Help with potential vegan

[rxqueen]

I was telling a good friend that I hadn't spoken to in a while about how I went vegan after watching Earthlings, and he and I ended up making a bet. He thought that Earthlings wouldn't upset him, and that he could sit through the movie and not be affected.

So the bet was that he could not eat a cheeseburger while watching Earthlings. He couldn't do it, and at the end of the movie he asked me how you become vegan.

The problem is, he has major doubts. He is worried about how his parents will react and how he will be able to keep it up in a meat-eating household where his parents buy all the groceries. He is also worried about craving meat, something I know will be hard when everyone else will be eating meat around him. I have been there too.

So what can I do to help encourage him? I have done so much research since I went vegan that I have a huge wealth of information stored in my computer (and practically an encyclopedia in my brain) but I don't know how I can show proper empathy. Going vegan was relatively easy for me, but it seems the popular belief around here is that veganism is something unmasculine and extreme. I just want to be able to help him out with his doubts.

[CF#5]

Get his parents to watch Earthlings too? I don't really know what to tell you. I wish brains and feelings could be copied like computer disks.

If they also watch Earthlings, they might not have the same desire to become vegan, but it might make them more sympathetic to his struggles and put up less resistance.

[Justin]

I agree with CF#5. Parents and child have common genes. Something upset him could upset his parents too.

I suggest making him to show it to his parents, without your involvement. For lesser resistance.

[rxqueen]

I hope so. These are people that have what appears to be a whole cow cut up and stored in their garage freezer.

I think I will tell him to show the movie to his parents. Thanks.

[Weatherlight]

You might want to google something like "vegan teen parents." I've seen a LOT of information dealing with getting parents to allow minor children to go veg*n, but too lazy to try to find those resources now.

Some minors in very uncooperative households have eaten as vegan as possible based on what was available, living off things like apples, fruit juice, potatoes, peanut butter, etc until the parents gave in and they were allowed to use the kitchen for cooking and buy some simple ingredients for healthy food. Not many kids are willing to go through that.

Cravings can be bad, but a little thought can go a long way to counter automatic desires. He could think about how much more animals "crave" relief from suffering than he craves some foods he's used to. He could look directly at the animal products and at the time picture the type of animal each one came from, maybe play little mental videos of their likely lives from birth to slaughter. He could leave the dinner table and watch Earthlings again. I lived for years where I had no access to mock meats, and when I tried a vegan ham sandwich, after all that time being reminded of what dead animals were and associating the smells with corpses, I got nauseous. It took a while to get used to eating mock meats. And it used to be so tempting to eat corpses! Hehe.

I don't think there's any particular gene for compassion or whatever. I'd try it even if he was adopted ;p