Vegans please help me

[junkfoodheaven]

Today i watched eat yourself alive and ive been reading the china study.
Its an eye opener for sure.
I dont really eat meat anyway.
But i want to stop all dairy like milk as i have it in my tea is it soya milk you use for your tea?
Can i still have sugar in my tea?
I dont eat cheese or chocolate not done in years.
I do like bread what is vegan bread?
Whole foods is what i want but i only know the basics like fruit veg salads.
Im not doing it for weight loss although that is welcome im doing it for better health.
Did it improve your health?
Im all new to this and i want to get it right.

I find oat milk best, but just try them & see what you prefer
Of course you can have sugar but you might find some of the milks quite sweet anyway.
Any bread without many ingredients will be vegan (most bread is anyway) but check the labels for milk powder etc.
I'm not vegan but gave a vegan family member.

I'm only 3 months in and I love it. Apart from marrying and having kids it's hands down the best thing I have ever done. It makes me feel amazing and so healthy. I had a blood test and my iron is actually higher now I'm vegan and not just a vegetarian which really surprised me.

You can still have sugar in your tea.

For butter I buy flora plant butter.

I use oat milk, it's available in pretty much every supermarket.

Aldi sells grated vegan cheese and it is actually nice!

Aldi also do nice vegan yoghurt, it's soya.

You can buy vegan mince then stuff like shepherds pie, bolognese etc is still available to you.

In sainsburys they sell nutritional yeast flakes. I add a tablespoon to cooking when I can for extra vitamins.

Chickpeas, beans, avocado, nuts and lentils are your friend. Peanut butter another good one.

Pretty much all bread I've seen in supermarkets is vegan.

Amanda ducks on YouTube has lots of good recipes. NHS website has some good pointers too.

I'm still so new to it all and watching this thread with interest so I can learn!

Thank you for the response i did not think of peanut butter or yogurt .

Try the Deliciously Ella feel better app for recipes and her books generally - even get them from the library. You'll get loads of meal ideas from that, and mostly whole foods (and genuinely delicious).

Here are some pointers in terms of dairy, though if you mostly eat whole foods, you may find you can live without all this, or at least the majority of the time.

CHEESE
Forget trying to get the exact taste - it won't happen, so you just need to find an alternative that tastes acceptably different. If possible, cut cheese out altogether for a while before trying the vegan ones, so your brain has a chance to forget it a bit and you're not doing a like-for-like comparison!
Plant-based Cathedral City has still smells like vegan cheese when you open the packet but it tastes better than all the other mass-produced vegan cheeses. You can get it in Tesco, Sainsburys and some others I think. Ilchester vegan cheese block is widely available and although not as good as Cathedral City, mixed with some cream cheese and seasoning, it can make quite a nice macaroni cheese. A lot of people love the Applewood Smoked vegan cheese, but watch out, as it's sometimes next to the non-vegan Applewood cheese so it's easy to pick up the wrong one!
Otherwise, nut-based cheeses are best but you mainly need to order them online and they're very expensive, small batch affairs - good if you want a very realistic cheese board for a special meal or something but usually too expensive to be buying every week!
For cream cheese, plant based Philadelphia is a 90% replica of Philadelphia, I'd say. It's made with almond and oat milk, rather than coconut oil like the other ones are. Nush cream cheese is also delicious and you can get it in some Sainsbury's, Morrisons or Waitrose but it's not stocked in my local ones anymore.
Violife Le Rond camembert is supposed to be good, but I was never a camembert fan so I can't vouch for it myself!
Vegan Babybel is available in some bigger supermarkets, mainly Sainsbury's and I think Asda. I kind of like them - they're not really like Babybel but something closer to a solid Dairylea, but still just good for something different to throw in a picnic or my daughter's packed lunch.

