How To Be Vegan

'Vegan' is the term associated with people who strictly follow a plant-based diet. A step ahead of the vegetarians, they not only eliminate animal products but also animal by-products from their diet. Being a vegan requires a gradual transition, as only this way can you adapt to the major changes. For hard core non-vegetarians, the first step would be to get rid of red meat from your diet, followed by poultry and fish.Once you have successfully achieved it, stop the consumption of dairy products and eggs. Thereafter, remove those foods from the list that contain small amount of animal byproducts in the manufacturing process, such cheese cakes. In the following lines, we provide tips to help you in becoming a vegan easily.

How to Become A Vegan

The best way to be a vegan is to start having homemade food. This way, you would be in full control of what you are having, as the food selection and preparation would depend entirely on you.
Finding the vegetarian counterpart of non-veg food is the easy way to turn a complete vegan. Scrambled eggs can be replaced by a tofu scramble, made from tofu, various spices - for flavor and nutritional yeast. The vegan counterpart of traditional yogurt is cultured soy or ‘soy yogurt’.
Get organic produce whenever you are out for shopping.
Give up on ice creams! This is one thing which might prove to be difficult for the vegans, but if you are determined, you have to eliminate them from the diet. Instead, go for non-dairy desserts made from soy milk, rice milk, or tofu. If you love cooking, the best bet would be to make your own dessert.
Reading the labels is very important while making a purchase. Many a times, the vegetarian foods found in the market are not completely vegan i.e. they might be animal derived. Some such products are cheese and packaged foods containing vitamin D3.
Before every purchase, make sure that the product supports your diet. Natural food stores are generally your best source for finding vegan products.
Be prepared for a little sacrifice. If you have decided to be a vegan on health grounds, breaking the rule once or twice would not hurt much. However, if you have decided on moral and religious grounds, it would be wise if you strictly followed what you have planned.
Sugar is also not considered vegan. While you can do away with the fact during the initial days of transition, at an advanced stage, you will need to modify your sugar consumption by resorting to cane juice, raw sugar, maple syrup or grain-based sweeteners.
Many of the baked products contain dairy ingredients. So, it is advisable to check out those baked products that are made from grain-based sweeteners. There are many natural stores that keep such baked products in stock.
Check on products that have ‘natural color’ written at the back of their cover. They might include many components that are not essentially plant derived.
If you getting on a strict vegan diet, you need to complement your calcium intake through other sources. Eat lots of green leafy vegetables and tofu. For proteins, you can look up to Seitan that is prepared from wheat gluten.

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