Talk to me ...
Health benefits ?
What are the downsides ?
Expensive ?
Do you supplement ?
Interested
Been vegan 8 years now, health benefits include the fact I'm still alive.
There's a lot of talk around better recovery times in sport, increased energy etc. It's super hard to measure because everyone's different - don't get sucked in by the documentaries that make out you will become like Wolverine or some kind of super human by exercise and going vegan. But I imagine there's some science in there?
Downsides - I guess the start; learning to look at the backs of stuff and then sighing when you find out something has milk powder in it. EDIT - this gets loads easier over time, after a year or so you get to almost have a 6th sense as to what might be okay. When they changed the law so that allergens had to be in bold, this got easier.
Obviously 8 years ago the landscape was very different and eating out was very much a planned endeavour - ask for a vegan pizza at Pizza Hut and you'd get a bowl of olives. Now, so many places cater.
Weird or over top people who base their entire personality around a lifestyle choice and talk down to others I personally find a bit of a downer.
Constant questions from work colleagues or "banter" I've gradually got used to over the years and to be honest I'm a gobshite and have an answer for everything. But could be a downer for some people. I generally won't even bring it up, but people will notice and you will get asked the same questions over and over again.
8 years ago it was cheap. Obviously now, the landscape has changed, options are more readily available so you don't have to go home and cook a pinto bean curry before you go to the pub. Companies and businesses are taking advantage of the fact it's become a "trend" so to speak, so some of them charge a premium for tasty treats. You can do it cheap if that's what you want to do.
Don't try and live solely off the fake meat type things - you will maybe die
![Face with tears of joy :joy: 😂](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/6.5/png/unicode/64/1f602.png)
whole grains, beans, nuts etc are your friend. That's not to say you can't get some of the Richmond kev Keegan sausages, but try and vary it.
I get B12 supplements and multivits and that's it, don't have any health problems. Not sure if I need them, just habit.
I didn't really notice a difference, but I was vegetarian before I went vegan. I did notice a difference in having better energy levels and feeling like I needed to sleep less when I went veggie.