National week without meat
At a sunny Wednesday afternoon during the ‘National week without meat’, together with ‘Een vegan meisje’ (A vegan girl) we dwell on a vegan lifestyle. We talked about vegan food, nutrients in a vegan diet, inspiring food blogs and easy tips to start altering your food pattern. Curious for more? Read below!
How to start eating vegan
From one day to the next, Saonah (from Een Vegan Meisje) went from carnivore to vegan. Before she started with her new lifestyle, she watched some documentaries which immediately changed her mind about eating animal products.
For everyone who would like to start eating vegan, or people whom are interested in eating less meat and other animal products, Saonah cannot express enough how important it is to inform yourself about this diet by reading blogs, making meal plans and by finding good alternatives for certain nutrients.
Nutrients
A frequently asked question is how vegans replace missing nutrients which people (normally) retrieve from animal products. Often mentioned missing nutrients are for example vitamin B12, omega-3 and iron.
First of all, lactose makes part of many products you can buy in the store. However, there are a lot good replacements of lactose, by for example using coconut yogurt for breakfast, oat milk in your cappuccino or almond milk in your daily smoothie.
Eating a varied plant-based diet also ensures enough iron. Iron can be found in leafy green vegetables, such as spinach, but also in whole grains, lentils and peas. And on top of this, by combining these foods with vitamin C, the iron will be better absorbed by your body!
To fulfil the need of omega-3, which can be found in eggs and fish, you could eat a lot of healthy seeds such as flaxseeds, chia seeds and hempseeds.
We asked Saonah what ingredient people could use instead of eggs while baking something tasty, such as cake. Well, there are a couple of good alternatives, such as apple puree, peanut butter, chia seeds or banana!
Social situations
Sometimes, people adjust their diet to the lifestyle of their friends and relatives. It is the assumption of many that it can be hard in social situations where you are invited for dinner, to ask if they can cook vegan for you. According to ‘een vegan meisje’, people around her actually see it as a nice and fun challenge! Next to this, a lot people around her are already eating plant-based, which makes this a bit easier. However, people are excited to dive into recipes and cookbooks, to make cooking a bit more special and extra. So don’t be afraid to ask for it, inspire them, help them and make something fun out of it!
Inspiration
To make a vegan lifestyle even more fun, Saonah looks for inspiration on Instagram, online food blogs and even the Allerhande! (the magazine of Albert Heijn) Whenever she sees a nice recipe in this magazine, she tries to replace the animal- or dairy products, by plant-based ingredients. How smart!
Her favourite inspirators are; ‘wat eet je dan wel’, ‘de groene meisjes’, ‘veggiereporter’ and ‘elavegan’.
A daily food plan of Saonah
Breakfast
Green smoothiebowl, made of frozen banana, spinach, mango, avocado, dates and oat milk. Yummie!!
Snack
Oat cappuccino, together with a freshly baked pumpkin muffin.
Lunch
Two multigrain wraps with hummus, Mexican bean mix, cucumber, spinach and tomato.
Dinner
Vegan chicken nuggets, with homemade peanut sauce and a miso noodle soup with mushrooms, edame beans, carrot and broccoli.
We hope we’ve inspired you a little into the vegan lifestyle. Are you craving for some delicious vegan food right now? Come by East or GAPP and try one of our tasty vegan dishes!
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