It’s Too Expensive (Right?)

Okay, so you’re on board and agree the environmental benefits are overwhelming and that a vegan diet is nutritionally adequate. But you’re struggling with rent or have car payments past due. Money is tight. Vegan diets are for the well-to-do and you simply can’t afford it. Right?? Nope. Remember that to produce meat or dairy, you have to raise livestock, which requires continual feeding, and thus, money. Fruits and veggies though, just require sunlight and rain. There is no middle process of raising one product (grain, feed, etc.) in order to produce the other. All other things being equal, cutting out this middle process should, in theory, reduce the price. Let’s check out the numbers at the grocery store to see if this is actually the case. After all, who cares about theory? You just want to save some cash.

Breakfast

You and yours just woke up and it’s time to eat some breakfast. Cereal seems to be a go-to choice, so let’s check out milk prices.

1/2 Gallon Whole milk: $2.59/64oz.
1/2 Gallon Soy milk: $2.57/64oz.

Similar prices on milk. If you were vegan, you might go for a follow-up banana and coffee. If you’re still on the non-vegan diet though, you might instead grab some bacon to go with the coffee.

Banana: $0.25/serving [1 banana]
Bacon: $4.49 for 4 servings = $1.23/serving [3 slices]

Lunchtime

Before you leave for work you pack your lunch. If you were vegan, you might pack a salad with a serving of black beans along with a bit of salad dressing. The standard diet packs a turkey sandwich with some bread and cheese.

Salad: $3.69 for 3 servings = $1.23/serving
Blackbeans: $1.19 for 3 servings = $0.40/serving
Dressing: $2.89 for 16 servings = $0.18/serving

Sliced Turkey: $6.99 for 6 servings = $1.33/serving
Cheese: $4.00 for 11 servings = $0.37/serving
Bread: $3.00 for 10 servings = $0.30/serving

A vegan throws in an apple for a post-lunch snack; the non-vegan eats some yogurt to top off.

Apple: $0.80/serving [1 apple]
Yogurt: $0.80/serving [1 cup]

Dinner

Lunch prices were pretty similar so let’s move on to dinner. You want to cook a burger and so need to buy a beef patty. If you were vegan though, you’d go for either a portabella mushroom (‘shroom burgers are great!) or a veggie-burger. Buns and condiments are the same.

Portabella Mushroom: $2.00/patty
Vegan Veggie Burger: $1.60/burger

Beef Burger: $2.33/burger

Results

Overall, the prices are pretty similar and in cases where prices were not similar, the veggie/vegan option was cheaper. Also notice that the closer you get to food in it’s natural form, the cheaper that food is. Eat close to the ground to keep you trim and your wallet full.

[To ensure a fair comparison, all chosen products were chosen as the lowest priced products available. Sale-priced products were not used, and matching brands were used whenever available]

https://shop.harristeeter.com/store/10C9127028

What is the what?

My Dad would always say, as we’re sitting around the table “You don’t know what you’re missing.” I imagine thousands of other vegans have heard similar objections.

For me, this especially didn’t make any sense as I knew exactly what I was missing… I used to eat meat, cheese, etc. Additionally, as is the case with most vegans, I had really spent a good deal of my time investigating just what that what was. I was happy to report to him that I did know what the what was and that I was glad to be missing it.

But I don’t ever try to force my beliefs onto others and I don’t intend to do that in this blog. This should simply be an informative response to what is usually the first question a curious new friend or coworker asks, “What made you become vegan?” or “How do you get your protein?”

Though the opportunity excites me, I feel I usually don’t do the cause justice when responding, out of a desire to not seem fanatical.

First though, let’s talk about who or what a vegan is. A vegan is simply someone doesn’t eat any animal products, including meat, milk, eggs, and cheese, making their diet simply a more restrictive version of a vegetarian’s: one who doesn’t eat meat, eggs or fish but does eat dairy. This diet-layout can be seen in the venn-diagram below. Notice that Vegans are, by definition, also vegetarians.

venn-diagram of diets

Albert Einstein once said “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”