Ex-Vegans // My thoughts about all the drama

If you are into the whole YouTube world, you might be familiar with all the drama going on in the vegan community. In the past couple months famous vegan Youtubers came out and said they are not vegan anymore, because they had various health problems which couldn’t be cured on a vegan diet.

I’m not a nutritionist or a doctor, so I don’t want to judge them or give advises. Instead I will share what I’ve learnt from the whole drama.

Advises

These people had and still have a lot of followers on Youtube and they influence a ton of people. This is a huge responsibility! Thousands of young, impressionable people follow them, who take they crazy diet advises. They had irrational and unhealthy vegan diets, and they claimed it is healthy and they are thriving and a lot of people thought this is the healthy way of eating vegan. Never take advice from someone, who is not a nutritionist or a doctor. There is a lot of ways to eat a healthy and nutrient dense vegan diet! Our bodies are different and we live in different places in the world so what works for someone might not work for you. So I think it is super important to find your own ways and find what works for you when it comes to diet. Educate yourself and be open minded. Of course it is fun to watch what I eat in a day videos you can get a ton of inspiration! But be mindful and listen to your body. If something seems way too crazy, maybe it is. Watch these videos as examples, not as rules.

Reality vs YouTube

On YouTube everyone shares videos about themselves in a way that they want to be seen. Everyone’s content is curated. That’s one of the most important things I’ve learnt from all the drama. These people shared videos about their diets saying that they are super healthy and thriving on a vegan diet.

Now, they share they why I’m no longer vegan videos saying that they had major health problems the whole time and they felt terrible… And again hundreds of people ate the same way they did, because they promoted their diets as the healthy way of eating.

Money

Whether we like it or not, YouTube is a business. These vegan influencers created an online business based on their videos and ebooks about their diet. They promoted their diet on YouTube and Instagram even when they felt the worst. Even when they started questioning the health benefits of their diets. Even - and that makes me quiet disappointed - when they were no longer vegan. It seems to me that veganism for these people was just a business. They started their businesses at the right time, and now, when suddenly everyone started to quit, they quit too.

I didn’t share these ex-vegan Youtubers names, or anything they said, because I don’t want to point fingers. But there’s a couple of response videos, for example from Mic the Vegan who shows studies and scientific facts which I’m going to share at the end of the post.

The biggest lesson that I’ve learnt is to take everything you see on YouTube with a grain of salt. Find what works for you based on your resources and don’t be scared to experiment. There are still so many vegans out here who are thriving on a vegan diet, who had major health problems before going vegan and now they are healthier then ever! Don’t take any advice seriously unless they have scientific proof.

Cheers,

K