I wish I had known a couple of things when I went vegan, all I knew was “I’m not supposed to eat animals anymore” and I thought that was all I needed to know. I’ve been a vegan for almost a year already and I have been learning so many things that has made my life a better journey to live. Here I am going to tell you 5 things I would like to have known before my transition and now I understand, let’s get started.

1 Food Variety:

Usually when people hear the word “vegan” they almost immediately relate you to a bunny, people think all you eat is lettuce and carrots (and you might think the same at the beginning) but no, that is not the truth. People should understand that probably 60 to 80 percent of their meals are composed of vegan ingredients or foods. For example: If you like Mexican food, take out the ground beef and cheese and the rest of it is vegan. If you like Indian food then you’ll get tons of spices and beans with rice without the meat. There’s also pasta, soups and of course fruits in all its presentations along with vegetables because, who does not eat salad? Every one.

2 You got to learn how to cook.

When I went vegan all I knew about cooking meals with non-animal products was pretty much smoothies and salads, so I had to get creative and start experimenting in the kitchen. If you are not a cooking person you better learn because it’s going to get expensive just eating outside being a vegan. Lol.

3 Veganism does not mean health.

Usually people sell the idea that a vegan diet its super healthy and it is in most cases but, let’s be real, if you stuff your face with simple sugars in the form of refined sugars and flours by means of processed foods, or if you deep fry all of your foods instead of baking it, or even if you eat too much of anything, you can develop health issues as diabetes, colon problems, and high cholesterol due to the saturated fats you find in most oils (canola, vegetable, olive) etc. All of that can lead you to those kinds of complications, but of course it’s not as easy as a diet based on animal products, but still.

4 Even other vegans will give you shit for being vegan.

Yes, that happens and more often than you would think. People in the community can be really harsh to you, they’ll judge the way you are living your journey. Of course it’s not every one or even the majority, but there are some really negative people out there that can definitely discourage you really easy. However, do not worry, most of us respect and really value that you are trying really hard to change your life choices. Do not listen to those social media mean opinions (specially some YouTubers or Facebook comments) take the good and throw the bad to the trash.

5 Palm oil.

Is palm oil really vegan? Yes, but by concept, not in practice. This is similar to animal testing for example, where those make up products may not contain any animal products in it but they were the cause of pain on living beings and by pain I don’t mean they were just hurt. These animals are being killed and burned alive to get the palm oil all over Thailand. Orangutans are in danger of extinction and they are running out of food.  There are alternatives to this oil and yes, it is hard to find them because pretty much everything that is sold in a supermarket contains palm oil. Once you get used to reading the ingredients or not buying processed foods you will be fine, try it.

These were the 5 facts that I think you would like to know and I wish I had known before going Vegan! I hope this is helpful for you.