How to Live a Happy & Healthy Vegan Diet

How to Live a Healthy Happy Vegan Diet - and never go back.

Updated with new Info, Foods, Receipes on Jan 20th 2006...

3 Good Receipe Sites:

http://www.integrativenutrition.com/recipes.asp

http://www.choosevegetarian.com/recipes_overview.asp

http://www.peta2.com/STUFF/s-recipe.asp

Anyone seriously considering going vegetarian or vegan should read Vegan Outreach's Guide to Cruelty Free Eating - Many people try veganism will wind up eating white rice, white pasta, white flour bread, mostly non-organic foods, overly processed junk food with lots of salt. Many after years don't stick with it because they don't read up on it first and they fuck up and don't do it right. If you really care about stopping the cruelty on factory farms and making such a big change in your life - you owe it to yourself to spend a an hour or two reading this and other health issues with veganism. It is possible and easy to live a healthy vegan lifestyle - you just need to invest a little time at first. Go to a large health food store like Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or Wild By Nature (NOT Trader Joes - they have a shitty produce section and vegans should be eating lots of produce and less packaged foods! duh!). Cold drinks are not too good for you - they shock the body. Warm drinks are good for you - especially (organic) herbal teas... Avoid soda, diet drinks, coffee or excessive amounts of alcohol...and especially not two or more of those. They will deplete your immune system and make nutrients like calcium and magnesium less absorbable. Try to drink as clean water as possible. Penta brand water (found in health food store) is the cleanest water i've ever tasted in my life. Try it you'll see what I mean. Heating water doesn't get rid of the contaminants. Look into getting a shower filter. Showering with toxic water is like drinking 8 glasses of toxic water. The hot temperature in the shower opens your pores on your skin and you absorb all the water w/ chemicals in it. And I wondered all these years why my skin (especially on my face) feels dry when I get out of the shower and I have to put on moisturizer (non-animal tested but still)? Don't cook oils at high temperatures becasue it denatures the DNA and makes it toxic to your body (except macadamia oil - then it doesnt matter). Avoid the word "hydrogenated [oil]" very very bad for you. Look it up. Check out www.mercola.com and subscribe to the list. I don't agree with the guys arguments that meat is OK to eat....but at least he recommends organic and also is against any pharmacutical. And he's got a lot of good other health points.

Some people wonder what I eat. There are 150 different types of fruits and vegetables! Go to a supermarket and explore the produce section! Buy Organic whenever possible because you can taste the difference and there is five times more nutrition than conventional pesticide-sprayed produce.

General Healthy eating tips i've picked up.: Don't eat fruits AND vegetables at the same meal! Many times they interfere with each other and you won't get the full benefits from each. Don't drink fruit juices! They are all pasturized, and have little to no nutritional value anyway - and they cause indigestion. Use a juicer or blender instead. First thing to do in the morning - make a fruit shake with mangos, pinneaples, raspberries (organic whenever possible) and water. Don't drink a lot of liquids while your eating a meal. You don't want to dillute the hydorcloric acid that breaks down your food properly now do you? That would not allow for optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients. Don't take vitamins! You need vitmains and minerals - but in the proportion given to us by mother nature. Not synthetically mass produced in a lab. Eat at least SOME organic, especially on the produce with the thinest skin or no skin like apples, pears, spinach, brocolli, where pesticides seeps in and kill the nutritional value of the food - and also you eat the chemicals and can get cancer eventually. Even still for optimum health even with all organic you might want to take a WHOLE FOOD* multivitamin. Look for the those words. Whole food means they extract concentrates from the food, not re-create a substance in a lab. Don't drink soymilk its too processed use rice, almond, oat, or hazlenut milk instead!


-Breakfast-


-Vegan waffles (availabe at any supermarket - labelled as 'eggless' and 'wheat-free' one brand is "Vans") w/ maple syrup, earth balance (or soy garden - again, any supermarket carries this "vegan butter"), strawberries, orange juice or chocolate soymilk or almond milk, etc.
-(Whole wheat) Bagel w/ earth balance and/or 100% fruit - jelly. With an organic apple with almond butter spread on each slice, and an orange.
-Cold cereal (i stay away from major brands that load products with sugar) w/ rice, almond, or oat milk. 90 percent of commerical cereals are vegan, however most are loaded with sugar, which is vegan for the most part, but refined sugar is basically a drug and is bad for you. Any cereal in the natural food isle such as 'Back to Nature' or 'Nature's Path' or 'Trader Joe's' brand is good or any a Whole Foods Market...
-Vegan french toast (for receipe get a vegan starter pack from Action for Animals - http://www.afa-online.org/)
-Vegan pancakes (use egg replacer in substitite. Be sure to add many fruits like strawberries, blueberries, and banannas. 100% maple syrup if possible, no sugar or chemicals. Use earth balance or soy garden for healthy alternative to butter. Don't drink too music or any orange juice it causes indigestion.
-Ricemilk/Almond Milk, banana, Green Edge powder (incl. cloraphyl, digestive enzymes, nutrients, phytonutrients, green foods, and other good health stuff) (p.s. don't drink soymilk its too processed. the only soy you eat should be organic whenever possible...edemamae, soybeans, tempeh (fermented soy), and tofu. and not 25 grams a day like the FDA says.
-Hot oatmeal (try the organic brands instead of the sugar-filled quackhead oats brand....put crushed up walnuts and some almonds in it...and flaxseed
-Plain and very cheap - Pathmark brand "Oats" in a round container - add hot water - add almonds, raisins, cinammon, flaxseed (for omega fatty acids that you won't get from fish if your vegan) (the fatty-acids necessary for proper health in GROUND* flaxseed is a lot more absorbable - a bag of a years worth is two or three dollars in a healthfood store)