MILK
For coffee and hot chocolate (and cereal if you like a more "whole milk" taste): Oatly Barista. It's a grey carton in the long-life section of pretty much any supermarket and Co-op. The one in the fridge tastes different. It's great if you use a milk frother for coffee - no other milk compares in my opinion. I now order it on subscription from Amazon.
For tea, I hear Alpro My Cuppa is very good (most people don't like oat milk in tea, though my husband doesn't mind it)! Soy milk is supposedly nice in tea, but I'm just not a tea drinker.

BUTTER
To replace butter, there are loads of spreads (most of the Floras, Pure, Vitalite, etc.) but I like a more buttery one and like it not to come in plastic, so I use either Flora Plant blocks (the salted one for toast and sandwiches and the unsalted for baking) or Naturli vegan block. Both are in the majority of supermarkets these days and they taste really nice!

YOGHURT
Alpro do some really lovely individual yoghurts now in various fruit flavours. There is loads of choice in terms of big yoghurt tubs but less in individual ones, though Morrisons do their own brand individual pots (I think I had mango), Tesco brought out individual fromage frais are lovely, and Petit Filous just launched dairy-free products, too.

SNACKS
Tesco do nice chocolate digestives - Tesco's own dark chocolate ones are about 60p and they don't taste properly dark and bitter - more like a cross between milk and plain chocolate. Oreos are dairy free, as are most own brand bourbon creams. Morrisons do some lovely Free From cookies. Rhythm 108 chocolate cookies are addictive. Tesco Wicked Kitchen (fresh) double chocolate cookies are good.
For chocolate, if you like dark chocolate there's more choice, but for milk chocolate you'll mainly need the Free From aisle. A brand called Buttermilk (ironically) does good dairy-free bars that are like Crunchies, some a bit like Mars bars (not a replica but that sort of nougat), and a peanut one (again not exactly a Snickers but still nice). If you really like Snickers, there's a brand called Jokerz that does a great replica but they're made in America so not cheap. I like Rhythm 108 chocolate bars (all flavours), Vego bars and Co-OP's own (Gro range) chocolate is hazelnutty chocolate (think Nutella) and amazing for only about £1 for a big bar! Co-op also have fantastic chocolate orange buttons,. Morrisons also do a a slightly darker orange chocolate bar in the Free From section that's nice. The dairy-free Dairy Milk and Lindt bars are ok but I got so excited thinking they'd be accurate replicas - they're not, but try them anyway, you might like them. NOMO is a good brand too - I like the fruit crunch one best and my husband loves the caramel (and he's not strictly dairy free but also eats pretty much everything I'm listing here). Love Raw are a great brand who do a wafer bar that's just like a Bueno! It's sold in some supermarkets plus Holland and Barrett.
Crisps often contain milk powder, so watch out - even ones you wouldn't expect. I like spicy ones and luckily Doritos Chilli Heatwave, Wotsits Flamin Hot and Niknaks nice n spicy are all ok!
There are a variety of nice chocolate spreads, but my favourite has to be Vego. It's in some supermarkets, Holland and Barrett, and I've seen it in quite a few independent food/refill shops so I think it's quite popular.
Soreen are all vegan, as are Deliciously Ella cereal bars, and Naked fruit and nut bars.

CREAM/CUSTARD
Both Alpro and Oatly make nice custard and cream. Heavenly Whipped by Food Heaven (black tin) is great for squirty cream! It's in most supermarkets too. I have it on hot chocolate.

DRINKS
For hot chocolate, always check the label but in general, most instant (add hot water) ones contain milk powder (except the specific vegan Galaxy one and vegan Options), and most that you add milk to are essentially cocoa powder and sugar so you can add whatever milk you like - Dairy Milk, Twinings, etc. - the choice is yours.
If you like a hot malted drink, Horlicks do a vegan one, though I wish Ovaltine would do a vegan one as I prefer that.
Rebel Kitchen sell small ("mylk") milkshakes - I tried a banana one, found in a Waitrose, and it was very nice! Alpro also do small cartons of strawberry soy milk. There are a few larger cartons of chocolate milk to buy as well. Chocomel is a good one.

