Anything you can eat, I can eat vegan
Every animal byproduct that is out on the shelf now has a vegan or plant based version of it in many grocery stores and supermarkets in your area at affordable prices. If you price the cost of meat and dairy products, then you will find that rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, and most fruits & vegetables are some of the cheapest foods on the planet costing no more than $1-2 per pound. Even costlier vegan alternatives like imitation meats and nondairy products can still cost less than those who base their diets on beef, chicken, and fish. Of course this depends on where you live, where you shop, and how creative you are willing to get in the kitchen. So if you are interested in going vegan, be sure to try out these vegan alternatives help you stay on the path of cruelty free eating.
COWS MILK
Cows milk is intended to help grow a baby calf which is why the majority of humans are lactose intolerant or experience negative symptoms from consuming dairy. Dairy free “milks” include…
Almond Milk
Soy Milk
Rice Milk
Brown Rice Milk
Oat Milk
Hemp Milk
Cashew Milk
Hazelnut Milk
Pea Milk
Coconut Milk
Quinoa Milk
Sunflower milk
Flax milk
Sesame milk
Macadamia milk
Amaranth milk
You can even make milk from cantaloupe seeds!
Please don’t swear off plant based milks until you try ALL of the brands out there. I was never a fan of soy or rice milk but coconut and almond milk blew my mind! It takes a couple of tries of different brands to find your favorite.
BURGERS
What is a burger anyway? Smashed up dead flesh in the form of a patty with added spices or seasonings made from plants. You can easily make delicious plant based burgers out of lentils, chickpeas, beans, mushrooms, soy, quinoa, amaranth, millet, brown rice, root vegetables, zucchini, and eggplant. To make your own veggie burgers, check out these 35 delicious vegan veggie burgers that you can easily make at home here. If you’re not into making your own, you could try out these pre-made vegan burgers that all have great reviews!
A vegan burger even benefits our environment in so many ways. The Beyond Burger uses 99% less water than real beef, 46% less energy, 93% less land, and emits 90% less gig emissions. Make the switch today!
SAUSAGES
A diet that’s high in processed meats like bacon and sausage are considered a class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization which increases your risk of dying from cancer or cardiovascular disease. There are plenty of alternatives on the market that do not cause serious health issues like cancer. Try these brands instead:
CHICKEN
Chickens are arguably the most abused animals on the planet despite them being highly inquisitive and intelligent. Chickens have their own social hierarchies, form friendships, and of course love and care for their young. In the US, we kill approximately 9 billion chickens each year, 305 million hens are used for their eggs, and 200 million male chicks are ground up alive or tossed in a bag and forced to suffocate shortly after birth in a process called chick culling because they are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce excessive flesh.
Even if you like the taste, this is still a practice that destroys a life, your health, and the entire planet. Poultry can have the same impact on cholesterol as red meat. The FDA has already admitted that over 70% of chicken meat is filled with arsenic, a highly poisonous chemical that is four times more toxic than mercury. It's no wonder why chicken contributes to bladder cancer.
The slaughter of birds is also horrifying. The U.S. Department of Agriculture exempts birds from its enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, which requires that farm animals be insensible to pain before they’re shackled and killed. Once at the slaughterhouse, the birds are hung upside down and their throats are cut open by machines. The chickens are then immersed in scalding-hot water for feather removal - and they are fully conscious throughout the entire process.
The poultry industry also has a devastating impact on the environment. Factory farming accounts for 99.9 percent of chickens raised for meat in the U.S. Even if the chickens have been raised on free-range and organic farms, chickens often spend just as much time confined to crowded spaces as those on conventional farms.
