I need to now everything about going vegan?!
I need to now everything about going vegan?
ok i now that you cant eat meat or anything that comes from an animal but l need to know the rest! some other questions are which brand of soy milk tast better which vitamens i need to take some really good recipes!!!!! I DON'T WONT ANY LINKS I WONT PERSONAL EXPERIENCES!!! and please no mean answers!!!!
Answers:
In my opinion Silk vanilla is the best soymilk, and the cheapest since Wal Mart's GV brand is the same product and goes for only 2.39 a half gallon. It's also made with organic soybeans. The only vitamin you'll probably need is B12, which is a cheap and safe supplement, but you might need iron if you don't eat a lot of leafy greens since you're a girl. Fortified cereals are usually rich in iron and Silk has a little. If you do need iron, don't take a straight iron supplement without consultin your doctor because it can irritate your stomach and cause constipation. You might want to just get a vegan formula multivitamin to be on the safe side, especially if you're prone to acne because lack of zinc can exacerbate that problem.
As for recipes, I usually just take regular, easy foods and veganize them. Cheeseless veggie pizza is really good, sprinkled with a bit of soymage parmesan. Just get a ready-made pizza crust, most of which are vegan you just have to check the ingredients, some sauce and all your favorite veggies. Lettuce and tomato sandwiches with vinagrette dressing on toast are good for a quick lunch. Road's End organics makes a really tasty mac and chReese dinner, all soy cheese, just remember to use the plain silk and not vanilla lol. You also might want to check out indian and thai food. There is a brand called Thai Kitchen that makes excellent boxed meals and they say in bold green print with the ingredients if they're vegan. The Thai peanut is my personal fav because it's not spicy. A good recipe for cake is to just find a vegan cake mix (usually the cheap brands are) and use soymilk and applesauce in place of milk and eggs. If it calls for margarine or butter, you can use olive oil in place of that. I made one of these for some friends and they didn't even know the difference.
Here are some lists of things that are vegan: http://www.peta2.com/stuff/s-recipe.asp... but you might want to double check the ingredients because I've heard there are some mistakes on those lists, but it's a good place to start.
Vitamin B12 is naturally found in foods that come from animals, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. Fortified breakfast cereals are a particularly valuable source of vitamin B12 for vegetarians/vegans. Find a good supplement.
If you ask me, Soy Dream is by far the best soymilk--though Tofutti is the best when it comes to fake ice creams. Soy Dream is rich and creamy; Rice Dream and Silk are too watery.
If you want to go vegan, congratulations! I am vegan as well--I ate an egg a few weeks ago but that was not under my own free will, my dad would not bring me to school if I didn't eat at least half of the white. Did you know that every few minutes, thousands of animals--mainly chickens--are slaughtered?
As for the substitutes....
1.) For milk, use Soy Dream as a replacement. If you ask me it is the richest, creamiest, most premium milk substitute you can buy.
2.) For fake ice creams, try Tofutti cuties--just the vanilla type, please, I hate the other types. The chocolate is worst. Tofutti cuties are tiny ice cream sandwiches. For the type you scoop from the box, try So Delicious; it's sort of watery, though, and I don't like it very much.
4.) Butter--there are a ton of vegan margarines on the market, especially in health food stores.
3.) For eggs...I really don't know a really good replacement for this, though PETA recommends tofu. If you ask me tofu tastes nothing like eggs. At first I almost died from lack of eating eggs--my tastebuds almost died, I mean--but I got used to it and now am revolted at the thought of eating one. I almost threw up when my dad told me to eat one. You just have to get used to living without this one.
4.) Meat. Ah, meat. This is what most people don't want to give up. I admit, all meat fakes I've tried taste very little like the original, but as with eggs, your body will adjust quickly without it.
5.) What about B12, you might say? They have these vegan supplement B12 pills now and they work. I take these daily.
Hope this helps! :)
You may want to reconsider since osteoporosis is a seriously debilitating problem
And going vegan means you will have to forgo most clothing too. Especially shoes which are glued together with industrial glue made from horses.
If you drive a car you will need to get an electric one, set up a windmill to power it, move out of your house because the wood in it is made from the trees an animal once lived in.
The point I am making is that you can never truly be free from animals used/ abused in some way. Forget coffee.
Now should be KNOW
Cant shoud be CAN'T
Tast should be TASTE
Vetamens should be VITAMINS
Wont should be WANT
And I am not being mean. But the veggies are picky people. And most appear to be reasonably intelligent if not a bit more so than the average person. Take Care.
