"If you're so against eating animals, why do you eat food that looks and tastes like meat?"
Whether genuine or spiked with sarcasm, this is the question I've seen or heard the most since becoming a vegan.
Now, before we get started, let me put out a disclaimer: I genuinely don't care if you don't follow a vegan diet.
My wife doesn't follow a vegan diet. Many of my friends and family don't follow a vegan diet. So, while it is completely legal to eat animal products, I'll never tell anybody what they should and should not eat. (Therefore, as much as you think it'll annoy me to see a gif of Salt Bae seasoning a steak in the comments section - it won't.)
I have been vegan for over 15 months now and have no plans to move away from a plant-based diet.
My decision to move to a completely vegan diet was a moral one. I personally believe eating and farming animals is cruel, and, in our modern world, completely unnecessary.
Nothing has to die for me to survive. But hey, that's me - like I say, I'm not here to change your mind.
However, when I first told my family that I was vegan, I was met with the second-most-popular question all vegans will hear every other week: "So, what do you eat then?"
Well, believe it or not, my diet is not full of avocado brunches, wholegrain salad bowls, and "rabbit food". In fact, my two least favorite words to read together are "vegetable medley". Ew.
No, much to my grandmother's surprise, I eat the same meals as everybody else. I eat cheesy pizzas, juicy burgers, lasagne, curries, nachos, roasts, fajitas, ice cream, stir-fries, gut-busting sandwiches, chocolate cakes, and so, so much more.
The only difference is that these meals don't contain meat or any other animal products, such as milk or eggs. Because thanks to great advances in the food industry, there are now vegan alternatives for almost any animal product.
Sure, vegan products can be hit-and-miss. For example, I've never had a brand of vegan bacon that tastes as good as real bacon. That being said, I've had vegan burgers that would fool even the most die-hard meat-eaters into thinking they're eating a lovely mouthful of flesh.
In fact, my fridge and freezer are full of these substitutes. You know the ones - "Plant-based burgers", "meat-free sausages", "no-fish fingers", "chk'n goujons".
They all look, act, and taste familiar, but contain none of the dead animals.
Which leads me to the big question: If I am so against eating animals, why do I eat products that look, feel, and taste as if they were made from animals?
Well, it is simple. For nearly 28 years of my life, I was a meat-eater. I loved a bacon sandwich on a Sunday morning, my favorite meal was fish and chips, and I couldn't go to Disney without devouring a giant turkey leg.
I may be one of the few vegans who will happily tell you that meat is delicious.
I still drive past Maccies and long for a Big Mac. I still love the smell of a barbecue. And I even catch myself watching hours-upon-hours of cooking shows every week, not realizing that I'm never going to take the time to prepare and eat what they're making.
But as I say, morally, I don't think that something has to die in order for me to enjoy a meal.
So if I can find products that replicate the taste and enjoyment of the foods I used to love, but also solve that ethical dilemma, then it is a win-win.
It's a bit like why I play Super Mario. I enjoy running around as the Italian plumber and jumping on turtle's heads. But if I was to put on a pair of overalls and jump on a turtle in the street, you'd probably call me morally reprehensible.
So that is why so many vegans still eat products that look and taste like meat. We agree that meat tastes great - there's absolutely no argument there. But even the tastiest bacon burger in the world will never cancel out the fact that something had to die just for one meal.
Which begs the question: If you can still eat all these wonderful foods without all the animal slaughter, why wouldn't you??