ICE CREAM/ICE LOLLIES
Vegan Magnums are highly accurate and very nice. We also love Sainsbury's own Cloudy Apple ice lollies which are 100% apple juice, and I think the orange ones we get are Del Monte. Coconutters do great chocolatey coconut ice lollies, too.
There are so many ice creams to choose from now and I think it's a matter of which flavours you prefer. Vegan Ben and Jerry's have mostly been good, I think Oatly ice cream was pretty good. My husband liked the Co-op's own salted caramel one and the vanilla Swedish Glace (which is available in a lot of cafes and ice cream places these days).

CAKES AND DESSERTS
Own brand (e.g. Tesco) frozen apple strudel is usually dairy free. There are some great frozen Deliciously Ella desserts, too. Some own-brand jam/custard doughnuts (Morrison's I'm sure, and possibly others) are both dairy and egg-free.
The Coconut Collaborative little chocolate pots in the chilled section are very nice.
M&S did a great vegan cheesecake (it comes in a pack with two portions), not sure if they still do.
Just Love Food vegan chocolate cake is good as a birthday cake - family commented that they'd never have known it was vegan. It's definitely in Tesco and Sainsbury's - maybe other places, too.

EASY MEALS
Goodfellas vegan pizzas are nice - I like the spicy vegetable salsa one and chick'nless supreme. The Chicago Town stuffed vegan sticky barbecue jackfruit is one of my favourites, though. Kirsty's brand do a nice Mediterranean flatbread pizza and a frozen vegan lasagne. Cosmo's vegan vegetable pizza was quite good, as is the Dr Oetker Ristorante tomato and pesto one.
Dominos and Papa John's both do takeaway pizza with vegan cheese, and Subway has the option of vegan cheese. Pizza Express do amazing vegan pizzas!
I recently got Morrison's Plant Revolution creamy tomato and herb pasta sauce and can recommend it!
Tesco Plant Chef do some really, really nice tins of soup, and they're only about 45p or something like that. I always keep a stock of them for quick lunches and my whole family love all the flavours. DD asks for her "favourite soup" which is the Plant Chef red pepper and lentil one. I think she likes it more than my homemade soups!
Jus-Rol pastries are dairy free, or the ones I've bought from the range are. I sometimes get puff pastry, roll it out and throw toppings on to make a sort of vegetable tart for dinner. The croissants, pain au chocolat and cinnamon rolls are all safe, too, and quite fun to make with little ones.
Like the pastry, I sometimes also either buy or make a pizza base so you can make your own pizza with whatever toppings you like, either with vegan cheese or with loads of sauce and toppings but no cheese.
Oatly creme fraiche is nice with fajitas.
Sacla vegan pesto is nice (especially the tomato one).

RECIPES
For recipe substitutions, you can use whatever vegan butter/milk/cheese you've chosen. Make sure you use vegan stock cubes and gravy and things like that (widely available).

I'm not vegan, but some of our meals are. I make a kind of stew with chopped veg (onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, peppers) softened by cooking in some olive oil. Season well and add finely chopped tinned tomatoes. Season well. I add a spoonful of chilli jam too.

I cook batches of cannelini beans, butter beans, black beans and chick peas. I freeze in the small Ikea freezer bags. You can add those (I prefer white beans) to the stew. Or use a tin. I also add a handful of lentils. You can make enough to eat some and freeze the rest. I freeze some in pyrex dishes.

Defrosted, it can be topped with mash for a shepherdess pie or layered with lasagne sheets. Or you can serve with rice or garlic bread. It's also a great way of using up veg because your can add whatever you like even if you only have a little. It can also be the base for a chilli (black beans) or curry(chick peas).

I also use black beans and chick peas to make burgers - finely chopped onions, mushrooms and some breadcrumbs. I think you can use aqua fava to bind (I use egg).

