About the Vegan Diet and Its Health Benefits

Few Americans understand what a vegan diet is, or what it can mean for their health. Instead of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, the typical American diet is heavy in animal meats, fats, and dairy. This way of eating has been getting worse with each generation. As this increases, so do many people's waistlines. Eating a vegan diet instead is a healthy alternative. Whether you eat a vegan diet for a short while, or continue on for a lifetime, veganism can be a rewarding lifestyle change.

Lose weight, enjoy more energy, and feel great by making the change to veganism.

What is veganism?

Veganism is a type of vegetarianism that is slightly more limited. While a vegetarian will not eat meat, some still enjoy milk, eggs, honey, and other animal products. Vegans, on the other hand, avoid all animal products possible. Many even avoid wearing leather and wool because these are animal products. Vegans have to constantly be on the look out for animal-based food additives. One common example is red food dye, which is made from a type of beetles.

Is Veganism Difficult To Follow At first glance, it seems very difficult to follow a vegan diet. Animal products are everywhere, from the gelatin to chocolate. Many foods you would not expect to have animal products, do. In some parts of the world, choosing to eat a vegan diet could be extremely difficult to do. However, for most people in the U.S. there is an abundance of food options if you know where to look. Health food stores and specialty shops are more likely to carry vegan food that typical grocery chains. However some larger chains, such as WalMart, are beginning to carry vegetarian and vegan options.

Small, local grocery stores often have a good selection of quick food items that are vegan friendly. If not, they may be more friendly towards making these options available to meet local needs. When going out to eat, some cuisines are better suited towards offering vegan options. Spanish, South and Central American, and some Asian foods have great vegan options. And thankfully, more vegan friendly restaurants are opening up across the country each day.

If need be, you can always ask the chef to hold the animal products for your dish. Vegan snacks are easy to find. Fresh fruits and vegetables, along with nuts and seeds, are healthy snacks that contain absolutely no animal products.

Try a handful of cashews, a fresh fruit salad, or a square of dark chocolate for a simple vegan snack.

Is It Delicious?

There are vegan dishes all around the world, dishes that most people do not even realize are vegan. Hummus, fried okra, salads, dark chocolate. Lots of things that people enjoy on a daily basis have no animal products at all.

Where the typical American diet focuses mainly on meat and animal fats, looking outside oour culture we can find a wide assortment of delicious foods to enjoy. As the demand grows, many food companies are now offering vegan alternatives that are just as tasty as the foods they replace. From vegan versions of bacon, sausage, burgers, and ground beef, there are great options for people interested in a vegan diet but not yet ready to say goodbye to meat.

Vegans do not need to give up their dessert options either. Cakes, cookies, ice creams, and more can all be made without milk and eggs, and they are just as delicious as the typical versions. Try a slice of vegan apple pie, topped with vegan ice cream made from coconut milk. Many people find that as they adjust to a vegan diet, their sense of taste no longer requires heavily flavored foods. Things can taste sweet with less sugar that before, making even desserts a little better.

As their systems clean out the junk built up, they can become more sensitive to what they eat.

Is Veganism Safe?

A balanced vegan diet can be incredible for your health. Of course, the secret is keeping it balanced. A diet of nothing but vegan cookies, while vegan, would not be healthy at all. Sticking to a balanced diet and remembering to eat foods in moderation will help you to be healthier and lose weight. Even people who are already at a healthy weight range will feel better when their body flushes the animal products out.



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8 Steps In The Transition To The Vegan Diet: How To Start A Vegan Diet

For those who are new to the vegan diet, the thought of suddenly abstaining from all meat and dairy products can be absolutely terrifying. In today's society, most folk incorporate meat, dairy and eggs into a large percentage of their daily food intake. Therefore, if it is your desire to adopt the vegan diet, and you are overwhelmed at the idea of leaving behind your favorite foods overnight, you should instead make a gradual transition to the vegan diet. The following 8 steps explain how to start a vegan diet with success!

The Gradual Transition For The Beginner Vegan: 

Step 1: Eliminate red meat

The first step should be quite easy. Cut out all lamb, beef, pork and other red meat from your diet, but still allow yourself to eat white meat (chicken, fish and seafood). Also be aware that you can buy meat-free "bacon" and vegetarian "mince" from most supermarkets and health stores. When you are starting to feel comfortable not eating red meat, move to the next stage.

Step 2: Eliminate chicken

Only eat fish and seafood products for a period of time, and avoid all other meats including chicken. Get used to preparing meals without meat, and start researching recipe ideas for vegan meals.

Step 3: Eliminate Fish & Seafood

By now you will be going completely vegetarian. Instead of eating meat and seafood, your protein will now be coming from legumes (chickpeas, lentils, black beans etc.), whole grains, tofu, vegetarian "patties," vegetarian "mince," and other meat-free products such as vegan "bacon." Remember that nowadays you can get a ton of vegetarian foods in the supermarket. Get to know the products and brands available. Also, don't be afraid of tofu, it can be extremely versatile and delicious if cooked properly. It has the ability to absorb the flavors of other foods and spices that it is cooked/marinated with, so find out how to cook it so it will taste delicious!

