Since I announced my pregnancy last year, I’ve been asked quite often whether we would raise our baby vegan. If I saw the question on my blog or social media, I would respond by saying that we decided not to label her diet or lifestyle and I explained why if I had the time. Since I was asked this question so frequently I recently decided to write a blog post on the topic to be transparent about our decision (see: Will you raise your daughter a vegan?). I’ve always been an open book on the blog and figured I could share our thoughts and also ask you to share your own experiences. I enjoy hearing other perspectives because I’ve never been someone who thinks that there is one correct way to do anything. What works for one family might not work for others.
As I expected, there was a wide range of opinions on the topic. Many of you left thought-provoking and respectful comments (whether you agreed or not), and I greatly enjoyed reading them. They led to some wonderful discussions with friends and family this week. However, there were some hateful and threatening comments attacking me, my family, and our decision. According to some, I’m no longer welcome to call myself vegan. This wasn’t entirely surprising; over the past 6 years I’ve often been accused of not being “vegan enough”, being “too mainstream”, or not “doing enough for the vegan movement”, yet here I was receiving hundreds of comments and emails each month from readers telling me my recipes changed their lives, that they were happy to be helping animals, reducing their carbon footprint, and getting healthy even if they weren’t “perfect”. Apparently, my welcoming and non-judgmental approach was indeed the catalyst for major change.
I realize that the scrutiny I’ve faced over the years is from a small percentage of vegans. Tearing each other down is never conducive to furthering the movement though. The majority of vegans I know are incredibly kind and compassionate both to animals and humans alike. However, the personal attacks have made me reflect greatly about whether this label continues to be right for me. Do I want to live my life striving for an elusive perfection that I know I’m too flawed to ever achieve? Or can I do it my way? While some of you will say “don’t let it bother you” and “don’t let them win” I’ll be honest in telling you that experiencing hate on a public forum from your own community wears you down over time. It’s a distraction from my overall purpose and you know what, it sure as hell takes the fun out of the journey.
In the end, I will keep on doing my thing, but without a personal label on my diet or lifestyle. Going forward you can expect to see the same types of crowd-pleasing plant-based recipes on this blog and in my next cookbook; this is how I love to eat and what makes me happy. My goal has always been to encourage others to reduce their animal consumption and embrace more plants in their diet. This is my passion in life not only because of how it has greatly improved my own and those close to me, but for countless other reasons. I still believe that the greatest change happens when we elevate one another, celebrate progress, and of course, share delicious food that challenges the norms of the standard diet. So that’s exactly what I intend to keep doing. There are many ways in which compassionate individuals can spread their message and this is what speaks to my heart. I have no doubt there is something out there for everyone.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years, and also, for reminding me why it’s important to remain authentic even in spite of criticism.
Angela
Please note comments are now closed – May 20/15
Angela, your little girl is very lucky to have a mother who is so open-minded, who encourages thought, compassion, and understanding, and who embraces the differences between people – which is what makes this world so wonderful. What you teach her with this loving perspective toward all beings will benefit and influence the world in a much more meaningful way than a hateful, unapproachable route. And as for labels, the bad things in human history tend to start by labeling a group of people to obscure the ways in which we are all alike. Thank you for your wonderful recipes and for your inclusive, welcoming approach!
People suck. I say I “lean vegan”. Most of what I eat and cook is vegan.
However, I dislike people who eat fish calling themselves Vegetarians, when by definition they are not. So I guess nothing is ever easy….
“Lean vegan”! I love it!!
My husband found your blog a couple of weeks ago in search of dairy free recipes for me, and now I can’t wait to check out your cookbook too! I have a baby girl born just a week or so after yours and we recently found out she has a dairy allergy. You’re recipes have been a great source of dinners, breakfasts, and sweets that I can eat! I just wanted to give you more support, you need to just do you! I’ve been finding it rather ironic, since I cannot eat dairy but I can eat eggs (and I eat meat), I’ll do things like make your vegan butternut squash mac and cheeze and put bacon on it, or your crispy quinoa cakes and serve them with a fried egg! We all make our own choices for our own reasons and I love how your recipes help everyone be healthy whatever their reasons may be!
I don’t blame you a bit. The vegan police keep me from also calling myself a vegan. I call myself a vegetarian, so I don’t have to be under their scrutiny. Calling myself a vegetarian they already think I don’t measure up, but I can live with that. When I would call myself a vegan I had to live with their watchful eye for me to mess up or not be vegan enough. It’s exhausting. They think they are doing good, but honestly they are just making people go the other direction.
You save more animals by guiding hundreds of people to reducing their consumption of animal products by 10% or more than those who disparage anyone who is less than 100% vegan and turn away those who might be open to a semi-vegan manner of consumption. (Backflips to try to avoid saying “diet.” What we eat is our diet. Doesn’t mean it’s “a diet!” Sheesh!)
