“Iron Levels Got Too Low To Donate Blood”: People Share What Made Them Quit Veganism For Good

I was vegan for 3 years and had gone home to my community which is tremendously poor. To have cold cuts and a bag of Doritos is a luxury. My Aunt who was going blind made a family feast and everyone came, and she made a very traditional Lamb Stew. My heart broke when I thought of how much of her income she must have spent to make this possible and felt like a completely entitled outsider when I told them I was vegan. They couldn't comprehend when food is so hard to come by, why anyone would choose to not eat any protein available to keep from being hungry. Being vegan comes from a first world position of entitlement. It is a luxury to choose what you eat, when so many eat whatever is available, not out of an ethical decision, but out of necessity.

**laughs in Inuit**.

I was using veganism as a guise for an eating disorder for well over a year. When I finally realized I was in trouble, after losing 80lbs, I went and bought lamb chops and devoured them. Also therapy.

Was vegetarian for 12 years. Had a mental breakdown after a death in the family and instead of drinking or getting high, I went out and got a steak taco. Life is too short to miss out on tacos.

I was traveling in Africa (edit: this part of the trip happened to be in Zambia, not that the specific location really matters for the point of the story), and stayed in a small village off the beaten track. I had just arrived and as the matriarch of my host family was showing me to my room, and helping me get settled in, her boys were out back slaughtering a goat for me.

I couldn’t turn down that meal, because that goat represented a substantial part of the family’s assets.

The whole experience made me realize that the social constructs around sharing food are far more important to me than what the food is.

If someone is serving it, I will eat it with gratitude.

Edit: yes, my stomach did not handle it very well. That said, my stomach was having difficulty anyway. There were unspeakable things done to the pit latrine.

Edit: no, I would not knowingly eat human flesh. Fortunately societal taboos on this are much more universal than are taboos related to eating goat.

I was born into a Indian vegetarian family and never ate meat or eggs for the first two decades of my life. Home cooked nutritious food had me healthy so I did not have the need to eat meat.

Then I moved countries and it was impossible for me to home cook everyday and have a busy job. So I reluctantly started eating meat. And I have never felt so good! I feel very energetic and healthy. I don't regret starting to eat meat and I absolutely love it!

I was a vegan for 2 years roughly, ended up in hospital more times than I can remember because it turned out I was allergic to a lot of things in vegan meals and I had no idea. I was taking tons of supplements and iron pills along with things my doctor gave me and pretty much just lived off potato products and water because I was too afraid to try anything else.


Then I got a new doctor who, funnily enough, is vegan. She straight up told me that I would be in hospital more than I was out if I kept it up. By this point I was constantly feeling exhausted, my skin was really itchy and a weird sickly colour, I felt very floaty all the time and just kept randomly passing out for no reason. My blood test results kept constantly bringing up more things I needed pill supplements for and honestly I just had enough.

So after that doctors appointment I thought f**k it and got an XL bacon double cheeseburger from Burger King on the way home. That was the best tasting burger I've ever had and I haven't looked back since.


Short answer - I missed cheese. Holy f**k did I miss cheese.

Fairly stupid reason, because I broke up with my ex.

I begame a vegan to support her, and it felt weird eating meat while she was so against it.When the relation was over however, I no longer felt the need to support my ex in that way. Thus meat was back on the menu boys!!


*Edit: Holy s**t!! Thnxs for all the upvotes!!

I found a lot of the community to be toxic. Being around a group of vegans seemed to always end up in some sort or "vegan-off" where people would try to outdo how good they were as a vegan, as an animal rights activist, etc. I was vegan for just shy of 2 years, and I had someone tell me to leave my then boyfriend (now husband) because he ate "flesh" and had "flesh lips", and kissing him essentially made me not vegan. Also, eggs and cheese are delicious.

My aunt was a vegetarian for health reasons. The day she got diagnosed with cancer she went to In-n-Out

I lost a lot of weight (to the point that people asked if I was ok). I was tired and had low energy. I ended up being anemic. I slowly ended up getting to a point that I started eating meat again.

