My digestive system hates vegetables. ☹️ (I’m trying to fix this)

Someone else mentioned it below in comments but it is a hot take worth a second nomination: Sustainability groups can be very abelist and for those of us with invisible illnesses/disabilities it can be disheartening. We can do our part to be as sustainable as possible but as with other aspects of life we sometimes NEED adaptations.

I don’t like when vegan brands change the spelling on some plant based versions of meat/dairy, I’m tired of having to say I want be’f or cheeze or chikn because it sounds kind of dumb, you can just say something like vegan beef or even plant based nuggets that don’t have the word chicken but nugget is a recognizable term, chikn just sounds like you can’t spell or saying words weird even in a serious conversation

Ohhh... the coupling of so much "magical thinking", naturalistic fallacy, organic etc as "better". I was at a vegan street festival 2 days ago and the whole reiki/crystals BS did my head in so i dont WANT to label myself vegan or vegetarian - I also fall off the wagon and eat the tasty tasty funk food and meat far too often😬. I come at it from ethical and climatarian perspective. Eg Octopus/calamari are yummy (to me) but they are smart and the farming/ fishing/ transport is damaging and horrific. I want labelling as a radar graph!!! 🕸🕸 multiple aspects- water, source, food miles, ethical production purchasing and regulations, testing, packaging, meat, carbon intensity, certain chemicals, health value ALL ON THE SAME GRAPHIC - that way you can pick the item that fits as many of your values as you can. Or at least make a reasoned compromise.

Sustainability movement can be rather elitist (by lack of better word) and US centric/English speaking countries focused. I had a lot of negative experiences with the sustainability community. People swearing high and low you can do it low budget, no matter where you are, but then get up in arms when people do not do X or Y thing. Or who don’t seem to care about the health or life of one person if it doesn’t fit their views. Disabled and ill people are often shamed for products. Yes, I buy the pre-packaged pre-cut vegetables because it will cause me lots of pain and cost me hours to prepare them otherwise. We also don’t all have the money to go product testing, often more expensive, sustainable products. My local food is gonna look much different from some other countries, yet the same recipes are being pushed. I don’t see how stuff like expensive avocados being flown overseas are accessible or sustainable. A lot of options that are vegan are also a minefield to navigate price wise and when you have/want to take health into account (a lot of products falling into the highly processed category with added allergens and additives that cause people sensitivities). People also think you can’t be sustainable if you aren’t vegan and will downright attack people for not exactly doing the same version of sustainability? I personally am not vegan because my health doesn’t allow it, but even if it did, I do not have a moral issue with humans consuming their natural diet. I have a problem with the destructive circumstances our farming system creates as well as the overconsumption of products. I don’t think it’s sustainable in terms of longevity for everyone to become completely vegan. There’s privilege to it and I feel being reliant on supplements is not sustainable at all in another sense of the word. I don’t mind other people eating that way, but for me sustainable isn’t reliant on industries like pharmaceuticals, but a balanced diet I could recreate even if we were reduced to caring for our own village due to various life circumstances. There’s also a bunch of stuff that are pushed as easy sustainable options that aren’t at all in other countries, but people can’t seem to imagine it? Foraging for example, a bunch of stuff is forbidden here. Or inadvisable. I live in a very polluted area for example which we are still fighting to not be used as dumbing ground AGAIN without much success so far. And stuff like second hand definitely isn’t as prolific as I’ve seen online. I have visited multiple stores, multiple times and have only found something affordable in my size that wasn’t ripped, stained or otherwise damaged once. It is often cheaper to buy a new basic fast fashion item than to buy the damaged second hand one! A bit backwards if you ask me. I’ve had more old clothes handed down from other people honestly. It’s both pretty exhausting and bad for one’s mental health at times to even engage with these spaces, but one has to push through if you want to educate yourself. I think perfect is the enemy of good a lot of times and the sustainability movement and initiatives need to be more inclusive, intersectional as well as openminded.

Congrats on your recovery. ED recovery is a very personal path.

Same ❤ Ive suffered with bulimia for nearly 3 decades and once I went vegan I started to think differently and more compassionately and with intention, and somehow I have been in recovery with no lapes for nearly two years. Before this I could not even go 2 days, so for me it really saved my life. When I hear people saying that people go vegan to hide an ED I don’t think this is the case a lot of the time. For me it is saving me ❤ I am not into dieting etc or restriction at all anymore, and just enjoy balanced and not so balanced vegan foods. For me it is so much healthier. So happy to hear you are also doing well.

I can definitely relate to a lot of what you’re saying, thank you for sharing! 💚 I am so happy to hear that you are doing better, you’re a badass! 💪💚

wow same here! Only defferent is I am a vegetarian and not a vegan, but I overcame my eating disorder after becoming a vegetarian. 🍀❤

Exactly! A close friend of mine was born in the 1960s and grew up in a very rural part of the USA in some pretty extreme poverty. They had access to a fresh well, but the water was not hooked up to the house so they didn't have running water. They had to use an outhouse. I was talking about my explorations into using a shampoo bar, and they basically recoiled at the thought of using what they considered to be soap in my hair. Once they could afford shampoos and body wash and proper skin care products, they have no wish to use more of the sustainable options. I'm sure it brings up too many memories of not having enough and mentally puts them in a famine mindset. I'm sure they wonder why anybody would willingly make such choices.

