HOW TO SWITCH TO PLANT-BASED EATING STEP-BY-STEP WITHOUT FEELING OVERWHELMED WHILE ENJOYING THE FOOD — PART 2
Healthier but how?
This is my 2nd part for people who want to switch to a plant-based eating. 1st one is here.
Now this second step is for the ones who want not just plant-based but also healthier.
The word “vegan” has become a trend recently. Almost every day, new “alternative lifestyle” products are becoming available.
But it is sad to see that some people buy on the idea that if something is plant-based, it is good. From the perspective of the environment and animal welfare, this is 100 % correct and great. It is much better than eating animal products.
But maybe you consider going one step further on your way to healthy eating. Here are some tips for you:
Milk replacement but without the sugar
Choose wisely. Many of the milk replacements have added sugar. However, there are still brands produced without sugar.
For the ones who are living in Europe or maybe Switzerland, my favorite ones:
https://www.alnatura.ch/de/produkte/alnatura-haferdrink-ungesuesst.html
Butter replacement: time to say goodbye
Well, before I was aware of the problems with oil, especially coconut oil, it was easy to find alternatives. The taste was good and breakfast was perfect with a toasted bread and butter replacement. After finding out the unwanted effects of coconut oil, sorry to say, but you can’t at the moment find a good replacement for butter.
On the other hand, it is so easy to make cream cheese with tofu or cashew nuts. You can also use nut butter as bread spreads, which are almost always delicious.
Again my favorite:
https://www.rapunzel.de/bio-produkt-mandelmus--130100.html
Yogurt
Please no sugar! No coconut oil.
Again, look for alternatives without any added sugar or oil. Mostly available as natural soy yogurt.
Cheese
Relatively easy. There are so many cheese alternatives. The difference here from what I wrote in the first article is that you should look for oil-free alternatives.
It is also quite easy to make some of them at home. As I mentioned before, tofu and cashew are quite easy to use as ingredients for plant-based cheese alternative. You just need a good mixer or kitchen machine.
Egg
In the first article, I mentioned the alternatives for cooking or baking. Here I want to mention the scrambled egg alternative:
Tofu and something called Kala Namak are the main ingredients in this recipe. A bit of Google research will help you find out how to make it. I didn’t make it myself, but I got to eat, and it was delicious.
Meat replacement:
You should accept that it will come a lot of time with many additives, oil, etc. They are not the best thing to eat, and they are far from being real food.
However, you can look at the ingredients written on the label and choose the ones that have the least additives. Because they exist.
Sweets
Dark chocolate is healthy. 100% chocolate is healthier. But without some kind of sweetener, it is really not pleasant to eat. You have different options here:
- You can eat dark chocolate with a high percentage of cacao and some kind of sugar. (Some chocolate brands add date sugar instead of refined sugar.)
- You can make bars or brownies at home in a batch.
- You can eat dried fruits if you have a sweet tooth.
Sauce
Don’t buy your sauce from the supermarket. Do it yourself! There are so many sauce recipes for salads, cooked meals, etc. You can make it in a batch and there you go!
And some basic steps to eat healthier:
- Read the food labels
- Eat as much as possible, real food: Food that grow out of the soil.
- Generally, it is a good practice to look for foods that grow but are not made in labs or factories. This perspective makes the whole thing much easier.
