Beautiful author and activist Kathy Freston has recently released The Book of Veganish for the vegan curious – people (especially young adults) who are interested in transitioning to a cruelty-free, animal-friendly, healthier lifestyle and are looking for the manual to help them do so. Co-author Rachel Cohn – known for her bestselling books like Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist – complements Freston’s vegan expertise with a youthful, respected voice. Together, the two provide a younger audience a road map of how to navigate the transition to a vegan lifestyle at their own pace, and explain how their parents, friends, and significant others can help and support them.
But Freston’s loving, kind spirit doesn’t come without a few pet peeves (she is human, after all.) Today, she exclusively shares her vegan pet peeves with GirlieGirlArmy.com.
Here they are:
Top Ten Vegan Pet Peeves
- When someone says “I’m vegan but I eat fish.”
- You scroll down to the one veg item on the menu – pasta with mushrooms and eggplant, say – but then the waiter tells you it’s made with veal stock. Seriously???
- Your bfriend/gfriend wolfs down the chicken dish at an event (so as not to be rude to the host… :0) while you quietly feast on a tic tac and dream of getting home to that frozen veg pizza.
3.A. The vegan police who ask, “Are you sure that tic tacs are vegan?”
3.B. The committed carnivore who chides, “Are you sure that tic tacs are vegan?”
- When you call ahead to a restaurant to make sure they have vegan stuff, and then you get there, sit down, order drinks, and then see that they meant they could do the chopped salad with prosciutto, mozzarella, and shrimp without the prosciutto, mozzarella, and shrimp.
- Sitting with a group of new friends and one guy is a Doctor (who got absolutely no nutritional training in med school) saying that he sees patients who don’t feel good being vegan and urges them to add some meat and dairy back in to their diet. (Um, might he consider just advising a well-balanced, diverse plate of veggies and whole grains and legumes rather than the chips and pasta the poor (albeit eager) patient has probably subsisted on? But everyone makes doctors “God”, so you quietly sit and try to clean up the mess without looking like you (the mere mortal who has read the studies and knows this stuff pretty damn well) are challenging the deity.
- When someone says, “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.” But!!! That little lamb!!! That sweet pig!!!!
- The question from really intelligent, sincere people that you hear all the time: “But if everyone stops eating meat, what would happen to all the cows and chickens and pigs, etc.? Could they actually fend for themselves in the wild?” (Have we heard the term, “phasing out” in any discussion of profound changes made throughout history?). Sigh.
- When wildlife or environmental organizations serve meat at their events and galas. (Hypocrisy some?)
- Humane meat. (Go tell it to the animal on her way to slaughter.)
- When you ask what on the menu is vegan and the waiter alerts you to everything that’s gluten-free. #2entirelydifferentthings
