How to go vegan

From realhomes.com

There’s growing interest in going vegan. The number of people following a vegan diet in Great Britain quadrupled between 2014 and 2019, according to Ipsos Mori surveys commissioned by The Vegan Society, and The Food & You surveys by the Food Standards Agency and the National Centre for Social Science Research.

Going vegan is an accelerating trend, too. Nearly half of UK vegans (42%) had made the change in the past 12 months, a 2018 study by GlobalData revealed.

But whether your motivation is animal welfare, environmental, health driven, dietary, or a combination of these and other factors, what do you need to know to become vegan, and what’s the easiest way to go about it? We have the answers.

What is a vegan diet?

A vegan diet is plant based. So, that’s yes to eating beans, pulses, nuts, grains, seeds, vegetables and fruit. Out are meat, fish, shellfish, insects (no, us neither, but they have been proposed as a way to satisfy the needs of a growing world population).
Other foodstuffs on the list to avoid for vegans are dairy products like milk and cheese, eggs, and also honey.

Should I go vegan straightaway?

You can swap to a vegan diet between one day and another if you get your kitchen organised. However, it can be easier to make the change more gradually, giving you time to try out ingredients and recipes and find new favourites.

What can I use in place of animal products?

Many of the foods we eat every day aren’t plant based, and unless you are going to radically alter your diet so you don’t add anything to tea, put a spread on your bread and so on, you’ll need to plan in swaps for these.

There are vegan alternatives for milk, butter, and cheese with plant ‘milks’, non-dairy spreads and vegan cheese now widely available. It may take a bit of experimentation to find out which soya or nut milks are your preference. Likewise, finding cheese substitutes that please your palate, and work for sandwiches, as a garnish, and for cooking could involve some trial and error.

Eggs might seem challenging to replace. For recipes, aquafaba – the water in which legumes like chickpeas have been cooked – can replace egg whites so you can whip up a meringue or mousse. For baking, some supermarkets plus Amazon offer Orgran No Egg or Free & Easy Egg Replacer.

Meanwhile, if the idea of giving up scrambled eggs and omelettes is getting you down, you can check out Follow Your Heart VeganEgg from Amazon and other stores. It can be used in baking, too.
If you still like the idea of the flavour and texture of meat, there are plenty of substitutes in high street supermarkets that seek to taste like the real thing. Want an authentic appearance? The Beyond Burger at Tesco even ‘bleeds’ – although it’s actually beetroot juice that creates the effect.

What about protein, and calcium?

One of the biggest concerns for many people contemplating going vegan is whether their new diet will contain enough protein. Sources of plant-based protein include beans, chickpeas, lentils, quinoa, tofu, and nuts and seeds. A serving of protein in most meals is suggested.

A non-dairy diet doesn’t include calcium from this source, although you can still obtain it from dark, leafy greens, of course. Look out, though, for calcium-fortified vegan products such as soya milk, orange juice, and tofu to meet daily requirements.

You can find detailed nutritional advice from dieticians plus books via The Vegan Society.

Is shopping at the supermarket easy for vegans

Being vegan used to mean scrutinising food labels for animal-based ingredients even when a product appeared to be free of them, but times have changed. Prompted by the growth of interest in veganism as well as the demand for plant-based meals from non-vegans who want to reduce meat consumption, the supermarkets have launched plentiful plant-based ranges including both individual products like vegan pies, sausages, burgers, mince and so on, as well as ready meals.

The ranges offer an amazing choice and make life easy when you’re busy, but do be aware that prepared vegan food could still result in the consumption of more salt, sugar and fat than is healthy. The lesson? You do need to check the labels to be health aware.

Where can I find vegan recipes?

If you want to cook from scratch some or all of the time, there are plenty of great resources online – including our recipe pages and there are over 50 pages of vegan recipe books from the UK alone on Amazon.
If you don’t already have a slow cooker, think about investing in one of these as an easy way to produce tasty vegan meals.

Is being vegan just about food?

Although diet is a major part of veganism, embracing it fully also means avoiding materials derived from animals – leather, for example – products tested on animals, and also places that use animals for entertainment, think horse racing, or zoos, for example.

https://www.realhomes.com/news/how-to-go-vegan

Vegan myths: the most common misconceptions about the diet

From her.ie/food

Busted.

