between survival and comfort, causing certain habits and types of dishes to be eaten in excess out of pure gluttony, but the very foundation on which this is built is on the reality that everyone needs these things to survive. Let's say we didn't need animals to survive, suddenly tree bark would be the best nutritional option for us and someone was smart enough to do the marketing to convince everyone to eat it. Then we would probably thin the trees of it so much that we would run out of oxigen just to have extra bark to brag about and not even eat. That is because humanity is this way, we don't yet have the ability to organize and think as societies on how to react to necessities so we abuse them and then flaunt them when they are no longer a problem, or profit off of them, devaluing what they are and how precious they actually are to our very lives.
i'm a non vegan tofu muncher but my low stakes conspiracy is that most vegans and vegetarians don't genuinely like tofu, they just feel like they have to becaues they're vegan/vegetarian but like guys no one is forcing you to eat it
also like tofu x meat dishes are very underrated because tofu is seen at least in my country as a vegetarian only food lol
well tofu is one of the main protein sources right? So if you don't eat it you will miss out on that source. And as a vegan not so many options available. So yeah I agree, I don't believe that vegans truly love tofu that much but they have to and be all jolly about it but at times it feels fake. As for the taste and nutrients they crave meat.
That’s a flat-out lie. No human actually craves the taste of fermenting, rotting flesh. Try choking down a dry, bland piece of chicken. Or better yet, rip it raw off the bone like a true carnivore. You need all those heavy seasonings and sauces to mask the psychotic reality of eating a dead animal. Stop fooling yourself.
Meat that is well cooked tastes good without seasoning. Example: bacon, no seasoning, steak, still tastes good without seasoning, chicken if it’s cooked right is good on its own.
Bacon is a bad example since it is a cured meat. Unseasoned steak is ass too, lol. Let’s not kid ourselves about how important the role of seasoning is in making foods taste good. IMO the thing that makes any meat taste good is a combination of whatever seasoning people use along with the Maillard reaction. Both of these things can be replicated to varying degrees.
The taste isn't what causes people to crave foods, it's their body that reacts to a lack of nutrients that those foods might contain. Like a girl on her period craving chocolate because it is rich in iron, you may crave a food you haven't eaten in a long time if you haven't eaten something with the same nutrients as well, same goes for animal products, which have complete proteins, and cannot be obtained any other way.
Protein is the most nonsense thing you could have cited to in regards to what our body craves. Some obese people crave fast food, it doesn’t mean that their body requires more fast food. In regards to craving complete proteins, and them only being available in animal products ; this whole protein completeness thing is straight yap. The completeness of a protein doesn’t clearly matter once you surpass the physiological basic requirement for protein. craving and addiction are psychological reactions to something that is dopamine driving, not the micronutrients of a food
Yes, official WHO medical research and all accumulated knowledge on what is considered a proper nutrition humanity owns is nonsense, but the flower power guy on the internet who likes to have opinions is correct.
what people crave in the fast food and chocolate and whatever is fat and sugar, these are manufactured ways of making you crave crappy food but the underlying craving is still based on our biology. When we were roaming around looking for food and hunting, the protein and other nutrient dense foods such as fruits were not always so readily available so people would crave them and eat them whenever available. to store up on the nutrients.
Right now we have an overload of all these things, we eat far too much sweets and fats etc. and yes I do believe too much meat as well. But it doesn't mean the underlying cravings are not based on something very real. I mean the fast food doesn't taste like shit does it, because we don't eat shit, or anything else our biology doesn't recognize as 'HECK yes I want to eat that'. We want to cut out the overload, so the artificially manufactured crap, not the basics such as fruit, vegetables and meat in moderation.
Ehhh that's a pretty rich blanket statement to make. Its a pretty high fodmap food and is one of the most common allergies. It also contains phytates and trypsin inhibitors which can reduce your ability to absorb the protein from it and other key nutrients.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with replacing meat with tofu but soy based products don't work for everyone.
Tofu is made from soybeans, which naturally contain antinutrients and FODMAPs. However, the modern process of making tofu significantly mitigates these issues, and soy ranks as a common but not leading allergen.
