Joe ‘Vegan’ no Longer Vegan!

Dear Joe,

I salute your courage for making this video. As a fellow ex-vegan, I understand deeply the process you have gone through to come to this moment.  I am happy that you have made a decision to value your own mental and physical health, over an ideology that would have never supported you or your family’s health.

You make some very valuable points in your video. You mention the issue of ‘cheating’ on a vegan diet; that there are vegans that promote a vegan diet and yet behind closed doors they eat animal products. This is rife within the vegan movement and a hidden secret. This is a serious issue and one that needs to be brought to light. Not only because of the hypocrisy, but also because of the damage that is done when people are too trusting of the words people speak, not realising that in fact, the person is lying.

You mention the issue of being shunned once you leave the vegan ‘religion’. Again this is a serious issue and one that can be shocking for people once they leave. When I was vegan, fully immersed within the cult, all of my friends were also vegan. Once I left I lost a significant percentage of my ‘friends’. There were, however, some friends that stayed friends with me. There were also a number of friends, including breastfeeding mothers, that shared with me secretly, their intense cravings for animal products.  This is horrific. Mothers that felt they could not meet their health needs because of ideology and fear. Shunning is a classic cult technique and a very powerful one at that. We are social beings and need a ‘clan’ to feel emotionally and relationally healthy. If we know that leaving the vegan ‘religion’ will mean we lose our friendship group and become vilified, as well as possibly subject to death threats, it can be a scary process for many. Death threats post-veganism are very real, I encountered them and many others have also.

With vegans gaining a louder voice on-line, I believe more people will be recruited into this dietary/lifestyle cult. There will also be more people leaving. As this happens, the voice of ex-vegans will also get louder.  We understand the process. We understand the process of entering and we understand the process of exiting.

Joe, you are not alone in having some kind of breakdown that in part can be related to the cult of veganism. There are many reasons for this, of which I will be exploring on this blog.

You have been very brave in coming out and I don’t doubt you will receive a backlash of fury from vegans still in the cult.  Know you are supported by people that understand what you have gone through. Take care of yourself and your family. Trust in your decision.

Vegan Fury

This blog has been set to private for a number of months. When I first set it up, I really did not expect the initial stats. I have created other blogs in the past and none of them got the views this blog did within 24 hours. It only cemented within me the need for a discussion on these topics. However, my own personal life did not enable me to give this blog the focus it deserved and so I decided I would set it on private until I had the time I needed to devote to this topic.

Recently I have re-engaged with the issue and it is one I feel very passionate about.

Vegans have become a loud voice and permeate all social media outlets. Innocent and vulnerable people are getting trapped within its dogma. This can not continue.

On a personal level, I find it distressing to know that many people attempt to eat a vegan diet without sufficient education on this topic. My primary concern is the mental, emotional and physical health of those adopting this diet as well as those that want to stop eating in this way but fear the vegan fury.

Vegans are renowned for making it tough for people to leave this dietary cult. Guilt is a real emotion that many ex-vegans feel and it is extremely sad.  There is absolutely nothing to feel guilty about! In fact, I would suggest it is vegans that need to feel guilty for the pressure they can put on people to feel guilty about meeting their physiological needs.

Although there are different reasons people turn their back on veganism, one of the main reasons is health (mental and physical).  This is a very real and pressing issue. People that have become trapped within vegan ideology need to know it is ok to want to be healthy, even if this means they need to eat animal products.

Vegan fury is real, but it can not influence you once you have exited fully from this ideology. Although there was a time it affected me and I felt shame for my choices post-veganism, I am now free to eat that which is necessary to maintain my own health.

You can do the same, knowing there are people out there that not only understand but also support you.