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The Dark Side of the Kale: Acknowledging the Disadvantages of Veganism

  • Writer: Emanuele Bortolotto
    Emanuele Bortolotto
  • Jul 23
  • 8 min read

Updated: Sep 8




In my investigations into the world of veganism, I’ve noticed a powerful and understandable tendency. Online communities and advocates often present it as a flawless utopia, a perfect solution to all our problems. Go vegan, and you’ll not only save the planet and the animals, but you’ll also achieve glowing skin, boundless energy, and the ability to communicate with woodland creatures. It’s a beautiful picture, and for many, it’s a powerful motivator.

But I’ve always been more interested in the whole truth. Every philosophy, every lifestyle, every choice we make has a shadow side. It has complications, challenges, and, yes, disadvantages. Pretending they don’t exist doesn’t help anyone; it just leaves people feeling isolated and ashamed when they run into them.

It's a beautiful, orderly Wednesday here in Helsinki, a city that runs on a kind of quiet, pragmatic logic. So today, I want to apply some of that logic to this often-emotional topic. I want to set aside the utopian marketing and ask the tough, honest question: what are the disadvantages of veganism? Acknowledging them isn't an attack on the movement; it’s an essential roadmap for anyone trying to navigate it successfully.


The Nutritional Gauntlet: Acknowledging the Biological Hurdles


This is the big one, the area that requires the most diligence and respect for biology. While a well-planned vegan diet can be incredibly healthy, a carelessly adopted one can be a minefield of potential nutrient deficiencies. Removing entire food groups from your diet is a serious business, and you have to be strategic about replacing what you’ve lost.

This is the point where, as an investigator, I, Manu, have to stress the importance of planning more than anything else. You cannot simply remove animal products from your plate and expect everything to be fine. You must actively build a new, nutritionally complete plate. Here are the biggest hurdles.


Vitamin B12: The Absolute, Unequivocal, Non-Negotiable One


Let’s get this out of the way first, because it is the most critical health risk. Vitamin B12 is essential for nerve function, red blood cell formation, and DNA synthesis. A long-term deficiency can lead to severe and irreversible neurological damage. There are no reliable, unfortified plant-based sources of Vitamin B12. It is produced by microorganisms in the soil and water. Animals get it by eating contaminated soil or from their own gut bacteria, and it accumulates in their tissues. In our modern, sanitized world, we do not get it from unwashed vegetables. This is not a debate. Every single person on a vegan diet must get B12 from fortified foods or a supplement. To ignore this is to play a dangerous game with your nervous system. 🧠


Iron: The Absorption Challenge


Iron is vital for carrying oxygen in your blood. A deficiency leads to anemia, causing fatigue, weakness, and brain fog. The problem for vegans isn't that plants lack iron—spinach, lentils, and tofu are packed with it. The problem is that plants contain a form of iron called non-heme iron, which our bodies find much harder to absorb than the heme iron found in animal tissues. Furthermore, plant foods often contain compounds called phytates, which can further inhibit iron absorption. This means a person on a vegan diet needs to consume significantly more iron than an omnivore to get the same benefit. The solution is twofold: eating plenty of iron-rich foods, and, crucially, pairing them with a source of Vitamin C, which can increase non-heme iron absorption by up to six times.


Calcium & Vitamin D: The Bone Partnership


These two work as a team to build and maintain strong bones. Calcium is the raw material, and Vitamin D is the foreman that tells your body how to use it.

  • Calcium: While present in leafy greens like kale and bok choy, the most reliable vegan sources are fortified foods like plant milks, yogurts, and tofu set with calcium sulfate. Relying on greens alone can make it difficult to meet daily needs.

  • Vitamin D: This is a challenge for everyone, not just vegans. Very few foods naturally contain Vitamin D. Our primary source is sunlight exposure. For people living in northern latitudes or who spend a lot of time indoors, a supplement is widely recommended by doctors, regardless of diet.


Omega-3 Fatty Acids: The Conversion Problem


This is a subtle but important one. Omega-3s are essential fats, particularly the long-chain forms EPA and DHA, which are critical for brain and heart health. Plant foods like flaxseeds, chia seeds, and walnuts are rich in a short-chain omega-3 called ALA. The disadvantage is that the human body is incredibly inefficient at converting ALA into the more useful EPA and DHA. The conversion rate can be as low as 5% for EPA and less than 0.5% for DHA. This means that while you may be eating a lot of ALA, your brain might not be getting the DHA it needs. The most direct solution is to do what the fish do: go straight to the source. Algae-based EPA/DHA supplements are widely available and bypass the conversion problem entirely.


Iodine: The Forgotten Mineral


Iodine is critical for thyroid health, which regulates your entire metabolism. The amount of iodine in plant foods is entirely dependent on the iodine content of the soil they were grown in, which can vary wildly. The most reliable sources in a standard diet are seafood and iodized dairy. Without these, a vegan can easily become deficient. The solutions are simple but require conscious effort: using iodized salt or incorporating sea vegetables like nori or dulse into your diet.


