5 Biggest Mistakes New Vegans Make and What to do Instead

I’ve recently tried to search, how many vegans in the UK recently and there’s definitely a bit of confusion around this subject. The Vegan Society in 2018 state that there were around 600,000 vegans in the UK and Finder states that currently 7.2 million people in the UK follow a meat free diet, therefore vegan and vegetarian diets. Although these numbers are obviously estimates. I could easily believe that the number of new vegans in the UK is growing.

A lot of people are realising the impact that the meat and dairy industry has on our planet and they’re either switching to plant based for several meals or considering veganism long-term.

Due to this, I thought I would put together some of the biggest mistakes new vegans make and what you can do instead.

Absolutely no judgement here though. I remember when I first went vegan and how daunting it was knowing what to eat and how I was going to ensure I switched everything to vegan versions. Now I’ve been vegan 5 years I’ve seen a lot of the biggest mistakes new vegans make and I wanted to give some advice on what to do instead.

I have a beginner’s guide to going vegan if you would like to learn more on how to get started with a vegan lifestyle.

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Is It Ok To Make Mistakes As A Vegan

Yes it is 100% ok to make mistakes as a vegan, when you change your entire lifestyle including diet, there are bound to be times when you might slip up and eat something containing animal ingredients. Or there might even be times when you give into temptation and eat something deliberately which isn’t vegan.

If this happens to you, please don’t be disheartened! We are all human and these things certainly happen very easily. The trick is to accept that it is ok to make mistakes as a vegan but do better next time.

If it was lack of checking labels for example, make sure that you’re thorough in the future.

If it was a moment of weakness, learn from it and try and remember your main reasons for going vegan and avoid situations where you may be tempted in the future.

Biggest Mistakes New Vegans Make

As I’ve been vegan 6 years, there are some vegan mistakes to avoid and I’ll outline the main ones below in this chapter.

Only Eating Bread And Salad

A friend of mine made one of the biggest mistakes new vegans make. He decided he was going plant-based several years ago and it only lasted a few days because he hadn’t researched and therefore only ate the things that he knew were obviously vegan such as bread and salad. It’s funny when I think about it now because he must have been so hungry!

If you’re concerned that the vegan lifestyle might be expensive, you can find out more in this really thorough blog post.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with eating bread and salad but there’s so much more that vegans can eat so it pays to do a bit of research.

My advice for new vegans is to switch out the meat in your favourite meals with meat substitutes. It’s the simplest way to get started as a new vegan. In the UK we’re so lucky to have a variety of different vegan meat substitutes so you can find your favourite vegan sausages, vegan meatballs, etc. I do appreciate this might not be as easy for everyone, however.

Once you’ve been vegan for a while you can look into finding recipes that include other ingredients such as beans and lentils. If you like that sort of thing, of course.

Not Eating Enough Food

Another biggest mistake new vegans make is not eating enough food. When you eat fruit, vegetables, lentils and beans they don’t have as many calories so you’re more likely to feel hungry a few hours later. Of course it’s really healthy food, so it’s not a bad thing. Just something to bear in mind.

Please be aware that I am not a nutritionist, this is just things that I’ve learnt myself in the 5 years that I’ve been vegan. If you’re in any doubts or you have health issues, please consult a professional.

The best thing to do is to make sure you have bigger portions of lentils and beans when you’re making dinner. It also really helps to have plenty of wholegrain carbohydrates as well. Wholemeal pasta and wholemeal rice are great because they’re high in fibre.

If you are gluten and wheat intolerant there are other grains that you can try such as quinoa or pearl barley. There are usually different types of pasta you can have as well, if you need to avoid wheat and gluten. Often they are made from corn, millet, buckwheat, lentils or rice.

I consider myself fairly healthy, I do enjoy the occasional treat and takeaway of course, I am human. However, I just try to ensure I’m cooking with at least 3 portions of vegetables and salad with most meals as well. I always make sure we have full plates as well as I’m less likely to snack if I’m full at meal times.

