UK What to do with non-vegan products & cheese

[Rory17]

Hello ,
I am a 24-year old female with Autism. I am a very passionate animal rights person. I went vegetarian at 13. I then went vegan at 20. I then went back to vegetarian more recently. I really want to go back to vegan and hopefully stick with it for life, but I love cheese, especially certain ones, like vintage cheddar, halloumi, goats cheese, real mozzarella, cheddar, babybels and cheesestrings. It was my love of cheese that made me go back to vegetarian, as I kept cheating my veganism with it.
I want to go back to vegan, but I have so much in the way of non-vegan products, cheeses, chocolates, honey, sweets, yogurts, cakes, etc. My dad is the only other major cheese fan in my immediate household, and he hates goats cheese and isn’t a halloumi fan. My mum has offered to “rehome” a squashed double decker bar though! But they were one of my favourites!
Please help. Please don’t be abusive or mean.
Thanks .

 

[silva]

Oh, if it weren't for this covid stuff I'd say just have someone take it to their workplace...
Sounds like you want like a clean break. It's kinda on you whether you think having it in the freezer would help or hurt. Cheese was definitely my weakness too, and I started by giving myself rules on when what and how much I would allow myself--like if friends ordered a cheese pizza, or out for Mexican food (which I still don't care for without cheese!). I found having what I wouldn't allow myself put away out of easy reach somehow kept me in line. That dates back from giving up smoking. I sealed one cigarette in a tube.

It's up to you, but if you want a clean break and discard the cheeses keep that in mind--that you won't ever have them again, so it's a one time purge

One thing that really helped me was keeping the idea of whose milk it's made for in mind. I was fostering a cat who'd just given birth to 6 kittens. Watching them all feed from her truly sealed the deal for me--how horrid it is that anyone would rape, enslave and then steal the babies milk, as well as the mothers baby, all for greed. I kept a picture of a baby calf and mother with me

Good going! Please remember--don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Keep going and pick yourself back up if you fall!
Come back for support

 

[Lou]

My advice is to just go ahead and eat the products you have already bought. It won't benefit the animals that were exploited to make those products if you were to throw them away. I suppose you might give the unopened packages to a food bank. some of it anyway, at least that might benefit someone.

The thing about cheese, (and I think i've had this discussion with you before) is to keep in mind that it actually is physically addicting. So the sooner you stop eating it the sooner you will stop craving it.

I was never a big cheese fan in the first place but nowadays i find cheese to be sort of repulsive. I don't think its stretching the truth to describe cheese as excretions from animals that have partially spoiled.

 

[windrose]

Veganism is NOT a diet...it is a choice...just before you eat any of those products ask yourself "has an animal died in order to produce this?" In the case of cheese the animal may not have died but may have suffered something other than a natural life. There is a chain to be followed from the need of a calf to produce the milk needed for the cheese, the killing of the male calves.....we all slip up now and then..just give it some thought and feel good knowing you are at least trying......personally it is the Earth l am trying to save...a big goal but look how much Covid has changed things in a few months...we can DO THIS!

 

[Forest Nymph]

Packaged things that haven't been opened can be donated to food banks, which desperately need food during the pandemic.

Some foods that are open and unsharable can be composted. Do you compost?

I also agree with Lou that it's okay to transition slowly, from vegetarian to vegan. Just eat your food you have, but add more and more vegan meals until you're totally plant-based.

 

[Forest Nymph]

Veganism is NOT a diet...it is a choice...just before you eat any of those products ask yourself "has an animal died in order to produce this?" In the case of cheese the animal may not have died but may have suffered something other than a natural life. There is a chain to be followed from the need of a calf to produce the milk needed for the cheese, the killing of the male calves.....we all slip up now and then..just give it some thought and feel good knowing you are at least trying......personally it is the Earth l am trying to save...a big goal but look how much Covid has changed things in a few months...we can DO THIS!

Exactly. Remember that food that has already been purchased or opened won't hurt or exploit any new animals. It also won't put any more demand for animal products into the capitalist system. That's why I think it's fine for vegans who are poor or homeless to accept vegetarian food if they don't have any other choice (it's not like they're buying the food themselves) or for people to "dumpster dive" (which frankly is not advisable during a major pandemic but under normal circumstances).

 

[Veganfortheanimals]

You can get vegan cheese and nutritional yeast. Plus there are loads of vegan snack bars like rocky roads and more out now. Just explore the supermarket one day! Every time you get a craving sit down and watch an exposé or a documentary to remind yourself. Hope this helps!