Not vegan but vegetarian,

I was vegetarian for a good 4 years, once I hit the 4 year mark, energy was at an all time low, my whole body felt weak, and the kicker I had very, VERY frequent nose bleeds.

it was so often I was use to it for a while, eventually the nose bleeds came to be too much, and I started eating meat again, then the nose bleeds stopped all together I haven't had a single nose bleed thus far, mind you I quit being vegetarian 2 years ago.

I was vegan for a year when I lived in a big city that had lots of inexpensive options for what one could eat. When I moved to a small town in beef country, the cost of good produce quadrupled, as did the cost of meat substitutes. I quickly learned that if I didn't eat whatever I could get my hands on, I would starve, so I started eating meat again.

Some people say food deserts aren't real. They are.

EDIT : Holy cow steaks! This post got a lot of attention! I'm pretty sure this is the first post I've ever gotten an award on too! To the people who read this and flat out deny that food deserts and the like don't exist and feel like they need to attack people who claim that they're living in one, please get well soon. Educate yourselves and live outside your bubble.

I'm going to once again talk about my personal issue with eating vegan. There is a Walmart in my town that I can reach within 15 minutes as I thankfully have a car. That produce is somewhat affordable, but we don't get a lot of it and by the time it gets put on display it is either rotted or damaged by frost, which makes them not worth the investment. We have two other grocery stores, which tend to have fair to amazing produce but prices are well outside of my price range. Produce recalls also hit this area pretty hard because what you could once get for under $2, you can get for $4 at other stores not affected by the recall (like bags of shredded lettuce and salads).

Meanwhile, most of my town are hunters, including my partner. It is far less expensive to get a couple deer to feed you for the year than it is to buy meat from the grocery store, and MUCH less expensive than trying to live on vegetables, rice and beans in the long run. Other people also buy whole cows to slaughter which winds up being cheaper in the long run and you're getting local beef. I vastly prefer wild game over beef for ethical reasons, but I also prefer the taste.

I divorced my vegan wife.

I became vegetarian specifically to fuel an active eating disorder. When I got on the path to recovery, I started eating meat again.

Sure you have to know what you’re doing, but some people’s bodies just can’t absorb plant based nutrients as well. It’s known as bio-availability, I believe. I am vegan and I have been for 3 years, I’m even a strength-training athlete, but it does not work for everyone. If you want to try out veganism, get your blood tested beforehand, and then once or twice a year once you’ve made the switch.

I still eat mostly vegetarian food and have done all my life. However my husband was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and coeliac which means that a high fibre/lower iron diet is not an option and a lot of the substitutes aren’t gluten free. More often than not when he has meat I’ll leave it or have the veggie equivalent but there are just not enough hours in the day to make 2 separate lasagnes and sauce etc.

I was a pretty strict vegetarian for about 6-7 years. I lost a ton of lean muscle mass. I was bones with a bit of fat and skin. I saw a photo of me where it looked like my bicep was a rope.

Then I started eating a lot of carbs and got fat. A friend of mine bought me a few sessions with a trainer. After a few sessions, I bought a lot more. She explained that the lack of protein and fat in my diet was causing me a lack of satiety and that's why I always wanted to eat huge piles of pasta.

Once I started working out with the trainer and following her diet recommendations, it became really *really* difficult to get the specified amount of protein so I started eating chicken breast and from there I just became a proper omnivore again.

I was traveling around and staying with people a lot for a while. They cooked me meals and I decided it was more important to be able to graciously accept what someone had made me, than to stick to a certain diet.

Not me, but my brother-in-law went vegan for a stretch. One of his pet causes is donating blood. As soon as he's able to, he's down at the blood clinic donating again.

Anyway, on a vegan diet, his blood iron levels got too low to donate blood. So it was back to meat for him. But his daughter (my niece) is still vegan, and it's driving them nuts, because she'll only eat those vegan chicken nuggets, and they're getting pricey.