PETA Is Not the Enemy.

[athena]

199. We are technically not vegan.

Our diet is almost 100% plant-based. If I'm at a restaurant and I ask for spaghetti with tomato sauce, and it comes with some shredded cheese on top of it, I won't say anything. I'll just eat it, because complaining or not eating it won't accomplish anything. Also, I use leather, wool, and down, because the alternative is plastic, and it seems to me that plastic does a lot of harm to animals and the environment. So I'm not "vegan" according to the 1944 definition, which is the only definition the vegan community (at least online, since I have never met a vegan in person) accepts.

My husband will also put real milk in his coffee at cafes and restaurants if there is no soymilk or almond-milk alternative. Every now and then when we eat out, he'll have a pizza with a little bit of cheese on it. So his diet is almost totally plant-based, but not in a purist or religious way.

We don't worry too much about whether restaurants use chicken stock in their apparently-vegetarian dishes. It's just too hard. I'm not sure that there is that much practical difference between eating 99% plant-based and 100% plant-based. That's why I'm careful to say I follow a plant-based diet rather than saying I'm vegan. I've read posts by others on DU who are similarly almost-vegan. I wish the (online) vegan community were more accepting of those of us who aren't religious about veganism. I think the goal should be to reduce animal suffering and environmental damage, not to define some people as pure and others as impure.

It sounds like you're doing a lot! I don't think it helps to judge anyone who is doing their best. Let me just mention that my husband and I used to spend a lot more as omnivores, especially when we went out. The vegetarian option on the menu is almost always the least expensive one. As for protein, we get most of our intake from beans, which are also inexpensive. We buy dried beans, which I think taste better. And they're full of iron and protein. It takes a while for one's system to adjust to eating beans, though.