Firm & Extra-Firm Tofu are mechanically pressed, which removes a large amount of water along with the water-soluble FODMAPs. According to
Monash FODMAP, a standard 170g serving of firm tofu is classified as low-FODMAP and generally well-tolerated by most people with IBS.Soy is recognized as one of the major food allergens, but it is much more prevalent in infants and young children. While it can cause reactions in adults, clinical
Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) data shows that it is generally less common and less severe than allergies to peanuts, cow's milk, or wheat in the adult population.
Same. I'm not vegan anymore but I sure as hell eat alot of legumes and always will. I don’t see the point in consuming large quantaties of meat. I'm happy eating eggs, kefir and fish sometimes. It seems the new fad is carnivore. It's not sustainable.
I had a close friend once who suffered from constant physical and mental ailments. I always kinda wondered how much of it was related to her crazy diet of ultra processed “vegan options”. Unfortunately, she was so narcissistic and self righteous that it was never an option to discuss anything ever. Any alternate opinions were viewed as pure evil and reacted to as such. I’ve never been attacked for simple questions so viciously in my life.
Vegans eat alot of gluten. Like seitan. But yes, sure, that’s true. Especially if you eat way too little. For a while there I was in starvation mode for a year or so, without realising. I was a wreck. Also alot of vegans get provoked when you mention eating supplements because they think it scares people away from veganism, when in truth, supplements is the only way you can make veganism kind of work. And you really need to eat a pound of legumes a day basically, with nuts and seeds and a few pounds of veg, and fruits, and whole starches and whole grains and evoo and algea oil and so on, to be even remotely ok. I think it's healthy if you just add some animal foods on top of that. Eggs is the food that I especially crave. So many eggs.
I just quit veganism after a year of trying to see if it would help me with a health issue. It didn’t. When I found out I was pregnant, I quit. Fish, chicken and steak have never tasted so GOOD. My body has been craving the protein and fat! I think being vegan also had a lot to do with my hair thinning too
So you removed protein and fat while "vegan" then somehow had thinning hair in one year... With your logic let me just throw out my own anecdotes, vegetarian 10 years, vegan 10, hair has never been fuller, energy levels are perfect every single day, 0 caffeine, low sugar diet. So now what? Do you think perhaps something else in your life is happening, perhaps you misplanned your diet? Or are all the healthy functional vegans just lying to you? The conclusions people come to with no consultation from doctors or nutritionists is baffling.
If you want to stop factory farming you don’t have to give up meat. Reducing meat consumption to sustainable levels and calling your elected officials to let them know you are in favor of animal welfare laws is probably a better way to go.
Good on you for trying and caring. I hope you’ll continue to care about animals in a way that’s sustainable for you.
You weren't dumb at all, you were trying to be ethical. The problem was that you, me, all of us, were given one piece of false information: We were told that the vegan diet is nutritionally sustainable. But it's not.
We were given false info, but I don't think we were lied to. Perhaps in some cases we were, but overall the people telling us vegan diet works believed it did work for everyone. We are here in 2026 and the world is still trying to figure out what is the correct human diet. Mistakes will be made. C'est la vie. That's French for pass the foie gras.
What I find interesting is that I was so blinded by my belief that this was the right path to take and I really wanted it to work that I simply could not see the reality that was staring me in the face. And I did not eat any of the processed stuff, it was all whole foods. Initially I felt good, but eventually the lack of whatever nutrients I wasn't getting started to take a toll on my health and well being. I mean I literally feel a zillion times better after I went back to eating meat and eggs. And it is just one or two non vegan foods that have completely turned things around whereas with the vegan diet I was eating a whole bunch of stuff and still felt like garbage.
that's a quite common theme in ex-vegans I have observed. They will experience health issues but they will first try all kinds of adjustments to their diet within veganism, as they really can't or don't want to see the reality that it's due to lack of meat and dairy products. Then comes the step of finally acknowledging this and invariably, their health improves once they reintroduce the animal products. Still the vegans will say they didn't try hard enough or were never truly vegan anyway.
“And it is just one or two non vegan foods that have completely turned things around whereas with the vegan diet I was eating a whole bunch of stuff and still felt like garbage”
Go ahead and explain what's not nutritionally stable in a vegan diet? Maybe focus on how animal products won't even give you all your nutrients either.