@@johannaswisher2118 yeah I've had a conversation with my mum a couple of times about how one relative who has chosen a very sustainable lifestyle isn't 'poor' but she's actually making some pretty financially privileged choices. I've also tried to explain community pantries to reduce food waste to her and she can't get her head around it at all haha

It is a generational thing! But different countries have different generational experiences! My grandmother was a war child. The post-war period in Finland was quite poor. Her generation used every resource carefully. She was still an avid recycler in her old days when she lived in the city, because those were the values she was raised with. But in America, post-war period was a period of rapid economic growth, the single family home with white fence period. The "boomer lifestyle" period. They had money and made babies, and those babies had more than their parents had had in their own childhoods. To Finland, the consumerist lifestyle came maybe one generation later. I think I am the first consumer generation in Finland (I'm a young millenial). In many countries (known as 'developing' from an eurocentric view), the 'grandmas' that know how to use every resource, are much younger. Maybe my parents' age (50-60) or even younger. Some people are growing up in mandatory minimalism today. And it's not a bad thing! As long as they have what they need. I find that the privileged minimalists often defend their lifestyle with, 'But this is my choise! I could buy anything I want if I wanted to!' That's sort of still promoting consumerism as the standard, but they're just 'choosing a different path' becuse they're quirky. I think in stead we should accept that not everyone can have 'our wealth', because 'our wealth' is coming with a price to someone else and the environment. As a young millenial, me and my peers who are aware, are already not expecting a standard of living of our childhoods/parents. Something telling of this, is that when I was a kid, the buss ticket for adults was for those over 12 years old. Now it's for those over 25 years old. Young people are a lower economical class. But this is just the norm now. There is no shame in being below the bracket for the white fence.

Great point!

Food culture is a HUGE reason I struggle with veganism and vegetarianism. Especially in the culture I live in, agriculture, including cattle, is a really big thing. "Coming out" as vegetarian to my parents was such a shock to them! Of course they love me no less, but they think it's weird and dumb. I get a lot of "oh you're one of those people". When I cook vegetarian or vegan foods for friends and family, they are almost always pleasantly surprised. Even one of the most critical anti-vegans I know LOVES my vegan buiscuts and gravy recipe.

Sounds perfectly reasonable 💚🌿

Love that response! I also never understood the „forcing“ argument.

My mother-in-law LOVES to make fun of plant-based milks. "You can't milk an almond!" 🙄

I remember watching a video about honey by earthling ed once. Maybe that might be interesting for you?

Oh dear, my heart aches every day in the lab

you can brush teeth with just water xD and use baking soda once or twice a week... Same result... and no tablets

I feel the same! I wanted to switch to fluoride containing tablets but if I brush my teeth twice a day, they will be gone in a month and cost sometimes triple. 😕

Yeah Ive been lucky enough to find some that are kinda affordable but sometimes they are like ridiculously expensive, like 14 dollars or something. Just crazy!!

Yes! To all of this. I live in a farming/ranching region of the USA. People around here often see veganism as a threat to their livelihood, then they see the activism shenanigans that PETA and people pull, and see it as even more of a threat. Additionally, I like to try to find products like toothpaste tabs locally (even if they're in chain stores, like Whole Foods or Sprouts), but so far I have found one store within 50 miles that stocks any tablets. Thank goodness shampoo bars are available a little more readily! I know those products can be purchased online, but I like being able to swing by a store and pick it up.

That’s what I call “sustainable for ME” if it will last longer than a low waste product and it’s cheaper, even if I get it from the worst big box store, it will last for me and is sustainable for my wallet. Like I bought socks once from tentree and they were pricey, started to rip after a year and I couldn’t afford to buy them again, so I bought a 13 pack of socks at Walmart for the same price as one a pair from tentree. I hated to do it but they will last me so much longer than that one pair

I laughed so much!

Other countries

Like you say, it's a whole lifestyle. If you are a zw vegan, that's your hobby.

we all know and love them

haha love those lentil bablibums 😎

Glad you like it, unfortunately it didn't work for me. Just an fyi for others reading this and looking for a low-waste fluoride toothpaste: it has way less fluoride than usual toothpaste, I learned that the hard way (used it and got terribly sensitive teeth). Also, it is high on the abrasive scale so you can't use it with an electrical toothbrush (you also can't use dental tabs with an electric brush because of this).

@@o0xXirisXx0o aw that’s too bad! But yeah I guess everyone’s different. have you tried their sensitive teeth ones?

@@numivis7807 yes, that's the one I got actually. I was really sad it didn't work out because I love the glass jar concept and it tastes great, but I just have genetically really bad teeth I guess..

