People are quitting veganism. Is this why?

TODAY'S VIDEO:

In today's video, I am talking about ex-vegans. However, rather than focussing on this issue from the perspective of influencers making videos announcing they're no longer vegan, I wanted to approach this conversation by talking about everyday people who stop being vegan.

To do this, I focus on two types of vegans. The first being the vegan who dives headfirst into the community and becomes completely immersed in veganism, and the second being the person who goes vegan on their own with no support from their family or social circles.

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ABOUT ED:

Ed Winters is a best-selling author, vegan educator, public speaker and content creator. Ed has spoken at over 1/3 of UK universities and at every Ivy league college, including as a guest lecturer and Media & Design Fellow at Harvard University.

[ed.winters]

I’d love to hear your thoughts below about ex-vegans and what leads some people who seem to have connected with veganism to then turn their back on it.

[thatdaniperson]

Your next book MUST be about this, Ed. How to live Vegan in a Non-Vegan world. It will complete the trilogy!

[buyerofsorts]

I've had people actually get mad at me when they discovered I don't eat meat.

[denabywater]

I became vegan on my own at around 15 years old, my mum then became vegan and now at 22 my girlfriend has just turned vegan after being a hardcore meat eater her whole life! So I went from having no vegan people around me to having those closest to me become vegan :)

[disneybunny]

I am the only vegan in my social circles, but my friends are very supportive. They are fine if we go to a vegan restaurant or if I make them vegan food. One of them made sure that I had a good meal at her wedding!! My family is hands off about it but they still complain and push back even after almost 4 years. They complain if I make them vegan food, complain if I want to go to a vegan restaurant, and say that I am judgey or that I push my beliefs onto them even though I rarely talk to them about veganism. And they blame my health problems on it even though my bloodwork is fine. Despite all of this, I never once wanted to stop. I even started volunteering at a refuge this year!

[mariaelisabettacraveri]

I went vegan at 51, I'm 63 now and sure as hell I'll NEVER go back to eating animal products. I did It on my own, and my friends think I'm weird (boomers!).

[MSchipper]

I am the only vegan I know around me. And I live in a part of the country where vegan things are not so readily available. A spontaneous visit to a restaurant is impossible. The catering at work is absolutely unvegan. Everything they offer has meat, fish, , dairy or eggs in it. That said.... my collegues tell me the admire me for sticking to my principles, so does my dad. Although he will also say I am 'extreme'. My familiy tries to accomodate me as much as possible, supporting me in that way.
Do I feel like a lone ranger sometimes? Definitely. But I can't imagine going back to using animal products. It's just not food to me anymore.

[LC-gsqv]

I went vegan aged 44 and did it alone. In 5 years I've met one other vegan! I've no vegan friends and surrounded on a daily basis by non vegans! It's not easy, but there's not a chance in hell I'll ever revert

[YESHUASATAN]

I was a ex vegan, now I'm just vegan.

[andrearomo]

I’ve been vegan for 7 years now and it is the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire life. Never going back to eating animals again.
Thank you for inspiring us, Ed.
❤

[EngineersQuest]

Fourteen or fifteen years vegan. Something like that. Doesn't matter how long. What matters is that I am and will ALWAYS be.

[vickidasilva]

Our vegan daughter confronted us, her parents, and her sister in 2019. We have been a vegan family since 1/1/2020. My husband and I moved (kids are adults living elsewhere) permanently to Nova Scotia, Canada in 2018 from the U.S. We were so excited to live year round in our rural Cape Breton town which we had been visiting for 30 years as we had so many friend groups and it felt like the home we always dreamed of. After becoming vegan that ended within months as the awkwardness and alienation was overwhelming. We are the only vegans in our town of about 1200 people. Nova Scotia is all about fishing, farming animals, horse racing and wool spinning. It is all seen as wholesome and good, like everywhere. 😢There is zero room for any conversations about animal exploitation. So we stopped socializing as we have accepted we will not change anyone’s thinking nor do we feel comfortable around them anymore. Our species is so locked in to denial it feels as if denial is humans’ most common attribute and the primary reason for our violence and destruction of nature, climate collapse etc. We will always remain vegan as being an anti speciesist is what has brought us a true sense of love and compassion for all. ❤ Thank you Ed for your unwavering commitment! You have helped us tremendously with your books, videos and overall knowledge!!! ❤ #forevervegan

[laurameszaros]

Vegan for almost 10 years, vegetarian 23 years before then. It has never crossed my mind to return to consuming animal products. But I have pretty much always liked animals more than people. Maybe that helped.

