My Life as a Meat-Free, Dairy-Free, and Sugar-Free Teen

I know what you’re thinking. What do you eat? A lot, actually. I can have more than just vegetables, you know. I’ve been vegan (meat-free and dairy-free) for almost seven years. The sugar-free thing is new. I’ve only been doing that for about two months. I’m not allergic to any of these things. It’s just our family’s dietary choices.

We were having health problems seven years ago, and it was getting pretty bad. We were sick all the time. So, after my dad did extensive research, he found that being vegan might help us. We decided to try it. And we kept on “trying it” for seven years. You know what’s amazing? We’re almost never sick!

Now, I didn’t go into much detail earlier… I actually do eat a lot. And I have a lot of options. Sure, it can get hard when we go to a restaurant where almost everything has cheese on it. But we can always ask for something without the cheese. When friends have us over for dinner and serve a dish with cheese in it, we eat it anyway. We would never want to be rude. When it comes to meat, we are more strict. We make sure our friends know we’re meat-free before they make us something. If we tell people we’re vegan, it can be a little stressful making a meal for us. So, we just tell people we’re meat-free, to make it easy on them.

I haven’t even tried a little bit of meat in seven years. I honestly get disgusted by it. I would probably get really sick if I tried some after seven years of not having it. I went to an amusement park the other day and had a little sugar, and I felt sick to my stomach after I ate it. And I’ve only been sugar-free for two months. Imagine eating something after seven years of staying off of it. I don’t even want to think about it.

You would think that staying off of sugar would be the hardest for me. At least, that’s what I thought when I first went sugar-free. To my surprise, it’s not that hard! Dairy is the hardest. When you go to restaurants with friends, it seems like everything (that tastes good) has cheese in it. The reason sugar-free is so easy, is because we didn’t have much sugar in our house when I wasn’t sugar-free. And we never ordered desserts when we ate out. I will admit, when I go to fast food (not that I go very often), I miss drinking a Mr. Pibb with my Veggie Burger. (And we all know that those sodas are made of pure sugar).

It can get pretty hard when my friends disagree with my diet. Some people make fun of me for it. But I really don’t mind. Sure, I don’t want them making fun of me… nobody wants to be made fun of. But I don’t get mad at them. I don’t understand why they care. It’s not like I’m asking them to be vegan too. They apparently don’t get the concept of “mind your own business.” Some of my friends take it to the extreme, and make vegan jokes all the time. I pretend like I don’t mind, but I actually find it kind of rude.

Being vegan and sugar-free isn’t actually that hard. I know that surprises a few people, but it really isn’t. When I tell my newer friends that I’m vegan, their eyes widen in surprise and they always say “Oh, I couldn’t live without meat.” OF COURSE YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT MEAT. There are plenty of other foods with protein. I can get my protein from nuts, vegetables, beans, legumes, tofu, and the list goes on and on. My mom makes an amazing cashew cream sauce. When you put it on gnocchi, it’s one of the best meals ever. Even some of my non-vegan friends love it. I’ve even had a friend come over and ask if we had any, because she loves it so much.

Are there any other vegan or sugar-free teens out there? I would love to meet you (in the comments, of course). Even if you aren’t vegan or sugar-free, let me know what you think! Would you ever consider being vegan? Or sugar-free? Have any questions for me? I would love to answer you! Thanks for reading!