It’s been exciting trying lots of new food since going vegan

After turning vegans, Lauren and Alex are grateful to know the full truth now, and hope that people continue to spread the word about dairy farming. According to the sisters, going dairy-free really isn’t as difficult as we thought it’d be – in fact, it’s been rewarding and liberating. As humans, we are conditioned to compartmentalise, to not think about the ‘by-product’ male calves who are snatched away from their mothers and killed, just so we can steal their milk. It’s all hidden away and deliberately kept quiet

Meatless Movement recently had a chat with them. They told Meatless Movement that they are so grateful to have connected with so many likeminded people on IG.

Please tell us more about yourself

Our names are Lauren and Alex, and we’re the sisters behind Busy Beeing Vegan. We both live in the south east of England and decided to go vegan together a couple of years ago. We both love animals, cooking and food in general, so it’s been exciting trying lots of new food since going vegan.

Bee happy, bee vegan
Busy Beeing Vegan

We’ve always been brought up to care for animals and appreciate nature and the beautiful world around us. Our mother was a protester against animal testing in her earlier years and she’s always taught us to be compassionate and kind towards all animals. We went vegetarian in our later teenage years and both decided to go vegan in 2020 after watching Okja and Earthlings. Like most vegetarians/ vegans, we just wish we’d done it sooner.

Cruelty-free beauty
Busy Beeing Vegan

Shortly after turning vegan, we were working at The Retreat Animal Rescue Sanctuary in Kent on a volunteer day. I took a packed lunch with me, which included a vegetable samosa. After a hard morning’s work, I went to get my lunch out my bag and found the samosa had been half eaten with tiny bite marks.

The team leader said “oh I forgot to mention, there’s a little rat here who steals food from peoples bags when they hang them up there”. At least someone enjoyed their lunch that day! Only a couple of day’s later, a seagull swooped down and stole my sandwich from my hand in Brighton. Then my dog (which is quite common) rummaged through my bag to steal some biscuits on another day that week. It’s almost like the animals knew that I’d gone vegan and would forgive them 😄

Sometimes there’s only one vegan option on menus at restaurants, although we realise this is better than ever before and it is improving in lots of places. Peoples’ misconceptions around veganism can also be challenging, especially when people say things like “all vegans are preachy” or “being vegan must be so limited” at the dinner table. We try to just share our experiences with others and ask questions that lead to open discussions instead of getting defensive.

Whole food, plant-based diet can greatly improve and lengthen your life. We love it!
Busy Beeing Vegan

We’re proud to be vegan and have more energy and better health since going vegan. We don’t feel guilty about eating animal products now, and we feel better in ourselves. We haven’t looked back.

We try to lead by example and inspire people. For anyone interested, we talk to them about vegan options and recommend great vegan products, recipes or places to eat out.

Unity Diner in London is amazing. We also love Deliciously Ella cookbooks – we’re yet to try her restaurant in London. Also love going to Brighton as there are so many vegan places there.

We really like Unity Diner because the food is so good and tastes incredibly similar to meat. It’s also a restaurant that is dog-friendly and all profits go to an animal sanctuary. We love Deliciously Ella recipes because they’re healthy, nutritious and tasty.

That vegan food is bland and tasteless

This couldn’t be further from the truth and we try to showcase an array of vegan food that’s tasty and diverse on our Instagram to challenge this misconception. We also try to ask questions to have open discussions with people, rather than telling them things.

It doesn’t work for everyone but we recommend cutting down on things gradually and replacing one thing at a time. For example, give up one type of meat and keep going gradually until you phase out all animal products completely.

Also there’s so much amazing content out there now, so it’s definitely worth getting some vegan cookbooks, following vegan pages on social media and just looking up a vegan alternative to your favourite meal online.