Transitioning into a vegan diet can seem very daunting at first. No meat, dairy, or eggs? The idea of not eating any animal products may be overwhelming, but don’t worry! Once you get the hang of it and discover what foods to eat, it’s actually pretty easy!
It has never been more simple to transition into a vegan lifestyle. There are so many wonderful alternatives to animal products that are much better for your health and the environment! With so many benefits to living a vegan lifestyle, you’ll be surprised what a difference a diet can make!
Health Benefits
There are so many health benefits to transitioning into a vegan lifestyle. One of the most popular is weight loss. When you’re practicing a vegan diet, there is a natural tendency to consume fewer calories. You are consuming more vegetables and lean proteins, and less high-calorie foods.
Not only does a vegan lifestyle help with weight loss, but it can also improve your kidney function, protect your body against cancer, and lower your risk for heart disease. Pretty impressive! How does going vegan do all of this? Simply by eating more vegetables and legumes, you are helping lower your chances of cancer forming in your body.
Cutting out red meat, eggs, and dairy considerably lowers your cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease. This is because cholesterol is only present in animal products, including meat and dairy. By eliminating animal products, you will lower your cholesterol immensely.
Environmental Impact
When you transition into a vegan diet, you are doing the environment a HUGE favor. The upkeep of livestock is extremely costly for the environment. Livestock drains our food and water supply. They actually pollute it even more than humans! It takes 100-200 times more water to raise a pound of beef than it does to grow a pound of plants. Crazy! It is also estimated that around 700 million tons of food that could be used to feed humans goes to livestock each year, leaving less food for people.
A vegan lifestyle also helps conserve energy. Livestock is very costly to raise. Huge farms that breed livestock for the meat industry use a lot of energy. On the other hand, plant-based proteins can be grown using 8 times less energy than meat-based proteins.
Transitioning to a Vegan Lifestyle
For many people, the transition into a vegan lifestyle is the hardest part. The most important part about going vegan is knowing what foods to eat, whether you will need some extra vitamins to supplement your diet with, and what some great replacements are for animal products. Once you feel confident in adopting a plant-based diet, you are ready to transition.
You can go vegan by gradually cutting out different food groups. For example, you can start by cutting out red meats for a month. The next month, take away dairy as well. Then cut out eggs. You can do this for as long as you need, in whatever order you want. I find this is the best way to ease into the vegan lifestyle.
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