Somewhere around month eight, most former vegans say the same thing happened. It wasn’t a health scare or a dramatic ethical reversal. It was a smell. Maybe it was bacon curling in a neighbor’s pan, or a wedge of runny brie sitting out at a party, or the particular tang of a soft-scrambled egg. Whatever it was, it lodged itself in their brain and wouldn’t leave.
Online forums like r/exvegan, along with surveys conducted by researchers studying diet abandonment, keep turning up the same pattern: people don’t usually quit veganism because they stopped caring about animals or the planet. They quit because a handful of very specific foods kept haunting them, long after they thought the cravings would fade.
A widely cited Faunalytics study on former vegetarians and vegans found that a large share of people who go back to eating animal products cite difficulty maintaining the diet socially and psychologically, not just nutritionally.
We combed through interviews, survey writeups, and firsthand accounts from people who tried veganism seriously, some for years, before returning to omnivory. These are the 13 foods that came up again and again as the ones they missed most.
Key Takeaways
- Cravings that push people away from veganism are often about texture, memory, and social ease, not just taste.
- Cheese and eggs top nearly every survey and interview about foods former vegans missed most, largely due to their unique textures and how hard they are to replicate.
- Convenience and social friction matter as much as flavor. Foods tied to holidays, family meals, or eating out were especially hard to give up.
- Many former vegans describe the cravings as gradually building over months, not appearing immediately, which surprised them.
- Understanding these patterns can help current vegans plan around high-risk cravings instead of being blindsided by them.
Why Former Vegans Talk About Food Like a Breakup
Ask someone who left veganism what they missed, and they rarely start with nutrition. They start with a memory.
A specific dinner. A specific bite.
That emotional framing shows up consistently in interviews and in informal surveys run by former-vegan communities online.
Part of this comes down to how deeply food is tied to identity and ritual. Cheese boards at holidays.
Scrambled eggs on a lazy Sunday. A burger at a childhood diner.
When someone removes these foods entirely, they’re not just changing ingredients, they’re changing how they participate in shared meals and memories. That disconnect, more than any single nutrient deficiency, is what many former vegans describe as the breaking point.
It’s also worth noting that not everyone who tries veganism struggles the same way. Plenty of long-term vegans report never missing these foods much at all, or finding satisfying replacements early on.
The people quoted throughout this piece represent those who ultimately returned to omnivorous eating, not vegans broadly.
The 13 Foods Former Vegans Missed Most
These foods appear again and again across interviews, Reddit threads, and small-scale surveys of former vegans. They’re ordered roughly by how frequently they were mentioned, though nearly all of the top five show up interchangeably depending on the source.
1. Cheese
This is the single most commonly cited food across nearly every account of leaving veganism. Not just any cheese, either.
People specifically mention aged cheddar, real parmesan, and soft cheeses like brie that develop a texture vegan alternatives struggle to match. Several former vegans described plant-based cheese as ‘fine at first’ before the novelty wore off and the textural gap became impossible to ignore.
The chemistry is part of the problem. Dairy cheese relies on casein proteins that melt, stretch, and brown in ways plant proteins don’t naturally replicate, which is why even good vegan cheeses tend to behave differently in cooking.
2. Scrambled or fried eggs
Eggs came up almost as often as cheese, particularly the simple, everyday versions: scrambled eggs on toast, a fried egg on a burger, an omelet on a Sunday morning. Former vegans often say it wasn’t the flavor they missed most but the specific soft, custardy texture that tofu scrambles and mung bean-based substitutes don’t fully deliver.
Several interviewees mentioned that egg cravings intensified specifically around breakfast, more than any other meal, likely tied to years of habitual morning routines.
3. Barbecue and smoked meats
Ribs, pulled pork, and smoked brisket showed up repeatedly, especially among people from regions with strong barbecue traditions in the American South and Midwest. The craving here wasn’t just about protein.
It was tied to smoke, char, and the specific fattiness that plant-based barbecue substitutes rarely nail.
Social settings made this worse. Cookouts, tailgates, and family barbecues became recurring points of friction, with several former vegans describing a slow erosion of willpower every summer.
4. Butter
Butter’s appeal, according to several accounts, wasn’t really about spreading it on toast. It was about baking and cooking.
Former vegans frequently mentioned that vegan butter alternatives worked fine in some applications but fell short in laminated pastries, pie crusts, and pan sauces where real butter’s fat structure and browning behavior matter.
One recurring theme: people said they didn’t miss butter until they tried to bake something from a childhood recipe and it simply didn’t turn out the same.
5. Ice cream
Not frozen desserts generally, specifically dairy ice cream. Former vegans described the mouthfeel of oat- or coconut-based pints as noticeably icier or grainier compared to traditional dairy, even from well-reviewed brands.
Several mentioned birthday parties or summer nostalgia as the emotional trigger that made the craving worse.
6. Honey
Honey is a smaller category but shows up surprisingly often, mostly among people who used it daily in tea or coffee.