Step 4: Eliminate Cheese

This is the first stage of the transition from vegetarian to vegan. For the beginner vegan, the thought of abandoning cheese products can seem quite down-heartening, since many folk enjoy cheese on a daily basis: on their pasta, in their salads, on their sandwiches, in their sauces... the list goes on! But if you want to eventually reap the many amazing health benefits of the vegan diet - you must eliminate cheese from your diet. If this is difficult for you (most probably), then buy some of the mock-cheeses (vegan) from your local store.

Step 5: Eliminate Eggs

This is also a difficult step for many, but be aware that eggs are an animal product, and therefore giving them up is a must for those who wish to go on the vegan diet. You can make many yummy mock egg dishes with tofu (e.g.: tofu "scrambled eggs"), and if you follow a great recipe and get the flavors right - you likely won't even miss your eggs!

Step 6: Eliminate Butter & Cream

You've now eliminated all your solid animal foods from your diet. The next recommended stage in your transition to vegan is to abstain from butter and cream, and all products containing these two ingredients. You can use many other oils and fats instead such as olive oil, coconut oil, and vegan margarine. You will have to cook most of your vegan sweets now, since most cakes and treats at cafes and stores contain butter and eggs.

Step 7: Eliminate Milk

This shouldn't be too hard, since there are many vegan alternatives to milk nowadays. You can drink soy milk, rice milk, coconut milk, etc. You can cook or bake with these healthy milks, eat them with your cereal, or simply drink them from a glass!

Step 8: Get Some Vegan Recipes

Now that you are 100% vegan, and all of your meals from now on will be vegan, you need to collect a lot of tasty vegan recipes! You can find some great recipes online on websites, blogs, or by purchasing a professional vegan recipe e-book. Your recipe collection should include a diverse range of recipes, including vegan meals, lunches, dinners, breakfasts, cakes, slices, muffins, desserts and quick meals.



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Starting A Vegan Lifestyle

Most experts and health organizations have documented the benefits of living a pure vegetarian lifestyle or vegan including permanent decrease in obesity, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, as well as the decrease of risk for heart diseases and some forms of cancer such as lungs and colon. Also, arthritis, rheumatism, allergies and asthma also reacts with vegan nutrition that means no meat, fish, poultry, dairy and eggs. A vegan lifestyle also advocates non-smoking and non-alcoholic practices.

All the important organic nutrients that are needed by humans such as amino acids, vitamins and minerals are produced by plants and micro living things. Animal products contain these nutrients too, but since most animals have also the same nutrient requirements of animals, we get the nutrients second-handed. The unique components of animal foods are really saturated fats and cholesterol which cannot be found in plants.

In switching to a vegan lifestyle, the food transformation is easy since it’s often much easier to prepare vegetables than the usual recipes we are used to. A vegan diet is very easy. You could eat only vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fruits and still meet all the body requirements for essential nutrients. However, for those people who like to cook, there are countless recipes in different books and thousand of vegan recipes available online for the cost of a small subscription fee or for free.

Most vegans are referred to some clinics for serum cholesterol reduction or for treatment of obesity. The reasons are direct: a vegan diet contains no significant amount of cholesterol and very low amount of saturated fat.

As for losing extra pounds, the vegan diet does not contain refined sugar and harmful oil. The average food recommendations are focused on fresh vegetables preferably green leafy ones, and raw in whatever you like, with calorie requirements filled by grains such as rice.

" There are no limitations in the amount of food you can eat, and most experts encourage vegans to eat as much as you want as long as the foods are not refined and generally vegan. It is not important to measure the food servings. Our body has three sense mechanisms that can work on this. First, your stomach has the sense receptors that will send impulses to our brain when the stomach has reached the capacity. Second, our body can direct us to eat until we have enough energy to run our metabolism. Lastly, there are complex biochemical processes that can detect the amount of minerals, vitamins, or other nutrients."

You will not have to make big renovation to your kitchen just to suffice your new lifestyle. In reality, there are ways that will favor the whole maintenance of your kitchen. Your kitchen can be very simple because you will only need tools and utensils that will help you in preparation of vegan meals. Usually, vegan meals are very fast, easy and cheap to prepare, once you make some investments. You should purchase a rice cooker, steamer, popper and microwave oven.

The most important kitchen tools that you need so that you can prepare your vegan meals are the following:

1. baking utensils
2. chopping dish
3. colander
4. grate
5. pots
6. pans
7. soup ladles
8. jars
9. lids
10. measuring cups
11. bread knife
12. paring knife
13. cooking spoons
14. chopping knife
15. bowl
16. muffin tins