What being vegan for a month taught me, and why I am not a vegan anymore.

This is totally based on personal experiences and I do not intend to anyone, be it vegan, vegetarian or happy meat-eaters.

I tried becoming a vegan because I wanted to adopt a more "healthy" and "spiritualistic" way of life. I adopted the vegan diet for exactly a month and a week (37 days) and decided that it was not meant for me.

“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.”
― Leo Tolstoy

Well, easier said than done, Mr. Tolstoy.

My first problem was access to vegan food. If I was a stay-at-home, living off unemployment cheques, social justice messiah or a rich guy who didn't have to go to work, it wouldn't have been much of a problem. I live in Kathmandu, one of the busiest Capital cities in the world of a country where meat consumption is really high and to get vegan food means I have to spend extra. Not feasible. Also, for a country dependent on meat and dairy products for its cuisines, the access to vegan food is really limited.

For instance, buffalo mo:mos (dumplings) are the staple food for the working class here. At $0.8 per plate (10 pieces), and a total ordering and eating time of around 5-7 minutes, this is what we have to live off. Also, since buffalo meat is really cheap and eaten by majority, getting a quick lunch without breaking the bank is really easy. At the same time, if I had to eat vegetarian mo:mos, I'll have to wait for around 15 minutes at least for the order and pay around $1.2-1.5 minimum because you don't get veg mo:mos everywhere in Kathmandu. So a loss of around $0.4 to 0.7 and the extra 10-15 minutes. Wouldn't look like much of a difference to the foreigners but in a country with a per capita income of around $680, every cent counts. So if I eliminate buffalo meat from my diet, I will be wasting time and increasing my expenditure while going out and about half filled on poorly prepared vegetarian food.

A plate of buff mo:mos with two varieties of sauce

And now I trigger the vegans (although I really don't intend to) and talk about the taste. In my 1 and half month of veganism, I really had to struggle eating my food because to me, all vegan food tastes the same. Imagine eating a burger without meat and cheese. Wait, is that even a burger? Mo:mos with cabbage stuffing, noodles with carrots and cabbages only and nobody will prepare pizza here without cheese. Dairy products are so inbuilt into our tradition and food that my grandma almost got heartbroken when I refused to eat her special delicacies made in milk and butter. She is a vegetarian though and understood my not eating meat for a reason but i couldn't convince her that dairy products are categorized as the same. She grew up with hordes of cattle around her in free range farms, respecting them as providers of the family so the whole new concept of veganism is completely alien to her.

As for my experience in the 37 days, I did not find much change in my body and soul as advertised by most vegans. In fact, my health probably deteriorated a little because I couldn't eat the balanced diet my family and my colleagues were eating. Instead, getting food every day was a difficult affair. Also, I began to eat more carbs to fill myself and remain content as a substitution for animal protein and dairy fat. Munching on cucumbers and carrots every day for snacks and lunch is not exactly a way of life for me and I think I was more irritable the whole time being vegan than when I was before.

So all in all, I don't think I'm cut out to become a vegan. At the risk of being judged, which I am sure i will be, I declare that eating meat and dairy products make me a happier man. Period.

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A typical Nepali lunch set