Ever since Jan. 1, 2016, I have been vegan. I know, I'm absolutely crazy, and it REALLY sucked for the first couple of days. How could I live without cheese? Yogurt? The chicken nuggets from Lenoir?? I hit a wall and all seemed lost.
And then I had some BBQ soy nuggets at Rams. Holy HECK those things are delicious. My eyes were opened to a whole new world, and I realized that it's really, super, unbelievably easy to be vegan in Chapel Hill. So if you want to take the plunge and try to go vegan, here's some tips.
1. Local restaurants are super supportive of vegans. Cholanad and Sage Cafe have delicious vegan options (try Cholanad's White Vegetable Kurma with Apam)! If you need a pizza fix, Brixx Pizza has a vegan cheese option at no extra charge!
2. Lenoir and Rams have a "Veg Out" station that is completely vegan, super varied, and delicious. Try it. It's good. Trust me.
3. Read nutrition labels ON EVERYTHING!!! Sneaky ingredients like casein and gelatin aren't vegan friendly, and you'd be surprised at how much stuff has some form of animal product in it. Try to stick to non-processed food, which has less of a chance of containing random ingredients.
4. Think you'll miss chocolate too much? Most dark chocolate is vegan, and there are cool vegan candy bars that are sooooo good.
Also here's a deal breaker — Nutella isn't vegan. It uses rennet, which is made from the stomach of calves (aka baby cows). Silver lining — Oreo's are vegan!! So there's that.
Personally, I feel healthy and happy and still eat awesome food every day. So if you want to try it out, even just for a day or a single meal, YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU! Even if it turns out to be not your thing, THAT IS OKAY, KEEP ON DOIN YOU!
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