5 Easy Vegan Swaps for your health (& animals)

Improve your health & make these vegan swaps now

A vegan lifestyle is so popular and trendy right now. Some people do it because of the trend and some people do it for their health, the animals, and the environment. What I will focus on today is 5 easy vegan swaps you can do to improve your health & for the animals today. This is possible & so easy! We live in the twenty first century where vegan options are accessible. Sometimes eating vegan won’t be perfect, since we don’t live in an ideal vegan world. But we can make that choice today to be mindful in what we put into our bodies & how we eat effects us significantly. So here are some easy vegan swaps for you & for the animals to maybe try out!

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes

Here are 5 Easy Vegan Swaps you can change today

# 1: Milk

• There are so many different plant milks out there. Even if you have a nut allergy, there are options of soy milk, coconut milk and oat milk brands for you! A healthier alternative is buying oats or any kind of nut and blend it with water. There are a lot of recipes how to do it & fortunately I listed them down below.

Healthy Homemade plant milk

• 2 ingredient oat milk
• 2 ingredient almond milk
• Quicker 2 ingredient almond milk
• 4 ingredient soy milk

Store Bought Alternatives

• Milk vegan swaps: Oatly, Silk, So Delicious, Califia, Almond Breeze, etc.

#2: Eggs

• Just egg & tofu egg must be the most popular vegan egg product out here in the U.S. but there are so many other egg alternatives! Sweet Simple Vegan has a informative and fun video of them trying different vegan egg products. Click here if you want to watch their video! But if you don’t want to I will list the ingredients here.
• Egg vegan swaps: just egg, tofu egg scramble (here’s my recipe), Be Leaf vegan egg (taste & appearance is just like egg | can get from veganessentials.com) and follow your heart egg (its okay, but with seasonings would be better), & a chickpea scramble (might get some time to get used to).

#3: Meat

• There are so many vegan meat options, it is CRAZY! We are so lucky to have vegan meat options at local grocery markets now. You may also be wondering why it is expensive if it is just from plants & that is because vegan products are not subsidized, but animal products are. Here is an article talking about “why vegan food is so expensive” by Dale Cudmore. There is less than 5% of vegans in this entire world, so animal products are more inclined to be subsidized because of supply and demand. Many vegans are influenced by following a plant based diet for their health so they eat whole plant foods. Although, being vegan is not always expensive. It depends on you if you want to buy unique and specialty foods that replace no consumption of meat, egg, & dairy products into your diet.
• Meat vegan swaps: Beyond Meat (fan favorite, but to me leaves an aftertaste), Impossible meat (taste better), Incogmeato (never tried), Gardein, The Meatless Farm (never tried), Tofurky, Field Roast, Sweet Earth, Soy curls, etc. Depends where you live because the UK has many more brands and options.
• There is actually a lot of homemade recipes on YouTube of seitan which is just made from flour, but not gluten free.

#4: Yogurt

• Like again, There are so many tasty yogurt products and brands that taste so good. Whenever I go to sprouts, the vegan yogurt brands defeats the side of regular dairy yogurt in Sprouts.
• Yogurt vegan swaps: Silk, So Delicious, Vega, Daiya, Kitehill, Forager, Oatly (haven’t tried, but probably super good), Culina (favorite and most healthiest), etc.

#5: Cheese

Not every vegan cheese or cheeze is healthy but some are if they have

• low sodium
• no oil
• no fillers

Store Bought Cheese Alternatives

• Cheese is almost everyone’s favorite topping or just something they like to add to a lot of dishes. Luckily for people who are lactose tolerant, there are a variety of vegan cheese products to choose from!
• Cheese vegan swaps: Forager (my favorite & healthy), Violife, Chao, Follow Your Heart, Daiya, Miyoko’s (healthiest w/ whole ingredients), So Delicious, etc.
• Amy’s(frozen), Daiya (boxed) & Chao(frozen) have vegan mac & cheese. Dayia and Chao are my favorites. Amy’s is a little to sticky for me but flavor is still tasty!

BONUS

Healthiest ice cream alternative must be Coconut Bliss that nearly has 5 or more ingredients!

How Important these 5 Easy Vegan Swaps Are For Your Overall Diet

Milk

Is milk actually good for our health and bones? “Animal proteins produce acid when they’re broken down, and calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer, so … you can see where this is going. In order to neutralize and flush out the acids, our bodies have to use the calcium that the milk contains—as well as some from our own stores. So every glass of milk we drink leaches calcium from our bones”, by Peta, click here to read “12 Reasons Why Milk Is Bad For You“. If you do not want to participate in animal cruelty, please read this article of how the dairy industry is as worse as the meat industry. Plant milk can almost be 2-4 ingredients. I make mine at home with water, soaked cashews, dates, and vanilla extract.

