What is a Vegan Diet?
You may not be familiar with the term veganism, or what is a vegan diet, but it simply refers to a vegetarian diet that also excludes meat, eggs, dairy products and any type of animal-derived ingredients. Some people have a passion to save our animals in addition to our planet but most just want a healthier way to live.
The term "vegan" is a little ominous sounding but you realize the thousands of people that share your veganism, it really doesn't sound so bad. Learning to be a true vegan takes some work because when you stop and think about it, our popular foods are just full of animal derived or dairy products. Gelatin, noodles, refined white sugar and even some wines.
The best way to get started on a vegan diet is to experiment with the foods that are available to you. For example, you may think that everyone needs milk because of the protein and vitamin D for bones. But did you know that molasses, orange juice; broccoli and almonds contain the same proteins and vitamins as milk?
It really comes down to retraining your brain of the foods that we have been told that we need. We may need some aspect of a food but when you can replace a particular food, such as cheese, that is chocked full of fat, which a tasty seasoned tofu, the health benefits can be remarkable.
If someone told you that you could have lobster bisque for dinner or sloppy joes for lunch while on a vegan diet, it wouldn't seem so bad. With sloppy joes, you don't even taste the meat but all of the spices that go into the preparation.
Using tempeh, which is made from cooked and slightly fermented soybeans and formed into patties, tempeh has a textured and nutty flavor but when disguised with onions, ketchup, mustard, apple cider vinegar, sweetener and soy sauce, you could swear it was a sloppy joe. High in protein, calcium and isoflavones, tempeh is much healthier than ground beef.
There are a million things that you can do with vegetables to bring out the flavor and make into a full meal. A spinach salad with orange sesame dressing is to die for.
Spinach, strips of yellow bell peppers, a red onion and an orange is probably a combination that you never would have thought of but the mixture and a mellow dressing of rice vinegar and orange juice concentrate is just amazing. Think about the restaurants that are now serving salads with nuts and fruits that you think are really tasty. This is no different.
Becoming a vegan can be a life changing experience for you but one that can add years to your life and help you enjoy the one you have.
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