You're going to be here. Welcome to Food for Thought. I'm Colleen Patrick Gudro from Compassionate Cooks, which I founded to empower people to make informed food choices and to debunk myths about vegetarianism and animal rights.

You can learn more about who we are and what we do by visiting our website,

Compassionate cooks.com. One way you can support us and these podcasts. and vote for us in those places as well. It just helps others to find us more easily and

encourages them to listen. So thank you for whatever you do to help. Let's talk

about the perception people have about vegetarianism or more

specifically veganism and how it seems to be about being perfect or pure, you know,

like someone's 100% certified vegan or something like that.

I've heard people say they feel guilty for still wearing the animal skins, also known

as leather, or wool they owned before they went vegan,

before they learned about the animal suffering that takes place to produce these products.

And I think some people choose not to know about exactly how the animals

are treated because they're afraid they're going to have to give things up or change their whole

wardrobe or that it will be a huge blow to their social life, expecting it to happen all at once,

that if they aren't perfect, sirens will go off and fingers will be pointed and they'll be accused of being hypocrites.

These are common concerns.

I've heard them a lot, but let me assuage the fears of those who think the

vegan police will be knocking on their doors.

It's not going to happen.

That's not what being vegan is about.

One of the things that fascinates me

is the number of people who actually want to identify as being vegetarian or vegan.

You've heard people say things like, oh you're vegetarian, well so am I.

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