Change Your Notions About Vegan Food
Thirty years ago, vegan meat substitute options in most places were limited mainly to “meaty” vegetables like mushrooms and eggplant, tofu, fermented tofu (tempeh), and wheat gluten (seitan). Many delightful, healthy recipes have been made from these ingredients. Nevertheless, many people out there have been made to think that plant-based meat substitutes are unpalatable. All it takes is one bad experience with a novice cook who attempted to create a meat-like experience with tofu, fueled by a modicum of cooking knowledge, to forever turning too many people into stubborn, lifelong carnivores. Luckily for those looking to change, options have improved a lot in the last several years.
New plant-based meat substitutes are amazingly convincing to meat-eaters and almost indistinguishable from the meat-based products used for cooking and eating. Fantastic mouthfeel, packed with the flavor and umami that meat-eaters everywhere crave daily, is what die-hard meat lovers do not expect when they bite into a vegan chicken sandwich. A new generation of companies like Simulate has spent years developing products that meat-eaters will love and provide delicious plant-based products that will fool even the pickiest meat eater you know.
Makes You Feel & Look Amazing
Recent studies have linked a plant-based diet with improved mood – even lowering depression and anxiety symptoms in people who have a long history of those issues. While eating more vegetables, fruits, and plant-based foods is not a cure for depression, it might be a way to help with mood swings and some symptoms, experts say.
Adult acne is highly prevalent in western society. In cultures that traditionally eat many fatty, processed, salty, high sugar, and dairy-based food, acne is especially a problem. In the US alone, acne affects 50 million people. Studies have shown that a diet high in plant-based foods might be why many non-western cultures have a very low occurrence of teenage and adult acne compared to the west.
Other studies have linked plant-based diets to a significant decrease in inflammatory problems in ordinarily healthy adults. Vegans have frequently attributed their nice skin and hair to the fact that they eat clean: whole food, plant-based diets; science is starting to catch up to that idea, and research is being done that may prove that fair skin might begin with a diet high in plant-based foods.
Increased Energy Levels, Better Health
Plant-based diets have been credited as improving the metabolic processes of those who have chosen to forego eating meats and animal-based foods for two years or more. Links to decreased problems with adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers (especially cancers that women are more prone to) have made many choose to add more plants to their diet. Science encourages most people eating western diets to consider adding significantly more plants (fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, and grains) to the diet to lead a healthier life overall.
Help The Earth & Its Many Animals
Animal lovers often choose to not partake in eating or wearing animal products purely because they can’t ethically buy and use animal products. The industries that provide meat to most tables, usually factory farms, are huge contributors to global warming. Considering the deforestation and high CO2 output from giant herds of cattle and hogs meant for the slaughterhouse, it gets a little easier for many to pass up that steak for a plant-based option.
The chicken industry, as well, has many detractors who dislike how we get our poultry. Luckily, companies like Simulate bring delicious chicken alternatives to the public so that dinner time can be guilt-free.