I'd like to bring up something I've said before about Food Trauma and how it can be more difficult than you might expect for a lot of people
I’ve also seen mentioned before about things like “food trauma” wherein people being forced to eat things against their will as a child can often make it difficult for them as an adult. I have an aunt who won’t eat cake or donuts or other “celebration” foods not because she doesn’t like the taste but because she was forced into eating them to “be polite” at other parties by the same father who beat her. It’s a psychological blockage that while it might be possible to get over, is really hard and clearly makes her feel a lot of pain to tackle. And when you look at how parents often handle vegetables when it comes to children, you can probably see how this thing pops up in many adults later on. Veggies are treated as a punishment, not normal food, and you get screamed and spanked if you don’t eat them. Especially for people with other mental issues like those autistic kids (obviously not all autistic people but the ones who are like this) who can only be gotten to eat the most simple foods such as chicken nuggets or mac and cheese.
That’s not to say that we should just shrug and give up on making the world vegan, but rather that we do need to approach it with a caring and understanding attitude as to why it can be so hard for people.
Whilst there are plenty of bullshit excuses people to tend to give for this, it's not as if there isn't some level of reasoning behind people's choices. Many people nowadays don't cook their own foods, they were never taught how and they're frightened to try, so they just buy frozen meals at Walmart and microwave everything, maybe once in a while there's something they might throw into the oven as well but it's very simple instructions of "Set to 350, take off wrapping, cook for 20 minutes, eat" levels of complexity.
Or maybe they just struggle to eat new foods to begin with. I've known a few autistic people who don't try new things, whether they be vegetables or meat products or fruit or whatever. They basically have the same meals planned out every week and that's it. Maybe they can switch up the orders or whatever but for the most part it's within the same group of like 20-30 meals and that's it.
That's not to say it's impossible to get these people switched over. Grocery stores need to provide better access to fresh vegetables, we need education for cooking not just on how, but also helping people get past that initial hurdle, and we need an accepting attitude towards those who have had traumatic experiences being beaten and hit around this, and for the neurallydiverse who struggle with "just swapping over" and slowly introducing new more sustainable and healthy foods into their diets.
Honestly I would love to see some sort of multifaceted approach that covers all of these issues at once.
Like put up posters for free cooking classes at soup kitchens, doctors offices and other support agencies and emphasize that there will be a number of different recipes tried. Give out bundles of food as a reward, if you come to our cooking class and say, try out a recipe involving spinach, then we'll give you some of the ingredients to make a meal or two on your own if you want them. Make sure to diversify what is taught. Maybe you don't like spinach no matter how it's used, but this brocolli is delicious to you and you want to learn how to mix it in with your pastas.
And slowly move people into the vegan lifestyle. Don't be afraid or against answering questions that involve incorporating vegetables into meat filled meals. A recipe that is 1 pound beef and the rest is veggies and pasta is still bad, but it's better than 2 pounds of beef and if it gets people to try out foods they wouldn't have normally and slowly move into incorporating them/eating them on their own it's a net positive at the end. That doesn't mean to teach them meat recipes at the classes, but if someone does have a question just answer.
Since this thread was basically posted about me, I just want to say that this comment basically describes me perfectly:
autistic
food trauma due to being forced to eat vegetables as a kid (I basically don't eat any vegetables at all, and I especially hate onions)
only eat a very limited selection of meals (into which dairy in particular factors very heavily)
don't know how to cook
Might I ever go vegan? Perhaps, with IRL support, but that isn't my current situation, so it's not going to happen right now.
Also, I realize I've walked into a minefield here, but I would really not like to get into an argument about this again. If this comment is considered inappropriate for this comm then the mods can go ahead and delete it, but please don't just dogpile on me again.
As far as I'm concerned you have a good excuse, but there are definitely people who could more easily make the change who refuse to even consider it and use some kind of 'solidarity' with people who have a harder time going vegan as an excuse.
I'd like to bring up something I've said before about Food Trauma and how it can be more difficult than you might expect for a lot of people
Whilst there are plenty of bullshit excuses people to tend to give for this, it's not as if there isn't some level of reasoning behind people's choices. Many people nowadays don't cook their own foods, they were never taught how and they're frightened to try, so they just buy frozen meals at Walmart and microwave everything, maybe once in a while there's something they might throw into the oven as well but it's very simple instructions of "Set to 350, take off wrapping, cook for 20 minutes, eat" levels of complexity.
Or maybe they just struggle to eat new foods to begin with. I've known a few autistic people who don't try new things, whether they be vegetables or meat products or fruit or whatever. They basically have the same meals planned out every week and that's it. Maybe they can switch up the orders or whatever but for the most part it's within the same group of like 20-30 meals and that's it.
That's not to say it's impossible to get these people switched over. Grocery stores need to provide better access to fresh vegetables, we need education for cooking not just on how, but also helping people get past that initial hurdle, and we need an accepting attitude towards those who have had traumatic experiences being beaten and hit around this, and for the neurallydiverse who struggle with "just swapping over" and slowly introducing new more sustainable and healthy foods into their diets.
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Honestly I would love to see some sort of multifaceted approach that covers all of these issues at once.
Like put up posters for free cooking classes at soup kitchens, doctors offices and other support agencies and emphasize that there will be a number of different recipes tried. Give out bundles of food as a reward, if you come to our cooking class and say, try out a recipe involving spinach, then we'll give you some of the ingredients to make a meal or two on your own if you want them. Make sure to diversify what is taught. Maybe you don't like spinach no matter how it's used, but this brocolli is delicious to you and you want to learn how to mix it in with your pastas.
And slowly move people into the vegan lifestyle. Don't be afraid or against answering questions that involve incorporating vegetables into meat filled meals. A recipe that is 1 pound beef and the rest is veggies and pasta is still bad, but it's better than 2 pounds of beef and if it gets people to try out foods they wouldn't have normally and slowly move into incorporating them/eating them on their own it's a net positive at the end. That doesn't mean to teach them meat recipes at the classes, but if someone does have a question just answer.
Since this thread was basically posted about me, I just want to say that this comment basically describes me perfectly:
Might I ever go vegan? Perhaps, with IRL support, but that isn't my current situation, so it's not going to happen right now.
Also, I realize I've walked into a minefield here, but I would really not like to get into an argument about this again. If this comment is considered inappropriate for this comm then the mods can go ahead and delete it, but please don't just dogpile on me again.
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As far as I'm concerned you have a good excuse, but there are definitely people who could more easily make the change who refuse to even consider it and use some kind of 'solidarity' with people who have a harder time going vegan as an excuse.
:heart-sickle:
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