@@o0xXirisXx0o I hope you find something that works for you!! X

I've been using a similar recipe (I use bentonite clay) for 10 years!

n=1 experiment - I've been using zero waste, fluoride-free toothpaste for 10 years and get rave reviews from my dentist every visit. My last visit before switching, they told me I had a spot that could develop into a cavity, but nothing since!

I always used fluoride toothpaste for the first 23ish years of my life and very seldom had anything of concern at the dentist. Recently switched to a fluoride free zero waste toothpaste (primarily for the zw aspect, not for the fluoride aspect) and the past couple of times the dentist has pointed out some areas of concern. BUT to be fair, I have also not been super consistent with my daily dental routine as of late due to some other things going on in my life, so that could be the reason too. If you’re interested, I’d recommend looking into nano-hydroxyapatite as a fluoride alternative. It some promising qualities, although admittedly isn’t extremely well studied yet. Although in the main scientific literature, it has been shown to be at least as effective, if not more so than fluoride in re-mineralizing your teeth.

I think everyone has. Just go on with your life😄 beating yourself up won’t do any good. Just do your best in the future

Always appreciate it 💚

What do you mean by local?

@@raapyna8544 Like people who keep bees in the neighborhood and sell at farmer's markets vs. a company that sells it (and has to use trucks to deliver it) nationwide.

good point ❤️

I specifically didn’t shame beekeepers. I said that industrial honey production is detrimental due to the monocultures in the bee population it creates, and as I am certain you are aware of as well, industrial honey production and small scale beekeeping have two vastly different impacts

If they were world-wide, that would be the same as honeybees 😅 the point of biodiversity is that it's different species in every place

@@raapyna8544 I meant if the species was naturally world wide, not human intervention

@@raapyna8544 or if there were other bees capable of producing as much honey, native to many other diferent places

@@raapyna8544 I edited the comment to clarify it

Its made in NZ ( so am I !!! ) and its brilliant especially the botanica one . Also there solid shampoo bars are AMAZING !!

sorry 🥲

I think there are more important issues out there that a war on nail polish and makeup tbh

We also have an overpopulation of deer where I live and I am for sustainable levels of hunting. But I do think it’s a bit of a loaded phrase to say “deer are killing our forest”. One of the big problems with overpopulation of deer is that disease tends to run rampant, which can affect not only deer, but other wildlife that interacts with deer. But another point we can consider is WHY are deer overpopulated. Often it is due to their natural predators decreasing in population due to human encroachment/ habitat loss. This is less of an issue for deer because they can live in fully urban areas pretty easily. Predators generally have a more difficult time hunting in a more urban environment, with the added factor that humans tends not to like predators around because they are dangerous to us, so we intentionally kill as many as possible from these types of areas. If there was a healthy predator population, there would be much less of a deer problem.

@@coralovesnature Here deer ate all seedlings in our forest, so when old trees die there will be no young trees coming up. That is why we said deer are killing the forest. And I don't know about other places, but deer population are controlled by hunters in North America in the past hundreds, if not thousands of years and there are never enough wolves. Now there are not enough young people who like hunting, so it is like deer's natural predators (hunters) withdraw themselves from the food chain...

That s so typical, i m vegan eating pretty local most of the time and i never would eat an avocado

And actually all the grain you see on fields is animal food

It is not actually, and the thing is, most meat eaters eat avos as well, and very few vegans substitute meat with avos. There are absolutely also issues in the plantbased food systems, but those are created by the demand from everybody, vegans as well as meat eaters 😁 as it was also pointed out yeah, the vast majority of fields is used to grow livestock feed, the majority of water and land used in agriculture is used by animal ag as well, as the vast majority of the meat and dairy consumed today is produced with factory farming

So since you are concerned about product shipping distance and aware of the pollution it causes, then every piece of meat you ever eat is locally sourced, right? Just think of all the emissions from shipping that meat from wherever…

Having/ breeding those animals and profiting from them is in itself abusive, you don't need to witness people hitting them to know this. Cows are impregnated every year to have a calf, because only then they give milk; those babies are taken away and either killed (male, that's where your beef comes from) or have to endure the same procedures their mothers do (female) every year. Chicken? Similar. You could easily google that, as well as the natural life span of livestock (in comparison to how long they actually "live".

I avoid meat because of the cruelty to the people who work in the meat packing industry. Every few years there is anew atrocity from using actual children to clean the saws and blades and machines, to allowing them to be exposed to Covid, to a few years ago giving a bunch of them disabling brain diseases from inhaling pulverized brain parts at work. I could go on and have only touched the surface. You may have seen small operations that care for animals humanely but in the US there are a lot of cruel polluting Cafo feed lots. There is a reason filming at those places is made illegal in many states. They want to protect the industry from outsiders finding the truth.

Just curious, what constitutes “hating”, in this context? 😅 I think that even organisations we fundamentally agree with should be subjected to scrutiny, and for PETA, I genuinely think they’re often using their resources unwisely - I also recognise that they’re doing good, it’s not all or nothing, but having the discussion about whether or not advocating against Animal Crossing is a good way to open a debate about animal welfare I think is thoroughly displaced (for instance) 😅