Below we answer various questions and concerns you may have about the vegan lifestyle.
This page will be updated frequently, so please come back later to see answers to more questions.
Last updated: July 16th, 2023
If you want to send us a question or comment, you can contact us.
If you have other questions about veganism, please also see the following pages:
Veganism & Health
Veganism & the Environment
Veganism & Ethics
Responses to Anti-Vegan Criticisms
Replies to Anti-Vegan Memes
It's difficult to go vegan.
Going vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up anything in your life.
You can continue to enjoy your favorite meals, such as pizza, pita gyro, pastitsio, etc. All you need to do is replace animal products with plant products. And by replacing animal products with plant ones, your food will become healthier, more ecological and more ethical, while it will taste similar and/or better than before.
Let’s say the worst case scenario is you try to make a veggie burger and you burn it. But next time you will find the trick or pay more attention and make it perfect.
Or you go to a restaurant and you don’t like the food you order at all. But next time you will find a restaurant that makes better meals.
Such ups and downs are part of life.
Non-vegans don’t make or eat food in restaurants either, which is always delicious. So it seems hypocritical when non-vegans are quick to blame or mock veganism when they try a vegan meal they don’t like.
This is called “double standards”.
We Greeks are proud and sometimes even brag about our ancestors, who in poverty and hunger fought and sacrificed for us, the generations to come.
And now, can’t we just replace some ingredients on our plate, to follow a more ecological way of life and thus preserve the environment for future generations?
Even if it’s “difficult” to go vegan, when we think about the benefits veganism offers to the environment, animals and our health, it’s definitely worth spending a little time and money to find the vegan options that work for each of us.
In any case, this website is at your disposal for anything that concerns you.
I believe that life should be enjoyed and we should enjoy tastes, and I don't want to have to worry about what I can and can't eat.
We understand that the opportunity we are given in life is only one and we must make the most of it. But the same applies to animals who also have only one chance to life and don’t even have the chance to enjoy it. And our planet is only one and we destroy it every day.
Life also has some responsibilities.
Veganism is the perfect balance between “want” and “must” in life.
Instead of thinking about what you can’t eat, think about all the things you could eat.
In other words, instead of looking at a long list in a negative way, look at an even longer list in a positive way and your psychology will get better.
Instead of saying for example “I can’t eat meat, dairy, eggs, etc.”, you can say “I can eat spaghetti with minced soy, plant-based dairy, gyro with mushrooms, etc.”
Instead of saying “I can’t go to thousands of restaurants because they cook meat”, you can say “I can go to any of the thousands of restaurants that have vegan versions of their dishes”. Already many restaurants and steakhouses have added vegan dishes.
In time, when you’ve detoxed physically and mentally and it’s been hammered into your subconscious that animal products aren’t real food, you’ll no longer feel like you’re restricting yourself.
I don't want to be cut off and be judged by my friends when they want to eat some animal products. Food should bring people together, not tear them apart.
Those who are your real friends will not judge you. Instead, they will support you in this choice of yours and if they really respect you, they will suggest themselves that you all go to a vegan restaurant. If for example you had a friend who can’t stand smoking, would you insist on sitting in a smoking area and let people smoke next to them, or would you suggest going to a non-smoking area?
We say that “a friend in need is a friend indeed”. Of course, we’re not implying that being vegan is difficult, but if it’s difficult for others to respect your situation, then you need to reconsider who your real friends are.
Food should be healthy to keep people alive and healthy as long as possible.
And thus bring them together for as many years as possible.
Vegan food is not tasty.
Do you eat raw meat? No, you cook it and put sauces and spices (which are vegan), which are what give it all the flavor.
So if you replace the meat with some other material (eg soy, lentils, chickpeas, etc.) and use the same sauces and spices, you will be able to make a similar and/or better taste. All you need is to experiment a little.
You can google your favorite dish and next to it the word “vegan” and you will surely find many articles with vegan recipes for the dish you want to cook. You can write for example “vegan pastitsio”, “vegan pizza”, “vegan gyro” etc.
Vegan meat substitutes are very expensive.
Indeed there might be some products that are expensive, but this is not true only for vegan products, but also for things that contain animal derivatives.
This may be because they are new to the market and their producers do not yet have enough resources to easily produce them on a large scale. Or they may have been produced in other countries and it costs a lot for the distributor to bring them here.
The quality of the product is also important. Just as a 5-star hotel is more expensive than a 2-star hotel, just as a natural juice is more expensive than a carbonated, preservative and low-fruit juice, so a high-nutrition product is more expensive.
If you want to support a company that believes so much in veganism and human health and takes the financial risk of selling such products (instead of taking an easier, but incorrect course, selling cheap, sought-after and unhealthy things like cigarettes, alcohol etc), you can buy some.
If you don’t want to, you can still easily make a vegan menu without them.
Can a vegan be in a relationship with a non-vegan?
If someone is a vegetarian for health reasons alone, then there probably won’t be an issue, but veganism is the moral philosophy that opposes the killing of animals.
How is it possible for someone, on one hand, to tell his/her partner that he/she loves him/her and that he/she would make sacrifices for him/her, and on the other hand to do what hurts him/her the most (funding the abuse and killing of innocent creatures for the sake of an unnecessary taste)?
If that person can’t make a simple change in the ingredients he/she consumes, then how does he/she show the love and the compromises he/she would make?
It is a doomed relationship, with mockery, without meaning, without empathy and without true feelings.
When you first meet someone, then yes, give them time to process the philosophy of veganism, but if you wait too long and don’t see results, then it’s best to walk away. You deserve to be with a person who respects your feelings and respects life in general and shows this through actions. Otherwise, in the end, a situation like the following can happen:
Bride calls off wedding after groom cancels vegan food options
There is no problem in relationships with people of different religions (as long as all religions advocate love), of different origin, race, etc.
And of course there is no problem in relationships with people of the same sex.
But on the other hand, when individuals have such a different philosophy against violence, then they will not be able to coexist. In this case, the theory that opposites attract is wrong.
Can a vegan smoke?
Smoking is a very unhealthy habit that harms both you and those around you, so since it is a behavior that intentionally harms someone else, normally it is not vegan.
If you absolutely must, for some reason, smoke, at least show respect to those around you and smoke alone or with other smokers in an enclosed space. And go back to your fellow non-smoker when the stench of the cigarette has gone away.
See here the effects of passive smoking
My parents won't let me go vegan.
Your parents love you and care about your health. But they too may have been influenced by animal product industry propaganda and believe that veganism is unhealthy.
You have to be patient and explain to them that veganism is not a bad thing and tell them “At least let me try”.
You can say to them “Do you have an hour to spare? I want us to watch Yourofsky’s speech together, so you can understand the way I think and feel.”.
Life is yours and you have the right to choose what is right for you (as long as you are not intentionally impacting someone else negatively). Just as you can choose your studies, your profession, your religion, your place of residence, so you can choose your way of eating.
If I go vegan then I will inevitably learn things I don't want to know and see things I don't want to see about what's going on in the world, which will affect me very badly psychologically.
If you are reading this, then you already know that terrible things are being done to animals.
If you don’t want to watch, that’s totally fine.
You can still go vegan so that you don’t fund them.
I've seen vegan recipes and some ingredients I don't even know what they are or they are very expensive.
This is generally true on various recipe websites.
I know a vegan who ate lamb chops.
Tell him/her that he/she is not vegan and should stop eating them.
I saw some vegan recipes on a website that have honey.
Tell the administrators of this website that their recipes are not vegan.