I’m a little blown away at the response to my past blog post https://theaccdiary.blog/2026/01/02/possibly-an-unpopular-opinion/.

I have had lots of great engagement. one comment in particular, asking me to give some tips on ethical companies and vegan food ideas for someone new to vegan food.

So… here’s my attempt at some advice. With a huge disclaimer that I’m by no means doing things perfectly. But my goal isn’t to be perfect, but to be the best person I can be in a world that can make being a good person very difficult.

Cleaning and personal care

For my household, laundry and dishwasher I use Smol. They don’t use harsh chemicals, so are kind to the environment and your skin. It’s a subscription service that delivers the reusable bottles and the refills to your door as often as you need. The products are easy to use and are most importantly affordable and the packaging recyclable.

Personal care products

I use Wild deodorant. They do stick and roll on. It’s gentle on the skin and doesn’t have any metals in that can be nasty on your skin.

I don’t use Face wipes. They are full of microplastics and are bad for your skins natural oils, instead I use reusable wipes and pads such as these https://www.cheekywipes.com/?source=google&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19650094557&gbraid=0AAAAAD1KjzVlxqMQs4QOA2bq2hNrouZA0&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvOjKBhC9ARIsAFvz5li0oqyi1FWDYwBq9wB_RS1DLbVYROpe6UyyyOT1U0f-8luERFF2ZQMaAhZDEALw_wcB

For the actual products that I use, I just make sure that anything I use is vegan, cruelty free and have as few harsh chemicals as is possible. All of this can be discovered with a quick google search.

There are of course companies like Lush, Soap and Glory, Sanex and Simple that tick many of these boxes.

Like I said I’m not perfect, there is always more I could do but these are just a few simple switches that most people can make.

I’m going to put in a trigger warning here for a discussion about food and eating habits. If that’s something that you’ll find challenging please don’t force yourself to read or make any changes. Fed is always best and however you chose to feed yourself is the right way.

My suggestion if you’re starting out on a plant based or reduced meat way of eating is to chose three meals you love to begin with and make small switches one at a time.

For example, breakfast might be Alpro yogurt with granola and berries. If the granola has milk powder or honey, that’s ok. You’re getting to grips with things and you can experiment to find the right one for you.

Lunch might feel overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be, you can have something like a pot noodle, yes, even the curry pot noodle is vegan! Or if that’s not your thing you could make a ham salad sandwich with fruit and crisps by swapping the ham for it’s plant based alternative. Salad, fruit, humus and most bread is vegan. But again you don’t need to be perfect. Just do your best.

For your tea let’s say you chose sausage, mash and veg. There’s about a million and one types of vegan sausage so you can taste as many as you want until you find the right one, use vegan butter in the mash and a splash of plant milk, bisto original gravy is ‘ accidentally vegan’ meaning without intentionally being a vegan product all ingredients mean that it is vegan. In fact you would probably be surprised to find lots of food you already eat is vegan.

So, to the friend that asked where to begin I hope this helps. I hope that this gives everybody somewhere to begin. Because it might sound  cliché but it really does start with little changes to make a big impact.