A vegan diet is a diet which completely excludes anything that comes from animals. A vegan, as much as possible, won’t eat meat, fish, dairy and eggs, as well as all derived animal products such as butter, bones, broth, fish oils, blood, vitamins, cortisone, pepsin, and tens of others, and won’t use leather, fur, horse hair, etc.

A vegan diet will only include plant products.

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouts, cereals, leaves, flowers, bark, roots, etc. It may look like no choice to you, but nothing is more far from reality. A balanced vegan diet will include much more variety than most other diets.

For example, let’s have a quick look on different sources of vegan proteins, an essential element that many believe to be hard to find in plant products. The average meat-based diet will get proteins from 5 to 10 different sources: beef, pork, chicken, sometimes deer, lamb, and a few other animals, different kinds of fishes, eggs, and dairy products, all coming from cows, and sometimes goats.  Unfortunately, many millions of people feed on those very few sources while most vegans will use a few hundred different plants in their diet…

Protein sources in a vegan diet:

Different green leafy vegetables: kale, swiss chard, dandelion, lettuce, spinach, arugula, bok choy, mustard greens, carrots, turnip greens, artichoke, cabbage, chard, endive, cress, fenugreek, parsley, cilantro, sage, yarrow, etc.
Different sprouts (all sprouts are an excellent source of proteins): alfalfa, adzuki, chick peas, mung, clover, arugula, broccoli, radish, fenugreek, peas, celery, cilantro, mustard, etc.
Different legumes: kidney beans, orange lentils, green lentils, brown lentils, chick peas, lima beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, split peas, soy, etc.
Different grains (complete grains): rice, chia, flax, millet, oatmeal, quinoa, rye, wheat, barley, buckwheat, etc.
Different vegetables: asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, green peas, zucchini, onion, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, mushroom, yam, etc.
Protein in fruits (in small quantities): Apple, banana, cantaloupe, grape, grapefruit, honeydew, orange, papaya, peach, pear, pineapple, strawberry, tangerine, watermelon, etc.
Different nuts and seeds: almonds, hemp seeds, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachio, peanuts, brazil nuts, pili nuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, and many more…

As you see, there are LOTS of protein sources in a vegan diet.

And this is just a short list. With the implantation of modern agriculture, and monoculture, with specialization, we have forgotten about biodiversity. Most people are used to eat roughly the same few things over and over. A healthy body needs diversity in order to make sure it gets all it needs… A healthy vegan diet gets its nutrients, enzymes, vitamins, salts, etc, from a lot of different sources; and this is a key to its high efficiency against all sorts of diseases.

Tagged with: healthy vegan • vegan • vegan diet • vegan meal

Filed under: Info • vegan diet

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!