These days, there's a lot of vegans out there.
And for every vegan, there's a vegan myth.

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For years, there has been an abundance of misconceptions about the diet.
Everything from 'you'll be malnourished' to 'vegans will always tell you when they're a vegan' has been spouted from the mouths of those who enjoy basking in miseducation, or those who are simply naive.

So, as Oprah once posited: what is the truth?

Are all vegans really missing out on nutrients? Are supplements enough? Is being vegan simply too difficult and nobody should bother?

According to vegans - and non-vegans alike - the most common misconception is that somebody following a vegan diet simply cannot access all the vitamins and nutrients that we need to survive.
And although we absolutely don't need a professional to tell us this - just look at all of the entirely healthy vegans there are around us - we found one anyway.

Dietician Maeve Hanan from Orla Walsh Nutrition says that although documentaries like Netflix's Game Changers make it look like everybody needs an entire team around them to be a healthy fit vegan, it's really all about making sure that you've got balance in your diet.

"What you need is a good variety of plant based foods, especially lots of different types of plant based proteins so you’re getting all of the essential ammonia acids that your body needs," she says.

“Another really important thing is the supplements. Anybody living in Ireland should be considering taking vitamin D around this time of year anyway - we just don’t get the sunshine here - so we should be taking about 10 mcg.

"Women of childbearing age should also be considering 400 mcg of folic acid supplement. Again, that’s whether you’re vegan or not. The most important ones to supplement for vegans are vitamin B12, iodine, and omega 3."

Bronwyn Slater, founder of information website The Irish Vegan, says that she finds much of the confusion around nutrients in a vegan diet comes from the assumption that vegans are missing out on all of the good stuff that meat-eaters aren't.

However, a lot of the time, this simply is not the case.

"In fact, a lot of meat eaters also need to take a B12 supplement because they don't get enough from their diet," she says.

"For meat eaters, B12 comes from animals who ingest the B12 directly from the soil. Because we wash all our vegetables nowadays we remove any soil that might contain B12, hence the need for supplementation.
Another myth about veganism is that anyone who follows the diet struggles to get enough protein when, in actual fact, most people in Ireland are already getting more than enough of the stuff.
"All plants contain some protein," says Bronwyn. "Foods that are high in protein include tofu (made from soya beans), seitan (made from wheat gluten), lentils, chickpeas, beans, soya milk, nuts, and many more."

But it's not just the science that people are misled on. There also seems to be a lot of confusion around the use of the words: 'plant based' and 'vegan.'
While the word 'vegan' means a diet that avoids the use of any animal products, 'plant based' (although sometimes used as a synonym), actually means something else entirely.

Dietician Maeve says that despite what a lot of people think, there is actually "no single definition of what a plant based diet is."

"It’s this really broad spectrum of anything from someone having a few meat-free meals during the week to someone who is completely vegan," she says.

"I think the flexitarian approach, where you have lots of plants in the diet, is a really healthy way of living where you don’t need to exclude food groups or put a strict label on it. That works for a lot of people."

And although the label might be strict, it's also incredibly common.

Walk into any supermarket in Ireland and you'll be sure to find a selection of products actively marked as vegan friendly. Following the diet is, contrary to what many people still believe, not half as difficult as it used to be.

Sam Pearson, owner of Vegan Sandwich Co, can attest to that. Having been a vegan for three years - and a chef of vegan food for almost as long - he knows first hand the incredible increase of varied vegan options over the past few years.

"You can walk into any restaurant and any shop and find a vegan option," he says.

"What I’m doing and what other vegan businesses are doing is trying to make these options as delicious as their meat and dairy counterparts."

And what about the ahem, joke that 'vegans will always tell you when they're vegan'? Sam says that at his stall, it's actually the opposite.

"You’ll know a meat eater at the stall because they’ll tell you," he says. "They’re like: I’m not vegan, just so you know… but this food is nice."

https://www.her.ie/food/veganism-common-misconception-downright-myths-diet-492646