Being vegan, without being vegan (sorta)
I have a belief the term ‘vegan’ is just not acceptable for certain people. At least I feel that it is so in Japan, like a lot of things are. But do we all still need to be drinking milk?
Honestly, I could go on for pages about my thoughts towards veganism and relative interrogatives that seem they are never to be answered, but no worries because this piece is not that hyper-typical but not-so-catchy rant about nutrients and wellbeing. It is a fact that I have been taking part in veganism for the past few months, but my focus here is towards a personal change that happened years before going vegan; consciously ceasing consumption of certain dairy products.
While being forced to chug packs of milk for lunch at a daily basis in elementary school, approximately 2 out of 3 ethnically Japanese people are lactose intolerant. Non-proudly being so myself, I took too many years figuring this out on my own—we are soaked with facts telling us milk is a miraculous source of calcium and many other nutrients, which it can be, but there’s genuinely no point if it cannot be properly digested in the first place. One of the countless things we’re not taught in school. Although I never enjoyed milk on its own, it then became obvious that the yoghurt I was eating by choice every morning—thinking that the lactic acids would help my intestinal condition—was always torturing my stomach. From the day I realized that I was lactose intolerant, I opted my dairy milk with soy milk and oat milk, and plain yoghurt with soy yoghurt. Being an obvious result, the bothering symptoms magically vanished for life.
After the whole self-experimenting process, the environmental benefits of not consuming dairy products came as a fully-packed goodie bag. I soon learned off of an oat milk carton that most plant milks only require a single fraction of water and land needed to produce cow’s milk. (I also think that this is the absolute perfect timing to mention that cows emit methane burps. Just letting that out there.) Additionally, the way cows are milked is sadly abusive and devastating in most cases. It’s often an avoided conversation, but should not be a reason for the problem to be disregarded nor unacknowledged. After all, a mother’s milk is only naturally developed when she is carrying a baby.
At this point, I don’t even think I need to emphasize that milk does not necessarily have to be a part of the human diet. Maybe you might not participate in the morning chug of a cup of milk, but I’m sure it resides in many Japanese households. Milk is contained in a wide variety of recipes from traditional plates to guilty pleasure desserts, making it a continuously restocked member of our fridges. I can guarantee that the same exact recipes will turn out perfectly fine when opted with plant milks, even that daily oatmeal breakfast of yours, or the carbonara pasta you're planning to cook up for dinner tonight. Especially if you are privileged enough to have the choice between dairy milk or plant milk, reconsideration is highly recommended regarding the number of problems production and consumption of milk can be related to.
Being a strict vegan myself, I can understand how strict vegans get worked up when flexitarian (aka people that are sometimes/partially vegan or vegetarian) people try to take too much credit for their choices—it can be difficult and stressful at times to be completely vegan in a meat-based society and food culture. On the other hand, I think shifting away from dairy products is a nice toe-dip into veganism and sustainability. Different eating habits suit different bodies, so it can be a perfect starter for people that can't make drastic changes at the moment. Hence I believe that it is necessary for people that make the choice to say goodbye to dairy products to have the chance for acknowledging the change itself; we all start with baby steps. Too bad we still don’t have a name for these people, but they all deserve a pat on the back and should be proud of their decision.
The title of this article probably already did its job by making a certain amount of people click away without even taking a glimpse at the rest of the article. Again, some people have an intuitive phobia towards the term, just like how I used to. I’m not a vegan from birth, meaning that I’ve lived years being non-vegan, so my assumptions are coming from experience. Mainly through the latter half of my teenage years, I knew the concept of veganism and had already slightly recognized the importance of it, but I always looked away from true understanding. I feel that something similar to this also happens in daily conversations; some people try to walk around the fact that I’m vegan, creating a distance between us. I understand that everyone has their own reasonings and backgrounds, but without any assertion of opinion while knowing that I'm vegan, every action they take screams “I am doing my best not to face problems and avoid further discussion”. I've never felt indifference in relationships with people in this way, but the distance is overly evident that ignorance is an impossible choice. Although we all have our own timings, I strongly believe it is an urgent topic requiring much more discussion.
While nearly complaining about people not participating in discussion with me, this has also been a chance to realize that I could be doing the exact same to others. As I keep passionately bombarding my dearest friends with topics I have interest in, they are probably doing the same right back at me with different things they have interest in their own ways, and we could be accidentally avoiding or ignoring things during daily converstations without recognizing. We don’t notice the unintentional ignorance that could be caused by the smallest reasons like it wasn’t the right time to be talking about the certain topic, or just because we weren't listening enough. Actions as simple as this could become a perfect trigger to emotional distancing. I currently feel that the ultimate cure is not just patience or generosity, but the key is assimilation of each others’ thoughts and beliefs, being the bare minimum of ways to treat each other.
Anyways, Got Plant Milk?