Maple syrup and agave were common substitutes, but several former vegans said the flavor difference was noticeable enough that it became a small, recurring irritation rather than a full-blown craving, the kind of thing that quietly wears you down over time.
7. Sushi with real fish
For former vegans in coastal cities or with strong sushi traditions in their families, this one hit hard.
Plant-based sushi alternatives using marinated vegetables or mushrooms were described as enjoyable in their own right but categorically different, not a substitute for the texture of raw tuna or salmon.
8. Chicken wings
Wings came up specifically, separate from other chicken dishes, largely because of their social context: game days, bars, gatherings with friends. Several former vegans noted that cauliflower wings were a reasonable snack on their own merits, but didn’t fill the specific craving tied to watching football or hanging out at a bar.
9. Bacon
Bacon deserves its own entry separate from general barbecue or breakfast meats because of how often it was mentioned purely for its smell and crunch. Several accounts described the smell of bacon cooking as one of the hardest sensory triggers to ignore, even years into being vegan.
10. Yogurt
Specifically thick, tangy Greek-style yogurt. Former vegans said plant-based yogurts, while improving in quality over the years, still tended toward sweeter flavor profiles and thinner textures that didn’t satisfy the same craving, particularly for people who used yogurt as a savory ingredient rather than a dessert.
11. Deli meat sandwiches
This one is tied closely to convenience. Former vegans repeatedly mentioned missing the simplicity of a quick turkey or ham sandwich, not necessarily because plant-based deli slices tasted bad, but because they were harder to find, more expensive, and inconsistent in quality depending on the store.
12. Caesar salad with real parmesan and anchovy dressing
Interestingly specific, but it showed up enough times to earn its own spot. The combination of umami from anchovies and sharp, salty parmesan is difficult to replicate with plant-based ingredients, and several former vegans singled this dish out as one they thought about often, even though it’s technically just a salad.
13. Grandma’s home cooking
Not a single food, but this category came up so often it couldn’t be left out. Former vegans frequently described missing specific family recipes, a mother’s pot roast, a grandmother’s holiday stuffing made with butter and broth, dishes tied to culture and memory that felt impossible to fully recreate in vegan form without losing something intangible.
This emotional category was, for several interviewees, more powerful than any single craving on this list.
What This Pattern Actually Tells Us
Looking at these 13 items together, a clear pattern emerges: it’s rarely about protein or general flavor. It’s about texture (cheese, eggs, yogurt), smell (bacon, barbecue), and social or emotional context (wings at a bar, grandma’s stuffing, a sandwich that’s easy to grab on a busy day).
This lines up with broader research on dietary adherence. A review published in Nutrition Reviews on long-term diet changes notes that sensory and social factors are often stronger predictors of diet abandonment than nutritional deficiencies alone, especially when a diet requires giving up foods with strong cultural or emotional weight.
For current vegans, this isn’t necessarily discouraging. It’s useful information.
Knowing that cheese, eggs, and social-eating occasions are the highest-risk categories means people can plan around them, whether that’s finding a genuinely satisfying cheese alternative early on or having a plan for cookouts and holidays before the craving hits. If you’re actively building a vegan diet and want to make sure the basics feel satisfying rather than restrictive, it can help to look at broader food lists like high-protein vegan foods or double check what’s sneaking dairy or animal products into places you wouldn’t expect with a guide like foods that aren’t actually vegan.
It’s also worth remembering that craving a food isn’t the same as needing it nutritionally. Several former vegans in these accounts acknowledged that their cravings were emotional or habitual rather than tied to any measurable deficiency, though nutrition should still be discussed with a doctor or dietitian on an individual basis.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this list based on scientific research or just personal stories?
It’s a mix. Some patterns come from informal surveys and community writeups from former-vegan groups, while the broader psychological and dietary-adherence patterns are supported by published research on diet abandonment, like the Faunalytics study on former vegetarians and vegans.
Do all vegans eventually crave these foods?
No. Many long-term vegans report rarely or never missing these foods, especially once they find satisfying replacements. This list reflects the experiences of people who ultimately returned to eating animal products, not vegans as a whole.
Why do cheese and eggs come up so often specifically?
Both have unique textures created by animal proteins (casein in dairy, albumin in eggs) that are genuinely difficult for plant-based ingredients to replicate exactly, which is part of why cravings for them tend to be so persistent.
Are plant-based alternatives getting better at solving these cravings?
Yes, significantly. Cashew and oat-based cheeses, aquafaba-based egg substitutes, and fermented plant yogurts have all improved in texture and flavor over the past several years, though most former vegans in these accounts said the gap, while narrowing, was still noticeable at the time they returned to omnivorous eating.
What can current vegans do to avoid being blindsided by these cravings?
Planning ahead for high-risk situations, like holidays, cookouts, and family meals, seems to help based on these accounts. So does experimenting early with substitutes for cheese and eggs specifically, since those cravings tend to build gradually rather than appearing all at once.