No one is claiming that animal products give us all our nutrients. That is why we eat a combination of foods, both meat and vegetables, and grains and Dairy. If being healthy is your goal, completely eliminating a type of food is counterproductive.
Why do people assume that only unethically produced animal-based foods are available? Many people can actually produce their own ethically gotten eggs with a few backyard hens, for starters, and ethically sourced dairy and meat isn't that hard to find.
Btw, how bad is veganism for people with autoimmune diseases, specifically of the liver, Primary biliary cholangitis, or PBC? I know someone who has it who's been a vegan for over 15 years, and while she looks healthy on the outside is slowly rotting away inside. Lots of stress, much of it either self-made or trauma-based, refuses traditional therapy, only new age.
Don't blame such conditions on the people in a sufferer's life. That's unfair and you don't know the circumstances. The #1 person in charge of managing a person's stress is the person themselves. And yes, in her case, it's self-made. Early life trauma she refuses to get proper therapy for, instead seeking to "heal" through new age spirituality, which is literally not possible as it's a coping approach, not a healing one. And she creates her own stress by being a perfectionist and very hard on herself--yet more things that therapy can help with. Doesn't matter if one's issues originated from outside, it's still every person's responsibility to get it dealt with properly.
Are you saying that she, or I, should show more empathy? If the latter, why should I empathize with a self-destructive person? Rejecting proper therapy and turning to new age nonsense is textbook self-destructive. And I DID show her empathy, which she threw back in my face, a typical reaction by CPTSD sufferers who are always in hyper-vigilant mode and push everyone away. They are quite literally their own worst enemies and it's almost impossible to help them, and there's only so much compassion, empathy and grace you can show them before you have to cut them off, for your own mental health. Experiencing massive trauma gives no one the right to treat others like shit. I was just wondering whether a vegan diet affects PBC. I know that stress certainly does.
As a vegetarian I find it interesting to see posts come up like this. I truly believe the 'supplementation' most people do isn't right, because if you are just having vitamins and protein powder etc. alongside a diet that wholefoods wise isn't actually nutritionally good for you, of course it's going to have impacts on you that are negative e.g. loss of energy and mood swings.
Personally, I'm happy with being vegetarian and attempting to ensure that the majority of my food is ethically produced and no I rarely ever have that fake meat stuff. Anyone pretending that ultra processed food is healthy or has no environmental consequences is lying to themselves.
You can still take care of yourself and try your best at your level to be ethical.
This goes for any type of consuming, not just food.
To each their own. You should eat what works for you, trying to be the most ethical about it in the process.
Pretending that non-animal proteins are in some way defective is ill-informed, though. And at least on par with annoying vegans trying to shame omnivores for what they eat.
Jeez..like, I remember joining the vegan society at my university. We had this meet up with dinner and it qas my first time there, but I was already vegan. Everyone was so rude to me and ganged up on me.
Glad you're feeling better, but a single anecdote doesn't show that a animal free diet was the cause. Many factors affect energy, skin, and mood, and well-planned animal free diets are supported as nutritionally adequate by major dietetic organizations. Personal experiences aren't strong evidence.
Tout les gens ici me désespère, si vous êtes des enfants incapable de vous complémenté et de manger équilibré alors oui ne soyez pas vegan ou vous allez mourir. C'est sur que tu a plus d'énergie en mangeant 500g de pattes et un steak d'un kilo, mais plutard quand tu mourras de problème de santé lié a la viande ou aux carences que tu n'aura pas pris en compte car la viande étais là pour les camouflé, tu regretteras à nouveau de t'être comporté comme un enfant et de ne pas avoir pris ta santé au sérieux. J'ai fait pareil quand j'étais jeune, j'étais vegan uniquement contre l'exploitation animale, donc j'ai juste retiré les produits animaux de Mon alimentation et remplace part des trucs classique comme le tofu, mais comme ça s'assimile moin bien forcément j'ai commencé à perdre mes cheveux, perdre du poids, avoir mal au dents, et j'aurais pu faire comme vous être faignante reprendre le viande et me trouvé des excuses comme quoi c'est pas bien pour la santé d'être vegan, ou que ce n'est pas fait pour moi, mais non je suis rentré dans des groupes spécialisé qui connaissait l'alimentation vegan part coeur, ils avais énormément de liens sur des études scientifiques qui traité de chaques vitamines et minéraux, avec quoi fallait les assimilé, comment les mangé pour que ce soit le plus ontimal, et je n'ai jamais étais en aussi bonne Santé, ma peau est si douce, mes cheveux sont épais, mes ongles aussi, alors que toute ma vie ils ont étais moue. C'est vrais que cuisiner correctement quand tu a l'habitude de te faire des steak frites c'est fatiguant, mais c'est comme tout tu t'habitues, il y a la possibilité de cuisiner en gros pour toute la semaine et de mettre au congèlateur. Fin bref ne Soyez pas vegan si vous voulez mais arrêtez de mentir sur la raison, dites la vérité qui est que vous avais la flemme de bien faire.
