It's interesting to see the range of vegan food available now, but it always seems a bit strange to me that many of these are ultra processed industrial foods (with ingredients you wouldn't find in your kitchen). I've always really liked lentils and other legumes, so it wasn't hard to eat less animal products. I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I eat a mainly plant-based diet.
Is there an issue with grains? I really like bread 😍!
I'm trying to eat more tofu. We have a range of Chinese supermarkets here so I should be able to get some freshly made - time to explore!
You are right that many of the foods are ultra processed or made with ingredients you would never use in a highly processed way.
I think most foods are fine in moderation and your body is pretty good at telling you what it wants.
With grains, as far as I can tell, particularly wheat which seems to be in everything, it is now like a frankenfood compared to many years ago and has many side effects in people particularly allergies and weight gain. I do like some fresh bread but eat it as little as possible.
It seems you are eating very healthy already, keep up the good work. 👍😎
Ah yes, I understand. In England, there is also a problem with how bread is manufactured (again, it is an industrial food) and cooked. We use something called the Chorleywood process here which is essentially undercooking the bread to retain moisture and thus, weight. I think I've read somewhere that this makes it very hard to digest and creates problems for a lot of people.
I make bread (and pizzas) at home using organic stoneground flours and older varieties of wheat - einkorn, spelt and khorasan - as well as organic, stoneground (modern) wheat and rye flours. It took me a little while to get into the groove, but I find it easy to fit into my routine now (there isn't much actual work) 😂.
I follow the recommendations from the Zoe project, a very large scale nutrition survey, I wrote about it here. Since then, I've read an article about land use and the contribution of meat farming to climate change; and how food is freighted around the world - air miles are a problem, coming by sea is not so much. My challenge now is finding out how different foods by different retailers do arrive here!
That sounds like you are well versed on the subject. Thanks for the link, I will read it through.