One of the first days of my immersion experience, I sat at my kitchen table listening to my stomach grumble. It was about four hours after I had eaten breakfast. Since I was trying a vegan diet for a week, my breakfast consisted of avocado toast with an orange. Normally, I would eat an egg with my toast, but that was something that I had to cut out this week. I finally decided to check out what was in the fridge. My eyes immediately went to the chicken alfredo my mom had made a couple of nights ago. Two more things I couldn’t eat chicken and alfredo sauce that contained dairy. My stomach grumbled again as I began to realize this experience might be more difficult than I previously thought. Worry set in that going straight from eating like the average American to cutting out all animal products was too big of a jump.

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 I’ve always wanted to eat fewer animal products for ethical reasons. After taking an environmental science course, I also learned there were good environmental reasons to cut out animal products. More recently I’ve learned about the actual impact animal agriculture has on the environment. I thought that transportation was a huge contributor to carbon emissions, but I never knew how much of an impact livestock had on the environment. Of the greenhouse gas emissions that are created by humans, livestock contributes 14.5% according to a study by FAO (Gerber et al., 2013). Not only does animal agriculture have a significant impact on the environment due to its greenhouse gas emissions, but it also has a huge impact due to the amount of land and water it requires. According to the film Cowspiracy, the industry uses 34 trillion gallons of water in total. In order to produce a single hamburger, 660 gallons of water are used (DiCaprio, 2016).

           

When I told my family that I was going to try a vegan diet, they immediately shared their concerns with me. They were worried that I wouldn’t get enough protein or that I would get hungry between meals. My parents are basically convinced that you have to eat meat, so they were hesitant at first. They got past their hesitation since they knew I was only trying a vegan diet for a week. I managed to get them on board with trying some vegan products and vegan recipes too. I created a grocery list compiled of fruits, vegetables, and all kinds of vegan alternatives. 

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Creating this list took a little more thought than a normal grocery list because I wasn’t exactly sure of what ingredients were in the foods I normally ate. I had to do quite a bit of research before I began to figure out what I needed to eat to stay healthy and what I could not eat. I learned that vitamin B12 is one of the only vitamins that is only found in animal products and our body can’t produce vitamin B12. Therefore, almost all other nutrients can be obtained from plant-based sources (“Office of Dietary Supplements - Vitamin B12”).  I also learned that being vegan means reading tons of nutrition labels. There are also tons of names for things that contain animal products that aren’t as obvious as “eggs” or “milk”. In an article about veganism, registered dietitian Alina Petre says some of the less-known animal-derived ingredients are “albumin, casein, carmine, gelatin, pepsin, shellac, isinglass, and whey” (Petre).  I had to look out for these animal-derived ingredients and animal products while planning meals.

           

It is becoming much easier to move to a vegetarian or vegan diet though. One of the first things I did was download a scanner on my phone that would tell me if products I scanned contained animal products. It helped me ensure there weren’t odd animal-derived ingredients in what I was eating. More and more restaurants are adding vegan options to their menus. I found many restaurants that have vegan options and even large chains and fast-food restaurants are creating vegetarian options. When looking for places with vegan options I could try, I found out that even Burger King has a vegetarian burger!

             

I didn’t try Burger King’s Impossible Burger since it contains egg, but I did try a few different vegan options at restaurants. It wasn’t that difficult to go out to eat considering many of the places I regularly eat have vegan options. If I were to remain a vegan, I guarantee I would live on pasta. That’s why I decided to see what vegan options Noodles & Company has. Little did I know, one of my favorite things to eat there is actually vegan. Their Japanese Pan Noodles are vegan and you can even add tofu to the dish. Some of the restaurants I ate at were slightly more difficult to find vegan options or items on the menu had to be altered to be considered vegan. That being said, I was still shocked at how easy it was to eat out and still be able to get great meals.

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Being a college student, I don’t have the money to eat out every day. I definitely tried plenty of new vegan recipes at home. I was curious if I would be able to make some of the foods I love at home. I wasn’t too worried about missing anything, except for dairy products. Surprisingly, there are tons of substitutes for milk and many dairy-free kinds of cheese. I made the mistake of believing that all of these substitutes would somehow taste the exact same. I knew I liked almond milk, so I decided to use it for cooking as a substitute for regular milk. In many recipes, there is not much of a difference and sometimes I even prefer almond milk. On the other hand, I wasn’t a fan of dairy-free cheese. My friend, Aliya, recommended the brand Chao for vegan macaroni and cheese. I was not a fan of this one. Maybe if I hadn’t expected it to taste just like normal macaroni and cheese, I might have liked it better.

           

Overall, this experience was not what I expected it to be. I imagined that by the end of the week I would be so excited to eat a hamburger or macaroni and cheese or at least something that wasn’t vegan. That’s why I was surprised when I was still eating a vegetarian diet, on accident, a week later. I have realized it is easier to cut out foods derived from animals than it may seem throughout this experience. Beyond that though, I gained so much knowledge about the positive impact becoming vegan has on the environment. Like many Americans, I didn’t think I could ever switch to a vegan diet, however, more people should try to it.