the struggles I've had are:
- the ability to find vegan food
- that isn't going to cause me food sensitivities. I'm really sensitive to many vegan foods - soy, wheat, peanuts, alliums, caffeine, etc. - that there's very little far and few between with real, adequate choices and nutrition. Soy and wheat are in most fake meats - so there's not much after that except peas.
- it's so easy to be exposed to drugs and be drugged - as so many drugs come from plants that's in our regular food.
- too many chemicals that plants use to protect itself are either toxic or anti-nutrients - which make you unwell. It's hard to eat properly on a vegan diet.
- there just always seems to be added difficulties to get food
- you need to grow your own vegan food in order to get the right nutrients (like calcium - found in herbs) - which is hard
- you're surrounded by a lot of broken people if you meet other vegans
- too much peer pressure and directed anger at you if you don't want to be vegan - it's like a cult - once you're in - you can't really get out easily. Even if you're not in it - there's too much pressure to be in it. Another issue is that this behavior and pressuring's socially acceptable - which is bad
- since everyone has a different definition of what veganism is and isn't - vegans get angry at each other over decisions they think are vegan, but aren't and vice versa
- there's too many people telling others to go vegan without explaining to them how to properly be vegan and seeing if it's truly right for them
that said - even though there are difficulties in being vegan - there are just too many difficulties that are harder to face when not being vegan that I wouldn't really go back. A lot of difficulties in veganism is due to the symptoms of a non-vegan society and would go away if: 1) veganism was treated properly by vegans, 2) the world's more vegan. In essence, while it's hard to be vegan in some ways - those difficulties are way fewer and less in intensity.
I think your research project should incorporate the positive aspects to understand the negative ones.