Why You Should Be Eating More Plant-Based | Pros of a Vegan Diet

in #vegan6 years ago

Happy Friday, my friends!

Ever since I became vegan, I decided that I won’t be the kind of person who is constantly pushing everyone around to change their eating habits. And even if I’m writing this post, I don’t consider myself a pushy person. My goal regarding this post is to tell you why I think a plant-based diet is such a great thing without talking hours about animal rights or the environmental benefits (even though they are important too and I could talk about these topics for days).

As a dietitian-to-be, I want to encourage everyone to make healthier choices, and eating less processed foods and more fresh food “from the ground” is the number one tip I could give you. Hear me out on this one, being vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you’re super healthy. There are a lot of vegan junk food out there as well, but something we all could do, vegan or not, is to add more nutrient-rich fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables into our diet.

kesäkeitto1.jpg
Finnish Summer Soup - Recipe

Cooking as a vegan is fairly easy, despite all the suspicion. There’s one huge change I’ve noticed after going fully plant-based, I can go quite long periods of time without going grocery shopping. Since I really don’t buy any processed meat substitutes or dairy substitutes (vegan sausages, tofu, yogurts etc.), there’s no need to check the dates and go to the grocery store every other day to buy milk or other perishables. Well, fruits and vegetables are food items which will go bad if stored long enough, but mostly they’ll be just fine in the fridge. Once I go to the grocery store, I buy lentils, beans, soya mince, flour, rice, whatever there is, in large quantities, and I don’t have to worry about going to the grocery for at least a week or about the food items getting bad if I don’t quickly consume them.

Eating vegan is inexpensive, I mean really inexpensive. Often people think that I spend so much money on food since I’m a vegan, but that’s definitely not the truth. Of course, if you’ll consist your vegan diet mostly of processed meat substitutes, plant milks and yogurts, it’ll be expensive. But, if you keep your diet fairly simple, and make your own milks, even yogurts, you’ll end up paying ridiculously small amount of money for food.

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Berrylicious Smoothie Bowl - Recipe

Vegan food is de-li-cious! It’s not just green salad and plain rice, which is a misconception I’ve run into a couple of times. The internet (and my Steemit-page, lol) is full of delicious, budget-friendly, quick and easy vegan recipes, as well as some fancier creations if that’s what you desire. I think it doesn’t hurt anyone to expand their recipe collection a little, we all are eating the same few dishes all the time, and it could be time to change the menu a little.

In conclusion, here are the 4 things why I think everyone should eat more plant-based:

1. The nutrients: get more vitamins and minerals
2. Vegan cooking is easy
3. You’ll save money
4. The food can be incredibly delicious

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Macaroni Casserole - Recipe

What’s your favorite plant-based recipe?


-Jasmin ❤

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I'm not 100% vegan but I do enjoy eating lots of fruits and veggies. There are so many incredible vegan recipes and cookbooks and I am always interested in cooking new vegan dishes and desserts. My favorite go to quick meals are puréed vegan soups. Thanks for this informative post @jasmink.

That's so lovely to hear! More people should be like you, eager to try new foods and recipes! Soups are also my favorites, especially during cold winter and autumn evenings.

Thanks for your support, @loveself! :)

My favorite plant-based recipe is an abundant salad, either from root veggiess or leafy greens, or any other fresh one! :) with a good dressing (maybe tahini with herbs) ... something like that ;)
p.s. could toss a handful of sprouts if i was in a mood to germinate any beforehand...

Sounds too good! And the best thing about those kinds of salads is that you don't ever have to eat the exact same thing ever again if you don't want to, there's always a way to change things up a little! :)

You germinate your own sprouts? That's so cool! I've never tried it, but it definitely sounds something I'd like to try!

Exactly salad could be your main dish :D with loads of nutritional upgrades :D
... and yes... during the years my relationship with plants was getting stronger...
sometimes the rest of the sprouts... i just plant :D

That's awesome! :)

We eat a veggie soup with white beans that is really good. We make it probably at least once a month and put in fridge so it lasts a good week. Here in California. Many people think farmers markets for greens and produce which can get quite expensive. The quality of frozen vegetables is very good these days.

Veggie soups are one of my favorite dishes as well, I also like make a huge pot of soup so that it'll last for the whole week. You don't have cold winters there, but for me soups are all what I'd want to eat during winter, haha!

Here in Finland the prices depend a lot on the season. During winter frozen vegetables can be a better solution than buying fresh produce, since you'll save money and there are more nutrients in the frozen ones! :)

Yum ... it all looks good to me

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Thanks @offgridlife, vegan food doesn't have to be boring! :)

I’m so glad you posted this smoothie bowl and Finnish soup. I totally missed them the first time. Everything looks fantastic, perfectly photographed and of course full of nutrients. Way to keep us all informed with your healthy and delicious recipes.

Thank you so much, @puravidaville! I felt that including some recipes into this post could make it a bit more concrete and perhaps even inspire someone, I'm super glad you liked it! :)

Oh your recipes inspire everyone. They are all super delicious, nutritious and easy for the non chef to make. Don’t you worry about that! I think it’s good to re-introduce some of our older posts so folks who missed em can check them out too.

That was so nicely said, thank you again! 😊

howdy from Texas jasmink! this is a great post. I love the philosophy which you share without being pushy and the points you make are very educational. plus the photos are gorgeous!

Hey @janton, nice to hear from you again! This positive feedback from you was so nice to read, I'm glad you find this useful! I'm doing my very best to share valuable content here. :)

Have a great Tuesday!

howdy again jasmink! Oh you are very welcome and you are doing a wonderful job getting important information out, I am trying to follow too many people but I will make it back here as often as I can and catch up!

Steemit it just so full of incredible people and valuable content, I get that it's hard to follow everyone you'd want to follow, we all are struggling with the same problem! I still love this place, though! :)

yes it's amazing, I'll be in touch as much as I can, thank you for being so sweet!

Eating vegan is inexspensive i know but so hard, i love food to much

It can be easy too, at least I find vegan eating super easy! Perhaps the hardness of it comes from that it's something new and you have to learn to do things a bit differently. :)

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