- [Narrator] Deciding to go vegan can cause you
to experience a world of judgment
from family, friends, pets, house plants,
yes, plants have feelings according to some,
and occasionally strangers on the interweb.
So, what kind of person chooses this life of ridicule?
Exactly.
So, here's a list of the top 10 reasons
you should not embrace the plant-based diet.
Number one, the food is truly terrible.
Everyone knows that vegan food is all nuts
and berries and grass, lots and lots of grass.
(cow mooing)
It's definitely not possible to get your hands
on vegan pizza, burgers, chicken, ice cream,
donuts or anything that isn't grass.
That is unless you live near most any kind of bodega,
grocery store, farmer's market, warehouse club
or big box supermarket that stocks these items.
In the US, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's,
Wegmans, and Target are among the supermarkets
that offer a range of plant-based options.
But if you want to follow a truly vegan lifestyle
and only camp out in fields of wheat,
where it's possible to get ahold of these things,
enjoy that terrible life.
Number two, you'll miss the taste of meat.
Unlike meat eaters, vegans cannot season their foods
with herbs, spices, condiments,
and sauces to add to flavor to the texture.
Unless, by some miracle, you have access
to the internet or recipe books.
Without recipes you can't mimic the taste
of fried chicken using simple ingredients
like seitan or cauliflower or create your own version
of pulled pork using plant-based ingredients
like mushrooms, jackfruit, or even banana blossom.
Internet access will also allow you to research
where to buy some of the best vegan meat products
on the market like Beyond Meats, Beyond Sausage,
Moving Mountains B12 burger,
Gardein's mandarin crispy chicken, or Pulled Oumph.
Number three, you will become protein deficient.
Protein deficiency is a genuine fear
among the vegan community.
This is because of the lack
of access vegans have to protein.
If you don't visit stores or supermarkets,
vegan sources of protein, like beans, nuts, seeds,
plant-based meat products, tofu, chickpeas, lentils,
and a wide variety of legumes are hard to come by.
If you are an athlete, it is also tricky
to be a success in your field
without eating meat for protein.
James Cameron's documentary "The Game Changers" proves this.
- When I made the switch to a plant-based diet,
I qualified for my third Olympic team.
I broke two American records.
I'm saying, man, I should've done this a long while ago.
- Number four, you'll miss cheese too much.
It's not that you're addicted to cheese,
it's just that you can't foresee a life
without the gooey stringy, melty,
tasty yellow stuff that's made from cow's milk.
- Do you like cheese?
- Why yes I do, my favorite's Gouda.
It's understandable.
This is one of the ultimate reasons not
to go vegan because if you do,
you'll have to eat cheese-less pizza forever.
That is unless you pop into Pizza Hut, or Zizzi,
or Pizza Express, or order a takeaway from Papa John's,
which all offer dairy free cheese options in the UK.
In the US where they absolutely hate trendy pizza,
we'll have to go to Zpizza, or PizzaRev,
or Blaze Pizza, or Mod Pizza, or Pieology,
or Fresh Brothers, or Midici.
If you don't want to eat out or you fancy making
your own cheesy dish, you simply can't.
(boy yelling)
Unless you buy Kite Hill's vegan ricotta cheese,
or you try out Violife's range of dairy-free cheeses,
or Daiyas, or Miyoko's, or Bute Island,
or Follow Your Heart, et cetera.
Number five, you'll miss eggs too much.
Eggs are a staple of many diets and a key part
of many meals like a traditional full English breakfast.
There's no way you can make a vegan version of an egg.
It's ridiculous to even try.
Unless maybe you were a top chef like Gaz Oakley
who created a vegan egg for Japanese inspired Wagamama.
- I always eat too much and got it all around my face.
That is absolutely incredible.
- Or if you're Gordon Ramsey who added tofu eggs
to the menu at his London restaurant Bread Street Kitchen,
or even if you were just an ordinary
nonprofessional home cook who could pop
into their local supermarket
and buy tofu to scramble, or who could use the internet
to buy Follow Your Heart or just vegan eggs.
- I eat eggs everyday and I didn't even notice.
Wow.
- Number six, you can't easily buy food on the go.
It has always been difficult for vegans
to grab a sandwich on the go and in the last few years,
there has been no change to this.
If you don't count the fact that a number
of supermarkets now offer at least one
or two vegan friendly sandwiches,
you'd have to ignore the sandwich chains popping up
everywhere from Los Angeles to Washington DC
and never stepped foot inside a Subway,
Mendocino Farms, The Sandwich Shop, or Which Which,
a chain that's inside shopping malls, airports, and Target.
Number seven, you'll become B12 deficient.
Following a vegan diet is not the only time
you will be at risk of a B12 deficiency.
A number of experts have said that most people,
plant-based or not, are vulnerable
to becoming deficient in this vitamin.
Getting it on a vegan diet is particularly hard
unless you buy yourself one of those many
B12 vitamin sprays or tablets on the market
from supermarkets or health food stores.
(audience laughing)
- It's so tasty, too.
- [Narrator] You could also try eating particularly
uncommon vegan foods like Marmite, mushrooms,
cereal, or drinking fortified plant-based milk.
Number eight, you can't eat out easily.
Eating out as a vegan is harder than it has ever been.
Restaurants and fast food chains are just not open
to the idea of offering more vegan options
except for White Castle, which offers the Impossible Slider,
and Burger King, which offers the Impossible Whopper.
There's also KFC, which launched its vegan
Imposter Burger across the UK in January 2020,
has trialed Beyond Fried Chicken in various US locations,
and after a successful test run,
the vegan chicken sandwich from Lightlife Foods is now
part of the permanent menu in Canada.
So not much choice really.
Number nine, you'll always be hungry.
As has been highlighted throughout this list,
there's just isn't much for vegans to eat aside from grass.
Unless you have access to nearby supermarkets,
restaurants, delivery chains, or an abundance
of simple plant-based recipes, you're going to go hungry.
It's just a harsh truth of the plant-based way of life.
Number 10, it's too expensive.
Going vegan can really break the bank,
especially with all that extra lettuce you have to buy.
Putting all jokes aside, because in case you didn't notice,
this has all been one big windup.
It's not easy for everyone to switch instantly
to buying plant-based foods over their normal shop.
However, beans, grains, and vegetables can be some
of the cheapest items to buy in the supermarket.
There are also a number of blogs and recipe books
out there dedicated to helping people
cook plant-based on a budget.
If you're yet to be convinced,
a US study from 2015 cites that an individual
can save $750 a year by eating a plant-based diet.
So maybe it's worth a try.
Even making small changes at first can make a difference
like swapping mints for beans just one day a week,
or your normal beef burger for a veggie option.
So what do you think?
A vegan diet sounds like the worst, right?
Or maybe you've been convinced to give it a go.
Let us know in the comments below.
(gentle upbeat music)