Vegan Nutrition

If your food does not look like the rainbow, don’t eat it.

Toto Wanje

Protein

All protein is made by plants. Animals do not create protein. Animals get their protein from the plants and vegetables they eat. It is only plants that create protein. All the protein you eat, whether it’s through animal flesh or from protein supplements, originally came from plants.

Vegans, we often get the question, where do you get your protein? People who eat meat tend to be worried about getting the right amounts of protein if they stop eating meat. They worry about being able to live healthy nourishing lifestyles without meat. The fact of the matter is when we remove meat, animal products, eggs, dairy, and dairy products from our diets we become healthier human beings. We reduce the risk of developing several different diseases and we live longer. Our bodies become cleansed of all the toxins from meat. Our faces and eyes light up and our skin glows and looks well-nourished. We regain our original sense of taste and smell that we were all born with because our bodies are no longer filled with blood and bones, animal muscle tendons, and animal flesh. By getting our proteins from plants and vegetables, as we are originally intended and created to do as human beings, we become much healthier and stronger as a people.

“If all the plants in the world were to go extinct, everything else on the planet would also go extinct including us humans.” – Dr. Milton Mills

Animals and humans do not create protein. By eating meat, humans are eating recycled protein and amino acids from animals. Protein itself is created by plants. The largest animals on the planet are all plant-eaters, for example, gorillas, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, bison, hippos, horses, and cows.

There has never been a vegan who has died of protein deficiency. All protein is created by plants. Animals do not create protein but get their protein from the plants and vegetables they eat. When humans eat animal flesh, they are in fact recycling their protein intake, which from the beginning came from the plants and vegetables that the animals ate. The same applies to you and your body. If you eat the right foods, plants, vegetables, and legumes you will get more than enough protein. I have been vegan for over 8 years, and I have not died of protein deficiency, nor has any other vegan globally. I have vegan friends on different social media pages who have been vegan for over 10-20-30 years and even more than that and they have not died of protein deficiency either. There are loads of vegetables, plants, and legumes that are filled with rich healthy sources of protein.

If you are still worried that you will not get enough protein from plants, vegetables, and legumes, then don’t worry. You can always add nutritional yeast or wheatgrass to your diet and to your foods. They are both great sources of extra vegan protein. There are also loads of different types of vegan protein supplements that you can take, especially if you work out a lot or do sports and bodybuilding.

Vegan Protein Sources

Grains: Corn, Wheat, Oats, Barley, Rice, Wild Rice, Quinoa, Turnips, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes.

Vegetables: Leafy Greens, Spinach, Kale, Spirulina, Colliflower, Broccoli, Wheat Grass, Carrots, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Mushrooms

Nuts: Cashews, Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts, Pistachios, and Peanut Butter.

Vegan Protein: Tofu, Tempeh, Seitan, Nutritional Yeast.

Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Chia seeds, Flax seeds Pumpkin Seeds,

Legumes: Lentils, Beans, Green Peas, Chickpeas, Mung Beans, Edamame, Fava Beans, Soybeans, Lima beans, Black Beans, Kidney Beans.

Fruits: Apples, Bananas, Kiwis, Tomatoes, Blackberries, Avocados, Jackfruit, Guava, Dried Apricots, Raspberries, Peaches, Grapefruit

There are different types of vegan foods as well as different types of vegan proteins and even different types of vegetables and fruits in every country all around the world, especially in exotic countries. Make sure to find out what types of fruits and vegetables you can eat in your country or in your part of the world.

B12

It’s fully possible for both vegans and meat-eaters to get vitamin deficiencies including vitamin B12 deficiencies. In fact, many meat-eaters have vitamin deficiencies because their diets consist mainly of unhealthy fast foods and meats. They don’t include more fruits, vegetables, and plants in their diet. Going vegan and including more fruits, vegetables and plants help you to increase your vitamin intake.

Animals do not produce B12. Plants do not produce B12 either. B12 is a bacterium that is found in the guts and mouths of animals but is produced naturally in the soil near water, rivers, ponds, and lakes. Animals increase their Vitamin B12 levels by eating the grass growing in the soil, and in the ground, and by drinking the water from the rivers and lakes. People who eat meat are then getting their B12 from the animal flesh. The animal flesh came from animals that had already increased their B12 levels by eating plants and vegetables that had high amounts of B12 bacteria from having grown in the soil or in the ground out in nature.

