As summer approaches, many girls are trying to get into shape for bikinis. Weird trends come and go for diets, one of which is becoming a vegetarian or vegan solely for the reason of losing weight. This diet is not the most respectful trend to participate in. A main reason is because these are lifestyles to some.

A decent amount of the population is made up of full time vegans or vegetarians who have been vegan or vegetarian for long periods of time. It can be offensive when someone takes part in one of these dietary practices solely for aesthetic reasons when full time non-meat eaters are doing it for more noble reasons, such as ethics, religion or for actual health concerns. Even though it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, temporary vegans can cause anger within full time vegans.

Temporary vegans or vegetarians also cause concern among full time vegans because they may be hurting themselves. These temporary non-meat eaters typically don’t consider things like their b12 levels, iron levels or even how much protein they’re getting. A teenage girl should be getting, on average, 60 to 70 grams of protein per day. Some girls will get as little as 10 grams on a vegan diet for not eating the right foods. A main source of protein is tofu, which can be a hard food item to get used to. Typically, it is perceived that nuts and beans are a sufficient source of protein. However, an average portion of nuts has, at most, seven grams of protein, and other popular protein sources like hummus or peanut butter only have around two grams of protein per serving. A drastic decrease of protein, in addition to other vitamins found in meat, can lead to problems that will last their entire life, such as heart problems or seizures.

It’s also just annoying when girls are trying to be trendy and brag about being vegan. Since it is a lifestyle for most vegans or vegetarians, it can be very annoying and flat-out disrespectful when someone gets attention for being vegan for 2 months, 2 weeks or 1 day when others have been vegan for a decade.

If someone wants to go vegan solely for aesthetic reasons or to fit into a swimsuit, don’t. Maybe try cutting out dairy, which is a main cause for weight gain and bloating among meat eaters, but don’t go vegan cold turkey with no knowledge of what to do. It hurts your body as much as it hurts a vegans heart.