Vegan Living with Non vegans
Story by,
Satyarth Mishra
Image Credit - Satyarth Mishra
Love, respect, moral and ethical issues, arguments, making choices and adjustments, its all about a vegan living with a non-vegan.
“The hardest thing about being a vegan among non-vegans, when you see how compassionate they are about their dogs, cats and pets but they never show the same compassion about farm animals. So you always want to shake them,” says Anya Darling, a 26-year-old Torontonian.
Darling is a hairdresser in Toronto, and a vegan.
“I became a vegetarian for like six or seven months before switching as a vegan,” says Darling. “Most people think that veganism is too extreme. I have been an ethical vegan since was 17 years old,“ says Darling.
Having a supportive family and a husband helped Darling to choose her own way of living.
“My mom is very supportive. Earlier it was hard for her to understand why I was a vegan,” says Darling.
Darling says in the early stages of her relationship with her husband as a vegan, being vegan could be very difficult.
Kath Clemens lives with her boyfriend in Toronto. In the two years of their relationship she has had ethical differences sometimes.
Clemens says her house is 95 per cent vegan.
“Once in a while my boyfriend brings meat but it’s pretty rare,” says Clemens.
According to Clemens, dining out can be challenging.
“We are limited to the places we can go, and so sometimes it needs to be compromised on where we would go out for dinner.”
Clemens was attracted to the vegetarian food from her childhood and she had a deep desire to become a vegetarian. Her journey of being a vegan started very early.
“I was really interested in being a vegetarian, but Once I learned that was also harmful and a part of using animals for human needs, I just made that connection and didn’t want to be part of that either,” says Clemens.
Growing up in a family that eats meat, and seeing her grand father in the cattle farm made Clemens tolerant and helped her to influence her loved once to eating at least less meat.
“Overall I am actually making an impact because I am influencing another person’s choices although he is a meat eater. He eats meat maybe once a week or on occasion I know that he enjoys it and I can kind of separate my beliefs from his actions,” Clemens explains.
Clemens took part in the Niagara actions for animals, and She is also getting in touch with vegan community of Niagara.
Attribution- Veganism (Facefook Public Page)
“I really fear that when you don’t see an eye-to-eye with your loved one, you know, when you are in your early stages of relationship, it is hard. Even sometimes I felt like I was kind of a guest, asking [that] can we please go to vegan restaurant,” Darling laughs.
Darling’s decision to become vegan was due to medical reasons. Later she discovered the lifestyle had some health benefits.
“When I was 15, I had a gall stone. I became really sick, and the doctor had to take my gallbladder out,” says Darling. “The Doctor suggested to eat less red meat. I went vegetarian after that.”
Darling’s husband has recently become a vegan.
Image Credit - Polina Pilatova
Darling sharing her vegan meal recipe
Attribution- Toronto VeganVeganism (Facefook Public Page)
Bass with her dog Attribution - Bethany's facebook
Bethany Bass is a physiotherapy student, who used to live with four non-vegan roommates before she moved to Toronto.
“Luckily, right now I have only one roommate who is non-vegan,” says Bass. “None of my family is vegan, so I guess I am just kind of used to it. I just make my own food, and I think for peaceful co-existence, I try not to push. The only way I can push it on them by getting her to try vegan stuff that I make, but yeah there is always like chicken and stuff in the fridge that I definitely don’t love but.”
Environmental health and animal cruelty was the first thing that made bass switched as vegan.
“First thing that really made me switched to be vegan was just finding out about factory farming, and then I gradually learned more and more about the health benefits.”
Bass describes her health after switching as a vegan.
“I guess I feel overall better, I don’t know if I physically feel any difference. Some people really say that they do feel a lot of light and healthier, I feel pretty much the same, I think its good that I don’t feel worse by any mean but I definitely feel happier about it.
Bass explains the challenges she has faced during her journey of veganism.
“I ate a lot of cheese and dairy, so I was just used to it, and It was just a matter of finding substitutions that I enjoyed, I think the hardest part for me was, I always had cream in my coffee everyday,” says Bass.
Bethany now use soymilk creamer for her coffee.
Bass explains that visiting her own family could be challenging sometimes.
“Everyone of my family is a non-vegan, I generally make my own food, or I will make more simple thing. They often have toast or peanut butter so that’s the staple for me, and I usually just buy almond milk, and if my parents are making pasta or something, I usually get some to mix almonds on the side. It is a bit of a challenge, but I am not home very often though,” says Bass. “Sometimes they forget like last Christmas my dad offered me turkey, so yeah it is not definitely very privileged in their mind.”
According to Bass, she learned more cooking after becoming a vegan.
“I have never really been a great cook, but I definitely cooked more since I started being vegan, so I have just got few cook books, but a lot of my vegan meals are pretty simple like I make a lot of sandwiches and salads or chickpea curry,” says Bass.