Veganism FAQ - All your most urgent questions answered
What do vegans eat?
We eat pretty much everything that everyone else eats, but with plant ingredients. So … pizza, burgers, pasta, cupcakes, stir fries, cheesecake, burritos, sushi, pies, sandwiches, fish, tacos, cereal, cheese, quiches, milk, sour cream, Etc. We eat fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, wheat, and much much more. And we eat foods from every cultural tradition as well.
We don’t eat animals or animal products. So no meat from cows, pigs, chickens, lambs, turkeys, or animals from the sea, including fish. And we don’t eat dairy, eggs, or honey.
IS A VEGAN DIET HEALTHY?
“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”
Many chronic illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, some types of cancer, auto-immune disease, ear infections in children, and others, may be improved, reversed, or prevented on a whole-food plant-based diet. Vegan diets significantly decrease the saturated fat, cholesterol, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc, that are present in animal-based sources of protein.
Good question. The reality is, most doctors get very little education on nutrition, unless they seek it out outside of their medical training. Less than 24 hours are spent on nutrition in the years and years doctors are in training.
WHAT ABOUT KIDS AND PREGNANCY?
Best to find support and do a bit of extra research on the specific nutrient requirements if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or raising young infants and children as vegans since these are stages of life in which nutrition is very important, whether you’re vegan or not.
WHAT ABOUT ATHLETES?
Absolutely! Many top athletes who have been vegan since birth, including one of the youngest women to ever compete as an Alpine skier in the Olympics.
Many NFL Football players have gone vegan, and say it’s improved their game, energy, and recovery time.
One of the strongest men in the world, Patrick Baboumian, reminds us that some of the largest and strongest animals are plant-powered … think elephants, oxen, gorillas.
WHAT ABOUT PROTEIN
Most plant foods contain protein, and, actually, many people eat much more protein than they need when consuming animal products.
These are some protein-rich plant foods: tofu, edamame & tempeh, all kinds of lentils, chickpeas, the hundreds of varieties of beans, nutritional yeast, spelt, teff, seeds such as hemp, chia, sunflower, etc, & seed butters, peas, wheat & seitan (made from wheat), nuts & nut butters and spirulina.
There’s also protein in sweet potatoes, quinoa & oats & wild rice, spinach, brussel sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, blackberries, bananas, nectarines.
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH SOY?
Absolutely! There are some people with sensitivities who shouldn’t, and we recommend organic tofu and soy whenever possible, for you and the planet, but it’s actually very healthy for you. The people in countries where soy has been a staple over animal products are a lot healthier
Actually, about 80% of the soy grown on the planet is fed to farmed animals … So if you want to reduce your soy footprint, eat soy directly.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization calls beans and other legumes “climate smart,” and the “key to global food security.” Soybeans are a legume … one of the most versatile.
- Beans and legumes are highly nutritious.
- Beans and legumes are nitrogen-fixing (good for the soil), carbon-sequestering (they take carbon out of the atmosphere), adaptive, and drought-resilient.
- Beans and legumes require less water than other proteins.
- Soybeans in particular produce at least twice as much protein per acre than any other major vegetable or grain crop.
But there’s a but … soy is only sustainable if it’s being directly consumed by humans … not farmed animals.
What about B12, CALCIUM, OMEGA 3, IRON?
Yes, it’s generally recommended that vegans supplement with vitamin B12. Our ancestors got B12 from the soil, but soil is not as rich in it as it once was, and we modern humans wash the soil from our fruits and vegetables. Also, you should know that many farmed animals are given B12 and other supplements. So supplements don’t make veganism unnatural … vegans just take them directly!
Nope. Great plant-based sources of calcium are green leafy vegetables (like kale and collard greens especially), beans, broccoli, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, calcium fortified plant-based milk, dried figs and other dried fruit, tahini, calcium fortified orange juice and many more.
And there’s mounting evidence that animal milks don’t help with healthy bones at all.
Yes, you can! Great plant-based sources of omega 3s are: ground flaxseeds or chia seeds, sea vegetables, walnuts, flaxseed oil and more!
Many of the plant foods that provide protein, like legumes and nuts, are also great sources of iron. Also, leafy greens, and numerous other fruits and vegetables. Check out this nutritionist’s suggestions.
Let's talk money
No. In fact, eating a plant-based diet can be the cheapest diet, depending where you live in the world, and what kinds of things you buy. It’s cheapest to buy whole foods like grains and beans and vegetables, rather than packaged foods, and to prepare foods yourself. You can even make your own cheeses and plant meats! However, we also recognize that accessibility to healthy foods and fresh produce can be a significant barrier to some marginalized populations individually and globally.
Unfortunately, meat and dairy and eggs are subsidized by our federal and provincial governments, masking the real costs of them financially, while also contributing to the destruction of our planet.
Many have recommended ending subsidies to animal products; subsidizing fruits and vegetables; and even taxing meat and animal products to incentive more planet-friendly diets. At the very least, our governments could turn the billions of dollars in subsidy money given to farmers and slaughterhouses to money for transitioning to plant-based meats and dairy. *** See our subsidies section for more information.