THIS COMMENT, a million times!!! Very well put, Stephanie.
Angela, my family have reduced our animal-product consumption drastically in the last few months, and I could not have kept my family (especially my Englishman husband) on board had it not been for your recipes.
I just want to say I think you & your blog & your cookbook are fantastic. You and Lindsay of Happy Herbivore are heroes in my eyes. Both of you are very positive and welcoming off all to come and try some plant based foods. I remember Lindsay posting a nearly identical blog post years ago where she proclaimed she was officially no longer “vegan” and changing her label to “plant based”, all because of ridiculous attacks like those you were victim to. For the same reason I have NEVER called myself vegan and never will. I do not want that label and all of the craziness that comes with it. There is a giant black cloud of negativity hanging over the label ‘vegan’ and it’s hurting their cause instead of helping it. The goal is to get as many people as possible to eat less meat & dairy. That is not going to happen when the minute you try to ‘join the club’ someone chews you out for not being good enough. So I agree 100% with your choice – keep doing things your way and I will keep reading your blog and cooking your delicious recipes just as I always have!
Angela,
I am so sorry for the negative response you received on your latest post. I personally agreed with you wholeheartedly. Sometimes its hard to remember that people must make their own choices about their diet/lifestyle, but your words inspired me to think of raising my (future) child “healthy and plant based” instead of vegan like me. But I am disappointed that you have felt pressured into not using the Vegan label. You’re the main reason I transitioned to veganism, and your blog and cookbook inspired me and gave me hope when I felt like I wasn’t being “vegan enough”. I hope that you continue to be yourself and provide us with healthy, plant based recipes! Which are essentially vegan, in the end, so the haters wont win. And for that, I am grateful. (:
It’s absolutely mind blowing how the anonymity of the internet has given people the chance to be mean and hateful. It’s disgusting at how people are ripped apart via social media for not agreeing with another’s opinions.
Most people who are criticizing you harshly are people who would never have the guts to say anything to your face meaning their opinions are worthless. As my mom used to say “they’re just jealous!
I love your plant-based approach to this topic Angela. To be honest, I almost always find the people who are most hateful, label themselves vegan and expect perfection from themselves and others – which we all know is impossible. That threatened, defensiveness comes out the second someone else “slips-up”, however minor. Can’t we just all eat how we want? The labelling is so excessive these past few years. I say do what makes you happy, and while yes, it’s easy for us readers to say don’t pay attention to them, try not to! It’ll be better for your health! xo
Angela, think it’s very admirable that you make a stand like this. I feel that the “all or nothing” attitude of some vegans (I also think they’re a minority) does a lot more harm than good, it just discourages and alienates people. For most people, going 100 percent vegan is very, very hard. Not everyone has a social network full of vegans, not everyone is comfortable with making demands about other people’s cooking or which restaurant to pick, not everyone has the time or the money or the energy to go all the way in a society that mostly consists of omnivores. I’m also eating a “mostly vegan” diet, and what I keep thinking is that the amount of effort and annoyance to other people it would require for me to go 100 percent vegan doesn’t balance out the benefits to the world of such a small change. If I’m 95 percent vegan, I think that’s good enough, at least for now. Eating a plant-BASED diet I think is an idea that I think anyone who knows anything about climate change, animal welfare, food scarcity, pollution etc. can get behind. For me, veganism is an ideal to strive towards, but the “if you eat a slice of cheese you’re an evil cow-killer” attitude is not helpful. It’s hostile, naive, insensitive, and just creates prejudice about vegetarians/vegans/flexitarians etc. Any action that decreases your consumption of animal products is applaudable in my book.
Keep treating us to your yummy recipes, whatever you want to call them!
Love from Hanne in Copenhagen
It’s too bad that those who love animals so much cannot also show the same for their fellow mankind. Keep doing you…I appreciate the work you do and enjoy your blog and cookbook greatly. Can’t wait for the next one!
Wow this article really moved me!
I also feel so frustrated sometimes. 99% of vegans are such fun, friendly and compassionate people that the mere 1% of vegans trying to moralize everyone and everything really just set a bad example for non-vegans and vegans alike. Plus they are not perfect either, nobody is, and it feels like they are missing the bigger picture – a holistic sustainable, happy and compassionate lifestyle is a combination of so many things and not “only” being vegan. I also mostly prefer the term plant-based over vegan just because the vegan label is associated with so many things, some of which I identify myself with, others not so much.
I think you are doing an awesome job with inspiring thousands of people with your delicious recipes. I tried out quite a few myself and got the same positive reaction every time. The funniest one was “OMG, that’s so good! Now I can die.” – and that was from one of my non-vegan friends!
I know it’s hard to not take discouraging comments to heart but as you can see they are by far the minority! Please keep doing what you’re doing because you’re great and true at it. Adriana has such an awesome example in you!
