An introduction to a veg-lifestyle.

There are so many advantages to incorporating a veg-lifestyle:

  • It’s Good For The Environment: Staying away from all animal products is one of the most effective acts we can do to lower our carbon footprint!
  • It’s Good For Your Health: More and more people are now turning to a vegan-plate for health benefits. With loads of healthy proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and fiber — all with low saturated fat — we are finding common health issues like diabetes and obesity be reversed. Pair that with feeling a sense of rejuvenation and you’re set up with feeling amazing!
  • It’s Good For Animals: Seeing all animals as the same and preventing exploitation of any species has a special place in a veg-lifestyle.
  • It’s Good For The World’s People: By putting an emphasis on giving the food grown throughout the world to people, we help with world hunger.

A vegan plate is one of pure abundance: diversity in color, texture, and flavor. from pastas to cakes, learning how to prepare veg-meals is incredibly enriching and fun!

  • Fruits: apples, bananas, grapes, berries, melons, mangoes, pineapple, etc.
  • Vegetables: spinach, cucumbers, broccoli, kale, carrots, squash, bok choy, cabbage, zucchini, celery, corn, peas, onions, peppers, etc.
  • Legumes: black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, pinto beans, lentils, hummus, edamame
  • Nuts / Seeds: almonds, cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanut butter, almond butter, etc.
  • Carbohydrates: potatoes, quinoa, rice, oatmeal, polenta, bulgar, pastas, breads
  • Dairy Substitutes: almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, hemp milk, almond yogurt, vegan butter, vegan cheese, vegan ice cream, etc.
  • Meat Substitutes: tofu, seitan, tempeh, all legumes/beans, veggie burgers, veggie dogs, vegan roasts, etc.
  • Common Ingredients: tahini, nutritional yeast, tamari, apple cider vinegar, medjool dates, vegetable broth, brown rice syrup, herbs and spices

WHEN YOU GET INTRODUCED TO VEG-LIVING, YOU’LL HEAR A BUNCH OF FANCY NAMES THROWN AROUND ABOUT DIFFERENT KINDS OF VEGANS. TO US, IT’S CONFUSING AND OVERALL, NOT IMPORTANT (IN OUR OPINION). NONETHELESS, HERE’S AN OVERVIEW!

  • Strict Vegan: Does not consume meat, dairy, or any ingredients derived from animals. Also abstains from animal based products (leather).
  • Economic Vegetarian: Practicing vegetarianism from the philosophical viewpoint that the consumption of meat is economically unsound. A belief that nutrition can be acquired more efficiently through plants and that a vegetarian diet is rich in vitamins, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, and carrying fewer health risks (such as heart disease, obesity, and bacterial infection) than animal flesh.
  • Flexitarian: Flexible in one’s vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. A flexitarian might make only vegetarian dishes at home, but eat dishes including meat at the home of family or friends. Flexitarian’s are generally vegan or vegetarian for the ethical reason that vegetarian food conserves water and land resources.
  • Vegetarian: No meat. Will consume dairy and eggs.
  • Pescatarian: No meat. Will consume fish.
  • Lacto-Vegetarian: No meat, no fish. Will consume dairy: cheese, milk, yogurt, etc.
  • Lacto-ovo / Ovo-lacto Vegetarian: No meat, no fish. Will consume dairy and eggs.
  • Liquidarian: Consumes only liquids and juices. Usually a short-term cleansing diet, extremely rare as a long term diet.
  • Raw Foodist: Food, usually vegan, which is not heated above 115°F and has not been frozen. Food may be warmed slightly or raw, but never cooked. Raw Foodist’s argue that cooking destroys enzymes, and/or portions of each nutrient.
  • Sproutarian: Consumes predominantly sprouts. Those eating only sprouts are extremely rare; most sproutarians have a varied raw food diet.
  • Freegan: Subscribe to a purely environmental mentality: although meat is generally avoided, eating meat that has been discarded by others is acceptable. The environmental impact of this practice is seen as null or perhaps even beneficial. Freegans often prefer discarded food in any case, even if it is not meat. But producing meat is believed to have more environmental impact than other foods, so this is often the focus of freeganism. Freegans believe that wasting already-cooked food does more damage than eating it.
  • Fructarian (Fruitarian): Consume only fruit, nuts, seeds and other plants that can be gathered without harming the plant. This typically arises out of a holistic philosophy. Thus a fructarian will eat beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and the like, but will refuse to eat potatoes or spinach. Technically, fructarianism is a kind of vegetarianism, but its much stricter definition is very rarely seen as being the same thing as vegetarianism. It is also hotly disputed whether it is possible to avoid malnutrition with a fructarian diet. Fructarianism is much rarer than vegetarianism or veganism.