We just need to remove the fog from our eyes and we’ll start to see clearly again!

All I can say, is of course, DUH! Correct! What was everyone getting so scared about? It seems similar to the cries of ‘how will you get calcium w/out dairy’ (the correct reply, for me, is ‘look at most asian countries, they don’t do dairy and they don’t seem to be hurting for lack of it!). So again, my favorite Vegan Resources, Vegan Valor, you hit the nail on the head and again, brought up so many important and intellegent facts….I, for one, am glad to have found you as a resource, you truly are amazing, talented, funny, and when armed with scientific fact, again, can’t be beat!

Keep it coming! And thank you again and again!

I’ll have to try that myself. The margarines I buy don’t have any hydrogenated fats. I agree with you on that. They should be avoided totally.

Best,

Jason

Thanks for the kind words.

It is tough being enlightened and compassionate when there is so much ignorance around. But I imagine it was similar in the early days of the slavery abolition movement. I’m sure abolitionists back then had the exact same thoughts as you do.

One must never lose hope. Without hope you are vulnerable to despair and despair is a very dark and disheartening place to be.

My veganism is a low key veganism where it is just a part of my life and it doesn’t usually come up unless folks notice and inquire about it. At that point I try to gently and succinctly explain my reasons and benefits for it. But you have to be gentle and quick. I’ve noticed you only have a minute or two before the courteous curiosity leaves.

Most folks don’t want to be confronted with the cruelty on their plate and what they put in their mouths. Understandable. So find gentle ways to approach the topic. Talk about the ethics. I like to tell them that I just can’t be party to animal slaughter when it isn’t necessary for my health. Make it about you rather than about them. Don’t point fingers or be too militant. That just shuts people off and they get defensive.

Keep up the good fight. Less than 70 years ago, no one knew what a vegan was, the words wasn’t even made up then. Nowadays it is in the public lexicon and that is a good sign.

Btw, I feel that eggs are more like “menstrual waste” rather than “chicken abortions”. Most eggs you buy in the store are not fertilized so there was never the potential for a chicken to be born.

Great job. You are definitely ahead of the nutrition curve eating a plant based diet.

However, iron can be an issue for some women for whatever reason. I’d just hate for folks to blame their vegan diet when you can easily add additional high iron vegan foods or worst case supplement iron.

An irone deficiency or any deficiency for that matter is a poor excuse for aborting a vegan diet.

Best of vegan health to you,

Jason

Thanks for reaching out to me with your questions. I’ll try and help you the best I can. I’m assuming you don’t want to eat gluten because you are gluten intolerant or you have celiac disease. Gluten is the protein part of wheat so it can be eaten by vegans as long as you aren’t intolerant to gluten. This blog is not specifically about gluten free vegan cooking but I have a few recipes that are gluten free. You can check out this gluten free carrot cake recipe as well as this gluten free vegan hot dog recipe.

The best way to learn how to cook vegan gluten free is to buy a cookbook for that purpose. The Gluten Free Vegan is a great one to start with. As mentioned, I’m not sure if you can’t eat gluten because of an allergy or if you think that gluten is NOT vegan. Just to be clear, gluten is vegan and can be eaten by vegans if you are not intolerant to it.

Whey is a by-product of milk and that is why vegans don’t consume whey. To be more specific, whey is one of the proteins found in milk, in this case cow’s milk. I wrote a blog post about why whey is not vegan that might help you understand that issue better. As for why vegans don’t eat marshmallows, that is because marshmallows like Jell-O are made from gelatin and gelatin is made from the hooves, sinews and other parts of horses and cows. I’ve written about how to make vegan Jell-O without having to use gelatin. That post will explain gelatin to you in further detail and why it is not vegan.

I have found that with my own son, the best approach to helping him see the value of a vegan diet is to be a compassionate example. It is heart breaking to see the cruelty and to show it to your own children and have them unmoved by it. But the softer approach is always more helpful I have found. I just gently explained why I don’t eat animals and why we don’t need to. In essence my belief is centred around the fact that we don’t need to eat animals for health. And so if we do choose to eat animals it is only for our selfish wants to be able to taste their flesh. And in order to taste their flesh we have to kill them and killing is never compassionate, humane or kind. And in fact, because animal agriculture is such a huge business, it has become mechanized to the extent that killing these creatures for our plate is grossly inhumane and cruel. And if you choose to support a tremendous cruelty which is the slaughter of animals just for taste pleasure then that is nothing more than evil. Of course you have to try and say it more gently than that, but that is the truth of the matter.

Now you can’t get your daughter to become vegan, and it sounds like she is rebelling and perhaps the two of you are having a power struggle as she tries to assert herself and form her own independence. However, what I have found helpful is to lead by example as mentioned above. There is no need trying to force the issue. Be the kind and compassionate example you can be. Be kind and compassionate to her too and not just in your stance as a vegan, because veganism is built on the foundation of kindness and compassion and not just towards animals but towards our fellow humans.

However, because she is living in your house I would have no concerns in you dictating that your house is a vegan house. As such, the meals she eats at home can and should be vegan. When she is out with her friends she can eat as she chooses.

Your mother or Makayla’s grandmother is probably upset about this issue of veganism because it makes her uncomfortable. When folks are exposed to the truth for the first time, and the cruel truth of factory farming, it can be very hard to accept and it is upsetting to them too. None of us want to find out that we are aiding cruelty by the choices we make at breakfast lunch and dinner.

However, perhaps you are becoming quite vocal and outspoken about it, and nobody likes to be beaten over the head by veganism. The soft, gentle approach is always better I have found. Continue to lead by example and perhaps buy a membership to PeTA or the Vegetarian Resource Group or Veg News. For around $25 to $50 a year you will then be sent a monthly or bi-monthly or quarterly magazine that is full of vegan information and recipes that you can leave around the house for everyone to read and enjoy.

If you have any pets like cats or dogs you can use them as ambassadors for veganism. My wife for example became vegan after living with her cat for a few years. She started to think about why she ate cows and pigs and chickens and yet doted over her cat and would never consider eating her cat. Animals are more similar than they are different. You can use that similarity to expose the difference in how we treat certain animals and not others.

Lastly, I’ve noticed that you and your mother and your daughter all live together. If you are the one paying the bills then of course you can make the rules and those rules might be that your house is a vegan house. However, if your mother is paying the bills then obviously you have no say in whether meat is eaten in the house or not. If you both share the bills then you also cannot dictate that the house be vegan.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day you can only change yourself and that change is important. Your daughter and your mother are watching you and they might change by your example. Not everyone who is exposed to veganism and the peace and compassion and kindness in this way of life is moved to become vegan and this is one of my biggest sadnesses. However, the kind and gentle approach is often the most successful.

I see from your email address that you are likely Christian. Jesus was a gentle and compassionate man and made a powerful impact upon the world. If you take away the dogma of Christian teaching and just ask yourself sincerely how would Jesus behave to try and move folks to a more compassionate and kind diet I think you are well on your way to success.

Hope this helps. All the best,

Jason