For me it’s an amazing feeling that I contribute the least as possible to the exploitation of animals

Anilla is a communication scientist and a PhD student of sustainability communication and the rhetoric of planetary health. She has been vegan for almost 5 years and she loves to explore vegan dishes everywhere in the world. She has a small sustainability and travel blog with a YouTube channel, where she tries to inspire people to explore the planet, and by that learn why and how to protect it. You can find her at tillanilla.com. Meatless Movement recently had the opportunity to chat with her.

Please tell us more about yourself

I have been vegan for almost 5 years
Till Anilla

I am a PhD student of sustainability communication and the rhetoric of planetary health. I am based in Hungary at the moment, but I have lived in Finland, France and Sweden before.

For me the strongest reason to become vegan was the protection of animals
Till Anilla

I have been vegan for almost 5 years and I had stopped eating meat shortly before that. I first started to question the morality of eating fish when I got my pet fish Schrödinger. I didn’t want to upset him by eating fish next to him. 😊

This was followed by slowly eliminating other types of meat from my diet, and in a few months I became completely plant-based and vegan. For me the strongest reason to become vegan was the protection of animals, but of course protecting the Earth’s ecosystems in general is extremely important to me as a planetary health scientist.

I feel at peace that I contribute the least as possible to the exploitation of animals
Till Anilla

Most of my family members and friends were very positive and understanding about my lifestyle change, they were mostly curious about the reasons behind my decision. Some of them even tried to reduce their meat intakes. Of course, in the beginning I needed some time to figure things out, such as what to cook and where to eat, but I got comfortable with this in a few months.

For me it’s an amazing feeling that I contribute the least as possible to the exploitation of animals. I also became more health-conscious over these years and explored wonderful recipes and restaurants. I also became more understanding towards people’s individual dietary choices, let those be based on culture or religion.

I’d probably encourage you to try an amazing dish that is vegan or vegetarian without any modifications. For example plenty of Indian and Middle Eastern dishes are already vegan. I think the easiest way is to approach veganism as something that does not require a lot of thinking and modification of dishes. Pizza is also a great food that is widely available almost everywhere in Europe for example, and it’s very easy to make it vegan.

Be kind to yourself, and feel free to make mistakes.
Till Anilla

A misconception is that it’s very hard to find something in a store or in a restaurant. In fact you just need to be comfortable with reading the ingredients, which you should do anyway in order to know what you consume.

And in restaurants, you just have to be nice and ask the staff about the possibilities, they almost always figure something out to please you! I never ever had to leave a restaurant because they would not be able to come up with a vegan dish.

I normally don’t cook super interesting dishes, but I love eating out, especially in Budapest, Hungary. My favourite restaurants are Las Vegan’s, Vegan Love, Tökmag Vegan Street Food, Kozmosz Vegan Restaurant and Vega City.

The world needs a bunch of people reducing their meat intakes, not perfect vegans. 😊 If you feel like eating something non-vegan, just do it, next time maybe you can find another option. But the most important thing is that you feel comfortable with what you eat.