5 Misconceptions About Vegans You Should Know
Misconceptions about vegans are way too common. Vegans tend to get a bad rep! Although being a vegan is a major commitment- one which takes resilience and an open mind, people tend to have some pretty ignorant misconceptions about plant-based eaters that are highly unfair and just not true!
1. “Vegans are incredibly pretentious”
Now this first misconception is just a pretty annoying stereotype! Sure, you are bound to get some vegans out there that are opinionated, who believe that what they are doing is pretty great (which it kinda is) – but that doesn’t necessarily make them stuck up people who believe they are better than everyone else because they live a clean, plant based lifestyle that does not jeopardise the lives of other animals and the environment as a whole! You might get the odd one now and again that is extremely for THEIR ‘cause’ and their cause only, but the rest of us will not be looking down on you meat eaters whilst we stand high and proud on a pedestal! This is one of the biggest misconceptions about vegans!
2. “All they eat is hummus and falafels”
People seem to think that if you open a vegan’s fridge then all you will see is a collection of pots of hummus and an endless amount of falafels! Although, these two products are a must have in any vegan’s life, one must get over the assumption that it’s all we eat! Being vegan takes some level of creativity as you are limited to a lot of standard products that are usually put in all meals. With this being said, there are lots of delicious things that vegans can and have made throughout their vegan styled lives such as vegetable fajitas, puff pastry-veg pies and soya nachos! So, the next time you go to a vegan pot luck be prepared to see a number of dishes which don’t include falafels or hummus (shock horror).
3. “They always introduce themselves as a ‘vegan’”
If you introduce yourself to a vegan then they will only introduce themselves using THAT word- that is what most people say about vegans! This is a highly unfair misconception as it is a consequence of exaggeration! What people need to realise is that vegans say “I am a vegan” when the topic of FOOD is concerned (queue gasp), such as when a person offers them a taste of their chicken salad at work or when a friend forgets their plant based lifestyle by suggesting to go to a Nando’s for some food! In this case, they only mention it when their vegan lifestyle is either forgotten or put in jeopardy. Evidently, this shows that the declaration of what they are ONLY comes up when it actually has too!
4. “They are ALL preachers!”
No, this is not in relation to religious preaching but a certain kind of ‘ethical’ preaching. People think that a vegan’s sole mission in life is to spread the word of veganism and thus convert every meat eater they see around them! To be fair, although you might get some extremists out there, the majority of us are just getting on with our OWN lives- waking up in the morning, going to our 9- 5 jobs and quite simply doing our rounds of eating, sleeping and breathing! We don’t really have the time to act as full time preachers of veganism nor do we care to make everyone like us. In other words, we believe it’s a choice! This is one of the biggest misconceptions about vegans.
5. “They are a highly difficult bunch!”
Or quite simply as being a waitress’s worst nightmare! There is a big misconception that if a vegan DARES to go to a restaurant then they will spend hours on end looking for vegan options on the menu or will spend their time pestering the waiting staff whether the chief can make the non-vegan items ‘vegan’ in some way or form! This goes for asking something like whether they can have the vegetable and chicken pasta without the chicken. This is likely to happen for the cases where you are the only vegan in the group and your friends want to go to a ‘non- vegan’ restaurant. In this regard, you are left with no option but to try to find some wiggle room around the meaty and dairy infused menu! However, with that being said many major chained restaurants now have a decent amount of vegan options to choose from, making it easy for vegans to say what they want to the waiter and be done with it. So, this is definitely one fo the misconceptions about vegans which needs to die out as of now.
