3 Most Popular Vegan Fallacies

By Adam Kochanowicz

Despite its tremendous health benefits and implications on the welfare and rights of animals, veganism is highly misunderstood. We vegans find ourselves having to debunk the following myths all the time but we're happy to educate. Adopting a vegan lifestyle is easier than you may think and has tremendous benefits. Here's a few things you may want to re-examine:

Protein Deficiency

While the myth that vegans have a hard time getting enough protein is the most popular vegan health fallacy, there are plenty of others and most are misleading or just plum wrong.

Proteins are essentially the building blocks of living cells,they're in every living thing whether it be a cucumber, a bacterium, or a cow. The reality to the protein problem is very much the opposite. Omnivores (those who eat both animal- and plant-food) should be worried for getting too much protein which, unlike fat, is not stored in excesses as energy, but toxins. Think about it, when have you ever heard of anyone having protein deficiency other than in countries where people are starving?

What is important is that a vegan should not be worried for having to work harder for nutrition any more than they should be overconfident for having an optimal diet. Like any change to a new diet, a vegan should consult a doctor and find the best way to make the transition. Make sure you're getting plenty of healthy, diverse calories and you'll likely be very healthy.

It's hard to be a vegan in ____ (Insert city)

I've heard it plenty of times and I roll my eyes each time “I had to stop being vegan because I went to France,” “I live in a small town, I can't be vegan.” I've spent plenty of time in foreign lands and small towns to know that it's just another world. Sometimes you just don't have the luxuries of natural foods stores or specialty items but it just takes a little more effort initially to slip into a vegan lifestyle that works for your town or visiting city without extra effort in the future.

First of all, no matter how small your city may be, your local grocery store is likely to have a decent array of produce. Forget about the veggie burgers and tofu and get accustomed to making creative dishes with fresh fruit and veggies.

You'd be surprised at how easy it is to get tofu or rice milk or whatever it is you crave. You may be the only person asking for it, but in a small town, that could represent 5% of the demand. Sooner or later maybe a family member or another patron picks it up too. Ask the store manager to order something that's not too unfamiliar (soy milk but not soy cheese). If you don't live in a particularly tiny city, check out vegguide.org which has a comprehensive listing of vegan and vegan-friendly establishments at the continent, country, state, and city level.

Vegans are Skinny

(Vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke, right; Kristopher "Topher" Flannery, below) I don't want to discredit the fact that transitioning to a healthy vegan diet is great for weight loss, but understand you can still be vegan and put on weight--fat or muscle. The only technical stipulation for a vegan diet is the avoidance of animal products. Pepsi, chips, and crackers are still on the table as well as vegan cookies, cake, and pretty much anything other than cholesterol and animal fat that would plump you up on an omnivorous diet.

The myth that vegans can't put on muscle is equally as preposterous. To put on muscle mass, a vegan needs weight-training exercise and a diet high in calories and protein just like any other human being. Protein can be found in almost all foods and is especially high in legumes, nuts, seeds, and some grains. In fact, due to its cholesterol-free and low fat nature, veganism is actually an optimal diet for bodybuilding.

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