They Hate Vegan Cheese

This is such a common mistake new vegans make, they usually try a few of the vegan cheeses then declare that they hate vegan cheese. Now I will admit that vegan cheese is not the same texture as dairy cheese, it’s likely that you’ll try several before you find one that you really like.

That-being-said when I think of vegan cheese that I tried years ago they have really come a long way since then. The supermarket brands of cheese are generally really good, you can find feta style, ordinary cheddar and even some flavoured.

I have my favourites, Mozzarisella is a lovely mild cheese very similar to mozzarella. Vegusto is a brilliant vegan cheese with lots of flavour which goes well in sandwiches and crackers.

My advice for new vegans is to actually take a break from cheese altogether, vegan cheeses do taste better over time and I know my taste buds have changed a lot over the years. However, it really helps to almost cleanse your palette and take a break from cheese for the first few months. Once you’ve done this it’s much easier to forget about dairy cheese and take a fresh look at vegan cheeses.

There’s no doubt in my mind that I was addicted to dairy cheese, I believe that I’ve read somewhere that there is casein or something in dairy that keeps you wanting more. Don’t quote me on this but it wouldn’t surprise me if this is true.

Going Vegan For Dietary Reasons

Firstly I would just like to say that if someone is planning on changing their diet for health reasons, that’s completely fine. I’m not judgemental and I think if someone decides to make a change like this to improve their health then that’s great! Every change that you make that reduces your intake of meat and dairy all helps our environment.

However, I do think it’s important to note that this would really be adopting a plant based diet as veganism is more of a lifestyle. Vegans do usually start with their diet and then switch everything else from clothing to toiletries.

If you are deciding to try Veganuary or going on a plant based diet, I just urge you to please look into why people are vegan. This will just help you to understand why vegans are so passionate about this issue. If you’re looking for sources of information on this subject, I have a blog post 12 best vegan documentaries that would probably be good as the next read.

Not Getting Support

Another one of the biggest mistakes new vegans make is not getting support from friends and family. This is such a big one because getting other people to understand why you are going vegan is often the biggest challenge you’ll face.

Especially if you live at home where you usually get your meals cooked for you, or you live with a partner who isn’t vegan. Having a conversation with them and explaining why you have decided to go vegan, could be challenging but it’s important nonetheless.

I will say that friends and family are not always going to be supportive of your decision to go plant based or vegan. Some of the time this is just down to lack of knowledge of the subject. Other times they might get defensive or angry about your decision, just know that this isn’t your fault. It can be difficult for people to accept a lifestyle change like this and it sometimes brings up a lot of feelings for them, especially if your culture usually involves a lot of meat and dairy products.

If you don’t get the support from friends and family then I would fully recommend searching for your own community online. Facebook have a number of great Vegan groups that I found so helpful in my early days of being vegan. For me in the UK, there’s several of specific vegan groups where you can make friends and find out which products in the supermarkets are vegan. Sometimes you can even use the search function in the group to see if someone else has posted about something in particular ie Do vegans eat backyard eggs?

Not seeking this support is one of the biggest mistakes new vegans make because if you don’t get the right support, you may feel alone and unsure if you’re doing the right thing. I found it so reassuring in the early days to know that other people were in the same position as me. I learnt so much from these groups as well such as; what to look out for on labels, that the honey industry can be cruel and pretty much the answer to every single question that people ask vegans.

I hope this post helps you avoid some of the biggest mistakes new vegans make. The problem with making these type of mistakes is that you’re more likely to slip back into old habits if you’re not eating enough for example or if you don’t get any support. Changing your lifestyle does not have to be difficult, it’s mainly a mindset shift.

Another of the biggest vegan mistakes to avoid is saying ‘I can’t eat that!’. For me what really helped was saying ‘I won’t eat that!’ It might seem like this phrasing doesn’t matter, but veganism is a choice not to taking anything from animals when we don’t need to. It’s not that we can’t eat it, it’s that we choose not to eat it.

If you’re looking for more to read, check out this guest post Struggles of a vegan living abroad.

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