Dumb Questions You Will Get Asked If You're A Vegan

A helpful guide for those unhelpful questions

1. If you're vegan, you can't eat yeast, right?

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This question comes from the idea that yeast is alive and vegans don't eat alive "beings". But hate to break it to you- yeast is not a sentient being while an animal is. Yeast is also technically part of the fungi family, so it's basically no different than eating a mushroom. Unlike an animal, yeast has no central nervous system because it's a single celled microorganism. Boiled down: no, eating yeast is not the same as eating meat, even though both were/are "alive" at some point. Let us eat our bread in peace, please!

2. Why do you focus so much on animal welfare when the produce industry is so rife with unfair labor practices?

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This is going to be tough to tackle in a short paragraph, but first of all: acting like vegans can't care about both animal rights and human rights is misguided. To us it feels almost like a manipulative way to mislead people from caring about animals. For a lot of vegans, the choice to not eat animal products comes from wanting to lessen suffering. This includes wanting to make sure the workers who pick our food aren't treated unfairly. I think both vegans and non-vegans should actively be trying to know where their food is sourced and to try and buy locally as often as possible. In the mean time, yes vegans would also like to not to eat animal products simultaneously.

3. I don't really get why there are fat vegans. Why bother being vegan if you're just going to let yourself go?

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A LOT TO UNPACK HERE. A trope that I personally hope fades out soon is that vegans always choose the lifestyle for their health. A person can be vegan for many different reasons. Some choose to purely because they don't like idea of supporting animal agriculture or they have allergies towards many different animal products. Either way, this doesn't mean they only live on salads and wheatgrass juice. A vegan can eat pizza, doughnuts and ice cream as often as they want (just like you can!) while another vegan may choose to mainly eat raw foods. Also...being "fat" is not a bad thing? A fat person can be healthy while a skinny person can be unhealthy. Why do you care? That judgement NEEDS to go.

4. You can't eat baked goods, ice cream or chocolate if you're vegan, right?

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Oh heck yes, we can! Right now is a fantastic time to be vegan because there are more options than ever. There are many ways to make ice cream without dairy milk (such as substituting with coconut or almond milk) and it's commonplace to find at least a few pints in the freezer at your grocery store. For baked goods, there are many different ways creative bakers have figured out how to replace eggs and butter. Vegan butter is easy to find at more stores now (try Earth Balance or Miyoko's!) or you can make your own at home.

On to chocolate! Most dark chocolate varieties are vegan anyway, as the ingredients are usually simpler (cocoa butter, cocoa mass, sugar and vanilla are the most common ingredients). Unfortunately most grocery store milk or white chocolates are not vegan but if you pop onto Amazon you can find many different options! Whole Foods sometimes also carries some vegan chocolate brands that have a "milk" chocolate.

5. I need to eat a lot of iron, so I can't be vegan. It's harder to eat a lot of iron without eating read meat, right?

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There are a ton of vegan foods that contain loads of iron. Quinoa, soybeans, collard greens, spinach, black beans, oatmeal, cashews, fortified cereals, kale, tofu and tempeh are just some of the options. There are some tricks on helping your body absorb the iron better! For instance, eating iron rich foods along with vitamin C has shown to increase absorption by 5 TIMES. So maybe drink some OJ along with that bowl of oatmeal with cashews. Some studies also suggest avoiding caffeine while eating foods with iron, as they may inhibit how well the body absorbs iron. So it might help to not drink too much iced tea with your falafel and hummus. But if you really do struggle with eating enough iron rich foods, there are vegan friendly iron pills available at the pharmacy or online.