[lorihowell]

I would rather walk alone in my integrity than with a crowd that has no conscience. Fortunately, when I became Vegan, suddenly Vegans materialized left and right and they became my most treasured friends.

[laurar]

Went vegan on my own. And never looked back. 🥦

[anandamayimaa]

Ed, you were one of the earliest voices to push me to veganism. Today i am vegan for life

[CaroAbebe]

I’m one of those lone vegans. Only vegan in my family, only vegan in my circle of friends. However, luckily, I haven’t been exposed to bullying, not even to ridicule - not to my face, at least (I do know they’re talking behind my back 😅).

[BenvanBroekhuijsen]

I am an ex vegetarian, tried to be vegetarian several times, and had to start eating meat again, just because I would be in constant pain because my mouth was full of aften, and believe me, having permanent aften is horrible. So for years I went on and of the vegetarian diet.

Then I saw a video of the channel: Plant Chompers, and this time I was determined to make it work for health reasons. I was (and still am) overweight, had severe health problems. High bloodpressure. NO energy at all and wondered for what I was even living when all I really could do, is try to make it through my day of work, and after that in the weekend I was to exhausted to do anything. I already was going to the gym since 2020, that helped a bit, but I kept feeling terrible.

Before I was taking vitamine tablets that had B12 in them, but it was never enough. I kept having aften and my dentist already had told me years ago that vitamin B could help to prevent aften. So this time I bought B12 tablets of a very high dose (1000 Micrograms). I keep reading we don't need that much, but apparently I do.

I in the mean time also had seen a video titled dairy is scary, and I had no Idea. I hated myself for being so stupidly naiv to never make the connection. I am absolutely not a dumb person, but for some reason I never made the connection. In one of my vegetarian periods I was even buying vegetarian cheese where they didn't use rennet because I thought it was so bad for those calfs. How utterly dumb was I. Right before I became vegan I was even buying eggs from a free range farm. How the f... was I so stupid to fall for that....

I watched documentaries on netflix like the game changers and what the health and on YouTube an important video from Gary Yourofsky.

How could I have been so blind for decades of my life?

I turned vegan about 2 years ago, expecting the kilo's to fly off, unfortunately that did not happen, but I did feel better. Thanks to the high dosage B12, I rarely ever have aften, and when I do, I suck on Strepfen tablets to numb the pain, and they go away much faster now. In days instead of weeks.


The latest discovery I did, was find out about the Starch Solution. THIS IS IT. This is the vegan diet that not only lets me eat what I love to eat, it helps me loose weight. Not quickly, but I do loose weight and already went down fro 114 to 104 kilo's.

I take less blood pressure medication and I know from experience that if I get below 90 kilo's, that I can throw away the medication.

I hate to have dinner with friends and even with my husband because I see them feasting on dead animal corpses and hear them make noises like hmmmm oooh this tastes so good. I hate it. They do an effort to go to a place with me where there is at least one vegan option. And everynow and then my husband goes to a vegan only restaurant with me. He loves the food more than I do, because it is Portuguese food and I am not really into that. Sometimes we make vegan burgers together and he tells me how good they are. YET, he keeps buying burgers made from dead animals. I simply don't understand. I can't understand why it is necessary to buy this if he has an alternative that he really likes.

It is frustrating, but it only strengthens me in my choice to be a vegan. I really cannot understand why people with their knowledge can go back to eating meat and consuming dairy. Just like I can't understand why people continue to go back to smoking, even when they know it is bad for their health, expensive and stinks.

I just can't understand these people which unfortunately also are close friends or even family.

People telling me they have done a colonoscopy and are shocked about the fact that they have polyps and are worried, while they are sucking at a sigaret. IT MAKES NO SENSE

Anyway, now I have found a way to eat good food AND feel much better.. I am never, ever going back to eating animal products. Unless the apocalypse breaks loose, but lets hope that in my lifetime the covid pandemic was the worst thing I had to go through :D

[egaddz]

16 years vegan and I'm the only one I personally know. My partner of 3 years is an omni, but she's ~95% vegan by association.
Even if I knew that I could live longer by eating animal products, I'd rather die early and live an ethical life.

[Whymee]

I’ve been a passionate vegan for 7 years.

However, I first tried to go vegan 10 years ago. It took me 3 years to jump on board because my friends and family doubted me and it was extraordinarily hard to push back against that. Plus it was hard to distinguish what “experts” were actually worth listening to in regards to my media consumption

It wasn’t until I got a much stronger sense of self that I actually stuck with veganism. It takes A LOT of strength, courage, and conviction to do something different from family and the majority of society.