Before going vegan, please be mindful that you must strike a balance with your diet. People quit veganism because of the funky sub-vegan diets they adopt, which leave them malnourished. With a plant-based diet, you are already restricting yourself. That means you can’t neglect the numerous ingredients available to you. Start to think about this diet in terms of nutrients and EVER become too restrictive, and risk NOT getting the nutrients your body needs.
When you embark on this journey, you have to deal with the challenges ahead.
This means that it’s up to you to think about your meals and make them as complete as possible. At the end of the day, if you’re starting a vegan lifestyle on your own, you need access to the right resources. Therefore, I’ll share with you the websites and people I believe are the most unbiased. A lot of vegan aficionados are snake-oil sellers. They sell you this “perfect” vegan diet, but the truth is not that simple. A vegan diet, if not well-managed, it can put you in a bad spot.
You may be doing this for a different reason than me, but know that ethically and environmentally, this is a step in the right direction. Health-wise, it will depend on how you balance out your diet with the right ingredients.
Assuming you’re ready to take this step, let me introduce you to the vegan lifestyle.
What Does It Mean To Have A Vegan Lifestyle?
A vegan lifestyle goes beyond having a vegan diet. Think about every industry.
Cosmetic companies painfully test products on animals. Certain clothes are made from leather hides and wool. Circuses punish lions using whips to gain their obedience. Acts of animal-cruelty happen all across the board.
So what does being vegan mean?
Well, it’s to look beyond yourself and treat all species equally. You don’t have to be an animal activist or convert everyone to veganism. You just have to live your life normally, without sacrificing animal lives.
This being said, the foundation for a vegan lifestyle starts with a vegan diet.
What Is A Vegan Diet?
A vegan diet is comprised mostly of vegetables, grains, seeds, legumes, nuts, fruits, and some well-known meat substitutes like tofu, seitan, and tempeh. Besides, vegans also have milk substitutes like rice and oat milk.
At the same time, within a vegan diet, there’s the whole-food, plant-based diet (WFPBD). If you’ve watched documentaries on vegan nutrition, this is typically the “miraculous” diet they praise. A whole-food, plant-based diet is a bit more restrictive than the vegan diet because it excludes refined foods, like added sugars, white flour, and processed oils. The gist of it lies in consuming minimally processed foods, or in other words, purer ingredients.
Regardless of the exact vegan diet, there’s always one thing you must do, and that is to exclude every animal product. Most vegans also avoid ingredients processed with animal constituents. These include some variations of refined sugar and wine.
To give you a broader view of what you can eat as a vegan, I’ve comprised a list of ingredients below.
What You Can Eat As A Vegan
The list of ingredients you can buy is immense. It wasn’t until I’ve changed to a vegan diet, that I finally started eating a wider variety of ingredients. Believe it or not, I had never eaten quinoa or couscous in my life. Yet, they’re super ingredients with amazing nutritious value.
Here’s a list of ingredients you can add to your grocery list:
Fruits and vegetables
It’s important to add different vegetables and fruits to your diet. By limiting your diet to a handful of ingredients, you’re limiting the type of nutrients you can get. Consider highly nutritious ingredients and combinations that enhance absorption. Kale and collard greens are great sources of calcium, while oranges and strawberries are rich in vitamin C, which improves iron absorption from legumes like chickpeas and lentils.
Legumes
This is where you’ll get most of your protein. Not only that, but legumes are generally an excellent source of fiber and other beneficial micronutrients like iron and zinc. You can find them in the form of green peas, beans, chickpeas, and lentils.
Nuts and Nut Butters
One of my favorite things to eat is salted peanuts and peanut butter. But there’s an incredible variety of delicious nuts. Pistachios, hazelnuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds, and more. These are generally great sources of protein, iron, magnesium, fiber, zinc, selenium and vitamin E.
Seeds
Seeds are sources of essential omega-3 fatty acids. A diet rich in flaxseeds and chia seeds allows you to ac