5 ways veg*an living has improved in the UK

[SummerRain]

Okay, so I was thinking today about how much easier it is to be vegetarian since I went vegetarian, and more so vegan since I went vegan. So I thought it would be nice to make a list (I picked five arbitrarily) of things that are better for veg*ans since you became one.

I went vegan 5 years ago, here are five things that have improved since then

1. Banning cosmetic products tested on animals (or with ingrediants that test on animals) within the EU this year. We're yet to see exactly what differences this makes, but I think it's a massive step in principle if nothing else, hopefully the rest of the world will sooner or later follow suit.

2. The spread of the leaping-bunny logo on cosmetics, from a few small companies when I became vegan, to being adopted by Superdrug, M&S, Sainsburys and others over the past 5 years. Now buying cruelty-free, cheap, cosmetics/toiletries is a doddle.

3. Getting to know small British vegan companies! I don't know if this has increased, or if I've just got better at recognising them, but I've noticed lots of small British vegan companies selling handmade chocolate (hipo hyfryd!), sweets (goody good stuff), marshmallows (anandas foods), etc. All three of these products are excellent, and the sweets and marshmallows were the kind of products that I just couldn't find without buying from America when I became vegan (let alone vegetarian).

4. Supermarkets have increasingly started using the "vegan" label, and making vegan product lists. When I went vegan I think only Sainsburys used the label, and sparsely, since then Tesco's, M&S and co-op (I think, I'm not sure when it started) have followed suit. I read labels much much less often now.

5. Vegan fairs/festivals! When I went vegan I remember there were two main ones, by animal aid in London and Bristol (whatever vegfest was called then). Lately I've noticed loads springing up everywhere, including the first Northern Vegan Fair, and to my knowledge all with great success - bigger turn outs than expected, etc. I love these places, a chance to find out about new products, eat free samples, and buy specialist items that you can't find locally.

I want to know what your five are! For long term vegetarians especially, I'm sure there will be big changes.

 

[CrazyCatLady]

I will be celebrating one year of being vegan next Monday. So with it not being very long I don't really have anything to add :-(
However, many of my friends now know what a vegan is and often cooks delicious interesting vegan meals when I visit - and sometimes even when I don't!
So in my life, it's become much more talked about and not (just) a thing of tree huggin hippies ;-) lol xxx

 

[angie54321]

I might have a thing or two to add....I've been veggie for 32 years now and boy how things have changed

In 'the olden days' supermarkets had very little for vegetarians. They sold things like lentils (only red) but dried or canned beans (apart from baked beans of course!) were not available, no veggie ready prepared food, fresh or frozen, no vegetarian cheese, no soya mince (dried or frozen), no soya milk, no alternatives. Most of the foodstuffs that contained fat (biscuits and cakes for example) had animal fat in them.We could buy dried soya mince and dried pulses from health food shops (which were few and far between). Health shops also sold 'soya steaks' - large lumps of soya which remained chewy and inedible no matter how long you cooked them for! Gradually supermarkets began to offer vegetarian cheese, and started catering for a growing veggie market.
Restaurants - 30 years ago if you went to a restaurant as a vegetarian you were offered a choice of omelette or cheese salad or chips. In every restaurant.
By the end middle of the 1980's the food available was getting more cosmopolitan, and the vegetarian option became a vegetable lasagne. In every restaurant.
Every five years they changed the vegetarian option, I think the next one was a veggie burger, and then vegetable curry of indeterminate origin (made using a generic 'curry powder' rather than individual spices).
Even then, things were not good. I remember going to a well-respected Italian restaurant, having phoned first to check that they catered for vegetarians and being told they did. On arrival we were offered fish or chicken. When we told them we didn't eat those, we were offered pasta with tomato sauce. We declined, and went to a Chinese restaurant instead!
Takeaways - Indian takeaways were few and far between, the main takeaways being English (and the chips were often cooked in fish oil) and Chinese. Chinese takeaways generally offered a few vegetable side dishes - but at least you could combine a few side dishes with rice and eat something a bit different. When Indian takeaways and restaurants became popular our choices really opened up.
The V sign on food and menus had yet to be invented, so everything had to be checked. I became an expert in scanning food labels in record speed for animal ingredients.

In the last 10 years things have changed so much - so much choice in restaurants and at supermarkets - veggie food is everywhere. Be very grateful - I remember the bad old days!!

 

[SummerRain]

Wow, I didn't realise how much had changed in such a short space of time.

I can't imagine a supermarket without beans (apart from baked beans of course!), or biscuits and cakes that weren't vegetarian, or cheese even. Having traveled abroad though, I can imagine a world without vegetarian labeling and vegetarian options in restaurants - it was rubbish. I went to France as a teen and ate cheese or egg salad every single time we ate out, I went again this year though and staked out the handful of vegetarian restaurants in Paris

It must be great to see that much change.

 

[angie54321]

Wow, I didn't realise how much had changed in such a short space of time.

I can't imagine a supermarket without beans (apart from baked beans of course!), or biscuits and cakes that weren't vegetarian, or cheese even. Having traveled abroad though, I can imagine a world without vegetarian labeling and vegetarian options in restaurants - it was rubbish. I went to France as a teen and ate cheese or egg salad every single time we ate out, I went again this year though and staked out the handful of vegetarian restaurants in Paris

It must be great to see that much change.

It has got so much better, and so much easier to be a veggie. I look back and can't believe how restricted the diet was - definitely a reliance on cheese and eggs (for others anyway, I never liked eggs). Now I eat a far wider range of food than my omnivorous friends, who all seem to exist on really basic supermarket meals or just meat or fish with veg or chips on the side.

Just think about how it is in France (outside Paris) and that's how it used to be in the UK. I was lucky in the fact that my mom was a bit of a 'crank' (she made her own wholemeal bread when the rest of the UK were embracing white sliced loaves) and already frequented health food shops, so buying food from there was never an issue, and didn't seem strange to her. And my brother and my parents went veggie too, so that made it much much easier, for all of us I think

 

[Moll Flanders]

I went vegetarian twenty years ago and I didn't ever find it very difficult to eat out or to buy food although I did end up eating a lot of cheesy meals when in cafes and restaurants. I did find it much harder to go vegan but I have noticed more people knowing what the word vegan means and more vegan products available even in the last seven years.

2. The spread of the leaping-bunny logo on cosmetics, from a few small companies when I became vegan, to being adopted by Superdrug, M&S, Sainsburys and others over the past 5 years. Now buying cruelty-free, cheap, cosmetics/toiletries is a doddle.

4. Supermarkets have increasingly started using the "vegan" label, and making vegan product lists. When I went vegan I think only Sainsburys used the label, and sparsely, since then Tesco's, M&S and co-op (I think, I'm not sure when it started) have followed suit. I read labels much much less often now.

These two have been the most helpful for me as I found it very annoying at first having to order vegan toiletries online which can be hit and miss and are often expensive and the supermarket vegan lists are great too.

ETA, I think diets outside the mainstream have become more normalised as restaurants and stores are catering to gluten-free and halal diets now which helps vegetarians and vegans as people are less likely to brand them as simply fussy eaters.

 

[shyvas]

I'm pleased that high street stores have the leaping bunny logo. It is also so much easier to do food shopping as most of the supermarkets have the V label on packaging.
I was only thinking about the V label today when I was doing my grocery shopping at the local hypermarket, as it really is helpful compared to having to read lists of ingredients.