-Lunch-


-Vegan burrito (amy's brand, trader joe's, whole foods, etc) or make with Vegan ground beef, onions and/or green chile, chile powder, various beans and rice (optional) Ezekiel 4:9 tortillas
-Vegan soup (amy's minestrone or amy's no chicken noodle soup)
-Thai soup packets (like "ramen noodles" only a lot healthier)
-Sandwich w/ vegan deli slices (ham, turkey, salami, etc.) w/ kettle salt and pepper chips
-Grilled vegan cheese (tofutti or vegan singles) w/ smart bacon or another vegan bacon
-Peanut butter (or pumpkin butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc.) and fruit jelly on whole wheat bread
-Pizza w/ soy cheese
-Deli: Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber, Onion, Carrot Sandwich on toasted whole wheat...fruit salad and/or soy crisps on side
-Lunberg brands (just add water) rice sensations (flavors: a) thai coconut ginger, b) tomato, garlic and onion, c) giner miso, etc.)
-Simply Asia "sesame teriyaki noodle bowl" (or another flavor) ready to eat in 2 minutes
-Fantastic Always Natural Big Soup Noodle Bowl (spicy thai or another flavor)
-Health Valley low-fat vegetarian black bean soup (just add hot water)
-Pete's tofu2go ready-to-eat tofu snacks Sesame Giner or Mango Sesame (you dip it in flavored ginger soy sauce
-Chinese food (tofu and brocolli, veggi lo mein, buddhist delight, veggi soup, etc.)
-California Rolls (avocado rolls mmm taste so good, and fight prostate cancer)

-Dinner-

-Spagetti w/ sauce - in the sauce I like to put tofurky sausages, with garlic bread
-Trader Joe's corn and bean enchilada or one of the dozens of different brands that make vegan veggi burgers on a bun, maybe with smart bacon and some veggies
-Vegan tacos (use meat alternative for the beef - in frozen food or natural foods section of any major supermarket) sometimes w/ vegetarian refried beans
-Salad w/ vegan dressing (natural foods section) w/ tofu, sunflower seeds, pinenuts, pumpkin seeds, kidney beans, carrots
-Pitas and some bean dip stuff or hummus w/ sprouts
-Vegan Chili
-Fried kale and spinach, w/ tempeh and asian sauce
-Steamed vegetables over rice
-Stuffed peppers (cook rice meat alternative crumbles in pepper, add tomato sauce)
-Get a can of white pinto beans, wash the suds off. Put a few tablespoons of coconut oil on the frying pan with one tablespoon of water and some salt (sea salt is healthier than table salt, look it up). Cook on low so it doesn't turn the oil rancid and carcinogenic! Put some spinach leaves or cut some kale off the stem and put it in. Put some garlic in with the beans. Sitr it up and when its the right temperature poor into a bowl and eat with a spoon not a fork! Sip the nice garlicy coconuty water! MMM... very good for fighting viral infections. (the healthiest kinds in order are macadamia oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil)
-Slice up some tomatoes with either kale (rich in calcium) and/or spinach leaves (rich in iron/calcium)...add whatever you want...got any leftover rice? Preferably brown rice cuz white rice isn't too nutritious. Add whatever you want. Lentils, chickpeas, beans, mushroom? Just make sure you cut up or sqush the tomato slices so the juices get out and absorb into everything - the rice especially. Yea, you might want to do this before putting the beans in.
-Make a soup of your own! Buy some organic beets, carrots, kale, and whatever else you find in that section of the supermarket that looks healthy! Trust me it'll taste good nice and hot in a soup. Pick up some vegetable broth and add a tad of salt and some dillweed or parsley.
-Tempeh (cold or fried) with any leaves (spinach? sprouts?), sliced tomato, on organic whole wheat bread and almond butter or plain hummus spread on one side of the bread. Make sure "Organic Whole Wheat" is the first ingredient otherwise its just filler bread that "includes" whole wheat.

-Snacks-


-Any vegan organic raw food bar
-Bananna with almond butter (and chocoalte syrup, walnuts?)
-Bananna with raspberry or blueberry jelly (100% fruit please!)
-Soy or rice ice cream "soy dream" is my favorite brand , but tofutti and soy delicious is availabe in major supermarkets as well
-Buy or bake some vegan cookies w/ a recipe found online, or buy them from a health food store, served with silk nog (vegan eggnog) or soy shake or chocolate hazelnut milk
-Fruit (apple, bannana,etc.) or veggies w/ peanut butter, pumpkin butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc.
-Radishes or carrots or celery dipped into hummus (mashed chickpeas and tahini w/ spices -found in any supermarket, but Cedars and Three Tribe Brand suck in my opinion. I like the hummus from Trader Joes or small health food stores
-Various nuts and seeds (Peanuts, Almonds, Cashews, Pecans, Walnuts, Pistachios, Brazilnuts, Hazelnuts, Macadamias, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, etc.)
-Chips and salsa or hummus!
-A slice of organic whole wheat bread w/ some Pumpkin Butter (or peanut butter, almond butter, etc.)
-Quesadilla w/ tofutti or vegan singles (soy cheese)
-Trader Joe's sell chips that taste just like Doritos. They are good without any dip and have no whey or cheese or MSG in 'em. (MSG causes MS (multiple sclerosis) and alzehimers, according to many studies.
-Roasted corn on a BBQ, dip in Earth Balance or Soy Garden (vegan healthy butters) if you choose... or shish kabobs (mushrooms, peppers, tomatos, potatoes, tofu on a stick - bbq it)
-Frozen chai soy latte (home-made) or a similar drink from Starbucks (no whipped cream)
-Fruit smoothie
-Wheatgrass shot