The Vegan diet consists of foods that are exclusively vegetarian. The Vegan diet is extremely strict and goes beyond just avoiding meat, dairy products and eggs.
The diet excludes the consumption of even those food products that are manufactured using animal products such as jelly, refined sugar and specific wines. In addition to this, a Vegan diet avoids foods and products that are tested on animals.
Critics opine that a Vegan diet does not have adequate amounts of protein. However, there are various cultures that practice vegetarianism across the world and ensure adequate intake of protein in a strict Vegan diet through vegetarian food items.
For examples, various legumes, nuts and seeds have high protein content that can supplement the daily dose of required proteins.
What is a Vegan?
A Vegan is someone who has adopted the vegan lifestyle or a person who voluntarily stops consuming all animal products. Vegan’s are generally motivated due to health concerns, environmental reasons or concerns related to animal rights.
Primarily, this is why a Vegan diet does not include any food product that contains meat, fish or eggs. It also does not contain products that are produced using animal parts like refined sugar and products that are tested on animals in the research and development phase.
In most cases, people start with adopting a vegetarian diet and then gradually start eliminating other animal-related foods from their diet plans. It is estimated that anywhere between 0.2 % and 1.3% of Americans are vegan’s.
Foods a Vegan Can Eat
The foods that can be consumed if you are on a Vegan diet are many. Because we are dependent on meats in our regular diet, initially, adopting this diet may seem difficult.
However, if you make up your mind and check out some vegan diet sites on the Internet, you will be able to see various Vegan foods that you had not considered.
A vegan diet includes a wide variety of foods, some of which are listed below:
- Fruits – bananas, apples, oranges, lime, watermelon, muskmelon, strawberries, raspberries, pears, kiwi fruit and any other local or tropical fruit that may be available in your area
- Vegetables – potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, broccoli, coriander, mint, green peas, peppers and others
- Grains – wheat, flour, rice
- Legumes – kidney beans, lentils, sprouts, split peas and more.
In addition to this tofu, seitan, egg replacers, nutritional yeast, vegetable protein, tempeh and soy ice cream are some of the popular vegan foods.
More Food Choices For Vegans
There was a time when the only choice that a vegan had was to create vegan recipes to be able to ensure a vegan diet.
However, with the increasing popularity of the vegan diet, there are many manufacturers who produce vegan yogurt, vegan cheese, vegan chocolate, vegan ice cream and more.
Some even produce vegan sausages that are not made from any kind of meat. With vegan spaghetti sauce and vegan baked beans, preparing a vegan diet meal is no longer a nightmare.
Vegan diet recipes can be found easily on the Internet and all that you really need to do is start creating them when you are in the mood for a strictly Vegan cooked meal.
A vegan diet can be extremely difficult to follow in today’s world; but it can be done, and it’s a good way to control your weight. Vegetarians, vegans in particular, tend to have a lower body weight, and have far fewer problems with heart disease, high blood pressure and even cancer.
When you combine a vegetarian diet with the avoidance of foods made with animal products, this also means that you eat more whole foods and less processed ones. In the long run, this means that you’re exposing yourself to fewer toxins and artificial ingredients, which is likely to help you reduce the signs of aging. As time goes on, it’s pretty likely that we’re going to discover all sorts of cancer and other disease causing agents in many of our foods.
Vegans are pretty much avoiding all of that by sticking to the foods that are plant based and unprocessed.