Vegan B12 Foods

Nutritional Yeast, Water Lentils, Lettuce, Almond Milk, Soy Milk, Coconut Milk.

Vitamin D

The best source of vitamin D is of course the sun, but you can also get vitamin D from other sources such as fruits and vegetables.

 

Foods that have vitamin D: Oranges, Orange Juice, Mushrooms, Portobello Mushrooms, Shiitake Mushrooms, Button Mushrooms, Chanterelles, Morel Mushrooms, Sunflower Seeds, Green Peas, Rice milk, Almond Milk, Soy Milk.

Milk and Dairy Products

The dairy industry (including all dairy advertising and dairy marketing) is one of the cruellest industries in the world. It is the industry where female cows are exploited for their reproductive system and are enslaved, tortured, and constantly raped by being artificially inseminated just so that they can give birth to baby cows that are then stolen from their mothers and killed just so that human beings can consume the baby cow’s milk.

As human beings, we are the only mammals that drink the milk of another species. We are also the only species on the planet that continue drinking milk into adulthood. All creatures, mammals, animals, and species on the planet stop drinking milk when they are babies. They stop weaning in childhood, and infancy and go on to live their lives without drinking milk but human beings continue to drink milk long into adulthood and even continue drinking milk all their lives up until they grow old and die. Think about it: If you are a grown-up human being, why would you drink milk? Milk is for babies. The next question is, why would you drink the milk of an entirely different species? As human beings, we shouldn’t be drinking milk as adults and should not be drinking the milk of another species.

Whether you drink cow’s milk, goat’s milk, camel milk, or horse milk, as a fully grown adult human being you should not be drinking milk. Human milk is meant for human babies and animal milk is for baby animals. You should not be drinking the breast milk of another species and should not be feeding your child or your children with the breast milk of another species. Female humans and female animals, including female cows, can only produce milk during pregnancy and after giving birth to a baby or to babies. This means all female mammals must be pregnant or have been impregnated to produce milk. The milk they produce is meant for their babies and is not for human beings to drink.

“The purpose of cow’s milk is to turn a 65-pound calf into a 400–700-pound cow as quickly as possible. Cow’s milk is baby calf growth food. That is what the stuff is. Everything in that white liquid, the hormones, the lipids, the proteins, the sodium, the growth, factors the IGF (Insulin-Like Growth Factor), is meant to blow baby calves up into great big cows. Whether you pour milk into cereal or turn it into butter or coagulate it into yoghurt or let it ferment for cheese, whether you freeze it into ice cream, it’s baby calf growth food. Women eat it and it stimulates their tissue, it gives women breast lumps, it makes their uterus get bigger, they get fibroids, they bleed and get hysterectomies and need mammograms and it gives guys man boobs. Cow’s milk is the lactation secretions of a large bovine mammal that just had a baby. It’s for baby calves. I tell my patients, go look in the mirror, do you have big ears, do you have a tail, are you a baby calf? If you are not, then don’t be drinking or eating baby calf growth food” – Dr Michael Klaper

I’ve never liked the taste of milk. As a child in school, starting from kindergarten, every child was always served milk in small milk boxes during lunchtime. It was compulsory. Everyone had to drink milk at school. I remember I used to throw it away outside during lunch breaks. When we weren’t allowed to go outside and play because it was raining or bad weather and had to eat our lunch in the classroom, whenever we were being served milk, I would always ask the teacher if I could go to the bathroom where I poured the milk down the toilet just so that I wouldn’t have to drink it. I’m a grown-up human man now but I still remember how disgusting milk tasted.

I have never liked cheese either. I’ve always hated both the smell and taste of cheese. Since childhood, I’ve always wondered how it’s even possible that people can like the taste of both milk and cheese. The smell of cheese always haunted me at family dinner tables. I would often push it to the other side of the table during family dinners just so that I wouldn’t have to smell the cheese. In school, during lunch hours I would watch in bewilderment and shock at the other children either eating their cheese sandwiches or guzzling and gulping down their blue and white-coloured cartons of milk.

Calcium and Osteoporosis 

“Osteoporosis is a medical condition in which the bones become brittle and fragile from loss of tissue and is typically a result of hormonal changes, or deficiency of calcium or vitamin D.”

Cows and animals do not produce calcium. If cows do not drink milk, where does the calcium in their milk come from? Cows get their calcium from the plants and vegetables they eat. Cows eat grass, vegetables, and plant-based food and by so doing convert the plant-based food into the calcium that then exists in the milk they produce for their babies.