You do realise that what you're watching isn't unbasied OP. Its' based around many americans eating really processed foods. A lot of vegan substitute food is full of chemical shite and not nutritious
For example this https://www.ocado.com/products/m-s-plant-kitchen-southern-fried-chicken-burgers-606421011 Basically a bit of pea and lots of white bread!

We are naturally omnivores which means we can eat and need to eat a range of plant and meat sources - hence our incisor teeth and our molars. Vegan diets do not provide enough of the essential nutrients women need - B12, but also it's really hard to get enough iron and calcium.

Eat a varied diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and little processed food. Eat meat a few times a week, but also have veggie days.

(and also watch less ticktoc)

The Forks over Knives website is a great resource to get you started. Their documentary is on there and they have some fantastic recipes. Success stories are very inspiring too. 💛

20 years meat free here. When will I get deficient in these things and die?

The Bosh recipe book has some delicious recipes.

I'm not keen on fake meat, and have found King oyster mushrooms are the best meat substitute texture-wise. I buy fried tofu from the Chinese supermarket and make a sweet and sour sauce to serve over it.

@underneaththeash my iron levels have increased significantly since moving to veganism. How is it 'really hard' to get enough iron as a vegan? That's a myth. A quick Google reveals the many iron sources. For me it is easy and I've never been healthier. What specific nutrients is it not possible for me to get from my diet? I don't understand. I get plenty of iron, calcium, B12 and everything I need.

Veganism is a valid choice and the op came on here asking for HOW to do it, not whether we think she should be / people telling her not to do it. I don't go on turkey cooking advice threads telling people not to eat it, why can't veganism be treated with the same respect.

@VeganNugsNotDrugs I haven't eaten meat since age 10 and am 34 now. Also waiting for all these deficiencies to kick in 😂 I ran 15 miles last week!

@endofanera23 that was so helpful, thank you.

You won't die, you just wont be as healthy as you would be if you ate a proper human diet.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10030528/

reduced bone health in vegans, due to calcium and vitamin

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7924854/

I have no issue with people not eating what they want, the issue I have is with the peddling it as healthy when it's not.

That is a cracking list above. Will be referring to that a bit for lactose intolerant granddaughter. Another one who hadn't eaten meat in ages, 35 years in fact, not deficient yet as far as I know.

I forgot iron - this is a good meta analysis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6367879/#:~:text=Data%20published%20by%20Wilson%20and,%3C12%20ng%2FmL).

Just stop shouting about it being healthy. vegan subs are really awful and people are eating them thinking they're healthy.

WE just need to be eating a balanced diet, with less processed food, less read meat (but some) and more fruit and veg.

Humans only get lots of B12 from animal products because the animals they eat are given B12 supplements.
just take a B12 supplement and cut out the middleman animal.

There's a world of difference between a healthy vegan diet and an unhealthy one. Just like there is with an omnivorous one. The key is a balanced diet, whether someone chooses to include meat or other animal products in that or not, is irrelevant.

I have been vegan for a couple of years now and my calcium/vit d/B12/ferritin/cholesterol etc. Is all far better than it ever was before (even in the 15+ years vegetarian prior). And I'm not even a particularly healthy vegan (as my username probably suggests!)

I'm not vegan but cater for vegans a lot. Alpro soya yoghurt is great and can be used for dips, raitas etc just like dairy.
Oat milk is the nicest cow's milk substitute.

Check you are getting enough protein and iron. Nut butter on wholemeal toast with a herbal iron supplement like Floradix or Feroglobin would be a good start.

Tip with tofu - roll cubes of it into well-seasoned cornflour and shallow fry until crisp on all sides. You can add garlic granules, dried herbs and spices or sesame seeds to the flour. Really good texture.

You can eat badly vegan or not.

But do be careful. I'm saying that as a vegan of 30 years. I can fall into bad habits like everyone else. So I would advise you to keep a food diary. You don't have to do it forever, but it might highlight strengths and weaknesses.

