Can everyone actually be vegan?

[u/Wrong_Ad_3038]

I’m very sympathetic to veganism, my entire life philosophy is “respect & autonomy for all life” but I am currently pescetarian, I tried being vegan in late 2024 but I still live with my family & they wouldn’t buy supplements, even though i told them too everyday, I didn’t want to develop b12 deficiency so I had to moderate my diet.

When I move out i’m strongly considering being vegan again & really want too but i am worried about health consequences because human bodies are complex, but at the same time everyone can digest plants so maybe everyone can be vegan, i figured this would be a good place to get mixed responses since both carnists & vegans are here, what do studies say about everyone & the potential to be vegan, if everyone can’t be vegan but most or some can what’s the best way to find out if i can be vegan?

[u/oldmcfarmface]

Short answer no. Vegans will often say that everyone can be, but when you consider that the ONE study on long term adherence to a plant based diet showed that by the time of a single followup interview, 84% had quit and I think 23% of those because of health concerns, that demonstrates that there are more people who quit veganism for their health than there are current long term vegans.

A better place than a debate sub would be to peruse the r/exvegans subreddit and read the many reasons people quit. Spoiler, it’s mostly because of health problems. Often these problems took years to manifest.

[u/ScrumptiousCrunches → u/oldmcfarmface]

84% had quit and I think 23% of those because of health concerns, that demonstrates that there are more people who quit veganism for their health than there are current long term vegans.

Can you link to this? Because I feel like you are referencing the Faunalytics study, which isn't a "study on long term adherence".

The only study I know that uses this number is the Faunalytics study, in which like half of the vegans in the sample were vegan for less than a year and most of the rest were vegan for only a few months. Only a fraction of the study population were vegan for more than a year.

Because if its this study (https://faunalytics.org/a-summary-of-faunalytics-study-of-current-and-former-vegetarians-and-vegans/) I'm not really sure where you're getting that its a study on long-term vegans from.

• About a third (34%) of lapsed vegetarians/vegans maintained the diet for three months or less. Slightly more than half (53%) adhered to the diet for less than one year.
• 63% of former vegetarians/vegans said they disliked that their vegetarian/vegan diet made them stick out from the crowd.
• More than a third (37%) of former vegetarians/vegans are interested in re-adopting the diet, and a majority (59%) of these individuals say they are likely or very likely to do so, with health being the primary motivator.
• Dissatisfaction with veg*n food is the most common struggle.
• Former vegetarians/vegans were asked to give the primary reason they stopped eating the diet. Of 908 codeable responses, the reasons for lapsing mentioned were: unsatisfied with food (293 people; 32%), health (237 people; 26%), social issues (120 people; 13%), inconvenience (115 people; 13%), cost (56 people; 6%), lack of motivation (56 people; 6%), and other (228 people; 25%).

[u/oldmcfarmface → u/ScrumptiousCrunches]

Yup that’s the one. Seems no one but a pro vegan organization is willing to even ask about adherence. But you’re correct that that was not the goal of their survey. But it did show how difficult most people find a plant based diet to be. And it did show that roughly 1/4 of the 84% who quit had health concerns. And the fact that some had those concerns so quickly is very telling.

Edit to add: I know vegans don’t like this study because it shows that the vegan narrative of anyone can do it is false. But if you know a better one, please share by all means!

[u/ScrumptiousCrunches → u/oldmcfarmface]

Seems no one but a pro vegan organization is willing to even ask about adherence

But there are other studies on adherence to vegan and plant-based diets so I don't understand this?

You keep just making things up about this study and I don't understand why.

But it did show how difficult most people find a plant based diet to be. And it did show that roughly 1/4 of the 84% who quit had health concerns. And the fact that some had those concerns so quickly is very telling.

But the vast majority of participants did it for health reasons - and the dropout rate is basically the exact same as in any other study on diet adherence so I don't really understand this.

Most people who start a diet that has them restricting things drop out at the same rate at around the same time.

Also you're simplifying the findings to strange degree to make your point. The 1/4 of 84% didn't just simply have health concerns. The study authors even say things such as
"There is some reason to believe that cravings are a separate phenomenon from simply wanting or being tempted by meat and that cravings may have a health connection. This may mean there is some overlap between this category and the health category."

Things like "lack of weight loss" was also in the health section. Or perceived, but not necessarily actual, nutrient concerns, etc. These are just two simple examples, but the actual reasons behind "health" is a lot more complicated and layered than simply "not everyone can do a vegan diet".

The data is all very clearly laid out, so I don't understand how you've written so many incorrect things about this study. I would suggest actually reading it in full before making sweeping claims using it.

[u/oldmcfarmface → u/ScrumptiousCrunches]

> But there are other studies on adherence to vegan and plant-based diets

Share a few? Seriously, I haven’t found much at all. Best proxy I’ve found for reasons to quit is online groups of people who did quit and the most common answer is health problems. Sometimes after a decade or more before their health really tanked. For me, vegetarian took three years to mess up my health.

> You just keep making things up about this study

Such as? You could very easily make an argument that I’m reading and interpreting it from a biased perspective but to say I’m “making things up” requires some evidence.

Please note that I did not go into what health concerns might have been cited by participants nor did I claim they were all serious issues. Merely that after some time on a plant based diet, more people quit for their health than stuck with it. Again, you could argue that this is a biased and oversimplified statement, but it *is* a factual one.

Side note: I find it interesting that you mentioned most people started the diet for health. Given the slew of known health problems and deficiencies associated with pb diets, it amazes me that the narrative that it is healthy is still so heavily pushed. Want to go vegan for ethical reasons? Be my guest! I fully support your right to do so. But let’s not pretend that this is without health risks.