Alternatives to chicken include:
Vegetarian diet
Vegan diet
Whole food plant based diet
Raw food diet
ice cream
Since I have already discussed that cow’s milk is for baby calfs, basically all of the diary free “milk” alternatives (banana, coconut, soy, almond, etc.) that you can drink, can be turned into ice cream. Delicious vegan ice cream brands include:
Check out many more vegan ice creams on the market
Banana ice cream or “nice cream”
CHEESE
Cheese is essentially fermented bovine secretions from an impregnated cow. There is nothing “natural” about diary or cheese. The reason why so many people are addicted to it is because it contains 'casomorphins', an opiate which is in the same chemical class as heroin. Dr. Michael Klaper states, “the purpose of cow's milk is to turn a 65 pound calf into a 700 pound cow as rapidly as possible. Cow's milk IS baby calf growth fluid. No matter what you do to it."
Did you know that you can make cheese from nuts, starches, soy, flours and nutritional yeast? Below are some vegan cheese brands you need to try if you are having . Read Dr. Neal Barnard’s book, The Cheese Trap.
Below are dairy free companies if you have trouble cutting out of cheese:
You can also make your own homemade delicious vegan cheeses. If you are in the Los Angeles area, you can visit delicious dairy free cheese shops like Vromage and Nairy Dairy.
Here are 25 vegan cheese recipes that will make you want to quit dairy forever.
Cows milk is healthy for baby calfs, not humans.
🧀 High in fat, cholesterol, and sodium
🧀 Increases water retention and weight gain
🧀 Contains zero water or fiber
🧀 Mucous forming
🧀 Contains over 135 million pus cells
🧀 Dairy is linked to cancer, diabetes, autism, schizophrenia, auto immune disorders such as MS
🧀 Dairy contributes to the diabetes epidemic, which will soon affect one in three children.
🧀 Drains our economy, yet earns gov't subsidies
🧀 Its nutrients come from supplements, which we could easily consume without the added calories, cholesterol, and saturated fat.
🧀 Dairy farms contribute to the slaughter and death of over 245,000 cows per year
🧀 Dairy farms and factories account for huge amounts of CO2 emissions, land degredation, and both water consumption and water contamination.
YOGURT
You can make healthy vegan yogurt out of coconut, almond, cashew, flax, and soy by using vegan probiotic capsules. Below are companies that make dairy free yogurt.
Kite Hill
Forager
So Delicious
Daiya
Silk
Harmless Harvest
Nancys
meat
Meat is essentially the product of death so if you want to avoid harming others, here are options you can cook with to create a “meaty” texture.
Tofu
Tempeh
Seitan
Textured vegetable protein
Jackfruit
Mushrooms
Beans & lentils
Eggplant
Cauliflower
Companies that prepare meatless meats include…
Gardein also offers beefless crumbles, chick'n products, fishless products that many vegans love!
Beyond Meat
Tofurky
Field Roast
Yves Veggie Cuisine
Trader Joe's
Lightlife
DIPS
When I dip you dip we dip! These dip recipes all make creamy and delicious options for appetizers.
Hummus
Guacamole
Cashew cheese sauce
Vegan ranch dip
Vegan artichoke dip
CREAM CHEESE/SOUR CREAm
If you can make dairy free milks, yogurts, and cheeses, then there are plenty of delicious dairy free cream cheeses. Below are some companies who make dairy free cream cheese that you can spread on a bagel.
BUTTER
Butter is created by the churning process that separates the butterfat (solids) from the buttermilk (the liquid). The butter is most often made from cow's milk, although it can be made cruelty free by using plant fats.
I Can’t Believe its not Butter is vegan but take a look at the genetically modified ingredients and natural flavors. Trust me, you don’t want this in your body, not even a little bit.
EGGS
The American Egg Board, a promotional marketing board appointed by the U.S. government, cannot legally claim eggs are nutritious, low fat, part of a balanced diet, low calorie, healthful, healthy, good for you, or even safe. Even the USDA admits that eggs are problematic. The Harvard Physicians Health study, which followed 20,000 doctors for over twenty years found that those doctors consuming at least one egg a day had a significantly higher mortality risk. This study published in the Journal of Atherosclerosis Research that found regular egg consumption to be as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. The human body has no need for dietary cholesterol since it makes cholesterol on its own. We typical see high cholesterol negatively impacting ones health, rarely do we ever see a cholesterol deficiency. Watch this eye opening video about eggs to learn more.
