Isa Abbott, Opinion Editor–
It was Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and every year, my elementary school would celebrate by serving green eggs and ham for lunch. As a 7-year-old vegan living in Kentucky, my mom did everything she could to make me feel “normal” on this day. She would serve me vegan tofu scramble and put green food coloring in it, and place slices of vegan ham in my lunchbox, while the other kids would eat “real” eggs and ham from the cafeteria.
Back then, I didn’t understand how lucky I was to have my mom pack my lunch everyday. I wanted nothing more than to be seen as “normal.” Often, my peers would tell me my food was gross and that I was weird for not eating meat. I began to beg my parents to let me eat school lunches and I told them that when I get older, I was going to eat chicken and steak.
For some context, my parents decided to go vegan before having me, and so I grew up with a vegan diet. On my bookshelves sat comic books on animal abuse in the food industry, and my parents would preach the idea to me that “animals are friends, not food.” The common misconception throughout my life as a vegan has always been that the diet is “hard” and “restrictive.” My peers would label it as though I was eating grass in all of my meals, and as though I could not eat any chips or ice cream like the rest of them. This misconception was hurtful to me because being vegan has always been a part of my everyday life and my identity, just as eating meat was for them.
When you walk into a restaurant or the dining hall, almost every meal includes meat or dairy, labeling it as the societal “normal diet.” I believe that this excludes and pushes away people. These dining areas make individuals feel that because they are a minority, it is not relevant enough to implement dietary options into their menus.
Coming to college, I had a similar experience where for the first semester, there were not many options for my diet. I would have to drive 30 minutes out of Granville to find affordable vegan groceries, while also taking time out of my studying schedule to cook and shop. In addition, I was told I had to go through a process of dietary accommodations through the Academic Resource Center (ARC) in order for me to eat food that was nutritionally balanced for my diet.
During this time, I lost around 10 pounds (not purposely or wanted) and often would wake up dizzy and lightheaded. I never felt full or healthy. The fact I would have had to go through ARC in order to eat food shows clearly the societal exclusionary idea that veganism is not normal and is a dietary choice, whereas eating meat is normal.
Growing up, there was a similar misconception that my food was not “real,” but theirs was. This is a very skewed way of thinking, considering my diet comes from plants and a carnivore diet includes many health risks, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes due to overly processed meat consumption, such as bacon and sausage. While vegan meat undergoes a system of ultra-processing in order to mimic a similar flavor of meat, that does not mean all vegans implement vegan meat into their diet.
The truth is, the vegan diet is very flexible and allows you to explore a variety of dietary choices. For example, you do not have to eat vegan meat if you don’t want to. Instead, you can substitute for tofu, which is a soybean curd. You can have a whole food diet, or stick to a diet where you explore vegan proteins that may be processed. Either way, neither are bad choices, it is just what works best for your body.
Many people believe that if they go vegan, they will lose a lot of unwanted weight and feel malnourished. With this, another misconception is that vegans do not get enough protein or calcium in their diets. However, vegans get extremely high levels of protein and calcium. Nuts, seeds, tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans, lentils, quinoa, oatmeal, chickpeas, soy milk, and other vegan options, are how I get my protein everyday. I eat at least one of these options daily, and at least one form of calcium, such as green leafy vegetables, plant-based milks, and also beans and lentils. Any of these options act toward similar nutritional values, which makes it easier for me to eat whatever I want, instead of being worried about whether or not I’m getting enough protein or calcium.
My personal diet consists of a variety of vegan options. I have consumed vegan meat, tofu, seitan, and, of course, all of the other plant and vegetable-based options previously listed. However, I also can eat cake, Doritos, ice cream, oreos, and AMC popcorn. It is not as though being vegan means you are restricted to only salads. Sure, that’s an option, but like many kids, I grew up eating junk food, too. For example, the spicy sweet chili Doritos do not have milk or cheese in them, so I can eat them. AMC popcorn also usually uses vegan butter. One of the most popular butters, Parkay Squeeze, is also vegan. It does not become gross until someone tells them what they are eating is vegan, which is a harmful reaction to someone’s diet just because it’s different from their own.
While the cons to the vegan diet is the backlash and isolation that comes with it, I do not believe my family and I have any regrets in this decision. I am glad I continued to choose to be vegan because it is the diet that works for me and supports the environment. I have no resentment toward my family for raising me this way because they also protected my health, as my family has a history of cancer and heart disease.
There was also something very loving about the diet. My mom would pack my lunch everyday and as I got older, she taught me how to make my own meals. My diet was a way for my family and I to bond and spend time together, and was also a way for my parents to share their love through cooking and packing my lunch everyday in a way that I could feel included in an environment that excluded me because I was vegan. My experience being vegan helped me to recognize that it is not just about physical fulfillment, but also familial, community, and emotional fulfillment.
Isa Abbott ‘28 is a politics and public affairs major from Indianapolis, Indiana.