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Originally Posted by free spirit  As a vegan, i am in a quandary about these two food items. At the moment I eat honey, but only the best quality organic honey. I do not eat eggs. However, I am finding it hard to justify to myself why I dont eat eggs. I think I have lost my motive for not eating them.
I would be grateful if you could respond to this topic with your current eating habits, and why? |
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Do you eat eggs and honey?
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To be brief, I'm currently vegan, and the only "animal product" I may eat occasionally is honey (no eggs, milk, meat, etc). I don't make an effort to lather everything I eat with honey, but I won't go out of my way to avoid it if it comes up in something I eat (eg. if I eat out and whatever I'm eating has honey in it, or if I buy some ingredients and they have honey in them).
I actually prefer maple syrup to honey, however it's pretty expensive (I'm not exactly loaded), and quite a few food manufacturers use honey over other sweeteners (good luck finding a manufacturer that uses maple syrup). I can see myself not eating honey at all if I lived in America, but as an Aussie vegan, I try to not excessively limit myself in what I can buy/eat. Australia -- at least where I live -- doesn't offer the average vegan many options when it comes to buying food (Aussie vegans who find otherwise, feel free to PM me and prove me wrong... I'd love to have more options, and if you know any good info, I'd appreciate if you could send it my way).
Some may say that the inclusion of honey in my diet (however small it may be) makes me a non-vegan, but I'd say I'm a human, not a label. I mainly use the "vegan" label for convenience when I communicate with others. Outside of that (ie. trying to reach some sort of ideal by aspiring to being "a vegan") I think labels lose their value and become unhealthy attachments. Personally I don't see myself "
as" a vegan, or even as someone who "
eats a vegan diet" -- I see myself as someone who eats. I don't need to give myself a label, I just eat what I choose to eat. I believe to make it any more complicated then that is an activity to boost/reinforce your ego and a quest into what I call "silly thinking".
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Why do I eat vegan?
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Experimentation, mostly. It also has other benefits such as a reduction in animal cruelty. I definitely feel much more "cleaner" (for lack of a better word) eating a vegan diet (another vegan I've talked to said the same thing... and yes, I've only met one other vegan around my area -- we're a rare breed
), but I haven't noticed any other major differences. I think that's mainly because I was relatively healthy before I went vegan. I transitioned to a vegan diet slowly (over a few months), so any changes I experiences may not have been very pronounced.
But I certainly don't claim to be the pinnacle of health -- it's quite possible I would see more benefits if I made further improvements to my diet. In terms of how healthy I am now, I’ve honestly felt/been better, but I wouldn’t attribute any of that to my vegan diet. Instead, I’d attribute it to (A) my conscious decision to put less focus on health and more focus on other areas of my life for a while (I was pretty health focused about a year ago), (B) the fact that I'm what I’d call an "experiential vegan", and (C) some disempowering beliefs/thinking patterns that I’ve recently become conscious of and am in the process of dealing with (from my experience, your thoughts have a big impact on your overall state of health).
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What do I mean when I say "experiential vegan"?
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Well, I mainly dove into a vegan diet with very little knowledge of specific nutrition info. I hadn’t read any books (only a few articles) and was very much a vegan newbie, but that was a conscious choice on my part. Basically, before going vegan, I decided that I’d jump in first and deal things as they came up (both positive and negative). In retrospect that was kind of a reckless/foolish approach to use, but as you can see from this post, I’m not dead yet, and I’m certainly not what I’d define as “unhealthy” (there’s been no negative repercussions that I'm aware of, either). I am, however, dissatisfied with my current bodily condition (again, I'm not unhealthy, I’ve just come to learn that I’m not satisfied with anything other then optimal health), and am currently taking measures to improve it.
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Other info
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In case your interested, I’ve also written at length about my experiences with a vegan diet in the following posts:
I'll also mention that there are plenty of substitutes to honey. To name a few (ones I've actually tried), maple syrup, rice malt (I used to eat another form of malt when I was younger, but I can't remember what it was made from or if it was vegan), molasses (perhaps a bit strong, although you could always mix it with malt or something else). I'm sure there are many others, but I'm yet to try anything else (unless I'm forgetting something).
Personally maple syrup is my favourite (rice malt is pretty bland and not very sweet). I mostly use it sparingly in things like fruit shakes/smoothies, over cereal (muesli), but it's pretty versatile. Vanilla essence (the natural one without alcohol in it) is good too, but that's more useful as a flavouring, not a sweetener.
What you will find useful will depend on your particular preferences and product availability.