Emily Deary
Painter and decorator, Custom builders, and author of The Vegan Build cookbook, Isle of Wight
I was six when my family turned veggie. I remember eating fish fingers for another six months because I didn’t realise they were an animal as well. In a school of a 1,000 kids, I think there was one other vegetarian. My grandpa thought we were going to die.
When I started going out with Chris [the director of Custom], I would go all out if he came over for dinner – falafels, sage and carrot nut roasts. Then he decided to go vegan. He’s really radical, doesn’t do anything by halves.
Chris decided Custom was going vegan in the sense that he was only going to buy plant-based food to feed everyone. When we work in France, we all live together. Nobody knew what to cook (we take turns) – especially the younger apprentices – and everyone was getting really stressed out and spending a fortune buying meat and dairy alternatives. It began with me writing a shopping list for the builders, and then they all really got into it.
They are all into their outdoor sports. After a nine-hour day on site, they go rock climbing and when we started eating vegan it got a bit competitive. Quite a few of the company have turned completely vegan now.
When we are on a job, we put a cloth out in the middle of the building site and all sit down to piles of buckwheat, butternut squash bread and big bowls of hummus. The builders love the beetroot and millet burgers. MT-H
Martin Flear
Electrician, Custom builders, Isle of Wight
When Chris made Custom vegan he really tried to spread the message, but it took me a while to find my own way.
Growing up in Devon, we ate normal stuff. Mum used to make a lot of home-cooked meals, meat and three veg. When I started cooking for myself, I stopped eating so much meat because I was aware there is a lot of fat in meat. My girlfriend Katie [Custom’s operations manager] had been vegetarian for 13 years and I was rarely eating meat. In the end, what swayed me were the health benefits of veganism. I watched some documentaries that Chris recommended and looked at the results of vegans in the sporting world. There didn’t seem to be a downside.
Chris laid it out: “We aren’t going to force you to eat vegan but if you do want to eat stuff that we don’t agree with, buy it yourself.” That was fair enough. Not many companies provide meals for their staff – certainly not in this industry – so it’s a bonus. Some of the young apprentices struggled at first. You know what 16, 17, 18-year-olds are like – they eat sweets and crisps for dinner.
My mum hasn’t grasped the concept at all. She is a very stubborn individual and my dad is a military man so he’s just like, “Nah.” I don’t try to push it on them, I think leading by example is best.
The atmosphere at Custom has changed. We make more conscious decisions. Not just in terms of personal health but also the environment, such as not driving excessively or in the products we recommend. We all cook together now, and lunch is a lot more varied than a ham sandwich. MT-H
Esme Carr
Chef and founder of Deserted Cactus, Peckham, south-east London
I went vegan overnight. I ordered a massive plate of Chinese: prawn balls, stir-fried rice, the whole lot, and then I thought, that’s it. The next day, I stopped. I’d tried before, but every time I went back to chicken. I’ve always felt funny eating meat – if it looked too much like where it came from. I didn’t like the little veins. It was the same with milk. Sometimes I’d completely go off stuff. I did crave the texture of fried chicken – the crispy coating. Now I replicate that with my southern fried jackfruit. You get the crunchy sensation, and lots of flavour, so you don’t miss out.
I think there has always been a healthy attitude to food in my family. We tried everything. My dad did the vegan and vegetarian thing, he experimented with Japanese ingredients and picked mushrooms in the park. We would have snails and sit there chewing for hours. My mum is Hindu so she doesn’t eat beef and sometimes she cooked vegan food. If she gave you a plate of vegetables, you wouldn’t care because it was so well flavoured.
My seven-year-old son is vegan when he lives with me. When he’s with his dad, he’s a mixture, so I like to make sure he’s supplemented. Because I was brought up eating meat, as far as I’m concerned, I got everything I needed. I want to make sure he’s got everything he needs. He absolutely loves vegan food, it’s normal to him, but I think it’s better to let him grow up and make up his own mind.
Veganism is seen as a rich white thing; avocado bowls and quinoa. But it’s for everyone. There are different angles and so much history: Rastafarians, Buddhists, Hindus. It’s been repackaged and sold, but it’s not new. I’ve only been around in the vegan community for two-and-a-half years but I’ve gone to loads of events and been the only black person there. I’m invited because I’ve got a big following [on Instagram], but I feel like I’m just there to tick a box. There are a lot of vegan companies run by people of colour who don’t get much representation, so with [the Instagram account] @UKVegansOfColour I’m trying to bridge that gap, it’s about helping people make connections, giving them something they can relate to.
I’m anti “pure”. I’ve got fur coats, but they’re fake – I love wearing them to vegan events cause they look at you like, “What?!” The vegan community can be very judgmental. Sometimes it feels like it’s just about being seen to be vegan – “Look at me on the picket line” – and if you’re not vegan, you’re not worthy. Some people are struggling to find enough food to eat, let alone worrying about anything else.
Most of the people that eat here [Deserted Cactus] aren’t vegan. I want it to be a non-judgmental space where people can just enjoy food together. It sounds so corny, but I’d rather reach people from something I love than from something negative. I’m trying to take away the whole hoo-ha around veganism. I’m vegan but I’m me first. MT-H
Shea Jozana
Personal trainer with Matt Roberts, west London
My primary reason for becoming vegan was health-related. Two years into working as a personal trainer, I came across a fitness collective in west London called Spartanfam. All of their coaches are vegan and they told me about the long-term effects of eating meat, and how they felt better on a plant-based diet. Numerous studies have shown that a plant-based diet can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and type-2 diabetes.