6. Sheep need to get sheared otherwise they suffer, so why won't you wear wool?

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I'm tacking this one on even though I don't really consider it a "dumb" question. Because it's true: a sheep can suffer if its wool is left untamed. For most vegans, not wearing wool comes more down to not wanting to support the practice of using a sheep for it's fur until it's too old and then sending it to slaughter. Another factor is something called mulesing. Mulesing is when skin is cut off of a sheep's hindquarters to try and prevent myiasis (an infection caused by fly larvae, sometimes known as "fly strike"). In theory this then creates thick scar tissue and makes it harder for wool to grow in that spot, therefore preventing flies from infesting the wool and laying eggs. This practice doesn't stop flies from biting the sheep and doesn't always work. A lot of factory shearing methods also can be rough/painful since they're trying to get through so much inventory at a fast pace. To summarize: for vegans who are uncomfortable wearing something that may have come from an animal that was forced to go through pain and later die, wool isn't really an option.

7. But life isn't worth living without cheese, so why bother?

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Cheese is tasty. Cheese is great. Cheese can be a snack or it can be a meal. I hear you. But you can live without it. I promise. Mostly because (just like our vegan dessert substitutes) now is a fantastic time to try eating vegan cheese again. A quick Google search will show you there are TONS of recipes out there for homemade vegan cheese (Miyoko's Kitchen has a killer "mozzarella" recipe). There are also many brands in stores now. Daiya is most common, but there is also So Delicious!, Follow Your Heart, Kite Hill, and Treeline Treenut Cheese to name a handful. If you keep an open mind, I guarantee you will find an option that will appeal to your tastebuds. I also can't leave without suggesting you try any cheesy recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Also for a lot of vegans, the practices behind the dairy industry is enough to make us not miss real cheese as much.

8. Being vegan is considered feminine. I can't only eat plants and still be considered a real man, you know?

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If you go on the Internet for about five minutes, chances are you're going to run into some doofus meme about how men who are vegans are pussies (essentially). This macho man BS has got to stop, people. If you really think a man is only defined by how much meat he eats, I truly feel sorry for you. It's like people who only quote Ron Swanson and think they're hilarious. The sooner we stop reinforcing these classic masculine stereotypes on men, the better. On a lighter note, check out this Buzzfeed list on male celebrities who are also vegan!

9. But you can't eat Starbursts! Or gummy worms! Or marshmallows! How can you stand not eating so many candies?

I mean, yeah kind of a bummer that those all have to have gelatin in them. For those who don't know, gelatin is usually made from what is leftover at the slaughterhouse (bones, horns, skin cartilage, etc.) which is then boiled for a while until the gelatin is created. Obviously not vegan friendly. Gelatin is found in a lot of sweet treats such as frosted Pop Tarts, marshmallows, Starbursts, frosted Mini Wheats, gummy candies, some chewing gum, and most candy corn. Fortunately there are a lot of various vegan candies/sweets out there that can help us out. Even more common grocery store chains like Trader Joe's sell vegan marshmallows and stores like Whole Foods sometimes carry vegan gummies or vegan versions of Starbursts. The unfortunate factor is that these usually are more expensive because finding a gelatin substitute (such as something like agar agar) is ultimately going to be pricier for the manufacturer. So if you're a candy addict and want to be vegan, you probably may have to fork over a few more bucks. But for most vegans, this is a morally a small price to pay.

10. It doesn't really make sense to not eat honey, though?

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A don't think there is any vegan that can argue with you that honey is delicious, packed with multiple health benefits, and has even been used effectively as a medicine for hundreds of years. Most vegans take issue with honey because the commercial extraction of it is filled with problems. One of the biggest ties into our bee collapse problem, which is basically that we're losing bees at a scary fast rate (no bees = no food, so we need them around!). Giant honey farms tend to feed bees cheap sugar water all year around instead of them getting nectar. This dilutes their honey and robs it from being an antioxidant powerhouse. Without those antioxidants to nourish bees, they're more likely to contract diseases. They're also more likely to be sensitive to pesticides. Something commonly debating among vegans is whether or not we can still partake in local, raw honey from our neighborhood beekeeper. For some, supporting them means not spending your money on those diluted honeys from big factories. If you're vegan and truly want to avoid all honeys, there are substitutes out there! I would suggest Bee Free Honee, which is DELICIOUS. All in all, if someone doesn't want to eat honey, it's not our place to be hyper judgmental about it.