The quandary of veganism

A few turning vegan may not necessarily make the earth a great place, but there is no harm in trying to do our bit, suggests Vivek Phadnis

From being scoffed at and ridiculed to becoming the butt of jokes, it is not easy to be vegan! God forbid that one should end up being the only vegan in a group. It is usually a lost battle in trying to get the message across.

Being a part of a vegetarian family, it remained like that until I went to college. Call it rebellion or just trying to fit into the group, I began to eat meat. But I decided to give up meat eventually. But what about the dairy and eggs I consumed? I soon gave up dairy, eggs, silk, leather and anything that came from animals.

Quite often, I had to counter questions about what I am trying to achieve as a vegan. At times, I have had to be firm in saying I don’t really care about tasty mutton or chicken biryani, something that I was apparently missing.

The fact is that being vegan is not easy. If it is not something like rasam, which we all know is surely vegan, I had to try hard and find out the ingredients used before consuming a dish.

It is sometimes very difficult to know if there is any animal-sourced ingredient like fresh cream in, for example, a north Indian style mixed vegetable curry. Or if beer had isinglass (a substance derived from fish), which is used for clarification of the liquid. Or try explaining to someone that coffee can be great without milk.

Eventually, I began to dig deeper and for alternatives to fulfil nutritional requirements. I found success with some, but also failed when it came to others. Low body Calcium and Vitamin B12 are common problems. Doctors ordered me to consume dairy products. This was a perplexing situation. Sure, calcium tablets would help, but it had to be dairy products in the long run.

Turning vegan may be for improving athletic performance or ethical reasons. But there is also another case for moving towards veganism or at least a plant-based diet — the environment. It takes a lot of natural resources. Research has shown that if more people were on plant-based diets, there would be more food for people. A few turning vegan may not necessarily make the earth a great place, but there is no harm in trying to do our bit.

I must admit that my vegan experiments have had varied success. I have been a strict vegan for long periods, but I have also succumbed to temptation. Honestly, it’s tough and it’s a quandary.

(The author takes refuge in food after a tiring day with cars and gadgets.)