When I ate meat, I always felt very heavy afterwards. You associate that with being full, whereas in reality you’ve eaten really dense food that your body has to fight to digest. Some people complain about not feeling full when they start on the vegan diet, but I find that lightness after I eat really positive. I can get on with whatever I’m doing without feeling lethargic.
My energy levels haven’t dipped at all, and in terms of performance and strength I haven’t really noticed any difference. Towards the end of the first year, I went from weight training to boxing, so naturally I lost a bit of weight. Then I had a bike accident, which affected my training as well. Now I’m building myself up again and tracking my muscle gain and performance on a weekly basis. It’s too early to say, but I don’t think I’m going to struggle to put on muscle mass – I’ve already gained a kilo in the first month.
Sometimes, people make a snap decision – I’m going to be vegan – and they don’t plan their diet to make sure they’re getting the correct nutrition. My approach is this: if you’re eating a variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and some grains, then there’s little else you need. (An important exception is vitamin B12.)
It’s true that your calorie intake is slower than on a meat diet, so you’ve got to eat more to get the same amount of calories. I would add that the approach should be adjusted to meet your needs – for example, now that I’ve upped my training I’ve introduced a plant-based protein shake post-workout to support recovery and boost my calorie intake.
Eating vegan is easier than ever. Tesco has just launched a line of vegan ready-meals. We’re seeing new vegan restaurants opening up and you can find vegan chocolate and ice cream. There are so many alternatives now. KF
Carla and Marco Casadei
Founders of Young Vegans pie shop, Camden, north London
Carla: Veganism is not just about your diet, it’s about being ethical in all ways. As well as avoiding animal suffering and helping the planet, it’s about how you treat other people. It’s a very welcoming community and they really back you up when you need support.
And it’s growing like crazy. The internet is a big factor – there is more information out there. It’s mostly young people who are pushing this forward. They are more into revolution and change, more open to new ideas and less pessimistic.
Marco: When I met Carla five years ago, she was already vegan. I was eating all the meat, all the burgers, all the fry-ups in the morning. She was always cooking at home and, before I knew it, I’d been eating vegan for a week. I carried on with it, it wasn’t difficult. Plus I loved the idea of having limitations. Satisfaction comes from having a small number of choices, not a million options. I feel great in a lot of ways. Ethically, it’s quite nice that you can make a difference by what you choose to put on your plate, even if it’s the tiniest difference. You haven’t been part of the cycle of suffering: you’ve chosen not to eat the animal. If we all took that step, it would have a massive effect.
There is a concern that veganism is just a trend, another version of clean eating. That’s why we’re all about comfort food. Veganism is more than a salad. Here, you’re going to be full and have a lot of carbs – and our pies are really tasty. We’ve found a coconut oil that works really well for us, and we use seitan [a wheat gluten product], which has a very similar texture to meat.
The street-food scene is a big force behind the rise of veganism in this country. It’s a space for experimentation and some really creative businesses have come out of it, such as Temple of Seitan and Club Mexicana. We all want to make positive changes, and I guess we all had similar ideas at the same time. It’s a bit like grunge, except with vegan food. KF
Darren Jones
Labour MP for Bristol North West
I was persuaded to become a vegan in the run-up to the 2015 general election by my fellow Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, who is a longstanding vegan. I was preparing for a hustings with an environment group and she sent me briefing notes on farming sustainability issues. From the stats on how much extra water, land and crops are required to produce meat globally, I could see that rearing animals for consumption is hugely damaging to the environment at the scale at which it’s currently being done. And so I decided to become vegan overnight.
I’m not a militant vegan. In order to achieve the sustainability goals, you need increased adoption, and to get mass adoption you just need to chill out a bit sometimes. So if, at Christmas, people want a bit of turkey, or want to treat themselves to a bit of cheese on holiday – as I’ve done myself – I don’t think that’s a problem. We need to reduce our consumption of these things so meat and dairy become an infrequent treat rather than a daily part of our diet.
My decision to go fully vegan, rather than just reduce my meat and dairy intake, relates to health. I have a family history of heart disease, so it’s one way of reducing my risk.
I didn’t get my diet right in the first couple of weeks – I didn’t ensure I had enough proteins, which you need to get from things like beans and lentils. But once I got it sorted I felt much healthier and more energetic. I feel less sluggish after eating. And certainly as a busy MP that’s helpful.
So far, being vegan hasn’t greatly influenced my political work. I’m not sure it’s for politicians to tell people how to eat, but government does have a role in regulating agriculture and farming in this country. When it comes to international trade deals, particularly with the US, I will not want to see any decline in standards around food products. We need to be promoting increased standards around the world, not agreeing to reduce them because we need a quick buck on trade deals due to the damage caused by Brexit.
The food at parliament isn’t too bad. There’s usually at least one vegan option in one of the restaurants each day. Some of their tofu curries can be a bit dodgy, but on the whole it’s pretty decent. KF
