Why not?

  Though it's not a subject that I've put through a lot of scrutiny, I am aware some folk have chosen a vegan path. Being a fan of a large number animal products, I've never given the idea of being following this path much thought, but in the spirit of investigation and experimentation, I thought I'd give it a go. For a short time only you understand.

  One thing I've come across is that vegans need to supplement their diet with vitamin B12, as you don't find it in plant based food, but besides that there appear to be benefits and no downsides to cutting out all animal products so starting Monday, for two weeks, it's a pure vegetable and mineral diet for me.

A lovely vegan meal (with salmon and halloumi.)

  As you may have read here, I'm kind of used to making food choices that discriminate against animal products when I'm away from home. It occurred to me one day that all the food businesses are going to choose dairy and eggs that are cheap instead of organic, (i.e. free from antibiotics and hormones etc) so I just make sure to avoid them.

  All I'm going to do is extend that to my food at home and see where that gets me. As I said, this is an experiment so I'll be bringing you updates on anything I notice and to be perfectly honest, I'm pretty curious because I have heard some fairly bold claims about how much better people feel after going vegan. I want to know if their enthusiasm is just because they are trying to convince themselves they've done the right thing, while deep down they actually feel utterly miserable and crave a quiet corner to sneakily chomp down a bacon sandwich.  (You can be so cynical at times. -Ed.)

  I'd also invite you to notice your reaction to reading this. I was having a chat with my sister recently and was talking about my choice to be vegan outside my house and she suddenly got all defensive as if I was trying to radicalise her or enrol her into the scientology cult. I still advocate cutting out animal products that are not organic, which means being vegan most of the time and buying better quality food the rest. But whatever food choices you make, the most important thing is to make the choices from a place of freedom, not because you think you have to.

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Kirk out

Chefsebastian.com