I Regret Why I Became Vegan
When veganism is seen as just another diet fad, it benefits no one
CW: Disordered eating (specially orthorexia) is discussed in detail
I wish that I had come to veganism because of my love for animals, my care for the environment, and my hope for a better, kinder future. But I didn’t. I came to veganism because I thought it would be an easy way to lose weight and, in my mind, make my deeper body image and eating issues go away.
During my first visit home after starting college, I had a regular checkup and my doctor told me to “make sure I didn’t gain any more weight” when I went back to school. On the same visit home, others made comments about my weight as well. As my freshman year went on, I replayed those voices in my head as I picked up habits like skipping meals, weighing myself daily, and obsessively going to the gym in my dorm building. I took a nutrition class, which unfortunately introduced me to an app that I began using to count calories.
When freshman year was finally over, I returned home for the summer with plenty of body image and food-related baggage, and then I found vegan influencers on YouTube. These people — mostly thin, young women — credited a “low-fat, high carb vegan diet” for clearing their skin, boosting their energy levels, and, most importantly to…
