Many people adopt a vegan diet for health reasons, and in many cases, going on a vegan diet is a massive improvement over the classic American diet. You shouldn’t assume, however, that eating vegan is automatically healthy and makes you healthier. Things like Oreos and fries are vegan, after all, and you still have to apply sound nutrition principles if you want to get health benefits from a vegan diet. Here are a few tips for vegans who wish to stay healthy.
Know What Healthy Eating Means in the First Place
Many people think that eating salads all day makes them “healthy”. Or that things like fat and sugar are automatically bad for them. But that’s not how things work. Having a healthy diet means getting everything your body needs to function correctly. A good diet should have a combination of protein, different vitamins and nutrients, good fats, and sugar.
Get Your Nutrients
Removing a food group from your diet, no matter what it is, will lead to deficiencies. That’s just the way it is. But you can circumvent that by using supplements or eating enriched foods. Some of the vitamins and nutrients that are the most crucial for vegans include vitamin b-12, vitamin D, and Iron. You can also look at omega-3s, zinc, iodine, and calcium.
Make Healthy Restaurant Choices
Make a list of some of the vegan restaurants in your city. Most people like fast food, so you should have a few vegan fast-food options just in case you need to get something quick. You should also start listing your favorite cuisines and look for options in your city. List them based on their ratings, and make sure you give any restaurant you’re thinking of eating at a call so that you know how they prepare their food. Also, ask them if you can get a list of their ingredients.
If you’re in a city like Chicago, you are in luck, as it has one of the largest selections of vegan restaurants on the entire planet, and you shouldn’t have any issues finding a Chicago vegan restaurant near me that serves the kind of food that you want. But if you’re in a smaller town, you may have to rely on your cooking skills or use things like vegan meal kit services.
Learn How to Cook
Learning how to cook is very important for any vegan. The better you are as a cook, the more control you’ll be able to have over your diet, and the less you’ll need to rely on heavily processed products. We suggest you start looking at a few ethnic cuisines with lots of vegan options, like Thai, Ethiopian, or Indian cuisine, for instance. You’ll be able to add variety to your diet and make your dishes from scratch from the products you pick.
Following a vegan diet can be healthy, but you must be very careful. You need to know what your body needs and understand what differentiates a healthy diet from a bad one.