Not only are eggs unhealthy but by consuming eggs, we prevent a life from being born. Egg production uses female chicks only so they grind up millions of baby male chicks alive each week by a cruel process called chick culling. The process of making and passing an egg requires so much energy and labor that in nature, wild hens lay only 10 to 15 eggs per year, yet farmers manipulate the hens’ egg-laying cycles to make them produce more eggs than they normally would, up to 300. How ironic that eating an unborn life cycle of a chick also impacts human healthy negatively?
To substitute an egg in baking, use applesauce, pureed soft tofu, egg replacer, a flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax seeds plus 3 tablespoons water or other liquid, blended), or mashed a banana. For scrambled eggs you can use the Vegan Egg or organic tofu blocks. Here is a great recipe for scrambled eggs using tofu.
Ener-G Egg Replacer
Aquafaba
Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer
The Neat Egg
Applesauce
Flaxseed
Chia seed
Banana
Tofu
MAYONNAISE/sour cream
www.chowhound.com
Mayonnaise is a thick, creamy sauce or dressing that is made of oil, egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar, and seasonings. Mayonnaise is made by combining lemon juice or vinegar with egg yolks but it can be easily veganized by using plant foods. It turns out that the list of ingredients in vegan mayonnaise is very similar to that on a jar of traditional mayo, and it includes oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. The big difference between vegan mayonnaise and traditional mayo really comes down to the egg substitute.
Smashed avocado
Cashew sour cream
honey
A bee is an insect and an insect is an animal. Water, pollen, nectar, and honey are a bee’s main source of energy and provides essential nutrients during the winter months so they can survive, reproduce, and build their homes out of nests inside tree cavities and under edges of objects to hide from predators. There are thousands of species of bees that pollinate many different plants but there are only seven recognized species of honey bee who pollinate specific crops. 85% of plants exist because of bees and around 400 different types of plants need bees and other insects to pollinate them to increase their yields and quality.
“One bee produces 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey during its entire lifetime.”
Honey bees fly from their hive to collect pollen or propolis which is a resinous mixture collected from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the hives and nectar which is then used to make honey. Honey bees need to visit up to 1,500 flowers in order to collect enough nectar to fill up its honey stomach. Bees have two stomachs; one stomach for eating and the other stomach to store nectar collected from flowers or water so that they can carry it back to their hive. After returning to the hive, they regurgitate and pass the nectar back and forth many times to other bees who complete the process by chewing it up then storing in the honeycomb for safe keeping. While bees make excess amounts of honey, they store it for the winter months as a safety precaution just in case they’re unable to produce enough to feed the entire colony. The hive works together to provide each member with an adequate supply with each bee producing just a 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. A group of 12 bees will produce only one teaspoon of honey between them their entire lives. Even though honey has “nutrients”, it is not intended for any other species besides bees.
“Unlike bees, humans can survive and live healthfully without including honey in their diets.”
If you want to be sweeten your food or drink, there are plenty of sweet alternatives to honey such as:
Fruit and fruit juice
Dates and date paste
Coconut nectar
Agave nectar
Maple syrup
Rice syrup
Molasses
Brown sugar
Soy or candulla wax (for candles)
CHOCOLATE
ChocolateCoveredKatie.com
Chocolate is the dessert of the Gods. The cacao (chocolate) tree, or Theobroma cacao (meaning food of the gods) is native to Central America and northern South America and is a member of the mallow family. Chocolate has been consumed for centuries. We have modernized chocolate by adding milk is added to it, it’s unnecessary and you can’t even taste the difference. Check out the delicious vegan choclate options below.
MAKE THE SWITCH
Keep in mind that most of these foods are processed and are not considered “health foods” but you can use these foods to transition off of meat, dairy, eggs, and honey for as long as you need them. The majority of them are healthier than cancer causing alternatives. Remember, veganism is not about perfection, it’s about doing your very best to contribute to the least amount of animal suffering in the world. Make the first step and choose these alternatives before going back. The animals that we don’t breed into this world will certainly thank you.
