If you're doing veganuary (going vegan for January), please feel free to ask me questions!
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If you're doing veganuary (going vegan for January), please feel free to ask me questions!
There are three main points of advice I will give you:
- Take a B12 supplement every morning, or you can check the labels of different nut/bean/grain based milks (soy, cashew, almond, rice, oat, etc) and see if they're fortified. Some tofus and fake meats are also fortified. This is important. B12 is needed for neurological health. You can't get this on a vegan diet.
2.a. Protein: Read the nutrition labels of any fake meat you eat. Some have good protein contents near what you would get in real meat, but some just do NOT. Examples of nonsense that don't have any protein: watermelon salmon, beet burger, mushroom steak. None of those have protein. They're more aesthetic than anything. If you're not used to monitoring your protein, aim for at least 15-20g per serving. For "protein" bars: If the bar doesn't have at least 12g of protein, it's not a protein bar and is being falsely advertised. If you exercise regularly, up your protein to at least 25 per meal and/or supplement with protein snacks (peanuts are great!)
2.b. If you can't afford the fake meats in your area, consider beans and legumes. They're cheap in cans, but even cheaper if you buy them in bulk dried, and then soak them over night before using them. Black beans, red beans, navy beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, garbanzo beans, peas, fava beans, broad beans, mung beans, lentils, soy beans, and more. Seriously, look into bean recipes. This is my favorite egg recipe and it's made with mung beans which I can buy in 2kg bags for like €5 at the small grocery store down the street from me. It ends up lasting a couple weeks and I can eat eggs all I want (the "eggy" is the Kala Namak aka black salt):
https://thecheaplazyvegan.com/just-egg-mung-bean/3.a. If you're able, go to restaurants to try naturally vegan dishes. Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Ethiopian, Indian, Nepali, Chinese, Thai, Surinamese, and Vietnamese places will typically have a tofu/tempeh, chickpea, or lentil based option that is part of their culture and has been iterated on for 100s of yrs. It's good, but I think you should try it from a reputable restaurant, as if you've never had food from these cultures, it's important you know what it's supposed to taste like. Also, when looking up recipes from these other cultures, FIND PEOPLE INDIGENOUS TO THE AREA. Do not go to a Karen from Texas for how to make any sort of curry. She doesn't know. Her college trip to India doesn't count.
3.b. When buying ingredients, try to shop local at small import stores as much as possible. Go to large import stores if needed, but don't buy the store brand at your big box grocery store in a western country when it comes to other culture's foods/seasonings. For instance, if you need coconut milk, go to an import store and buy Aroy-D coconut milk. Almost any knock off brand you buy of a seasoning/sauce will be watered down or too sweet.
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If you're doing veganuary (going vegan for January), please feel free to ask me questions!
There are three main points of advice I will give you:
- Take a B12 supplement every morning, or you can check the labels of different nut/bean/grain based milks (soy, cashew, almond, rice, oat, etc) and see if they're fortified. Some tofus and fake meats are also fortified. This is important. B12 is needed for neurological health. You can't get this on a vegan diet.
2.a. Protein: Read the nutrition labels of any fake meat you eat. Some have good protein contents near what you would get in real meat, but some just do NOT. Examples of nonsense that don't have any protein: watermelon salmon, beet burger, mushroom steak. None of those have protein. They're more aesthetic than anything. If you're not used to monitoring your protein, aim for at least 15-20g per serving. For "protein" bars: If the bar doesn't have at least 12g of protein, it's not a protein bar and is being falsely advertised. If you exercise regularly, up your protein to at least 25 per meal and/or supplement with protein snacks (peanuts are great!)
2.b. If you can't afford the fake meats in your area, consider beans and legumes. They're cheap in cans, but even cheaper if you buy them in bulk dried, and then soak them over night before using them. Black beans, red beans, navy beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, garbanzo beans, peas, fava beans, broad beans, mung beans, lentils, soy beans, and more. Seriously, look into bean recipes. This is my favorite egg recipe and it's made with mung beans which I can buy in 2kg bags for like €5 at the small grocery store down the street from me. It ends up lasting a couple weeks and I can eat eggs all I want (the "eggy" is the Kala Namak aka black salt):
https://thecheaplazyvegan.com/just-egg-mung-bean/3.a. If you're able, go to restaurants to try naturally vegan dishes. Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Ethiopian, Indian, Nepali, Chinese, Thai, Surinamese, and Vietnamese places will typically have a tofu/tempeh, chickpea, or lentil based option that is part of their culture and has been iterated on for 100s of yrs. It's good, but I think you should try it from a reputable restaurant, as if you've never had food from these cultures, it's important you know what it's supposed to taste like. Also, when looking up recipes from these other cultures, FIND PEOPLE INDIGENOUS TO THE AREA. Do not go to a Karen from Texas for how to make any sort of curry. She doesn't know. Her college trip to India doesn't count.
3.b. When buying ingredients, try to shop local at small import stores as much as possible. Go to large import stores if needed, but don't buy the store brand at your big box grocery store in a western country when it comes to other culture's foods/seasonings. For instance, if you need coconut milk, go to an import store and buy Aroy-D coconut milk. Almost any knock off brand you buy of a seasoning/sauce will be watered down or too sweet.
Here's some infographics for protein content so you can get a feel for what amount of protein you can expect from which nut, bean, or legume
(I put a lot of effort into the alt text here, so please boost
and let me know if there's a better way to make this happen for screen readers and I will accommodate!)Note: The first chart is raw nuts. The dal protein chart assumes dry dal, so before cooking. The final chart is for 1/2 cup cooked of each kind of bean.
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