And remember "Spell Check" is your friend!
ok, here goes:
* be prepared to meticulously read the list of ingredients of every single item you buy (or whatever the item is made out of, in the case of clothing), and ensure that the items you buy have no animal products. Thankfully (esp. in health food stores) a number of packaged and bottled items are labelled vegan, so that should save you some time
* instead of honey (or even refined sugar) try other sweeteners such as agave syrup or brown rice syrup
* you'll learn to love your cooking
* its probably hard to be vegan if you're not too fond of soy (or soy products such as tofu)
* contrary to popular belief, vegans do NOT only eat salad and fruit...whole selection of stuff to choose from, esp. now that just about every dairy product has a vegan version. you can have soy/rice/almond milk, soy/rice ice cream, even soy yogurt. along with the usual rice, veggies, fruits, nut butters, salsa, guacamole, plain tortilla chips, juices.
For protein you can also have the Clif Builder Bars, those tend to be vegan
* you can always take vitamin supplements or incorporate protein powder into your diet.
* don't stress about a vegan diet, just try to take it gradually and ease into it.
* I can't tell you which brand of soy milk tastes better because this might be different for you. I personally really like Silk Soymilk and Blue Diamond Almond Milk best, esp. the chocolate ones. mmmmm
* Only major drawback I see to being vegan (apart from the fact that you'll have to be lucky to be able to find vegan stuff for everything in your area) is eating out and being social while not making food situations awkward. Nobody will probably notice if you don't eat cake at someone's birthday party, but if your friends work hard to bake you a cake for your birthday (and didn't know/forgot you were vegan) you'll find it very hard to politely refuse to eat a bite of it, even if you're vegan, because they cared for you so much to put all that effort to bake that cake for you. It seems much harder to explain the reasoning behind not eating ice cream, drinking milk, or avoiding animal products in general, vs. simply avoiding meat and meat by-products.
* But I personally think veganism is the healthiest diet around, so I say go for it as best as you can. No pressure.
Sorry to say, but you can't get all your answers here. You're going to have to do a little research. I know it sounds a little archaic, but go to the library, and get a book. You might even want to take a few notes while reading, such as which foods give you which nutrients/vitamins and minerals. Some books will even have a few suggested menus to get you started. Also, check into what philosophies are driving your desire to become vegan. If it is purely for healthy living beliefs, You need to know what foods you NEED, so, once you find a book you like, buy it for reference purposes. If it is for ethical /moral issues, such as, you don't believe its right to kill animals, consider your clothing as well. Leather shoes, belts, and purses can't be shorn off a cow, its death is required.
Everyone, vegan or not, should take a good vitamin supplement, like Nature's Plus or other health food store kind. Vegans need vitamin B and sometimes iron supplements. You can get some iron by cooking your food in cast iron pans.
Vegans generally don't use leather, honey, or any product which interferes with an animal's natural life. There are vegan organizations that have newsletters that offer advice and experienced viewpoints.
I like all the soy milk I've tried except Light'n'Fit (Aldi's) and edensoy. Don't forget to drink rice milk too!
As for recipes, I love hummus, it's a staple every day for me.
2 cans of chickpeas, undrained
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1-3 cloves garlic (depends on the size of the cloves and how hot you like it)
2 tbsp tahini (sesame butter) (optional, you can skip this but it's tasty and good for you)
Add all the ingredients except the chickpeas to a blender, and blend.
Add 1/2 the chickpeas and liquid, blend some more.
Add the remaining chickpeas and blend until smooth.
Scrape into a container and refrigerate.
Serve with corn chips, crackers or whole wheat pita bread and cucumbers for dipping, or use as a spread on sandwiches, or as a topping for rice and vegetables.
There are all sorts of Vegetarians. I am a "mild" vegetarian in that i don't eat meat or eggs, but i do occasionally eat cheese and milk products, as well as honey.
Above me is pure vegan, which eat no animal products at all. Above that is ethical vegan, which eat no animal products or anything that involved the utilization of animals (Blueberries, strawberries, etc). Above them are the "Nothing-tarians" like Budda who ate only one grain of rice in a year.
No matter how "vegan" you are you'll get someone speaking down at you so don't worry about it. My favorite is the chain smoking vegan telling me milk is bad for me :)
Vitamin D is essential if you don't drink milk, and a good idea if you do. b-12 is also a must-have. I take pretty much everything, i'm a vita-freak.
I drink rice milk. Silk soy milk tastes good. I like Tofurkey deli slices. Buy vitamins from the health food store and ask them to help you find ones suitable for vegans. It would help if you would take links because veganessentials.com has lots of information. I like Silk soy yogurt. Stonyfield farms O'soy yogurt is so sweet it is sickening. Make sure you get a calcium supplement with vitamin D, your body won't use calcium without the vit.D. Nasoya makes a tofu based creamy dill salad dressing that is nice for dipping carrot sticks and stuff in. It's not stinking with garlic like other dressings. You should probably invest in a couple of vegan cookbooks. In the Garden of Vegan and How it All Vegan are pretty basic. Eat your beans! Don't get hooked into eating just corn chips and juice. Pile a blob of fat free refried beans on them.