Eggs

They say eggs are a good source of protein, Vitamin B12, & more. Although, this article will tell you a different perspective of eggs called “Hard-boiled facts: Why eggs aren’t good for your health“. Veronika talks about how we humans don’t need eggs in our diet, and I deem its to exploit chickens. “Professor Spence, director of the Stroke Prevention and Atherosclerosis Research Centre in Ontario, Canada, warns that eating eggs can be equally as detrimental to your blood vessels as smoking (Spence et al., 2012).”, said Veronika & Viva! Chickens aren’t supposed to lay eggs everyday, they were bred to do that not meant to do that. Tofu, chickpea, and mung bean that are popular for replacement of eggs are much healthier than high cholesterol fatty eggs.

From an Ethical Stand point of Eggs

Not Fun Fact: I read this article explaining “if backyard eggs are ethical” and “How many eggs do hens lay naturally vs hens that have been manipulated through selective breeding?“. Michael Ofei exposed so many inciteful information I was waiting to add. “Backyard chickens typically come from breeders. A simple online search for “backyard chickens” will link you up with breeders to purchase your chicken. These breeders are only interested in hens (female chicks) and crush up (or suffocate) day-old male chicks as they cannot reproduce, as they’re effectively useless to them”(Ofei, M). “Naturally, they’re[hens are] only meant to lay 12-20 eggs a year, and typically it would be in Spring. This is also for the purpose of reproducing.”(Ofei, M) is that crazy or what. Stop reading and just sit with confusion.

Then he couldn’t help but compare hens and women.

“Think of how women on average have their period twelve times a year. Hens are also designed to go through that same process.

We’re essentially exploiting another species reproductive system for access to their eggs.

Looking at the numbers, in 1905, hens produced approximately 120 eggs a year on average. That’s a lot!

Brace yourself for what egg-laying hens produce now. 200-350 eggs a year! That’s almost one every single day. Staggering isn’t it?

I mean, consider this from a compassionate viewpoint, you start to question why we would do that to them. Ladies, imagine having your period pretty much every day of the year!

Chickens instinctively lay more eggs when their eggs are taken away from them. So when we take eggs away, we’re encouraging them to lay more eggs in what is called a clutch. A clutch is simply a group of eggs being produced by the hens in one period. So, the less we take, the less they lay.”

Ofei, M

I couldn’t put it into my own words because he said it perfectly. Check out the full article here by Micheal Ofei from Minimalist Vegan.

Meat

Meat is a dead being.

Your body is a temple and consuming a dead corpse is something that is not good for you at all. This is my opinion and I might be biased, but I will provide facts in the next paragraph.

We are disconnected. From our eating habits to thinking we love animals but we exploit them & kill them for food on our plate.

That is why slaughterhouses are so far away from civilization so we are not reminded there was a process in how meat, dairy, & eggs find their way to your plate.

Also, there is no humane way to kill an animal. Cows, chickens, pigs, fish, goats, frogs, sharks, and any other animal killed for meat live only for a few months before they die.

They want to live, long healthy lives.

Cows can live up to 20-49 years of life, chickens can live up to 6-20 years, pigs can live up to 4-25 years, so I think you can see where I am going with this.

Although, animals who rescued & were abused by harsh conditions at the farm do not make it because they were so injured. Animals in the farm are sitting in their own waste, bacteria, and infections. That is why about 70% of antibiotics are used on them to fight those horrible infections and diseases (3rd paragraph). How can that be good for our health? Why would we do that to animals for a temporary satisfaction of how animals taste? Does our taste buds justify why we eat them?

Is it worth it?

What you are feeling is normal. I had that too. I had to ask myself if I want to be contributing to this scandalous act of unethical matters at stake. For the animals, for my health, for the environment, and for humans like us who unfortunately have the job to do all of there terrifying procedures the “food” people eat.

“Is meat good for your health”.

“People who ate two servings of processed meat—such as bacon and bologna—each week had a 7 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who ate none“

“We’d suggest that people think carefully about red meat and processed meat, and try to consider other sources of protein, like beans and nuts, that we know have positive benefits.” says study author Norrina Allen, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.”

Warren, R. M.

Is meat worth eating for the sacrifice of getting cancer or diseases?

“The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that vegetarians and vegans enjoy a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes, and lower body mass indexes, as well as lower overall cancer rates. The ADA concludes that vegetarian or vegan diets “are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

Did You Know? A major 2006 study of 135,000 people found that those who frequently ate grilled skinless chicken had a staggering 52 percent higher risk of bladder cancer than people who never ate it.”

Peta.

The popular and most asked questions for vegans would be where do you get your protein or b12 supplement. I would reply I get my protein from plants ( & so does the animals people eat) and I take a vegan B12 supplement from Ritual. Ritual Multivitamin for all ages, click here if you want to see their products 🙂 They have protein powders as well, I did not try them yet. I heard from sweet simple vegan their protein powders are really good!

Meat companies add food coloring to make store bought meat fresh or appetizing when it really isn’t that color anymore. That color in the photo is most probably due to the heavy amount of food dye they add to it. Check out this article “Food dyes, food lies: are you being duped at the supermarket?“ by Animals Australia. They show an episode of Adam Ruins Everything about Salmon is grey and Ahi tuna sold in stores are mostly fake.