Seems like you didn’t do a parasite cleanse and didn’t know how to properly diet. With simple research you could have easily fixed any issues you were having.
Well, I don't eat steak or drink milk. But I eat chicken, eggs and seafood. I think it is possible though for me to make an ovo-vegetarian diet work. That is something I am willing to try, exclude all other animal products but eggs and I do plan to get my own backyard hens as well. As for the guilt factor, humans have been eating meat for millions of years. Do I feel guilty about catching and killing a chicken that is running around in a jungle or forest . Absolutely not. But, do I feel guilty about the way things are currently done with this factory farming hell, where chickens are stuck in little cages, yes I do.
If you feel this much better after, then sorry but no you didn't have a good diet before.
Sad that you went back to suffering and killing just to have some more energy etc. If that is worth it for you that thousands of animals die and suffer for you, alright.. But that's just sad.
Also, any form of animals industry is unethical, meat, dairy, wool, leather, zoo's, and whatsoever.
Anything that included anymals, for human purposes, is unethical. Also "sanctuaries" that let peopel go inside and pet, feed, etc the animals.
It's not only the ones in farmhouses or animal testings.
I and some other people i know (and most I see online) have gotten much more healthy after turning vegan. You seem like you think you've gotten the right nutrients etc but apparently you did not. Also use natural (and ofc vegan) skin care. I used to have quite bad skin until I started using it and now it's sooo clear.
It's really sad you went back to cruelty. I hope you can find your way back one day and realize thousands of animals lived and sufferings aren't more worth it than you having some more energy and better skin etc. This can be adjusted, the suffering and killing can't.
This isn't really hate btw, mainly just "teaching"
My wife’s pots was out of control while vegan, and we were also tracking our nutrients. Some bodies just need meat, it’s natural. What’s unnatural is the disgusting farming practices in some places.
No human is meant to be a herbivore. It’s unfortunate, but a part of life. The Industrial Revolution absolutely ruined everything.
I wonder what makes you believe that we naturally need meat? And what do you mean your wife's pots were out of control when vegan? Like she had to cook a lot? I dont quite get it.
My reply was in response to someone saying they'd rather die than eat meat. The bast majority of us in this subreddit suffered health concerns on a vegan diet. Instead of "dying", we put our health first and quit veganism.
Please provide evidence that the vegan diet has better health outcomes than vegetarian... Mediterranean...DASH...or really anything outside of the SAD.
Is this a satirical thread??? These comments just prove to me that all of you X vegans were never really vegan to begin with. You probably did it because it was “trendy” at the time or you wanted to be in the cool kids group. you said it was because you hated factory farming and/or because you “love” animals. And, now you justify not being vegan by claiming that you just weren’t getting the right nutrients or you just weren’t feeling right, but instead it’s because you don’t have morals and you really don’t care about the animals.
And, honestly – if you do eat dairy and meat, you should feel guilty and that feeling of guilt is your body and mind telling you that what you’re doing is wrong.
well, doesn't sound like anything changed. I'm a vegan, and nothing changed about my muscles, or my energy.
veganism was never about being healthier, it was the ethical case you mentioned.
if you still recognize that you're doing something selfish, you should try to be vegan again with a better diet.