The Social Minefield: Why Your Diet Is Everyone Else's Business


As my research has shown, for many people who quit veganism, the nutritional challenges weren't the final straw. It was the social ones. Choosing to live differently from the vast majority of society is an inherently difficult path, and it can be incredibly isolating.


The Family Dinner Inquisition


This is a universal experience. You go home for a holiday, and your dietary choice becomes the main topic of conversation. Every meal is a minefield of well-meaning but exhausting questions from your relatives. "Are you getting enough protein?" "Just one bite won't hurt, will it?" "My doctor said veganism is dangerous." You are forced into the role of a nutritional ambassador and a debate champion when all you wanted to do was eat some potatoes in peace. This constant need to justify your existence can be emotionally draining. 😥


The Burden of the Perfect Ambassador


When you're the "only vegan" in a group, you can feel an immense pressure to be a perfect representative for the entire movement. If you're tired, it's because you're vegan. If you're sick, it's because you're vegan. If you're a bit grumpy, it’s that infamous vegan anger. You feel like if you’re not a glowing, serene, super-athlete, you are personally letting down the cause. This pressure to be a perfect, walking advertisement is a heavy psychological weight.


Eco-Anxiety and Ethical Burnout


This is a profound disadvantage that is rarely discussed outside the community. A primary reason for many people to adopt ethical veganism is their exposure to the realities of factory farming and its environmental impact. Once you have seen that footage, once you understand the scale of the suffering and destruction, it is very hard to un-see it. This can lead to a state of chronic grief and anxiety, a feeling of being a compassionate person in a world that can seem overwhelmingly cruel. This emotional burnout is a very real risk.


The Practical Realities: Inconvenience, Cost, and Constant Vigilance


Beyond the big nutritional and social hurdles are the small, day-to-day annoyances that can, over time, feel like death by a thousand paper cuts.

  • Label Reading as a Second Job: You have to become a part-time food detective. 🕵️ Is there whey in these crisps? Gelatin in these sweets? Casein in this "non-dairy" creamer? Albumen in this wine? It requires a level of constant vigilance that can be genuinely tiring.

  • The "Vegan Tax": While a diet of whole foods like beans, rice, and potatoes is incredibly cheap, the world of specialty vegan products is not. Vegan cheeses, ice creams, and meat analogues are often significantly more expensive than their dairy and meat counterparts.

  • The Travel Trap: Trying to find a decent vegan meal in a small town, at an airport, or in a country where the cuisine is heavily meat-and-dairy-centric can be a logistical nightmare, often ending in a sad meal of plain French fries and a side salad.




Questions from the Internet: "Is it actually unhealthy to be a vegan?"


No, it is not inherently unhealthy. Let me be very clear on this. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and many other major health organizations around the world have confirmed that a well-planned vegan diet is safe and healthy for all stages of life. The key, as I’ve stressed throughout this investigation, is the term “well-planned.” An unplanned vegan diet, which neglects the key nutrients I’ve detailed, can absolutely be unhealthy. But that is a failure of planning, not a failure of the diet itself.


Questions from the Internet: "Why do so many vegans quit?"


This is the ultimate question when we talk about disadvantages. I believe the answer lies in the three pillars I've just outlined. People don't usually quit because they miss the taste of a burger so desperately. They quit because the cumulative weight of the challenges becomes too much. They quit because they didn't have a good plan for their nutrition and ended up feeling tired and unwell. They quit because they were exhausted by the social friction and the feeling of being the difficult one. Or they quit because the sheer inconvenience of it all in a non-vegan world wore them down. These are not trivial issues; they are the real, lived experience behind the statistics.


Internal Link Break!


One of the biggest nutritional challenges I've talked about is iron, which is closely linked to energy levels and, surprisingly, hair health. If you've noticed some shedding since changing your diet, it's likely not the diet itself, but a simple, fixable deficiency. I've investigated this in detail here: Can Veganism cause hair loss?


The Conclusion: A Roadmap, Not a Warning


After this deep and honest look at the downsides, you might be thinking it all sounds terribly difficult. And at times, it can be. My goal in this investigation was not to scare you away from plant-based eating. It was to arm you with the truth.

The disadvantages of veganism are real. There are nutritional hurdles that require your attention, social dynamics that require your patience, and practical inconveniences that require your planning.

But these are not reasons to abandon the idea. They are a roadmap. They are a guide to doing it well. By understanding the potential pitfalls, you can plan for them. You can know to supplement your B12, to pair your iron with vitamin C, to have a kind but firm response ready for your inquisitive uncle. Forewarned is forearmed. Acknowledging the challenges is the first step to overcoming them and building a sustainable, joyful, and truly healthy plant-based life.

The biggest social challenge is often explaining the "why" behind it all. To understand the complex philosophy that drives the movement, you should read my guide: [What Is Ethical Veganism?]


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