I understand that being a vegan is an individual choice, but the suffering of the animals is our choice too

Sounantha is from Laos and currently a PhD student in Hungary. She is a vegan for the planet and life. She loves sharing healthy vegan foods on her IG page @goodfoodd.vegan🌱. Meatless Movement recently had the opportunity to chat with her.

Tell us more about yourself please

I’m Sounantha; I live in Budapest, Hungary as a PhD candidate. I’m a Laotian. Apart from my research activities, I love to paint from acrylic and oil pastels. I also love travelling, running, and cooking vegan foods, which I mostly try to discover new recipes on my own.

My life is happier for being vegan
Sounantha

Human beings can survive without eating meats.
Sounantha

I was a vegetarian from 2009 until June 2021 and then turned vegan from that time until now. Besides being an activist for animal rights, I want to be a part of the climate change issue too.

Before switching to being a vegan, I was a volunteer in the animal rescue farm in the Czech Republic named farm Nadeje. During this period, I realised that animals are beautiful creatures; not ours to eat. I also learned we are taking innocent lives when we eat flesh. Many animals suffer and die in the meat and dairy industries, when they could have lived and had happy lives.

Tips on how to start eating plant-based

Whenever I miss home, I cook Laotian dishes by myself. In Laos, we use pumpkin 🎃 to make various of desserts, “ນ້ຳຫວານ” (Nam Wan) is the healthy dessert boiling pumpkin with coconut milk, little brown sugar and red lentils. Vegan Laotian stew “ເອາະ” is the most popular cuisine in Laos. Lastly, “ເຂົ້າປຽກ” Lao homemade noodle soup… hot, spicy and sour, and Lao style vegan porridge.

For starters, be a part of the vegan community and you will begin to see many delicious recipes. If you can’t eat only vegetables, I’m sure that there are many more plant-based products all around your communities, it’s not just the fresh vegetables, but you can get plant-based meat, fish, or anything you love.

Going meatless prevents the exploitation of animals. Many vegan creators are sharing their plant-based life on social media to encourage people to go meatless and transit to living a life that does not involve killing for food.

I believe, little by little, you will become an excellent meatless eater very soon.

How this amazing hot and spicy vegan Tom Yum is!! 🤤😍🔥🌶🌶🌶🌱

My favorite vegan Tom Yam with spicy and sour taste. It’s perfect with cooked rice and also rice noodles.

Once you stop the meat, you are one of the heroes in real life!
Sounantha

Being a vegan is not a big challenge for me. But, on the other hand, it’s a joyful way to represent many vegan foods for people around, and I’m so happy to see they enjoy having my vegan foods as well. If you are still a meat-eater, it’s not that hard to reduce. You too, can break this old habit of eating meat.

It is simply not right to kill animals so that human beings can eat meat and fish.