Food Grief: What Are You Actually Afraid of Losing?

What are we really afraid of losing when we change the way we eat?

Sometimes it’s the taste or smell of a favorite food. But often, it’s about something much bigger.

A grandmother’s recipe. A holiday table. A favorite restaurant. A special travel experience. Even our identity as someone who is adventurous, easygoing, or willing to eat anything.

In this episode of Vedge Your Best, Michele explores food grief. It’s the sense of loss that can come with developing a vegan or plant based practice.

Food carries so much of our lives with it.

A smell can take us back to a kitchen we haven’t stood in for decades. A cookie can mean Christmas. A bowl of soup can remind us of being cared for as a child.

So when we change what’s on our plate, it can feel like we are changing something much bigger.

But we don’t have to rush to fix that feeling. We also don’t have to convince ourselves that nothing has been lost.

Instead, we can get curious.

In this episode, Michele explores:

• Why food grief isn’t always about missing the food itself

• The difference between missing a taste and missing the story behind it

• Why being someone who “eats anything” can become part of our identity

• Why being a low maintenance guest can matter to us

• How changing the way we eat can affect our sense of adventure when we travel

• Why family recipes can feel like edible heirlooms

• What Grandma’s roasting pan can teach us about tradition

• Why we don’t need to minimize what we are giving up

• How food grief can show up before we have actually given anything up

• Why we don’t need to solve difficult feelings right away

• How thinking of veganism as a practice gives us permission to learn as we go

Instead of asking:

“How do I convince myself I’m not losing anything?”

Try asking:

“What do I feel like I’m losing?”

“What am I actually grieving?”

Once you understand that, you can ask another question:

“What do I want to do?”

Sometimes we preserve the tradition and change the food.

Sometimes we preserve the connection and change the ritual.

Sometimes we find a wonderful substitute.

And sometimes we simply acknowledge that something we valued is different now.

That’s not a failure of your plant based practice.

That’s part of developing one.

You know what to do.