Wait - I thought Vegans were plant based eaters??
There is some confusion in the world at large when it comes to vegans and plant based eaters. These are two similar, yet very different styles of eating and below I will outline some of the differences.
Vegan Choices
This diet choice in the past involved cutting out all animal products on behalf of animal rights and to eliminate suffering of animals for human consumption. From my perspective, this has changed over the years to mean one chooses to not consume any animal products because of a conscience choice - it could be for political reasons, animal rights reasons or health reasons. In the end, it means one doesn’t consume anything related to animals, including the obvious: meat, diary, eggs etc., as well as the not so obvious including: honey (made by bees), gelatin (bone marrow), marshmallows (bone marrow), white sugar (bone char), and worcestershire sauce (anchovies). I knew someone once who wouldn’t eat dark chocolate because she found out tiny little bugs live in the cocoa beans and she didn’t want them harmed. However, there is now a lot of processed vegan food offered that is created to taste and have the mouthfeel of animal products. This would include Impossible Burgers, Beyond Meat products, various cheeses, alternative milks, chips and crackers - the list goes on. These foods are typically high in saturated fat, sodium and have very few plants in them - in other words, they are highly processed, making them no better than other highly processed food. These foods simply have the word “vegan” slapped on it.
Plant Based Choices
This diet is exactly what it sounds like - eating more plants. It is sometimes called a whole foods plant based diet as well. Basically this diet is less concerned about animal products and more concerned about eating whole foods that are minimally processed and closely resemble their origin. A plant based diet focuses on eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and seeds. While this doesn’t sounds like much variety, there is tremendous diversity within the plant kingdom! And going plant based doesn’t have to be exclusive, a lot of people find that by replacing some meat with plants in their diets, and not totally eliminating it, is enough for them. There is a balance offered by going plant based that is not available with going vegan. Often people start out plant based and find they feel so much better, they eventually cut out most animal products and processed foods from their diet.
If you are considering one diet or another, a great way to start is with small steps. Instead of having cheese on your burger, have lettuce and tomato (and avocado, mushrooms and jalapeno!). Next time, try a bean burger with cheese and all the fixings. Maybe you are craving pizza, instead of pepperoni, try your favorite vegetables - see what you think. The goal is to try and crowd out the foods you want to eventually eliminate instead of thinking “Oh, I can’t eat that”. Start mixing it up - have a spring roll bowl (I use brown rice instead of the noodles and whatever veggies I have on hand), breakfast tostadas, a handful of nuts, cucumbers and hummus - or plain cucumbers with a little lemon and salt. Keep it easy and you may be amazed at what you no longer miss.
Here are a few plant based websites to get you started.
I love almost everything from Cookie and Kate she offers vegan and vegetarian recipes.
Oh She Glows is where I first started - her recipes are great, usually pretty easy and consistently delicious.
Forks over Knives is where a lot of plant based promotion started. They have a great film about the benefits of going plant based that is very informative as well as inspirational.
The Minimalist Baker is another website I return to time and time again - she has mostly plant based recipes with some vegetarian recipes thrown in.
Smitten Kitchen has amazing recipes - this may be a fun place to start if you want to try transitioning to more plants because she has a lot of great recipes that include every food group.
Once you start reducing animal products in your cooking, you will see how easy it is to improvise your tried and true recipes. Easy swaps are reducing cheese in a recipe, trade butter for olive oil, use cashew butter instead of heavy cream, use ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef, sautee your veggies in water or broth instead of oil. Small, conscience steps can lead to effortless, healthier habits.