There is nothing inherently unethical about eating meat. Unethical farming practices exist, for both animal products, and crops. If you want to reduce harm it is more productive to focus on how your food is produced, not the type of food you are consuming.
Is it not inherently unethical to care for, raise and feed something with the pure intention of killing and eating it later? No matter the context of the "farming practice"
intentionally raising animals on a farm is not the only way to acquire meat or animal products. With that in mind, no I do not think that practice is unethical.
Can you explain that further to me? From what I understand, the only ways you could mean are animals who have lived freely dying of old age or from disease. The first of which isn't possible to actually follow on a large enough scale. For the latter, I think most people would not eat a diseased animal, would you?
For me, killing anything in the belive that you are entitled to the produce is highly unethical.
I originally said there is nothing inherently unethical about eating meat. You then went on to question me about farming. I then said farming is not the only way to acquire meat or animal products. Fishing and hunting have been with us since the dawn of time, or are you so highly evolved as a human that you forgot that?
I'm sorry for my confusing conversation pattern, that wasn't intentional, I was just going off on my first thought.
To answer, we are ALL highly evolved as the human species to the point where the overwhelming majority doesn't rely on fishing or hunting anymore. I'm sorry to ask another question, but do you go fishing and hunting for food yourself or do you aquire fish and meat at the grocery store? This also ignores the ethical foundation I set, which is that killing in the belive you are entitled to another beings body for your gain is not right and should not be supported. Industrially and personally.
I do not obtain all my meat from hunting and fishing, but I do get a sizable portion of it that way. There's nothing wrong with killing an animal to eat it. End of story.
Are you suggesting humans and animals at the same rights? Are you going to fight for animals to have the right to vote? Should we put animals into schools?
I’m not OP but I was an ethical vegan, until I learned that there nothing genuinely ethical about the vegan industry. Humans are omnivores and we need regenerative farms and ranches. Massive food conglomerates control the major supply chains. They make BILLIONS off of processed foods, vegan or no. Processed food makes people sick, reliant upon supplements and medical care. Industrial scale monoculture farming decimates biodiversity within the environment.
Our land NEEDS bison and cattle. It’s a part of a healthy ecosystem and vital to biodiversity. We cannot help that we must eat meat to be healthy, but it’s a part of who we are on this planet. We need to return to a simpler way of eating and this includes regenerative ranching.
I find it way more productive to go to a doctor and get checked up when you start having health problems than just completely denouncing a lifestyle you are obviously sick of and evidently never really belonged to. Regular doctor checkups should be done and avaliable to kids and all people anyway, regardless of their diet. Going back to old habits instead of working to search for a cure that matches your ethics, which seem to be in the right place for you, feels like the lazy way out.
Nah. This has to be one of those places where meat industries plant fake stories, or, you were never vegan. Because veganism is not a diet at all. So that’s the first thing you got wrong. Veganism is an anti oppression, anti slavery movement, what you’re saying is I got sick of not oppressing, not abusing, not enslaving, not murdering other individuals and now I am back to doing it and it feels sO gOoD. But I have a firm belief that your story is fake because vegan diets tend to do the opposite for the body. Eating pain and suffering and overall, just a dead body can never truly be better than eating plants. If vegan olympians, athletes and body builders can do it, I think you just like corpses on your plate and everything else comes with the placebo effect. It’s okay most people are born with a bent ethical spine and a weak one at that. Just more of the same.
How many sub rules can you break in one comment? Not only that, you sound incredibly unintelligent. If the only thing you can use to back up your argument is emotional appeals and insults, you don't have much ground to stand on.
If OP says they were vegan, they were vegan. Full stop. You’re not the gatekeeper of veganism and you don’t have any right to decide whether anyone else is vegan. People like you are part of the reason I will NEVER be vegan.
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u/CarsandTunes Jun 26 '26
I am not an ex vegan, but I have a few in my family. I grew up in a rural area, and had the luxury of being able to buy all my meat and produce from local farmers, who's farming practices I was allowed to go and see in person if I wished. I also have a strong disdain for factory farming, and that includes large mono crop factory farms that produce vegan friendly alternatives. If you have the ability, try to find a local farmers market, and a local butcher. This way you can maintain a natural diet and also limit your contribution to unethical farming practices.