Whether it’s making changes for just one meal of the day, one day of the week or every day, choosing plant-based foods produced through sustainable and fair labor practices when possible can support meaningful change for animals, humans, and our planet.
A Handy Guide to a Plant-Based Diet
Why Eat Vegan?
Why are millions of people choosing to eat more just and sustainable plant-based foods?
- To reduce animal suffering.
- To lessen their impact on the environment.
- To benefit their personal health.
- To demonstrate solidarity with agricultural workers.
- To reduce harm to communities living near factory farms.
For more reasons, click here.
Find Your Reason
iStock.com / Fahroni
The Animals: You help farm animals every time you choose a plant-based meal over one that contains animal products. Today, 99% of animals raised for food in the United States are raised on factory farms. These animals are confined to miserable conditions and are robbed of simple joys such as feeling the sun on their skin or the grass beneath their feet. Even animals raised on free-range, cage-free, or other similarly labeled facilities suffer—often these labels are misleading and standards are poorly regulated. Learn more about factory farming here.
Photo: Joshua Resnick/shutterstock.com
Explore Plant-Based Foods
Check local restaurants and grocers to see what plant-based foods might be available near you.
GlobalData reported that 70% of the world’s population is reducing or eliminating their consumption of meat.
Dining Out
When out on the town, ask your server, “What do vegans usually order?” If there isn’t an option on the menu, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Some chefs are happy to accommodate. No plant-based entree? No problem. Put some side dishes together for a satisfying meal!
- Happy Cow finds veg-friendly restaurants near you! Check their website or download the app!
- Use Yelp to find veg options by searching “vegan restaurants near me”.
- Major chains like Chipotle, SUBWAY, Denny’s, White Castle, Carl’s Jr., Del Taco, Taco Bell, Applebee’s, TGI Fridays, and many other restaurants have plant-based options!
Dining In
Cooking at home with friends and family can be a wonderful celebration of healthy, just, and sustainable plant-based foods! Here are some recipes and resources to get you started!
Photo: Natalia Lisovskaya/shutterstock.com
Tips for Eating a Healthy Vegan Diet
The foods that we put in our bodies matter.
- Eat the rainbow. A whole, plant-based diet should include a variety of foods that are naturally orange, yellow, green, red, and purple, because all of those colors signal potent and important nutrients that help improve our health. Think of how colorful your plate is. Could you be adding more veggies to your dinner?
- Have a regular source of fresh fruit in your diet. Foods such as berries, apples, plums, oranges, grapes, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and peas are excellent for your health.
- Eat a diet high in fiber. Fiber-rich foods help protect us from disease, reduce chances of cancer, dementia, depression, and help ward off inflammation. High fiber foods include lentils, sweet potato, almonds, bananas, whole wheat pasta, and avocados, just to name a few.
- Get plenty of calcium. which is widely available in all sorts of plant foods! Make sure to eat plenty of calcium-rich foods such as kale, collards, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and beans.
- Eat plant-based proteins! As long as you are eating a healthy, plant-based diet that gives you enough calories on a daily basis, you’re going to get more than enough protein. Protein-rich plant-based foods are beans, nuts, oats, rice, peanuts, and more!
- Mind your B12. Plant-based foods can provide you with all of your essential nutrients with the exception of vitamin B12. Many doctors suggest a B12 supplement of 1,000 micrograms twice a month.
Replace This With This ...
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Tofu, tempeh, chickpeas, lentils, black beans, almonds, peanuts, Beyond Meat, Gardein chick’n strips, Chick’n nuggets, Tofurky deli slices, Gardein fishless filets
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Follow Your Heart slices, Chao slices, Nutritional yeast
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Tofutti, Kite Hill cream cheese
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Kite Hill, Trader Joe’s, Silk, So Delicious
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Ben and Jerry’s, Breyer’s, So Delicious, Coconut Bliss
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Earth balance, Miyoko’s butter
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1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 2 tbsp hot water OR 2 tbsp. instant mashed potato mix OR 1 tbsp Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer + 2 tbsp water
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1 flax egg OR ¼ cup applesauce OR 1 mashed banana
Photo: Motortion Films/shutterstock.com
Vegan Diets
are fully endorsed by The Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics for everyone from infants to pregnant persons & adult athletes.
Choose Just and Sustainable Food Sources
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- Support Community Supported Agriculture. Through CSAs, local farmers offer “shares” to the public. The share translates to a box of fresh produce delivered to you each week through farming season. This is an excellent way to support local farmers and know that your produce is coming from farmworkers who are being paid and treated fairly.
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- Find your local community garden. These are wonderful spaces where you can volunteer to help grow produce for your community and then harvest some for yourself and your family.
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- Familiarize yourself with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program (FFP) a groundbreaking partnership among farmworkers, farmers, and major food brands that leverages the brands’ purchasing power to end decades-old human rights abuses in the fields, from sexual harassment to forced labor. Learn how you can help expand the program’s life-changing protections by visiting FFP’s website and following @fairfoodprogram on social media.
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- Download the Food Empowerment Project’s (F.E.P.) chocolate list app to learn which vegan chocolate brands they recommend and which brands to avoid so that your chocolate isn’t being sourced from child labor or forced labor.
Handy Vegan Resources
You can help animals like Liberty and Indigo at Farm Sanctuary. This mother-daughter duo found Sanctuary with the help of Joaquin Phoenix after Liberty gave birth at a slaughterhouse in Los Angeles, California. Read their full story here.