Yogurt

You might think dairy yogurt is good for you because of all of the added probiotics.

“As with many yogurts, some Greek varieties add gelatin, which is made by boiling animals’ skin, tendons, ligaments, or bones. Many also add carmine to make the yogurt appear to contain more fruit than it does. Carmine is red pigment obtained by crushing female cochineal insects. It reportedly takes the lives of 70,000 of these beetles to produce just 1 pound of red dye.”,(Kretzer, M) read more here how vegan yogurt is the best alternative, ethical and health wise.

(Kretzer, M)

Some vegan products of yogurt have to much added ingredients and sugar, so the best yogurt I eat is Culina which is under 6 ingredients or less. Another brand that has no sugar is Forager unsweetened plain yogurt. I like to add my own vanilla extract and maple syrup (or dates, agave) for additional taste. There are so many different vegan yogurts but check the ingredients to see what fits your diet best.

Cheese

Cheese is not anything different from the four listed below. It can cause heart disease, high blood pressure, etc. Eating a plant based alternative is the best because lets face it, we don’t keep track of how much we eat cheese, none the less of milk, eggs, meat, & yogurt.

Meat, Eggs, Dairy, Seafood can lead to health problems

The dairy and egg industry is a lie and tries to disguise the truth.

Watch What the Health documentary that exposes the organizations that promote meat, dairy, & eggs to improve peoples health but that is far from the truth. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and that is because of the consumption of meat. American Heart Association includes eggs, meat, dairy, seafood, & more in their recipes ( “Recipes”, American Heart Association).

My mom died from breast cancer, and she ate a heavy diet of meat, seafood, eggs, & dairy. In her diet she included fruits and veggies but the fact that she still ate those foods, led her to have an unhealthy liver that caused the inclination from stage 0 to stage 4 breast cancer. She didn’t want treatment because she was traumatized from her past experience with my grandma having breast cancer who also undergo chemo but did not work.

Why are the foods that the associations of heart diseases, and cancer recommend to eat (meat ,etc) say they are good for you? Check out breastcancer.org to see what they recommend for a healthy diet which still includes meat, dairy, & yogurt.

Buying vegan products can be the start of a healthier life and a conscious life.

Take Care of your health & more

The purpose of my blog is to share vegan food recipes, DIY recipes, and articles like this because I want to save you emotional trauma from watching a loved one in a hospital bed or even yourself. I saw my mom undergo chemo while it wasn’t working, radiation that temporary worked (& gave me false hope), medicine to lessen the pain & more things that wasn’t going to work at the end but made her hallucinate & die without having consciousness. I understand medicine is a quick solution for other people for example, accidents and cancer with a low stage. But if we can decide to take care of ourselves now we can prevent horrible diseases that can effect us in the future.

This article, 5 vegan swaps for your health is just a way for you to open your eyes to vegan alternatives that are available, that doesn’t exploit or harm animals or the environment.

I want to help you and influence how a vegan diet is beneficial in every area.

This is your chance to improve your health, save the innocent animals from death and exploitation, and our beautiful earth on fire. <3

Vegan recipes you can make!

• 1-Bowl Vegan Banana Oat Pancakes
• Healthy Vegan Spring Rolls
• Vegan Thai Lettuce Wraps
• Vegan Tofu Scramble
• Vermicelli Vegan Recipe
• Vegan Mint Basil Pesto

Blog Post you might also be interested in

• DIY Lotion
• How to go zero waste

One more thought

If we start purchasing vegan products the sooner we can help humans out too. People who work at these slaughterhouses get mental health problems because of what they do at work. What we need for this planet and for our kids future planet is to take care of it and care for every species who lives in it. I will talk about this in another blog post, but for now take these 5 easy vegan swaps into consideration!

Thank you for reading <3

References

• American Heart Association. “Recipes”.
• Spence JD, Jenkins DJ and Davignon J. 2012. Egg yolk consumption and carotid plaque. Atherosclerosis. 224 (2) 469-473.
• Kretzer, M. (2021, February 9). 4 facts that PROVE Greek yogurt is the worst. PETA. https://www.peta.org/living/food/reasons-greek-yogurt-is-gross/.
• PETA. (2017, August 22). Eating for your health. PETA. https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/eating-health/.
• says:, D., says:, E., says:, M., says:, L., says:, T. M. V., says:, K., says:, S. M., says:, K., says:, A., says:, E. R., says:, B., says:, D. P., says:, S. W., says:, K., says:, S. A., says:, R., says:, A. roberts, says:, C. H., says:, B., … says:, J. (2021, May 19). Is it okay for vegans to eat eggs from backyard chickens? The Minimalist Vegan. https://theminimalistvegan.com/backyard-eggs/.
• Warren, R. M. (n.d.). Is eating meat good for you? Consumer Reports. https://www.consumerreports.org/healthy-eating/is-eating-meat-good-for-you/.