Question:
How can I convince my parents to go vegan?
Emma
2014-03-31 04:42:10 UTC
I want to go mostly raw vegan, but still include some cooked meals. I know everything that I need to know to become vegan and how to prepare vegan food and where to buy it. I am only 16 and my parents are convinced that meat is good for you. Is there anything I can do that isn't showing them all the research I have found (it would take at least a week!)?

Please don't leave any comments that I shouldn't go vegan. I have done all the research I need to do, including Harvard studies that all point to meat being bad. Also, I am doing this myself. It is my choice and all I'm asking for is an answer to my question.

Thank you!
Seventeen answers:
anonymous
2014-03-31 08:20:42 UTC
show them these 3 videos. They're an hour long each.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNCGkprGW_o

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/uprooting-the-leading-causes-of-death/

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/more-than-an-apple-a-day-preventing-our-most-common-diseases/



actual EVIDENCE right there. Not only statistical but clinical.
anonymous
2014-03-31 23:50:33 UTC
Hey, girl! I'm vegan too :) I would honestly say to just drop the thing with your parents for right now. Don't let that stop you from going vegan though. My parents and siblings are omnivores and that never stopped me- instead, I learned how to cook and I started going grocery shopping with my parents. I started off as a vegetarian and slowly made certain items like almond milk staples and so now that I'm vegan there isn't a huge list of things that I need to buy because my parents would not be okay with that. Show your parents by being an example.. As you start to glow and become healthier and healthier while your parents start coming down with health problems I can only hope that they would be open to trying veganism. Until then, good luck! <3
Danielle
2014-03-31 11:47:07 UTC
Okay, first of all, I want to say way to go on your decision to go vegan!! I wish I could say the same. I'm vegetarian but aspiring to one day be able to go vegan! I keep slipping up with greek yogurt. :( Anyways, I would take it slow. Don't expect change in a month, or maybe even a few months. Maybe even a year. Some people are just resistant to change, even when the truth is evident. You are only in charge of your own actions, and in my opinion, you have made a great choice! If anything, try not to pressure them greatly or come on too strong. This will just push them further away from the idea of going vegan. Instead, slowly introduce them to vegan meals. Make vegan desserts to show them that there isn't as much of a sacrifice as they believe.



Good luck! And again, congratulations on your choice to be vegan! I hope one day, I can say the same as you!
M'aiq The liar
2014-03-31 14:41:35 UTC
Show your parents that people who are vegans tend to live longer and be free from cancer and heart disease. Only people who are starving don't get enough protein. LITERALLY every biological being is made out of organic proteins. If you're eating food everyday then you're getting enough protein to survive.



Other than that, nobody is force feeding you meat. Simply refuse to eat the things that you don't want to be fed. Problem solved. They're your parents, they're legally required to keep you fed. They can't just let you starve to death, but they can't force a steak down your throat either. In the meantime, look at getting a job if you can. Then you can buy and cook your own food. The raw vegan diet isn't expensive.
?
2014-03-31 11:49:00 UTC
Maybe if you first prove yourself a successful vegan convert, over the next couple of years, you'd have more credibility in making your case to your parents. As it is now, the only thing you have in your bag of arguments is the research of other people. In terms of "making your case," this puts you in a very weak position. You need to have your own experience and success that they can see firsthand.
?
2014-03-31 15:24:04 UTC
You're not going to convince them...because going vegan is not healthier. Vegans are at risk for deficiencies in several important nutrients: B12, calcium, iron, DHA.....



Here's a link to a VEGAN registered dietitian's site on nutrients vegans need to be watchful of, pills to take and foods to eat.



Come on. Are you really going to eat a handful of pumpkin seeds every day to keep your zinc levels up?
Meigan
2014-04-01 15:59:03 UTC
You can take help of nutrition expert to make your parents understand the importance of Vegan food. Perhaps, a nutrition expert can convince them better than you.
?
2014-03-31 17:06:31 UTC
Meat is not bad for you. Protein is a crucial part of our diet. If you want to be vegan, wait until you live on your own. Vegan food is expensive and no fun to prepare. It's unfair to ask your parents to adjust their lives to a whim on your part.
Esoteric Order of Dagon
2014-03-31 15:37:49 UTC
You're a liar if you say meat is bad for you. We evolved as omnivores. Eating meat is not damaging to your health. If you want to go vegan that's your own thing but don't come with lies.



I don't think you actually care about truth as much as emotional satisfaction.
?
2014-03-31 14:47:22 UTC
going vegan is not necessarily heather. i suggest you look at number 6.

http://authoritynutrition.com/7-evidence-based-health-reasons-to-eat-meat/
anonymous
2014-03-31 11:55:32 UTC
Don't waste your time. We parents are very stuck in our ways but I expect they will be glad that you are buying and preparing your own meals.

