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Why do Many people quit veganism after a few years?

If we look at the reasons most people quit veganism it is due to one of these reasons, social pressure, health issues, convenience, and misinformation. Many vegans quit veganism to try out other diets and a different lifestyle.

Now that we have the general idea of why people quit, let’s see these issues in detail.

The Reason Why Someone Is Motivated To Go Vegan?

Most of the people who actually quit veganism don’t really have the full dedication needed to make it a lifestyle. It should be noted that you don’t need to know a lot in order to go vegan but, to sustain it as a lifestyle there is a learning curve. It takes some time to get used to. Suddenly you have to think about things that you might’ve never considered before like reading food labels, vitamins & minerals, the places where you can eat, etc.

To understand why one will quit veganism it’s important to understand why they went vegan in the first place. Understanding this will give you an idea of how likely they are to quit veganism.

Here are three reasons why people go vegan -

For Health

We know that a vegan diet provides many health benefits. Especially in developed countries where people eat a lot of meat, going vegan provides a healthy alternative. Many try the vegan diet in order to get healthy.

Some of the main health benefits that a vegan diet helps with -

It lowers cancer risk - According to a 2017 study, eating a vegan diet was shown to reduce the risk of cancer in people by 15%. The benefits may have been due to the fact that most plants are high in fiber, phytochemicals, and vitamins.

Helps With Weight Loss - Most people on a vegan diet tend to have a lower Body mass index (BMI) compared to meat-eaters. In this 2015 study, it was reported that vegan diets are more effective for weight loss than other diets such as omnivorous, semi-vegetarian, and pesco-vegetarian diets. It was also noted that they are better at providing macronutrients.

It should be noted that eating a lot of high-fat processed foods even though vegan can be unhealthy and can lead to weight gain.

Lowers the risk of Type 3 diabetes - Many studies like this 2019 review, Shows that following a plant-based diet can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. The reason was linked to healthy plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains.

There are many more health benefits that a vegan diet offers. Many people go vegan just for health reasons. If they accomplish their goal such as losing weight, then they are likely to start eating meat again.

There are also situations where people go vegan to treat their health problems, like getting rid of diabetes. In this situation, if their type-2 diabetes does not go away even after eating a whole-food plant-based diet, they are likely to fall back to eating meat.

• A point to be noted is, it takes some time for the body to get used to a diet change, some people do not have the patience to stick to veganism for let’s say 6 months. If that’s the case then it's nothing more than a missed opportunity.

For The Animals

These kinds of people love animals and do not want to contribute to the worst holocaust in the world. So in short they go vegan for ethical reasons.

All animals are sentient beings who are able to feel pain, joy, sadness and perceive things just as we humans do. So killing them when there is no real reason is nothing more than cruelty.

Most people do not understand that we humans can thrive on a vegan diet. Especially, at this point in time where we can just go to a supermarket or a store near our home and get all the essential nutrients from vegan sources. Eating animals in today’s world is just for taste pleasure. So it’s important to understand that it’s unnecessary to kill an animal for food.

People who go vegan for the animals understand that a meal will last for a few minutes but for the animal, it was all their entire life.

Do you know that we kill 70 billion land animals for food each year? That’s 191,780,821 a day and that’s just the land animals. We kill more than a trillion sea animals each year as well. The scale at which we are killing these beings is unprecedented and only likely to grow more unless more people understand the same thing.

• If you go vegan, animals you are usually a caring and compassionate person. The only reason why someone like you might quit veganism otherwise is if you're brainwashed into thinking that eating animals is natural or if you're taught that animals are not sentient for some reason.

For The Environment

Factory farming and meat-eating are not sustainable anymore. It’s a simple math problem that most meat-eaters do not think about. As discussed above, eating 70 billion land animals and more than a trillion sea animals has a big environmental impact that’s hard not to miss.

Did you know that animal farming produces more greenhouse gases than the whole transportation sector combined? Which means more than the cars, trucks/buses, airplanes, ships, and trains combined. As the meat industry grows this demand which is already unsustainable will only become worse.

Here are some numbers that will shock you, If one person goes vegan this is how much they can save -

15,158Kgs of CO2

37,275Kgs of Grains

7,604,255 Liters of Water

And almost $6,000 by eating whole food plant-based foods in the U.S.

• If you’re someone who went vegan for environmental reasons then it usually means you care a lot about things around you. It also requires an altruistic behavior (just like in the case of animals) to be able to think about the environment. As you want to be helpful not only to yourself but others as well.

The Difference Between Plant-Based & Veganism

I can write a whole blog about this but, I’ll try to explain this in short. Many people think that going plant-based and going vegan are one and the same thing but it’s not. This is where people mistake it if someone quits veganism where in reality they actually just quit a plant-based diet.

As we saw in the above points there are three main reasons why people adopt a vegan diet and health is just one of them. It is also the most basic reason why people go vegan. There is no altruistic reason when it comes to adopting a plant-based diet.

In a way, it's the most selfish reason among the three. As one can not care about animal cruelty or the environment but still be called “vegan” nonetheless. But someone like this is actually not vegan and most people, especially in the west, adopt a plant-based diet for health reasons. Calling someone like that vegan is not exactly right, as they do not share the same qualities as a real vegan.

The World Around You

Social Pressure

The world influences us every day, knowingly or unknowingly we are swayed by what we see and hear. So for someone who is surrounded by meat-eaters going vegan is like walking backward. The social pressure of being different can get overwhelming at times.

There can be times where people might not invite you to dinners or come over to your home just because your food choices are so different from them. The feeling of alienation can be harmful and you might feel like you’re losing your connection with people.

In a situation like this, you need to understand why you went vegan in the first place? Was it just for health? Or was it for the animals and the environment? Do you really want to take the convenient route that has a negative impact on the planet and the animals? When you have the right reasons, sticking to a vegan diet won’t be that hard.

How The Media Projects Veganism

You might see the media projecting veganism in a very bad light from time to time. You might understand that sometimes these guys try to get attention by making a fuss out of things. The easiest way to get attention is to sensationalize things and make extremely wrong points look right. All it does is get people talking but, many times it does get general people confused who might not have the depth of knowledge.

This confusion creates fear and anxiety but, most importantly it gives power to unpopular opinions. This kind of confusion can make a person quit veganism. So what should you do if you’re in that situation? Study these topics better, see if the information is coming from a reliable source or not? Do not get influenced by people who are not qualified and do not necessarily follow the advice of influential people if they are not qualified at this given topic.

The Hype Celebrities Create

I’ve seen this many times. Some random celebrity goes vegan and suddenly it's national news. People go crazy and articles are written about this celebrity for going vegan. Then after a few months, this same person declares they are quitting veganism because of some random health issue they had.

Can you guess what happens next?! Yes! The world goes crazy again. Now I’m not blaming celebrities for their choices but, what I’m trying to say is many vegans glorify these kinds of actions and when that same person quits veganism they feel bad and defeated. Do not give influential people so much power that they can pressure you into changing your diet and lifestyle choices.

Be a vegan for yourself, the animals, and the world. Do the right thing even if at times you’d find it hard to continue. As the saying goes.

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”