Advice to someone considering Veganism?

Question

I'm a 15 year old guy, and and I've been a Vegetarian for almost a year. It's been great, and I've been a lot healthier. But I think I want to go the whole way, 'cauze I still eat eggs and cheese, but they contradict the whole philosophy. Suggestions for how to wean off of dairy, advice, etc.

Answer 1

Here are some web sites with some great vegan/vegetarian food.

http://silksoymilk.com -chocolate and chai flavors are good

http://amys.com

http://organicfoodbar.com

http://gardenburger.com

http://yvesveggie.com

http://sunshineburger.com

http://rightfoods.com

http://veganstore.com -they have chocolate!

http://nakedjuice.com

http://www.cedarsfoods.com/

http://bolthouse.com

http://naturespath.com

http://turtlemountain.com -vegan ice cream and yogurt

http://goodkarmafoods.com - vegan ice cream

http://fruitabu.com

http://clifbar.com

http://www.pacificfoods.com -has good almond milk

Here are some good recipes:

Stir fry- You need cut up tofu, soy sauce, olive oil, steamed veggies, and cooked rice

Get a frying pan and coat it with olive oil. The put the tofu in the pan and brown each side of it. Next, add the veggies. Add a little soy sauce and put in the rice. Mix everything up and then let it sit on the stove, occasionally stirring it to make sure it doesn't burn. After about a minute and a half of that put it in a bowl and enjoy!

Hummus- chick peas, lemon juice, paprika, cumin, black pepper, and any other spices/seasonings you like

Puree the chick peas. Then add a little lemon juice, paprika, pepper, and other spices. Then stir. Serve with a pita, with cucumbers, or on a veggie wrap.

Favorite Classic Pancakes

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup soy milk

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Mix in the soy milk and oil, and with a fork or wire whisk, combine just until the batter is smooth.

Pour cup batter onto a hot, oiled griddle. When bubbles form in the center of the pancake, flip. Cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from pan and keep warm while you make remaining pancakes. Serve warm with maple syrup or fruit syrup.

Here are some snack and dinner suggestions:

Snacks:

Celery with peanut butter

Apples with peanut butter

Pita with hummus

Raisins

Amy's Apple Toaster Pops

All natural popsicles

Natural Valley bars

Clif Bar

Fruit Leather

Silk Chocolate Soy Milk

Naked Juice

Apple chips

Dinners:

Tofu Stir Fry

Amy's Pizzas

Amy's entrees

Sandwiches made with Yves meatless deli slices

Tofu Scramble

Gardenburgers

Natural Oven's bagels

Dr. McDougall's Soups and Noodle Soups

Soy Cheese Quesedillas

Veggie Wraps

Whole foods is a great store for vegetarians/vegans, so I recommend grocery shopping there. You also can get a lot of the things I listed above there.

Answer 2

dude thats not natural. Human beings have eaten some form of meat in their diets since the beginning of recorded time. Just eat meat and be happy.....I think I am going to eat steak tonight.

Answer 3

My little Brother (17) and sister (18) and I have been vegan for 2 years and have enjoyed soy milk, ice cream etc. and just recently found out how bad it is for your health.

There is so much controversy with soy so we decided to drink rice milk to see how we felt, and we realized our thinking got better because we always had brain fog and we were more tired on soy.

Alternatives to soy or dairy are: Almond milk or cheese, Rice milk or coconut milk.

So I hope this helps :)

Here is an article on-line about  soy:

http://www.the7thfire.com/health_and_nut...

Now there's a new coconut milk ice cream that is really good!

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/p...

Answer 4

Interesting.  I'm doing quite the opposite.  Pretty soon I'll cut all the veggies out.

But seriously, the best way to wean yourself off anything is to eat less and less of it until you aren't eating any.

Answer 5

if you want to start ween of dairy slowly start putting a little bit of soy milk in your drinks/food and put in more and more.

until you go soy completly.

Answer 6

very cool, I'm 15 and became a vegan maybe 7 months ago. The first thing i did was try new things to replace the old. I went through a bunch of different soy milk products until i settled on Silk, same with cheese, cream cheese, ranch, "eggs", and butter. If you cut out all the not so vegan products in your life immediately you will try these soy replacements, get frustrated because you don't like it, and go back to eating the products you gave up. My transfer took about a month.

so go to Whole Foods or any other health foods store and just try things and don't be put out when you get something icky, it happens, but there is always a great alternative! you just have to find it

Good luck!!

Answer 7

That's great you're thinking about going vegan!

I agree with Jenn's advice. Try some of the delicious non-dairy products that are available these days. There are vegan versions of milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, butter, mayo, cream cheese.... basically anything you could imagine!

Here's a list of some popular vegan products:

http://www.vegcooking.com/guide-favs.asp

Definitely do some taste tasting, because some brands are better than others. I don't like most soy cheeses, but I do love Follow Your Heart vegan cheese.

Take it at your own pace; don't feel like you have to make an overnight switch. You could start out by replacing milk with soy milk... then cheese with soy cheese... etc.

Instead of scrambled eggs, try a tofu scramble. There are lots of recipes online. I like this one with Mori-Nu silken firm tofu: http://www.chooseveg.com/display_recipe....

Good luck!!

Answer 8

Good for you and good luck!

My advice is to start slowly. Pick one dairy product that you don't eat all that often and cut it out. (like cottage cheese or yogurt). After you have the hang of that, progress into other foods and eliminate those. All the while, test out some alternatives to cow's milk (like soy, rice, almond, etc). They all taste different from one another and it sometimes takes a few tries to figure out what you want.

Unlike soy meats, soy dairy substitutes (to me) don't taste similar to animal based products. I wouldn't try to use soy cheese and soy cream cheese until you have totally eliminated the taste of dairy from your palate. These products taste nothing like what you're used to...you might be disappointed.

The things I found that are great animal based substitues: Earth Balance vegan butter, Soy Delicious non-dairy ice cream and Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese". They are all delish.

Answer 9

That's awesome you're considering veganism!

My advice: just cut out eggs and dairy.  There's no real need to "taper off" - you're not going to make yourself ill.

Best of luck to you!