Go for it
?
2014-04-01 01:44:58 UTC
Meat is essential to omnivorous animals like humans. Your choice is your choice but it isn't fair to try and make your family give up meat. I also suggest that you look hard at both sides before you make your decision
anonymous
2014-03-31 13:35:53 UTC
I if I were your parent i would let you become a vegetarian it is your life and choice and respect it, but if i catch you one day wearing leather or any animal product I would kick out of the house.
?
2014-03-31 23:31:21 UTC
You can try to educate them! But Barren Mind most meat eaters dont' want to change! Their dead animal habit makes them close minded!
?
2014-03-31 11:51:56 UTC
show them the horrors with videos , show them the health benefits , tell them what animals going through in factory farms , I tried to convince my parents many times but they're blocked ><
anonymous
2014-04-01 06:22:33 UTC
First be a good example. Eat the vegan diet and become very muscular, energetic, learn to do flips, healthy(never get sick, be sanitary, try to avoid injury), happy, and attract lots of friends as a result. Also get some healthy muscular vegan friends to show them.

After they see how much your life has improved after being vegan, they might start considering become vegans.

Cook vegan meals for them and offer them vegan food multiple times a day, they should be grateful and try it.

There are many vegan “meats, eggs, and cheese” that you could try if needed.

Eventually you should be able to gradually replace all the meals they eat with vegan alternatives that they will prefer the taste, faster preparation, cheaper cost, higher nutrition, more energy, and feeling better.

Every time after they eat vegan meal reward them, smile, say good job, do something nice for them, and if they go a whole day vegan give them more rewards, a whole week even more rewards.

After they eat vegan for a while a realize how much better they feel and how much better it tastes, they might stay vegans.



You can also show them videos of how eating animal based food is one of the top causes for all the world's problems.



If someone does something you don’t like:

1. Don't reward the bad behavior.

2. Correct, show them why it's wrong.

3. Redirect: by example show them better alternatives for them to copy you.

4. Ignore if they continue the bad behavior

5. Reward when they do the good behavior.



Eat a variety of fruit, veg, beans, nuts, seeds, grains

Get:

-refrigerated pro-biotic a good quality one.

-consider a high quality digestive enzyme (especially if your 50+yrs old or have health issues)

-multi vitamin (good tasting naturally flavored chewable) Read the ingredients, make sure you are getting all your daily nutrients.

-b complex supplement (if your multi vitamin does not provide 100%+recommended dose of the b vitamins)

-flax seed oil or hemp oil pill (for omega 3)

-calcium+d supplement (if multi vitamin does not provide 100%+, good tasting naturally flavored chewable)

-Vitamin C

-Consider getting a protein shake mix or protein bars (try to get one that is healthy)

-edemame/soybeans, there is dry snack form that is like eating nuts, and there is dry chocolate covered snack form.



Grow all your own food and encourage them to grow all their own food too, fresh taste better and that's going to get them to want to eat more plant based food fresh out of the garden since it taste better, easier, faster, cheaper, healthier...

use rain water or purified grey water(used shower/sink water) for irrigation. Consider plastic tube drip irrigation with automatic timer and rain sensor solar powered.

If you don't have a lot of space, get 1 of each type of ultra dwarf(only gets 4-6foot tall) self fruiting/self fertile(meaning you only need 1 and not 2 to have food) food tree that will grow in your zone. Get organic non-gmo.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gNDjKHQKClA/Tv_lJ4uaUiI/AAAAAAAAAYE/mmHBauILpdY/s1600/Table+for+Hard+zone+world+for+blog.jpg

Search perennial vegetables for your zone. Especially plant edible perennials they don't die over winter.

Search regrowing vegetables.

Grow mint, herbs, leafy greens, beans, small root veg, inside by the window. Reflective material can be added to help them more.

Search solar dehydrator and solar oven (it doesn't use electricity or solar panels, only uses heat from sun)

Get a dehydrator or freeze drier, and stream pressure canner, to dry and jar food from garden for winter.





Many plant based foods contain protein, beans, nuts, and some grains are high in protein, soybeans have more protein than meat.

It's illegal for your parents to not let you go vegan, it's illegal for them to force feed you animal products, if they are doing so they have to go to prison now!



Daisy is a liar, it's obvious, all you have to do is look at all the sick obese meat eaters vs the healthy vegans, probably because daisy sells animal products. On average there are more meat eaters that are vitamin deficient, vegan foods have more vitamins in them, and you can't get the recommended dose of b12 in a standard meat based diet, b 12 is made by bacteria not animals. Some plants contain some b12 on them.

Vegan diet is obviously the cheapest way to eat. Anyone who tells such obvious lies against vegan diets are probably selling animal products or being sarcastic. Just switch your job to making plant based foods or something else it's not that hard.

Human's bodies are designed to eat plants not meat, carnivores can chase down an animal by running after it, catch it with it's mouth, then eat it the whole thing raw as one meal, humans can't. Compare the bodies of herbivores vs meat eater and humans match herbivores.
?
2014-03-31 11:48:56 UTC
Persuade them with physical and/or psychological violence.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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