~ Anne
So sorry to hear you were attacked in this way. I am not vegan or even vegetarian, but have always loved your blog because of, not despite, our differences. That’s the way the world should work.
Hi Angela,
I can’t imagine how difficult it is to read threatening and hateful comments when your intentions are obviously so loving and kind. I think the decision to raise your daughter without labels is a considerate and practical one. The reality is we are all on our own journeys and the food choices we make can only be our own. Your daughter will be significantly influenced by your diet (and what a lucky girl), but you aren’t the only influence in her life and one day her choices will be her own.
I don’t find labels particularly useful. I identify as a vegan in my heart but not as openly in public as I used to, simply because it’s a very polarizing label and the conversations it inspires can be stressful. I enjoy giving people something to think about, and I appreciate that someone needs to be a voice for the animals and advocacy is a beautiful thing, but it’s my choice whether I want to take that on, and it’s a separate choice from what I put in my mouth.
I hope you keep sharing your story and inspiring us with beautiful, delicious, healthful food. You were my biggest inspiration to embrace a healthy lifestyle as wholeheartedly as I have and that is something I am so grateful for.
Thank you!
Marta
Why be kind to animals if we can’t be kind to people?
Wow ! Nicely written George !!
Bonne journée å toi !
Brigitte Estelle Gaudreault
Québec, Montréal Canada
This is the first comment I’ve made on your blog, however I’ve been reading it for a couple years now.
You’re precisely right. Labeling is besides the point. I can’t imagine how frustrating it can be to have people accusing you of “not being vegan enough” etc. It’s not about the label, but I guess to some people, it is (and I feel sorry for those people who cannot really think outside of the walls they’ve built around them). Life does not have absolutes. You cannot stop outside of your home without crushing something, destroying something, causing suffering to something. Death is part of life, however we can always do what we can to reduce the amount of suffering we are causing to the life around us, including people. To understand this, you have to realize that any “label” will be insufficient in representing every single choice that you make. I have yet to see anything that is truly black and white.
When people ask, I semi-jokingly tell them I am a foodist. I prefer to make my dietary choices based on nutrition and sustainability and I refuse to pigeonhole my diet into a name. Do I eat animal products? Not often. Do I eat raw? Well, yes. A lot of the time. Am I a (lacto- ovo-) vegetarian, vegan, raw foodist, gluten-free, locavore, fruitatarian, nutatarian, seedafarian, traditionalist, pastafist? Haha. No. I eat food and that’s as far as I’m willing to be labeled.
If the chicken curry I ate last week makes me some sort of monster, then so be it. Rawr!
Nikki oh my ! You funny girl , my jaws hurt from laughing so much !♥♡
You might be all of the above but in my opinion you are 100% human !
Don’t loose that sense of humour hahaha! RAWR !!!!
With love from Québec, Montréal Canada
BRIGITTE ESTELLE GAUDREAULT
VEGAN PART TIME ★
VEGETARIAN PART TIME ★
MEAT EATER PART TIME ★
OH SHE GLOWS FAN ALWAYS ! ★
I am sorry for those who are unkind and cannot express their opinions with out being mean or making it personal.
I am truly thankful for what you do and the gift that you share.
Thank you for your time and dedication – you do not have to share it or put yourself out there but I am glad that you do.
So sorry for the negative responses. Having been somewhere on the vegetarian spectrum for over about 12 years now, I have found that it makes people very uncomfortable when they can’t fit you into a neat little box. It does become very tiresome explaining what I choose to eat and choose not to, and why I might decide to eat some things some times and other things never. Because I eat vegan at home, and have chosen to raise my daughters vegan until I believe they can make a truly informed decision on their own – if people ask, I usually say that I am vegan. Seeing the backlash you an others around me have received and now feeling concerned about how people might perceive how I feed my children, I’m going to start using the term “plant-based”. No need to invite negativity into our lives! We know what we’re doing is better for us and the planet without criticism for not doing it well enough. I read an article about why labels shouldn’t matter when it comes to a vegan/vegetarian diet that said, “A person who does their best is always going to have a larger impact than a person who does nothing”. So, here’s to moving on and eating some hummus!
Honestly that’s why I’ve always been afraid to join a vegan group or anything and really commit to that lifestyle because yes if you aren’t %100 they tear you down. Just like you said seems like a truly compassionate human being would respect and love animals AND humans. You just keep doing what you do and know that there are many of us that love your awesome work.
Angela,
Very well said! I consider myself a “mostly vegan foodie” and I applaud your passion for healthy, plant-based eating – regardless of labels. Your recipes are always my go-to because I have such faith in them – they always turn out well and taste amazing! I have and will continue to recommend your recipes and cookbook to everyone I know. THANK YOU for sharing your food knowledge!
Oh – and when I found out I was pregnant with my firstborn last year I was SO excited that you were also having your first – I love the baby updates on your blog and am hoping/waiting for baby and kid friendly recipes in the future! :)