If you can eat nuts, just eat a few a day. If you like hummus eat that daily (sesame seeds, chickpeas). Try and eat your 5 a day veg. Get a good varied diet. A small teaspoon of sesame seeds will supply all your calcium needs and should be easier to digest than cow milk. Remember milk is for babies, it's not really an adult food. Apricots, chickpeas, molasses, green veg should provide iron. If you can't handle the bloat from beans and pulses, sprout them. You can also sprout almonds.

Eat yeast extract if you can it's a good shortcut to vitamins. Tahini is a good cheese substitute inasmuch as it has lots of fatty goodness.

What I would say is that it takes time to acclimatise to a different diet. So even if you don't go all in just try and introduce a dish or so a week. And/or veg dishes or veg sides.

Herbal teas and coffee don't need milk. I lived for years without fake milks or fake cheeses. And I don't really bother with any fake foods. Indian/Thai/Sri-Lankan/Mexican and many other cuisines are great, rich and varied. They can also be fast to cook at home. Probably cheaper too than ready made meals.

Just try and get into good habits. Because bad ones can be hard to shake!

I don't eat any thing with cheese in it or cheese it's self same goes for chocolate it's a trigger for a migraine.
I also don't have a sweet tooth only sugar in my tea.
But thank you all for the replies really helpful.
Lots to look at and research tomorrow.

Thank you for your reply but I don't watch tictoc I have no social media at all only MN I read books and watch TV. (I'm boring)
I'm just looking for advice no one as asked or told me to go vegan it's something I want to do.
Neither am I asking anyone else to go vegan.
It's my choice for my own reasons.

We are naturally omnivores....that old chestnut! 😂

Have a read.....Are Humans Herbivores or Omnivores? - Center for Nutrition Studies And no, I'm not vegetarian or vegan.

Op I’ll come back tomorrow and post but the real difficulty in becoming vegan is that it’s harder to avoid ultra processed foods which mess with our gut bacteria and cause inflammation and thus many other issues longterm.

for eg - look at the ingredient list of Oatly Barista 😳

Just to reiterate what I said above - the list I gave will provide substitutes for something you miss, but by no means does anyone actually need any of it if you go vegan.

For the most part, I use Oatly Barista in my coffee and Flora Plant on my toast, the rest is very occasional or for my DC with a dairy allergy who wants an equivalent of what others have an parties etc.

I make lasagne with lentils and vegetables (courgettes also work well in place of lasagne sheets), chilli with either green lentils or a mixture of soy mince and lentils, plus mushrooms usually, I've learned various seasonings for delicious roast veg that can be a meal on their own, I make curries with tofu and vegetables, I make dhal with red lentils and coconut milk, and sushi with cucumber/peppers/avocado. If you want to do it to be healthy, have a look on Facebook for whole foods plant based groups (sometimes called WFPB or WFPBNO (the NO meaning no oil). There will also be plenty of recipes and tips on YouTube. As for recipe books, I already mentioned Deliciously Ella (all of them) but the Green Roasting Tin is good too (one pot meals). Good luck!

You seem to ask some strange questions and are viewing veganism as a switch to 'alternative' foods that you wouldn't normally eat whereas, especially if you're wanting to eat a whole food diet, it's just most normal food, except meat, fish dairy and eggs. Eg, most bread is naturally vegan, so you don't need special bread, just look at the label. Look for proper sourdough, or make your own if you want your bread to be healthier.

Yes you can swap dairy milk for plant milk - there are many different kinds, you need to pick what you like as they all vary and some are pretty horrible in tea - or drink it without or have different kinds of tea, eg Earl Grey is better without milk, or fruit/green tea.

You can still have sugar in your tea, but it's obviously to be avoided if you're aiming to improve your health.

Obviously you need protein and here pulses and some grains like quinoa are your friend. Again, normal food that's naturally vegan.

But it doesn't have to be 'right' to be beneficial. A diet that is mostly plant based and unprocessed is probably healthiest. The 80/20 rule, that can be applied to many situations. It's what you do most of the time that matters, but it doesn't have to be 100% and minor deviations from the general aim are often inconsequential.