As human beings, we have been brainwashed to believe that cow’s milk is the only source of calcium. We have literally been conditioned to believe that drinking cow’s milk makes our bones stronger. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Bone health is not just about having large quantities of calcium in your body. Good bone health requires several different types of nutrients and vitamins that each human being needs in order to have strong bones. Our bodies rebuild our bones around 6 times over our lifetime. Together with calcium we also need for example copper, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, vitamin C, vitamin D, B6, and B12 to have healthy bones.

“The countries with the highest rates of dairy consumption for example Finland, Sweden, England, and the USA, have the highest rates of osteoporosis. The countries with the lowest rates of dairy consumption have the lowest rates of osteoporosis” – Brooke Miles

Vegan Calcium Sources

Kale, Spinach, Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussel sprouts, Okra, Bok Choy, Basil, Parsley, Collards, Celery, Onions, Turnip Greens, Avocado, Butternut Squash, Soy nuts, Soybeans, Green Beans, Coconuts, Kohlrabi, Soymilk, Sesame Seeds, Flax Seeds, Chia Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Almonds, Rice, Tofu, Garlic, Brazil Nuts, Raisins, Apricots, Artichokes, Oranges, Kiwi, Litchi, Prunes, Figs, Strawberries, Raspberries, Mulberries, Gooseberries, Blackberries, Pineapples, Papaya.

One of the saddest aspects of the dairy industry is the fact that milk and dairy are found in almost every non-vegan food on the planet. When I was newly vegan and was reading the labels of foods in supermarkets, I started to realise that almost every non-vegan food has milk in it. Even ordinary chips, pringles, candy, cookies, chocolates, and many different types of sauces, soups and dishes as well as certain types of bread and other foods in supermarkets, that you often think don’t have milk in them, usually or always have milk in them.

Although the vast majority of everyone on the planet is lactose intolerant, many of these people who are lactose intolerant don’t drink milk straight from the milk carton but are completely unaware that they consume milk when they eat cheese, dairy products, and other non-vegan foods. Take a trip to the supermarket and do a quick study or research for yourself and read the ingredients of certain foods that you usually buy, and you will quickly see that the majority of them have milk in them. It’s flabbergasting how so many different types of products contain milk.

Vegan Milk

Almond Milk, Rice Milk, Soy Milk, Spelt Milk, Hemp Milk, Cashew Milk, Flax Milk, Pea Milk, Coconut Milk, Hazelnut Milk, Macadamia Nut Milk, Oat Milk.

Omega 3

There are many different types of vegan omega-3 sources. If you don’t like eating natural omega 3 then you can buy vegan omega 3 supplements. We have been taught that omega 3 comes from fish oils, or from eating fish but that’s not entirely true. The omega 3 that exists in fish oils and in fish comes from the algae and seaweed that the fish eat in the sea.

Omega 3 Sources: Chia Seeds, Flax Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds Walnuts, Tofu, Edamame Beans, Soybeans, Wild rice, Spinach, Canola Oil, Cauliflower, Winter Squash, Seaweed & Algae, Basil, Brussel Sprouts, Spirulina, Avocado, Spearmint.

Bees and Honey

A teaspoon of honey is the lifework of 12 bees

Honey is created by bees from nectar, pollen, water and plant sap. Worker bees fly out into nature, travelling up to 5-6 miles, to suck nectar from flowers and plants. The worker bees then carry the nectar, (in their second stomach which is called the crop) back to their beehive, where they regurgitate it into the mouths of other bees. They continue this process of regurgitating the nectar into each other’s mouths until the enzymes in their stomachs have broken down the nectar and made it suitable enough to be stored in their honeycombs.

Then working together the bees fan the nectar until enough water has evaporated from the nectar to create honey. After this, the bees use their beeswax to seal the honeycombs and store the honey for themselves and for their babies to eat in the future and to have as a food source during winter. In the beekeeping industry, honey bees are bred into existence. They are brought into areas where they are not native. These honeybees overpopulate the area and compete with the wild bees that are native to that area for their food. This drives the native wild bees into extinction and is the major reason why bees around the world are going extinct.

