Let’s talk about veganism! Once in a while I like to do a ‘Vegan Advice’ post, where I’ll be giving answers to questions I get asked a lot. Every time I will answer 3 questions. You maybe read my first Vegan Advice already. That one answered the following questions: ‘Can I still eat something nice in a restaurant?‘, ‘How would my environment react?‘ and ‘Can I do it?’. This time I will answer 3 questions too: ‘Where do I get my protein from?’, ‘Can I eat the eggs from my own chickens?’ and ‘Do cows have to be milked?’. These are questions I get asked all the time. If you’re vegan too, I’m quite sure that you get these questions all the time as well. Especially question number 1..

Where do I get my protein from?
Lets start this 2nd Vegan Advice with a classic. I think this is the most common question you get as a vegan. That’s why, whenever I get asked, it always makes me laugh a little bit. There are still a lot of people out there who think that you need to eat chicken, eggs and greek yogurt to get a sufficient amount of protein. Luckily plants have a lot of protein too. Very good quality protein. For everybody who doesn’t know yet or for people who would like to have a reminder, there we go: Black beans, Lentils, Tofu, Chickpeas, Soy, Edamame beans, Peas, Tempeh, Hemp seeds, Pumpkin seeds, Chia Seeds, Spinach, Broccoli, Almonds, Peanut butter, Spirulina, Tahini, Nutritional yeast.. and I can go on and on, but these ones are some important ones, which are particularly high. What means if you eat lots of these things, there will be no problem with your protein intake. Always aim to eat a varied diet though, don’t only get your protein from peanut butter guys, haha!

Can I eat the eggs from my own chickens?
Of course you can, but it wouldn’t be a vegan thing to do. So what are you suppose to do with the eggs? I would (and many people do) feed them back to the chickens. Chickens in the wild tend to do this too, to get the lost nutrition back into their body. The chickens nowadays, especially the ones who are bred to lay eggs, lay a lot more eggs than a chicken normally would. It’s insane to think about breeding an animal in a way so ‘we’ can make a profit. Some chickens will always lay a lot of eggs for a long period of time, that’s simply how they were bred. Very sad if you think about it. Other chickens won’t lay any eggs after a while or only just a few a year. This last situation is normal. Imagine a chicken who has to lay 1 or several eggs a day? It would be very vulnerable for predators and a waste of nutrition. Eating eggs is just not a unnatural thing to do. It’s not ours to take. So eating the eggs of your own chickens would also be unnatural. Normally, chickens who were used to lay a lot of eggs, will lay fewer eggs after a while. Especially if there is no rooster around. I was always told that a chicken who lays a lot of eggs, is very happy and a chicken that didn’t lay eggs was unhappy. Now I’m thinking about it, it always was the other way around..

Do cows have to be milked?
If I get this question, I’m always a bit flabbergasted. I do admit that as a child I did believe this too, because this is what you’re told. I am surprised if an adult asks me this though. No offence, because if you never thought about it and you were always told that cows exist to give us milk, then you don’t know. But a cow is not a magic milking machine. In order to give milk, a cow has to, just like any other animal and just like us humans, give birth first. By drinking milk you’re not only supporting the fact that the baby is stolen from the mum 1-3 days after giving birth, but you’re also supporting that more cows come into this world every day. More cows will suffer, more milk will be produced, more cows will be killed and also the more cows there are, the worse it is for the environment. Cows and other livestock are responsible for more than half the CO2 in the world. Apart from that, milk is one of the worst thing you can drink if you want to live a healthy life. So a cow will not suffer if you don’t milk it. If you don’t milk a cow after giving birth, the calf will drink the milk and stay with his/her mum for at least 6 months. Slowly it will drink less milk and slowly the milk will ‘dry up’. Exactly the same as with humans.

Did you already know the answers to these questions or did you learn something? Are there any other questions you’re struggling with? I’d be more than happy to help! Please let me know by leaving a comment below or by sending me a private email. You can also contact me via Instagram by sending me a message, by tagging me or by using #PlanetManel. Thank you! X