In the honey, industry bees are enslaved and exploited by humans for the sole purpose of making money by stealing and then selling and eating their honey. Bees don’t make any honey unless they have a Queen Bee. Bees would never abandon their Queen Bee. Beekeepers most often must order a Queen bee online and then after receiving the Queen bee, they artificially inseminate her and have her wings cut off so that she cannot fly away. If she flew away and left the beekeeper’s beehive the bees would follow her, leaving the beekeeper with no beehive to exploit the bees for their honey. During the winter beekeepers burn their beehives and kill the bees by burning them alive because it costs too much to keep them alive during the cold winter months. It’s cheaper to start a new beehive after the winter. 

Bees have a brain and a nervous system and feel pain and emotions. This is why honey is absolutely not vegan because bees are also exploited for their honey and are feeling, breathing, intelligent beings and do not deserve to be exploited in any shape or form. Bees live less than 40 days and visit up to 1000 flowers to produce less than 1 teaspoon of honey. For people who eat honey, it’s a teaspoon of honey, but to the bees, it’s a lifetime of hard work. 

Vegan Alternatives for Honey: Agave Nectar, Bee Free Honee, Maple Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, Barley Malt Syrup, Sorghum Syrup, Apple Cider Syrup, Date Syrup

Every time you eat vegan food you are taking a stand against animal abuse and cruelty towards animals.

Animals are here on earth with us and not for us. They are our friends and not our food. We are all here together in this physical reality as spiritual beings to love and experience life and to live it to the fullest of our abilities.” – Toto Wanje

Sugar

Raw sugar, straight from the sugar cane plant is vegan. Coconut sugar, Date sugar and Beet sugar are also vegan.

Both regular white and brown sugar that has been filtered with bone char which is charred burned-up powdered animal (cattle and pigs) bones is not vegan. However many companies do not use bone char in the refining and filtering process. There are brown and white sugars that are vegan. Raw or natural or unrefined, as well as all organic sugars, are always vegan because they have not been filtered with bone char.

Wine

Even though there are vegan wines, many different types of wine are not vegan because they are made using animal ingredients. These types of non-vegan wines, when being made, go through a clarification and fining process where gelatin, egg whites, fish bladder and casein are used to clarify and fine the wine. Vegan wine is usually fined using bentonite clay, kaolin clay, limestone, plant casein, vegetable plaques, silica gel or carbon.

To figure out if wine is vegan or not, if the wine doesn’t have a vegan label on it, read the label that’s on it and look for words like unfiltered or unfined. Many companies may not list the animal fining agents they use on their wine bottles, therefore, to be sure if a wine is fully vegan or not, visit the company’s website to get the right information about the wine you want to buy.

Fruit Juice

You might think that fruit juice is naturally vegan, it should be, after all its fruit juice. You are probably wondering how fruit juice can not be vegan. Organic 100 per cent natural fruit juices are vegan, however, many companies use gelatine or fish bladders to clarify their fruit juices. Some fruit juices may also have additives, preservatives, dyes and sweeteners that are not vegan-friendly so look for the fruit juices that have vegan labels on them or visit the company’s website to get the right information about whether the juice you are buying is vegan or not.

Cosmetics

Although a few countries around the world have banned cosmetic animal testing, many of the most giant cosmetics corporations around the world still test their products on animals. As vegans and animal rights activists, we oppose all forms of animal testing and laboratory experiments that are done using animals. The most common animals used in animal testing and laboratory experiments are rats, mice, fish, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds, rabbits, cats, dogs and monkeys. They are tortured “in the name of science” and are put through horrific, painful procedures until they are considered no longer useful for testing and experiments. That’s when they are euthanised and killed often through painful methods without any pain relief.

Cosmetics are not only tested on animals but also contain animal ingredients. Makeup, hair care products, toothpaste, soaps, deodorants and skin care products are the most common products that are tested on animals. If these products are not certified as vegan then they usually contain animal ingredients such as milk, honey, guanine, gelatin, shellac, beeswax, cochineal, lanolin and keratin.

There are many vegan cosmetics in shops, supermarkets, and beauty shops as well as online. If you are not sure if a product you want to buy is vegan or not, look for the Vegan Society logo. It certifies that a product is vegan and has no animal-derived ingredients and has not been tested on animals. Look also for labels that say “Suitable for Vegans” or for a “Certified Vegan Logo”. Also, check the ingredients and allergen lists for non-vegan ingredients. Another great way to get information about certain products is to search through the internet. There are many websites that provide wonderful information about vegan and non-vegan cosmetics and products.

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